K • *-vr-*t*- :£f< ■ .■: - dttUffk '> * r afc B E R K yt* V LI&k'Ar.Y UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA z /■iMUEL - Cttrtalia Jfttscellanea, OR ANECDOTES OF OLD TIMES; REGAL, NOBLE, GENTILITIAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS: INCLUDING AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, AND THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE COURT, AT AN EARLY PERIOD OF THE 4Bng!i0& !£>i0torg. By SAMUEL PEGGE, Esa. F.S.A. Author of the " CURIALIA," AND OF ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE." FRINTED BY AND FOR J. NICHOLS, SON, AND BENTLEY, AT THE PRINTING-OFFICE OF THE VOTES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET, AND 10, KING STREET, WESTMINSTER : SOLD ALSO AT THEIR OLD OFFICE IN RED LION PASSAGE, FLEET STREET, LONDON. I8l8. LIST OF PLATES. Portrait of the Rev. Samuel Pegge, LL.D. Frontispiece. Whittington Church - - - - - p. lix. Rectory - .... ixii, Revolution House - Ixiii. .D/490 ADVERTISEMENT. The publication of this Volume is strictly conformable to the testamentary intentions of the Author, who consigned the MSS. for that express purpose to the present Editor *. Mr. Pegge had, in his life-time, published Three Portions of " Curialia, or an Account of some Members of the Royal Houshold ;" and had, with great industry and laborious research, collected materials for several other Portions, some of which were nearly com- pleted for the press. * See the Extract in page vi. IV ADVERTISEMENT. Mr. Pegge was "led into the investigation," he says, " by a natural and kind of instinc- tive curiosity, and a desire of knowing what was the antient state of the Court to which he had the honour, by the favour of his Grace William the late Duke of Devonshire, to compose apart." Two more Portions were printed in 1806 by the present Editor. Long, however, and intimately acquainted as he was with the ac- curacy and diffidence of Mr. Pegge, he would have hesitated in offering those posthumous Essays to the Publick, if the plan had not been clearly defined, and the Essays sufficiently distinct to be creditable to the reputation which Mr. Pegge had already acquired, by the Parts of the " Curialia" published by himself, and by his very enter- taining (posthumous) " Anecdotes of the English Language ;" — a reputation which ADVERTISEMENT. V descended to him by Hereditary Might, and which he transmitted untarnished to a worthy md learned Son. It was the hope and intention of the Editor to have proceeded with some other Portions of the " Curialia ;" but the fatal event which (in February 1808) overwhelmed him in accumulated distress put a stop to that intention. Nearly all the printed Copies of the " Curialia" perished in the flames ; and part of the original MS. was lost. A few detached Articles, which related to the College of Arms, and to the Order of Knights Bachelors (which, had they been more perfect, would have formed one or more succeeding Portions) have since been depo- sited in the rich Library of that excellent College. VI ADVERTISEMENT. The Volume now submitted to the can- dour of the Reader is formed from the wreck of the original materials. The arranging of the several detached articles, and the revisal of them through the press, have afforded the Editor some amusement ; and he flatters him- self that the Volume will meet with that in- dulgence which the particular circumstances attending it may presume to claim. — If the Work has any merit, it is the Author's. The defects should, in fairness, be attributed to the Editor. J. N. Highbury Place, Dec. l, 1817. *** Extract from Mr. Pegge's Will. " Having the Copy-right of my little Work called Curialia in myself, I hereby give and bequeath all my interest therein, together with all my impressions thereof which may be unsold at the time of my decease, to my Friend Mr. John Nichols, Printer, with the ad- dition of as much money as will pay the Tax on this Legacy. 1 also request of the said Mr. John Nichols, that he would carefully peruse and digest all my Papers and Collections on the above subject, and print them under the title of Curialia Miscellanea, or some such description. — There is also another Work of mine, not quite finished, intitled Anecdotes of the English Language, which I wish Mr. Nichols to brins forward from his Press. Samuel Pegge." ( vii ) CONTENTS. PARENTALIA : or, Memoirs of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Pegge, compiled by his Son - Page ix— lviii Appendix to the Parentalia : Description of Whittington Church - lix Rectory - - Ixii The Revolution House at Whittington ibid. Origin of the Revolution in 1688 - lxiv Celebration of the Jubilee in 1788 - - l X v Stanzas by the Rev. P. Cunningham - - lxxi Ode for the Revolution Jubilee - . l xx iii Extracts from Letters of Dr. Pegge to Mr. Gough lxxiv Memoirs of Samuel Pegge, Esq. by the Editor lxxvii Appendix of Epistolary Correspondence - Ixxxiii Hospitium Domini Regis : or, The History of the Royal Household. Introduction - Pag e A William I. ----_. 6 William Rufus - - _ . - IS Henry I. 24 Stephen - - - _ - ' - 38 Henry II. (Plantagenet) - . - - 48 Richard I. - - - . - - 63 Henry IV. .... -68 Edward IV. - . . - 69 Extracts from the Liber Niger - - - 71 Knights and Esquires of the Body - - 73 Gentleman Usher - - - - - 74 Great Chamberlain of England - jq Knights of Household - - - -77 Esquires of the Body - - r , jg Yeomen of the Crown - - - - 84 vin CONTENTS. A Barber for the King's most high and dread Person 86 Henxmen - 88 Master of Henxmen - 89 Squires of Household - - - 91 Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants 95 Serjeants of Arms - 97 Minstrels - - - - - - 99 AWayte - 101 Clerk of the Crown in Chancery - - 103 Supporters, Crests, and Cognizances, of the Kings of England - 104 Regal Titles - - - - 109 On the Virtues of the Royal Touch - - 111 Ceremonies for Healing, for King's Evil - 154 Ceremonies for blessing Cramp-Rings - 164 Stemmata Magnatum : Origin of the Titles of some of the English Nobility - - - 173 English Armorial Bearings - - 201 Origin and Derivation of remarkable Surnames - 208 Symbola Scotica : Mottoes, &c. of Scottish Families 213 Dissertation on Coaches and Sedan Chairs - - 269 the Hammer Cloth - - 304 Articles of Dress. — Gloves - 305 Ermine — Gentlewomen's Apparel - - 312 Apparel for the Heads of Gentlewomen - 313 Mourning - - - 314 Beard, &c. - - - - 316 Origin of the Name of the City of Westminster - 320 Memoranda relative to the Society of the Temple in London, written in 1760 - - 323 Dissertation on the Use of Simnel Bread, and the Derivation of the Word Simnel - - 329 Historical Essay on the Origin of " Thirteen Pence Half-penny," as Hangman's Wages - 331 Custom observed by the Lord Lieutenants of Ireland 349 fJarentalta : OR, MEMOIRS OF THE REV. DR. PEGGE, COMPILED BY HIS SON. The Rev. Samuel Pegge, LL. D. and F.S. A. was the Representative of one of four Branches of the Family of that name in Derbyshire, derived from a common Ancestor, all which existed to- gether till within a few years. The eldest be- came extinct by the death of Mr. William Pegge, of Yeldersley, near Ashborne, IJ68 ; and another by that of the Rev. Nathaniel Pegge, M.A. Vicar of Packington, in Leicestershire, 1782. The Doctor's immediate Predecessors, as may appear from the Heralds-office, were of Osmaston, near Ashborne, where they resided, in lineal suc- cession, for four generations, antecedently to his b X BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Father and himself, and where they left a patri- monial inheritance, of which the Doctor died possessed *. Of the other existing branch, Mr. Edward Pegge having [166V] married Gertrude, sole daughter and heir of William Strelley, Esq. of Beauchief, in the Northern part of Derbyshire, seated himself there, and was appointed High Sheriff of the County in l66j ; as was his Grand- son, Strelley Pegge, Esq. 1739; and his Great- grandson, the present Peter Pegge, Esq. 178S. It was by Katharine Pegge, a daughter of Thomas Pegge, Esq. of Yeldersley, that King Charles II. (who saw her abroad during his exile) had a son born (1l>47), whom he called Charles Fit z- Charles, to whom he granted the Royal arms, with a baton sinister, Vaire, and whom (1675) his Majesty created Earl of Plymouth, Viscount Totness, and Baron Dartmouth -j~. He was bred to the Sea, and, having been educated abroad, most probably in Spain, was known by the name of Don Carlos f. The Earl married the Lady Bridget Osborne, third Daughter of Thomas Earl * Tn Church-street, at Ashborne, is an Alrns-house, ori- ginally founded by Christopher Pegge, Esq. The name occurs also on the table of Benefactors in Ashborne Church. f Docquet-book in the Crown-office. X See Sandford, p. 647, edit. 1*07. Granger erroneously calls him Carlo; and also, by mistake, gives him the name of Titz-rmt, THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XI of Danby, Lord High Treasurer (at Wimbledon, in Surrey), 1678 *, and died of a flux at the siege of Tangier, 16S0, without issue. The body was brought to England, and interred in West- minster Abbey -J-. The Countess re-married Dr. Philip Bisse, Bishop of Hereford, by whom she had no issue ; and who, surviving her, erected a handsome tablet to her memory in his Cathedral. Katharine Pegge, the Earl's mother, married Sir Edward Greene, Bart, of Samford in Essex, and died without issue by him J. But to return to the Rev. Dr. Pegge, the outline only of whose life we propose to give. His Father (Christopher) was, as we have observed, of Os- niaston, though he never resided there, even after he became possessed of it ; for, being a younger Brother, it was thought proper to put him to business ; and he served his time with a consi- derable woollen-draper at Derby, which line he followed till the death of his elder Brother (Hum- phry, who died without issue 1711) at Chester- * See Mr. Lysons's Environs of London, vol. I. p. 537. f Dart's History of Westminster Abbey, vol. II. p. 55. % There is a half-length portrait of the Earl, in a robe de ehambre, laced cravat, and flowing hair (with a ship in the back ground of the picture), by Sir Peter Lely, now in the family : and also two of his Mother, Lady Greene ; one a half- length, with her infant Son standing: by her side ; the other, a three-quarters ; both either by Sir Peter Lely, or by one of his pupils. b2 Xll BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF field in Derbyshire, when he commenced lead- merchant, then a lucrative branch of trafficfc there; and, having been for several years a Mem- ber of the Corporation, died in his third Mayor- alty, 1723. He had married Gertrude Stephenson (a daugh- ter of Francis Stephenson, of Unston, near Ches- terfield, Gent.) whose Mother was Gertrude Pegge, a Daughter of the before-mentioned Edward Pegge, Esq. of Beauchief; by which marriage these two Branches of the Family, which had long been diverging from each other, became re- united, both by blood and name, in the person of Dr. Pegge, their only surviving child. He was born Nov. 5, 1704, N.S. at Chester- field, where he had his school education ; and was admitted a Pensioner of St. John's College, Cam- bridge, May 30, 1722, under the tuition of the Kev. Dr. William Edmundson ; was matriculated July 7 ; and, in the following November, was elected a Scholar of the House, upon Lupton's Foundation. In the same year with his Father (1723) died the Heir of his Maternal Grandfather (Stephen- son), a minor ; by whose death a moiety of the real estate at Unston (before-mentioned) became the property of our young Collegian, who was THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. Xlll then pursuing his academical studies with inten- tion of taking orders. Having, however, no immediate prospect of preferment, he looked up to a Fellowship of the College, after he had taken the degree of A.B. in January 1725, N.S. ; and became a candidate upon a vacancy which happened favourably in that very year ; for it was a Lay-fellowship upon the Beresford Foundation, and appropriated to the Founder's kin, or at least confined to a Native of Derbyshire. The competitors were, Mr. Michael Burton (afterwards Dr. Burton), and another, whose name we do not find ; but the contest lay be- tween Mr. Burton and Mr. Pegge. Mr. Burton had the stronger claim, being indubitably related to the Founder; but, upon examination, was de- clared to be so very deficient in Literature, that his superior right, as Founder's kin, was set aside, on account of the insufficiency of his learning; and Mr. Pegge was admitted, and sworn Fellow March 21, 1726,0. S. In consequence of this disappointment, Mr. Burton was obliged to take new ground, to enable him to procure an establishment in the world ; and therefore artfully applied to the College for a testimonial, that he might receive orders, and undertake some cure in the vicinity of Cambridge. XIV BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Being ordained, he turned the circumstance into a manoeuvre, and took an unexpected advantage of it, by appealing to the Visitor [the Bishop of Ely, Dr. Thomas Greene], representing, that, as the College had, by the testimonial, thought him qualified for Ordination, it could not, in justice, deem him unworthy of becoming a Fellow of the Society, upon such forcible claims as Founder's kin, and also as a Native of Derby- shire. These were irresistible pleas on the part of Mr. Burton ; and the Visitor found himself re- luctantly obliged to eject Mr. Pegge ; when Mr. Burton took possession of the Fellowship, which be held many years *. Thus this business closed ; but the Visitor did Mr. Pegge the favour to recommend him, in so particular a manner, to the Master and Seniors of the College, that he was thenceforward consi- dered as an honorary member of the body of Fellows (tanquam Socius), kept his seat at their table and in the chapel, being placed in the situa- tion of a Fellow-commoner. In consequence, then, of this testimony of the Bishop of Ely's approbation, Mr. Pegge was * Dr. Burton was President (i. e Vice-master of the Col- lege) when Mr. Pegge \s Son was admitted of it, 1751 ; but soon afterwards took the. Rectory of Staplehurst in Kent, which he held till his death in 1759. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XV chosen a Platt-fellow on the first vacancy, A. D. 1729*. He was therefore, in fact, twice a Fel- low of St. John's. There is good reason to believe that, in the in- terval between his removal from his first Fellow- ship, and his acceding to the second, he medi- tated the publication of Xenophon's u Cyropeedia" and " Anabasis" from a collation of them with a Duport MS. in the Library at Eton — to convince the world that the Master and Seniors of St. John's College did not judge unworthily in giving him so decided a preference to Mr. Burton in their election. It appears that he had made very large collections for such a work ; but we suspect that it was thrown aside on being anticipated by Mr. Hutchinson's Edition, which was formed from more valuable manuscripts. * The Platt-felloicships at St. John's are similar to what are called Bye-felloivships in some other Colleges at Cambridge, and are not on the Foundation. The original number was six, with a stipend of 20/. per amium each, besides rooms, and commons at the Fellows' table. They were founded by Wil- liam Piatt, Esq. (Son of Sir Hugh Piatt, Knt.) an opulent citizen of London, out of an estate then of the annual value of 140/. Being a rent-charge, the Fellowships cannot be en- larged in point of revenue, though the number has been in- creased to eight, by savings from the surplus. There is a good portrait of Mr. Piatt in the Master's Lodge at St. John's, with the date of 1656, set. 47. He died in 1637. More of him may be seen in Mr. Lysons's Hnvirons of London, vol. III. pp.59, 66, 70,71,110,376. XVI BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF He possessed a MS " Lexicon Xenophonticum" by himself, as well as a Greek Lexicon in MS.; and had also " An English Historical Dictionary,'' in 6 volumes folio ; a French and Italian, a Latin, a British and Saxon one, in one volume each ; all corrected by his notes ; a " Glossarium Generate ;" and two volumes of ''Collections in English His- tory." During his residence in Kent, Mr. Pegge formed a " Monasticon Cantianum, in two folio MS volumes ; a MS Dictionary for Kent ; an Alphabetical List of Kentish Authors and Wor- thies ; Kentish Collections; Places in Kent; and many large MS additions to the account of that county in the " Magna Britannia." He also collected a good deal relative to the College at Wye, and its neighbourhood, which he thought of publishing, and engraved the seal, be- fore engraved in Lewis's Seals. He had "Extracts from the Rental of the Royal Manor of Wye, made about 1430, in the hands of Daniel Earl of Winchejsea;" and " Copy of a Survey and Rental of the College, in the possession of Sir Windham Knatchbull, 173Q." While resident in College (and in the year 1730) Mr. Pegge was elected a Member of the Zodiac Club, a literary Society, which consisted of twelve members, denominated from the Twelve THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XVII Signs. This little institution was founded, and articles, in the nature of statutes, were agreed upon Dee. 10, 1725. Afterwards (17-2S) this So- ciety thought proper to enlarge their body, when six select additional members were chosen, and denominated from six of the Planets, though it stiii went collectively under the name of the Zodiac Club *. In this latter class Mr. Pegge was the original Mars, and continued a member of the Club as long; as he resided in the University. His secession was in April 1 73 2, and his scat ac- cordingly declared vacant. In the same year, 1730, Mr. Pegge appears in a more public literary body ; — among the Mem- bers of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding, in Lincolnshire, to which he contributed some pa- pers which will be noticed below -f. * Of this little academical literary Society the late Samuel Pegge, Esq. possessed a particular History in MS. Edit. f In 1*33, his Life of Archbishop Kempe was in forward- ness for press, and he solicited assistance for it from MSS. In 1734, he sent them a critical letter on the name and town of Wye. In 1739, an Account of a Religious House in Canterbury, not noticed before, his conjectures on which were approved by Mr. Thorpe. An Account of the Endowment of the Vicarage of West- field in Sussex, by Richard second Bishop of Chichester, 1249, in the hands of Sir Peter Webster, Bart. Account of the Amphitheatre in the Garden of (he Nuns of FideUte at Angers : the arena 150 feet diameter, outer wall 20 feet thick, tne caveae 14 feet long and wide, with layer* of Roman brick and stone 3 or 4 feet asunder. XVU1 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Having taken the degree of A. M. in Julv 1729, Mr. Pegge was ordained Deacon in De- cember in the same year ; and, in the February following, received Priest's orders ; both of which were conferred by Dr. William Baker, Bishop of Norwich. It was natural that he should now look to em- ployment in his profession; and, agreeably to his wishes, he was soon retained as Curate to the Rev. Dr. John Lynch (afterwards [1733] Dean of Canterbury), at Sundrich in Kent, on which charge he entered at Lady-day 1730 ; and in his Principal, as will appear, soon afterwards, very unexpectedly, found a Patron. The Doctor gave Mr. Pegge the choice of three Cures under him — of Sundrich, of a London Living, or the Chaplains-hip of St. Cross, of which the Doctor was then Master. Mr. Pegge preferred Sundrich, which he held till Dr. Lynch exchanged that Rectory for Bishopsbourne, and then removed thither at Midsummer 1731. Within a few months after this period, Dr. Lynch, who had married a daughter of Archbi- shop Wake, obtained for Mr. Pegge, unsolicited, the Vicarage of Godmersham (cum Challock), into which he was inducted Dec. 6, 1731. We have said unsolicited, because, at the mo- ment when the Living was conferred, Mr. Pegge THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XIX had more reason to expect a reproof from his Principal, than a reward for so short a service of these Cures. The case was, that Mr. Pegge had, in the course of the preceding summer (unknown to Dr. Lynch) taken a little tour, for a few months, to Leyden, with a Fellow Collegian (John Stub- bing, M. B. then a medical pupil under Boer- haave), leaving his Curacy to the charge of some of the neighbouring Clergy. On his return, therefore, he was not a little surprized to obtain actual preferment through Dr. Lynch, without the most distant engagement on the score of the Doctor's interest with the Archbishop, or the smallest suggestion from Mr. Pegge. Being now in possession of a Living, and inde- pendent property, Mr. Pegge married (April 13, 1732) Miss Anne Clarke, the only daughter of Benjamin, and sister of John Clarke, Esqrs. of Stanley, near Wakefield, in the county of York, by whom he had one Son [Samuel, of whom hereafter], who, after his Mother's death, became eventually heir to his Uncle; and one Daughter, Anna-Katharina, wife of the Rev. John Bourne, M.A. ofSpital, near Chesterfield, Rector of Sut- ton cum Duckmanton, and Vicar of South Win- field, both in Derbyshire; by whom she had two daughters, Elizabeth, who married Robert Jen- XX •BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF nings, Esq. and Jane, who married Benjamin Thompson, Esq. While Mr. Pegge was resident in Kent, where he continued twenty years, he made himself ac- ceptable to every body, by his general knowledge, his agreeable conversation, and his vivacity ; for he was received into the familiar acquaintance of the best Gentlemen's Families in East Kent, several of whom he preserved in his correspond- ence after he quitted the county, till the whole of those of his own standing gave way to fate before him. Having an early propensity to the study of Antiquity among his general researches, and being allowedly an excellent Classical Scholar, he here laid the foundation of what in time became a con- siderable collection of books, and his little cabinet of Coins grew in proportion ; by which two as- semblages (so scarce among Country Gentlemen in general) he was qualified to pursue those col- lateral studies, without neglecting his parochial duties, to which he was always assiduously atten- tive. The few pieces which Mr. Pegge printed while he lived in Kent will be mentioned hereafter, when we shall enumerate such of his Writings as are most material. These (exclusively of Mr. Urbaris obligations to him in the Gentleman's THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXl Magazine) have appeared principally, and most conspicuously, in the Archceologia, which may be termed the Transactions of the Society of Anti- quaries. In that valuable collection will be found more than fifty memoirs, written and communi- cated by him, many of which are of considerable length, being by much the greatest number hitherto contributed by any individual member of that respectable Society. In returning to the order of time, we find that, in July 1746, Mr. Pegge had the great misfortune to lose his Wife; whose monumental inscription, at Godmersham, bears ample testimony of her worth : " MDCCXLVI. Anna Clarke, uxor Samuelis Pegge Vicarii hujus parochiae ; Mulier, si qua alia, sine dolo, Vitam aeternam et beatam fidenter hie sperat ; nee erit frustra." This event entirely changed Mr. Pegge's desti- nations ; for he now zealously meditated on some mode of removing himself, without disadvantage, into liis Native County. To effect this, one of two points was to be carried; either to obtain some piece of preferment, tenable in its nature with his Kentish Vicarage; or to exchange the XX11 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF latter for an equivalent ; in which last he event- ually succeeded beyond his immediate expecta- tions. We are now come to a new epoch in the Doc- tor's life; but there is an interval of a few years to be accounted for, before he found an opportunity of effectually removing himself into Derbyshire. His Wife being dead, his Children young and at school, and himself reduced to a life of soli- tude, so ungenial to his temper (though no man was better qualified to improve his leisure); he found relief by the kind offer of his valuable Friend, Sir Edward Dering, Bart. At this moment Sir Edward chose to place his Son * under the care of a private Tutor at home, to qualify him more competently for the Univer- sity. Sir Edward's personal knowledge of Mr. Pegge, added to the Family situation of the latter, mutually induced the former to offer, and the latter to accept, the proposal of removing from Godmersham to Surrenden (Sir Edward's man- sion-house) to superintend Mr. Dering's education for a short time ; in which capacity he continued about a year and a half, till Mr. Dering was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge, in March 1751. * Afterwards Sir Edward Dering, the sixth Baronet of that Family, who died Dec. 8, 1798. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXlll Sir Edward had no opportunity, by any pa- tronage of his own, permanently to gratify Mr. Pegge, and to preserve him in the circle of their common Friends. On the other hand, finding; Mr. Pegge's propensity to a removal so very strong, Sir Edward reluctantly pursued every possible measure to effect it. The first vacant living in Derbyshire which of- fered itself was the Perpetual Curacy of Bramp- ton, near Chesterfield; a situation peculiarly eli- gible in many respects. It became vacant in 1747 ; and, if it could have been obtained, would have placed Mr. Pegge in the centre of his early, acquaintance in that County ; and, being tenable with his Kentish living, would not have totally estranged him from his Friends in the South of England. The patronage of Brampton is in the Dean of Lincoln, which Dignity was then filled by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Cheyney ; to whom, Mr. Pegge being a stranger, the application was necessarily to be made in a circuitous manner, and he was obliged to employ more than a double mediation before his name could be mentioned to the Dean. The mode he proposed was through the influ- ence of William the third Duke of Devonshire; to whom Mr. Pegge was personally known as a Derbyshire man (though he had so long resided in Kent), having always paid his respects to his XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Grace on the public days at Chatsworth, as often as opportunity served, when on a visit in Derby- shire. Mr. Pegge did not, however, think him- self sufficiently in the Duke's favour to make a direct address for his Grace's recommendation to the Dean of Lincoln, though the object so fully met his wishes in moderation, and in every other point. He had, therefore, recourse to a friend, the Right Rev. Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Dromore, then in England ; who, in conjunction with Godfrey Watkinson, of Brampton Moor, Esq. (the principal resident Gentleman in the parish of Brampton) solicited, and obtained, his Grace's interest with the Dean of Lincoln : who, in con- sequence, nominated Mr. Pegge to the living. One point now seemed to be gained towards his re-transplantation into his native soil, after he had resisted considerable offers had he con- tinued in Kent ; and thus did he think himself virtually in possession of a living in Derbyshire, which in its nature was tenable with Godmersham in Kent. Henceforward, then, he no doubt felt a satisfaction that he should soon be enabled to live in Derbyshire, and occasionally visit his friends in Kent, instead of residing in that county, and visiting his friends in Derbyshire. But, after all this assiduity and anxiety (as if admission and ejection had pursued him a second THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXV time), the result of Mr. Pegge's expectations was far from answering his then present wishes ; for, when he thought himself secure by the Dean's nomination, and that nothing was wanting but the Bishops licence, the Deans right of Patron- age was controverted by the Parishioners of Brampton, who brought forward a Nominee of their own. The ground of this claim, on the part of the Parish, was owing to an ill-judged indulgence of some former Deans of Lincoln, who had occa- sionally permitted the Parishioners to send an Incumbent directly to the Bishop for his licence, without the intermediate nomination of the Dean in due form. These measures were principally fomented by the son of the last Incumbent, the Rev. Seth Ellis, a man of a reprobate character, and a dis- grace to his profession, who wanted the living, and was patronized by the Parish. He had a desperate game to play ; for he had not the least chance of obtaining any preferment, as no indi- vidual Patron, who was even superficially ac- quainted with his moral character alone, could with decency advance him in the church. To complete the detail of the fate of this man, whose interest the deluded part of the mal-contents of the parish so warmly espoused, he was soon after XXVI BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF suspended by the Bishop from officiating at Brampton # . Whatever inducements the Parish might have to support Mr. Ellis so strenuously we do not say, though they manifestly did not arise from any pique to one Dean more than to another ; and we are decidedly clear that they were not founded in any aversion to Mr. Pegge as an individual ; for his character was in all points too well esta- blished, and too well known (even to the leading- opponents to the Dean), to admit of the least per- sonal dislike in any respect. So great, neverthe- less, was the acrimony with which the Parishioners pursued their visionary pretensions to the Patron- age, that, not content with the decision of the Jury (which was highly respectable) in favour of the Dean, when the right of Patronage was tried in 1748 ; they had the audacity to carry the cause to an Assize at Derby, where, on the fullest and most incontestable evidence, a verdict was given in favour of the Dean, to the confusion and inde- lible disgrace of those Parishioners who espoused * The Bishop's Inhibition took place soon after the deci- sion of the cause at Derby, and was not revoked till late in the year 1J58, which was principally effected by Mr. Pegge's intercession with his Lordship, stating- Mr. Ellis's distressed circumstances, and his having made a proper submission, v ith a promise of future good behaviour. This revocation is contained in a letter addressed to Mr. Pegge, under the Bi- shop's own hand, dated Oct. 30, 175S. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXVli so bad a cause, supported by the most undaunted effrontery. The evidence produced by the Parish went to prove, from an entry made nearly half a century before in the accompts kept by the Church- wardens, that the Parishioners, and not the Deans of Lincoln, had hitherto, on a vacancy, nominated a successor to the Bishop of the Diocese for his licence, without the intervention of any other person or party. The Parish accompts were accordingly brought into court at Derby, wherein there appeared not only a palpable erase- ment, but such an one as was detected by a living and credible witness ; for, a Mr. Mower swore that, on a vacancy in the year 1704, an applica- tion was made by the Parish to the Dean of Lin- coln in favour of the Rev. Mr. Littlewood # . In corroboration of Mr. Mower's testimony, an article in the Parish accompts and expenditures of that year was adverted to, and which, when Mr. Mower saw it, ran thus : " Paid William Wilcoxon, forgoing to Lincoln to the Dean concerning Mr. Littlewood, five shillings." The Parishioners had before alleged, in proof * We believe this witness to have been George Mower, Esq. of Wood-seats, in this county, who served the office of She- riff in 1734. C2 XXV1U BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF of their title, that they had elected Mr. Little- wood ; and, to uphold this asseveration, had clum- sily altered the parish accompt-book, and inserted the words " to Licltfield to the Bishop," in the place of the words " to Lincoln to the Dean." Thus their own evidence was turned against the Parishioners ; and not amoment's doubt remained but that the patronage rested with the Dean of Lincoln. We have related this affair without a strict ad- herence to chronological order as to facts, or to collateral circumstances, for the sake of preserv- ing the narrative entire, as far as it regards the contest between the Dean of Lincoln and the Parish of Brampton; for we believe that this transaction (uninteresting as it may be to the publick in general) is one of very few instances on record which has an exact parallel. The intermediate points of the contest, in which Mr. Pegge was more peculiarly concerned, and which did not prominently appear to the world, were interruptions and unpleasant impediments which arose in the course of this tedious process. He had been nominated to the Perpetual Curacy of Brampton by Dr. Ckeyney, Dean of Lincoln ; was at the sole expence of the suit respecting the right of Patronage, whereby the verdict was given in favour of the Dean ; and he was actually THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXIX licensed by the Bishop of Lichfield. In conse- quence of this decision and the Bishop's licence, Mr. Pegge, not suspecting that the contest could go any farther, attended to qualify at Brampton, on Sunday, August 28, 1748, in the usual man- ner ; but was repelled by violence from entering the Church. In this state matters rested regarding the Pa- tronage of Brampton, when Dr. Cheyney was unexpectedly transferred from the Deanry of Lin- coln to the Deanry of Winchester, which (we may observe by the way) he solicited on motives similar to those which actuated Mr. Pegge at the very moment ; for Dr. Cheyney, being a Native of Winchester, procured an exchange of his Deanry of Lincoln with the Rev. Dr. William George, Provost of Queen's college, Cambridge, for whom the Deanry of Winchester was intended by the Minister on the part of the Crown. Thus Mr. Pegge's interests and applications were to begin de novo with the Patron of Bramp- ton ; for, his nomination by Dr. Cheyney, in the then state of things, was of no validity. He fell, however, into liberal bands ; for his activity in the proceedings which had hitherto taken place respecting the living in question had rendered -fresh advocates unnecessary, as it had secured the unasked favour of Dr. George, who not long after- XXX BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF wards voluntarily gave him the Rectory of Whlt- tington'p near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire ; into which he was inducted Nov. 1 1, 1 7 5 1 , and where he resided for upwards of 44 years without inter- ruption *. Though Mr. Pegge had relinquished all farther pretensions to the living of Brampton before the cause came to a decision at Deri>y, yet he gave every possible assistance at the trial, by the com- munication of various documents, as well as by his personal evidence at the Assize, to support the claim of the new Nominee, the Rev. John Bowman, in whose favour the verdict was given, and who afterwards enjoyed the benefice. Here then we take leave of this troublesome affair, so nefarious and unwarrantable on the part of the Parishioners of Brampton; and from which Patrons of every description may draw their own inferences. Mr. Pegge's ecclesiastical prospect in Derby- shire began soon to brighten ; and he ere long obtained the more eligible living of Whittington. Add to this that, in the course of the dispute * Dr. George's letter to Mr. Pegge on the occasion ha? been preserved, and is conceived in the most manly and generous terms. On account of the distance, Mr. Pegge then residing in Kent, the Dean was so obliging as to concert matters with Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis, who then sat at Lichfield, that the living might lapse without injury to Mr. Pegge, who therefore took it, in fact, from his Lordship by collation. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXXI concerning the Patronage of Brampton, he be- came known to the Hon. and Right Rev. Frede- rick (Cornwallis) Bishop of Lichfield and Coven- try ; who ever afterwards favoured him not only with his personal regard, but with his patronage, which extended even beyond the grave, as will be mentioned hereafter in the order of time. We must now revert to Mr. Pegge's old Friend Sir Edward Dering, who, at the moment when Mr. Pegge decidedly took the living of Whitting- ton, in Derbyshire, began to negotiate with his Grace of Canterbury (Dr. Herring), the Patron of Godmersham, for an exchange of that living for something tenable with Whittington. The Archbishop's answer to this application was highly honourable to Mr. Pegge : li Why," said his Grace, " will Mr. Pegge leave my Dio- cese? If he will continue in Kent, I promise you, Sir Edward, that I will give him preferment to his satisfaction *.'* No allurements, however, could prevail ; and Mr. Pegge, at all events, accepted the Rectory of * Mr. Pegge became known, at least by name, to Dr. Her- ring, when Archbishop of York, by an occasional Sermon (which will be adverted to r.mong Mr. Pecge's writings), on the publication whereof his Grace ser.t him a letter in hand- some terms. When the Archbishop was translated to Canter- bury, Mr. Pegge was, most probably, personally known to him as the Diocesan. XXXU BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF IVhittington, leaving every other pursuit of the kind to contingent circumstances. An exchange was, nevertheless, very soon afterwards effected, bv the interest of Sir Edward with the Duke of Devonshire, who consented that Mr. Pegge should take his Grace's Rectory of Brinhill * in Lanca- shire, then luckily void, the Archbishop at the same time engaging to present the Duke's Clerk to Godmersham. Mr. Pegge was accordingly inducted into the Rectory of Brindle, Nov. 23, 1751, in less than a fortnight after his induction at IVhittington -j~. In addition to this favour from the Family of Cavendish, Sir Edward Bering obtained for Mr. Pegge, almost at the same moment, a scarf from the Marquis ofHartington (afterwards the fourth Duke of Devonshire), then called up to the House of Peers, in June 1751, by the title of Baron Cavendish of Hardwick. Mr. Pesge's OP) appointment is dated Nov. 18, 1751 ; and thus, after all his solicitude, he found himself possessed of two livings and a dignity, honourably and in- dulgently conferred, as well as most desirably connected, in the same year and in the same month ; though this latter circumstance may be * More usually called Bundle. t The person xvho actually succeeded to the Vicarage of Godmersham was the Rev. Aden Ley, who died there in 1766. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXX1U attributed to the voluntary lapse of Whittington *. After Mr. Pegge had held the Rectory of Rrin- hill for a few years, an opportunity offered, by another obliging acquiescence of the Duke of Devonshire, to exchange it for the living of Heath (alias Lown), in his Grace's Patronage, which lies within seven miles of Whittington : a very commodious measure, as it brought Mr. Pe^ge's parochial preferments within a smaller distance cf each other. He was accordingly in- ducted into the Vicarage of Heath, Oct. 22, 1758, which he held till his death. This was the last favour of the kind which Mr. Pegge individually received from the Dukes or Devonshire ; but the Compiler of this little Memoii regarding his late Father, flatters himself that it can give no offence to that Noble Familv if he takes the opportunity of testifying a sense of his own personal obligations toWilliam the fourth Duke of Devonshire, when his Grace was Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household. As to Mr, Pegge' s other preferments, they shall only be briefly mentioned in chronological order ; * Soon after the fourth Duke of Devonshire came of age, 1769, finding that he had many friends of his own to oblige, it was suggested to the Senior Chaplains that a resignation would be deemed a compliment by his Grace. Mr. Pegge, therefore (among some others), relinquished his Chaplain- ship, though he continued to wear the scarf. XXXIV BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF but with due regard to his obligations. In the year 176*5 he was presented to the Perpetual Curacy of Wingencorth, about six miles from Whittington, by the Honourable and Reverend James 1'orke, then Dean of Lincoln, afterwards Bishop of Ely, to whom he was but little known but by name and character. This appendage was rendered the more acceptable to Mr. Pegge, be- cause the seat of his very respectable Friend Sir Henry Hunloke, Bart, is in the parish, from whom, and all the Family, Mr. Pegge ever received great civilities. We have already observed, that Mr. Pegge be- came known, insensibly as it were, to the Honour- able and Right Reverend Frederick (Cornwallis), Bishop of Lichfield, during the contest respect- ing the living of Brampton ; from whom he after- wards received more than one favour, and by whom another greater instance of regard was in- tended, as will be mentioned hereafter. Mr. Pegge was first collated by his Lordship to the Prebend ofBobenhull, in the Church of Lich- field, in 1757; and was afterwards voluntarily advanced by him to that of IVIdttington in 1763, which he possessed at his death *. * It is rather a singular coincidence, that Mr. Pegge should have been at the same time Rector of Whittington in Derbyshire and Prebendary of Whittington in Staffordshire, both THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXXV In addition to the Stall at Lichfield, Mr. Pegge enjoyed the Prebend of Louth, in the Cathedral of Lincoln, to which he had been collated (in 1772) by his old acquaintance, and Fellow- collegian, the late Right Reverend John Green, Bishop of that See *. This seems to be the proper place to subjoin, that, towards the close of his life, Mr. Pegge de- clined a situation for which, in more early days, he had the greatest predilection, and had taken every active and modest measure to obtain — - a Residentiary skip in the Church of Lichfield. Mr. Pegge's wishes tended to this point on laudable, and almost natural motives, as soon as his interest with the Bishop began to gain strength; for it would have been a very pleasant inter- change, at that period of life, to have passed a portion of the year at Lichfield. This expecta- tion, however, could not be brought forward till he was too far advanced in age to endure with tolerable convenience a removal from time to in one Diocese, under different patronages, and totally inde- pendent of each other. These two Whi'thigtons are likewise nearly equidistant from places of the name of Chesterfield. * The Prebend of Louth carries with it the Patronage of the Vicarage of the Parish of Louth, to which Mr. Pegge presented more than once. On the first vacancy, having no Clerk of his own, he offered the nomination to his Benefactor Bishop Green ; at the last, he gave the living, uninfluenced, to the present Incumbent, the Rev. Wolley Jolland, son of the Recorder of Louth. XXXVI BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF time; and therefore, when the offer was realized, he declined the acceptance. The case was literally this : While Mr. Pegge's elevation in the Church of Lichfield rested solely upon Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis, it was se- cure, had a vacancy happened : hut his Patron was translated to Canterbury in 1768, and Mr. Pegge had henceforward little more than personal knowledge of any of his Grace's Successors at Lichfield, till the Hon. and Right Reverend* James Cornwallis (the Archbishop's Nephew) was consecrated Bishop of that See in 1781. On this occasion, to restore the balance in fa- vour of Mr. Pegge, the Archbishop had the kind- ness to make an Option of the Rssidentiaryship at Lichfield, then possessed by the Rev. Thomas Seward. It was, nevertheless, several years be- fore even the tender of this preferment could take place ; as his Grace of Canterbury died in 1783, while Mr. Seward was living. Options being personal property, Mr. Pegge's interest, on the demise of the Archbishop, fell into the hands of the Hon. Mrs. Cornwallis, his Relict and Executrix, who fulfilled his Grace's original intention in the most friendly manner, on the death of Mr. Seward, in 170,0 * * It was said at the time, as we recollect, that this piece of preferment was so peculiar in its tenure, as not to be THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXXVll The little occasional transactions which pri- marily brought Mr. Pegge within the notice of Bishop (Frederick) Cornwallis at Eccleshall- castle led his Lordship to indulge him with a greater share of personal esteem than has often fallen to the lot of a private Clergyman so re- motely placed from his Diocesan. Mr. Pegge had attended his Lordship two or three times on affairs of business, as one of the Parochial Clergy, after which the Bishop did him the honour to in- vite him to make an annual visit at Eccleshall- castle as an Acquaintance. The compliance witb this overture was not only very flattering, but highly gratifying, to Mr. Pegge, who consequently waited upon his Lordship for a fortnight in the Autumn, during several years, till the Bishop was translated to the Metropolitical See of Canter- bury in 1768. After this, however, his Grace did not forget his humble friend, the Rector of strictly optionable ; for, had the See of Lichjield been possessed by a Bishop inimical to the Archbishop or to Mr. Pegge at the time of the vacancy of the Stall, such Bishop might have defeated his Grace s intentions. The qualifications of the Residentiaries in this Cathedral we understand to be singular, dependent on the possession of certain Prebendal Houses, which are in the absolute disposal of the Bishop, as a sine qud non, to constitute the eligibility which is vested in the Dean and Chapter. As ma'ters stood, in this case, at the death of Mr. Seward, the present Bishop of Lichfield (Dr. James Cornwallis), Mr. Pegge's warm Friend, co-operating with the Dowager Mrs. Cornwallis, removed every obstruction. XXXV1I1 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Whittington, as will be seen ; and sometime? corresponded with him on indifferent matters. About the same time that Mr. Pegge paid these visits at Eccleshall-castle, he adopted an expe- dient to change the scene, likewise, by a journey to London (between Easter and Whitsuntide) ; where, for a few years, he was entertained by his oldFriend and Fellow-collegian the Rev. Dr. John Taylor, F. S. A. Chancellor of Lincoln, &c. (the learned Editor of Demosthenes and Lysias), then one of the Residentiaries of St. Paul's. After Dr. Taylor's death (1766), the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. John Green, another old College- acquaintance, became Mr. Pegge's London-host for a few years, till Archbishop Cornwallis began to reside at Lambeth. This event superseded the visits to Bishop Green, as Mr. Pegge soon after- wards received a very friendly invitation from his Grace; to whom, from that time, he annually paid his respects at Lambeth-palace, for a month in the Spring, till the Archbishop's decease, which took place about Easter 17 83. All these were delectable visits to a man of Mr. Pegge's turn of mind, whose conversation was adapted to every company, and who enjoyed (he world with greater relish from not living in it every day. The society with which he inter- mixed, in such excursions, changed his ideas, THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. XXXIX and relieved him from the t tedium of a life of much reading and retirement ; as, in the course of these journeys, he often had opportunities of meeting old Friends, and of making new literary acquaintance. On some of these occasions he passed for a week into Kent, among such of his old Associates as were then living, till the death of his much- honoured Friend, and former Parishioner, the elder Thomas Knight, Esq. of Godmersham, in 1781*. We ought on 110 account to omit the mention of some extra-visits which Mr. Pegge occasionally made to Bishop Green, at Buckden, to which we are indebted for the Life of that ex- cellent Prelate Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln ; — a work upon which we shall only ob- serve here, that it is Dr. Pegge's chef-d'oeuvre, and merits from the world much obligation. To these interviews with Bishop Green, we may also attribute those ample Collections, which Dr. Pegge left among his MSS. towards a History of the Bishops of Lincoln, and of that Cathedral in general, &c. &c. With the decease of Archbishop Cornwallis (1783), Mr. Pegge's excursions to London termi- * The very just character of Mr. Knight given in the Gen- tleman's Magazine, vol. LI. p. 147, was drawn by Mr. Pegge, who had been intimate with him very nearly half a century. Xl BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF nated. His old familiar Friends, and principal acquaintance there, were gathered to their fathers; and he felt that the lot of a long life had fallen upon him, having survived not only the Jit si, but the second class of his numerous distant con- nexions. While on one of these visits at Lambeth, the late Gustavus Brander, Esq. F. S. A. who enter- tained an uncommon partiality for Mr. Pegge, persuaded him, very much against his inclination, to sit for a Drawing, from which an octavo Print of him might be engraved by Basire. The Work went on so slowly, that the Plate was not finished till 1785, when Mr. Pegge's current age was 8l. Being a private Print, it was at first only intended for, and distributed among, the particular Friends of Mr. Brander and Mr. Pegge. This Print, however, now carries with it something of a pub- lication ; for a considerable number of the im- pressions were dispersed after Mr. Branders death, when his Library, &c. were sold by auc- tion ; and the Print is often found prefixed to copies of "The Forme of Cury," a work tthich will hereafter be specified among Mr. Pegge's literary labours *. * This Print has the following inscription : "Samuel Pegge, A.M. S.A. S- A.D. MDCCLXXXV. jEt.81. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. xll Ihe remainder of Mr. Pegge's life after the year I7S3 was, in a great measure, reduced to a state of quietude ; but not without an extensive correspondence with the world in the line of An- tiquarian researches : for he afterwards contri- buted largely to the Archceologia, and the Biblio- theca Topographica Britamiica, &c. &c. as may appear to those who will take the trouble to com- pare the dates of his Writings, which will here- after be enumerated, with the time of which we are speaking. The only periodical variation in life, which at- tended Mr. Pegge after the Archbishop's death, consisted of Summer visits at Eccleshall-castle to the present Bishop (James) Cornwallis, who (if Impensis, et ex Voto, Gustavi Brander, Arm. Sibi et Amicis." VVe cannot in any degree subscribe to the resemblance, though the print is well engraved. There is, however, a three-quar- ters portrait in oil (in the possession of his grandson, Sir Christopher Pegge, and much valued by him) painted in 1788, by Mr. Elias Needham, a young Provincial Artist, and a native of Derbyshire, which does the Painter great credit, being a likeness uncommonly striking. Dr. Pegge being an old gentleman well known, with a countenance of much character, the Portrait was taken at the request of Mr. Need- ham ; who, after exhibiting it to his Patrons and Friends, made a present of it to Mr. Pegge. Those who knew Dr. Pegge, and have had an opportunity of comparing the Portrait with the Print, will agree with us, that no two pictures of the same person, taken nearly at the same point of life, and so unlike each other, can both be true resemblances. — A faith- ful Engraving from Mr. Needham's Portrait is prefixed to the present Volume. d Xlil fciOGRAFIII(''AL MEMOIRS OF We may be allowed the word) adopted Mr. Peggc as his guest so ] on or as he was able to undertake such journeys. We have already seen an instance of his Lord- ship's kindness in the case of the intended Re- sidentiaryship ; and have, moreover, good reasons to believe that, had the late Archdeacon of Derby {Dr. Henry Egerton) died at an earlier stage of Mr. Pegge's life, he would have succeeded to that dignity. This part of the Memoir ought not to be dis- missed without observing, to the honour of Mr. Pegge, that, as it was not in his power to make any individual return (in his life-time) to his Patrons, the two Bishops of Lichfield of the name of CornwaUis, for their extended civilities, he directed, by testamentary instructions, that one hundred volumes out of his Collection of Books should be given to the Library of the Cathedral of Lichfield *. During Mr. Pegge's involuntary retreat from his former associations with the more remote parts of the Kingdom, he was actively awake to such objects in which he was implicated nearer home. Early in the year 1788 material repairs and considerable alterations became necessary to the * He specified, in writing, about fourscore of these volumes, which were chiefly what may be called Library-books ; the rest were added by his Son. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. xliii Cathedral of Lichfield. A subscription was ac- cordingly begun by the Members of the Church, supported by many Lay-gentlemen of the neigh- bourhood ; when Mr. Pegge, as a Prebendary, not only contributed handsomely, but projected, and drew up, a circular letter, addressed to the Rev. Charles Hope, M. A. the Minister of All Saints (the principal) Church in Derby, recommending the promotion of this public design. The Letter, being inserted in several Provincial Newspapers, was so well seconded by Mr. Hope, that it had a due effect upon the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese in general; for which Mr. Pegge received a written acknowledgment of thanks from the present Bishop of Liclifield, dated May 29, 1788. This year (] 788), memorable as a Centenary in the annals of England, was honourable to the little Parish of Whittington, which accidentally bore a subordinate local part in the History of the Revolution ; for it was to an inconsiderable pub- lic-house there (still called the Revolution-house) that the Earl of Devonshire, the Earl of Danby, the Lord Delamere, and the Hon. John D'Arcy, were driven for shelter, by a sudden shower of rain, from the adjoining common (JVhittington- Moor), where they had met by appointment* disguised as farmers, to concert measures, un- observedly, for promoting the succession of d3 Iliv BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF King William III. after the abdication of King James Ih* The celebration of this Jubilee, on Nov. 5, 1788, is related at large in the Gentleman's Ma- gazine of that month -J-; on which day Mr. Pegge preached a Sermon J, apposite to the occasion, which was printed at the request of the Gentlemen of the Committee who conducted the ceremonial §, which proceeded from his Church to Chesterfield in grand procession. In the year 1791 (July 8) Mr. Pegge was created D. C. L. by the University of Oxford, at the Commemoration. It may be thought a little extraordinary that he should accept an ad- vanced Academical Degree so late in life, as he wanted no such aggrandizement in the Learned World, or among his usual Associates, and had voluntarily closed all his expectations of eccle- * In this year he printed " A Narrative of what passed at the Revolution-house at Whittington in the year 16S8, with a -new and plan of the house by Major llooke (reprinted in Gent. Mag. vol. L1X p. 124)." [See the Appendix.] f See the Appendix, to this Memoir. X In this Discourse the venerable Preacher, taking for his text Psalm cxviii. 24, first recites, in plain and unaffected language, the blessings resulting from the event here com- memorated to Church and State ; and then points out the cor- ruptions of the present age, with advice for their reformation. § This solemnity took place on Wednesday; and, the Church being crowded with strangers, the Sermon was repeated to the parochial congregation on the following Sunday. — Mr. Pegge was then very old, and the 5th of November N. S. was V\s birth-day, when he entered into the S5th year of his age. