Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/58

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. x. JULY is, 191*.

" For a Committee of Militia for the City o^ West minster and parts adjacent, Feb. 16th 1647/8."

" For the settling the Militia in the several ('..unties, Cities, and places within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and town of Barwick-on-Tweed, 2nd Dec., 1648."

Under the momentous

" Act of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament for the erecting of a High Court of Justice for the trying and judging of Charles Stuart, King of England, Jan. 6, 1649,"

Sir Gregory was appointed one of the Commissioners and Judges. One of his biographers says :

" He was so anxious to show his zeal in the murder of the King that he sat all the days, except on the 8th and 12th of January, in the Painted Chamber, and the 22nd in Westminster Hall, and closed his wickedness by signing the \\ arrant to deprive his royal master of fife."

In 1649 we find him acting in an official capacity as Justice of the Peace, for in the proceedings at the Committee of both Houses of Parliament on the 13th April of that year, it was ordered

" that the Marshall at Whitehall in whose custody Captains Stanley, Philips, and Taylor now are do carry them before Sir Gregory Norton and Mr. Edwards, J.P.s, together with the information given to the Judge Advocate concerning them, that they may examine them and secure their persons till further order be taken in it."

ALBERT A. BARKAS. Richmond, Surrey.

(To be continued.)

" THE BROAD ARROW " : THE KING'S MARK (11 S. ix. 481 ; x. 17). I have read with much interest the note on ' The Broad Arrow : the King's Mark,' at the earlier reference. I append the explanation of the origin of the mark of the broad arrow which appeared in The Broad Arrow : the Naval and Military Gazette, 30 April, 1904, and hope it may be acceptable to your readers :

"In our issue of the 28th December, 1901, we published an interesting note by Viscount Dillon, President of the Society of Antiquaries, in which he pointed out that the mark of the broad arrow haa been in use as a Royal mark for military and other stores from so early a date as the year 1553.

" On the 6th February, 1553/4, Sir Thomas Gres- ham notified the Council that he had shipped at Antwerp certain barrels of gunpowder 'und r this marke + in the margent.'

" ' This marke in the margent,' referred to in the text, is as follows :

f

announced that hs had shipped some specie (100,000 ducats) in 'cassys marked w th the brode arrow.'

"Through the courtesy of a correspondent we are enabled to carry the history of the adoption of the broad arrow as a Royal badge to a far earlier date than those just mentioned.

"This correspondent has furnished us with the following information, which will be read with much historic interest :

"Again, on the 30th November, 1554, Sir Thomas Gresham, writing from Seville to the Council,

"THE OBIGIX OF THE BROAD ARROW.

" The ancient Cymric symbol above reported called the ' three rods or rays of light ' signified the eye of light, or the radiating light of intelli- gence shed upon the Druidic circle. This symbol was appropriated by King Edward III., and adopted as one of his badges. It was also borne by his son, the Black Prince, and by other subsequent Princes of Wales. The broad arrow occurs as a mark of the Royal household as early as 1380.

" The origin of the mark of the broad arrow was given in a pamphlet by ' Ceinwen,' published some years ago by Mr. Quaritch, of Piccadilly, W., and now out of print. In this pamphlet it is pointed out that the sign is derived from the Welsh Nod, or the three rays of Divine Light of the Druids and Bards, and (as a Government mark) is used to ex- press no less than Divine right."

EDITOR ' THE BROAD ARROW.'

BURNAP, AUAS BURNETT (11 S. ix. 448, 498). DR. CLTPPTJSTGDALE denies that the Burnetts are a Scottish family because they can trace their origin to a county in England. If all families of foreign origin were to be denied their acquired nationality, the list of Scottish families would be of infinitesimal proportions. Away would go Bruce, Douglas, Stewart, Chisholm, Fraser, Maxwell, Murray, Fleming, and a host of others.

According to DR. CLIPPINGD ALE'S ruling, even purely Celtic families must be expunged from the Scottish list ; for the Celts, whether Goidhelic or Brythonic, were no more abori- ginal in North Britain than the Saxons, the Norsemen, or the Normans. The Burnetts migrated to Scotland and became nationalized in the twelfth century ; they must therefore be reckoned as truly Scottish as any other family in the land.

HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

COWLARD (11 S. ix. 471, 514). There is a family of solicitors of this name at Launceston in Cornwall. The earliest mem- ber I can find is Thomas Cowlard of Tiverton, father of William, Balliol Coll., matric. 7 July, 1798, aged 18 ; B.A., 1802 ; perpetual curate of Laneast, Cornwall, and