Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/586

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. DEC. 21, 1907.

The Monthly Magazine would ventxire to declare that the grocer of Ludgate Hill was the same person as the grocer of War- minster, unless the fact was true. Had they been playing into the hands of Mrs. Serres by retailing fiction, it is almost certain that their statements would have been refuted by some local contemporary. More- over, if the " Princess " Olive had been acquainted with the Erie stoke registers she would not have asserted that Axford became Hannah Lightfoot's husband after her secret marriage to her royal lover in the year 1759 ! See ' Authentic Records,' pp. 5-7, and ' Secret History ' (ed. 1903), i. 6. Indeed, for this reason I am disposed to doubt that Mrs. Serres influenced the correspondence in The Monthly Magazine. Certainly, the family tradition, which has always been plausible and consistent, and is supported by the local registers, affords strong presumptive evidence that Isaac Axford of Ludgate Hill and Isaac Axford of Warminster were one and the same person ; and in the absence of all negative proof it will not be rash to accept the theory that the man who married Mary Bartlett at Erie- stoke on 3 Dec., 1759, was the husband of Hannah Lightfoot.

At all events, it is convenient to accept this hypothesis, for there is a story related of Isaac Axford of Warminster which, if true, might throw some light upon the mystery of the "Fair Quaker." As this story is corroborated by Mr. Curtis, it will not be indiscreet to repeat the version given by The Monthly Magazine of July, 1821 :

" Many years after Hannah was taken away, her husband, believing her dead, married again to a

Miss Bartlett and by her succeeded to an estate

.at Chevrett [Cheyerell ?j of about 1501. a year. On the report reviving, a few years since, of his first wife's being still living, a Mr. Bartlett (first cousin to Isaac's second wife) claimed the estate on the plea of the invalidity of this second marriage." 3 S. xi. 90.

Mr. Frank Curtis's account of the incident is as follows :

" Isaac Axford received with this Miss Bartlett an estate worth 150?. a year. After his death, a cousin claimed the property from the said Isaac Axford's son, who was the grandfather of my wife. In her childhood she heard her parents speak of one Air. Aldridge, a lawyer of this town [Warmin- ster], who went to her grandmother, and asked to see some papers. These were taken away, and

never returned My wife has no idea where the

lawsuit was tried, but the Bartlett family won the case. The assizes may have been held at Devizes

or Salisbury With regard to the property in

dispute, my wife's mother told her many years ago that it was a mill at Potterne, Wilts."

Possibly, if the Bartlett family won the

case, they were able to produce evidence that Hannah Lightfoot was alive on 3 Dec., 1759, and thus a report of the trial (if it took place) might give some information concerning the history of the " Fair Quaker " after her separation from Axford. Some months ago I wrote to Mr. Ponting, solicitor of Warminster, who conducts the business that Mr. Aldridge carried on a hundred years ago ; and although he was kind enough to make a careful search among his papers, he could discover nothing relating to an action at law between Bartlett and Axford, nor had he ever heard of any such action. Obviously, the proper course is to search the columns of The Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, which I have not yet done. The trial must have taken place, if it took place at all, between April, 1816, and April, 1821. Though a slender clue, it is worth following, and as it is one of the few remaining clues, any one who wishes to investigate the mystery of Hannah Lightfoot should not neglect it. Can some Wiltshire antiquary offer any suggestion ? .

HORACE BLEACKXEY.

(To be continued.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTMAS.

(Continued from 10 S. vi. 485.) TWENTY-SECOND LIST.

Taylor, C. B. A Fireside Book, or an Account of a Christmas spent at Old Court. 12mq, 1830.

The Christmas Minstrel : a Favourite Selection of Carols. 12mo, pp. 32, 1856.

Smith, Alexander. Dreamthorp. 1863. Con- tains an essay on Christmas.

Gillett, E. A Christmas Tale, and other Poems. 8vo, 1894.

Boyd, M. Stuart. A Versailles Christmas-tide. 4to, 1901.

Day, E. S. Christmastide in the Sixteenth Century. An article in The Guardian, 19 Dec., 1906, p. 2130.

Andrews, William. A Wreath of Christmas Carols and Poems, chosen and edited with Notes. 12mo. pp. 64, Hull, J. R. Tutin, 1906.

Illingworth, Agnes L. Christmas Faith and Fact : Readings on the Incarnation, illustrated by Painter and Poet. London, Mowbray, 1907-

Knight, Wm. The Poets on Christmas. 8vo, S.P.C.K., 1907.

Christmas, its History and Antiquity. In " Slater's Home Library," a pamphlet.

The Origin of the Christmas Tree ; The Christ- mas Tradition in England. Articles in The Trea- sury, December, 1907.

On the Boy-Bishop, see Archceologia, 1. 446, 472, 480, &c. (St. Paul's) ; li. 27 (Lincoln) ; lii. 221, 224, &c. (Westminster) ; liii. 25 (Lincoln). Yorksh. Arch. Jour., xii.