J. COVE JONES.
Temple, April 17. 1851.
T. Gilbert on Clandestine Marriages (Vol. iii., p. 167.).
—Thomas Gilbert, the author of the MS. treatise mentioned by your correspondent, was the son of William Gilbert, of Priss, in Shropshire. He was born in 1613, and at the age of sixteen entered the University of Oxford. He took the degree of M.A. in 1638, and was afterwards appointed minister of Upper Winchington, in Buckinghamshire. He joined the Puritan party at the beginning of the rebellion, and was made vicar of St. Lawrence, Reading. Wood says that he turned Independent, "was actually created Bachelor of Divinity in the time of the Parliamentarian visitation," and was preferred to the rich rectory of Edgmond, in his native county of Shropshire. Being very active against the Royalists, he was commonly called the "Bishop of Shropshire." After the Restoration he was, of course, ejected, when he retired to Oxford, and lived obscurely many years, with his wife, in the parish of St. Ebbs. He lived latterly upon charity, and died in the extreme of poverty, in the year 1694. For more minute particulars of the life of this person, and a catalogue of his writings, see Wood's Athenæ Oxon., edit. Bliss, vol. iv. p. 406.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Dog's Head in the Pot (Vol. iii., p. 264.).
—I have seen this carved and gilt as the sign of R. O. Backwell, ironmonger, Devonport. A person now sitting by me recollects its being adopted there about forty years since. It is perhaps always the sign of an ironmonger, instead of a public-house, as suggested by your correspondent. The pot (as at Blackfriars) is the three-legged cast-iron vessel called in Devonshire a "crock."
K. TH.
Pope Joan (Vol. iii., p. 265.).
—If the man who believes in this fable can be found in England, he will meet with the demonstration of its falsehood in the cotemporary chronicles of Galindo, Bishop of Troyes, otherwise called by his assumed name of religion, Prudentius Trecensis, or Trecassensis. (See Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, Hanover, 1826, vol. i. p. 449.) It there appears clearly that no Pope John VIII. succeeded Leo IV., or preceded Benedict III. Prudentius survived them both by three years. His words are "Mense Augusto Leo apostolicæ sedis antistes defunctus est, eique Benedictus successit. Eodem mense duæ stellæ majoris et minoris quantitatis visæ sunt," &c. &c.