10 s. XL JUNE 12, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.
475
into the history of a Dorsetshire family CHRISOM (10 S. viii. 270, 377, 457; ix.
whose members were recusants in the | 312). The customs connected with the
seventeenth century (Somerset and Dorset j chrysom cloth have been often misunder-
Notes and Queries, x. 12, 53) made it plain
that the family protected their property
interests by legal marriages. It is highly
probable that they also sought the blessing
of a priest of their own Church.
The E. I. Co. in the seventeenth
and
eighteenth centuries forbade their servants
abroad, on pain of dismissal, to marry in
stood ; Bailey's ' Dictionary,' for instance,
is misleading, and some of the replies under
this head in ' N. &
erroneous statements.
Q.' have contained
Good summaries are
to be found in the ' N.E.D.' and in Allen's
' History of Lambeth ' (p. 58, citing divers
authorities).
The " chrysom " was a linen cloth,
Roman Catholic chapels, on the ground that | 1 yard long by 1 yards wide (10 S. viii. such marriages were not recognized as j 377), in which a child was wrapped for legal by the English Law ( ' The Church in i baptism, and with which its forehead was Madras,' p. 234). In the case of one of I covered, after anointment with chrism* a their servants they obliged him to separate compound of oil and balsam, consecrated from the wife he had thus married until he i once a year, on Easter Eve, by the bishop, could be legally married by the chaplain of to whom payments for this unguent were
the settlement.
FRANK PENNY.
The following extracts from the diary of
Thomas Dowbiggin, a yeoman of High
Winder in Roeburndale, were printed in The
Lancaster Observer of 14 June, 1889, and
deserve notice as referring to a " mixed "
marriage as well as a double one :
" Nov. the 29, 1684. Joan Thornton of Harterbeck and I were married at Thurland Castle by Mr. Gooden."
" December the 15, 1684. Then I obtained a license from Leonard Townson for marrying Joan Thornton of Harterbeck. ' '
" December the 17, 1684. Then Joan Thornton
rendered called " chrismals " (and perhaps
" cremage").f
When, a month after the birth, the mother repaired to the church, she paid a fee of twopence, and offered also the chrysom cloth, unless the child had died in the mean time, in which case it was buried in the consecrated robe (which it had been allowed to wear for the first seven days after its christening). The infant dying thus early was described as a chrysom or chrysomer.
In the Morebath accounts I note in 1537 (p. 32) : " Rec. of Marke. . . .for ye occupy - eng of ye almys lygth by the deth of hys ij
and I were married again by Mr. Thomas Kay | crisimers, j d ." That is to say, for the use, or
in Hornby Chapel, he
Melling. ' '
being then rector of
April 15, 1685. Upon that day I was con-
verted from the Protestant religion by Mr. Peter
Gooden and did go unto confession the Sunday
following, being Easter Sunday."
consumption, of the alms-light, at the burial
of his two ctirisomers. The accounts of St.
Michael, Comhill (Journ. Archceolog. Assn.,
xxv. 359) yield the item, 1555 (?) "for
chrysomes, weddings, funerals " ; and from
J. B. Shakespeare's ' King Henry V.' (Act. II. sc. iii. )
I may quote the words of Mrs. Quickly :
|f HOTJGH FAMILY (10 S. xi. 429). If " A' made a finer end and went away an it 44 Gloucester " is the county, it may be ! had been any christom child." Infants are worth stating that there belonged, much I often represented on monuments wearing the later in the last century, to a Hough, with chrysom cloth by way of shroud.
similar Christian names, Bradley House,
between Two Bridges and Soudley, near
Newnham.
D.
One such Elyn, daughter of Sir Edward
Bray, in 1516, is depicted on page 25 of " A
Manual of Costume as illustrated by Monu-
mental Brasses," by Herbert Devitt. J
Mr. Herbert Macklin in 'The Brasses of England,' gives a list of " chrysom brasses " ranging in date from 1510 to 1636, and
- Cf. the term " chrismatory," the case con
BEEZELY (10 S. ix. 269, 338). In 'Eng-
land's Gazetteer,' by Stephen Whatley, 1751,
vol. iii. is the following : " Beezley, Hamp-
shire, 5m. E. of Petersfield."
F. K. P. in his query writes "five miles, _
east of Petersfield, Hants therefore in taining flasks of chrism and of oil.
Sussex." If the Times Atlas is correct, the t The term "erernage" occurs in an old Exeter
border of Sussex is about 8J miles east of Cathedral MS. printed in Decon Notes and Queries,
Petersfield, and Beezley must be or have A P ril 1907 > P- 53L
been, in Hampshire. I cannot find it in J t I am told that a paper on Chrisom bmsses, reacl
Adams's ' Index Vill.r,'<s ' 1 fin by Mr. Miller Christy before the St. Paul's Ecclesio-
index V illaris, 680. 1( f ical gociety - n ig( ft was to in , Memoria i 8
ROBERT PIERPOINI . O f old Essex,' but I have not seen it.
