Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/113

 10 s. VIIL AUG. 3, 1907.] NOT ES AND QUERIES.

Monoux, of Berkhampstead, Herts, salter, and his heirs male.

The greater portion of the will (and of a codicil added 8 June, 1543) is devoted to regulations for the maintenance and safe custody of testator's " capitall place " in Walthamstow called " Moones," of which the aforesaid William Monoux is " righte inherito r ," during the latter's nonage, four executors and three overseers being ap- pointed for the purpose. Among the minor bequests are included 40s. to the poor of his ward of " Bassingshawe," and I2d. apiece to all poor householders of Waltham- stow. Other landed property is, however, referred to in the will, the original of which is filed at Somerset House.

Monoux does not appear to have invariably figured in the eyes of his contemporaries in a favourable light. In 1538, for instance, he came in contact with Sir Richard Gresham, a fellow-alderman, in connexion with the latter's project to erect a City Bourse, with the result that Sir Richard refers to him as a man of " noe gentyll nature " in a letter he addressed to Cromwell on the subject (see Dr. Sharpe's ' London and the Kingdom,' vol. i. pp. 494-5) ; and in 1540 there is complaint of " moche evyll and vycyous rule " maintained within his aldermanry (cf. Baddeley's work, p. 110). Some twenty years before the last date the rector and churchwardens of the City parish of St. John Zachary had presented a bill of complaint in the Court of Aldermen against Monoux and others in a certain matter connected with their annual income. This will be fully dealt with in my history of that parish and SS. Anne and Agnes.

A list of the worthy Mayor's bene- factions to his parish of Walthamstow, compiled from the records there, is contained in an ' Account ' drawn up by William Houghton, then vestry clerk, in 1877. A copy of the work is to be found in the Guild- hall Library.

The pedigree of the Monoux family is given in the respective visitations of Essex in 1558 and 1612 (see Harleian Society's Publications, vol. xiii. pp. 78, 79, 252). The date of birth of our subject does not seem to be ascertainable, nor is his mother's name given therein.

WILLIAM MCMTTBBAY.

Monoux (the name is sometimes spelt Monox) built the north aisle of Waltham- stow Church about the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. , and also built the almshouses, known as Lord Mayor Monox's

Free School and Almshouses (the latter accommodating thirteen poor people, eight men and five women), with a school-house and apartments for the master. The endow- ments were augmented in 1686 by the will of Henry Maynard. In 1819 thirty boys were clothed and educated in the school. In 1780 a school was established for twenty girls. Monox also rebuilt a square tower at the west end of the church, and about 1535 built a chapel at the east end of the north aisle. The south aisle of the church was built about the same time as the north, by another eminent citizen, Robert Thorn or Thome, a merchant tailor. See Orridge's ' Citizens of London ' ; James Dugdale's ' British Traveller ' ; and Rees's ' Cyclo- paedia.' J. HOLD EN MACMICHAEL. Deene, Streathatn.

See Fuller's ' Worthies of England.' A foot-note refers to Stow's ' Survey of London,' p. 90.

The arms of Monox were Arg., on a chevron sa., between three holly-leaves proper, as many besants ; on a chief gules, a bird between two anchors or.

See also Burke's ' Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies,' Monnoux of Wotton.

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

[M.A.OXON. also thanked for reply.]

" DEVACHAN " (10 S. viii. 28). This must be a Sanskrit term, though I do not find it in the Sanskrit dictionaries. It may be corrupt. Mr. C. W. Leadbeater, in a note prefixed to his book ' The Devachanic Plane,' 1902, admits that the word is " etymologic- ally inaccurate and misleading." It is obviously derived from deva, the Sanskrit name for a god or angel. In the glossary at the end of Col. Olcott's ' Theosophy, Religion, and Occult Science,' 1885,* it is defined as follows : " Devachan (pron. Devakhan), the conscious after-life."

JAS. PL ATT, Jun.

The meaning of Devachan may be best learnt from the Theosophists who use it.

Madame Blavatsky in ' The Key *,o Theosophy,' 1889, p. 145, describes it as

"paradise a place of bliss and of supreme

felicity no sorrow, or even a shade of pain, can

be experienced therein." Again, p. 146 :

"We say that the bliss of the Devachanee consists in its complete conviction that it has never left the earth, ana that there is no such thing as death at all."

From ' Esoteric Buddhism,' by A. P. Sinnett, 1885, p. 88 :