398 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



t2nd S. VIII. Nov. 12. '59. 



no service to an American or any other master. 

 James Somersett had been made a slave in 

 Africa, and was sold there ; from thence he was 

 carried to Virginia, where he was bought, and 

 brought by his master to England ; here he ran 

 away from his master, who seized him, and car- 

 ried him on board a ship, where he was confined, 

 in order to be sent to Jamaica to be sold as a 

 slave. Whilst he was thus confined. Lord Mans- 

 field granted a habeas corpus, ordering the cap- 

 tain of the ship to bring up the body of James 

 Somersett, with the cause of his detainer. The 

 above-mentioned circumstances being stated upon 

 the return to the writ, after much learned discus- 

 sion in the Court of King's Bench, the Court 

 were unanimously of opinion that the return was 

 insufficient, and that Somersett ought to be dis- 

 charged. {Blachstone" s Commentaries on the Laws 

 of England, 12th edit. 1793.) The Query which 

 I am about to propose is this, — If the Court of 

 Common Pleas held in the reign of William and 

 Mary that negroes being heathens, could be held 

 as property, upon what alteration in the law did 

 the Court of Queen's Bench base their decision in 

 the case of Somersett ? It seems to have been a 

 practice at one time to withhold baptism from 

 negro servants for fear they should thereby gain 

 their liberty. John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Precedency. — In 1761 was published a pam- 

 phlet entitled Precedency of the Peers of Ireland 

 in England fairly stated in a Letter to an English 

 Lord. The object was to establish the precedence 

 of the Irish peers (considered formerly as foreign 

 noblemen) amongst the peers of England, accord- 

 ing to their rank, over those of inferior quality, 

 — a question definitively settled by the Act of 

 Union. The question was much discussed in 1739 

 and 1761. If any of your readers can refer me 

 to any articles in the public journals at those 

 periods, or any review or notice of the pamphlet 

 referred to, it will oblige. Lord Egmont was the 

 author of the pamphlet, which extends to 108 

 pages. J. R. 



" The Clergyman's Companion." — Who was the 

 compiler of The Clergyman's Companion in Visit- 

 ing the Sich, usually printed in the collected edi- 

 tions of Paley's Works? The fourth edition, 

 improved and corrected, was printed for J. & B. 

 Sprint in Little Britain, in 1723. The Dedica- 

 tion to Thomas [Tenison], Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, is signed "J. W." A new edition of this 

 book, with Paley's name on the title-page, the 

 Dedication omitted, was published by Faulder in 

 1805. This same "J. W." was the author of a 

 Visitation Sermon on The Necessity of a Divine 

 Call or Mission in those tvho take upon them to 

 Preach the Gospel of Christ, printed for W. Tay- 

 lor at the Ship in Paternoster Row, 1717. B, M. 



_ " The Bill of Michael Angelo." — In Luttrell's 

 lines on a London fog, he apostrophises chemistry, 

 and says : — 



" And see, to aid thee in the blow, 

 The bill of Michael Angelo." 



I am acquainted with Tennyson's 



"... har of Michael Angelo ;"'' 

 but what is this bill? CuxHnERT Bjbde. 



" The Castle of JEsculapius." — Who is the au- 

 thor of this heroic comedy, acted in Warwick 

 Lane, 1768, 8vo. ? Z. A. 



Boley Hill, Rochester. — There hiis been a great 

 deal of discussion on the origin of this name : is it 

 not probably Beau-lieu? The Knights' Hospi- 

 tallers held a capital messuage in Hackney called 

 " Beaulieu," and some land in the marshes called 

 "Beaulieu-vant" [Qu. Beaulieu avant ?'\ sinco 

 corrupted to "Bully-vant," and now to "Bully- 

 point." Had the Hospitallers any possessions In 

 Rochester ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



The Name of Dickson in Berwickshire. — Can 

 any of your readers give me any information re- 

 garding any of the old families in Berwickshire 

 bearing this name ? 



^ Nisbet, in his Heraldry, gives this popular tra- 

 dition as to the origin of the name : — 



" They of the sirname of Dickson as descended from 

 one Richard Keith, said to be a son of the family of 

 Keith Marischal, took their name from Richard (in the 

 south country called Dick) ; and to show themselves de- 

 scended of Keith Earl Marischal, they carry the chief of 

 Keith." 



He afterwards states that the family of Bught- 

 rig is the oldest branch of the name. 



The latest mention of this family I have been 

 able to find is in the " Retours." There it is 

 stated that Master George Dickson, Advocate, 

 was served heir to Master Robert Dickson of 

 Brightrige, his brother german, in 1674. I should 

 like to discover whether he left any descendants ? 

 Any information also regarding the family of Dick- 

 son of Belchester (now, I have heard, extinct), or 

 of any other Berwickshire Dicksons, will much 

 Oblige D. 



Nathanael Fairclough, of Eman. College ; B.A. 

 1644-5 ; M.A. 1648 ; has an Elegy on the Death 

 of Sir Nathaniel Barnadiston in Suffolk's Tears, 

 1653. We shall be glad of any farther informa- 

 tion respecting him. C. H. & Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



" Portioner." — Can any of your Scottish readers 

 inform me of the precise meaning of the above 

 old law term ? In making out a pedigree I have 

 frequently been puzzled with it. In one case 

 the person so styled in a deed dated 1556, was 

 possessed of considerable landed property in the 



