Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/285

 9* s. xii. OCT. 3, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

277

(Toramaseo and Bellini's ' Dizionario della Lingua Italiana,' in voc.). In Rees's ' Cyclo- pedia' it is said that " it is now [1819] seldom used as a section of an air, but as an entire air of short duration." The word " section " is to the point. F. ADAMS.

115, Albany Road, Camberwell.

ME. BLAND, THE EDINBURGH ACTOR (9 th S. xii. 207). A little information, not including his wife's name, about John Bland, eldest son of Nathaniel Bland, LL.D., and grandson of the Very Rev. James Bland, Dean of Ardfert, will be found in Nicholas Carlisle's 'Collec- tions for a History of the Ancient Family of Bland,' London, 1826, 4to. By his second wife Dr. Bland became the father of Francis Bland, of Killarney, whose daughter was Mrs. Jordan. Carlisle's ' Collections ' were printed privately, and it was, perhaps, respect for the prejudices of his respectable patrons that led him to omit all reference to the celebrated actress whose great-grandson has become the husband of the Princess Louise. R. A. SCOTT MACFIE.

SWORN CLERKS IN CHANCERY (9 th S. ix. 408, 512 ; x. 34 ; xii. 154). In the interests of accuracy, perhaps, MR. WAINEWRIGHT will not object to my correcting an error in his communication at the last reference. The 'Index to Chancery Proceedings (Reynard- son's Division), 1649 to 1714,' has been printed (at any rate up to the letter K), not by the Record Office, but by the British Record Society (Index Library).

BERNARD P. SCATTERGOOD.

MANNINGS AND TAWELL (9 th S. xii. 148, 194, 229). I can confidently confirm what MR. PEACOCK says about Tawell and the way the poor woman was poisoned. It was such as would not bear publication, and you evidently know the facts, so I need not repeat them. Although it occurred in 1845 ; I knew inti- mately one of the medical men concerned, and from him I had all the facts. I remember also most distinctly that Tawell was the first criminal who was arrested by means of the telegraph. G. C. W.

" ALIAS " IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVEN- TEENTH CENTURIES (9 th S. xii. 190). I have always been puzzled to account satisfactorily for these "alias." I find they not unfre- quently get changed ; thus Smith alias Jones becomes Jones alias Smith ; then sometimes it returns to Smith alias Jones. Then, again, one of the names is dropped after a time.

My idea is that these names have arisen from various causes. In the case of a woman

marrying a second time, her husband may have taken her name in addition to his own, owing to her having more property or means than himself. Another reason, and one more probable, perhaps, is in the case of the off- spring of illegal unions, where the child takes both his father's arid his mother's names. Many instances are to be seen in almost every register, and I should be very glad to hear of other suggestions of the origin of these double names. E. A. FRY.

On the old brass to the memory of " Jack of Newbury " in Newbury Church he is called "John Smalwood alias Winchcom." He died 15 February, 1519. It is probable that the family, while in Winchcombe parish, was known as Smallwood, from the part of the parish in which they lived ; but when Jack moved to Newburj' the name Small vvood would give no clue as to where he came from, so he identified his place of origin more clearly by taking the name of his native parish as an alias. Probably this was often done. ERNEST B. SAVAGE.

St. Thomas, Douglas.

The alias comes sometimes from the trade or occupation of an ancestor. When a widow with young children was married again, it was not unusual for these children to be known by the name of both husbands. I have met with recent cases of this kind among country cottagers. W. C. B.

A common use of this word was in con- nexion with descriptive names, nicknames, or trade names, when added to the proper or personal name. Thus : " John Jones alias Miller," "Robert Johnson alias Strongitharm." In Welsh records one meets with such in- stances as " Richard ap Howel alias Risiart Hir" (Long Richard). In Cornwall, at the period named, the numerous " small gentry " were sometimes called indifferently by their surnames or after their estates, as " Thomas Williams alias Trethewy."

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Monmouth.

BEN JONSON AND TENNYSON (9 th S. xii. 186). The question of the metre of 'In Memoriam' has frequently been the subject of discussion in ' N. & Q.' ; see 8 th S. iii. 288, 337, 430 ; iv. 57; x. 83 ; and 4 th S. xi. 37. From these refer- ences, and from Prof. Churton Collins's 'Illustrations of Tennyson,' pp. 94 sqq., the following facts appear. The metre was used by early French poets. English examples of the employment of it in a composite stanza occur in William Whittingham's paraphrase of Psalm cxxvii. (in 1560, and possibly in 1558)