Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/241

 9* s. ii. SKPT. 17, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.

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p. 287). Nor can I say where the coronation of the boy-king Eadwig, with its sensationa 1 accompaniments, took place, but that of Ead gar seems to have been deferred until he hac been fifteen years on the throne. The cere- mony took place at Bath in 973. The place of Eadward the Martyr's coronation is un- certain, but that of ^Ethelred the IJnrsedig undoubtedly took place at Kingston, and we still possess the coronation oath that Dunstan exacted on the occasion (Kemble, ' Saxons in England,' ii. 35, 36, note). With the coming of the Danes, Kingston seems to have lost the position which it had retained for so many generations as the hallowing-place of English kings. Eadmund Ironside was probably crowned at London ; Cnut undoubtedly wa; so, and in all likelihood his sons Harald Hare- foot and Harthacnut. Eadward the Confessor selected Winchester as the place of his corona- tion, and the Conqueror was the first of the long line of sovereigns to receive the crown at Westminster. Why the hallowed stone at Kingston did not find a place in the old Abbey would be an interesting question to solve. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

45, Pall Mall, S.W.

THE Six CLERKS IN CHANCERY (9 th S. ii. 69). Mr. Edwin Wilkins Field, solicitor, of Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was drowned on 30 July, 1871. In Sadler's 'Memorial Sketch of the late E. W. Field,' published by Macmillan & Co., I find the following :

"The Six Clerks were in early times the only persons who were allowed to practise in the Court of Chancery, it being supposed that by restricting the number of legal practitioners in the various Courts, the growth of litigation would be effectually checked. Perhaps the remedy was something like attempting to prevent the increase of disease with the increase of the population, by restricting the number of medical men. The business of the Court did, however, increase, and the Six Clerks had clerks appointed under them, called Sworn Clerks, or Clerks in Court, the number of whom were finally limited to sixty. By degrees the whole of the business came to be transacted by the Sworn Clerks, who acted in the names of the Six Clerks, sometimes without even knowing them by sight. Later on, the whole of the labour and responsibility of conducting suits and other proceedings in Chancery devolved on the solicitors of the Court, who alone were in direct communication with suitors, their clients ; but every solicitor was still obliged to file all his bills and answers, and written evidence, and to take all proceedings, and to obtain all copies of bills, answers, and evidence, through his Sworn Clerk ; though at the time now referred to the only real business transacted by the Sworn Clerks was the taxation of costs as assistants to the Masters, and filing and preserving the Court records. The Sue Clerks and the Sworn Clerks, however (chiefly the latter), drew large incomes from the fees paid

by the suitor. Nor was this all. The office of Clerk in Court was treated as property, which the owner could give or sell to his successor. Such was the state of things when a Commission was ap- pointed to report on the Court of Chancery. The report, which was made in 1826, was without much effect ; for it failed, as the late Mr. Field after- wards, in 1840, pointed out, to show a large saving in expense of a Chancery suit, if the Six Clerksr Office and the intervention of Sworn Clerks were abolished. During the Chancellorship of Lord Brougham in 1832 and 1833, several Acts were passed with a view to certain improvements, but the larger plans which his lordship contemplated were not carried out. Further legislation on the subject took place in 1840, 1841, when power was given to the Judge of the Court, within five years, to make alterations in the practice ; and in pur- suance of these Acts, orders were issued by Lord Cottenham, making considerable changes and im- provements in matters of detail, and also provisions which pointed to the abolition of the Six Clerks. The Six Clerks and the Sworn Clerks were abolished in 1842, mainly through the exertions of Mr. Field."

The following undated broadsides are pre- served in the Corporation Library, Guildhall :

The case of the present articled clerks of the Six Clerks' Office, in relation to a Bill now depending in the House of Commons, entitul'd, An Act for reducing the number of Sworn Clerks in the said office.

The case of the Six Clerks in the High Court of Chancery ; with the answer of the Sworn Clerks in Chancery to the Six Clerks' case.

The answer of the Sworn Clerks in Chancery to the Six Clerks' case.

The Six Clerks' reply to the under clerks' answer.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

Samuel Thoyts was one of the Six Clerks, and his brother-in-law Tancred another. A large number of copies of old deeds were thrown aside in an old lumber-room at Arden Hall, Yorkshire, which I believe came from the Six Clerks' Office. I have often wished to know how the Six Clerks got their appoint- ment, as the pedigree of my ancestors beyond this Samuel Thoyts's father, Samuel Thwaites of Erith, is missing. I believe him to be de- scended from William Thwaites, of London, 'ather to Sir Samuel Thwaites, of Newland Hall, Essex. Can any one help me 1

EMMA ELIZ. THOYTS. Sulhamstead Park, Berks.

MOON THROUGH COLOURED GLASS (9 th S.

. 328, 377, 393 ; ii. 13, 152). It is not neces- sary to go to York Minster or King's College Chapel, as MR. PICKFORD suggests, to investi- gate this problem. For a few pence any glazier will supply bits of coloured glass quite arge enough to enable the experiment to be ,ried at home. It will be found, I think, that, wing to the faintness of the light of even a ull moon, it is only glass of a very pale tint