Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/510

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. DC. 27, 1902.

of Neuton : 3id. from Ellen (Elena) Streller and Abraham Calfe. Also assigned to her in Holme three acres 1^ roods of arable land nearer the sun (propinquior soli) ; nine acres of meadow in salt and fresh meadows towards the sun ; third part of a toft called Halle Garthe ; third part of two tofts in...rawe Garthe towards the sun; two pastures and a third part of a pasture for oxen in Smerehoke ; one pasture and a third part of a pasture in the Newebreke. Also assigned to her the whole third part of a certain croft called Pethyland in Kayngham towards the sun ; the whole third part of Aide Croft in Oteringham towards the sun, and the third part of a toft in the same town."

It will be seen in this case that the deceased husband had two messuages, one at Doding- ton and the other at Coldon, and that the widow took a third of each. We may be certain that a third of each messuage was measured out to her. As regards the bovates it is fair to suppose that the husband had twenty-four at Dodington and the same number at Coldon, the widow taking eight in each village. Houses (when built in bays) could be divided as easily as so many slices of plum cake.

I have just come across a marriage settle- ment in which '.' one bay of housing " was settled, among other things, on a wife in lieu of her customary dower. In 1617 Edmund Waterhouse, of Swinnock Hall, in the chapelry of Bradfield and county of York, granted a messuage and certain lands at fcswinnock Hall in that chapelry to trustees in trust for himself for life, and then to the heirs of himself and his wife (Helen Hudson) lawfully begotten. If the wife survived the husband, and they had no issue, she was to have

"one bay of housing, with the chimney, being the west end of the .fire house* of the said messuage, with the chamber over the same bay, in lieu and consideration of the rest of the said fire house, and of and in [sic] one moiety of all the rest or the buildings and land, to the use of the said Helen for life. And if the said Edmund and Helen have lawful issue living at the death of Edmund, then Helen is to have the said bay of the said house, the said chimney, and the said chamber over, and one third of the other building3 and lands in full satisfaction of her dower.' f

Apparently this abstract of the settlement is not quite correctly made, and the spelling is modernized. It is sufficient, however, to show that a bay of a husband's dwelling- house, with a divided portion of his land, was regarded as a proper settlement on a

pare " Unam domum yocatam leFirehouse" in a deed of the year 1392 in Greenwell's ' Feodarium Prioratus Dunelm.' (Surtees Society), p. 167.
 * The "fire house" is the dwelling-house. Com-

f Abstract of the original settlement published by the late J. D. Leader in the ' Local Notes and Queries ' of the Sheffield Independent in 1876.

wife. Whether in this Bradfield case the bays of the house were proportioned to the arable land we do not know. But it will be seen that, if a ratio existed, measurement and partition would be made easy. If, for instance, there were three bays of " housing " and eighteen acres of arable land, the heir could take, in the absence of agreement to the contrary, two bays of such "housing" and twelve acres, the widow taking the re- maining bay and the remaining six acres. And a similar division of barns and other buildings and land could be made.

In small houses of one bay such a partition would be impossible. In that case we may suppose that the widow took not a third of that bay, but "fire and fleet" therein. In other words she took the right to use the fire and the floor of the little house during her life. S. O. ADDY.

C.I.V. NICKNAMES.

IF the plentiful receipt of nicknames is an outward and visible sign of popularity and it undoubtedly is then the City of London Imperial Volunteers certainly caught the popular fancy, for their sobriquets are both varied and numerous. Even before their official title was decided upon there came a sheaf of nicknames, generally from the mem- bers of " the fourth estate," who strained their inventive faculties to an unexampled degree.

First of all history, which is usually pro- lific of suggestions, was searched, and an attempt was made to give them the name of "The Clives"; but this did not "catch on." Then Shakespere was turned up and "Falstaffs Regiment" was tried. As the Guildhall was the centre for enrolling and equipping the contingent, "The Gog and Magog Brigade " was a synonym employed for a considerable time in the evening press ; but it had to give way to newer, yet not neces- sarily better names. The predilection of the City fathers for gastronomy suggested they might well be called " The Turtle Soup Contin- gent," or the "Turtle Soupers" for short. These, however, were soon relegated to the limbo pf the forgotten. The deep personal interest evinced by the Lord Mayor of London led to their being called "The Lord Mayor's Own"; but the City claimed that it had a wider possessive interest than even the chief magistrate, so it was promptly christened the man in the street standing sponsor "The City's Own," with such variants as "The Fighting Freemen," " The City Imperials," " The Civilians," and so on, until the rights of Greater London, which