J. W. B.
Winchester and Huntingdon.—I would with your permission ask, whether Winchester and Huntingdon have at any time been more populous than they are at present, and what may have been the largest number of inhabitants they are supposed to have contained?
G. H.
La Bruyère.—What is known concerning the family of Jean de la Bruyère, author of Les Caractères? Did he belong to the great French house of that name? One of the biographical dictionaries states that he was grandson of a Lieutenant Civil, engaged in the Fronde; but M. Suard, in his "Notice" prefixed to Les Caractères, says that nothing is known of the author except his birth, death, and office. His grand-daughter,
Magdalen Rachel de la Bruyère, married an officer of the name of Shrom, and died in 1780, at Morden in Surrey, where there is a handsome monument to her memory. Being one of her descendants in the female line, I should feel much obliged by any information respecting her father, the son of Jean de la Bruyère; or tending to connect that writer with the family founded by Thibault de la Bruyère, the Crusader.
Ursula.
Sir John Davys or Davies.—I am very anxious to get any information that can be procured about Sir John Davys or Davies, Knight Marshal of Connaught, temp. Elizabeth. What were his arms? Any portions of his pedigree would be most desirable; also any notices of the various grants of land given by him, particularly to members of his own family. I would also give any reasonable price for John Davies' Display of Heraldry of six Counties of North Wales, published 1716: or, if any of the readers of "N. & Q." have the book, and would favour me with a loan of it, I would return it carefully as soon as I had made some extracts from it.
Seivad.
Fleshier of Otley.—What are the arms of Fleshier of Otley, Yorkshire? They existed, not many years ago, in a window of a house built by one of the above-named family, in Otley.
B. M. A.