Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/426

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XH. OCT. so, im

CAPT. WILLIAM VAUGHAN, 1631. Against the south wall of the tower in Talgarth Church, co. Brecon, there is a large flat stone, having at the bottom a plain heater shield of the arms of Vaughan, a chevron between three boys' heads couped at the shoulders, around the neck of each a serpent entwined ; on the chevron a crescent ; impaling the sun in splendour. From the upper part of the shield springs an orna- mental cross which reaches to the top of the stone ; at the sides, above and below the arms of the cross, are the words CRUX CHBISTI and CLAVIS C^LO (sic). The inscription, in raised capital letters, runs round the four edges, and is continued on the face of the stone at the sides of the stem of the cross and the shield ; a few words are broken away. Beginning at the top, it reads :

"Here lyeth the body | William Vaughan

apten on hvndred and fifti sovld | iovrs vnder the rig | ht noble marqvis Hamylton generall of the English Scot- || tishe and Irish for | ces he was crvelly | mvrthered at Aber | gevenny the 28 of J Ivne 1631 paterna | lly descended iheire | genall from S r William | Vavghan and S r | Roger Vavghan of | Porthamal knights | he was 23 | years of | age."

Can some correspondent kindly supply particulars of William Vaughan' s death and also of his parentage, &c. ? From the im- paled coat on the tombstone it would seem that he was married. The local family of Delahay bore a sun in splendour for arms.

J. P. R.

PBINCE GUTIKEN. Can any reader give author's name, date (before 1816), and subject-matter of a book called "Corre- spondence between Prince Gutiken and a Woman of Dunfermline ' ? M.

SWINBURNE ON IRISH NATIONALISTS.

Can any lover of Swinburne refer me to passages in his poetry where allusion is made to the Irish Nationalist movement ?

KOM OMBO.

"PARSONS" NOT IN HOLY OBDEBS. Can any readers of ' N. & Q.' inform me if the word " parson " was ever applied to persons not in holy orders, such as acolytes, or even lay impropriators ? Gibbon (' Roman Empire,' chap, xx.) says that the personnel of the Church of Rome consists of the bishops, presbyters, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, readers, and porters. ' Piers Plow- man,' passus xx. line 14,485, mentions "per- sons and parissh preestes." Calvin received the living of St. Martin de Marteville at the age of eighteen, just as he had taken the tonsure, but before he was ordained ; and the Pope obtained the release of Bonivard,

lay bishop, lay prior, and lay canon, from the Duke of Savoy as a " persona ecclesiae."

I have read the communications at 7 S. x. 367, 432, 517, and consulted the ' N.E.D.' ; but they do not seem to answer my question. W. HOWABD-FLANDEBS

Tyle Hall, Latchingdon, Essex.

JUplus.

" TACKLE-HOUSE " : " TACKLE- PORTER." (10 S. xii. 307.)

IT may be that a " tackle-house " was originally a storehouse of all the instru- ments appertaining to the sailing of a ship, i.e., of shipping-tackle. However this be, it is certain that later it was a house used for the storing and weighing of both export and import merchandise. Possibly " tackle- house " was the description first applied to it by the porters and seamen in allusion to the weighing-tackle used, while the mer- chants and others would call it the weigh- house, for the tackle-houses) there were more than one) were weigh-houses, like the Weigh-house in Little Eastcheap, " to which doth belong," says Strype, " a Master, and under him four Master Porters " (i.e., tackle-porters), " with labouring porters " (i.e., ticket-porters) " under them " (Strype, Book II, p. 173 ; see also Stow, p. 73, and Strype, Book V. p. 421, &c.).

It was ordained, owing to the use of false weights in the hostels and in the selds of citizen-merchants, that " the King shall have his weights in a certain place, or in two places, or in three or four, if necessary, within the City." This was in the 13th of Edward I. (see ' Liber Albus,' p. 248).

The tackle-porters were employed in the

duty, or sale which was formerly carried on in public in the City. But there was a City officer known as the Master- Weigher, styled "Mr. Weigher" in the old Acts, and the profits of the weighing thus carried on publicly in the City went to the hospitals. In 1607 it was enacted

" that no p'son or p'sons usinge the feate of a porter or being a forreynor, inholder, wharfinger, or keye- keeper, where any merchaunts' gooddes are to be landed or laidd, or such-like, shall at any time after the making and publishing of this acte have, use, keepe, or use within the said citie or 1'b'ties thereof, any manner triangle, with beams, scales, and weightes," &c.

See further May hew' s ' London Labour and the London Poor,' vol. iii. pp. 374-7.