Notes and Queries, Number 77, April 19, 1851

J. D.

Meaning of Rechibus, &c.—Among the rights claimed by the Esturmys in Savernak forest, 8 Edw. III., occurs—

"Et omnia placita de leporibus, rechibus, heymectis, tessonibus, vulpibus, murilegis, et perdricibus:"

which I translate—

"And all pleas concerning hares, traps, hedgehogs, badgers, foxes, wild-cats, and partridges:"

but I confess I have no confidence in some of these words, as the glossaries in the British Museum Library fail to explain them. I therefore solicit your courteous assistance.

James Waylen.

Family of Queen Katherine Parr.—The pedigree of the once eminent family of Parr, as recorded in various printed works—Dugdale, Nicholls, Burke, &c., is far from being complete or satisfactory. Could any one versed in the genealogy of the northern counties supply any information on the following points?—

I. The early descent.—Dugdale in his Baronage, commences with Sir William Parr, who married Elizabeth De Ros, 1383; but he states the family to have been previously "of knightly degree." A MS. pedigree in the Herald's College also mentions Sir William as "descended from a race of knights." Where is an account of this race to be found?

II. The separation between the two lines of Parr and Kendal.—Sir Thomas Parr, father of Queen Katherine, died 1518, and his Inq. p. m. states him to have held manors, messuages, lands, woods, and rents, in Parr, Wigan, and Sutton. Ten years afterwards, 1528, Bryan Parr was found by Inq. p. m. to have held the manor, messauges, woods, lands, &c. of Parr. How was Bryan related to Sir Thomas?

III. The descendant in the fourth degree of Bryan was Henry Parr, of Parr, who was, according to a MS. in the college, aged twenty in 1621. Had he any descendants?

If no positive information can be afforded, yet a clue to where it might be sought for would oblige.

Genealogicus Lancastriensis.

Skort.—

"Or wily Cyppus that can wink and snort,While his wife dallies on Mæcenas' skort."—Hall, Satires, Book iv. Sat. 1. (Whittingham's edition, 1824.)

Of course the general meaning of these two verses is obvious enough. But how is the latter to be read? Are we to read "dallies on," as one word, i.e. keeps dallying, and "skort" (as a mere abbreviation of the Latin "scortum") as nominative in apposition with "wife?" If so, the verse is intelligible, though harsh enough even for Hall.

If not, the word "skort" must have some other meaning which I am unacquainted with. I cannot find it at all in Halliwell, the only authority I have at hand to refer to.

K. I. P. B. T.

Religious Teaching in the German Universities.—Will any of your numerous readers direct me to any book or books containing information on the present state of religion and religious teaching in the German Universities?

Rovert.

Epigram by Dunbar—Endymion Porter.—Can any of your correspondents supply the deficient verses in the following epigram, addressed by Thomas Dunbar, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1815 to 1822, to Miss Charlotte Ness, who required him to explain what was meant by the terms abstract and concrete?

"Say what is abstract, what concrete,Their difference define?They both in one fair person meet,And that fair form is thine.      *       *       *       *      *       *       *       *For when I lovely Charlotte view,I then view loveliness."

Can any one substantiate the local tradition the Endymion Porter was born at the manor-house of Aston Subedge, in Gloucestershire; or furnish any particulars of his life before he became gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince Charles?

Balliolensis.

Sathaniel.—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what book, play, poem, or novel, a character named Sathaniel appears? There is a rather common picture bearing that title; it represents a dark young lady, in Eastern dishabille, with a turban on her head, reclining on a many-cushioned divan, and holding up a jewel in one hand. I have seen the picture so often, that my curiosity as to the origin of the subject has been completely aroused; and I have never yet found any one able to satisfy it.

F. T. C.

The Scoute Generall.—I have in my possession a small 4to. MS. of 32 pages, entitled The Scoute Generall, "communicating (impartially) the martiall affaires and great occurrences of the grand councell (assembled in the lowest House of Parliament) unto all kingdomes, by rebellion united in a covenant," &c., which is throughout written in verse, and particularly satirical against the Roundheads of the period (1646), and remarkable for the following prognostication of the death of the unfortunate monarch Charles I.:

"Roundheads bragge not, since 'tis an old decree,In time to come from chaines wee should be free:Traytors shall rule, Injustice then shall sway,Subjects and nephewes shall their king betray;And he himselfe, O most unhappy fate!For kings' examples, kingdomes imitate:What he maintain'd, I know it was not good,Brought in by force, and out shall goe by blood," &c.

