58
NOTES AND QUERIES. [i28.iv.F*B.,i9i8.
by him had two daughters, but no son.
He died March 19, 1634/5. Within nine
months of his death she was created a
Baronetess. She resided at Heath Hall,
near Wakefield, died May 5, 1662, and was
buried at Ledsham, June 16, 1662, " aged
about 81." This " 81 " makes it doubtful
whether the misprint 1879 as year of bap-
tism means 1579.
She was succeeded in the baronetcy by tier grandson William Jopson, of Cudworth and Heath Hall, fourth but only surviving son and heir of Thomas Jopson, who was only son and heir apparent of Dame Mary Bolles, suo jure Baronetess, by her first husband, Thomas Jopson. Sir William Jopson died, without male issue, in or before 1673, when the baronetcy became dormant or extinct. Cokayne gives a foot- note :
" J. C. Brooke (Somerset Herald, 1778-94) states in his Yorkshire collections (' I. C. B.,' vol. i. p. 408, Coll. of Arms) that she purchased her title. He adds that there is a tradition that, after her death, ' she haunted her house at Heath and parts adjacent till such time as she was conjured into a certain deep place in the river Calder, near that town [i.e. Wakefield], called from thence Lady Bollcs's Pit.' "
Another note says that in Walkley's List she is described as " Dame Bolles, of Ard- worth, English," and that sometimes she is called " of Cudworth, co. York," the resi- <dence of her first husband.
A further note says :
" This is the only case of a Baronetcy having been conferred on a female, or even enjoyed suo jure, by one. The rank of icidoiv of a Baronet has occasionally been conferred, as was the case in the Baronetcy of Speelman, 9 Sep., 1686, where the mother of the grantee was so honoured."
Mr. Francis W. Pixley in ' A History of the Baronetage,' 1900, pp. 91, 92, gives both the above as instances of ladies receiving the dignity of Baronetess, saying :
" Charles I. ordained that she [Mary Bolles] should be designed Lady, Madam, or Dame before her surname ; and that she should have rank amongst the ladies of the Baronets, according to the date of her Patent. Another instance is the mother of General Cornelius Spellman [sic], said to have been created by James II. as a Baronettess of England."
Under Speelman, G. E. C., vol. iv., 1904, p. 142, refers to Debora Speelman as created a Baronet's widow, also as a Baronetess. Her husband, John Cornelis Speelman, died before the royal warrant creating him a Baronet had passed the Great Seal. A patent dated Sept. 9, 1686, created her widow of a Baronet :
" Creamus Debora m Speelman, alias Kievit, j "riduarn et relictam dicti Johannis Cornelii j
Speelman, ad et in statum dignitatem et gradum
Baronetti (Anglice of a Baronett's widow) ....
pro et durante vita natural!, unacum iuscriptione,
titulo, privilegio, loco et preheminencia uxoris,
sive vidue, Baronetti hujus regni no.stri Anglie."
This patent also created her son Cornelia Speelman, then two years old, a Baronet.
The difference between the appointment of Mary Bolles and that of Debora Speelman was that the former was created a Baronetess with remainder to her heirs male, and the latter was created a Baronetess or Baronet's widow at the same time that the hereditary honour was vested in her son.
The Speelman baronetcy appears to have been conferred because the grandfather of the little boy had been Governor-General of East India for the States General of the United Netherlands. G. E. C. characterizes the conferring of this hereditary title on a foreign subject as " very unusual."
From information supplied to G. E. C. it appears that in 1903 the title was held by Sir Helenus Marinus Speelman (born 1852, succeeded 1898). The family has appar- ently never lived in England, or had any connexion with it apart from the baronetcy. ROBERT PIER POINT.
THE -CHURCH AND THE MEDICAI, PRO- FESSION (12 S. iv. 11). Before the estab- lishment of Universities, physicians were priests who had paid special attention to medicine. Thus William I., in his fatal illness at Rouen, was attended by Abbot Gourlard of Jumieux and by Gilbert, Arch- deacon of Lisieux, who are said to have been the most skilful physicians of the time. The first English sovereign to be attended by an " M.D." was Edward I. He was attended by the famous John of Gaddesden, who was M.D. Oxon. Gaddesden was also in holy orders. Court physicians, or most of them, continued to be clergymen down to the time of the Reformation, and the degree to which they enjoyed royal favour could be measured by the number of livings bestowed upon them. Thus Linacre, physi- cian to Henry VII., received one canonry, three prebends, and five rectories.
With a view of suppressing unqualified practice, Henry VIII. in 1511 passed " An Act for the appointing of Physicians and Surgeons." Under this Act every person who wished to practise medicine was re- quired to be examined and licensed by the bishop of his diocese (in the case of the City of London, by the Dean of St. Paul's). The examination was to be made by four doctors of physic. Nothing in this Act was
