ii s. vm. NOV. 29, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
427
COL. THOMAS POVEY. (See 4 S. i. 100.)
He was commissioned Lieutsnant-Governor
of Massachusetts 11 April, 1702 ; reached
Boston and took office 11 June, 1702 ;
appeared last at a Council meeting 28 Jan.
1706 ; and left Boston, never to return
immediately thereafter. At the above refer-
ence MB. WHITMORE asked, " What is
known of him ? " Apparently nothing be-
yond his military career (which is given ir
I)alton's ' English Army Lists,' &c., iii. 237
238, 306. 307 ; v. 155, 159) and his brief
stay in Boston.
On 11 June, 1702, Judge Sewall wrote :
" I was startled at 2 or 3 things ; viz. The L 1 Governour a stranger, sent, whom we knew nor heard anything of before." ' Diary,' ii. 58. In a letter to FitzJohn Winthrop dated Boston, 21 June, 1702, the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge said :
Y e Leit: Governer is one Capt. Tho: Povey : cousin to one of that name knoune to your self ; he is a souldier, was nine years in y 6 army Flanders." ' 6 Mass. Hist. Collections,' iii. 99. If by " one of that name " is meant a Thomas Povey, probably the reference is to Thomas Povey, F.R.S., the friend of Evelyn and Pepys. Or the reference may be to John Povey, Clerk of the Privy Council. In a notice of Thomas Povey, F.R.S., the writer ays that
" a half-brother John, who was clerk of the privy council, and commissioner for the sick and wounded under William III., died in June, 1705 " (' D.N.B.,' 1909, xvi. 236),
and cites Luttrell as his authority. The writer here confuses John Povey, who was Clerk of the Privy Council, with Richard Povey, who was the Commissioner ; for what Luttrell wrote is as follows :
" Captain Thomas Savoury is made treasurer to the commissioners for the sick and wounded, in the room of Mr. Povey, deceased." ' Brief Relation,' v. 564.
Luttrell' s " Mr. Povey " was not John Povey, but Richard Povey.
A " Letter from the Com 1 ' 8 for sick and wounded," dated 5 June, 1705, mentions " Mr. Povey, their treasurer, being dead " ('Calendar of Treasury Papers, 1702-7,' p. 351). The Commissioner was, perhaps, identical with the " Richard Povey, gent., that died at M r Charles Childe's," and was buried in Bath Abbey, 2 June, 1705 ('Regis- ters of Bath Abbey,' ii. 400). John Povey did not die until 1715: "John Povey, Esq ; one of the Clerks of the Privy-Council, died Apr. 1715 " (J. Le Neve, ' Monumenta Anglicana,' 1717, v. 304). Under date of 30 Oct., 1718, is a reference to a "petition of Thomas Povey, son of John Povey, Esq.,
late Clerk of the Privy Council" (* Cal. of
Treasury Papers, 1714-19,' p. 408). F. B.
Relton thinks that John Povey was "pro-
bably" a half-brother of Thomas Povey,
F.R.S. ('Account of the Fire Insurance
Companies,' 1893, p. 452). The Rev. A. T. S.
Goodrick asserts, but without giving his
authority, that John Povey was a son of
William Povey ('Edward Randolph,' vi.
146, note). An editorial note in the ' Massa-
chusetts Province Laws ' declares that
Lieut. -Governor Thomas Povey was 4< a
brother of John Povey, clerk of the Privy
Council" (vii. 331).
Can further information in regard to Col. Thomas Povey and John Povey be fur- nished ? ALBERT MATTHEWS.
Boston, U.S.
WORDS AND PHRASES IN ' LORNA DOONE.' I should be grateful for any light on the meaning of the following expressions :
1. "As stinging soap, left alone in a basin, spreads all abroad without bubbling" (chap. ix.). What is
capias
cine?
3. "Thou art not come to me to be blessed
for barn-gun " (chap. xvii.). What is " barn-gun "?
4. "John the Baptist, and his cousins, with the wool and hyssop, are for mares, and ailing dogs, and fowls that have the jaundice " (ib.). Is this a spell?
5. "Then the geese begin to thrust their
breasts out, and mum their down-bits " (chap xxviii. ). Does this mean "preen themselves' and what is " mum " connected with ?
6. " Playing at shepherd's chess" (chap.
xxxvii.).
7. " Cutting out saplings where they stooled too close together" (chap, xxxviii. ). "Stools" is used some thirty lines lower to mean " stumps of trees," but saplings are not stumps.
8. "In the northern heaven, flags and ribbons of a jostling pattern ; such as we often have in autumn, but in July very rarely. Of these Master Dryden has spoken somewhere, in his courtly manner" (chap. Ixiv.). I cannot find any allusion in Dryden to the Aurora Borealis, which is, I sup- pose, what is meant.
9. " Then let us have a game of loriot with the baby!" (chap. Ixix.) "Loriot" was apparently some kind of ball-play, but 'N.ED.' does not give it.
C. B. WHEELER.
BURLESQUES OF MYSTERY PLAYS. A collection of the mystery plays commonly performed before the Reformation was pub- lished by William Hone in 1823. At the Reformation many plays burlesquing the mysteries were as commonly performed, ts there any collection of these latter ? They seem to have been after the same style as Aristophanes. H. F. H.
