Minor Queries
Ex Pede Herculem.—I shall feel much obliged if any of your correspondents or readers can inform me of the origin of the proverb "Ex pede Herculem." In what classical author is it to be found? I have looked in vain through Erasmi Adagia for it.
H. H.
"To-day we purpose."—Will any one be good enough to say where these lines (quoted by Mr. Ruskin, Modern Painters, vol. ii. p. 188.) are to be found:—
"To-day we purpose, ay, this hour we mount
To spur three leagues towards the Apennine;
Come down, we pray thee, ere the hot sun count
His dewy rosary on the eglantine"
G. N.
"God takes those soonest whom He loves the best."—Where shall we find the origin of this expression, so frequently occurring on tombstones in almost all parts of the country? Or how far back can it be traced? The following, in Rainham church, Kent, is of the year 1626:
"Here slepes my babe in silence, heauen's his rest,
For God takes soonest those he loueth best."
T. H. K.
Malew, Man.
Quakers' Attempt to convert the Pope.—At what period, and in what author besides Veryard's Tour in the Low Countries, is the story of two Quakers being imprisoned in the Lazzaretto in Rome, for attempting to convert the Pope, to be found? Were they persons of any standing in the Society?
B. S. S.
Whychcote of St. John's.—In one of the volumes published under the foregoing title, in 1833, there is a striking story, evidently fictitious in the main, but assuming, as an element of fact, the remembered existence of a head-stone over a grave in the little burial-ground, under the shadow of the venerable ruins of Tynemouth Priory in Northumberland, containing the single word "Fanny." Does any one of the Tyneside readers of the "Notes and Queries" personally recollect the actual existence of such a memorial? Is the real name of the author of the entertaining work disclosed in any subsequent publication, or is it generally known?
J. D.
Meaning of Rechibus, &c.—Among the rights claimed by the Esturmys in Savernak forest, 8 Edw. III., occurs—
"Et omnia placita de leporibus, rechibus, heymectis, tessonibus, vulpibus, murilegis, et perdricibus:"
which I translate—
"And all pleas concerning hares, traps, hedgehogs, badgers, foxes, wild-cats, and partridges:"
but I confess I have no confidence in some of these words, as the glossaries in the British Museum Library fail to explain them. I therefore solicit your courteous assistance.
James Waylen.
Family of Queen Katherine Parr.—The pedigree of the once eminent family of Parr, as recorded in various printed works—Dugdale, Nicholls, Burke, &c., is far from being complete or satisfactory. Could any one versed in the genealogy of the northern counties supply any information on the following points?—
I. The early descent.—Dugdale in his Baronage, commences with Sir William Parr, who married Elizabeth De Ros, 1383; but he states the family to have been previously "of knightly degree." A MS. pedigree in the Herald's College also mentions Sir William as "descended from a race of knights." Where is an account of this race to be found?
II. The separation between the two lines of Parr and Kendal.—Sir Thomas Parr, father of Queen Katherine, died 1518, and his Inq. p. m. states him to have held manors, messuages, lands, woods, and rents, in Parr, Wigan, and Sutton. Ten years afterwards, 1528, Bryan Parr was found by Inq. p. m. to have held the manor, messauges, woods, lands, &c. of Parr. How was Bryan related to Sir Thomas?
III. The descendant in the fourth degree of Bryan was Henry Parr, of Parr, who was, according to a MS. in the college, aged twenty in 1621. Had he any descendants?
If no positive information can be afforded, yet a clue to where it might be sought for would oblige.
Genealogicus Lancastriensis.
Skort.—
"Or wily Cyppus that can wink and snort,
While his wife dallies on Mæcenas' skort."
—Hall, Satires, Book iv. Sat. 1. (Whittingham's edition, 1824.)
Of course the general meaning of these two verses is obvious enough. But how is the latter to be read? Are we to read "dallies on," as one word, i.e. keeps dallying, and "skort" (as a mere abbreviation of the Latin "scortum") as nominative in apposition with "wife?" If so, the verse is intelligible, though harsh enough even for Hall.
If not, the word "skort" must have some other meaning which I am unacquainted with. I cannot find it at all in Halliwell, the only authority I have at hand to refer to.
K. I. P. B. T.
Religious Teaching in the German Universities.—Will any of your numerous readers direct me to any book or books containing information on the present state of religion and religious teaching in the German Universities?
Rovert.
