Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/51

 xii. JULY is, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Great House" (Sfc. Augustin's Back), enter- tained King Charles I. and Queen Henrietta Maria during their stay in that city.

In concluding this short sketch of a re- markable man, who spent the whole of his long life in the service of his country, through three reigns, and whose work would fill a volume, it may be well to append a copy of his short will, taken from the Probate Court of Wells, 1647, and entitled ' The Will of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Founder of the State of Maine ':

" In the name of God Amen : The Ffourth day of May in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand six hundred fortie and seven. I Sir Ferdinando Gorges of Long Ashton in the Countie of Somerset Knight being sick of body but of good memory thankes be given to God revoking all former wills and testaments do make this my last will and testa- ment in manner and form following. First I be- queath my soule into the hands of Almighty God my maker and redeemer hoping assuredly through the death and passion of my Saviour Jesus Christ to have remission of my sinnes and to be made par- taker of life everlasting. And my body I commit to the earth from which it came. Item I give unto the poore the somme of Twentie pounds to be dis- tributed att such time and in such manner as my exrs herein named shall thinke fitt. The rest of all my goods and chatties, debts and duties owing to me whatsoever I do freely give and bequeath unto my dearly beloved wife Dame Elizabeth Gorges whom I do hereby make my sole exc of this my last will and testament and I do desire my loving friends John Bucklandof West Harptry and Samuel Gorges of Wraxall in the Countie of Somerset Esquire to be overseers of this my last will and testament and to be assisting to my said exr as she shall have occasion. In witness whereof to this my last will and testament I have hereunto sett my hand and seal even this fourth day of May Anno Dpm 1647.

" Memorandum that the fourth word in the first line was interlined before the signing and sealing hereof and was afterwards signed sealed and pub- lished in the presence of S. Gorges, Jo Buckland. Edward Bell, William Satchfield.-F. GORGES/''

THOKNE GEOKGE.

[Reference should also be made to the life of Sir Ferdinando contributed to the * D.N.B.' by Prof. Laughton and the authorities cited. We regret that the name of CAPT. THORNE GEORGE was unfor- tunately misprinted last week as " Thorne Drury."]

BRIDGE CHANTRY IN THE WEST RIDING. ONE February morning, quiet and leaden coloured, some months ago, I stood on a sandy strip of ground beside the bridge over the river Calder at Wakefield. Here, more than four hundred years ago, the last picture of life stamped itself vividly in a boy's dying eyes ; for it was here that, according to tradition, the young Duke of Rutland met his death after the famous battle of 1460. A stone's throw across the river stands the unique chantry on the

bridge, the finest of its kind in all England ; indeed, there is now but one other extant, according to Dr. Walker, F.S.A. Under the bridge, with its nine arches, the river ran yellow and turgid. Behind the millstream frowned the tall white Soke mills, standing as majestically to-day as when, many a year ago, they were placed here to witness to the quaint old feudal law of "multure," which obliged the citizens of Wakefield and five adjoining townships to send all their corn to them to be ground. This multure gave the miller in payment one-sixteenth of the corn and one-thirty-second part of all the malt ground, in return for which the owner was compelled to have the corn ground within twenty -four hours, however much might be brought to him. In 1853 these rights were bought up by the inhabitants of Wake- field.

At the time of the Conquest there was a church at Wakefield ; the city was in the hands of the Crown, and was " part of the royal demesnes of Edward the Con- fessor."* In Domesday Book the name occurs as " Wachefeld." Dr. Walker derives it from "wacu," vigil, A.-S., and "feld," a clearing of the forest, also A.-S. He adds that the "wake"t was one of the most ancient festivals, dating from before the advent of Christianity.

Wakefield has long been noted for its sports. So early as 1204 the Earls of Warren obtained grants for fairs to be held in the place, as their own revenue was much increased thereby. In 1379 Wakefield was more than double the size of Leeds, owing to its being then a great centre of the woollen manufacture. It will be remembered that in 1340 Edward III. invited over many of the Flemish weavers to settle here, a plan followed much later by Henry VIII. Now, however, the city is in the same position as Rye and Winchelsea, for the commercial tide has left it stranded high and dry, a quiet, old- world city, which, as regards the manufactur- ing activities which distinguished it above its fellows so greatly in the Middle Ages, has been left behind as the sea of trade has retreated from it. Leland has much to say about Wakefield :

" Wakefield upon Calder ys a very quik market towne and meatily large : well served of flesch and fische both from the se, and by rivers whereof divers be thereabouts at hande, so that al vitaile is very good chepe there. A right honest man shal fare wel for 2 pens a meale."

(Which, indeed, cannot be managed to-day,

t A " wake" corresponds to our "fair."
 * ' History of York,' by Thomas Allen,