Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/350

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. APRIL u, im


'On this passage Cunningham has a note that the casting out of the spirits from these people brought Barrel great credit, which he afterwards lost by the discovery of his tricks in another case. Dr. Harsnet published a pamphlet or book in 1599, exposing Barrel and his impositions in all these instances.

That "Dorrell" was often used for " Dar- rell " in the time of our author can be seen in "Wild Darrell's" correspondence, edited by Mr. Hubert Hall, and published by him in his * Society in the Elizabethan Age.'

EDWARD STEVENS.

Melbourne.

THE MANORIAL SYSTEM : ITS SURVIVAL. The following extract from a letter recently received from the Vicar of Laxton, Notts, will, I think, be of interest to many readers of <N. &Q.':-

41 1 happen to live in one of the few unenclosed villages left. It and Eakring, near here, are the only ones, I believe, in Nottinghamshire. The open-field (three-field) system is still in working order here, in a modified form, but enclosing is in progress. We have a jury and a foreman for each tield ; and we ' break ' the field by toll of bell after harvest. The pinfold is still in use ; the pindar, curiously enough, is a certain John Pindar. There are extensive ruins of a manor-place and many interesting features. At Eakring they have a certain night called 4 Virgate night,' when virgate holders meet for dividing, I believe, the common pasture for mowing. The parish is shut in by gates. Altogether the place still presents a faithful picture in situ of manorial customs and ways." NATHANIEL J. HONE.

3lA, Southfield Road, Bedford Park, W.

OHICHELE'S KIN. It is well known that All Souls' College, Oxford, was founded by the archbishop for the purpose of educating his kindred. With this intent the College, from its foundation or soon afterwards, kept a record of the issue of Chichele's brother Robert, and this issue rapidly increased, spreading into at least half the counties of England. The charts of the various female descents fill two large printed volumes, and the copy of the Stemmata Chicheleana at All Souls' is emblazoned and annotated, and contains many lines down to the present time. Unfortunately, a very large proportion of these pedigrees can be cut away from kinship with the founder by one correction in the early part of the kin- chart. Such a correction will meet with objection from the many who believe in their consanguinity ; but that should be no reason for the suppres- sion of the facts.

By a mistake, apparently made by the Heralds in Elizabethan times, a Kempe of ancient Suffolk lineage, who married a Kentish


dame, was placed on the Kentish Kempes' 'amily tree, and the issue of this "Edmund Kempe, citizen and mercer of London," is consequently credited with Chichele blood which was in no way his. This is evidenced by his will, proved in the P.C.C. (8 Spert), in which he alludes to his relatives Nicholas Ptokewood, Cicily Melton, Sir Richard Gresham, Sir John Gresham, and Lady Yarford, all of whom are well known, and absolutely proved relatives of the Kempes of Gissing (Norfolk) and Weston (Suffolk), ancestors of the Kempe baronets, and quite a different stock from the Kentish Kempes (knights), one of the last of whom married Emelyn Chichele, grand-niece of Archbishop Chichele, thus bringing to the Kempes of Kent and their issue the rights to Fellowships at All Souls'. Further, the Heralds' Suffolk Visitation and Visitation of London, Harleian MS. 1154, clearly states that this Edmund Kempe (the wealthiest Kempe in London at the period, and "a member of the Mercers' Company") was son and "heire elect" to Robert Kempe, of Gissing ; and hence all issue of his are cut off from the founder's kin of All Souls'. FKED. HITCHIN-KEMP.

FACETIOUS LEGAL JUDGMENT. Madame du Npyer, in her ' Correspondence ' (letter xxxvii. vol. ii. p. 257 of the translation by Fl. Layard, 1890), relates how she was "told the other day" of a judgment given by "the Parliament of Toulouse." A man happened to kill another man by falling on him accidentally. The relations brought an action against him. The Court ordered that the man who claimed an indemnity for the death of his relative was to go up to the top of the tower and allow himself to fall on the man who had caused the death. It would be curious to have authoritative information as to whether such a verdict was ever really given at Toulouse. The judgment is, of course, often attributed to Eastern judges ; but it seems most improbable that such a verdict could be seriously given by a French court at the period in question.

A. COLLING WOOD LEE.

Waltham Abbey, Essex.

KOLA-NUT : CAM- WOOD. It is curious that the names of these two important African products have never been traced to their origin in any English dictionary. They belong to the Timne language, spoken at Sierra Leone, and it is worth noting that they have been taken over into English unchanged, the Timne forms being precisely kola and kam. This applies to the singular only. In Timne, as in many other African