228 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.x. 11^.25,1922.
Henry Howarth, Advocate.—This well-known barrister is said to have been born in Herefordshire about the year 1747. He became a K.C. and was M.P. for Abingdon, Berks. In March, 1781, he prosecuted Captain John Donellan at the Warwick Assizes for the murder of his brother-in-law, Sir Theodosius Boughton, Bart. Howarth figures in the famous 'Histories of the Tête-à-Tête' as "The Admirable Advocate" in The Town and Country Magazine, vol. xii. 121, his vis-à-vis being Miss Chippendale, a daughter of Thomas Chippendale, the furniture-maker. On May 11, 1783, he was drowned in the Thames through the capsizing of his sailing boat "within sight of his own house" at Mortlake. A brother of Miss Chippendale, who was with him, was saved. It is stated in his obituary notice that he was buried in the Temple Church (Gentleman's Magazine, 1783, i. 453). Is anything known of his ancestry? Horace Bleackley.
Robert Johnson.—One of these names, LL.B., Cambridge, a layman and married man, died Nov. 20, 1558 (Cooper, 'Ath. Cantab.,' i. 185, 551).
Another was a Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, who was ordained exorcist at Oxford in September, 1556 (Frere, 'Marian Reaction'). Is anything known of him?
A third, LL.B., Cambridge, 1531, incorporated at Oxford in 1551, became Prebendary of York (Stillington) in 1535/6, Rochester in 1541, and Worcester (first stall) in 1544, Prebendary of Hereford (Putston Major) in 1551, Rector of Clun, Shropshire, in 1553, and Prebendary of Southwell and Rector of Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, both in 1558. He appears to have died in 1559. Is the exact date known, and was he deprived of his Southwell, Yorkshire and Hereford preferments before his death? I think that Cooper (op. cit., i. 203), the 'D.N.B.,' and Gillow's 'Bibliographical Dictionary,' throw no light on these questions, but am unable to consult any books of reference at present. John B. Wainewright.
JOHN AND CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT (GUN-
POWDER PLOT CONSPIRATORS). According
to Poulson (' Hist, and Antiquities of the
Seigniory of Holderness '), John Wright had
issue. According to H. H. Spink (' Gun-
powder Plot,' 1902), Christopher Wright
married, and his wife's name was Margaret.
The last heir male of the family (vide
Poulson) appears to have been Francis
Wright (died 1864), who was, however, de-
' scended from William Wright, the half-
brother of John and Christopher. In W. H.
Byland's edition of ' Grantees of Arms
named in Docquets and Patents to the End
of the Seventeenth Century,' it is stated that
Robert Wright of Plowland (father of the
conspirators) had gift of coat and crest and
confirmation of quarterings, by Flower
('Visitation of Yorkshire,' 1563 and 1564).
The arms and crest are given in ' A Com-
plete Body of Heraldry ' ( J. Edmondson,
1780), " Or, a fesse, cheq. ar. and az. between
three eagles' heads erased of the third.
Crest, an unicorn passant regardant, quar-
tered ar. and az., armed or."
John and Christopher Wright were slain
at Holbeache House, Staffs, in 1605.
1. Is anything known of the descendants
of the conspirators John and Christopher
Wright ?
2. Is anything known of the ancestry of
John Wright of Plowland Hall, Holderness,
grandfather of the conspirators, and Sene-
schal to King Henry VIII. ? He is said to
have " come out of Kent," 33 Henry VIII.
(vide Poulson). G. W. W.
MERCER PORTRAITS AND SEAL. -In his
' Genealogical Gleanings in England ' (2
vols., Boston, 1901), the late Henry F.
Waters, A.M., abstracts the will of Francis
Mercer, clerk, rector of Godmanston, Dorset,
Jan. 25, 1667, proved Jan. 31, 1668 (P.C.C.,
Coke, fol. 8), in which are mentioned,
among others, the following legacies: To his
son Francis Mercer of the City of Sarum,
Wilts., ironmonger, " the picture of my
mother and her wedding ring of gold and one
other gold ring having a coat of arms cut
in the stone that is set therein, my silver
seal of arms . . . the pictures of my late
brother Samuel and of two gentlewomen,
with all the cases that belong to them." To
son Peter " the picture of my father and
the case thereof."
The parents whose portraits are mentioned
above were Jean [Cocquiel dit Le] Merchier,
native of Tournai, and Jeanne Le Clerc,
native of Valenciennes, who were married
in the French church at Southampton, Oct.
18, 1579.
Much concerning this family may be
found in Waters's ' Gleanings ' (above), in
the publications of the Huguenot Society of
London, and, for the earlier generations
before their coming to England about
1566, in Poplimont's ' Belgique Heraldique/
The arms which should appear on the
" silver seal of arms," and which may have
