Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/258

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. SEPT. n;i92o.


PEACOCK OF DURHAM. I wish to obtain information about the family of Peacock residing in the City of Durham in the latter part of the seventeenth century. In a

Private memoir, in my possession, dated 858, the writer states that his mother was the daughter of a gentleman of Durham named Francis Peacock. The father of the last-named was a person of consideration and married an heiress of the Howard family, and being a Roman Catholic and strongly attached to the Stuarts, raised a troop of horse and joined the Earl of Der- wentwater. He was subsequently declared attainted and sentenced to be beheaded, but fled to France with his two sisters (who entered a Royal Convent) and became a pensioner on Louis XIV. In Surtees' 'History oi Durham,' vol. i. p. 80, there is a pedigree of Lord William Howard, showing the marriage of a grand- daughter, Frances Howard, to John Peacock. Could any of your readers help me with suggestions as to works of reference, which would enable me to trace this gentleman's family.

J. ST. M. M.

DR. HERBERT HA WES : His WILL (see ante, p. 169). In continuation of my letter in 'N. & Q.' of this date I find that Dr. Hawes, who was rector of St. Edmund's, Salisbury, as well as a Prebend, died on Jan. 17, 1837. I thought to get particulars of his bequest of Walton portraits from his will, but the probate does not appear to be either at Somerset House, or at the Probate Registry in Salisbury. Where can it be ? Dr. Hawes must have left a will as the "Izaak Walton" portrait was bequeathed to the nation. W. COURTHOPE FORMAN.

Compton Down, Compton, Nr. Winchester.

ROOMS IN CHURCH TOWERS. I cannot, far from books, ascertain if this subject has ever been dealt with in an exhaustive manner. Nor can I learn if the example at Caister in Flegg, Norfolk, has been noted ; there is no reference to it in any local work.

The tower is of two dates, the lower portion decorated and the upper part per- pendicular, the division being marked by a string course. It would seem that soon after the lower portion was built, the first floor was adapted as a dwelling place it may be for the chantry priest. The apart- ment was lighted by windows to the north, south and west, but that to the south has lost its tracery and the one to the north seems .to have been blocked up at an early


period and much enlarged inside, perhaps to form a cupboard in which to keep food and utensils.

The fireplace is in the eastern angle, close to the turret stairs, and is 3 feet 5 inches high, 3 feet 7 inches 'wide and 18 inches deep. The chimney had its aperture just below the string course in the eastern face of the tower.

I understand there is a similar apartment in the tower at Wortham in Suffolk which is supposed to have been used as a watching ' chamber.

Any assistance in elucidating the use of these rooms will be welcome.

WILLIAM DE CASTRE.

WEDDERBTJRN'S ATTACK ON FRAKKLIN. Is there any verbatim report in existence, anywhere, of the attack of Lord North's Solicit or- General (Sir Alexander Wedder- burn) on Benjamin Franklin, at the Privy Council on Jan. 29, 1774 ?

I am acquainted with Lord Campbell's account in his ' Lives of the Lord Chan- cellors.' FREDERICK CHARLES WHITE.

14 Esplanade, Lowestoft.

G. J. GORDON, A PIONEER OF INDIAN TEA. In The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, February, 1835 (pp. 95-106) a " memorandum " of an excursion in Novem- ber (1834 ?) "to the tea hills which produce . . . . Ankoy tea," written by G. J. Gordon, was communicated by Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, the Dane, who was our Government botanist at Calcutta. The same article was reprinted in the June (1835) issue of The Chinese Eepository of Canton, corrected by Gordon, who was then staying there. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in October, 1835, printed a " Journal of an attempted ascent of the river Min to visit the tea plantations of the Fah-kin province," by G. J. Gordon, " Secretary of the Tea Com- mittee." This journey, undertaken in May (1835 ?), is also fully described by the Rev. Edwin Stevens, in The Chinese Eepository (iv. 82-96), being remarkable for the attack by the natives on the vessel carrying the party, which included the learned Dr. Gutzlaff.

What was Gordon's full name and what is known of him ? I fancy the Gordonia Wallichii, a Ternstroemiaceous plant nearly allied to tea, and now called Schima Walli- chii was named after him.

J. M. BULLOCH.

37 Bedford Square, W.C.I.