Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/497

 12 S.X. MAY 27, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 407 35 years. ". . . ious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Thomas,* son of John and Maria Francis, died April 1. . ., aged (3 ?) years and (6 ?) months. 64. Close to 62, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of Mary Ann, wife of William Francis, and daughter of Joseph & Mary Lilley, of this place, who died the 18th Nov., 1813, aged 32 years. " Patient and meek beneath affliction's rod. And why ? her faith and hope were fixed on God. What joy when she resigned her breath For as her eyelids closed she smiles in death." 65. Close to 64, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of Catherine, wife of John Francis (late of Wootton, Beds), who departed this life Aug. 27th, 1842, in her 80th year. " At evening time it shall be light." 66. Close to 65, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of Catherine,! daughter of William and Kitty Francis, who died May 6, 1820, aged (4 ?)3 years. "... is the . . . God." " His glorious plans will all be known above, Here we ca . . . may trust his love. Farewell, dear Child, we hope ere long to meet And bow with rapture at the Saviour's feet." 67. Close to 66, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of William, son of Willm. and Kitty Francis, who departed this life August 26th, 1837, aged 22 years. " Behold, he taketh away. Who can hinder him ? Who will say unto him, what doest thou ? " 68. Close to 67, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of John Francis, who departed this life on the 26th of July, 1851, aged 41 years. " His end was peace." 69. Close to 68, s. from it on a m.u.s. ; w.f.w. In memory of William Francis, who departed this life February 9th, 1848, in the 61st year of his age. Kitty Francis, wife of the above, died January 23rd, 1848, aged 62 years. " We cannot, Lord, thy purpose see, But all is well that's done by thee." 62 to 69 inclusive are fixed together by round iron rods. L. H. CHAMBERS. (To be continued.) ABBOT PASLEW : HIS PLACE OF EXECUTION. Will the site of this gruesome event (1537) never be definitely settled ? The two claim- ants for the locus in quo are Lancaster and Whalley, yet apparently neither can make good its claim. The protagonists for Lan- caster quote Stow's ' Chronicles,' 574 ; Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII., xii. (i.), 630 ; State Papers, Hen. VIII. (Rec. Com.), 3. G. A. Burnaby, Rector. t 1820, Francis, Catherine, Bedford, May 16th, 1820; 14 years. Joseph Gould, Curate of Newton Blossomville, Bucks. . i. 542, and a letter of the Earl of Sussex from Lancaster to Thomas Cromwell, March 11, 1537, with the King's reply, as their j authorities. Prof. Tait supplies these re- I ferences in an article ' On the Religious Houses of Lancashire ' in the ' Victoria History of the County of Lancaster ' (vol. ii. 138), edited by Dr. W. Farrar and Mr. J. Brownbill (1908). The latter also col- laborated with Canon R. N. Billington in publishing a history of St. Peter's, Lancaster (1910), which further endorses this view. On the other hand, the Whalley theory is supported by Whittaker's ' Whalley,' i. 109 (4th ed., 1872), Dugdale's ' Monasti- con,' v. 637 (ed. 1846), Baines's ' Lancas- ter,' iii. 330, and Ainsworth's ' Lancashire Witches.' Surmising that the archives of Lancaster or its Castle would put the question beyond any further futile controversy, I communi- cated with Mr. T. Cann Hughes, M.A., F.S.A., Town Clerk of Lancaster, with the subjoined result : Some years ago, when the Lancaster Pageant was being considered, the question of the con- nexion of Abbot Paslew of Whalley with Lancas- ter was considered. The records of the corpora- tion were then searched without success, and Mr. J. Brownbill, after careful investigation, was un- able to find anything in the Castle Records with respect to the matter. There are none of these documents here now they were removed many years ago to the Record Office, and, so far as I know, no proper calendar of them is in existence. My predecessor, the late Mr. Roper, always said that Paslew was convicted here but executed before the gate of his Abbey at Whalley. I think you wUl find this in the book which he con- tributed to the Chetham Society before his death. I have long made Mr. Roper's view my own, based on the local tradition, voiced by Ainsworth and still existing in Whalley, and on the absence of documentary proof to the contrary in the Lancaster Records. Besides, to me it is passing strange that (a matter of history) Monk Hay dock, of the Whalley community, who was tried at the same time with his Abbot at Lancaster, was sent to Whalley for execution on March 12 or 13. If one, why not the other ? A correspondent to The Manchester City News of Aug. 25, 1917, more ingeniously than likely, suggested that the conflicting statements of historians as to the execution of the last Abbot of Whalley can be re- conciled if we may safely assume that Paslew was executed at Lancaster on March 10, and his body sent to Whalley and (in the barbarous fashion of the times) there gibbeted two days later. The subsequent burial of the Abbot in the Parish Church of Whalley serves to support this reading.
 * 1848, Thomas Francis, St. Peter's, April 16 ;