Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/362

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. NOV. i, 1902.

between the Schaws of Ganoway, co. Down, and the Shaws of Gospetry, in the county of Kinross. I have recently ascertained that Frederick Bridges Schaw acquired the estate of Weston in Surrey as heir-at-law of his father Dr. Wm. Schaw, and left it to his eldest son Frederick David Schaw. He (Frederick David) had two brothers, and all were by a second marriage. These facts may be helpful in eliciting further information as to descendants of Frederick Bridges Schaw. WM. CRAWFORD.

" YEOMAN " (9 th S. x. 204). Doubtless COMESTOR OXONIENSIS is right as to the " very general agreement among English scholars " (if he intends by that phrase " scholars of Anglistic") that this word is derived from an unrecorded O.E. geamanSiS against the other three derivations mentioned with it in the 'Century Dictionary.' His attention may, however, be drawn to a note by Sir George R. Sitwell at p. 62 of the April number of the Ancestor, and the evidence there adduced in favour of the young man theory. It may be noted that Sir George does not quote the pertinent passage which constitutes chap. ii. of the ' Constitutiones de Foresta ' ( = 'Cnut's Gesetze,' III. ii. in Schmid, ' Die Gesetze der Arigelsachsen,' 1858, p. 318) :

" Sint sub quolibet horum [*c. liberaliorum homi- nuni (quos Angli \>eyenas appellant), c. 1] quatuor ex mediocribus hominibus (quos Angli t(vs-\>egnas nuncupant, Dani verpyoong men vocant) locati, qui curam et onus tum viridis turn veneris suscipiant."

Nor does he quote the first instance of the word in the statute-book, the Act 37 Edw. III., c. 9 (1363), which hardly supports his theory that " yeoman was a designation which at first expressed military rank " :

"Item qe gentz de meistere, dartifice, & de office appelle Yomen, ne ne preignent ne usent drappe de plus haut pris, pur lour vesture ou chaceure [.sic: chauceure 'Rot. Parl.'] qe deinz qarant soldz le drappe entier, par voie dacate nautrement; ne perry [xic : perree ' Rot. Ordinacionum '], drappe de soy ne dargent, ue ceynture, cotel, fermaille, anel, garter, nouches, rubaignes, cheines, bendes, sealx, nautres choses dor ne dargent, ne nule manere dapparaille embraudez, eymelez ne de seie par nule voie ; & qe lour femmes filles & enfantz soient de mesme la condicion en lour vesture & apparaille ; & qe eles ne usent nul veille de sey mes soulement de file face deinz le Roialnie, ne nul manere de pelure, ne de boge, mes soulement de aignell, Conyng, chat & gopil.

"C. 10 Item qe esquiers & toutes maneres de gentils gentz desouth lestat de Chivaler, qe nont terre ou rent a la value de Cent livres par an, ne

preignent ne usent drappe de plus haut pris qe

deinz le pris de qatre mars & demy," &c.

From this it appears clear that yomen were very distinctly inferior in rank to gentils gentz, I have no wish, nor am I competent,

to enter on the phonological arguments about the word. But I may be allowed to point out that Mr. Bradley's edition of Stratmann seems to favour the view stated by Sir George Sitwell.

The ' Dictionary of Political Economy,' edited by Mr. R. H. Inglis Palgrave, deals very effectively with the status of the yeoman. But his primary authority is Fitzherbert in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, when the word seems to have been the virtual equivalent of "forty-shilling freeholder."

The earlier history of both word and thing deserves, I venture to think, a fuller and more careful investigation. Q. V.

CHILDREN HANGED (9 th S. viii. 243, 328). In 6 th S. iii 313 is given an instance, unnoted at these later references, of a boy having been hanged in 1812 at the age of twelve, that being Abraham Charlesworth, at Lan- caster, for participating in a riot, in the course of which a factory was burned. There is also on the same page a quotation from Blackstone, showing that our judges were once unanimous in sending a boy of ten years old to the gallows. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

" Quiz," JUNIOR (9 th S. x. 247}. In ' Dickens Memento,' with introduction by Francis Phillimore, and ' Hints to Dickens Collectors, by John F. Dexter, I find the following by Mr. Dexter, at p. 16 :

" ' Sketches of Young Gentlemen,' published by Chapman & Hall, 1838, with six illustrations by Phiz, written by Dickens, as an indignant remon- strance against the 'Sketches of Young Ladies' (which was written, I believe, by one of the Brothers Mayhew). It was not acknowledged by Dickens at the time," &c.

" There were several editions of the ' Young Gentlemen' in 1838, all in thick boards with a

woodcut on the green wrapper designed by Phiz

A plagiarism of this book was published under the title of 'Characteristic Sketches of Young Gentle- men,' by Quiz, Junior, with woodcut illustrations, probably by Robert Cruikshank. It was published by W. Kidd, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, N.D., as the companion to 'Sketches of Young Ladies,' thin fcp. 8vo, brown cloth."

This plagiarism is clearly the book referred to by XYLOGRAPHER. It has a frontispiece and a small head and tail piece in the manner of Robert Cruikshank (the elder brother of George), and there can be no doubt that they are by him, although in his biography in the 'D.N.B.' they are not mentioned as they are of so slight a character. The name of "Quiz," Junior, was adopted because the ' Sketches of Young Ladies' was by "Quiz." The ' Sketches of Young Ladies has six excellent illustrations by Phiz, and is dated 1837. Kitton, in his ' Dickens and his Illus-