Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/235

 ii s. vm. SEPT. 20, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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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.

Q. CICERO AND STONE CIRCLES. Charles Hulbert, an author and publisher at Shrews- bury, published in 1826 a book entitled 'The Religions of the World.' On p. 27 of this work he professed to quote from the Latin (but gives no particulars) a letter from Quintus Cicero to his brother M. T. Cicero, on the subject of the erection of Stonehenge or some similar stone circle in Britain. I have caused search to be made in Oxford, Cambridge, and London for the original of this extract (for, if genuine, it is of great antiquarian interest), but no trace of it can be found. Could any of your readers trace it ? J. W. HAYES.

West Thurrock Vicarage, Essex.

SEAVER. I am a lineal descendant of Nicholas Seaver, Esq., of Ballaghy, co. Armagh, who married Ellinor Symons daughter and coheir of the Rev. John Symons, Precentor of Armagh, and grand- daughter of Sir Marmaduke Whitchurch of Loughbrickland, co. Dow-n. Nicholas Sea- ver s will, dated 1687, shows him to have been a person of considerable landed property in co. Armagh.* He is the first authentic ancestor of my family, and his descendants for many generations held the office of High Sheriff in the county of Armagh. He was a Protestant, and is believed to have been an officer in Cromwell's army, but the fact that there were Seavers in Ireland before his time seems to me to militate against this tradition.

I find from the Patent Rolls of Elizabeth, year 1599, that William Seaver, f a Roman Catholic, was Rector of Kilclonfert (diocese of Kildare) in King's County ; and from the Fiants of Elizabeth that an appeal was made by Daniel, Bishop of Kildare, reversing a sentence of deprivation against W r illiam Seaver, which was heard by John, Arch- bishop of Armagh, in the following year. The name of John Brierton4 M.A., heads the list of witnesses to the appeal.

In 1630 Nicholas Seaver, an extensive landowner in Rogerstowne, Dunganston,

Belfast, dated 1661, shows what he held from his wife.
 * An Inquisition in the Linen Hall Library,

t Sometimes spelt Sever, t Sometimes spelt Brereton.

and Lusk, co. Dublin, also a Roman Catholic, made his will. From the Patent Rolls of James I. several deeds show his intimate connexion with the families of Fitz-Symons of Dublin, Stanihurst of Ballynekeppagh, co. Kildare, Ussher, Anne Brierton (alias Fitz - Symons), and other well-known Irish families of the time. By his will he left bequests to his son William Seaver, and his daughter Mary Grissel, who married Thomas Stanihurst.

There was a hill near Dublin known as Sever's Hill.

From the Signet Bills, 1584-1624, I find that a pardon was granted to Jefferey Seaver in February, 1593.

In the Hearth Money Rolls, co. Dublin, 1664-7, the entries of Nicholas Seaver, Martyn Seaver, also William, Thomas, and John Seaver, figure largely ; and in the Subsidy Rolls, 1661-8, the names of Nicholas and Martyn Seaver, of the parishes of Lusk and Balscadden respectively, occur re- peatedly, the amount of tax increasing steadily year by year.

There can be little doubt that all the above mentioned were members of the same family. It would appear that from being settled in Dublin originally, one member, Nicholas Seaver, my ancestor, changed his abode for co. Armagh about the year 1650, and his religion at about the same time. It is significant that the Battle of the Boyne was fought the year before he died, when he declares himself a Protestant.

If from these brief notes any reader can suggest a means of connecting their pedigree, I will gratefully send him more detailed information, of which I possess some con- siderable amount. The MSS. in Trinity College, Dublin, throw no further light on the subject, and I think I have tried all the well-known sources of genealogy, but without success. GEORGE SEAVER.

Thurnby Vicarage, Leicester.

' ICONOGRAFIA GAJLILEIANA. ' Prof. Fa-

varo of Padua, the editor of Galileo's works, is preparing an ' Iconografia Gali- leiana,' and I am helping him in England. It will include paintings, engravings, statues, busts, medals, and inscriptions of or relating to Galileo.

If any of your readers know of any such memorials in public or private places in Great Britain and Ireland, and will com- municate the particulars thereof through Favaro, Royal University, Padua, or to myself at the address given below, I shall
 * N. & Q.,' or directly to Prof. Antonio