Notes and Queries

( 326 ) NOTES AND QUERIES. EASTCHTTECH. THE LIVESEY MONUMENT. WE have received from the Eev. E. H. Dickson, Eector of Eastchurch, some notes upon the fine tomb on the south side of the chancel of Eastchurch in Sheppey, commemorating Gabriel Livesey and his second wife (Anne Sondes). This Gabriel Livesey was a son of Eobert Livesey of Streatham in the county of Surrey by his second wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Maurice Berkeley, Esq., of Wymondham in the county of Leicester, and the father of the notorious Sir Michael Livesey, who took a prominent but not very creditable part in the military proceedings in the county of Kent during the great Civil War, and was afterwards one of the Commissioners appointed to try the King.* Gabriel Livesey is described on bis tomb as of HoUingbourne, but at the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1622, he appears to have been 'residing at the Parsonage at Eastchurch, where he kept his Shrievalty in 1618. Some account of the family, with a description of this tomb, was given by the late Canon Scott Eobertson in Vol. XIV. of our Transactions. But Mr. Dickson, with the assistance of the Eev. Edmund Farrer, author of Church Heraldry in Norfolk, etc., is now able to identify aud describe the various quarterings of the Livesey coat. They are as follows: 1 and 8. " Argent, a lion rampant gules between three trefoils slipped vert" for LIYESEY. 2. " Gules, a chevron between ten crosses patt& argent" for BEBKELEY of Wymondham, co. Leicester. 3, " Gules, a lion rampant ermine, ducally crowned or," for HAMELIN, also of Wymondham. 4. " Argent, a fesse dancettee between six billets gules," for DE LA LAUNDE of Pinchbeck, co. Lincoln. 5. " Or, a lion rampant sable," * Eurther particulars of his career are given in Archceologia- Cantiana, VOL X1Y.S p. 380. S . * NOTES AND QUERIES. 327 for WELLES. [Lionel, Lord Welles, bj his first wife Joan, daughter of Eobert Waterton of Methley, co. York, had a son Sir Eichard Welles, who married the Baroness Willoughby de Eresby. On the death of his father on Towton Field in 1461, in consequence of the latter's attainder, he did not at once succeed him, but in 1468 a full restitution in blood and honour was granted. In the next year he was beheaded at Stamford.] 6. " Gules, a fesse dancettee between ten crosses-crosslet or," for DENGAYNE, probably an ancestor of Joan Waterton.* It is, however, a curious coincidence that Joan, daughter of Sir John de Norwode of Sheppey, married a Sir John Dengayne, Knight, of the county of Cambridge circa 1380. 7. " Barry of six ermine and gules, over all three crescents sable," for WATEBTON, CO. Yorks. A sketch pedigree is appended, which shews the connection of the various families mentioned above. LIVESEY PEDIGREE. ? . . . . Dengayne or D'Engayne.=T= Sir John=f= Lionel, Lord=pJoaue, dau. of Robert "Waterton and heir of her Hamelin. I Welles. I brother Sir Robert Waterton. Sir Thomas Berkeley,=j=Isabel Hamelin. Sir Thomas De la Launde^Catherine 14th Century. I or De Launde. j Welles. Thomas Berkeley^A daughter. Maurice Berkeley .=p Robert Livesey=j=Elizabet_ Berkeley, Sir Michael: of Streatham. sister and heir of Sondes of Thomas Berkeley. Throwley. :Mary, dau. and sole heir of George Pinch of Naten, Kent. Gabrriieell LLiivveesseeyy ooff Eastohurch and HoUingbourne Hill, Ke_t=j=Anne Sondes. Michael Livesey, afterwards Baronet. Robert Livesey, died in infancy. * With, reference to the Dengayne coat Mr. Earrer says: " I have generally seen this coat with only six crosses-crosslet. It is so on an old monument to the Willoughbys, whereon Welles aud Waterton are quartered as here." 328 NOTES AND QUERIES. OLD HOUSE AT DEAL. THE accompanying view of an old house in High (formerly Lower) Street, Deal, was taken by our member Mr. Stephen Manser, during the progress of its recent demolition. It has been pulled down to make way for a new road. Hiatus valde deflendus alike by the artist and antiquary. This house probably dated from the latter half of the seventeenth century, and it will be seen that the roof is terminated by an ornamental gable-end of the characteristic Thanet type. Deal by the Sea, as distinguished from the old village round w Hi • • St. Leonard's Church, owes its birth to the increased naval and commercial activity which the later years of that century witnessed. The fishermen's hovels and storehouses along the beach gave place to substantial brick buildings, erected with the proceeds of the lucrative occupation of supplying ships in the Downs with necessaries, and occasionally we may suspect out of profits derived from less legitimate traffic. I t would be a good work if some capable photographer would set himself the task of preparing a record of Old Deal, by securing views of at least the more characteristic seventeenth and early eighteenth century buildings in the town. The development oi NOTES AND QUERIES. 