Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/286

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. i. MAKCH 19, 190*.

" The year 1801, page 37, No. 146.-George O'Brien, Earl of Egremont, of this parish, bachelor, and Elizabeth Iliye, of the same parish, spinster, were married in this Church by Licence, this 16th day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and one, by me Thomas Vernon, Curate.

" This marriage was solemnized between us, O'Brien Egremont, Elizabeth Hive, in the presence of William Tayler, John Upton."

It is puzzling to note that, from the time of the ceremony in 1801 up to the death of this unfortunate lady in 1822, a period of twenty- one years, the Earl appears not to have admitted the validity of this marriage, as the various peerages of his time (which must 'have been duly submitted to him for his revision), as well as sundry works of family 'history, state that he died unmarried also the lady was known in Petworth simply as " Mrs. Wyndham." Nevertheless, she was 'buried at St. Decuman's, a lonely church on the cliffs of Somersetshire, in the old burial- place of the Dukes of Somerset, and her burial (conducted by a cousin of the late Dean Alford) is there entered as that of 44 Countess of Egremont," without any dis- tinguishing Christian name. This is a some- what strange coincidence, as it suggests a possible explanation of the doubt were there two countesses existing at the same time, and was there a reason for leaving the identity of the one ambiguous 1 There is a tradition that this lady at the time of her death (at Hurlingham) had long been living there apart from the Earl, and that her burial was arranged solely by her brother, a Devonshire farmer, and that none of the Earl's family appeared at it. This might account for her title only being given in this indefinite and informal manner, which could hardly have occurred had the Earl revised the entry. FORMER PETWORTH RESIDENT.

H. refers to the entailed estates of this nobleman. The entail was made by the will of his father, Charles, the second earl, dated 31 July, 1761, and proved in 1763. (See Folio 1 Caesar,' No. 379, Probate Division, Somerset House.) This will entailed Petworth, Cocker- mouth Castle, and the London property in Piccadilly, on the male line legitimately born ; failing which the entail passed to the male descendants of Earl Charles's two daughters, the Countesses of Carnarvon and Romney. When was the entail broken ? Certainly not by the fourth earl. ARCHAEOLOGIST.

SIR CHRISTOPHER PARKINS OR PERKINS, D.C.L. (9 th S. xi. 124). He was perhaps identical with the "Christopher Parkines " who was baptized on 5 February, 1543/4, at St. Mary, Reading (Register, by Rev. G. P.

Crawfurd). I have now found the cause, sought at the above reference, of the two compositions for the first-fruits of Easton Rectory, Hants, in December, 1559. The See of Winchester being vacant by the depriva- tion of Dr. John White, the Crown, by letters patent of 28 November, 1559 (Rot. Pat. 2 Eliz., pt. i.), presented John Deveres to the rectory, which was in the gift of the Bishops of Win- chester, and which had lately been vacant by the death of Dr. Edmund Stuard.* But Deveres failed to obtain institution, because one Christopher Parkins, clerk, had been already instituted, 23 November, 1559, ap- parently as nominee of Dr. Matthew Parker. Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems to have made good his claim, as against the Crown, to appoint to the living. Deveres and his sureties were consequently released from liability under their composition bond (First-fruits, Plea Roll, 3 Eliz.), and he appears to have been consoled in 1560 with the rectory of St. Michael, Queenhithe (Foster's 'Alumni Oxon., 1500-1714,' p. 399, No. 7). It seems very unlikely that his suc- cessful rival was the future Sir Christopher. Possibly the rival could be identified with Christopher Perkins, of Ufton, Berks, who became scholar at Winchester in 1519.

H. C.

ARMS OF LINCOLN, CITY AND SEE (10 th S. i. 168). The arms of the City of Lincoln are recorded in the College of Arms as Argent, on a cross gules a fleur-de-lis or (Davies and Crooke's ' Book of Public Arms '). The Cor- poration seal is a triple-towered castle. The arms of the See of Lincoln are Gules, two lions passant gardant or : on a chief azure Our Lady sitting with her Babe, crowned and sceptred or. These arms are a composition from the supposed arms of the first Norman bishop, Remigius de Fescamp (1067-92). and the dedication of the cathedral. On a portrait of Bishop Williams, 1621, at Bishopthorpe, York, the sitting figure is in profile, and no Babe is discernible (' The Blazon of Epis- copacy,' by the Rev. W. K. Riland Bedford,

1897, p. 70). J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

" THE ETERNAL FEMININE " (10 th S. i. 108).

In my French dictionary, as an illustration of the phrase "1'eternel feminin," the follow- ing is quoted from H. Blaze de Bury :

" C'est un visage exquis, tres regulier, du plus pur ovale, avec des yeux d'un brun fonc6 et respirant toutes les suavites de 1'eternel feminin."

Although I have failed to trace the exact

l.")59 (Cooper's ' Athense Cantab.,' i. 205).
 * Dean of Winchester, March, 1553/4; deprived