Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/459

 s. xii. DEC. 5, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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to the proper parishes in which to read a will. Undoubtedly certain ecclesiastics under the old regime would read a will before the pa- rishioners, but the duty of so doing would cease at latest in 1858, while the suppression of the monasteries and the lapse of some few bishoprics and deaneries must have long ago simplified the once complicated probate laws. Gwynne's ' Law relating to Duties on Pro- bates,' published in 1838, and Sir Harris Nicolas's 'Notitia Historica,' and a Sessional Paper of the House of Commons (No. 249) issued in 1845, will give the various jurisdic- tions and depositories for wills existing during the first half of last century. At the Literary Department of Somerset House (Room 32), if the place of residence and situ- ation of the testator's estate are given, the name of the jurisdictions (in most instances) can be at once furnished. Those of the prin- cipal peculiars not to be found at Somerset House are mostly to be found at one or other of the forty district probate courts, or at Lambeth Palace, or the various cathedral muniment rooms. FEED. HITCHIN-KEMP. 6, Beechfield Road, Catford, S.E.

MARAT IN LONDON (9 th S. xii. 7, 109, 175, 235, 293). M. Georges Pilotelle's collection of books, pamphlets, &c., relating to Marat, Charlotte Corday, Anacharsis Clootz, and Gracchus Babceuf, comprised in 129 bound volumes, was sold by Messrs. Sotheby on December 9th, 1902, for 671. The French newspaper Le Gaulois, which is not an unimpeachable authority on matters of fact, declares that this collection has been re- cently sold to a New York millionaire for 110,000 francs (4,400^.), and has been placed in a public library. The story appears to be improbable, and requires confirmation.

JOHN HEBB.

There is a vignette portrait of Jean Paul Marat in Thiers's 'History of the French Revolution,' vol. i., translated by Frederick Shoberl, 1859, and there are some particulars concerning him in Appendix N.N.N. of the same volume. In vol. iii. is a portrait of Charlotte Corday, " Marke pinxt. Greatbach sc." ; and prefixed to the same volume is an engraving entitled "Assassination of Marat, Scheffer pinxt, W. Greatbach sc."

In the Royal Academy more than fifty years since there was a fine painting by E. M. Ward, representing ' Charlotte Corday going to Execution ' in 1793, with Robespierre looking on. This was engraved in the Illus- trated London Neivs of that date.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH (9 th S. xii. 349). None of the biographies of Sir W. Ralegh, down to that of Major Martin A. S. Hume, pub- lished in 1897, contains any information as to his parents after their departure from Hayes Barton, and the elate of that event is a matter of uncertainty; nevertheless it is fairly well narrowed to the interval between Sir Walter's return from France in 1575 or 1576, and that of his first Irish campaign in 1580. It probably took place soon after the disposal of his interest, with that of his two sons, in "the tythe ffyshein Sidmouth comenly called the halfe share fyshe and also the tythe of larkes," by a deed dated 11 April, 1578. Walter Ralegh and his wife moved to a house in the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, in the roadway termed Palace Gate, which forms the boundary between it and the Cathedral precincts. He died there in the early part of 1581, and the burial register of that parish contains the following record of his interment : "1580/1 M 1 Walter Rawlye gentelman was buriede the xxiij th of febru- arye." His wife survived him thirteen years, and died in 1594. The date of her death and of her interment are unknown, as all entries in the burial register are wanting for 1591 and several subsequent years. Information is, however, supplied from other sources. Her will is dated 18 April, 1594, and the probate has this entry: " Administrate bonorum Katherine Raweleighe xj Maii Ann

Domini 1594 nuper parochie sancte Marie

maioris Civita Exonie." That her remains were interred alongside those of her husband is indicated in the letter of their illustrious son, addressed to his wife in December, 1603, when under sentence of death, in which he desired to be buried " in Exiter church by my father and mother." This, according to many of the leading authorities, was supposed to be Exeter Cathedral, now proved to be erroneous. Most probably Sir Walter had some inscribed stone in honour of his parents erected in the church ; but some years since the latter was pulled down, and the present structure is destitute of any Ralegh memorial. The fore- going particulars are derived mainly from articles in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, xv. (1883), 173-5 ; xxviii. (1896), 291-3. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

Salterton, Devon.

Sir Walter Raleigh's parents were alive in 1576. The father, Walter, removed to Hayes in 1520, and finally resided in Exeter. He was buried in the church of St. Mary Major, Exeter, 23 February, 1580/1. The mother, Katherine Champernowne, the third wife of Walter Raleigh, died in 1594. Your corre-