Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/182

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. FEB. 26, 1910.

He had come to London when a boy, and entered the employment of Mr. Jeans, who was a hatter ((probably) at No. 23, Bridge Street, Westminster. In course of time (I believe) the firm became " Jeans & Cole," subsequently (I am certain) " Jacob Cole," later "Cole & Son," and finally " Cole & Williamson." The sequence of addresses after 23, Bridge Street (pulled down for the extension of Palace Yard) was 8, Bridge Street ; 5, Upper Charles Street ; 47, Charing Cross ; and 30, Cockspur Street, whence, after Williamson's death in 1891, his shopman took the business to Duncannon Street, where it also died.

I have a printed copy of an Address " To her most Gracious Majesty the Queen " upon^her accession to the throne, signed by " H. H. Milman, Minister ; James Bower, Jacob Cole, Churchwardens ; Simon Stephenson, Vestry Clerk," of St. Mar- garet's, Westminster. Jacob Cole's name is I remember having seen it included in one of the inscriptions upon one of the covers of the famous Westminster snuff-box.

At 10 S. ii. 289 I gave a list of eleven of Jacob Cole's songs set to music, of which I have copies, and asked whether others were known to readers of ' N. & Q.' ; but no reply was forthcoming. In 1864 was published ' The Comic and Humorous Song-Book. Edited by J. E. Carpenter." A paragraph in the Editor's preface commences :

" Many of the songs here inserted have long "been out-of-print, and others, frequently inquired for, are now published for the first time. To enable the Editor to effect this, he has had placed at his disposal the valuable manuscript collec- tions of Mr. Jacob Cole and Mr. James Bruton." One result of this permission was the appearance in the volume of thirty-five songs (one of which was classified among the " Comic," and thirty - four among the '' Humorous "), and one " additional verse," attributed to Jacob Cole. His portrait forms one of a group of five prefixed as a frontis- piece to the same little volume.

CHARLES HIGHAM.

VERMONT, ORIGIN OF THE NAME : DR. S. A PETERS (11 S. i. 47). The account which MR. THORNTON found in American newspapers in 1808 was not a hoax, as it was written by the Rev. Samuel Peters himself, and was first printed (so far as I am aware) in a note to his ' History of the Rev. Hugh Peters,' pp. 94-5, published at New York in 1807. The concluding paragraph is worth quoting :

" Since Verdmont became a state in union with the thirteen states of America, its general assembly have seen proper to change the spelling of Verd-

mont, Green Mountain, to that of Fer-mont, Mountain of Maggots. Both words are French ; and if the former spelling is to give place to the latter, it will prove that the state had rather be considered a mountain of worms than an ever green mountain ! "

As MR. THORNTON is, of course, aware, the early history of Vermont was stormy, as the territory, then called the New Hampshire Grants, was in dispute between New Hamp- shire and New York. In a convention held at Windsor, Vt., in January, 1777, it was declared that

" the district of territory comprehending and usually known by the name and description of the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be, and is hereby declared forever hereafter to be considered as, a separate, free and independent jurisdiction or state, by the name, and forever hereafter to lie called, known and distinguished by the name, of New Connecticut." H. Hall's ' Early History of Vermont,' p. 239.

The name of Vermont first appeared in print, so far as is known, in an address by Dr. Thomas Young " To the Inhabitants of Vermont, A Free and Independent State, bounding on the River Connecticut and Lake Champlain," dated 11 April, 1777 ; and that name was adopted by the Vermonters them- selves in the following June (Hall, pp. 243, 499). In 1797 J. A. Graham wrote :

" The natural growth upon this mountain [i.e., the Green Mountains] are hemlock, pine, spruce, and other evergreens ; hence it has always a green appearance, and on this account lias obtained the descriptive name of Vermont, from the French, Verd-Mont, Green Mountain." - ' Descriptive Sketch of the Present State of Ver- mont,' p. 16.

In 1798 Ira Allen wrote :

" Vermont, this name was given to the district of the New Hampshire Grants, as an emblematical one, from the French of Verd-mont, green moun- tains, intended to perpetuate the name of the Green Mountain Boys, by Dr. Thomas Young, of Philadelphia, who greatly interested himself in behalf of the settlers of Vermont." ' Natural and Political History of the State of Vermont,' p. 86, note.

In a petition made in 1786 to the legislature of Vermont on behalf of the family of Dr. Young, it was declared that to him " we stand indebted for the Name of [Vermont] " (Publications of the Colonial Society of Mass., xi. 53).

In 1781 Peters published in London his notorious ' General History of Connecti- cut,' which was known among the American patriots as the "lying history." When the animosities engendered by the Revolu- tionary War had subsided, Peters, who in 1774 had taken refuge in England, returned to his native Connecticut. Ever since I saw, several years ago, his account, I have been