112 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VII. Feb. 5. '6ft. 



dred pounds sterling, without anj' regard to a great col- 

 lection ofpublick as well as private papers, in the possession 

 and custody of the Lieutenant-Governor." 



When I was travelling in America some years 

 ago, the spot where the house had stood was 

 pointed out to me. As Goffe's Diary has never 

 been heard of, to the best of my knowledge, 

 since that fatal night of the 26th August, 1765, 

 little doubt can be entertained that it was then 

 destroyed. The Governor was descended from 

 William and Ann Hutchinson (from whom I am 

 the eighth in descent), who went out from the 

 neighbourhood of Boston in England in Charles I.'s 

 time, and a portion of whose family appear to 

 have sailed in the same ship with John Cotton. 

 At the Governor's death, he left behind him a 

 Diary, dating from the 1st June, 1774 (the day 

 he left America), till his decease in 1780 ; a Dia- 

 logue which passed between George III. and him- 

 self, immediately on his arrival in England ; and 

 some other papers of historical interest (especially 

 to Americans) which are still in existence. 



P. Hutchinson. 



BEGI8TRY OF PRIVATE BAPTISMS. 



(2°'i S. vi. 527.) 



Private baptisms being perfectly legal, of course 

 every clergyman is bound to enter the same in his 

 register. Some put the letters " P. B." under the 

 date of such baptism, and if the child lives and is 

 received in church, the words " Received " such a 

 date are written after "B. P." The entry of a 

 baptism in the register, with the initials only of the 

 officiating minister is legal, assuming it to be bond 

 fide, and the minister known. I know the rector 

 of a union of three parishes who keeps all the re- 

 gisters in his own house, and makes the entries 

 therein from manuscript books left at the other 

 churches for the curate to enter the baptisms and 

 burials. The marriage registers are of course pro- 

 duced as required. It is a common thing in large 

 town parishes for the clerk to keep the registers, 

 and make the entries therein in full, adding the 

 officiating clergyman's name in the proper column. 

 I question the propriety of the latter : it should 

 be left blank for the clergyman to write his own 

 name after the entry, or the incumbent to verify 

 it. I believe, however, the registers to be as well 

 and safely kept in the possession of respectable 

 parish clerks, who are not " troubled about many 

 things," as in the hands of the rector : I do not 

 think in the former case they would be neglected 

 or despised, still I am no advocate for such guar- 

 dianship. I give Mr. Lee the following case : A 

 clergyman riding one day through a parish in which 

 there was then no resident minister, was stopped 

 by a woman to beg he would come and " name " 

 an infant not expected to live ; the clergyman was 

 known to the woman, and was the rector of a parish 



some ten miles off. He complied ; privately bap- 

 tized the child, and sent a memorandum of the 

 fact to the officiating minister of that parish ; I 

 saw the entry afterwards in the register. The 

 clergyman did perfectly right. I know many who 

 would refuse, alleging they did not wish to inter- 

 fere in another parish ; but surely, under the cir- 

 cumstances, there is nothing wrong in it ; all are 

 ministers professing the same faith, and adminis- 

 tering the same sacraments. 



Clergymen should consider each column as a 

 distinct entry, and record of each name, just as if 

 it was the only name in the book. I have known 

 great inconvenience caused by the word " Do." in 

 the column of Profession, Trade, &c., for ihe pro- 

 fession of the father, it being similar to that of the 

 father in the preceding entry ; and in country 

 parishes it is very common to see it used for Far- 

 mer, Labourer, when once made, — but it is bad, 

 and very wrong. I was consulted once by a neigh- 

 bouring clergyman as to the manner in which he 

 should enter the baptism of a child of a (presumed) 

 married woman, born in a private lunatic asylum 

 where the mother was confined. The husband, 

 who acknowledged the woman as his wife, was 

 abroad before this for two or three years in the 

 public service. I advised him to make the entry 

 simply as the case was mentioned, thus — 



" Date , son of , a patient in 



Lunatic Asylum." He could not enter 



it as the child of So-and-So, under "Parents' 

 Names," as the facts were too well-known ; nor 

 dare he enter it as " base-born." 



I heard the clergyman of a large manufacturing 

 parish in a western county say, he always entered 

 children born within a certain time after marriage 

 as the hase-born child of the mother, giving her 

 maiden name ! It may be a step towards the cor- 

 rection of morals, but I told the clergyman (an 

 accomplished scholar) that he was liable to pun- 

 ishment ; for, no matter who the father may be, it 

 became the child of the husband if born an hour 

 after marriage ! Simon Ward. 



FAMILIES OF SAXON ORIGIN. 



(2"^ S. vi. 458.) 



In answer to H. C. C, I beg to enclose this list 

 of families of Saxon origin that have fallen under 

 my own observation. The Saxon nobles whose 

 descendants have been, and are, the most nume- 

 rous and important were Other, from whom de- 

 scended the Windsors, Carews, Fitzgeralds, Fitz- 

 gibbons, Gerards, &c., and Cospatric, Earl of 

 Northumberland, the progenitor of the Nevilles, 

 Homes, Dundases, &c. The following curious 

 couplet is in existence relative to this subject : — 



" Crolier, Crewj's, and Coplestone, 

 When the Conqueror came, were at home." 



