Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/206

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tii s. v. MAR 2, 1012.

The gate is unmistakably that still standing in St. John's Square, Clerk enw ell, but this inscription no longer exists. What was its purport ? The date of its removal can be approximately ascertained. Effinaham

Wilson published in 1834

" A concise History of the ancient a.nd illustrious Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, .&c., of the Ancient Gate and Priory, St. John's Square," &c.

The author, W. Till, was a member of the " modern fraternity of the Knights of St. John," and a frontispiece shows them -enjoying a convivial evening. At p. 7 he says the armorial bearings of Docwra and the Paschal Lamb are still to be seen on the present gate, and formerly this inscription : " Tomas Docwra, Prior An. Dni. 1504 sans roro." He is probably writing from his own recollection of the inscription, as, if he had seen the MS. first referred to, the transcript would have been more exact, and possibly some mention of it would have been made. Northouck ('History of London,' 1773) writes of the arch being repaired " and is now restored to its original dimensions." The substitution of the present inscription might have been made then or later. At p. 70 of Foster's ' Ye History of ye Priory and Gate of St. John,' 1851, an illustration of five raised panels of arms gives the inscrip- tion as only " T*D prior." The same woodcut appears in Pjnks's 'Clerkenwell,' p. 242. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

ROGER RIDLEY, WINCHESTER SCHOLAR, entered Winchester College from Witney, Oxfordshire, aged 11, in 1570, and matri- culated at Oxford from New College, 10 January, 1574/5, aged 19, so the date of his birth is uncertain. He subsequently became Fellow of New College and B.A. After his leaving New College his history is a blank for twenty years. In June, 1598, he landed at Middelburg, and on going to Flushing on business was detained there by one Throgmorton, who brought him before Sir T. Browne, the goveinor of the town, who sent him back to England to Sir Robert Sydney. By him he was sent to Mr. Wade, who committed him to prison on St. James's Day, together with two young men who were his companions on his journey. On 8 Oct., 1598, he arrived at the English College, Douay, where he took the name of William Umpton. He received the first tonsure on 24 February, 1600, and minor orders two days later. He was ordained sub-deacon the following 18 March at Arras, and priest on 1 April. Shortly

afterwards he was appointed General Prefect by the President of the College. On 6 July, 1601, he went to Brussels, and thence acted as chaplain to the English Catholic troops in the Spanish service in the Nether- lands. He returned to Douay 5 December, 1601, and left for England 11 April, 1602, with the intention of returning and taking up work again in the College. He does not seem ever to have returned. Is anything known of his subsequent career ? See Burton and Williams, ' Douay Diaries, 1598-1654' (Catholic Record Society, 1911), passim. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

MATRIMONIAL PRE - CONTRACT. In the light of a paper by Mr. A. Percival Moore, B.C.L., on ' Marriage Contracts or Espousals in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,' published in vol. xxx. part i of Reports and Papers of United Architectural Societies, I am con- vinced that lines 192-5 of Myrc's ' Instruc- tions for Parish Priests ' (E.E.T.S.) refer to espousal, instead of being the " Form of Marriage," as docketed in the margin by Mr. Edward Peacock, editor of the text. The words were a troth plight, as they are now in the Office for the Solemnization of Matri- mony ; but they only put the utterer under an obligation to wed the woman at some future time, and did not wed him then and there : " He j;ftt wommon mote wedde nede," ST. S WITHIN,

LINK WITH THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. My late maternal grandmother, who was born at Naseby in 1809, told me she had had many a chat with an old gentleman who related the following incident concerning his grandfather, who was a little boy in 1645 :

Some Parliamentary cavalry were passing through the village previous to the battle, and were in danger of riding over the boy, who was playing in the narrow street. A compassionate soldier stooped and picked him up and dropped him over a wall, thus saving him from injury or death.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

BIRTH " NEITHER BY LAND NOR SEA."- I recently saw written inside the cover of the earliest register book of St. Michael's, Derby, an early eighteenth-century memo- randum of a child " born neither by land nor sea," but without further explanation of the circumstances. The best guess I can make is that the birth took place on a bridge, or else on a freshwater, vessel.

A. S.