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NOTES AND QUERIES, tn s. ix. APRIL is, im.

BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK : TECH- NICAL TERMS. Can any one indicate a source that will give the technical terms in the game of battledore and shuttlecock as it was played in the early part of the seven- teenth century ? I wish especially to under- stand the use of " pur " as employed in this game when the shuttlecock fell to the ground.

M. P. T.

Michigan.

AN ANTEDATED PATENT OF NOBILITY. Defoe, writing inApplebees Journal 19 Aug., 1721, says :

"Cardinal Alberoni is going to marry his daughter to the Marquis de Bracciano ; in con- sideration of which Match the Pope raises the Family of Alberoni to the Dignities of Nobles, and Antedates the Patent two hundred Years ; so that at one Stroke it is made a very ancient Family." 'Defoe's Uncollected Works,' ii. 419, ed. Lee, 1869.

Was it a practice of other European sovereigns of the eighteenth century to antedate such patents ?

A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

"CORVICER," AN OLD TRADE. In the published parish ' Registers of Conway,' between the years 1588 and 1679. we come across twelve entries, at least, where a man is described as " Corvicer " (sometimes shortened "Cor."). Let the last entry, the one for 1679, serve as a type : " Baptizat 1679 | Johannes filius Thomse Williams, Corvicer, May 22." This description is not confined to the above Registers. In Browne Willis's ' Bangor,' p. 3, we read this tran- script : " Here lyeth the body of Owen Parry, | Corvicer, who died the 14 th of Febru | ary 1712. Aged 57." Will some reader, who has access to the more ex- haustive reference books, inform one who has consulted all ordinary ones within his reach what trade was that of the " corvicer," and what is the origin of the word ? I have a presumption that corvicer cooper, but I can get no corroboration of it.

T. LLECHID JONES.

Yspytty Vicarage, Bettws-y-Coed.

[The corvicer was a shoemaker. The quotations in the ' N.E.D.' under ' Corviser ' range from 1401 to 1725. The second quotation (1467) is : "That the corvesers bye ther lether in the seid yeld halle." The derivation is from Cordubense, Cordubanum, the Latinized form of Cordova ]

VOLTAIRE IN ENGLAND. I want to know in what number of what magazine Voltaire's notes in English for his ' Letters on England ' were lately published. I saw the announce- ment two or three months ago. J. F. R.

BRIAN DUPPA, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 1. After his ordination in 1614 Duppa travelled on the Continent. Where may I find an account of this tour ?

2. (Duplicate.) Is the name " Duppas Hill " (Croydon) connected with the family ?

3. The following names appear in wills (Canterbury), letters, and other documents connected with Brian Duppa. Can any one- give me any further information ?

(a) Hy. Brooke of London, mercer (1595). I think he was stepfather to Mrs. Turke and Mrs. Jeff. Duppa.

(b) Mr. John Turke.

(c) John Create, yeoman (1593).

(d) John Eaton, gent. (1594).

(e) Ralph Cardiffe, gent, (willed to be buried in Lewisham Church, 1594).

(/) Win. Smith (married Alice Duppa, and built a house on Croome's Hill, Greenwich).

(g) Who was Miles Duppa, who married Jane Jones in 1606 at St. Saviour's, South- wark ? (He was not the Bishop's brother.)

E. M. F.

" AN HONEST MAN AND A GOOD BOWLER."

I find this quoted in a pamphlet dated 1697 as " a good old saying." I shall be glad to have an early reference to its use. It is probably of Lancashire origin.

HENRY FISHWICK. The Heights, Rochdale.

WILKINSON'S IRON CHAPEL. In several accounts of the well-known eighteenth- century ironmaster John Wilkinson mention is made of an iron chapel which he is said to have built at Bilston, Staffs. One version is that the window -frames and the pulpit only were of iron. I should be in- terested to have the true facts of the case, with date. Are there any remains, e.g., of the pulpit, existing at the present day? H. W. DICKINSON.

SIR NATHANIEL MEAD. I am anxious to find the will of Sir Nathaniel Meade (or Mead), only child of William and Sarah (Fell) Meade, members of the Society of. Friends. He was born 1684, entered at the Middle Temple 1 700, became Serjeant-at-Law, was knighted, and died April, 1760, " at his house in Litchfield Street, near Newport Market," London. He had left the Society of Friends. From his father he inherited estates in Essex (Cooseyes or Goosehayes, which he sold), Middlesex, and Kent. Searches have been made from 1760 to 1769 in Prerogative Court of Canterbury ; Commissary Court, London ; Consistory Court, London ; Archdeaconry, London ;