Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/82

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.ix.jAs.24,

of Sedgmoor was fought between 1 and 4 A.M. on 6 July, 1685. Christie says it began 011 the afternoon of 6 July, and was not finished till the break of day, 7 July. Mac- aulay's references suggest that there are other authorities besides Dryden for the aurora. Christie says there is no other known mention of it.

L. R. M. STBACHAN. Heidelberg.

I am inclined to think that " Shepherd's Chess " may possibly have been the old game known in Shakespeare's time in Warwickshire as " Nine Men's Morris " (' M. X. D.,' II. i.). This was often transferred from the fields to a board or a stone slab, and might easily have been played by the two men under the conditions mentioned in the novel. The game, now principally known as " Merries," is invariably played on a board indoors. One of its many local names was " Shep- herd's Mill,"' and it might be very appro- priately termed " Shepherd's Chess.'' See 8 S. xii. 28, 89, 173, 333.

JOHN T. PACIE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

JEFFREYS FAMILY OF DORSET (11 S. ix. 10). In the parish church at Whitchurch, co. Dorset, there is an altar-tomb with full- leiigth figure of a knight, and inscription to Sir John Jefferey of Catherston, who died 7 May, 1611. The armorial bearings on the tomb are :

"Azure, three pillars or columns impaling

Per bend dancetty Crest: a booted leg. On

the chancel floor is a memorial stone to his son George Jeaffery of Catherston, buried 22 Jan., 1621, aged 30." Hutchins's 'Dorset,' 1863 ed., ii. 267.

According to Shaw's ' Knights,' he was knighted at Southampton in 1603 as John Geffery of co. Worcester. The Worcester item I cannot explain, but in Add. MS. No. 35,336, fol. 78, there is a letter from William Camden about this coat, in which the reference to Southampton is worth noting. The letter is of sufficient interest to give in full :

Mn. GARTER, I have been earnestly sollicited by one i\Jr. (Jeffrey of Southampton that the honour- able Earlo of Worcester might be -moved that he might have a Coate of Armes and Crest granted him by us. He is persuaded that he is sufficiently tjuahtied thereunto in respect he hath been Maior of so good a town, where, he saith, all which have borne that Office have allways afterwards beene stiled Gentlemen ; and also that the Blessing of God hath so enabled him by honest Trade of Marchandise to support the state of a Gentleman : his desire is upon some particular fancy of his owne, and delight in Architecture, to have 2 or 3 lonig pillars with their Pedestall, Capitall, and

Epistyllium, which would be warrantable, for bearing of Pillars is not Usual in England; for his Crest he affecteth y e Antient Weapon call'cl in Latin Ericius, which he termeth a Holywater Sprinkle. I would desire you to move my good Lord herein that by his allowance we might sattisfie the desire of Mr. Geffrey herein. Y r loving Friend 2 June, 1600. WILLM. CAMBDEN, Clarenceux.

The will of Sir John Jefferey is in the^ P.C.C. (59 W r ood), dated 23 Jan., 1610, proved 10 June, 1611. In it mention is made of his wife Lady Barbara; his aged mother; his sons George (exor.), John,. Francis, William, and Thomas ; his daughters- Awdrey, Katherine, Alice (married to Henry Wikes) ; Philippa, the wife of his son George ; his brother-in-law Thomas Cheeke, Esq. ; his sister Dorothy Cheeke ; poor of South- ampton, Newport in Isle of Wight, Whit- church in Dorset.

At Mapouder, co. Dorset, there is an M.I. to Elizabeth Jeffery, wife of John Jeffery of Catherston, fifth daughter of Robert Coker r buried 5 Oct., 1644, aged 27, with arms t 1 and 4 Jeffery, 2 and 3 Az., a bend lozengy or ; impaling Coker quartering Molford. Over the Jeffery impalement is the crest a dexter arm embowed, armed or, holding in hand a club gules, spiked or (Hutchiiis r iii. 730).

I doubt the connexion with the Worcester- shire Jeffreys. Sir John evidently did not get the crest for which he asked.

LEO C.

THE WILD HUNTSMAN : HEBLOTHINGI ( 1 1 S. viii. 487; ix. 15). I am not sure whether the story told to me by a Lincolnshire farm- labourer some years since, which a well- known member of the Folk-Lore Society connects with the legend of the Wild Hunts- man, has ever appeared in print, for though I was asked to send it to Folk-Lore, I have no record of having done so. The story is this :

A man living in the Isle of Axholme early in the last century (his name and address were given to me) wished to revenge himself upon a neighbour for some real or fancied injury. Not knowing any witch to whom he could apply for this purpose, he deter- mined to raise the devil and put himself under his direction. The means he employed were these, which (said my informant) were those usual with witches themselves. Pro- ceeding to Hatfield Chace on St. John Baptist's Eve at midnight, he there gathered some fern seed, which he took home and burnt on his kitchen hearth, saying as he did so the Lord's Prayer backwards. Tim