Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/475

 12 s. vn. NOV. is, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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a flagstaff at the stern, while a legend round reads : " Success to the United States of America."

Could any correspondent state what is the origin of this basin, where it was made, and the probable date ? If this is the basin purchased by the Kirk-session in 1771, it must have been made while the disputes were going on between this country and the American Colony ; but prior to the first action between the Americans and the King's troops in April, 1775.

Any light on the subject would be grate- fully received. ALEX THOMS. 7 Playfair Terrace, St. Andrews, Fife.

BEATJCLERC. Quite recently MSS. have been sold which bear evidence that William the Conqueror, his Queen, Matilda, and their son, Henry I. made the signatory mark now associated with the untaught. But Henry was distinguished as "Beauclerc," and it is recorded that he was able to "read and understand a letter doubtless in Latin, which was brought to him from King Philip " (Freeman's 'Norman Conquest,' vol. v. p.; 155), and, that being the case, he was familiar with script, and it is hardly likely that he would not achieve writing on his^lown account. Was the cross-mark always a sign of incapacity to use a pen with facility, or was it a sacred token of the good -faith of the executant ? ST. SWITHIN.

MAYNE AND GRAHAM. Helen Mayne born 1719, sister of Lord Newhaven and daughter of William Mayne of Powis in Logie, co. Clackmannon, married John Graham of Kernock, merchant of Edinburgh (or Glasgow). I shall be glad to know the date of her marriage and death. Her son George is said to have bought Kinross House, co. Kinross, in 1777. ^f j Helen Mayne had two sisters, Barbara and Isabel, who married respectively James and John Duncanson ; the former Collector of Customs at Campleton, and the latter a surgeon at Inverary. I shall be very grate- ful if any one can send me information about them and their children.

H. CUTHBERT BARNARD.

"!N GRAIN." What is the meaning of this term as a style of book-binding, and what is its derivation ? I have a little book,

"The Shipwreck of the Alceste, an English Frigate, in the Straits of Gaspar ; also, the Ship- wreck of the Medusa, a French Frigate, on the Coast of Africa. Dublin : Printed by C. Benthara,

19 Eustace Street. Price bound in sheep Sd. ; in grain Qd. 1820."

At the end of the book- is " Price Eightpence bound. Sixpence grain."

If my copy is, as I think it is, in the original binding, viz., grey paper boards, then apparently "bound in grain" or "grain " meant "bound in paper boards," plus, perhaps, "grey." It would appear- to have no connexion with ' ' in grain (short for dyed in grain) =dyed scarlet or crimson, fast dyed, dyed with any fast dye. See the ' New English ' and ' Century ' Dictionaries. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

WILL PROVED BEFORE BURIAL OF TES- TATOR. Can any reader cite instances of such, and suggest a reason therefore ? GEORGE C. PEACHEY. Ridge, Barnet, Herts.

SMITH OF PETERCULTER. Bartholomew Smith, an Englishman, started a paper mill at Peterculter, Aberdeenshire, on Jan. 1, 1751. He d. Sept. 16, 1758, leaving the business to his son Richard, who m. first Margaret, dau. of John Chancellor Hyde (April, 1753), whose brother Richard Hyde ran a paper mill at Stoneywood in partner- ship with Alexander Smith, possibly another son of Bartholomew, imtil 1773, when Alexander Smith became sole proprietor. Richard appears to have married, as second wife, Martha Reid. He had several chil- dren: Joseph, bapt. Feb. 24, 1754; Ben- jamin, bapt. Dec. 30, 1755; Maria, bapt. Feb. 10, 1760 ; Alexander, born 1770 ; Lewis, bom 1777; Hester, born 1781, d. Sept. 13, 1851 ; Anne (d. Jan. 2, 1841) who m. Alexander Murray of Elm Place, Finchley, Middlesex; and Hannah (d. May 2, 1848), who m. William Dykar, surgeon R.N. (d. June 28, 1830). Lewis Smith carried on the paper works until his death Dec. 13, 1819, when he was succeeded by his son James Smith who disposed of the Peter- culter Mill about 1821, and went into partnership with Mr. William Tullis in a paper mill at Leslie in Fife. Alexander, Richard's son, took holy orders in the Church of Scotland in June, 1800, and became minister of chapel of Garioch in the same year, and d. Jan. 6, 1817. Alexander m. Margaret, dau. of Archibald Simpson, architect in Aberdeen, and had several children of whom Robert became a physician and Francis was accountant in the North of Scotland Bank in Aberdeen. His third son James became minister of Dumbarton, and