Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/347

 ii s. xii. OCT. so, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

339

HALLEY AND PEAKE FAMILIES OF VIR- | NIA. Mr. Henry I. Hutton, of Warrenton, I Virginia, informs me that he is contemplating ' the publication of a collection of local data pertaining to the Halley families of Virginia since circa 1665. He has kindly sent me numerous references to entries of marriages, &c., also real -estate transactions, which indicate relationship between the families of Halley and Peake in Virginia. The names Eleanor, Jane, John, James, Hum- phrey, Sarah, occur in those records.

Mr. Hutton adds the following remarks :

"Thomas Halley (1662-1750), the first one that we have absolute record of, must have been con- nected with the Peakes, as his son James Halley (1707-92), in his will, leaves Jane Peake property, and states in his will, ' In consideration of natural love and affection, I bequeath,' &c. His wife Eleanor Halley left property at her death to Jane Peake. The above James Halley had one daughter named Sybilla Peake, who died in Fairfax County about 1804-5. The Halleys and Peakes settled in what was fchen Westmorland County, not far from General Washington's birthplace, on the Potomac River."

In another letter Mr. Hutton says :

" There is no doubt in my mind that the Peakes and Halleys intermarried before they came to

U.S."

It is possible, as suggested by Mr. Hutton, that additional data could be recovered from the records of Fairfax County.

Mention of one Sibylla Peake (fl. 1727) of St. Saviour's, Southwark, was made in 4 N. <fe Q.,' 11 S. iii. 127, 368, 388 ; vi. 25.

The name of James McPeak, of Henry County, Virginia (fl. circa 1775-80 ?), is given in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography for 1902 (ix. p. 12).

EUGENE F. McPiKE.

Chicago.

UNDER-SPUR-LEATHER : UNDERSTRAPPER.

These terms occur in juxtaposition in the vol. i. p. 34, quoting a passage in The Censor by the editor of that paper, Lewis Theobald (1688-1744) : " There is a notorious idiot, one hight Whacum ; who, from an Under-spur-leather to the law, is become an understrapper to the play-house." Are these expressions simply variants of the same meaning, or has the former some special signification in connexion with the law, such as one who foments quarrels and excites litigation for the benefit of lawyers ? ' The Century Dictionary ' has the latter well-known term, but has not the former. It may be worth notice in the future volume of. the 'Oxford English Dictionary.'
 * Essays of Nathan Drake, M.D.,' 1809,

HUGH SADLER.

LATIN INSCRIPTION. Upon a mantelpiece in Cawdor Castle bearing the date 1510 is an inscription which, being in somewhat un- common Latin, may perhaps be worthy of a brief note. It runs thus :

CERI MANX MEMINERIS MANE.

The expression cerus manus occurs in a hymn of the Salii or Dancing Priests of Mars, quoted by Varro in his treatise ' De Lingua Latina.' It appears there as a mystic name of Janus. In the Augustan age the expres- sion had become obsolete.

The precise meaning of cerus is obscure. Jos. Scaliger says that cerus sanctus, and he (somewhat fancifully perhaps) derives ceremonia a cerus, ut sanctimonia a sanctus. Festus interprets cerus as creator, and he derives it a cereo, pro creo.

Manus (potius manis)=bonus. Although obsolete in the positive form, it survived in the negative form immanis, i.e., non bonus, sed jerus, crudelis, terribilis.

Thus Scaliger would read cerus manus = sanctus bonusque, while Festus would have it = creator bonus.

Either way we have in it a synonym or epithet of the Deity, and the inscription thus means : " Thou shalt remember the good God in the morning."

Family records or tradition may perhaps reveal some connexion between this injunc- tion to be mindful of God and the Cawdor motto " Be mindful."

In the Psalms of David references to remembrance of God in the morning are numerous. Vide Psalms v. 3, lix. 16, Ixxxviii. 13, and cxliii. 8.

H. D. ELLIS. Conservative Club, S.W.

SAMUEL WARREN'S 'TEN THOUSAND A YEAR' : " AUBREY." At 8 S. vii. 253 some of the characters are identified. " Aubrey " is not one of them. In the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' sub nom. Spencer Horatio Walpole, it is said that the character of "Aubrey" was founded on that of Walpole.

Is this correct ? If it is, " character " means moral character plus perhaps manner of life. The circumstances of " Aubrey " and Walpole do not agree.

'Ten Thousand a Year' appeared first in Blackwood, 1839-41. Probably what was, in 1841, the first volume appeared originally in 1839-40. In vol. i. chap. vii. (new edition, 1853, p. 209) Aubrey appears as "one of the members for the borough of Yatton, in Yorkshire a man of rapidly rising importance in Parliament." He had