REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Execution of Charles I.—Sir T. Herbert's "Memoir of Charles I." (Vol. ii. pp., 72. 110.).—Is P.S.W.E. aware that Mr. Hunter gives a tradition, in his History of Hallamshire, that a certain William Walker, who died in 1700, and to whose memory there was an inscribed brass plate in the parish church of Sheffield, was the executioner of Charles I.? The man obtained this reputation from having retired from political life at the Restoration, to his native village, Darnall, near Sheffield, where he is said to have made death-bed disclosures, avowing that he beheaded the King. The tradition has been supported, perhaps suggested, by the name of Walker having occurred during the trials of some of the regicides, as that of the real executioner.
Can any one tell me whether a narrative of the last days of Charles I., and of his conduct on the scaffold, by Sir Thomas Herbert, has ever been published in full? It is often quoted and referred to (see "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., p. 436.), but the owner of the MS., with whom I am well acquainted, informs me that it has never been submitted to publication, but that some extracts have been secretly obtained. In what book are these printed? The same house which contains Herbert's MS. (a former owner of it married Herbert's widow), holds also the stool on which King Charles knelt at his execution, the shirt in which he slept the night before, and other precious relics of the same unfortunate personage.
ALFRED GATTY.
Ecclesfield, July 11. 1850.
Execution of Charles I. (Vol. ii., p 72.).—In Ellis's Letters illustrative of English History Second Series, vol. iii. p. 340-41., P.S.W.E. will find the answer to his inquiry. Absolute certainty is perhaps unattainable on the subject; but no mention occurs of the Earl of Stair, nor is it probable that any one of patrician rank would be retained as the operator on such an occasion. We need hardly question that Richard Brandon was the executioner. Will P.S.W.E. give his authority for the "report" to which he refers?
MATFELONENSIS.
Simon of Ghent (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—"Simon Gandavensis, patria Londinensis, sed patre Flandro Gandavensi natus, a. 1297. Episcopus Sarisburiensis."—Fabric. Bibl. Med. et Infint. Latin., lib. xviii. p. 532.
Chevalier de Cailly (Vol. ii., p. 101.)—Mr. De St. Croix will find an account of the Chevalier Jacque de Cailly, who died in 1673, in the Biographie Universelle; or a more complete one in Goujet (Bibliothèque Françoise, t. xvii. p. 320.).
S.W.S.