12 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«<i S. Ko 79., July 4. '57. 



portrait, and all declare it to be Chntterton ! P' I 

 would ask upon what grounds ? I am afraid I 

 must apply to such admirers of the boy the 

 adage : " Qui vult decipi, decipiatur." J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



AilKB A MALE MAMS. 



(2"« S. ill. 508.) 



The great soldier, Anne de Montmorency, was 

 so named after his godmother, the good Anne de 

 Bretagne. Ttien, there was the fourth son of the 

 first Earl Poulett, who was named Anne in honour 

 of his godmother, Queen Ahne. He was born in 

 1711 and died in 1785. J. G. N. will find a 

 notice of him in Wfaxall's Mtmoirs of his Own 

 Times. Several of Queen Anne's godsons bore 

 her Christian name. With regard to Lord Anne 

 Hamilton, there is a tradition respecting the cause 

 of his having the Queen for a sponsor, which may 

 lead to a knowle<lge of the year of his birth. 

 After the union, Anne created the Duke of Hamil- 

 ton Duke of Brandon in England; but the House 

 of Lords resolved (in Dec. 1711) that "no peer 

 of Scotland could, after the union, be created a 

 peer of England." This resolution remsuned in 

 force till 1782. The tradition is, that the Queen 

 stood godmother to Lord Anne, as some compen- 

 sation for the Duke losing his seat as an English 

 peer. If this be true ♦he christening could not 

 have taken place earlier than the close of 1711. 

 The Duke himself fell in the famous duel with 

 Lord Mohun, in Hyde Park, 1712. The Duchess 

 of Marlborough ridiculed the custom of giving the 

 Queen's name to her godsons, by proposing once, 

 at the christening of a girl, to follow the example 

 of confusion, by calling the little lady " George." 

 That name, it will be remembered, was one of the 

 baptismal appellations of the celebrated actress, 

 George Anne Bellamy, who was born on St. 

 George's Day, 1733. 



In Roman Catholic countries it is not unusual 

 for a boy to have the appellation of a female 

 saint among his names, particularly Mary, as it 

 ensures for the wearer of the name the protection 

 of the saint. So with women : I have known a 

 Mary George. When the old Trappist Abbey 

 was flourishing, every new member abandoned 

 his worldly, and took up a new name. Sometimes 

 the recluse took a Pagan name : Achilles is an 

 instance ; but some, carrying their singularity in 

 another direction, adopted a female name; — for 

 instance, Francis Garret (1685), John Colas 

 (1690), and John de Vitry (1693), surrendered 

 their baptismal and family names ; and each was 

 known daring his sojourn in the monastery by the 

 appellation of Brother Dorothy ! Why they did 

 not prefer to be called " Theodore " (the male 

 form of " Doroihee ")j is not explained by the 



author of Belations de la Vie et de la Mart de quel- 

 ques Religieux de TAhhaye de la Troppe. 



No Pope, I think, ever adopted a female name 

 on assuming the tiara. Pagan names were some- 

 times given at baptism, and changed at confirma- 

 tion. Thus, the two sons of Henry II. of France 

 were originally Alexander and Hercules. At their 

 confirmation they became Henry and Francis. 

 Our own bishops still possess the right of changing 

 at confirmation improper names conferred at bap- 

 tism. The prelates no longer address each can- 

 didate by name, and therefore do not exercise, 

 but they are in legal possession of the right. 

 Montaigne, in his essay, Sur la Force de Y Imagina- 

 tion, has a story apt to this subject, showing how, 

 and why, a bishop changed a girl's name into that 

 of a boy : 



" Passant h, Vitry le Francois, je pus voir un homme 

 que I'Eveque de Soissons avait nomine Germain en con- 

 firmation ; lequel tous les habitants de \k ont connu et 

 vue filie, jusqu'a I'age de 22 ans, nomm^e Marie. II 

 etoit h, cette heure lil fort barbu, et vieil, et point marie. 

 Faisant, dit-il, quelques efforts en sautant, ses membres 

 virils se produisirent ; et est encore en usage entre les 

 fiUes de lb, une chanson, par laquelle elles s'entre-aver- 

 tissent de ne faire point de grandes enjambees de peur de 

 devenir gar9on comme Marie Germain." 



Can this have been more than a satirical legend 

 levelled at a boyish'glrl or a girlish-boy who bore 

 names belonging to both sexes ? J. Doran. 



It is not unusual to give the name of a patron 

 Saint to a child, and without reference to sex. 

 Thus, Carl Maria Weber, Jean Marie Farina, 

 names appearing at this time in numberless shop 

 windows in the metropolis. I have a little girl 

 bearing the name of St. John, and if Lord Anne 

 Hamilton were born on St. Anne's Day thefe is a 

 reason for his having her name. 



H. J. Gauntlett. 



The fourth son of the first Earl Poulett was 

 named Anne. The Hon. Anne Poulett was born 

 July 11, 1711 (Barlow's Peerage, i. 419.), and was 

 member for Bridgewater from 1774 till his death 

 in July, 1785 {Companion to the Hoyal Ralendar 

 fbr 1788, p. 11.). J. W. Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Besides Lord Anne Hamilton, the late Lord 

 Rancliffe, of Bunney Park, Notts., was named 

 George Augustus Henry Anne : born June 10, 

 1785. 



The title is extinct. Debrett, edit. 1838, gives 

 his pedigree, &c. 



I have heard that a gentleman named Beau- 

 mont, in Yorkshire or Durham, named all his 

 latter born children " Jane," in consequence of a 

 family will which bequeathed certain property to 

 Jane, the child of When the will was 



