2»* S. VIII. Oct. 1. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



271 



family of John Gofton, of Fockwell, Surrey. In 

 the Armorica Binlannica, he is set down as having 

 the following coat of arms : — " Crest ; Rose d'or, 

 winged azure. Shield ; 1st and 4th. On shield 

 azure a unicorn's head erased ducally, gorged 

 and crowned. 2. and 3. Ermine." Also, by the 

 information whether Fockwell is a town, village, 

 or estate, and if so, where situated in Surrey. 



E. Barrett. 



[Fockwell seems to be a misprint for Stockwell, or 

 South Lambetli, in Surrey. In Leigh's chapel in Lam- 

 beth church is the following inscription on a white 

 marble: "Here lyeth the bodj' of John Goffton, Esq., 

 3'ounger son unto Sir Francis Goffton of Stockwell, who, 

 with his ladj', w^ere bur^'ed in a vault in this angle, 

 ■which does belong unto that Manner House. His elder 

 brother Francis died in Frans 1642; and he [John?] 

 departed this life the ninth day of May, being in the 

 yere of our Lord 1686, in the 71st j'ere of his age. Be- 

 neath, quarterly, 1 and 4, a unicorn's head erased ; 2 and 

 3 ermine, and this motto, Feretido et sperando." — Vide 

 Manning & Bray's Surrey, iii. 608.] 



Vigors. — In Martha W. Freer's Life of Eliza- 

 leth de Valois, Queen of Spain, at p. 371. vol. ii., 

 appears the following passages : — 



" On the 25th of October, 1568, a service was performed 

 in Notre Dame in Paris for the repose of the soul of the 



Queen of Spain The service was performed by 



the Archbishop of Sens, and the funeral sermon was 

 preached by Simon Vigors, Archbishop of Narbonne 

 elect." 



I shall be very glad to obtain some information 

 relative to this Simon Vigors. Y. S. M. 



[A biographical account of Abp. Simon "Vigor (not 

 Vigors) will be found in the Biographie Ufiiverselle, tome 

 xlviii. 483.] 



The Apreece Family. — Living in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Washingley Hall, Hunts, formerly 

 the residence of the Apreeces, I naturally take 

 some interest in their family. I am told that the 

 last of the Apreeces figures in one of Foote's 

 comedies. " Becky," says this character, "where's 

 my pedigree ?" 



I should feel obliged by a reference to the 

 comedy wherein this occurs. Cuthbert Bede. 



[In The Author, about the middle of the Second Act. 

 The pedigree of Apreece, or Ap Rees, of North Crawlej', 

 Bucks, will be found in the Visitations of Bucks, made in 

 the years 1575 and 1634, Harl. MS. 1533. See also Cole's 

 MSS., vol. xxxviii. 129.] 



THE EARLY EDITIONS OF TOXe's BOOK OP 

 MARTYRS. 



(2"'^ S. viii. 221.) 



Mr. Nichols will be rendering a great service 

 to English bibliography by following up the task 

 which he has proposed for himself, and which he 

 Las so well begun. The early history of Foxe's 



Book of Martyrs is full of interest, but little 

 known ; and although of late some light has been 

 thrown on it, much still remains to be done. In 

 noticing this work, Dr. Dibdin says in his Library 

 Companion : — 



" The private history of this elaborate work might be 

 worth knowing, but it is hopeless to enquire after it : — 

 who were the author's chief authorities, and what artists 

 he obtained to make the designs and engravings, are, 

 now, I believe, points upon which no correct information 

 is likely to be obtained." 



Let us hope that the case is not altogether so 

 desperate as the worthy doctor seems to have 

 feared. 



Mr. Nichols will permit me to point out to 

 him that he is mistaken in supposing that there is 

 no copy of any of the early editions in Mr. Gren- 

 ville's collection, now in the British Museum. 

 That collection does in fact contain the editions 

 of 1563 and 1641 ; the former, I believe, slightly 

 imperfect in the Calendar, but made up in fac- 

 simile by Harris ; the latter a fine copy on large 

 paper. 



All the copies of early editions enumerated by 

 Mr. Nichols are in public libraries. There must 

 be some in private collections. I myself possess 

 a perfect copy of the first edition, made up of 

 two imperfect copies, each of which, by a piece of 

 rare good fortune, happened to have what was 

 wanting in the other. 



It is commonly asserted, and believed, that in 

 the reign of Elizabeth the Book of Martyrs was 

 ordered to be set up in all churches. This is 

 doubted by Mr. Nichols, but what says Dibdin ? 



" To the best of my recollection, one of the completest 

 specimens of a mutilated Fox is (or was) to be seen in 

 the little parish church near Apethorpe (the seat of the 

 Earl of Westmorland), in Northamptonshire. In some 

 other rural parish churches 1 have met with Fox, in an 

 old vestiy trunk of some three centuries ago manufac- 

 ture, almost in a state of pulverisation from the united 

 attacks of mice and moths." — Lib. Com. 1825, p. 113. note. 



It may be objected, hov/ever, that this does not 

 prove that every parish church had a copy of the 

 work. Henry Huth. 



Your correspondent, John Gough Nichols, 

 asks, " Where do any copies of the old editions " 

 of the Acts and Monuments " exist ? " and adds, 

 that he had " been successful in finding very 

 few." As to the fifth edition of 1596—7, he 

 mentions only one copy, which he says is in the 

 British Museum ; and the second volume of the 

 same edition, as the only one in the archiepis- 

 copal library at Lambeth. In reply to his in- 

 quiry, I beg to say that I have a copy of this 

 edition, " the fift time newly reprinted." It came 

 into my hands about sixty years ago, from a shop- 

 keeper who bought it as waste paper. Many 

 copies of valuable old works have disappeared in 

 this way, having been torn up for wrappers of 



