Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/247

 9*8. XII. SEPT. 19, 1903.] NOTES AND QUEEIES.

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" a man of wealthe and calling." Richard Turber- vile, a prisoner in the Clink, makes subsequently submission of his conformity. Those interested in Sir Ferdinando Gorges will come upon abundant traces of him in the volume. The Grahams or Greymes of the Debatable Land give much trouble to Lord Scroope, Lord Warden of the West Marches of Scotland. They are always exacting blackmail, but promise amendment, and seem willing, even, to take service on the side of order. With some of the names mentioned we seem on the track of the Border ballads, and with Sir Thomas Lucye we are on that of Shakespeare.

The Bernards of Abington and Nether Winchendon.

By Mrs. Napier Higgins. 2 vols. (Longmans &

Co.)

As the only surviving daughter of Sir Thomas Tyringham Bernard, of Nettleham and Nether Winchendon, with whose demise in 1883 the baro- netcy became extinct, Mrs. Sophia Elizabeth Napier Higgins has felt herself called upon to write the history of a family, of the last branch of which she is the last scion. Two volumes, now issued, carry the history to the death, in 1779, of Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts Bay, on the whole the most distinguished, though scarcely the most fortunate, member of the family. Materials for a second instalment, carrying the record a cen- tury or so further, are in existence, and will pro- bably see the light under the same editorship. With some reason Mrs. Higgins complains that the documents which illustrate "the most critical period of the history of England in its relations with America," and throw the most light upon the career of Sir Francis Bernard, have been allowed to pass into American hands. The documents in question, thirteen volumes in all, of which eight consist of letter-books, 1758-72, were bought for 600 dollars in 1846 (1848, 'D.JN.B.') by Dr. Jared Sparks, and bequeathed by him to Harvard College Library, where they still are accessible enough, though consultation of them can only be made on the spot.

For the family is claimed a venerable antiquity, a connexion being suggested to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, which, of course, takes us back to the eleventh century. A Thomas Fitz Bernard, of the household of Henry II., was a justiciar of many courts, and was twice excommunicated by St. Thomas a Becket. Godfrey Bernard, a landowner in Yorkshire, alleged to be the son of the afore-men- tioned Thomas, is regarded as the founder of the family. He gave three manors to St. Mary's Abbey, York, before migrating to Cambridgeshire and becoming lord of the manor of Iselham, in the parish church of which his monument formerly stood. A John Bernard, a descendant, appears to have been knighted on the field of Agincourt. With the deeds of the various transmitters of the name, with their marriages, and with the manner in which various estates came into their possession we are not concerned. Such particulars may best be read in the book. As the line descends, which it did in a fashion not common among our county families, we come upon many families of highest interest, including that of William Shakespeare. In the fifteenth century Sir John Bernard married Margaret, daughter of Henry, fourth Lord Scrope of Bolton, by Elizabeth, daughter of John, fourth Lord Scrope of Masham. By this and other mar- riages into the same family the Bernards acquired

a descent from royalty. The curious name of Daundelyn, with which family the Bernards became connected by marriage, is said to be derived from D'Andely, after the Norman town of that name. Through a marriage of Baldwin Bernard with Eleanor, daughter of John Fullwood, of Ford Hall, the family is brought into connexion with many Warwickshire worthies, including the Ardens of Wilmcote, the Hills, Fullwoods, and John Shake- speare of Stratford-on-Avon. In connexion with the Franklins of Eaton, ancestors of the famous Franklin, we come on a strange story. One of the family, a staunch Protestant, kept in the time of Bloody Mary "a Bible fastened inside the top of a joint stool," and while a child watched turned the joint up and read the book by stealth. Of the entry in the register concerning "Madam Elizabeth Bernard, wife of Sir John Bernard, or Barnard, Knt.," G. J. De Wilde, 'Rambles,' says: "Of this last of the Shakespeares there is no other record. So far as is known, no stone ever marked the place where she was buried." Elizabeth Bernard was buried 17 February, 1669. There is cause for doubt whether the entry of her death in the register is not an interpolation of that assiduous forger, traces of whose slime are found in abundance in our national collections. On p. 77 we find a Bernard prosecuting the elder John Milton. Subsequently more than one reference is to be traced in Pepys. In the middle of the first volume we come across the voyage of Sir Francis Bernard to America, and the rest of the work is occupied with his stormy and distinguished career. This belongs to history, and we cannot attempt to deal with it. Mrs. Higgins's book has unending interest and import- ance, and is well written, though at times a little nebulous. It will occupy a good position among the family histories which are one of the most remarkable products of modern days. It is to be hoped that the author will be able to complete what is so well begun.

Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London at the Guildhall Letter-Book E. Edited by Regi- nald R. Sharpe, D.C.L. (Published by Order of the Corporation.)

THE fifth volume of the Letter-Books preserved in the archives of the City at the Guildhall appears under the admirable supervision of the Records Clerk, and extends from circa 1314 to 1337. For a notice of previous volumes see 9 th S. iv. 198 ; vi. 198 ; and x. 279. Vol. iii., known as the Red Book (Liber Rubeus), is principally occupied with records of admission to the freedom of the City by redemp- tion. The present volume, called the White Book of Memoranda, was lost for a long season, and was only recovered, at a cost to the authorities of 20s., through a Common Serjeant of the time of Henry VIII. It covers the last years of the struggle of Edward II. with the Earl of Lancaster, the rise and fall of the Despensers, the deposition and death of Edward II. in Berkeley Castle, the renewal of the war with Scotland, and the defeat of the flower of England at Bannockburn. Concerning the proceed- ings of the justiciars sent by Edward to hold an Iter at the Tower in 1321, which Dr. Sharpe holds to have exercised the minds of the citizens more than any purely political event, the few revelations of the White Book are complements! to those of the ' Liber Custumarum ' issued in the Rolls Series. At the outset the judges inquired into the smallest detail of civic government. On hearing of