Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/111

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io"> s.v. FEE. s, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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one and the same adjective is used to denote grey, green, and light blue, viz., gld&. Ac- cording to Al. Macbain's 'Etymological Gaelic Dictionary 3 (Inverness, 1896), this word is probably allied to Engl. and Germ. glass, glas (on account of its transparency ?). Compare also Gr. yAav/cos (1) gleamy, glar- ing, (2) light-blue, (3) grey, and its well-known Homeric compound yAavKtuTris, applied to Pallas Athene. H. KREBS.

DRYDEN ox THE TEKELITES. The follow- ing lines occur in the Epilogue to * Constan- tino the Great' (1684) :

There were a sorb of wights (I think my author calls them Tekelites).

Sir Walter Scott (vol. x. p. 388), in a foot- note, explains the meaning of this nickname for the Whigs, and quotes several instances of its use from contemporary writers. It was probably Sir Robert L'Estrange who

five it currency, as it is to be found in o. 394 of The Observator (29 Aug, 1683), where its meaning has to be explained to "Trimmer." L. L. K.

PEDIGREE DIFFICULTIES : MARY STAPLETON OR STOUGHTON. In 9 th S. ix. 245 MR. G. F. T. SHERWOOD discourses upon "how to deal with difficult questions of pedigree." Having recently encountered a puzzling situation myself, I venture to seek permission to place it on record, in the hope of promoting a solution. My great - great- grandfather, James Stapleton, then living at Hounslow, was married at Epsom Church, to an Epsom woman, by licence, on 27 September, 1763. His son, my great-grandfather, in 1845, had occasion to procure a certificate of the Epsom parish register entry. According to this certificate, the woman's name occurs first as Mary Stoughton, and secondly (where she makes her mark by way of signature) as Mary Soughton, or one letter shorter. This variation would be insignificant, only it happens that my great-grandfather (who surely ought to have known the maiden name of his own mother) appears to have quoted it as Sputhgate when applying by letter for the certificate, as the then vicar of Epsom (1845) wrote :

" In the careless manner in which the registers were formerly kept, 1 have little doubt the name was entered for Southgate. especially as the party fieems to have been unable to write her name. There can, however, be little doubt as to the parties being those whose certificate you require."

An obvious way of finally settling the question of the correct form of the surname was to obtain a copy of the marriage licence, dated one day previous to the marriage.


But, strange to say, this action resulted in a worse muddle than ever, for there it occurs as Mary Fletcher. Finally, in the reasonable hope that the woman was a native of Epsom, the parish register for the year of her birth (1740), and thereabouts, was searched for a baptismal record under any of the above names, but without result.

I may add that the eldest son of the con- tracting par ties , Edward Stapleton, a West India merchant (and a retired ensign of the llth W. I Regiment), owned real estate at Dorking in 1817, when he died abroad. As he belonged to a Nottinghamshire family, it is just possible this was inherited through his mother. ALFRED STAPLETON.

158, Noel Street, Nottingham.


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.


CANADIAN COLLEGE OF ARMS Will those of your readers possessing pedigrees, arms, and rank of Jacobite titles, as well as titles "attainted" for their possessors' loyalty to the legitimate Constitution and Crown of Scotland, Britain, and Ireland under the Stuart dynasty, send such information to me here? Our College of Arms has heraldic right in Canada. All the above titles were regarded as legitimate by the kings of France so proclaimed in Canada until 1763, when Canada was ceded to Great Britain. By the Treaty of Cession the British Crown agreed that rights and privileges of individuals of whatever sort should continue as under the former regime. By this agreement the above titles, as they were recognized by France, are legitimate in Canada.

Also, as heraldic colleges in France have no legal recognition there under the French Republic, the possessors of French titles there, dating before 1763, have the right of legal registration in Canada, as all French titles of noblesse had recognition in Canada before Canada was ceded to Great Britain, which right of recognition holds in the treaty of 1763 as well.

VISCOUNT FORSYTH DE FRONSAC, Herald-Marshall.

College of Arms of Canada, Ottawa.

OWEN MANNING, THE HISTORIAN OF SUR- REY. I am writing a sketch of the life of the Rev. Owen Manning (1721-1801), vicar of declaiming, and joint author of Manning and Bray's * History of Surrey.' Can any of