Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/305

 us. vi. SEPT. 28, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

249

battle of Worcester in 1651 at Heale House in Wiltshire.

Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854), who was Justice of the Common Pleas from 1849, died suddenly of apoplexy at Stafford on 13 March, 1854, while charging the grand jury. He was buried in Norwood Cemetery.

Are there any other cases of English judges expiring while actually in the dis- charge of their judicial functions on the Bench ? F. C. WHITE.

71, Newfoundland Road, Cardiff.

COCQCIGRTTES.

" This is one of the seven things which I am forbidden to tell, till the coming of the Cocq- cigrues." Kingsley's ' Water Babies,' chap. vi.

Dr. Brewer in ' The Reader's Handbook ' explains that this is equivalent to " that golden period when all mysteries will be cleared up." Is the name Cocqcigrues one of Kingsley's whimsies, or is it bor- rowed ? I thought it was from Rabelais, but cannot find it. W. H. PEET.

[MR. FEET'S memory is right: "A la venue des coequeei^rues " is in Rabelais, 'Gargantua,' i. 49.]

1. EARL OF MOIBA. Who now represents the family of Rawdon ? When did the marriage between Rawdon and Burdett take place ?

2. IRISH GENEALOGY. Is there any source of information on this subject beyond the P.R.O., Dublin, and the Ulster King-at- Arms Office, Dublin ? Surely some MSS. exist elsewhere and also in private posses- sion ; if so, where ? (MRS.) COPE.

Finchampstead Place, Berks.

WILLIAM PURDY (PURDUE), BELL- FOUNDER, CIRCA 1567. I should be glad to receive any information, if such be forthcoming, regarding this bell-founder, who supplied a new bell to Sherborne Abbey in 1567-8, and recast the fourth and Lady bells at the same place in 1577-8.

He must not be confused with William Purdue of Salisbury, son of George Purdue of Taunt-on, who were also bell-founders, although he was most likely a relative, and possibly a brother of the latter.

The Salisbury William Purdue was buried in Limerick Cathedral in 1673, and his tombstone is inscribed :

- Here a Bcllfounder Honest and True Until the Resurrection

Lies Purdue

Obiit in" Xbris

Ao Dni MDCLxxnt.

His son Nicholas, his grandson John, and great-grandson Nicholas were also bell- founders, and all three became Mayor of Winchester : the elder Nicholas in 1655 ; John in 1692, 1698, and 1706 ; the younger Nicholas in 1749 and 1755.

George Purdue of Taunton had two more sons bell-founders besides William, namely, Roger of Bristol and Thomas of Closworth, Somerset, who cast a great number of bells. The latter, born in 1621, lived to be ninety years old, and was buried in Closworth Churchyard, where his tombstone may still be seen. On it is inscribed :

Here lieth the Body of Thomas Purdue who died the 1st day of September in the year of our Lord 1711 aged 90 years Her lies a bell founder honest and True Till ye resurrection named Purdue. He recast the tenor bell at Sherborne Abbey in 1670, and it was inscribed : By Wolsey's Gift I Measure Time For All To Mirth. To Grieffe. To Church. I Serve To Call Gustavus Home Walter Pride Church Wardens This Bell Was New Cast By Me Thomas Purdey Oct. the 20th 1670.

L. H. CHAMBERS.

PRESENTATION OF " THE FREEDOM " m A GOLD Box. When did the custom of pre- senting the freedom of a city " in a gold box " take its rise ?

I find that in a note from " Edenburg, July 3," there appeared in The London Gazette for 7-10 July, 1679, the statement :

" This evening his Grace the Duke of Bucclugh and Monmouth was treated by the City at a very noble Collation of Meats and Fruits, after which the Lord Provost presented his Grace with his Freedom of the City, the Letters being in a large Gold Box." _

Horace Walpole's phrase regarding the elder Pitt, at the most triumphantly popular period of his career, " It rained gold boxes," is, of course, well remembered.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MURDER. Can any of your readers kindly enlighten me as to the name, well known about 150 years ago, of a man concerning whom I have only the following information ? He was about forty- eight years of age, and was

" a dazzling charlatan who had made a great sensation in London for a year or so, and had fled the country on the charge of a double murder within his own house that of his mistress and his rival."

The house was situated in a street on the north side of Oxford Street, and the date of the murder is somewhere about 1765. The name of his mistress appears to have been Marianna. C. E. D.