NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VL JULY is, 1912.
Mr. J. Symes, verger, of Greenwich, wrote
10 Nov., 1911 :
" I have searched Marriage Registers from 1716 to 1728, and can find no trace; and have searched Baptisms, and I have found Thomas, son of George and Mary Freeman, and that is all I can find."
A search by Mr. Beevor under the Christian name ' Sybilla,' through the indexes of marriage licences at the Faculty Office, back from 1746 to 1717, did not reveal any Sybilla Freeman. A similar search in other registers might be more fruitful, or some new facts may yet be recovered from the parish registers at Deptford, Blackheath, or other points in that vicinity. At the Faculty Office are these two entries :
" Richard Day and Sarah Clifton, Oct. 15, 1736."
" John Pyke and Elizabeth Rose, Oct., 1735."
The original allegations for these two licences have not yet been examined. It is not impossible that Sarah Clifton may be identical with the Mrs. Sarah Day, widow, who, in 1746, married William Pyke of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. The registers of this last parish are yet to be examined for the period circa 1745-60.
Among earlier entries of marriage licences at the Faculty Office, as printed, are these :
" 1710, Sept, 26. Day, Richard, and Watkins, Mary." P. 255.
" 1701, Dec. 22. Attfield, Henry, and Day, Sarah." P. 210.
Was this Henry Attfield any relation to the Ambrose Atfeild, D.D., mentioned in the will of Michael Pyke of Cranley, Surrey, formerly of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, proved 1680-81 ? (See 10 S. viii. 44.)
Mr. Beevor has recovered from P.C.C. register Edmunde, folio 177, this unusual entry :
" Memorandum dated Jan. 26, 1741. Stephen Freeman, late of Morden College, in the county of Kent, bachelor ; sister Nutt, widow of Walter Nutt ; Grace Nutt, junior, Thomas Harrison and Bartholomew Nutt make oath June 23, 1746, that this memorandum is in handwriting of Stephen Freeman " ;
and also thei following :
" Elizabeth Freeman of Lewisham, widow ; sister-in-law Elizabeth Bradley, wife of Joseph Bradley, parish clerk of Stepney sister-in- law Mary Freeman ; niece Anne Smallwood. Dated 27 Sept., 1749 ; proved 22 Nov., 1749." P.C.C.
Some of the disconnected notes above may seem to have very little, if any, relation- ship to each other, but all form evidence, positive or negative, bearing upon my crux, which was first presented in these columns at 9 S. xi. 205; xii. 468, and which
pertains to the traditional relationship of
the family of Pyke, circa 1750, to those of
Halley of London and Stewart of Edinburgh,
perhaps indirectly through Mrs. Sybilla
Freeman, later Halley, of Greenwich (? 1698-
1772). Any new data will be gratefully
received. EUGENE F. McPiKE.
135, Park Row, Chicago, U.S.
RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS ON CROSSES IN THE
ISLE OF MAN. The Isle of Man has many
inscriptions in runes, the peculiar characters
developed, it is said, three or four centuries
before the Christian era, by the Goths, who
came in contact with the Greek colonists
from the Black Sea, trading for amber.
These characters underwent great changes
in the course of centuries, and are classed,
according to their period, as Gothic, Anglian,
and Scandinavian. In the Isle of Man a
solitary example of the Anglian runes was
found a few years ago at Maughold. Only
eight characters remained a twelfth part
of the inscription if, as seems likely, it was
continued round the circle of the cross.
The characters are legible, and read
BLAGC MAN.
In the Isle of Man are also inscriptions in the later Scandinavian runes of the tenth to the thirteenth century. A few are in Ogham characters (two have been found at Bemaken Friary, Arbory, and two at the burial-ground of an early church at Balla- queeney, Rushen). It is said that in language and character they resemble Irish Ogham inscriptions of about the fifth century. In addition to the above, in the Isle of Man are to be found Latin inscriptions, in debased Roman or early British characters, of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries.
WILLIAM MACARTHUR.
Dublin.
" BY A FLUKE." - This expression is most often used in the sense of "by acci- dent " or hazard, but it would be of interest to know whether its origin is not something quite the reverse, that is. mean- ing "by careful calculation and design."
Charnock, the naval writer, quotes the discourse of one Gibson, in 1669, on the military management of the Navy, and alludes to the action between the Coventry " friggott, under the French flag, and the Colchester " friggott," under Capt. Morgan, who
" might easily have taken the French shipp had he fought her a shipp's length distance, but Morgan boarded the Coventry forthwith, and
