2. Bezants on sable are extremely frequent in the arms of Cornish families; but crowned lions rampant gules do not occur in a single instance of which I am aware, except in the arms of families named Cornwall, who are known or presumed to be descended from this Richard, and bear his arms with sundry differences. Bezants on sable are borne (e.g.) by Bond, Carlyon, Chamberlayne, Cole, Cornwall (by some without the lion), Killegrew, Saint-Aubyn, Treby, Tregyan (with a crowned eagle sable, holding a sword), Treiago, and Walesborough, all of Cornwall; and it is to be remarked that bezants are not a common bearing in other parts of England, especially not on sable.
3. When Roger Valtorte married Joan, daughter of Reginald de Dunstanville (who was natural son of Henry I., and Earl of Cornwall nearly a century before Richard, King of the Romans, but never Earl of Poictou), he added to his paternal arms a border sable bezantée.
This is but a small portion of the evidence which might be adduced; but it is, I think, quite enough to justify the statements of Sylvanus Morgan, Sandford, Mr. Lower, and others, that the bezants pertain not to Poictou, but to Cornwall.
H. G.
Brothers with the same Christian Name (Vol. viii., pp. 338. 478.).—If your various correspondents, who adduce instances of two brothers in families having the same Christian names (both brothers being alive), will consult Lodge's Peerage for 1853, they will find the names of the sons of the Marquis of Ormonde thus stated:
"James Edward Wm. Theobald, Earl of Ossory, born Oct. 5, 1844.
"Lord James Hubert Henry Thomas, born Aug. 20, 1847.
"Lord James Arthur Wellington Foley, born Sept. 23, 1849.
"Lord James Theobald Bagot John, born Aug. 6, 1852."
The Christian name of the late Marquis was James; and whichever of his grandsons shall succeed the present possessor of the title, will bear the same Christian name as the late peer.
Juverna.
Arch-priest in the Diocese of Exeter (Vol. ix., p. 105.).—Haccombe is doubtless the parish in the diocese of Exeter, where Mr. W. Fraser will find the arch-priest about whom he is inquiring. Haccombe is a small parish, having two houses in it, the manor-house of the Carew family and the parsonage. It is said that, by a grant from the crown, in consequence of services done by an ancestor of the Carews, this parish received certain privileges and exemptions, one of which was that the priest of Haccombe should be exempt from all ordinary spiritual jurisdiction. Hence the title of arch-priest, and that of chorepiscopus, which the priests of Haccombe have claimed, and perhaps sometimes received. The incumbent of Bibury, in Gloucestershire, used to claim similar titles, and like exemption from spiritual jurisdiction.
J. Sansom.