It occupies about thirty lines more. At the bottom of the title, and at the conclusion of the postscript, it has merely the initials S. D. Could any of your worthy correspondents inform me who S. D. was?

The MS. is evidently cotemporary, and, according to the introduction, was "ordered to be forthwith published,

.;" and as I cannot trace that such a production was ever issued, the answer would confer a favour on

C. Hamilton.

City Road, April 1. 1851.

Arthur Pomeroy, Dean of Cork.—Can any one of your genealogical readers assist me in ascertaining the parentage of Arthur Pomeroy, who was made Dean of Cork in 1672? He was fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in which university he graduated as A.B. in 1660, M.A. in 1664, and S.T.P. in 1676. He is stated in Archdale's edition of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (article "Harberton") to have sprung from the Pomeroys of Ingsdon in Devonshire, and is stated to have gone to Ireland as chaplain to the Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant.

J. B.

Minor Queries Answered

Civil War Tract.—

"A Letter sent from a worthy Divine, to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London. Being a true relation of the battaile fought betweene His Majesty and his Excellence the Earle of Essex. From Warwicke Castle, the 24. of October, 1642, at two a clock in the morning. Together with a Prayer for the happy uniting of the King and parliament, fit to be used by all good Christians, daily in their houses. London, Octob. 27. Printed for Robert Wood. 1642."

The above is the title of a tract now in my possession. Is it known to any collector of tracts relating to the Battle of Edgehill? Who was the "worthy divine," the writer?

P. Q.

[On the title-page of this tract among the King's pamphlets in the British Museum, the name of Mr. Bifield has been written. No doubt it is the production of the Rev. Adoniram Byfield, chaplain to Col. Cholmondeley's regiment, in the army of the Earl of Essex in 1642, and who was subsequently one of the scribes to the Assembly of Divines, and a most zealous Covenanter. See Wood's Athenæ, by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 670.]

Trisection of the Circle.—Has the problem of the trisection of the angle been solved? or, if not, is there any reward for its solution; and what steps should be taken to obtain it?

John Vincent Lyster.

[The problem of the trisection of the angle by aid of the straight line and circle, used as in Euclid, has never been solved—no reward was ever offered for its solution.]

Wolsey's Son.—Can any of your readers give an account of a son of Cardinal Wolsey, whose existence is recorded in a letter from Eustace Chapuys to the Emperor Charles V., October 25, 1529, in the following words:—

"The cardinal has now retired with a very small train to a place about ten miles hence. A son of his has been sent for from Paris, who was there following his studies, and of whom I have formerly made some mention to your Majesty"—Correspondence of Charles V., p. 291.

Cardinal Beaton had lots of bastards, but I never remember to have seen in any account of Wolsey mention made of natural children.

J. M.

[The existence of a natural son of Cardinal Wolsey is a fact as well ascertained as any other fact of the Cardinal's history, and referred to in the various biographies of him that have appeared. His name was Thomas Winter. In Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxxii. pp. 255. and 256. note, reference is made to a Bull of Pope Julius II., dated August, 1508, to be found in Kennet's MSS. in the British Museum, in which he is styled, "dilecti filio Thomæ Wulcy," Rector of Lymington diocese of Bath and Wells, Master of Arts, "pro dispensatione ad tertium incompatibile." This is explained by the passage in Wood's Athenæ Oxon. Fasti, part i. p. 73. (Bliss ed.), relating to him. "This Tho. Winter, who was nephew (or rather nat. son) to Cardinal Tho. Wolsey, had several dignities confer'd upon him before he was of age, by the means of the said Cardinal," viz. the archedeaconry of York, 1523; chancellorship of the church of Sarum; the deanery of Wells, 1525; the provostship of Beverly; and the archdeaconry of Richmond, &c.: on which there is a note by Baker, that "this Tho. Winter is said to have held of the church's goods clearly more than 2000 pds. per an." Wood adds, that about the time of the Cardinal's fall, he gave up all or most of his dignities, keeping only the archdeaconry of York, which he resigned also in 1540. In Grove's Life and Times of Cardinal Wolsey, vol. iv. p. 315., among the "Articles" against the Cardinal, Article XXVII. expressly charges him, "that he took from his son Winter his income of 2,700l. a-year, applied it to his own use, and gave him only 200l. yearly to live on." A reference is made in Sir H. Ellis's Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 70., to a letter of Edmund Harvel to Dr. Starkey, dated from Venice, April 1535, in which the writer expresses his obligations to Mr. Winter, for his "friendly mynde toward him," and begs him to return his thanks.

