Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/406

This page needs to be proofread.

334


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. APRIL 28, 1900.


the Ashburnhams have lived at Ashburnham since the Conquest, it would be interesting to know how far back their records carry the name of Place attached to their country house.

The peerage refers to Penshurst Place, but I remember when there remarking that the country folk always called it a castle, and rightly so, as there was a distinct license to embattle in, I think, the fourteenth century.

SHERBORNE.

In Charles Eye's plan of Liverpool, dated 1785, there are two places, viz., Shaw Place, apparently a portion of the street between Whitechapel and what is now the old Hay- market ; and Duke's Place, that portion of the street facing Duke's Dock.

I would also call the attention of DR. MURRAY to a passage in Leland's 'Itinerary,' vol. vii. p. 133 (Oxford, 1744), in reference'to the town "cawled Bellirica, as who should say in Latine Bellocastrum, and that the new name of Court-up-streate began by reason of the Place or Court that the Lord of the Soyle kept there." The sense here is rather in- volved, but it seems to me it may have meant 44 Place " in a topographical sense.

A. H. ARKLE.

4 The Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanac ' for 1779 gives a list of the Dublin streets, which includes Ely Place, Harcourt Place, and Kildare Place. Portland Place, Rathbone Place, and Grosvenor Place, as well as some others, are marked in 4 A New and Accurate Plan of London,' &c., published by Laurie & Whittle on 12 May, 1796.

H. J. B. CLEMENTS.

Killadoon, Celbridge.

CHRISTIAN OP MILNTOWN (10 th S. v. 209). A full and interesting account of this old Manx family appeared in two papers in the first volume of The Manx Note-Book (1885), written by Mr. A. W. Moore, who was the editor of the magazine ; he is now Speaker of the House of Keys. (They will be found on pp. 17-20, 98-101.) What follows is prac- tically a summary of those papers :

  • ' A family of Scandinavian origin, the

MacCristens, Christina, or, as they now call themselves, Christians, must have attained au important position in the Isle of Mann at an early date, as John McCristen, the first of whom there is any record, was one of the judges, or Deemsters, n 1408, and a member of the Tynvvald Court in 1421. Of his three successors, who also bore the name of John, the first was seated at Altadale, in the .Parish of Lezayre ; the second was Deemster from loOp to 1310 ; and the third was also Deemster lpll-1535. This latter acquired property adjoining Altadale, and called the whole 'Milntown.' He was the first to put the Manx laws in writing


William, his eldest son, who was Deemster with his father, succeeded to the estate in 1535, but died four years afterwards. William's second son Robert was

also Deemster Ewan, the fourth in descent from

William, changed his name from MacCristen to Christian. He succeeded to the property in 1593. In 1605, when only twenty-six years old, he was made Deemster, and held that office fifty -one years. He was also Deputy -Governor of Peel Castle, and the most influential man in the island. His sister Jane married Thomas Samsbury, of Ronaldsway, and died .s p. He purchased that estate from her trustees, and presented it, in 1643, to his third son, William, the famous 'Illiam Dhone.' John, his eldest son, who died before him, was Assistant - Deemster. His eldest daughter, Mabel, born in 1599, was John Curghey of Balla- killingan's second wife. Ewan, John Curghey's son by his first wife, married Margaret, born in 1617, a younger sister of Mabel's. Ewan was suc- ceeded in 1656 by his grandson Edward, who was also Deemster. Edward's eldest son, Ewan, pur- chased the property of Ewanrigg Hall, in Cumber- land (circa 1680), and also succeeded to the Miln- town property on his father's death in 1693. His eldest son, John, married Bridget, daughter of Humphrey Senhouse, of Netherhall, a lineal de- scendant of King Edward J. Of his numerous

daughters several married into Manx* families

Margaret married Thomas Wattle worth, of Peel ; their daughter Margaret married her first cousin, Joseph, son of Thomas, vicar of Crosthwaite, in Cumberland, who was Edward Christian's fifth son. From him are descended a branch of the family who

are numerously represented at the present day

John, the eldest son of John and Bridget Senhouse. married Jane, daughter of Eldred Curwen, of Workington Hall, Cumberland. He was High Sheriff for Ctimberland in 1766. His third son, Charles, married Ann, daughter and heiress of Jacob Dixon, of Moreland Close, and had issue, who still possess that property. Their second son, Fletcher, was mate of H.M.S. Bounty, and leader of the mutineers. He settled in Pitcairn's Island.

Mary, daughter of John and Bridget, married

Edward Law, D.D., Bishop of Carlisle, and had issue, among others, a son who became Lord Ellen- borough. John, the High Sheriff, died in 1767, and

was succeeded by a son also named John who

married in 1782, as his second wife, Isabella, heiress of Henry Curwen, of Workington Hall, his first cousin, and assumed the name of Curwen."

"Illiam Dhone' 5 had eight sons and one daughter ; but Mr. Moore says that only the descendants of the seventh son, Thomas (born 1646, died 1700), can now be traced. His descendants seem to have been eminent as sailors ; and Mr. Moore strongly advises ' Romantic Annals of a Naval Family,' by Mrs. Traherne, to those who wish to learn more about that branch of the Christian family ; also ' Biographical Sketch of Hugh George Christian,' by Major Hugh Christian. ERNEST B. SAVAGE.

William Christian (Illiam Dhone), born 1608, was executed 2 Jan., 1662/3; his nephew Edward, born 1628, died 1693; he was succeeded by his son Ewan, born 1651,