2""^ S. N« 69., April 25. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



333 



DBEAM TESTIMONT. 



(2"'i S. ii. 458.) 



In the year 1698 the Rev. Mr. Smythies, curate 

 of St. Giles, Cripplegate, published an account of 

 the robbery and murder of a parishioner, Mr. 

 Stockden, by three men, on the night of Dec. 23, 

 1695, and of the discovery of the culprits by seve- 

 ral dreams of Mrs. Greenwood, Mr. Stockden's 

 neighbour. 



The main points were these : — In the first 

 dream Mr. Stockden showed to Mrs. Greenwood 

 a house in Thames Street, telling her that one of 

 the men was there. Thither she went the next 

 morning, accompanied by a female neighbour, and 

 learned that Maynard lodged there, but was then 

 out. In the second dream Mr. S. represented 

 Maynard's face to her, with a mole on the side of 

 the nose (he being unknown to Mrs. G.), and also 

 tells her that a wire-drawer must take him into 

 custody. Such a person, an intimate of M.'s, is 

 found, and ultimately M. is apprehended. 



In the third dream Mr. S. appeared with a 

 countenance apparently displeased, and carried 

 her to a house in Old Street where she had never 

 been, and told her that one of the men lodged 

 there. There, as before, she repaired with her 

 friend, and found that Marsh often came there. 

 He had absconded, and was ultimately taken in 

 another place. 



In the fourth dream Mr. S. carried her over 

 the bridge, up the Borough, and into a yard, 

 where she saw Bevil, the third man, and his wife 

 (whom she had never seen before). Upon her 

 relating this dream, it was thought that it was one 

 of the prison yards ; and she accordingly went to 

 the Marshalseu, accompanied by Mr. Stockden's 

 housekeeper, who had been gagged on the night 

 of the murder. Mrs. Greenwood there recognised 

 the man and woman whom she had seen in her 

 dream. The man, although not recognised at first 

 by the housekeeper, being without his periwig, 

 was identified by her when he had it on. 



The three men were executed, and Mr. Stock- 

 den once more appeared in a dream to Mrs. 

 Greenwood, and said to her, " Elizabeth, I thank 

 thee ; the God of heaven reward thee for what 

 thou hast done." After this, we are informed 

 that she was " freed from these frights!, which had 

 caused much alteration in her countenance," 



author of The Peers did, the following " translation " at 

 the end of The Rolliad, 



" By Lord Bayham." 



" His conscious hat well lined with borrowed prose, 

 The lubber chief in sulky mien arose ; 

 Elate with pride his long-pent silence broke, 

 And, could he but have read he might have spoke." 



It is, however, strange that any other writer should 

 have adopted a pseudonym so degraded, rather than in- 

 vent a new one. 



This narration I have condensed from John 

 Beaumont's work on Spirits, which was pub- 

 lished only six or seven years after the Rev. Mr. 

 Smythies' account of the transaction. It is added 

 that the relation was attested by the Bishop of 

 Gloucester, the Dean of York, the Master of the 

 Charter-house, and Dr. Alix. 



Drs. Ferriar and Hibbert and Sir Walter Scott 

 have each produced their volume in aid of the 

 dangerous task of explaining away the spiritual 

 into the natural, and have each cited Beaumont's 

 work. Nevertheless, of this remarkable account, 

 coming with such an air of authority, they have 

 not taken the smallest notice. A. R. 



BEAD ROLL. 



(2"^ S. iii. 267.) 



The quotations from the old churchwardens' ac- 

 count-book, given by F. M. H., are curious ; but 

 their meaning is by no means clear. I am in- 

 clined to think that the true explanation is that 

 Harry Way paid 3s. Ad. for being admitted among 

 the beadsmen attached to the chantry or parish 

 church to which the record refers. A beadsman 

 was a poor man, not in holy orders, who was sup- 

 ported by endowment, or received alms for pray- 

 ing for the souls of those in whose behalf the 

 charity was given. Thus, -- 



" Thomas Burgh, Knight, a.d. 1495, wills that In his 

 new chapel in the parish church at Gainsborough .... 

 there shall be founded a perpetual chantry of one priest 

 .... and that there be founded at Gaynesburgh an hos- 

 pital for five poor bedemen, for ever more, every one of 

 whom to receive for his support j* a day, and to have 

 every other year a gown of iij' iv"* price , . . and that the 

 said five bedemen be daily present at the mass of my 

 chauntry priest, to help him to say De profundis in au- 

 dience, and such of them as be learned, their paternoster, 

 ave, and creed at the least." * 



As the salary of a beadsman was often consider- 

 able, it is by no means improbable that when 

 vacancies occurred persons were willing to pay for 

 being admitted to fill them up. Perhaps the 

 6s. %d. that Katharine Way paid was at a time 

 when there were no vacancies, but was expended 

 to purchase the next six appointments as the lives 

 fell in. Or it may be that the money was in both 

 cases paid for the furniture and household ne- 

 cessaries of the late beadsman by his successor in 

 the bead house. Although beadsmen were gene- 

 rally attached to chantries, and wore on their 

 gowns the badge of the family, for the repose of 

 some of whose members they were bound to pray, 

 yet their services were not entirely confined to the 

 higher classes ; there were in many parish churches 

 beadsmen supported by the contributions of the 



* Testamenta Vetusta, ed. Nicolas, i. 428., quoted in 

 Hock's Church of Our Fathers, vol. iii. p. 123. 