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. xlv siastical elevation. We are confident that he was not ambitious of the compliment ; for, when it was first proposed to him, he put a negative upon it. It must be remembered that this honour was not conferred on an unknown man (novus homo); but on a Master of Arts of Cam bridge, of name and character, and of acknowledged literary merit*. Had Mr. Pegge been desirous of the title of Doctor in earlier life, there can be no -doubt but that he might have obtained the supe- rior degree of D.D. from Abp.Cornwallis, upon the bare suggestion, during his familiar and domestic conversations with his Grace at Lambeth-palace. Dr. Pegge' s manners were those of a gentleman of a liberal education, who had seen much of the world, and had formed them upon the best models within his observation. Having in his early years lived in free intercourse with many of the princi- pal and best-bred Gentry in various parts of Kent; lie ever afterwards preserved the same attentions, by associating with respectable company, and (as we have seen) by forming honourable attachments. In his avocations from reading and retirement, few men could relax with more ease and cheerful- ness, or better understood the desipere in loco; — - * Mr. Pegge, at the time, was on a visit to his Grandson, the present Sir Christopher Pegge, M. D. then lately elected Reader of Anatomy at Christ Church, Oxford, on Dr. Lee> foundation. Xlvi BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF could enter occasionally into temperate convivial mirth with a superior grace, or more interest and enliven every company by general conversation. As he did not mix in business of a public nature, his better qualities appeared most conspi- cuously in private circles ; for he possessed an equanimity which obtained the esteem of his Friends, and an affability which procured the respect of his dependents. His habits of life were such as became his pro- fession and station. In his clerical functions he was exemplarily correct, not entrusting his pa- rochial duties at Whittington (where he con- stantly resided) to another (except to the neigh- bouring Clergy during the excursions before- mentioned) till the failure of his eye-sight ren- dered it indispensably necessary ; and even that did not happen till within a few years of his death. As a Preacher, his Discourses from the pulpit were of the didactic and exhortatory kind, appeal- ing to the understandings rather than to the pas- sions of his Auditory, by expounding the Holy Scriptures in a plain, intelligible, and unaffected manner. His voice was naturally weak, and suited only to a small Church; so that when he occasionally appeared before a large Congregation (as on Visitations, &c), he was heard to a disad- vantage. He left in his closet considerably more THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. xlvii than 230 Sermons composed by himself, and in his own hand-writing, besides a few (not exceed- ing 26) which he had transcribed (in substance only, as appears by collation) from the printed works of eminent Divines. These liberties, how- ever, were not taken in his early days, from motives of idleness, or other attachments — but later in life, to favour the fatigue of composition ; all which obligations he acknowledged at the end of each such Sermon. Though Dr. Pegge's life was sedentary, from Jiis turn to studious retirement, his love of Anti- quities, and of literary acquirements in general ; yet these applications, which he pursued with great ardour and perseverance, did not injure his health. Vigour of mind, in proportion to his bodily strength, continued unimpaired through a very extended course of life, and nearly till he had reached " ultima linea rerum ;" for he never had any chronical disease ; but gradually and gently sunk into the grave under the weight of years, after a fortnight's illness, Feb. 14, 1/96, in the 9 2d year of his age. He was buried, according to his own desire, in the chancel at PVhlttington, where a mural tablet of black marble (a voluntary tribute of filial re- spect) has been placed, over the East window,, with the following short inscription : XlVlii BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF <( At the North End of the Altar Table, within the Rails, lie the Remains of Samuel Pegge, LL. D. who was inducted to this Rectory Nov. 11, 1751, and died Feb. 14, 1796; in the 92d year of his Age." Having closed the scene ; it must be confessed, on the one hand, that the biographical history of an individual, however learned, or engaging to private friends, who had passed the major part of his days in secluded retreats from what is called the world, can afford but little entertainment to the generality of Readers. On the other hand, nevertheless, let it be allowed that every man of acknowledged literary merit, had he made no other impression, cannot but have left many to regret his death. Though Dr. Pegge had exceeded even his "fourscore years and ten," and had outlived all his more early friends and acquaintance ; he had the address to make new ones, who now survive, and who, it is humbly hoped, will not be sorry to see a modest remembrance of him preserved by this little Memoir. Though Dr. Pegge had an early propensity to the pursuit of Antiquarian knowledge, he never indulged himself materially in it, so long as more essential and professional occupations had a claim upon him; for he had a due sense of the nature THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. xlix and importance of his clerical function. It ap- pears that he had read the Greek and Latin Fathers diligently at his outset in life. He had also re-perused the Classichs attentively before he applied much to the Monkish Historians, or en- gaged in Antiquarian researches ; well knowing that a thorough knowledge of the Learning of the Antients, conveyed by classical Authors, was the best foundation for any literary structure which had not the Christian Religion for its corner- stone. During the early part of his incumbency at Godmersham in Kent, his reading was principally such as became a Divine, or which tended to the acquisition of general knowledge, of which he possessed a greater share than most men we ever knew. When he obtained allowable leisure to follow unprofessional pursuits, he attached him- self more closely to the study of Antiquities ; and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Anti- quaries, Feb. 14, 1751, N. S. in which year the Charter of Incorporation was granted (in No- vember), wherein his name stands enrolled among those of many very respectable and eminently learned men*. * The only Member of the Society at the time of its In- corporation, who survived Dr. Pegge, was Samuel Eeijnqrd- ?on> Esq. 1 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF Though we will be candid enough to allow that Dr. Pegge's style in general was not sufficiently terse and compact to be called elegant ; yet he made ample amends by the matter, and by the accuracy with which he treated every copious subject, wherein all points were matured by close examination and sound judgment*. * The first Piece that appears to have been, in any degree, published by Dr. Peggie, was, A Latin Ode on the Death of King George I. 1727- See " Academioe Cantabrigiensis Luctus " Signature Z. z. fol. b. [Dr. Pegge was then lately elected Fellow of St. John's College (the first time) as he signs it " Sam. Pegge, A. B. Coll. Div. Joh.Evang. Soc." See before, p. xiii.] — 1731. An irregular English Ode on Joshua vi. 20, which he contributed to a Collection of " Miscellaneous Poems and Translations/' published (with a numerous sub- scription) by (he Rev. Henry Tra vers, 1731, octavo, p. 170. [See " Anonymiana," p. 3 C 27, for an account of Mr, Travers, and this publication] A marginal note in Dr. Pegge's copy of Mr. Travers's publication tells us, that this One was an academical exercise, when the Doctor was an luvter- graduate at St. John's, which was sent to the Earl of Exeter. His Lordship's Ancestors had been Benefactors to the College, a circumstance which, we presume, gave rise to the custom of sending such periodical exercises to the then Earl ; though the practice, as far as we know, does not continue. Thus much of this Commemoration, as we believe, remains, that two Sermons are still annually preached (the one at Hatfield, and the other at Burleighj by Fellows of the College, which we apprehend to have been enjoined by the Benefactor. The Ode, of which we have spoken, became, some years after an auxiliary contribution to Mr. Travers's Collection from Dr. Pe^e, jointly with other contemporaries, to relieve the Editor from some pecuniary embarrassments. — An Examina- tion of " 1 he Enquiry into the meaning of Demoniacks in the New Testament; in a Letter to the Author," 1739. An oc- tavo (of 86 pages), with his name prefixed. [This contro- versy originated from the Lev. Dr. Arthur-Ashley Sykes, who published " An Enquiry into the Meaning of the Demoniack* THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. H Frivolous as many detached morsels, scattered up and down in the Gentleman's Magazine, may appear to some Readers, they may be called the ruminations of a busy mind ; which shews an universality of reading, a love of investigation, in the New Testament" (1737), under the obscure signature of " T. P. A. P. O A. B. I. T. C. O. S." The interpretation of this is, The Precentor /md Prebendary Of ^iton-Soreaiis, In The Church Of Salisbury. Dr. Sykes had been vicar of God- mersham ; so that two vicars of Godmersham became, in- cidentally, parties in the controversy. The question engaged several other Writers ; viz. Rev. Leonard Twells, Rev. Thomas Hutchinson, and Rev. William Winston, who were followed by Dr. Pegge. He, however, entered so late into the lists, after the subject was almost worn out, that his Publication was not much attended to, though it attracted the applause of several competent judges, such as the Rev. Dr. Newcome, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge ; Rev. Dr. Taylor (late Residentiary of St. Paul's) ; the very learned Bp. Smal- broke ; and some others.] — A Sermon on St. John i. 5 : " The Light Shineth in Darkness," preached on St. John's-day, 1749, at Canterbury cathedral, and inscribed to his much-respected friend, Thomas Knight, Esq. of Go dmers ham, in Kent. — A Sermon, preached also at Canterbury Cathedral during the Rebellion, 1746". [The avowed design of the Discourse was, to prove that " Popery was an encouragement to vice and im- morality." This Sermon attracted the civilities (mentioned in p. xxxi.) which Dr. Pegge received from Archbishop Herring.] These are the principal professional Publications by Dr. Pegge; to winch ought to be added some short pastoral and gratuitous printed distributions at various times ; viz. 1755. A Piscourse on Confirmation (of 23 pages, octavo), being an enlarged Sermon, preached at Chesterfield previously to the Bishop's triennial Visitation, and dispersed. — 1767. A brief Examination of the Church Catechism, for the Use of those who are just arrived at Years of Discretion. — 1790. A short Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer (4 pages octavo), first ad- dressed to his Parishioners of Brindle, in Lancashire, 1753; and afterwards reprinted and distributed in his three parishes of Whittington, Heath, and Wingerworth, in Derbyshire, 1*90. Hi BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF and a fund of knowledge, more than would have displayed itself in any greater work, where the subject requires but one bias, and one peculiar at- tention *. It is but justice to say, that few men were so liberal in the diffusion of the knowledge which he had acquired, or more ready to communicate it, either vivd voce, or by the loan of his MSS. as many of his living Friends can testify. In his publications he was also equally disin- terested as in his private communications ; for he never, as far as can be recollected, received any pecuniary advantage from any pieces that he printed, committing them all to the press, with the sole reserve of a few copies to distribute among his particular Friends -j~. * An accurate list of these detached publications may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1/96, pp.979, 1081. f We shall here specify Mr. Pegge's several Memoirs printed (by direction of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries) in the Archseologia, as being the principal combined work to which he contributed. Herein we shall proceed as they suc- cessively occur in those volumes, rather than by the times at which the communications themselves were actually read be- fore the Society. Vol.1. No. XXXVII. p. 155. Some Observations on an antique Marble of the Earl of Pembroke.— No. XXXVIII. p. 161. Dissertation on an Anglo-Saxon Jewel. — No. LV. p. 319. Of the Introduction, Progress, State, and Condition, of the Vine in Britain.— No LVIL p. 335. A Copy of a Deed in Latin and Saxon of Odo, Bishop of Baieux, with some Ob- servations thereon. Vol. II. No. IX. p. 68. Observations on the Mistakes of Mr. Lisle and Mr. Hearne in respect of King Alfred's Present. THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. Iiil In the following Catalogue we must be allowed to deviate from chronological order, for the sake to the Cathedrals. The late use of the Stylus, or metalline Pen. Mr. Wise's Conjecture concerning the famous Jewel of King Alfred further pursued ; shewing it might possibly he part of the Stylus sent by that King, with Gregory's Pastorals, to the Monastery at Athelney. — No. XIII. p. S6. The Bull- running at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, considered. — No. XVI. p. 100. Observations on Dr. Percy's (afterwards Bishop of Dto- more) Account of Minstrels among the Saxons. [See vol. III. Art. XXXIV. p. 310.]— No. XIX. p. 124. Observations on Stone Hammers. — No. XXV. p. 171. A Dissertation on the Crane, as a Dish served up at great Tables in England. — No. XXXVI. p. 276. A succinct and authentic Narrative of the Battle of Chesterfield [co. Derby], A. D. 1266, in the Reign of K. Henrv 111. Vol. III. No. I. p. 1. Of the Horn, as a Charter, or Instru- ment of Conveyance. Some Observations on Mr. Samuel Foxlow's Horn; as likewise on the Nature and Kinds of those Horns in general. — No. X. p. 39. On Shoeing of Horses among the Antients. — No. XI. p. 53. The Question consi- dered, whether England formerly produced any Wine from Grapes. [See vol. I. Art. LV. p. 319- This Question was answered by the Hon. Daines Barrington in the 12th article of this volume, p. 6/.] — No. XIV. p. 101. Remarks on Bela- tucader. — No. XVI11. p. 125. Memoir concerning the Sac- Friars, or Fratres de Ptxnitentid Jem Christi, as settled in England. — No. XIX. p. 132. 'A\ Esq. — No. IX. p. 86. Observations on the present Aldborougli Church, in Holderness ; proving that it was not a Saxon Building, as Mr. Somerset [i. e. John-Charles Brooke, Esq. Somerset Herald] contends. — No. XIII. p. 131. A Disquisition on the Lows, or Barrows, in the Peak of Derbyshire^ parti- cularly that capital British Monument called Arbelows. — No. XV11I. p. 170. Description of a Second Roman Pig of Lead found in Deibyshire, in the Possession of Mr. Achm Wolley, of Matlock, in that County, with Remarks. — ■ No. XXIV. p. 211. Observations on the Chariots of the An- tient Britons. — No. XXXVI II. p. 362. Observations on a Seal of Thomas, Suffragan Bishop of Philadelphia. Vol. VIII. No. I. p. 1. A Sketch of the History of the Asylum, or Sanctuary, from its Origin to the final Abolition of it in the Reign of King James I. — No. III. p. 58. Observa- tions on the Stanton Moor Urns, and Druidical Temples. — No. XX. p. .159. A circumstantial Detail of the Battle of Lincoln, A. D. 1217 (1 Henry II! ). Vol. IX. No. V. p. 45. Description of another [a third] Roman Pig of Lead found in Derbyshire. — No. IX. p. SL Observations on some Brass Celts, and other Weapons, disco- vered in Ireland, 1*80. — No. XVIII. p. 189. Discoveries on opening a Tumulus in Derbyshire. Vol. X. No. II. p. 17- Derbeiescira Romana.— No. IV.. p.50. Some Observations of the Paintings in Brereton Church. — No. XIX. p. 15G. On the hunting of the antient Inhabitants of our Island, Britons and Saxons. — No. XXIII. p. 177. Ob- servations on an antient Font at Burn ham- Deepdale, in Nor- folk. The following articles appear to have been contributed by Mr. Pegge to that useful and interesting reservoir of British Topographical History, the Bibliotheca Topographica Britan- nica; viz. No. XVII. A Memoir on the Story of Guy Earl of Warwick [1783]. — No. XXI. The History and Antiquities of Eccleshal- Manor and Castle, in the Countv of Stafford ; and lvi BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS OF The greatest honour, which a literary man can obtain, is the eulogies of those who possessed of Lichfield House in London [1784]. [This Memoir is in- scribed to four successive Bishops of Lichfield : the Right Rev. Dr. John Egerton (then Bishop of Durham) ; Hon. and Right Rev. Dr. Brownlow North, then (and still) Bishop of Winchester ; Right Rev. Dr. liurd, then Bishop of Worcester ; and the Hon. and Right Rev. Dr. Cornwallis, the present Bishop of Lichfield, who has done Dr. Pegge the honour to deposit a copy of it among the Archives belonging to that See. — No XXIV.. The Roman Roads (lkeni'd-Street and Bath-Way) discovered and investigated through the Country of theCoritani, or the County of Derby ; with the Addition of a Dissertation on the Coritani. [1*84.] — No. XXV. An His- torical Account of that venerable Monument of Antiquity, the Textus RofFensis ; including Memoirs of Mr. William Elstob, and his Sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Elstob. [1784.] — No.XXVIH. Some Account of that Species of Prelates formerly existing in England, usually called " Bishops in Partibus Iftfidelium." [1/84.] [The article before us is combined with some others io consolidate what has been written on the subject. It begins with a Letter from the Rev. Thomas Brett, LL. D. on Suf- fragan Bishops in England, extracted from Drake's Antiquities of York (p. 539), which is followed by a Memoir on the same Topick from the Rev. Mr. Lewis, of Margate. To these is subjoined Dr. Pegge's Account of " Bishops in Parlibus Inji- Helium." [N. B. This Number closes with " A List of the Suffragan Bishops in England, drawn up by the late Rev. Henry Wharton, M.A. and extracted from his MSS. in the Lambeth Library"]— No. XXXil. Sketch of the History of Bol- sover and Peak Castles, in the County of Derby (in a Letter to his Grace the Duke of Portland), illustrated with various Drawings by Hayman Rooke, Esq. [1785]. — No. XLI A Syl- loge of the authentic remaining Inscriptions relative to the Erection of our English Churches, embellished with Copper- plates. Inscribed to Richard Gough, esq. [1 787.] Independent Publications on Numisinatical, Antiquarian, and Biographical Subjects: 1756. No. 1. "A Series of Dis- sertations on some elegant and very valuable Anglo-Saxon Remains." [42 p'iges, 4to. with a Piute.] 1. A Gold Coin in the Pembrochian Cabinet, in a Letter to Martin Folkes, Esq. late President of the Royal Society, and Fellow of the Society THE REV. DR. SAMUEL PEGGE. Ivii equal or more learning than himself. "Laudatus a laudatis viris" may peculiarly and deservedly be said of Dr.Pegge, as might be exemplified from the fre- of Antiquaries. [Dated Godmersham, 1751.] 2. A Silver Coin in the Possession of Mr. John White. [Dated Whitting- ton, 1755.] 3. A Gold Coin in the Possession of Mr. Simp- son, of Lincoln, in a Letter to Mr. Vertue. [Dated Godmer- sham, 1751.] 4. A Jewel in the Bodleian Library. [No place or date] 5. Second Thoughts on Lord Pembroke's Coin, in a Letter to Mr. Ames, Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries. [Dated Whittington, 1755.] [These Dissertations are pre- faced by a Question, candidly debated with the Rev. George North, Whether the Saxons coined any Gold ?] — No. II. 17G1 . " Memoirs of Roger de Weseham, Dean of Lincoln, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield j and the principal Favourite of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln." [60 pages, 4to.] [This work ( as we are told in the title-page) was intended as a pre- lude to the Life of that most excellent Bishop, Robert Grosse- teste ; which accordingly appeared (as will be mentioned) in the year 1795. These Memoirs were compiled soon after Dr. Pegge was collated, by Bishop [Frederick] Cornvvallis, to the prebend of Bobenhull, in the church of Lichfield, 1757, (founded by Bishop Weseham) and gratefully inscribed to his patron the Bishop of Lichfield, and to his friend Dr. John Green, then Dean of Lincoln, as Roger de Weseham had suc- cessively filled both those dignities.] — No. III. 1766. "An Essay on the Coins of Cunobelin ; in an Epistle to the Right Rev.' Bishop of Carlisle [Charles Lyttelton], President of the Society of Antiquaries." [105 pages, 4to,] [This collection of coins is classed in two plates, and illustrated by a Com- mentary, together with observations on the word tascia. N. B. The impression consisted of no more than 200 copies.] — No. IV. 177 c 2. "An Assemblage of Coins fabricated by Authority of the Archbishops of Canterbury. To which are subjoined, Two Dissertations." [125 pages, 4to.] 1. On a fine Coin of Alfred the Great, with his Head. 2. On an Unic, in the Possession of the late Mr. Thoresby, supposed to be a Coin of St. Edwin ; but shewn to be a Penny of Edward the Confessor. [An Essay is annexed on the origin of metro- political and other subordinate mints ; with an Account of their Progress and final Determination : together with other incidental Matters, tending to throw light on a branch of the Ivili MEMOIRS OF THE REV. DR. PEGGE. quent mention made of him by the most respect- able contemporary writers in the Arxhceological line; but modesty forbids our enumerating them. Science of Medals, not perfectly considered by English Me- dalists.] — No. V. 1772. " Fitz-Stephen's Description of the City of London, newly translated from the Latin Original, with a necessary Commentary, and a Dissertation on the Au- thor, ascertaining the exact Year of the Production ; to which are added, a correct Edition of the Original, with the various Readings, and many Annotations." [81 pages, 4to.] [This publication (well known now to have been one of the works of Dr. Pegge) was, as we believe, brought forward at the in- stance of the Hon. Daines Barrington, to whom it is inscribed. The number of copies printed was 250.] — No. VI. 1780. "The Forme of Cury. A Roll of antient English Cookery, compiled about the Year 1390, Temp. Ric. II. with a co- pious Index and Glossary." [Svo.] [The curious Roll, of which this is a copy, was the property of the late Gustavus Brander, esq. It is in the hand-writing of the time, a fac- simile of which is given facing p. xxxi. of the Preface. The work before us was a private impression ; but as, since Mr. Brander's decease, it has fallen, by sale, into a great many hands, we refer to the Preface for a farther account of it. Soon after Dr. Pegge's elucidation of the Roll was finished, Mr. Brander presented the autograph to the British Museum.] — No. VII. 17S9. "Annates Elia? de Trickenham, Monachi Ordinis Benedictini. Ex Bibliotheca Lamethana." To which is added, " Compendium Compertorum. Ex Bibliotheca Ducis Devonise." [4to.] [Both parts of this publication con- tain copious annotations by the Editor. The former was com- municated by Mr. John Nichols, Printer, to whom it is in- scribed. The latter was published by permission of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, to whom it is dedicated. The re- spective Prefaces to these pieces will best explain the nature of them.]— No. VIII. 1793. " The Life of Robert Grosseteste, the celebrated Bishop of Lincoln." [4to.] [This Work we have justly called his chef-d'oeuvre ; for, in addition to the life of an individual, it comprises much important history of interesting times, together with abundant collateral matter.] — The two following works have appeared since the Writer's death : No. IX 1S01. " An Historical Account of Beauchief Abbey, in the County of Derby, hum its first Foundation to its final H h ( Hx ) APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. l. Whittington Church. The annexed View was taken in 1789, by the inge- nious Mr. Jacob Schnebbelie ; and the following con- cise account of it was communicated in 1793, by the then worthy and venerable Rector. " Whittington, of whose Church the annexed Plate contains a Drawing by the late Mr. Schnebbelie, is a small parish of about 14 or 15 hundred acres, dis- tant from the church and old market-place of Chester- field about two miles and a half. It lies in the road from Chesterfield to Sheffield and Rotherham, whose roads divide there at the well-known inn The Cock and Magpye, commonly called The Revolution House. The situation is exceedingly pleasant, in a pure and excellent air. It abounds with all kinds of conve- niences for the use of the inhabitants, as coal, stone, timber, &c. ; besides its proximity to a good market, to take its products. Dissolution. Wherein the three following material Points, in opposition to vulgar Prejudices, are clearly established: 1st, That this Abbey did not take its name from the Head of Archbishop Becket, though it was dedicated to him. 2d, That the Founder of it had no hand in the Murder of that Prelate ; and, consequently, that the House was not erected in Ex- piation of that Crime. 3d, The Dependance of this House on that of Welbeck, in the County of Nottingham ; a Matter hitherto unknown." [4to.] — No. X. 1809. " Anonymiana ; or, Ten Centuries of Observations on various Authors and Sub- jects. Compiled by a late very learned and reverend Divine ; and faithfully published from the original MS. with the Ad- dition of a copious Index." [8vo.] e 2 Ix APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. The Church is now a little Rectory, in the gift of the Dean of Lincoln. At first it was a Chapel of Ease to Chesterfield, a very large manor and parish ; of which I will give the following short but convincing proof. The Dean of Lincoln, as I said, is Patron of this Rectory, and yet William Rufus gave no other church in this part of Derbyshire to the church of St. Mary at Lincoln but the church of Chesterfield ; and, moreover, Whittington is at this day a parcel of the great and extensive manor of Chesterfield ; whence it follows, that Whittington must have been once a part both of the rectory and manor of Chesterfield. But whence comes it, you will say, that it became a rectory, for such it has been many years ? I answer, I neither know how nor when ; but it is certain that chapels of ease have been frequently converted into rectories, and I suppose by mutual agreement of the curate of the chapel, the rector of the mother church, and the diocesan. Instances of the like emancipation of chapels, and transforming them into independent rectories, there are several in the county of Derby, as Matlock, Ronteshall, Bradley, &c. ; and others may be found in Mr. Nichols's " History of Hinckley," and in his " Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica," No. VI. Fig. 1 is an inscription on the Ting-tang, or Saints Bell, of Whittington Church, drawn by Mr. Schneb- belie, 27 July, 1789, from an impression taken in clay. This bell, which is seen in the annexed view, hangs within a stone frame, or tabernacle, at the top of the church, on the outside between the Nave and the Chancel. It has a remarkable fine shrill tone, and is heard, it is said, three or four miles off, if the wind be right. It is very antient, as appears both from the form of the letters, and the name (of the donor, I sup- pose), which is that in use before surnames were com- mon. Perhaps it may be as old as the fabrick of the church itself, though this is very antient. WHITTINGTON CHURCH. lxi Fig. 2 is a stone head, near the roof on the North side of the church. In the East window of the church is a small Female Saint. In this window, A. a fess Vaire G. and O. between three water- bougets Sable. Dethick. Cheque A. and G. on a bend S. a martlet. Beck- ering. At the bottom of this window an inscription, ftogero Cric. Roger Criche was rector, and died 1413, and pro- bably made the window. He is buried within the rails of the communion-table, and his slab is engraved in the second volume of Mr. Gough's " Sepulchral Mo- numents of Great Britain," Plate XIX. p. 37. No- thing remains of the inscription but Hmen. In the upper part of the South window of the Chan- cel, is a picture in glass of our Saviour with the five wounds ; an angel at his left hand sounding a trum- pet*. — On a pane of the upper tier of the West win- dow is the portrait of St. John ; his right hand holding a book with the Holy Lamb upon it : and the fore- finger of his left hand pointing to the Cross held by the Lamb, as uttering his well-known confession : "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world *." In the South window of the Chancel is, Barry wavy of 6 A. and G. a chief A. Ermine and Gules. Barley. Ermine, on a chief indented G. or lozenge. In the Easternmost South window of the nave is A. on a chevron Sable, three quatrefoils Argent. Eyre. This window has been renewed ; before which there were other coats and some effigies in it. Jan. l, 1793, Samuel Pegge, Rector." * Both these are engraved in the " Antiquaries Museum," frorn drawings made by Mr. Schnebbelie. Edit. Jxii APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALL4. 2. Whittington Rectory. ' This View was taken also, in 1789, by Mr. Schneb- belie; and the account of it drawn up in 1793 by Dr. Pegge, then resident in it, at the advanced age of 88. " The Parsonage-house at Whittington is a con- venient substantial stone building, and very sufficient for this small benefice. It was, as I take it, erected by the Rev. Thomas Callice, one of my predecessors ; and, when I had been inducted, I enlarged it, by pull- ing down the West end, making a cellar, a kitchen, a brew-house, and a pantry, with chambers over them. There is a glebe of about 30 acres belonging to it, with a garden large enough for a family, and a small orchard. The garden is remarkably pleasant in re- spect to its fine views to the North, East, and South, with the Church to the West. There is a fair pro- spect of Chesterfield Church, distant about two miles and a half; and of Bolsover Castle to the West ; and, on the whole, this Rectorial house may be esteemed a very delightful habitation. S. Pegge." In this Parsonage the Editor of the present Volume, accompanied by his late excellent Friend Mr. Gough, spent many happy hours with the worthy Rector for several successive years, and derived equal information and pleasure from his instructive conversation. 3. The Revolution House. To complete the litile series of Views at Whitting- ton more immediately connected with Dr. Pegge, a third plate is here given, from another Drawing by Mr. Schnebbelie, of the small public-house at Whit- tington, which has been handed down to posterity for above a century under the honourable appellation of " The Revolution House." It obtained that name from the accidental meeting of two noble personages, Thomas Osborne Earl of Danby, and William Caven- dish Earl of Devonshire, with a third person, Mr. John 5 THE REVOLUTION HOUSE. lxiii D'Arcy *, privately one morning, 1688, upon Whit- tington Moor, as a middle place between Chatsworth, Kniveton, and Aston, their respective residences, to consult about the Revolution, then in agitation t ; but a shower of rain happening to fall, they removed to the village for shelter, and finished their conversation at a public-house there, the sign of The Cock and Py not %. The part assigned to the Earl of Danby was, to sur- prize York ; in which he succeeded : after which, the Earl of Devonshire was to take measures at Notting- ham, where the Declaration for a free Parliament, which he, at the head of a number of Gentlemen of Derbyshire, had signed Nov. 28, 1688 §, was adopted by the Nohility, Gentry, and Commonalty of the Nor- thern Counties, assembled there for the defence of the Laws, Religion, and Properties ||. The success of these measures is well known ; and to the concurrence of these Patriots with the proceed- ings in favour of the Prince of Orange in the West, is this Nation indebted for the establishment of her rights and liberties at the glorious Revolution. The cottage here represented stands at the point where the road from Chesterfield divides into two branches, to Sheffield and Rotherham. The room where the Noblemen sat is 15 feet by 12 feet 10, and is to this day called The Plotting Parlour. The old armed chair, still remaining in it, is shewn by the landlord with particular satisfaction, as that in which it is said the Earl of Devonshire sat ; and he tells with equal pleasure, how it was visited by his descendants, and the descendants of his associates, in the year 1788. Some new rooms, for the better accommo- dation of customers, were added about 20 years ago. * It appears, from traditional accounts, that Lord Delamere, an ancestor of the present Earl of Stamford and Warrington, was also at this meeting. H. Rooke. f Kennett." I A Provincial name for a Magpye. § Ilapin, XV. 199. |1 Deering's Nottingham, p. 258. lxiv APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. The Duke of Leeds' own account of his meeting the Earl of Devonshire and Mr. John D'Arcy * at Whittington, in the County of Derby, A. D. 1688. The Earl of Derby, afterwards Duke of Leeds, was impeached, A.D. 1678, of High Treason by the House of Commons, on a charge of being in the French in- terest, and, in particular, of being Popishly affected : many, both Peers and Commoners, were misled, and had conceived an erroneous opinion concerning him and his political conduct. This he has stated himself, in the Introduction to his Letters, printed A. 1710, where he says, "That the malice of my accusation did so manifestly appear in that article wherein I was charged to be Popishly affected, that I dare swear there was not one of my accusers that did then believe that article against me." His Grace then proceeds, for the further clearing of himself, in these memorable words, relative to the meeting at Whittington, the subject of this memoir. " The Duke of Devonshire also, when we were partners in the secret trust about the Revolution, and who did meet me and Mr. John D'Arcy, for that pur- pose, at a town called Whittington, in Derbyshire, did, in the presence of the said Mr. D'Arcy, make a voluntary acknowledgment of the great mistakes he had been led into about me ; and said, that both he, and most others, were entirely convinced of their error. And he came to Sir Henry Goodrick's house in Yorkshire purposely to meet me there again, in order to concert the times and methods by which he should act at Nottingham (which was to be his post), and one at York (which was to be mine) ; and we agreed, that I should first attempt to surprize York, because there was a small garrison with a Governor there ; whereas * Son and heir of Conyers Earl of Holderncss. THE REVOLUTION JUBILEE. lxv Nottingham was but an open town, and might give an alarm to York, if he should appear in arms before I had made my attempt upon York ; which was done ac- cordingly * ; but is mistaken in divers relations of it. And I am confident that Duke (had he been now alive) would have thanked nobody for putting his pro- secution of me amongst the glorious actions of his life." Celebration of the Revolution Jubilee, at Whit- tington and Chesterfield, on the 4th and 5th of November, 1788. On Tuesday the 4th instant, the Committee ap- pointed to conduct the Jubilee had a previous meeting, and dined together at the Revolution House in Whit- tington. His Grace the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Stamford, Lord George and Lord John Cavendish, with several neighbouring Gentlemen, were present. After dinner a subscription was opened for the erecting of a Monumental Column, in Commemoration of the Glorious Revolution, on that spot where the Earls of Devonshire and Danby, Lord Delamere, and Mr. John D'Arcy, met to concert measures which were eminently instrumental in rescuing the Liberties of their Country from perdition. As this Monument is intended to be not less a mark of public Gratitude, than the memorial of an important event; it was requested, that the pre- sent Representatives of the above-mentioned families would excuse their not being permitted to join in the expence. * For the Earl of Devonshire's proceedings at Derby and Whit- tington see Mr. Deering's History of Nottingham, p. 26u. Mr. Dfake, p. 177 of his Eboracum, just mentions the Earl of Danby s appearance at York. 1XV1 APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. On the 5th, at eleven in the morning, the comme- moration commenced with divine service at Whitting- - ton Church. The Rev. Mr. Pegge, the Rector of the Parish, delivered an excellent Sermon from the words " This is the day, &c." Though of a great age, having that very morning entered his 85th year, he spoke with a spirit which seemed to be derived from the oc- casion, his sentiments were pertinent, well arranged, and his expression animated. The descendants of the illustrious houses of Ca- vendish, Osborne, Boothe, and Darcy (for the vene- rable Duke of Leeds, whose age would not allow him to attend, had sent his two grandsons, in whom the blood of Osborne and D'Arcy is united) ; a numerous and powerful gentry ; a wealthy and respectable yeo- manry; a hardy, yet decent and attentive peasantry; whose intelligent countenances shewed that they un- derstood, and would be firm to preserve that blessing, for which they were assembled to return thanks to Al- mighty God, presented a truly solemn spectacle, and to the eye of a philosopher the most interesting that can be imagined. After service the company went in succession to view the old house, and the room called by the Anti- revolutionists "The Plotting- Parlour," with the old armed-chair in which the Earl of Devonshire is said to have sitten, and every one was then pleased to par- take of a very elegant cold collation, which was pre- pared in the new rooms annexed to the cottage. Some time being spent in this, the procession began : Constables with long staves, two and two. The Eight Clubs, four and four ; viz. 1. Mr. Deakin's : Flag, blue, with orange fringe, on it the figure of Liberty, the motto, " The Protestant Religion, and the Liberties of England, we will maintain." 2. Mr. Bluett's : Flag, blue, fringed with orange, motto, " Libertas ; quas sera, tamen respexit in- THE REVOLUTION JUBILEE. lxVli ertem." Underneath the figure of Liberty crown- ing Britannia with a wreath of laurels, who is iepre- sented sitting on a Lion, at her feet the Comucopiae of Plenty; at the top next the pole, a Cattle, em- blematical of the house where the club is kept ; on the lower side of the flag Liberty holding a Cap and resting on the Cavendish arms. 3. Mr. Ostliff's : Flag, broad blue and orange stripe, with orange fringe ; in the middle the Cavendish arms ; motto as No. ] . 4. Mrs. Barber's : Flag, garter blue and orange quar- ter'd, with white fringe, mottoes, " Liberty se- cured." " The Glorious Revolution 1688." 5. Mr. Valentine Wilkinson's : Flag, blue with orange fringe, in the middle the figure of Liberty ; motto as No. 1. 6. Mr. Stubbs : Flag, blue with orange fringe, motto, " Liberty, Property, Trade, Manufactures ;" at the top a head of King William crowned with laurel, in the middle in a large oval, "Revolution 1688." On one side the Cap of Liberty, on the other the figure of Britannia ; on the opposite side the flag of the Devonshire arms. Mrs. Ollerenshaw's : Flag, blue with orange fringe ; motto as No. 1. on both sides. Mr. Marsingale's : Flag, blue with orange fringe; at the top the motto, " In Memory of the Glorious Assertors of British Freedom 1688," beneath, the figure of Liberty leaning on a shield, on which is in- scribed, " Revolted from Tyranny at Whittington 1688;" and having in her hand a scroll with the words " Bill of Rights" underneath a head of King William the Third ; on the other side the flag, the motto, " The Glorious Revolter from Tyranny 1688" underneath the Devonshire arms ; at the bottom the following inscription, " Willielmus Dux Devon. Bonorum Principum Fidelis Sub- ditus ; Inimicus et Invisus Tyrannis." IxVlii APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. The Members of the Clubs were estimated 2000 persons, each having a white wand in his hand with blue and orange tops and favours, with the Revolution stamped upon them. The Derbyshire militia's band of music. The Corporation of Chesterfield in their formalities, who joined the procession on entering the town. The Duke of Devonshire in his coach and six. Attendants on horseback with four led horses. The Earl of Stamford in his post chaise and four. Attendants on horseback. The Earl of Danby and Lord Francis Osborne in their post-chaise and four. Attendants on horseback. Lord George Cavendish in his post-chaise and four. Attendants on horseback. Lord John Cavendish in his post-chaise and four. Attendants on horseback. Sir Francis Molyneux and Sir Henry Hunloke, Barts. in Sir Henry's coach and six. Attendants on horseback. And upwards of forty other carriages of the neigh- bouring gentry, with their attendants. Gentlemen on horseback, three and three. Servants on horseback, ditto. The procession in the town of Chesterfield went along Holywell-Street, Saltergate, Glumangate, then to the left along the upper side of the Market-place to Mr. Wilkinson's house, down the street past the Mayor's house, along the lower side of the Market- place to the end of the West Bans, from thence past Dr. Milnes's house to the Castle, where the Derby- shire band of music formed in the centre and played " Rule Britannia," " God save the King, Kc." the Clubs and Corporation still proceeding in the same order to the Mayor's and then dispersed. The whole was conducted with order and regularity, for notwithstanding there were fifty carriages, 400 THE REVOLUTION JUBILEE. Ixix gentlemen on horseback, and an astonishing throng of spectators, not an accident happened. All was joy and gladness, without a single burst of unruly tumult and uproar. The approving eye of Heaven shed its auspicious beams, and blessed this happy day with more than common splendour. The company was so numerous as scarcely to be accommodated at the three principal inns. It would be a piece of injustice not to mention the dinner at the Castle, which was served in a style of unusual ele- gance. The following toasts were afterwards given : 1. The King. 2. The glorious and immortal Memory of King William the Hid. 3. The Memory of the Glorious Revolution. 4. The Memory of those Friends to their Country, who, at the risk of their lives and fortunes, were in- strumental in effecting the Glorious Revolution in 1688. 5. The Law of the Land. 6. The Prince of Wales. 7. The Queen, and the rest of the Royal Family. 8. Prosperity to the British Empire. 9. The Duke of Leeds, and prosperity to the House of Osborne. 10. The Duke of Devonshire, and prosperity to the House of Cavendish. 11. The Earl of Stamford, and prosperity to the united House of Boothe and Grey. 12. The Earl of Danby, and prosperity to the united House of Osborne and Darcy. 13. All the Friends of the Revolution met this year to commemorate that glorious Event. 14. The Duke of Portland. 15. Prosperity to the County of Derby. 16. The Members for the County. 17. The Members for the Borough of Derby. lxX APPENDIX TO THE PARENTAL1A. 18. The Duchess of Devonshire, &c. In the evening a brilliant exhibition of fireworks was played off, under the direction of Signer Pietro ; during which the populace were regaled with a proper distribution of liquor. The day concluded with a ball, at which were present near 300 gentlemen and ladies ; amongst whom were many persons of distinction. The Duchess of Devonshire, surrounded by the bloom of the Derbyshire hills, is a picture not to be pourtrayed. Near 2 50 ball-tickets were received at the door. The warm expression of gratitude and affection sparkling in every eye, must have excited in the breasts of those noble personages, whose ancestors were the source of this felicity, a sensation which Mo- narchs in all their glory might envy. The utmost har- mony and felicity prevailed throughout the whole meeting. An hogshead of ale was given to the popu- lace at Whittington, and three hogsheads at Chester- field ; where the Duke of Devonshire gave also three guineas to each of the eight clubs. It was not the least pleasing circumstance attending this meeting, that all party distinctions were forgotten. Persons of all ranks and denominations wore orange and blue, in memory of our glorious Deliverer. And the most respectable Roman Catholic families, sa- tisfied with the mild toleration of government in the exercise of their Religion, vied in their endeavours to shew how just a sense they had of the value of Civil Liberty. Letter from the Rev. P. Cunningham to Mr. Pegge. „ Eyam, near TideswaL Rev. and dear Sir, AW. 2, 1788. You will please to accept of the inclosed Stanzas, and the Ode for the Jubilee, as a little testimony of the Author's respectful remembrance of regard ; and of his congratulations, that it has pleased Divine Pro- vidence to prolong your days, to take a distinguished THE REVOLUTION JUBILEE. lxXl part in the happy commemoration of the approaching Fifth of November. Having accidentally heard yesterday the Text you proposed for your Discourse on Wednesday, I thought the adoption of it, as an additional truth to the one T had chosen, would be regarded as an additional token of implied respect. In that light I flatter myself you will consider it. I shall be happy if these poetic effusions should be considered by you as a proof of the sincere respect and esteem with which I subscribe myself, Dear Sir, your faithful humble servant, P. Cunningham. Stanzas, by the Rev. P. Cunningham, occasioned by the Revolution Jubilee, at Whittington and Chesterfield, Nov. 5, 1788. Inscribed to the Rev. Samuel Pegge, Rector of Whittington. "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms. " Esto perpetua !" F. P. Sarpi da Venez. Round the starr'd Zodiack, now the golden Sun Eventful Time a Century hath led ; Since Freedom, with her choicest wreath, begun Smiling, to grace her long-loved Nation's head. Welcome again, the fair auspicious Morn ! To Freedom, first and fairest of the year ; When from her ashes, like a Phoenix born, Reviving Britain rose in Glory's sphere. When, starting from their mournful death-like trance, Her venerable Laws their fasces rais'd. Her stern-eyed Champions grasp'd th' avenging lance. And pure Religion's trembling altars blaz'd. Ixxii APPENDIX TO THE PARENTALIA. For then, from Belgia, through the billowy storm, And, heaven-directed in an happy hour, Britain's good Genius, bearing William's form, Broke the dire Sceptre of Despotic Power. Ev'n now, to Fancy's retrospective eyes, Fix'd on the triumphs of his Patriot-Reign ; Majestic seems the Hero's shade to rise, With Commerce, Wealth, and Empire, in his train. Undimm'd his * Eagle-eye, serene his air, Of Soul heroic, as in Fields of Death ; See ! Britain's Weal employs his latest care, Her Liberty and Laws his latest breath. " Visions of Glory ! crouding on his sight," With your still-growing lustre gild the day, When Britons, worthy of their Sires, unite Their Orisons at Freedom's Shrine to pay. To eternize the delegated hand, That seal'd their great forefathers' fields their own ; Rais'd ev'ry art that decks a smiling land, And Laws that guard the Cottage as the Throne. That to the free, unconquerable mind Secur'd the sacred Rights of Conscience, given To Man, when tender Mercy first design'd To raise the Citizen of Earth to Heaven. And hark ! the solemn Paeans grateful rise From rural Whittington's o'erfiowing fane ; And, with the heart's pure incense to the skies, Its venerable Shepherd's f hallow'd strain. See! pointing to the memorable scene, He bids that Heath % to latest times be known, Whence her three Champions §, Freedom, heaven-born Queen, Led with fresh glories to the British Throne. * Sir John Dalrymple's "Continuation of Memoirs of Great Britain." -1' Samuel Pegge. X Whittington Moor. § Earl of Devon, Earl of Danby, and Mr. John D'Arcy. THE REVOLUTION JUBILEE. Ixxiii Oh, Friend ! upon whose natal morn* 'tis given, When seventeen Lustres mark thy letter'd days, To lead the Hymn of Gratitude to Heav'n, And blend the Christian's with the Briton's praise. Like hoary Sarpis f, patriot Sage, thy pray'r With Life shall close in his emphatic Strain; " As on this day, may Freedom, ever fair, In Britain flourish, and for ever reign!" Eyam, Derbyshire. P. C. Ode for the Revolution Jubilee 1 , 1788. When lawless Power his iron hand, When blinded Zeal her flaming brand O'er Albion's Island wav'd ; Indignant Freedom veil'd the sight ; Eclips'd her Son of Glory's light ; Her fav'rite Realm enslav'd. Distrest she wander'd : — when afar She saw her Nassau's friendly star Stream (through the stormy air: She call'd around a Patriot Band ; She bade them save a sinking land ; And deathless glory share. Her cause their dauntless hearts inspir'd, With ancient Roman virtue nr'd ; They plough'd the surging main ; With fav'ring gales from Belgia's shore Her heaven-directed Hero bore, With equal warmth her spirit glows, Though hoary Time's centennial snows New silver o'er her fame. For hark, what songs of triumph tell, Still grateful Britons love to dwell On William's glorious name. * Birth-day of the Rev. Samuel \\ ;gge, 1704. •f Father Raul. f [ Ixxiv j EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO MR. GOUGH. Dear Sir, Whittington, Oct. 11, 1738. We are to have most grand doings at this place, 5th of November next, at the Revolution House, which 1 believe you saw when you was here. The Resolutions of the Committee were ordered to be inserted in the London prints* ; so I presume you may have seen them, and that I am desired to preach the Sermon. I remain your much obliged, &c. S. Pegge. * " The Committee appointed by the Lords and Gentlemen at the last Chesterfield Races, to conduct and manage the Celebration of the intended Jubilee, on the Hundredth Anniversary of the glorious Re- volution, at the Revolution House in Whittington, in the County of Derby, wbere measures were first concerted for the promotion of that grand constitutional event, in these midland parts, have this dav met, and upon consideration, come to the following resolutions : That General Gladwin do take the chair at this meeting. That the Rev. Samuel Pegge be requested to preach a Sermon on the oc- casion, at Whittington Church, on the 5th day of November next. That the Gentlemen who intend to honour the meeting with their company, do assemble at Whittington Church, exactly at eleven o'clock in the forenoon of that day to attend divine service. That immediately after service, they meet at the Revolution House, where a cold collation will be provided. That they go in procession from thence to Chesterfield, where ordinaries will be provided at the Angel, Castle, and Falcon inns. That the meeting be open to all friends of the Revolution. That letters be written to the Dukes of Devonshire and Leeds, and the Earl of Stamford, to request the honour of their attendance at that meeting. That there be a ball for the Ladies in the evening, at the Assembly Room in Chester- field. That a subscription of one guinea each be entered into for defraying the extraordinary expenses on the occasion, and that the samebe paid into the hands of Messrs. Wilkinson's, in Chesterfield. That the Committee do meet again on Wednesday the 8th of Oc- tober next, at the Angel Inn, in Chesterfield, at one o'clock. That these resolutions be published in the. Derby and Nottingham news- papers, and in the St. James's, Whitehall, and Lloyd's Evening Posts, and the London and English Chronicles. Chesterfield, Sept. 27, 1788. Henry Gladwin, Chairman-' LETTERS OF DR. S. PEGCE. lxXV WJiitpingtotly Nov. 29, J 788. My dear Mr. Gouoh, Mr. Rooke slept at the Vicarage on the 4tb, in order to he ready for our grand celebrity the next day ; and to distribute then to his friends his drawing, which he had caused to be engraved by Basire, of the Resolution House at Whittington, which he did, with a paper of mine, respecting the meeting there of the Earl of De- vonshire, the Earl of Derby, &c. in 1688, annexed. The 5th of November is now gone and over, and they said I acquitted myself very well. Indeed, I was in good spirits, and, as my Son-in-law read the prayers, I went fresh into the pulpit. The Duke of Devon was too late ; but we had the Earl of Stamford at church, with Lord George and Lord John Cavendish, Lord Danby (Son of the Marquis of Carmarthen), and Lord Francis Osborne, with their Preceptor Dr. Jack- son, Prebendary of Westminster, &c. The cavalcade from Whittington to Chesterfield, where we were to dine at four o'clock, was amazingly grand, no less than 50 coaches and chaises with horses dressed with orange ribbons ; large and fine banners, with sundry bands of music. There were about 1000 on foot, with orange cockades, and about 300 on horseback, many of whom, besides cockades, were in blue, with orange capes. At half past six the fireworks, - by an Italian artist, began, and very admirable they were; he had twenty pounds given him by the Managers. The ball room, at nine,- was so crowded that, though it is large, there could be but little dancing. The ball was given to the Ladies, with an entertainment of cakes, sweet- meats, negus, &c. It was a fine day ; and not the least accident happened, though it is supposed not less than 30,000 people were assembled. Hogsheads of liquor were given by the Managers at Whittington and Chesterfield, and the Duke of Devon gave twenty- four guineas to the footmen mentioned above. I saw nobody however in liquor; and when Mr. Rooke and I f 2 IxXVl LETTERS OF DR. S. PEGGE. returned to Whittingtou, at one o'clock or after, we had a sober driver. It happened tube my birth-da)' ; which being known to some gentlemen at all the three great inns where the company dined, they drank my health with three cheers, requesting me to print my Sermon. This re- quest I have complied with, and it is now printed at Chesterfield ; I will take care that a copy be sent to you and Mr. Nichols. But I must observe to you on the occasion, that the Sermon will not read so well as it was heard, because having good command over myself at the time, I delivered it with energy and emphasis. There will be a monument erected at the Revolu- tion House in Whittingtou ; a column I suppose; and 148 guineas are already subscribed. N. B. The Duke of Devon and the Earl of Stamford were excepted from subscribing, so they reluctantly desisted. Sir H.Hunloke, a Catholic, is a subscriber, and went in the cavalcade, but was not at church, as you may suppose. We have a very fine time here, no signs of winter but the absence of leaves ; the want of water however is very wonderful, considering the time of year, and is even distressing. I grow very idle and good for no- thing ; but, such as I am, I remain your very affection- ate and much obliged servant, S. Peggf.. Dear Sir, Whittingtou, Dec. 22, 1788. By this time I hope you are in possession of my Sermon, as I desired my Son to send one copy to you., and another to Mr. Nichols. If I know you, your sentiments in politics coincide with mine ; so that I have no fear of your concurrence in that respect, and have only to wish that the composition may please you. I am, dear Sir, your truly affectionate and much obliged servant, S. Peggk. [ lxxvii SEQUEL TO THE PARENTALIA. By the Editor. Samuel Pegge, Esq. the only surviving Son * of the venerable Antiquary whose Life has just been recorded, was born in 173 1. After an ex- cellent classical education, at St. John's College, Cambridge, he was admitted a Barrister of the Middle Temple ; and was soon after, by the favour of the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Chamberlain, appointed one of the Grooms of His Majesty's Privy-Chamber, and an Esquire of the King's Household. Mr. Pegge married Martha, daughter of Dr. Henry Bourne, an eminent Physician, of Spital, near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire -f~, and sister to the Rev. John Bourne J, Rector of Sutton, and Vicar of South Wingfield, co. Derby. By this lady, who was born in 1732, and died in 1767, he had one son, Christopher, of whom hereafter; and one daughter, Charlotte-Anne, who died, unmarried, March 17, 1793. Mr. Pegge married, secondly, Goodeth Belt, daughter of Robert Belt, Esq. of Bossall, co. York, by whom he had no issue §. After the death of his Father, Mr. Pegge, though somewhat advanced in life, was desirous * Another son, Christopher, died an infant in 1736. t Who died in 1775, in his S9th year. % Who married Anne-Katharine, Mr. S. Pegge's onlv sister. § She died Oct. 23, 1807, in her S c 2d year. lxxviii MEMOIR OF of becoming a Member of tbe Society of Antiqua- ries. He was accordingly elected in 1796 ; having previously shewn that he was well deserving of that distinction, by the accuracy and intelligence displayed in the " Curialia." He survived his Father little more than four years ; during which period he enjoyed but an indifferent state of bodily health. His mental faculties, however, were, to the last, strong and unimpaired; his manners truly elegant ; his con- versation always sensible and pleasant; and his epistolary correspondence * lively and facetious. His death is thus recorded on an upright stone on the West side of Kensington church-yard : " Samuel Pegge, Esq. died May the 22d, 1800, aged 6*7 years. Martha, Wife of Samuel Pegge, Esq. died June 28, 17G7, aged 35 years. Charlotte-Anne, the only Daughter of Samuel and Martha Pegge, died March 17, 1793, aged 31 years. Mrs. Christiana Pegge died July l, 1790." To Mr. Pegge we are indebted for the fore- going circumstantial Memoir of his very learned Father; and for several occasional communica- tions to the Gentleman's Magazine. But his principal Work was intituled, " Curi- alia ; or, an Historical Account of some Branches * A few extracts from his Letters are given in p. lxxxiii. SAMUEL PEGGE, ES€t. Ixxix of the Royal Household * ;" Three Portions of which he published in his life-time : Part I. consisted of " Two Dissertations, ad- dressed to the President of the Society of Anti- quaries, London; viz: 1. On the obsolete Office of the Esquires of the King's Body. 2. On the original Nature, Duty, &c. of the Gentlemen of the King's Most Honourable Privy Chamber, 1782." Part I J. contains " A Memoir regarding the King's Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pen- sioners, from its Establishment to the present Time, 1784." Part III. is " A Memoir respecting the King's Body-Guard of Yeomen of his Guard, from its Institution, A. D. 1485 ; 1791." During the remaining period of his life, Mr. Pegge amused himself in preparing several other Numbers" of his " Curialia" for the press ; the materials for which, and also his " Anecdotes of the English Language," he bequeathed to Mr. Nichols ; who printed " The Anecdotes of the English Language" in 1S03, This Work having been noticed with much approbation in the prin- cipal Reviews, and very favourably received by * Had Mr. Pegge lived to have completed his whole design, the Title would have run thus : " Hospitium Regis ; or, a His- tory of the Royal Household, and the several Officers thereof, principally in the Departments of the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the Master or the Horse, and the Groom of the Stole. Collected and digested by Samuel Pegge, Esq. F.S. A." Is XX MEMOIR OF the Publick at large, a Second Edition (corrected and improved from his own detached MSS.) was published in 1S14. To this Edition was added, " A Supplement to the Provincial Glossary of Francis Grose, Esq." compiled by Mr. Pegge. In lSO.fj Mr. Nichols published Two additional Numbers of the " Curialia:" Part IV. "A History of Somerset House*, from the Commencement of its Erection in 1 549/' Part V. "A Dissertation -j~ on the ancient Es- tablishment andFunction of theSerjeant at Arms." The further continuation of that interesting work was broken off by the melancholy acci- dent mentioned in page v. In the early part of his life Mr. Pegge was a considerable proficient in Musick. He com- posed a complete Melo-Drama, both the words and the musick in score, which still remains in MS. Many Catches and Glees also, and several of the most popular Songs for Vauxhall Gardens were written and set to music by him. His Muse was very fertile; and, though his mo- desty forbade the avowal, he was the Author of some occasional Prologues and Epilogues, which were favourably received by the Publick ; a Pro- * The History of Somerset House was with Mr. Pegge a favourite subject ; and to this., '-vita the exception of the two concluding pages, lie had put the finishing hand. f Announced by the Author in his Introduction to Part III. and by himself very nearly completed for the press. SAMUEL PEGGE, ESGL. JXXXl logue, particularly, spoken by Mr. Yates at Bir- mingham in 1760, on taking the Theatre into his own hands ; an Epilogue spoken by the same ex- cellent Actor, at Drury Lane, on his return from France; and another Epilogue, filled with perti- nent allusions to the Game of Quadrille, spoken by Mrs. Yates, at her Benefit, in three different seasons, 1769, 1770, and 1774. He was the Au- thor also of a pathetic Elegy on his own Recovery from a dangerous Illness ; and of some pleasant Tales and Epigrammatic Poems. His other acknowledged writings were, 1. " An Elegy on the Death of Godfrey Bag- nail Clerke, Esq. (late one of the Representatives in Parliament for the County of Derby), who died Dec. 26, 1774*." 