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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. APRIL 7, im.

vols. v. and vi., press - mark 9903 aa, in British Museum)."

"March, 1687/8, Samuel Endewes married Eliza- beth Haley of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, at St. James's, Duke's Place, as per register."

" Marriage Licences in the Faculty Office, Knight- rider Street, Doctors' Commons, London : 1708/9, 14 Feb., John Pike and Mary Lee. 1708/9, 18 Feb., John Halley and Sarah Randall."

"Indenture 21 April, 1694, between Francis

Halley, of London, gent., son and heir of William Halley, late of Peterborough in the county of Northampton, gent. ; Edmund Halley, of London, gent. ; and Richard Pyke, citizen and poulterer of London, gent. ; and Robert Huntman, of London, gent., wherein Francis Halley sells certain property to Edmund Halley and Richard Pyke (vol. liii. of Close Rolls, in Round Room of Public Record Office)."

The present writer would add that one of his paternal grand-uncles, of whom docu- mentary evidence exists, bore the name of Richard McPike ; but he may have been named after his maternal uncle, Richard Mountain.

Edmund William Pike, Esq. (b. 1838), was a postmaster of the House of Commons, 1878-1903, now retired.

As the compilation of a complete life of Dr. Edmond Halley (1656-1742) is now being seriously considered by an English astro- nomer, perhaps the genealogical problem involved may be cleared up ere long.

EUGENE FAIRFIELD McPiKE.

1, Park Row, Chicago, U.S.

CANDLEMAS DAY IN CANADA. In this country the weatherwise deprecate a sunny Candlemas, but in the Dominion it seems to be welcome, if we may trust The Morning Citizen of Ottawa, which declared on 2 Feb- ruary, "If the bear can see his shadow to-day, he will get out his linen duster." It may be, however, that the bear is not credited with much meteorological foresight.

ST. SWITHIN.

ROPES USED AT EXECUTIONS. Mr. Horace Bleackley, in *Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold,' tells his readers that when Governor Wall was hanged, a woman sold, at twelvepence an inch (p. 139), bits of the rope by which the criminal had suffered. If any one were to take pains to hunt up the evidence, it is probable that many other examples of this desire to possess such-like memorials of people of evil eminence might be brought to light. When the traffic in such things was discontinued I do not know. The fact I am about to narrate, though it does not indicate the end, assuredly marks a change of feeling in regard to this odious practice.

A Lincolnshire gentleman, with whom I

was well acquainted in years gone by, knew William and John Dyon, who were hanged at York in 1828 for the murder of John Dyon, of Brancroft. The murdered man was indeed a friend of his. He did not go to see the execution of the murderers, but, as soon as he knew that all was over, set off to York by coach, for the purpose of buying the ropes by which the criminals met their doom. He wanted them for the purpose of making into bell-ropes, and was prepared to give a good price for them ; but when he reached the Castle he was told that orders had been issued that things of this kind were not to be disposed of.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickentree House, Kirton-iii-Lindsey.

BOLTON PRIORY : ITS TITLE. It is time the popular misconception (and consequent misnomer) that the celebrated monastery at Bolton was an abbey should be laid low, and the establishment placed in its proper cate- gory, i.e., among the priories. It was one of the "Greater" Priories those with a net revenue of 200Z. or over at the Dissolution and never was an abbey.

JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

CANADA'S LAST IMPERIAL TROOPS. It may be interesting to the historian of the future to make a note of the fact that, on 5 March, the last of the Imperial troops which have been stationed in Canada left that country in a steamer bound for Liverpool. The con- tingent consisted of 100 men of the Royal Engineers, under the command of Major Cartwright. The military forces of the Dominion are now exclusively Canadian.

In 1762, when we made peace with France, in order that nothing might be wanting for the security of new settlers in Canada, a regular military establishment was formed in that country, consisting of 10,000 men, divided into twenty battalions. In the words of an eighteenth-century chronicler:

"For the present these troops are maintained by Great Britain. When a more calm and settled season comes on, they are to be paid, as is reasonable, by the colonies they are intended to protect. To encourage soldiers and seamen who had served in the American War to settle there, and at the same time to reward their services, lots of land were offered to the officers according to the correspondent rank which they held in the army and the navy : 5,000 acres to a field officer ; to every captain, 3,000 ; to every subaltern, 2,000; to every non-commissioned officer, 200 ; and to every private seaman and soldier, 50."

One hundred and forty -four years have passed since those words were written. Canada, now the pride of our Empire, has developed into a nation ; the painter has