THE TITLE "DOMINUS" of Partney, has this title "Dns.," and also Thomas Goldburgh, soldier, has the same. This is the same name as that on the old Grimsby Corporation seal of the princess, who is said to have married Havelock the Dane (see Chap. XIX.). Dominus is a difficult title to translate, for if we call it 'Sir,' as the old registers often do, it is misleading, as it has no knightly significance, and it probably meant no more than "The Rev.," or in the case of a soldier "Esq." or "Gent." It certainly does not imply here that the owners of the title belonged to "the lower order of clergy," and yet that is the recognised meaning of it in many old church registers, e.g., in the list of rectors, vicars, and chantry priests of Heckington, taken from the episcopal records at Lincoln. Some of the vicars and most of the chantry priests are called "Sir," and this generally implies a non-graduate. So also in the chapter on the clergy with the list of rectors and curates given in Miss Armitt's interesting book, "The Church of Grasmere" (published 1912), pp. 57-60 and p. 81, we find that the tythe-taking rector is termed "Master," and bears the suffix "Clerk"; while "Sir" is reserved for the curate, his deputy, who has not graduated at either university. This view is upheld in Dr. Cox's "Parish Registers of England," p. 251. The Grasmere book speaks of "Magister George Plumpton," who was son of Sir William Plumpton, of Plumpton, Knight, and rector of Grasmere, 1438-9. In 1554 Gabriel Croft is called rector, and his three curates for the outlying hamlets are put down as—
"Dns. William Jackson, called in his will 'late Curate of Grasmer.'"
"Dns. John Hunter.
"Dns. Hugo Walters."
This entry is followed by—
"Sirre Thomas Benson curate" who witnesses a will in 1563; and in 1569 we have "Master John Benson Rector." In 1645 we have a "Mr. Benson" doing the duty as rector during the Commonwealth, and in 1646 we have "Sir Christopher Rawling," who had probably served as curate for some years, as he is, at his child's baptism in 1641, styled "Clericus." Clearly this word "Sir" is here the translation of the Latin "Dominus," and the previous entries bear out the statement that the prefix 'Sir' here betokens the lower order of clergy who had not graduated at either university. But that this was not