2. te Memoirs of Edward Capell, Esq." -j~ 3. " Illustrations of the Churchwardens' Ac- oompts of St. Michael Spurrier Gate, York," in the " Illustrations of the Manners and Expences of Antient Times, 1797." 4- " On a Custom observed by the Lord Lieu- tenants of Ireland." (Antiquarian Repertory, Edit. 1809, vol. IV. p. 622.) 5. " Historical Anecdotes of the French Word Carosse" (Ibid. p. 642.) — The two last-mentioned Tracts are re-printed in the present volume. * Of this Elegy Mr. Pegge printed only a few copies, to be ,j;iven to particular Friends ; but, by his permission, it was re-printed for sale by Mr. Joseph Bradly, of Chesterfield. t See the " Illustrations of Literature," vol. I. p. 427, Ixxxii SAMUEL PEGGE, ESGt. Mr. Pegge also superintended through the Press the greater part of his Father's " History of Beau- chief Abbey ;" but died before it was completed. His only Son, the present Sir Christopher Pegge, was admitted a Commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1 7.82s took the Degree of B. A. there in 1786 ; was elected Fellow of Oriel College in 1788 ; resigned his Fellowship in 1790, and was re-admitted of Christ Church, having been ap- pointed, through favour of the Dean and Chapter, Dr. Lee's Reader in Anatomy (which situation he resigned in \Sl6, an asthmatic complaint having rendered change of residence adviseable) ; took the Degrees of M.A. and M. B. 1789, and that of M. D. 1792. He was elected one of the Physicians to the RadcIifFe Infirmary in 1791 (which he resigned in 1S03); F. L. S. 1702; F.R.S. 1795 ; and Fellow of the College of Phy- sicians 1796; received from his Majesty the Ho- nour of Knighthood in 1799, and the Dignity of Regius Professor of Physic in 1 SOJ . Sir Christopher Pegge married, in 1791, Arney, the eldest daughter of Kenton Couse, Esq. of Whitehall ; by whom he has issue one daughter, Mary, married in 18 \6 to the Rev. Richard Moore Boultbee, of Merton College, Oxford (second son of Joseph Boultbee, Esq. of Springfield House, near Knowle, Warwickshire), and had a daughter, born Dec. 9, 18 17. LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. IxXxiii APPEiMDIX, No. II. To Richard Gough, Esq. Dear Sir, Whittington, March 17, 1796. There are no persons in the world to whom so much regard is due, respecting my late Father's Collections in the literary line, as to yourself and Mr. Nichols. I daily see obligations, from Books which you have respectively conferred upon him, which call for every acknowledgement. I am as daily concerned in look- ing over papers of various kinds; and will preserve them all sacredly, and report upon them when I return to Town, which must be in May or June. I am labouring to keep possession of this house as long as I can, and believe I shall be amply indulged ; a circumstance which will enable me to pay every attention to what may be of real use to my Father's Friends : for, as Botanists allow nothing to be weeds, so I admit nothing to be waste paper. What I write to you I mean should be said to Mr. Nichols, with every kind remembrance. I have only to desire that I may be considered (by descent at least) as Your obliged Friend, S. Pegge. To Mr. Deputy Nichols. Dear Sir, Whittington, March 30, 1796. A peck of March dust is said to be worth a King's ransom; — and to you (who know this house) I may say that I am enveloped in as much dust* as would ransom an Emperor. I shall be in Town at the end of May * The Books in the Library at Whittington had, probably, not been dusted for 20 or 30 years. lxxxiv LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. at the farthest, ami would wish to work double tides iu the History of Beauchief-Abbey while I stay ; for I shall fiutl it necessary to pass as long a Summer as I can here, where (by the new Rector's leave) I hope to continue till the approach of Winter. S. Pegge. Dear Sir, Whittington, April 12, 1796. I am really so much engaged (for I am not half through my Herculean labour) that i have not leisure to think of my late nearest Friend, so as to erect any memorial in the Gentleman's Magazine at present. I have written to Lord Leicester and to Mr. Top- ham by tiiis post, to request that I may be hung up, according to Law, at the Society of Antiquaries, in hopes of being honourably cut down, and receiving Christian Burial. The Director*, I trust, will appear to character when my Trial comes on. God send me a good deliverance ! What I write to you, I write to Mr. Gough also through you. Your obliged Friend, &c. S. Pegge. To George Allan, Esq. Darlington. Sir, Whittington, May 2, 1796. In the course of the last year my late Father (Rev. Dr. Pegge) among other Books made me a present of " The Northumberland Household Book;" which he told me (as I since find by his memoranda) was lent to you. I take the liberty of wishing to have it returned soon, directed to my Friend Mr. Nichols. I have heard my Father often speak of you, Sir, with much respect, and 1 shall always honour my Father's Friends. I am, &c. S. Pegge. Sir, Whittitigion, Mai/ 23, 1796. 1 thank you for the favour of your Letter, which was anticipated by a line from Mr. Nichols, advising me that " The Northumberland Household Book" * Mr. Gough was then Director of tlie Society of Antiquaries* e LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. IxXXV was safe in his hands. The honourable mention I hear of my late Father, almost every day, is very gratify- ing to me, though I know it is not undeserved, on his part. As to Mr. Brander's Print of my Father, I have a very few in London ; and one of the best of them shall be at your service. I cannot think the Print in the least like my Father; but I have a Painting* which is a very strong resemblance. Your very obedient humble servant, S. Pegge. To Mr. Nichols. Deaii Sir, Whittington, July 28, 1796. We left London on Monday the eleventh ; but did not make. Whittington till last Sunday the 24th inst. We passed part of Wednesday the 13th, and all the 14th and 15th, at Southwell, with the new Rector of Whittington, and had a very pleasurable visit. We next touched at Spital, and as we thought only for three or four days ; but were detained there by con- trary winds, which blew us into parties of company and venison. I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely, S. Pegge. Dear Sir, York, Sunday, Sept. 11, 1796. Where and when this will find you, whether in Urban or in Sylvan scenes, I know not : but the pur- port of it is to desire that you would send me (to Whittington) the last Impression of the Family Pedi- gree of Bourne. Whether you ever insert it in your Leicestershire or not, I wish to have it completed, as far as may be, from my own connexion with it; and because I know * This striking resemblance of my worthy old friend Dr. Pegge, which I have often had the agreeable opportunity of comparing with the Original when conversing with the good Doctor at Whittington, is now in the possession of his Grandson, Sir Christopher Pegge; by whose kind permission a faithful Engraving from it, admirahly Audinet, accompanies the present Publication. lxXXV'i LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. that every difficulty is doubled to every succeeding generation. The Historian of Leicestershire must have had repeated experience of this circumstance in his investigations. Yours, &c. S. Pegge. Dear Sir, Scotland yard, Feb. 20, 1797. I am now going seriously to work, to bring the Coins forward by auction. The whole collection amounts in number to between 1100 and 1200; but of what value the hammer must determine. S. Pegge. Dear Sir, June 10, 1797. Mr. Gough was so obliging as to mention hopes of seeing us at Enfield ; and I have been for several days on the point of writing to him a line of thanks, and to express the willingness of the spirit, and the weakness of the flesh ; for, alas ! I have got as much gout as will last me till we go into Derbyshire in the second week in July. In this situation it would be much to the honour of your humanity to come and pass an even- ing with us. I am sure to be found at home. S. P. Dear Sir, Scotland yard, June 18, 1797. I hope this will find you safely returned from your excursion, and disengaged, as I wish you to pass a long evening with me. Mr. Bovvyer Nichols would tell you that I am now at leisure to go on with " Beau- chief Abbey" for a little while ; but without your as- sistance, know not how. Send me word what even- ing you can best spare, and bring your Son with you, and let it be very speedily. I shall soon put an end to the Session, and this Printing -ment will be pro- rogued to the 5th of October, then to meet for dis- patch of business. S. Pegge. Dear Sir, December 7, 1797. As you are connected with the Representatives of Dr. Farmer, or the person who acts for them, I wish LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. IxXXVlI you would procure a receipt for a copy of Skelton, which was found in my Father's collection after his death, and which was evidently Dr. Farmer's property. As I hear that Dr. Farmer's Library is intended for sale, I should be glad that this book might be soon re- stored to the Executors ; and my original wish to re- turn it, may appear from a letter of mine to Dr. Farmer, dated so long ago as the 4th of February last, which has probably been found among his papers. I received no answer to it, which I imputed to his then bad state of health. Yours, &c. S. Pegge. Dear Sir, Harrowguie, Aug. 25, 1799. Our history, since I saw you, is briefly this. We left London on the 18th of July, and made a journey of three days to Spital, near Chesterfield. After resting there, for as many days, we set off for this place, which we found very full, and made our quarters good at the humblest house we could find ; but with the most comfortable accommodations that a very uncom- fortable place can afford ; and are reconciled to our situation. We dine (en masse) about 20 on the ave- rage, keep good hours, and are not pestered with gamblers, ladies-maids, or lap-dogs. In some houses they dine 120 people!!! The water of this place is a very strong snlphur, and I believe, is the most powerful of any in the kingdom. The most quiet of this sort of houses is much too tur- bulent for me; besides that it is difficult for one who cannot walk, or even saunter about, as others do, to fill up the chasms between meals, except by reading, which is scarcely practicable here. I find myself, however, tolerably habituated to noise and talk ; and as to the art of doing nothing. I have made myself per- fectly master of it. As a proof of it, I have been three weeks in writing this letter. If you ask me how I do ? I answer, I don't know at present. I have experienced much ww-valescence, and am told cow-valeseence will follow. S. Pegge. IxXXVlii LETTERS OF MR. S. PEGGE. Dear Sir, Monday, January 27, 1800. The Lady * mentioned in the enclosed Article is my Niece, who hopes to open the Ball in the List of Marriages in this Month! I send also an article for the Obituary f, the death of a Brother of my Wife, and whose death has long been expected. 1 am a lodger in my own first-floor, with some gout, winch will neither lead nor drive ; but 1 should be very happy to receive a charitable visit of chat in any evening that you can spare. I do not ask Mr. Bowyer Nichols, as I cannot encounter more than one person at a time. Your very sincere friend, S. Pegge. Dear Sir, March 17, 1800. Presuming that you are returned from Hinckley, and have nothing in the world to do, I hope you will give us your company in an evening very soon ; for at that time of the day I see nobody else. Let me hear by one of your Representatives in Parliament X on what evening I may expect you, that I may rectify my spirits accordingly. Adieu ! S. Pegge. * Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. John Bourne, of Spital, was married, Jan. 1, 1800, to Robert Jennings, Esq. of Hull, f Mr. John Belt, of York, Surgeon, died Jan. 23, 1800. X So he humourously styled the Printer's Errand Boys. $o0pttium 3Bomint ftcsis; OR, THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. INTRODUCTION. I WAS led into the following investiga- tion from a natural and kind of instinctive curiosity, and a desire of knowing what was the antient state of the Court to which I have the honour, by the favour of his Grace William the late Duke of Devonshire, to compose a part. It is obvious to suppose that so large a body must have undergone various revolutions, and have borne very different complexions according to times and circum- stances : and having occasion to consult some MSS. in the Lord Chamberlain's Office, by his Lordship's permission, upon a matter of no consequence to relate, I B 2 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. thought I discerned, in the course of my search, that materials were to be found suf- ficient to furnish out a detail. Having free access to the use of a large Library, and by the favour of many friends, to whom I take this opportunity of testifying my obligations, I was enabled to trace back the state of the Court in darker ages, though but by a glim- mering light. Notwithstanding ample revenues have al- ways been provided for support of the dig- nity and splendour of the Royal House of the Kings of England, equal, if not perhaps superior, to those of any Court in Europe, yet we shall find they have varied very much in different Reigns, as times and circum- stances have required ; though not always for laudable reasons. Some of our Kings have been so profuse, that, either from their extensive liberality, or more frequently worse inducements, they have thereby lessened the estates of the Crown so very much, that re- trenchments, either in the number or ex- pence of their Households (and sometimes both) have become the necessary conse- INTRODUCTION. 6 quence. Others * have found the Crown Revenues so much contracted at their Ac- cession, that they have been obliged to de- mand resumptions of grants made by their immediate Predecessor, in order to enable themselves to support the Regal dignity with a proper degree of splendour. Others f , again, from a wanton spirit of prodigality, have rendered it necessarv for them to resume even their own grants ; a measure equally scandalous to the character of the Prince, as derogatory to the honour of the Crown. As to resumptions, several of each sort will be seen in the following sheets, ante- cedent to the Reformation ; and since that period there have been repeated occasions for reductions (ex necessitate rei) in the tumultuous reigns of Charles the First, Charles the Second, and James the Second. When we speak of the superior magnifi- cence of our own Court, we may add, that no other makes so liberal appointments to its Officers, could we know the Establishments of the rest. * Henry II. t William Rufus. b2 4 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. In France they figure away with thousands of livres per annum; but, when these come to be liquidated into pounds sterling, the idea is lost, and the appointment of a Lord of the Bed-chamber sinks down into a salary not superior to our Gentlemen Ushers. In Poland the Officers of the State and Household have no salaries nor fees*; but are content with the honour, unless the King chose to reward them with a Starostie, a kind of Fiefs inherent in the Crown for this pur- pose. At the Court of Turin, the salaries of the Officers of the Court are extremely small, and every way inadequate to their rank. Fru- gality and oeconomy, exercised in a Royal manner, are the characteristics of that Court ; insomuch as that, if the Officers of State had not an income arising from their patrimony, their salaries would not afford them food and raiment f . * See Letters concerning the present state of Poland, printed for T. Payne, 1773, Letter iii. p. 57. f Lord Corke's Letters from Italy, published 177% p. 52. INTRODUCTION. 5 The Emperor of Germany has one very singular prerogative, very inconvenient to the inhabitants of Vienna, that of taking to himself the first floor of everv house in the City (a few privileged places excepted) for the use of the Officers of his Court and Army ; so that, on this accr unt, says my Au- thor *, " Princes, Ambass^ iors, and Nobles, usually inhabit the secon i stories ; and the third, fourth, and even fifth floors (the houses being large and high) are well fitted up for the reception of opulent and noble families. " The houses being so large, a single floor suffices for most of the principal and largest families in the City. For particulars relative to the Court of Denmark, it may be sufficient to refer to the account given by Lord Molesworth, who re- sided several years as Envoy Extraordinary from King William III. * Dr. Burney, in his Present State of Munich, in Germany, vol. I. pp. 205, 295. THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. WILLIAM I. After that great Revolution called The Conquest, it is to be supposed that a com- petent part, and that no inconsiderable one, was allotted for the support of the Dignity of the King's House. How large the esta- blishment of the Household was, it would be very difficult to ascertain at this distance of time ; but we know that the Conquerors Revenues were very great, and that, besides the public branch of it for the defence of the Kingdom against invasions from abroad, there must have been an ample residue to maintain the Court in dignity and magnifi- cence at home. William, as soon as he was seated on his new Throne, was careful to make a general and accurate Survey of the whole kingdom, notwithstanding there had been a Survey taken within less than 200 years by King Alfred, then remaining at Win- chester.* But William's jealous caution did * Called Codex Wintoniensis. See Sir John Spelman's Life of Alfred. WILLIAM I. ?iot permit him to trust to this. He saw the necessity there was to make the most of things; and, looking on money as a necessary means of maintaining and increasing power, he accumulated as much as he could, though rather, perhaps, from an ambitious than a covetous motive ; at least his avarice was subservient to his ambition; and he laid up wealth in his coffers, as he did arms in his magazines, to be drawn out on proper occa- sions, for the defence and enlargement of his dominions*. In William's Survey, which we call Domes- day Book, particular attention was first paid to the King's right ; and the Terra Regis (as it was called), which consisted of such lands as either had belonged to the Crown, or to the King individually, was placed first ; and, upon the whole, 1422 f manors, or lordships, were appropriated to the Crown ; besides lands and farms, and besides quit- rents paid out of other subordinate manors. Whether William assumed to himself and the * Lord Lyttelton's Life of Henry II. vol. i. p. 74 ; edit. 8vo. f Domesday Book. 8 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Crown more than he ought, is hard to say; but it is to be supposed he was not very sparing or delicate. The Terra Regis is said to have consisted of such lands as Ed- ward the Confessor was found to have been possessed of, the alienation of which was held impious ; to which some think William added the forfeited estates of those who opposed him at the decisive battle of Hastings * ; and likewise the lands of such Barons, and others, who afterwards forsook him. These advan- tages he might, perhaps, be glad to take, as they enabled him better to reward his Nor- man friends and followers, who were nume- rous; and furnished him likewise with a plea to enrich himself, by annexing part of such lands to the Crown, and distributing the rest, with a reservation of quit-rents and ser- vices. We may add to these, many appa- rently unjustifiable means which the Con- queror used to enrich himself, though by the greatness of the antient Crown-estate, and the feudal profits to which he was legally entitled, he was already one of the richest * Rapin. WILLIAM I. 9 Monarchs in Europe. The Saxon Chronicle says, he omitted no opportunity of extorting money from his subjects upon the slightest pretext, and speaks of it as a thing of course*. It must be owned, however, (says Lord Lyt- telton) that, if his avarice was insatiably and unjustly rapacious, it was not meanly parsimonious, nor of that sordid kind which brings on a Prince dishonour and contempt. He supported the dignity of the Crown with a decent magnificence; and, though he never was lavish, he was sometimes liberal \. Thus did the Conqueror leave an ample and splendid revenue to his Successor, suf- ficient to maintain his Court in dignity and magnificence, and adequate to every expence both foreign and domestic. It is, at this day, almost impossible to discover the nature * " Pro more suo, extorsit multum pecuniae suis sub- ditis ubicunque haberet aliquem pretextum, sive jure sive aliter." Chron. Sax. p. 187. In another place the writer says, he extorted money, " partim juste, maxima vero ex parte injuste, rebus parum urgen- tibus." p. 191. t Lord Lyttel ton's Henry II. vol. i. p. 74. 10 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. and magnitude of William's Household ; but most probably, as it was numerous, it was likewise magnificent; though, perhaps, com- posed of Officers and Offices very different from what have been adopted in succeeding Reigns. We read of Treasurers, for such a King must have: and in the next Reign mention is made of Robert Fitz-Hamon, Gentle- man of the Bed-chamber*, who conquered Wales, while William Rufus was engaged in a war with Scotland, anno 1091 ; and we afterwards read of other Officers similar to what we have at present, though the * Gentleman of the Bed-chamber means what we now call a Lord of the Bed-chamber ; which last is a title of a late introduction. When the Gentleman was the superior, the next subordinate Officer was the Groom; which last title continues to this day. Had the first been originally called Lords, the latter would probably have been styled the Gentleman. William of Malmsbury speaks of the Cubicularius in that ridi- culous instance of William Rufus's absurd profusion with respect to the price of a pair of hose ; by whom, I should suppose, he means an inferior Officer of the Bed-chamber, by the rough language he uses to him ; no less than calling him a son of a whore.— Fill, ait, meretricis. WILLIAM I. 11 rudeness of the times rendered most of the offices now in being unnecessary, which seem to have been added from time to time, as luxury and refined necessity required, and in conformity to the pride and ostentatious spirit of the Prince who erected them. It is probable, however, that what was wanting in parade, was equalled by an ex- pence in hospitality, which must, of course, employ a great many Domestics of different kinds in their several departments, to which we may suppose were added many of a Military nature, which the situation of the Conqueror rendered necessary in his new dominion. There being but few Placemen in those times, the Court was chiefly composed of Ecclesiastics, Barons, Knights, and other Military Gentlemen, led by the hopes of preferment or promotion ; and Lord Lyttel- ton says, William was always liberal to his Soldiers and to the Church *. The Barons were, at this time of day, the chief Council of the Realm ; they held their Baronies of the King, for which they were perpetually doing homage; and on these accounts the Court * Life of Henry II. vol. i. p. 74. 12 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. must have been crowded, — at least much fre- quented. As to the internal part of the Court, I mean the Attendants on the Royal per- son, we know but very little. King Alfred, however, who lived 200 years before the Conquest, during his attention to the Police of his Kingdom in general, did not forget the internal good government of his House- hold ; for we learn from Ingulphus f that he divided his Attendants into three classes, who were appointed to wait by turns, monthly. Whether this mode was continued by his * Dividens Familiam in tres Turmas, singulis Tur- mis singulos Principes imposuit ; et unusquisque Prin- ceps cum sua Turma per unum mensem in Regis Mi- nisterio Palatium conservavit. Uno mense completo, exiens ad proprios agros cum sua Turma, propriis negotiis per duorum mensium spatium intendebat; et interim secundus Princeps per unum mensem, et tertius Princeps per alium mensem post ilium in Regis Palatio ministrabat : ut postea propriis utilitatibus per duos menses quaglibet Turma vacaret. Hac revolu- tione Servorum suorum, totiusque families suae rota- tione, usus est omni tempore vita suce. Ingulph. Hist. p. 870. WILLIAM I. 13 Successors, I do not learn. William might perhaps reject it as being Saxon, and adopt a plan similar to the French Court, in com- pliment to his Norman adherents. This rou- tine of waiting, not much unlike the present mode, rendered the service of Alfred's at- tendants both oeconomical, and agreeable to themselves. Sir John Spelman, in his Life of King Alfred, supposes that the Officers who are now called Quarter-waiters are, from their title, a relique of this mode of waiting established by Alfred. But this (with deference to the Gentlemen of that Corps) seems to be going too far, and does not agree with Ingulphus, from whom Sir John takes his account ; who says, that the Officers of King Alfred's Household were divided into three classes, and that each class waited alternately monthly, not quarterly; so that no one class waited two consecutive months, and each would, of course, wait four months in the year, with an interval of two months between each wait. It is true, they would renew their waiting once in a quarter of course, from the number of classes, but 14 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. no part of them attended for a quarter toge- ther ; and I apprehend the Quarter-waiters received their name because they waited a quarter of a year at a time by turns, as their superiors, the Daily-waiters, waited daily by turns. Alfred's Household most resembled the Gentlemen Pensioners in the mode of at- tendance, who, to this day, wait in classes quarterly. I shall now give Sir John Spelman's ac- count at large (as I have Ingulphus's), where he gives a supposed, and not impro- bable, reason for this mode of attendance. " He [Alfred] having, it seems, observed the course that Solomon took in preparing timber at Lebanon for the Temple, where thirty thousand, assigned to the work, went by ten thousand at a time, wrought there a month, and then returning, stayed two months at home, until their turn in the fourth month came about again* — he, apply- ing this to his own occasions, ordained the like course in his attendance, making a tri- plicate thereof, insomuch that he had a * Ingulph. ubi supra, WLLLIAM I. 15 three-fold shift of all Domestic Officers ; each of which were, by themselves, under the command of a several Major-domo *, or Master of the Household, who, coming with his servants under his charge, to wait at Court, stayed there a month, and then re- turning home, were supplied by the second ternary, and they again by the third, until the course coming about, the first of them (after two months recess at home) did, with the quarter-^, renew their monthly service at the Court. 1 should conjecture (continues he) that the King, for his more honourable attendance, took this course in point of Royalty and State, there being (as it then stood with the State) very few men of qua- lity fit to stand before a King, who, by their fortunes or dependency, were not other- where besides engaged ; neither was there, in those times, any great assurance to be had of any man, unless he were one of such con- dition, whose service, when the King was * Princeps. Ingulphus, in eod. t This, I suppose, led Sir John into the above sup- position about the Quarter- Waiters. 16 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. tain to use one month in the quarter, it was necessary for the common -wealth that he should remit them the other two months unto their own occasions. Neither used he this course with some of his Officers only (as there are those who understand it to have been a course taken only with those of his Guard), but with all his whole attendance : neither used he it for a time only, but for his whole life ; and I little doubt but that the use at Court, at this day, of Officers, Quarter ■- ivaiters, had the first beginning even from this invention of the King *:" The Translator of this Life of Alfred into Latin, Dr. Obadiah Walker, has taken a little latitude in the last sentence of this pas- sage, and has wandered totally from the mark. His words are, a Neque multum du- bito quin Dapiferi hodierni (quos Quarter- waiters appellamus) qui per singulos anni quadrantes, Rcgi ad mensam ministrant, ab hoc Regis instituto, manarint." Now it is pretty certain that the Quarter- waiters are * Spelman's Life of Alfred, edit. Hearne, p. 198. WILLIAM I. 17 not Officers at all connected, by their posty with the King's table, they being a se- condary degree of Gentlemen Ushers, called in a grant of Fees temp. Car. I. (in Rymer's Fcedera) Ante-Ambulones. The Doctor seems, by the word Dapiferi, to have con- founded them with the Sewers; which is strengthened by the following words, " qui ad mensam ministrant." It is allowed that King Alfred enlarged his Household very much ; but, what was the nature and office of the individuals of it, we shall probably never be able to gather. We may, however, fairly suppose his Retinue in number, and his Court in splendour, was far superior to those of any of his Predecessors. Of the Conqueror s Court we know still less, neither do I learn that King Alfred's establishment was followed by his immediate successors ; but it is reasonable to suppose that the Court, as well as the Kingdom^ would be new-modelled, and assume a dif- ferent face, upon so great a revolution as that of the Conquest. 18 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. WILLIAM RUFUS. Notwithstanding the fair inheritance left by the Conqueror, equal to the Regal Dignity, and the exigences of the State, William Rufus, the successor, not only dis- sipated the great treasure of which he was possessed at the demise of his Father, but ran into so extravagant a profusion of ex- pence, that he was at last obliged to apply to resources, unwarrantable in themselves, and derogatory to his Crown and Dignity. The late King's treasures were said to amount to 60,000/. ; but, according to Henry of Hunt- ingdon *, who lived very near the time, to 60,000 pound weight of silver, exclusive of gold, jewels, plate, and robes ; and " the silver money alone (says Lord Lyttelton -f), * Erant autem in Thesauro 60 Mille Librae Argenti. Lib. vi. t Introduction to the Life of Henry II. The Reader may see his Lordship's grounds of computation in a long note on this passage. The Saxon Chronicle says, the King's Treasures were difficiks numeratu, p. 192. WILLIAM RUFUS. 19 according to the best computation I am able to make, was equivalent at least to nine hun- dred thousand pounds of our money at pre- sent:" but this would not suffice; for the Crown-lands, which were held so sacred by his ancestors, were alienated ; and he was at last compelled, as a dernier resort, to resume his own grants, a practice now used for the first (but not the last) time, and a measure equally scandalous and iniquitous. Rufus's ordinary revenues did not probably exceed those of his Father ; but, as he ran into more needless and wanton expences, he was necessitated to make frequent demands upon his people. Considering the influence of artful Church- men, in those times of Papal tyranny, over weak Princes, it is not to be wondered that Rufus should be easily prevailed upon by Ranulphus, Bishop of Durham *, who was Master both of his Councils and his Con- science, to resume his own grants, though * Lord Lyttelton calling him Ralph Flambard, a Norman. Life of Henry II. vol. i. p. 87, where hifi character may be seen at large- c 2 20 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. made for valuable considerations ; or to take any measure, how ever unwarrantable and un- precedented — " Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum." Amongst other acts of rapacity, made in a manner necessary by his former profusion, he kept the See of Canterbury vacant four years (upon the death of Lanfranc), that he might take the profits to his own use ; nay, he did the same by the Bishoprick of Lincoln, and all others that became void in his Reign ; and at the time of his death he had in his hands the Sees of Canterbury, Winchester, Salisbury, twelve * rich Abbeys, besides many other Benefices of less considera- tion f ; so little regard has ever been paid to things sacred by Arbitrary Princes (as our Kings were at that time) to gratify ei- ther their necessities or their passions. But this was not the worst part of the story ; for, not satisfied with the First-fruits, to which he was entitled, — after he had seized the vacant Benefices, and pillaged them of every thing * The Saxon Chronicle says but Eleven, t Matthew Paris, WILLIAM RUFUS. 21 valuable (even to the very Shrines), he sold them publicly to the best bidder, without re- gard to merit or capacity *. After having been led, by the nature of the subject, to speak thus freely of this King's rapacitv, it is but justice to mention an instance of his generosity. It is related that, two Monks striving to outbid each other for a rich Abbey, the King perceived a third standing by, who did not bid any thing; to whom the King addressing himself, asked " how much he would give ?" The Monk replied, " he had no money, and, if he had, his conscience would not suffer him to lay it out in that manner :■' upon which the King swore his usual oath f " that he best deserved it, and should have it for nothing J." Though William was thus continually filling his coffers with these dishonourable and sacrilegious spoils, yet was he avaricious * Saxon Chronicle. f " Per Vultum di Lucca." See Lord Lyttelton's note, vol. i. p. 424, octavo. I have seen a private letter from his Lordship in defence of his opinion. X Higden* 22 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. without frugality, covetous and prodigal at the same time ; always in want, and de\ smg new ways to raise money, however mean and despicable. I cannot omit one artful and almost ludicrous method which Rufus prac- tised to raise money, in the war with his bro- ther Robert, who had engaged the French in his interest. " Under pretence (says M. Rapin, from Simeon Dunelmensis, Mat- thew Paris, &c.) that there was occasion for supplies of men, William Rufus [then in Normandy] sent orders into England, to raise, with all possible speed, 20,000 men. In raising this army, such were purposely taken for soldiers who were well to pass, or to whom it was very inconvenient to leave their families. When these levies were going to embark, the King's Treasurer told them, by his order, " that thev might every man return home, upon payment of ten shil- lings each." This news was so acceptable to the soldiers, listed thus against their wills, that there was not one but who was glad to be dismissed at so easy a rate. By this means William raised the sum of 10,000/, WILLIAM RUFUS. 23 with which he hrihed the French to retire. Various other instances of extortion and ra- pacity (though not attended with so much ingenuity as this) might be adduced from the history of this Reign, recorded by con- temporary writers ; hut enough has been mentioned to convince us that but little order or decorum is to be expected within the walls of the Court of so unprincipled a King. On the contrary, indeed, all writers agree * in their accounts of the dissolute manners of his Household and Adherents, which called forth rigid edicts in the next Reign, for the suppression of vices which had grown too flagrant to be removed by reprobation alone. The crimes laid to the charge of his retinue were, some of them, of the most serious na- ture, and required an uncommon exertion of * " Ipse namque, et qui ei famulabantur (says Matthew Paris) omnia rapiebant, omnia conterebant, et subvertebant. Adulteria violenter, et impune com- mittebant, quicquid fraudis et nequitiee antea non erat, his temporibus pullulavit." Henry of Hunting- don uses nearly the same, but rather stronger, expres- 24 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. severity; as we shall see presently. titudine, magnitudine, auro, argento, gemmis, Vesti- bus, omnimoda dapsilitate. Henry of Huntingdon, Lib. viii. 44 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. drank wine out of gilded horns, and sang songs when they became inebriated with their liquor *. This custom of strewing the floor, in those days, was a part of the luxury of the times; and Becket, when he was Chan- cellor, in the next Reign, according to a con- temporary Author f, ordered his hall to be strewed every day, in the winter with fresh straw or hay, and in summer with rushes, or green leaves, fresh gathered ; and this reason is given for it, that such Knights as the benches could not contain might sit on the floor without dirtying their fine cloaths. But even this rustic simplicity was mixed with great magnificence in gold and silver plate J. This custom of strewing the rooms extended to the apartments of the Kings themselves in those days; for in the time of Edward I. "Willielmus filius Willielmi de Aylesbury tenet tres virgatas terrse . . . per serjeantiam inveniendi stramen ad straminandam came- * Lord Lyttelton, from John of Salisbury, t Fitzstephen. X Idem. Vide Lord Lyttelton's Life of Henry II, vol. iii. p. 483. STEPHEN. 45 ram Domini Regis in Hyeme, et in JE state Herbam ad juncandam* cameram suamf." It may be observed, further, that there is a relique of this custom still subsisting ; for at Coronations the ground is strewed with flowers by a person who is upon the esta- blishment, called the Ilerb-strewer, with an annual salary. But the commotions of this Reign even put a stop to these meetings of the Court and Council J, and all Royal magnificence was broken down and defaced. Had it not been for the turbulency of the times, Stephen might doubtless have kept a very large House- hold, and a splendid Court ; for, added to the wealth he inherited with the Crown from his Predecessor, he had large revenues, derived from different sources ; viz. the demesnes of the Crown, escheats, feudal profits from the demesnes of others, fines, aids, and several others; but the exigency of his affairs, and * Juncare is properly, to strew with rushes. t Blount's Jocular Tenures. X Jam quippe Curioe solennes, et ornatus Regii Schematis prorsus evanuerant. Annals of Waverly. 46 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. the situation to which he was reduced with his Barons, obliged him to give largely, and at last to resume what he had before giver:, the price of the dissembled affection of his Courtiers. Stephen had liberality, and loved splen- dour; so that, had he lived in times more fa- vourable to it, he would, probably, have shone with great lustre in his Court and House- hold, if we may take the Court which attended him in his first year, and the magnificence there exhibited, for a specimen. King Stephen, being a Foreigner, and an Usurper, might not choose to ask JLids of the people of England, and it does not appear that he did. He had two sons, Eustace and William, both of whom lived to be married, and no doubt were Knights, which, accord- ing to the complexion of the times, every person of the least consequence was, though these Princes do not appear to have received that honour in England. King Stephen was unpopular; and being embroiled in do- mestic wars with his Cousin the Empress Maud, made no demands of aids of this sort STEfHfcK. 47 of which we are speaking. His two elder Sons died in his life-time; and his third, William, was by Henry II. restored to his titles of Earl of Bolleigne, Surrey, and Mor- taine ; and dying without issue, was succeeded by his sister Mary, who, after having been Abbess of Ramsey, was married to the se- cond son of Theodoric, Earl of Flanders, who, in her right, was Earl of Bolleigne. King Stephen, during the internal dis- quietudes in the Kingdom, was taken pri- soner by Maud, the Empress, and after- wards released at the suit of his Son Eustace. It is not said that any sum of money was paid on the occasion, and indeed it will admit of a question whether the Norman aid, allowed for ransom of the King's Person if taken prisoner, would extend to such a domestic war. The Kingdom was divided ; and the Title to the Crown suspended, and in such an unquiet hour, it was difficult for the Na- tion at large to refuse or comply. 48 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, HENRY II. (Plantagenet.) Henry at his Accession found himself so contracted in his Royal Revenues, by the imprudence of his immediate Predecessor, Stephen, that some spirited measures became necessary, to enable him to support his dig- nity equal to the Sovereign of a great King- dom, and his own wishes. Henry soon saw that the resumption of several grants made by Stephen was abso- lutely necessary; and these having been con- ferred on great and powerful men, the mea- sure must be conducted with firmness and delicacy. In a Treaty made at Winchester, after the close of the Civil Commotions in the late Reign, after Stephen had contented himself that Henry, then Duke of Nor- mandy, should assume the Rights and Power of a King, reserving to himself only the Image of the Royal Dignity, it was sti- pulated, inter alia, by a separate and secret article, that the King (Stephen) " should resume what had been alienated to the No- * Lord Lyttelton. HENRY II. 49 bles, or usurped by them, of the Royal De- mesne # ." This article was limited to what- ever lands or possessions had belonged to the Crown at the death of King Henry I. ; all which were to be restored, except those that Stephen had granted to William his Son, or had bestowed on the Church. Among these resumable gifts were some made by Matilda ; for she too, acting as Sovereign, had followed Stephen's example, in giving away certain parts of the Estate of the Crown, to reward her adherents. Add to these, much that had been usurped by the Barons of both Parties, without any warrant, by the licence of the times, on unjustifiable pretences*. No article of the Treaty of Winchester was more necessary to be ful- filled than a resumption of all these aliena- tions, which had been neglected by Stephen, indigent as he was ; for, had this not been now executed, Henry would have been little better than Stephen, a Sovereign without a Royal Revenue — "Rex et preterea nihil." — His power would soon have vanished; and the * Lord Lyttelton. E 50 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Barons, having usurped the Crown Lands, would very soon have contended for the So- vereign Power : and had not Henry exerted the spirit and conduct which he soon shewed, it is more than probable the Government of the Kingdom at this period had sunk into an Aristocracy. Henry, therefore, as soon as he was well and fully confirmed on the Throne, set about the execution of this secret article of the Treaty of Winchester, relating to the alienated lands, which Stephen had neglected. The necessity of this measure, however ar- duous and disagreeable in itself, appeared in the most glaring colours to Henry ; for Stephen's extravagance, and the insatiable demands of his faction, had induced him to alienate so much of the ancient Demesne of the Crown, that the remaining Estate was not (as has been said) sufficient to maintain the Royal Dignity. Royal Cities, and Forts of great consequence, had been also granted away, which could not be suffered to con- tinue in the hands of the Nobles, without endangering the peace of the Kingdom. Policy and Law concurred in demanding these concessions back again. The Antient De- HENRY II. 51 mesne of the Crown was held so very sacred, and so inalienable, that no length of time could give a right of prescription to any other possessors, even by virtue of grants from the Crown, against the claim of succeeding Princes *. William Rufus made grants, and revoked them at pleasure, to supply his ex- travagance and ridiculous humour. This was base and unmanly. Henry's resumptions nei- ther impeached his generosity nor his justice. The grants he reclaimed were such as sound policy and the exigencies of the State de- manded, being made by a weak Prince in embarrassed situations ; as they were all of no earlier date than the Reign of King Ste- phen, and had not been transmitted down through several generations. Foreseeing, however, that this step would raise much discontent in those who were to be affected by it, who were numerous and powerful, Henry was cautious not to act without a legal sanction, and the approbation of his Council. He therefore summoned a Parliament, wherein almost all his Nobles were present ; and hav- ing properly laid before them the wants of * Lord Lyttelton. E 2 52 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. the Crown, the losses it had suffered, the illegality of the grants, and the urgent ne- cessity of a speedy resumption ; obtained their concurrence to it, and proceeded to put it into immediate execution. The vigour of his government was such, that he met with less opposition than he had reason to expect ; very near all that had been granted to Lay- men, or usurped by them, from the Royal Demesne, was surrendered to him without bloodshed, after a little delay, and some in- effectual marks of reluctance in a few of the greatest Barons*. The cause assigned for these resumptions was not a defect in the title of the grantor, nor any unworthiness in the grantee, but the apparent and indis- pensable necessity of recovering the just and inseparable Rights of the Crown. No dis- tinction was made between the grants of Ste- phen and Matilda ; for that would have car- ried an appearance of Henry's acting from motives, not of Royal economy and public expediency, but of party revenge ; and by this equal and impartial proceeding, he left the adherents of Stephen no reason to com- * Lord Lvttehon HENRY II. 53 plain. In the course of this business, how- ever, Henry was once very near losing his life ; for Roger de Mortimer would not sub- mit, which obliged Henry, incensed by his obstinacy, to lead an army against him, with which he assaulted, among others, the castle of Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, which was defended by Mortimer himself. Henry com- manded in person, and exposed himself to so much danger, that he would have been infallibly slain, if a faithful vassal (Hubert de St. Clare *) who stood by his side, had not preferred the King's life to his own ; for, seeing an arrow aimed at Henry by one of Mortimer's archers, he stepped before him, and received it in his own breast. The wound proved mortal, and he expired in Henry's arms ; recommending his daughter, an only child, and an infant, to the care of that Prince *(*. It is hard to say which deserves the most admiration (continues my Noble * Constable or Governor of Colchester Castle. f The daughter was educated by Henry with all the affection he owed to the memory of her father, and was afterwards married to a Nobleman of great distinction. 54 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Author*) a subject who died to save his King, or a King whose personal virtues could render his safety so dear to a subject whom he had not obliged by any extraordi- nary favours y. Henry, now firmly seated on his Throne, possessed of an ample Royal Revenue, con- firmed the Charter of his Grandfather, Henry I; but, not content only to restore good Laws, he enforced a due execution of them. This Reign is so pregnant with in- teresting events, and shining transactions of a public nature, that it is no wonder His- torians are silent as to lesser matters, such as the internal direction of his Court ; but there is, I think, little question to be made but that it was magnificent ; and as England became in his Reign one of the most power- * Lord Lyttelton. t A very similar circumstance happened in our times in Poland. The King, anno 1771, being shot at with arrows by the Regicides, H. Butzau, a Hussar, interposed, and received the arrows in his own breast, of which wounds he died. The King erected a monu- ment (1773) to his memory. See the public prints of the years 1771 and 1773. HENRY II. 55 ful States in Europe, one would infer that his Court was likewise equal (at least) to any- other in dignity and splendour. He enter- tained at one time, in his Palace at West- minster, the several Ambassadors of Manuel, Emperor of Constantinople ; of Frederic, Emperor of the Romans ; of William, Arch- bishop of Triers ; of the Duke of Saxony ; and of Philip, Earl of Flanders : an uncom- mon resort in these days, who, doubtless, were attracted by the power of the King, and both received from, and added, lustre to the brilliancy and magnificence of his Court*. Lord Lyttelton, after giving an account of his person and temper, speaking of his munificence, says, he assigned the tenth part of the Provisions of his Household to be con- stantly given in daily alms to the poor; which one must imagine to have been a very consi- derable donation, considering the hospitable manner of living in those days. " His own table (continues his Lordship) was frugal, his diet plain, and in his dress he affected the * Speed, p. 519. 56 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. utmost simplicity, disliking all ornaments which might encumber him in his exercise, or shew an effeminate regard to his person. " He introduced the Angevin fashion of wear- ing short cloaks or mantles (contrary to the mode that prevailed in William Rufus's Reign), which he himself had worn from his childhood, and from which he obtained the sobriquet, or nick -name, of Court- Mantle *. In this he would soon be followed by his Court, and the People ; for it is every day seen how fast the fashions of the Great descend into the remotest parts of the King- dom. Lord Lyttelton, however, observes, that the long garments introduced temp. Will. Rufus, were not wholly laid aside ; so that Henry's fashion did not prevail univer- sally f. The use of silk made by silk- worms (the Bomhycina) was brought hither from Sicily about this time ; there was also a * i.e. Short Mantle. — "Ab Infantia vocabatur Hen- ricus Curtmantelly nam iste primus omnium curta man- tella ab Andegavia (Anjou) in Angliam transvexit.^ Brompton, p. 1150. f Vide note to vol. iii. octavo. HENRY II. 57 costly stuff at this day in great request here, called in Latin Aurifrisium. What it was called in English, Mr. Camden declares him- self ignorant * ; but supposes it not to mean Embroidery, although, by other testimonies, that was much worn by the Nobility, and was termed in Latin Opera Phrigia, and the corruption seems very easy and allowable. " Whatever it was," says he, " it was much desired by the Popes, and highly esteemed in Italy." Hitherto I have not been able to learn any thing concerning Henry's Household, or the internal disposition of his Family. He ap- pears himself to have lived in a great degree of familiarity with his Courtiers, whom he honoured with his intimacy ; and would fre- quently unbend, and lay aside the King, and was fond of the desipere in loco. But " his good humour and jocularity," says Lord Lyt- telton, " seems to have been sometimes too playful in the eye of the public ; and to have carried him into things that were infra * Camden's Remains, p. 194. 58 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. dignitatem # ." In a note on this passage, his Lordship gives a pleasant story, which I shall relate, to relieve the Reader, and cer- tainly cannot do it better than in his Lord- ship's own words, from Fitz-Stephen's Life of Archbishop Becket. " As the King and Becket, his Chancellor f , were riding to- gether through the streets of London, in cold and stormy weather, the King saw, coming towards them, a poor old man, in a thin coat, worn to tatters. Would it not be a great charity (said he to the Chancellor) to give this naked wretch, who is so needy and infirm, a good warm cloak ? Certainly, an- swered that Minister ; and you do the duty of a King, in turning your eyes and thoughts to such objects. While they were thus talking, the man came near ; the King asked him if he wished to have a good cloak ? and, turn- ing to the Chancellor, said, — You shall have the merit of this good deed of charity ; then suddenly laying hold on a fine new scarlet cloak, lined with fur, which Becket had on. * Life of Henry II. vol. iii. p. 40. f He was not then Archbishop. HENRY II. 59 he tried to pull it from him, and, after some struggle, in which they had both like to have fallen from their horses, prevailed. The poor man had the cloak, and the Courtiers laughed, like good Courtiers, at the pleasantry of the King*." King Henry II. in the early part of his life, was in a very doubtful situation with re- gard to his accession to the Crown of Eng- land, which depended upon the success of his Mother, the Empress, against the Usurper, King Stephen. As soon, however, as he at- tained his sixteenth year, A. D. 1 149, he came over into England ; and at Carlisle, where his Great Uncle David, King of Scots, then lay, was by him made a Knight, among several others of equal age, at the feast of Pentecost -j*, and for which no Aid could be demanded. His issue, which is all that concerns the matter before us, consisted of four Sons : Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John ; and three Daughters, Maud, Alianor, and Joan. * Life of Henry II. vol. iii. p. 311. t Gervas. Dorob. inter Decern Scriptores, col. 1366. 