Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/119

 s. m. FEB. 11,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

113

Tiberius of Geoffrey of Monmouth except with the " Mrs. Harris " of another writer. The date of his death (circa 540) is too late for Olovis and too early for Clothaire I., neither of whom died in battle. The fifteen kings who followed in his train had certainly no 3xistence except in the imagination of Geof- frey, and their leader may, with great pro- bility, be traced to the same source.

J. FOSTER PALMER. Royal Avenue, S.W.

ALFREY MICKEFER (9 th S. ii. 249, 318). Those Avho subscribed to the publishing of 'The Registers of Wandsworth' received a very interesting paper, entitled 'Descendants of Russian Czars in Wandsworth,' being an article reprinted from the South- Western Star of 23 Nov., 1889. Quoting from the ' Biographia Britannica' and Craik's 'Pursuit of Know- ledge ' (Bohn's ed., p. 283), the writer of that article states that soon after 1598 Mikepher or Nicephorus Alphery and his two brothers, of the ancient royal family of Russia, were sent to England and placed with Mr. Joseph Bidell, a merchant, by whom they were sent to Oxford University, where the two brothers died of small-pox. Nicephorus, the survivor, took orders, and was appointed in 1618 to the living of Wooley in Huntingdonshire. He twice refused an invitation to return to Russia as a claimant to the throne, was deprived during the Commonwealth, but regained his living at the Restoration. At the age of eighty he resigned, and died shortly after at his eldest son's house at Hammersmith. In his will, dated 15 April and proved P.C.C. 10 Nov., 1668 (134 Hene), he names his son James, son Steven's wife, and son Mickepher. At Wooley are recorded the baptisms of six of his chil- dren, viz. : 1619, 7 Oct., Mickepher ; 1622, 21 July, Joanna ; 1625, 6 Jan., Maria ; 1628, 27 Dec., John ; 1630, a son ; 1635, a son ; also the marriage of a son (Mickepher) with Anna, daughter of Thomas Poulton, 27 Feb., 1639 ; the burial of Joanna, 23 Jan., 1640 ; and the baptism of Robert, son of Robert, 1 Aug., 1641. In the Registry of the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury is an allega- tion for a marriage licence :

They were accordingly married there on 5 June.

At Wandsworth Steven Alfery was married to Anne Childe 12 Feb., 1656/7, and their children were : Anna, baptized ult. Feb., 1657/8; Francis, baptized 8 Jan., 1659/60,

buried 13 Aug., 1660 ; Mitchafer, baptized 18 Aug., 1661 ; Stephen, baptized 27 Dec., 1663, buried 4 April, 1665 ; Mary, baptized 20 Dec., 1665, buried 29 July, 1667.

1665/6. Jan. 14. Steven Alfrey, a smith, buried. Plague.

1668. May 3. Thomas Barren and Anne Allfrey. Banns.

1675. May 2. Rob*, s. of Rich d Alfery, buried.

In Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses ' there is no mention of an Alphery. It would be inter- esting to see the proofs of this romantic story, which reminds one of that concerning the Palseologus family of Constantinople.

V. L. O.

Sunninghill. '

COLUMBARIA : DOVECOTES (9 th S. ii. 348). XYLOGRAPHER will find a considerable amount of information in a paper by Chancellor Fer- guson in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeo- logical Society, vol. ix. pp. 412-34.

ROBT. J. WHITWELL.

70, Banbury Road, Oxford.

WANSTEAD HOUSE (9 th S. ii. 489). Lysons mentions a very small print, published by Stent in 1649, of the old manor house at Wanstead, where Leicester entertained Queen Elizabeth in May, 1578. It is stated in 'The Beauties of England and Wales,' 1813, that in the Duchess of Portland's dressing-room at Welbeck there was a full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth on horseback, by Lucas de Heere, in the background a view of the old mansion at Wanstead. Another mansion one of the most magnificent in England was built near the site of the old one in 1715, and demolished in 1823. Of both it may be said " Perierunt etiam ruinse."

MATILDA POLLARD.

Belle Vue, Bengeo.

This once magnificent house was taken down and the materials sold by auction in 1822. See Walford's ' Greater London,' vol. ii., where an engraving (p. 475) and account of it are given. Its sad end came about through the extravagance of the Hon. Wm. Pole- Wellesley (nephew of the Duke of Welling- ton), afterwards Earl of Mornington, who became possessor of the property by his

w. T. r

marriage. Blackheath.

LYNN.

In May, 1578, the Earl of Leicester enter- tained Queen Elizabeth for several days at Wanstead House, on her " progress " through Essex and Suffolk to Norwich. The old house was pulled down, and a new one erected in 1715 which again was demolished