Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/417

 9* s. V.MAY 26, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

409

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1900.

CONTENTS. No. 126.

NOTES: Civic Knighthoods, 409 Open Field Land "Messuage," 411 "Several" Lineal Descendant of Wickliffe "Cetu" MacRaes and Seaforth Highlanders Birthplace of Byron, 412 Christian Names " Goober" and " Pindar " " Florin "=Scotehman Index to ' Notes and Queries ' Macaulay's ' Horatius ' Voteless Candi- rtate-Sowens, 413 -The Flag, 414.

QUERIES : Cowper's Letters "As busy as Throp's wife," 414' The Fisherman of Lake Semapee ' Muggletonian Writings - Tennyson Query" Rollick " Muriel -Dvmn. of Dvvynn ' The White Man's Burden ' C. Clutterbuck S. Hemingway " Pastophoria " Almshouses in Savage

[j|Gardens Assembly Rules, 415 Verse printed on an Old

& Jug Cumberland's ' Jew ' Malachy Dudeny Popes John XII. and Benedict IX. " Viridical" J. Sawyer TurtlifE Family Pedigree of Lords of Cardigan Sander- son Family, 416.

REPLIES : Cowper Centenary, 417 Picts and Scots, 418 Miquelon Grammatical Usage Admiral Dilkes Hot Cross Buns Throwing Bonnet over the Windmills Foreign Motto "Colly "Rev. C. Forsbaw First Edition of Moliere, 421 " Out of print " Fahrenheit Thermo- meter Declaratory Act Green Fairies " Stand the racket," 422 How History is Made "Moral pockethand- kerchiefs," 423 Escape of Admiral Brodrick-Grosvenor MSS. " Childerpox " Delagoa and Algoa " One and all " ' ' Bird-eyed," 424 ' Evolution of Editors 'First British Lighthouse Devil walking through Athlone, 425 La Belle Sauyage, 426 Pythagoras and Christianity Geo. Romney Collection of Biblical Quotations Earl's Palace, Kirkwall " Jury " in Nautical Terms, 426 Unicorns, 427.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-' Cromwell's Souldiers Catechism' 'Yorkshire Archaeological Journal ' ' St. Pancras Notes and Queries.'

Notices to Correspondents.

CIVIC KNIGHTHOODS.

THE custom of knighting, or of bestowing some equivalent honour upon, the Lord Mayor of the City of London is a very old one. From the accession of Henry VIII. to that of George III. there were not more than twenty-five Lord Mayors who were not either knights or baronets. Even under the Com- monwealth the usage continued, the accolade being given by the Speaker of the House of Commons or the Protector. It was not until the eighteenth century that the custom was seriously broken through, owing probably to the attitude which the Corporation of London then took towards the Government of the day. Between 1730 and 1800 no fewer than forty - two Lord Mayors fourteen under George II. and twenty-eight under George III. received neither knighthood nor baronetcy. And in the present century there have been forty-one exceptions some of them notable ones so that it has come now to be accepted that this mark of dis- tinction is given only to commemorate some special circumstance of interest under a par- ticular mayoralty, and is then shared with the sheriffs.

How far back is it possible to trace this

custom of civic knighthoods 1 That it ex- isted from the sixteenth century we have seen. Did it exist much earlier 1 Upon this point I believe much misconception prevails. Some authorities knight nearly every Lord Mayor from the second half of the fourteenth century, while others carry back the usage still earlier to almost the days of Fitz Alwyn. It is hardly necessary to point out the improbability of this. Knighthood in its inception and early history was purely a military order, and in the days when the feudal system was at its strength is not likely to have been conferred for other than military reasons. Some colour, however, is given to these supposed early civic knight- hoods by references in divers ancient deeds among the Guildhall MSS. and in the St. Paul's Cathedral collection (see Hist. MSS. Com., Rep. ix. App. 1). In these documents, where the names of the mayor, sheriffs, or aldermen are appended as witnesses, the mayor's name invariably has the prefix " Sir." Some of the earliest mayors are thus designated, as William Joynier, 1238-9; Ralph Aswy, 1241-44; Michael Tory, 1244-5 ; John de Gisors, 1245-6 ; Peter Fitz Alan, 1246-7, and many others. But it is, I think, now accepted that the prefix "Sir," unless followed by the affix "knight," had then nothing to do with knighthood. " Sir " was merely the equivalent of the Latin dominus, and was used solely as a term of official respect. The same persons who as mayors are dubbed "Sir "frequently appear as witnesses after the expiration of their term of office, and the prefix is then wanting. We may, therefore, take it that the merely calling a man "Sir" was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries not necessarily an indication of knighthood. Fortunately, evidence is now within our reach by which we are able to test these so-called early civic knighthoods. If a man were a knight he would certainly style himself such in his will, and if not thus described, we may accept it that he was not entitled to the honour. The 'Calendar of the Hustings Wills,' so ably edited for the Corporation of London by Dr. Sharpe, and the ' Index to the Early P.C.C. Wills,' issued by the British Record Society, include between them the will of nearly every Mayor and Lord Mayor of London from the middle of the thirteenth century, and so enable us to say almost posi- tively who were knights and who were not.

A careful comparison of these with other authorities within my reach leads to the con- clusion that it was not until the second half of the fifteenth century that civic knight-