Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/277

 us. ix. APRIL 4, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES,

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have lived for some time at the Court of the Lord Protector, and afterwards to have become a teacher in one of our schools.

Confirm. / ion of these statements, and any inf ormatio i respecting the persons mentioned, will be greatly appreciated.

W. H. SHBUBSOLE.

SAXON TILES. There is a farmhouse called Little Wakering, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex, which is tiled with bright red tiles ; and a lady who was sketching it was in- formed that these tiles were Saxon, of the time of Alfred the Great. The tenant stated that they had been taken off whenever the house was repaired or rebuilt, which during so many hundred years had happened many times, and also declared that lichens and other vegetation were not known to grow on them or on any tiles of the Saxon period. The rector of the parish considered these statements to be somewhat improbable, and the lady, who has recently come into residence at Penarth, would be glad to have an authoritative opinion on the subject. THE GWENT AND MOBGANNWG

ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.

17, Quay Street, Cardiff.

ANNA TRAPNELL. (9 S. viii. 319; 11 S. ix. 221.)

THE book described by MB. DOBELL was certainly, as regards the first part of it, delivered by Anna Trapnell, though perhaps not all of it was by her. In 1658 a book of extempore hymns by Anna Trapnell was printed. It contains upwards of 90 pages, and begins with the lengthy piece of doggerel quoted by MB. DOBELL in his first article, and entitled ' The Spirit doth Come on the Way.' This collection was entitled ' Voice for the King of Saints and Nations,' &c. There is a copy in the British Museum. In the Thomason. Collection are Trapnell' s two other works ' The Cry of a Stone,' dated 20 Feb., 1654, and ' A Legacy for Saints ' (containing a number of letters written by Anna Trapnell), dated 24 July, 1654. This last book was stated to be published by Thomas Brewster, who, as I pointed out in my articles on ' The Forged Speeches and Prayers of the Regicides,' was also one of the publishers of that fraudulent Fifth Monarchy book.

Anna Trapnell was a Fifth Monarchist, and a somewhat striking picture of the

meetings of this -the predominant sect (after Cromwell's death) is contained in a letter from Mr. Broderick to the Lord Chancellor, dated 24 June, 1659, and to be found on pp. 5056 of the third volume of the * Clarendon State Papers ' :

" Should I tell you of my Lord Pembroke, the Chief Justice St. John's wife, and many others, who assemble three times each week and sing to God and each other extemporary in rhyme six hours together, you would believe me as mad as they. They ground it on a text in the Revela- tion, Michael fighting with the Devil, there was silence in Heaven half an hour, and after that songs. Some congregations, therefore, blaspheme, curse, &c., during that space, then -the first who is inspired is accounted the good angel, the rest cease ; he, or she, immediately sings. These are sad truths," &c.

Anna Trapnell commenced her public career in 1650, at the time of the battle of Dunbar. There is a passage about one of her prophecies at this time (of which I, un- fortunately, have kept no reference note) to be found in Henry Walker's Sever all Proceedings for that year. She was not, I think, at Dunbar, in spite of Walker's later remarks. In his Severall Proceed- ings for 12-19 Jan., 1653/4, Walker printed a lengthy account entitled : ' A Breviate of Hannah, whom some call a Prophetesse, in Whitehall.' The opening sentence of this runs :

" There is one Hannah, a maid that lives at Hackney, near the City of London, the same that was formerly at Dunbar, a member of Mr. John Simpson's church, as it is said," &c.

Then follows a detailed account of her existence on toast and beer and extempore hymns for a fortnight at Whitehall. As, no doubt, extempore tunes accompanied the extempore hymns, the Fifth Monarchy services, with their introductory rites of blasphemy and curses, must have been weird in the extreme.

The Calendars of State Papers, Domestic Series, add more details about this extra- ordinary woman. A letter, dated 25 July, 1653, and addressed to Viscount Conway, states :

" There has lately started up an audacious virago, a feminine tub-preacher, who last Sunday held forth for almost two hours in the late Queen's Mass chapel at Somerset House, Strand, and has done so there and elsewhere several Sundays of late. She claps her Bible and thumps the pulpit cushion with almost as much confidence (I should have said impudence) as honest Hugh Peters himself." ' Cal. S. P. Dom., 1653-4,' p. 50.

On 7 Feb., 1654, Marchamont Nedham wrote to Cromwell :

" There is a twofold design about the prophetess Hannah, who played her part lately at Whitehall