32 9 Deal as a modern watering-place will soon, it is to be feared, have caused many other interesting relics of the past to go the way of this old house in High Street.—[EDITORS.] MUESTON EECTOEY TITHE BAEN. WE regret to have to record the demolition of this old building, the history of which was given on an inscribed stone set in the west wall—Si natura negat Facit in Dignatio ver sum :— The Barne which stood where now this stands Was burnt down by the rebels' Hand in December 1659. The Barne which stands where T'other stood By Richard Tray is now made good Iu July 1662. All things you Burne Or overturn But Build up nought, Pray tell Is this the fire of zeal or Hell ? Yet you doe all By the Spirit's call As you pretend, but pray What spirit is't ? a bad on I daresay. Above the inscription were the arms of Sir Edward Hales, Bart., of Tunstall, and patron of the Eectory of Murston, " Gules, three broad arrows or, feathered and winged argent." Eichard Tray, who died two years after the Barn was built, was one of the sons of Eichard Tray, Perpetual Curate of Bredhurst and Eector and Vicar of St.- Mary's in the Hundred of Hoo, concerning whom some interesting particulars may be found in Proceedings in the County of Kent, edited by the Eev. L. B. Larking for the Camden Society 1862. NOTE ON A BEASS IN DAETFOED PAEISH CHUECH. IN Vol. XVIIL, p. 388, the late Canon Scott Eobertson discussed the well-known Burlton brass, and deciphered the inscription as follows:— 0 pytefull oreature concernyng erthly sepulture Of Katryn Burlton subter-iat ix day w'yn June Thowsand iiij c lxxxxvj"1 yer acourrent W Rychard Burlton jantilraan, spows to the Katryn Expyred thowsand v . . . . Whyer thus cumbent ask criest man grace y6 is urgent Wher thorow yy pray our of theys twen shall he be savyour. 330 NOTES AND QUERIES. Possibly he did not notice that the whole inscription is intended to be in rhyme. Now the rhyme to " accurrent'.' is to be found in one letter, " c," which must therefore have been pronounced "cent," the whole method of expressing 1400, suggesting that the writer was thinking in French. There is, moreover, throughout a certain stiffness and pedantry consistent with the view that the inscription was drafted by a foreigner, not improbably a French priest. ) Concernyng. "The first syllable 'con' is expressed by a symbol seldom, if ever, found on other brasses." Moreover, it makes very poor sense. Can it be that the designer intended the ordinary abbreviation of " per " (namely, " p " with a wriggle in the tail), and that the word should be " p'ceiuyng." i.e., " perceiving " ? | Subter-iat. The Canon evidently took this as equivalent to ",subter-jacta " (thrown under), but a glance at the " IT " in the word " accurrent" shews at once that Mr. Dunkin was more correct in reading "'Subterrat" (put underground). | Accurrent is not given by Littre, nor is it in the Historical English Dictionary. [ Jantilman. Here the " j " is a later insertion; probably the word was first cut as " gntilman," then the head of the " g " was turned into an " a " and " j " prefixed, because there was not room for a " g." Lines 6 and 7 are most important, because on a dubious interpretation the learned Canon built up a theory tracing " an early desire to discard the usage of prayers to saints." ) Whyer is wrong. Mr. Dunkin rightly gave " W'hyer," and it represents not one word, " where," but two words, " who (or which) here." | Criest man seems most uncouth and unlikely. It is true that the second word is not to be distinguished from the last syllable of "jantilman" above, yet it seems impossible to feel sure that it does not here stand for " Mary," and the preceding word for " hiest," the head of the first letter having been lost or left uncut. NOTES AND QUERIES. 331 | He be. On these two syllables hangs the sense of the whole passage. I t may seem a bold conjecture to offer, but the fact that " b " and "v" were much alike and often confused leads me to suggest that the cutter has evolved these two words out of one, namely, " have." | Savyour is then not " saviour" but " savour," a "y " being inserted for. the same reason for which " prayer " is spelled " prayour," that is, to produce an apparent rhyme. The two lines thus yield a sense more commonplace perhaps than that given in Vol. XVIII., but at least easier and more natural. " Who here thus lying ask (of) highest Mary grace that is urgent Where-through the prayer of these twain shall have savour (i.e., become acceptable)." A skilful rubbing kindly made for me by my friend Mr. F. Hermitage Day has greatly assisted me in the study of this remarkable brass. W. D. HASKETT-SMITH. [Mr. Haskett-Smith's interpretation is ingenious, but we still think Canon Scott Eobertson's reading substantially correct. Neither the writer of the above note nor Canon Eobertson appear to have observed what we think supplies a key to the strange form and awkward wording of this inscription. The lines are intended for English hexameters, and the exigencies of metre are responsible for their " stiffness and pedantry." 