2»'>S.VII. Mav14.'59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



401 



of their estates is situated in the town or district 

 of Ireland, near the burgh of Stromness ; and it 

 is to the proprietors of this estate, of the name of 

 Halcro, that your correspondent J. F. C.'s Query 

 is more particularly directed. Miss Anne Halcro, 

 afterwards Mrs. Cabry, was of that family. I 

 enclose a letter which will lead to obtaining any 

 private family information. 



The head of the family was Halcro of Halcro, 

 or of that ilk ; situated, I believe, in the island of 

 South Ronaldshay, where is a bold headland, 

 Halcro Head. 



In the last statistical account of the parish of 

 Evie and Eendall, the family of Halcro is noticed ; 

 and a small property, the Hall of Kendall, then 

 belonging to a landholder of the name of Halcro, 

 is said to have escaped the wast§ of eight cen- 

 turies. 



I quote from the statistical account : — 



" The mother of Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine (foun- 

 ders of the sect of Seceders in Scotland) was of the family 

 of Halcro, one of the oldest in Orkney, said to be lineally 

 descended from a Norwegian King, and connected by 

 marriage with the Royal House of Scotland. Margaret, 

 the daughter of Hugh Halcro, was married to the Reve- 

 rend Henrj' Erskine of Chirnside, at the kirk of Evie, 

 27 May, 1696." 



The following is a copy of the certificate fur- 

 nished me on that occasion : — 



« At the Kirk of Evie, May 27, 1696. To all and sun- 

 dry into whose hands these presents shall come, be it 

 known that the bearer hereof, Margaret Halcro, lawful 

 daughter of the .deceased Hugh Halcro, in the island of 

 Weir, and Margaret Stewart his spouse, hath lived in the 

 parish of Evie from her infancy in good fame and report ; 

 is a discreet godly j'oung woman, and to our certain 

 knowledge free of all scandal, reproach, or blame. As 

 also that she is descended of her father of the house of 

 Halcro, which is a very ancient and honourable family in 

 the Orkneys ; the noble and potent Earl of Airly, and 

 Lairds of Dun in Angus; and, by her mother, of the 

 Laird of Barscobe in Galloway. In witness whereof," &c. 



Halcro, Harcus, and Fea, names in Orkney, are 

 pure Norse ; but it is curious that the last, Fea, 

 should be found in Italy. W. H. F. 



FRIESIO LANGUAGE, 



(2"« S. vii, 306.) 



In the Introduction to Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon 

 Dictionary, much interesting information is given 

 by a Frisian respecting the old Friesic language 

 and its kindred dialects, which, from being un- 

 written, are very numerous. Wiarda, in 1786, 

 published a dictionary of old Friesic. Eask's 

 Grammar, in Danish, has been translated into 

 German by Buss (Freiburg, 1834). It may be 

 safely asserted that an Englishman does not know 

 the origin of his own tongue, so far as relates to 

 the common and necessary relations of life in its 

 domestic state, without an acquaintance with the 



Friesic, — the most nearly allied to household 

 English. Hence the saying, — 



" Brod, butter, and cheese 

 Is gode English and gode Friese." 



The following commandments nearly approxi- 

 mate to English of the olden time : — 



"Thu skalt ^ria thinne feder and thine mdder, 

 " Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother, 



thet tu thes-te langor libbe." 



that thou thereby longer live." 



" Thu ne skalt nenne monslage dua." 

 "Thou shalt no manslaughter do."* 



So the New Testament commandments : — 



" Thu skalt minnia God thinne Skippere mith renere 

 " Thou shalt love God thy Lord with pure 

 hirta, and thinne ivinkerstena like thi selva." 

 heart, and thy neighbour-Christian like thy self." 

 *' Thesse tv^ bodo besluthat alle th^ othera bo- 

 These two biddings include all fhe other bid- 

 da." 

 dings" (commandments). 



There is no version of the Scriptures in old 

 Friesic ; it exists only in a few ancient laws, the 

 chief of which is the A-sega-buch, Law-saying- 

 book. Bellender Ker's ingenuity is modelled on 

 Swift's etymologies, — Alexander the Great= Ail 

 eggs under the grate, &c. A curious instance of 

 this ingenuity (where, however, both the sound 

 arid sense concur), is given in the Epicedium a^- 

 (l>oTep6y\coff<xov (" N. & Q." I" S. xii. 418.). 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



According to Mr. Blackwell, in his valuable 

 edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 48,, 

 the most ancient specimen extant of the old 

 Friesic language is the Asega-bok, a code of laws 

 of the Rustringian Friesians, of the thirteenth 

 century, from which he gives an extract, taken 

 from J. D. Wiarda's edition, 4to., Berlin, 1805, 

 p. 1. Then we have the Altfriesches Worterbuch 

 of the same learned scholar, Svo. 1786, a rather 

 scarce book, and other similar works by Rask, K. 

 von Richthofen, and N. Outzen. In 1848, a small 

 8vo. was published at Copenhagen, entitled On 

 Nationality and Langtmge in the Dutchy of Sles- 

 wick and S. Jutland. The Scriptures have not, I 

 believe, been printed in this dialect. I would also 

 refer Sloaneus to the ninth chapter of Dr. La- 

 tham's Ethnology of the British Islands, where he 

 will find some highly interesting observations on 

 the subject of his inquiry. Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



* The Dutch is not so close to the Friesic as the Eng- 

 lish, e.g.: — 



" Eert uwen vader en uwe njoeder, dat gy lang moogt 

 leeven." 



" Gy zult niet dood slaan." 



