Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/433

 ii s. vm. NOV. 29, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

427

COL. THOMAS POVEY. (See 4 S. i. 100.) He was commissioned Lieutsnant-Governor of Massachusetts 11 April, 1702 ; reached Boston and took office 11 June, 1702 ; appeared last at a Council meeting 28 Jan. 1706 ; and left Boston, never to return immediately thereafter. At the above refer- ence MB. WHITMORE asked, " What is known of him ? " Apparently nothing be- yond his military career (which is given ir I)alton's ' English Army Lists,' &c., iii. 237 238, 306. 307 ; v. 155, 159) and his brief stay in Boston.

On 11 June, 1702, Judge Sewall wrote :

" I was startled at 2 or 3 things ; viz. The L 1 Governour a stranger, sent, whom we knew nor heard anything of before." ' Diary,' ii. 58. In a letter to FitzJohn Winthrop dated Boston, 21 June, 1702, the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge said :

'' Y e Leit: Governer is one Capt. Tho: Povey : cousin to one of that name knoune to your self ; he is a souldier, was nine years in y 6 army Flanders." ' 6 Mass. Hist. Collections,' iii. 99. If by " one of that name " is meant a Thomas Povey, probably the reference is to Thomas Povey, F.R.S., the friend of Evelyn and Pepys. Or the reference may be to John Povey, Clerk of the Privy Council. In a notice of Thomas Povey, F.R.S., the writer ays that

" a half-brother John, who was clerk of the privy council, and commissioner for the sick and wounded under William III., died in June, 1705 " (' D.N.B.,' 1909, xvi. 236),

and cites Luttrell as his authority. The writer here confuses John Povey, who was Clerk of the Privy Council, with Richard Povey, who was the Commissioner ; for what Luttrell wrote is as follows :

" Captain Thomas Savoury is made treasurer to the commissioners for the sick and wounded, in the room of Mr. Povey, deceased." ' Brief Relation,' v. 564.

Luttrell' s " Mr. Povey " was not John Povey, but Richard Povey.

A " Letter from the Com 1 ' 8 for sick and wounded," dated 5 June, 1705, mentions " Mr. Povey, their treasurer, being dead " ('Calendar of Treasury Papers, 1702-7,' p. 351). The Commissioner was, perhaps, identical with the " Richard Povey, gent., that died at M r Charles Childe's," and was buried in Bath Abbey, 2 June, 1705 ('Regis- ters of Bath Abbey,' ii. 400). John Povey did not die until 1715: "John Povey, Esq ; one of the Clerks of the Privy-Council, died Apr. 1715 " (J. Le Neve, ' Monumenta Anglicana,' 1717, v. 304). Under date of 30 Oct., 1718, is a reference to a "petition of Thomas Povey, son of John Povey, Esq.,

late Clerk of the Privy Council" (* Cal. of Treasury Papers, 1714-19,' p. 408). F. B. Relton thinks that John Povey was "pro- bably" a half-brother of Thomas Povey, F.R.S. ('Account of the Fire Insurance Companies,' 1893, p. 452). The Rev. A. T. S. Goodrick asserts, but without giving his authority, that John Povey was a son of William Povey ('Edward Randolph,' vi. 146, note). An editorial note in the ' Massa- chusetts Province Laws ' declares that Lieut. -Governor Thomas Povey was 4< a brother of John Povey, clerk of the Privy Council" (vii. 331).

Can further information in regard to Col. Thomas Povey and John Povey be fur- nished ? ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

WORDS AND PHRASES IN ' LORNA DOONE.' I should be grateful for any light on the meaning of the following expressions :

1. "As stinging soap, left alone in a basin, spreads all abroad without bubbling" (chap. ix.). What is

capias cine?

3. "Thou art not come to me to be blessed

for barn-gun " (chap. xvii.). What is " barn-gun "?

4. "John the Baptist, and his cousins, with the wool and hyssop, are for mares, and ailing dogs, and fowls that have the jaundice " (ib.). Is this a spell?

5. "Then the geese begin to thrust their

breasts out, and mum their down-bits " (chap xxviii. ). Does this mean "preen themselves' and what is " mum " connected with ?

6. " Playing at shepherd's chess" (chap.

xxxvii.).

7. " Cutting out saplings where they stooled too close together" (chap, xxxviii. ). "Stools" is used some thirty lines lower to mean " stumps of trees," but saplings are not stumps.

8. "In the northern heaven, flags and ribbons of a jostling pattern ; such as we often have in autumn, but in July very rarely. Of these Master Dryden has spoken somewhere, in his courtly manner" (chap. Ixiv.). I cannot find any allusion in Dryden to the Aurora Borealis, which is, I sup- pose, what is meant.

9. " Then let us have a game of loriot with the baby!" (chap. Ixix.) "Loriot" was apparently some kind of ball-play, but 'N.ED.' does not give it.

C. B. WHEELER.

BURLESQUES OF MYSTERY PLAYS. A collection of the mystery plays commonly performed before the Reformation was pub- lished by William Hone in 1823. At the Reformation many plays burlesquing the mysteries were as commonly performed, ts there any collection of these latter ? They seem to have been after the same style as Aristophanes. H. F. H.