NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. VL JULY a, MM. The much-suffering compositor is a con- venient scapegoat on whom to place the burden of anomalies in orthography ; but recurring specimens within something like a score of lines are suggestive of deliberate choice. THOMAS BAYNK. " COMMANDEER." — What appears to have been the earliest official use outside South Africa of the now familiar Boer word com- mandeer %vas in a telegram from Hear-Admiral Bruce at Taku, sent from Chi-fu on 24 June, and issued by the Admiralty on the follow- ing day, which contained the following passage:— " Have commandeered small coasting; steamer for taking troops, sick and wounded, across the bar to Wei-hai-wei, where I intend making tem- porary base hospital and asylum for refuge." ALFRED F. HOBBINS. THE SIGN OF THE "MARYGOLD."—Mr. F. Q. Hilton Price. F.S.A., in his interesting brochure on Child's Bank, No. 1, Fleet Street, which lias existed for nearly two centuries and a half on the site of the house which originally bore this sign, observes that it appears to have originated in the sign of a tavern, or at any rate it was first mentioned with reference to a tavern, as may be gathered from the following paragraph, extracted from Beaufoy's 'Tokens,' p. 75: "The Banking House of Messrs. Childs was, in King James the First's reign, a public ordinary, the sign being the ' Marygold.'" It may therefore be worth while to point out that in the Inquisi- tion post mortem of Henry Leighe, gentle- man, who died on 9 April, 1508, and whose inquisition was taken on 7 July following, the jurors found that the deceased was seized, inter aim, of a messuage in the parish of St. Dunstan, Fleet Street, I'late in the tenure of John Onley, now divided into 3 small messuages in the several tenures of the at"" Hurnj Leiyhe, John liui-den, and Royir Me/lie: whinh said messuage in the tenure of the said Henry Leighe. is now called the Marigowlde"; and further, " the said Henry and Elhaheth his wife being so seised, the said Henri/ made his will 0 April, 1568, and thereby bequeathed as follows: I will that Alice Leigh wife of my son Gerrard Ldiih have for term of her life my dwelling house in Fleetstreet called the Marigould, according to a certain lease by me to her 'letten,' and all other my lands, rents, services, &c.. within the City of London and the suburbs thereof of which I am seised in posses- sionor reversion, for the better bringing up of the children of my said son." —Chan. Inq. p.m., 10 J^liz., No. 81. It therefore appears that the house in ques- tion was not only known as " The Marygold " fifty years before the earliest date recorded by Mr. Hilton Price, but that it was originally a dwelling-house occupied by a family of respectability and standing within the City of London. W. F. PRIDEAUX. TUB REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN, OF PARAMATTA. —In the 'Memoirs' of this distinguished mis- sionary, published by the Rev. J. B. Marsden in 1859 (London, R.T.S.), p. 2, it is stated that " he was adopted by the Elland Society and placed at St. John's College, Cambridge, to study for the ministry of the Church of Eng- land." This statement is adopted by the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' During the past twelve months several inquiries have been made as to the date of his admission and length of his residence at St. John's. The most careful search in the' College Admission Register' failed to disclose his name. I have lately discovered that he was not of St. John's but of Magdalene College. The evidence of this is worth recording. The Master of Mag- dalene has supplied me with the following extract from the ' Admission Register 'of that college:— "24 June, 1790. Samuel Marsden filius Thorn* Marsden de Rawdcn prope Leeds in Comitatu Kboraeeusi, k Scholii publica de Kingston super Hull, annum agens 26, admissus est Sizator.— Tutoribus Magistris, Gul. Farish, Henr. Jowett." While the Act Book of Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, has the following entry : — "24 May, 17!M. His Grace granted a letter dimis- sory to Samuel Marsden, Student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and designed for the service of the Church in the Settlement at Botany Bay, to receive Priest's Orders from the Bishop of Exeter. -D[eacon], 17 March, 1193, Bristol." K. F. SCOTT. St. John's College, Cambridge. Quoits, WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest
- o affix their names and addresses to their queries,
in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. PORTRAIT UNIDENTIFIED.—On the staircase leading to the Art Library at the South Ken- sington Museum has recently been hung the loaned portrait of a man unknown, Dutch School, early seventeenth century. The right- land top corner of the painting contains a shield, Gu.,a chevron erm. between three boars' leads couped arg. and helmet and mantling, with crest, A mural crown or, upon it fesswiso a boar's head arg. These arms, with differ- snces of tincture, &c., are assigned by Burke "General Armory') to various families of the name White, of which White (London,
