484
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. DEC. 21, 1907.
The Monthly Magazine would ventxire to
declare that the grocer of Ludgate Hill
was the same person as the grocer of War-
minster, unless the fact was true. Had
they been playing into the hands of Mrs.
Serres by retailing fiction, it is almost certain
that their statements would have been
refuted by some local contemporary. More-
over, if the " Princess " Olive had been
acquainted with the Erie stoke registers she
would not have asserted that Axford became
Hannah Lightfoot's husband after her
secret marriage to her royal lover in the
year 1759 ! See ' Authentic Records,'
pp. 5-7, and ' Secret History ' (ed. 1903),
i. 6. Indeed, for this reason I am disposed
to doubt that Mrs. Serres influenced the
correspondence in The Monthly Magazine.
Certainly, the family tradition, which has
always been plausible and consistent, and is
supported by the local registers, affords
strong presumptive evidence that Isaac
Axford of Ludgate Hill and Isaac Axford
of Warminster were one and the same person ;
and in the absence of all negative proof it
will not be rash to accept the theory that the
man who married Mary Bartlett at Erie-
stoke on 3 Dec., 1759, was the husband of
Hannah Lightfoot.
At all events, it is convenient to accept this hypothesis, for there is a story related of Isaac Axford of Warminster which, if true, might throw some light upon the mystery of the "Fair Quaker." As this story is corroborated by Mr. Curtis, it will not be indiscreet to repeat the version given by The Monthly Magazine of July, 1821 :
" Many years after Hannah was taken away, her husband, believing her dead, married again to a
Miss Bartlett and by her succeeded to an estate
.at Chevrett [Cheyerell ?j of about 1501. a year. On the report reviving, a few years since, of his first wife's being still living, a Mr. Bartlett (first cousin to Isaac's second wife) claimed the estate on the plea of the invalidity of this second marriage." 3 S. xi. 90.
Mr. Frank Curtis's account of the incident is as follows :
" Isaac Axford received with this Miss Bartlett an estate worth 150?. a year. After his death, a cousin claimed the property from the said Isaac Axford's son, who was the grandfather of my wife. In her childhood she heard her parents speak of one Air. Aldridge, a lawyer of this town [Warmin- ster], who went to her grandmother, and asked to see some papers. These were taken away, and
never returned My wife has no idea where the
lawsuit was tried, but the Bartlett family won the case. The assizes may have been held at Devizes
or Salisbury With regard to the property in
dispute, my wife's mother told her many years ago that it was a mill at Potterne, Wilts."
Possibly, if the Bartlett family won the
case, they were able to produce evidence that
Hannah Lightfoot was alive on 3 Dec.,
1759, and thus a report of the trial (if it
took place) might give some information
concerning the history of the " Fair Quaker "
after her separation from Axford. Some
months ago I wrote to Mr. Ponting, solicitor
of Warminster, who conducts the business
that Mr. Aldridge carried on a hundred
years ago ; and although he was kind enough
to make a careful search among his papers,
he could discover nothing relating to an
action at law between Bartlett and Axford,
nor had he ever heard of any such action.
Obviously, the proper course is to search
the columns of The Devizes and Wiltshire
Gazette, which I have not yet done. The
trial must have taken place, if it took place
at all, between April, 1816, and April, 1821.
Though a slender clue, it is worth following,
and as it is one of the few remaining clues,
any one who wishes to investigate the
mystery of Hannah Lightfoot should not
neglect it. Can some Wiltshire antiquary
offer any suggestion ? .
HORACE BLEACKXEY.
(To be continued.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTMAS.
(Continued from 10 S. vi. 485.) TWENTY-SECOND LIST.
Taylor, C. B. A Fireside Book, or an Account of a Christmas spent at Old Court. 12mq, 1830.
The Christmas Minstrel : a Favourite Selection of Carols. 12mo, pp. 32, 1856.
Smith, Alexander. Dreamthorp. 1863. Con- tains an essay on Christmas.
Gillett, E. A Christmas Tale, and other Poems. 8vo, 1894.
Boyd, M. Stuart. A Versailles Christmas-tide. 4to, 1901.
Day, E. S. Christmastide in the Sixteenth Century. An article in The Guardian, 19 Dec., 1906, p. 2130.
Andrews, William. A Wreath of Christmas Carols and Poems, chosen and edited with Notes. 12mo. pp. 64, Hull, J. R. Tutin, 1906.
Illingworth, Agnes L. Christmas Faith and Fact : Readings on the Incarnation, illustrated by Painter and Poet. London, Mowbray, 1907-
Knight, Wm. The Poets on Christmas. 8vo, S.P.C.K., 1907.
Christmas, its History and Antiquity. In " Slater's Home Library," a pamphlet.
The Origin of the Christmas Tree ; The Christ- mas Tradition in England. Articles in The Trea- sury, December, 1907.
On the Boy-Bishop, see Archceologia, 1. 446, 472, 480, &c. (St. Paul's) ; li. 27 (Lincoln) ; lii. 221, 224, &c. (Westminster) ; liii. 25 (Lincoln). Yorksh. Arch. Jour., xii.
