Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/427

 9 L S. III. JUNE 3, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

421

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNES, 189V.

CONTENTS. -No. 75.

1 318 " Burleymen," 421 Shakspeariana, 422 1900 j lanteiana Woodcuts, 424 " Bearth " T. Brooke t liography, 425 Witty Boy Oblivion " Gonoph," 426.
 * ckett's Common W. H. Ainsworth, 423 "Clincher"

E RIBS : Miniature of Charles II. Parody on ' Alice in < nderland ' Invention of Gimbal Bligh List of rights-" Passing the time of day "Holy Communion Trench West Indians Browning Society's Publications Welsh Judges Hendericks, Ctockmaker, 427 Verses by ijeant Hoskins "Blackcaps" Dr. Seaman T. Hull Aylwin' W. Knox, 428 Goode of Whitby Double- \ ed Churches E. Malone Costume of 1790, 429.

PLIES : ' Guy Mannering,' 429 Lamb and Banner- Crosby Place, 431 Portrait Identified Mr. Sainthill and asque Book Terms, 432 Browne-Mill Keltic Words n formation Office Bees and Rose-Leaves ' ' Kiss the rod " Bailey"" Under Buchanan's beard," 433 Sir W. Scott The Civil List " Cutting his stick," 434 Enstone occaccio Selwyn's Taste "Hill me up!" 435 Scor- >ions in Heraldry English Rimes to Foreign Words, 436 Archbishop Lindsay Montaigne and East Anglia, 437 H.M. Bark Endeavour Brothers with same Christian Name Furly of Colchester Romani "Ghili" Rolling- pins aa Charms Relic of Napoleon, 438.

JOTES ON BOOKS : Thomas's ' Roman Life under the i Caesars ''The Chiswick Shakespeare ' Williarns's ' Spain ' 'Kent' Arber's Shakespeare, Jonson, and Milton Antho- logies.
 * Lang's Scott's ' Woodstock' Hall's 'Mr. Pickwick's

iotices to Correspondents.

BURLEYMEN."

THE derivation of this much twisted word

is been, and is, as puzzling to many as the

ijculiar office for which it stands. Yet in the

itter lies the key to the former. The con-

xion is in this wise : " By," a borough ;

y-law," the law of a borough ; ex quo by-

w-men, vulgb burleymen, i.e., men officially

puted to enforce the by-laws. From 1552

1584 the word was alternately spelt in the

ourt Leet Records of Manchester ' byrlamen

dbirlamen, and Skene wrote in 1597 :

' Burlaw, Byrlaw, lawes of Bui-law, are maid and termined be consent of nichtbors elected arid osen be common consent in the courtes called rlaw courts. The quhilk men so chosen as judges d arbitrators to the effect aforesaid are commonly

led by rlaw men Byr laws or laws of Burlaw

3 laws made by husbandmen or townships con- rning neighbourhood to be kept amongst them- ves."

From the ' Manchester Court Leet Records ' appears that two at least, and sometimes ifrre, were told off as overseers to each of the jincipal streets ; and in 1590 the bylawmen of . ylngate (now Millgate) were chronicled with ] gleet of duty in not reporting the unyoking ( certain swine. This seems to have been a it infrequent misdemeanour, for three years

later a mandate was issued that no swine were to be allowed to stray into the church or churchyard, or into the market-place on market days ; and in the year following (1594) every berlawman was warned to supervise his own circuit, and generally to look after the church and churchyard. The after-functions of wardens and sidesmen appear in this re- spect to have fallen to their lot. Again, the very next year the berlawmen were mulcted in a fine for their old remissness in per- mitting swine to roam the streets unyoked. The late Mr. J. P. Earwaker, M.A., F.S.A., who edited the * Manchester Court Leet Records' (1884), assigns (vol. i. p. 4, in note) an additional and later office to these worthies :

"In country places the duties of the burleymen, as they are often called, had in later times become that of assessing damage to crops, &c., from horses, cattle, &c., straying, and the like."

But burleymen were not confined to Man- chester, nor, apparently, is their office extinct. In the long since defunct Local Gleanings, edited by Mr. Earwaker, it is stated in No. 3, p. Ill (September, 1879):

" A correspondence has lately taken place in the Athenceum concerning the ancient village officers known as burleymen and the nature of their duties, which has received much elucidation from local sources. Mr. Beaumont, of Warrington, writes : ' In the review of Mr. Gomme's " Index of Municipal Offices," contained in your number for the 12th of July, you speak of burleymen (as we spell it here) as an extinct office, and you say that the Sixth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission (368) " tells us that in the seventeenth century there were functionaries of that name in several villages in the neighbourhood of Warrington." Will you

Ermit me, as Steward of the Honour and Fee' of ilton, and of the Manors of Frodsham and Lyme Handley, in Cheshire, and of the Honour and Fee of Mackesfield, and of the Manor of Widnes in Lan- cashire, to inform you that burleymen are still appointed at the Courts Leet and Courts Baron? Men of agricultural experience are always chosen, and their duty is to value damages, e.g., to crops, from cattle straying, or the like. The late judge of the Warrington County Court was in the habit of relying upon their evidence, and (by consent, of course) referring cases to them, and often observed how useful a general appointment of such agricul- tural referees would be. Another correspondent, who writes from Altrincham, states that at the ' Altrincham Court Leet, which is known to have been held since A.D. 1290 [but this statement is very questionable], burleymen are annually appointed, who often prove useful in settling disputes. Their duty is to assess damage to gardens and fields caused by stray horses, cows, hens, &c. In Knutsford and Mobberley townships burleymen are appointed ; and to show that neither the word nor the office is obsolete, I may add that I have within the past two years heard them give evidence in the County Court of damage to growing crops and gardens.' In a subsequent number Miss L. T. Smith gives some interesting notices of the bye-law-men in Yorkshire