Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/160

 154

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. FEB. 25, '99.

CECIL (9 th S. ii. 168, 238, 275, 512 ; iii. 34). Ihe suggestion of ' The Norman People ' de- rives the family and name from Cicelle, Seys- sel, or Cassel, east of Bruges. The author sjives Maurice de Cassel, mentioned (mar- ried ?) on 1 August, 1008, two sons : (1) Hugh de Alest, from whom came the Counts of Kessel, and (2) Richard de Kessel, or Ciselle, who accompanied Robert Fitzhamon to the conquest of Glamorgan. In 1165 Walter de Alterinnis is in the 'Liber Niger.' This place in Herefordshire became thus early the seat of the Sitsillts of a junior branch of the Beaupre Sitsillts. The first of the again junior Cecils, Marquises of Salisbury, &c., is, I think, David of Stamford (died about 1541 at least, his will was proved in that year). He wrote himself Cyssel, and calls "Richard Cyssel my eldest son." It was Sir John Sitsill of Alterinnis who in 1333 had a great suit with Sir Will. Fakenham as to his right to the arms he bore. Sir John proved that his ancestor Sir James, Baron of Beaupre, bore them when he was killed at Wallingford in 4 Steph. Philip of Alterinnis, died 1551, calls himself Sicelt.

The arras still borne by the elder branch in Flanders, says 'Norman People,' seem clearly taken from the Counts of Flanders, i.e., the six inescutcheons sa., lion ramp. arg. There- is no doubt of Seisillt being the name of the father of King Lly welyn (d. 1021), but there is nothing to show that the Sitsillt family had anything to do with him, despite of Welsh bardic legend. The Sitsillts of Beaupre were a Welsh family, so far as living in Gla- morganshire goes, but they were not of Celtic blood, as far as I can see. The Sitsillts of Alterinnis were in all probability an offshoot, perhaps settled in Herefordshire on marriage with a daughter of Robert of Ewyers such a marriage is handed down.

There is a possibility of the bearing of the inescutcheons being borrowed from Gwaeth- foed, of whose stock a strong clan was seated in Glamorganshire, but the 'Norman People's' suggestion seems more probable.

The Monmouthshire branch of the name (for one branch there bore the name of Baker) held some of their property there until quite recently. I believe the representative of the main line was a law stationer in London in 1863. THOMAS WILLIAMS.

Aston Clinton.

Having passed many a summer in Cecil county, Maryland, I cannot remember ever hearing that fair land's name pronounced except in rhyme to whistle. The county was formed in or about the year 1672, its name

certainly, and also its pronunciation, I fancy coming from the second Lord Baltimore.

P. S. P. CONNER. Philadelphia.

UNWRITTEN HISTORY (9 th S. iii. 82). MR. GEORGE MARSHALL writes that "Finisterre was a defeat in every sense." As a sea officer I cannot agree with him. The action to which this name is usually given is that won by Anson, which gave us " Bosca wen's bulldogs " in St. James's Square, and the witticism of De Jonquiere, " Vous avez vaincu L'ln vincible, et La Gloire vous suit." Two other actions frequently referred to by the same title, namely, Hawke's and Calder's, were certainly not defeats. Even in the case of the last named, with fifteen ships opposed to twenty of the enemy, two of the latter were captured. JOHN MURRAY AYNSLEY, Com.R.N.

THE ROMAN GHETTO (9 th S. ii. 463 ; iii. 90). M. Ulysse Robert, author of 'Les Signes d'Infamie au Moyen Age,' makes the follow- ing suggestion as to the meaning of the Jewish badge:

" Je terminerai cette etude sur la signe des Juifs en exprimant mais bien timidement, je 1'avoue 1'opinion que la roue peut etre consideree comme la representation d'une piece de nionnaie, allusion & 1'aprete des Juifs pour le gain pu au prix de trente deniers que Judas recut pour livrer le Christ. On pourrait peut-etre y voir une representation de rhostie, embleme de la religion chretienne qu'ils niaient, et qu'on les condamnait a porter sur les vetements, puisqu'ils ne le voulaient porter dans leur coeur." Pp. 112-3.

Timidity becomes me even better than it did M. Robert, but I venture to put forth the theory that a circular patch was as appro- priate to mark the children of " the concision" as it was to indicate 1 January, the festival of the CVrcwmcision, on a clog almanac figured in 'The Calendar of the Prayer Book Illustrated ' (James Parker & Co.), pp. xiv and xvii, from a specimen preserved in the Bod- leian Library. It was not unnatural that a badge worn by an outcast race should be also prescribed for Saracens, heretics, and other infamous persons. In England, in 1222 or 1223, the "badge of sufferance" was a tabula of stuff, two fingers wide by four long, of a different colour from the garment on the breast of which it was displayed. Ere long yellow became the regulation hue, and then again two bands contrasting with their back- ground were accepted as a sufficient stigma. What is MR. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY'S authority for saying that "the custom of wearing a round yellow badge prevailed only during the thirteenth century"? The beauty of yellow was too great for it to be wholly given