60 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. It is difficult, in a Reign where the sub- jects were so loaded with taxations of every kind, and so generally and indiscriminately imposed, to separate any particular charge from the aggregate. Henry was a Prince that would not forego his rights and privi- leges ; and, as his Children were all natives of England, would doubtless avail himself of such laws and indulgences as he found established, and as would operate in his favour on their account. It does not appear, upon the face of common history, that any Aid was paid for the Knighthood of his eldest Son, though I have not the least doubt but that it was comprehended in some of those numerous subsidies, tallages, &c. which he levied, from time to time, on his sub- jects, for his transfretations (to use a Monk- ish word) into foreign parts. There is some ground for the surmise that the charge might be enveloped in some of those exactions ; for, though there was a national contribution or Aid demanded for the marriage of one of his daughters, yet it does not transpire but in a general Inquisition for the purpose of dis- HENRY II. 61 covering what monies had been received, in every County, by the Sheriffs, &c. This was effected by Itinerant Justices, who were dis- patched over the whole Kingdom ; and, among other articles contained in their ge- neral commission, they were directed to in- quire — " concerning the Aid to marry the King's Daughter, what was received in every hundred, in every township, and of every man, and who received it*." This took place in the year 11 70, in the sixteenth year of the King's Reign. With regard to this King's transfretations, as I have called them, he was not contented with mere feudal contributions in lieu of per- sonal service ; but, upon a rupture with France, respecting settlements upon an in- tended marriage between two Sons of Henry (Henry, the then eldest, and Richard, the then second Son) with two Daughters of France; the King commanded all his Tenants in capite, Earls, Barons, and Knights, to at- tend him in person, properly prepared with * From Brady's History, p. 309, who cites Gervas. Dorob. col. 1410. 62 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. horse and arms, who were to serve a whole year in Normandy at their own charge *. To conclude all I have to observe upon the subject of exactions towards the King's ex- pences in foreign wars, when he passed outre-mer ; I can but remark one, which fell not a little heavy on the subject, imputable indeed to the religious frenzy of the times, which was occasioned by a joint resolution of Henry of England and Philip of France to go to the relief of Jerusalem, in what is known by the name of the Holy War. These levies were made in the most oppressive manner ; every one who did not go in per- son being taxed to the extent of his pro- perty real and personal ; and this was not called an Aid, a Subsidy, or a Tallage, but (forsooth !) an Alms f . It ought not to be forgotten that those who did go, whether Clerk orLaym an, were to have a free pardon of all sins repented of; and their securities were God, St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Pope J. * Brady, 330; A. D. 1177. f Consult Brady, who gives authorities, p. 344. t Ibid. 63 RICHARD I. The following Reign is too full of the business of the Holy War, with which Richard was. above all men, most infatuated, to afford much matter for our purpose. Henry had, by the good government and di- rection of his revenues, left behind him great treasures ; but these, or ten times as much, would not answer the purpose of his Suc- cessor, who ransacked every corner of his Kingdom for money to carry on this work of zeal, which had seized all Christendom, whereby Richard, on the Throne of a great and opulent Kingdom, thought he saw so fair a prospect of reaping honour and renown. Henry left in his treasury at Winchester more than nine hundred thousand pounds *, besides jewels, and other valuable things f ; but this would go but a very little way to- wards recovering Jerusalem, which had been * " Numero et Pondere." Brompton. t " Prater Utensilia, et Jocalia, et Lapides pre- tiosos." Matthew Paris. 64 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. taken, and was now in the hands of the Saracens. Before the death of Henry, Rich- ard had bound himself in a vow to Philip of France, to join in this undertaking ; and every one, ad Regis exemplum, strove either to go in person, or to supply money towards the expence of the expedition. Nothing, however sacred, could withstand Richard, in hisschemes to raise money for this purpose. Most of the Crown lands which Henry had, with so much prudence and address, but a few years before, recovered out of private hands, and annexed to the State, were again put up to public sale, to be purchased by such as were able. Every expedient was de- vised, to create a fund for this enterprize ; and among the rest, he obtained of the Pope a power to dispense with the vows of such who had rashly engaged in the Crusade, by which he raised very large sums. The Bishop of Norwich paid him 1000 marks, to be excused. Where he could, he borrowed ; and where he could not borrow, he compelled. The people murmured at his oppression, and the alienation of the estates of the Crown ; but RICHARD I. 65 Richard told them, he would sell London it- self, if he could meet with a purchaser. So great, however, was the general infatuation, that he had less difficulty in raising men than monev. The Clergy laboured as zealously to procure him soldiers, as he himself had been active in raising subsidies ; his army soon became very numerous, and at a cheap rate, for every officer and private soldier pro- vided himself with necessaries. One would think the great wealth that Richard had amassed would have answered all his pur- poses ; but in a few years after, he had oc- casion for fresh supplies, to carry on a war with Philip of France ; not to mention the ransom which was paid for his release, on his being taken prisoner by the Emperor Henry, amounting to 1 50,000 marks, which were raised for the occasion by his subjects in England. Philip of France had so mal- treated Richard, by leaguing himself with his Brother John, and bribing the Emperor to detain him prisoner, that, as soon as Richard returned home, he could no longer deny him- self the satisfaction of revenge. His King- F 66 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. dom was already drained, and little able to furnish out supplies for a war with France ; but Richard was resolved, and money must be had at any rate, let the means be ever so dishonourable. For this purpose he revoked all the grants of the Crown lands, which he had made before his expedition to Palestine. The pretext for this was, that the purchasers had enjoyed them long enough to re-imburse themselves out of the profits, and therefore he did them no injury by taking the lands back again. This was one device; the next was, to avail himself of the loss of the Great Seal, by ordering a new one to be made; and obliged all who had commissions under the old one, to renew them, and have them re- sealed, by which he must have raised a con- siderable sum *. * In passing between Cyprus and Rhodes, in his Expedition to the Holy War, three of his Ships were lost, and among other persons that perished was the Vice-Chancellor, who had the Great Seal in his cus- tody, and was afterwards found with it about his neck. Brompton. This was the manner in which the Seal was formerly carried by the Chancellor himself — " circa cujus Collum suspensum Regis Sigillum postea reper- tum est," are Brompton's words. RICHARD I. 6? King Richard I. having no child of either sex, there was not an opening for demanding the two common^f^; but the third, in the order they are usually placed, viz. for the ransom of the King's Person, was exer- cised for the first time in this Reig;n. Other taxations, heavy and enormous, on frivolous and nugatory occasions, not to our imme- diate purpose, were copiously extorted from the subject, and even in a shameful manner*. If ever the Latin adage, " Quicquid delirant Reges," &c. could be properly applied, it be- longed to Richard. The favourite system of this King was the Holy -War, and his intemperate zeal led to the point before us. Failing in the attempt to recover Jerusalem from the Saracens, he concluded a truce of three years with Saladan their King; and, on his return towards Eng- land through Germany, was made prisoner by the Arch-duke of Austria (upon a pretext that he had killed the Margrave Conrade at Tyre) ; who delivered him into the hands of * Sir Richard Baker, p. 73. p2 68 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. the Emperor, where he remained a captive {uWjifteen months, till he was ransomed*. The sum demanded for the King's release is generally allowed to have been 100,000£. ; though some writers reduce it a third part, and call it 100,000 marks ; but, let it be either of them, it was, in those days, a sum not to be raised without the greatest extor- tion ; and I am justified in saying, it was not done without what, eventually, almost amounted to sacrilege f. The church was ransacked for plate, which was pretended to have been only borrowed for the moment — but the debt was never repaid. HENRY IV. In the eleventh year of King Henry IV. a certain portion of the customs in the several ports, of subsidies in several ports, of the * Consult the Monkish Historians. f Sir Richard Baker reckons this no more than a voluntary contribution, forgetting that it was one of the established Norman Feudal Aids, though now first brought forward since the Conquest. HENRY IV. EDWARD IV. 69 issues of the hamper [now the Hanaper], and of the profers [s/c] of escheators and sheriffs, were, by the King's letters patent, set apart for the expences of his Household. This was done by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, assembled in the King's Council *. EDWARD IV. In the Reign also of King Edward IV. it was usual for the King to grant to his servants, or ministers, assignments for their salaries, or debts, upon divers officers who were concerned in receiving his revenue ; viz. upon Sheriffs of Counties, Bailiffs, or Men [forte Mayors] of Towns, Collectors of Cus- toms, Subsidies, &c. Upon these assign- ments the Assignees had Patent-Letters, Tal- lies of the Exchequer, or Writs of Liberate currant, made forth for their avail ; and, in default of payment, they brought actions of debt in the Court of Exchequer, upon such * Rymer's Foedera, torn. viii. p. 610. — From Ma- dox'sMSS. n. 4486, p. 70. /O THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Assignments, Tallies, or Liberates, against the Sheriffs, or other Officers aforesaid ; many instances of which may be seen in the fifth year of King Edward IV. in the Placita coram Baronibus, 5 Edward IV. in the Rolls of the Exchequer *. The King was wont to distribute his re- venue in such manner as he thought fit. He assigned, at his pleasure, part of it to the expences of his Household, and other parts to the expences of either civil government or waf*f\ An act done within the verge of the King's Palace was said to be done in 'prcesentid Regis. The party offending was tried in the Court held in the Palace, before the Ste- ward and Marshal; and the proceedings there, were styled Placita Aulce Domini Re- gis de Corondp * Madox's MSS. n. 4486, p. 71. t Idem, p. 69. X Idem, pp. 22, 23. 71 EXTRACTS FROM THE LIBER NIGER. The Liber Niger Domus Regis Angliae * p. e. Edward IV.] contains Orders for his said Majesty's Household, anno 3478; and relates to the following Officers : A Chamberlain. Bannerets, or Bachelor Knights, to be Carvers and Cup-bearers (four). Knights of Household (twelve) to do the Office of Ewerers. A Secretary. Chaplains (four). Esquires for the Body (four). A Sewer for the King. Surveyor for the King, i. e. of the Dresser. Wardrobe. Gentlemen Ushers of Chamber (four). Yeomen of the Crown (twenty-four). * Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, N° 369, corrected by N» 642. J2 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Yeomen of Chamber (four). Wardrobe of Robes. Wardrobe of Beds. Grooms of Chamber (ten). Pages of Chamber (four). Jewel-house. Doctor of Physic. Master Surgeon. Apothecary. Barber. Henxmen. Six Infants. Master of the Henchmen. Squires of Household. Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants. Serjeants at Arms (four). Minstrels (thirteen). A Wayte. N. B. This Yeoman (for such was his rank) waiteth (i. e. playeth, I suppose) at the making of Knights of the Bath, watching upon them by night- time in the Chapel. Wherefore he hath of fee all the watching cloathing that the Knights should wear upon [them.] Messagers (four). Dean of the Chapel. OFFICERS. J3 Chaplains, and Clerks of the Chapel (twenty-six). Yeomen of the Chapel (two). Children of the Chapel (eight). Clerk of the Closet. Master of Grammar, to teach the Henx- men and Children of the Chapel. Office of Vestiary, i. e. Vestry. Clerk of Crown in Chancery. Clerk of the Market. Clerk of the Works. Marriage of Wards. Steward of Household. Treasurer of Household. Controller of Household. Cofferer. Clerks of Green Cloth. EXTRACTS from the LIBER NIGER. Knights and Esquires of the Body. Item, that all Knights for the Body, Cup- Bearers, and Knight Carvers, Squires for the Body, &c. be put to their attendance, and a 74 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. book thereof delivered from the King's High- ness into the compting-house, for a quarter of a year ; the quarters to begin at October, January, April, and July. Among the provisions, it is said Knights of the Body, Carvers, and Cup- Bearers, [may have] every of them, tivo Yeomen sitting in the hall; and for their livery at night, one loaf and an half, and a gallon of ale ; one talshed and an half, and three sizes of white lights *. Gentleman Usher. Item, that the Marshall, ne Usher of the Chamber, send his rod by any mean person or persons, to pantry, buttery, or cellar, spicery, chaundry, or any other office ; but go in his own person. But if he be occu- pied, so that he may not, then he send such one with his rod, as he will answer for on the morrow, and also that he will breve for, upon pain of six days wages. * By white lights I understand tallow candles, they being so distinguished from wax in other places which last, I presume, at that time were yellow. GENTLEMAN USHER. 7^ Item, that weekly there be warned and ap- pointed by the Huishiers [Ushers] of the Chamber, [those] who shall attend and serve the King for the week next following, that is to say, Carvers, Sewers, Cup-Bearers, Squires for the Body, and others. Item, that every Lord, Knight, and Es- quire, as well Squire for the Body, as other within the Household, wear daily a collar of the King's livery about their nekket (sic) as to them appertaineth, and that none of the said Squires fail hereof, upon pain of losing a week's wages. Item, that the liveries for All-night, for the King and Queen be set by day-light, from Candlemas to Michaelmas; and in the winter time, to eight of the clock at farthest. Item, after the King and Queen's liveries delivered as aforesaid, no officer abide in his office, nor resort unto his said office after his departing, without a special command- ment of the King or of the Queen ; or else by special token from the Steward of the Household, or from the King or Queen's Chamberlains. 76 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Punishment for neglect of Duty. For the first offence, the party to be warned to amend. For the second offence, imprisonment at the discretion of his Superior. And for the third offence, a discharge from his office *. Great Chamberlain of England, cometh to this Court at the six principal feasts of the year ; takes such livery and ser- vice after the estate he is of; and for his win- ter and summer robes, for the feasts of Christ- mas and Whitsuntide, to be taken of the counting-house by even portions, ten pounds thirteen shillings and four pence ; and for his fee of the King's Household, at the two terms of Easter and Michaelmas, by even portions, twenty marks in the counting- house. * In the time of Henry the Eighth (as in some cases in these Orders) they used stoppages of wages in lien of imprisonment. This was called checquing. Hence, I apprehend, the office of a Clerk of the Cheque. 77 Knights of Household *, Twelve Bachelors, sufficient and most va- liant men of that order, of every Country, and more in number if it please the King, whereof four to be continually abiding and attending upon the King's Person in Court, beside the Carvers abovesaid, for to serve the King of his bason, or such other service as they may do the King, in absence of the Carvers, sitting in the King's Chamber and Hall with persons of like service ; every of them have eating in the hall one Yeoman, and taking for his chamber, at noon and night, one loaf, one quart of wine, one gal- lon of ale, one pitcher of wine, one candle wax, two candles pis, one tallwood and an half, for winter livery, from All-Hallowen- tide till Easter : rushes and litter all the year, of the Serjeant Usher, and for keeping of their stuff and Chamber, and to purvey for their stuff. Also at their livery in the Country, amongst them all, four Yeomen, after time * Of this Office, and that of the Esquires of the Body, see Mr. Pegge's Curialia, Part I. 78 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. eight of these Knights be departed from Court, and the four Yeomen to eat daily in the hall with Chamberlains, till their said Masters come again ; so that the number of Knights' servants be not increased when their Masters be present. Every Knight shall have into this Court resorting, three persons, Waiters ; the remanent of their ser- vants to be at their livery in the Country, within seven miles to [of] the King, by the Herbergers sufficiently lodged; and, if it may be, two Knights together. Also they pay, in this Court, for the carriage of their own stuff. And if a Knight take clothing, it is by warrant made to the King's Wardrober, and not of the Treasurer of Household. Some time Knights took a fee here yearly, of ten marks, and clothing ; but because * their clothing is not according for the King's Knights, therefore it was left. Item, if he be sick, or specially let blood, or clystered, then he taketh livery, four loaves, two mess of great meat and roast, half a pitcher of wine, two gallons of ale. * N° 369 reads Bay Clothing. KNIGHTS OF HOUSEHOLD. 7^ This letting blood, or clystering, is to avoid pestilence ; and therefore the people take livery out of the Court, and not for every sick- ness in man continuing in this Court. Esquires for the Body. Four Noble, of condition, whereof always two be attendant on the King's person, to array him, and unarray him ; watch day and night ; and to dress him in his cloaths. And they be callers to the Chamberlaine, if any thing lack for his person or pleasance. Their business is in many secrets, some sit- ting in the King's chamber, some in the hall with persons of like service, which is called Knight's service. Taking, every of them, for his livery at night, half a chet loaf, one quart of wine, one gallon of ale; and for winter livery, from All-Hallowtide till Easter, one percher wax, one candle wax, two candles pric. * one talshide and an half, and wages in the compting-house. If he be present in the Court daily, seven -pence half- penny ; and cloathing with the Household, * Forte Prickets. 80 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. winter and summer, or else forty shillings, besides his other fee of the Jewel-house, or of the Treasurer of England ; and besides his watching cloathing of Chamber of the King's Wardrobe. He hath, abiding in this Court, but two servants ; livery sufficient for his horses in the country, by the Herberger. And if any Esquire be let blood, or else fore- watched, he shall have like livery with Knights. Litter and rushes all the year, of the Serjeant Usher of the Hall and Chamber. Oftentimes these stand instead of Carvers and Cup-bearers. In the " Statutes of E It ham." Esquires of the Body, every of them, to have ordinary within the Court four persons, of the which to have sitting in the Hall two persons, and the residue ut supra [i. e. to have no meat or drink within the House, but to be at board wages in the town]] ; and for their bouche of Court, every of them to have for their livery at night, one chet loaf, half a pitcher of wine, and one gallon of ale, one ESQUIRES OP THE BODY. 81 size wax, three white lights, two talsheds, and two faggots. In the appointment of Herbagage be ordinary for all Noble Estates, and others, for stabling of their horses, and beds for their servants, appointed by the King's Highness, at his Manor of Eltham, the 19th of Ja- nuary, in the ljth year of his Noble Reign. It is appointed to Knights for the Body, and other Knights, six horses and two beds. To every Esquire for the Body, Jive horses and two beds. [N. B. Every Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber, whereof six, six horses and two beds. Every Groom of the Privy Chamber, two horses and two beds. Every Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter, three horses and one bed. Every Gentleman Usher of the Privv Chamber, four horses and one bed */] For the good order of the King's Cham- * Sic : but query if not Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber; they not being otherwise mentioned in. either copy. G 82 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. ber, it is said, the Pages of the King's Cham- ber must daily arise at seven o'clock, or soon after, and make a fire ; and warn the Esquires of the Body of that hour, to the intent they may then arise, so as they may be ready, and the King's Chamber dressed in every thing as appertaineth, by eight of the clock at the farthest. Item, that none of the servants of the said Esquires come within the Pallet Chamber; but be attendant at the door, as well at night as in the morning, with such gear as their Masters shall wear. And the said Pages, at the request of the said Esquires, to fetch in, and bear out, their night-gear, and all other their apparel, and likewise to make them ready, both at night and in the morning. Item, that, if the Esquires for the Body do not arise at the warning of the Pages, so as the King's Chamber may be ready and dressed by the hour afore limited ; that then immediately the Pages are to shew the same to the Lord Chamberlain. [In the appointment of Lodgings, is a chamber for the six Gentlemen and Ushers ESQUIRES OF THE BODY. 83 of the Privy Chamber, to sup in ; which ex- plains the above article.] The Esquires for the Body, mentioned to have been at Eltham at that time, were, Sir Arthur Poole, Sir Edward Baynton, Sir Humphrey Forster, and [Mr.] Francis Pointz. In the New Book of the King's House- hold of Edward IV. anno 1478 : Six Knights and five Squires appear to have been on duty for eight weeks from the last day of October, at the end of which they were relieved by Jive Knights and four Es- quires. Sir Roger Ray, being Vice Cham- berlain, was in both lists ; for it is said afterwards, " We will that Sir Roger Ray, Deputy to my Lord Chamberlain, two Gen- tlemen Ushers, and two Yeomen Ushers, at least, be always attending upon us." 84 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, Yeomen of the Ckown *. Twenty-four most seemly persons, cleanly and strongest Archers, honest of conditions, and of behaviour, bold men chosen and tried out of every Lord's house in England for their cunning and virtue thereof. One to be Yeoman of the Robes, another to be Yeoman of the Wardrobe of Beds in Household. These two, in certainty, eat in the King's Chamber daily. Other two be Yeomen Ushers of Chamber, eating there also. An- other to be Yeoman of the Stole, if it please the King. Another to be Yeoman of the Armory. Another to be Yeoman of the Bows for the King. Another Yeoman to keep the King's Books. Another to keep his Dogs for the Bow. And, except the first four persons, the remnant may to the Hall, as the Usher, &c. or another to keep his best ; and thus they may be put to business. Also it accordeth that they be chosen men of manhood, shooting, and specially of vir- tuous conditions. In the King's Chamber * See the " Curialia," Part III. YEOMEN OF THE CROWN. 85 be daily sitting four messes of Yeomen ; and all the remnant eating in the Hall, sitting together above, joining to the Yeomen of Household ; except at the five Great Feasts of the year, then as many Yeomen of Crown and Chamber as may sit in the King's Chamber shall be served there during the Feast ; and every of them present in Court, hath daily allowed in the counting-house three-pence, and cloathing for winter and summer, and yearly, or else eighteen shillings, beside their watching cloathing of the King's Wardrobe. And if any of them be sent out by the King's Cham- berlain, then he taketh his wages of the Jewel-house, and vacat in the Cheque Roll till he be seen in Court again. Also lodging in the town, or in the country, sufficient for their horses, as nigh together as the Her- biger of Household may dispose ; and al- ways two Yeomen of Crown to have an honest servant in to [the] Court, in the Noble Edward's Statutes. And these were called " The Twenty-four Archers de pie' cou- rants entitlement devant le Roy par pairs 86 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. pour Gard [de] Corps du Roy *." These were called the King's Watchment. At this £or rather that] day, a Yeoman took hut ten shillings for his gown, and four shillings and eight pence for his hosen and shoone. They have nothing else with the Household sails carriage of their beds, two men together, by deliverance or assignment for that carriage of the Controllers, and litter for their beds of the Serjeant Usher of the Hall and Chamber. And if any of them he sick, or let blood, he taketh for all day a cast of bread, one mess of great meat, one gallon of ale ; and if it be of great sickness, he must remove out of the Court. Also, when they make watch nightly, they should be gird with their swords, or with other weapons ready, and harness about them. A Barber for the King's most high AND DREAD PERSON. To be taking in this Court after that he standeth in degree, Gentleman, Yeoman, or Groom. It hath been much accustomed to * Sic lego. BARBER FOR THE KING. 87 one or two well-known Officers of the Ewry in Household, such as been for the month, Serjeant, or other. Also we find how this hath been used among by a well-betrusted Yeoman of Chamber, for lack of cunning of these other men. It is accustomed that a Knight of Chamber, or else Squire for the Body, or both, be present every time when the King will be shaven. This Barber shall have every Saturday at night, if it please the King to cleanse his head, legs, or feet, and for his shaving, two loaves, one pitcher of wine ; and the Ushers of Chamber ought to testify this, if this be necessary dispended or no. Also, this Barber taketh his shaving cloths, basons, and all his other towels *, and things necessary, by the Chamberlain's assignment, of the Jewel-house ; no fees of plate or silver, but it be in his instrumental tools used by occupation, and that by allowance of the King's Chamberlain. * Tools in No. 642, in Bib. Hail 88 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. Henxmen. Six infants, or more, as it shall please the King, all these eating in the Hall, and sit- ting at one board together ; and to be served two or three to a mess, as the Sovereigns ap- point; taking daily for their breakfasts, amongst them all, two loaves, a mess of great meat, a gallon of ale. Also, for their supper in fasting days, according to their age, and livery nightly for them all to their chamber, one loaf, one gallon of ale ; and for winter livery, two candles wax, four candles p'is, three talsheds, for them all. Rushes and litter all the year, of the Serjeant Usher of the Hall and Chamber. And if these Gentlemen, or any of them, be Wards; then, after their births and degrees, the Steward and Treasurer, with the Chamberlain, may appoint the service more large in favour by their discretions, when as often as them needeth, till the 'King's Grace hath given or sold* their lands and wards. And all their * i. e. granted them during non-age. HENXMEN. 89 competent harness to be carried, and bed- dings. Two lodged together at the King's carriage, by oversight of the Comptroller; and every of them an honest servant to keep their chamber and harness, and to array him in this Court whilst their Masters be present in Court : or else to allow here no chamber dokyns, &c. And all other findings for their beds they take of the King's Wardrobe, by- suit of the Master of Henxmen, made to the JCing's Chamberlain for warrants. Master of Henxmen. To shew the schools of urbanity and nur- ture of England; to learn them to ride cleanly and surely ; to draw them also to justs ; to learn them wear their harness ; to have all courtesy in words, deeds, and degrees ; dili- gently to keep them in rules of goings and sittings after they be of honour. Moreover to teach them sundry languages, and other learnings virtuous; to harping, to pipe, sing, and dance, with other honest and temperate behaving and patience ; and to keep daily and weekly with these children due [discipline], 90 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. with corrections in their chambers, according to such gentlemen ; and each of them to be used to that thing of virtue that he shall be most apt to learn, with remembrance daily of God's service accustomed. This Master sit- teth in the Hall next unto beneath these Henxmen, at the same board ; to have his respects unto their demeanings, how man- nerly they eat and drink ; and to their com- munication, and other forms curial, after the book of urbanity. He taketh daily, if he be present in Court, wages, cloathing, and other liveries, as other Esquires of Household, save he is not charged with serving of the Hall. Carriage also for harness in Court competent by the Comptroller to be with the Henxmen his harness in Court ; and to have into this Court one servant, whilst he is pre- sent ; and sufficient liveries for his horses, in the town or country, by the Herberger. And if he be sick in Court, or let blood, he taketh two loaves, two mess of great meat, one gallon ternoise*. And for the fees that he * Forte Tcurnois. SQUIRES OF HOUSEHOLD. 91 claimeth among the Henxmen of all their apparel, the Chamberlain is the judge. Squires of Household. Forty, or more, if it please the King, by the advice of his High Council, to be chosen men of their profession, worship, and wisdom ; also to be of sundry Shires, by whom it may be known the disposition of the Countries. And of these, to be continually in this Court Twenty Squires attendant upon the King's Person, in riding and going at all times, and to help serve his table from the Surveying- board, and from other places, as the Assewar will assign. — Also, by their common assent, to assign amongst themselves some to serve the King's Chamber, at one day, week, or time some to serve trie Hall at another time, of every mess that cometh from the dressing- board to their hands for such service, so that thereof be nothing withdrawn by the Squires, upon such pain as Steward, Treasurer, or Controller, or in their absence other Judges at the counting-board, will award, after their 92 THE ROYAL, HOUSEHOLD. demerits. — They eat in the hall, sitting to- gether at any of the both meals as they serve, some the first meal, some the latter, by assent. Tins hath be [been] always the manner amongst them for honour [and] profit to the King. — It may be, that the King taketh into Household in all Sixty Squires, and yet, amongst them all, Twenty take not the whole wages of the year [sic] ; wherefore the number of persons may be received and suf- fered the better in the checque-roll for a wor- ship, and the King's profit saved, and ease to them self. — Every of them taketh for his livery at night, half a gallon of ale ; and for winter season, each of them taketh two can- dles parris, one faggot, or else half talwode. When any of them is present in Court, he is allowed for daily wages, in the checque roll, seven-pence halfpenny, and clothing winter and summer; or else forty shillings. It hath ever been in special charge to Squires in this Court, to wear the King's Livery cus- tomably, for the more glory, and in worship of this honourable Household : and every of them to have in to this Court an honest ser- SQUIRES OF HOUSEHOLD. 93 vant, and sufficient livery in the towns or countries for their horses, and other servants, by the herberger. Two Gentlemen lodged together, and they he coupled bed-fellows by the Gentlemen Ushers. — And if any of them be let blood or sick in Court, or nigh thereto, he taketh livery in eating days, two loaves, two mess of great meat, one gallon of ale, for all day, and litter all the year of the Serjeant Usher of the hall for their beds in Court. — And if any of these Squires be sent out of Court, by Steward, Treasurer, or Con- troller, or other of the counting-house, for matter touching the Household, then he hath daily allowed him twelve pence by petition. Also they pay for their carriage of harness in Court. They take no part of the general gifts, neither with chamber nor with hall, but if the giver give them specially a part by express name or words. None of these should depart from Court but by licence of Steward, Treasurer, or Sovereigns of the Counting- house, that know how the King is accompa- nied best : and to take a day when they should come again, upon pain of loss of 94 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. wages at his next coming. — That no Ser- jeant of Office, nor Squire, nor Yeoman, nor Groom, but as be appointed in this Book, to dine or sup out of Flail and King's Chamber, nor to withdraw any service, or else to hurt or little the almesse [alms] of Hall or Cham- ber, upon such pain as the Sovereigns of Household will award by the Statutes of Noble Edward III. " In none office, &c." It hath been often, in days before, com- manded by the Counting-house, that in ferial days, after that the King and Queen, and their Chambers, and the Sovereigns of Household in the Hall, be served, that then such honest Yeomen of Household be called or assigned to serve from the dresser to the hall the rem- nant, specially such as bear wages, that, if any service be withdrawn by them, that then they to be corrected therefor. These Squires of Household, of old, be accustomed, winter and summer, in after- noons and in evenings, to draw to Lord's Chambers within Court, there to keep ho- nest company, after their cunning, in talking of chronicles of Kings, and of other policies, SQUIRES OF HOUSEHOLD. 95 or in piping or harping, songings, or other acts marriables * ; to help to occupy the Court, and accompany strangers, till the time require of departing. " Item, that daily there awaite twenty- four Squires to serve the King and Queen, of whom twelve to serve at the first dinner, and to dine at the second ; and the twelve sitting at the first dinner, to serve the second dinner, and there to awaite to serve the King and Queen -f*." Dom. Regis Anglise. The Esquires — " oftentimes these stand instead of Carvers and Cup-Bearers f ." Kings of Arms, Heralds, and Pursuivants. Coming: into this Royal Court to the wor- ship of these five Feasts in the year, sitting at meats and suppers in the Hall, and to begin that one end of the table together, upon days of estate, by the Marshall's assignation, at * Sic. f Harleian MSS. 642, p. 177. — Rigid Orders re- garding Offenders, p. 97. b. 96* THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. one meal. And if the King keep estate, by the Marshall's assignation, in the Hall, then these walk before the Steward, Treasurer, and Comptroller, coming with the King's Surveyor* from the surveying-board at every course. And, after the last course, they cry the King's largesse, shaking their great cup. Thev take their largesse of the Jewel-house ; and duringthese Festival-days they wait upon the King's Person coming and going to and from the Church, Hall, and Chamber, before his Highness, in their coats of arms. They take neither wages, cloathing, nor fees, by the Compting-house ; but livery for their chamber, day and night, amongst them two loaves, a pitcher of wine, two gallons of ale ; and for winter season, if there be present a King of Arms, for them all, one tortays at chandry, two candles wax, three candles p'is, three talsheds. These Kings of Arms are served in the Hall as Knights, service and livery for their horses nigh the Court, by the Herberger. — Alway remembered, that * Rectius, No. 642 reads Service. HERALDS, &C. 9J the cup which the King doth create any King of Arms or Herald withal, it standeth in the charge of the Jewel-house, and hot upon the Treasurer of Household. The fees that they shall take at the making of Knights of the Bath, it appeareth next after the chapter of Squires. Serjeants of Arms *. Four chosen proved men, of haviour and condition, for the King and his Honourable Household; whereof two alway to be at- tending upon the King's Person and Cham- ber, and to avoid the press of people before where as the King shall come : in like wise at the conveyance of his meat at every course from the surveying board ; also observing for [of] the King's commandments, and so after the Steward, Chamberlain, Treasurer, and Controller, for the King, or for his House- hold. They eat in the Hall, together or with Squires of Household, taking their wages of twelve-pence by [the] day, or four-pence, as * See the " Curialia," Part V. H 98 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. it pleaseth the King, after their abilities, by letters patents ; and clothing also, to be taken of the issue and profit growing to the King in divers counties of England, by the hands of the receivers of them. No more having in Household; but every of them, when he is present in Court, at night, a gallon of ale ; and for winter livery, one candle wax, two candles p'is, one talshed ; rushes [and] litter for their chamber of the Serjeant Usher all the year. They pay for the carriage of their proper harness and bedding; and every of them to have in to this Court, one honest servant. By the Statutes of the Noble Ed- ward, were thirty Serjeants of Arms, suffi- ciently armed and horsed, riding before his Highness when he journeyed by the country for a Garde de Corps du Roi. And if any of these be sick, or be let blood, he taketh daily two loaves, two messes of great meat, one gallon of ale, and thus to be brevied in the Pantry -Roll. Also sufficient lodging assigned these Serjeants together, not far from Court, for hasty errands [when] they fall. 99 Minstrels. Thirteen ; whereof one is Verger, that di- recteth them all in festival days to their sta- tions, to blowings and pipings to such offices as must be warned to prepare for the King and his Household, at meats and suppers, to be the more ready in all services ; and all these sitting in the Hall together, whereof some use trumpets, some shalmuse * and small pipes, and some are strange-men coming to this Court at five feasts of the year ; and then to take their wages of Household after four-pence halfpenny a day, if they be present in Court ; and then they to avoid the next day after the feasts be done. Besides each of them another reward yearly, taking [taken] of the King, in the Receipt of the Chequer, and cloathing with the House- hold, winter and summer, or twenty shillings a-piece, and livery in Court at even — ■ amongst them all four gallons of ale ; and * Shawms, h2 100 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. for winter season, three candles wax, six candles p'is, four tallow candles, and suffi- cient lodging, by the Herbergers for them and their horses in the Court. Also having in the Court two servants, honest, to bear the trumpets, pipes, and other instruments ; and a torch for winter nights, whilst they blow to suppers, and other revels at Chaun- dry. And always two of these persons to continue in Court in wages, being present to warn at the King's ridings, when he goeth to horseback, as oft as it shall require. And by their blowings the Household-men may follow in the countries. And if any of these two Minstrels be sick in Court, he taketh two loaves, a mess of great meat, a gallon of ale. They have part of any rewards given to the Household. And if it please the King to have two strange Minstrels to con- tinue in like wise. The King woll not for his worship that his Minstrels be too pre- sumptuous, nor too familiar, to ask any re- wards of the Lords of his land, remember- ing " De Henrico Secundo Imperatore, qui omnes Joculatores suos et . . . . monuerit MINSTRELS. 101 ut nullus eorum in ejus nomine, vel dum- modo steterunt in servicio suo, nihil ab aliquo in regno suo deberent petere donandum, sci- licet, quod ipsi Domini donatores pro Regis amore citius pauperibus erogarent." A Wayte. That nightly, from Michaelmas till Shere-Thursday *, pipeth the watch within this Court four times, and in summer nights three times, and he to make hon Gayte, and every chamber-door and office, as well for fire as for other pikers, or pellys f . He eateth in the Hall with the Minstrels, and taketh livery at night, half a paine, half a gallon of ale ; and for summer nights, two candles p'is, half a bushel of coals ; and for winter nights, half a loaf, half a gallon of ale, four candles p'is, half a b ashel of coals ; and daily, if he be present in Court, by the Cheque Roll, four-pence halfpenny, or three * i. e. Maunday Thursday. t Perhaps Perils. 102 THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD. pence, by the discretion of Steward and Trea- surer, and after the cunning that he can, and good deserving. Also cloathing with the Household Yeomen, or Minstrels, according to the wages that he taketh. And if he be sick, or let blood, he taketh two loaves, half a mess of great meat, [and] one gallon of ale. Also he partaketh with the general gifts of Household, and hath his bedding carried, and his grooms together, by the Controller's assignment. And under this Yeoman, a Groom TVayte ; if he can excuse the Yeoman in his Office, and absence, then he taketh reward and cloathing, meet re- wards, and other things, like to the other Grooms of Household. Also this Yeoman wayteth at the makings of Knights of the Bath, watching by night-time upon them in the chapel ; wherefore he hath of fee all the watching cloathing that the Knights do wear upon [them]. 103 Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. This Officer was anciently one of the Chancellor's Family *. Formerly accompanied the Masters in Chancery in carrying Bills to the Lower House *f\ Reads the Titles of Bills in the House of Lords J. Sir George Copping was Clerk of the Crown, anno 1 Jac. I. § The fee of the Clerk of the Crown, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, was 201. \\ * Lex Parliamentarian f Ibid. p. 195. X Ibid. 197. § Ibid. 301. || See Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. i, p. 51. 104 SUPPORTERS, &C. SUPPORTERS, CRESTS, and COGNIZANCES, OF THE KINGS OF ENGLAND. Richard II. Was the first who bore his Escocheon sup- ported ; viz. by Two Angels. Cognizances. — A White Hart couchant, gorged with a Gold Chain and Coronet, under a Tree ; derived from the Princess Joan his Mother. Also a Peascod Branch, with the Pods open, but the Peas out. Henry IV. Dexter, a Swan. Sinister, an Antelope. Cognizance. — A Fox's Tail dependant OF KINGS OF ENGLAND. 105 Henry V. Two Swans, when Prince of Wales, hold- ing in their beaks an Ostrich-feather and a Scroll ; when King, a Lion and an Antelope. N. B. He first bore three Fleurs de Lis, instead of the Semee ; and wrote himself King of England and France, whereas those before him wrote France and England. Henry VI. Two Antelopes, Argent, attired, accolled with Coronets, and chained Or. Cognizance. — Two Feathers in Saltire. Edward IV. A Lion for Marche ; and a Bull for Clare. Two Lions, Argent. The Lion and the TVhite Hart of Richard II. Cognizances. — The White Rose. The Fetter-Lock. The Sun after the Battle of Mortimer's 106 SUPPORTERS, &C. Cross, when three Suns were seen, which immediately conjoined. The Rose is in the centre. Edward V. The Lion and a Hinde, Argent. Cognizance. — The Rose and the Falcon in a Fetter- Lock. Richard III. Two Soars. A White Boar. " The Cat, the Rat, and Lovel the Dog, Rule all England under the Hog.'" i. e. Sir William Catesby, Sir Richard Rat- cliff, and Lord Lovel, creatures of King Richard. One Collingborne was executed for this poetry *. Cognizance. — The Rose. Henry VII. Red Dragon (for Cad wall ader), Dexter. A Greyhound, Argent, accolled Gules, Sinister, for Nevile. * Leigh's Choice Observations. OF KINGS OF ENGLAND. 107 Cognizances. — The White Rose united to the Red. A Portcullis for Beaufort. A Hawthorn Bush with the Crown in it. Richard's Crown was found in a Hawthorn Bush after the Battle of Bosworth *. Henry VIII. The Red Dragon and Greyhound. Afterwards, the Lion Dexter; the Dragon Sinister. Cognizances. — A Red Rose. A Fleur de Lis. A Portcullis. An Archer (Green) drawing his Arrow to the Head ; with " Cui adhsereo prseest." taken at the interview between him and Francis I. Edward VI. The Lion and Red Dragon. Cognizance. — He bore the device of Prince of Wales, though never created. * Leigh's Choice Observations, p. 151. 108 supporters, &c. Queen Mary. An Eagle and Lion. — These are the Sup- porters in the Coat of Philip and Mary, im- paled, over the chimney in the Hall of Trinity College, Oxford, as of the year 1554, put up 1772> when Lord North, afterwards Earl of Guilford, became Chancellor *. Cognizance. — When Princess, the White and Red Rose for York and Lancaster, with a Pomegranate for Spain. — When Queen, Time winged, drawing Truth out of a Pit ; with " Veritas Temporis Filia." Queen Elizabeth. A Lion and Red Dragon. Cognizance.— & Sieve, without a motto. The words Video; Taceo. Semper Eadem f. James I. The Lion (for England), and the Uni- corn (for Scotland). Cognizances. — A Rose ; a Fleur de Lis ; a Harp (for Ireland) ; a Greyhound current. * Churchill, in his Divi Britannici, gives a Lion and a Griffin. t Vide Camden's Remains. 109 REGAL TITLES. " His most Christian Majesty The King of France." Stowe says that Charlemagne, being chosen Emperor, A. D. 800, on account of his great zeal for the good of Christendom, was the first King of France that attributed to himself (1 rather think received from the Pope) the Style and Title of The Most Christian King of France; and from him his Successors have continued it *. His Sacred Majesty The King of Great Britain. First given to (or rather assumed by) King James I. \ — Grace was the old Title. — Majesty succeeded to it at the latter end of the Reign of Henry VIII. J * Chronicle, p. 693. t Mortimer's Dictionary, in voce Sacred, X Mortimer's Dictionary. 110 REGAL TITLES. His Catholic Majesty. (Spain.) About the year 1493, Pope Alexander VI. gave to Ferdinand, King of Spain, the Title of Catholick King, in memory and acknow- ledgment of the many Victories he had ob- tained over the Moors *. * Platina. Ill VIRTUES %$z akcpal Courf), KINGS OF ENGLAND. AS the following subject, which has exer- cised the faith and incredulity of mankind for so many ages, comes before me in the light of a religious ceremonial, I shall not attempt to defend or depreciate the validity of this gift ; though it may be necessary to ob- serve some circumstances as they occur, winch may point different ways. Well-attested instances of the effect of this power of healing may be produced ; though other examples are too ludicrous and futile to attract serious at- tention. We may, however, in these enlight- ened and unsuperstitious times, speak freely 112 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. on a subject, which for many years, 1 may say centuries, absorbed the faith of whole Nations ; viz. the Cure of the King's Evil by the Royal Touch. As Mr. Addison, in the quality of The Spectator, professed a modest veneration for a couple of sticks, if concealed under petticoats ; so am I loyally and reli- giously induced to " honour the King," as a part of our excellent Constitution : but why Kings should have in themselves a preter- natural gift above other men, by healing the most stubborn of all diseases, exceeds my comprehension. Every body is, at this time, I dare believe, of the same opinion ; and this foolish affectation of a divine inherent power has wisely been laid aside, ever since the ac- cession of the House of Hanover. If Kings really possessed such an uncom- mon, such a wonderful gift, why has it been taken away ? The same legal rights remain in the Royal Person now that have adhered to it for ages — while this Divine Prero- gative has fallen away ; or rather let us say, that the incredulity of the world has in- creased. KINGS OF ENGLAND 113 The cases brought forward by the advocates for this Gift are exceedingly strong and well attested ; but yet there is something so pal- pably absurd in the mere supposition, that the evidence, when brought forward, will be found to destroy itself on a cross-exami- nation. As to the subject, and ail its wonderful consequences, I have just as much faith as I have in the two following circumstances : Lord Bolingbroke tells us, from Bodin, Amyot, and other writers, that Ferdinand King of Spain, and Alphonsus King of Na- ples, were cured of desperate distempers by reading Livy and Quintus Curtius *. Again, there was sucb astonishing virtue in Quintus Curtius, that we are further told, Alphonsus IX. King of Spain f was healed by reading his works, after having in vain read the Bible throughout fourteen times J. Credat qui * Bolingbroke, on the Study of History, p. 22. f Obiit 1214. Query if not the same as Alphon- sus above ? % Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 1 33 I 114 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. vult. And yet I could as soon subscribe to these, as to the cures performed by the Royal Touch. Anciently there was great reputed sanative virtue in a seventh son ; and he was looked upon as a heaven-born Doctor, and those his medical abilities were reverenced for that reason only by the common people. So far the Doctor would be safe* and might kill with impunity ; but it was a crime to heal. Thus I have a case before me in the Reign of King Charles I. where a poor unfortunate man, who was the seventh son of a seventh son, and never killed any body (for he was a gardener, and not a physician), was severely treated, because he pretended to have in him the faculty of healing several disorders, and especially the King's Evil, by the Touch or stroking of his hand. This man was impru- dent enough to depreciate the Royal Touch ; otherwise, at that time, he might have ob- tained a comfortable subsistence from his credulous patients ; but that unfortunate intrenchment on the Royal Prerogative drew down upon him the double vengeance of the KINGS OP ENGLAND. 115 Court of Star-Chamber, and of the College of Physicians; which last, in the most courtly manner, denounced him to be an impostor*. Delenda est Carthago. It was highly ne- cessary for the reputation of the Royal pre- tensions that this man should be proscribed. The next person who appears to have usurped this Gift was Mr. Valentine Great- rackes, a gentleman of Ireland, who first practised his art of healing by the Touch in his own country; and afterwards came into England, where, at first, he obtained great reputation, which fell off by degrees, so that there was no occasion for any violent mea- sures to prevent his intrenching on the Royal Prerogative. This gentleman wrote an account of his several cures, in a Letter to the Ho- nourable Robert Boyle, which was printed in 1668. Whether Mr. Boyle was a believer I know not ; but it was at a time when the King practised, so that he might think it prudent to conceal his real sentiments. * See the story at large in Granger, from Dr. Charles Goodall's Works. i2 116 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. How far imagination will operate in such cases, as the old women, even of this age, contend it does in Agues, is a question not for me to discuss ; hut it tempts me to tran- scribe the following story, as given by Mr. Granger, vol. IV. p. 32. " 1 was myself a witness of the powerful workings of imagination in the populace, when the waters of Glastonbury were at the height of their reputation. The virtues of the spring there were supposed to be super- natural, and to have been discovered by a revelation made in a dream to one Matthew Chancellor. The people did not only expect to be cured of such distempers as were in their nature incurable, but even to recover their lost eyes, and tbeir mutilated limbs. The following story, which scarce exceeds what I observed upon the spot, was told me bv a gentleman of character. ' An old woman in the workhouse at Yeovil, who had long been a cripple, and made use of crutches, was strongly inclined to drink of the Glaston- bury waters, which she was assured would cure her of her lameness. The master of KINGS OF ENGLAND. 11/ the workhouse procured her several bottles of water, which had such an effect, that she soon laid aside one crutch, and not long- after, the other. This was extolled, as a mi- raculous cure. But the man protested to his friends, that he had imposed upon her, and fetched the water from an ordinary spring/ I need not inform the Reader, that when the force of imagination had spent itself, she re- lapsed into her former infirmity." FRENCH KINGS. Whether the French Kings possessed this Gift in a greater or less decree than our own, I cannot decide ; hut in point of antiquity, by the accounts of their Historians, they ex- ceed us by many centuries. The advocates for the priority of the Kings of England in this wonderful Gift, tell you, that the French, seeing it with a jealous eye, invented a tale, and carried their claim up to Clovis, the first of that name in France, and their first Christian King, who acceded to 118 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. the Throne A. D. 481 ; whereas we do not pretend to go higher than Edward the Con- fessor, who died in 1066. In reward for Clovis's faith and conversion, this Gift was hestowed upon him at his bap- tism, A. D. 496 ; and which he accordingly exercised immediately on one of his fa- vourites *. How it was first discovered to he inherent in the French King we are not told ; though we are assured as to our own, that the know- ledge of such power in King Edward was discovered, like many other similar wonders, from a dream. The usual date of the introduction of this miraculous Gift into France is fixed in the Reign of St. Louis p. e. IX], a contem- porary with our Henry III. about 160 years after the death of the Confessor \. Unfortunately for the French Kings, there is a story extant, which overthrows their healing power, in a palpable instance which * See Mezeray. The name of this person was Lancinet. t Browne's " Adenochoiradelogia," 1684. See hereafter, under Charles II. FRENCH KINGS. 119 happened to Louis XL who having had an apoplexy, sent for a famous man to cure him, by name Francis of Poul. Francis, unhap- pily, had the Evil ; but, alas ! the Saint could not cure the King; and, what was worse, the King could not cure the Saint *. On the other hand, as the French Kings possessed the faculty sooner than our Kings, so did it last longer ; for King George I. had the good sense not to pretend to it; whereas the French Kings kept up the farce- at least till 177^, though with some address in the words spoken by the King ; viz. " The King touches you, and may God heal you !" [" Le Roy te touche, Dieu te guerisse."] So that, in case the Touch fails, it is known where the blame is to lie ; which is to be attributed to the anger of God, or the want of faith in the party f . The French * Davies, ii. 181. t Louis XVI. of France went through this cere- mony, as appears from the Formule of his Corona- tion, published at the time, A.D. 1775. Louis XV. touched no less than 2000 persons, and Louis XIV. upwards of 2500. Gemelli (the famous Traveller) gives an account of 120 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Kings gave alms on the occasion ; but I find no mention of particular pieces, as was the custom with us. I do not find that the French Kings ever touched, except upon Coronations ; though it was a repeated, if not an annual ceremony with us, performed daily for a certain season *, attended with a Form of Prayer, compiled for the purpose, which J shall hereafter preserve at length in the Appendix, together with the Ceremonial, after having given such accounts of the Practice itself, under the respective Kings, as are recorded by Writers on the subject. J 600 persons being presented for this purpose to Louis XIV. on Easter Sunday 1686. Every French- man received 15 sous, and every Foreigner 30. In " De nriirabili Strumas Sanandi vi solis Gallias Regibus Christianissimis Divinitus concessa. Authore Andrea Laurcntio, Regis Consiliario et Medico Pri- mario, 1609," is a very curious Print, representing King Henry IV. touching for the Evil; in which are introduced many Patients and Officers of the Court. The French confined their expression to the word Touch, though we use the term Heal. * See Browne. 