In Mr. Galt's Life of Wolsey (Appendix IV. p. 424. of Bogue's edition) will be found a copy of a letter from John Clusy to Cromwell, in relation to a natural daughter of Wolsey's in the nunnery of Shaftesbury.]

Cardinals and Abbots in the English Church.—It may not be generally known, but the fact is so, that the English church numbers two Cardinals and a Lord Abbot amongst her members. In Whitaker's Clerical Diary, under the head of London Diocese, there is attached to St. Paul's a senior and a junior cardinal; and in Ireland exists the exempt jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne, under the government of the Lord Abbot, who is the Earl of Kilmorey. Can any of your readers give me any information respecting these officials?

W. J.

[Cardinal.—The title of cardinal (cardinalis) in early times was frequently applied to any bishop, priest, or deacon holding an official post. In France there were many cardinal priests: thus, the curate of the parish of St. John de Vignes is called, in old charters, the cardinal priest of that parish. There were also cardinal deacons, who had the charge of hospitals for the poor, and who ranked above the other deacons. Thus, two of the minor canons of St. Paul's are called cardinals of the choir, whose duties are to preserve order in Divine service, administer the Eucharist, and officiate at funerals. In former times, they heard confessions and enjoined penances. (Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 233.) It was not till the twelfth century that the Sacred College of Cardinals was organised; nor was it till 1567 that clergymen were forbidden by Pius V. to assume the title of cardinal unless appointed by the Pope.

Lay Abbots.—In early times we frequently find secular persons denominated "field abbots" and "abbot counts," upon whom the sovereign had bestowed certain abbeys, for which they were obliged to render military service, as for common fiefs. In the time of Charles the Bald many of the nobility in France were abbots, having a dean to officiate for them. Thus, too, in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of James V., was, at the time of the Reformation, Prior of St. Andrew's, although a secular person. The Earl of Kilmorey, who is impropriator of the tithes of St. Mary, Newry, is a lay abbot, or representative of the preceding abbots of a Cistertian Abbey which formerly existed in that town. His abbatial functions, however, are confined to convening ecclesiastical courts, and granting probates of wills, and licenses for marriages, subject only to the metropolitan jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Armagh. A remnant of the secularisation of ecclesiastical dignities has already been noticed in our pages (Vol. ii., pp. 447. 500.), in the case of the late Duke of York, who was at the same time Commander-in-chief and Bishop of Osnaburg.]

Replies

SIR BALTHAZAR GERBIER

(Vol. ii., p. 375.)

Your correspondent J. Mt. has great reason to congratulate himself on the possession of the singularly curious tract which he describes, and which gives an autobiography of this extraordinary adventurer. I am not aware of any other copy in any public or private collection. I have a 4to. tract in nineteen pages, evidently printed abroad, the title of which is—

"Balthazar Gerbier, Knight,toAll Men that love Truth."

This gives a very interesting life of him by himself, perfectly distinct from, and containing many particulars not given in the tract possessed by your correspondent, which also contains matter not in the above. I have likewise another tract, privately printed in Holland in English, French, and Dutch, in fifteen pages 12mo., the English title to which is—

"A true Manifest,By Sr B. GerbierAnno1653."

In this, which gives some curious particulars as to "Mr. Hughe Peeters," and the book entitled The Nonsuch Charles, he refers to another "little manifest" published on the 2nd day of October, 1652, "that the world might take notice that he was not at all invested with any foreigne engagement." Of the tract so referred to, I regret to say no copy is known. None of the other three tracts appear to have been seen by Horace Walpole, who had collected a great number of Gerbier's pamphlets, and also the MS. next mentioned, which, at the Strawberry Hill sale, came together into my possession. The MS. contains the original appointments of Sir Balthazar to the offices he held while in England, a pedigree of his family beautifully emblazoned, and a large quantity of MS., prose and poetry, in his autograph; including a most extensive collection of projects and proposals, which seem to have been equally at the service of England or France. The best account we have of Gerbier is that which Horace Walpole has supplied in the Anecdotes of Painting (see Works, vol. iii. p. 189.); but his diplomatic negotiations, and his career as an artist and adventurer, never forgetting his academy at Whitefriars and Bethnal Green, would furnish matter for a very amusing volume. The general biography, however, to which he would be most appropriately remitted, and which is still a desideratum in literature, is that which is proposed by Dr. Johnson, in Chalmers's admirable parody:

