Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/493

 9-s. VIIL DEO. 14, INI.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

Chowte, whose daughter Anne married Si Walter Waller of Groomsbridge, temp. Eliza befch. KATHLEEN WARD.

Castle Ward, Downpatrick.

COMMISSION OF SEWERS. I shall be glad o any information as to the above. Who issuec a commission 1 to whom ? for what purpose And where is any record of commissions to be found? I find in Cooper's 'Annals of Cambridge,' vol. iv. p. 504, the following entry :

" 1813. On the 18th of February a Commission o Sewers was granted for certain limits in Cambridge- shire, extending from where the river Granta first runs into the parish of Little Shelford." And in Dr. Peile's * History of Christ's Col- lege,' at p. 153, I find a reference to the water- course running from Shelford to Cambridge, and a statement that "the right to this water [i.e., a part of said watercourse] was granted by the Commissioners of Sewers " to certain colleges. G. A. M.

EARLIEST AUCTION OF LANDED PROPERTY. Can any correspondent inform me as to the earliest known auction (i.e., public sale to the highest bidder) in this country of landed property of which the particulars were printed, and as to where a copy of the particulars can be seen? I do not think there were any such prior to the Revolution of 1688. Information as to early public auctions of any other kind of property is not required. W. I. R. V.

THE COMING CORONATION. The Church Review says that there will be no adminis- tration of Holy Communion at the coronation of Edward VII., and adds that this is "with- out precedent." But I have read somewhere that at the coronation of James II. the Com- munion was omitted, the reason being that James, having joined the Roman Church, would not receive the Church of England sacrament. Will some more learned reader say how far this was the case ?

GEORGE ANGUS.

PRESIDENT ADAMS. Can any one tell me if John Adams, at one time President of the United States, was of English extraction? If so, in what county was he born? Any information concerning him or his ancestry that any reader can give will be esteemed a favour. A. L. W. P.

[Born at Braintree, now Quincy, Mass.]

PORTRAITS OF EARLY LORD MAYORS. Are there any public portraits in existence of the earlier Mayors of London, say from 1600 ? If not so early, from what date, if any ?

A. L. W. P.

WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT.

(9 th S. viii. 305.)

THE statement that the "cat" was a coal barge, and that the word is so entered in Johnson's Dictionary, may give rise to misapprehension. The entry in Johnson's Dictionary (fourth edition, folio, 1773) reads : "Cat, a sort of ship." A reference to the 4 H.E.D.' will furnish particulars of the "sort of ship," showing it to have been of primitive design, of great strength, and of a capacity from four to six hundred tons burthen. Its antiquity may be seen in the quotations given in Du Carige, s.v. ' Catta, Cattus,' and ' Gata, Gatus,' defined " Navis species," where a reference to one of these terms is dated 1071. The " cat " in its day was, in fact, a vessel of large tonnage, capable of long voyages. In an early period of navigation it was apparently understood in much the same sense as the term " East Indiaman " was understood at a later period that is, as the general designation for a large trading vessel. A treacherous sand off the Thames, called the Mouse, suggested the conundrum, once current among North Sea mariners, quoted by Dr. Murray in the 'H.E.D.': 'When did the Mouse catch the cat?" The obvious answer to this was, "When
 * he cat was wrecked on the Mouse (sand)."

y such grim humour the name of "cat "as

pplied to vessels of burthen has been recalled 'Catt or bark of 350 tons," dated before 771, at which period "cats" appear to lave been associated almost exclusively with he coal trade. The reason of this may be xplained.
 * o us. The ' E.D.D.' cites an example of a

As the riding-horse when past a certain

age may take his place on the rank as a

.ab-horse, so the vessel growing in years was

idapted as a collier. Growing less seaworthy,

a snip ceased to be classed for long voyages,

and became relegated to the coasting trade or

utilized as a timber carrier. The great bulk

f the coasting trade was furnished by the

arriage.of coal from the Tyne and Wear to

jondon and the coast ports, and in this

ervice antiquated types continued in use

ong after they had been superseded in the

hipbuilding yards by new models. Hence

n its latter days each kind of vessel came to

>e associated with the coal trade, and its name

>ecame the name by which a collier vessel

as known, as in the instance cited in the E.D.D.' : " A catt or bark of the coal trade." he " cat " was superseded by the " pink," a