Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/169

 ii s. vii. MAR. i, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

8. Finally, " The Loyall Martyrology

as also the Dregs of treachery, &c. By William Winstanley " (1665), concludes my list. After describing Hugh Peters as " an antique [antic] in religion, the shame of the clergy, a pulpit buffoon," Win- stanley says :

" He was condemned, together with Cook, and with him, October 16, drawn on two hurdles to execution, where the miserable wretch had not a word to say for himself, or to God, of Whom he said he was abandoned. He that was so nimble and quick in all projects in this nature before was now like a sot or a fool, playing and toying with the straw on the sledge as he went to execution, nay, so stupid was he, that the hangman was forced to use more than ordinary strength to throw him off the ladder. Being almost hanged dead he was cut down and quartered, his head set upon London Bridge and his quarters exposed upon the tops of some of the City gates."

We thus have eight accounts of Peters's execution, only one of which is anonymous. Some of these witnesses are of the first importance, yet not one has ever been cited in any modern biography of Peters, except Mercurius Publicus, which has been mutilated in order to make it agree with the (at the time) notorious forgery, the anonymous ' Speeches and Prayers ' of the Regicides, of which there were four editions under different titles, and the bibliography and origin of which I propose to detail in subsequent articles. There were two sequels to this forgery : the ' Dying Father's Last Legacy to an Only Child ' and tho ' Book of Prodigies [or Wonders],' by the same authors. I propose to deal with these at the same time. J. B. WILLIAMS.

CAPT. JAMES WALLER HEWITT. (See 8 S. v. 208. ) May I answer this query of nearly nineteen years ago ? " Capt." Hewitt was my great -granduncle. He was fourth child, and second son, of the seven children of William and Sarah Hewitt of Wickham Market, Suffolk, where he was baptized 2 Nov., 1777. His father was son of William and Margaret Hewitt of the ad- joining parish of Dallinghoo, and his mother was daughter of John and Bridget Waller of Framlingham. He was baptized " James " only ; apparently he assumed the " Waller." He served in the 1st Regiment of Foot, of which the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father, was colonel. Before 1820 he retired on a lieutenant's half-pay, with the courtesy- title of " Captain." He was married, but I am told that he and his wife afterwards separated. I have no proof that he

".married a Miss Shrieb " ; but in 1788 his- elder sister, Sarah, was married near Wick- ham Market to James Shribbs (? afterwards of Woodbridge ). Capt. Hewitt lived for some time at Woodbridge, and in 1859 was living in Reading, at Marlborough House (No. Ill, Castle Street), where he died 9 July, 1867, aged 89, in the presence of " Sarah R. Binfield." On 12 July he was buried, bjr " John White," in the cemetery near Reading (division 30, grave 4069), near the wall adjoining Wokingham Street. On the- wall is an oval tablet commemorating " Capt. J. W. Hewitt." He is said to have joined the " Plymouth Brethren." I do not think that he "had any right to bear the arms described on p. 208" of 'N. & Q.' for 17 March, 1894.

I could give a few further particulars to?

any reader writing direct to me. I should

like to know whom Capt. Hewitt married,

and what became of his descendants, if any.

C. PARTRIDGE, F.S.A.

Ijebu-ode, via Lagos, Nigeria.

" CASTLE " IN SHAKESPEARE AND WEBSTER, There has been much discussion as to the meaning of the word "castle " in two well- known passages in Shakespeare, viz., 'Titus Andronicus,' III. i. 167-9,

Which of your hands hath not defended Rome And rear'd aloft the bloody battle-axe, Writing destruction on the enemy's castle I

and ' Troilus and Cressida,' V. ii. 183, Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head. The earlier critics explained " castle ' T here as referring to a particular kind of helmet. " A close helmet, which covered the whole head, was called a castle," says Warburton ; so also Nares's ' Glossary ' : " Castle, a kind of close helmet." Nares quotes in support Holinshed, ii. 815:

"Then entred Sir Thomas Kneuet in,

a castell of cole black, and ouer the castell was written, The dolorous castell." This passage notwithstanding, recent Shakespear- ean commentators have concluded that in both instances 'the word is merely used figuratively for " strong protection," " stronghold." The editors of the " Arden ' r editions of these plays both adopt this view,, which is countenanced by ' N.E.D.' and also by Mr. Onions in his ' Shakespeare Glossary.'

Is this later interpretation correct ? A passage in Webster's ' Appius and Virginia/ which has, I believe, hitherto escaped atten- tion, makes it very questionable. The passage referred to occurs in Act II. sc. iii. of Webster's play. Marcus Claudius, claiming