Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/412

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 8. vi.

married John Lambert sometime after 1571. John Lambert did not long live to enjoy his new house, for he died between March 1579, and January 1581 and left it to his son Lionel Lambert. Blanche, afterwards married Thomas Skinner, alderman of Lon- don, and she died as his widow 24 April 1593. Her ' Inquis. post mortem ' was taken at the Guildhall on the 26th June following, and one of the jurors was William Crowche. I shall be pleased to give your correspondent any further information.

CHAS. HALL CROUCH. 204 Hermon Hill, South Woodford.

GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN TITLES RELIN- QUISHED (12 S. vi. 248). I can with con- fidence, and after enquiry, contradict the statement in the letter signed " CURIOUS " at the above reference.

There it is stated that the late King Edward granted a warrant to a Saxe-Coburg baron giving him precedence over all the barons of Great Britain. This King Edward neither could nor would have done ; at any rate, it would have provoked a Runnymede. Nothing less than the production of this warrant would ever make me believe in so extravagant a statement. BARON.

WAGGON MASTER (12 S. vi. 294). On July 25, 1683 (Charles II.), a Royal Warrant was issued (Public Record Office, W.O. 55 / 1790) with " Instructions for the Govern- ment of our Office of Ordinance under our Master-General thereof, committed to five 'Principal ' Officers."

The "Instructions" set forth in minute detail the duties of these officers, " likewise of each inferior officer, minister, and atten- dant thereunto belonging."

Amongst the latter we find " Waggon Master to the Office of the Ordnance, his duty " :

" Hee is to take the Charge, Care and Oversight as well of the Waggons and Carriages for the Necessary Services of Us. Our Royall Consort, and the Officers of Our Court, attending Us in our Severall Progresses, As for the use of Our Office of the Ordnance and Trayne of Artillery, And to provide that they be kept in good Repaire, and fitt to be Employed upon all Occasions in Our respective Services before mentioned, by representing timely such Defects as shall happen to any of them, to the Surveyor of our Ordnance or the rest of Our Principall Officers that care may be taken for their Amendment.

" When the Trayne of Artillery Marches He is to looke to all the Waggons, Carts and Carriages thereto belonging and of the Drivers and Carters to Order the Loads and Marches of the Waggons and Carts, and to see that the Conductors ap-

pointed to Attend the said Waggons of Ammuni- tion, and Carriages of Stores, doe their Duty.

" Hee is to see good Order both in the Marching- and Lodgeing of the Waggons Carts and Carriages- that they cloy not up the waves nor hinder- one another in Marching, and to Provide that the Carters, Wheelwrights, Carpenters, Smyths and- such other Artificers as ought to Attend them doe Suddenly Repaire and Amend any Waggon, Cart or Carriage that shall happen to breake or- receave any Damage in Marching.

" Lastly hee is Carefully to Forecast that there be nothing wanting concerning his Charge- when the Trayne of Artillery shall be Ordered, to march or if there be any want, hee is to acquaint the Master Generall of Our Ordnance, or Lieute- nant Generall, and the rest of Our Principall Officers therewith, and to have Order for Re- dresse."

J. H. LESLIE, Lieut. -Col.

In Grose's 'Military Antiquities (1801) ' is given an account of the carriage master- general or waggon master. It appears that he goes back to the Romans where he was called impedimentorwn magister, the master of the " impediments or hinderances " in the wars

" for it is true, that from nicenesse and curiosity first grew the foundation of this office ; he hath supream authority over all waggons, carriages,, sledds and the like, and foreseeth that they march, orderly, without cloying up the high waies, or doing foule annoyance one to the other in their marches, with a world of other observations which.

are too long to recite in that place This baggage

master general is allowed to have two lieutenants,. and he [the baggage master] is constantly to be- there where the general of the army and train, of artillery either marcheth or quartereth."

The ' Pallas Armata ' and Markham's ' Soldier's Grammar ' are also quoted. In the ' Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding (1643-1660) ' many records of payments to Thomas Richardson, waggon master, will be found.. ARCHIBALD SPARKE..

PARLIAMENTARY BLUE BOOKS, WHITE- PAPERS, &c. (12 S. v. 41). As I believe no answer to this enquiry of mine has appeared in your columns, may I be allowed to say that I have since obtained the information throxigh the kindness of the authors of those valuable books, 'The Village Labourer,' ' The Town Labourer ' and the ' Skilled Labourer 1760-1832,' whose statements are- authenticated by copious references to- these sources as well as other authorities.

They kindly inform me that " a full series, and an index " to ' Reports of Parliamentary Committees and Commissions ' are to be found at the Newspaper Reading- Room ot the British Museum. W. S. B. H^