ios. i. JUNE ii, i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
475
open it. In this drawer he found six Queen Anne's
briefs and a Queen Anne sixpence. The amount
of collection at All Saints' Church, Claverley, was
stated on each brief. The joiner kindly gave the
briefs to me, as interested in antiquarian anc
historical studies. The briefs had evidently beer
placed in the drawer soon after the collections hac
been made. After the owner's death the oak desk
seems to have passed to other owners until it was
purchased in the circumstance mentioned. The
late Cornelius Walford, barrister-at-law and
author, who, like myself, was a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society, some years ago read a
paper before the Society on ' Kings' Briefs, their
Purposes and their History ' (printed in the tenth
volume of the Transactions of the Society, pub-
lished in 1882), in which he says : ' Briefs being
returned along with the money collected had the
effect of taking them out of circulation : hence
they are in some degree scarce ; for in truth they
were either destroyed as useless or allowed to rot
or moulder away.' The first instance of a King's
Brief being printed was in 1630. The following is
an exact copy of one of the briefs found in the
secret drawer, which relates to a collection for
the rebuilding of Broseley All Saints' Church at a
cost of 3,390?. and upwards. A more recent church
has been built on the same site, for in Mr.
Randall's interesting 'History of Broseley' it is
mentioned that this church was to be rebuilt at
the estimated cost of 3,3881. 4s."
A copy of the brief relating to Broseley so found, with five others, was also given in the antiquarian column called ' Byegones ' in the Border Counties' Advertiser, published at Oswestry. At the end of every two years the columns are issued in a volume with a full index. HUBERT SMITH.
Brooklynne, Leamington Spa.
At the sale, in 1818, of the effects of a dealer in old clothes, furniture, and curiosi- ties, who carried on business in High Street, Barnstaple, an antique chair was included, described as of mahogany, with the seat, back, and arms stuffed and covered with brown leather, and studded with brass nails. There was a large drawer under the seat, and two other drawers were fixed on pivots, so as to turn back under the arms, and were fitted for writing materials, with a brass candlestick attached to each, and a wooden leaf for reading or writing, capable of being raised or depressed. The cabinet-maker to whom it was sent to be repaired found that the drawer under the seat extended only a part of the way to the back, and that the intervening space was occupied by a secret drawer, which was full of manuscripts, which proved to consist of a variety of unpublished poems and other documents of John Gay. The incident created much sensation at the time, and the matter was fully investigated. It was found that the chair had been bought some years previously at the sale of the goods of a Mrs. Williams, a descendant of
Katherine Bailer, Gay's sister. Henry Lee,
author of ' Caleb Quotem,' edited the poems,
and published them under the title of ' Gay's
Chair,' with an engraved frontispiece of the
chair, evidences and certificates of the facts,
and a facsimile of Gay's writing. The first
four lines of the principal piece, entitled
' The Ladies' Petition to the Honourable the
House of Commons,' are as follows :
Sirs, We, the maids of Exon city,
The maids, good lack, the more s the pity !
Do humbly offer this petition
To represent our sad condition.
THOS. WAINWRIGHT.
" HEN-HUSSEY" : " WHIP-STITCH " : " WOOD- TOTER" (10 th S. i. 449). According to the 'English Dialect Dictionary,' a hen-hussey or hen-huswife means "a woman who looks after poultry ; also a meddlesome, officious person." It is there recorded as being known in Wilts, Somerset, and Devon, as well as in America.
If your correspondent will be so good as to wait till the last part of the Dictionary comes out, he will then be able to ascertain the facts as to the distribution of the other two words. So far the record ends with the word tommy. WALTER W. SKEAT.
MARK HILDESLEY (10 th S. i. 344, 414). He was never elected Lord Mayor or Sheriff or M.P. for London. He was a member of the Vintners' Company, and chosen Alderman of Bread Street Ward 20 September, 1649, and was discharged on payment of a fine of 400Z., 15 July, 1651. At that period the changes in the Court of Aldermen were very frequent, and in succession to Hildesley in Bread Street Ward no fewer than nine persons were elected, who paid fines of various amounts to avoid service, between 15 July and 15 September, 1651. The list of persons who had obtained exemption from serving the office of Sheriff in 1652 numbers forty-six, of whom twenty-seven had been added in the previous twelve months, Hildes- iey being one of these.
ALFEED B. BEAVEN.
STEP-BROTHER (10 th S. i. 329, 395). I think, with all due deference, that MR. WILSON is mistaken in his reply to Miss BLAIKLEY. A Derson and his step-brother cannot have a
- ommon parent ; if he had, they would be
lalf-brothers, not step-brothers. The sons of a widower married to a widow are step- brothers to the children born of her first marriage. MR. WILSON goes on to say, " If } rough t up in one family they would naturally be called brothers or brother and ister ; the marriage between such a brother
