Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/523

 B. in. jrxE 3, was.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

431

Humphrey Sfcarkey, Chief Baron of the Ex- chequer in I486, who also came from Cheshire, seems to have belonged to this family. The date of the rebuilding is not recorded in any existing deed, so far as I am aware, but may, I think, be gathered from the fact that at the time of sale the landlord of the "Bell" was James Trinder, and that carefully incised on a brick near one of the first-floor windows which faced the yard was the name G. Trinder with date 1720. I would add that it was I who suggested the placing of the arms in the Guildhall Museum.

With regard to the book on ' London Signs and Inscriptions,' perhaps it will be right to say clearly what I once hinted at before. It was first published in 1893, and was re- printed in cheaper form some years after- wards I believe in 1897. For this reprint I was in no way responsible. As regards the letterpress, it was an absolute facsimile of the previous issue ; I had no opportunity of making the slightest addition or correction. In fact, I did not know anything about the reissue until a succession of reviews appeared in which it was treated as a new book.

PHILIP NORMAN.

Undoubtedlj 7 the sculptured arms formerly to be seen embedded in the front wall of this inn, and now deposited, by the kindness of the Treasurer of Christ's Hospital, in the Guildhall Museum, are those of the Gregge family of Bradley, Cheshire, quartering those of the Starkye family of Stretton, Cheshire.

The arms and crest, which are in excellent condition, may be thus described : Quarterly, 1 and 4, [Or,] three trefoils slipped, between two chevronels [sa.], for Gregge ; 2 and 3, [Arg.,] a stork [sa.], with beak and legs [gu.], for Starkey. Crest : Out of a ducal coronet [or], an eagle's head and neck per pale [arg. and sa.], holding in the beak a trefoil slipped. These arms, quartered, similar to those formerly on the "Old Bell," with the crest, your correspondent may find in the Visita- tion of Cheshire, 1613, Harl. MS., Brit. Mas., No. 1535, fol. 238 (ink). No tincture is given for the stork in the Starkey arms ; but fols. 436 and 439 of the same manuscript show that the bird is sa.

The pedigree reported in the Visitation states that Ralph Gregge, of Bradley, son of Thomas Gregge, of Bradley, by Katherine Greene, his wife, and grandson of Richard Gregge, of the same place, married Anne, daughter and heiress of Richard Starkey, of Stretton, thus accounting for the quartered arms. With other issue, they had a son Robert, described in the Visitation as of London, and according to dates it seems pro-

bable that he was the father of Ralph Gregge, who acquired the "Bell" in 1679. As, how- ever, the arms are quartered, they should appertain to a son by the Gregge and Starkey union. Perhaps they had a son Ralph not given in the Visitation.

I dp not think the 1613 Visitation of Cheshire has been published ; but the Gregge Visitation pedigree, with some additions from the St. Michael's church registers, Chester, is given in Ormerod's 'Cheshire,* vol. ii. p. 24.

The funeral certificate of Edward Gregg, of Hapsford, Cheshire, taken in 1637, and that of Thomas Starkey, of Stretton, taken in 1624, both give their respective arms as above described (see pp. 96, 97, and 173 of vol. vi. of the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society's publications).

On the acquisition of the Black Swan Distillery, Holborn, by Messrs. Jas. Buchanan fe Co., the firm issued an interesting souvenir in the shape of a booklet on old Holborn, en- titled ' A Bygone Holborn.' On p. 5 the arras are illustrated as those of the Fowler family. I wrote to Messrs. Buchanan & Co. pointing out the error ; but whether it has been cor- rected in any subsequent edition I cannot say.

The arms are also given as those of the Fowlers in The City Press of 29 September, 1897, and 22 November, 1899 ; London Argus of 8 January, 1898 ; and The Westminster budget of 30 September, 1898. In the last article the arms are illustrated. However, p. 246 of the official ' Catalogue of the Collec- tion of London Antiquities in the Guildhall Museum ' correctly gives them as the Gregge arms, while they are depicted on plate 60.

The Gregge pedigreein Ormerod's 'Cheshire' is an instance of how unsafe it is to compile a pedigree from a visitation pedigree and a church register only, for the volume of ' Cheshire Funeral Certificates ' published by the society before mentioned shows that the dates of burial of Edward Gregge, of Haps- ford, and his wife Elizabeth therein stated are wrong, and that the Christian name of the wife of their son Robert was not Elizabeth, but Joane.

I worked out a short descent of this family a few years ago, which I shall be pleased to lend to MR. STEWART if of any service.

Last, but by no means least, vol. iy. (p. 101) of Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, the parent of The Home Counties Magazine, contains a valuable illustrated article on the " Old Bell " by Philip Norman. It is to Mr. Norman that we are indebted for the discovery that the arms are those of the