Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/72

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NOTES % AND QUERIES. [io< h s. n. JULY 10, im.

Gordon, sixth Lord Byron, the poet; her fourth, James, was admiral of the fleet. Her eldest daughter, Katherine, " the White Kose," was wife of Perkin Warbeck, the Pretender, and later of Sir Matthew Cradock, ancestor of the Earls of Pembroke.

A. K. BAYLEY.

HELGA will find all that is known about Princess Joan of Scotland in the ' Exchequer Kolls of Scotland,' yol v. p. Ixix, note. The late Mr. Alexander Sinclair issued a pamphlet, privately printed, identifying Joan as the muta domina, who married James Douglas, third Lord Dalkeith, in 1458, Dalkeith being created Earl of Morton on the occasion. There is no contemporary authority for the lady's infirmity ; but in 1562 Hugh, third Earl of Eglinton, brought a process of divorce against Joanna Hamilton, his countess, on the plea of consanguinity, their common ancestress being the Countess of Morton, known as inuta domina. The proceedings are preserved among the Eglinton charters, with the following pedigree :

Muta Domina.

Earl of

John, 2nd Morton.

James, 3rd Earl of Morton.

Margaret Douglas, mar- ried James, Lord Hamilton.

Joanna Hamilton, Countess of Eglinton.

Joanna, Countess of Bothwell.

Margaret Hepburn, Lady Seton.

Mariot Seton, Countess of Eglinton.

Hugh, 3rd Earl of Eglinton.

HERBERT MAXWELL. . See Sir J. B. Paul's 'The Scots Peerage,' i. 176, and Cokayne's 'Complete Peerage,' i. 97, iv. 295, v. 381, from which authorities it appears that Joan was third daughter of James I. ; that she was betrothed to James Douglas, third Earl of Angus, in 1444, but never married him, and that she married James Douglas, first Earl of Morton, about 1456 or 1458 ; and also that the daughter married to (aeorge Gordon, second Earl of Huntly, was Annabel. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

[Reply also from MR. A. HALL.]

I SLAND NAMES (10 th S. i. 387,492). TTuA B. SAVAGE says that Col vac (properly Colbhacn) is not a Manx name at all. and does not occur in Moore's 'Surnames and Place-names/ ^ This is fairly common as a Gaelic Christian name, now equated in English with Charles, like two or three

As the same class of names were common to all Gaelic-speaking peoples, it is difficult to understand how this one should be- excluded from the Isle of Man during the Gaelic period, when all (or mostly all) other Irish names were in common use there. All Gaelic names did not originate surnames,, and it is thought this is one of them, which, if true, would account for its absence from- Mr. Moore's valuable work. The surname Colvey has, however, with some show of

Erobability, been thought to be derived 'om it.

Another puzzling name on Walney Island is "Creepa Close," "Creepa _Marsh," &c. Could this have for origin kr~ip to drag or grapple for contraband kegs, sunk by smugglers, used in Northumberland, Dur- ham, Yorks, and also in some of the southern counties 1

"They'll string the tubs to a stray line and' sink 'em, and then when they have a chance they'll go to creep for 'era."

J. ROGERS. 187, Abbey Road, Barrow-in-Furness.

COPERNICUS AND THE PLANET MERCURY (10 th S. i. 509). There is no sufficient reason for thinking that Copernicus never saw Mercury. See the question fully discussed by the undersigned in vol. xv. (p. 321) of the Observatory (for August, 1892). When the statement in question is made in books, the alleged failure is generally attributed to the fogs of the Vistula, in forgetfulness of the fact that Copernicus spent several years of the earlier part of his working life in Italy. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

ALAKE (10 th S. i. 468, 512).-! do not quite follow the details. Given " Ake" as a place- name, with " Al " as prefix, is al the Semitic article, as we say The O'Neill, &c. 1 A. H.

PRESCRIPTIONS (10 th S. i. 409, 453). In thanking your correspondents for their replies, may I put another question? In Collier's 'Celsus, 3 second edition (1831), there are four plates, one of which consists of twenty -four "numbers." There are signs or groups of signs, and among them appear those of the scruple and drachm. No refer- ence to this plate appears to be contained in the letterpress, and I should be glad if any one could help me to an explanation.

HOLCOMBE INGLEBY.

"AMONG OTHERS" (10 th S. i. 487). I cannot at all follow W. C. B. in his objection to this. Surely inter alia is good, or at least current, Latin. With others seems to me to stand in.