Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/51

 12 S. IV. FEB., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

45

Whatever faults or weaknesses General Grant may have had, he had in his own country an unquestioned reputation for reticence and modesty.

CHARLES E. STRATTON.

70 State Street, Boston, Mass.

" ME. BASSET " OF HELPERLY. On May 23, 1687, Samuel Gerard of the parish of St. Ann, Westminster, esquire, aged 23 and a widower, took out a licence at the office of the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury to marry Elizabeth Spencer of the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, aged 22 and a spinster, daughter of Lady Jane Spencer.

The bridegroom was grandson of Bishop Cosin, brother of Sir Gilbert Cosin Gerard, Bart., and was himself subsequently knighted. He was of Brafferton and Helperly, near Boroughbridge, which pro- perty circa 1695 he devised to his wife Dame Elizabeth Gerard.

She married secondly " Mr. Basset," who thus " became intitled to the greatest part of the Bishop's estate," and " thought fitt, for preventing disputes which might arise about his estate, to direct that all the bishop's writeings should be then burnt. . . . there were eight or nine large chests of writeings," including the original grants belonging to the see of Durham.

The present writer wishes to identify " Mr. Basset " and his wife Dame Elizabeth Gerard, and to obtain the dates of the respective deaths, &c. j a HODGSON.

Alnwick.

LINDIS RIVER. Leland in his ' Itinerary,' commenced 1538, applies to the river Witham between Lincoln and Boston the names Lindis, Rhe or Ree, and Aye in the following passages :

" Lindis from thens [Lincoln] as from West South West tendith."

" The curse of Lindis Ryver from Lincoln to Boston a 50 miles."

" There be no Bridges on Lindis river."

" There be 4 common places named as ferys apon the water of Lindis."

" The ryver of Lindis fleatith a little above Lincoln towne." I. fol. 32. He also writes of part of the city as " trans Lindim flu."

" Tatershale upon Bane river ; and the Aye or Rhe, a greate River, is about a mile of."

' A great brpoke ca wiled Bane renneth ynto the Ree alias Lindis, the which divideth Lindesey from Kesteney [Kesteven]."

" The Bek runneth into the great Rhe of Lindis is cawllid Panton Bek." VII. fol. 51.

In the margin is, " Lindis. It ebbith and floweth within a little of Dogdyke Fery."

Leland had been commissioned by King Henry VIII. to travel and collect what related to antiquity, therefore these names are probably what he heard in use locally, and not a derivation of his own to agree with, or account for, the district of Lindesey.

The names Lindis and Rhee are dealt with in ' British Place-Names in their Historical Setting,' by E. McClure, p. 171n., and the latter is considered to have been a general name for stream, but no other instance of the application of either to the Witham is quoted. Aye was probably the A.-S. ea= river. Can any one give from records any other instance of this use of the names ?

ALFRED WELBY, Lieut .-Col.

18 Chester Street, S.W.I.

FIRST EARL OF MARLBOROUGH'S POR- TRAIT. In the exhibition of portraits be- longing to the Harington family which is now on view at Bath there is one which represents an old gentleman hold- ing in his right hand a document bear- ing the date of Jan. 15, 1627, in Latin. The label underneath it says that the subject is James Ley, the first>Earl of Marlborough, who died in 1629 ; and that the painter was Paul van Somer, dead in 1621. Dr. G. C. Williamson's revised edi- tion of ' Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers ' (London, 1904), though it gives a list of the portraits done by this artist, makes no mention of that of the said earl. The date 1627 would suit the latter better than van Somer. How is the discrepancy to be explained ? EDWARD S. DODGSON.

Albert House, Bath.

JOHN MIERS THE PROFILIST. I shall be obliged if any one having portraits painted by this artist of persons who can be identi- fied will kindly send me full particulars and description of the miniatures or silhouettes, so that they can be included in a paper on the profilist which is being prepared for the Miscellanea of the Thoresby Society. I am aware of the notes which have previously appeared in ' N. & Q.' G. D. LUMB.

63 Albion Street, Leeds.

THE LOYAL BROTHERHOOD. Where can I find a fairly full account of an eighteenth- century politico -convivial club which, under the name of the Loyal Brotherhood, met for a number of years at the Crown and Anchor tavern ? This was not the only meeting- place of the members, many of whom belonged to the higher grades of society.

L. R. (2).