Notes and Queries, Number 190, June 18, 1853

Drimtaidhvrickhillichattan.—I should feel obliged through the medium of "N. & Q.," to be informed of the whereabouts of a locality in Scotland with the above euphonious name.

    Alpha.

[Drimtaidhvrickhillichattan is situated in the island of Mull, and county of Argyle.]

Coins of Europe.—Where can I find the fullest and most accurate tables showing the relative value of the coins in use in different parts of Europe?

    Alpha.

[Consult Tate's Manual of Foreign Exchanges, and the art. Coins in M

Culloch's Dictionary of Commerce.]

General Benedict Arnold.—Can any of the readers of "N.& Q." inform me where General Arnold is buried? After the failure of his attempt to deliver up West Point to the English, he escaped, went to England, and never returned to his native country. I have heard that he died about forty years ago, near Brompton, England; and would be glad to have the date of his death, and any inscription which may be on his tomb.

    W. B. R.

Philadelphia.

[General Arnold died 14th June, 1801, in the sixty-first year of his age. His remains were interred on the 21st at Brompton.]

Replies

PARISH REGISTERS.—RIGHT OF SEARCH

In Vol. iv., p. 473. a Query on this subject is inserted, to which, in Vol. v., p. 37., Mr. Chadwick replied.

The question, one of great importance to the genealogist, has recently been the subject of judicial decision, in the case of Steele v. Williams, reported in the 17th volume of the Jurist, p. 464. (the Number for Saturday, 28th May).

At the opening of the argument, the Court of Exchequer decided that the fees, &c. are regulated by the 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 86., "An Act for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England," which in the 35th section enacts—

"That every rector, vicar, curate, and every registrar, registering officer, and secretary, who shall have the keeping, for the time being, of any register book of births, deaths, or marriages, shall at all reasonable times allow searches to be made of any register book in his keeping, and shall give a copy, certified under his hand, of any entry or entries in the same, on payment of the fee hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, for every search extending over a period not more than one year, the sum of 1s., and 6d. additional for every additional year; and the sum of 2s. 6d. for every single certificate."

Mr. Chadwick seemed to consider this section only applied to "civil registration;" but this view is, I apprehend, now quite untenable.

The case was, whether a parish clerk had a right to charge 2s. 6d., where the party searching the register did not require "certified copies," but only made his own extracts; and it is decided he has no such right.

Mr. Baron Parke in his judgment says:

"I think this payment was not voluntary, because the defendant" [the parish clerk] "told the plaintiff, that if he did not pay him for certificates, in all cases in which he wanted to make extracts, he should not make a search at all. I think the plaintiff had at all events a right to make a search, and during that time make himself master, as he best might, of the contents of the book, and could not be prevented from so doing by the clerk in whose custody they were; who in the present case insisted that if he wanted copies he must have certificates with the signature of the incumbent. For the 1s. he paid, the applicant had a right to look at all the names in one year. He had no right to remain an unreasonable time looking at the book; nor perhaps, strictly speaking, was the parish clerk bound to put it into his hands at all: for the clerk has a right to superintend everything done, and might fairly say to a man, 'Your hands are dirty: keep them in your pockets.' The applicant could therefore only exercise his right of search during a reasonable time, and make extracts that way. If a man insists on taking himself a copy of anything in the books, that case is not provided for by the statute: but if he requires a copy certified by the clergyman, then he must pay an additional fee for it.

"It was consequently an illegal act in the defendant to insist that the plaintiff should pay 2s. 6d. for each entry in the book, of which he might choose to make an extract," &c.

Mr. Baron Martin says:

"With respect to the statute, counsel (Mr. Robinson) says, because taking extracts is not mentioned in the statute, it is competent for a parish clerk to take an extra payment for allowing them to be made. Where a man is allowed by statute to receive money, it is, as it were, by virtue of a contract that the statute makes for him, and he cannot make a contract for a different sum. The defendant here is bound by the entirety of the statute; he may be paid for a search, or for a certified copy, but there is no intermediate course."

This decision will, I hope, have the effect of removing the difficulties so often experienced in making searches for genealogical purposes. At all events, the person making such search can now safely make his own notes, none daring lawfully to make him afraid. I have to apologise for the length of this letter.

