Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/523

12 S.VIII. MAY 28, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 429 VICAR ELECTED BY BALLOT. The elec- tion of a vicar by ballot and on a statutory register is an ultra-modern development of a gradually disappearing system which deserves note. It is fully described in the following extract from The Birmingham Post of May 14 : The Rev. P. Comeau, senior curate at St. James's Church, Ashted, Birmingham, has been appointed vicar of Baddesley Ensor, near Ather- stone, by a poll of the electors of the parish. There were originally 175 applicants, many of whom had conducted the services and preached at the parish church on different Sundays. The Church Council selected the following candidates to go to the poll : The Rev. P. Comeau ; the Rev. F. Hunt, Wednesfield ; the Rev. T. Redfern, curate-in-charge, Church Gresley. Burton-on- Tr?nt ; and the Rev. N. T. Walters, Langley Park, Durham. The voting was by ballot, strictly on the new register of Parliamentary electors, and the result was as follows : The Rev. P. Comeau, 162 ; the Rev. Frank Hunt, 137 : the Rev. T. Redfern, 9 ; the Rev. H. T. Walters, 3. Mr. Comeau was declared elected. The Rural Dean (the Rev. A. T. Corfield) attended the count on behalf of the Bishop of Birmingham. The new vicar served during the whole of the war as an army chaplain. The income from the living, which in the past has been a poor one, is derived solely from the Queen Anne's Bounty Fund and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who, it is understood, have arranged to augment their grants so that the stipend in future will be increased to about 400 per annum and house. A. R. " TENANT IN CAPITE." - The ' New English Dictionary,' s.v. " Capite," notes that word as occurring in the phrase " tenere in capite," which it proceeds to say, means "to hold (of the King) in chief." That this is now the sense in which the phrase is generally used, is, of course, obvious. It would, however, be a matter of some in- terest to ascertain how and when it acquired its present restricted meaning. As long as the words were in current use, in .feudal days, they clearly had, as the following examples, casually met with, show, no such specific inference as the ' N.E.LV gives them : 1146. Charter of Robert, consul of Glouc.: ". . . quando haeres Eudonis dapiferi haeredi- tatem suam recuperaverit, de Baiocensi ecclesia et de episcopo haec . . . feoda in capite tene- bit. . . . Et haeres [R., Comitis Cestrae] terrain suam [in Normandy] de ecclesia Baioc. et de ipso episcopo in capite teneat." Devises, [Sept.], 1146. (Cartul. Antiq. Baioc. Livre Noir, vol. i, No. 41. Paris, 1902.) t. R. i. Hawys de Gournay confirms to Walter son of Thomas *land which Alexander of Buddi- combe sold to him . .to hold of her and her heirs in capite by service of knight. Madox, Formul.,' No. 100. 13th c. Acknowledgment by Richard, Prior of Bruton, [Som.], that he has received the homage of R. de Naylesworth for lands in Manor of Horselegh, co. Glouc., " quas clamat tenere de nobis in capite." Ibid., No. 22. 1230. We have pardoned Rnd. de Cerne scutage of the 5J knights' fees in Temesford and Clifton he held of John de Bellp Campo in capite and which said John held of us in capite. Close, 14 H. 3., m. 18. 1232. Roger, s. of Roger Waspail has fined with King 40 m. for the lands of his late father, who held in capite of G., late Earl of Gloucester, whose lands and heir are in the King's custody. Fines, 17 H. 3, m. 8. 1284. The Bishop of Ely holds a tenement in Balsham, in Radfield, of the heirs of Wm. de Criketot in capite. Feudal Aids, Cambs. 1302. Sir Wm. de Bovill holds (in Hasketon) with tenants one fee of the Earl of Herford in capite. . . . Giles de Breuse holds (in same) one fourth of a knight's fee of the Earl Marshal in capite. . . . Sir John de Holbrok (and another) hold in Pleyford one fee of Sir Thomas de Clare in capite. Feudal Aids, Suffolk. 1315. Sir Hy. de Lancaster, Lord of Mon- mouth, confirms to nuns of Canonleigh, [Devons.], the Manor of Northleigh which G. de Clare, late Earl of Glouc. and Herts, who held it of him in capite by service of J knight, had given to them. Reg. of Canonleigh. Harl. MS., 3660, fo. 125d. 1346. John Morice (and others) hold half a fee hi Temesford, of which said John holds (a fraction) in capite of the Bishop of Lincoln and Hugh Cappe holds j^ of a fee of John Creveker in capite. The Prior of St. Neot's holds (in Everton) | fee of John Peverel in capite. Rad. de Bayouse holds i fee (in Pertonhale) of the Lady Isabella, Queen of England, in capite. . . . John de Clare holds ^ fee (in Tilbrok) of the Earl of Hertford in capite. Feudal Aids, Beds. 1400. Henry, Prince of Wales, to the Sheriff of Glamorgan : The King has given to Peter de Crulle, his esquire, the land (<fec.), late of John Norreys, chivaler, dec., in the lop. of Glamorgan, late tenant in capite of Thos. le Despenser. Letters of Henry IV., No. From these few examples it would appear that any person holding a knight's fee integrally, in multiple or in part, from another, was the tenant in capite of that other. L. GRIFFITH. OLD MAN'S PERVERSITY. In the second book of the ' Siih-kai-kinen-yih-Sian,' by Li Choh-Wu, a celebrated Chinese writer of the sixteenth century, we read : Kuoh-Fu, who nourished some time under the Gung emperors (A.D. 960-1279), enumerated the following as the Ten Perversities (Shih-yau) of the old man : (l)He well remembers remote, not recent events ; (2) he correctly sees distant, not near objects ; (3) he sheds tears in laughing, not in wailing ; ( 4) he sleeps more in the day than