0 pyte | full crea | tur con | coming | erthly se | pulture Of Kafc j ryn Burl | ton sub J terrat | ix day with J in June, etc. The lines stumble on with a profusion of spondees demanded by the solemnity of the occasion, but they are clearly intended to scan. We think the word is certainly " concernyng " in the first line, and cannot see how " perceiving " would mend the sense, which seems sufficiently plain, and may be paraphrased thus: " 0 miserable body, so- far as interment in the earth is concerned, of Katryn Burlton," etc. 332 NOTES AND QUERIES. The four lines following present no special difficulty: "accurrent" may be taken as a slight though perhaps arbitrary variation of " occurrent." " Spows to the Katryn," instead of the obvious form " spows to the said Katryn," must of course be laid to the charge of the metre. We venture to think that Mr. Haskett-Smith's conjectural emendations of the last two lines are not happy. He assumes that the inscription is badly blundered, and substitutes for words which are perfectly clear in the original others which produce a meaning quite at variance with the form of such inscriptions and the practice of the time. Applying the test of metre it will be seen that " hiest Mary," an expression it would be difficult to find authority for, will not scan, unless, indeed, " hiest" is to be read as one syllable, but the word is so plainly " Criest" (Christ) that it is unnecessary to consider any alternative reading. Ma, as the writer observes, is not to be distinguished from the last syllable of "jantilman" above, and while agreeing with him that it seems uncouth, and at first sight unlikely, we think the word can be nothing but " man." Here again the awkwardness of the expression is due to the metre. " Ask Christ, God and Man," the author of the lines would have said—words occurring in an epitaph at Somerby in Suffolk, quoted by Weever," * of about the same date as the Dartford brass :— " Jesus Christ, both God and Man, Save thy servant Jernegan." Metre again forbids " have savour " for the perfectly distinct words " he be Savyour." If it were possible to accept these emendations, their effect would be to represent the dead man and his wife supplicating the Blessed Virgin from their graves, a practice quite contrary we conceive to all orthodox teaching. " Por the love of Jesus pray for me, I may not pray now, pray ye That my paynes less'd may be," etc. These lines, formerly on a brass in Eainham Church, and found in many other places, express more accurately the general belief. Ejaculations on brasses, asking for mercy and pardon, and inscribed on labels issuing from the mouths of figures or otherwise, are represented as coming from the living, not from the dead. Funeral Monuments, p. 769, ed. 1631, NOTES AND QUERIES. 333 We read the lines thus:—" Which (i.e., who) hyer thus cumbent ask Criest Man grace that is urgent. Wher (i.e., ' so,' ' in that way') thorow y1 (the word is ' thy' not ' the,' the y has an ' i ' above it) prayour of theys twen schall he be savyour." That is to say : " And they being thus recumbent here, do thou (that is, the reader) ask the Man Christ grace that is urgent, so through thy prayer he shall be the Saviour of these twain." The fifth line shews that the brass must have been inscribed some time after the year 1500, and during the lifetime of Eichard Burlton, otherwise the date of his death would have been filled in. We can hardly suppose that he would have allowed a grosslyblundered inscription to remain, especially if, as we may suspect, he was himself the author of the lines, a suspicion strengthened by Mr. Haskett-Smith's discovery of the way in whieh the word " gentleman " has been altered. Who but Eichard Burlton himself would have been so jealous of the abatement of one letter of his lawful description ?—EDITOBS.] LOCAL BUILDING STONES. THE Eev. G. M. Livett reports the discovery of abed of calcareous tufa at Wateringbury. The deposit was noticed after the great storm on September 10th, 1902, which scoured the stream near Wateringbury Lodge so effectually that the bed was left clean and white, revealing a continuous deposit of tufa. This light friable stone was used by the Eomans in Kent, and its occurrence in churches has been regarded by Mr. Livett as affording evidence of early-Norman workmanship. Not many beds of the material have, however, been previously noticed in the county, and Mr. Livett, who contemplates writing an Article on " Local Building Stones " for Archceologia Oantiana, would be glad to receive the co-operation of other observers. Information on the following points is asked for:— 1. Notes of other beds of tufa to determine the extent of its distribution, [ I t may probably be found along the line of the lower greensand escarpment, in connection with the springs issuing from the Hythe beds, particularly from the Kentish rag near Maidstone. Also possibly near the bottom of the chalk escarpment.] 