Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/369

 10

s. x. OCT. 17, 1908.J NOTES AND QUERIES.

301

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1008.

CONTENTS. No. 251.

NOTES : The Rev. George Plaxton, 301 Danteiana, 302 Dodsley's Collection of Poetry Servian Names, 305 " Geard " Brembre or Brambre " Petersburg " or "St. Petersburg," 306 The Portman Estates Conway Charter Llangollen Wrexham Crashaw and Maxi- milian Sandseus, 307.

QUERIES : Omar Khayyam Bibliography Winston's 'The Theatric Tourist,' 307 Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick Mediterranean : First Use of the Name Quicks Wood, Clothall, and the Earl of Salisbury" Apple- John face" Ovoca or Avoca? St. Barbara's Feather Philip Stubbs, 308 Bishops and Abbots Manor Rolls Extra- ordinary Contemporary Animals John Pym's Mother "May Jemmy Johnson squeeze me" Deuxsaint Family Authors Wanted Jesuits at Mediolanum, 309 "Por- tions " : " Pensions " " The Essex Serpent " " Better an old man's darling "Midday at Bale: Bale Madness- Billy Butler the Hunting Parson De la Motte de la Carre", 310.

REPLIES : Gedney Church, Lincolnshire, 310 The Glamis Mystery, 311 'Childe Harold 'Anna, a Place-Name Grabble, a Place-Name Regimental Marches, 312 William Crowmer, 313 McPike Family French Words in Scotch Authors Wanted High Treason and its Punishment, 314 Throat cutting at Public Executions Baal-fires Waterloo : Charlotte Edwards of Halifax, 315 "Plane sailing" Norrises of Milverton Arms of Roman Catholic Bishops Snakes drinking Milk, 316 Revolution Society John Shakespeare, 1732 Voreda, Roman Town, 317 " Wharf "The Bonassus, 318.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' House Mottoes and Inscriptions ' ' Life and Letters of Macaulay ' ' By the Roman Wall.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

JEbfcs*

THE REV. GEORGE PLAXTON.

MY interest in Plaxton arose entirely from the fact that he is the only contemporary authority that can be quoted in support of the belief that Michael Johnson, the Doctor's father, was a man of very superior -education. His letter written from Trent- ham in 1716, stating that " Johnson, the Lichfield Librarian, is now here ; he propa- gates learning all over this diocese, and ad- vanceth knowledge to its just height," was employed by Boswell (Birkbeck Hill's ' Bos- well,' vol. i. p. 36) with this object. In no bypath of Johnsonian literature could I find even the most meagre note on Plaxton, .and^it took me some time to discover that his career can be traced in considerable -detail, and his personality largely unveiled, by various records already in print. The information I have collected about him has grown to such an extent that I hesitate to insert it under a Johnsonian heading, thinking it better to piece it together into & separate article, but leaving that aspect of

the man's life and character which principally interests me for discussion in the some- what disconnected series of Johnsonian articles which the Editor is allowing me to contribute to ' N. & Q.'

George, eldest sor* of William Plaxton, of Wressell, Yorks, gent., by Beatrice, youngest daughter of Henry Akeroyd (d. 1627), of Foggathorpe, in the parish of Bubwith (Thoresby's ' Ducatus Leodiensis,' ed. Whitaker, 1816, p. 258; Foster's ' Yorkshire Pedigrees,' under ' Akroyd of Bank Field ' ; and letter of Plaxton's to Thoresby, dated 16 Nov., 1708, in ' Letters to Thoresby,' 1832, vol. ii. p. 122), was educated at Pocklington School, and was admitted a pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 24 March, 1665/6, aged eighteen, taking his B.A. degree in 1669 (The Eagle, St. John's College, March, 1907, p. 227). In the printed lists of ' Gra- duati Cantabrigienses ' Plaxton has in every edition appeared as B.A. only, but he always described himself as M.A. St. John's (' Donington Register,' Shropshire Par. Reg. Soc., 1900, p. 85) ; and the Rev. A. T. Michel!, F.S.A., Vicar of Sheriffhales, tells me that he was M.A. 1672. Mr. R. F. Scott, of St. John's, who edits The Eagle, also tells me that if Plaxton held two livings at once he must have been M.A.

George Plaxton was ordained deacon 29 May, 1670, by the Archbishop of York (The Eagle, as before, p. 227). On 8 July, 1673, he was instituted Vicar of Sheriffhales, Shropshire, on the presentation of William Leveson Gower of Trentham (information of Rev. A. T. Michell) ; and on 6 Nov., 1673, was inducted into the neighbouring rectory of Kynnersley, or Kinnardsey, on the same presentation. On 10 July, 1690, the same patron, now become Sir William Leveson Gower, fourth baronet, presented him to the rectory of Donington (The Eagle, as before, p. 227) ; and on 12 Aug. he was inducted into the living (' Donington Register,' pp. 82, 83). On becoming Rector of Donington he resigned the vicarage of Sheriffhales (The Eagle, p. 227), but retained the rectory of Kynnersley (' Donington Register,' p. 82).

In 1707, after he had left Shropshire, he contributed to the Royal Society a paper entitled " Some Natural Observations in the Parishes of Kinardsey and Donington in Shropshire, by the Rev. Mr. George Plaxton" (Philosophical Transactions, 1809, vol. v. pp. 357-9). The paper chiefly consists of observations on the ages of the inhabitants, and on the constitution of the local peat- mosses, with some account of a British