496 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 77., June 20. '57. 



John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart (2"'' 

 S. iii. 449.) — The history I have heard of these 

 two brothers, is, that Prince Charles Edward 

 Stuart had a son by his wife Princess Louisa of 

 Stolberg. She was, as every one knows, an unprin- 

 cipled woman, and she entered into a mercenary 

 agreement with the Hanoverian government in 

 England, that for a certain annuity to be paid to 

 her, she would, without her husband's consent, 

 give up her child into the hands of any person 

 they should appoint to receive him, to be brought 

 up as a private gentleman. A Captain Hay was 

 sent to take possession of the little prince. He 

 brought him to England, and treated him as his 

 own son. He afterwards lived with him, partly 

 in England and partly in Italy ; and when he 

 grew up, married his daughter. They had one 

 son, who married a Miss Allan, and took her 

 name, as she had a considerable fortuTie. The 

 secret of his birth was disclosed to the prince by 

 his foster father. Captain Hay ; and by the prince 

 to his son, Hay- Allan, who became the father of 

 two sons : John Sobieski and Charles Edward, the 

 subjects of Rhos Gwyn's Query. Their father 

 and grandfather both had an annual income from 

 the English government, on condition that they 

 were silent as to the secret of their parentage. 

 The two brothers, now living, are not bound by 

 any promise of secrecy, and never accepted 

 money from the Hanoverian family. I have heard 

 that Lord Lovat has examined their papers, and 

 is convinced of the truth of their story. It is 

 certain that they possess relics and documents 

 which can only be accounted for by supposing 

 them really to be members of the royal family of 

 Stuart. Prince Charles married a relation of 

 Lord Waterfurd's, and has several children. The 

 extraordinary likeness of Prince John to the pic- 

 tures of Charles I., cannot fail to strike every one 

 who sees him. This is, at least, a singular cir- 

 cumstance. L. M. M. R. 



Inscriptions in Boohs (2"^ S. iii. 425.) — In 

 answer to J. G. N.'s suggestion, I send the follow- 

 ing Note, written in the fly-leaf of an edition of 

 the EpistolcB Obscurorum Virorum, printed in 

 1710, " impensis Hen. Clements, ad insigne Lunse 

 falcatsB in casmeterio aidis Divi Pauli." 



"Ortuinus Gratius, who had been taught by Hegius, 

 the schoohnaster of Erasmus, at Daventer, published a 

 Fasciculus in which were collected some J^pistolcB Claro- 

 rum Virorum, He also wrote against Reuchlin, for which 

 he is lashed in the Episfolw Obscurorum Virorum. He 

 replied in a book called Lamentationes Obscurorum Vi- 

 rorum, but it was to no purpose; the laugh went against 

 him. Gratius died in 1542 as a man ; for as an author 

 he was dead long before." 



T.D. 



H. Jesten, M.A. (2'>'» S. iii. 447.) — The Rev. 

 Humphrey Jeston (not Jesten), master of the 

 Grammar School, Henley-on-Thames, and author 



of Poems published at Reading, one of which was 

 on the subject of Joseph and his Brethren, was 

 afterwards rector of Avon Dassett, in Warwick- 

 shire, where he died about twenty years ago. He 

 was twice married, and left a large family of sons 

 and daughters by his first wife, and one only child 

 (a daughter) by his second, who was sister to the 

 first. One of his sons still resides at Henley-on- 

 Thames, where he has practised surgery nearly 

 forty years. Another succeeded him in the living 

 of Avon Dassett, of which he is patron as well as 

 incumbent. There is another son, also a clergy- 

 man, and another in the medical profession. 



N. L. T. 



Prideaux (2"'* S. iii. 426.) — As Dr. Rowland 

 Taylor died in 1555, and Prideaux was not born 

 till 1578, he must be presumed to have married 

 the doctor's gra?zc?daughter, and not daughter. 



All his sons died before him, William in 1644, 

 and Matthias in 1646; and three other sons, be- 

 fore they had reached boyhood, were buried in 

 Exeter College Chapel. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Mary Tofts, the Rabbit Woman (2°'J S. iii. 428.) 

 — A list of the tracts relative to this imposture 

 which were published at the time, will be found 

 in Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 649. C. E. L. 



A complete collection of Tracts relative to Mary 

 Tofts, both in print and manuscript, sold for 14?. 

 10s., at the dispersion of George Steevens's library 

 in May, 1800. J. Y. 



Females at Vestries. — With reference to the 

 inquiry of Abhba (2"'* S. iii. 48.), and to Mr. 

 Ellacombe's observation (2°'^ S. iii. 438.) it may 

 be worth while to state that in the year 1852 con- 

 siderable interest was manifested in the parish of 

 Hammersmith as to the appropriation of a sum of 

 money, arising from the sale of waste lands, which, 

 under an Act of Parliament, was at the disposal 

 of the vestry. Rival projects were proposed, and 

 a severe contest ensued. On this occasion many 

 females exercised their undoubted right by voting 

 on each side of the question. Tlie issue was 

 finally determined by a very small majority, which 

 gave rise to a scrutiny, and finally to an appeal to 

 the Court of Chancery as to the legality of the 

 vestry upon some technical point, but no objection 

 was raised as to the right of females to vote. 



J. M. 



Hammersmith. 



Trailing Pikes (^""^ S. iii. 448.) — Trailing 

 pikes are pikes trailed. A part of the old exer- 

 cise of the pikemen, who at the word " trail your 

 pike," suffered it to trail on the ground behind 

 him. In modern military phraseology the act of 

 trailing arms is performed when the firelock is 

 carried at the side in a horizontal position, and 

 grasped by the hand in the centre. S. D. S. 



