2»<> S. X Aug. 18. '60.1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



135 



It will be seen from these examples that the 

 term char-woman is most expressive, when applied, 

 as it always is, to a woman who comes out for the 

 day to any odd jobs that may be put upon her. 



J. Eastwood. 



Your correspondent who signs himself as Phi- 

 LOtoGus is in grave error as regards the deriva- 

 tion of the word char-woman, or, as it is better 

 spelt, charewoman. 



In the first place, the word chartered is not an 

 equivalent for hired. A ship chartered for a voy- 

 age is a ship concerning which certain articles of 

 agreement have been drawn up, under the condi- 

 tion of which she must sail, the charter-party 

 being the written document under the conditions 

 of which she is freighted. The document, not the 

 act of hiring, is the charter-party. The very word 

 chartered implies the execution of some written 

 document. 



Secondly, the noun chare or choi-e, the verb 

 to chare, and the participle charing are by no 

 means of unfrequent use. A woman will tell you 

 that she goes out to chare, and that her neighbour 

 is up at Mrs. Smith's charing. Sir Walter Scott, 

 in one of his novels, speaks of " the maid who milks 

 and does the meanest chares ; " in which passage 

 he quotes word for word from Shakspere (A. and 

 C, LY. 13.). In the play from which Sir Walter 

 Scott quotes another instance of the use of the 

 word occurs (A. and C, V. 2.), "When thou hast 

 done this chare." 



Kay, in his Collection of Proverbs, gives "That 

 char is char'd, as the good wife said when she had 

 hanged her husband." Under the form chcn-e the 

 word occurs hundreds of times in the writings of 

 most of the popular American authors of the day. 



I really must apologise to the readers of " N. & 

 Q." for stating such a well-known fact as that a 

 charewoman means a woman who does chares, or 

 odd jobs of work. W. C. 



Bailey says : " Char ; chare is a job, a small 

 piece of work, perhaps from Sax. ccere, care." Dr. 

 Richardson derives chare, chare-tooman, from A.- 

 Sax. cyran, acyran, vertere, revertere ; and he 

 says a char-woman is one who takes her turn or 

 bout at any work, who goes out for a day's turn at 

 work. Now journe is used by Chaucer for a 

 *' day :" and a journeyman is strictly a "man who 

 works by the day ,•" and I take it that a charwoman 

 is a woman hired by the day, and that the word 

 "charwoman" is a corruption oijourwoman. 



R. S. Charnock. 



In his Dictionary of Etymology, Mr. Hensleigh 

 Wedgwood says, under the head of " Chare. A 

 chai-e is a turn of work ; chare-ivoman, one who is 

 engaged for an occasional turn. A.-S. eyre, a turn ; 



cerran, Du. Keeren, to turn; Gael, car, turn, 

 twist." R. F. Sketchlet. 



Duke of Buckingham : James Douche (2"^ 

 S. x. 23.) — Apart from the historical interest at- 

 taching to the account communicated by Mb. 

 Jennings, there are one or two minor points con- 

 cerning which it may be desirable to seek farther 

 information. Who was the writer of the " Post- 

 script," and whence written ? North Currey, or 

 Curry, is a village in Somersetshire about six 

 miles from Taunton, and is stated in the account 

 to be but three miles from the residence of the 

 narrator. Was he related to the Douch family 

 of Dorsetshire, one of whom was rector of Stal- 

 bridge, and tutor of the Hon. Robert Boyle during 

 his earlier residence there ? In the chancel of the 

 church at this place is a monument, recording, 

 beside the death of William Douch, " anno fatali 

 1648," those also of his successor John Douch, 

 (ejected the following year, but restored in 1662) 

 who died in 1675, and of his two sons James and 

 Charles, who both died in 1674. Of these latter 

 two no ages are given. Could the " James 

 Douche" referred to above be the former of 

 these ? Stalbridge, though on the borders of the 

 county, is about thirty-seven miles from Taun- 

 ton, but the distance may be less from the locality 

 in which the writer resided. It may not be out 

 of place to correct an error into which Hutchins, 

 in his History of Dorset, has fallen in confusing^ 

 the two rectors above mentioned. He states *, in 

 reference to John Douch, that he was " instituted 

 in 1621 ; was native of this co., and had the care 

 of the great Mr. Boyle after he left Eton." As, 

 by the record on his tomb above quoted, his death 

 occurred in 1675, thirteen years after his restora- 

 tion to the living, and fifty-four years must there- 

 fore have elapsed from his first induction thereto, 

 it is quite clear that Hutchins has overlooked his 

 predecessor William, who was instituted in 1621, 

 and to whom the reference in the Encyclo. Britan. 

 art. " Boyle " belongs : — " He (Boyle) remained 

 some time under the care of one of his " (father's) 

 " chaplains, who was the parson of the place." 

 Some farther light may be thrown on this subject 

 by Mr. Jennings, who may be able to supply the 

 date of the communication sent. 



Henry W. S. Taylor. 



Southampton. 



Toads found in Stone (2'"i S. x. 10. 56.) — I 

 have heard of several cases in which toads and 

 frogs have been found alive in stones and also in 

 coal, although I am not able to give the exact par- 



* In one of the earlier editions, but which I regret not 

 having "made a note of," my memorandum having been 

 talien some years since froni a copy cflurteously placed 

 at ray disposal by the rector of Stalbridge, the Rev. Lit- 

 tleton C. Powys, M.A. 



