Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/273

 ii s. VIIL OCT. 4, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

267

ago a query appeared in ' N. & Q.' asking for the birthplace of Capt. Marryat. An answer was given that it was in Great George Street, Westminster, and a like mistake is perpetuated in the ' D.N.B.'

But there is on record an affidavit sworn (15 Oct., 1812) by Samuel Marryat, K.C., uncle of Capt. Marryat, and in it occurs the following :

" And lastly this Deponent saith that the said Frederick Marryat, this Deponent's Nephew, is the Son of Joseph and Charlotte Marryat, who in the year 1792 lived in Catherine Court, Tower Hill, which is in the Parish of Allhallows, Barking, in the City of London, and who never had any other son of the name of Frederick, and that the said Joseph and Charlotte Marryat are both now at or in the Neighbourhood of Sandwich in the Isle of Thanet, for which place the said Joseph Marryat has just been elected Member of Parlia- 7iient."

Frederick Marryat was born 10 July, 1792, and the notice of birth appears in Dr. Williams's Registers under date 14 Nov., 1792.

I should be glad to know which was the house. LIBRARIAN.

Wandsworth, S.W.

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.

SEVER OF LONDON AND " YE OLDE HARPE."

AN ancient inn called " Ye Olde Harpe," situated in Harp Lane, off Tower Street, E.G., may possibly be known to your readers. It is in the locality of the Tower, and is one or two streets removed from the Church of St. Dunstan in the East. The question on which I seek enlightenment is, Who was William Sever, who built it ?

In the 'Letters end Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of Henry VIII.,' vol. xviii. part i. p. 129 (75), I find the following record of a grant, under the year 1543 :

" Grant to Robert White and Katherine his

wife (in exchange for ) of (4) the chief

messuage called ' Le Harpe,' anciently called ' a brewhouse,' with garden adjoining, in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, in Tower Street, London, which belonged to the Crossed Friars of London (position described as regards Tower Street, the tenement of Sir Ralph Aston, and Harpe Lane), and which was built by William Sever, who formerly occupied it, and now is in

the tenure of Jane, widow of Sir John Mylboume and formerly wife of John Chester.''*

I turned up the will of William Sever in Somerset House. It is dated 23 June, 1517, and he describes himself as a " citizen and salter of London." He bequeaths his body to be buried in the " Pdon [?] churchyard of the parishe of Saint Dunstane in the Est in London nere vnto the crosse there where Johane my late wyfe lyeth buried." (I have searched the churchyard for such a tombstone, but of course in vain. ) He makes many bequests to the high altar of the same church, and fraternities connected with it ; also a bequest

" that an able and honest priest of good name and conversation doo syng in the Church of St. D. for my soul, the soules of Johane and Alice my wyfs, my fader and moder, and all xpen soules by the space of one hole yere." He then bequeaths to his brother, Richard Sever of Tonnebridge, all his new-built estate and lands in the town of Tonnebridge, in the county of Kent, to have and to hold to him and to his heirs for ever together with " my great barne of old time called Partuche barne," in the parish of Tonne- bridge. To his servant John Newdygate he leaves a tenement in St. Dunstan's parish, the lease of which he holds from John Chester (see above), " late Citizen and Draper of London," ; also a mill and mill-house with a garden, in the same parish, the lease of which he holds from Robert Tate, " late Citizen and Mercer of London." He ap- points Water Smyth and John Newdygate his executors, and Hugh Fournesse of London, gentleman, the overseer of his will, which was proved 2 Oct., 1517.

By the kindness of the Vicar of St. Dun- stan's I have searched the parish registers if by chance some account of William Sever's parentage or descendants might occur there ; but though his name is mentioned in con- nexion with church offices and accounts, &c., there is no mention of any other Sever. I am equally in the dark about his brother, Richard Sever.

And yet it would seem that a family named Sever lived in the same locality in London quite a century after William Sever's time. The following interesting will of a certain Robert Seaver, dated 7 March, 1606/7, is proof :

" Itobert Seaver, the son of Thomas Seaver, late of the parish of Barking in Tower Street, London, waterman, deceased, and apprentice to one

he found the entry of the marriage of a John Chester to Joyce 'Tyrrct, 21 Jan., 1559/60, in the parish registers.
 * The clerk of St. Dunstan's informs me that