20
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. JAN., 1920.
" XIT " : WHO WAS HE ? (12 S. v. 295).
I take this to be Harrison Ainsworfch's name
'for John Jarvis, who figures in Caulfield's
' Remarkable Persons ' ; and of whom
Granger in his ' Biographical History of
England ' (vol. i., p. 342) says :
" The resemblance of this diminutive person is preserved by his statue, most inimitably carved in oak, and coloured to resemble the life. All that is 'known of his history is that he was in height but three feet eight inches, and was retained by Queen Mary as her page of honour. He died in the year 1558, aged 57 years, as appears by the dates painted on the girdle at the nick of tho statue in the possession of Geo. Walker, Esq., Winchester Row, Lisson Green,, Paddington."
F. F. LAMBARDE.
Perhaps the statues represent Xit the dwarf, a prominent character in Harrison Ainsworth's historical romance ' The Tower of London.' W. H. PINCHBECK.
[Si. SWITHIN also thanked for reply.]
PETEKLOO (12 S. v. 291). This was in 1819 (not 1816). An octavo publication, entitled ' Peter-Loo Massacre,' Manchester, has the date 1819 assigned to it in the -catalogue of the Liverpool Public Library, but seems not to be dated. R. S. B.
Without going so far as to say that it was -the earliest use of the word in connection with the riotous assemblage in 1819 in St. iPeter's Fields, at Manchester, Carlyle wrote " Bridges of Lodi, Retreats of Moscow, Waterloos, Peterloos, ten pound franchises, tar barrels and guillotines."
WILLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.
NUNCUPATIVE WILLS (12 S. v. 265). It was always essential to the validity of a
- nuncupative will that it should be declared
by the testator when in extremis. (See Sir William Blackstone's ' Commentaries,' Book .II., cap. xxxii., cf. title by Testament.)
The Statute of Frauds, which was passed iin 1677, and therefore after Milton's death, ^provided that no written will should be revoked or altered by a subsequent nun- cupative one, except the same be, in the lifetime of the testator reduced to writing --and read over to him and approved, and unless the same be proved to have been so done by the oaths of three witnesses at the least, that no nuncupative will should in anywise be good where the estate bequeathed exceeded thirty pounds, unless proved by three such witnesses present at the making thereof and unless they or some of them were specially required to bear witness thereto by the testator himself ; and unless it was made in his last sickness, in his own
habitation or dwelling-house, or where he
had been previously resident ten days at
the least except he be surprised with sickness
on a journey or from home and die without
returning to his dwelling. No nuncupative
will was to be proved till fourteen days after
the death of the testator, nor till process
had first issued to call in the widow or next
of kin to contest it if they thought proper.
Sir William Blackstone says, " the thing itself had fallen into disuse and is now (1765) hardly ever heard of."
Nuncupative wills were finally abolished by the Wills Act, 1837, except in the case of soldiers and sailors in expeditione.
G. P.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND QUEEN ELIZA- BETH AT SANDGATE (12 S. v. 96, 273). A correspondent at the second reference says that the Saraband could hardly have been known in England at the date of Raleigh's meeting with the Queen. In the October number of " English," an article under the title of " Dance Names in Shakspere's England," after dealing at length with the origin of the Saraband, goes on :
" The popularity of the dance in England is to be seen in the frequency of its name in Tudor and early Stuart literature. A couple of quotations will suffice to show the way in which it was used. Ben Jonson, in ' The Devil is an Ass ' (iv. 1), has : ' Coach it to Pimlico, dance the saraband, Hear and talk bawdy, &c.' The same writer employs this word twice in ' The Staple of News ' (iv. 1) : ' And then I have a saraband ' ; and later : ' . . . . how they are tickled with a light air, the bawdy saraband ! ' The word is sometimes to be met with spelt ' sarabrand ' in Elizabethan literature."
J. R. H.
UNFINISHED ELEVENTH - CENTURY LAW CASE (12 S. v. 293). In 1275, and again in 1286, the Crown proceeded against Guy Visdeloo, Lord of the Manor of Shotley, in Suffolk, for certain claims he made in respect of that manor. The case was adjourned (Hundred Rolls). Six hundred years later, in 1887, the Crown proceeded against the Marquis of Bristol, the lineal decendant of Guy Visdeloo, for certain claims he made in respect of that same manor. As Mr. Charles Elton was one of the counsel for Lord Bristol, and as there is a Shotley in the North of England as well as in Suffolk, it looks as if in course of repetition of the story Durham had been substituted for Suffolk. Or, of course, the same sort of thing may have happened in both counties. Some account of the Suffolk case will be found in a recent history of Shotley.
S. H. A. H.
