Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/372

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. OCT. 10, 1912.

Hildyard, Knt., living temp. Richard I. < 1189-99). Cf. Burke's 'Landed Gentry for 1850,' vol. i. p. 572.

There is a pedigree of Fullwood of Middle- ton, Derbyshire, in The Genealogist, New Series, vol. vii. pp. 137-8, with reference to an -earlier chart. The Rev. J. C. Cox, formerly Rector of Holdenby, in the Preface to his ' Churches of Derbyshire,' refers to the " invaluable " library of T. W. Bateman of Middleton Hall by Youlgreave, with its assemblage of county pedigrees and the laborious and voluminous collections of Mr. Bateman's father and grandfather. According to the ' D.N.B.,' iii. 394 :

" Thomas Bateman, archaeologist, born 8 Nov., 1321, at Rpwsley, Derbyshire,. . . .died 28 August, 1861, at his seat, Lomberdale House, near Bake- well. Both library and museum, it is gratifying to note, are strictly entailed."

Mr. Arthur H. Hammond, the artist, writing to me from Youlgreave, 5 Aug., 1912, says: "A collection of antiquities made by the late Sq. Bateman is at Weston Park Museum, Sheffield."

Among the data thus preserved might eventually be found the facts as to the Derbyshire origin of the ancestry of the .astronomer Halley. Middleton Hall passed from the Fullwoods to the Batemans.

" Will of Francis Fullwood of Stapenhill, co. Derby (P.C.C., Russell, 14, 1633), mentions his widow Rebecca, sole ex lx ; annuity to his wife's mother Lucy Abel and to his mother Mary Fullwood."

" Will of Sir George Fullwood (Reg. Byrde) mentions sons Humphrey, Roger, George, Chris- topher, Francis, Thomas ; daus. Mildmay, Alice, Anne."

'There is no reference to Halley in either of the two last-quoted testaments. Of the several Fullwood wills recorded at Lichfield only one so far has the name Halley :

" Will of Humfrey Fullwood, of Hognaston, co. Derby, Yeoman, dated 19 February, 1585. Humfrye Fullwood, nephew and godson ; George and Thomas Fullwood, nephews ; Jone and Joce [ = ? Joyce], nieces, their sisters ; Thomas .and Francis Fullwood, sons of brother Robert ; Humfrey Hally [kinship not stated]. Executors, wife Ellen and nephew Francis Fulwood, son of brother John."

Christopher Fullwood, eldest son of George ,(cf. ' D.N.B.,' xx. 329), was admitted to Gray's Inn, 1611, which would place the date of his birth (? circa 1595) at about the same time as the birth of Humphrey Halley, vintner, the astronomer's grandfather.

The foregoing wills, with other data, were supplied by Mr. Beevor. It would be very interesting to know whether Mr. Arthur <Carrington, of the Downes, Bideford, North

Devon, who possesses extensive extracts from Youlgreave registers, can throw any new light on this problem, in view of the additional facts above presented. (Cf. 11 S iv. 466.)

Passing now to the Parry and Pyke families (c. 1750), it is not a little satis- faction to be able to report the discovery by Mr. R. J. Beevor, of the apparent identity of John Parry, son-in-law of Mrs. Sybilla Halley, formerly Freeman ( ? born Stewart), with John Parry, a witness to the will (dated 1750) of James Pyke of Upper Moorfield, parish of St. Leonard's Shore- ditch. (Cf. 11 S. ii. 44; iv. 164.) Mr. Beevor obtained personal access to the original of the testament last mentioned, and made a careful note of Parry's signature Visiting then the Public Record Office, he examined Parry's receipts for pension-money paid to Mrs. Sybilla Halley, surgeon's widow (Admiralty Accountant-General's Registers, Salaries and Pensions, Nos. 77, 85, 87). In all cases Parry's signatures showed " no marked dissimilarity in any of the letters " ; and in each of the Admiralty documents there are " the same three curvi- linear triangles at the base of the stem of the letter P, as observed in the signature on the will of James Pyke." Mr. Beevor remarks that he " came away convinced that the two signatures are identical."

J. Parry signed 1760, 1768, 1769. 1771 1772; Edward Small, 1763; Innes & Co., 1770 ; on other occasions Sybilla signed! Sybilla's son-in-law, John Parry, senior, above mentioned, died in 1769, when ad- ministration of his goods was granted to his son, also named John Parry. Therefore, the signatures to receipts in 1771, 1772 if examined, would, no doubt, reveal a different handwriting. Other signatures of John Parry, sen., could probably be examined, if necessary, in the original allegation, at the Vicar-General's office, of his first marriage, in 1744, and in that, at Rochester, of his second marriage, in 1766.

This probable identification of John Parry, sen., lends additional colour to the theory that Sarah, wife of James Pyke's nephew William Pyke, may have been a daughter of Mrs. Sybilla Freeman, and, if so. then a stepdaughter of Edmond Halley, jun., surgeon R.N., son of the astronomer. (Cf. 9 S. xi. 205.)

A new series of notes under the running title ' Romance of Genealogy,' relating to the families of Halley, Parry, Pyke. Day, Freeman, Dumont, Guest, Lyon, Denton,