Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/242

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. vi. SEPT. 7, 1912.

Latin inscription is extant to his memory. I have referred to my MS. indices to the marriages at Romford and Hornchurch, Essex, but the marriage was not solemnized at either of these places. Sir Robert Quarles in his will, dated 4 April, 1637, leaves 8001. to his daughter Elizabeth when she shall arrive at the age of nine- teen. She is also mentioned in the will of her uncle Gabriel Parvish, 1647, and was apparently married subsequently.

WILLIAM GILBERT. 35, Broad Street Avenue, E.G.

THUNDER CROSS AND MEDAL (11 S. vi. 131). The Thunder Cross would probably be the gammadion or fylfot, sometimes called Thor's hammer, a charm against thunder and lightning. The medal had probably been blessed by the Pope, or had come from some famous shrine. J. T. F.

Winterton, Doncaster.

"DR. SYNTAX" (11 S. v. 490; vi. 78, 135). MR. S. L. PETTY says at the last reference that COL. MALET is right in attribut- ing the authorship of ' Dr. Syntax in Paris ' to Combo ; but I do not read that COL. MALET commits himself to any such statement.

Apart from the evidence of Lowndes, who makes the distinct statement that Combe was not the author, either of this or of ' Dr. Syntax through London,' any one read- ing the stories must plainly feel that their author was as inferior to Combe as Williams, their illustrator, was to Rowlandson.

My original query, therefore, still remains unanswered.

ASTLEY TERRY, Major-General.

RICHARD NEWCOME, VICAR OF HURSLEY (11 S. vi. 149). The date of this person's death is given as 4 June, 1769, by Bishop Stubbs in both editions of his ' Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum ' (1858, p. 117, and 1897, p. 140); it is possibly taken from Archbishop Herring's ' Register,' which is certainly the authority for the date (13 April, 1755) of Newcome's consecration to the see of Llandaff. R. J. King (' Handbook to the Welsh Cathedrals,' 1873, p. 289) also gives the year 1769 as the date of death. The translation from Llandaff to St. Asaph's took place in 1761, but neither writer gives the place of death.

King (pp. 100-1) writes : <% He was made bishop it lying very commodious for his living at Whitchurch, Shropshire, where he had built a very neat and elegant par- sonage-house," his authority being " Cole's MS., British Museum, vol. xxviii. p. 14 (from notes found in Browne Willis's own

copy of his ' Llandaff ')." Browne Willis's work appeared in 1718.

By combining the information given in the ' D.N.B.,' vol. xl. pp. 319-22, and the ' Brasenose College Register ' (Oxford, 1909) we can glean some information as to Richard's father, though neither work cited seems to mention Richard himself. Henry Newcome (1627-95) was a member of St. John's, Cambridge, the intruded Rector of Gawsworth, 1650-56, and, after 1662, a Dissenting preacher. His younger son. Peter (1656-1 738), became Vicar of Hackney in 1703. This Peter matriculated at B.N.C. in 1674, aged 17, haib'ng from Lancashire, and said to be "fil. cler." The 'B.N.C. Register,' i. 232, adds that in the College " Caution Book " his Christian name is given as " Henry."

The ' D.N.B.' also names a second Peter (1727-97), whom it describes as " grandson " of the other Peter (1656-1738), and states that in 1757 he was made a Prebendary of Llandaff. The missing link between these two Peters might thus well have been Richard, who was Bishop of Llandaff 1755-61, and might have made his son prebendary of his own cathedral. Richard's brother Peter (mentioned by MRS. SUCKLING) is noted in the ' B.N.C. Register ' (i. 276) as having matriculated at B.N.C. in 1701, being "fil. cler.," and hailing from Herts. This would naturally have been his father's county, while it is noteworthy that the first Peter became Vicar of Aldenham in 1683, not going to Hackney till 1703, and Aldenham is in Herts.

W. A. B. COOLIDGE.

FIRST USE or FINGER-PRINTS FOR IDENTI- FICATION (11 S. v. 208; vi. 155). Prof. H. A. Giles is rather bold in claiming for the Chinese the invention of " the wonderful system of identification by finger-prints " because they had deeds signed by finger- prints. European deeds were also signed in this way, but the discovery of the infinite variety of finger-prints and the method of indexing them is a modern invention, and cannot be attributed to the Chinese.

In 1906 I went over the large prison at Tokyo, and I asked if the system of identi- fication by finger-prints was in use in Japan. In some respects the prison manage- ment there was so much ahead of ours that I was surprised to learn that the system was unknown, and I gathered from the way the Governor answered that he was politely incredulous of its efficacy. This would not have been the case if the Chinese had used it. J. J. FREEMAX.