Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/82

 76

NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. VIIL JULY 26, 1913.

which occurred at West Haddon on 15 June, 1868. It was in existence some dozen years ago. and might possibly still be found if searched for. JOHN T. PAGE.

The hooks at Bere Regis Church are not unique. At Hanslope, Bucks, there are kept in the church tower two thatch -hooks for fires. The said hooks are fixed at the ends of two poles, each about 22 ft. in length. In addition, each pole has two iron rings fixed on the shaft which allowed horses to be attached. The hooks were fixed in the thatch of any burning cottage, and then the combined power of horses pulling and men assisting detached the burning roof and brought it to the ground, where it could be

WILLIAM BRADBROOK. Essex, there is a similar

extinguished.

At Thaxted, Essex, there is a arrangement. A couple of fire-arresters will be found hanging ready for use at the ancient market-place. EDWARD SMITH.

Wandsworth.

In The Antiquary, vol. iv. (July-Dec., 1873), are references to fire-hooks, or claws, at Yaxjey, Hunts, and also at "Waltham," the precise locality of the latter being left uncertain. The Yaxley implement is de- scribed as a sturdy pole about twenty feet long, fitted with rings at intervals, and terminating in a huge double claw of iron, with which the thatch of a burning cottage was seized ; horses were tied to the rings in the pole.

Underneath the Moot Hall at Thaxted Essex, are still kept two fire-hooks, fitted on long poles, but these are ordinary hooks merely, with no arrangement of double claws.

A correspondent wrote in The Antiquan (supra] that temp. 2 Elizabeth every in habitant of Warrington, Lanes, who paic 13-5. 4d. yearly rent or above was compelled to keep " a lather of sixteen steps and a hooke " for the extinguishing of " cassual fires," under penalty of a fine in default. W. B. H.

The fire -hooks mentioned by MR. OWEN were at one time not uncommon in or about country churches. Some years ago I saw

one or two I think the latter hanging up under the eaves of the church at Lurgas- hall, in Sussex, with some other old fire- fighting implements. They were mounted on long and heavy shafts. These ash poles struck me as being of later date than the iron hooks. I do not know if they are still in the position where I saw them.

E. E. STREET.

ST. JOHN OF BLETSOE (11 S. viii. 8). I have a note to the effect that a Lady St. John (probably to be identified with Elizabeth, the second wife of the first Baron St. John of Bletsoe) was a sister of John Chambers, priest, living at Edith Weston, Rutlandshire, who was one of the recusants of whom complaint is made in ' S. P. Dom. Eliz.,' cxvii. 16 and cxviii. 29, and of Edward Chambers. This latter took the degree of B.A. from Christ Church, Oxford, 1548/9, and became a Prebendary of Chichester in 1549. He was ordained acolyte and subdeacon at Oxford in Decem- ber, 1554. and priest in London in May, 1556. He became a Fellow of Eton College in 1557, and B.D. in 1557/8; and was at Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1568. He afterwards went abroad, and returned to England in 1581, when he helped Father Robert Per- sons, S.J., with his printing-press at Oxford. A warrant for his arrest was issued 21 March, 1581/2, and he again fled abroad, and became the head of Father Persons's seminary at Eu. He was driven from Eu in 1589, and died at the University of Douay soon after- wards. A niece of his was married to a Mr. Griffin of Dingley, Northants.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

JAMES TOWNSHEND S AWARD (alias " JEM THE PENMAN" (11 S. vi. 510). The re- vival of the late Sir Charles Young's play ' Jim the Penman,' first produced in 1886, reawakens interest in the remarkable career of the original bearer of the sobriquet. Strange to say, none of the criticisms of the play when first produced appears to refer to its being founded upon Saward's extra- ordinary sequence of successful forgeries, though The Era hazarded the remark that the dramatist was probably struck by the value, for dramatic purposes., of the suggestions contained in some Old Bailey report, and utilized them accordingly. Of course, at the present day, Saward is completely forgotten, and no notice of the revival that I have seen refers to the fact that there was a real " Jem the Penman. ' '

Saward's chambers were 4, Hare Court, Temple. The following paragraphs of gossip went the round of the papers at the time of his trial (5 and 6 March, 1857) :

" Years before he was a barrister he used to carry skeleton keys through the City for a gang of burg- lars. Saward made himself conspicuous during his three years of eating terms by discounting bills for young gentlemen with whom he became acquainted

tl. .. *- ^ -* 4-V*^, ^kTir\rl QT-irl covofal ixrckvo TMTlTiArl VlXT

during the period, the facilities thus

and several were ruined afforded them. He was