Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851

"The wonder of this excellent man's worth is increased by the consideration of his tender age, he dying very young (of a consumption as it is conceived) above fifty years since, about Anno 1600."

    Thos. M

Calmont.

Highfield, Southampton.

Minor Queries

Owen Glendower.—Some of your Cambrian correspondents might, through your columns, supply a curious and interesting desideratum in historical genealogy, by contributing a pedigree, authenticated as far as practicable by dates and authorities, and including collaterals, of Owen Glendower, from his ancestor Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc, last Prince of Powys, to the extinction of Owen's male line.

All Cambrian authorities are, I believe, agreed in attributing to Owen the lineal male representation of the sovereigns of Powys; but I am not aware that there is any printed pedigree establishing in detail, on authentic date, his descent, and that of the collaterals of his line; while uncertainty would seem to exist as to one of the links in the chain of deduction, as to the fate of his sons and their descendants, if any, as well as to the marriages and representatives of more than one of his daughters.

I have in vain looked for the particulars I have indicated in Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales; in the Welsh Heraldic Visitation Pedigrees, lately published by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the learned editorship of the late Sir Samuel Meyrick; and in the valuable contributions to the genealogy of the Principality to be found in the Landed Gentry and the Peerage and Baronetage of Mr. Burke,—a pedigree, in other respects admirable, in the Landed Gentry of a branch of the dynasty of Powys, omitting the intermediate descents in question.

    S. M.

Meaning of Gig-Hill.—Can any of your readers favour me with an explanation of the following matter in local topography? There are two places in the neighbourhood of Kingston-on-Thames distinguished by the name of Gig-Hill[3 - [One of these places, namely, that on the road from Kingston to Ditton, is, we believe, known as Gig's Hill.—Ed.]], although there is no indication of anything in the land to warrant the name.

Are there any instances to be met with where the place of punishment by the stocks or pillory in olden times, was known by that name?

There was a king of Brittany who resigned his crown, and obtained the honours of canonisation as Saint Giguel, in the seventh century. St. Giles, who died about the sixth century, might, perhaps, have had some connexion with those who are traditionally believed to have been punished on the spot; that is, if we judge by his clients, who locate themselves under the sanctity of his name as a "Guild" or fraternity in London.

There is, however, a curious use by Shakspeare of the word gig. It occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. I.:

Holofernes says,

"What is the figure?"

Moth. Horns.

Holofernes. Thou disputest like an infant. Go, whip thy gig."

I submit this matter, as local names have often their origin in religious associations or in proverbial philosophy.

It has been suggested that giggle, as a mark of the derision to which the culprit was exposed, might so become corrupted.

If the term be connected with the punishment, it would be, doubtless, one of general application. The smallest contribution will be thankfully received.

Sir John Vaughan.—In the patent under which the barony of Hamilton of Hackallen, in the county of Meath, was granted on the 20th of October, in the second year of the reign of George I., to Gustavus Hamilton, he is described as son of Sir Frederick Hamilton, Knt., by Sidney, daughter and heiress of Sir John Vaughan, Knt.; and that the said Dame Sidney Hamilton was descended from an honourable line of ancestors, one of whom, Sir Will Sidney, was Chamberlain to Henry II., another of the same name Comptroller of the Household to Henry VIII., &c., &c.

Can any of your genealogical friends inform me who the above-named Sir John Vaughan married, and in what way she was connected with the Sidneys of Penshurst, as the pedigree given by Collins contains no mention of any such marriage?

The arms of Sir John Vaughan, which appear quartered with those of Hamilton and Arran in the margin of the grant, are,—Argent, a chevron sable between three infants' heads coupled at the shoulders, each entwined round the neck with a snake, all proper, thereby intimating his descent from the Vaughans of Porthaml Trêtower, &c., in the county of Brecon.

    J. P. O.

Quebecca and his Epitaph.—

"Here lies the body of John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King. When his spirit shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Almighty will say to the Angelic Choir, 'Silence, ye calves! and let me hear John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King.'"

Can any of your correspondents inform me who John Quebecca was, and where the epitaph may be found?

    E. Hailsture.

    K.

A Monumental Inscription.—Near the chancel door of the parish-church of Wath-upon-Dearne, in Yorkshire, is an upright slab inscribed to the memory of William Burroughs. After stating that he was of Masbro', gentleman, and that he died in the year 1722, the monument contains the two following hexameters:—

"Burgus in hoc tumulo nunc, Orthodoxus Itermus,
Deposuit cineres, animam revocabit Olympus."

The meaning of all which is obvious, except of the words "Orthodoxus Itermus:" and I should be glad to have this unscanning doggrel translated. It has been conjectured that Itermus must be derived from iter, and hence that Burroughs may have been a traveller, or possibly an orthodox itinerant preacher: surely there can be no punning reference to a journeyman! The lines have been submitted, in vain, to some high literati in Oxford.

    A. G.

Ecclesfield.

Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs of Charles I. (Vol. iii., p. 157.).—My friend, who is in possession of the original MS. of this work, is desirous of ascertaining whether the volume published in 1702 be a complete and exact copy of it. I will transcribe the commencing and concluding passages of the MS., and shall be obliged if Mr. Bolton Corney will compare them with the book in his possession, and tell me the result.

"S

,

"By your's of the 22d of August last, I find you have receaved my former letters of the first and thirteenth of May, 1678; and seeing 'tis your further desire," &c.

"This briefe narrative shall conclude with the king's owne excellent expression: Crowns and kingdoms are not so valuable as my honour and reputation—those must have a period with my life; but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality when I am dead and gone: a good name being the embalming of princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of love and gratitude amongst posterity."

The present owner of the MS. has an idea that an incorrect copy was fraudulently obtained and published about 1813. Is there any foundation for this supposition?

    Alfred Gatty.

Ecclesfield.

Comets.—Where may a correct list of the several comets and eclipses, visible in France or England, which appeared, or took place, between the years 1066 and 1600, be obtained?

    S. P. O. R.

Natural Daughter of James II.—James II., in Souverains du Monde (4 vols. 1722), is stated to have had a natural daughter, who in 1706 was married to the Duke of Buckingham.

Can any of your readers inform me the name of this daughter, and of her mother? Also the dates of her birth and death, and the name of her husband, and of any children?

    F. B. Relton.

Going the Whole Hog.—What is the origin of the expression "going the whole hog?" Did it take its rise from Cowper's fable, the Love of the World reproved, in which it is shown how "Mahometans eat up the hog?"

    Σ.

Innocent Convicts.—Can any of your readers furnish a tolerably complete list of persons convicted and executed in England, for crimes of which it afterwards appeared they were innocent?