Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/207

 ii s. XIL SEPT. 11. i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

199

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

A SWAHILI MS. The second volume of the ' Asiatic Researches ' (1799) contains (pp. 77-107) a paper by Sir William Jones, entitled ' Remarks on the Island of Hinzuan or Johanna,' in which the following passage occurs :

"He [Sayyad Ahmed] gave Captain Williamson, who wished to present some literary curiosities to the library at Dublin, a small roll, containing a hymn in Arabic letters, but in the language of Mombasa, which was mixed with Arabic ; but it hardly deserved examination, since the study of languages has little intrinsic value, and is only useful as the instrument of real knowledge, which we can scarce expect from the poets of the Mozambique."

In spite of the opinion thus expressed, a Swahili MS. of the eighteenth century, or earlier, is certainly worth inquiring after. Unfortunately, it is not clear from the above whether the gift was thought worth pre- serving.

Capt. Williamson would seem to have been in command of the Crocodile, in which Sir William Jones made the voyage, arriving off the island of Johanna on 28 July, 1783. " The library at Dublin " is regrettably vague, and inquiries at Trinity College and at the Royal Irish Academy have failed to trace any gift of Oriental MSS. by Capt. Williamson to either of those collections.

Any information which will enable me to trace the whereabouts of the MS., if known to be in existence, will be welcome.

A. WERNER, Lecturer in Swahili, King's College, London.

ENGLISH PIRATE'S HAUL, 1579. The ordinary history books say nothing about any English naval activity against Spain in 1579, a year in which the two nations were supposed to be at peace, though as a matter of fact each was harassing the otker by underhand methods so far as possible. On 12 Aug., 1579, the Papal Nuncio at Madrid, Mgr. Filippo Sega, Bishop of Piacenza, wrote to Cardinal Tolomeo Galli, Papal Secretary of State, as follows :

" Please God, the occasion of this English pirate having taken the fleet of the Indies, with a loss to his Majesty alone (not including the other sufferers) of six hundred thousand scudi [i.e., dollars], may be enough to make his Majesty resolve not to tolerate any longer the great losses and insults which he has accepted and still accepts from this wicked woman [i.e., Queen Elizabeth] "

The letter from which the above translation has been made will be found in the Tran- scripts from the Archivio Vaticano, Nunzia- tura di Spagna, xxii., in the Record Office. Who was the English pirate in question, and when and where did he make this haul of 50,OOOZ. ? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

JOHN LONGMAN : SPINETS.- Can any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' give me information with regard to John Longman, of 131, Cheap- side, a maker of spinets ? H. A. L.

' DAME WIGGINS OF LEE ' : ' Six LITTLE PRINCESSES.' Will some correspondent kindly tell me where are to be got two children's books, ' Dame Wiggins of Lee ' and ' Six Little Princesses ' ? G. S.* PARRY.

WILLETT FAMILY. (See ante, p. 182.) (1) Thomas Willett, first Mayor of New York. It has been asserted by many authorities, including the ' D.N.B.,' that the above Thomas Willett was the son of the Rev. Andrew Willet, Rector of Barley, Herts, 1598-1621. No authority for the statement has ever been given that I know of, and it is in the hope that some corre- spondent may be able to furnish a clue as to his real parentage and ancestry that this query is written.

The Rev. Andrew Willet had a son Thomas, baptized at Barley on 29 Aug., 1605, but, according to the inscription on the tombstone of New York's first Mayor, who died 4 Aug., 1674, he was " in ye 64 th Year of his age " at the time of his death. (v. The New York Genealogical and Bio- graphical Record, vol. xx, p. 44.) Conse- quently, he was born between September* 1610, and July, 1611, or more than five years later than the baptism of the Rev. Andrew Willet' s son Thomas. The Barley family spelt the name with one t ; the in- scription on the Mayor's tombstone spells the name with two. If the Mayor's baptism is recorded in the registers of some parish church in England, it should appear in either the year 1610 or 1611. He left the following children, given in order of their births : Martha, John, Sarah, Thomas, Hester, James, Hezekiah, David, Andrew, Samuel, and Rebecca. It is possible that one of his sons may have been named after his unknown father.

(2) Henry Willet, of London, a Royalist, died 1670. Wanted, his parentage and ancestry. According to a pedigree of the family of 'Willett of St. Kitts,' published in ' Caribbeana,' vol. ii. p. 290, the above Henry Willet is supposed to have been the