121 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR*. To begin in order of time, I shall give you the narrative in Mr. Stowe's words, from the Latin account by Alfred, Abbot of Rivaulx. Thus then it is : " A young woman, married, but without children, had a disease about her jawes, and under her cheeke, like unto kernels, which they termed akornes, and this disease so cor- rupted her face with stench, that shee coulde scarce without great shame speake to any man. This woman was admonished in her sleepe, to go to King Edwarde, and get him to washe her face with water, and shee shoulde bee whole. To the Court shee came ; and the King hearing of this matter, dis- dained not to doe it ; having a bason of water brought unto him, hee dipped his hand therein, and washed the womannes face, and * Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, c. 10, § 125, Plate 16, No. 5, gives a Drawing of the Touch-piece, supposed to have heen given by Ed- ward the Confessor. The ribbon, he says, was white. 122 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. touched the diseased place ; and this hee did oftentimes, sometimes also signing it with the signe of the Crosse, which after hee hadde thus washed it, the hard crust or skinne was softened and dissolved ; and drawing his hand hy divers of the holes, out of the kernels came little wormes, whereof they were full with corrupt matter and blood, the King still pressed it with his handes to bring forth the corruption, and disdained not to suffer the stench of the disease, untill hee hadde brought forth all the corruption with press- ing : this done, hee commanded her a suffi- cient allowance every day for all thinges ne- cessary, untill she hadd received perfect health, which was within a weeke after ; and whereas shee was ever beefore barren, within- one yeere shee had a childe by her husband. And although this thing seeme strange, yet the Normans sayde that hee often did the like in his youth, when he was in Normandy*." It does not appear that the King knew of this Gift before ; but he continued to use it * Stowe's Annals, p. 93. * EDWARD. WILLIAM I. 123 ever after, and his successors followed him in the practice. But this is not all : for Stowe affords us hut one instance of the cure of a blind man by King Edward ; whereas the Abbot's ac- count* extends to six men totally blind, be- sides another who had lost one of his eyes ; all of whom were restored to perfect sight by the Kingf . WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR Had business enough upon his hands to employ his time, without thinking of such a matter as this ; but however, that he might, in quieter times, enjoy this Kingly attribute (though only a Bastard Son of a Territorial Duke), Voltaire tells us, that some depend- ants endeavoured to persuade the world, that this Gift was bestowed upon him from * See the "Decern Scriptores." f Mr. Browne likewise believes that several blind persons were restored to sight by King Charles II. 124 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Heaven *. Whether he ever exercised it does not appear. Nothing but a special bounty of Heaven could convey to him this privilege; and such interference was necessary ; for it was anciently held not to be inherent in any but lawful Kings, and not to extend to Usurpers ; so that it must have slept during all the wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, till resumed by Henry VII. as will be mentioned in its place. EDWARD III. Mr. Joshua Barnes, the most copious His- toriographer of this Reign, does not positively say that King Edward exercised this Gift, presuming only that he had a double right to it, as Heir to both the Realms of England and of France ; and, consequently, more emi- nently endowed than Philip of Valois, the then French King*. The French, no doubt, * See Davies, ii. 180. f Barnes's History, b. ii. ch. 7. sect. 5. EDWARD III. HENRY VI. 125 would deny it to him, as an usurping claim- ant of their Crown ; though they could not refuse his right, as derived to him as a legal King of England. HENRY VI. I have already conceived the Gift of heal- ing by the Touch to have been, as it were, in abeyance during the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster; and there- fore have found no historical record of Cures performed by this Saint-like King, who had such ample religious claims. I have called him Saint-like, because he never was cano- nized, though it was attempted and refused by the Pope in the Reign of Henry VII. for reasons to be seen in Fuller's Church History of Britain *. Two reasons against the canonization are suggested by different Writers: — 1. That the then Pope thought King Henry VI. too * Book iv. p. 154. 126> VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. simple to be sainted: — 2. That the contin* gent expence amounted to more than King Henry VII. was willing to defray, being not less than 1500 ducats of gold, a large sum at that time of day *. But, however, although King Henry VI. performed no Cures in his life-time, yet was a man miraculously saved from death at the gallows by the appearance of the King, 40 years after his demise (in the 10th year of Henry VII.), by which intervention the halter had no effect ; for the convict was found alive, after having hung the usual hour, and went speedily (as in duty bound) to return thanks at the King's Tomb at Chertsey, for such a wonderful deliverance. The Story states, that the man was really innocent, though, from circumstantial evi- dence, presumed to have been guilty ; other- wise the Ghost of so pious and merciful a King had doubtless never appeared to him and interposed. * Id. in eod. 127 HENRY VII. It is evident, from various concurrent cir- cumstances, that this King touched for the Evil, as the Religious Ceremonial used upon those occasions, such as Prayers, Benedic- tions, Suffrages, &c. during his Reign, are to be found not only in MS. in the British Museum, but were afterwards printed by order of King James II. A. D. 1686; both in Latin. Another proof arises from charges made for pieces of money delivered for this purpose in that Reign; for, in the 18th year of Henry VII. we find a disbursement of 20 shillings, made by John Heron, " for heling 3 seke folks ;" and again, •' 13s. Ad. for heling 2 seke folks. " From these sums it is evident, that the Touch-pieces given were Nobles, or 6*5. 8d. in value *. The accounts * In the Ceremonial, the King crossed the Sore of the Sick Person, with an Angel-Noble. Fabian Philips, in his Treatise on Purveyance, p. 257, asserts, " that the Angels issued by the Kings of England on these occasions, amounted to a charge of three thousand pounds 'per annum.''* 128 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. of this John Heron are preserved, together with those of divers others, in the office of the Remembrancer of the Exchequer. The fact is further established from the testimony of Polydore Vergil, who wrote his History at the command of King Henry VII. (though it was not made public till the following Reign); wherein the Writer, after going a little into the origin of this Gift, adds, that the Kings of England, even in his time, healed persons afflicted with this disease [" Nam Reges An- glise etiam nunc Tactu strumosos sanant."] He further subjoins, that the exercise of it was attended with hymns, and other devout casremonies; meaning, no doubt, those above- mentioned : [" quibusdam hymnis non sine ceremoniis prius recitatis *.""" From look- ing over the Ceremonial, I conceive that by hymns, Polydore Vergil means the Gospel, which at that time was sung, or the suffrages, which might be chanted. I shall give a transcript of the service ap- propriated to this occasion in the Appendix, (No. I.) as the printed copies are very scarce. * Polydore Vergil, p. 143. Basil edit. 1546. HENRY VII. 129 I cannot dismiss this Reign without ob- serving that the learned Editor of the Nor- thumberland Household Book * is hereby proved to have been very inattentive, when he savs that " this miraculous Gift was left to be claimed by the Stuarts; our ancient Plantagenets were humbly content to cure the Cramp f." What part the Plantagenets took in this business, for want of information, must be left doubtful ; but ample proof has been offered, that the Tudor s possessed the Gift of Healing;. EDWARD VI. The King now before us, though he kept a journal of all material occurrences, does not, however, once hint that he touched for the Evil, as probably his natural piety would have * The late truly venerable Bishop Percy. t Notes to p. 334. — This Ceremony of conse- crating the Cramp-Rings will be added to this ac- count of the King's Evil. See Appendix, No. III. K 130 VIRTUES Of ROYAL TOUCH. led him to have done, had it ever taken place : but, if there be any truth in the immediate prevalence of prayer on the ears of Heaven, an instance is recorded wherein the King ob- tained his request, in a more notable instance than any cure he might have performed by the operation of his Touch. Sir John Cheke, his Tutor for the Greek language, lay very dangerously ill, to the great disquiet and concern of the King, who, after frequent and daily inquiries, learned from the Physi- cians at last that there was not the least hope of life. " No," said the King, " he will not die now ; for this morning I begged his life from God in my prayers, and obtained it." This accordingly came to pass; and Sir John recovered speedily, contrary to all medical expectations. The truth was ascertained by an ear-witness, the Earl of Huntingdon, who related it to the grandson of Sir John Cheke (Sir Thomas Cheke, of Pirgo, Essex), by whom it was mentioned to my Author*. * Fuller's Church History of Britain, book vii. p. 425. EDWARD VI. 131 " Nee Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice Nodus;" and, if ever necessary, it was on this occasion; though the King lived but one year after- wards; and Cheke survived, to disgrace the Protestant Religion by his revolt. QUEEN ELIZABETH. That the Queen touched, is acknowledged ; but it is as evident that she had no high opi- nion of the efficacy of such operation ; for she once threw out an expression tending much to disparage the validity of it. Being on a Progress in Gloucestershire, her Majesty was so pestered with applications from diseased people, who pressed about her person in hopes of obtaining the Royal Touch, that she unguardedly, and in an ill-humour, ex- claimed, " Alas, poor people, I cannot, I cannot cure you ; it is God alone who can do it." This was interpreted by some, as a re- nunciation of the Gift ; but, nevertheless, the Queen afterwards admitted a general resort k2 132 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. to her for the purpose of being touched, and one in particular was healed *. On this, or some other occasion, a rigid Papist was under a necessity of applying for the Queen's Touch, after having tried every other means in vain ; and was, says my Author, perfectly healed. This happening soon after the Pope had de- nounced the sentence of Excommunication against her Majesty, raised the reputation of this Gift in the Royal Line of England; seeing that the Pope had no power to divest the Queen of it f. The Queen, at another time, A. D. 1575, being on a Progress in Warwickshire, where she was entertained by the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth Castle, during her abode there, " touched nine for the King's Evil J." * Browne, book iii. p. 124. t Browne in eod. ; and Tooker's il Charisma," ch. 6. X Strype's Annals, iv. p. 394. is: JAMES I. It does not appear that the Kings of Scot- land ever pretended to this Gift ; but when their James VI. came to the Throne of Eng- land, the virtue appeared in him ; and he ex- ercised it, as is evident from a passage in Macbeth*, and still more strongly from Pro- clamations in this Reign, still extant -j\ Being lineally descended from Henry the Seventh's Daughter, Margaret, this King had the same title to the Gift as Henry him- self, who, as has been seen, used it, though descended from a line of Usurpers. CHARLES I. So pious a King, and so jealous of every prerogatory right, divine and human, could * Davies, ii. 179. f By a Proclamation, March 25, 1616, it appears that the Kings of England would not permit patients to approach them during the summer. 134 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. not fail to exercise this preternatural endow- ment*; and accordingly we find him regu- lating the manner and time that persons shall be admitted to the Royal Touch, by divers * The following interesting remarks on this subject were communicated to Mr. Nichols, in 1781, by the learned and very ingenious Dr. Aikin. " Though the superstitious notions respecting the cure of the King's Evil by the Touch of our English Kings are probably at present entirely eradicated, it is still a curious and not un instructive object of enquiry, by what means they were so long supported, and by what kind of evi- dence they have been able to gain credit even in the dawning of a more enlightened period. The testi- mony of Richard Wiseman, Serjeant- Surgeon to King Charles I. has been alleged as one of the strongest and most unexceptionable in favour of the Touch. He was a man of the greatest eminence in his profession ; and his Works (collected in a folio volume, intituled, " Several Chirurgical Treatises, by Richard Wiseman, Serjeant-Chirurgeon, 1676") bear all the marks of an honest and upright disposition in their author. On the subject of the Royal Touch he delivers himself in the following strong and unequivocal terms : ' I myself have been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his Majesty's Touch alone, without any assistance of Chirurgery; and those many of them such as had tired out the endeavours of able CHARLES I. 135 Proclamations *. One is dated soon after bis Accession, in 1621 f ; another in 1626 ; and a third in 1628 J. He cured by his words only §. One would naturally be surprized to read of such numbers who received the Royal Chirurgeons before they came thither. It were end- less to recite what I myself have seen, and what I have received acknowledgments of by letter, not only from the several parts of the Nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Guernsey.' The question which will naturally arise upon this passage is, Did Wiseman really believe what he asserted, or was he knowingly promoting an imposture? Both suppositions have their difficulties; yet both are in some degree proba- ble. His warm attachment to the Royal Family, and early prejudices, might in some measure make his * By a Proclamation, June 18, 1626, it is ordered, that no one shall apply for this purpose, who does not bring a certificate that he was never touched before ; a regulation which undoubtedly arose from some sup- posed patients, who had attempted to receive the bit of gold more than once. t Rymer, torn, xviii. p. 118. X Id. p. 1023. § Browne, book iii. p. 135. 136 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Touch in the 17th century, when the disease is now so nearly worn out ; but Mr. Browne faith preponderate against his judgment; and, on the other hand, certain passages in his treatise necessarily shew a consciousness of collusion and fraudulent pre- tensions. It was his business, as Serjeant-surgeon, to select such afflicted objects as were proper to be pre- sented for the Royal Touch. In the history of the disease, relating its various states and appearances, he says, ' Those which we present to his Majesty are chiefly such as have this kind of tumour about the musculus mastoideus, or neck, with whatever other cir- cumstances they are accompanied ; nor are we difficult in admitting the thick-chapped upper lips, and eyes affected with a lippitudo ; in other cases we give our judgment more warily.' Here is a selection of the slightest cases, and a manifest doubt expressed con- cerning the success in more inveterate ones. A little below, observing that the struma will often be sup- purated or resolved unexpectedly from accidental ferments, he says, ' In case of the King's Touch, the resolution doth often happen where our endeavours have signified nothing; yea, the very gummata ; in- somuch that I am cautious of predicting concerning them (though they appear never so bad) till 14 days be over.' From this we learn, that the Touch was by no means infallible, and that the pretence of its suc- ceeding was not given up till a fortnight had passed CHARLES I. 137 tells us it raged remarkably at the period when he lived. without any change for the better. Indeed it appear- very plain, that the worst kind of cases were seldom or never offered the Touch ; for in no disease does Wiseman produce more observations from his practice of difficult and dangerous chirurgical treatment, and in not one of these did he call in the assistance of the Royal Hand. It was indeed proposed in a single in- stance, but under such circumstances as furnish a stronger proof of imposture than any thing hitherto related. A young gentlewoman had an obstinate scro- phulous tumour in the right side of the neck, under the maxilla. Wiseman applied a large caustic to it, brought it to suppuration, treated it with escharotics, and cured it. ' About a year after,' he says, ' I saw her again in town, and felt a small gland, of the big- ness of a lupin, lying lower on that side of the neck. I would have have persuaded her to admit of a re- solvent emplaster, and to be touched ; but she did not, as she said, believe it to be the King's Evil.' Here, after allowing his patient to undergo a course of very severe surgery, he is willing to trust the relics of the disease to the Royal Touch, assisted by a re- solving plaster; but the complaint was now too trifling to engage ber attention. Surely the greatest oppo- nent of the Touch will not place it in a more con- temptible light !" 138 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. As to the giving of a piece of Gold, Mr. Browne says, " it only shews his Majestie's Royal well-wishes towards the recovery of those who come thus to he healed/' In other parts of his hook, however, he tells us that "some, losing their Gold*, their diseases have seized them afresh ; when, upon ob- taining a second Touch, and new Gold, their diseases have been seen to vanish." Again, as to the virtue contained in the Gold, he re- lates a story of a father and a son, who both were afflicted with the Evil, for which the former was touched, and received a piece of Gold ; but the latter never was touched, and had no Gold ; upon which the son borrows the father's Gold, and received great relief from it. During this interval the father grew worse, received back his Gold, and, after wearing it a little time, became better ; and this practice was pursued for several years. Mr. Browne likewise gives other examples of the operation of the Gold, on * Sir Kenelm Digby informed Moris. Monconys, that if the person had lost the piece of gold, the com- plaint immediately returned. CHARLES I. 139 persons who had never received the Touch. — Though we have called it Gold, which, in itself, was anciently reckoned to have a sana- tive quality in itself, yet Silver would do as well ; for Mr. Browne does not deny hut that a Silver two-pence has effectually done the business. The case was, that the King (Charles I.), who was the Operator, was then a Prisoner at Hampton Court, and perhaps had no Gold to spare ; and therefore, in se- veral instances, he used Silver, with which many were known to have heen cured : — but, after all, by way of salvo, Mr. Browne adds, that such as failed of their cure — wanted Faith. From another passage in Mr. Browne's preface, one would be tempted to think that the virtue neither consisted in the Gold or the Silver, but in the Ribbon to which it was pendent ; for he assures those who contended that a second piece of Gold was necessary on a second Touch, that the same Gold, newly strung upon a White Ribbon, would work as effectually as a fresh piece of Gold. Some, he tells us, have been cured with the Touch - only, without Gold cr Silver. 140 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Among other salvos hi case of failure of the Touch, added to the want of faith, is, that the disease was mistaken in many in- stances ; and that the Patients did not labour under the Struma, or Evil, but some other similar disorder, over which the Royal Hand had no divine influence. There was such sympathy between the Royal Hand and the part touched, that Mr. Browne seems to believe a case that had been sent to him, of a woman, at a distance from London, who had formerly been cured by King Charles I. and whose sores broke out afresh upon the day of the King's death, though she was so ignorant of the world as not to know that it was to take place. But she soon recovered her health. The effect of this Divine Emanation has been said even to extend beyond the life of this unfortunate Monarch ; for part of the blood of this King being preserved on a piece of linen dipped therein, was found to have the same effect as the Touch, or his Prayers, when he was living *. * Browne, book iii. p. 109. CHARLES I. 141 A wen is said to be cured by tbe band of a dead man while hanging on the gallows. This is still a superstitious notion among the common people at this day ; and a child's cawl is a preservative against drowning in the notions of sailors (who are extremely credulous in general) : one often sees them advertised for sale ; and, if bought at all, they find a vent, no doubt, at Wapping. A wedding ring of gold, rubbed on a stye upon the eyelid, used to be esteemed a sove- reign remedy ; but, if I mistake not, it must be applied nine times. CHARLES II. In January 1683, the following Procla- mation was ordered to be published in every Parifch in the King-dom *. " At the Court at Whitehall, 9th of January 1G83. Present, the King's Most Excellent Majesty ; Lord Keeper, Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Ormond, Duke of * One of these is still preserved in a frame in the Vestry of St. Martin's Church at Leicester, placed there by the Rev. Samuel Carte, Vicar of that Parish, and brother of Mr. Thomas Carte the Historian. 142 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Beaufort, Earl of Oxford, Earl of Huntingdon, Earl of Bridgewater, Earl of Peterborow, Earl of Chesterfield, Earl of Clarendon, Earl of Bathe, Earl of Craven, Earl of Nottingham, Earl of Rochester, Lord Bishop of London, Mr. Secretary Jenkins, Mr. Chancellor of the Duchy, Lord Chief Justice Jeffryes, Mr. Godolphin. Whereas, by the grace and blessing of God, the Kings and Queens of this Realm, by many ages past, have had the happiness, by their sacred Touch, and invoca- tion of the name of God, to cure those who are afflicted with the disease called the King's Evil ; and his Ma- jesty, in no less measure than any of his Royal Prede- cessors, having had good success therein ; and, in his most gracious and pious disposition, being as ready and willing as any King or Queen of this Realm ever was, in any thing to relieve the distresses and neces- sities of his good subjects ; yet, in his princely wisdom, foreseeing that in this (as in all other things) order is to be observed, and fit times are necessary to be ap- pointed for the performing of this great work of cha- rity, his Majesty was therefore this day pleased to de- clare in Council his Royal will and pleasure to be, That (in regard heretofore the usual times of present- ing such persons for this purpose have been prefixed by his Royal Predecessors) the times of public healings shall from henceforth be from the Feast of All-Saints, commonly called Alhallovv-tide, till a week before Christmas; and after Christmas, until the first day of March, and then to cease till the Passion-week, being CHARLES II. 143 times most convenient, both for the temperature of the season, and in respect of contagion, which may happen in this near access to his Majesty's sacred Person. And when his Majesty shall at any time think fit to go any progress, he will be pleased to appoint such other times for healing as shall be most conve- nient. And his Majesty doth hereby accordingly order and command, that, from the time of publishing this his Majesty's order, none presume to repair to his Majesty's Court to be healed of the said disease, but only at or within the times for that purpose hereby ap- pointed as aforesaid. And his Majesty was farther pleased to order, that all such as shall hereafter come or repair to the Court for this purpose, shall bring with them certificates, under the hands and seals of the par- son, vicar, or minister, and of both or one of the churchwardens of the respective parishes where they dwell, and from whence they come, testifying, ac- cording to the truth, that they have not, at any time before, been touched by his Majesty, to the intent to be healed of their disease. And all ministers and churchwardens are hereby required to be very careful to examine into the truth before they give such cer- tificates; and also to keep a register of all certificates they shall from time to time give. And, to the end that all his Majesty's loving subjects may the better take knowledge of this his Majesty's command, his Majesty was pleased to direct, that this Order be read publicly in all parish-churches, and then be affixed to some 144 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. conspicuous place there ; and for that end the same be printed, and a convenient number of copies sent to the Most Reverend Father in God the Lord Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Archbishop of York, who are to take care that the same be delivered to all parishes within their respective provinces. Loyd. " London, printed by the Assigns of John Bill, de- ceased, and by Henry Hills, Printers to the King's Most Excellent Majesty." A regular Notice to the same effect was published by authority in the London Ga- zette. In 1684, John Browne, Sworn Chirur- geon in Ordinary to the King's Most Ex- cellent Majesty, published a work, not now easily to be met with, except in the Libraries of the curious ; and perhaps, for its general subjects, exploded at this day, as the fashion of physick has much altered, as well as many new and important discoveries been made, since it was written. It is in three Books. The Titles to the three Books are — 1 . " Adenochoiradelogia ; or, an Anatomick- Chyrurgical Treatise of Glandules and Stru- CHARLES II. 145 maes, or King's Evil Swellings. Together with the Royal Gift of Healing or Cure thereof, by contact or imposition of Hands, performed for above 640 years by our Kings of England, continued with their admirable Effects and miraculous Events; and concluded with many wonderful Examples of Cures by their Sacred Touch ; all which are succinctly described by .John Browne, one of His Ma- jesty's Chyrurgeons in Ordinary, and Chy- rurgeon of his Majesty's Hospital ; published with His Majesty's Royal Approbation : To- gether with the Testimony of many eminent Doctors and Chyrurgeons. Sold by Samuel Lowndes, over-a^ainst Exeter Change in the Strand." 2. " Chceradelogia ; or an Exact Discourse of Strumaes, or King's Evil Swellings ; wherein are discovered their Names and Natures, Differences, Causes, Signs, Presages, and Cure, in that modest, and plain Dress, that the meanest capacity may hereby find out the Disease." 3. Cha- risma Basilicon; or, the Royal Gift of Heal- ing Strumaes, or King's Evil, Swellings, by J. 146 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Contact or Imposition of the Sacred Hands of our Kings of England and of France, given them at their Inaugurations. Shewing the Gift itself, and its continued Use, de- claring all Persons Healed thereby, without any respect either to their Age, Sex, Temper, or Constitution ; with the Manner, Form, and Ceremonies thereof; and divers general Rules for the meanest capacity to find out the Disease. The best expedient to prevent poor People from unnecessary Journeys. The whole concluded with above Sixty ad- mirable Cures, performed with and without Gold, by His Majesty's Benediction ; by His Late Majesty's precious Blood; and the like." Prefixed to the work is a portrait of Browne, engraved by R. White, inscribed " Johannes Browne, Regis Britannici necnon Nosocomii sui Chirurgus Ordinarius ;" and a curious frontispiece, also engraved by White, entitled "The Royal Gift of Healing," re- presenting Charles II. seated on his Throne, surrounded by his Court, touching for the King's Evil. This ceremony seems to have been in CHARLES II. 147 high vogue during this reign. " The King gives freely/' says Mr. Browne, " not call- ing the Angels to witness, nor sinking so low as others do, to perform the same by Black Art or Indian tment. He does it with a pure heart, in the presence of the Almighty, who knows all things, without superstition, curing all that approach his Royal Touch. And this I may frankly presume to aver, that never any of his Predecessors have ever exercised it more, or more willingly or freely, whose wonderful effects, and cer- tainty of cure, we must and shall ever ac- knowledge *." This is followed by accounts of about 70 " wonderful and miraculous cures, performed by his Majesty's Sacred Hands ;" and also by " An Account of the Number of Persons touched for the King's Evil, from May 1660 to September 1664, from the Registers kept by Thomas Haynes, Esq. Serjeant of the Chapel Royal ; from which I shall copy the totals of each year : * Browne, book iii. p. 126. L2 148 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. 1660 - - 6725 1661 - - 4619 1662 - - 4275 1663 - - 4667 1664 - - 3335 Another account, kept by Mr. Thomas Donkley, Keeper of his Majesty's Closet be- longing to the Chapel Royal, continues the Numbers as follows : 1667 - - 3078 1668 - - 3543 1669 - - 2983 1670 - - 3377 1671 - - 3568 1672 - - 3771 1673 - - 4457 1674 - - 5079 1675 - - 3471 1676 - - 4454 1677 - - 4607 1678 - - 3456 1679 - - 3752 1680 - - 3796 1681 - - 2461 1682 - - 8577 Summa Totalis - - - 92,107 149 QUEEN ANNE. It appears by the Newspapers of the time, that on the 30th of March, 1714, two hun- dred persons were touched by Queen Anne *, Amongst these was Samuel Johnson, after- wards the justly celebrated Moral Writer. He was sent by the advice of Sir John Floyer, then a Physician at Lichfield ; and many years afterwards, being asked if he could remember Queen Anne, said, {i he had a confused, but somehow a sort of solemn re- collection of a Lady in diamonds, and a long black hood." The Honourable Daines Barrington f has preserved an anecdote, which he heard from an old man who was witness in a cause with respect to this supposed miraculous power of Healing. " He had, by his evidence, fixed the time of a fact, by Queen Anne's having been at Oxford, and touched him, whilst a * The Ceremony used in this Reign is given in the. Appendix, No. II. t Observations on the Statutes, 150 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. child, for the Evil. When he had finished his evidence, I had an opportunity of asking him, whether he was really cured ? Upon which he answered, with a significant smile, " that he believed himself to have never had any complaint that deserved to be considered as the Evil ; but that his parents were poor, and had no objection to the hit of gold." The learned and honourable Writer very properly observes on this occasion, " that this piece of gold, which was given to those who were touched, accounts for the great resort upon this occasion, and the supposed after- wards miraculous cures/' GEORGE I. Although this Monarch, who succeeded to the Crown in 17^4, had the good sense not to pretend to this miraculous Gift, it was as- sumed by the Descendants of the race of Stuarts. And it is well recollected, that Mr. Carte's (in other respects very excellent) " History of England" fell into almost GEORGE I. 151 immediate disrepute, on his making, in one of his notes, a bold assertion, the substance of which shall be here given : " Whatever is to be said in favour of its being appropriated to the eldest Descendant of the first branch of the Royal Line of the Kings of France, England, &c. I have myself seen a very remarkable instance of such a cure, which could not possibly be ascribed to the Royal Unction. One Christopher Lovel, born at Wells in Somersetshire, but when he grew up residing in the City of Bristol, where he got his living by labour, was extremely afflicted for many years with that distemper, and such a flow of the scro- phulous humour, that, though it found a vent by five running sores about his breast, neck, and arms, there was such a tumour on one side of his neck, as left no hollow between his cheek and the upper part of his left shoulder, and forced him to keep his head always awry. The young man was reduced, by the virulence of the humour, to the lowest state of weakness ; ap- peared a miserable object in the eyes of all the inha- bitants of that populous city; and, having for many years tried all the remedies which the art of physic could administer, without receiving any benefit, re- solved at last to go abroad to be touched. He had an uncle in the place, who was an old seaman, and carried him from Bristol, at the end of August, A. D. 1716, along with him to Cork in Ireland, where he put him on board a ship that was bound to St. Martin's in the 152 VIRTUES OF ROYAL TOUCH. Isle of Ree. From thence Christopher made his way first to Paris, and thence to the place where he was touched, in the beginning of November following, by the eldest lineal Descendant of a race of Kings, who had, indeed, for a long succession of ages, cured that distemper by the Royal Touch. But this descendant and next heir of their blood had not, at least at that time, been crowned or anointed. The usual effect, however, followed : from the moment that the man was touched and invested with the narrow riband, to which a small piece of silver was pendant, according to the rites prescribed in the office appointed by the Church for that solemnity, the humour dispersed in- sensibly, iiis sores healed up, and he recovered strength daily, till he arrived in perfect health, in the begin- ning of January following, at Bristol, having spent only four months and some few days in his voyage. There it was, and in the week preceding St. Paul's fair, that I saw the man, in his recovered vigour of body, without any remains of his complaint, but what were to be seen in the red scars then left upon the five places where the sharp humour had found a vent, but which were otherwise entirely healed, and as sound as any other part of his body. Dr. Lane, an eminent physician in the place, whom I visited on my arrival, told me of this cure, as the most wonderful thing that ever happened ; and pressed me as well to see the man upon whom it was performed, as to talk about his case with Mr. Samuel Pye, a very skilful GEORGE I. 153 surgeon, and I believe still living in that city, who had tried in vain, for three years together, to cure the man by physical remedies. I had an opportunity of doing both ; and Mr. Pye, after dining together, car- rying me to the man, I examined and informed my- self fully of all particulars, relating as well to his illness as his cure; and found upon the whole, that if it is not to be deemed miraculous, it at least deserved the character given it by Dr. Lane, of being one of the most wonderful events that has ever happened." 154 ROYAL TOUCH. APPENDIX, No. I. The Ceremonies for the Healing of them that be diseased with the King's Evil, as they were practised in the time of King Henry VII*. Rubrick. — First, the King, kneeling, shall begin, and say, In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Rubrick. — And so soon as He hath said that, He shall say, Benedicite. Rubrick. — The Chaplain, kneeling before the King, having a stole about his neck, shall answer, and say, Dominus sit in corde tuo et labiis tuis, ad confitendum omnia peccata tua, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Rubrick. — Or else to say, Jesus nos exaudiat, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. * Published by Command of King Charles II. ; and printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel, 16S6. CEREMONIES. 155 Rubrick. — Then by and by the King shall say, Confiteor Deo, Beatse Mariee Virgini, Omnibus Sanctis, et Vobis, quia peccavi nimis in cogitatione, locutione, et opere, mea culpa [sic .J Precor Sanctam Mariam, omnes Sanctos Dei, et Vos, orare pro me. Buhrick. — The Chaplain shall answer, and say, Misereatur Vestri Omnipotens Deus, et demittat Vobis omnia peccata Vestra, liberet Vos ab omni malo, salvet et confirmet in bono, et ad vitam perducat eeternam. Amen. Absolutionem et Remissionem omnium peccatorum Vestrorum, spatium verse pceni- tentise, et emendationem vitee, gratiam et consolationem Sancti Spiritus, tribuat Vobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus. Amen. Rubrick. — This done, the Chaplain shall say, Dominus Vobiscum. Rubrick. — The King shall answer, Et cum Spiritu tuo. Rubrick. — The Chaplain. Sequentia Sancti Evangelii secundum Mar- cum. Rubrick. — The King shall answer. Gloria tibi, Domine. 156 ROYAL TOUCH. Rubrick. — The Chaplain shall read the Gospel. In illo tempore, recumbentibus undecim Discipulis apparuit illis Jesus ; et exprobavit incredulitatem eorum, et duritiem cordis, qui iis qui viderant eum resurrexisse, non credi- derunt. Et dixit eis, Euntes in mundum uni- versum, praedicate Evangelium ornni crea- turse. Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit ; qui verb non crediderit, con- demuabitur. Signa autem eos, qui credi- derint, haec sequentur : In nomine meo dae- monia ejicient, Unguis loquentur novis, ser- pentes tollent ; et si mortiferum quid bibe- rint non eis nocebit ; super aegros manus imponent, et bene [seipsos] habebunt. Rubrick. — Which clause [super aegros, &c] the Chaplain repeats as long as the Kin"' is handling: the Sick Person. And in the time of the repeating the aforesaid words [super aegros, &c] the Clerk of the Closet shall kneel before the King, having the Sick Person upon the right hand, and the Sick Person shall likewise kneel before the King; and then the King shall lay his hand upon the Sore of the Sick Person. This done, the CEREMONIES. 15/ Chaplain shall make an end of the Gospel ; and in the mean time the Chirurgeon shall lead away the Sick Person from the King. — Et Dominus quidem Jesus, postquam locutus est eis, assumptus est in caelum, et sedet a dextris Dei. Illi autem profeeti, pns- dicaverunt ubique, Domino cooperante, et sermonem confirmante, sequentihus signis. Rubrick. — Then the Chaplain shall begin to say again, Dominus Vobiscum. Rubrick. — The King shall answer, Et cum spiritu tuo. Rubrick. — The Chaplain. Initium Sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem. Rubrick. — The King shall say. Gloria tibi, Domine. Rubrick. — The Chaplain then shall say this Gospel following. In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt; et sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est ; in ipso vita erat, et vita erat Lux hominum ; et Lux in tenebris lucet, et Tenebrse earn non comprehenderunt. Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat 158 ROYAL TOUCH. Joannes. Hie venit in testimonium, ut tes- timonium perhiberet de lumine, ut omnes crederent per ilium. Non erat ille Lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine. Erat Lux vera quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum. Rubrick. — Which last clause [Erat Lux vera, &c] shall still be repeated so long as the King shall be crossing the Sore of the Sick Person with an Angel Noble. And the Sick Person to have the same Angel hanged about his neck, and to wear it until he be full whole. This done, the Chirurgeon shall lead away the Sick Person, as he did before; and then the Chaplain shall make an end of the Gospel. — In mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit. In propria venit, et sui eum non receperunt. Quot (mot autem receperunt eum dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri, his, qui credunt in nomine ejus, qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt. Et Verbum caro fac- tum est, et habitavit in nobis ; et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi unigeniti a Patre, plenum gratiae et veritatis. CEREMONIES. 159 Rubrick. — Then the Chaplain shall say, Sit nomen Domini henedictum. Rubrick. — The King shall answer, Ex hoc nunc et usque in seculum. Rubrick. — Then shall the Chaplain say this Collect following, praying for the Sick Person or Persons. Domine exaudi orationem meam [nostram]. Rubrick. — The King shall answer, Et clamor meus [noster] ad te veniat. Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, salus seterna credentium, exaudi nos pro famulis tuis, pro quibus misericordise tuse imploramus aux- ilium, ut, reddita sibi sanitate, tibi in Eccle- sia tua referantactiones. Per Christum Do- minum nostrum. Amen. Rubrick. — -This Prayer is to be said se- cretly, after the Sick Persons are departed from the King, at his pleasure. Dominator Domine Deus Omnipotens, cujus benignitate ceeci vident, surdi audiunt, muti loquuntur, claudi ambulant, leprosi mun- dantur, omnes infirmorum curantur lan- guores, et a. quo solo donum Sanationis hu- mano generi etiam tribuitur, et tanta gratia 160 ROYAL TOUCH. pro incredibili tua erga. hoc regnum boni- tate, Regibus ejusdem concessa est, ut sola raanuum illorum impositione, morbus gravis- simus fcetidissimusque depellatur : concede propitius ut tibi propterea gratias agamus, et pro isto singular! beneficio in nos collato, non nobis ipsis, sed nomini tuo assidue gloriam demus, nosque sic ad pietatem semper exer- ceamus, ut tuam nobis donatam gratiam non solum diligenter conservare, sed indies magis magisque adaugere laboremus ; et prsesta ut quorumcunque corporibus in no- mine tuo manus imposuerimus, hac tua vir- tute in illis operante et nobis ministrantibus, ad pristinam sanitatem restituantur, earn con- servent, et pro eadem tibi, ut summo Medico et omnium morborum depulsori, perpetuo no- biscum gratias agant ; sicque deinceps vitam instituant, ut non corpus solum ab infirmitate, sed anima etiam a peccato omnino sanata videatur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Sancti Spiritus, per omnia secula seculorum. Amen. * * " Ritualia Varia," in the British Museum. CEREMONIES. 16*1 APPENDIX, No. II. From a Foeio Prayer Book, printed 17 10, jit the Healing. Prevent us, O Lord, &c. Gospel. From the 16th Chapter of St. Mark, be- ginning at the 14th Verse : " Afterwards he appeared, Sec." to the end of the Chapter : " and confirming the Word with Si^ns fol- lowing." Let us pray. Lord have mercy upon us. Christ, &c. Lord, &c. Our Father, &c. Rubrick. — [Then shall the Infirm Persons, one by one, be presented to the Queen upon their Knees ; and, as every one is presented, and while the Queen is laying her Hands upon them, and putting the Gold about their necks, the Chaplain that officiates, turning M 162 ROYAL TOUCH. himself to her Majesty, shall say these words following :] God give a Blessing to this Work; and grant that these Sick Persons, on whom the Queen lays her Hands, may recover, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ruhrick. — [After all have been presented, the Chaplain shall say,] Verse. — O Lord, save thy Servants ; Resp. — Who put their Trust in Thee. Verse. — Send them Help from thy Holv Place. Resp. — And evermore mightily defend them. Verse. — Help us, O God of our Salvation. Resp. — And, for the Glory of thy Name deliver us, and be merciful to us Sinners for thy Name's Sake. Verse. — O Lord, hear our Prayers. Resp. — x\nd let our Cry come unto Thee. Rubrick. — [These answers are to be made by them that come to be healed.] Let us pray. O Almighty God, who art the Giver of all Health, and the Aid of them that seek to CEREMONIES. 163 thee for Succour, we call upon thee for thy Health and Goodness mercifully to he shewed upon these thy Servants, that they, being healed of their Infirmities, may give Thanks unto thee in thy Holy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Rubrick. — -[Then the Chaplain, standing with his face towards them that come to be healed, shall say,]] The Almighty Lord, who is a most strong Tower to all them that put their Trust in him ; to whom all things in Heaven, in Earth, and under the Earth, do bow and obey, be now and evermore your Defence ; and make you know and feel, that there is none other Name under Heaven given to Man, in whom, and through whom, you may receive Health and Salvation, but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The Grace of our Lord, &c. Amen, m 2 164 CEREMONIES OF APPENDIX, No. III. 'The Ceremonies of Blessing Cramp-Mings on Good- Friday, used by the Catholick Kings of England. The Psalme "Deus misereatur nostri," &c. with the iS Gloria PatrL" May God take pity upon us, and blesse us ; * may he send forth the light of his face upon us, and take pity on us. That we may know thy ways on earth * among all nations thy salvation. May people acknowledge thee, O God ; * may all people acknowledge thee. Let nations reioice, and be glad, because thou iudgest people with equity, * and doest guide nations on the earth. May people acknowledge thee, O God, may all people acknowledge thee, * the earth lias sent forth her fruit. May God blesse us, that God who is ours : BLESSING CRAMP -RINGS. 165 may that God blesse us, * and may all the bounds of the earth feare him. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, and now, and ever, * and for ever, and ever. Amen. Then the King reades this Prayer : Almighty eternal God, who by the most copious gifts of thy grace, flowing from the unexhausted fountain of thy bounty, hast been graciously pleased, for the comfort of mankind, continually to grant us many and various meanes to relieve us in our miseries ; and art willing to make those the instruments and channels of thy gifts, and to grace those persons with more excellent favours, whom thou hast raised to the Royal dignity ; to the end that, as by Thee they Reign, and govern others, so by Thee they may prove beneficial to them, and bestow thy favours on the peo- ple : Graciously heare our prayers, and fa- vourably receive those vows we powre forth with humility, that Thou mayst grant to us, who beg with the same confidence the favour which our Ancestours, by their hopes in thy 166 CEREMONIES OF mercy have obtained : through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Rings lying in one bason or more, this prayer is to be said over them : O God, the Maker of heavenly and earthly creatures, and the most gracious Restorer of mankind, the Dispenser of spiritual grace,and the Origin of all blessings; send downe from heaven thy Holy Spirit the Comforter upon these Rings, artificially fram'd by the work- man ; and by thy greate power purify them so, that all the malice of the fowle and ve- nomous Serpent be driven out ; and so the metal, which by Thee was created, may re- maine pure, and free from all dregs of the enemy : through Christ our Lord. Amen. The Blessing of the Rings. O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, heare mercifully our prayers. Spare those who feare Thee. Be propitious to thy suppliants ; and graciously be pleased to send downe from Heaven thy holy Angel, that he may sanctify ^ and blesse ^< these Rings; to the end they may prove a healthy remedy to such as implore thy name with humility, and BLESSING CRAMP- RINGS. 167 accuse themselves of the sins which ly upon their conscience : who deplore their crimes in the sight of thy divine clemency, and he- seech, with earnestness and humility, thy most serene piety. May they in fine, hy the invocation of thy holy name, become profita- ble to all such as weare them, for the health of their soule and body, through Christ our Lord. Amen. A Blessing. O God, who hast manifested the greatest wonders of thy power by the cure of diseases, and who were pleased that Rings should be a pledge of fidelity in the Patriark Judah, a priestly ornament in Aaron, the mark of a faithful guardian in Darius, and in this King- dom a remedy for divers diseases ; graciously be pleased to blesse *fr and sanctify >J< these Rings ; to the end that all such who weare them may be free from all snares of the Devil, may be defended by the power of celestial armour; and that no contraction of the nerves, or any danger of the falling-sickness, may in- fest them ; but that in all sort of diseases by thy help they may find relief. In the name 168 CEREMONIES OF of the Father, >J< and of the Son, ^ and of the Holy Ghost. >J< Amen. Blesse, O my soule, the Lord, * and let all things which are within me praise his holy name. Blesse, O my soule, the Lord, * and do not forget all his favours. He forgives all thy iniquities, * he heales all thy infirmities. He redeemes thy life from ruin, # he crownes thee with mercy and commiseration. He fils thy desires with what is good : * thy youth, like that of the eagle, shall be re- newed. The Lord is he who does mercy, $ and does iustice to those who suffer wrong. The merciful and pitying Lord : * the long sufferer, and most mighty merciful. He wil not continue his anger for ever; * neither wil he threaten for ever. He has not dealt with us in proportion to our sins ; * nor has he rendered unto us ac- cording to our offences. Because according to the distance of heaven from earth, * so has he enforced his mercies upon those who feare him. BLESSING CRAMP - RINGS. 169 As far distant as the east is from the west, * 30 far has he divided our offences from us. After the manner that a Father takes pity of his sons ; so has the Lord taken pity of those who feare him : * because he knows what we are made of. He remembers that we are but dust. Man, like hay, such are his days ; * like the flower in the field, so wil he fade away. Because his breath wil passe away through him, and he wil not be able to subsist, * and it wil find no longer its owne place. But the mercy of the Lord is from all eternity; * and wil be for ever upon those who feare him. And his iustice comes upon the children of their children, * to those who keep his wil. And are mindful of his commandments, * to performe them. The Lord in heaven has prepared himself a throne, and his kingdom shall reign over all. Blesse yee the Lord, all yee Angels of his ; yee who are powerful in strength ; * who execute his commands, at the hearing of his voice when he speakes. 170 CEREMONIES OE Blesse yee the Lord, all yee vertues of his: * yee Ministers who execute his wil. Blesse yee the Lord, all vee works of his throughout all places of his dominions : * mv Soule praise thou the Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, and now and ever, * and for ever and ever. Ainen. Wee humbly implore, O merciful God, thy infinit clemency ; that as we come to Thee with a confident soule, and sincere faith, and a pious assurance of mind : with the like devotion thy beleevers may follow on these tokens of thy grace. May all superstition be banished hence ; far be all suspicion of any diabolical fraud ; and to the glory of thy name let all things succeede : to the end thy beleevers may understand Thee to be the dis- penser of all good ; and may be sensible, and publish, that whatsoever is profitable to soule or body, is derived from Thee : through Christ our Lord. Amen. These Prayers being said, the King's High- nes rubbeth the Rings between his hands, saying, BLESSING CRAMP -RINGS. 171 Sanctify, O Lord, these Rings, and gra- ciously bedew them with the dew of thy bene- diction, and consecrate them by the rubbing of our hands, which thou hast been pleased according to our ministery to sanctify by an external effusion of holy oyle upon them : to the end that what the nature of the mettal is not able to performe, may be wrought by the greatnes of thy grace : through Christ our Lord. Amen. Then must holy water be cast on the Rings, saying, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. O Lord, the only begotten Son of God, Mediatour of God and men, Jesus Christ, in whose name alone salvation is sought for ; and to such as hope in thee givest an easy acces to thy Father : who, when conversing among^men, thyself a man, didst promise, by an assured oracle flowing from thy sacred mouth, that thy Father should grant what- ever was asked him in thy name: Lend a gra- cious eare of pity to these prayers of ours ; to the end that, approaching with confidence to the throne of thv grace, the beleevers may 172 BLESSING CRAMP - RINGS. find, by the benefits conferr'd upon them, that by thy mediation we have obtained what we have most humbly begd in thy name : who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God for ever and ever. Amen. Wee beseech thee, O Lord, that the Spirit, which proceedes from thee, may prevent and follow on our desires : to the end that what we beg with confidence for the good of the faithful, we may efficaciously obiaine by thy gracious gift : through Christ our Lord. Amen. O most clement God ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; wee supplicate and beseech thee, that what is here performed by pious ceremonies to the sanctifying of thy name, may be prevalent to the defense of our soule and body on earth ; and profitable to a more ample felicity in heaven : who livest and reignest God, world without end. Amen. 173 §?>temtnata $flagnattttiL ORIGIN OF THE TITLES OF SOME OF THE ENGLISH NOBILITY. " When Adam dolve, and Eva span, Who was then a Gentleman ? Then came the Churle, and gather'd Good; And thence arose the Gentle Blood." " It is an ancient received saying, that there is no Poverty but is descended of Nobility ; nor no Nobility but is descended of Beggary." History of the Gwedir Family, p. 94. Westmoreland, Earl. — From ihe County. Burghersh*, Baron (Fane). — Bartho- lomew, Baron of Burghersh, was the Tenth * A corruption of Burghwash, a little Village in Sussex, on the River Rother. See Camden's Brit. 1^4 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Knight of the Order of the Garter, at the Institution 1350 ; who left a Daughter and Heir, who married Edward Le Despenser ; which official Title was afterwards erected into a Barony by Summons, A. D. 1285 ; and was for a long time merged in the Fa- mily of Fane, Earl of Westmoreland, till the failure of Male Issue in a direct line, 1762. The Earldom and Barony of Burghersh passed to a distant branch* of the name of Fane ; but the Barony of Le Despenser went by a Female to Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart in right of his Mother. Le Despenser, Baron (Stapletgn). — A nominal Title from official derivation. It was held originally by Descent and Summons, A.D. 1295. Anno 23 Edward I. it passed by Marriage to the Earl of Westmoreland ; and, being a Fee, descended to Sir Francis Dash- wood, Bart.; and after him to his Sister, Lady Austen, and now, 17&8, is vested in Sir Thomas Stapleton, Bart, of Oxford- shire . OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 1/5 Wentworth *, Viscount (Noel). — After the Barony of Wentworth had con- tinued for several successions in the name of Wentworth, of Nettlestead in Suffolk, the Title devolved on Anne, the Wife of John Lord Lovelace, whose Daughter Martha inherited the Barony of Wentworth, and to whom the Title was confirmed, hy Descent, in Parliament, A. D. 1702 ; and she walked at the Coronation of Queen Anne as Baroness Wentworth in her own right. She dying without Issue, lj^o, the Title devolved on the Descendants of Sir William Noel, Bart, who had married Margaret, another Daughter of Lord Lovelace, hy Anne, the Heiress of Wentworth Lord Wentworth. Hence the Title passed to Edward, the eldest Son of Sir Clobery Noel, Bart, who succeeded to his Father's Title of Baronet, 1/33; and to the Barony of Wentworth, as Heir of Margaret, * The Ancestor of this Family was Thomas Went- worth, Earl of Cleveland ; which Title became extinct, for want of Male Issue, 1667. The Barony passed as above. \jG ORIGIN OF THE TITLES 1/45. He was created Viscount Wentworth of Wellesborough, co. Leic. 1762. Ho we and, Baron (Russeel). — A Ba- rony in the Duke of Bedford, granted in honour of Elizabeth, Daughter of John Howland, Esq. of Streatham in Surrey (bv whom the Family acquired that estate), who married Wriothesley, Grandson of the first Duke of Bedford, and the eldest Soti of Lord William Russell, who was beheaded ] 683 *. Normanby, Marquis, extinct (Shef- field). — The second Title of Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, taken from an ob- scure place in Lincolnshire. Chandos, Duke (Brydges). — The Pa- tent is dated April 29, 17 19, wherein the Grantee is styled " Duke of Chandos in the County of Hereford." The Dukedom became extinct, by the death of James the third Duke, s. p. 1789. The Barony exists (1790), if a claim to it can be established, as that creation bears date A. D. 1554. * See Collins' s Baronage, i. 267, 272. