I have great pleasure in complying with the very proper request of Mr. Foss, and give my authority at once for stating in the Hand-book for London that the so-called "Outer Temple" was a part of the Fleet Street possession of the Knights Templars or Knights of St. John, or was in any manner comprehended within the New Temple property of Fleet Street and Temple Bar. My authority is Sir George Buc, whose minute and valuable account of the universities of England is dedicated to Sir Edward Coke. Buc's words are these:—
"After this suppression and condemnation of the Templers, their house here in Fleete Street came to the handes and occupation of diuers Lordes. For our Antiquaries and Chronologers say, that after this suppression Sir Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster (and Cousin to the King then raigning) had it, but beeing after attainted of treason, hee enjoyed it but a short time.
"Then next Hugh Spencer Earle of Glocester got into it, but he also was soone after attainted, and executed for Treason. After him Andomare de Valence, a nobleman of the great house of Lusignan, and Earle of Pembrooke, was lodged in it for a while. But this house was 'Equus Seianus' to them all: and (as here it appeareth) was ordayned by God for other better uses, and whereunto now it serueth. After all these noble tenants and occupants were thus exturbed, dead, and gone, then certaine of the reuerend, ancient professours of the Lawes, in the raign of King Edward the Third, obtained a very large or (as I might say) a perpetuall Lease of this Temple, or (as it must bee understood) of two parts thereof distinguished by the names of the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple, from the foresayd Ioannites.... But the other third part, called the Outward Temple, Doctor Stapleton, Bishop of Exceter, had gotten in the raign of the former King, Edward the Second, and conuerted it to a house for him and his successors, Bishops of Exceter ... of whom the late Earle of Essex purchased it, and it is now called Essex house: hauing first beene (as I haue sayd) a part of the Templers' house, and in regard of the scituation thereof, without the Barre, was called the Outward or Utter Temple, as the others, for the like causes, were called the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple."—Sir George Buc, in Stow by Howes, ed. 1631, p. 1068.
This seems decisive, if Buc is to be relied on, as I think he is. But new facts, such as Mr. Foss's researches and Mr. Burtt's diligence are likely to bring to light, may upset Buc's statement altogether.
I must join Mr. Foss in his wish to ascertain when the names Inner Temple and Middle Temple were first made use of, with a further Query, which I should be glad to have settled, when the See of Exeter first obtained the site of the so-called
"Outer Temple?" Stapleton, by whom it was perhaps obtained, was Bishop of Exeter from 1307 to 1326.
Peter Cunningham.
OBEISM.
(Vol. iii., p. 59.)
In reply to F. H., I beg leave to state that Obeism is not in itself a religion, except in the sense in which Burke says that "superstition is the religion of feeble minds." It is a belief, real or pretended, in the efficacy of certain spells and incantations, and is to the uneducated negro what sorcery was to our unenlightened forefathers. This superstition is known in St. Lucia by the name of Kembois. It is still extensively practised in the West Indies, but there is no reason to suppose that it is rapidly gaining ground. F. H. will find ample information on the subject in Père Labat's Nouveau Voyage aux Isles françaises de l'Amérique, tome ii. p. 59., and tome iv. pp. 447. 499. and 506., edition of 1742; in Bryan Edwards' History of the West Indies, vol. ii. ch. iii., 5th edition (London, 1819); and in Dr. R. R. Madden's Residence in the West Indies, vol. ii. letter 27. Perhaps the following particulars from Bryan Edwards (who says he is indebted for them to a Mr. Long) on the etymology of obeah, may be acceptable to some of your readers:—