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NOTES AND QUERIES. rn s. v. MAR. 30, 1912.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

JAMES YORKE, THE LINCOLN V BLACKSMITH.

-' The Union of Honour ' is a volume published in 1640 or 1641, in London, by Edward Griffin of Chancery Lane. On the two title-pages appears the name of James Yorke, the Lincoln blacksmith. Can any one tell me what was the position of this person ?

The volume, which is a folio, contains about 460 pages, and is devoted in a great degree to heraldic engravings, most of which are well executed.

Towards the end of the volume the names and arms of many of the gentry of Lincoln- shire are given, and I believe, though I am not quite certain, that some of them do not appear elsewhere.

As the whole volume was well executed, it is probable that James Yorke, the Lincoln blacksmith, was employing men of a lower class to do much of his work. Can any one, at this distance of time, tell what was his social position, and in what part of the city he dwelt ? EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A.

NOBODY'S FRIENDS. Is the Club of Nobody's Friends, formed in 1800 by his personal friends in honour of Mr. William Stevens, Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, and a writer of some note, still in existence ? An editorial note appeared in ' N. & Q.' in 1866 (3 S. x. 47) ; and a Bio- graphical List of the members from 1800 to 1885, a substantial volume, edited by Mr. G. E. Cokayne, was privately printed in 1885. The ' D.N.B.,' liv. 233 (1898). says of the Club : "It continued many years after Stevens's death fin 1807] under the name of Nobody's Friends," which seems to imply that it had come to an end. The 1885 List contained 273 notices of past and present members, many well known or distinguished. W. B. H.

LIEUT. -GENERAL SIR JOHN ELLEY. Is any portrait known to exist of this dis- tinguished officer, who rose from the rank of a private trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, and died in 1839 ?

R. H. MACKENZIE. Col. Caledonian United Service Club, Edinburgh.

LOSSES BY FIRE : LICENCES TO BEG LETTERS OF REQUEST FOR ALMS. In the seventeenth century I find a good many instances of magistrates granting to persons who had become impoverished by fires licences to beg within the county of Hertford. The petitioners usually desired the court to grant them " letters of request to ask and take the charitable benevolence of all well- disposed persons in the county."

Is it possible to ascertain the precise form these licences and appeals took ? I require a copy of each for a paper I have in prepara- tion on the subject. W. B. GERISH. Bishop's Stortford.

AUTHORS' ERRORS.

(a) " Spenser confused Lionel, Duke of Clarence (son of Edward III.), with George (brother of Edward IV.)." (1896.)

(6) " The illustrations may be of use at a time when our leading tragedian in the classic style confuses a shuttle and a spindle." (1903.)

Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' kindly give me the references in Spenser's works and those of " our leading tragedian," &c. (in 1903) ? The statements are both made by worshipful persons. H. K. ST. J. S.

1. ANTHONY WALSHE. Can any of your readers inform me if Anthony Walshe, born in Belfast 27 Dec., 1815, was a son of Lieut. -General Anthony Walshe, who died in 1839 ? He was appointed to an ensigncy in the 19th Foot 2 Nov., 1832, and retired from the service by sale in 1852. I should also like to know date and place of his death.

2. PETER PLENDERLEATH. Can any one give me particulars of the birth and parent- age of Peter Plenderleath, 1 9th Foot, killed at Kandy 24 June, 1803 ?

M. LL. FERRAR, Major. Torwood, Belfast.

"PRECEDENCE": ITS PRONUNCIATION. ' The Concise Oxford Dictionarj^,' recently published, gives " pre-cedence " as its choice for the pronunciation of this word, with " pris-edence " as an alternative in brackets, whilst the 'N.E.D.' gives "prt- srdens ' ' only. All dictionaries prior to ' The Concise Oxford Dictionary ' that I have consulted ' Imperial,' Chambers's, Ogilvie's, &c. give the same value to the second " e " as the ' N.E.D.' Upon what grounds do the compilers of ' The Concise Oxford Dictionary ' impugn the authority of the great work on which the small book is confessedly based ? All cultured speakers