334 NOTES AND QUERIES. 2. Notes of the occurrence of tufa in churches. Mr. Livett also asks for notes on the use in churches of other local stones, with the approximate date of their UBO, especially of the use of chalk, fire-stone (upper greensand), iron-stone (Folkstone beds), and Kentish rag (as a cut stone in windows, doorways, etc., which Mr. Livett thinks came into use sometime in the fourteenth century, but he would like to be able to determine the date more exactly); Bethersden marble and the various sandstones of the hill country of the Weald, and the names of the quarries from which they were brought; also instances of the occasional use of Caen-stone at a later date than the end of the twelfth century. N.B.—If a reliable table could be drawn up it would be of great service in the study of churches. OLD HOUSE AT ASHFOED. THE Kentish Express of 12 September 1903 records the destruction by lightning on the night of Friday the 4th of an old house to which some interest attaches. It stood in the Beaver Fields, Ashford, a district supposed to derive its name from a John de Beavor of Norman origin, by whom it was possessed in the reign of Henry II. The building, which latterly has been known as Little Hampden or Hampton Court Farm, " chiefly consisted of timber, the weatherboarding and matchboarding forming the walls being interlined with mud and straw. Huge beams of oak supported the ceiling, while the old-fashioned fire-places (recently surrounded with brick) were encased in oak. It is believed that the building was at one time used as a religious house, a fact which was substantiated by the remaius of a chapel in which the carving on the solid oak beams was very handsome. The chapel was demolished about fourteen years ago, a violent gale in the night blowing it down. A beautiful gable also became unsafe and was removed. In the upper chamber there used to be a stone altar, and stoups for holy water." If there were, as the writer of the notice affirms, a chapel, it must, I think, have been for domestic use, since there was no religious foundation nearer, so far as is known, than the college at Ashford. I remember a pavement of Bethersden marble in one of the lower rooms, and some ornamental wood-work in various parts of the house. Previous to the Society's meeting at Ashford in NOTES AND QUERIES. 335 1883 I took ihe laie Canon Scott Eobertson to see the old place, but we were unable for some reason to obtain admission. He thought some of the external wood-work pointed to the time of Elizabeth. But earlier work may of course have been incorporated, in the edifice, which was of considerable size, and in the fifties and sixties presented a scene of most picturesque decay. From the Court Eolls of the Manor of Ashford it appears that in 1678 Edward Steele and Katharine his mother sold to John Tidham " a messuage called Beavor House, with Barn, Stable, Garden, Orchard," and certain lands. Tidham died in 1715. The property passed by purchase to Quihampton, thence to Mrs. Bell, and now belongs to W. Baillie Skene, Esq., of Pitlow, Fife. There can, I think, be little doubt that the house represented the original residence of the Beaver estate. Perhaps it may also be identified with the " capital messuage called Bevyr," of which, in 1512, John Essherst of Essheford willed that his feoffees should make " a legal estate " to his son John when he attained the age of 22 years. Of its identity with Steele's property there is no question. A. J. PEABMAN. DISCOVEEY OF A SUPPOSED EELIQUAEY AT ST. JAMES' IN THE ISLE OF GEAIN. IT SO happened that on 4 November 1903 the writer made a visit to the Isle of Grain, together with Mr. Elliott of Acorn House, Eochester, the friend and representative of Mr. T. H. Foord of Botley Grange, Hants, the Lay Eector of the parish, our object being to see the repairs and restoration which were being carried out to the Church and Chancel under the supervision of the Vicar of the parish, the Eev. H. F. Macpherson. Mr. Macpherson was unfortunately absent, but we were told at the Vicarage of a discovery which the workmen had made on the previous day, while digging in the churchyard, of a strange box, for so it was called. We went to the Church and inspected the object which had been so disinterred. It had been found a foot or so underground, near the south-west corner of the porch on the south of the Church. It was a block of red Aberdeen granite, the surface measuring 3 feet 2 inches in length by 1 foot 6 inches in width, and the whole having a depth of about 1 foot 6 inches throughout. The top was 336 NOTES AND QUERIES. comparatively smooth"; the sides and the under part were rough and apparently just as the mass came from the quarry. In the centre of the top of the stone a square of 9 inches had been hollowed out to the depth, speaking from memory, of nearly an inch, and on this was laid a plate of