Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/294

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NOTES AND QUERIP^S. tn s. m. APRIL is, 1911.

turbans ; the centre one carries a large drum, the other two having respectively a large tambourine and cymbals.

I am well aware that drummers, &c., are classed as musicians, but apparently at one time say the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth blacks were so employed. The instances I have given can be corroborated from an out-of-the- way source. Having occasion to search some Admiralty records for another purpose, I have come across two notices at long inter- vals of time and distance. In 1796 the Transport officer of Plymouth was ordered to release two blacks then amongst the prisoners of war to serve in the band of the South Devon Militia (Admiralty, Medical, Minutes, Book 95, fol. 103). Then on 30 April, 1804, Capt. Pressland, the agent at Norman Cross, was asked to transmit the number of names of black men in his custody, entirely fit and willing to serve in a regi- mental band (Admiralty, Medical, Outletters, Book 174, fol. 98).

Possibly in some " Red Book " there is the date of institution and repeal, but I have con- sulted without success several military authorities, such as Stocqueler's 'Military Encyclopaedia ' and his ' Familiar History of the British Army,' Major James's ' Miltary Dictionary,' and Fortescue's * History of the British Army.' A. RHODES.

SWEDISH MISSION TO ABYSSINIA. Mr. R. N. Cust in his ' Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa,' 1883, pp. 69, 129, and 135, refers to a Swedish mission to Abyssinia. The missionaries apparently laboured among the independent- tribes in the neighbourhood of Massowah, and not in the territory of the Negus. I shall be glad to learn the date of the mission, the names of the missionaries, and where any information about them can be found.

FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

39, Agate Road, Hammersmith, W.

VESTRY HELD ON LADY DAY. It is, I believe, usual for parishes 'to hold their annual vestry meetings in the days following Easter Sunday. I do not know what may be the legal obligation as to the day of meeting, but I am desirous of obtaining information about cases where this common date is departed from. This year the parishioners of Plympton St. Mary, Devon, assembled in vestry and transacted all the usual business of a church vestry, elected wardens, &c., on Lady Day. This was no new departure, the date being customary there.

Can your readers tell me of other cases where the regular annual vestry is held on Lady Day, or at any other time than Easter- tide ? Instances would be welcomed, together with particulars, if possible, show- ing why the difference is maintained.

It has been suggested that in the case of Plympton the day of the patronal festival has been substituted, but this explanation still lacks a reason for the change.

W. S. B. H.

THE REV. THOMAS BURTON, D.D., matri- culated at Oxford from Ch. Ch. 18 March, 1724/5. What preferments did he hold, and when did he die ? G. F. R, B.

JOHN BANNISTER FALKENER was admitted to Westminster School, 27 Sept., 1813. I should be glad to obtain some information about him. G. F. R. B.

JAMES HEATH, ROYALIST HISTORIAN. When and whom did he marry ? The ' Diet, of Nat. Biog.,' xxv. 343, gives no assistance. G. F. R. B.

HUMPHREY HENCHMAN. When and whom did he marry ? The ' Diet, of Nat, Biog./ xxv. 390, fails to give this information.

G. F. R, B.

THOMAS GRAY AND MAIL COACHES. In a recently issued volume of ' Stretton Manu- scripts ' (Nottingham, privately printed^ 1910), a Notts antiquary, William Stretton, writing about a century ago, thus quotes the inscription on "a very neat tablet '" on the north wall of Stapleford Church r Notts. It would be of interest to know whether the claims put forth have been recognized other than locally :

" To the Memory of Thomas Gray, who died July 9th, 1802, aged 73 years. His public spirit and skill in the improvement of roads made him a bless- ing to the neighbourhood in which he lived, but the great facility of conveyance by the Mail Coaches being first projected, plan'd, and put in practice by him, made him a blessing to the kingdom at large."

A. STAPLETON.

Nottingham.

THE ROEBUCK AND THE ARCOUL, FRENCH PRIVATEER. The Portland packet Roebuck from the West Indies is reported in The Times of 7 January, 1797, to have engaged and taken on 24 November a French priva- teer, the Arcoul. Where can the particulars of the action be found ? Or can any of your readers give me particulars ?

ULSTER SCOTT.