246 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 150. 



The Bride's Seat in Church. — Amongst other 

 documents connected with Warrington parish 

 church is " An AUottment of Sittings in 1628," 

 and one of the forms is distinctly termed " the 

 bryd's form." May I trespass upon your space to 

 inquire if the same expression has been met with 

 elsewhere ? I add a copy of the early part of the 

 document : 



" The S. side of the church, 



1st Pew next ye quire — Richard Massie, Esq. 



2nd Pew — The parson and his wife for the time 

 bei ng. 



The bryd's form." 

 If the custom of assigning the bride a particular 

 seat in church is found to be common, it appears 

 to me not unlikely that we retain a vestige of it at 

 the present day, in the bride's first appearance at 

 church being received as an intimation that she is 

 ready to receive the visits and congratulations of 

 her neighbours and friends. K. 



:^tn0r caucric^ ^n^tecrrt. 



Heverend applied to Clergymen. — Lay Preachers. 

 — Your correspondent (Vol. vi., p. 55.) says that 

 he cannot find a title of reverend ai)plied to our 

 early English divines. Would he or some other 

 correspondent inform us exactly when the word 

 first came into use, and whether it was employed 

 before the Refoi'mation ? 



I shall also be obliged for the opinion of your- 

 self or correspondents upon the subject of preach- 

 ing by laymen in our Church : wliether she 

 recognises it, and whether a bishop has the power 

 of authorising a layman to preach in a church 

 when he has the permission of the officiating 

 minister. Qujjstor. 



[No doubt the word Reverend was applied to the 

 clergy before the Reformation, althougli not used as 

 the modern prefix to their names: for tlie applying 

 honourable epithets, " most honourable," " most holy." 

 " most reverend," and the like, to presbyters as well as 

 blsliops, appears to have obtained in very early times. 

 During the seventeenth century the word Reverend wa.^ 

 usually coupled with learned, as in the following cases : — 

 Vaughan, in his Life of Dr. Jackson, thus commences 

 it : " Being earnestly desired to deliver some character 

 of that Reverend and learned Dr. Jackson," &c. Bisliop 

 Patrick, too, in his Annotations on Solomon''s Song, 

 viii. 7., quotes the Reverend and learned Dr. Hammond. 

 And beneath the portrait of John Kettlewell, prefixed 

 to his work on The Apostles' Creed, we read that it is 

 " The true effigy of the Reverend and learned Mr. John 

 Kettlewell." But yet neither of these divines used the 

 epithet as a prefix to their names in their works. It is 

 clearly a title of modern usage, neither sanctioned nor 

 required by any law or canon, and from the growing 

 inconveniences that attend its use, it may the more 

 easily be discontinued, if judged necessary. 



Our correspondent's second Query being a theo- 

 logical one, is not suited for discussion in our pages. 



We can only refer him to the commentators on the 

 Ordinal and the Articles (especially the 2Srd), who 

 may probably afford him a solution to his question. 

 See also Nelson's Rights of the Clergy, p. 437., edit. 

 1709, which states that "in the beginning of Queen 

 Elizabeth's reign there was so great a scarcity of 

 ministers who would comply to the Reformation, that 

 she licensed laymen to preach publicly; and we have 

 an account of a high sheriff of Oxfordshire who, in the 

 first year of her reign, preached the Assize sermon 

 there."] 



Punishment for Treason. — 

 >■ " Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen, ! 

 Only for saying, he would make his son 

 Heir to the Crown ; meaning indeed his house, 

 Wliich by the sign thereof was termed so." 



Rich. III., Act III. Sc. 3. 



" The person," says Gray, "here alluded to was one 

 Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer at the Crown 

 in Cheapside." — Penny Mag., vol. iv. p. 102. 



" We have two instances in the reign of Edward the 

 Fourth, of persons executed for treasonable words : the 

 one a citizen of London, who said he would make his 

 son heir of the Crown, being the sign of the house in 

 wliich he lived ; the other, a gentleman whose favourite 

 buck the king killed in hunting, whereupon he wished 

 it, horns and all, in the king's belly. These %vere 

 esteemed hard cases ; and the Chief Justice Markham 

 rather chose to leave his place than assent to the latter- 

 judgment." — Blackstone's Cow., vol. iv. [book iv. c. 6. ] 

 p. 80. 



A reference to a detailed account of either of the 

 above cases will oblige J. B. Colman. 



[For a detailed account of these cases, see Kennett's 

 History of England, vol. i. pp. 431. 476. ; and Baker's 

 Chronicles, p. 215.J 



The United Chwch of England and Ireland. — 

 What ecclesiastical or other authority Is there for 

 this expression being inserted In the title-pnge of 

 our Prayer Books ? and is it strictly true that the 

 Prayer Book is according to the use of the Church 

 of Ireland ? I always Imagined that in that Church 

 a prayer for the Viceroy, In both the morning and 

 evening offices, was a part of the use. 



An Oxford B.C.L. 



[This clause on the title-page of our modern Prayer 

 Books has been noticed by a writer in The English 

 Review for October, 1844, as will appear from the fol- 

 lowing extract : — " We would ask on what authority 

 all our modern Prayer Books profess on their title- 

 pages to be ' according to the use of the United Church 

 of England and Ireland ?' The title-page of the book 

 authorised by the Act of Uniformity contains nothing 

 about this united Churc-h ; and there positively is no 

 such thing as Hhe use ' of the ' United Church,' because 

 England and Ireland still have their respective * uses.* 

 The Irish Prayer Book contains a prayer for the Lord 

 Lieutenant ; an office for visiting prisoners ; and a 

 rubric concerning the time of publishing bans, which 

 are not found in the English Prayer Book. The late 



