12-s.x. APRIL s, 1022.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 271 DELAPLACE. George Delaplace was ad- mitted to Westminster School in May, 1739, aged 12, and William Delaplace, described as a son of Dennis Delaplace of London, was admitted on the foundation at Westminster in 1742, aged 14. I should be glad of any information of these two Delaplaces. G. F. R. B. " OLD RICHARD." Who was " Old Richard" who is stated to have originated the saying, " If you wish that your affairs should be prosperous, superintend them in person " ? When Paul Jones, disgusted with delays in France, said that if he did not obtain a command soon he would return to America, he is said to have remembered the saying quoted above. This induced him to promise, that if the Minister should at length comply with his request, he should call his own ship " Old Richard." When he obtained the ship Le Duras, he called her the " Bon Homme Richard." This was the vessel with which he fought the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, and which was so much damaged that it went to the bottom of the sea after his victory was complete. It reads as if " Old Richard " was a Frenchman ; I shall be glad to know something about him. HERBERT SOUTHAM. [" Le bonhomme Richard " is the French for the " Poor Richard " of Franklin's Almanack. ' Poor Richard's Almanack ' is in vol. i. of ' The English Garner.' At p. 325 is the sentence, "But with our Industry we must likewise be Steady, Settled and Careful ; and oversee our own affairs with our own eyes and not trust too much to others."] CLERK OF THE PEACE, MIDDLESEX, 1693. By the well-known case of Harcourt v. Fox (Shower, i., p. 528) one Simon Har- court was in 1693 held entitled to hold the office of Clerk of the Peace for Middlesex quamdiu se bene gesserit, notwithstanding that the Custos Rotulorum who appointed him had been removed. Was this the Simon Harcourt who in 1703 became Solicitor-General and in 1710 Lord Keeper ? If so, when did he vacate the office of Clerk of the Peace for Middlesex ? A. E . P . OSCAR WILDE. -A fragment of manuscript in my possession reads as follows : You will be glad to hear my catalogue is a great success : they have recognised my hand of course : I couldn't help it everybody talks of it : it is a masterpiece, though I say it myself. I shall be grateful if anyone can help me to trace this publication. STUART MASON. FLEET MARRIAGES : REGISTERS. Are there any registers in existence of marriages at the Fleet in 1744 or earlier, and were there any other places in London at that time where similar irregular marriages were performed ? Failing the existence of Fleet registers, are there any books treating of marriages of this kind to which I could refer ? RODMELL. [MB. EVEBABD HOME COLEMAN replied to a similar question at 10 S. i. 75. These registers were transferred from the Registry of the Bishop of London to the custody of the Registrar- General of Births, Marriages and Deaths under 3 and 4 Viet., cap. 92, sec. 20. ' The Fleet Registers ' (1837) and ' The History of the Parish Registers in England ' ( 1842), both by J. S. Burn, give information on the subject, as does also ' Parish Registers in England ' (1883), by R. E. C. Waters.] EARLY SUFFOLK MSS. In Glyde's ' New Suffolk Garland ' are several poems, or rather songs, taken from the song-book of an Ipswich minstrel of the fifteenth century. This book was found amongst the Ipswich records, and passed into the collection of " Mr. Fitch." A paper on it was read by Thomas Wright, F.S.A., at the Ipswich Congress of the British Archaeological Asso- ciation, held in 1864. Glyde concludes his- note, " and it was now [he is reporting the paper mentioned above] in a private collec- tion in the north of England." Can any correspondent give information as to its present whereabouts ? WILFRED J. CHAMBERS. 45, Marine Parade, Lowestoft. DOROTHY POCOCK OF BRADLEY COURT IN CHIEVELEY, BERKS, SPINSTER. -I am anxious to obtain the Christian name of the above Dorothy Pocock's father. Her will, which is dated Feb. W, 1734 (P.C.C., 35 Ducie), mentions, among others, her cousin, William Buckeridge of Little Hunger- ford, in the parish of Hampstead Norris, in the county of Berks, Yeoman (and a Quaker) ; cousin Edward Pocock, late of Oare, deceased, his son Roger and daughters Elizabeth, Mary and Hannah ; cousin Richard Pocock of North Heath, " son of my cousin Richard Pocock of North Heath (Chieveley) " ; the messuages are to go ' to Christopher Capel and Richard Head for ever to be divided between them ; John, son of John Pocock, of Langley Farm ; brother Richard -proved Feb. 20,. 1734, by James Strode and Henry Wilder. I believe her mother to have been Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Buckeridge of Basildon,
