510" 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 135. 



6. Can any reader of " N. & Q." explain the 

 following surnames, which are principally to be 

 found so early as the reign of Edward I. ? — Alfox, 

 Colfox, Astor, Fricher, Grix, Biber, Bakepuz, Le 

 Chalouner, Le Cayser, Le Cacherel, Trelfer, Met- 

 calfe, Baird, Aird, Chagge, Le Carun, at Bight. 



Lewes. 



Mark Aktony Loaves. 



Alitor <Si\ttvitS. 



Owen, Bishop of St. Asaph To what family 



belonged John Owen, Bishop of St. Asaph, men- 

 tioned in Winkle's Cathedrals with so much 

 honour ? His father Owen Owen was Archdeacon 

 of Anglesea, rector of Burton Latyraer. I cannot 

 find either name in the printed pedigrees of th» 

 various families of Owen, nor in such of the Harl. 

 MSS. as I had time to examine. Wanted, the 

 bishop's arms and crest, and any reference to his 

 pedigree. It is said by Winkle that his monu- 

 ment is under the episcopal throne in St. Asaph's 

 cathedral. He died 1651, and his father 1592. 



Ursula. 



St. Wilfrid's Needle in Yorkshire, — " where they 

 used to try maids, whether they were honest." 

 {Burton.) Does this stone exist ? " Ancient 

 ■writers do not mention," says Lingard, " Stone- 

 henge, Abury, &c., as appendages to places of 

 worship among the Celtse," therefore may it not 

 be that these remains of antiquity were devoted to 

 vain superstitions of the ignorant people, if not to 

 gloomy rites of the officiating priests of the British 

 Druids ? The gigantic obelisks of single stones, 

 called the " Devil's Arrows," near Boroughbridge, 

 and the assemblage of rocks called Bramham Crags, 

 a few miles north-west of Ripon, are considered to 

 have been Druidical. Is St. Wilfrid's either of 

 these ? and can farther information about this 

 rock be afforded ? B. B. 



Governor of St. Christopher in 1662. — Will any 

 one be so kind as to inform me who was the 

 governor of the island of St. Christopher in the 

 year 1662 ? I have an original, but unsigned 

 letter, from him to the contemporary Dutch 

 governor of St. IMartin's, demanding reparation for 

 an outrage of most extraordinary nature. He 

 complains that the Dutch had seized and reduced 

 to slavery the crew and passengers of an English 

 ship during a time of peace. Is anything known 

 of this affair, or is there any means of discovering 

 the names of the colonial governors of that age ? 

 The letter is dated Sept. 1, 1662, and is endorsed, 

 " A Coppie of my letter to the Gov. of St. Mar- 

 tin's." Ursula. 



The Amber Witch. — I am anxious to learn 

 •whether this be a pure fiction or a genuine do- 

 cument dressed up. Its strongest appearance of 

 authenticity arises from the tedious pedantry of 



the ancient Lutheran pastor, its supposed author, 

 which not only renders the perusal heavy, but also 

 lets in various things unsuited to the decorum of 

 modern manners. If a pure forgery, my inquiry 

 extends to the motives of a fabrication, tedious ta 

 both reader and writer. A. N.. 



Coffins for General Use. — In the parish church 

 of Easingwold, Yorkshire, there was within the 

 last few years an old oaken shell or coffin, asserted 

 to have been used by the inhabitants ibr the inter- 

 ment of their dead. After the burial, the coffin 

 was again deposited in the church. Are there 

 any other well-authenticated instances of a similar 

 usage ? And do the words of the rubric in the 

 Order for "the Burial of the Dead," "When 

 they come to the grave, while the corpse is made 

 ready to he laid into the earth," render it probable 

 that such a custom was generally prevalent in the 

 Anglican church since the Reformation ? 



I have met with one corroborative circumstance^ 

 in which numbers of bodies were disinterred in a 

 piece of ground supposed to have been consecrated, 

 and not a vestige of a coffin was found. 



Ikcognitus.. 



The Surname Byivater. — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents furnish me with particulars relating to> 

 the surname '■'■ Bywater ?" 



The earliest period from which I can trace it 

 direct to the present day, and then only by family 

 tradition, is about the close of the seventeenth 

 century, or say 1680, about which time " — By- 

 water" married Miss Witham, and resided at 

 Towton Hall, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, a place 

 celebrated as being the field of a battle fought be- " 

 tween the York and Lancaster forces on Palm 

 Sunday, 1461. 



Stow mentions, in his Survey, that ^'■John By^ 

 water" was a Sheriff of London in 1424. 



Perhaps some of your readers, in Yorkshire or 

 elsewhere, can throw a light on the subject, or can 

 refer me to a book or MS. where information may 

 be obtained? W.M.B. 



Robert Forbes. — I should be glad if any of your 

 correspondents could furnish me with any parti- 

 culars relative to this talented and eccentric indi- 

 vidual. He was the author of The Dominie De- 

 posed, in theBuchan dialect. On the title-page of 

 that piece he is described as "Robert Forbes, A.M.y 

 Schoolmaster of Peterculter," near Aberdeen. On 

 application, however, to the Session Clerk of Peter- 

 culter, that functionary states that no such person 

 was ever schoolmaster of that parish. Be this as 

 it may, Forbes was obliged to leave Scotland on 

 account of an intrigue, which he has humorously 

 described in his Dominie Deposed. He appears to 

 have removed to London, where he commenced the 

 business of a hosier, in a shop on Tower Hill, at 

 the sign of the " Book." Here he composed that 



