Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/575

 ios. i. JUNE ii, i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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open it. In this drawer he found six Queen Anne's briefs and a Queen Anne sixpence. The amount of collection at All Saints' Church, Claverley, was stated on each brief. The joiner kindly gave the briefs to me, as interested in antiquarian anc historical studies. The briefs had evidently beer placed in the drawer soon after the collections hac been made. After the owner's death the oak desk seems to have passed to other owners until it was purchased in the circumstance mentioned. The late Cornelius Walford, barrister-at-law and author, who, like myself, was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, some years ago read a paper before the Society on ' Kings' Briefs, their Purposes and their History ' (printed in the tenth volume of the Transactions of the Society, pub- lished in 1882), in which he says : ' Briefs being returned along with the money collected had the effect of taking them out of circulation : hence they are in some degree scarce ; for in truth they were either destroyed as useless or allowed to rot or moulder away.' The first instance of a King's Brief being printed was in 1630. The following is an exact copy of one of the briefs found in the secret drawer, which relates to a collection for the rebuilding of Broseley All Saints' Church at a cost of 3,390?. and upwards. A more recent church has been built on the same site, for in Mr. Randall's interesting 'History of Broseley' it is mentioned that this church was to be rebuilt at the estimated cost of 3,3881. 4s."

A copy of the brief relating to Broseley so found, with five others, was also given in the antiquarian column called ' Byegones ' in the Border Counties' Advertiser, published at Oswestry. At the end of every two years the columns are issued in a volume with a full index. HUBERT SMITH.

Brooklynne, Leamington Spa.

At the sale, in 1818, of the effects of a dealer in old clothes, furniture, and curiosi- ties, who carried on business in High Street, Barnstaple, an antique chair was included, described as of mahogany, with the seat, back, and arms stuffed and covered with brown leather, and studded with brass nails. There was a large drawer under the seat, and two other drawers were fixed on pivots, so as to turn back under the arms, and were fitted for writing materials, with a brass candlestick attached to each, and a wooden leaf for reading or writing, capable of being raised or depressed. The cabinet-maker to whom it was sent to be repaired found that the drawer under the seat extended only a part of the way to the back, and that the intervening space was occupied by a secret drawer, which was full of manuscripts, which proved to consist of a variety of unpublished poems and other documents of John Gay. The incident created much sensation at the time, and the matter was fully investigated. It was found that the chair had been bought some years previously at the sale of the goods of a Mrs. Williams, a descendant of

Katherine Bailer, Gay's sister. Henry Lee, author of ' Caleb Quotem,' edited the poems, and published them under the title of ' Gay's Chair,' with an engraved frontispiece of the chair, evidences and certificates of the facts, and a facsimile of Gay's writing. The first four lines of the principal piece, entitled ' The Ladies' Petition to the Honourable the House of Commons,' are as follows :

Sirs, We, the maids of Exon city,

The maids, good lack, the more s the pity !

Do humbly offer this petition

To represent our sad condition.

THOS. WAINWRIGHT.

" HEN-HUSSEY" : " WHIP-STITCH " : " WOOD- TOTER" (10 th S. i. 449). According to the 'English Dialect Dictionary,' a hen-hussey or hen-huswife means "a woman who looks after poultry ; also a meddlesome, officious person." It is there recorded as being known in Wilts, Somerset, and Devon, as well as in America.

If your correspondent will be so good as to wait till the last part of the Dictionary comes out, he will then be able to ascertain the facts as to the distribution of the other two words. So far the record ends with the word tommy. WALTER W. SKEAT.

MARK HILDESLEY (10 th S. i. 344, 414). He was never elected Lord Mayor or Sheriff or M.P. for London. He was a member of the Vintners' Company, and chosen Alderman of Bread Street Ward 20 September, 1649, and was discharged on payment of a fine of 400Z., 15 July, 1651. At that period the changes in the Court of Aldermen were very frequent, and in succession to Hildesley in Bread Street Ward no fewer than nine persons were elected, who paid fines of various amounts to avoid service, between 15 July and 15 September, 1651. The list of persons who had obtained exemption from serving the office of Sheriff in 1652 numbers forty-six, of whom twenty-seven had been added in the previous twelve months, Hildes- iey being one of these.

ALFEED B. BEAVEN.

STEP-BROTHER (10 th S. i. 329, 395). I think, with all due deference, that MR. WILSON is mistaken in his reply to Miss BLAIKLEY. A Derson and his step-brother cannot have a lalf-brothers, not step-brothers. The sons of a widower married to a widow are step- brothers to the children born of her first marriage. MR. WILSON goes on to say, " If } rough t up in one family they would naturally be called brothers or brother and ister ; the marriage between such a brother
 * ommon parent ; if he had, they would be