Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/279

 11 8. XL APRIL 3, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

269

In 1838, when Roberts was touring in Wales, he wrote to his daughter Ellen, after visiting the church where his ancestors are buried :

" We went into the church, which is remarkable for its proportions and a beautiful circular gallery ; and there we perused the mural tablet which carries the pedigree of our family through a very long series. This was put up by the late Provost of Eton, who added some elegant Latin verses. There is a chapel in the church in which many members of the Pembroke family were buried, and where there is a little brass plate on the wall over the tomb of a Mrs. Margaret Roberts, daugh- ter of Herbert Colebrook, cousin of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who was brother of the poet Herbert. She was buried there with her son, Herbert Roberts. Her husband, John Roberts, married three other wives, and we are descended from his second wife, not Margaret Herbert, or we should claim kindred with the Pembroke family. The house which once belonged to the Robertses 'is now the Old Bank, but the family of the Robertses is well remembered in the place."

A charming portrait, by Richard Wood- man the younger, is attached to the ' Me- moir ' of William Roberts.

I date this reply with some interest from the address whence so many of Hannah More's books were issued, and where she was a frequent visitor.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

The following note is from my diary, made in 1886 :

" July 7, 1886. The Rev. A. Roberts of Wood- rising, Norfolk, now in his 86th year, and declining health, is an interesting old man. He spends his life much among books, and has some rare vol- umes and many relics of Mrs. Hannah More. He told me their families had been intimate, and that it was his father who wrote the well-known memoirs of that lady. I noticed a pretty minia- ture of Mrs. H. More when quite old, and some sketches of Barley Wood and other places con- nected with her name."

I may add Mr. Roberts died in this year.

" The small and remote little village and tiny church of Woodrising [I am quoting further notes made at the same time] has much of interest. On the floor of the chancel is a slab to Sir Francis Crane, Knight of the Garter ; he it was who revived the art of tapestry in England, estab- lishing some large works at Mortlake. He had been Ambassador to France in Charles I.'s time, who awarded him 1,000?. a year as pension. Here also, under a canopy of flat stone, attached to the wall on the north side of the chancel, and with two ancient helmets lying upon it, is the recumbent effigies of Sir Robert South well,in fine preservation. Attached to the old helmet is still the ancient crest, and above, carved in stone, a coat of arms with many quarterings ; on the floor of the chancel close by a brass tablet records that Sir Robt. Southwell's son was also buried here, whose wife was the eldest daughter of Thos. Howard, the Lord High Admiral in Elizabeth's

reign. Mr. Roberts informed me that by some the tomb of Sir R. Southwell is thought to have been that of Sir Richard Southwell, an opinion he did not share. This Sir Richard had been Henry VIII. 's executor, and a Roman Catholic of perse- cuting predilections. There are also many memo- rials to the Weyland family, who owned Wood- rising at a remote past, and I believe still own it. It was in this tamily that ' the Babes in the Wood ' legend had its origin, and not in that of Lord Walsingham, as is constantly stated. The farm-house in the Weyland Wood, in Thompson parish, is still pointed out as the residence of the ' Cruel Uncle.' I have heard it stated, though I could not vouch for its truth, that at a former period the parish of Thompson, near Wood- rising, was once gambled for at a house in Essex, and so passed from the Weyland into the De Grey family.*

W. L. KING/ Paddock Wood, Kent.

[PRINCIPAL SALMON thanked for reply.]

WOOLMEB OB WOLMEB FAMILY (11 S,

xi. 208). It may assist MB. JOHN LANE in his research to mention that in or about the year 1861 there was a Rev. Shirley Woolmer who frequently visited my old school, Chatham House, Ramsgate, when the Rev. (afterwards Canon) " Alty " Whitehead was principal. I remember him well, and believe he was a relation of the family. At any rate, the daughter was named Shirley after him. CECIL CLABKE. Junior Athenaeum Club.

Possibly Alfred Joseph Woolmer was a descendant. He was born at Exeter, 20 Dec., 1805 ; exhibited at the R.A., 1827 to 1850 ; at the R.B.A. ; and at the Liverpool Society of Fine Arts, 1 859-60. Lived at Fortis Green, Finchley, in 1860. Died 19 April, 1892.

THOS. WHITE. Junior Reform Club, Liverpool.

JOSEPH FAWCETT (11 S. xi. 208). He was joint pastor from 1780 to 1787 of the Marsh Street Meeting, and distinguished himself as a very popular anti-Trinitarian preacher. He was the morning preacher at Waltham- stow, and is said to have had the largest and most genteel audience that ever assembled in a Dissenting place of worship. Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles attended his services frequently, and a contemporary says that his talents for the pulpit were of a high order, and commanded general admira- tion. His colleague at Walthamstow was the Rev. Hugh Farmer, a man of considerable note both as preacher and writer. When Farmer died in 1787, it became necessary for Fawcett to resign, as there were some differ- ences as to matters of doctrine between him