Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/610

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. DEC. 26, i9os.

and to Leland's ' Collectanea,' edited by Hearne in 1715. On 4 July, 1713, Plaxton wrote to Hearne, complimenting him on his industry and public spirit, saying that he was a constant subscriber to Hearne' s works, and mentioning his neighbour Mr. Thoresby of Leeds. On 26 July, Hearne acknowledged this appreciative letter with gratification. In August, 1714, Hearne wrote twice to Thoresby explaining that Mr. Plaxton' s name would have to be omitted from the printed list of subscribers to Le- land's ' Collectanea,' as he had not sent him his first subscription. From Plaxton' s letter to Hearne of 7 March, 1714/15, to which I have already referred, it appears, however, that absence at Trentham was responsible for this omission ; and, not knowing what to pay, he sent ten shillings by the bearer of the letter, who was to pay any further sum due.

In the seventh volume (ibid., vol. xlviii. p. 189) is given the following note made by the indefatigable Hearne on Sunday, 20 Nov., 1720:

" About half a year since, died of a good old age the Reverend Mr. George Plaxton, a Cambridge Man. He was a very ingenious Man and a good Scholar. He loved Antiquities. He lived of late years much at my L d Gower's."

In Whitaker's account of Barwick ( 'Loidis and Elmete,' 1816, p. 153) is a reference to Thoresby 's " friend Mr. Plaxton, who, falling into pecuniary difficulties, withdrew into the south of England, where he died."* The exact date or place of his death, f or of his burial, has not been traced. His will was not proved at Lichfield, and there are no Plaxton wills in P.C.C. between 1716 and 1736.J Possibly his will may be at York.

Mr. Colman quotes two letters of Plaxton' s preserved in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 4275-6), addressed to a York watchmaker, whom he sends for repair a watch that had been given

" to a Popish priest, who sold her, or rather exchanged her, for a Snush Box to a Socinian, who

vnr^f. VIOT> r\ 4-r\ o TJ n Y-\ -f i o 4- 4'/-\v> n 4'<- 4- TJ-nll'r* *-v<-* A t'4-,,,.

rapt her of to a Baptist for a fat Bull's that a Church of England Protestant

g. After

. ought her

for 20 loads of Blendings. Since that she has been at School with a Quaker. So that she has been at

Barwick.
 * He did not, however, resign the living of

t Mr. Colman says that his successor was not instituted until 25 March, 1721, so that the living must have been vacant nearly a year.

t There are, however, two admons. : one of William Plaxton, of foreign parts, dated Oct., 1718 ; and the other, dated April, 1736, of George Plaxton, late of the island of Barbados, but deceased at Salem, in New England, the grant being to his brother, William Plaxton, Esq.

the Mass-house, Meeting Place, Cathedral and place of silent worship."

The second letter is couched in the same vein. Mr. Colman says that Plaxton wrote some humorous political compositions, the best known being an electioneering squib, ' The Yorkshire Horse Racers,' and naturally is inclined to attribute to him ' The Loyal Speech of G. Plaxtone upon the Proclama- tion of King James II.,' published in London in 1685 (copy in British Museum). His name, Mr. Colman mentions, occurs among the lists of subscribers to Strype's ' Parker,' to Walker's ' Sufferings of the Clergy,' and Thoresby' s ' Ducatus Leodiensis.' Accord- ing, to the last work (ed. Whitaker, 1816, p. 234) Plaxton contemplated a history of Barwick,

" and as the Parochians are happy in his Preaching and Prayers on the Week L)ays, and Monthly Communications, to which ancient custom he has happily reduced them ; so the Republick of Letters will be advanced by his design'd History."

Thoresby describes him as " what is too rare," resident at Barwick, " being the first [rector] that has been so of many Ages." Mr. Colman tells me that the oldest Com- munion plate at Barwick was presented by Plaxton, on the chalice being inscribed, " Sanguis Christi Fons est Vitae ^Eternae Anno Xti 1706 G. Plaxton Rect.," and on the paten, " Christus est Panis Vitse." The name of " George Plaxton, R. of Barwick in Elmet, 1714," occurs on the fourth bell in Wolstanton Church, it having been purchased, with five others, from Trentham in 1767 (P. W. L. Adams's 'Wolstanton,' 1908, p. 39).

On the occasion of the sale of the library of the Duke of Sutherland, from Trentham Hall, by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, there was sold on 21 Nov., 1906, a copy of John Gower's ' De Confessione Amantis/ 1554, bearing the inscription : " Sum e Bibliotheca Geo. Plaxton Rtrs. D. Donington & Kynnardly, Com. Salop, 1697," and con- taining a short pedigree of the Gower family written by him (The Eagle, March, 1907, pp. 226-7). Plaxton evidently acted as a kind of chaplain or librarian at Trentham ;*

The original contributor of Plaxton's letter about Michael Johnson to The Gent. Mag. for Oct., L791, described the writer as "Chaplain at that to the same magazine in 1829 (part ii. p. 98) to defend the authenticity of the letter, says that " Mr. Plaxton was domestic chaplain to the grand- was the custom in those days, resided with his Datron at Trentham." Sotheby's catalogue says ibrarian to Sir John Leveson-Gower of Trentham."
 * ime to Lord Gower"; while one W. EL, writing
 * ather of the present Marquis of Stafford, and, as
 * hat Plaxton "appears to have been a sort of