Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/263

 12 S. VIII. MAKCH 12, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 213 being a stereotyped form, which may have come down from the middle ages, as it contained references to tournaments and jousting-comrades. I had no time to copy the original, but the most important clause began thus, by my translation : " We therefore elevate and promote, out of the plenitude of our royal sovereign power, the afore- said .... together with the heirs of his body and descendants of either sex already begotten and in the future to be begotten in lawful wedlock, in descending line, hereby and in virtue hereof, to the rank and degree of the nobility," &c. Here again it might be argued that if any female descendant of the grantee were to marry a roturier, their issue and descendants would be ennobled ; but is this credible ? The same wide remainder is attached to the further privileges contained in the same patent, of which I would call special atten- tion to the grant of armorial bearings : " We have granted to. . . .and to the heirs of his body and his descendants already begotten and in the future to be begotten in lawful wedlock, of male and female sex, the arms and insignia hereafter described." If this be taken in its fullest sense, it would mean that every family descended from the grantee's daughters or other female de- scendants would have the right to bear the arms granted to him, although not repre- senting him in any way ; which would reduce heraldry to chaos. It seems to me therefore that the re- mainders in this patent (apparently a stock form) must be understood in the limited sense supported by Dr. Round for the Arimdell patent ; and that this in turn strongly supports his interpretation of that patent. Further, I would suggest that the wording of the Arundell patent, instead of being something rare and strange, is pro- bably the regular formula for such creations. I doubt whether the interpretation accepted by A. A. A. would ever have occurred to the Imperial authorities, for such a theory <>f wholesale descent through females would, I should think, be alien from the German mind. But I make this suggestion with due caution, as I have never been in Germany, have never had any German friends, arid have not a wide acquaintance with German literature. In his article cited above, Dr. Round deals with a similar title conferred in 1759 on Horace Paul (grandson of Samuel Paul, Invwer, of Millbank), whose mother sub- sequently (1768) obtained an Act of Parlia- ment to change the name to "St. Paul." The family also adopted the arms of "the- mighty house of Luxembourg," one branch of which had held the comte of St. Paul or St. Pol ; although it seems doubtful, whether the Pauls took these arms direct from the Luxembourgs, or from an English family of St. Paul which had appropriated them long before. This title presumably became extinct on the death of the last male descendant of the grantee, although the daughter (d. 1901) of the last Graf would of course have been entitled to style herself Grdfin, just as the daughter of an English earl would be styled Lady. On the alternative theory all de- scendants of all the ladies of the family would be entitled to style themselves Graf or Grdfin (which, I suggest, are the correct translations of Comes and Comitissa in an. Austro -German patent). In which case it is to be hoped that the beatified Pauls did not produce so many "aunt's sisters" as Little Lord Fauntleroy's family. G. H. WHITE. 23 Weighton Boad, Anerley. A. A. A. ends his account of the Patent granted by the Emperor Rudolph to the first Lord Arundell of Wardour by saying- "I shall be glad to hear of any other Patents of this dignity." I do not know whether there are many other such, but there is at least one which bears a striking similarity to it. The- original is among my family possessions, and by Royal command has been registered in the College of Arms. It was granted by the- Emperor Francis I. on July, 20, 1759 to Horace St. Paul, an English volunteer during the Seven Years' War, who was A.D.O. and Colonel of Cavalry in the Austrian Army. The following translation of a part of the- Latin diploma bears a notable resemblance to that granted by the Emperor Rudolph. " We, of Our own free will, with complete knowledge and clear deliberation and in the plentitude of our Csesarean power, do create delare and nominate the aforesaid Horatius PaulA of St. Paul of Byram, and all his children and legitimate descendants of both sexes, as Our Counts, and Counts of the Sacred Roman Empire ; and We decorate and adcrn them with the title,, honour, and dignity of Counts or of Countship ; and we enrol and place them in the number,, company, and assemblage, of the other Counts of the Sacred Roman Empire : decreeing and by this our Csesarean Edict ordaining that the said Horatius Paul of Saint Paul of Byram and all his children and legitimate descendants of both, sexes, for all time hereafter, shall use the title, both in writing and in speech, of Counts of the