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 177 Arundel of Wardour, Baron (Arun- del *). — From Wardour Castle in Wiltshire. He is a Count of the Empire by Grant of Rodolphll. A.D.I 595 f. Sondes, Baron (Watson). — A revived Title, from the inheritance of part of the es- tates of Lewis Watson, Earl of Rockingham and Viscount Sondes. Lewis Watson, having married the Heiress of Sir George Sondes, K. B. w 7 as created Earl of Rockingham and Viscount Sondes, in honour of his Wife's Father, 1714; so that the present Title is nominal. The Estate at Lees-Court in Kent came by the above marriage. Onslow and Cranley, Baron (Onslow). — This Barony is both nominal and local, for the Family came from Onslow in Shrop- shire. Their first settlement in Surrey was at Knowle, in the Parish of Cranley, whence * See Camden's Britannia, col. 112. t See Camden, for the words of the Patent. N 1/8 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES came the second Barony by creation to George Onslow, the Son of Arthur (the Speaker), in the life-time of his Cousin Richard, then Lord Onslow, 177°*. The original Patent, 1716, to Richard (who was Speaker also) the eldest Son of Sir Arthur Onslow, Bart, was limited to the Heirs Male of his Father, which carried the Title of Baron Onslow of Onslow and Clendon *, to the Son of Arthur (the Speaker), on the death of his Cousin Richard Lord Onslow, 1776 f- N. B. George Lord Onslow and Cranley was created into the latter Title, May 14, 1776; and succeeded his Cousin Richard in the Title of Onslow, on the 8th of the fol- lowing October. Berkeley, Earl. — From Berkeley Cas- tle, the present Seat of the Family, in Glou- cestershire. The Barony of Berkeley is a Feudal Honour by the Tenure of the Castle of Berkeley ; and the Possessor of it had * Clendon is the Seat of the Family in Surrey, t See Camden's Brit. col. 182, as to the Family. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY, 179 Summons to Parliament as a Baron by that Tenure, anno 23 Edward I. * Dursley, Viscount. — From Dursley in Gloucestershire, the original Seat of the Family. De Clifford, Baron (Southwell). — From Clifford Castle in Herefordshire ; where Walter Fitz-Ponce, whose Father possessed it by marriage, resided, and took the name of Clifford. The first Fitz-Ponce came hither with the Conqueror, to whom he was related. The Barony passed in the Female Line to the Family of Southwell, to which it was confirmed A. D. 177°^ The first Summons to Parliament was anno 23 Edward I. 1295. Ducie, Baron, of Morton and Tort- worth (Reynolds). — The Peer of the name of Ducie was descended from Sir Robert Ducie, Lord Mayor of London, 1631 ; * Dale's Catalogue of the Nobility, 1697, p. 72. n2 180 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES and who had been created a Baronet*. The Issue Male of the name of Ducie failing, the Title was renewed by Patent, 1763, to Matthew Ducie, Lord Ducie of Morton in Staffordshire ; with a Limitation to Thomas and Francis Reynolds, his Nephews, and their Heirs Male successively, by the Style of Lord Ducie of Tortworth in Gloucester- shire. Thomas Reynolds succeeded to this Title on the death of his Uncle, 1770 ; and dying without Issue 1785, it devolved on his Brother Francis ; who dying in 1808, was succeeded by his Son Thomas, present Lord Ducie. Powis, Earl (Herbert). — Powis is a part of Shropshire bordering on Wales; and was formerly a little Kingdom, still known by the name of Powis-Land. The first Ba- ron was created by Henry I. on a surrender of the actual Territory, and an acknowledg- ment of service f. * Pennant's London, fourth edition, p, 346. t Pennant's Tour in North Walea, vol. II. p. 436. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 181 Ludlow, Viscount. — From the Town of that name in Shropshire *. Audlet, Baron (Thicknesse-Touchet). Audley is in Staffordshire. John Touchet married Joan, eldest Daughter of Lord Aud- ley of Heleigh, whose Descendant was found Heir, and had Summons to Parliament, A. D. 1296f . The honour of Peerage in the name of Touchet, who was also Earl of Castle- haven in Ireland, ended in a Daughter (Lady Elizabeth), who married Philip Thicknesse, Esq. and died in 1762, leaving Issue; the Barony (being a Fee) passed to George Thicknesse, her Son, on the death of the Earl of Castlehaven, 1777; an( l wno nas taken, by sign -manual, 1784, the additional name of Touchet. The Earldom is extinct. Abergavenny, Earl (Nevile). — This is a Title derived from a Lord Marcher, and taken, among many others now merged or * The Barony of Herbert of Cherbury was revived in this Branch in 1743. f Collins's Peerage, 182 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES extinct, from the place conquered. Mr. Pennant says, it is the only surviving Title of that nature *. Nevile, Viscount. — From the Name. Middleton, Baron (Willoughby). — From an obscure Village, near Sutton-Cold- fleld, in Warwickshire f. Coventry, Earl. — From the City, or the Name. Deerhurst, Viscount (Coventry). — From a place in Gloucestershire. Stanhope, Earl. — A nominal Title. The first Peer of this Branch was created Viscount Stanhope of Mahon, and Baron Stanhope of Elvaston, in the County of Derby, 1717, from his having taken Port-Mahon, in the Island of Minorca, 1708. * Tour in North Wales, vol. II. p. 439, 4to. t Pennant's Journey from Chester to London, 4to, 1782, p. 127. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 183 Mahon, Viscount (Stanhope). — The same Peer was created Earl Stanhope 1718, by which his second Title became " Viscount Mahon." Dudley and Ward, Viscount (Ward). — The Barony of Ward is nominal, and was conferred in 1644. The Viscounty (by crea- tion in 17^3) is derived from a Village near Birmingham in Warwickshire. N. B. The Viscounty includes both Ho- nours; the Title being Viscount Dudley and Ward. Dorchester, Earl (Damer). — Lord Milton, a Baron both of England and Ireland, was created Earl of Dorchester in Dorset- shire, 1792. Milton, Viscount. — From Milton Ab- bey, the Seat of the Family, in Dorsetshire. The Title of Viscount was granted by the Patent in 1792. 184 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Dorchester, Baron * (Carleton). — Sir Guy Carleton, K. B. was created Baron of Dorchester in Oxfordshire, 1JH6. Sir Dudley Carleton was created Baron Carleton 1626, and Viscount Dorchester in Oxford- shire 1628. It is, however, denied by the Heralds that Sir Guy is of that Family. Leeds, Duke (Osborne). — From the Town of Leeds in Yorkshire. Carmarthen, Marquis. — - From Car- marthen in Wales. Danby, Earl. — From a Castle of the name in Cleveland, a District of Yorkshire. Albemarle, Earl. — otherwise Aumerle, and Aumale [Albo Maria, or White Marie], from a Town in Normandy, which gave Title to a Peer of France. It was conferred by William III. when at war with Louis XIV. * The Marquisate of Dorchester, which was in the late Dukes of Kingston, was from Dorchester, Dorset. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 185 Bury, Viscount (Keppel). — In Suffolk. Harrington, Earl (Stanhope*). — From a Village in Northamptonshire. Petersham, Viscount (Stanhope). — A Village near Richmond in Surrey -j\ Suffolk, Earl. — From the County. Bindon, Viscount (Howard). — In Dor- setshire. It was the Seat of Lord Marnev (A. D. 1607); and came to this Branch of the Family of Howard hy a Marriage with the Heiress of Lord Marney J. Shipbrooke, Viscount. — Richard Ver- non was possessed of the Barony of Ship- * Sir Michael Stanhope, of Haiington in Nor- thamptonshire, was the common Ancestor of the Earls of Chesterfield and of Harrington ; as also of Earl Stanhope. t At Petersham was a Villa belonging to the Earl of Rochester, which was burnt down in 1721 ; after which the Earl of Harrington possessed and took it for his second Title in 1742. % Camden, col. 57. 186 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES broke, in Cheshire, in the time of Richard the First *. Orwell, Baron (Vernon). — Vernon, Baron of Shipbroke, was one of the Barons (of the Palatinate of Chester) created by Hugh Lupus, the first Norman Earl of Chester. Extinct *|\ Beaulieu, Earl ; Beaulieu, Baron (Hussey-Montague). — Beaulieu is an Ab- bey in Hampshire, and was part of the Estate of John (Montagu) Duke of Montagu, in- herited by his Daughter and Co-heiress the Duchess of Manchester, who married Sir Edward Hussey, K. B. Upon this marriage he took the additional name of Montague. Vernon, Baron (Vernon). — The Title is nominal and local, from Vernon in Nor- mandy J. The Descent is from Hamon de Massie-Venables, of Kinderton, in Cheshire, * Pennant's Journey from Chester , 1782, p. 19. t Pennant's Tour in North Wales, 1778, p. 125. % Collins's Peerage, 1779. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 187 who was one of Hugh Lupus's Palatinate Barons, as Earl of Chester. Harcourt, Earl. — The Title is from the Name, which is local, from a Town in Nor- mandy, and which is also the Title of a French Dukedom. Nuneham, Viscount (Harcourt). — From the Earl's Seat in Oxfordshire. The Earldom was erected in 1?49. GraftoNj Duke. — From a Village in Northamptonshire, which was erected into an Honour, and conferred by King Charles II. on his Natural Son by the Duchess of Cleveland. Ejjston, Earl (Fitzroy), — From the Seat in Suffolk. Devonshire, Duke (Cavendish). — From the County. Descended from a Gen- tleman Usher to Cardinal Wolsey f. * See Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. Collins's Col- lections, 188 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Hartington, Marquis (Cavendish). — From an obscure Village (the Property of the Duke) in the Peak of Derbyshire. Dorset, Duke. — From the County. Sir Lionel Cranfield, Knight, Lord Cranfield, &c. was a Shop-keeper in London, as his Father had been before him *. Effingham, Earl (Howard). — From Effingham in Surrey, a Seat of this Branch of the Family, and where there was a Castle. Sussex, Earl. — From the County. Longueville, Viscount (Yelverton). — Sir Henry Yelverton, the Second Baronet, married Susan Baroness Grey of Ruthyn, Daughter and sole Heiress of Charles Longueville, Lord Grey of Ruthyn. To this Title the eldest Son of Sir Henry succeeded on the death of his Mother (being a Barony in Fee) ; and was followed by his Brother * Bibl. Top. Brit. vol. VI. No XV. from D'Ewes's MS Journal in the British Museum. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 189 Henry, who was created Viscount Longue- ville 1690. Talbot Yelverton, the eldest Son of Henry, was created Earl of Sussex in 1717. Beaufort, Duke. — Henry Beaufort, third Duke of Somerset, temp. Henry VII. had a Natural Son, to whom he gave the names of Charles Somerset (afterwards a Knight), whose Descendant was created Duke of Beaufort. Thus, by a Child of Casualty, the Name and Title have changed positions; as what was Beaufort Duke of Somerset is now Somerset Duke of Beau- fort. Worcester, Marquis (Somerset). From the City. Manchester, Duke. — From the Town. Mandeville, Viscount (Montagu). — A nominal Title from Geoffrey de Man- deville, who possessed Kimbolton, the Seat of the Family, temp. Guil. Conq. * * Kelham's Key to Domesday Book, p. 35. 190 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Mandeville is a Village in Normandy (a corruption of Magnaville, i. e. Magna Villa), which gave name to the person who accom- panied William the Conqueror *. Waldegrave, Earl. — Waldegrave is a Village in Northamptonshire. Chewton, Viscount (Waldegrave).— From a place in Somersetshire f. Mount - Edgecumbe, Earl. — Baron Edgecumbe by Creation, 1/42. Earl of Mount-Edgecumbe by Creation, 1789. From the Family Seat in Cornwall. Valletort, Viscount (Edgecumbe). — From an old Norman Barony (De Valle Torta), with Lands annexed, in Devonshire, the property of the Family J. Gainsborough, Earl. — From the Town. Campden, Viscount (Noel).— Campden is in Gloucestershire. * Vincent on Brooke. t Camden's Britannia, col. 85. % Ibid. col. 21. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 191 Sir Baptist Hicks, created Viscount Camp- den 1628, left two Daughters, the elder of whom married Lord Noel, one of whose De- scendants (Edward) was created Earl of Gainsborough 1682. Digby, Earl. — This Title, when a Ba- rony, was nominal (though local in itself, from Digby, co. Lincoln) till Henry, the late Peer, was created Earl of Digby in 1790. He dying in 17^3, was succeeded by Edward the present Earl. Coleshill, Viscount (Digby). — In Warwickshire. The Manor of Coleshill was forfeited by Sir Simon Montfort, on a charge of High Treason in supporting Perkin War- beck ; when it was given to Simon Digby, then Deputy Constable of Coleshill Castle*. Montagu, or Montacute, Viscount (Browne). — From a high Hill in a Village in Somersetshire ; where William Earl of Moreton, Maternal Brother to William the * Pennant's Journey from Chester, p. 129. 192 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Conqueror, built a Castle, which, as it rises from its base to a sharp point, he called Mons acutus. Thus far the tradition ; and Bishop Gibson, in his Edition of Camden's Britannia, allows this to have been the place from which Sir Anthony Browne, the first Viscount, had the Title *. Rutland, Duke. — From the County. Granby, Marquis (Manners). — From a Village in Nottinghamshire. The Barony of Roos of Hamlake-f- gives Title to the eldest Son of a Marquis of Granby, in his Father's life-time. Kent, Duke. — From the County. Harold, Earl (Grey), Extinct. — From a place of the name in Bedfordshire. There was in this Family the Viscounty of Gooderich, from Gooderich Castle in Here- fordshire. * Camden's Britannia, col. 72. f Collins, in his Peerage 17 35, says, that Hamlake is the same as Hemsley in Yorkshire (North Riding). OP ENGLISH NOBILITY. 193 Abingdon, Earl. — In Berkshire. Norreys, Baron (Bertie). — James Bertie, the first Earl of Abingdon (who was the second Son of Montagu Bertie, the second Earl of Lindsey) was the Issue of a second Wife ; viz. Bridget Baroness Nor- reys of Rycote in her own right. He had Summons to Parliament as Baron Norreys in 1572, and was created Earl of Abingdon in 1682 * Dacre, Baron (Roper, late Barrett- Leonard). — Originally both nominal and local, the first Peer having been Dacre of Dacre Castle in Cumberland. Being a Barony in Fee, it has had owners of different names 4*. Godolphin, Earl. — From a Hill (per- haps anciently a Seigniory) in Cornwall. * See Camden's Britannia, col. 315. f There were two Barons of this Title existing at the same time ; viz. Lord Dacre of the North, and Lord Dacre of the South. Both at length centered in Barrett-Leonard Lord Dacre. o 194 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES The proper name is Godolcan, corrupted into Godol/phin. The word signifies, in the Cornish language, " White Eagle ;" agree- ably to which, the Arms of the Family are, " Gules, an Eagle displayed between three Fleurs de Lis Argent *." Rialton, Viscount. — From a Village in Cornwall f. Tankerville, Earl. — Originally from a Town and Castle in Normandy J. The pre- sent Title is derived from Ford Lord Grey of Werk, who was created Earl of Tanker- ville (a dormant Title in his Family) in 1695. This Earl left an only Daughter, who mar- ried Charles Bennet, Baron of Ussulston, who was afterwards (1714) created Earl of Tankerville. * See Camden's Britannia, col. 14. t On the death of Francis Earl of Godolphin, 1766, the Barony devolved to Francis, his first cousin ; and on his death, in 1785, became extinct, % See Peerage, 1711, vol. II. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 195 Ussulston, Baron (Bennet). — From one of the Hundreds of Middlesex. Arlington, Earl. — The Title was de- rived from Arlington in Middlesex, the Seat of Sir Henry Bennet, who was created Baron Arlington 1664, and Earl of Arlington in 1672. He died in 1685. Thetford, Viscount (Bennet), Extinct. — In Norfolk. Bridgewater, Duke (Egerton). — The Lord Chancellor was the founder of this Fa- mily, and was a Natural Son of Sir Richard Egerton, Knight, of Ridley in Cheshire, by the Daughter of one Sparks of Bickerton *. Grey de Wilton, Baron (Egerton). — The present Peer (Sir Thomas Egerton, * For other circumstances see Mr. Pennant's Tour in North Wales, vol.1, p. 105 ; and vol. II. p. 187, in the corrections and -additions to vol. I. o2 196 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Bart.) is descended from Bridget, sole Sister and Heir to Thomas Lord Grey of Wilton, a Female Barony, denominated from Wilton in the County of Hereford *. Hertford, Earl. — From the Town. Beauchamp, Viscount (Conway). — No^ minal and local, from a place in Normandy. Scarborough, Earl. — From Scarbo- rough in Yorkshire. Lumley, Viscount (Lumley, with the additional name of Sanderson). — From Lumley Castle, in the Bishoprick of Durham. Rivers, Baron (Pitt). — The first of the name, De Redvers, came hither with Wil- liam the Conqueror, and was made Earl of * The Barony was conferred upon Sir Thomas Egerton by Creation in 1784, notwithstanding his claim by Df scent. — His Lordship was in 1801 ad- vanced to the Titles of Viscount Grey de Wilton, and Earl of Wilton. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 197 Devonshire. Baldwin de Ttedveriis (or Ri- veriisj, Earl of Devonshire, had Estates in the neighbourhood of Exeter*. George Pitt, Ancestor of the present Lord Rivers (created in 177°)> married Jane Daughter of Savage, Earl Rivers of Rock- Savage in Cheshire, Relict of George, the sixth Lord Chandos. She brought a large Estate to her second Husband, partly as Heiress of Savage Earl Rivers, and partly from her first Husband. Darlington, Earl. — From Darlington, in the Bishoprick of Durham. Barnard, Viscount (Vane). — From Bar- nard-Castle, in the Bishoprick of Durham. Brownlow, Baron (Cfst). — A nominal Title ; for Sir Richard Cust, Bart, married Anne Daughter of Sir William Brownlow, Bart. Sister, and at length Heir, to John * See Tanner's Notitia. — The name is written Ridvers, alias Redvers,'m Camden's Brit. col. 156. 198 ORIGIN OF THE TITLES Brownlow, Viscount Tyrconnel, of the King- dom of Ireland, seated at Belton in Lincoln- shire. Hawkesbury, Baron (Jenkinson). — Though this Family is styled of Walcot in Oxfordshire, it was originally seated at Hawkesbury in Gloucestershire. Heathfield, Baron (Eliot). — Sir George Augustus Eliot, K. B. who com- manded at Gibraltar during the celebrated Siege, chose this place in Sussex (his pro- perty) for his Title. It is said that the decisive Battle, called " The Battle of Has- tings," was fought on this spot *. Camden, Marquis. — From his House at Chislehurst in Kent, formerly the residence of Camden the celebrated Antiquary, and now called Camden Place. * East-Bourne Guide, p. 73. OF ENGLISH NOBILITY. 199 Bayham, Viscount (Pratt). — From Bayham Abbey, in Sussex, an Estate in the Family of Pratt, and now in possession of the Marquis. Dynevor, Baroness (Rice and De Car- donel). — From Dinevawr in Caermarthen- shire. She is the Daughter of the first Earl Talbot, and Widow of George Rice, Esquire. In the year 1J"80 the Earl was created Baron of Dinevawr, with limitation to his Daughter and her Issue male ; and which took place on the Earl's death, in 1J"82. She enjoyed the Title till her death, 1793, when it descended to her eldest Son George Talbot Rice, who, in pursuance of the Will of his Grandmother, Lady Talbot (whose maiden name was De Cardonel), changed his Name, Arms, and Crest, to those of De Cardonel only, by Sign Manual, in May 1793 [See the Gazette]. * * The Baroness had taken the Name and Arms of De Cardonel on the death of her Mother in 1787. The Barony of Talbot, on the Earl's death, passed to his Nephew, though the Earldom became extinct, hut was afterwards revived. 200 ORIGIN OE ENGLISH TITLES. Newcastle, Duke (Holles). — From Sir William Holies, Lord Mayor of London*. Holderness, Earl (Darcy), Extinct. — For the origin of the Family, see Leland's Itinerary, vol. VI. p. 24. Northampton, Marquis (Parr), Ex- tinct. — For the origin of this Family, see also Leland's Itinerary, vol. VIII. p. 96. * See Collins's Collections 201 Cngltsi) 9rmoriai Bearings. Edward IV. is by Shakespeare made to say that he would bear Three fair shining Suns on his Target, from the time he is said to have seen Three Suns at one time. (Hen. VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. i.) * Mont eagle. — Stanley, Baron of Mont- eagle, so entitled for his valour at Flodden Field, because his Ancestors bore an Eagle for their Crest. Vide Hon. Anglic, p. 109. Carey. — In the Reign of Henry V. was held, at Smithfield, a Just between Robert Carey of the West, Son of Sir John Carev, Knight, and a Foreign Knight, of the King- dom of Aragon. Carey vanquished the Ara- gonese, and took his Coat Armour in lieu * Consult Sandford, &c. for his Armorial Bearings. 202 ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. of his own; viz. " Argent, on a Bend Sable, Three Roses of the First :" which have ever since been borne by the name of Carey, whose antient Coat was " Gules, a Chevron be- tween Three Swans Proper, one whereof they still retain in their Crest *." N. B. These are the Arms of Carey ; though, from the words " of the JVest" one would think Careiv was intended. But the account agrees with the Arms of Viscount Falkland. Cooper and Cowper. — Cooper Earl of Shaftesbury bears Three Bulls: Cowper Earl Cowper does not. i( The Eagle and Child" haying been adopted as the Crest of the Earl of Derby, its Origin is a circumstance of no small cu- riosity. Nothing is more common than for a Tenant or Dependant to take the Crest of his Lord or Chief for a Sign ; which will account for the greatest part of the Bulls' Heads, Grif- * Stowe's History of London, Book iii. p. 239. ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. 203 tins, Falcons, Lions, Boars, &c. in the King- dom. Thus from one quarter they straggled into different places, as those people who had occasion for Signs emigrated from their own Counties and Districts. Amongst these the Sign in question is one; and is to be found in various places that have no present con- nexion with the original, the Importer of such Device being, perhaps, long since dead. This, being the Crest or Cognizance of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, it most probably was first used in Lancashire, and the parts contiguous, as a Sign. I at first conceived it to be a fabulous affair; but find, from good and respectable authorities, that there is not only probable, but substantial History contained in it; as the major part of the Estate is derived to the Family from the Issue of the very Child in question. The first account of this matter I shall give from " A Survey of the Isle of Man*," of which the Stanleys Avere for se- veral ages Kings and Lords, holding of the * By William Sacheverell, Esq. late Governor of the Island, printed at London, 1702. 204 ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. Kings of England, by Grant of Henry IV. (anno 7)? by Homage and the Service of a * Cast (of Falcons), payable on Coronations. The Stanleys were Kings as much as any Tributary King whatsoever, making Laws, Sec. They appeared on a certain day in Royal Array, sitting in a Chair, covered with a Royal Cloth and Cushions, with their Vi- sage to the East ; the Sword borne before them, with the point upwards ; with their Barons, Knights, Squires, &c. about them. Such were the Descendants of the Child we are going to speak of more largely. Sir John Stanley (temp. Richard II.) was a Knight of the greatest fame in mat- ters of Chivalry; who, having been a great Traveller, was known for his prowess in most parts of Europe. On his return, he was fol- lowed by a Frenchman, who challenged the whole English Nation. Sir John accepted his challenge, fought, and slew him in the presence of the King. This addition to his fame raised his reputation among the men, and procured him so much favour with the * i. e. Two Falcons. Dugdale's Baronage. ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. 205 ladies, that he attracted the particular at- tention of the Heiress of the Family of Latham, who was young, rich, and beauti- ful. Sir. John, with the true spirit of Er- rantry, declared it was for her he fought ; and at length, contrary to the inclination of her Father, married the Lady. Mr. Sacheverell then relates the story which gave birth to this appendage to the Armorial Bearing of the Stanley Family. These are his words : " The Lord of Latham and his Lady, being Childless, as they were walking in the Park, heard a Child crying in an Eagle's nest : they immediately ordered their servants to search the Eyery, who presented them with a beau- tiful Bov, in rich swadling-cloaths. The good old lady looked upon it as a present sent from Heaven, ordered it to be carefully educated, and gave it the Surname of La- tham. He (the Child) was knighted by Kin£ Edward III. by the name of Sir Oskytel Latham, and left sole Heir of that vast estate. He had one daughter, named Isabella, who by marriage brought the ho- 206 ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. nours of Latham and Knowsley, with many other Lordships, to Sir John Stanley." Mr. Sacheverell goes no further into the Story ; and the Reader will be naturally in- clined to know whose Child this was, and how it was conveved into the Eagle's nest. For this we must have recourse to Sir Wil- liam Dugdale # , who relates the Story more circumstantially, and, as he says, upon cre- dible tradition ; viz. That a Sir Thomas de Latham had a natural Son, called Oskytel, by an obscure woman, who lived near him ; and, " having no Child by his Lady, he de- signed to adopt this Oskytel for his Heir ; but so that he himself might not be suspected to have been the Father. Observing, there- fore, that an Eagle had built her Nest in a large spread oak within his Park at Lathom, he caused the Child in swadling cloaths to be privily conveyed thither ; and (as a won- der) presently called forth his Wife to see it ; representing to her, that, having no Issue, God Almighty had thus sent him a Male Child, and so preserved, that he looked upon * Baronage, vol. II. p. 257. ENGLISH ARMORIAL BEARINGS. 20/ it as a miracle ; disguising the truth so arti- ficially from her, that she forthwith took him (the Child) with great fondness into the house, educating him with no less affection than if she had been his natural Mother : whereupon he became Heir to that fair in- heritance ; and that, in token thereof, not only his Descendants, whilst the Male Line endured, but the Stanleys proceeding from the said Isabel (the Heir Female), have ever since borne the Child in the Eagle's Nest. with the Eagle thereon, for their Crest. Francis Bourgeois, Member of the Royal Academy, had leave from King George III. to wear the Polish Order " Merentibus/' The Diploma is dated Warsaw, February 16, 1791. Ordered to be registered in the College of Arms. 208 ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF A FEW 3RemarkaMe i^ttraames- Lewkenor. — Sir Lewis, Master of the Ce- remonies ; from one of the Hundreds of Lincolnshire, called anciently Levechenora ** Kempe. — The same as Champion. The Danish wordf. Misenor. — From Mesonero, anlnn-keeper; Spanish. Muncaster.— -The old name of Newcastle upon Tyne; quasi Monk -Caster. The pre- sent name was perhaps taken on its being rebuilt. Mease. — From Meze, a messuage J. Hugesson. — Cardinal Hugezun came over as the Pope's Legate, temp. Henry II. § * Brady's History of England, General Preface, p. 50. t Brady's Preface to the Norman History, p. 150. % See Blount's Diet. § Brady's Hist. p. 415. REMARKABLE SURNAMES. 209 Dempster. — The Judge3 of the Isle of Man were called Deemsters *. Eldred. — There was an Archbishop of York of the name of Aldred, temp. Wil- liam the Conqueror. Perhaps contracted from Altered, the Latin of Alfred. Brett ell. — There is a Seignory in Nor- mandy of the name of Bretteville. So we have corrupted the name of Frescheville into Fretivell. Belassis. — Something of this name may be seen in Brady's History, p. J 96. Larpent. — From the French, U Arpent ; Arpent signifying an acre. We drop the apostrophe. Duppa. — De Uphaugh and, by apos- trophe, D' Uphaugh, according to Anthony Wood. Firmin. — From St. Fermin in France. Paliser. — An official name of such person or persons who had the care of the pales of a forest f . * Sachevereli's History of the Island, p. 2. f Manwood's Forest Law?. 210 ORIGIN, SCC. OF Ord. — Signifies a Promontory in the High- land ; and, I presume, is Erse *. Boivnas and JBonas. — Corrupted from JBuchan-Ness, the seat of the Earl of Errol f. Ridgeway. — A local term for the way of the ford, or passage over a stream. Ryd and Rith signifying a ford J. Fitzherbert. — It is written Filius-Her- herti in very old deeds §. The Finches were called Finch -Herbert formerly; which led Daniel Earl of Winchelsea to think he was related to the Fitzherherts. Thus Leland : " The Finches that be now, say, that theire propre name is Hereberte ; and that with mariage of the Finche-Heyre, they tooke the Finche's name, and were called Finche- Herebert, joining booth names ||." Herbert of Kent married the heiress of Finch, and took that name as a prefix, which they soon corrupted into Fitz-lierbert. But the Fitzherberts were a family before the * Pennant's Tour, p. 158. f Ibid. p. 124. X Hasted's History of Kent. § Ex inform. Dom. Gul. Fitzherbert, Baroretti. || Itinerary, VI. 52. REMARKABLE SURNAMES. 211 Finches were fledged ; and in old deeds the name is given Films Herberti. Champernoun. — Devonshire: a corruption of Campernidph, or De Campo Arnulphi ; called, says Camden, Cltampernoun*. Smelt. — Ralph Luvel (or Lovel) an an- cestor of the Percivals, was, in the time of King Stephen, called also Simelt, for which no reason is given f. Names of Men, of Places, and Things, have changed, and hy seeming corruption have come right again. Thus, for Men. Tollemache Talmash Tollemache Legarde Ledgiard Legarde Lyttelton Littleton Lyttelton. Fauconberg Falconbridge Fauconberg J Cholmondeley Cholmley Cholmondeley Osbaldiston Osberton Osbaldiston. I take this to be a local name, from Os- haldiston in Lancashire, q. Osbald his Town. There is in Yorkshire Osbaldwic Jc, pronounced * Britannia, col. 35. f See Collins's Peerage, 1779, art. Lovel and Hollmd. % So Shakspeare has it. v2 212 REMARKABLE SURNAMES. Oshenuick. It should be Oswald, a Bishop of York and Martyr, in both cases. We have the name Bernardiston, from a place of the name in Suffolk *. Roberts bridge, in Sussex, appears to be a corruption of Rothersbridge, as it was long called, and with plausibility ; for it is situated on the river Rother : but the former is the truth, as I have been informed that in old Latin deeds it is styled Pons Roberti. There are some terms which, by a double corruption, have got home again ; as Cre- visses, in Derbyshire ; where Crevise, the word for a Cray -fish, is a corruption : but it gets home by it ; for the French word from whence cr ay -fish was first formed, is ecrevisse. This too is the radical word ; for the lobster is but a species of it, and called V ecrevisse de ?ner, or sea-cray-fish ; what is now called the sea-cray-fish, is properly the lobster. This difference consists in the want of claws. * For both the places see Spelman's Villare. 2J3 OR, An Attempt to Elucidate some of the more Obscure Armorial Bearings, principally the Mottoes used by many of the Scottish Families. In a Letter to the Earl of Leicester, President of the Society of Antiquaries. " Arma Virunique." There seems to be something peculiarly significant and quaint in the greatest part of the Mottoes and Devices used by the Scottish Nobility, and perhaps in those of many Fa- milies of inferior Rank ; though these last do not so easily come under our observation. My intention is, to trouble your Lordship with my thoughts on a few of these Mottoes (as we call them); and refer to your extensive knowledge in the science of Heraldrv, and your love of investigation, for the rest of these obscure impreses. We must, however, -distinguish between the Motto and the Slug horn (or, as Sir George Mackenzie gives it, upon the more 214 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. Southern pronunciation, Slogan* J ; the latter being a cry de guerre, whereas the former (though one may sometimes answer both purposes) seems more to relate to some his- torical circumstance by which the Family have been signalized. The original idea of these words, I have no doubt,, related to War, and operated as what we now call the Watch- Word, and more emphatically the JVord by the circulation of which the King can, at this day, call his guards about him, as the Chiefs of Scotland formerly assembled their Vassals in their respective divisions or clans. The French call it a Mot ; and the Italians, by an augmentation, Motto ; which last we have adopted when we speak in an heraldic style. The true Scottish term is a Ditton, the Slughorn being properly the cry de Guerre. Not to go into the antiquity of Mottoes, or Armory, further than the subject in question shall lead me, I shall content my- self with observing that Armorial Bearings in general, with us m England, have little * The Glossary to Douglas's Virgil adduces the Term from the Anglo-Saxon Siegan, interficere. MOTTOES, &C 215 more than the fancy of the party, with He- raldic sanction, for their foundation ; or some distant allusion to the name. Take one sin- gular instance of this last case, which Mr. Boyer (in his Theatre of Honour) gives, as a whimsical bearing-. The Arms of the name of Matthias are three Dice (sixes as the highest throw), having, I make no doubt (though Mr. Boyer gives no reason for it), a reference to the election of St. Matthias into the Apostleship : " And the lot fell upon Matthias." One of the writers in the Anti- quarian Discourses (Mr. Agarde) thinks the old Motto of the Caves, of Stanford, in Northamptonshire, a happy conceit ; the an- cient Crest being a Grey-hound currant, with a label issuing out of its mouth, with these words, " Adsum; Cave." Had the Cave stood alone, without the Dog or the Adsum, it might have been very well, and have operated religiously, morally, or politi- cally : but otherwise the Dog seems to run away with the Wit. The Family, since Mr. Agarde's time, appear to have been sensible of this awkward compound, and have adopted 216 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. the French word Gardez for the Motto ; though I think they had better have kept the Cave (as I have observed), and hanged the Grey-hound; though perhaps it was con- ceived at the time the Adsum was dropped, that Ca-ve, in the Latin, might be confounded with the English, Cave ; and that it would have appeared as if they had taken the name for the Motto, without another Latin word to denote that language; and therefore might take Gardez, which shews itself to be French. Mr. Agarde's own Motto is much more apposite to his name; which, he tells us at the end of his Memoir, was, Dieu me Garde; hut at the same time this would have ad- mitted of improvement ; for the French verb Garder was originally Agarder, which, had he known it, would have enabled him to have made the pun complete — Dieu m Agarde. Before I quit the subject in general, I can- not help mentioning a bon mot of a friend of mine (and he has so much wit that I shall not rob him in the least by the repetition), on his visiting Chatsworth, to see the house. The MOTTOES, &C. 217 Motto of the noble owner is, as your Lord- ship well knows, Cavendo Tutus, to which the Family has happily adhered in their Po- litical concerns. The state rooms in that house are floored with old oak, waxed, and very slippery, in consequence of which my friend had very near fallen down ; when, re- covering his equilibrium, he observed, " that he rather supposed the Motto related to the floors than the name." But it is time to lead to the matter I pro^ posed, viz. the Scottish Mottoes ; and yet, before I proceed to them, I wish to pre- mise something on the grounds of a few of the Armorial Bearings among the most ancient Scottish Families, which have ori- ginated from History. The principal Family of the name of Douglas carries " A Man's Heart Gules," as a fixed principal Charge, because the Good Sir James Douglas, as he is styled, carried the Heart of 218 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. King Robert I. (of the name of Bruce) to Jerusalem, and there interred it*. The ori- ginal Coat Armour of Douglas was, " Azure, in chief Three Stars Argent f." The Heart is now imperially crowned ; but that is a later introduction J, not borne at least by those who merely quartered the Arms. Campbell, Duke of Argyle, Marquis of Lorn, &c. bears in the Second and Third Quarters (for the Lordship of Lorn) a Feudal Charge of " Or, a Limphad (or small Ship) Sable, with Flames of Fire issuing out of the Top of the Mast, and from the Fore and Hindermost Parts of the Ship v which Fire, says my Author, was called in old blazonry St. An- thony's Fire. The reason is, that, as the Territory lay upon the Coast, this Bearing was indicative of the Tenure by which the Lands were held in capite ; viz. by supplying a Ship with twenty Oars in time of War, if * Nisbet's Cadencies, p. 178. | Idem, p, 208. % Nisbet, Armories, p. I MOTTOES, &C. 219 required. The Reddendum runs, for the pro- vision of u Unam navem viginti Remoram, si petatur, tempore Belli, 6cc." * By Marriage, this Lordship, after many generations, came into the Family of Camp- bell, then Earl of Argyle ; but, in process of time, the Flames issuing from the Ship have been extinguished. This was not an uncommon Armorial Ap- pendage to other Feudal Lords, and Lord- ships similarly situated. Thus the Arms of the Isle of Arran are, " Argent, a Ship, with its Sails furled, Sable." The Earls of Orkney and Caithness have the Bearing of a Ship for the like reason ; being Lordships, or Feudal Earldoms, situate on the Coast ; but with Differences. The Earl of Orkney (and from thence the Earl of Caithness) bears a Ship of a more modern form, with three Masts ; but it has the honour of being within a double Tres- sure, counter-fleured, to shew its connexion with Royalty. * Nisbet, Armories, p. 203. 220 symbola scotica. Drummond carries, " Or, Three Bars wavy Gules." This simple Bearing, we are told, involves a Piece of History; for that an Hungarian Gen- tleman, of the name of Maurice, in the Reign of Malcolm III. had the command of a Ship in which Edgar Atheline, his Mother Aga- tha, and his Sisters Margaret and Christian, were embarked, in their return from England to Hungary. A Storm arose, and drove them on the Coast of Scotland, where they were landed in the Frith of Forth, and entertained by the King, who afterwards married Mar- garet. This Maurice so ingratiated himself with King Malcolm, that he was solicited by the King to settle in Scotland, which he did, and had grants of many Lands ; and particu- larly those at Drymen or Drummond, of which last he took the name. Drummond, as we must now call him, was afterwards appointed Seneschal of Lenox ; and the King assigned him the above Arms, alluding to his original Profession of a Naval Officer, and in memory of his having conducted the MOTTOES, &C. 221 then Queen safe through the Storm into the Port in Scotland *. Seton Earl of Winton. The Paternal Arms of Seton, afterwards Earls of Winton, were Crescents, for which no par- ticular reason appears : but the Lords of Seton have for some hundreds of years car- ried, " Or, a Sword erected in pale, support- ing an Imperial Crown Proper, betwixt Three Crescents within a Double Tressure, counter- fleured, Gules." This honourable Augmnenta- tion was granted by Robert the Bruce to his Nephew Sir Alexander Seton, of that Ilk, for the special and seasonable services performed by him and his Father Sir Christo- pher to that Monarch during the time of his troubles. Sir Christopher Seton, it seems, had lost two Estates of «reat value, one in Scotland, the other in England, together * Douglas's Peerage, p. 547. The Scottish Writers give different Derivations of the Name of Drummond, not to our present purpose ; though all seem to agree as to the reason of the Armorial Bearing of the Family, See the \Yorks of Drummond of Hawthornden. 222 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. with his Life, in the Service of his King and Country ; upon which account King Robert (whose Sister, Christian Bruce, Sir Christopher had married), when he had overcome his Enemies, restored his Nephew, Sir Alexander Seton, to the Lands in Scot- land which his Father had lost, though he could not re-possess him of the English Estate ; granted the Augmentation of the Sword and Crown to his Paternal Coat- Armour, to perpetuate their gallant Actions ; and added the Double Tressure, which at that time was given to none but such as had married, or were descended from, Daughters of the Blood-Roval *. One branch of the Family, viz. Sir Alexander Seton of Pit- wedden (at one time a Lord of Session), upon the event of the death of his Father, who, in the Reign of King Charles I. (during the Civil Commotions) was killed by a Shot from the King's Enemies, with a Banner in his hand, assumed the Armorial Bearing of " An Heart distilling Drops of Blood -j* ." * Nisbet, Cadencies, p. 191. t Ibid. p. 200. mottoes, &c. 223 These, my Lord, I offer in the line of No- bility, as Historical Bearings ; but many may likewise be found among the Gentry, who have Armorial Devices allusive to gal- lant actions, high employments, or other honourable circumstances. Of those, the few that follow, most easily occur, from the works of that laborious He- rald, Mr. Alexander Nisbet. Graham of Inchbrackie, descended of an eldest Son, of a second Marriage, of the first Earl of Montrose, gives, " Or, a Dyke [or Wall] fess-wise, Azure, broken down in several parts, &c." The Dyke there is assumed, to difference the Bearer from his Chief, and to perpetuate that action of Gramus (one of the Predecessors of the noble Familv of Graham) in pulling down the Wall [anno 420] built by the Roman Emperor Severus, which was thereafter called " Graham's Dyke." N. B. By the Dyke the Scots seem to mean the Wall, i. e. the Vallum, which is formed out of the Dyke. 224 symbol a scotica. Clark of Pennycuik. Sir John Clark, of Penny- cuik, had this Motto, " Free. for a Blast," which is explained in part by the Crest, which is a Man blowing a Horn : but for both the Crest itself, and the Motto, we must look into the Tenure of the Estate, which they derived, most probably by Mar- riage, from the Pennycuiks of that Ilk, an old Family in Mid-Lothian, who bore " Or. a Fess between Three Hunting Horns Sable, stringed Gules ;" and, by the ancient Te- nure of their Lands, were obliged, once a year, to attend in the Forest of Drumsleich, since called Barrowmuir, to give a Blast of a Horn at the King's Hunting. The Clarks, holding by the same Tenure, preserved the Motto. KlRKPATRICK, who gave the last Blow to Cummin, sup- posed to have been slain, cried out, " Lest he should not be quite dead, / will secure him" and stabbed him with his Dagger. Hence the Family took the Crest of " A MOTTOES, &c. 225 Hand holding a Dagger in Pale, distilling Drops of Blood ;" and with the Motto "Til make sicker (sure) ;" or, " I'll make sure."* Carrick. Stewart, Earl of Carrick. The Paternal Arms of Stewart, out of which was a Lion naissant, all within a Double Tressure, counter-fleured Gules : the Lion naissant intimating his original right to the Crown -f\ Farquharson, of Invercald, carries, in addition to his Pa- ternal Coat, " Argent, a Fir Tree growing out of a Mount Proper on a Chief Gules, — the Banner of Scotland in Bend, and on a Canton of the first (viz. Or), a Dexter Hand couped at the wrist, grasping a Dagger, point downwards, Gules." Mr. Nisbet says J, they carried the Fir Trees be- cause their Country abounded with such Trees ; the Hand grasping a Dagger, for * Nisbet, p. 147. See also Hume's History, ch. xiii. f Nisbet, Cadencies, p. 33. X Cadencies, p. 196. Q 226 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. killing the dimming ; and the Banner \& lately added, because the Grand-father of the present John Farquharson (1702) was killed at the Battle of Pinkie, carrying the Banner of Scotland. Wood. The Chiefs of this name have given Trees in different forms ; but Wood of Largoe placed his Tree between Two Ships under sail, as Admiral to King James III. and IV. in whose reigns he defeated the English with an inferior Force. Another Branch of the Family gave a Hunting-horn hanging upon the Branch of a Tree, to shew he was the King's Forester *. Forbes, of Watertown, charges his Coat with an " Escocheon Argent, a Sword and Key in Saltire Gules," as being Constable of Aber- deen : and for a Difference from the Grays, places a Quill or Pen in the Paw of the Lion in the Arms of Gray, because his Ancestor was Sheriffs Clerk of Angus f. * Nisbet, Cadencies, p. 202. f Idem, p. 203. MOTTOES, &C. 22J* John Ramsay, descended of the Ramsay s of Wylicleucb, in the Merss, who was Page to King James VI. thereafter Earl of Holdernesse, got for addition to his Paternal Bearing, " An Arm holding a naked Sword enflle of a Crown, with a Man's Heart on the point," because he rescued King James VI. from the Con- spiracy of the Earl of Gowrie and his Con- federates. The Paternal Coat was, " Argent, an Eagle displayed Sable." * These are what the Scottish Heralds call " Arms of Special Concession." •)* Ayton, of Kippo. This Family bears " A Baton Peri Or, couped;" which, Mr. Nisbet says, is an uncommon Bearing for a younger legi- timate Son, it being a mark of Bastardy by its position ; but he tells us, the Baton of this description, and thus borne, was granted to Sir John Ayton of Kippo, Knight, by King Charles II. as an Augmentation, because he had been Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod * Nisbet, Cadencies, p. 196. f See Nisbet's Armories. q2 228 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. to that King. Upon the Family Coat he therefore carried " A Baton Sable, charged on the top with one of the Lions of Eng- land." Stirling, of Glorat, carries " Argent, on a Bend en- grailed Azure, Three Buckles Or ; a Chief Gules, charged with a Naked Arm issuing out of a Cloud from the Sinister side, grasp- ing a Sword in pale, and therewith guarding an Imperial Crown ; all within a double Tressure, counterfleured of Thistles Vert/' Which honourable Addition was granted to this Family for special Services done to King Charles I. and King Charles II. in their Troubles. Binning, of Easter Binning, a Cadet of Binning of that Ilk, who carried " Argent, a Bend en- grailed Sable," added, for Difference, on the Bend, a Waggon of the first, because he and his seven Sons went in a Waggon covered with Hay, and surprised and took the Castle MOTTOES, &c. 229 of Linlithgow, then in the possession of the English, in the Reign of David the Bruce *. Lockart. This Name now bears a Man's Heart Proper, within a Padlock Sable, in perpe- tuation, they tell you, that one of the Name accompanied the good Sir James Douglas to Jerusalem, with the Heart of King Robert the Bruce. Be that as it may, it is intended to play upon the Name ; and, to preserve the Story the more entire, some Branches of the Family have strengthened it by the Motto, " Corda serata Pando" [some have it, FeroJ. These Devices are differently placed by different Branches ; but Mr. Nis- bet insinuates f that this Bearing is an as- sumption of a modern date ; and that the old Arms were, till within a century before he wrote [1702], " Three Boars' Heads erazed ; the Crest, a Dexter Hand holding a Boar's Head erazed, Proper ; the Motto, < Feroci Fortior.' " * Nisbet, Cadencies, p. 195. f Marks of Cadency, p. 199. 230 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. Norfolk. The Duke of Norfolk has an augmenta- tion, viz. an Escocheon Or, in the middle of the Bend, charged with a Demi-Lion Rampant, pierced through the Mouth with an Arrow, within a double Tressure coun- terfleur'd Gules ; which was granted by King Henry VIII. for his services at the Battle of Flodden Field * Besides these and many other Bearings, not at this day easily, if at all, to be accounted for, the Scots have, like ourselves, several that are responsive to the Name. Of these I have selected the few which follow, and have given their material Charge, without attending to the Colours, or to the Blazonry of the whole, Thus CocJcburn has a Charge of Three Cocks. Craw and Craufurd, Three Crows *j*. * Nisbet's Cadencies, pp. 91, 92. t This Bearing is of late introduction, as alluding to the Name ; for those of the Name anciently gave for Arms " Gules, a Fess Ermine ;" and another Branch gave " Argent, Three Stags' Heads erased Gules," MOTTOES, &C. 23 1 Fraser, Three Frases or Cinquefoils. Falconer, a Falcon. Forester, Three Bugle Horns ; and the Peer of that Name and Title has for his Motto, " Blow, Hunter, thy Horn." Heart, Three Men's Hearts. Hog, Three Boars' Heads. Justice, A Sword in Pale, supporting a Balance. Skene, Three Daggers, in the Scottish Language called Skenes. The Motto of Dalziel, Earl of Carn- warth, now an attainted Title, is, " I Dare ;" the reason of which is given by Crawfurd, in his Peerage of Scotland. The ancient armorial bearing of this Family was, [Nisbet]. Crawfurd of Cloverhill has a still stronger relation both to the Name and to his Seat ; for to the original Bearing he adds Three Crows ; for Crest has a Garb (or Wheatsheaf ) ; and for Motto, " God feeds the Crows." Id. p. 57. — Like the Motto of our Corbet, i( Deus pascit Corvos." 232 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. A Man hanging on a Gallows, though it is now only a Naked Man with his Arms ex- panded. Some one of the Family having, perhaps, dropped the Gallows and the Rope, as deeming it an ignominious Bearing. But to proceed to the Motto. The His- torian says, that a Favourite of Kenneth II. having been hanged by the Picts, and the King being much concerned that the Body should be exposed in so disgraceful a situation, of- fered a large Reward to him who would rescue the Body. Alpinus, the Father of Kenneth, with many of his Nobles, had been inhu- manly put to death ; and the Head of the King (Alpinus), placed upon a Pole, was ex- posed to the Populace. It was not for the redemption of his Father's Body, that the new King, Kenneth, offered the Reward ; but for that of some young Favourite, per- haps of equal age, who was thus ignomi- niously hanging as a public spectacle, for the King appears to have been beheaded. * This being an enterprize of great danger, no one was found bold enough to under- * Buchanan. MOTTOES. 233 take it, till a Gentleman came to the King and said, " Dal Ziel," i. e. " I Dare," and accordingly performed the hazardous ex- ploit. In memory of this circumstance, the Family took the above-mentioned Coat- Armour, and likewise the Name of Dalziel, with the interpretation of it, "I Dare," as a Motto. The Maiden Name (as I may call it) of this Family is not recorded, neither is the original Coat Armour of the Gentleman mentioned. These circumstances are related by Crawfurd, upon the authority of Mr. Nis- bet, in his Marks of Cadency, p. 41. Occasional changes in Coats of Arms, it is very well known, have always been common, owing to accidents and incidents, as well as atchievements, several instances of which may be seen in Camden's Remains. Similar to the case of Dalziel, is the rea- son given for the Motto of Maclellan, Lord Kircudbright, which is, "Think on." Craw- ford's account is to this effect. A Company of Saracens, from Ireland, in the Reign of King James II. infested the County of Gal- loway, whereupon the King issued a Pro- 234 SYMBOLA SCOTICA, clamation, declaring that " Whoever should disperse them, and bring their Captain, dead or alive, should have the Barony of Bombie for his reward." This was performed by the Son of the Laird of Bombie, who brought the Head of the Captain, on the Point of his Sword, to the King, who put him into the immediate possession of the Barony ; to per- petuate which action, the Baron took for his Crest a Moor's Head, on the Point of a Sword, with the words " Think on," for his Motto. It may be difficult to ascertain the meaning of these words; and one is at liberty either to suppose he addressed them to the King on the occasion, as if he had said " Think on your Promise :" — or they may apply to Posterity, advising them to Think on the gallant Action whereby they became ennobled : but I more incline to the former interpretation, because, in Yorkshire, which abounds with Scottish idioms, words, and proverbs, they say, " I will do so and so when I think on ;" and " I would have done so and so, but I did not think on," Our expression is, " Think of it." MOTTOES. 235 Maxwell, of Calderwood, has the same Motto, on a different idea. The Crest is " A Man's Head looking upright," to which the Motto seems to give a religious interpre- tation, and to imply, " Think on" Eternity *. A similar change appears to have been brought about, by religious attachments, in the Crest and Motto of Bannerman, which seems to extend to the rest of the Armorial Bearings. Sir Alexander Banner- man of Elsick, the chief, bore, " Gules, a Banner displayed Argent, and thereon a Canton Azure, charged with a St. Andrew's Cross. Crest, a Demi-Man in Armour, hold- ing in his Right Hand a Sword Proper. Motto, Pro Patrid." This Bearing is by Grant, 1692; but a younger Son of this House bore (when Mr. Nisbet wrote) the Field and Banner as above, " within a Bor- dure Argent, charged with Four Buckles Azure, and as many Holly-Leaves Vert, alternately." Buckles, in certain case we shall see hereafter, admit of a religious inter- pretation, and the Holly-Leaves (quasi * See Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 138. 236 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. Holy-Leaves), seem to have a similar import, especially when added to the new Crest, viz. s< A Man issuing out of the Wreath in a Priest's habit, and praying posture," with this Motto, " Haec prestat Militia*." This change might possibly take place about the enthusiastic time of the Union of the two Kingdoms, when religious party spirit ran high in Scotland f . Ross, Lord Ross, has the same Motto as Dalziel Earl of Carnwath ; but on what pretensions does not appear. I shall now proceed to another conjectural interpretation, as to the Motto of Lord Napier ; which is, " Ready, aye Ready." Sir Alexander Napier was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field (1513), leaving Issue Alex- ander, who married Margaret, the Daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy, an- cestor of the Earls of Breadalbine. The Motto, or rather, perhaps, Slug-Horn, of the * Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 414, 415. t See Memoirs of Ker of Kersland, MOTTOES. 237 Laird of Glenorchy, was, " Follow me." On this marriage, therefore, I am led to be- lieve that Alexander Napier might take the responsive Slug - Horn of " Ready, aye Ready," as if he had said, " always ready to follow you." This may, perhaps, primd facie, appear too hypothetical ; hut it is grounded upon the authority of a Friend, a Native of Scotland, who once told me that the Mottoes of the Lairds often had a refer- ence to that of their Chief. Something like this appears in the Motto of Fraser, late Lord Lovat, which is, " I am Ready." That Family is descended from a younger Branch, the elder having ended in Daughters. They had for their Ancestor, in the Female line, the Sister of King Robert 1. 5 and the Motto seems, if not responsive, at least expressive of Loyalty. This sort of Motto seems to prevail in the Family of Douglas. That of the elder Branches is, " Forward ;" to which the younger Branches reply, " Jamais Arriere," which may, perhaps, be best translated by the vulgar Scottish expression, " Hard at your Back.'' 238 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. The Motto of Hay, Earl of Errol, which is, " Serva Jugum," deserves our par- ticular attention ; and is founded on a well- attested historical fact, related to this effect by Mr. Crawfurd. In the Reign of Ken- neth III. (anno 980), when the Danes in- vaded this Island, and gave Battle to the Scots, whom they had routed at the Village of Loncarty, near Perth, a certain Husband- man of the name of Hay, who was tilling his Land, perceived his Countrymen flying before the Enemy ; when he and his two Sons, arming themselves with their Plough- gear, the old Man having the Yoke of the Oxen for his own Weapon, upbraided the Scots for their Cowardice, and, after much difficulty, persuaded them to rally. They accordingly, under the Command of this un- expected Leader and his Sons, armed with Yokes and Plough-shares, renewed the Engagement ; when the Danes, supposing their Enemy had received a reinforcement, fled in their turn. The King, in reward for this uncommon Service, advanced Hay to the Rank of Noblesse, and gave him as much MOTTOES. 