36 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12S. X.JAN. 14, 1922, Katharine in the City of London (father of Sir Christopher Mings), said to have been a shoemaker, is identical with John Minge, in 1622 of the Precincts of St. Katharine, citizen and cordwainer of London, 1626, 1631, 1640. Would the parish register of St. Katharine's help, and would the Acting Master of St. Katharine's in the Regent's Park and Warden of the Royal Chapel kindly give us the benefit of any informa- tion on the subject which may be at his disposal ? GEORGE S. FRY. 15, Walsingham Road, Hove. TITLE OF "K.H." (12 S. ix. 529). The following extract from the Introduction (p. xxxvi.) to Dr. Wm. A. Shaw's ' Knights of England,' answers the query : The question as to whether the membership of this Order [Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order] entitled the holder thereof to the title of " Sir " and to the rank of a knight bachelor of Great Britain is concisely stated by Nicolas in his general remarks on the Order. Neither George IV. nor William IV. supposed that such title or precedence would attach to the members. Re- garding the Order as strictly a foreign one, both those kings always knighted those members of the Order whom they meant to make knights bachelors of Great Britain. Further than this, William IV. expressly intimated his opinion to that effect after having taken the advice of the Lord Chancellor on the subject. A paper having been laid before the King in October, 1831, containing reasons for the contention that all the knights of the Order of the Guelphs became ipso facto knights bachelors, the King saw so much objection to the principle (that the acceptance of any foreign Order should confer on the individual the honour of knighthood without his being knighted by the Sovereign) that he asked it to be referred to the lord chancellor. The lord chancellor's opinion was understood to be de- cidedly against any such right, and the king afterwards appointed several hundred British subjects to the Order, being assured that they would not thereby become knights bachelors of England. The members of the Order occupy over thirty pages, dating 1815-1837. There were three classes, viz., Knights Grand Cross (G.C.H.), Knights Commanders (K.C.H.), and Knights (K.H.). By the statutes, which though issued from Carlton House were only published in German, the Grand-Mastership of the Order was to be for ever annexed to the Crown of Hanover. (Ibid. p. xxxv.) It is remarkable that there is no complete list of the Order extant, an order instituted in 1815. Dr. Shaw tells us (Preface, p. vii.) that he has been unable to find one, and that tne lists which he gives " have been drawn entirely from the annual ' Koniglich gross- britannisch-hannoverscher Staatskalendar,' known later as the ' Hof-und Staats Handbuch fiir das Konigreich Hannover. ' ROBERT PIERPOINT. SIR RICHARD WOOLFE (12 S. ix. 528). In ' The Present State of Great Britain,' 1755, published under the name of John Chamberlayne, who died in 1723, p. 281 of ' the General List, Number C, gives " The Names of the Officers in the Court of the Dutchy-Chamber of Lancaster." I extract Mr. Richard Wolfe, Deputy Clerk and Register of his Majesty's Court of the Dutchy-Chamber of Lancaster. Richard Wolfe, Esq : Secretary to i the Chancellor. [Richard, Lord Edgcumbe was the Chancellor.] There can be little doubt that Mr. Richard Wolfe and Richard Wolfe, Esq : were one and the same person.
- The Court and City Kalendar ' for 1759,
I the nearest which I have to 1755, p. 173, gives i in its list of the ' Dutchy Court of Lan- caster,' " Dep. and Sec. to Council, R. Wolfe." (The Chancellor then was the Earl of Kinnoul.) " Dep." evidently means Deputy-Clerk of the Council. The former book (ibid., p. 286) in the list of ' Offices ! belonging to the Court of Exchequer,' I says : The Court of the Dutchy of Lancaster is kept i near the lower Exchequer, in Westminster-Hall. The Offices belonging to that Court are kept in I the old Buildings, in the first Court in Gray's-Inn. ' The Court and City Kalendar ' has | " Dutchy Court of Lancaster (Gray's Inn)." In neither of these books does the name [ Wolfe or Woolfe appear in the list of officers | of the Dutchy of Cornwall. There is no j R. or Richard Wolfe or Woolfe in the Index j of Shaw's ' Knights of England,' but this does j not prove the negative, as the lists are imper- fect. See Dr. Shaw's Introduction, especially p. xlix. et seq. ROBERT PIERPOINT. COTTON FAMILY or WARBLETON (WAR- BLINGTON), HANTS (12 S. ix. 488). The Cotton family were of Warblington, near Havant, Co. Hants. Warbleton is in Sussex. Warblington Castle is supposed to have been erected by, and for some years the residence of, the ill-fated Magaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who was executed in 1541. The manor was granted to Sir Richard Cotton in 1551. The Castle was practically de- stroyed during the Civil War, but the manor remained in possession of the family until the death of William Cotton in 1736.
