Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/213

 XL MARCH 14, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

205

THE CROKE EPITAPH AT MARSTON. With- out inquiring whether the mural epitaph of the Carlist family of Croke, existing on the north wall in the chancel of Marston Church, near Oxford, has been published anywhere already, two points in it may be deemed to be of sufficient interest to be noted in these pages. The first part of it records the death of Richard Croke, "Equitis," in 1683, and refers to him as " Vtrique Carplo dilectissimi, Deo et Religioni ver Catholicse semper de- votissimi." Here it is to be remarked that the description of the very exclusive Angli- canism then in fashion as " the truly Catholic religion " might have been penned by one of the Tractarian divines 150 years later. The second part commemorates the son of Sir Richard, i.e., Wright Croke, "Armiger," "qui ex hac vita discessit 47 Ail : ^Etat : lun : 7 th 1705." In this the use of English th in- stead of the Latin of septimo is a curious specimen of lapidary carelessness.

E. S. DODGSON.

WILLOUGHBY MYNORS. Brief mention is made of him in Canon Overton's recent volume on the ' Nonjurors.' Many particu- lars have already been supplied in 2 nd S. iv. 108. To these may be added that he was of Magdalene College, Cambridge, B.A. 1711, M.A. 1715. On 24 February, 1654/5, Wil- loughby Minars, of Shoreditch, and Margaret Hollan, of Islington, were married at St. James's, Clerkenwell ; and on 2 November, 1746, Mr. Willoughby Mynors, of St. Clement's Danes, and Mary Rily, of St. Margaret's, Westminster, were married at St. George's Chapel, May Fair (from the Registers, printed by the Harleian Soc., xiii. 93; xv. 71).

W. C. B.

DR. EDMOND HALLEY. (See 9 th S. x. 361 ; xi. 85.)-

I. LIFE AND WORK.

It may not be out of place to mention here a few apparent inaccuracies in two of the best memoirs extant.

In ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' xxiv. 107, the state- ment is made that Dr. Edmond Halley's will was proved 9 December, 1742. whereas it was dated 18 June, 1736, and proved 9 February, 1741/2. Cp. 8 th S. vii. 427 ; 9 th S. x. 362.

Ibid. xxiv. 107, Prof. Rigaud is mentioned as the author of the 'Defence of Halley against the Charge of Religious Infidelity,' 1844. This might be construed to mean Prof. S. P. Rigaud (d. 1839) ; the real author of the 'Defence' was the Rev. S. J. Rigaud, his son.

In Good Words, xxxvi. 750, Sir Robert S. Ball says that Halley was created Master of Arts 18 November, 1678. This title

was conferred upon Halley 3 December' 1678, by virtue of the King's Letters under date of 18 November, 1678. Cp. Wood's ' Fasti Oxon.' (Bliss), pt. ii. 368, London, 1820.

In 'Great Astronomers,' p. 171, London, 1895, Sir R. S. Ball remarks that Halley remained at Dantzic "more than a twelve- month " with Hevelius. Halley left Dantzic 18 July, 1679. Cp. 'Biog. Brit.,' iv. 2498- 2499, London, 1757.

Ibid., p. 184, the author says that Halley was admitted a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, in 1719 ; probably a typo- graphical error, because in Good Words, xxxvi. 755, the year is shown as 1779 [1]. The original account reads: "M. Halley fut regu dans 1'Academie des Sciences en qualite d'Associe etranger au mois d'Aout, 1729, a la place de M. Bianchini " ('Eloge de M. Halley, Histoire,' p. 183, Paris, 1742).

III. GENEALOGY.

Harleian Society's Publications, Musgrove's Obituary, xlvi. p. 123 (Decease of Dr. Edm. Halley and Mrs. Halley, his wife). 1900.

Ibid, xlviii. p. 82 (Decease of Henry Price).

Ibid, xlviii. p. 41 (Decease of Capt. James Pike and John Pike).

Burke's Landed Gentry for 1850, i. 572, 710, London, 1850.

It is strange that in ' Biog. Brit.,' iv. 2500, Dr. Edmond Halley is said to have married Miss Mary Tooke, when in the record of her burial at Lee her Christian name is given as Elizabeth ('Register of Church of St. Mar- garet, Lee,' p. 56, Lee, 1888).

The writer's paternal grandfather, the late Judge John MTike (1795-1876), dictated, about 1868, to his son, Hon. Henry Guest M'Pike (b. 1825), certain memoranda which were preserved in writing,* and afterwards supported by sworn affidavit. Among other statements therein is one to the effect that the said John M'Pike's father was James McPike or M'Pike, who migrated " from Lon- don " (1) to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1772 ; that the mother of the said James M'Pike was, previous to her marriage, a " Miss Haley or Haly, granddaughter of Sir Edmund Haley, astronomer, England." Other oral traditions state that the surname was originally " Pike," and that it was changed to " McPike" at about the time of the birth of the said James McPike, circa 1751. The writer's paternal uncle, Mr. Edmund Haley M'Pike (b. 1821), in a letter dated " Calistoga,

Chicago, Case No. II., 31-2 : Catalogue No. 89030. Sworn affidavit by Henry Guest M'Pike, 23rd Nov., 1899, photog. facsimile, in Newb. Libr., Chicago, Catalogue No. E-7 ; M-239.
 * MS. in Museum of the Newberry Library,