Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/385

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9*S. I. MAY 7, '98.]


NOTES AND QUERIES.


377


i itroduction to the first series of ' Canterbury ? [arriage Licences,' issued in 1892, he will i nd that Bishops' transcripts were begun i 1 1559, as well as other information on the object. J. M. COWPER.

Canterbury.

COL. HENRY FERRIBOSCO IN JAMAICA (8 th S. xii. 348, 413, 474; 9 th S. i. 95, 212, 293). Successors to the brothers Ferrabosco were appointed in 1660, which I take to be evi- dence that they were dead in that year. The writer in Grove's 'Dictionary of Music/ indeed, gives 1652 as the date of Alfonso's death, but supplies no authority, and as he confuses two Alfonso Ferraboscos I should hesitate to accept the statement without further evidence. Apart from this, the point that AYEAHR raises is not without interest. He maintains, as I understand, that you can tell approximately the date of the death of "an annuitant of the Crown" from the date of his successor's appointment, and that as we find from ' State Papers, Dom. Series, Charles II.,' that on 4 July, 1661, William Child was granted 401. a year as musical composer in the place of Henry and Alfonso Ferrabosco, deceased, we may assume that the brothers died shortly before that date, i.e., in the early part of 1661. I cannot say what inference it may be allowable to draw from such evidence in the case of officials whose services were indispensable ; but in the case of musicians such an inference cannot be admitted for a moment, as a few examples will show. In June, 1660, Dr. Colman and Henry Lawes were appointed to places held by Thomas Ford, who died in 1648; John Cle- 1 ment to the place of William Lawes, who died ! in 1645 ; while Matthew Lock was made com- i poser "in ye private musick in ye place of | Coperario," Coperario having died in 1626. As a matter of fact, the various posts accu- mulated by the Ferrabosco brothers were being disposed of at intervals from 1660 to i 1666 ; but unless there is other evidence, even the earliest of these dates should not be taken to be the date of their death.

I should add that Cunningham's 'Revels at Court,' pp. xxviii and 22, refer to the grandfather, and p. xxxvii to the father, of the brothers Henry and Alfonso ; and the document Additional MS. 19,038, f. 1 (dated 1619), is signed by the father. For the last reference, however, I am grateful to AYEAHR, as it is new to me. G. E. P. A.

BRANWELL FAMILY (9 th S. i. 208). Accord- ing to Mr. Augustine Birrell (' Life of Char- lotte Bronte,' " Great Writers Series," D. 24) very little is known of Miss Maria Bra i ,vell,


who married the Rev. Patrick Bronte. He, however, tells us that she was a daughter of Mr. Thomas Bran well, a trader, of Penzance. Amongst the ' Literary Gossip ' in the Athe- naeum for 6 and 13 Dec., 1884, paragraphs appeared concerning the Bronte - Branwell marriage. The lady is here described as " Miss Maria Bromwell, third daughter of the late T. Bromwell, Esq., of Penzance." By a curious coincidence, we have, therefore, Bronte evolved from Prunty, and Branwell from Bramwall or Bromwell. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

MOON THROUGH COLOURED GLASS (9 th S. i.

328). See notes to 'St. Agnes' Eve,' For- man's ' Keats,' ed. 1883 vol. ii. p. 90. The subiect has been more than once discussed.

H. T.

PLURAL OF NOUNS ENDING IN O (9 th S. i. 148). The rule given by Henry Beadnell, in his ' Literature of Typography,' is as follows :

" In the formation of the plural of nouns with this ending, the general rule is, that es is added to the singular ; as in potatoes, cargoes, buffaloes ; yet the following words add only s : grotto, junto, canto, cento, quarto, portico, octavo, duodecimo, tyro, solo (all, by-the-bye, foreign words) ; and also all nouns ending in io ; us, folio, folios or, in fact, whenever o is immediately preceded by a vowel ; as cameo, embryo, &c. A notable peculiarity is to be observed with regard to nouns substantive ending with the sound of o. If they be words of more than one syllable, they for the most part end simply in o ; but if only of one syllable, they take an e after the o : thus canto, potato, quarto, hero ; but doe, foe, roe, sloe, toe, vne, &c. Yet other monosyllables, not nouns substantive, have no final e, as so, lo, no."

C. P. HALE.

RIFLED FIREARMS (9 th S. i. 146). In the South Kensington Museum are several wheel- lock muskets with rifled barrels, made during the reign of Charles I., if not earlier. Such barrels were then usually called "screwed." Zachary Grey, in a note on ' Hudibras,' pt. i. canto iii. 1. 533, says that Prince Rupert snowed his skill as a marksman by hitting twice in succession the vane on St. Mary's, Stafford, at sixty yards with a " screwed " pistol. The article on gunnery in the first edition of the * Encyclopaedia Britannica ' has a good deal about " screwed " or rifled barrels, and suggests what are thought recent in- ventions breech-loading, conical bullets, and telescopic sights, as well as rifled cannon. This edition appeared about 1770. Probably rifled barrels were also called " wreathed," though I have not met with the expression.

M. N. G.

DANIEL HOOPER (9 th S. i. 188, 271). Daniel seems to have been the favourite name in this family. In 1797 Daniel Hooper, of London,