Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/69

12 s. ix. JULY i-6, io2i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 51 —George Monson was admitted to Westminster School in. Oct., 1734, aged 13, Henry Monson in April, 1737, aged 8, and Philip Monson in May, 1717, aged 14. Can any correspondent of 'N. & Q.' assist me in the identification of these Monsons?

PRINCESS ELIZABETH, " REFIXED INTRI- GANTE." Mr. Walter Sichel, in his excel- lent Life of Emma Lady Hamilton, 1905, 2nd ed., remarks of the above-named in a note on p. 24 : This extraordinary woman claimed (and per- haps rightly) to be the Czarina's daughter by Count Rasoumowski. After an education in Persia, and many wanderings, she appealed to the aid of the Sultan, besought Hamilton's assistance at Naples and was betrayed by the Russian Minister Orloff to the Court of St. Petersburg, where she languished a prisoner till she died. Can any reader suggest where further details may be obtained ? FREDK. C. WHITE. " A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO." Who was the original author of the old doggerel, A frog he would a-wooing go, and of whom was it written ? King Charles was always called " Old Rowley " because of his likeness to a frog. Alluding to the doggerel verse, can anyone say where the whole poem may be found or give any interesting items about it ? A LANCASHIRE WITCH. [There was a correspondence on this subject in the earliest days of ' N. & Q.,' initiated by a query at 1 S. i. 401. We give below two of the replies, which appeared at 1 S. ii. 74 (June 29, 1850) : Your Sexagenarian who dates from " Shooter's Hill," has not hit the mark when he suggests that Anna Bouleyn's marriage with Henry VIII. (in the teeth of the Church) is the hidden mystery of the popular old song : " Sir Frog he would a-wooing go Whether his mother was willing or no." That some courtship in the history of the British monarchy, leaving a deep impression on the public mind, gave rise to this generally diffused ballad, is exceedingly probable ; but the style and wording of the song are evi- dently of a period much later than the age of Henry VIII. Might not the mod-cap adventure of Prince Charles with Buckingham into Spain, to woo the Infanta, be its real origin ? " Heigho ! for Antony Rowley " is the chorus. Now " Old Rowley " was a pet name for Charles the Second, as any reader of the Waverley Novels must recollect. No event was more likely to be talked about and sung about at the time, the adventurous nature of the trip being peculiarly adapted to the balladmonger. FRANCIS MAHONY. Your correspondent T. S. D. is certainly right in his notion that the ballad of "A Frog he would a-wooing go " is very old, however fanciful may be his conjecture about its personal or political application to Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. That it could not refer to " the Cavaliers and the Roundheads," another of T. S. D.'s notions, is clear from the fact that it was entered at Stationers' Hall hi November, 1581, as ap- pears by the quotation made by Mr. Payne Collier, in his second volume of " Extracts " printed for the Shakespeare Society last year. It runs thus : " Edward White. Lycensed unto him, Jec., theis iiij. ballads folio winge, that is to saie, A moste strange weddinge of the irogge and the mowse," &c. Upon this entry Mr. Collier makes this note : " The ballad can hardly be any other than the still well-known comic song. ' A Frog he would a-wooing go.' " It may have been even older than 1581 when Edward White entered it ; for it is possible that it was then only a reprint of an earlier production. I, like Mr. Collier, have heard it sung " in our theatres and streets," and, like T. S. D., always fancied that it was ancient. THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.] PRICE FAMILY : MARRIAGE ALLEGATION BONDS, DIOCESE OF BATH AND WELLS. John Price, Rector of Priston, and Emma Catherall of Englishcombe, spinster, aged 28, at Farmborough, Bath, Priston, Bath, Dunkerton, Bath, or Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Bath, Jan. 8, 1724-5. To what family of Price did he belong ? Any information will be gratefully received. LEONARD C. PRICE. Essex Lodge, Ewell. SIGNS USED IN PLACE or SIGNATURES. Chapter vi. of Erredge's ' History of Bright - helmston ' gives some account of ' The Book of all the Auncient Customs,' dated 1580. This " book " is signed by some of the principal inhabitants, most of whom, how- ever, do not write their own names but affix a mark. These marks, sever ty- three in number, are shown on p. 38 of Erredge's book. He says it has been conjectured that the signs refer to the trade or occupa- tion of the persons using them ; but if this were the case, instead of being all different the same signs would surely recur frequently, especially at Brighton, where so large a
 * ' Heigho ! " said Anthony Rowley;