May 8. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



445 



enough to do it, or to put me on the trail. As the 

 energetic sister may be a reader of " N. & Q.," I 

 do not wish to annoy her by printing the forger's 

 name, but I shall be glad to have the place and date 

 of the conviction. 



About twenty years ago, the rule of hanging for 

 forgery was broken in the case of Fry, a school- 

 master, who was sentenced to death without any 

 hope of mercy, and not reprieved till he had heard 

 the "condemned sermon" — I think, not till the 

 day before that which was fixed for his execution. 

 He showed great fear ; rolled upon the chapel 

 floor, and delivered to the sheriffs a well-written 

 protest against the right to inflict capital punish- 

 ment. His being spared caused much surprise ; 

 and between that event and the abolition of the 

 punishment of death for forgery, few, if any, were 

 executed for that crime. 



The sister, falling at the feet of Baron G , 



who " was notorious for his unflinching obduracy," 

 is a melo-dramatic event which, I think, would 

 have found its way to the newspapers. But the 

 most extraordinary thing is the conclusion : 



" The forger was placed in the hulks prior to trans- 

 portation ; and before this took place he had forged a 

 pass or order from the Home Secretary's office for his 

 own liberation, which procured his release, and he was 

 never afterwards heard of." 



Letters to convicts in the hulks are opened by 

 the officers before being delivered to the prisoners. 

 It is not usual for the Home Secretary to write to 

 a convict enclosing "a pass or order." On the con- 

 trary, a pardon is attended with a good number of 

 formalities, and without one I do not think that any 

 convict would have been allowed to quit the vessel. 

 In that class of prisoners, leave of absence on pa- 

 role, or a " day rule," would have been something 

 peculiar enough to make the turnkey ask, "Where 

 did you get this ?" In short, a convict who made 

 his escape as described must be as extraordinary a 

 person as the strong American, who could sit in a 

 basket and lift himself upon a table by the handles. 



" She returned to the city at which the assizes had 

 been held just as they were concluded. The two 

 judges were in the act of descending the cathedral nave, 

 after partaking of the Holy Sacrament, when," &c. 



It is usual for the judges to attend divine service 

 on the commission-day if they arrive soon enough, 

 on the day after if they do not. If a Sunday occur 

 during the sitting of the commission, they also at- 

 tend ; but I never knew, and on inquiring I can- 

 not hear, that they ever so attended at the close of 

 the assizes, when they are always glad to get on to 

 the next town, if the circuit is not concluded, and 

 away altogether if it is. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



LORDS MARCHERS OF WALES. 



(Vol. v., pp. 30. 135. 189.) 



Allow me to call upon your correspondent 

 I. J. H. H., who dates from St. Asaph, to explaia 

 what he means by a Lordship Marcher ; and what 

 proof he possesses that his friend Mr. Lloyd is the' 

 "only Lord Marcher now extant in the kingdom?" 

 The most authentic single record which we possess 

 of the number, names, and situation of these lord- 

 ships is the statute 27 Hen. VHI. ch. 26. The writs 

 issued to the Lords Marchers, at various times 

 before that statute, would perhaps furnish mate- 

 rials for a more exact enumeration of them ; but 

 the above Act was unquestionably intended to in- 

 clude all of them ; and the only reason why the 

 information conveyed by it is not complete is, that 

 some of the names specified in it may perhaps be 

 those of townships, or other districts within, or 

 parcel of, some Lordship Marcher, and that other 

 lordships seem to be comprehended under a gene- 

 ral description, such as "all lordships lying be- 

 tween Chepstow Bridge and Gloucestershire." 

 Hence, the number of real Lordships Marchers 

 may, perhaps, be fewer or more than are there men- 

 tioned. Herbert, in his History of Henry VIII., 

 says that there were 141 Lordships Marchers. 

 (Kennett's Compl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 189.) 



The lordship of Kemes is not, I think, specified 

 in the Act ; but I presume that it is comprehended 

 within some of the descriptions of lordships in it. 

 Probably it is included in sect. 16. In old writs 

 of summons to attend the King In his wars, Kemes 

 is associated with Dyvett or with Llandovery. 



The statute referred to did, in fact, extinguish 

 the most characteristic privileges of a Lordship 

 Marcher, and reduced it nearly to the level of an 

 ordinary lordship, with such royalties only as have 

 often been granted, and are still enjoyed, by Lords 

 of Manors, or honours in other parts of England 

 and AVales. The franchises left to them are enu- 

 merated in sections 25. and 30., explained by the 

 later statute 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, ch. 15. The 

 palatine jurisdiction which they once possessed, 

 and the exemption from ordinary process, exist 

 no longer ; and the various local customs prevail- 

 ing in each lordship, which were repugnant to the 

 common law of England, must have been almost 

 wholly abolished by the operation of that Act. 

 The lordships themselves remain in name, and in 

 little more than in name. 



Hence I am afraid that I. J. H. H.'s friend must 

 be prepared to surrender the distinction of being^ 

 the sole surviving Lord Marcher. In the strict 

 and original sense of the term, there is now no such 

 lordship in existence. In the sense in which alone 

 the title can now be assumed, he shares the honour 

 with many others ; among others, with the Duke 

 of Beaufort, who holds the very extensive and im- 

 portant Marcher Seignory of Gower and Kilvey. 



