Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/499

 ii. NOV. 19, low.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

411

things, would have passed the transaction over without a word of comment ? On the whole, it seems more likely that Mr. Shep- herd should simply have erred in his de- scription of 'Omniana' than that the book should have passed from hand to hand in the manner suggested by COL. PRIDEAUX, without some notice being taken of the fact in Southey's letters or elsewhere. GRETA.

AVALON (10 th S. ii. 309). Avalon was not in Maryland, but in Newfoundland, where the name still survives in Avalon Peninsula. The following extracts are pertinent :

"A Letter from Captaine Edward Wynne, Gouernour of the Colony at Ferryland, within the Prouince of Aualon, in New-found-land, ynto the Right Honourable Sir George Calvert, Knight, his Maiesties Principal! Secretary. luly, 16*2*1" In H. Whitbourne's ' Discovrse and Discovery of New- fovnd-land,' 162*2, signature S, p. 1.

"Knowe yee that we of our further grace cer- tayne knowledge and meere motion have thought fitt to erect the same Territory and Hands into a Province, as out of the fulness of our Royal! power and prerogative wee doe for us our heirs and suc- cessors erect and incorporate them into a Province and doe call it Avalon or the Province of Avalon, and soe hereafter will have it called." Charter of Avalon, 7 April, 1623, in J. T. Scharf's 'History of Maryland, r !879, i. 35.

" The report of Powel was so satisfactory that on April 7, 1623, Calvert received a patent from the king, constituting him and his heirs absolute pro- prietors of the whole south-eastern peninsula of Newfoundland. He gave his new settlement the

name, which it still retains, of Avalon As

Avalon had been the starting-point of Christianity for ancient Britain, in pious legend, at all events, so he [Calvert] hoped that his own settlement might be a similar starting-point from which the gospel should spread to the heathen of the Western World."- Scharf, i. 33.

"The purchase was made about the year 1620. Calvert gave to this territory the name of Avalon. He sent out a colony under Capt. Edward Wynne, who made a settlement at Ferryland. In April, 1623, he obtained from the king a charter of the Province of Avalon, with powers of government.

In 1627 Baltimore visited his plantation, and

in the spring of 1628 removed thither with his family and resided there over a year, returning in the fall of 1629."- J. W. Dean, in C. W. Tuttle's 'Capt. John Mason,' Prince Society, 1887, pp. 139, 140.

" It is not known whether the name of ' Avalon ' was first given to his province in Newfoundland by Calvert himself. In his letters from the island he usually dates from ' Ferryland.' "Lewis F. \Vil- helm, 'Sir George Calvert,' 1884, p. 130.

Capt. Wynne's letter mentioned in the first extract is dated " Ferryland 28. luly 1622," and the name Avalon does not occur either in the letter itself or in several other letters printed at the end of Whitbourne's tract. Yet it seems to show that the name Avalon had been in use before the charter of

7 April, 1623. Whether Scharf is correct in his explanation is not certain, for he gives no authority. ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

The peninsula forming the south-east corner of Newfoundland is called Avalon. Beamish Murdoch, in his 'History of Nova Scotia' (vol. i. p. 65), speaking of early settlements in America, says :

" Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, procured a grant of that part of Newfoundland that lies between the Bay of Bulls in the east and Cape St. Mary's in the south, which was called the pro- vince of Avalon, and made a settlement at Ferry- land. Lord Baltimore made his residence there, but afterwards left this for his new possessions in Maryland."

Why the peninsula was called Avalon is doubtless explained in any good history of Newfoundland. That by D. W. Prowse is said to be the best. M. N-. G.

Avalon is a peninsula in the south-east of Newfoundland between Trinity and Plascentia Bays. According to the * Complete Peerage,' by G. E. C., vol. i. p. 226, 'Baltimore,' it was granted to George Calvert, Secretary of State, in 1618, by James I., " with most extensive privileges. After expending on it 25,000?., he had to resign it to the French." According to Elisee Reclus, 'Nouvelle Geo- graphie Universelle,' vol. xv. p. 653, the place-names in Newfoundland were usually given by French codfishers, although a large French population is settled in the Peninsula of Avalon, which is near the old French colony of Plascentia, ceded to England by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. There is an Avallon near Vezelay in the department of the Yonne, France. Lord Baltimore settled Maryland by a grant, dated 1632, from Charles I., under the same terms as he had held Avalon. Of course English West- Country sailors had long frequented those shores. H. 2.

[Replies also from MR. E. H. COLE MAN and FRANCKSCA.]

OXENHAM EPITAPHS (10 th S. ii. 368). The epitaphs given in Howell's ' Familiar Letters ' have already been printed in * N. &Q.' on two occasions (2 <l S. iii. 213, 279; 3"' S. ii. 25), together with references to works relative to the Oxenham family and this remarkable apparition. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

MONMOUTH CIPHER (10 th S. ii. 347). I am only too delighted to offer my services to MR. WILLCOCK, whose inquiry has but now come to my notice. I am deeply interested in the career of the duke and his mother,