Epigram by Dunbar—Endymion Porter.—Can any of your correspondents supply the deficient verses in the following epigram, addressed by Thomas Dunbar, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1815 to 1822, to Miss Charlotte Ness, who required him to explain what was meant by the terms abstract and concrete?
"Say what is abstract, what concrete,
Their difference define?
They both in one fair person meet,
And that fair form is thine.
* * * *
* * * *
For when I lovely Charlotte view,
I then view loveliness."
Can any one substantiate the local tradition the Endymion Porter was born at the manor-house of Aston Subedge, in Gloucestershire; or furnish any particulars of his life before he became gentleman of the bedchamber to Prince Charles?
Balliolensis.
Sathaniel.—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what book, play, poem, or novel, a character named Sathaniel appears? There is a rather common picture bearing that title; it represents a dark young lady, in Eastern dishabille, with a turban on her head, reclining on a many-cushioned divan, and holding up a jewel in one hand. I have seen the picture so often, that my curiosity as to the origin of the subject has been completely aroused; and I have never yet found any one able to satisfy it.
F. T. C.
The Scoute Generall.—I have in my possession a small 4to. MS. of 32 pages, entitled The Scoute Generall, "communicating (impartially) the martiall affaires and great occurrences of the grand councell (assembled in the lowest House of Parliament) unto all kingdomes, by rebellion united in a covenant," &c., which is throughout written in verse, and particularly satirical against the Roundheads of the period (1646), and remarkable for the following prognostication of the death of the unfortunate monarch Charles I.:
"Roundheads bragge not, since 'tis an old decree,
In time to come from chaines wee should be free:
Traytors shall rule, Injustice then shall sway,
Subjects and nephewes shall their king betray;
And he himselfe, O most unhappy fate!
For kings' examples, kingdomes imitate:
What he maintain'd, I know it was not good,
Brought in by force, and out shall goe by blood," &c.
It occupies about thirty lines more. At the bottom of the title, and at the conclusion of the postscript, it has merely the initials S. D. Could any of your worthy correspondents inform me who S. D. was?
The MS. is evidently cotemporary, and, according to the introduction, was "ordered to be forthwith published, 
.;" and as I cannot trace that such a production was ever issued, the answer would confer a favour on
C. Hamilton.
City Road, April 1. 1851.
Arthur Pomeroy, Dean of Cork.—Can any one of your genealogical readers assist me in ascertaining the parentage of Arthur Pomeroy, who was made Dean of Cork in 1672? He was fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, in which university he graduated as A.B. in 1660, M.A. in 1664, and S.T.P. in 1676. He is stated in Archdale's edition of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (article "Harberton") to have sprung from the Pomeroys of Ingsdon in Devonshire, and is stated to have gone to Ireland as chaplain to the Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant.
J. B.
Minor Queries Answered
Civil War Tract.—
"A Letter sent from a worthy Divine, to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of the City of London. Being a true relation of the battaile fought betweene His Majesty and his Excellence the Earle of Essex. From Warwicke Castle, the 24. of October, 1642, at two a clock in the morning. Together with a Prayer for the happy uniting of the King and parliament, fit to be used by all good Christians, daily in their houses. London, Octob. 27. Printed for Robert Wood. 1642."
The above is the title of a tract now in my possession. Is it known to any collector of tracts relating to the Battle of Edgehill? Who was the "worthy divine," the writer?
P. Q.
[On the title-page of this tract among the King's pamphlets in the British Museum, the name of Mr. Bifield has been written. No doubt it is the production of the Rev. Adoniram Byfield, chaplain to Col. Cholmondeley's regiment, in the army of the Earl of Essex in 1642, and who was subsequently one of the scribes to the Assembly of Divines, and a most zealous Covenanter. See Wood's Athenæ, by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 670.]
Trisection of the Circle.—Has the problem of the trisection of the angle been solved? or, if not, is there any reward for its solution; and what steps should be taken to obtain it?
John Vincent Lyster.
[The problem of the trisection of the angle by aid of the straight line and circle, used as in Euclid, has never been solved—no reward was ever offered for its solution.]
Wolsey's Son.—Can any of your readers give an account of a son of Cardinal Wolsey, whose existence is recorded in a letter from Eustace Chapuys to the Emperor Charles V., October 25, 1529, in the following words:—
"The cardinal has now retired with a very small train to a place about ten miles hence. A son of his has been sent for from Paris, who was there following his studies, and of whom I have formerly made some mention to your Majesty"—Correspondence of Charles V., p. 291.
