Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/67

 9*8. IX. JAN. 18,1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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rate so far as those are concerned who died in action or on the scaffold, would more clearly indi- cate the character of the work. It would be interesting to trace, were such a thing possible, how many so-called last words are exact. That the last word of Charles I. was " Remember ! " may probably be accepted. The " Don't let poor Nelly starve," though it was possibly said by Charles II., appears apocryphal. ' ' I beg pardon, 1 have been an unconscionable time dying, is just as defensible ; and "Give Monsieur Dairolles a chair " have been advanced as the very last words of all. The first utterance given is that of Dr. Adams, the author of 4 Roman Antiquities': "It is growing dark, boys. You may go." This is a quite natural sentence of a dying schoolmaster, and the words have been put in the mouth of Dr. Arnold. " Animula, yagula, blandula," &c., will ever be associated with the Emperor Adrian, but cannot easily have been his last words. Two utterances are said to be assigned to Rabelais : " Let down the curtain, the farce is over," and " I am going to the great perhaps" (" Je vais chercher un grand peut-etre"). He is also said to have wrapped himself in a domino and said, "Beati sunt qui moriuntur in Domino." A vast majority of the sayings are naturally pious. Some of the most striking rest on the authority of Foxe of the 'Acts and Monuments.' If Leigh Hunt's last words were " Deep dream of peace," the self- quotation is at least pardonable. Gainsborough's '* We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company," is one of the most satisfactory. What is the authority for Gambetta's gloomy fore- boding, " I am lost, and there is no use to deny it " ? and that of George IV. 's almost cheery utterance, " Wally [Sir Walthen Waller, his page"), what is this ? It is death, my boy ; they have deceived me " ? Many utterances of American soldiers are new to us. Those who supply columns of edifying anecdotes to the newspapers will find the book a treasure-house. An admirably apt passage from Montaigne constitutes a capital preface.

The History of the Family of Sherborn. By Charles

Da vies Sherborn. (Mitchell & Hughes.) THOUGH it contributes but two names to the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' the family of Sherborne or Sherburne of Stonyhurst and else- where stands fairly conspicuous in English annals. Strong Roman Catholics and devoted Loyalists, its members swell the lists of recusants and are in constant hot water during the period of Common- wealth rule and under the early Hanoverian kings. Their family history has been traced by Mr. Charles Davies Sherborn, the son of the eminent painter- etcher C. W. Sherborn, himself a descendant, in a book which is in many respects a model of the class of work. Records concerning the family have appeared in Whitaker's ' Whalley ' and his ' Craven,' in Gerard's ' History of Stonyhurst College/ in various local histories, the Gentleman's Magazine, and other books and periodicals. The earliest member of the Lancashire - Yorkshire family is Robert de Sherborn, according to the Stow MS. grandson of Geoffrey I'Arbalastier, whose name appears in the Feet of Fines in a fine made at Westminster 25 June, 1200. With Sir Nicholas Sherborn, died 16 December, 1717, the direct line of the Sherborns came to an end. Branches of the family settled in various places, Wolfhouse, Heysham, Ribbleton, Little Mitton, Dighton, Dutton, Odiham, and elsewhere, and some

of the members are naturally located in the United States. The name has been spelt two score different ways, including such forms as Schyre- Dourne, Churborne, and Cherbron. There is also a family of Shernborn of Shernborn. near Hun- stanton, in Norfolk, which is said to be traceable x> the Conquest. Such researches as Mr. Sherborn las made fail to trace any connexion between the two. As to the origin of the name Sherborn, the author quotes two letters from Prof. Skeat, for jhe conclusions in which the reader must turn to
 * he book. Concerning Robert de Sherborne or Sher-

aurn, Bishop of Chichester, who died in 1536 at the reputed age of ninety-six, no successful attempt to trace the descent has been made. The ' D.N.B.' ives no particulars of birth, and all that Mr. Sher- born has discovered about him is that he used bhe Sherborn-Bailey arms. Sir Edward Sherburne or Sherborn, 1618-1702, the other man mentioned in the ' D.N.B.,' is, from the literary standpoint, the most eminent of his race. He descended from bhe Stonyhurst stock, but is classed under Sher- born of London, Essex, and Southants. He suc- seeded his father as Clerk of the Ordnance, joined the king's standard at Nottingham, was at Edgehill and Oxford, and was deprived of his place by the House of Lords. His library one of the best of the day was seized, and he was for a time dependent upon the charity of Thomas Stanley, the poet, his kinsman, to whom he dedicated his * Salmacis, Lyrian, and Sylvia, Lydia, The Rape of Helen,' &c. Shirley, the dramatist, was also among his friends. In the case of the Sherborns of Stonyhurst a connected history is supplied. Sir Richard Sherborn, 1526- 1594, who held the Stonyhurst and adjacent pro- perties for fifty-seven years, was conspicuous in Lancashire history, and seerns to have been a high- handed and turbulent gentleman with a keen eye to the main chance. Retaining the goodwill of four successive monarchs, Henry VIII., Edward VI. , Mary, and Elizabeth, he must have been a time- server, but stuck to his allegiance to the Church of Rome. In the ' Calendar of State Papers : Domestic Series, 1591,' we are told that he and his family are recusants, and do not go to church, or, if they do, stop their ears with wool lest they should hear. Other enormities are charged against him, and he is believed to be a Jesuit. His Roman Catholicism was, however, winked at, and he was allowed to have a chapel with priest. Among the charges against him were that he laid too High taxes for soldiers on the inhabitants of Lancashire, that he threatened to hang constables by martial law if they did not collect taxes, that he was guilty of incest and adultery, and that, though worth more than 1,000/. a year, he never lent money to Queen Elizabeth. Concerning a Charles Sherborn, of Bedfont, an engraver of the middle of the eighteenth century, information will be found in 8 th S. iv. 358. All one can do is to dip into the book and furnish matter whioh is of family and not seldom of historic interest. Mary Winifreda Sher- born, born 22 November, 1692, married Thomas, eighth Duke of Norfolk. Other distinguished marriages are reported. A special feature in an excellent book is an index to all the Sherborns who have been traced. A frontispiece by Mr. Charles W. Sherborn gives from a roll of arms, circa 1514, the armorial bearings of Thomas Sher- born and those of four other members of the family, including the Bishop of Chichester.