10 s. x. OCT. 10, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
287
Browne of Sisham v. George French, Edward
Shakespeare, and William Woodcock, B.
James I.
Browne v. Parsons is an interesting Strat- f ord-on-Avon suit, with depositions of many Stratford tradesmen, showing ages. 7 James I. 13. John Hathway is one of the homage of Old Stratford at the Court holden 23 April, 36 Henry VIII., and at the Court holden 24 April, 37 Henry VIII.
John Harthway is of the homage 9 May, '22 Henry VIII. , and at the same Court he is elected " bedele."
tAt a Court holden 3 Oct., 36 Henry VIII., presentment is made that John Hatheway .and others have allowed geese to stray in the divided lands, and are fined 20d. each. EC. Court Rolls in the Public Record Office. GERALD FOTHERGILL.
11, Brussels Road, New Wands worth, S.W.
< turns.
WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
THEATRE AT HAMPSTEAD. Perhaps MR.
~Ej. E. NEWTON or some other Hampstead
correspondent may be able to supply in-
formation regarding this suburban place
of amusement, which, in the first quarter
of the eighteenth century, appears to have
.attracted the wilder spirits of the metropolis.
I can find no reference to it in Park's ' Topo-
graphy of Hampstead,' although a facsimile
of a playbill, announcing a performance at
- l the Theatre, near the Square, Hamp-
stead," on 5 Jan., 1807, will be found in
- The Hampstead Annual ' for 1900. This
probably refers to a different theatre from that of 1723.
The subjoined cutting is from The West- minster Gazette for 7 September :
"In one regard, the Anglo-French 'entente cordiale' of neo-Edwardian days has not produced as striking a result as that which distinguished the earliest Georgian times, for in 1723 there was regu- larly issued for some period an English and French ^News Journal, in which all the contents were given in parallel columns in the two languages. These contents, indeed, were much varied, for they led off with a serial story, * The History of Miss Kate,' or, Alternatively, * Histoire de Mademoiselle Cathos,' with * This Piece to be continued in our Next' and
- On aura la continuance de cette a venture dans le
Papier suivant' respectively, in a manner made much more familiar since. There followed many short items of foreign and English news, including a reference to 'Le ci-devarit Vicomte de Boling- fcroke 'quaintly termed 'the late Lord Viscount I3olingbroke ' on the English side of the paper
which reads as singularly now as the announcement
that 4 Samedi pass6 environ 40 Conne"tables saiserent
les Acteurs a Hampstead, et les mirent dans lea
prisons de cette Ville,' which is an early and
ominous mention of the perils of suburban theatrical
management. Even the advertisements are, in the
main, given in both languages, though one is in
French alone and two in English ; and a statement
that the Duke of Orleans had taken the oaths as
'Prime Minister' to Louis XV. in the English
version and as ' Premier Miriistre ' is of special
interest to students of the evolution and history of
that important political term."
The last part of the extract has an interesting
bearing on the discussions that have from
time to time appeared in these columns
on the title of " Prime Minister."
W. F. PRIDEATJX.
[The references to "Prime Minister" alluded to by COL. PRIDE AUX are 8 S. x. 357, 438 ; xi. 69, 151, 5lO ; xii. 55, 431 ; 9 S. ii. 99 ; iii. 15, 52, 109, 273, 476 ; iv. 34 ; v. 94, 213, 416 ; 10 S. ix. 425.]
" STUMPY & ROWDY." Is this a tradi- tional literary name for a firm of bankers ? If so, who originated it ? Thackeray more than once uses it (' Little Dinner at Tim- mins's) ; and Cuthbert Bede, in * Verdant Green,' chap, v., makes little Mr. Bouncer write : " P.S. I hope Stump & Rowdy have got something for me, because I want some tin very bad. ' Y C. W. B.
STOKE, WIRRAL, PARISH REGISTERS. If any of your readers can tell me whether the parish registers of Stoke, or Stoak, in the Wirral district of Cheshire, have been printed, I shall be much obliged. H. J. B.
New Zealand.
SERGEANT VALENTINE H. BLAKE. On 5 Nov., 1857, Valentine Henry Blake arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand. He told his family very little of his early life. An army discharge which is in their possession states that he was a sergeant in the 17th Regiment of Foot, which he joined 1 Dec., 1848 ; and that he was born in the town of Galway, Ireland. He left a Crimean medal, granted to "No. 2778, Sergt. Valentine H. Blake, 17th Regt. Crimea : Sebastopol." He died at Christchurch in November, 1899.
It is believed that he is a member of the Blake family of Galway. Can any of your readers help me ? H. G. ELL.
Christchurch, N.Z.
SAINT-HILAIRE, POITIERS. The rebuilding of this church after its destruction by the Normans was commenced in the middle of the tenth century by the wife of Wil- liam IV., Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, and some doubt exists as to the identity of this lady.
