520 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"4 S. VIII. Dec. 24. '69. 



The first of these works contains his portrait, 

 as does also a broadside entitled State Martyro- 

 logy, published May 23, 1660. 



It appears he was of a Norfolk family, was 

 educated at Cambridge, and became chaplain to 

 the Earl of Lindsay, whose sister he married. 

 The notorious Frontless Lisle condemned him, 

 and he was executed June 8, 1658. His widow 

 after his decease married Sir Abraham Shipman. 



A letter signed S. Moreland, dated Whitehall, 

 27 May, 1658, states:— 



" Our high Court of Justice sits to-morrow upon one 

 Dr. Huet, a notorious Cavaleer, but those who should be 

 the greatest evidences against him are lately broke out of 

 prison." 



I have a memorandum that Marvell's State 

 Poemn also contain some allusions to him. 



In the State Paper Office there are extant two 

 petitions of John Hewytt, who calls himself " the 

 sole surviving son and child of the late murthered 

 John Hewytt, Doctor in Divinity," written pro- 

 bably about four or five years after the Restoration, 

 as he alludes to a grant of a pension of lOOZ. made 

 him by the king " about four years since." He 

 sets forth therein that he was put to considerable 

 charges in soliciting the same, for which, being in 

 indigent circumstances, he had to rely upon his 

 friends. Having nothing to depend upon but 

 the said pension, of the which no part has been yet 

 received, and being encumbered with a wife and 

 two small children, he admits that he is greatly 

 in debt, and desires payment of the same, with 

 arrears, as he wants to return the borrowed 

 money. There is also a petition of the son of 

 the above (grandson to Dr. John Hewytt), who 

 styles himself John Hewytt, student, in which he 

 alludes to the sufferings of his grandfather under 

 the Usurper. It further shows that his parents 

 are dead, and that he has no means to go on with 

 his university studies. He craves therefore " some 

 peice of charitable benevolence towards y* pre- 

 . sent releiving of his necessities, settling and main- 

 tenance of him at the university." 



I think it highly probable that I may be in a 

 position to furnish some additional matter in a 

 future number of " N. & Q." Cl. Hopper. 



I believe the following information, which I have 

 gleaned from the Records of the Exchequer and of 

 the Treasury, will furnish some answer to the in- 

 quiry of the Rev. William Denton relative to 

 the son of Dr. Hewet mentioned in " N. & Q." 

 Dr. Barwick, in 1660, presents a petition, praying, 

 among other things, that " the fatherless son " of 

 Dr. Hewett's widow might have some place given 

 him : soon after this, viz. on the 19th February, 

 13 Car. II., letters patent were issued whereby 

 the king, " in consideracon of the faithful! ser- 

 vice to us done and pformed by John Hewyt, 

 Doctor in Divinity, deceased, and for other con- 



sideracons " granted to " o' welbeloved sub- 

 ject John Hewyt, sonn of the said Doctor John 

 Hewyt, deceased," an annuity of lOOZ. per annum 

 for his life. {Exchequer Records ; Pell's Patent 

 Book, No. 13. p. 140.) 



Some few years after the date of this patent, 

 the payments of Hewytt's pension would appear 

 to have been suspended for some reason that I 

 cannot discover ; for on consulting the Minute 

 Books of H. M. Treasury, I find these entries : — 



" Tuesday 26 Nov. 1667. Son of D'". Hewit, to be 

 payd — a warr*." 



" Wednesday, 7 October, 1668. John Hewit's Peticon 

 to be moved in Councell to pay him lOQi', & that his 

 Pension may be p'^ for y« future." 



The Issue Books of the Exchequer would show 

 all the payments of the pension, and how long 

 they continued. William Henry Hart. 



Folkestone House, Roupell Park, 

 Streatham. 



Arithmetical Notation (2°^ S. viii. 411.460.).— In 

 the MS. from which the extract thus headed was 

 transcribed, it is perfectly clear that the word 

 compotus is not a contraction of compositus, nor of 

 anything else. It is extremely improbabTfe that 

 so serious a mistake as the substitution of an un- 

 extended for an extended form in a professedly ex- 

 tended transcript of a cleai-ly- written MS. should 

 have been made by any person possessing even 

 the most elementary acquaintance with palaeo- 

 graphy, and a second reference to the MS. has 

 perfectly satisfied me that no such mistake has been 

 committed by me. The same remarks apply to the 

 word computa, which commences the extract ; it is 

 decidedly not a contracted form of any other word 

 in the present instance. But for the assertion of 

 Professor De Morgan, whose authority in these 

 matters is deservedly very high, I should have 

 been inclined to think that compottus, or some 

 such form, would have been a much more probable 

 MS. contraction of compositus than compotus with- 

 out any mark of abbreviation. 



With regard to the meaning of compotus, which 

 is perhaps a corruption o{ computus, a very common 

 interpretation, common enough indeed to be called 

 the usual meaning, is " an account of money." 



H. F. 



Mr. Willett, Pictures purchased by, Sfc. (2°^ S. 

 viii. 308. 337. 443.) — It may be interesting to 

 your correspondents, as above, to be furnished with 

 some authentic particulars on the points adverted 

 to by them. 



Ralph Willett died at Merly House in January, 

 1795, and was succeeded by his paternal cousin 

 John Willett Adye (afterwards styled J. W. Wil- 

 lett, whose town residence was in Grosvenor 