Cardinal Beaton had lots of bastards, but I never remember to have seen in any account of Wolsey mention made of natural children.
J. M.
[The existence of a natural son of Cardinal Wolsey is a fact as well ascertained as any other fact of the Cardinal's history, and referred to in the various biographies of him that have appeared. His name was Thomas Winter. In Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, vol. xxxii. pp. 255. and 256. note, reference is made to a Bull of Pope Julius II., dated August, 1508, to be found in Kennet's MSS. in the British Museum, in which he is styled, "dilecti filio Thomæ Wulcy," Rector of Lymington diocese of Bath and Wells, Master of Arts, "pro dispensatione ad tertium incompatibile." This is explained by the passage in Wood's Athenæ Oxon. Fasti, part i. p. 73. (Bliss ed.), relating to him. "This Tho. Winter, who was nephew (or rather nat. son) to Cardinal Tho. Wolsey, had several dignities confer'd upon him before he was of age, by the means of the said Cardinal," viz. the archedeaconry of York, 1523; chancellorship of the church of Sarum; the deanery of Wells, 1525; the provostship of Beverly; and the archdeaconry of Richmond, &c.: on which there is a note by Baker, that "this Tho. Winter is said to have held of the church's goods clearly more than 2000 pds. per an." Wood adds, that about the time of the Cardinal's fall, he gave up all or most of his dignities, keeping only the archdeaconry of York, which he resigned also in 1540. In Grove's Life and Times of Cardinal Wolsey, vol. iv. p. 315., among the "Articles" against the Cardinal, Article XXVII. expressly charges him, "that he took from his son Winter his income of 2,700l. a-year, applied it to his own use, and gave him only 200l. yearly to live on." A reference is made in Sir H. Ellis's Letters Illustrative of English History, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p. 70., to a letter of Edmund Harvel to Dr. Starkey, dated from Venice, April 1535, in which the writer expresses his obligations to Mr. Winter, for his "friendly mynde toward him," and begs him to return his thanks.
In Mr. Galt's Life of Wolsey (Appendix IV. p. 424. of Bogue's edition) will be found a copy of a letter from John Clusy to Cromwell, in relation to a natural daughter of Wolsey's in the nunnery of Shaftesbury.]
Cardinals and Abbots in the English Church.—It may not be generally known, but the fact is so, that the English church numbers two Cardinals and a Lord Abbot amongst her members. In Whitaker's Clerical Diary, under the head of London Diocese, there is attached to St. Paul's a senior and a junior cardinal; and in Ireland exists the exempt jurisdiction of Newry and Mourne, under the government of the Lord Abbot, who is the Earl of Kilmorey. Can any of your readers give me any information respecting these officials?
W. J.
[Cardinal.—The title of cardinal (cardinalis) in early times was frequently applied to any bishop, priest, or deacon holding an official post. In France there were many cardinal priests: thus, the curate of the parish of St. John de Vignes is called, in old charters, the cardinal priest of that parish. There were also cardinal deacons, who had the charge of hospitals for the poor, and who ranked above the other deacons. Thus, two of the minor canons of St. Paul's are called cardinals of the choir, whose duties are to preserve order in Divine service, administer the Eucharist, and officiate at funerals. In former times, they heard confessions and enjoined penances. (Newcourt's Repertorium, vol. i. p. 233.) It was not till the twelfth century that the Sacred College of Cardinals was organised; nor was it till 1567 that clergymen were forbidden by Pius V. to assume the title of cardinal unless appointed by the Pope.
Lay Abbots.—In early times we frequently find secular persons denominated "field abbots" and "abbot counts," upon whom the sovereign had bestowed certain abbeys, for which they were obliged to render military service, as for common fiefs. In the time of Charles the Bald many of the nobility in France were abbots, having a dean to officiate for them. Thus, too, in Scotland, James Stuart, the natural son of James V., was, at the time of the Reformation, Prior of St. Andrew's, although a secular person. The Earl of Kilmorey, who is impropriator of the tithes of St. Mary, Newry, is a lay abbot, or representative of the preceding abbots of a Cistertian Abbey which formerly existed in that town. His abbatial functions, however, are confined to convening ecclesiastical courts, and granting probates of wills, and licenses for marriages, subject only to the metropolitan jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Armagh. A remnant of the secularisation of ecclesiastical dignities has already been noticed in our pages (Vol. ii., pp. 447. 500.), in the case of the late Duke of York, who was at the same time Commander-in-chief and Bishop of Osnaburg.]