Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/396

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY u, 1910.

house, co. Sligo, in 1627, when William, third son of the above-mentioned John, built it.

Instances of chiefs are found in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward II., but were such additions to arms the subject of royal favour ? If so, this chief might have been conferred, by a Lancastrian king, for services in France.

I have in hand a volume of memoirs of the family, and shall be glad to communicate with any one interested, and to receive any information, not generally known, either direct, or through ' N. & Q.'

H. T. CROFTON.

Oldfield, Maidenhead.

SPADES AND SHIELDS. In ' Walks and People in Tuscany ? Sir Francis Vane notes of a blacksmith at Palignana (pp. 239, 240) :

"This man gave me a piece of information which seems of interest, namely, that all the villages

around had their respective shapes in spades

This man could have told whence a labourer came from the shape of his spade. And many of these implements are curious, suggesting to my heraldic mind that the designs had been taken from the eleventh- or twelfth-century shields. Many say that the shield came from the spade, Probably it did so in origin, but I am convinced that the latter has been modified by the former, according to the fashion of the period, many a time. For in the example of spades which this blacksmith showed me, I could recognise the forms not only of the twelfth- and fourteenth-century shields, but the varieties of German, French, and Italian prevalent in the earlier portion of the Middle Ages. Some one should make a study of Italian spades."

What are the reasons for believing that shields have been evolved from spades ? I think I am right in saying that swords and spades have figured as corresponding suits on playing-cards. Is the tool of peace doubly related to implements of warfare ?

ST. SWITHIN.

JOHN NICHOLL, F.S.A. I shall be obliged for reference to any biographical notices of this good antiquary. He was born 1790, and died about 1871, living in 1842 in Alwyne Villas, and later, I believe, in Cross Street, Islington. His best-known work is ' Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers, 2 privately printed, 1851 ; 2nd Ed., 1866 ; Appendix about 1870. Was he related to the Nicholl family who were the freeholders of the Laycock's Farm property ? ALECK ABRAHAMS.

DAUBENY COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL. In an obituary of Dr. Charles Giles Daubeny in vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Devon- shire Association it is stated that in 1856,

when he was President of the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association, a medal was struck by his friends, ' ' the only instance of the kind in the history of the Association.'" Can any one fully describe the obverse and reverse of this medal (of which nothing is known at Burlington House) and say where it is illustrated ?

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Lancaster.

SIR ANTHONY AND ANTHONY STANDEN. These brothers (born in the City of London or the county of Surrey) were English adherents of Mary, Queen of Scots. The elder was knighted in 1559. The younger entered the Inner Temple in November, 1560. Both went to Scotland, and obtained posts in the Royal Household of Henry, Lord Darnley, the elder becoming his Master of Horse. Various plots were made to kidnap them, and bring them back to Eng- land ; and once, when they were on board Elizabeth's ship of war the Aid, lying off Leith, 30 Sept., 1565, it was only a change of wind that prevented this being done. In March, 1566/7, one of them was anxious to obtain a passport into England, but apparently was not successful. In 1569 and 1570 one Edmund Standen was in the Tower.

Sir Anthony was at the Court of Florence in 1584 and 1590, but had returned to Eng- land in 1596. In December, 1603, he was in Paris, writing to Father Persons. By the end of the following January he was in the Tower of London ; but by the end of July, 1605, he was at liberty, and preparing to return to France.

The younger brother Anthony arrived at Madrid 16 Dec., 1571, and left 31 March, 1572, after receiving a sum of 150 ducats with entertainment in Flanders. Strype, however, says that he arrived at Blois, coming out of Spain, 23 March, 1571/2. In November, 1572, he went to Paris from Flanders for five days, and had daily con- ference with the Scottish Ambassador. In 1574 he was receiving 50 ducats a month in Flanders from the Spanish king ; and on 1 December in that year his expulsion from Spanish territory was formally demanded on behalf of Queen Elizabeth. In 1575 he was at Brussels. In 1590 he was sent < Bordeaux, where he was in prison for several years. Later, either he or Sir Anthony was allowed to come to England "with the liberty of his conscience." Both were u England in 1604, Sir Anthony, as I have stated, being in the Tower ; and both claimed from James I. arrears of pensions