239 Land as a Falcon, let loose from the Fists, should compass at one flight. The lucky Bird, says Dr. Ahercrombie, seemed sensible of the merits of those that were to enjoy it ; for she made a circuit of seven or eight miles long, and four or five broad ; the limits of which are still extant. This Tract of Ground, continues my Author, being called Errol, the Family took from thence its de- signation, or title. To these circumstances the Armorial Bear- ings of the Family have very strong allu- sions ; for the Supporters are Two Labourers with each a Yoke on his Shoulder ; the Crest is a Falcon; and the Motto "Serva Jugum." The Coat Armour likewise is, Argent, Three Escocheons Gules ; or, to speak in the lan- guage of noble Blazonry, Pearl, Three Es- cutcheons Ruby ; to intimate that the Father and his Two Sons had been the three fortu- nate Shields by which Scotland had been de- fended and saved. Another Branch of the Family (Hay, Earl of Kinnoul,) gives the same Coat, with a Bordure for difference; the Sup- 240 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. porters are likewise Two Husbandmen, the one having a Plough-share, and the other a Pick, or Spade, upon his Shoulder. The Yoke is preserved in the Crest, upon the Shoulder of a Demi-Man, from the waist upwards ; and the Motto seems to refer to the rallying of the Scottish Army in these words, " Renovate Animos." Buchanan further tells us, with regard to the modesty of these unexpected Conquerors, that, when they were brought to the King, rich and splendid Garments were offered to them, that they might be distinguished in a Tri- umphal Entry which was to be made into the Town of Perth; but the old Man rejected them with a decent contempt; and, wiping the dust from his ordinary Clothes, joined the Pro- cession, with no other distinction than the Yoke upon his shoulder, preceded and fol- lowed by the King's Train. More minute circumstances of this extraordinary Victory, obtained, after a palpable Defeat, at the in- stigation of one obscure Man, are related by Buchanan, to whom I refer your Lordship ; and you will find it equal to any instance we MOTTOES. 241 have of Roman Virtue, and the Amor Patrice, so much boasted of among the Ancients. Lloyd, in his Worthies, among his ob- servations on the Life of James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, tells us a chimerical story, but on what authority I do not discover; after having mentioned slightly the above fact, that James Hay, 600 years afterwards, " saved the King of that Country from the Gowries at their House with a Cultre (or Plough-share) in his hand ;" and that he had as much Land as- signed him as he could ride round in two days. It does not appear from the accounts we have of the Gowry conspiracy, that any person of the name of Hay was concerned ; but rather that this story has been confounded with the other, because, according to Dr. Abercrombie's account, the Land over which the Falcon flew in the first case, was in a part of Scotland known by the name of Gowry. Conyngham, Earl of Glencairn, has this very singular Motto, " Over Fork Over," R 242 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. alluding to the principal Charge upon the Shield, which is the rude and ancient Hay- Fork, called in Scotland a Shake-Fork, and is in shape not unlike the Roman letter Y. This Bearing, some of their Heralds tell us, was official, because, they say, the Family had been Hereditary Masters of the King's Horses and Stables, of which employment this instrument was indicative. Such official Charges and Sur-charges were common in Scotland: thus, Carnegie, Earls of Southesk, charge the Breast of their Blue Eagle with a Cup of Gold, being Hereditary Cup-Bearers to the Kings of Scotland. But this will not hold good as to the Conynghams ; though their Sur-charg-e of a Man on Horseback upon the Shake-Fork may perhaps be such an official Bearing. Different conjectures have been brought forward; and Mr. Camden and some others have interpreted the Fork to have been an Archiepiscopal Pall; for which surmise a very vague reason is given, viz. that an Ancestor of the Family was con- cerned in the Murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Which Bearing, MOTTOES. 243 Mr. Nisbet observes, would in such case operate rather as an abatement than a badge of honour*. This conjecture, however, will not hold good on heraldic principles ; for a Pall, when used as a Charge, is very differently re- presented, the three ends of it being square, and even touching the borders of the Escocheon; whereas the device before us is pointed at the ends, and does not come in contact with the edges of the Shield. But what has the Pall to do with the Motto ? We must therefore advert to other circumstances for an interpre- tation of both the reason of the Armorial Bearing and the Motto, which generally assist to explain each other. The account which comes nearest the point in the present ques- tion is given by Mr. Nisbet from Frederick Van Bassen, a Norwegian, who, he says, was a good Genealogist, and left in MS. an ac- count of the rise of some Scottish Families, and among the rest of this of Conyngham ; * Becket's Murderers were Four Barons, and Knights, no doubt, of course; viz. Reginald Fitz-Urse, William de Tracy, Hugh de Morville, and Richard Breto. [Consult Lord Lyttekon and his Authorities.} r2 244 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. from which MS. Mr. Nisbet gives this ac- count — " that Malcorne, the Son of Friskine, assisting Prince Malcom (afterwards sur- named Canmore) to escape from Macbeth's tyranny, and being hotly pursued by the Usurper's Men, was forced at a place to hide his Master by forking Straw or Hay above him. And after, upon that Prince's happy accession to the Crown, he, the King, re- warded his Preserver Malcorne with the Thanedom of Cunnigham, from which he and his Posterity have their Surname, and took this Figure to represent the Shake-Fork with which he, Malcorne, forked Hay or Straw above the Prince, to perpetuate the happy deliverance their Progenitor had the good fortune to give to their Prince." Ad- mitting this to be a fact, or even a legendary tale, credited by the Family when this Bear- ing was granted or assumed, there is an affinity between the Device and the Motto not to be found among the other conjectures. There is another Family where the true Armorial Ensigns are illustrated by the Motto ; viz. the Arms of Bailie of Laning- MOTTOES, 245 ton, which have often been blazoned as Nine Mullets or Spurrials (or 3, 3, 2, and 1) ; whereas it is evident they were Stars from the Motto, which is, " Quid clarius Astris ?" I make no doubt there are many others of a like kind to be found, arising from inattention or ignorance. It has been observed, that the Shake-Fork is now much obscured by an Armed Man on Horseback within an In- escocheon, which is supposed to allude to the Hereditary Office of Master of the Horse ; though whether this was the case, or whether that Bearing came by alliance, may be doubt- ful ; for Mr. Crawfurd, in his Peerage, does not give it as a part of the Family Coat of Conyngham in \f\6 ; though the more mo- dern Peerages have it. The shape of the Fork is more discernible in the Arms of Conyngham, Peers of Ireland, where it is not covered by a Sur-charge. The meaning of the name is local, Konyng-Ham ; i. e. The King's Village or Habitation ; which Etymon has been so long obscured by age, that the Lion Office, on granting Sup- porters to the Family, have given Two Rab- 246 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. bits, or Conies. The Irish Branch has dif- ferent Supporters ; viz. a Horse and a Buck ; though it preserves the Motto. The Earl of Traquair has for his Motto " Judge noucht ;" though there is nothing in his Armorial Bearings to which it can allude. One is therefore to look for some event interesting to the Family to ground it upon, which probably was this : Sir John Stewart, first created Baron, and afterwards Earl, of Traquair, by King Charles I. was Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, anno 1635, and remained a firm friend to the Royal Cause to the last. His adherence to it, how- ever, drew on him the resentment of the opposite party, insomuch that he was, 1641, impeached of High Treason, and found guilty; but the Parliament submitted his punishment to the King, who ordered him a Pardon under the Great Seal, the Preamble to which sets forth the King's high opinion of his abili- ties and his integrity in the discharge of his duty. Upon this transaction, it seems more MOTTOES. 247 than possible that the Earl, alluding to the rash and cruel treatment he had received from the Parliament for his loyalty to the King, might assume the Motto " Judge noucht ;" the complement of which, we all know, is, " That ye be not judged." Johnston, Marquis of Annandale. — . The modern Motto is " Nunquam non pa- ratus ;" but in the original Motto there is History, which connects with other parts of the Bearing. The Crest is "A winged Spur," and one of the Supporters is " A Horse furnished." The Crest was taken, because the Johnstons were often Wardens of the West Borders, and active in suppress- ing Thieves and Plunderers, who infested them during the Wars between England and Scotland ; whence was derived the original Motto, " Alight Thieves all ;" commanding, either by their authority or prowess, those Thieves to surrender. The Horse as a Sup? porter alludes to the same circumstance, or might be considered as a Bearing of Con- 248 SYMBOL A SCOTICA. quest, from a Horse taken from some famous Marauder *. The Johnstons of Westrow, orWesterhall, have a different principal Bearing in their Arms; viz. " A Man's Heart, ensigned with an Imperial Crown proper, in base," being part of the Arms of Douglas, in memory of the apprehension of Douglas Earl of Ormond, when in rebellion against James II. f Hamilton, Duke of Hamilton. — Motto, " Through." This Motto is older than the Nobility of the Family, if my conjecture be true ; as it seems to have originated from a circumstance which happened in the Reign of the Scottish King, Robert I. in England, at the Court of our King Edward II. Bat- tles, sieges, &c. had been maintained, with various success, between the two Kings, for a long time. During these animosities Sir Gilbert Hamilton, an Englishman, happen- ing to speak in praise of the intrepidity of Robert I. King of Scots, one of the De * Peerage of Scotland, 1767, octavo. t Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 146. MOTTOES. 249 Spencers (John, Mr. Crawfurd says,) who was of King Edward's Bed-chamber, drew his falchion, and wounded him. Sir Gilbert, more concerned at the contumely than at the wound, and being prevented at the moment from resenting it; yet when he met his anta- gonist the next day in the same place, ran him through the body. On this he imme- diately fled for protection to the King of Scots, who gave him lands and honours for this bold vindication of his valour*. The Motto of Murray, now Duke of Athol, is, " Furth, Fortune, and fill the Fetters ;" but it was originally given to John Stewart, Earl of Athol, and came to the Family of Murray by an intermarriage * Crawfurd's Peerage, in Duke of Hamilton. Bu- chanan, vol. I. p. 332, 333. Dr. Abercrombie, how- ever, gives us reasons to doubt that this was the first introduction of the name of Hamilton into Scot- land : though that is not material, if it was the occasion which introduced the Motto. This has no apparent connexion with the Crest or Arms, and is therefore more conclusive. Query as to the Crest ? 250 SYMBOJLA SCOTICA. with the Heiress of Stewart. The first Farl of Athol of the name of Stewart was consti- tuted Lieutenant to King James III. (145J); and for his defeating, and bringing to sub- mission, Mac-Donald, Lord of the Isles, who had rebelled, he had a special grant of several lands, and the above Motto added to his Arms *, which seems to mean, Go forth, he successful, and fill the Fetters with the Feet of all other rebellious Subjects ; for I understand " Fortune' 7 to be a verb, and chosen probably for the sake of the allitera- tion. One appendage to the Arms of Mur- ray, probably received from Stewart, has an allusion to the Motto ; for the Supporter, on the Sinister side, is a Savage, with his Feet in Fetters. Seton, Earl of Winton (attainted). The original Motto of Lord Seton was " Invia Virtuti Via nulla ;" but another was as- sumed by the first Earl, alluding to an ad- ditional charge which he took, by grant I * Crawfurd's Peerage. MOTTOES. 251 presume, when he was created into that dig- nity with great pomp (1601) at Holy-Rood House. To the original Sword and Imperial Crown which he bore in an Inescocheon with a Tressure, was added a Blazing Star of Twelve Points, with this new Motto, " In- taminatis fulget honoribus */' expressive of the unshaken Loyalty of the Family, which the last Peer unhappily forgot, and forfeited in the Rebellion 1715. The Slughorn of the Family is Set on -f , which, by amplification, I apprehend, means Set upon your Enemy, as an incitement to ardour; and is rather analogous to the Motto Think on, of the Lord Kirkcudbright, be- fore-mentioned. Bruce, Earl of Elgin. This, and other Branches of that ancient and once Kingly Family, has, for its Motto, " Fuimus," al- luding strongly to their having been for- merly in possession of the Crown of Scot- * Nisbet's Cadencies, p. 192. See also Douglas's Peerage. t Douglas's Peerage, in the Arms. Q.ZQ SYMBOLA SCOTICA. land. The Crest is likewise denotative of Royal pretensions, viz. u A Hand holding a Sceptre." Something, however, is worth observing in several of the subordinate Branches, more distant from the original Stock, where one may discern the gradual dispirited declension of the Family, in point of Regal claims. One private House, in- deed, bears the Lion Rampant in the Arms, and likewise the Crest, and the Motto of the Peer. Another descendant drops the Lion in the Arms, and only bears for Crest, "A Hand holding a Sword," with this modest Motto, " Venture forward" A third seems to give up all for lost, by the Crest, viz. "A Setting Sun" with this Motto, " Irre- vocable;" while a fourth appears to relin- quish a Temporal for the hope of an Eternal Crown, by this Motto, " Spes mea su- perne." * Gordon, Duke of Gordon. The pri- mitive Bearing of this Family was, " Azure, * Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. I. p. 145. MOTTOES. 253 a Boar's Head couped, Or ;" though at present it carries " Azure, Three Boars Heads couped, Or." The first is the more honourable Charge, as the Unit is always accounted in Heraldry preferable to Num- bers, not only on account of its simplicity *, but in a religious sense (often couched in Armory), as it betokens God the Father, while the Charge of Three has the like re- ference to the Trinity. The traditional story, however, relating to the particular Coat Armour before us, is told by Douglas, in his Peerage of Scotland, to this effect ; viz. that in the Reign of King Malcolm Can more, in the eleventh century, a valiant Knight, of the name of Gordon, came into Scotland, but from whence is not said, and was kindly received by that Prince. The Knight, not long afterwards, killed a Wild Roar, which greatly infested the Borders \, when Mai- * Nisbet's Heraldry. f In rude times, such as those were of which we have been speaking, it was accounted an action of no small valour to kill so fierce an animal as a Wild Boar ; being attended with considerable personal danger, for 254 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. colm gave him a grant of lands in the Shire of Berwick. These lands, according to the custom of those times, the Knight called Gordon, after his own name, and settled upon them, taking a Boars Redd for his Armorial Ensign, in memory of his having killed il that monstrous animal *." This want of such weapons, offensive and defensive, as we have at present. On this account I may be ex- cused bringing forward a parallel honour attending a circumstance of this sort, though I fetch it from the Hottentots, a people to whose very name we seem to have falsely annexed ideas, far from the truth, of every thing below the dignity of human nature, and placed them but one degree above the brute creation. On the contrary, they are represented by Kolben, who had opportunities of personal intercourse with them, and was well qualified to observe and reason upon what he saw, as a people much wronged by our unfa- vourable opinions of them. But to the point : their country appears to be, from its situation, exceedingly exposed to the incursions of the fiercest of beasts, lions and tigers; insomuch that a Hottentot who kills one of these animals with his own hand is deified, and his person held sacred ever after. * Douglas's Peerage, p. 295. MOTTOES. 255 may seem a trivial reason in itself, but we have another similar tradition in the Arms of Forbes *. In process of time the Gordons, according to the practice in Heraldry, increased the number of Soars Heads to three, two and one; and thus they continue to be borne at this day, with proper differences ; one of which, being particular, I shall mention, viz. Gordon, Earl of Aboyne. The reference contained in the Motto of this Branch seems merely to be confined to the Cheveron placed between the Boars Meads, in these words, " Stant ccetera Tigno," which last word is the acknowledged Latin word for the Cheve- ronf. This is, perhaps, the greatest com- pliment ever paid to the Cheveron, which is accounted one of the humblest Charges known, in Heraldic language, by the name of Ordinaries. Thus much for the Arms of the Duke of Gordon, and for what has been said both of * Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 327. f Gibbon's Introel. ad Latinam Blazoniam. See also Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 3 16. 256 SYMBOLA SCOT1CA. the Arms and Motto of the Earl of Aboyne ; but the Motto of the Ducal Branch of the Family is yet unaccounted for, which is " Bydand." This, I make no doubt, is a compound word, and of no little antiquity ; and I take the resolution of it to be, by con- traction, Byde tli End, with the letter D in the place of the TH ; for the Glossarist to some ancient Scottish Poems, published from the MSS. of George Bannatyne, at Edinburgh, 1/70, p. 247, renders the word Bidand, pendente Lite. See also the Glos- sary, ad calcem. As to its import, it may refer to Family transactions, in two points of view ; viz. either to loyal or religious attach- ments. In support of the first, we find that Sir Adam Gordon was a strenuous asserter of the claims of the Bruces, and peculiarly- active in the cause of King Robert 1. (in that long contest), who accordingly rewarded him with a large grant of land, sufficient to secure his interest, and make him byde the end of the contest as a feudatory under that King. The Son and Grandson of Sir Adam were both faithful to the interest of the MOTTOES. 257 Bruces, and had the above grant confirmed by King David II. * If this is not satis- factory, we have instances of acts of piety done by the early Branches of this Family, sufficient to warrant the Motto on the inter- pretation here, given; for in the Reign of Malcolm IV. the Family had large pos- sessions, part of which they devoted to re- ligious purposes, by considerable endowments and benefactions given to the Abbey of Kelso fi I incline, however, more strongly to the military sense of the Motto ; and the more, as it is borne by other Families, manifestly with that reference, though I cannot account for the connexion of the two Houses. Thus, for instance, Leith, in one Branch, has for the Motto, " Semper Fidus ;" in another, " Trusty to the End ;" and in a third, " Trusty and Bydand ;" in this last, I think the contraction of the last word, as above suggested, is more clearly established J. * Crawfurd's Peerage. f Ibid. % Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 217. 9 258 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. In these Mottoes of Leith, it must be con- fessed there is more appearance of a religious application than in that of the Duke of Gor- don, as the Armorial Bearings are partly compounded of Cross-Croslets, and the Crest of the first is likewise a Turtle-dove. Elphinston, Lord Elphinston, has for his Motto " Caus Causit */' or, as written by Mi\ Nisbet, " Cause caused itT f In Almon's Short Peerage of Scotland Caus or Cause is interpreted Chance, which leads us to search for some casual circum- stance in the history of the Family, whereby it was elevated. Alexander Elphinston was ennobled by King James IV. in the time of our Henry VIII. ; to whom a fatal incident happened, to which his Descendants might have a retro- spect when the Motto was assumed. Some branches of the story are controverted ; but enough is left by tradition to found our con- jecture, and for the Family to rest the choice * Crawfurd's Peerage. t System of Heraldry, p. 154. MOTTOES. 259 of their Motto upon, This Alexander, the first Peer, was slain at the Battle of Flodderi Field (1513), together with King James IV.; and being, in his person and face, very like the King, his body was carried by the English to Berwick, instead of that of the King, and treated with some indignity. The controvertible part of the circumstance is^ that the King escaped by this means, and lived to reward the Familv who had thus lost their valiant Chief; but strong proofs are to be found, that the King was actually slain, though by some accounts not in the Battle, as his body was identified by more than one of his confidential Servants, who recognized it by certain private indelible marks *. Buchanan allows that the King escaped from the Battle; but adds, that he was killed the same day by a party of his own Subjects, whose interest it was to take him off, to avoid a punishment due to themselves for cowardice in the preceding Battle f . * Drake's Hist. Ang. Scot. t Buchanan's History, Book xiii. p. 26. s2 260 SYMBOL A SCOTICA. Holinshed tells us, that in order to deceive the Enemy, and encourage his own Troops, the King caused several of his Nobles to be armed and apparelled like himself*; and this practice, at that time of day, seems not to have been uncommon ; for Shakspeare makes Richard say, during the Battle of Bosworth Field, " I think, there he Six Richmonds in the Field : Five have I slain to-day instead of him f." Let this pass for truth ; yet was Lord El- phinston's case the most remarkable, and most deserving of favour to his posterity, on account of the insults offered to his body, under a supposition that it was the body of the King. After the death of James IV. a long Minority ensued, and consequently a Regency ; but what reward the Family of Elphinston had, or what weight they bore in the Reign of James V. or in that of Queen Mary, History is not minute enough to in- form us ; though we find, that the Great Grandson of the first Peer slain at Flodden- * Holinshed's Chronicle. f Act v. Sc. iv. MOTTOES. 261 Field was of ttie Privy Council, and High Treasurer to Janes VI. (anno 1599) before his accession to the Crown ot England. This King was too wJl read not to have known what passed in the Reign of his Great Grand- father respecting the first Lord Elphinston ; and I am willing to suppose the Descendants of that Peer were equally informed of the fact above related ; and that the Lord Trea- surer Elphinston modestly imputed his ele- vation ultimately to that circumstance, and allusively took the Motto before us. Lest this surmise should not be satisfactory, I will offer another on a very different ground, arising from the Crest, which is, " A Lady from the middle richly attired, holding a Castle in her Rivht Hand, and in her Left a Branch of Laurel" This throws the matter open to another conjecture ; for the Bearing of the Lady, with the Castle in her Right Hand, may well be supposed to relate to Al- liances ; several of the Ancestrv of the Fa- mily, which came originally from Germany in the time of Robert the Bruce (in the 262 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. Reign of our Edward II.) having married Heiresses *, whereby they obtained Lands, Castles, Power, and Nobility. These events often repeated, which may be termed the effects of chance, give us latitude to suppose the Motto may, on the other hand, relate to those casual means, whereby the Family rose to the honour of the Peerage. These are the only two conjectures I have to offer; and I dojio. at present meet with any other historical matter to warrant a third. Leslie, Earl of Rothes. — The Motto of this Family is " Grip (or Gripe) Fast f," and * Nisbet's Heraldry, p. 154. t The traditional Family History of this Motto is, that a Countess of Rothes (then Head of the House in her own right), riding behind a servant through a dan- gerous ford, had nearly, lost her seat from fear ; when the man, encouraging her by the words " GrypFast" the Countess took the advice, was rescued from im- minent danger, and her life preserved. This account of the origin of the Motto was given by one of the Family to a Friend of mine ; but how far it may gain credit I do not determine. MOTTOES. 263 seems to contain a double allusion ; first to the old Motto " Firma Spe," and afterwards to some parts of the additional Armorial Ap- pendages. I call it the old Motto, from the account Mr. Nisbet gives of the original Bearing and its adjuncts ; viz. " Argent, on a Fess, between two Cross-Croslets Azure, Three Buckles Or." Crest, " A Griphon's (or Griffin's) Head couped Proper, charged with a Cross-Croslet fitched Argent." Motto, " Firma Spe." * Herein the Cross-Croslets repeated, taken together with the new Motto, admit of a religious allusion, as holding fast the Faith of Christ with Jirm Hope, expressed allegorically by the Head of the Griffin. It may therefore be conceived, that the change of the Motto might take place after the Fa- mily, on being ennobled, chose Griffins for Supporters ; thereby giving a loose and whim- sical translation, if I may call it so, of" Firma Spe," by the words " Grip Fast." The an- cient Bearings of the Cross-Croslets are now discharged, nothing remaining on the Field * Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. i. p. 96. 264 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. but a Bend, instead of a Fess, charged with Three Buckles ; so that the meaning, couched under the Cross Croslets, the Griffin's Head, and the original words of the Motto, is en- tirely lost : and at present nothing remains but a quaint allusion to the group of those chimerical Animals. The Buckles, borne first on the Fess, and afterwards on the Bend (a. Change not uncommon as a Difference, in token of Cadency or Cadetship in Scotland), may likewise have regard to that strong me- taphorical description of Christian Defence against the Powers of Darkness in the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, or to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians (Chap. v. 21). " Hold fast that which is good ;" viz. the Faith and Hope in the Cross of Christ. In support of this idea, as being primarily religious, it appears that one sub- ordinate Branch of the Family (Leslie of Talloch) bears for a Crest, not a Griffin's, but " An Eagle's Neck, with Two Heads erased Sable ;" with the Motto " Hold Fast :" and another has for its Motto " Keep MOTTOES. 265 Fast:"* so that Grip, or Gripe Fast, may be considered as a mere canting Motto, arising from old Heraldic wit. Leslie of Burdsbank, carries the quartered Coat of the Earl of Rothes, with Differences ; with the Crest, " A Buckle Or," and the Motto " Keep Fast." I close this attempt (for I call it nothing more) with a singular Motto of a Private Family. Haig, or perhaps Haigh, of Bemerside, has for the Family Motto " Tyde what may," founded on a Prophecy of Sir Thomas Ler- mont (well known in Scotland by the name of " Thomas the Rhymer," because he wrote his Prophecies in Rhyme), who was an He- rald in the Reign of Alexander III. He is said to have foretold the time of his own death; and particularly, among other remark- able occurrences, the Union of Englan \ and Scotland, which was not accomplished till the Reign of James VI. some hundreds of vears after this Gentleman died. These Prophe- * Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. I. ubi supra. 266 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. cies were never published in a perfect state ; but the Epitome of them is well known in Scotland, though Mr. Nisbet says it is very erroneous. The original, he tells us, is a Folio MS. which Mr. Nisbet seems to have seen; for he adds, " Many things are missing in the small book which are to be met with in the original, particularly these two lines, concerning his (Sir Thomas Lermont's) neighbour, Haig of Bemerside : ' Tyde what may betide, Haig shall be Laird of Bemerside.' " And," continues Mr. Nisbet, " his Pro- phecy concerning that ancient Family has hitherto been true ; for since that time till this day (1702) the Haigs have been Lairds of that place/' * " Cave Adsum" is the Motto of Jardin, of Applegirth, Bart, in Scotland. The Ingre- dients (as they may be called) to which it alludes, are very dispersed, and to be col- lected from the Supporters, the Bearing, and * Nisbet's Cadencies, pp. 158, 159. MOTTOES. 267 Crest: the Arms having " Three Mullets charged on the Chief;" the Supporters, "An Armed Man and a Horse ;" and the Crest, " A Mullet or Spur-Rowel." This might allude to Justs and Tournaments *. I shall conclude with one Irish Motto; that of Fitzgerald — " Crom a Boo ;" a Cri de Guerre, or Term of Defiance. A Boo means the Cause, or the Parti/, and Crom was the ancient Castle of the Fitz-Geralds. So Butler a Boo meant the Ormond Party, the Cri on the other side ; by which they insulted each other, and consequently frays and skirmishes ensued f . Simon Fitz-Alan had a Son Robert, who, being of a fair complexion, was called Boyt, or Boyd, from the Celtic or Gallic word Boidh, which signifies fair or yellow J, from * See Nisbet's Heraldry. f I owe this observation to my noble Friend, and kind Correspondent, Lord Dacre. % So Douglas means White Man, See "Armories." 268 SYMBOLA SCOTICA. which he assumed his Sur-name, and from him all the Boyds in Scotland are de- scended *. Canmore is a Sohriquet. So might Gold- Berry, from the colour of Boyd's hair. So- briquets common in England and France ; there was scarce a French King without some addition, relative to their persons, or to their good or bad qualities. Goldberry is a Slughorn, for the Motto is Confido, as applying to the confidence the Chief had in the Vassals belonging to the Clan; though by the modern Crest (a Thumb and two Fingers pointing to Heaven) it seems to admit of a religious interpretation. * Douglas, p. 373. 269 DISSERTATION ON Coaches* Every thing lias History belonging to it, though perhaps it is seldom worth investiga- tion ; and what follows will, I suspect, be thought not unlike Gratiano's reasons ; viz. " As two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you shall seek all day ere you find them, and when you have them, they are not worth the search*/' But, as the History of Coaches in general, and particularly of Hackney Coaches, has never been drawn together, I shall attempt to do it as an his- torical detail of that species of luxury. The Nobleman, and the man of fortune, steps into his own carriage ; and the humbler * Merchant of Venice. 2/0 DISSERTATION ON orders of men into their occasional coach^ even with the gout upon them, when walking is out of the question ; without ever thinking with the smallest gratitude of those who in- troduced or improved such a convenience ; and all this because these Vehicles are now too common to attract our notice further than their immediate use suggests. It is the business of Antiquaries to rescue subjects of this sort from oblivion, as to their origin, their improvements, &c. to the pre- sent hour; who of course must leave it to others of the same class, to shew their de- cline ; for it is not improbable that even the present gay families, or their posterity, may be witnesses of such a revolution. The first Wheel -Carriages of the Coach kind were in use with us in the Reign of King Richard II., and were called Whirli- cotes ; though we cannot but suppose they were such as, but for the name of riding, COACHES. 271 our ancestors might as well have walked on foot. Let us hear the account given either by Master John Stovve, or some of his Editors, on this matter, who tells us that " Coaches were not known in this Island ; but Chariots, or IVhirlicotes, then so called, and they only used of Princes, or men of great estates, such as had their footmen about them. And for example to note, I read * that Richard II. being threatened by the Rebels of Kent, rode from the Tower of London to the Miles-End, and with him his Mother, because she was sick and weak, in a Whirlicote But in the vear next following, the said Richard took to wife Anne, daughter to the King of Bo- hemia, who first brought hither the riding upon side- saddles ; and so was the riding in those PVliirlicotes and Chariots forsaken, except at Coronations, and such like spec- tacles. But now of late," continues he, " the use of Coaches brought out of Ger- many, is taken up and made so common, as * He cites Lib. S. Maria Aborum. 2^2 DISSERTATION ON there is neither distinction of time, nor dif- ference of persons, observed ; for the world runs on wheels with many whose parents were glad to go on foot*/' We may hence suppose that the IVhirli- cote was not much more than a Litter upon Wheels, and adapted both to state and inva- lidity, among the higher orders of mankind ; for we have seen that they gave place even to riding on Horseback, among the Ladies, as soon as proper Saddles were introduced. The word Coach is evidently French, from their word Carrosse, and was formerly often written Carroche, as it appears in Stowe's Chronicle, where the two words appear al- most in the same sentence. The French word, nevertheless, is not radically such, but formed from the Italian Carroccio, or Car- rozza, for they have both ; and that even the latter is a compound of Carro Rozzo, it being a red Carriage, whereon the Italians carried the Cross when they took the field. So says Mr. Menage -j*; and if so, this Vehicle * Survey of London and Westminster, book i. t Orig. Ital. COACHES. 2/3 passed from Italy to Germany, from thence to France, and at length to us. According to Mr. De Caseneuve, the Italian Carrocio had four wheels ; and he adds to what Mr. Menage has said, that they carried their Standards upon it*. The French Charrette, from whence our Chariot -j*, had but two wheels. But we may observe how our word is degraded, for it properly signifies a Cart, though it had four wheels J. The French, since Coaches came into use, have been ashamed of the term, and call it a Carrosse Coupe, or Half- Coach. By the above account the Chariot seems to have been the elder Vehicle, or rather the Coach in its infancy ; which will lead us to- wards the etymon of our word Coach, and to the original nature of our Chariot, though both of them have the same common parent. * Appendix to Menage, Oiig. Fr. f Chariot — v. Carruca in DuCange. Used in France at the end of the Reign of Francis I. and Henry II. % Richelet. 2^4 DISSERTATION ON We may, however, collect enough from these accounts, to satisfy ourselves that the introduction of Coaches took place in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and Stowe's Continuator adds a very natural conse- quence : — That, after the Royal example, " divers great ladies made them Coaches, and rode in them up and down the countries, to the great admiration of all the beholders." After this, he tells us, they grew common among the Nobility and opulent Gentry; that within twenty years Coach-making became a great trade, and that Coaches grew into more general use soon after the accession of King James. What sort of Carriages they originally were with us, in point of elegance, is not easily said ; but in Germany, about that pe- riod, we are told they were — " ugly Vehicles made of four boards, which were put together in a very clumsy manner *." Of these, how- ever, my Author adds, that John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, when he went to * Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, p. 222. COACHES. 275 Warsaw to do homage for the Dutchy of Prussia, A. D. 1618, had in his train thirty- six of these Coaches, each drawn by six horses. Either the Chariots of that time were usually more elegant, or the Denmarkers had more taste than the Germans ; for the same Author tells us, that, when the King of Denmark passed through Berlin, in the Reign of the Elector John George, who died 1598, the King made his entry " in a black- velvet Chariot, laced with gold, drawn by eight white coursers, with bits and capa- risons all of silver*/' The Chariot I take to have been a much more ancient Vehicle, and an open Vehicle; for we read of them in the Reign of our Henry VII. and even of our Richard II. Queen Elizabeth, when she went to St. Paul's, 1588, after the Spanish Armada, was in a Chariot supported by four pillars, and drawn by two white horses -j*. * Memoirs, p. 221. f Nichols's Preface to Queen Eli2abeth's Pro- gresses, p. xxiii. T 2 2f6 DISSERTATION ON It is generally agreed, by those Writers who have touched upon the subject, that Coaches were introduced into this Kingdom in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth ; but they must have had an earlier appearance amongst us than Anderson, in his History of Com- merce, vol. I. p. 421, allows, who affirms, that the first of them was brought hither by [Henry] Fitz-Alan, the last Earl of Arundel of that name, in the year 1580 ; which can- not be the truth ; for his Lordship died 1579. This Earl, after having served Kings Henry VIII. and Edward VI. and Queen Mary, became likewise high in the favour of Queen Elizabeth, and was Lord Steward of her Household ; but, finding himself supplanted by the Earl of Leicester, he went abroad A. D. 1566 *. It is to be supposed that he travelled to the sea-coast in the accustomed manner on Horseback ; but he is said to have returned in his Coach, which, Mr. Granger says, was the first Equipage of the kind ever seen in England f ; but that Author has left * Camden's Elizabeth. f Biographical History of England, I. 193, Svo. COACHES. 277 us without the date ; so that we are yet to seek for that point. Another Writer robs his Lordship entirely of the honour of such introduction ; for Stowe's Continuator expressly says, that " In the year 1564 (two years before the Earl of Arundel went abroad), Guilliam Boonen, a Dutchman, became the Queen's Coachman, and was the first that brought the use of Coaches into England *." This very Coach- man is said also to have driven the Queen's Coach, when she visited Oxford, 1592. Which of these two stones be true, the Relaters, Granger and Stowe, must an- swer for ; but Anderson is palpably wrong in his date. I can form no better an idea of our first Coaches than that they were heavy and un- wieldy, as they continued to be for nearly two centuries afterwards ; and I can at best but take the standard from the present State * Chronicle, p. 867. This Coachman's Wife had also the honour of introducing the Art of Starching Cambric and Lawn, and was the first Starcher the Queen had. Idem in eod. 2/8 DISSERTATION ON Coaches of the Archbishop of Canterbury ancf the Speaker of the House of Commons *. * I must here stop a moment to relate an Anec- dote of the late Right Honourable Arthur Onslow, when Speaker of the House of Commons, whose ideas of travelling did not exceed the expedition of a pair of horses tugging his own lumbering State Coach. King George II. died on Saturday morning early, October 25, 1760. The Duke of Devonshire (then at Chatsworth) was Lord Chamberlain ; and the Duke of Rutland (then at Belvoir Castle) was Lord Steward. Expresses were dispatched to these great Officers, among others, immediately ; and the Duke of De- vonshire arrived in Town on the Monday evening, though the distance was 150 miles. Tuesday and Wednesday came, but without the Lord Steward, to the utter astonishment of the Speaker, who knew that his distance from the Metropolis was not so great as that of the Duke of Devonshire, who had arrived on the Monday. " But I am told," cried he, " that his Grace of Devonshire travels at a prodigious rate ; not less than 50 miles a day /" Such was the prejudice of ideas, confirmed by long habitude, in a man who never extended his journeys further than his Seat in Surrey, v. few miles from London ; and in Parliament time did little more than oscillate between his Town House and the House of Commons. — It was a misconception on the part of the Duke of Rutland, who understood that COACHES. 279 It cannot be any matter of surprize, after so luxurious a conveyance had found its way into the Royal Establishment, that it should be adopted by others who could support the expence, when not curbed by sumptuary laws; and we have accordingly seen, that Coaches prevailed much, early in the Reign of King James ; but Hackney Coaches, which are professedly the Subject of this Memoir, waited till luxury had made larger strides among us, and till ^private Coaches came to market at second hand. Hackney Coach. There having always been an imitative luxury in mankind, whereby the inferior orders might approximate the superior ; so those that could not maintain a Coach de die in diem contrived a means of having; the use the King of Prussia was dead, and not King George If. I mention the circumstance, only to shew the igno- rance of some parts of mankind, when taken out of their routine. — The Duke of Devonshire at that time usually ran to or from Chatsworth in about 18 or 20 hours. 280 DISSERTATION ON of one de hord in horam. Hence arose our occasional Vehicles called Hackney Coaches. The French word Haquenee * implies a common horse for all purposes of riding, whether for private use or for hire; generally an amhler, as distinguished from the horses of superior orders, such as the palfrey and the great horse. The former of these are often called pad-nags, and were likewise amblers; while horses for draught were called irotting- horses \ : so that the Haquenee was in fact, and in his use, distinct from all the rest, and inferior in rank and quality. This term for an ambling-nag occurs in Chaucer J. Thus we obtained our Haquenee or Hackney Horses long before we had any Coaches to tack to them ; and the term had likewise, at the same time, made its way into metaphor, to express any thing much and promiscuously used. Thus Shakspeare, who never lived to ride in a Hackney Coach, applies the word Hackney to a common woman of easy ac- * See the French Lexicographers. f Northumberland Household Book, p. 127. % The Romaunt of the Rose. COACHES. 381 cess * : and again, in the First Part of Henry IV. (Act iii. Sc. 4), the King says to the Prince of Wales, " Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men, So stale and cheap to vulgar company," &c. Now Shakspeare died in the year 1616; whereas Hackney Coaches were not known, in the Streets at least, till about the year 1625 f . Though the term Haqnenee is French, it is not used in France for Coaches of a like kind ; yet, after we had adopted the word as applied to horses of the common sort, it was easy to put them in harness, for the service of drawing, and the convenience of the In- habitants of the Metropolis ; whereby the word Hackney became transferred to the whole Equipage, then in want of a differential name; whereof the Coach, being the more striking part, obtained the name by pre- eminence. * Love's Labour's Lost, Act ii. Sc. 2. t Mortimer's Pocket Dictionary. 282 DISSERTATION ON Before I return to my subject, give me leave to add a word or two on the French Coaches of a similar nature, which are called Fiacres*. The term is thus accounted for, though I did not suspect I should have found the meaning in a Martyrology. Fiacre was the name of a Saint, whose Portrait, like those of many other famous men of their times both in Church and State, had the honour to adorn a Sign-Post; and the Inn in Paris, Rue St. Antoine, from which these Coaches were first let out to hire on temporary occa- sions, had the Sign of St. Fiacre, and from thence they took their name. M. Richelet, in his Dictionary f , tells us, that a Fiacre is " Carosse de loiiage, auquel on a donne ce nom a cause de l'Enseigne d'un logis de la Rue St. Antoine de Paris ou Ton a premiere- * About the same period that our Hackney Coaches became in use, a sort of Carriage arose at Paris under the name of a Fiacre. I mention them to account for the term, which in the common French Dictionaries is simply rendered a Hackney Coach. t Voc. Fiacre. See also Menage, Orig. de la Langue Francoise. COACHES. 283 merit loue ces sortes de Carosse. Ce logis avoit pour Enseigne un Saint Fiacre." As to the Saint himself, he was no less a per- sonage than the second Son, and at length Heir, of Eugenius IV. King of Scots, who lived in the Seventh Century. He went into France, took a religious hahit, refusing the Crown of Scotland some years afterwards, on his Brother's death; and, when he died, was canonized. There is a Chapel dedi- cated to him at St. Oraer's. His death is commemorated on the 30th of August*. * English Martyrology. Moreri's Dictionary. Collyer. St. Fiacre was the Patron Saint of persons afflicted with the Piles. " The Troops of Henry V. are said to have pillaged the Chapel of the Highland Saint; who, in revenge, assisted his Countrymen in the French Service to defeat the English at Bauge ; and afterwards afflicted Henry with the Piles, of which he died. This Prince complained, that he was not only plagued by the living Scots, but even perse- cuted by those who were dead." Smollett's Travels, Letter IV. N. B. There was a Prelate of the name Fiachre m Ireland, whose death is remembered there on the 8th of February. He lived about the same time. [British Piety, in the Supplement]. He was not a Saint. 284 DISSERTATION ON As to the the time when the French Fia- cres first came into use, we are led pretty nearly to it by Mr. Menage, who, in his " Origines de la Langue Francoise," pub- lished in Quarto, 1650, speaks of them as of a late introduction. His words are, " On appelle ainsi [Fiacre] a. Paris depuis quelques anndes un Carosse de loiiage." lie then gives the same reason as we find in Richelet : but the words " depuis quelques Annees" shew, that those Coaches had not then been long in use, and are to be dated either a little before or a little after our own ; insomuch that it is probable the one gave the example to the other, allowing Mr. Menage credit for twenty-five years, comprehended in his ex- pression of quelques Annees *. But to return to our Hackney Coaches, which took birth A. D. 1625 (the first year of King Charles I.) ; and either began to ply in * It is a little singular, that neither Cotgrave him- self, in his Dictionary, first published in 1611, nor his Editor, James Howell, either in his Edition of 1650, or in that of 1673, take any notice of the word Fiacre in the sense before us. COACHES. 285 the Streets, or stood ready at Inns to be called for if wanted : and at that time did not exceed twenty in number *. But, as luxury makes large shoots in any branch where it puts forth, so we find that, in no more than ten years, this new-planted scyon had grown so much as to require the pruning-knife; for that the Street Coaches had become in reality a national nuisance in various particulars : and accordingly a Proclamation issued A.D. 1635 in the following words : " That the great numbers of Hackney Coaches of late time seen and kept in London, Westminster, and their Suburbs, and the general and promiscuous use of Coaches there, were not only a great disturbance to his Majesty, his dearest Consort the Queen, the Nobility, and others of place and degree, in their passage through the Streets; but the Streets themselves were so pes- tered, and the pavements so broken up, that the com- mon passage is thereby hindered and made dangerous ; and the prices of hay and provender, and other pro- visions of stable, thereby made exceeding dear : Wherefore we expressly command and forbid, That, from the Feast of St. John the Baptist next coming, no Hackney or Hired Coaches be used or suffered in Lon- * Anderson on Commerce, II. 20. "286 DISSERTATION ON don, Westminster, or the Suburbs or Liberties thereof, except they be to travel at least three miles out of London or Westminster, or the Suburbs thereof. And also, that no person shall go in a Coach in the said Streets, except the owner of the Coach shall constantly keep up Four able Horses for our Service, •when required*. Dated January 19, 1635-6." This Proclamation, so long as it was ob- served, mast have put a considerable check to the use of these Carriages ; nor can I think it could operate much in the King's favour, as it would hardly be worth a Coach-Master's while to be at so great a contingent charge as the keeping of Four Horses to be fur- nished at a moment's warning for his Ma- jesty's occasional employment. We are to construe this, then, as amounting to a prohi- bition, on account of the certain expence which must follow an uncertain occupation. The nature of this penalty, as I may call it, was founded on the Statute of Purveyance, not then repealed. But there was another co-operating cause that suspended the use of Coaches for a short * Rymer, torn. XIX. p. 721. COACHES. 287 time, which was the introduction of the Hackney Chairs, which took place a very little while before the Proclamation. They arose from the incommodities stated in the Royal Edict, and, no doubt, tended in some measure towards the suppression of the Hack- ney-Coaches ; till by degrees being found in- competent to answer all their seemingly in- tended purposes, we shall see the Coaches, in about two years time, return into the streets, and resume their functions. But to proceed with the History of the Chairs. At the cri- tical time, then, when Government was de- vising measures to prevent the increase of Coaches as much as possible, for the reasons alleged in the Proclamation, there stepped in a Knight, by name Sir Saunders Duncombe, a Gentleman-Pensioner, and a travelled man, who proposed the introduction of Chairs, after the model he had seen abroad *. This was in the year 1634; when Sir Saunders * He was knighted, together with fourteen other Gentlemen of the Band, by King James, in Scotland, 1617 ; as appears from a Catalogue of Knights, pub- lished by J. P. Esq. 1660. 288 DISSERTATION ON obtained an exclusive Patent for the setting them forth for hire, dated the first day of October, for the term of fourteen years. The number is not specified, but left perhaps in- definite, it being impossible to say what would be necessary in a new device of this sort, tending to be beneficial to the intro- ductor, as well as convenient to the Publick. The tenor of the Grant, omitting the words of course, runs thus : " Charles, &c. " Whereas the several Streets and Passages within our Cities of Londo?iand Westminster, and the Suburbs of the same, are of late time so much encumbered and pestered with the unnecessary multitude of Coaches therein used, that many of our good and loving Sub- jects are by that means oftentimes exposed to great danger ; and the necessary use of Carts and Carriages for the necessary Provisions of the said Cities and Suburbs thereby also much hindered. And whereas, our servant, Sir Sanders Buncombe, Knight, hath lately preferred his humble Petition unto us; thereby shew- ing, that in many parts beyond the Seas, the people there are much carried in the Streets in Chairs that are covered ; by which means very few Coaches are used amongst them : and thereof he hath humbly besought us to grant unto him tiie sole using and COACHES. 289 putting forth to hire of certain covered Chairs, which he will procure to be made at his own proper costs and charges, for carrying such of our loving Subjects as shall desire to use the same, in and about our said Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs thereof. " Know ye, that we, of our princely care of the good and welfare of all our loving Subjects, desiring to use all good and lawful ways and means that may tend to the suppressing of the excessive and unnecessary number of Coaches now of late used in and about our said Cities, and the Suburbs thereof; and to the in- tent the said Sir Sanders Buncombe may reap some fruit and benefit of his industry, and may recompense himself of the costs, charges, and expences, which he shall be at iu and about the directing, making, pro- curing, and putting in use of the said covered Chairs, of the purpose aforesaid ; and for divers other good causes and considerations, us hereunto moving, of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and by these Presents, for Us, our Heirs and Successors, do give and grant, unto the said Sir Sanders Buncombe, his Executors, Adminis- trators, and Assigns, and to his and their, and every of their, Deputy and Deputies, Servants, Workmen, Factors, and Agents, and to all and every such per- son and persons as shall have power and authority from him, them, or any of them, in that behalf, full and free Licence, Privilege, Power, and Authority, that they only, and none other, shall or may, from time to time, during the term of fourteen years hereafter U 290 DISSERTATION ON granted, use, put forth, and lett to hire, within our said Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs and Precincts thereof, or in any part of them, or any of them, the said covered Chairs, to be carried and borne as aforesaid. " Witness Ourself at Canbiay, the First day of October *." The place principally hinted at in the above Grant, or Patent, seems to have been the City of Sedan in Champagne ; where, we are at liberty to suppose, these covered Chairs being most in use, they obtained with us the name of Sedan Chairs, like the local names of Berlin and Landau f . These new Vehicles, hitherto unseen in our orbit, had, doubtless, patrons among the beaus and fine gentlemen of the age ; though, in their general utility, they manifestly could not be so commodious as Coaches, were it * Rymer, torn. XIX. p. 572. f Mr. Reed, the Editor of the Old Plays [2d Edit. 1780] , from the above account, must therefore certainly be in an error, when he supposes that Sedan Chairs were the introduction of the Duke of Buckingham, about the year 1619. [See Note to vol. V. p. 475,] Sedan — mentioned by the name only in the Life of Dr. Thomas Fuller, 1661, 18mo. p. 57. COACHES. 291 for no other reason than that they could carry but one person. They might prevail with persons of a certain rank and descrip- tion ; but the opulent Merchant, and others in a similar line of family life, still were in want of a conveyance of greater capacity ; a circumstance which would depress the Chairs, and gradually hasten the re-introduction of the Coaches, and which, as has been ob- served, took place accordingly in little more than two years. The following special com- mission was therefore granted by the King, A. D. 1637, wherein the number of the Coaches seems rather to have enlarged, and the management of them was placed in the department of the Master of the Horse. It runs essentially in the following words: " That we, finding it very requisite for our Nobility and Gentry, as well as for Foreign Ambassadors, Strangers, and others, that there should be a compe- tent number of Hackney Coaches allowed for such uses, have, by the advice of our Privy Council, thought fit to allow Fifty Hackney Coachmen in and about London and Westminster; limiting them not to keep above Twelve Horses a-piece. We therefore grant to you [the Marquis] during your Life, the Power and Authority to license Fifty Hackney Coach- u2 292 DISSERTATION ON men, who shall keep no more than Twelve good Horses each, for their, or any of their, Coach and Coaches respectively. You also hereby have Power to license so many in other Cities and Towns of Eng- land as in your wisdom shall be thought necessary ; with power to restrain and prohibit all others from keeping any Hackney Coach to let to hire, either in London or elsewhere. Also to prescribe Rules and Orders concerning the daily Prices of the said licensed Hackney Coachmen, to be by them, or any of them, taken for our own particular service, and in their em- ployment for our Subjects ; provided such orders be first allowed by us, under our Royal Hand." * We may observe that the article of Purvey- ance is here very gently touched upon, and con- fined toa sign-manual. Mr.Andersonsupposes that there must have been many more thanjifti/ Coaches introduced by the above allowance of tivelve horses ; but it seems rather to imply that no Coach-Master should engross more than six Coaches to himself. This also might be a tacit mode of preserving a supply of horses to be purveyed for the King when necessary. One may collect from hence that private Coaches were sparingly kept, by the men- tion of the Nobility and Gentry. ; Rymer, torn. XX. fol. 159. COACHES. 293 Hitherto we have found the Hackney Coaches under the regulation of the Crown, or its immediate Officers ; but we are now to look for them at a time when the Monarchical Government was suspended, during the Pro- tectorate. Whether the Master of the Horse received any emolument from granting the above Licences, is not apparent ; but under the Commonwealth we find that the Coaches became subject to a tax towards the expence of their regulation ; for by an Act of Oliver's Parliament, A. D. 1654, the number of such Coaches, within London and Westminster, was enlarged to two hundred *. The out- lying distance was also augmented to six miles round the late lines of communication, as the Statute expresses it ; by which I con- ceive that the greatest distance was extended to nine miles, including the three prescribed, * Anderson says three hundred, but that must be an error; for the Docquet of the Act in Scobel says, that " the number of persons keeping Hackney Coaches shall not at one time exceed two hundred.'''' This must apply to the number of Carriages ; and so Sir William Blackstone understood it. Commenta- ries, vol. I. 4to. 294 DISSERTATION ON or rather enjoined, by the regulating procla- mation of King Charles I. in the year 1635. By this Act of Oliver's Parliament, the go- vernment of the Hackney Coaches, with respect to their stands, rates, &c. was placed in the Court of Aldermen of London ; and as, of course, this new business would re- quire Clerks, and other officers, to supervise it, the Coach-Masters were made subject to the payment of twenty shillings yearly for every such Coach. Here we have brought the Coaches under a Police similar to that of our own time ; but it did not long remain in the hands of the Corporation ; for in the year after the Restoration, the establishment was new-mo- delled by an Act of the 13th and 14th of King Charles II. 1661, wherein it is spe- cified that no Coaches were to be used with- out a Licence, — who may be entitled to such Licences, — that the number shall not exceed 400, — what shall be the rates, — with penal- ties for exacting more *« Each of these four hundred Coaches so * See the Act in the Statute Book. COACHES. 