bell-metal or gun-metal 9 inches square, of fths of an inch in thickness, with screw-holes at the four corners (the top had been unscrewed and removed, as presently stated). In the middle of this square there was a shaft or small square pillar of the same kind of metal of exactly 2_ inches square, which was evidently let for some considerable way into the granite. The top of this metal shaft was smooth, and above it, when it was discovered, was a square of glass, which had been fixed with lead-work. The lead-work shewed that there had been the space of about -^th of an inch between the metal and the glass, but the glass had been broken and had vanished, and with it unfortunately had also vanished whatever relic or other object there might have been deposited under the glass. Next to the stone we observed the top plate of metal, which had been screwed over the under plate. It was of the same metal, exactly 9 inches square, and covered the whole of the hollowed part of the stone completely. The under plate of metal was pierced to admit of the metal shaft passing through it. The upper plate had no such opening. We saw also three of the four screws which had united the plates at the four corners. They were of the same metal. The heads were hexagonal, and they and the whole of the metal work were of the most excellent workmanship, and in the opinion of Mr. Elliott, who is a very competent judge of such matters, the whole must have been made with extreme care and regardless of expense. I t was evident that the metal work was not of any antiquity. The foreman indeed afterwards told us that when the stone was dug up he distinctly read some figures written on the surface of the metal case with chalk, either 1805 or 1806. I remembered to have been shewn some years ago, at the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. St. John Hope, a relic, or what was supposed to be a piece of the true Cross, which had been then lately found secured between two stones under the altar of the Church at Eoche Abbey in Yorkshire. It was the slightest, tiniest fragment, hardly discernible unless some white paper or wool were placed under it—indeed, I think it was kept in a small pill-box with white wool—and it occurred to me at once that if there had been any relic so preserved in this receptacle it would NOTES AND QUERIES. 337 have been naturally placed under the glass, and we made all possible enquiries, but nothing was known to have been seen there by any one. I wrote on the same day to the Vicar, to tell him that I thought it quite certain that the object of the structure was to preserve some very small relic, which had been laid on the surface of the metal shaft under the glass, and that it might probably have been so small as to have escaped his notice, but he wrote back to me on 6 November:— " There was nothing under the glass (which I had broken to see if there was an opening that way) but apparently a solid block of metal embedded in lead. After working at this for two days the artificer at last got into what seems a solid block or pillar of metal weighing 12 lbs., 6 inches embedded in lead, and the lead laid on the granite. The stone was broken in the process, but can be cemented quite well together. The box of metal only went half an inch or so into the granite—that is, the square box; but this pillarshaped mass which we thought would contain records is about 9 inches long. So now we are as far off as ever, and positively no results, no trace, no information, unless the solid-looking pillar has something inside." In my letter to him of 4 November I had suggested that there may be some reference to this matter in the Eegister about the year 1805, but from his silence on the point I feel sure that this is not the case. Either some pious hand, finding a relic or supposed holy relic in the Church during some restoration or repair about 1805, had caused it to be newly encased in this substantial and costly fashion, or it may have been a religious relic brought from " a far countree " and buried in this remote spot, probably the wildest and dreariest in all the county; or possibly some dearly prized personal belonging may have been so enshrined by the unknown possessor and deposited here, thinking that in this consecrated ground it would be safe and for ever undisturbed. These are, however, useless conjectures, but the publication of this brief note may perhaps lead to some elucidation of what seems now a mystery. 12 November 1903. A. A. ARNOLD. VOL. XXVI. z 338 NOTES AND QUERIES. ANCIENT YEW-TEEE AT OTHAM. THE ancient yew-tree in Otham Churchyard was almost destroyed by fire 14 February 1901.- It was then discovered that the hollow trunk contained the remains of a cusped stone cross. The Eev. F. M. Millard, Eector of the parish, thinks that it probably once ornamented the western gable of the roof of the Church. For its better preservation Mr. Millard has since caused the cross to be placed inside the Church.