"I think a good book might be made of scoundrels. I would have a Biographia Flagitiosa, the Lives of Eminent Scoundrels from the earliest accounts to the present day."

Jas. Crossley.

THE TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN

(Vol. ii., p. 519.; Vol. iii., p. 117.)

Is not your correspondent J. Me. in error when he says the original travels of the Baron were written to ridicule Bruce? I think this will only apply to the second volume, or "Sequel," seeing that there exists an edition of Gulliver Revived, printed at Oxford, 1786, four years before Bruce published. J. Me. further remarks, that there was at one time reason to believe that James Graham was the author of the well-known book in question, but that circumstances have come to his knowledge altogether precluding the possibility that the author of The Sabbath and The Travels of Baron Munchausen are identical.

To me it appears there were two of these James Grahams, and that from their being contemporaries, they are usually rolled into one. I have in my library a volume containing Wallace, a Tragedy, Edinburgh, 1799; and Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, an Historical Drama, Edinburgh, 1801, which appears to have belonged to Mr. George Chalmers, upon the titles of which that gentleman has written, "by James Graham, Advocate, Edinburgh, son of T. Graham, a writer of reputation in Glasgow."

From this one would think Mr. Chalmers had the author of The Sabbath in his eye: a conclusion, however, difficult to come to in the face of a critique which thus characterises the tragedy of Wallace:

"The play is not uninteresting, and the author has exhibited occasional proofs of poetical genius; but there are some passages in the piece that fall little short of blasphemy:"

—a charge which, of course, could never apply to this "lovable" and subsequently reverend author of The Sabbath, a poem breathing the humblest piety, and published only five years after Wallace; consequently here is, in the author of the tragedy of Wallace, another James Graham at the service of J. Me., to whom, if his other proofs are strong, the Baron may be assigned with more probability.

I may add, taking it for granted that Chalmers was right in claiming these two plays for a James Graham, that there is the strongest corroborative proof of there being two of the name in the existence of Mary Stewart, a Dramatic Poem, the acknowledged performance of the author of The Sabbath (see his Poems, 2 vols. 1809), a production differing in title, and bearing no resemblance, I should think, to the first named.

While upon the subject, and presuming that the tragedy of Wallace is known to J. Me., I may take the opportunity to ask him, as he is ayont the Tweed, whether there is really any authority for the assertion contained in the Abbotsford Library Catalogue, and also in that of Constable's Library, sold in 1817, that of this anonymous tragedy of Wallace there were only six copies printed? Upon the face of mine there is nothing to indicate its rarity, it being an octavo, printed for A. Constable; but the remarkable book may be some other: your correspondents will, however, I dare say, be able to enlighten me.

A Collector.

Baron Munchausen (Vol. ii., p. 519.).—As it was nearly thirty years since I had seen the Percy Anecdotes, I was obliged to speak doubtfully of having derived from that work the statements that the author of Munchausen was a Mr. "M–," and that he was a prisoner in France. Accident has within the last few days thrown in my way the very volume of the Anecdotes in which this is stated (vol. v., Anecdotes of Captivity, p. 103.); and I find that I was mistaken only in supposing "M–'s" place of confinement to have been the Bastile, whereas the time is said to have been the Reign of Terror, and therefore of course the Bastile cannot have been the place.

J. C. R.

Replies to Minor Queries

Tobacco in the East (vol. ii., pp. 155. 231.).—M. D. asks for "chapter and verse" of A. C. M.'s reference to Sale's Koran respecting tobacco.