295 licensed was obliged to pay annually five pounds for the privilege, to be applied to- wards the keeping in repair certain parts of the streets of London and Westminster * ; a very rational appropriation of such fund, for who ought so much to contribute to the amendment of the streets, as those who lived by their demolition ? " Nex Lex aequior ulla, quam," &c. Within a few years after the Revolution (anno 5 Gul. et Mar. ch. xxii.) the number of Coaches arose to seven hundred, each of which paid to the Crown annually four pounds. This, prima facie, one would sup- pose was a relief to the Coach -Masters, and that the reduction in the impost accrued from the number ; but that was not the case, for every Owner, for each Coach, was constrained to pay down fifty pounds for his first Li- cence for twenty-one years, or forego his em- ployment; which seeming indulgence was, in fact, paying five pounds per annum for that term ; whereas, probably, the Coach-Master * Anderson, II. 115. Journals of the House of Commons. Blackstone. 296 DISSERTATION ON would rather have continued at the former five pounds, and have run all risks, than have purchased an exclusive privilege, in the gross, at so high a price. The finances, and even the resources, of Government, must have been very low at this moment, or Ministry could never have stooped to so paltry and oppressive an expedient, to raise so small a sum as would arise from these Licences. By the increase of the number of Coaches from four hundred at five pounds per annum, to seven hundred at four pounds per annum, the gain to the Treasury was ^.800 annually : — and what did the licences at fifty pounds each Coach, for the term of twenty-one years, yield to the State ? — ^B.3,500 ! Whereas, had such lease of the privilege of driving a Coach been kept at the rack rent of five pounds j)er annum, it had produced in that period ^.14,700. Thus, however, the matter rested, till the ninth year of Queen Anne, 1/10, when a Sta- tute was made, which brought the business to its present standard, with a few variations, which will be observed in the order of time. By this Act every circumstance was new COACHES. 297 modelled ; for thereby the Crown was im- powered to appoint five Commissioners for regulating and licensing both Hackney Coaches and Chairs, from the time the late Statute of the fifth of William and Mary should expire, viz. at Midsummer A. D. 1/15, authorizing such Commissioners to grant licences to eight hundred Hackney Coaches from that time for the term of thirty- two years, which should be allowed to be driven in the Cities of London and West- minster, and the Suburbs thereof, or any where within the Bills of Mortality ; each Coach paving for such privilege the sum of five shillings per week *. It was at the same time enacted, that from the 24th of June, 1711, all horses to be used with an Hackney Coach shall be fourteen hands high, accord- ing to the standard ; and further, that every Coach and Chair shall have a mark of dis- tinction, " by figure or otherwise," as the Commissioners shall think fit ; and " the said mark shall be placed on each side of every such Coach and Chair respectively, in the * By Monthly Payments. 298 DISSERTATION ON most convenient place to be taken notice of, to the end that they may be known if any complaints shall be made of them *." This was all that could then be done re- specting the Coaches, forasmuch as the old term of twenty-one years, granted in the fifth year of William and Mary, 1694, was sub- sisting, whereby seven hundred Coaches were allowed, and for which privilege the Owners had paid fifty pounds each, on whom Go- vernment shewed some tenderness. With re- gard, however, to regulation, &c. there was, no doubt, room sufficient for the exercise of the powers given to the Commissioners. There was, likewise, another object involved in this Statute ; viz. the Chairs, which were not comprehended in the same agreement and contract with the Coaches, but were open immediately to new laws. Therefore under the same commissions was placed the management and licensing of the Hackney Chairs, to commence from the 24th of June in the following year, 1711 , for the said term * The Figures of the Chairs are too small and incon- spicuous; there should be one both on the outside and inside of each. COACHES. 299 of thirty-two years ; which were thereby limited to the number of two hundred, each paying for such licence the annual sum of ten shillings *. As the number of both Coaches and Chairs was enlarged, whereby many new persons would come forward, per- haps to the ousting of the old Coach-Masters and Chair-Masters, it is required by this Act that the Commissioners shall give a pre- ference to such of the Lessees, as I may call them, whose terms had not then expired, whether the right remained in themselves or their widows, if they applied within a given time -\. Bv this statute likewise the rates were limited to time and distance, at ten shillings by the Day. — One shilling and six pence for * By Quarterly Payments. Thus the Power of the Commissioners over the Chairs arose before that over the Coaches. f Some Lawsuits having arisen from this Clause, it was explained by a short Act of the 12th year of the Queen (1713), subjecting such Widows to the same Rules, Penalties, &c. made, or to be made, as any acting Chairman. And thus it continues to this day ; for the owner of a. Figure, as it is called, is answerable for certain faults of his or her assignee. 300 DISSERTATION ON the first Hour, and one shilling for every suc- ceeding Hour. — One shilling for the distance of a mile and a half. — One shilling and six pence for any distance more than a mile and a half, and not exceeding two miles ; and so on, in the proportion of six pence for every succeeding half mile. The Chairs are likewise at the same time rated at two-thirds of the distance prescribed to the Coaches, so that they were allowed to take one shilling for a mile, and six pence for every succeeding half mile. Though the time of waiting is not specified in the Act with regard to the Chairs, yet it fol- lows, by implication, to be intended the same as the Coaches. These have been altered bv a very late Statute, l/So. It is well known that it is left iu the option of either Coachmen or Chairmen, whether they will be paid by the distance or the time, which is but a reason- able privilege ; but there is another circum- stance, not generally known, of which the passengers are not perhaps aware, viz. that if the room which a Coach will occupy in turning about should exceed the distance COACHES. 301 allowed, the Coachman is entitled to a larger fare, that is, as much as if he had gone an- other half mile. The doctrine is the same respecting Chairs, and the room allowed is eight yards in the case of a Coach, and four yards in the case of a Chair. As the Statute gives all competent allowances to the Coach- men and Chairmen, so it was requisite, on the other hand, to make the contract ohligatory, and that each of them should be compellable to perform their parts ; and therefore, to do this, and at the same time to prevent extor- tion, it became necessary to add a severe penal clause, viz. " that if any Hackney- Coachman or Chairman shall refuse to go at, or shall exact more for his hire than, the several rates herebv limited, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit the sum of forty shil- lings" These penalties were, by this Act, to have gone in the proportion of £«/o-thirds to the Queen, and orce-third to the Plaintiff. [Since made half to the Crown and half to the Complainant.] The Coachmen and Chairmen are thereby likewise liable to be deprived of their Licences for misbehaviour, or by giving 302 DISSERTATION ON abusive language *. On the other hand, that the Coachmen and Chairmen might have a remedy in case of refusal to pay them their just fare, any Justice of the Peace is im- powered, upon complaint, to issue a warrant to bring before him the Recusant, and to award reasonable satisfaction to the party ag- grieved, or otherwise to bind him over to the next Quarter-Session, where the Bench is em- powered to levy the said satisfaction by dis- tress. The Act proceeds to other matters touching the Commissioners themselves, &c. ; and then states, that whereas by a Statute of the 29th of Charles II. the use of all Hackney Coaches and Chairs had been prohibited on Sundays, it gives full power both to stand and to ply as on other days, f This is the substance of the Act before us ; but it may here be observed, that in the 10th year of the Queen, 17U> one hundred more Chairs were added by Statute, subject to the same regulations as the rest, being found not * Turned afterwards into a mulct, f Restrained by a subsequent Act. COACHES. 303 only convenient but necessary ; as the num- ber of Coaches, consistently with Public Faith, could not be enlarged till the year 1715, when the old term of twenty-one years should have expired. Before all the provisions in the Act of the year 1710, referred to the future period of 1715, could take place, a demise of the Crown intervened, A. D. 1714, by which all such clauses, which extended to a future time, were of course become a nullity. By Act 12 George I. chap. 12, the number of Chairs was raised to 400, on account of the increase of Buildings Westward. t The MS here ends abruptly. — On the subject of Chairs, however, see Acts 3 Geo. I. chap. 7 ; 1 6 Geo. II. chap. 26 ; 20 Geo. II. chap. 10 ; 30 Geo. II. chap. 22; 33 Geo. II. chap. 25. 304 COACHES. The Hammer Ceoth. To shew how trifling, though necessary conveniences, arise to great and expensive luxuries, let us remark the original insignifi- cant appendage of what we call the Ham- mer Cloth. It was requisite that the Coach- man should have a few implements in case of accidents, or a sudden and little repair was wanting to the Coach ; for which purpose he carried a hammer with a few pins, nails, &c. with him, and placed them under his seat, made hollow to hold them, and which from thence was called the Coach Box ; and, in a little time, in order to conceal this unsightly appearance, a cloth was thrown over the box and its contents, of which a hammer was the chief, and thence took the name of the Ham- mer-Cloth. This is my idea of the etymon of these two common terms. And here again it can but be observed that this little appendage is now become the most striking and conspicuous ornament of the equipage. 305 articles of Uress* GLOVES. About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to the Abbot and Monks of Sithin, for making their Gloves and Girdles of the Skins of the Deer they killed, and Covers for their Books. [Mabillon de Re Diplom. p. 611. Grose.] Anciently richly adorned and decorated with precious Stones, — as in the Rolls of Parliament, anno 53 Hen. III. A. D. 126/\ " Et de 2 Paribus Chirothecariim cum lapidi- bus." [Warton's History of Poetry, vol. I. p. 182, note. Grose. ] Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, according to Mr. Walpole's account, on the authority of Stowe, — " having travelled into Italy, is recorded to have been the first that brought into England embroidered Gloves and Per- fumes ; and presenting the Queen [Eli- zabeth] with a Pair of the former, she was 306 GLOVES. so pleased with them, as to be drawn with them in one of her Portraits." [Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 159. Note to Winter's Tale, edit. Johnson and Steevens, 17?8, p. 388.] " Give Gloves to the Reapers, a Largesse to cry." [Tusser, i.'Hist. of Hawsted. 190.] The Monastery of Bury allowed its Ser- vants two pence apiece for Glove-Silver' in Autumn. [Hist, of Hawsted. 190.] The rural Bridegroom, in Laneham's (or Langham's) Account of the Entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle, 1575, had — a Payr of Harvest Gloves on his Hands, as a sign of good Husbandry. Id. in eod. When Sir Thomas Pope, the Founder of Trinity College, Oxford, visited it, 1556, " The Bursars offered him a present of em- broidered Gloves." [Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 119.] When Sir Thomas Pope had founded the College, the University complimented him with a Letter of Thanks, which was accom- GLOVES. 307 panied with a Present of rich Gloves, 1556. [Warton's Life, p. 132, note.] The Gloves were sent both to himself and Lady, and cost 6s. 8d. [Id. in eod.] After the death of Sir Thomas Pope, his Widow married Sir Hugh Powlett ; on which occasion the College presented her, as the Wife of the Founder, with a Pair of very rich Gloves, the charge for which runs — Pro Pari Chirothecarum dat. Dom. Powlett et Domine Fundatrici, xvi s. Idem, p. 185. See also p. 191, ubi ssepe; and p. 411. " Pro Chi- rothecis Magistri Pope, xxxii s. An article charged in the Bursar's books of Trinity College, Oxford, is " pro fumigatis Chirothecis." [Warton.] These were often given to College-Tenants, and Guests of Distinction ; but this fell into disuse soon after the Rei*m of Charles I. Idem. o [Grose.] George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, re- ceived a Glove from Queen Elizabeth. The Queen had dropped it, when he taking it up to return to her, she presented it to him as a mark of her esteem. He adorned it with x 2 308 GLOVES. Jewels, and wore it in the front of his Hat on days of Tournaments. It is expressed in a print of him by Robert White. [Bray's Tour, p. 319.] See for Gloves worn in Hats, Old Plays, vol. ii. p. 132, second edition : King Lear, act iii. sc. 4. edit. 177$> D ) r Johnson and Steevens. N. B. Such Tokens as these were called JFavows *, from whence we derive the term for Ribbons given on Weddings. I presume they are supposed to he given by the hand of the Bride. Dr. Glisson, in his last visit to Queen Elizabeth, received from her a Pair of rich Spanish leather Gloves, embossed on the backs and tops with gold embroidery, and fringed round with gold plate. The Queen, as he tells us, pulled them from her own Royal Hands, saying, " Here, Glisson, wear them for my sake." Life of Corinna (or Mrs. Eliz. Thomas), p. xxxi. * See Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 131. So Shakspeare, Richard II. act v. sc. 2. GLOVES. 309 Perfumed Gloves * ; v. supra. "These Gloves the Count sent me; they are an excellent Perfume." Much Ado about Nothing, act ii. sc 4. Gloves given at Weddings. Old Plays, vol. v. p. 8. A Glove hung up in a Church, as a public Challenge. Gilpin's Life of Bernard Gilpin, by Mr. Gilpin, p. 179. Swearing by Gloves, in jocular conversa- tion, very common. "Aye, by these Gloves!" is an expression I have somewhere seen. Ladies' Sleeves, as well as Gloves, were worn as tokens of Gallantry. Vide Troil. and Cress, act. v. sc. 2. edit. Johnson and Steevens, 1778. Gifts that admitted of it (especially to Women from Men) were usually worn on the Sleeve. " I knew her by this Jewel on her Sleeve" Love^ Labour Lost, act v. sc. 1. * Mistress of the Sweet- Coffers, occurs in the Old Establishments. The present Queen (Charlotte) has her Gloves kept in a perfumed box. 310 GLOVES. Fairings, and such Tokens, were of this sort. Henoe the Question and Answer. Q. What have you brought me ? (from the Fair, &c.) A. A new nothing, to pin on your Sleeve. Hence also to pin one's Faith upon an- other's Sleeve. "Wear my Heart upon my Sleeve." Othello, act i. sc 1. F. Grose, Esq. to S. Pegge, F. S. A. Dear Sir, September 4, 1/84. I have had such a variety of interruptions (agreeable ones), that I have made no hand of your Gloves : all that has occurred on that subject, I here send vou. Blood, who attempted to steal the Crown, presented Mr. Edwards, Keeper of the Jewel Office, with your Pair of White Gloves, as from his Wife, in gratitude for his civilitv to her in a pretended qualm or sickness. The whole transaction is in Maitland's His- tory of London. To give one's Glove was considered as a challenge. See Shakspeare, in Hen. V. It GLOVES. 311 is still considered in that light by the High- landers, of which 1 once saw an instance, in Flanders. Dropping the Gauntlet, at the Coronation, is a kind of challenge. When the Judge invites the Justices to dine with him at a County Assize, a Glove is handed about by the Crier or Clerk of the Court, who delivers the invitation ; into this Glove every one invited puts a shilling. A Bribe is called a Pair of Gloves. In a Play, I think called the Twin Rivals, an Alderman presents his Glove, filled with Broad Pieces, to a Nobleman, as a Bribe to procure a Commission for his Son. Item, for three dozen Leder Gloves, 12s. Vide Account of Henry VII. in Remem- brancer's Office. I set off next week for Christchurch, where I propose staying a month, or six weeks at farthest. My best wishes attend you and yours. Adieu ! F. Grose. ERMINE. Gentlewomen's Apparel. What we call Ermine is an erroneous con r ception, for we give the name to White Fur tufted with Black, whereas it is the Black only that is properly Ermine, of which num- berless instances may be produced, and this is one. Powderings on her Bonnet. — This may require an explanation to those who are un- acquainted with the language of that age. What we call Ermine, is a compound, which will bear a little analysis, for it is formed of the Fur of one animal, and the tip of the Tail of another. The White Ground is, pro- perly speaking, Minever, so called from a Russian animal of that name. [v. Philips's Dictionary, in voce.] The Ermine is the Armenian Mouse, the tip of whose Tail is Black, which being placed as a falling tuft upon the Minever, forms what we collective- ly call Ermine, the value of which is en- ERMINE. 313 hanced the more, as one animal can afford but one tuft. [v. Bai'ey's Diet, in voce.] Every one of these tufts is termed a Pow* dering. The Heralds make a distinction between the singular Ermine, and the Plural, Er- mines ; the latter, in their language, im- porting Black powdered with White : and they go into still more minute modifications, Erminois, &c. Apparel for the Heads of Gentlewomen. First, none shall wear an Ermine, or Let- tice-Bonnet, unless she be a Gentlewoman born, having Arms. Item, a Gentleman's Wife, she being a Gentlewoman born, shall wear an Ermine or Lettice Bonnet, having one Powdering in the Top. And if she be of honourable stock, to have two Powderings, one before another, in the Top. Item, an Esquire's Wife to have two Powderings. 314 ERMINE. Item, an Esquires Wife for the Body to wear five Powderings ; and if she be of great Blood, tivo before, which maketh seven. Item, a Knight's Wife to wear on her Bonnet, seven Powderings, or eight at the most, because of higher Blood, as before. Item, & Banneret's Wife to wear ten Pow- derings. Item, a Barons Wife thirteen. Item, a Viscount's [Wife] to wear eighteen. Item, a Countess to wear twenty-four. And above that Estate the number conve- nient, at their pleasures. Ex Bibl. Harl. No. 1776. fol. 31. b. MOURNING. The French Queens, before the Reign of Charles VIII. wore White upon the death of the King ; and were called " Reines Blanches." It was changed to Black on the death of Charles VIII. 1498. [See P. Dan. Hist. iv. 590.] In a Wardrobe account for half a year, to Lady-day 1684 (a MS. purchased by Mr. Brander at the sale of the Library of Geo. MOURNING. 315 Scot, Esq. of Woolston-Hall, 1781), are the following entries for the King's Mourning. " A Grey Coat lined with Murrey and White flowered Silk, with Gold Loops, and four Crape Hat-bands." Again, " A Sad- coloured Silk Coat, lined with Gold-striped Lutestring, with Silver- and-Silk Buttons ; and a Purple Crape Hat- band." Again, " A Purple Coat." The Emperor Leopold, who died 1705, never shaved his Beard during the time of Mourning, which often lasted for a long time. [Bancks's Hist, of Austria, p. 2770 The Empress-Dowagers never lay aside their Mourning, and even their Apartments are hung with Black till their deaths. [Bancks's Hist, of Austria, p. 400. He says this from Baron Polnitz's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 46.] The Bavarian Family never give a Black Livery, or line their Coaches, in the deepest Mourning. [Polnitz, i. letter 22.] The Pope's Nieces never wear Mourning, not even for their nearest Relations ; as the Romans reckon it so great a happiness for a 316 MOURNING. Family to have a Pope in it, that nothing- ought to afflict his Holiness's kindred. [Pol- nitz's Memoirs, ii. letter 33.] Queen Anne, on the death of Prince George of Denmark, wore Black and White, with a mixture of Purple in some part of her Dress. The precedent was taken from that worn hy Mary Queen of Scots for the Earl of Darnley, which was exactly in point. [Secret History of England, ii. 299.] King Charles I. put the Court into Mourn- ing for one Day on the death of the Earl of Portland (Richard Weston), Lord High Treasurer. [Stafford's Letters, i. 389.] BEARD, &c. CHARLES I.*— WILLIAM I. Mrs. Thomas's Great Grand-Father was Mr. Richard Shute, a Turkey Merchant, one of the Members for the City of London, and much favoured by King Charles I. who gave * See "The Life of Corinna," or Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, Jun. Printed in 1731. BEARD, &C 317 him the Name of Sattin-Shute, by way of distinction from another Branch of the same Name and Family, and from his usually wearing a Sattin Doublet cut upon White Taffata. " Without doubt," says Mrs. Thomas (for she was her own Biographer), " he was very nice in the mode of that Age, his Valet being some hours every morning in starching his Bea7 % d, and curling his Whiskers; but," con- tinues she, " during that time a Gentleman, whom he maintained as a Companion, always read to him on some useful subject." He lived in Leaden-Hall Street, the site on which stands the India House, and had a Country-seat at Berking, in Essex. Here he had a very fine Bowling-green, as he delighted much in that exercise. The King, who was fond of the diversion, once told Mr. Shute, he would dine with him some day, and try his skill on his Bowling-green. The King went, and was so pleased with the place, it being very retired, and likewise with Mr. Shute's skill in Bowling (he being accounted one of the best Bowlers of his time), that he frequently 318 ANECDOTE OF CHARLES I. visited afterwards Berking-Hall, without any Guards, and with three or four select Gen- tlemen, his attendants, when, as the King ex- pressed it, he had a mind to drop State, and enjoy himself as a private man: — "Ah, Shute," said he one day, with a deep sigh, il how much happier than I art thou, in this blessed retirement, free from the cares of a Crown, a factious Ministry, and rebellious Subjects V* They generally played high, and punctually paid their losings ; and though Mr. Shute often won, yet the King would, one day, set higher than usual, and, having lost several games, gave over ; when Mr. Shute said, — " An please your Majesty, One thousand pounds rubber more, perhaps Luck may turn ;" — " JYo, Shute" replied the King, laying his hand gently on his shoulder, " Thou hast won the day, and much good may it do thee, but I must remember I have a Wife and Children." P. xxi. This place was afterwards dismantled by Mr. Shute's heir, and in a few years became a ploughed field. The King gave Mr. Shute several places; among which were the Deputy ANECDOTE OF WILLIAM I. 319 Lieutenancy of the Ordnance, and the Mas- tership of St. Cross's Hospital, to the amourjt of four thousand pounds per annum. P. xxv. These he gave up when, the Civil War broke out ; and retired to Hamburgh, where he died a few years after the death of the King. P. xxvii. William the Conqueror played deep ; for, tradition says, that Walter Fitzbourne, a Norman Knight, and great Favourite of the King, playing at Chess on a Summer's even- ing, on the banks of the Ouse, with the King, won all he played for. The King- threw down the Board, saying he had nothing more to play for. " Sir," said Sir Walter, " here is land." " There is so," replied the King ; " and if thou beatest me this Game also, thine be all the Land on this side the Bourne, or River, which thou canst see as thou sittest." He had the good fortune to win; and the King, clapping him on the shoulder, said, " Henceforth thou shalt no more be called Fitzbourne, but Ousebourne."* Hence it is supposed came the name of Os- borne. Life of Corinna, p. xxviii. 320 Westminster. Lord Coke, in his 3d Inst. (cap. 51.^ speaking of the City of Westminster, says, " It hath its name of ' the Monastery/ which Minster signifieth, and it is called TVest- mjnster, in respect of 2£as£minster, not far from the Tower of London. This West- minster, Sebert, the first King of the East Saxons that was christened, founded." It is added in a note in the margin, Segbert began his Reign A. D. 603. Lord Coke, however excellent a Lawyer, I fear was but a bad Antiquary ; for the re- verse rather seems to be the case, as it will appear that 2£«s£minster was so called in respect of If^estm'mster. For in Stowe's Survey of London (edit. 1633), p. 497, ne gives the following account of the Founda- tion of the Church of Westminster : — " This Monasterie was founded and builded in the year 605, by Sebert, King of the East Saxons, upon the perswasion of Ethelbert, King of WESTMINSTER. 321 Kent, who, having embraced Christianity, and being baptized by Melitus, Bishop of London, immediately (to shew himself a Christian indede) built a Church to the ho- nor of God and St. Peter, on the West side of the City of London, in a place, which (be- cause it was overgrown with thornes, and environed with water) the Saxons called 1 Thornez,' or ' Thorney ;'.... whereupon, partly from the situation to the ff^est, and partly from the Monasterie or3£insier, itbegan to take the name of Westminster :" and then he goes on with the history of that Church. So far of Westminster. Of Eastminster Stowe gives the following account, by which it will appear that the foundation of East- minster Was subsequent to that of Westmin- ster, by at least 7^0 years. " In the year 1348," says he, " the 23d of Edward the Third, the first great Pestilence in his time began, and increased so sore, that for want of roome in Church-yards to bury the dead of the City and of the Suburbs, one John Corey, Clerke, procured of Nicholas, Prior of the Holy Trinity within Ealdgate, one toft of 322 WESTMINSTER. ground necre unto East Smithfiekl, for the buriall of them that dyed ; with condition, that it might he called the Church-yard of the Holy Trinity : which ground he caused, by the ayd of divers devout Citizens, to be inclosed with a wall of stone ; . . . . and the same was dedicated by Ralfe Stratford, Bishop of London, where innumerable bodies of the dead were afterwards buried, and a Chapel built in the same place to the honour of God ; to the which King Edward setting his eye (having before, in a tempest on the sea, and peril of drowning, made a vow to build a Monastery to the honour of God, and our Lady of Grace, if God would give him grace to come safe to land), builded there a Monasterie, causing it to be named East- minster, placing an Abbot and Monks of the Cistercian or White order." P. 11/. In Stowe, p. 751, is a list of all the " Pa- trones of all the Benefices in London," in which this. Foundation seems to be twice mentioned, first as the " Abbey of White Monks," and then as " Mary de Grace, an Abbey of Monkes,' bv the Towre of London." 323 MEMORANDA RELATIVE TO THE e^cctet^ of ti)t 'Ccmple, &5:\ LONDON; Written in or about the Year 1J"60. The Societies of the Temple have no Charter; hut the Fee was granted hy a Patent to the Professors and Students of the Law, to them and their Successors for ever. The King is Visitor of the Temples; and orders have been sent down from him so lately as Charles the Second's time, for the Regulation of them, which were brought in great form hy the Lord Chancellor and twelve Judges, and signed by them. The Discipline oi these Societies was for- merly, till within these eighty years, very strict. The Students appeared, upon all oc- casions, and in all places, in their proper habits ; and for neglecting to appear in such y2 324 MEMORANDA RELATIVE TO habit, or for want of decency in it, they were punished by being put two years backward in their standing. This habit was discon- tinued, because the Templars having been guilty of riots in some parts of the town, being known by their habits to be such, a reproach was thereby reflected on the So- ciety, for want of discipline. Commons. — Till there was a relaxation ol discipline, the Commons were continued in the Vacation as well as in the Terms ; and the Members obliged to attend, upon severe penalties for neglect of it. The Barristers, though they were called to their degree, were not admitted to practise, but by special leave from the Judges, till three years after their call, during which their attendance to Com- mons, both in Term and Vacation, was not to be compounded for, or dispensed with. The Law Societies were, at first, under one general regulation and establishment, till they branched out, and divided, as it were, into Colonies. The Societies of each Temple are very zealous in contending for the Anti- quity of their Society. THE SOCIETY OF THE TEMPLE. 325 The Society of the Middle Temple must now be very rich ; and it consists in money, they having no real estate. I have been as- sured, that the certain yearly expences of it, exclusive of repairs, amounts to a considera- ble sum. The Benchers are generally in number about twenty, though there is no fixed num- ber. They may be called to the Bench at eighteen or twenty years standing. The Bench have power to call whom they think proper of such standing to the Bench; which if they answer not, they pay a Fine of Fifty Pounds. The Benchers eat at their own expence in this Society, having nothing allowed but their Commons ; which few, I believe none, of the Benchers of the other Houses do. The Readings, which generally were upon some Statute, continued about eight days, when there were Treats and Balls at the Reader's expence ; and there is an Order of the House, of no very old date, by which the Reader was restrained from having above Eight Servants, which shews, in some mea- 52b MEMORANDA RELATIVE TO sure, the luxury and expence attending them. They have now heen discontinued upwards of seventy years (the last Reader being Sir William Whitlocke, 1684); but there is a Reader still appointed every year, and some small Treat, at the expence of the Society, of Venison, &c. ; and the Arms. of the Reader are put up in a Pannel in the Hall. Mr. Bohun, the Writer of several excellent Books in different branches of the Law, having, when he was Reader at New Inn, put up a question tending to Blaspheu y, (I think it was, whether the Person of our Sa- viour was God,) was excommoned by the So- ciety ; that is, he was denied the privilege of coming into the Hall, and at the same time obliged to pay for full Commons. They judged expulsion too mild a punishment. The Old Hall stood on the South side of Pump Court, which, upon building a new one, was converted into Sets of Chambers; and which, by Order of Queen Elizabeth, were not to exceed eight in number. This was soon after pulled down, and Chambers buiit in its stead. THE SOCIETY OF THE TEMPLE. 32J* Library. — Left by Will to the Society, by Astley, a Bencher of it. It contains about Nine Thousand Volumes. Besides this, he left a Set of Chambers, value three hundred pounds, for the maintenance of a Librarian, who at first was a Barrister; but, not being thought worth their acceptance, it is now in the Butler. Present Hall. — Built by Plowden, who was seven years in perfecting it. He was three years Treasurer successively ; and after he quitted the Treasurership, he still con- tinued the direction of the Building. The Temple Organ was made by Smith. The Societies, being resolved to have a good Organ, employed one Smith and one Harris to make each of them an Organ, value five hundred pounds ; and promised that they would give seven hundred pounds for that which proved the best. This was accord- ingly done, and Smith's was preferred and purchased. The other, made by Harris, was 3'28 SOCIETY OP THE TEMPLE. sold to Christ-Church in Dublin ; but, being afterwards exchanged for another made by Byfield for four hundred pounds difference, it was sold by Byfield to the Church at Woolwich *. Inns of Chancery, like the Halls at Ox- ford. New-Inn belongs to the Middle Temple ; and at the expiration of a long lease, the Fee Simple will be vested in us. * Mr. Snetzler, 329 §^tmttel u Simnel. — Siminellus from the Latin Si- mila, which signifies the Finest Part of the Flour. Panis similageneus, Simnel Bread. It is mentioned in ' Assisa Panis ;' and is still in use, especially in Lent. Bread made into a Simnel shall weigh two shillings less than Wastell Bread." Stat. 51 Henry III. The Statute, intituled Assisa Panis et Cer- visise, made Anno 51 Hen. III. Stat. I. ; and Anno Dom. 1266. Cotton MS. Clau- dius, D. 2. Panis vero de siminello pondera- bit minus de Wastello de duobus solidis, quia bis coctus est. For the Ordinance for the Assise and Weight of Bread in the City of London, see Stowe's Survey, p. J 40, Edit. 1633. It was sometime called Simnellus, as in the Annals of the Church of Winchester, under the year 1042. " Rex Edwardus in- stituit, et carta, confirmavit, ut quoties ipse 330 SIMNEL. vel aliquis Successorum suorum Regum Angliae diadema portaret Wintoniae vel Wigorniae vel Westmonasterii ; Praecentor loci recipiet de fisco ipsa die dimidiam marcam, et conventus centum Sumnellos et unun modium vim." But, indeed, the true reading is Siminel. The English Simnel was the purest White Bread, as in the Book of Battle Abbey. " Panem Regiae Menses aptam, qui Simenel vulgo vocatur *." Simula. — A Manchet, a White Loaf. Among the Customs of the Abbey of Glas- tonbury : (< In diebus solemnibus, cum Fra- tres fuerunt in cappis, Mcdonem habuerunt in Justis, et Simulas super mensam, et vinum ad caritatem, et tria generalia." Chartular. Abbat. Glaston. MS. fol. 10. For the use of Saffron, now used for co- louring the Crust of the Simnel, see Shake- spear's Winter's Tale; where the Clown (Act iv.) says, " Then I must have Saffron to colour the Warden Pyes." * Coweli's Interpreter. See also Blount's Glossary, in voce. 331 Origin of Cimteen pence ^alfpeting, A S HANGMAN'S WAGES; In a Letter to Edward King, Esq. President of' the Society of Antiquaries. The vulgar notion, though it will not ap- pear to he a vulgar error, is, that Thirteen Pence Halfpenny is the fee of the Executioner in the common line of business at Tyburn *, and therefore is called Hangman's Wages. The sum is singular, and certainly there is a * The Executions, on ordinary occasions, were re- moved from this memorable place, and were per- formed in the street of the Old Bailey, at the door of Newgate. This was first practised on the 9th of De- cember 1783. See the printed account. Every of these Executions, I was told by Mr. Reed, 1785, is at- tended with an expence of upwards of nine pounds. Twenty persons were hanged at once in February 1785. 332 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, reason for its having obtained so odious an appellation, though it may not be very ob- vious. We find that anciently this Office was, in some parts of the Kingdom, annexed to other Posts ; for the Porter of the City of Canterbury was the Executioner for the County of Kent, temporibus Hen. II. and Hen. III. for which he had an allowance from the Sheriff, who was re-imbursed from the Exchequer, of Twenty Shillings j)cr an- num *. Though this is an Office in great and ge- neral disesteem, yet the Sheriffs are much obliged to those who will undertake it, as otherwise the unpleasant and painful duty must fall upon themselves. Thev are the persons to whom the Law looks for its com- pletion, as they give a Receipt to the Gaoler for the Bodies of condemned Criminals whom they are to punish, or cause to be punished, according to their respective Sentences. The business is of such an invidious nature, that, * Madox's History of the Exchequer, ii. p. 373. or hangman's wages. 333 in the Country, Sheriffs have sometimes had much difficulty to procure an Executioner, as, in the eyes of the lower people, it carries with it a Stigma, apart from any shock that it must give to Humanity and Compassion. I remember a very few years ago, if the News-papers said true, the Sheriff of one of the Inland Counties was very near being obliged to perform the unwelcome Office himself. So that in fact the Hangman is the She- riff's immediate Deputy in criminal matters, though there is always, at present, an Under- Sherifffor civil purposes. But, before I bring you to the point in question, it will not be amiss to lead you gradually to it, by in- quiring into the nature and dignity of the Office in some particulars, and into the Rank of the Officer, for we have all heard of Squire Ketch. These will be found to be sup- portable matters, as well as the Fee of Office, which is our ground- work. The Sheriff is, by being so styled in the King's Patent under the Great Seal, an Es- quire, which raises him to that Rank, unless 334 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, he has previously had the Title adventi- tiously. None were anciently chosen to this Office, hut .such Gentlemen whose fortunes and stations would warrant it; so, on the other hand, Merchants, and other liberal branches of the lower order, were admitted first into the rank of Gentlemen, by a grant of Arms, on proper qualifications, from the Earl Marshal, and the Kings of Arms, respect- ively, according to thc:ir Provinces. After a Negotiant has become a Gentleman, courtesy will very soon advance that rank, and give the party the title of Esquire ; and so it has happened with the worthy Gentleman before us, for such I shall prove him once with ce- remony to have been created. Tin's remark- able case happened in the year !61o', and was as follows. Ralph Brooke, whose real name Avas Brokesmouth, at that time York Herald, not content with being mischievous, was the most turbulent and malicious man that ever wore the King's Coat. After various malver- sations in Oflice, not to the present purpose, he put a trick upon Sir William Segar, Gar- ter King of Arms, which had very nearly cost or hangman's wages. 335 both of them their places. The story is touched upon in Mr. Anstis's Register of the Order of the Garter * ; but is more fully and satisfactorily related in the Life of Mr. Cam- den, prefixed to his "Britannia," to this effect. Ralph Brooke employed a person to carry a Coat of Arms ready drawn to Garter, and to pretend it belonged to one Gregory Brandon, a Gentleman who had formerly lived in London, but then residing in Spain, and to desire Garter to set his hand to it. To pre- vent deliberation, the messenger was in- structed to pretend that the vessel, which was to carry this confirmation into Spain, when it had received the Seal of the Office and Garter's Hand, was just ready to sailf. This being done, and the Fees paid, Brooke car- ries it to Thomas Earl of Arundel, then one of the Commissioners for executing the Office of Earl Marshal : and, in order to vilify Garter, * Vol.ii. p. 399. f These Arms actually appear in Ed mo ml son's Body of Heraldry, annexed to the name of Brandon, viz. the Arms of Arragon with a difference, and the Arms of Brabant in a Canton. 336 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, and to represent him as a rapacious negligent Officer, assures his Lordship that those were the Arms of Arragon, with a Canton for Brabant, and that Gregory Brandon was a mean and inconsiderable person. This was true enough ; for he was the common Hang- man for London and Middlesex. Ralph Brooke afterwards confessed all these circum- stances to the Commissioners who repre- sented the Earl Marshal ; the consequence of which was, that Garter was, by order of the King, when he heard the case, committed to Prison for negligence, and the Herald for treachery. Be this as we find it, yet was Gregory Brandon the Hangman become a Gentleman, and, as the Bastard says in King John, " could make any Joan a Gentle- woman." Thus was this Gregory Brandon advanced, perhaps from the state of a Convict, to the rank of a Gentleman ; and though it was a personal honour to himself, notwithstanding it was surreptitiously obtained by the Herald, of which Gregory JBraiidon, Gentleman, was perhaps ignorant, yet did it operate so much oil hangman's wages. 337 on his successors in office, that afterwards it became transferred from the Family to the Officer for the time being ; and from Mr. Brandon's popularity, though not of the most desirable kind, the mobility soon improved his rank, and, with a jocular complaisance, gave him the title of Esquire, which remains to this day. I have said that Mr. Brandon was perhaps a Convict ; for I know that at York the Hangman has usually been a par- doned Criminal, whose case was deemed venial, and for which the performance of this painful duty to fellow-prisoners was thought a suffi- cient infliction. It seems too as if this Office had once, like many other important Offices of State, been hereditary; but whether Mr. Brandon had it by descent I cannot say, yet Shakspeare has this passage in Coriolanus * : " Menenius. — Marcius, in a cheap esti- mation, is worth all your Predecessors, since Deucalion ; though, peradventure. some of the best of them were Hereditary Hangmen." This looks as if the Office of Executioner * Act ii. sc. I. Z 338 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, had run in some Family for a generation or two, at the time when Shakspeare wrote; and that it was a circumstance well underr- stood, and would be well relished, at least by the Galleries. This might indeed, with re- gard to time, point at the ancestors of Mr. Brandon himself; for it was in the Reign of King James I. that this person was, as we have seen, brought within the pale of Gen- tility. Nay, more, we are told by Dr. Grey, in his Notes on Shakspeare *, that from this Gentleman, the Hangmen, his Successors, bore for a considerable time his Christian name of Gregory, though not his Arms, they being a personal honour, till a greater man arose, viz. Jack Ketch, who entailed the present official name on all who have hitherto followed him f . Whether the name of Ketch be not the provincial pronunciation of Catch among the Cockneys, I have my doubts, though I have * Vol. ii. p. 163. f The Hangman was known by the name of Gre- gory in the year 1642, as we learn from the Mercurius Aulicus, p. 553. or hangman's wages. 339 printed authority to confront me ; for that learned and laborious Compiler, B. E. Gent, the Editor of the Canting Dictionary, says that Jack Kitch, for so he spells it, was the real name of a Hangman, which has become that of all his successors. When this great man lived, for such we must suppose him to have been, and renowned for his popularity or dexterity, Biographical History is silent. So much for this important Office itself; and we must now look to the Emoluments which appertain to it, and assign a reason why Thirteen Pence Halfpenny should be es- teemed the standard Fee for this definitive stroke of the law. Hogarth has given a fine Picture of the sang-froid of an Executioner in his Print of the London Apprentice; where the Mr. Ketch for the time being is lolling upon the Gallows, and smoaking his Pipe ; waiting, with the utmost indifference, for the arrival of the Cart and the Mob that close the melancholy Procession. ButUse becomesNature in things at which even Nature herself revolts. Before we proceed to matters of a pecuniary z2 340 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, nature, having said so much upon the Exe- cutioner, permit me to step out of the way for a moment, and add a word or two on the Executione, which will explain a Yorkshire saying. It was for the most unsuspected crime imaginable, that the truly unfortunate man who gave rise to the adage suffered the Sentence of the Law at York. He was a Saddler at Bawtry, and occasioned this say- ing, often applied among the lower people to a man who quits his friends too early, and will not stay to finish his bottle; " That he will be hanged for leaving his liquor, like the Saddler of Bawtry." The case was this : There was formerly, and indeed it has not long been suppressed, an Ale-house, to this day called " The Gallows House," situate between the City of York and their Tyburne ; at which House the Cart used always to stop; and there the Convict and the other parties were refreshed with liquors ; but the rash and precipitate Saddler, under Sentence, and on his road to the fatal Tree, refused this little regale, and hastened on to the Place of or hangman's wages. 341 Execution — ■ when, very soon after he was turned-off, a Reprieve arrived; insomuch that, had he stopped, as was usual, at the Gallows House, the time consumed there would have been the means of saving his life : so that he was hanged, as truly as unhappily, for leaving his liquor. The same compliment was anciently paid to Convicts, on their passage to Tyburne, at St. Giles's Hospital ; for we are told by Stowe *, that they were there presented with a Bowl of Ale, called " St. Giles's JBowl ;" "thereof to drink at their pleasure, as their last refreshing in this life." This place (Tyburne) was the established scene of Executions in common cases so long ago as the first year of King Henry IV; Smithfield and St. Giles's Field being reserved for persons of higher rank, and for crimes of uncommon magnitude ; such as treason and heresy: in the last of these, Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was burnt, or rather roasted, alive ; having been hanged * History of London, vol. II. p. 74. 342 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, up over the fire by a chain which went round his waist *. The Execution of the Duke of Monmouth (in July 1685) was peculiarly unsuccessful in the operation. The Duke said to the Executioner, " Here are Six Guineas for you : pray do your busi- ness well ; do not serve me as you did my Lord Russell : I have heard you struck him three or four times. Here" (to his Servant) ; " take these remaining Guineas, and give them to him if he does his work well." Executioner. — " I hope I shall." Monmouth. — " If you strike me twice, I cannot promise you not to stir. Pr'ythee let me feel the Axe." He felt the edge, and said, " I fear it is not sharp enough." Executioner. — " It is sharp enough, and heavy enough." The Executioner proceeded to do his office ; * Rapin. See also Bale's Life and Trial of Sir John Oldcastle. St. Giles's was then an independent Village, and is still called St. Giles's in the Fields, to distinguish it from St. Giles's, Cripplegate; being both in the same Diocese. or hangman's wages. 343 but the Note says, " it was under such dis- traction of mind, that he fell into the very- error which the Duke had so earnestly cau- tioned him to avoid ; wounding him so slightly, that he lifted up his head, and looked him in the face, as if to upbraid him for making his death painful ; but said nothing. He then prostrated himself again, and received two other ineffectual blows ; upon which the Exe- cutioner threw down his Axe in a fit of horror; crying out, " he could not finish his work " but, on being brought to himself by the threats of the Sheriffs, took up the fatal weapon again, and at two other strokes made a shift to sepa- rate the Head from the Body.'' [Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. I. pp. 219, 220 ; the Note taken from the Review of the Reigns of Charles and James, p. 885.] As to the Fee itself, which has occasioned me to give you so much trouble, I incline to think this seeming singular sum must have been of Scottish extraction, though not usedl for the like purpose; for, I presume, from the value of money there, a man might for- merly be hanged at a much cheaper rate, and 344 THIRTEEN EENCE HALFPENNY, that we have it by transplantation. The Scottish Mark (not ideal or nominal money, like oar Mark) was a Silver Coin, in value Thirteen Pence Halfpenny and Two Placks, or Two-Thirds of a Penny ; which Plack is likewise a Coin. This, their Mark, bears the same proportion to their Pound, which is Twenty Pence, as our Mark does to our Pound, or Twentv Shillings ; being; Two- Thirds of it. Bv these divisions and sub- divisions of their Penny (for they have a still smaller piece, called a Bodel or Haifa Plack) they can reckon with the greatest minuteness, and buy much less quantities of any article than we can *. This Scottish Mark was, upon the Union of the two Crowns in the person of King James I. made current in England at the value of Thirteen Pence Half- penny (without regarding the fraction), by Proclamation, in the first year of that King ; where it is said, that " the Coin of Silver, called the Mark Piece, shall be from hence- forth currant within the said Kingdom of * Mr. Ray, in his Itineraiy, gives the Fractional Parts of the Scottish Penny. or hangman's wages. 345 ^England, at the value of Thirteen Pence Halfpeny *.'' This, probably, was a revo- lution in the current money in favour of the Officer of whom we have been speaking, whose Fee before was perhaps no more than a Shil- ling. There is, however, very good reason to conclude, from the singularity of the sum, that the odious title of Hangman's linages became at this time, or soon after, applicable to the sum of Thirteen Pence Halfpenny. Though it was contingent, yet at that time it was very considerable pay; when one Shilling per diem was a standing annual stipend to many respectable Officers of various kinds. After having discovered the pay of an Office, one naturally inquires for Perquisites and other Emoluments ; for all posts, from the High Chancellor to the Hangman, carry some ; and which, in many cases, as well as this, often exceed the established pay itself. Nothing can well vary more than the Per- quisites of this Office ; for it is well known * The Proclamation may be seen in Strype's An- nals, vol. IV. p. 3S4 ; where the Mark-Piece is valued exactly at Thirteen Pence Halfpenny. 346 THIRTEEN PENCE HALFPENNY, that Jack Ketch has a Post-obit interest in the Convict, being entitled to his Cloaths, or to a composition for them ; though, on the other hand, they must very frequently be such Garments that, as Shakspeare says, " a Hangman would bury with those who wore them *." This emolument is of no modern date ; and has an affinity to other Droits on very dis- similar occasions, which will be mentioned presently. The Executioner's perquisite is at least as old as Henry VIII. ; for Sir Thomas More, on the morning of his Exe- cution, put on his best Gown, which was of Silk Camlet, sent him as a present, while he was in the Tower, by a Citizen of Lucca with whom he had been in correspondence ; but the Lieutenant of the Tower was of opi- nion that a worse Gown would be good enough for the person who was to have it, meaning the Executioner, and prevailed upon Sir Thomas to change it, which he did for one made of frize f . Thus the antiquity of * Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 8. f More's Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 271. or hangman's wages. 347 this obitual emolument, so well known in Shakspeare's time, seems well established ; and, as to its nature, has a strong resem- blance to a fee of a much longer standing, and formerly received by Officers of very great respectability : for anciently Garter King of Arms had specifically the Gown of the Partv on the creation of a Peer ; and again, when Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and Priors, did homage to the King, their upper garment was the perquisite even of the Lord Chamberlain of the Household. The fee in the latter case was always compounded for, though Garters was often formerly re- ceived in kind, inasmuch as the Statute which gives this fee to the Lord Chamberlain, di- rects the composition, because, as the words are, "it is more convenient that religious men should fine for their upper garment, than to be stripped *. ,? The same delicate ne- cessity does not operate in the Hangman's case ; and his fee extends much farther than either of them, he being entitled to all the sufferer's garments, having first rendered * Stat. 13 Edward I. 348 hangman's wages. them useless to the party. Besides this per- quisite, there has always been a pecuniary compliment, where it could possibly be af- forded, given by the Sufferer to the Execu- tioner, to induce him to be speedy and dex- terous in the operation, which seems to be of still greater antiquity ; for Sir Thomas More tells us that St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, gave his Executioner thirty pieces of gold ; and Sir Thomas himself gave (ac- cording to his Historian, his Great Grand- son), on the like occasion, an angel of gold, being almost the last penny he had left. These outward gifts may likewise be under- stood as tokens of inward forgiveness. Upon the whole, Sir, I conceive that what I have offered above, though with much enlargement, is the meaning of the ignominious term affixed to the sum of Thir- teen Pence Halfpenny ; and cannot but com- miserate those for whom it is to be paid. I am, Sir, Your faithful humble Servant, SAMUEL PEGGE. 349 CUSTOM OBSERVED BY THE LORD LIEUTENANTS OF IRELAND, On the great road from London to West Chester, we find, at the principal Inns, the Coats of Arms of several Lord Lieutenants of Ireland, framed, and hung up in the hest rooms. At the bottom of these Armorial Pictures (as I may call them) is a full dis- play of all the Titles of the Party, together with the date of the year when each Vice- royship commenced. I have often inquired the reason of this custom, hut never could procure a satisfactory answer. I do not re- probate the idea of this relique of ancient dignity, as these Heraldic Monuments were doubtless intended to operate as public evi- dences of the passage of each Lord-Deputy to his delegated Government. They now 350 LORD LIEUTENANTS OF IRELAND. seem only to be preserved for the gratification of the vanity of the capital Inn-keepers, by shewing to Humble Travellers that such and such Lord-Lieutenants did them the honour to stop at their houses ; and yet I will not say, but that for half-a-crown handsomely offered to his Excellency's Gentleman, they might likewise become part of the furniture of every alehouse in Dunstable. After fruitless inquiry, accident furnished me with the ground of this custom, which now only serves to excite a little transitory curiosity. Having occasion to look into Sir Dudley Digge's " Complete Ambassa- dor," published in 1654, I was obliged to the Editor for a solution, who, in the Pre- face (signed A, H.), speaking of the reserve of the English Ambassadors, in not making public their Negotiations, has this observa- tion : — " We have hardly any notion of them but by their Arms, which are hung up in Inns where they passed." This paragraph at once accounts for the point before us, and is sufficient, at the same time, to shew that the custom was anciently, LORD LIEUTENANTS OP IRELAND. 351 and even in the seventeenth century, com- mon to every Ambassador, though it now only survives with those who go in the greater and more elevated line of Royal re- presentation to Ireland. SAMUEL PEGGE. THE END. Of the Publishers of this Work may be had ANONYMIANA; OR, TEN CENTURIES OF OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS ; (Compiled by the late very Learned and Reverend Dr. PEGGE); With a co-pious Index. 8vo. Price 1 2s. " Whether as an. Antiquary, a classical, poetical, ^nd histo- rical Critick, a Biographer, or Enquirer mto the Beauti i and Niceties of Grammar and Languages, we find every where that Dr. PbGGr/s remarks are not only striking and useful, but original; and, in this last respect, we have Utile hesitation in preferring the Ahonymiana to the greater part of the YVoiks of this description, which have been lately published, either at home or abroad. There is scarcely a taste among the various divisions of human liking, that will not find something appro- priate and gratitying. It would be impossible to withhold, in these times of levity, just praise from a Work that so ably com- bines * light reading' with ' serious thinking.' " Gent. Mag. 1809. ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, chiefly regarding the Local Dialect of London and its Environs ; whence it will appear, that the Natives of the Metropolis, and its Vicinities, have not corrupted the Language of their An- cestors. 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