Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/181

 ns.x.Aco.29,1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

175

In the United States, where the gallon has not been unified, as in our Imperial gallon of 277 cub. in., the two " Queen Anne's " gallons for wine and for corn are still used, and the bushel is known as " Win- ch'-st'T," though its standard is that of the old London bushel. This is also the stan- dard bushel of Brazil, metric system not- withstanding.

I may mention that a short, but accurate account of these measures will be found in the Weights and Measures article of ' Whit- aker s Almanack' for 1913, which I recom- mend readers of ' N. & Q.' who have it not to look up and keep for reference.

EDWARD NICHOLSON.

" TROD " (11 S. ix. 27 ; 116, 158, 454, 492). " Trod " is still in common use in th Isle of Axholme (North Lincolnshire) as a name for a footpath. Compare Spenser's In humble dales is footing fast, The trode is not so tickle.

C. C. B.

HOLCROFT OF VALE ROYAL (11 S. X. 130).

There were two Sir Thomas Holcrofts of Vale Royal. The first was second son of John Holcroft of Holcroft in Lancashire, descended from a long-established family in that county. He was one of the many Royal favourites, parasites at the Court of King Henry VIII., who were indebted for their after-fortunes to the unscrupulous following-out of that monarch's will, and who fattened upon the ruin of the monas- teries. Appointed a Commissioner to treat with the Abbot of Vale Royal in Cheshire, he so managed the business that for a nominal sum and a still more nominal ground rent he, on 7 March, 1542, obtained from the King the tyrant of " the scite of the Abbey of Vale Royal," together with much other surrounding property, where he thereafter fixe; I his residence. He was knighted in Scotland by the Earl of Hertford, 11 May, 1544, " after the destruction of Edinburgh" ; served as Sheriff of Lancashire in 15456; was M.P. for Lancashire 1545-7, Cheshire lf>.">.'!, and Arundel 1554 ; and died in 1564. Will dated 25 June, 1558 ; proved 20 April, 1564. By his wife Juliana, dan. and heiress of Nicholas Jenyns, in 1526-9 Alderman of London, he left an only son and daughter.

His son and heir, the second Sir Thomas of Vale Royal, was one of the Gentlemen of

I the Privy Chamber to Queen Elizabeth, Sheriff of Cheshire in 1598-9, and M.P. for the same county in 1593, 1597-8, 1601, and 1604-11. He was knighted at York by

' James I., 17 April, 1603; married Elizabeth,

dau. of Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth, and was living at the Visitation of Cheshire, 1613, but died shortly afterwards, leaving issue. The Vale Royal estate was sold in 1616 to Lady Cholmondeley.

Thomas Holcroft of Battersea (not Bat- tesby), co. Surrey, was only remotely akin to the foregoing, being second son of Geoffrey Holcroft of Hurst, an early fourteenth- century branch of the Holcrofts of Holcroft. He married Joan, dau. and heiress of Henry Roydon of Battersea, who after Thomas Holcroft's death married Oliver St. John, first Viscount Grandison (died December, 1630). It is thus clear that he could not be the Thomas Holcroft whose dau. Elizabeth married William Ayloffe, Serjeant-at-law in 1577. Ayloffe, who was a Justice of the Queen's Bench from 1577 till his death in November, 1585, according to Foss, married Jane, dau. of Eustace Sulyard. This is confirmed in Burke's ' Extinct Baronetcies ' (art. 'Ayloffe of Braxted Magna, Essex'). I fancy, therefore, that your correspondent must somehow be mistaken in his references.

W. D. PINK.

Winslade, Ldwton, Newton-le-Willows.

A pedigree of Sir Thomas Holcroft is given in Ormerod's ' Cheshire ' (ed. Helsby), ii. 153-4 ; and an account of the descent from Culcheth of Culcheth and Hindley of Hindley, both in Lancashire, will be found in the ' Victoria History of Co. Lancaster,' iv. 160, &c. There is no mention of the sug- gested connexion with Holcroft of Battesby. CHARLES MADELEY.

Warrington Museum.

For an account of Sir Thomas Holcroft see ' Local Gleanings (Lanes, and Ches. ),' 1877, vol. ii. p. 124. R. S. B.

[ J. J. B. thanked for reply. ]

' POEMS WRITTEN FOR A CHILD,' BY

Two FRIENDS (11 S. x. 129). The above book was written by Miss M. B. Smedley in collaboration with one of her friends. The two afterwards published " The Child World, by the authors of ' Poems written for a Child.' "

" IEBIE HORSE " (11 S. x. 130). This is evidently an old way of spelling " jibby horse." A " jibby " was a giddy, flaunting, showily-dressed girl, and a " jibby horse " was the term used for a showman's horse decorated with parti -coloured trappings, plumes, &c. It was also sometimes applied to persons. The quotation given by your correspondent seems to refer to a show, and thus supports the above explanation. ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.