Genealogical Notes and Queries.

NICHOLLS AND SWORDER FAMILIES.

Any information respecting Zachariah Nicholls of Little Hadham, who died in 1708; and Edmund Sworder of Little Hadham, who married Mary Clark, and died between 1703 and 1740, would be esteemed.

IVIE.

N. E. C.

"T. R.," whose query appeared in Third Series, Vol. I., page 192, is requested to forward his address, to enable the Editor to transmit a letter received for him.

Reviews.

The History of the Island of Antigua. Vol. II. By VERE LANGFORD OLIVER, M.R.C.S. Eng. London: Mitchell and Hughes, 140 Wardour Street, W.

THIS handsome folio volume brings the Author's researches up from the Family of Gale to that of Ottley, of which there are five pedigrees, and thus leaves enough material for a Third Volume of equal size, the present one making upwards of 400 pages, and illustrated by an excellent Map of Antigua, Plans of Lavington, Clare Hall, and Osborne's Estates, another of Dwellings and Works, View of Antigua, by Bellin, and an excellent Portrait of Richard Oliver, Alderman and M.P. for the City of London in 1772. It has, besides, 122 pedigrees and 31 Coats of Arms, also an ample Index. To enumerate the store of evidences the Author has collected we should have to particularize endless authorities, among which we often find our "Miscellanea Genealogica" with good purpose. To many of the pedigrees are appended Extracts from Close Rolls and from Wills, Notices in the "Gentleman's Magazine" of last century, Inscriptions from Churches, Entries from Parish Registers, including those published by the Harleian Society, etc. Taking, for instance, the Pedigree of Lyons, which begins from 1633, it finishes with a very excellent account of Lord Lyons, who died in 1887; and likewise with the Author's Pedigree, it begins with Colonel Richard Oliver of Antigua, the merchant and planter, and in 1700 Member and Speaker of the Council, takes up the account of the Alderman and M.P. for London 1770-1780, and mentions about the arms being on a cup presented by him in 1772 to the City; and in this pedigree the family branches are illustrated by facsimiles of signatures from 1710 to 1883.

The Third Volume will be issued next year, and the whole will form as complete a history as any Dependency of Great Britain will deserve, and can possibly secure, in the hands of so ardent an author and historian as Mr. Vere Langford Oliver.

The Bibliography of American Heraldry. Arranged by MORTIMER DELANO, Pursuivant of Arms. New York. 1896.

THIS is a little pamphlet, purporting to be a guide in heraldry for America, and giving a list of works published there. We, however, do not find any mention of the "Upton Family Memorials," a work first begun in our pages, but which the Author, Judge Upton, extended into a portly volume of 536 pp. demy 4to, making it a book of reference second to none in America, we should think. VOL. II., SERIES III.

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The Journal of the Ex Libris Society. Vol. VI., July-September, 1896. London : A. and C. Black, Soho Square, W.

THESE three Nos. of the above Journal keep up the prestige of the work, and each one has some distinctive coat, such as those of Mr. H. Stacy Marks in the July No., that of Dr. E. Percival Wright's in the August No., shewing his residence in the Seychelles Islands and discoveries of plants and corals, and a very tastefully arranged engraving, printed from the plate, of Miss Maria Gerard Messenger, by French of New York, in the September No. Each Part likewise contains several English ladies' armorial bookplates, besides sundry arms for identification, many of which are found out by readers.

The Virginia Historical Magazine. No. 1, Vol. IV., July 1896. Published quarterly by the Virginia Historical Society, U.S.A.

THIS periodical commences with the “Defense (why Defense?) of Col. Edward Hill," and publishes the names of persons taken up by the Provost-Marshal for drunkenness in 1626, for which they had to enter into a bond of £300 of tobacco for good behaviour, and pay the officer 40 lbs. weight of tobacco for informing. A Richard Proctor, for the offence of saying that certain persons were unfit to sit at the Council, was imprisoned for a month, and at the end of that time be placed in the pillory, and have his ears nailed. For improper behaviour John Ewins received forty stripes with a whip at James City, and forty more at Shirleyhundred; and his female companion had to stand during Divine Service in a white sheet, and otherwise punished. In another article, "Instructions to Francis Nicholson," His Majesty's GovernorGeneral of Virginia, care is enjoined that drunkenness and debauchery, swearing and blasphemy, are to be severely punished. Persons were likewise punished for sending a man and his wife, who were versed in the "cutting and rowling of tobacco," into Russia, to teach them the art, and instructions were obtained for destroying the engines and materials employed in spinning tobacco in Moscow; and the order was afterwards made public by Queen Anne at Windsor 17 June 1705. The Part also contains a copy of Marriage Agreements, Abstracts of Land Patents, and genealogies of the Cookes family of Virginia and the Huguenot family of Flournoy, with their arms. Virginia seems ahead of other States in its preservation of old documents, and the Virginia Historical Society is shewing an example in publishing them which might be advantageously extended by other citizens and other States.

Genealogical Queries and Memoranda.
London: 99 Angell Road, Brixton.

Quarterly. Edited by G. F. TUDOR SHERWOOD.

