Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/74

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. i. JAN. 22, 1910.

where he had paid the cabman. He found not exactly " the shilling, " as the friend to whom Rogers was telling the story hastily suggested, " but," according to Rogers " twelve-pennyworth of coppers wrappec up in brown paper."'

The story is a good one, but I have jusl come across in Willis's Current Notes for January, 1852, what may be described as an instance in which this story is " capped ? by another. Rogers is reported as telling the same story, the scene of which is trans- ferred to the corner of the Great Piazza, Covent Garden Market. When Rogers had told the story, a witty friend retorted :

'"I knew the man, but you have forgotten the most singular point of the story about the re- covery of this lost shilling just at the door of Willis the bookseller's place of business.' ' I thought it sufficiently odd,' replied the poetical banker, ' our friend having found his shilling after so long a period, I only wish that my lost notes may turn up again in the same unex- pected manner that notes turn up to me from Willis.'

" ' Then you must have heard the whole story, and the very remarkable fact to which I refer : that in the paper which contained four-and- twenty halfpence [in this version it is halfpennies, not pennies] he found another filled with farthings, the exact amount of which, when calculated, proved to be that of compound interest upon the shilling for five-and-twenty years one month and thirteen days.' "

After this " capping " one can well believe that " Mr. Rogers has never since told the story." W. ROBEBTS.

MARRIAGE CONTRACT c. 1540. In the Star Chamber Proceedings, under date 1543, in a suit relating to the abduction of one Joan Pil fold, who was " contracted " to John Wynson of Horsham, there is an interesting contemporary description of the actual ceremony of the contract or betrothal. A deponent who was present describes the scene at the house of John Harman in Horsham. He says :

"John Harman, the father-in-law [? step-father], willyd the sone John Wynson and Joan Pilfold to lay hand in hand, and asked them if they did find in their hearts the one to love the other above all other persons, and all others to forsake, whereunto they both answered 'Yea,' and lesyd hands and drank together."

Another deponent present states that John Harman began in this wise :

"I, John, take thee, Joan, to my wedded wife, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, and all others to forsake, and thereto I plighte thee my faith and troth."

John Wynson repeated these words and " lesyd hands," when the couple again

joined hands, and Joan repeated the same words, commencing " I, Joan," &c., after which they again drank together.

John Wynson, the complainant in the suit, is bringing an action against one John Ede, who carried off Joan and married her, though with the approval of her relatives. Unfortunately, the decree is not in existence, so we do not know the outcome of the action ; but from the depositions it would appear that, on the supposition that Joan was forced to marry the defendant against her will, she was commonly regarded as the wife of Wynson, to whom she returned, three months after her marriage.

P. D. M

" PROUD PRESTON " : LEATHER SHOES. In Harland and Wilkinson's ' Lancashire Legends, Traditions,' &c., 1882, p. 184, it is said that the town was called " Proud Preston, 2 * probably

" from its being the residence of genteel families in days of yore, before the introduction of the cotton trade ; having been, as Dr. Whittaker says, ' the resort of well-born, but ill-portioned and ill-endowed old maids and widows.' The paschal lamb couchant, with the letters P.P. (for Princeps Pads, Prince of Peace), form the armorial bearings of the town."

In ' A New Survey of England, 1 by N. Salmon, 1731, p. 647, at the end of the description of Lancashire, is the following :

" Preston, which, going from the North, is the first Place where Bread, Stockings, and Shoes are generally seen, hath perhaps, for that Reason, its Epithet of Proud Preston."

This reason appears to be improbable. As to leather shoes, it is perhaps worth noting that Edw. Chamberlayne, in his ' Anglise Notitia ; or, The Present State of England," 15th ed., 1684, pp. 7, 8, speaking of the great advantages enjoyed by the English, says :

" There is in England great plenty of excellent Leather for all sorts of uses, in so much that the poorest people wear good Shooes of Leather, where- as in our neighbouring Countries, the poor gener- ally wear either Shooes of Wood, or none at all."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

[May not alliteration have contributed to the name ?]

WARD, WRIGHT, AND DAY FAMILIES.- Dr. Edmond Halley's first cousin, Francis ilalley, sen., in his will dated 28 June, 1698, proved 8 Sept., 1702 (P.C.C., reg. Marlboro, fo. 126), mentions ' my sister Mary Ward, wife of John Ward .... Nicholas Wright of the parish of St. Giles, Mpplegate. . . .iny brothers Thomas Pyke and

Villiam Pyke and Edward Day My sisters

"ane Day and Susan Pyke."