The Chafins, of Chettle, in Dorsetshire, possessed at one time some interesting family memorials. In the third volume of Hutchins's Dorset, pp. 166, 167., are printed two or three letters of Thomas Chafin on the battle of Sedgemoor. In a manuscript note, Hutchins alludes to letters, written by a female member of the family, which contain some notices of the court of Charles II. Can your Dorsetshire correspondents inform me whether these letters exist? I suspect that the lady was wife of the notorious Chiffinch; and she must have seen and heard strange things. The letters may be worthless, and it is possible that the family might object to a disclosure of their contents. The manuscript memorandum is in Gough's copy of the History of Dorset in the Bodleian Library.
J.F.M.
Sangred—Dowts of Holy Scripture.
In the will of John Hedge, of Bury St. Edmund's, made in 1504, is this item:—
"I beqweth to the curat of the seid church iiijs. iiijd. for a sangred to be prayed for in the bedroule for my soule and all my good ffrends soulls by the space of a yeer complete."
In the same year Thomas Pakenham, of Ixworth Thorpe, bequeathed 6 hives of bees to the sepulchre light, "to pray for me and my wyffe in y'e comon sangered;" and in 1533, Robert Garad, of Ixworth, bequeathed to the high altar ijs. "for halfe a sangred."
Can any of your reader explain what the sangred is? or give me any information about the book referred to in the following extract from the will of William Place, Master of St. John's Hospital, Bury St. Edmund's, made in 1504:—
"Item. I beqweth to the monastery of Seynt Edmund forseid my book of the dowts of Holy Scryptur, to ly and remain in the cloyster," &c.
BURIENSIS.
Catsup, Catchup, or Ketchup.