Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/29

 12 S. V. JAN., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Some well-illustrated information on the j subject of merchant marks is given in a paper read in October, 1915, by Mr. Arbuth- not Murray, and published in the Proceedings of the R. W. Masters and Past Masters Association, under the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland. Another source of information which might prove useful is ' The Lost Language of Symbolism,' by Harold Bayley (Williams & Norgate, 1912).

Is the querist satisfied that the mark is a "merchant's mark," and not one of the innumerable symbolical devices used in other connexions ? A description of it would perhaps help in deciding the point. ARTHUR BOWES.

Nevrton-le-Willows, Lanes.

Two papers on the subject of merchant marks have been read before the Clifton Antiquarian Society : one is printed in vol. iii. pp. 1 to 4, and the other in vol. vii. pp. 97 to 194. I have not read them, but merely made a note that they are to be found there. If your contributor cares to send me a wax impression or a drawing of his ring, I will try to identify it for him at the Bristol Reference Library.

WM. SAISIGAR.

205 Avon Vale Road, Barton Hill, Bristol.

REV. SIR ROBERT PEAT (12 S. iv. 303). Canon Mgr. A. Mifsud in his book * The Venerable Tongue of England in Malta " (Malta, 1914), at pp. 288-9, writes as follows :

" Queen Victoria, by her charter of the 14th May 1888, created an Order of St. John of Jerusalem analogous to, but independent of, the ancient Order of St. John of Jerusalem called ' of Malta,' and without any connexion with, or dependency on, the same. This new creation has been held by some to constitute a re-integration of the old ' Tongue of England.' The negotiations under- taken by French Knights of the Order, in 1814 for the revival of the Tongue of England are supposed to link this modern institution with the old one."

Then in a note Canon Mifsud refers to R. Bigsby's ' Memoir of the Order ' (Derby 1869), and to ' The Order of the Hospital of -St. John of Jerusalem ' (London, 1902), by W. M. R. Bedford and R. Holbeche. He goes on :

" In support of this contention the following points are set forth : that a convention, based on articles drawn up for the purpose on the llth June

1826, and on the 24th August and 15th October

1827, was entered ; that an alleged formal recog' nit ion of the re-established Tongue took place on 24th January, 1831, when Sir Robert Peat Chaplain extraordinary to H.M. George IV., an< the holder of a Rectory in Middlesex, installec himself as Grand Prior of the Tongue of Englanc

in the presence of the Chevalier Philip Chastelairt and of Mr. Donald Currie, who, by instrument ssued by the French Knights on the 14th Decem- )er, 1827, had been deputed to inaugurate the nstallation. It is a fact that the said Sir Robert Peat, on 24th February, 1834, deemed it his duty

present himself in one of the Chanceries of the- Royal Courts to take the oath of administration

of the Grand Priory, notwithstanding that his case did not appear to be contemplated by the Statute^ of George IV. c. 17 prescribing oaths of office, and. much less was such procedure in any way required yy the Statute of Philip and Mary invoked by him. Mr. Cecil Lorr [Torr], in a communication to The- Athenccum, No. 3267 of 7th June, 1890, has proved ihat these contentions were untenable."

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

From obituary notices in The Gentle- man's Magazine for August, 1837, and Rev, Robert Peat had no English title, and took the style of " Sir " from permission, given him by George III. to wear the Polish decoration. Rector of Ashley- cum -Silverley and Vicar of Kirtling, co. Cambridge, he was at some time chaplain to, and in the confidence of, the Prince Regent, who pro- cured him the living of New Brentford, where he died, April 20, 1837, aged 65. He was author of a published sermon on the Thanksgiving Day for the Peace, 1814, and is erroneously referred to in a work pub- lished in his lifetime as a baronet. His name is not in the knights' lists, and he* was never " Prior of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem " ; he became an ordinary member of that Order on Nov. 1 1 r 1830. W. B. H.
 * The Annual Register,' it appears that the-

In 1801 the Rev. Robert Peat, D.D.,, was chaplain to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales

1 find him so described in the records of a* Masonic lodge which he joined in that year. Ho was knighted, probably, before 1808,, as, I think, he is called Sir Robert Peat in the lodge records of that year, but I have no note on the point.

C. W. FIREBBACE, Capt.

In Mr. H. W. Fincham's ' History of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England * the name of Sir Robert Peat appears firt t on the list of " the Grand Priors " after the revival of the Order in England ; and it is there noted that he " took the oath De ficlele administratione " before the Lord Chief Justice of England on Feb. 24, 1834, having been elected Grand Prior at a Chapter General of the English Langue held in January, 1831.

Sir Robert died April 21, 1837, aged 66 years, according to an inscription printed