9- s. ix. MAY si, 1902.) NOTES AND QUERIES.
437
of a monastery in her hands. Lewis, in * 1
Topographical Dictionary of England,' unde
4 St. Bees,' says :
"The church was formerly the conventual on of a monastery, founded about 650 by Bega, o Begogh, an Irish female, who subsequently receivec the honour of canonization. This monastery wa destroyed by the Danes, but restored, in tht reign of Henry L, by William de Meschines, Lon of Copeland, as a cell to the abbey of St. Mary a York : and in 1219 it was pillaged by the Scots."
HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
See Sand ford's MS. in the library of the Dean and Chapter, Carlisle. Also refer to an old copy of a St. Bees * Calendar,' obtain able from Mr. R. W. Broomfield, St. Bees ; also my * St. Bees, and other Poems,' 1891, a copy of which I shall be glad to lend MR. G. A BROWNE if he will communicate with me, The college is now defunct.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D., F.R.Hist.S.
48, Hanover Square, Bradford.
In the ' Dictionary of Christian Biography the late Bishop Stubbs, s.v. ' Bega,' said :
" A Cumbrian saint of whom nothing is clearly known, and whom the endeavours of the hagio- graphers have only succeeded in investing with a history which belongs to several other saints."
The article in Baring-Gould is from Monta- lerabert. C. S. WARD.
Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.
"MERESTEADS " OR " MESESTEADS " (9 th S. ix. 248). MR. ADDY will find merestead defined in the ' Standard Dictionary ' as " a farm," and in the * Century Dictionary ' as " the land within a particular mere or boundary ; a farm" ; ana in the latter dictionary is given an extract from Longfellow's 'Miles Standish.' In the 'E.D.D.,' however, under mear, the combination mear- stead is not recorded ; but the word mear-stone there given was not uncommon in the American colonies in the seventeenth century. MR. ADDY asks whether the word merestead, which Mrs. Earle says ('Old Time Gardens,' p. 3) occurs in the ' Plymouth Colony Records,' is correctly given. The passage referred to by Mrs. Earle is as follows : " The meersteads & garden plotes of [those] which came first layd out 1620 " (' Ply- mouth Colony Records,' xii. 3). This entry, in the hand wri tins: of Governor W. Brad- ford, was presumably made in or about 1620, and shows that Mrs. Earle has altered the original spelling. That the form meerstead is not an error of the copyist is proved by the facsimile given on p. 2.
What, so far as I am aware, has never before been poin ted ou t is the fact that the words mead- stead and misted occur in the same ' Records.'
Whether misted is a corruption of meerstead
or of meadstead is a point I will not venture
to determine, and whether mead*t*ad occurs
in the original, or is a copyist's error for
mearstead, is a question I cannot answer
because the original records, being at Ply-
mouth Mass., cannot be consulted by me
I he following extracts are of interest :
" Richard Higgens hath bought of Thomas Little his now dwelling howse & misted, for & in con t^^&tt^J"** f m ^chantable
At the same Court, a misted that was granted
formerly to Richard Warren, deceased, & forfeited
by a late order, for want of building, the said misted
was granted to M' Raph Fog & his heires foreveV
provided the said Raph w th in twelue moneths build
a dwelling howse upon the same." 1633, Oct. 28
(i. 18).
" Whereas Kanelm Wynslow & Josias Wynslow ?J a J y ?v P urchase ' hou?ht of Francs Eaton his
then Dwelling the said Josias hath sold unto the
said Kanelm his p't of the said purchase, as also of all & singular the moveables in & about the said dwelling howse & misted in joynt p'tnership bet ween
Jhem In consid' whereof the said Kenelm & hit
heires to haue, hold, occupie, enjoy, the said dwell-
iooM OW r 8e & n^ 8t d ' &c " to him & them forever." 1633/4, Jan. 22 (i. 24, 25).
" At the same time Rich. Beare allowed to erect a dwelling howse, & to haue a misted appointed in place convenient." ia36, Oct. 6 (i. 45).
" A midstead is graunted to George Russell in the towne of Plymouth, and to haue land assigned vnto yt in a convenient place." 1637, April 3 (i. 57).
"Thomas Starr Hath sould vnto Andrew
Hellot One frame of a house w th a chvmney to be set vp and thacked in Yarmouth in the place ap- poynted and seaventeene acrees of vpland in two divisions and twelue acrees of Marsh & meaddow
vnto the said house and meadstead belonging in
Yarmouth aforesaid To haue & to hold the said
louse & meadstead seaventeene acrees of vpland and twelue acres of Marsh & meaddow." 18801 Nov. 25 (xii. 50).
" Will'm Sherman is graunted a meadstead about /he Stony Boooke, in Duxborrow." 1640, April 6
145).
" Will'm Hiller & Georg' Pollerd are graunted a
p'cell of vpland The said lands lye betwixt John
rish & John Caruers meadsteads." 1640, July 6 i. 158).
" John Irish doth acknowledg that for and in lonsiderac'on of the dwelling house wherein Will'm liller now dwelleth in Duxborrow and the mead- tead or garden adjoyneing w th the fruits thereon
- roweing hath sold vnto the said Will'm Hiller
& George Pollerd tenn acrees of vpland." 1641,
~une 11 (xii. 74).
" Peter Brown, whose first house and ' meerstead '
was on the south side of Leyden Street, near the
water-side in Plymouth, afterwards moved to Dux-
)ury." 1883, 'New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Register,'
xxvii. 277.
The above are the only examples of the words meadstead, meerstead, and misted known
- o me, and the extracts show that the
words were used for about twenty years
