Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/166

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s i. FEB. 19, 1910.

tioned that the register is as follows with respect to the last-named child :

that name, was born the xxvth day, friday, and christened the xxx day of October, being Wednes- day anno d'me 1605."
 * ' Elizabeth Finche, the daughter and second of

Strange to say, each of Samuel Fynche's three wives was named Elizabeth.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

The Barnstaple parish register furnishes many instances of the same Christian name hning given to two children of the same parents. In the following cases one child was not named after the death of the other, for they were baptized at the same time ; neither can the suggestion be accepted that John and Johan were renderings of the same name, for the children are described as sons or daughters respectively : John and John, the two sons of John Hayne,

baptized 21 June, 1540. John and John, sons of Wylliam Jenkens, baptized

17 April, 1548.

John and John, sons of John Wiat, baptized

18 July, 1552

John and John, sons of Philip Larynier, baptized

3 May, 1560. John and John, sons of Phelyp Larymore, buried

3 May, 1560. Joan and Joan, daughters of John Dart, baptized

11 May, 1560. Johan and Johan, daughters of William Yeowe,

baptized 13 March, 1584.

THOS. WAINWRIGHT.

NEWS-LETTERS IN THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE : SIR JOSEPH WILLIAMSON (11 S. i. 68). News-letters will be found among the Foreign State Papers. They have been classified as far as possible according to their place of origin. For further particulars see ' List of Volumes of Foreign State Papers, ? published by the Public Record Office in the series of " Lists and Indexes," No. XIX.

The printed Calendars of Foreign State Papers also contain a great number of news- letters. T. C.

The Domestic Series of State Papers contain many letter-books, but they are calendared. Sir Joseph Williamson's col- lections 213 volumes are embodied in the Calendars from 1666 to 1692, and very curious many of them are. For instance, a Coventry correspondent sends a graphic picture of the Mayor's feast there in 1667. At the end of a letter in 1670 one Whit ting- ton offers 100Z. to Williamson if he can obtain a certain patent through the Secre- tary's influence.

By the w r ay, this query caused me to consult the authorities cited in the ' D.N.B.*

for the life of Sir Joseph Williamson^ There it was stated that his papers for 1672 were uncalendared. This, being written before 1900, was correct, but these are now calen- dared and published ; yet the reissue of the ' D.N.B., ? in the volume containing William- son, published in 1909, contains the same statement without any correction.

A. RHODES.

Perhaps information about Scottish news- letters may be obtained by consulting ' A Guide to the Public Records of Scotland deposited in H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, l by M. Livingstone, vol. i. (1488-1529). The book was issued by His Majesty's Stationery Office in 1908.

W. SCOTT.

GRAMMATICAL GENDER (US. i. 29, 72). For the results of modern research on the question of gender see Brugmann, ' Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik,' 2nd. ed., vol. ii. part i. pp. 82-103, and R. S. Conway, Classical Review, vol. xviii. (1904), p. 412. With, reference to English nouns and pro- nouns see H. Sweet's ' Primer of Historical Grammar 2 (1902), 231. G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

For an elaborate and exhaustive treatise on the true meaning and aim of the gram- matical threefold gender in Old German, as well as in other related languages (viz., the poetical personification and vivification of all perceivable and conceivable, concrete and abstract objects of the universe), see Jacob Grimm's ' Deutsche Grammatik,' vol. iii. pp. 342-551 (last edition by Roethe and Schroder, ]890). H. KREBS.

Grammatical gender is a subject that cannot be lightly dismissed. The contro- versy with regard to its origin has been very acute. A simple and useful discussion may be found in Giles's ' Manual of Compara- tive Philology, 2 pp. 255-62. The following are some of the principal references :

1. 'Origin of Grammatical Gender,' an article by B. I. Wheeler in The Journal of Germanic Philology, vol. ii. pp. 528 seq., to which is appended a biblio- graphy.

2. Brugmann's Princeton lecture (1897), 'The Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders in the Indo-European Languages.'

3. Techmer's Zeitschrift, vol. iv. pp. 100 seq.

4. Dr. J. G. Frazer in The Fortnightly Renew, January, 1900, pp. 79 seq.

5. Gow's 'Notes on Gender' in The Journal of Philology, vol. x. pp. 39 seq.

Besides these, of course, reference must be made to the works of many leading philo- logists. V. CHATTOPADHYAYA.