Notes and Queries, Number 203, September 17, 1853

    James F. Ferguson.

Dublin.

[In the British Museum is the following pamphlet:—"The Grand Pyrate: or the Life and Death of Captain George Cusack, the Great Sea-Robber, with an Accompt of all his notorious Robberies both at Sea and Land; together with his Tryal, Condemnation, and Execution. Taken by an Impartial Hand." London, 1676, pp. 24. 4to.]

Sir Ralph Winwood.—I am particularly desirous of obtaining some information respecting Sir Ralph Winwood, private secretary to James I., and should feel much obliged if any of your numerous correspondents would favour me with anything they may know concerning him, or with the titles of any works in which his name is mentioned.

    H. P. W. R.

[Biographical notices of Sir Ralph Winwood will be found in Biographia Britannica, Supplement; Lloyd's State Worthies; Wood's Athenæ; Granger and Chalmers' Biographical Dictionaries. Sir F. Drake's Voyage, by T. Maynarde, is dedicated to him. Letters to him from Sir Thomas Roe, in 1615, 1616, are in the British Museum, Add. MS. 6115. fol. 71. 75. 146. And a letter to him from Sir Dudley Carlton will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lvii. p. 143. The Diaries of the time of James I. may also be consulted; a list of them is given in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 363.]

Replies

BOOKS CHAINED TO DESKS IN CHURCHES

(Vol. viii., p. 93.)

The authority for this ancient custom appears to be derived from an act of the Convocation which assembled in 1562. Strype informs us (Annals, vol. i. c. 27.) that at this Convocation the following injunctions were given:

"First, That a Catechism be set forth in Latin, which is already done by Mr. Dean of Paul's [Dean Nowell], and wanteth only viewing. Secondly, That certain Articles [the Thirty-nine Articles], containing the principal grounds of Christian religion, be set forth much like to such Articles as were set forth a little before the death of King Edward, of which Articles the most part may be used with additions and corrections as shall be thought convenient. Thirdly, That to these Articles also be adjoined the Apology, writ by Bishop Jewell, lately set forth after it, hath been once again revised and so augmented and corrected as occasion serveth. That these be joined in one book; and by common consent authorised as containing true doctrine, and be enjoined to be taught the youth in the Universities and grammar schools throughout the realm, and also in cathedral churches, and collegiate, and in private houses: and that whosoever shall preach, declare, write, or speak anything in derogation, depraving or despising of the said book, or any doctrine therein contained, and be thereof lawfully convicted before any ordinary, &c., he shall be ordered as in case of heresy, or else shall be punished as is appointed for those that offend and speak against the Book of Common Prayer, set forth in the first year of the Queen's Majesty's reign that now is: that is to say, he shall for the first offence forfeit 100 marks; for the second offence, 400 marks; and for the third offence, all his goods and chattels, and shall suffer imprisonment during life."

It is probable that this book found a place in churches as affording a standard of orthodoxy easy of reference to congregations in times not sufficiently remote from the Reformation, to render the preaching of Romish doctrines unlikely. This, if the surmise be correct, would be emphatically to bring the officiating minister to book. In Prestwich Church, the desk yet remains, together with the "Book of Articles," bound up as prescribed with Jewel's Apology (black-letter, 1611), but the chain has disappeared. The neighbouring church of Bingley has also its desk, to which the chain is still attached; but the "Book of Articles" has given place to some more modern volume.

    John Booker.

Prestwich.

Mr. Simpson will find some account of the Paraphrase of Erasmus so chained (of which he says he cannot recal an instance) at Vol i., p. 172., and Vol. v., p. 332.

The following list (remains of which more or less perfect, with chains appended, are still extant) will probably be interesting to many of your readers:

"Books chayned in the Church, 25th April, 1606.

Dionisius Carthusian vpon the New Testament, in two volumes.
Origen vpon St. Paules Epistle to the Romanes.
Origen against Celsus.
Lira vpon Pentathucke of Moses.
Lira vpon the Kings, &c.
Theophilact vpon the New Testam

.
Beda vpon Luke and other P

of the Testam

.
Opuscula Augustini, thome x.
Augustini Questiones in Nouū Testamentū.
The Paraphrase of Erasmus.
The Defence of the Apologye.
Prierius Postill vpon the Dominicall Gospells."

    From Ecclesfield Church accounts.
    J. Eastwood.
In Malvern Abbey Church is a copy of Dean Comber's Companion to the Temple, chained to a desk, and bearing a written inscription to the effect that it should never be removed out of the church; but should remain chained to its desk for ever, for the use of any parishioner who might choose to come in and read it there.

N. B. I have mislaid my copy of this inscription: and should feel greatly obliged to any of your correspondents who may be residing in or near Great Malvern, for a transcript of it. As it may be thought somewhat long for your pages, perhaps some correspondent would kindly copy it out for me, and inclose it to Rev. H. T. Griffith, Hull.

University Club.

EPITAPHS

(Vol. vii. passim.)

A goodly collection of singular epitaphs has appeared in "N. & Q."; but I believe it yet lacks a specimen of the following tomfoolery—an initial epitaph. Green, in his History of Worcester, gives the following inscription from a monument under the north-west window of St. Andrew's Church in that city:

"Short of Weight.
H L T B O
R W
I H O A J R
A D 1780     A 63."

Green adds the following explanation of this riddle:

"In full measure it would have stood thus: 'Here Lieth The Body Of Richard Weston, In Hopes Of A Joyful Resurrection. Anno Domini 1780. Aged 63.'"

Richard Weston was a baker, and the "Short of weight" gives the clue to the nature of his dealings, and also to the right reading of the epitaph.

The following is from Ombersley Churchyard, Worcestershire:

"Sharp was her wit,
Mild was her nature;
A tender wife,
A good humoured creature."

From the churchyard of St. John, Worcester:

"Honest John's
Dead and gone."

From the churchyard of Cofton Hackett, Worcestershire, are the two following:

"Here lieth the body of John Galey, sen., in expectation of the Last Day. What sort of man he was that day will discover. He was clerk of this parish fifty-five years. He died in 1756, aged 75."

The next is also to a Galey. Your correspondent Pictor (Vol. viii., p. 98.) gives the same epitaph, slightly altered, as being at Wingfield, Suffolk:

"Pope boldly asserts (some think the maxim odd),
An honest man's the noblest work of God.