THIS is a Magazine started to elucidate queries in heraldry and genealogy, under various counties and countries, and may prove of value for persons searching for family memoranda.

A Genealogical History of the Harwood Families. By WATSON H. HARWOOD.
Chasm Falls. 1896.

New York,

THIS is one of those works first began in notes and finished as a volume. It begins with Andrew Harwood, of Dartmouth, Devon, made Freeman in Boston in 1643, and his will is certainly original, for he "left his child that his wife went withal 50%, to his wife a hogshead of tobacco, and to his father-in-law all his wages"! From this humble beginning the work runs into the eleventh generation, the Author himself being of the ninth generation, and a medical graduate from the University of Vermont. In the same generation is the Hon. Charles E. Harwood, an extensive boot-maker employing 150 men at Lynn. In 1893 he was chosen to the mayoralty of Lynn. The work is a painstaking monument to a family numbering 326 souls, and is embellished with 28 portraits of them.

"SEE OURSEL'S AS ITHERS SEE US!" (BURNS.)

Our old fellow-worker in medieval literature and genealogy, Notes and Queries, of July 4, 1896, thus criticises our last volume published:

"If our memory be a faithful servant to us, Dr. Howard's Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica came into being about thirty years ago. It has from the first gone on making steady improvement. Something a little short of a third of a century is a long period in human life and manners, and habits of thought have changed much during that time. Then, as we can well remember, a man who devoted himself to genealogical lore was not regarded with much complacency. The pedigree-hunter if he escaped gibes was a lucky man. Now the aspect of things has so far changed that it is well understood by all but the very ignorant that genealogy is not only a most important help to the right understanding of history, but, when properly employed, is calculated to throw no little light on some of the most obscure questions of psychology.

"An interesting group of stories might be gathered together shewing the contempt in which genealogy and its sister, heraldry, were held not so long ago. We need not dwell upon the brutalities which occurred during the French Revolution, when a whole people seemed bent on answering in the affirmative Bishop Butler's question to Dean Tucker as to whether 'nations might not go mad as well as individuals.'

"We were once engaged in examining a parish register of the time of James I., when its custodian, the clergyman of the parish, said gravely that the laws with regard to the devolution of property had been so much altered of late that there was now no use in preserving any registers of an earlier date than 1812, and that, for his part, he wished they were all destroyed previous to that time, as, if that were done, people could not waste their time by reading them. This we were sure was by no means a jest, but an exercise of what the man would have called his reasoning faculty. Here is another instance, which at the time made a deep impression upon us. We were in a large public library, and an under-official, who had on many occasions taken much trouble to serve us, pointed out with pride a valuable acquisition which had just been made. It was a beautiful volume, and bore stamped on its sides the arms of a great French noble. The design and execution were of singular beauty. We made some remark upon them, whereupon our friend exclaimed: I wish another copy had been procured, without things like that upon it. They will corrupt the minds of the young who come to read here. If I had my way, they would be rubbed off.'

"Dr. Howard interprets the title of his work liberally, and for this we are glad. He gives his readers, from the collections of Sir Wollaston Franks, K.C.B., an engraving of the bookplate of Charles O'Brien, Earl of Thomond in Ireland, and Field-Marshal and a Knight of the Saint Esprit of France. The collar of the order surrounds the shield, and behind it are two marshals' batons semée of fleurs-de-lys. We never saw this bookplate elsewhere. It is especially interesting as a memorial of one of the attainted peerages. Of course, Charles O'Brien was no peer in British law, as the title had been attainted on account of its owner's loyalty to the house of Stuart; but the French king recognized these Jacobite titles, and they are interesting to antiquaries of the present day, now that dynastic feuds are forgotten.

"To give a proper idea of this interesting volume we should have to reprint the table of contents, so very miscellaneous are the things commented on. Many old book-plates are given in facsimile. Some are strangely like in execution those given in the Analogia Honorum,' which is commonly bound up with the fifth edition of John Guillim's 'Display of Heraldry,' 1679. Are they by the same artist? The engravings of the two Monson brasses in Northorpe Church are very interesting. The family are said to have been Roman Catholics. It is noteworthy that the brass with the arms attached is affixed to the mediæval altar-slab, which lies just beneath the east window. This most interesting church is, we fear, threatened with restoration. We believe there are other Monson memorials, which are not seen by the casual visitor.

"Among certain memoranda made by Henry Downe, a merchant of Barnstaple, we find a record of a very great flood which occurred at Barnstaple in 1567. This is noteworthy if there be, as we have heard reported, persons engaged in trying to form a record of the weather in past years from chronicles and private documents."

PRESERVATION OF PARISH REGISTERS.

