Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/552

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. DEC. 4, im

short Life prefixed to a 12mo edition of ' The Spiritual Quixote ? which appeared in 1816, the writer of which very probably had access to the incomplete MS.

S. G. HAMILTON. Combe Lodge, Malvern.

FRENCH TAXES REMITTED (10 S. xii. 368). The French village whose taxes were re- mitted ' ' for ever " was Domremy. This was granted by Charles VII. to Jeanne d' Arc, who after his coronation asked her to choose her own reward. At first she refused to ask anything, but finally said that, as her village was " poor and hard pressed by the war," she asked that its taxes be remitted. The king decreed from that day Domremy should be free from all taxation " for ever."

France kept this promise for more than 360 years, when, during the French Revolu- tion, the grace was withdrawn, and has never since been restored. I cannot now remember my authority.

(Mrs.) F. A. HAPPER.

Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A.

REV. HENRY MORRIS OF BURNLEY (10 S. xii. 388). On 17 Feb., 1638-9, was chris- tened at Burnley " Mary, daughter of Henry Morris, curate." Between that date and 1 April, 1649, he had five children christened ; but from July, 1640, onwards he is described as " minister." In 1645-6 his son Abdy was buried ; and in 1649 he had another son born, to whom he gave the same Christian name. He was appointed on 2 Oct., 1646, a member of the third Lancashire Classis, and \vas described as Henry " Morrice n of Burnley. He appears in 1647 as curate of Saddleworth Church. At Burnley he also held for many years the office of registrar.

Your correspondent says that Henry Morris died in 1653. He was living at Burn- ley in September of that year, when he signed the registers. At a meeting of the Classis on 8 Sept., 1657, " Mr. Maurice " was ordered to " preach the next classe " ; and at the next meeting, 13 October follow- ing, it was recorded that "Mr. Morris" preached according to the order.'

The parish registers of Burnley have been printed up to September, 1653.

HENRY FISHWICK.

The Heights, Rochdale.

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS : HER SPUR AND BROOCH (10 S. xii. 368). If such a discovery has been made, it must have been kept very quiet, for, so far as I know, there has been no reference to such a discovery locally

A watch was, I believe, once found in the Queen's Mere, and, being of antique design,, was of course said to be Queen Mary's. [t was in the possession of the late Gideon Pott of Knowesouth, Jedburgh, and most ikely belongs to his descendants still. I massed over the Queen's Mere some months igo in walking from Hermitage Castle to rlawick, but it is no longer a morass, the water having apparently been drained off t. I have frequently tried to find out the route which the Queen took in her ride from Jedburgh to Hermitage, but no contem- porary writer whom I have consulted states exactly which road she travelled. Informa- tion on the point would be welcome.

W. E. WILSON. Hawick.

MRS. AND Miss VANNECK (10 S. xii. 188, 251, 318, 377, 417). In 'Collections and Recollections ? I quoted verbatim et literatim from a MS. diary of my great-grandfather, Lord Robert Seymour. A careful study of this diary convinced me that Lord Robert was a gossip and a gobemouche, and that he could not be relied on for names, or dates, or details. G. W. E. RUSSELL.

" CULPRIT ?? (10 S. xi. 486; xii. 174). The chief objection to the derivation of this word from cut. prit (prest), the supposed contracted form of the Norman-French formula " culpable : prest d'averrer nostre bille " (" Guilty ; and I am ready to aver our judgment "), is that it is bad etymology ; in fact, it reduces the origin of the word to the status of such stenographic makeshifts as infra dig., r.i.p., r.s.v.p., &c. As I shall endeavour to show presently, this explana- tion is held also to be bad in law.

MR. WHITWELL has succeeded in finding an earlier instance of the negative expression non cul. prit than the one cited in the ' N.E.D.' the positive one does not appear to be attested by any early quotation dating back to the reign of Edward III. ; but this will hardly aid us in accounting for the actual derivation of the word, seeing that it was only during that reign that English superseded the use of Norman French, which had been introduced into the law courts by William the Conqueror. There is, therefore, still a period of some three hundred years in which the evolution of "culprit" from qu'il paroit ("let him appear ") may have taken place. It is much to be regretted that the late Mr. Hickie did not give his authority for this etymon in his note quoted by me at the first reference, as from his casual way of mentioning