Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/514

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10 s. x. NOV. 28,

any light on the Countess of Wigton who held Carnousie in 1359. The Cummes are stated to have been in possession three or four descents from 1370, yet it appears by the charters that the Frasers held it between 1369 and 1395. Next the Maitlands of Gight are named owners, and that, too, for five generations ! I think this must be an error, and the reference must be to Netherdale, which in 1369 was in the hands of James Mautaland. The two estates are close together. Again, the three generations of Lord Oliphant which are next given are puzzling. As I have shown before (ix. 42), the order of families between 1369 and 1421 was Comyn, Fraser, and Dunbar. The Journal makes no mention of the Frasers or Dunbars, although there are charters to support the ownership of these families.

The account of the Ogilvies is not very full and not altogether correct (see ix. 203). The information from the time of the Gordons to the present day appears to be free from error. It remains to add that in 1868 Mr. John Harvey succeeded his father, Mr. W. J. Harvey, and that he holds the property at this date.

Five centuries and more have rolled by since Robert Bruce assigned Carnousie to Alexander Burnard. During this time it has passed through the hands of some fourteen families, and now, by a vicissitude of for- tune, these lands have reverted to a scion of the Bruce family. The present Laird's mother was Isabella Barclay, a lineal de- scendant of the Barclays of Towie (an estate near Turriff in Aberdeenshire), one of whose ancestors married a sister of King Robert Bruce. Among the seals in the British Museum is one (No. 15,799) of Walter Barcla or Barclay of Towie, its date being 1499. The arms represented are a chevron between three crosses pattee. The seal is broken at the base, and does not show the third cross. The famous Russian general Prince Barclay de Tolly (a corruption for Towie) came of this family ; his features, as shown in his portraits, are quite of the old Barclay

I may add that the Burnards mentioned above were an English family. Their an- cestor appears in Domesday as mesne tenant of William de Ow in the counties of Beds, Herts, and Wilts. Chalmers (' Caledonia,' ii. 586) says that Robert Burnard settled on the Teviot as early as 1128, and his descendants, moving northwards, became the progenitors of the Burnets.

CHR. WATSON. 294, Worple Road, Wimbledon.

THE REV. GEORGE PLAXTON. (See ante, p. 301.)

ON 16 Aug., 1707, Plaxton, whom the- editor of ' Letters to Thoresby ' describes- as a " light-hearted and ingenious divine " (vol. ii. p. 66), writes to Thoresby, playfully signing the letter as " G. Barwick." Ad- dressing the antiquary as " Sir Ralpho," he writes again on 23 Dec., 1707 (ibid.,. pp. 82-4), further letters following on 3 and 6 Jan., 1707/8 (ibid., pp. 86-8). A few weeks, later, on 20 Feb., he writes

"Now the Carnival is over, Lytanys and Lent are come in, pease and porridge and prayers, onions, and oatcakes, Herrings and Humiliation, all go hand in hand." Brooke MSS.

In a letter dated 16 Nov., 1708, he gives- to Thoresby some particulars of his mother's- family (' Letters to Thoresby,' vol. ii. pp. 122- 123) ; and he writes again on 26 Nov.. (ibid., vol. ii. pp. 126-7). A letter dated St. Thomas, 1708, to Thoresby, who was. about to start for London, is of personal interest (ibid., vol. ii. p. 133) :

" Our lasses have sent you a mail of letters : they pray you to deliver them, which you may do at one- place, viz., my mother's. My duty to the good old woman."

Another letter to Thoresby, bearing the same date (ibid., vol. ii. pp. 134-5), also introduces family topics :

"I am sure my son George will do you all the service he can. I have written to him, and send

the letter to be delivered by yourself Be sure

you see my mother, and let me trouble you with this bundle of letters to her and my brother Will, and sister Anne.* All duties and service to them all."

In 1709 he lost his wife, and on 11 Aug.. Thoresby walked to Barwick " to visit Mr.. Plaxton in his widowhood " (' Diary,' vol. iL p. 52). On 1 Oct., 1709, Plaxton writes to- Thoresby (' Letters to Thoresby,' vol. ii. pp. 196-8) ; and again on 26 Nov., from. Barwick, announcing that " George is gone post for London, and, I hope, safe there by this time " (ibid., vol. ii. pp. 206-7). In another letter of this period, undated, he- alludes to the gift of a sermon from his son George, and pathetically says : " All my family are at York ; I am left alone ; if

royds, the Rev. George Plaxton had two brothers,, John Plaxton of Gray's Inn, and William Plaxton of London ; as well as two sisters, Ellen and Anne,, each living in 1714 ('Ducatus Leodiensis,' 1816 r p. 258). A William son of G. (Foster suggests "Gulielmus") Plaxton, of Wressell, Yorks, gent., matriculated on 10 Oct., 1690, aged twenty- two, at Brasenose College, Oxford ('Alumni Oxonienses') j probably he was George's brother, though some; twenty years younger.
 * According to Thoresby 's pedigree of the Ake-