The following interesting paragraph is copied from the "Monthly Paper" of the Parish of St. Anne's, Soho, Westminster. The example shewn by the Rector and Vestry of St. Anne's is worthy of imitation by all having charge of Parish Registers :

"THE PARISH REGISTERS OF ST. ANNE'S.-Some years ago a safe, with handsome metal doors and sides, but with no metal back, was erected, at considerable cost, in the Clergy Vestry Room under the Tower. This proved so damp that the Registers were much damaged, and appeared likely, in a short time, to be utterly ruined. Various expedients were adopted to keep out the damp from the outer wall, but without success. Mr. W. E. Hughes, a member of the Vestry, then brought the matter before his colleagues, and proposed that a new and perfect safe should be purchased. As this appeared to be the only hope of saving the Registers from entire destruction, the Vestry voted the necessary money, and one of Milner's safes was purchased at a cost of between £50 and £60. The new safe suggested the renovation and re-binding of the Registers, and, after getting estimates, it was resolved that this should be done. Messrs. H. A. Martin and Son, of Berwick Street, were entrusted with the work, which was carried out under the superintendence of Mr. Hughes. The decaying or torn leaves have been carefully strengthened with transfer cloth, transparent enough for the writing to be seen through, and sufficient to stay the ravages of damp and minimise the wear and tear of future use. All the Registers have been re-bound in green vellum, and on the covering of each volume are lettered in gold the dates of the first and last entries. There are nine volumes of baptisms, twenty-four of marriages, and nine of burials; and one large Churchwardens' accountbook. Each series is consecutively numbered. The books are further preserved by a stiff board

covered with baize as a lining on each shelf; this prevents the wearing of the edges by the frequent sliding of them in and out. In fact, everything that could be thought of has been done, and great credit is due to the Vestry and to Mr. Hughes for the thorough and careful way in which this piece of public work has been done. We hope that the next step of the Vestry will be to follow the example of St. Martin's and other Vestries, and get the Registers printed and indexed. For this, however, we suppose we must wait a little longer."

LITERARY NOTE.

DISCOVERY OF A UNIQUE BOOK.-Mr. William May, the Librarian of the Birkenhead Free Libraries, has just made, in a curious way, a discovery of a very rare and early printed book, of which only one other copy is known to exist. The matter is certain to cause considerable excitement in literary quarters and among both collectors and bibliographers. Mr. May was examining a collection of books belonging to a Birkenhead solicitor, with a view of casting aside those which were worthless, when he was gladdened by the sight of a black-letter book bound at the end of another early printed book. Upon careful and exhaustive examination he found the treasure-trove was a copy of Bonaventure's "Speculum Vite Christi," as it is spelt in the original. This was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, the year when he returned to the use of Caxton's types, and it is the only book proper in which Caxton's No. 7 type was ever used, it having been confined to the printing of Indulgences, etc. Until Mr. May's discovery, the only

copy known to collectors was that in the possession of the Earl of Leicester, at Holkham, where William Roscoe discovered so many valuable MSS. and early books. In the Lambeth Palace Archiepiscopal Library four leaves of the book are amongst its rarest specimens, and it is from these precious leaves that Mr. Gordon Duff has had to take his example for his "Facsimiles of Early English Printing,' which he has just published.

From the latest discovered copy many more important facts may be gleaned. For example, six Biblical woodcuts appearing throughout the work prove that De Worde used these blocks of Caxton's. There are in this copy fifteen large cuts of great beauty, measuring 3 by 24 inches, the pictures illustrating the Raising of Lazarus, Christ and the Elders, the Crucifixion, the Ascension, and other incidents. There are also four smaller cuts similar to those in Caxton's earlier "Speculum." The copy is Mr. May's property, and is now in his possession.

Books for Review and Notices of Forthcoming Works should be addressed to the Publishing Offices, 140 Wardour Street, London, W.

GRANT OF ARMS TO HENRY GATCHELL, 1703.

To all and singular to whom these Presents shall come Sr Henry St George Knight Garter Principal King of Arms and Robert Devenish Esq. Norroy King of Armes send Greeting. Whereas Henry Gatchell of North Petherton in the County of Somerset hath by Petition humbly represented unto the Right Honble Charles Earl of Carlisle Earl Marshal of England during the minority of His Grace Thomas Duke of Norfolke That He and His ancestors have been Possessors and Owners of Lands of Inheritance in the County of Somerset aforesaid of a considerable yearly value ever since the Reign of King Richard the Third but for want of due Entries in the College of Armes, not being able to make out so just a Right to a Coat of Arms as He ought to do has made Application to His Ldp for a Grant of such Armes and Crest as He and his Descendants, and the Descendants of Thomas Gatchell his father may lawfully bear and use And whereas it appeared to his Ldp by Certificate annexed to the said Petition That the said Henry Gatchell is joyned with other Gentlemen, in several Commissions for the publick service of the said County of Somerset in which he hath behaved Himself with all manner of Integrity and hath an Estate sufficient to maintain Him in the Rank and Degree of a Gentleman and is very well affected to her Matie and the present Government The said Earl Marshal did by Warrant under His hand and the Seal of His Office of Earl Marshal bearing date the 12th day of November last past order and appoint Us to Devyse and Assign such Armes and Crest to the said Henry Gatchell as may be used and borne by Him and his Descendents and the Descendents of his said Father Thomas Gatchell according to the Law of Armes Know ye therefore that We the said Garter and Norroy in purVOL. II., SERIES III.

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