Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/452

 372

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. NOV. 5, 1904.

edition of Alfric's ' Lives of the Saints,' and find on p. 12 synd for sind (they are) and gyfende for gifende (giving). Familiarity with MSS. will convince a reader that there was a special tendency to write y for i before or after the letters u, m, and n ; obviously for the sake of the greater distinctness.

The original difference of sound between y and i survived after the Conquest in some dialects ; but in many they were completely confused under the common sound of i. The tendency then was to utilize the two forms as far as possible for making convenient dis- tinctions. Thus the scribe of the Ellesmere MS. of Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' has bigynne for biginne (for distinctness) ; and so also ey for ei, as veyne (vein) ; oy for oi, as in poynt (point). It is also used finally, as in specially, wey (way), array, a practice which is still usual. But he makes a further use of?/, in order to indicate that the vowel is long ; hence we have ryde, ivyde, syde, wyped, just as in old Dutch books we have ryden (to ride), which modern Dutch has replaced by rijden.

But the triumph of y is to be found in Caxton. In the Prologue to his * History of Troy ' we find not only euery, ivyse, ydlenes, and the like, but also y for i quite needlessly, as in counceyll, nourysshar, whyche alternat- ing with ivhiche, and hyt with hit, thenvyth, &c. And generally there is a great run upon y in early prints. Such spellings as tyger, myld, in Spenser, frequently indicate that the vowel is long. Hence arose tyro for tiro, the objection to which is that we now pretend that we spell words according to their etymo- logy. Yet when we shorten attire to tire, many of us write tyre !

WALTER W. SKEAT.

DUCHESS SARAH (10 th S.ii. 149, 211, 257). I am obliged to COL. PRIDEAUX for amplify- ing the information I gave of Frances Jennings, sister to Duchess Sarah. I could have furnished such particulars of her first marriage as are set forth in Burke's * Peerage ' (ed. 1897, p. 2) and in Mrs. Thomson's 1 Memoirs of Sarah, Duchess of Maryborough ' (i. 196) ; but I do not regret having omitted to do so, as COL. PRIDEAUX has supplied many dates which are not obtainable there- from.

With reference to the issue of Frances by her first marriage, it may perhaps be of in- terest to record that the first Viscount Rosse, who died 1702, had by Elizabeth Hamilton, his third wife, two sons and three daughters, the elder son becoming second Viscount on the death of his father (Burke, 1897, p. 1249) ;

and that Henry, eighth Viscount Dillon, had by Frances Hamilton one son, who succeeded him (Burke, 1897, p. 449).

The second marriage of Frances, Viscountess Dillon, with Patrick Bellew (who was the eldest son and heir of Sir John Bellew, second baronet) is duly recorded by Burke (1897, p. 449); but he makes no mention of such marriage at p. 134 of the same edition, where it is simply stated that Patrick Bellew died s.p. v.p., 12 June, 1720.

Sir George Hamilton, the first husband of Frances Jennings, died in 1667 (Burke, 1897, p. 2).

COL. PRIDEAUX omitted to mention in his first communication that Duchess Sarah's sister Barbara Griffith had an only child, Barbara, who died 23 July, 1678 ('Althorp Memoirs,' by Mr. G. Steinman Steinman^ p. 50).

It is curious that Burke, in recording Frances Jennings's second marriage, makes no reference to her first marriage, simply describing her as Frances, eldest daughter and co-heir of Richard Jennings, Esq., &c. (ed. 1897, p. 1413).

With reference to the late Mr. G. Steinman Steinman, he doubtless was a " distinguished genealogist," but it is strange that with his "love of accuracy" he should have omitted any mention of Sarah's brother Richard Jennings. I think that the following (see 'Duchess Sarah,' by Mrs. Colville, p. 362, Appendix I.) may be accepted as conclusive evidence that Sarah had not only one, but two brothers, of the name of Richard :

" A copy of St. Alban's Abbey Register, showing date of Sarah's birth.

Richard Jennings = Frances.

I I I I I

Richard Richard Susana Rafe Sarah

Jennings, Jennings, Jennings, Jennings, Jennings,

bap. bap. born born born

July 5, Oct. 12, July 11, Oct. 16, June 5,

1653, 1654. 1656, 1657, 1660,

buried bap. bap. bap.

Aug. 6, July 19, Oct. 20, June 17, 1655 (?).

1656.

1657.

This copy of the register disproves, too,. Mr. Steinman's statement, also made by Mrs. Thomson in the work above alluded to (i. 9), that Sarah was born on 29 May, 1660.

COL. PRIDE AUX'S statement that Frances* Duchess of Tyrconnel, was in her eighty-third year at the time of her decease, and not ninety- two as given by Burke (ed. 1897, p. 1413), is confirmed, supposing she was born, as is mosfc probable, in 1648, by the account of her death given in the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.,' lv.336, which states that "she fell out of bed on a cold night in the early spring of 1730-31, and died