378 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 263. 



nesses: William Palfrayman, Edward Dawson, George 

 Harrison, and William Fox, with other moo. 



" This is the last will of me, the said Robert Skynner, 

 as concernynge my landes and t'ents : First, I will that 

 John Skynner, my sone, shall have all my landes and 

 tenements, that y» inherytance M'tin the towne and feldes 

 of Tliorpe and Wainflete when he comythe to lawfull age 

 accustomed in that contrye, save and except the thirds 

 p'e of the said lands and tenements, the whiche I will- that 

 Alys my wife shall have durynge her life naturall ; and 

 after the deceas of the said Alys, I will the said her thirde 

 p*" remayne holye unto the said John Skynner my sonne, 

 to have to hyme and to his heires of his body begotten for 

 evermore. 



" Proved at Lincoln, by Alice Skynner and 

 John Skynner, the executors, on the 

 24th day' of May, 1536, before Roberto 

 Holgate, Mgro ordine de Sempringham, 

 et Johannes Broxolme, in legibus bac- 

 calaurei, Commissioners, &c., reserving 

 the right of Richard Skynner, also aa 

 executor." 



Arms of Skinner from Edmondson (Skynner, 

 Thornton and Boston, Lincolnshire) : Arg., a lion 

 rampant sa., within an orb of crescents gu. 

 Crest : On a ducal coronet arg., a falcon of the 

 last, beaked and legged, gu. Wm. S. Hesleden. 

 Barton-upon Humber. 



CHURCHILL S GRAVE. 



As there seems to have long been more or less 

 of a mystery in connexion with this subject, per- 

 haps it may be worth while removing it.* There 

 is a monument to the poet here in St. Mary's 

 Church (not churchyard) ; but this is only a ceno- 

 taph, although not so stated in the inscription. It 

 contains a very exaggerated panegyric of him in 

 fourteen verses (not however a sonnet), which is 

 anytliing but lucid in its grammar, and therefore 

 I will not transcribe it. In it he is called the 

 "Great high priest of all the iSTine;" which is 

 rather an unfortunate expression applied to 

 Churchill, — for he was a clergyman, and gave up 

 his gown, and became a most decided layman ; and 

 as such went on a visit to the celebrated Wilkes, 

 then living in retirement at Boulogne, where he 

 died. His remains were brought over and in- 

 terred, not in St. Mary's, but St.Martin's church- 

 yard, a small deserted cemetery in an obscure 

 lane behind the market. By climbing over a 

 wall at the back of St. Martin's Academy, I found 

 the real tomb, with this inscription : 



" 1764. 



Here lie the remains of the celebrated 



C. Churchill. 



' Life to the last enjoy'd, here 



Churchill lies.' [Candidate.] " 



The enjoyment to the last would have been 

 perhaps quite marred, but for the firmness of 



[* See «N. & Q.," Vol. ix., pp. 123. 234. 334.]j 



Wilkes, who sternly resisted the endeavours of 

 some French Roman Catholic priests to get access 

 to him in his latter hours, with a view to his con- 

 version. A still more celebrated poet also died at 

 Boulogne, but his remains are deposited in West- 

 minster Abbey. 



Churchill, though not having that honour, has 

 an honour which perhaps no other poet ever had, 

 of having two monuments in the same town, and 

 that too a town with which he had no connexion, 

 not even the accidental one of death. As I find 

 none of these particulars in the Dover Guide, nor 

 even in the quarto history of the town, I have 

 ventured to send them to " N. & Q.," as not 

 unworthy of a humble corner. 



Charles de la Prime. 



Lord Warden Hotel, Dover. 



THE ENGLISH TURCOPOLIER OF THE ORDER OP 

 ST. JOHN or JERUSALEM. 



The statutes of the Order clearly show, that in 

 the twelfth century the military force was com- 

 posed of three ranks ; as Raymond du Puis, the 

 Master of the sacred hospital of St. John of 

 Jerusalem, a.d. 1121, had carefully enrolled them. 

 In the first station were placed those of noble birth, 

 who, by the laws of chivalry, were allowed to fight 

 on horseback ; in the second, those who were free 

 by birth, and fought on foot ; and la-itly, the 

 serving brothers, whose duties were told by their 

 titles. 



Nine years after this arrangement had been 

 made in the hospital, Pope Innocent II. addressed 

 a bull to the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of 

 the universal church, asking their assistance for 

 the Order of St. John in the present maintenance 

 and future support of a body of foot-soldiers and 

 cavalry, which had been raised for the protection 

 of the pilgrims when going to, or returning from, 

 the holy places of their devotion.* This request 

 of the Roman Pontiff met with a ready response, 

 and the Hospitallers soon became a powerful and 

 military body, equally as ready to pray or fight, as 

 their duty might call them. 



The great hatred entertained by Almaric, the 

 King of Jerusalem, towards the Arabs and Sara- 

 cens, and his hope to obtain possession of Egypt, 

 induced him, a.d. 1168, to declare war against 

 Atabek Noureddin Zenghi, the ruler of that 

 kingdom. 



Gilbert D'Assallt, the master of the Hospitallers, 

 a native of Tyre, and a man of undoubted bravery, 

 greatly encouraged the king, and promised his 

 assistance with five hundred soldiers, and as many 

 Turcopoliers ; only asking, in return for the ex- 

 pense which he might incur, the entire control of 



* Addison's History of the Templars, p. 63. 



