Dec. 8. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



455 



Essex families, and other very valuable materials. The 

 Rev. John Ousdey, Rector of SDringfield Bosvile, and 

 the Rev. William Holman of Halsted, built upon that 

 foundation, the latter especially, assisted by Samuel Dale, 

 'Humphrey Waaley, John Booth, and others." 



It is evident, from tliis statement, that Jekyll's 

 collections formed the most important and valu- 

 able portion of materials for the history of the 

 county ; and, indeed, we are told by Gough, in 

 his British Topography (edit. 1780, vol. i. p. 345.), 

 that he wrote with his own hand above forty 

 volumes, chiefly relating to Essex, Norfolk, and 

 Suffolk. An interesting letter from Morunt to 

 Gough, dated Sept. 5, 1769, is printed in Nichols's 

 Literary Anecdotes (vol. ii. p. 705.) ; and gives 

 additional particulars of these collections, and of 

 those of Holman. He states that a portion of the 

 Jekyll collection was included in the list of the 

 Rev. John Ouseley's MSB., printed in the Catt. 

 MSS. AnglicB, 1697 (torn. ii. p. 103.).^ These MSS. 

 (according to Gough), after Ouseley's death, came 

 to the hands of the Rev. William Holbrook, his 

 son-in-law, who, in 1710, was willing to have 

 sold them to Harley, Earl of Oxford, as appears 

 by a letter to Wanley in MS. Harl. 3779., in 

 which he also says, that Jekyll's grandson, Ni- 

 cholas Jekyll, of Castle Hedinghara, had " a very 

 great quantity" of his grandfather's MSS., and 

 had laid claim (probably with some justice) to 

 those in Holbrook's possession. Holbrook is said 

 to have communicated them subsequently to the 

 Rev. W. Holman, of Halsted, who also obtained 

 others from Nicholas Jekyll, and from all these 

 he made large extracts, filling, according to Mo- 

 rant, "above four hundred" volumes. Holman 

 also drew up, in 1715, an "exact catalogue" of 

 the Jekyll MSS., which afterwards belonged to 

 Anstis ; and, subsequently, came to the library 

 of All Souls' College, Oxford, where it now is, 

 No. 297. 



The subsequent history both of Jekyll's and 

 Holmfin's MSS., is very confused. Gough asserts 

 (p. 370.) that Holman's papers, after his death, 

 were sold by his son ; and that Salmon (author of 

 the History of Essex, published in 1740,) bought 

 the collections of Jekyll and Holman in 1739 for 

 60Z., and afterwards sold part of Holman's papers 

 to Anthony Allen, Master in Chancery, from 

 whom they are supposed to have come to John 

 Booth, F.A.S. "Mr. Holman's papers," writes 

 Gough, in another place (p. 344.), "came into Dr. 

 [Richard] Rawlinson's hands, and were left by 

 him to the Bodleian Library. [He died in 1755.] 

 Among them are all the MSS. and papers belong- 

 ing to Nicholas Jekyll, collected by his grand- 

 father Thomas Jekyll." This statement is not 

 free from error, for Morant, in his letter to Gough, 

 tells him that Dr. Rawlinson bought only the 

 "refuse" of Jekyll's and Holman's MSS. ; and it 

 is certain, from an inspection of the catalogue of 



No. 319.] 



the Rawlinson MSS., that the Essex collections in 

 it are not very numerous. Many also of Jekyll's 

 volumes (but not all relating to Essex) had pre- 

 viously found their way into the Harleian Collec- 

 tion, and may be seen under the Nos. 3968. 4723. 

 5185, 5186. 5190. 5195. 6677, 6678. 6684, 6685., 

 besides various papers inserted in 6832. and 7017. 

 Jekyll's handwiiting is very peculiar, and can be 

 easily recoiinised. A letter from him to Sir Si- 

 monds D'Ewes, dated Booking, Dec. 19, 1641, 

 relative to the pedigree of the Welle family, is in 

 MS. Harl., 370. Morant, by his own account, 

 had in his possession the Jekyll MSS., which had 

 belonged to Ouseley, and also the larger mass of 

 Holman's papers ; and it would be interesting to 

 trace these to other hands than Astle's, whose 

 moderate share of them is now at Ashburnham. 

 I may add, that in the course of the last twelve- 

 month, five folio volumes, containing very valuable 

 materials for the history of Essex, in Thomas 

 Jekyll's handwriting, have been purchased for the 

 British Museum, and are now numbered as Addi- 

 tional MSS., 19,985—19,989. F. Madden. 



ORDEB OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 

 (Vol. xil., p. 125.) 



The Order of St. John of Jerusalem does not 

 now exist in this country. Its downfall dates 

 from the year 1539. Though the Prior of St. 

 John of Jerusalem had a seat in the House of 

 Lords (as also had twenty-eight abbots, and the 

 Prior of Coventry), neither he nor they dared 

 open their mouths against the bill brought into 

 Parliament May 13, 1539, to vest in the crown all 

 the property of the religious houses. Before the 

 next session, their respective houses and seats in 

 parliament had ceased to exist. The English 

 " language " had always been looked on as " the 

 rich, noble, and principal member of the Order." 

 Sir William Weston, last Prior of England, had 

 contrived to save some small part of the Order's 

 property here. He died in 1539. The English 

 knights then at Malta, owing to the diminution of 

 their revenue by the English law, resolved to sell 

 their valuables and return home. But the Grand 

 Master would not allow their departure, and 

 assisted them in every way from the common 

 treasury. Sir Nicholas Upton, the last Turcopo- 

 lier, died in 1551. 



In 1553, just before the death of Grand Master 

 Homedez, a faint endeavour was made to re-esta- 

 blish the English language. At the funeral of 

 Homedez we find only one English knight at 

 Malta, Sir Oswald Massingbert, lieutenant of the 

 Turcopoliership. When Sir John de Valette was 

 elected in 1557, we find but one English knight at 

 Malta, Sir James Sunderland. Mary's protection 



