Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/598

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. DEC. is, 1920.

correct in saying that among them there were no such persecutions, at least (if at all) until their junction with the later colony, of which the fanatic Endicot was Governor. I speak diffidently, not having authorities at hand, but such is my strong impression, and it seems but fair to the Pilgrim Fathers, properly so called, that the fact, if it is one, should be recorded here. C. C. B.

The contribution of M. N. is particularly acceptable to me and I should be greatly obliged if he would kindly supply his authorities for the cases he mentions. If any reader could state where further reliable information relative to cases of oppression and persecution by Pilgrim Fathers could be found he would have my ^hanks.

STUDENT.

GENTLEMEN USHERS OF THE BLACK ROD TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS (12 S. vii. 429). For Sir Wm. Sanderson and his pedigree see Wotton's ' English Baronetage,' vol. iv. p. 199; Le Neve's 'Catalogue of Knights,' printed by the Harleian Society ; Burke 's 'Extinct Baronetcies'; Drake's 'History of the Hundred of Blackheath.' If Sir WILLIAM PULTENEY requires further in- formation to that which he will find in the above references, and will let me know, I shall be pleased to help him as I have worked out a pedigree of the family from Wills, monumental inscriptions, Chancery proceedings, church registers, &c. By the death of his grandson, " a promising youth," on Oct. 30, 1760, the title became extinct. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

" CRASPESIORUM " (12 S vii. 430). Du- <3ange gives " Craspicis " :

" Qui alias piscis crassus Gallis et Anglis dicitur sicut Balaena, et ad regem peculiar! jure pertinet, unde piscis reyius vulgo dictus-"

In Wright's ' Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English ' is " Craspie a whale or grampus. ' ' So craspicis was ' ' a large fish. ' ' " Grampus " has the same sense, being de- rived through the Italian gram pesce or the Spanish gran pez from the Latin grandis piscis. The form "grampasse" is found as late as 1655.

The word "whale " by which Balaena is generally translated into English, meant originally any large fish whale, grampus, porpoise, etc. It is so used to translate Kfjros (St. Matt. xii. 40) in the A.V. and Rheims edition of the New Testament. In the parallel passage, Jonah ii. 1, the Hebrew

has dog gadhol (great fish), the Septuagint Krjrosj and the Vulgate piscis grandis.

In England the fish with which we associate the epithet " royal " is the sturgeon. Was it included in the term "craspicis " ? By an Act of Parliament, passed in the reign of Edward II., the sturgeon is a royal fish belonging to the Sovereign except where is has been granted by Charter to certain Corporations, as at Boston in Lincolnshire. RORY FLETCHER.

5 Hillside Road, Streathara Hill.

Probably the "crassus piscis" or "eras- pice." Dr. Round writes that :

"It is known from the 'Instituta Londoniae' that, so far back as the days of Aethelred, the men of Rouen had traded to London, bringing in their ships the wines of France, as well as that mysterious 'craspice,' which it is the fashion to render ' sturgeon,' although there is reason to believe that the term denoted the porpoise and even the whale." ( Commune of London,' p. 246).

It is mentioned in the Charter of Henry, Duke of the Normans (afterwards Henry II.) to the citizens of Rouen, 1150-1 :

" The men of Rouen who are of the merchant gild shall be quit of all dues at London save for wine and porpoise (crasso pisce)." (Round, 'CaL Docts., France,' No. 109).

It also occurs in a writ of Henry I. ad- dressed to Gilbert de Laigle and William de Tancarville.

"He does not claim any due on the great fish (crasso pisse) captured at Quilleboeuf." 'Ibid, (No. 155).

G. H. WHITE.

23 Weighton Road, Anerley.

FAMILY OF SIR JOHN CHEKE (12 S. vii. 431). His son John was wounded at the siege c f the fort called by the Irish Dun-an- oir, by the Italians, Castel dell' Oro, and by the Spanish invaders, Fuerte del Oro, in Smerwick Bay. The site of this fort is marked on the maps of the present day in mixture of English and Spanish as Fort del ' Oro.

In a letter to the Queen (P.R.O., S.P., Irish Eliz. LXXVIII., No. 29) Arthur, Lord Grey de Wilton, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, describing the events of the siege, coming to Nov. 9, 1580, says :

" No sooner day peeped, but they played very hotly upon us, yett as God would, for a good tyme without hurte, till, unhappily, good John Cheke, too carelessly advauncing himself to looke over the trenche. stricken on the head, tombld down at my feete. "Dead I tooke him, and for so I caused him to be carried away. Yet it pleased God to send him spright agayne, and yet [he] doth live in speacne