94 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nds. No3L, Aug. 2. '56. 



* This church of Ductinfrfield is the first Independent 

 church, visible and framed, that was set up in England, 

 being before the Apologists came from Holland, and so 

 before their setting up their churches here in London.' 

 That Kdwards's account is not quite correct, the follow- 

 ing titles of works will show : A Defence of sundry Po- 

 sitions and Scriptures, alledged to justifie the Congregationall- 

 way, by Samuel Eaton, Teacher, and Timothy Taylor, 

 Pastor, of the Church in Ducken field, in Cheshire, 1645, 

 4to. ; The Defence of sundry Positions and Scriptiires for 

 the Congregational-way justified, by Sam. Eaton and Tim. 

 Taylor, 1646, 4to. In Calamy's Nonconformists' Memorial, 

 Palmer's ed. 1775, vol. ii. p. 91., under the head ' Ducken- 

 field, Lancashire,' is an account of Mr. Samuel Eaton ; 

 whence we find, that having been puritanically educated, 

 he dissented in some particulars from the Church of 

 England, and withdrew to New England [in 1637] ; but 

 returned and gathered a congregational church at Duck- 

 enfield. He died Jan. 9, 1664, aged sixty-eight. This 

 account completely confutes Edwards's, for at the time Mr. 

 Jacob instituted his church, Mr. Eaton was but twenty 

 years old I " — Hist. Res., p. 6. 



Benjamin Hanburt. 

 Gloucester Villas, Brixton. 



COMMON-PLACE BOOKS (P' S. xii. 366. 478. ; 2"'^ 

 S. i. 486., ii. 38.) : motto for index (2"^ S. i. 

 413. 481.) 



To convince your correspondent F. C. H. that 

 the method he describes of a common- place book, 

 dividing the page into compartments, a, e, i, o, u, 

 T, and facilitating the use of Locke's New Method 

 of a Common-Place Book and Numerical Index, 

 was adopted at the period I have mentioned, viz. 

 1792, the only difference being the omission of 

 the vowel y, I beg to furnish a specimen from the 

 work before referred to, Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. 

 p. 249. et seq., from which he will see that although 

 he did not refer to any of the works which I men- 

 tion, he described a plan precisely the same, and 

 which was consequently not, as he supposes, new 

 forty years ago. 



The words Arabia, &c., are given by way of 

 example. 



Common-Place Book, 256. : 



" Arabia : In this celebrated peninsula the richest and 

 most beautiful of languages was brought to per- 

 fection : the Arabick dictionary by Golius is the most 

 elegant, the most convenient, and, in one word, the 

 best, that was ever compiled in any language." 



The directions and explanation of the superior ad- 

 vantages of this new method occupy four pages. 

 Perhaps Mr. Chadwick will not be dissatisfied 



with the trite motto, " Festina Lente," for his 

 Index. In the Golden Remains of the " ever me- 

 morable" Hales of Eton, London, 1688, he thus 

 exhibits the progressive unity of an index, which 

 methodically arranges excerptions though thrown 

 together " in most admired disorder : " 



" In your reading excerpe, and note in your books such 

 things as you like, going on continually without any re- 

 spect unto order ; and for the avoiding of confusion it 

 shall be very profitable to allot some time to the reading 

 again of your own notes, which do as much and as oft as 

 j-ou can. For by this means your notes shall be better 

 fixt in your memory, and your memory will easily supply 

 you with things of the like nature, if by chance you have 

 dispersedly noted them, that so you may bring them to- 

 gether by marginal references. But because your notes 

 in time must needs arise in some bulk, that it may be too 

 great a task, and too great loss of time to review them, 

 do thus : cause a large index to be fram'd according to 

 alphabetical order, and register in it your heads, as they 

 shall ofi^er themselves in the course of your reading, every 

 head under his proper letter. For thus though your notes 

 lie confused in your papers, yet are thej^ digested in your 

 index, and tQ draw them together when you are to make 

 use of them will be nothing so great pains as it would be 

 to have ranged them under their several heads at their 

 first gathering. A little experience of this course will 

 show you the profit of it, especially if you did compare it 

 with some others that are in use." — Page 234. 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM. 



PUNISHMENT FOR REFUSING TO PLEAD. 

 (2°'l S. i. 411.) 



The punishment of death was formerly most 

 barbarously inflicted upon persons who refused to 

 plead to an indictment preferred against them. 

 I am enabled to give you the exact terms of the 

 sentence. The prisoner being called upon to 

 plead, and remaining mute, the judgment or- 

 dained by law was as follows : 



"That the prisoner shall be sent to the prison from 

 whence he came, and put into a mean room, stopped from 

 the light, and shall be laid on the bare ground, without 

 any litter, straw, or other covering, and without any gar- 

 ment about him (except something to hide his privy 

 members). He shall lie upon his back, his head shall be 

 covered, but his feet shall be bare. One of his arms shall 

 be drawn by a cord to one side of the room, and the other 

 arm to the other side, and his legs shall be served in like 

 manner. Then there shall be laid upon his body as much 

 iron or stone as he can bear, and more. And the first day 

 after he shall have three morsels of barley bread, without 

 any drink ; and the second day he shall be allowed to 

 drink as much as he can at three times of the water that 

 is next the prison door, except running water, without 

 any bread ; and this shall be his diet till he dies. And 

 he against whom this judgment shall be given forfeits 

 his goods to the king." 



This sentence once pronounced, it remained at 

 the discretion of the court to allow the prisoner to 

 return and plead if he desired. By an act passed 

 in 1772 this statute was repealed, and persons re- 

 fusing to plead were deemed guilty as if tried by 



