Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/186

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s. xi. FEB. 27,

26,000 a year, the triplets about 260, the quadruplets about 3. From these figures a rough graphic -curve could be plotted show- ing the extreme improbability of any number over five coming at a birth.

Possibly, however, when Russian statistics and facts are better available, more light may be thrown on the subject, since it seems true that Russia has more multiple births than all the rest of Europe together ; the ratios in Europe appear to increase goirg eastward, though there are so many Slavic extrusions into Teutonic territory that no hard and fast line can be drawn. Boston, Mass. ROCKINGHAM.

REV. LEWIS WAY (11 S. xi. 49, 112). If MR. SOLOMONS would write to the Secre- tary of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 16, Lincoln's Inn Fields, he could get many particulars concerning the Rev. L. Way ; and, indeed, I believe there is there a written memorial of him. Mr. Way was a great supporter of that Society, and gave it a very large sum of money when it was in difficulties. He was so firmly convinced that the Jewish nation would return to Palestine before a hundred years had elapsed that he thought it useless for the London Jews' Society to buy the freehold of their estate of Palestine Place, Cambridge Heath ; hence a ninety- nine years' lease only was taken.

A handsome marble tablet to Mr. Way's memory was put up in the chapel in Palestine Place. It is now in the vestibule of Christ Church, Spitalfields, where all the monu- ments from Palestine Place Chapel were placed when the London Jews' Society sold the remainder of their lease, about 1897.

E. P. BIRD.

53, Millais Road, Bush Hill Park.

FAMILIES OF KAY AND KEY (11 S. xi. 90, 127, 136). The Kaye family in the Isle of Man seems to be older than those of Lanca- shire. Our earliest record of the name is 1408 (McKee). Finlo McKey was one of the " Commons of Mann " i'n 1429, or, in the modern style, a " member of the House of Keys." Other forms of the name are McQuay (1429), McKay (1430), McKe, McKee, McKie, and McQua (1511), Kee (1610), Key (1616), Kay (1617), Kie (1618) Kye (1620), Quay (1628), Keay (1637).

We have the name, too, incorporated in our Treen names, which names are the oldest of the Manx place-names, indicating that the personal name with us dates back quite 1,200 years.

To illustrate this statement, we have the place-name Balykebeg, literally the little bailey or homestead of Ke, a family which for centuries sat upon the bailey in question. The name, of course, is a purely Celtic one. Joyce says it means the " son of fire," from MacAedha, which is a likely derivation. I am of the opinion that personal names were in vogue earlier in Mann than in Eng- land at least, as regards the common people. There are no nicknames among the family names in the Isle of Man, and practically no trade -names, as in England and Scotland. I think it may be claimed that we have no names later than the fifteenth century. W. CUBBON.

Public Library, Douglas.

Another variant occurs in Capt. Button's book on the Sword. He refers to a fight between Jacques de Lalaing and Thomas Que, which took place in the presence of Duke Philip of Burgundy. I cannot find my note of this, but I believe the date was 1457. I should like to inquire if anything further is known of this Que.

Sandgate.

R. J. FYNMORE.

FARTHING VICTORIAN STAMPS (11 S. x. 489 ; xi. 34, 93, 134). The original inquiry seemed to me, on first reading it, to relate to (supposed) Id. stamps of either Victoria or West Australia. No such ^d. stamps as those described by MR. CECIL OWEN have ever been issued by a Government ; but " miniature " -|c?. stamps appeared in Vic- toria in 1873-83, and South Australia in 1882-3.

The replies have since referred either to Jc?. stamps of the Empire generally, or to labels of a non- Govern mental character. If the %d. stamps of Malta are of concern to us in this connexion, so also are the anna of India (1 anna = lc?.), and some of the lower denominations of other countries.

The v Jc?. labels of the Circular Delivery Companies of 18659, while, strictly speak- ing, of no philatelic interest, are, nevertheless, of very considerable general interest as the successful forcers of the pace for the institu- tion of halfpenny postage. The best de- scriptive and illustrated articles on these known to me (by Messrs. T. H. Hinton and P. J. Evans) appear in several issues of the Bulletin of the Fiscal Philatelic Society for 1912-13. Farthing (and other denomination) stamps were prepared for Aberdeen, Bir- mingham, Dundee, Edinburgh and Leith, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Metropolitan District, and Manchester, er.ch of which as-