Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/77

 us. vm. JULY 26, 1913. NOTES AND QUERIES.

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22 September. 1636 ; Nathaniel, 31 August. 1639; Elizabeth, 13 October, 1643 ('Boston Records,' x. 4, 7, 15). Their father, Nathaniel Eaton, died in or before 1650, when his widow was the wife or widow of Joseph Pell, and in 1660 she was the wife or widow of John Minor (' Suffolk Deeds,' i. 126, iv. 136 ; N.E. Hist and Gen. Register, vii. 234, xiii. 337-8).

The ' D.N.B.' mentions a document dated 9 December, 1665 (' Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1665-6,' p. 93), but overlooks one dated 15 June, 1666, in which Eaton is referred to as " Dr. Nath. Eaton, alias Theodore Fenwick " (ibid., p. 443). What does this designation mean ? The ' D.N.B.' also cites Watkins for proof that Eaton was made Rector of Bideford. This is mis- leading, as what Watkins says is as follows :

" Mr. Gifford was succeeded in this living by Mr. Nathaniel Eaton, of whom the only account I can find is in Dr. Calamy, who vouches for his authority a work of a very suspicious character." ' Hist, Bideford,' 1792, p. 114.

(The reference is to Calamy's * Continuation of the Account,' &c., 1727, i. 270.) What Watkins called " a work of a very suspicious character" was Cotton Mather's 'Magnalia,* published in 1702. In short, Mather is the sole authority for identifying Nathaniel Eaton, the first head of Harvard College, with Nathaniel Eaton, the Rector of Bide- ford. What proof is there that this identifi- cation is correct ? It may be added that the Rev. William Hubbard, whose ' General History of New England,' though not printed until 1815, was written for publica- tion about 1680, and was known in MS. to Mather, says nothing about Eaton's later career, merely remarking that " after this he fled out of the country, and could by no means be reduced to an acknowledg- ment of his error " (p. 247). Mather may be right, but obviously we are in need of further facts. As I am editing for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts some of the early records of Harvard College, I should be infinitely obliged for information of any sort about Nathaniel Eaton.

ALBERT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOHNSON (11 S. vii. 507). The tenth edition of the abridgment of the * Dictionary ' was published in 1792. It contains a Preface, the Preface to the folio edition, and the ' Grammar of the English Tongue.' I possess a copy, handsomely bound in two volumes, which was given to my mother in 1811. W. D. MACRAY.

(b) The Greek quotation under " Grub Street " in Johnson's ' Dictionary ' is the beginning of an anonymous poem of five lines (the fifth is borrowed from '^Odyssey,' ix. 34). under the heading Tt ai/ etVot 'OSvo-o-eus 7rt/?as -njs 'lOoLKTjs, in the ' Pala- tine Anthology,' ix. 458. Johnson omitted the word ^aAao-o-r/s at the end of the first line, as it did not suit his application of the words. EDWARD BENSLY.

MYLESS, ESSEX (US. vii. 450, 512). The mansion house referred to by your corre- spondents was pulled down in my boyhood, probably about the year 1846. I well re- member the event. Some of the oak panel- ling was purchased by my father, who lived in the neighbouring parish of Stan- ford Rivers.

The Hall stood exactly one and a quarter miles south - east from Chipping Ongar Church, and three-quarters of a mile south- west from Stondon Church.

The present well-known captain of the Essex cricket eleven is a descendant of the "F. Fane, Esq.," referred to by MR. EDEN. HENRY TAYLOR, F.S.A.

Rusthall, Kent.

RALPH WALUS, THE " COBLER OF GLOU- CESTER" (11 S. viii. 1). In the letter from Roger L'Estrange to Secretary Williamson, dated 24 April, 1668, which is quoted from the ' Calendar of State Papers (Domestic), 1667-8,' by MR. ROLAND AUSTIN, mention is made, among other publications, of ' The Poor Whores' Petition,' on which L'Estrange says he can fasten nothing that a jury would take notice of. This is one of the tracts which MR. AUSTIN says he cannot trace. Most probably it was the broadside published in 1668, of which the full title was 'The Poor Whores' Petition to the Most Splendid, Illustrious, Serene, and Eminent Lady of Pleasure, the Countess of Castlemayne, &c.' It was reprinted in extenso in the late Mr. G. Steinman Stein- man's privately printed ' Memoir of Bar- bara,. Duchess of Cleveland,' 1871, pp. 101-11, together with 'The Gracious Answer of the Most Illustrious Lady of Pleasure, the Countess of Castlem. . . . ' L'Estrange may have thought that in face of the unpopularity of the Countess, no jury would nave found a verdict against it, but it was certainly a very scurrilous production. Evelyn, on 2 April, 1668, characterized it as " a libertine libel," and Pepys, under date 6 April, 1668, Wonders " how it durst be printed and spread abroad,