Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/11

. vii. JAN. 5, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

sisters ran away with a private soldier named Hendrik, and soon died of a broken heart, leaving one little daughter sole off- spring of the unhappy marriage to the care of the child's maternal kinsfolk, who reared her gently and married her to an Anglican clergyman named Simpson, sometime rector or vicar of a small parish in Yorkshire. The writer of these lines knows nothing of the fate of the children of this marriage.

Darcy Lever's youngest daughter Dorothy married a Mr. Goldie, of Edinburgh, Writer to the Signet a sounding "addition," equiva- lent to Southron "solicitor"; and on her father's death in 1840 came in for all he had to leave his cash and goods and chattels, including the pedigree that hung conspicuous in the entrance hall of the mansion. The sole child of this marriage became the wife of a captain in the army named Scott, who tacked his father-in-law's surname to his own, and thenceforth figured as Capt. Goldie- Scott or Scott-Goldie, now deceased. Whether there was issue born of this marriage is beyond the writer's ken. But such issue, if any, must evidently rank equally with the descendants of Bessie and of Mary Isabella as living representatives of the last of the Levers of Alkrington, unless indeed the sovereign (the fountain of honour) should see fit to choose one of them to take pre- cedence of the rest a contingency which may safely be neglected.

The chief living representatives of Darcy Lever through his eldest daughter Mary Isabella, born Lever, but successively Springett, Austen, Nares, by marriage, are Philip Kent, eldest son of John Clarke Kent, who married Mary Isabella, Lever's only daughter, Stephana Elizabeth Springett; Philip Kent's sole surviving child, John Philip Lever Kent ; and J. P. L. Kent's only son as yet familiarly known as "little Jack."

Ernest, the only other surviving son of John Clarke Kent, has surviving issue : Charles Kent, and divers daughters by his wife Mary, eldest daughter of the late Richard Lawson, rector of Upton-on-Severn, who married a Miss Malcolm, niece of the well- known voluminous writer Sir John Malcolm.

These Kents seem to be in no wise akin to their namesakes of East Anglia, whose arms they bear. Their origin is Welsh, and their true name Gwent, reminiscent of John of Gwent. They intermarried with the Pembrokeshire Perrots, and in that respect claim kindred with Jane Austen, the novelist, who had Perrot blood in her veins, and whose far-away cousin, Major 4-USten, of Taywejl,

married Darcy Lever's eldest daughter, who finally exchanged the name of Austen for Nares.

The Captain Nares, R.N. afterwards Sir George of Arctic voyage renown, is a scion of this Nares family. Whether he sprang from the loins of Mr. Justice Nares through the archdeacon, or through the doctor of music, of that name, " this deponent" cannot say, but the reader who cares to know may easily ascertain. Non omnia possumus omnes.

Nor is this the place to speak of the East Anglian Kents genuine Kents not Gwents innocently mistaking themselves, and mis- taken even by the College of Heralds for such, but true Kents, and headed in the last generation by Sir Charles Eggleton Kent, who had a seat in Norfolk. See the 'Baronetcy.' The writer of these lines, a true Gwent, albeit with Lever and Perrot and other blood to boot in his veins, wishes to give to all their due and to have his own, but not to deck himself with plumes that don't belong to him. It was not his fault, but rather the Heralds', that the lion coupe and rampant of the East Anglian Kents stands coupe and rampant on his sole surviving silver spoon, wherewith he stirs the tea that inspires this divagation, which might be lengthened almost ad libitum. But one must consult the reader's libitum, and enough is as good as a feast.

PHILIP KENT.

SCHOOL-TEACHERS IN KENT, 1578-1619.

(See 9 th S. vi. 206.)

THE following extracts are from the volumes in the Cathedral Library -at Canterbury relating to the Visitations of the Archdeacons of Canterbury.

St. John's-in-Thanet (Margate).

1580. " We present that Thomas Deale suffereth in his house a schoolmaster to teach, and also being a victualer suffereth him to remain in his house, and not frequent divine service on the sabboth day." Fol. 67, 1577-85.

1591. " John Alsoppe for teaching without license in the church of St. John's." Fol. 98, 1584-95.

1594. "That one Mr. Johnson teacheth children and keepeth school in the said parish, having no license in that behalf." Fol. 161, 1584-95.

1608. "That there is one teacheth in the parish upon request made to him, but not meaning to con- tinue his teaching, unless he obtain license from the Ordinary." Fol. 119, 1601-6.

The following seems to show that the children were taught in the church :

L599. " Margaret Gates, the wife of Charles Cates, for a railer and scolder, coming into the church and misusing the schoolmaster, in evil words and throw- ing a stone at him in th.e church, amongst the clulc-ren."