June 26. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



609 



daughter of — Wilborefoss, of Durham, Esquire, 

 and had issue a daughter, Johan Acworth. This 

 Johan Acworth married Sir Edward Waldegrave, 

 the youngest son of George Waldegrave, of Smal- 

 bridge, Essex, Esq. I do not know if _George 

 Acworth had any other issue. 



In 1560 there was a George Acworth who was 

 public orator of Cambridge. He was formerly of 

 Peterhouse, and took his D. C. L. at St. John's, 

 Oxon. He was in his early days the friend and 

 companion of Archbishop Parker. In 1576, he 

 was appointed Master of the Faculties, Judge of 

 the Prer. Court of Ireland. He is said to have 

 died in Ireland, but where or when I do not know. 



There was another of the name, Allin Acworth, 

 formerly of Magdalen Hall, Oxon, and Vicar of 

 St. Nicholas, Rochester, Kent. He was a sufferer 

 by the Act of Uniformity, having been, in conse- 

 quence of that Act, expelled his vicarage in 1666. 

 Of his subsequent history I find no trace. 



If any of your correspondents can give me any 

 information relative to any of the above, their de- 

 scent, or intermarriages, I shall be much obliged. 



The name is, I believe, an uncommon one, and 

 is only borne, as far as I can learn, by one family 

 now in existence. There was, however, another 

 family of the name formerly belonging to Suffolk, 

 who bore for arms : Sa. a griffin segreant armed 

 and langued or. But I cannot find any trace of 

 their residence, &c., or when they flourished or 

 became extinct. 



I believe there was a Baron of the name in the 

 reign of one of the early Henries, but unfortu- 

 nately can discover no certain information about 

 him. 



The above particulars are wanted for genealo- 

 gical purposes. G. B. A. 



" Row the boat, Norman" — In the Chronicles 

 of England collected by John Stow, and printed 

 in 1580, is the following passage : — 



" 1454. John Norman, Draper, Maior, Before 

 thys time the Maiors, Aldermen, and Commoners of 

 the Citie of London were wonte all to ride to West- 

 minster when the Maior should take hys charge, but 

 this Maior was rowed thyther by water ; for the 

 whiche the watermen made of hym a song, ' Rowe the 

 boate, Norman,' &c." 



Are any of your correspondents in possession 

 of the words of this song ? or is the tune to which 

 it was sung known ? T. G. H. 



The Hereditary Standard Bearer. — In Craw- 

 ford's Peerage of Scotland it is mentioned, that in 

 the year 1107 Alexander I., by a special grant, 

 appointed a member of the Carron family (to 

 whom he gave the name of Scrimgeour, for his 

 valour in a sharp Jight) the office of Hereditary 



Standard Bearer. Can you inform me how the 

 Scrimgeours were deprived of this honour ? The 

 family is not extinct, and yet I see the Hereditary 

 Royal Standard Bearer is now a Wedderburne, 

 and the Earl of Lauderdale is also Hereditary 

 Standard Bearer. There surely must have been 

 injustice committed some time to cause such con- 

 fusion. When and how did it take place ? 



T. G. H.. 



Walton! s Angler; Seth's Pillars; May-hutter ; 

 English Guzman. — In Walton's Complete Angler, 

 in the beginning of the discourse between Piscator 

 and Venator, the former, expatiating on the anti- 

 quity of the art of angling, gives as one of the 

 traditions of its origin, that Seth, one of the sons 

 of Adam, 



" Left it engraven on those pillars which he erected, 

 and trusted to preserve the knowledge of the mathe- 

 matics, music, and the rest of that precious knowledge, 

 and those useful arts which, by God's appointment or 

 allowance, and his noble industry, were thereby pre- 

 served from perishing in Noah's flood." 



What is the tradition of Seth's Pillars ? 

 Piscator in chap. v. says : 



" But I promise to tell you more of the fly-fishing 

 for a trout, which I may have time enough to do, for 

 you see it rains May-butter. " 



What is May-butter, or the origin of the saying ? 



In the amusing contest between the gypsies re- 

 lated in the same chapter, these worthies were too 

 wise to go to law about the residuary shilling, and 

 did therefore choose their choice friends Rook and 

 Shark, and our late English Guzman, to be their 

 arbitrators and umpires. 



What is the explanation of these names ? There 

 appears to be some natural consequence to this 

 choice, for the decision seems to have been arrived 

 at by the act of reference. The notes explain 

 that by "our English Guzman"* was intended 

 one James, a noted thief. I suppose his prototype 

 was Don Guzman D'Alfarache ; but no interpre- 

 tation of the passage is given. Would it be found 

 to have reference to some passage in the book 

 referred to in the note ? Axon. 



[* Sir Harris Nicolas says : " The allusion is to a 

 work which had appeared three years before : The 

 English Gusman ; or, the History of that unparalleled 

 Thief, James Hind, written by G. F. [George F'idge] 

 4to., London, 1652. Hind appears to have been the 

 greatest thief of his age ; the son of a saddler at Chip- 

 ping Norton, and apprenticed to a butcher. In the 

 rebellion he attached himself to the royal cause, and 

 was actively engaged in the battles of Worcester and 

 Warrington. In 1651, he was arrested by order of 

 parliament, under the name of Brown, ' at one Denzy's, 

 a barber over against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet 

 Street ;' which circumstance may have introduced him 

 to Walton's notice." — Ed.] 



