Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/111

 11 S. VII. FEB. 8, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 103

"Will of Elizabeth Mewce (nee Washington), of the co. of Middx., widow; dated 11 Aug., 1676, proved 12 Dec., 1676."-P.C.C. Reg. Bence, 154; ibid., p. 381.

She was widow of Francis Mewce, to whom she was married at St. Mary le Strand, Middlesex, 26 May, 1615.

"Will of Mrs. Elizabeth Mewce (nee Morant): This is my will and this is my desire. I give and bequeath to my sonne ffrances [sic] a whole suite of diaper and a flatt bole. I give and bequeath to my sonne Christopher five payre of sheets; more to him to payre of pillowbeers, six tableclothes, two dozen of napkins, one dozen and a half of towells; more I give to him all the bedding in my chamber. I give and bequeath to my daughter Whestall and my daughter Hally [the astronomer's paternal grandmother] all the rest of my linnen. I give and bequeath to my sister Gimber and the maid my wearing linnen, and to my sister some of my woolen cloth. Thirtie shillings to the poor of Beaconsfield." (Administration granted P.C.C. 15 March 1631/2, to lawful son Francis Mewce, no executor having been named in the will. Register Audelay, 34.)

I received the last abstract from MR. R. J. BEEVOR a few years ago. Can any reader tell me exactly what are or were "pillowbeers"?

"Christopher Pike and Katherin Washington were married 25 Jan., 1623." (Cp. ' Register of Parish of St. Paule....Canterbury, ' ed. by Jos. M. Cowper, Harl. Soc., 1893).

The Index to Chancery Proceedings (Reynardson's Division) contains these entries:-

Sir John Buckworth was one of the Administrators of the estate of Edmond Halley, sen. (ob. 1684). The surname Phillips or Phillipps occurs in some chancery proceedings (c. 1680) relating to Halley.

One Lewis Phillips, Under-Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, 1636, is mentioned in Kingston's 'East Anglia and the Civil War,' according to advices from MR. BEEVOR, who adds:-

"Probably this was the Lewis Phillips who died circa 1671, leaving William Halley his executor. Oliver Cromwell, I think had left Huntingdon and St. Ives at the time [ante 13 Sept., 1637, date of final receipt] Humphrey Halley carried that ship-money to London." (Cp. 10 S. vi. 69; xi. 64.)

" 'Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-60' (recently published), vol. i. p. 1130: Ordinance for the speedy bringing in of the arrears of the assessments in the city of London and Liberties thereof, 24 April, 1648: Candlewick Ward: Humphrey Halley (first name on the list for this ward). The names, so far as I can judge, are, in the main, those of persons favourably disposed to the Parliamentary cause. Humphrey Halley has travelled far since he was a carrier of ship-money."

Numerous American descendants of one John Pike, who

"sailed from Southampton in the good ship James, commanded by Capt. Cooper, 2 April, 1635, and arrived in America 2 June,"

would like to trace the English ancestry of his wife, "Sarah Washington," who came with him on the same ship. An American genealogist says that she was

"a daughter of Charles Washington, son of George and father of Robert Washington, of Virginia, 1630, who was ancestor of General George Washington."

Can this be confirmed? This John Pike, emigrated 1635, styles himself "laborer" from Langford, England, but there are, it seems, about twenty parishes so named in England. He was apparently well-educated, as we find him pleading causes in the Massachusetts courts, as did both his sons. An American investigator wrote me several years ago that he would like to think that this John Pike was identical with the John Pike who was baptized 1 Nov., 1572 (? at Moorlich, Somerset), relying, perhaps, on similarity of Christian names of members of the two families. The Pike Family Association of America is composed chiefly of descendants of this John Pike who emigrated in 1635. My own Pyke or McPike ancestor, James, "came over" about 1772, and is of other extraction.

In the New England Historic Genealogical Register for July, 1912 (lxvi. 261), are some extracts from English parish registers relating to Pike by Miss Elizabeth French of London, who expresses the opinion that the emigrant John Pike of 1635 was identical with his namesake who married Dorothy Day at Whiteparish, near Landford, in Eastern Wilts, 17 Jan., 1612/13; but this conflicts with other authorities. What are the facts?

The Chicago Tribune for 23 Dec., 1912, refers to some plans underway for a joint celebration of the one hundreth anniversary of peace among English-speaking people:-

"One of the projects of the English committee is the purchase of Sulgrave manor, the old home of the Washington family, which still stands in a good state of preservation. It is hoped also to place a bust of George Washington in Westminster Abbey [!]."

In The Magazine of History, New York, for December, 1911 (vol. xiv. p. 254), appears an interesting article purporting to trace General George Washington from the