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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL MAY 23, IMS.

to himself the services due to the chief lord of the fee. MB. LATHAM'S quotation, how- ever, seems to settle the matter. Thanks in part to both your kind correspondents, the reading suzerain helps me to identify the anonymous writer of the petition.

CHARLES SWYNNERTON.

STUART AND DEREHAM (9 th S. xi. 326). This reference, which is very interesting historically and genealogically, points to the present Sir Simeon Stuart, seventh baronet, as representative of a claimant to royal descent from the dynasty of Stuart. The details being too voluminous for *N. & Q.,' it may suffice to state that a Sir Robert Steward obtained a grant of arms from Charles VI., King of France ; his son Sir John settled in England aboub the year 1410, married, and left a numerous issue, from whom the descent of Sir Simeon is perfectly clear. But a cadet stem adopted the misleading spelling of Sty- ward, from whom came a branch at S waffham, Up well in Norfolk, and at Ely. It is alleged that Prior Robert Wells, Dean of Ely, used an alias cut down from Up-Well ; he granted leases of capitular property very freely to the Stewards who clustered about the Cathedral. So we have a brother named Nicholas, of Ely, his son William, also of Ely, and the daughter Elizabeth, who married Robert Cromwell, father of the "Protector" ; but it is right to state that this stem is purposely omitted from the elaborate pedigree published by Mr. Lindsay of Heralds' College. A. HALL.

DUBLIN PARISH REGISTERS (9 fch S. xi. 209, 272). It would have been dangerous for a Catholic priest to keep registers before the middle of the eighteenth century, or even some time later. Such records would have exposed both clergy and laity to dire pains and penalties. The earliest post-Reformation Catholic registers that I know of are those of Perthir, near Monmouth, which commence in 1758, and consist, of course, of entries of baptisms only. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Monmouth.

WITNESSING BY SIGNS (9 th S. xi. 109, 175, 237, 294). My thanks to your correspondents for their answers to my query. During the last few weeks I have been going through the papers in the parish chest of Betchworth, and have found fifteen different forms of signs other than the cross. It seems to me that an interesting little book on the subject might be compiled, classifying the signs and giving reproductions of them. With a view to this I shall be grateful to those of your correspondents who will send me direct copies of specimens, stating the date and the species

of document in which they were found, the name of the witness who made the mark, and noting cases of the same sign being used by father and son. If a more competent person than the undersigned, or one with a greater means of access to deeds, &c., would like to take this up, all the notes I may have collected would be at his service.

FRANCIS R. RUSHTON. The Holmes, Betchworth.

The oath book of the Wigan Corporation contains between 1725 and 1778 many hundred signatures, a small percentage being witnessed by a cross. James Chad wick, Richard Waterhouse, Aaron Platt, Robert Webster, and Ann Speakman witnessed by the initial letter of their Christian names ; William Heyes by the initial of his surname ; Henry Hargreaves by a monogram made up of three vertical strokes of the pen and a horizontal one ; John Heyes by " his letters I. H."; whilst George Mawdesley appears in several places by his initials G. M., written in sanserif characters. M. N.

CARLYLE'S * PAST AND PRESENT ' (9 th S. xi. 108, 158). Allusion No. 6, for which an ex- planation was asked, was, "Dr. Caius, ' who has had losses in his life. 3 " Carlyle's words (' Past and Present,' book ii. chap, vi., stereotype edition, 1889) are, "can preach in three lan- guages, and, like Dr. Caius, * has had losses ' in his time." It was Dogberry who boasted that he had had losses ('Much Ado about Nothing,' IV. ii.). Those who have con- sulted Dr. Furness's Variorum Edition will remember that "a Being, erect upon two legs, and bearing all the outward semblance of a man, and not of a monster" (I quote Dickens, not Furness), actually proposed to emend losses to hosses, and, as an alternative, for "hath had losses" to read "hath strait trossers " (i.e., tight breeches).

EDWARD BENSLY.

The University, Adelaide, South Australia.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Crossbow : Mediceval and Modern, Military and Sporting. By Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart. (Longmans & Co.)

SIR RALPH PAYNE-GALLWEY, of Thirkleby Park, is known in sporting and literary circles as an enthusiastic wildfowler and as the author of ' The Fowler in Ireland,' ' The Book of Duck Decoys,' and similar works. He has now ventured on a higher flight, and has given us a book which, while it appeals directly to the sportsman, has keen anti- quarian value, and deals with a subject which has not previously received the attention it merits.