Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/63

 12 s. vii. JULY IT, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 47 merely stating " Sir Robert (Winde) sol his lands to the Earl of Northampton in 3d of Charles I." no mention being made of the Hamond family. H. L. BRADFER-LAWRENCE. King's Lynn. THE REV. JOHN ATKINSON : ROBERT ULLEN. Two of the early headmasters o Mill Hill School, London, were the Rev John Atkinson, 1807-10, and Robert Cullen 1828-31. Practically nothing is known o either of these gentlemen. As editor of th< School Register I should be grateful for any information concerning them, and also to be put into communicatioon with any of their descendants or present-day representatives E. HAMPDEN-COOK. " WISDOM MEASURED BY THE LENGTH OF STHE BEARD." Who was the sea-captain who, when some foreign ruler (I think it was the Bey of Tunis) asked why his master had sent him a " beardless boy " as envoy replied, " If my master had measured wisdom by the length of the beard he would have sent your highness a he-goat " ? G. H. J. COVENTRY. In Sir W. L. Clowes's 'History af the British Navy,' vol. iv. p. 77, under the year 1782, it is stated that : " On January 11 th, the British frigate Coventry, 28, Captain William. Wolseley, cruising in the Bay of Bengal, sailed into the midst of a French squadron on the Orissa coast, mistaking it for a fleet of British merchantmen, and was captured." In the same volume a page or two further on, it is related that :- " On August 12 th, the British frigate Coventry, 28, -Captain Andrew Mitchell (1), whilst on her way to join Hughes's squadron of (tic) Ceylon, fell in with the French Bellone of 32 guns, Captain dePiervert. The two closed and fought a desperate but inde- cisive action for two or two and a half hours, early in which the French captain fell. The second and third officers of the Bellone disputed as to the command, and meanwhile the French ship was paralysed. Each side accused the other of retiring ; the British captain alleging that the Bellone was only saved by the arrival of the French fleet. Both ships sustained severe damage and heavy loss." But so far as I have been able to verify, nothing is told us in the book as to what happened to the Coventry between the two episodes. How did she happen to be in the British service again within seven months of her "capture by the French? How, where and when did she manage to escape or to be freed from French custody, and what happened to her captain, Wolseley ? These seem to be lacunce in the work. The escape should be as interesting as the capture. PENRY LEWIS. STATUETTE OF SHAKESPEARE. I have a statuette of Shakespeare which is a reduction in marble of the statue by Roubiliac which stands in the British Museum entrance hall. Tradition says it was presented by Warren Hastings to his friend John Shakespear. Can any one oblige me by giving me a hint as to where to search for information as to when the reduction was made and for proof of the truth or the reverse of the tradition. JOHN SHAKESPEAR. MANOR OF CHURCHILL, OXON. Are the Court Rolls of this Manor in existence, and if so where are they ? I have found two membranes in the Record Office, temp. Edward VI., when the manor was vested in the Crown, but nothing since. I have not traced the descent of the manor, but since that time it has been held by the following families : Barantyne, Morecroft, Copland, from whom it was purchased by the Walters of Sarsden in 1689. These sold it towards the end of the eighteenth century to the Langstons, ancestors of the present proprietor. E. ST. JOHN BROOKS. KASPAR HAUSER LEGEND. Has any his- torical proof ever been arrived at, that the above-named unfortunate youth, who was murdered in 1833, was the son of Stephanie de Beauharnais (cousin to the Empress Josephine), and the rightful heir to the Prince of Baden ? Authorities on the subject would oblige. FREDK. C/ WHITE. 14 Esplanade, Lowestoft. WILLIAM DE Eu. Some years ago there was some controversy as to whether the William Eu (or Owe) mentioned in Domesday is holding lands in several of the southern ounties in England, was or was not iden- ical with Count William de Eu. I have in ny mind an account of ' The Counts of Eu,' by Mr. E. C. Waters which appeared in the Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal for 1886, vol. ix. pp. 257-301, in onnexion with the Honour of Tickhill, where he seems to prove that they were eparate persons. There were also remarks oy the Rev. R. W. Eyton in his ' Keys to Domesday ' for Dorset in 1878, and for
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