    G. Brindley Acworth.

12. King's Bench Walk, Temple.

THE HONOURABLE MISS E. ST. LEGER, A FREEMASON

(Vol. iv., p. 234.)

There is an inquiry in Vol. iv., p. 234., as to whether there is any truth in the story, that the Honourable Miss E. St. Leger was made a freemason; and as no account of the circumstances has yet appeared in your pages, I send you the following statement, which has been extracted from The Patrician. Apart from its value as a record of this singular fact, it contains other particulars which you may deem worthy of preservation in "N. & Q."

"The Hon. Elizabeth St. Leger as the only female who was ever initiated into the ancient and honourable mystery of Freemasonry. How she obtained this honour we shall lay before our readers, having obtained the only genuine information from the best sources.

"Lord Doneraile, Miss St. Leger's father, a very zealous mason, held a warrant, and occasionally opened Lodge at Doneraile House, his sons and some intimate friends assisting; and it is said that never were the masonic duties more rigidly performed than by the brethren of No. 150, the number of their warrant.

"It appears that previous to the initiation of a gentleman to the first steps of masonry, Miss St Leger, who was a young girl, happened to be in an apartment adjoining the room generally used as a lodge-room; but whether the young lady was there by design or accident, we cannot confidently state. This room at the time was undergoing some alteration: amongst other things, the wall was considerably reduced in one part, for the purpose of making a saloon.

"The young lady having heard the voices of the Freemasons, and prompted by the curiosity natural to all, to see this mystery so long and so secretly locked up from public view, she had the courage to pick a brick from the wall with her scissors, and witnessed the ceremony through the first two steps. Curiosity gratified, fear at once took possession of her mind; and those who understand this passage, well know what the feelings of any person must be who could unlawfully behold that ceremony. Let them then judge what were the feelings of a young girl, under such extraordinary circumstances.

"Here was no mode of escape except through the very room where the concluding part of the second step was still being solemnised; and that being at the far end, and the room a very large one, she had resolution sufficient to attempt her escape that way, and with light but trembling step glided along unobserved, laid her hand on the handle of the door, and gently opening it, before her stood, to her dismay, a grim and surly tiler, with his long sword unsheathed. A shriek that pierced through the apartment alarmed the members of the lodge, who all rushing to the door, and finding that Miss St. Leger had been in the room during the ceremony, in the first paroxysm of their rage, it is said, her death was resolved upon; but from the moving and earnest supplication of her younger brother, her life was spared, on condition of her going through the two steps of the solemn ceremony she had unlawfully witnessed. This she consented to do, and they conducted the beautiful and terrified young lady through those trials which are sometimes more than enough for masculine resolution, little thinking they were taking into the bosom of their craft a member that would afterwards reflect a lustre on the annals of Masonry.

"Miss St. Leger was directly descended from Sir Robert De St. Leger, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England, and was of that high repute that he, with his own hand, supported that prince when he first went out of his ship to land in Sussex.

"Miss St. Leger was cousin to General Anthony St. Leger, Governor of St. Lucia, who instituted the interesting race and the celebrated Doncaster St. Leger stakes.

"Miss St. Leger married Richard Aldworth, Esq., of Newmarket, a member of a highly honourable and ancient family, long celebrated for their hospitality and other virtues. Whenever a benefit was given at the theatres in Dublin or Cork for the Masonic Orphan Asylum, she walked at the head of the Freemasons, with her apron and other insignia of Freemasonry, and sat in the front row of the stage box. The house was always crowded on those occasions.

"The portrait of this estimable woman is in the lodge room of almost every lodge in Ireland."

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

WEATHER RULES

(Vol. vii., p. 522.)

Your correspondent J. A., jun., invites further contributions on the subject to which he refers. Though by no means infallible, such prognostics are not without a measure of truth, founded as they are on habits of close observation:

1. "Si sol splendescat Maria Purificante
Major erit glacies post festum quàm fuit ante."

Rendered thus:

"When on the Purification sun hath shin'd,
The greater part of winter comes behind."

2. "If the sun shines on Easter-day, it shines on Whit
Sunday likewise."

To this I may add the French adage: