NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 114 



the Weald of Kent. Fuller, as cited by Me. 

 Bolton Cornet, says, " William Caxtoa was born 

 in that town [sc. Caxton]." 



In the Weald of Kent is a manor called Causton 

 (to which we may now add) alias Caxton, which 

 manor was owned in the middle of the fourteenth 

 century by a family of the same name (from whom 

 it had passed a century later), and held of the 

 honour of Clare, the lords of which honour, in the 

 fifteenth century, were that ducal and royal house, 

 by which William Caxton was warmly patronised. 



From these data we will hope that some of your 

 correspondents may deduce materials for satisfac- 

 torily fixing the place of Caxton's birth. Is there 

 upon record any note of armorial bearings, or of 

 any badge used by Caxton ? Should there be, 

 and we find such to be at all connected with the 

 bearings of the lords of Causton, it will be additional 

 evidence in our favour. Lambert B. Larking 



In the body of St. Alphege Church, Canterbury, 

 is the following monumental inscription : 



* Pray for the sawlys of John Caxtoa and of Jone 

 And Isabel that to this church great good hath done 

 In making new in the chancell 

 Of Dexkys and Setys aswell 

 An Antiphon the which did bye 

 With a table of the martyrdome of St. Alphye 

 Forthing much which did pay 



And departed out of this life of October the 12 day 

 And Isabel his second wifF 

 Passed to blisse where is no strife 

 The xij' day to tell the trowth 

 Of the same moneth as our Lord knoweth 

 In the yeare of our Lord God a thousand fower 

 hundred fowerscore and five." 



What relation (if any) was the above to the 

 typographer ? They must have been co-existent, 

 and the "Note" may perhaps be a step in the 

 right direction for arriving at the true " stock " of 

 the Caxton Coffer. Feanciscus. 



ADMONITION TO THE PARLIAMENT. 



I never had the good fortune to see a copy of 

 the book called An Admonition to the Parliament, 

 but I find a full description of it in Herbert's 

 Ames, iii. 1631, under the date of 1572, from 

 which I gather that it had been printed four 

 times anterior to that year. It was written by 

 two puritanical divines. Field and Wilcox, and 

 contained such an attack upon the bishops, that 

 they did their utmost to suppress it ; but Whitgift, 

 nevertheless, gave it additional notoriety by pub- 

 lishing an answer to it, which came out originally 

 in 1571, and was reprinted in 1572 and 1573 

 (Herbert's Ames, ii. 934.), I have not Strype 

 at hand to see what he says about the Admonition, 

 and the reply to it ; but some time ago I met with 

 a letter among the Lansdown MSS. (No. 27.) 

 which relates to the Admonition^ and shows that 



Thomas Woodcock, a well known stationer, had 

 been confined in Newgate by the Bishop of 

 London (Aylmer) for selling it. It is dated 9th 

 Dec. 1578, and is subscribed by five of the most 

 distinguished and respectable printers and pub- 

 lishers of that day, soliciting Lord Burghley (to 

 whom it is addressed) to interfere on behalf of 

 the poor prisoner. It runs precisely in the follow- 

 ing form : 



" Our humble duties unto your good L. pre- 

 mised. May it please the same to be advertised, 

 that one Thomas Woodcock, an honest young man, 

 and one of our Company, hathe bin imprisoned in 

 Newgate by the L. Bishopp of London theis six 

 dayes, for sellinge of certaine bookes called the 

 Admonition to the Parliament. Dy vers of the poore 

 mans frendes have bin earnest suitors unto the 

 Bishopp of London for his libertie : his L. 

 aunswere unto them is, that he neither can nor 

 will do any thinge without your L. consent, sig- 

 nified by your letters or warrant. It may ther- 

 fore please your honor, in consideration of the 

 premisses and our humble request, either to direct 

 your L. warrant for his enlargment, or els to 

 signifie your pleasure unto the L. Bishopp of 

 London to take order herein accordingly, the said 

 poore man first puttinge in sufficient bond to 

 appeare at all tymes when he shalbe called, and 

 readdy to aunswere to any matters whatsoever 

 shalbe objected against him. Thus prayinge, 

 accordinge to our duties, for your good L. long 

 and prosperous health with encrease of honor, we 

 comrajt the same for this tyme to the protection 

 of the Almightie. At London, 9° Decemb. 1578. 



" Your L. most humble at Command the Mr. 

 and Wardens with others of the Company of 

 Stationers, 



" Rtcharde Tottyll, John Hartson, 

 George Bysshop, Willm. Seres, 



John Daye." 



From the above we may perhaps conclude, that 

 an edition of the Admonition to Parliament had 

 been printed not long before the date of Thomas 

 Woodcock's imprisonment for selling it; but I do 

 not find that any historian or bibliographer men- 

 tions such an edition. Excepting In the letter of 

 the five stationers, Tottyll, Bysshop, Haryson, 

 Seres, and Daye, there seems to be no authority 

 for connecting Woodcock with the publication, and 

 his confinement did not take place until Dec. 6, 

 1578 ; whereas JjTeal, in his History of the Puritans^ 

 as cited by Herbert, informs us that Field and 

 Wilcox, on presenting the Admonition to the 

 House of Commons in 1572, were Immediately 

 committed to Newgate. 



Unless there were two puritanical ministers of 

 the name of Field, he, who was imprisoned with 

 Wilcox, was the John Field, who, I apprehend, was 

 the father of Nathaniel Field, the actor In Shak- 



