Can any of your readers inform me why the freedom of Edinburgh was conferred upon him? In 1768 he could not have been over twenty-five years of age.
Inquirer.
Per Centum Sign.—Will you kindly inform me why the symbol % means per centum: viz. 5 %, 10 %, &c.?
James Mills.
Burial Service Tradition.—About forty years ago, a young man hung himself. When his body was taken to the church for interment, the clergymen refused reading the burial service over him; his friends took him to another parish, and the clergyman of that place refused also; they then removed him to an adjoining one, and the clergyman received him and buried him. The last clergyman said, if any friend of the deceased had cut off his right hand, and laid it outside the coffin, no clergyman then could refuse legally receiving and burying the corpse. Query, is this true?
May I ask your readers for an answer, as it will oblige many friends. The above happened in Derbyshire.
S. Adams, Curate.
Jean Bart's Descent on Newcastle.—I find no notice, either in Sykes's Local Records, or in Richardson's Local Historian's Table-book, of the descent made on Newcastle in 1694 by the celebrated Jean Bart, whom the Dutch nicknamed "De Fransch Duyvel." Somewhere or other I have seen it stated that he returned to France with an immense booty. Perhaps some of your north country correspondents can tell us whether any record of his visit exists in the archives of the corporation of Newcastle or elsewhere?
William Brockie.
Russell Street, South Shields.