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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL AUG. 22, 1903.

Miss ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES, is the name of a man. Your correspondent, I assume, is sure the reading is not "Lamberti." It will, how- ever, be a variant of that name, or even a misspelling. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Mon mouth.

"PRIOR TO " = BEFORE (9 th S. xii. 66). I presume to give the thanks of all lovers of English to MR. JOHN T. CURRY. In a humble way I am always protesting against this gross abuse. Mr. Justice Phillimore once publicly protested against it on the bench. There is no reason why people should use a Latin word at all, but and this is the worst of it if they do they might use it correctly. Now prior was an adjective, masculine or feminine ; there might conceivably be some excuse for " a prior wife " or " a prior hus- band," but there can be none for "a prior house." Moreover, the adverb for before was prius, of course, not prior. H. C. E. C.

SWORN CLERKS IN CHANCERY (9 th S. ix. 408, 512 ; x. 34). Perhaps it may save some one some day a bootless visit to the Record Office if it is noted here that the manuscript catalogue to which attention is directed by MR. MATTHEWS at the second reference does not give the names of the Sworn Clerks, but those of the Six Clerks only. The ' Index to Chancery Proceedings (Reynardson's Divi- sion), 1649 to 1714,' has now (1903) been printed by the Record Office, and contains, pp. xxi to xxiii, the names of the Six Clerks from 1522 down to the abolition of the office in 1842. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" BLETHERAMSKITE " (9 th S. x. 507 ; xi. 335, 490 ; xii. 93). I should have refrained from joining in a correspondence already pro- longed had I not come across a piece of evidence which seems to place this term in a new light. In a useful list of ' Words derived from the Dutch, and still in Use around New York,' printed in the Historical Magazine, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 112 (Morr'isania, 1868), occurs the entry, * Blatheremchuyt, a boastful, bragging fellow." [ give this for what it is worth, leaving it to others to decide whether it is merely a curious blunder, or whether the term really is one of our rather numerous importations from seven- teenth-century Dutch. If this latter is the case all pur dictionaries have gone astray the termination -skite, instead of being Scotch' will be the Dutch schuyt, a boat.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

SIR FERDINANDO GORGES, LORD PALATINE OF MAINE (9 th S- xii. 21, 4l).-At the last reference CAPT. THORNE GEORGE states that

Sir Ferdinando's eldest son John was the M.P. of that name for Taunton in 1654, and was also the Col. John Gorges who served under Cromwell. Is this correct? I have always imagined the Col. John Gorges who is so frequently mentioned in connexion with the Civil War to belong to a totally different line of the Gorges family. In the first Protectorate Parliament of 1654 - 5 Thomas and John Gorges represented Taun- ton. These were, I believe, brothers, and sons of Henry Gorges, of Cheddar. Both were also colonels. Thomas, the elder, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn 1 May, 1638, was M.P. for Taunton in all three Parliaments of Cromwell, and also in the Convention of 1660, dying in October, 1670. John, the younger son, was admitted to Lincoln's Inn 15 April, 1647. He was M.P. for Taunton 1654-5, for Somerset 1656-8, and for Derry, Donegal, and Tyrone in 1659, being then Governor of Londonderry. His will was proved in Dublin, 8 March, 1681/2. It is, of course, possible that John, son of Sir Ferdi- nando, was, notwithstanding his Royalist associations, also a colonel in the Common- wealth army, but of this I have no know- ledge. I do not think, however, that he was at any time a Parliament member, but, if wrong, shall be glad to be corrected.

W T. D. PINK.

Lowton, Newton-le-Willows.

In CAPT. THORNE GEORGE'S interesting notes relative to this distinguished West-Country- man we read, " It was in the year 1639 that he was created Lord Palatine of Maine." This statement, however, does not tally with the inscription upon the historical Gorges monument to be seen in the parish church of St. Budeaux, a village pic- turesquely situated some three and a half miles from Plymouth, upon high ground overlooking the Tamar, a river that forms thereabouts the line of demarcation between the counties of Devon and Cornwall. There the date given IS"A.D. 1635." This altar- tomb stands against the eastern wall of the north aisle of this fifteenth-century fabric, and is of Elizabethan character, made of ornately carved blue slate, a local material procured from the widely known Cornish quarries at Delabole, near St. Teath. For years down to the late seventies it had been in a lamentable state, an undesirable condi- tion hardly surprising considering the vicis- situdes the church has passed through from time to time. For instance, during the wars of the Commonwealth, in 1642 and again in 1645, St. Budeaux was the scene of much severe fighting; and it is recorded