Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/257

 12 S. VIII. MARCH 12, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 207 back as 1435. In 1475 he was Sheriff of Sussex, and from 1480 till the day of his death he was with his brother on the Com- mission of the Peace. From 1461 the entries in the Patent Rolls /become numerous ; but there was at least one other John Wood who was a prominent figure at this time, and in a brief note there is not space to discuss or even to record the doubtful grants. When Parliament met in 1482, John Wood was chosen Speaker, and on the rising of the House, he and William 'Catesby were knighted at one time by King Edward IV. (Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 293, p. 208). It seems probable that it was this John Wood who was appointed Master of the King's Ordnance in February, 1463, of the Exchequer and Mint in October, 1468 ; for in 1482 he was Under Treasurer of Eng- land, an appointment to which the other offices may well have paved the way. Sir John was evidently a Yorkist, since his advancement began with the accession of Edward IV. in 1461, and his abilities and opinions seem to have recommended him Iboth to that monarch and to Richard III. In May, 1483, he was appointed Treasurer of England, and in the following July, at the outset of Richard's reign, the appoint- ment was confirmed. In April, 1484, he was made a Commissioner of the Admiralty bury, Constable of the Tower, became joint Vice-Admirals of England. He did not live to see the ruin of the cause 'he had embraced, for he died, childless, in the full tide of his success on Aug. 20, 1484, -one year and two days before the battle of Bosworth. He left a widow, Margery, sister of Thomas, and aunt of Sir Roger Lewkenore, who enjoyed a life-interest in his Manor of Rivershall, in Boxsted, co. Essex. She married, as her second husband, "Thomas Garth, esquire, and died on Nov. 20, 1502 (Calendar of Inquisitions, Hen. VII., vol. i. 278, and vol. ii. 629). Thomas Wood of Pulborough died before ihis more distinguished brother, leaving 'three daughters only, of whom, Elizabeth, the eldest, married Edmund Dawtrey of Petworth, and Joan married John Exham, while Margaret, the youngest, in 1488, at the age of 30, was still single. Sir John, by ihis will, left Rivershall to his wife and their joint issue, with remainder, first, to his brother, John Wood the younger, and liis Iheire and, secondly, in default of such heirs, tto "Isabel" (Elizabeth) Dawtrey, But John Wood, the younger, died childless Oct. 4, 1485, seventeen years before his sister-in-law, Margery Garth ; so, presumably at her death, the Manor passed to the Dawtreys. Sir John's arms, which may be found at the British Museum among those of the Treasurers of England (Stowe MS. 698, p. 11) were, Gules, a lion rampant, tail forked, argent. Curiously enough, Thomas of Pulborough seems to have obtained a separate grant, for the Dawtreys quarter another W T ood coat, Azure, three martlets argent, armed and beaked or. In their pedigree it is stated that the wife of Thomas Wood (whom they call, unjustifiably I believe, "Sir Thomas") was a Rivers. W r as she a Rivers of Rivers-hall in Essex ? ('Visitation of Hampshire,' Harl. Soc., vol. Ixiv.) The following documents would throw further light on the history of the family : Early Chancery Proceedings, bundle 41, no. 35, Wode v. Leukenor ; bundle 138, nos. 34 and 35, Garth v. Threle ; bundle 305, no. 59, Exham v. Dawtrey. (Sir John's contemporary, Sir Thomas Wood, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, seems to have belonged to the Devonshire family.) F. LESLIE WOOD. 17 Girdlers Road, W.14. FUNERAL CAKE. Mention of " funeral cake" at ante, p. 129, suggests the record in ' N. & Q.' of a description in F oik-Lore, xxviii. 305-6, of a " bag," formed by folded paper, used to hold funeral biscuits prepared for mourners. The " bag," of which very few examples can exist, has passed through my hands, and is now in the Pitt -Rivers Museum, Oxford. ROLAND AUSTIN. CHARLES DICKENS AT HAZEBROUCK. MR. F. H. CHEETHAM'S interesting account (see ante, pp. 121, 143) may remind us that some aspects of Hazebrouck have been immortalized in English literature. It was in the top story of the Hotel de Ville that Charles Dickens witnessed that wonderful performance of ' La Famille P. Salcy, com- posee d' artistes dramatiques, au nombre de 15 sujets,' and it was at a fete in the Grand' Place that he saw the Face-Maker, all whose efforts to disguise himself had " the effect of rendering him rather more like himself than he was at first." MR. CHEET- HAM'S list of Flemish surnames is well illustrated by Dickens' s playful argument for stopping at the town : " I can't pronounce
 * and was granted the office of the custody
 * and at the same time he and Robert Bracken -