Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/475

 12 s.i. JUNE io, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

469

FLEMISH MOTTO. What was the Flemish motto of the old Counts of Flanders ?

' Burke ' says that our family is the only British family that has a Flemish motto that of the Counts of Flanders ; but ' Burke ' has lost trace of what it was.

I have searched the Cambridge University Library in vain for it.

E. HYACINTH TOTTENHAM,

Vicar of Shepreth.

THE LUMBER TROOP, FETTER LANE. Will some reader kindly refer me to any work describing the purposes and history of this convivial society ? It had its Troop Hall at the Falcon Tavern, Fetter Lane. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

ROBERT SOUTHEY. According to the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' liii. 284, " his mother, Margaret Hill, belonged to a good Hereford- shire family." I should be glad to know where this Herefordshire family was seated, and the names of both her parents.

G. F. K. B.

" DESCENDANTS' DINNERS." (12 S. i. 410.)

A GATHERING of persons of the name of King took place at the Rummer Tavern in Whitechapel on May 29, 1703. Admittance was by ticket costing 2s. 6d. The ticket, a copy of which is before me, has on it the royal arms, and sixteen different coats of arms of persons named King, including those of Bromley, co. Kent ; Midhurst, co. Sussex ; the following counties Essex (2), Bucks (2), Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Somer- setshire, Dorsetshire, and Berks ; likewise King, Bishop of London and Chichester ; King, Lord Kingston in Ireland ; King of London ; King, Alderman of Coventry ; King, Rouge Dragon, Pursuivant of Arms ;. and King of Weston Patrick, Hants, &c. It is thus inscribed :

" A General Meeting of the Surname of King, being Appointed to be Held at Mr. John King's, at the Rummer Tavern in White-Chappel, London, on Saturday the 29th of this Instant May, 1703, being the Anniversary in Memory of the happy Restoration of King Charles the 2d. and the Royal Family. You are earnestly desired to be there by Twelve of the Clock precisely, by your most humble Servants, Robert King, Gent., James King, Herald Painter, John King, Vintner, Stewards. Pay for the Ticket 2s. Qd. and bring it for your Admittance."

An illustration of the ticket appeared in The English Illustrated Magazine for April, 1901, in an article on ' Proclamations and Broadsides.'

A modern instance is that of the dinner of Barlow families held at the Hotel Cecil on Dec. 14, 1906, Sir Thos. Barlow, the famous physician to the Royal Household, being in the chair. The main object of the gathering was to compare notes as to the family tree, and to collect funds in order that the common pedigree might be traced ; but no details were given of the convivial function to any one who was not a Barlow. References to the banquet appeared in the press at the time, the more interesting accounts being in The Daily News of Dec. 13, and The Daily Chronicle and The Daily Express of Dec. 15.

In August, 1906, the Shaw family held a great picnic in New Jersey ; and in the previous year some hundreds of members of the Watson family gathered for a picnic at Watertown, U.S.A.

I have other references to such reunions, but, owing to a recent move, cannot place my hands upon them just now.

CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

Thornhill, Hermon Hill, Wanstead.

There is mention of one of these gatherings in a sermon, a print of which is in the British Museum Library :

" The Gregorian Account or the Spiritual Watch. A sermon preached to the Society of the Gregories dwelling in and about the city of London, and assembled in the Church of St. Michael, Cornhill, June 19th, 1673. By Francis Gregory, D.D., Rector of Hambleton, in the County of Bucks, one of his Sacred Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary. London : Printed by E. Flesher, for Richard Royston, Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty. 1673." Prefixed to the sermon is an Epistle Dedi- catory

" to my esteemed friends, Capt. Jeremie Gregory, Citizen and Goldsmith of London, and Mr. Philip Gregory, Citizen and Mercer, Stewards of the Gregories Feast, the 19th of June, 1673, and the rest of that Loving Society." What could be gathered concerning this particular family function was printed in 1908 in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. xxi. 130-33, appended to a paper, ' Notes on the Society of Gregorians.' W. B. li.

See 1 S. x. ; 3 S. iii. ; 8 S. ix. and x. ; 11 S. ix. At one reference the Smith gathering is mentioned as occurring about 1630.

Some of the family associations were not only for feasting, but for benevolent purposes bo assist poorer brethren of the same name* similar to county associations. Many gather- ings took place in the U.S.A. ; for instance,