Had A. C. M. recollected that tobacco (Nicotiana) is an American plant, he would hardly have asked whether "tobacco is the word in the original" of the tradition mentioned by Sale in his Preliminary Discourse, § 5. p. 123. (4to. ed. 1734.) Happily Reland, whom Sale quotes (Dissert. Miscell., vol. ii. p. 280.), gives his authority, the learned orientalist, Dr. Sike, who received the Hadéth at Leghorn from Ibn Sáleh, a young Muselman. It says, in good Arabic, that in the latter days Moslims, undeserving of the name, shall drink hashish (hemp), and call it tabák; the last words, "yukál lehn tabáku," are no doubt a modern addition by those who had heard of tambákó (the Romaic τανπάκον). As the use of hashish or hashishah (the herb), more completely hashishata fukara, i.e. Monk's Wort, a technical term for hemp, chewed as a narcotic by fakirs (monks), was not known till A.H. 608 (A.D. 1211), it could not be mentioned in the Koran unless Mohammed were, as Sale observes, "a prophet indeed." Tabakak, a plate, dish, or shelf, is now sometimes used by ignorant persons in the East for tambákó, of which a complete account is given in the Karábádén, or great treatise of Materia Medica in Persian. Of that work, there is a beautifully written copy, made, probably, for the late Mr. Colebrooke, by whom it was presented to the library of the Royal Asiatic Society. I shall conclude by another Query: What is the Greek word transformed by Asiatic scribes into Karábádén?

Anatolicus.

Captain John Stevens (Vol. ii., p. 359.).—This ingenious man, as to whom your correspondent inquires, was one of the hard-working translators in the early part of the last century. The materials for his biography are very scanty. He was a Roman Catholic, and at the Revolution followed the fortunes of his abdicating master, in whose service he accepted a commission, and accompanied him in the wars in Ireland. He was also employed in several other services, and died October 27, 1726. See Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. p. 691., edit. 1812. He is not noticed in Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, though as the continuator of Dugdale's Monasticon he unquestionably ought to have been. Watt gives a list (Bib. Brit., vol. i. p. 880.) of his books and translations; but it is, as usual, very defective and erroneous. It does not include his translation of Don Quixote, of Dupin, of An Evening's Intrigue (1707, 8vo.), and a great number of other works; and it ascribes to him the History of the Wars of Charles XII., King of Sweden, London, 1715, which was written, as it needs no great sagacity to discover, by Daniel Defoe, though Chalmers and Wilson have not noticed it.

James Crossley.

MS. Catalogue of Norman Nobility (Vol. iii., p. 266.).—The MS. Catalogue of Norman Nobility referred to in No. 75., a document of great value, is or was in the possession of Sir William Betham, having been purchased by him about six years ago, from Mr. Boone, of New Bond Street.

Your correspondent will find that Odardus de Loges was infeoffed by Earl Ranulph the 1st in the barony of Wigton in Cumberland, in which he was confirmed by Henry I. Bigod, whose name was attached to the charter of foundation of St. Werburg's Abbey, is elsewhere, according to Ormerod, called Robert.

M. J. T.

Illustrations of Chaucer, No. III. (Vol. iii., p. 258.).—

Φως.

Comets (Vol. iii., pp. 223. 253.).—If your correspondent S. P. O. R. wish to go fully into the history of comets, and be not alarmed at the prospect of three thick folios, through which I have gone, I can assure him, with considerable interest, let me recommend to him Theatrum Cometicum, Auctore Stanislao Lubienietz Lubieniecio Rolitsio, Amst., in 2 vols. (but generally bound in three) folio. The first contains an immense correspondence, not merely with astronomers, but with poets, critics, physicians, and philosophers, to whom the indefatigable editor wrote for their opinions on the subject of comets. The second vol. gives a history of comets from the Deluge to 1665, and is a repository of everything bearing upon the subject. From this work Bayle derived his learning, when he wrote his most amusing work on comets.

James Crossley.

Pope Joan (Vol. iii., p. 265.).—Nemo will find much information on the question, "Whether Pope Joan ever held the keys of St. Peter?" in Alexander Cooke's Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist; manifestly proving that a Woman called Joane was Pope of Rome: against the surmises and objections made to the contrary by Robert Bellarmini and Cæsar Baronius, Cardinals, Florimondus Ræmondus, and other Popish Writers, impudently denying the same, 4to, pp. 128, 1610. The work was dedicated to the Archbishop of York, and was reprinted in 1625 in 4to., and in French, 1633, 8vo. The author, in his address To the Popish Reader, says: