216
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. MAR. u,
WILLIAM PARSONS : LIFE OB HORSE
GUARDS (US. ix. 46, 116). My query as
to whether " Private Man " meant a com-
missioned officer or a trooper was caused
by the assertion that Parsons found that
he could not enlist as a private man in the
Life or Horse Guards without a payment of
seventy guineas. Caulfield's book uses the
term " by purchase." The term " Private
man " given in the two books which I
quoted is inexact. It should be " Private
Gentleman," for that was the description of
a trooper in the Horse Guards. The 1755
edition of ' Magnae Britanniae Notitia : or,
The Present State of Great -Britain,' by
John Chamberlayne, is only fifteen years
later than the date when Parsons, after
declining to pay seventy guineas for enlist-
ment in the Horse Guards, received his
Ensign's commission in a regiment of foot.
According to p. 254 of ' A General List,' &c., which is the second part of the book, a Private Gentleman in the Horse Guards received per diem pay 4s., subsistence 2s. 10d. ; while (p. 256) an Ensign of Foot or a Second Lieutenant of Marines received pay 3s. Sd., subsistence 3s. Therefore a Private Gentleman of the Horse Guards received 2fd. per diem more than an Ensign of Foot or a Second Lieutenant of Marines. Reckoned by the year, a trooper of the Horse Guards received a little over 125/., while a commissioned officer as above received 121Z. 13s. 4rf. The Private Man of Foot or Marines received per diem pay 8c?., subsistence 6c7.
Obviously pay and subsistence at the rate of rather more than 1251. a year might be regarded as an investment worth seventy guineas.
Parsons got his Ensign's commission by favour (ante, p. 46). probably paying nothing for it.
Having read my note on William Parsons, Mr. R. A. Austen Leigh, editor of ' Eton College Lists, 1678-1790,' was good enough to send me particulars about him. He confirms my suggestion that Parsons, in the old Eton List of 1732, is the said William Parsons. He says that,
"according to the copy of his birth certificate deposited at Eton College, he was baptized Jan. 1. 1717/8, at St. Andrew's, Holborn, being the son of Sir William Parsons, baronet, and Frances his wife, of Red Lion St., Holborn. He was elected to College in 1731, but seems to have left in 1734."
Mr. Austen Leigh mentions an article written by himself about Parsons in the magazine Etoniana, No. 10, in which he refers to Burke's ' Trials connected with the
Aristocracy,' pp. 271-83, and to * Mysteries
of Police and Crime,' bv Major Arthur
Griffiths, vol. i. pp. 343-7.
There is a full-length portrait of William Parsons (G. Cruikshank sc.) in James Caul- field's ' Portraits, Memoirs, and Characters of Remarkable Persons from the Revolution in 1688 to the End of the Reign of George II.,' 1819-20, iv., facing p. 126. Caulfield in his Preface says that all the portraits given are of " unquestioned authenticity," but he gives no particulars as to the originals.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
OCTOPUS, VENUS'S EAR, AND WHELK (11 S. ix. 128, 173). Venus's ear has pos- sibly been misread for Venus's hair (Adi- antum capillus Veneris} maiden-hair. A syrup made from the leaves of this plant was formerly much used in France as a remedy for catarrh.
S. D. CLIPPINGDALE, M.D.
MILTON QUERIES (US. ix. 150, 198). The reference for the former of the two queries is given by Camden in his ' Remaines,' 2nd ed., London, 1614, p. 250, where he says :
"Winefridus borne at Kirton in Devonshire, after surnamed Boniface, who converted Freese- land to Christianitie, was wont to say, In olde time there were golden Prelats, and woodden Chalices, but in his time woodden Prelates, and golden Chalices. [Beatus Rhenanus libr. 2. rerum German icarum .] "
In the second, Milton is probably referring to Padre Paolo's ' Historia del Concilio Tridentino,' published in London in 1619. See Lowndes under the heading * Father Paul.' JOHN T. CURRY.
SEAVER FAMILY (11 S. viii. 229). Robert Tournay, Rector of Newchurch, in Romney Marsh, Kent, married, 1759, Ann Sivyer/ and died 1785, having had, with other issue, Thomas Sivyer Tournay, who
married widow of Seeker. (Berry's
'Kentish Genealogies,' p. 106.)
"1616, Nov. 15. S. Jo. John Seaver; Berks pleb. f. 17." Matriculation Lists.
Fox OF STRADBROKE, SUFFOLK (11 S. ix. 168). In the will of Robert Jenner of Widhill, Wilts, 1651, there is a bequest of 10Z. to " my wife's kinsman M r Nathaniel Fox." Robert's wife was Elizabeth, sister and coheiress of Henry Longston or Lang- ston ; the other sister was Ann, wife of Robert Kingsland of Dulwich.
Two or more members of the Jenner family were named Nathaniel, probably through the above connexion.
R. J. FYNMORE.
Sandgate.
