Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/395

 ii s. i. MAY 14, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Lemery, writing in 1723, was better informed. He says (' Traite Universe! des Drogues *) :

" II n'y a guere plus de trente ans qu'on sgait qu'elle est tiree de la tete des Baleines. Le premier claircissement que nous en eumes & Paris, fut dans les Conferences de defunt Monsieur 1'Abbe Bourdelot."

Oiir own Culpeper (1654) distinguishes clearly enough between ambergris and spermaceti, but says nothing as to the source of either. Alleyne, as late as 1733, thought it necessary to do this, and sug- gested the names adeps ceti or oleum ceti -as more appropriate than spermaceti.

C. C. B.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sen* to them direct.

EDWABD=!OBWEBTH : IOBWEBTH VII. 4< lorwerth VII., n as the Welsh newspapers universally called him, is no more. I seize this opportunity to ask with whom origi- nated this translation of the English name Edward into the Welsh lorwerth.

Is this identification ancient ? The Welsh classic Theophilus Evans in his * Drych y Prif Oesoedd * (published for the first time in 1716) rightly calls the conqueror of Wales "y brenin Edward y Cyntaf " (Part I. chap, iv., in fine). Yet I find " lorwerth I." used throughout in the history of Wales, ' Hanes Cymru, 1 by Th. Price (Carnhuanawe), Crickhowel and London 1842.

lorwerth is a very old Welsh name : it evidently is made of the enigmatic and more than obsolete Idr, which the dictionaries, by way of guess, translate " a lord, a prince, the Eternal, the Lord, u and the word gwerth, " price, value, state. ?i The name seems to mean, originally, something like " a real (or very) prince (or lord)."

But my query does not concern the ety- mological puzzle : it is an historical one. I ask how Edward has been welshified into lorwerth. The identification may have been due to the second term, -ward, which sug- gested the Welsh -werth; but what about lor -equated to Ed? H. GAIDOZ.

I 22, Rue Servandoni, Paris (VI 8 ).

ALEX. M. Ross : W. KENNETH LOFTUS. I should like much to hear of the representa- tives of the family of Alex. M. Ross, the eminent engineer of the Victoria Bridge here.

I seek also those of William Kenneth Loftus, F.G.S., known in connexion with the

Turco -Persian frontier, Babylon excavation, &c. (d. 1858).

My reasons for desiring the information are historical; DAVID Ross McCoRD, K.C.

Temple Grove, Montreal.

AMEBSHAM RECTORS. Can any of your readers give me particulars of the following Rectors of Amersham who were afterwards promoted to higher positions in the Church ?

William de Sancta Maria, Rector 1234 to 1236. He was afterwards Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and c. 1241 Dean.

John de Newport, 1242-59. Archdeacon of London. Advanced to the Deanery of St. Paul's in 1259.

William de Marchia, 1290-1303. Lips- comb in his ' History of Bucks l says that Willis supposes that he was made Bishop of Bath and Wells. William of March was Bishop of Bath and Wells 1293 to 1302, so the dates in each case are almost the same. I have a few particulars of Bishop William of March : (1) He was a Canon of Wells Cathedral. (2) Treasurer of England 1290-95. (3) Buried in South transept of Wells Cathedral. (4) Miracles are supposed to have been wrought at his tomb, and an attempt was made to canonize him, but was unsuccessful. (5) Chapter House at Wells built by subscription during his episcopacy and after. (6) Full information about his tomb.

William Grey, S.T.P., Rector c. 1437 to 1454. Consecrated Bishop of Ely 7 Sept., 1454.

Richard Wolman, Rector 1526-37. After- wards Dean of Wells. Died in the summer of 1537, and was buried in the Cloisters of St. Stephen's College, Westminster (Wood's ' Athenae,* vol. i. f. p. 50).

I should like to know, if possible, the places and dates of the births of these rectors, the various preferments they held, and the inscription on their tombs ; also the date of the consecration of William de Marchia. Please reply direct. L. H. CHAMBEBS.

Amersham.

CBOFTON FAMILY : CHIEFS IN HEBALDBY. Whence did Edmondson, in 1780 for his ' Armory, 1 obtain the arms of Crofton, showing a ' ' chief " blazoned Argent, a rose gules, between two fleurs-de-lis gules.? None of the descendants of John Crofton (1540-1610), Escheator-General of Ireland, appear to have used it, nor is anything known of the chief at Heralds' College, nor at Ulster Office ; yet Edmondson must have had some authority for it. The arms, without the chief, were placed on Temple-