Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/322

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. APRIL is. me.

" COAT AND CONDUCT MONEY" (12 S. i. 189). Coat and conduct money is often mentioned in the " Domestic Series " of the ' Calendar of State Papers ' of the reign of Charles I. The first reference is in the volume for 1639, and gives an account of the raising of fifty men by the Deputy Lieutenant of Anglesey, for which he re- ceived " coat and conduct money according to the directions of the Council."

" In the business concerning the pressed soldiers of Herefordshire and their conductor [writes a Mr. Morgan in a letter to Sir Dudley Carl ton, dated April, 1639] I can say nothing of my own know- ledge, for 1 am a stranger to that country ; but being on my journey to London from my own house in Brecknockshire upon Saturday in Easter week, and lodging at the town of Ross, the inn- keeper told me that the pressed soldiers of Mon- mouthshire and Glamorganshire had lain in Ross, as they were being conducted towards their place of rendezvous, that they were all proper men, well clad, and demeaned themselves civilly there, but as for his own countrymen of Herefordshire, that they were for the most part a naked, poor-con- ditioned people, and of the meanest sort. He also stated that 400. was levied upon the country, and the soldiers only coated. That on their way to Ludlow, at or near the town, the soldiers being discontented for want of fit clothing or diet, and their conductor thinking to suppress their mur- murings, they fell upon him, and hurt him, and many of them had run away. How true this is 1 know not, but if the disorder happened in or near Ludlow, the judges there or other public officers of the town may give a just account to the Lords, both of the condition of the soldiers and their habit."

The practice of raising money for martial services was "utterly unlawful, especially for coat and conduct, which the last year was very chargeable, and as yet in no sort repaid to them." The deputy lieutenants in this case plead that some course should be taken to remove the unlawful charges, as a " blemish lies upon our reputations," and they trust that his Majesty " will not only vindicate our reputations and justify our actions, but cause due reparation to be made for the affront and dishonour done."

In another letter, dated April 17, 1640, from the Deputy Lieutenant of Hertford- shire, the writer says :

"Finding that we were to press men of better quality, greater understandings, and out of the trained bands, which have traditionally held them- selves privileged from press, and in this country have grown cunning and bold in their conceived rights, we thought it necessary to resolve upon the way by which we should compel to their duties by a lawful authority such as should refuse, whereupon examining our deputations we found no power at all by any words therein to raise money for press- ing, coating, cloathing, paying, conducting, or delivering of men out of our own hands, or for pressing carters or taking horses for ammunition ;

and though the last year, his Majesty then being: in the field, we did upon command impress some- soldiers of able bodies for service, but such as the country were willing to give their money to purge- f rom amongst them, yet we hope and humbly pray that our zeal to his Majesty's service and that act may not be a prejudice to us in our now not trespassing against the Petition of Right, to which his Majesty was pleased to give his royal assent, and by which the charges laid upon the people in the counties by lords lieutenants, deputy-lieu- tenants, and commissioners for musters are declared to be against the laws and free customs of the- realm."

Cases of lieutenants being committed tx> the Fleet for refusing to pay coat and conduct money and for refusing to assess he payment are also given ; they are to be> examined

"in such sort as that they may be brought ore- tenus in to the Star Chamber, or otherwise that an- information may be so speedily preferred against them in that court for such their refusal as that they may be brought to a sentence this next term if it may be possible."

The term " coat and conduct money ff> seems to have been first used in 1626* (* N.E.D.'). To wear the king's coat = to serve as a soldier. The subject is not mentioned in the ' Calendar of State Papers * after 1640, and may then have been allowed to lapse, but I do not find any record of this, though I should perhaps explain that my search through the k Calen- dar of State Papers ' has not been in any way exhaustive. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

" MONTABYN " : MEANING WANTED- (12 S. i. 189). The chapeau Montabyn or chapel de Montauban is thus described by John Hewitt in ' Ancient Armour and Weapons in Europe ' (Oxford and London,. 1860) :

" A steel hat called a ' chapel de Montauban ' i& named in this century [fourteenth], but it probably differed only from the other casques in the place of its manufacture. Froissart in 1392 describes the King of France journeying with a ' single chaperon' ornamented with a chaplet of pearls upon his* head, while the arms were carried behind him by his pages. One of the pages ' portoit sur son chef un chapel de Montauban, fin, cler et net, tout! d'acier, qui resplendissoit au soleil.' This head- piece is atterwards called 'le chapel d'acier.'"

Maurice Maindron in ' Les Armes ' (Paris,, 1860), at p. 160, says :

" Sans compter la cerveliere dont 1'usage se prolonge, il faut citer le chapel de fer ou chapeaw de Montauban, a timbre rond, 4 grands bords plats- ou rabattus, formant une espece de cloche."

In so " recent " a French dictionary as. Cotgrave's (1650) " chapel "= chapeau.

EBIC WATSON. 36 Claverton Street.