26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No lOG., Jan. 9. '58. 



the service of certain noblemen, or men "of wor- 

 ship." 



In a Burghmote note, tempore 14th Elizabeth, 

 we find ordained — 



"That if any of the Aldermen or Common Council 

 should take any living, or be returned as servant to any 

 nobleman, or man of worship, then every such Alderman 

 or Common Councilman shall be discharged from his 

 office and this Court." 



Nor did this resolution appear to be unneces- 

 sary ; for some years previous we find by another 

 entry that the corporation htid been constrained to 

 admit among their numbers, " one Robert Why- 

 thorne, who had Mr. Denne's livery." This as- 

 sumption of the livery of some great man appears 

 sometimes to have served as a pretext for the eva- 

 sion of those fines which had been prescribed as 

 consequent upon the resignation of office ; for in 

 the 18th year of Elizabeth, we find it on record — 



"That Alderman Leeds, on being called before the 

 Court, and asked ' If he intended to depart his office ? ' 

 replied in the affirmative, adding,' that he had taken my 

 Lord Archbishop's cloathes for that purpose.' " 



A mean way for a worshipful alderman to de- 

 termine his office, thus dressing up in a livery ! 



The term "livery " may indeed be received with 

 some extenuation. Sidney, who wrote about this 

 time, uses the word in the sense " of a garb worn 

 as a token, or consequence of something ; " and it 

 is probable that the first origin of " uniform " ori- 

 ginated in a certain dress or " livery," as it was 

 called, prescribed by the Admiralty to be worn by 

 captains of ships of war in the time of James I. 



In respect, however, of the Canterbury re- 

 cords we can hardly interpret the term otherwise 

 than as a badge of servitude. Indeed, in this 

 sense the corporation seem to have understood it ; 

 for, in a subsequent ordinance to the one last 

 quoted, they decree 



"That no one without license from this Court shall 

 take upon himself office as retainer to any nobleman, or 

 man of worship, or wear his livery, on pain of paying 

 Twenty Pounds to the Chamber, [qualified, however, by 

 the proviso] unless he be minded, and do go out of the 

 City to dwell." 



An alderman who chose to be non-resident was 

 thus at liberty to wear " livery," so that he did 

 not parade the badge of servitude before the eyes 

 of his fellow-citizens. 



A previous enactment of the time of Philip 

 and Mary had not only prescribed "gowns of 

 scarlet colour for the aldermen," but " the fur of 

 black boge " with which they were to be trimmed ; 

 so that there seemed to be no excuse for this wil- 

 ful degradation. 



What " fur of black boge " was we cannot ex- 

 plain. Such aldermanic gowns as we have seen, 

 still preserved as records of the old regime, pre- 

 vious to the passing of the Municipal Corporations' 

 Act, are of scarlet cloth, trimmed with sable or 

 fitch. 



Should any of your correspondents be able, 

 from the records of other corporate towns, to ad- 

 duce notices of the practice of assuming the livery 

 of noblemen and other influential persons, it will 

 add another page of interest to arch^ological re- 

 search, and perhaps throw some additional light 

 upon the tone of society some few centuries since, 

 among the so-called citizen class of our fellow- 

 countrymen. J. Brent. 



SWIFTIANA. 



Notes and Queries about Swift. — No one cares 

 a rush about the Swifts prior to Thomas of Good- 

 rich or after the Dean, but all related to or con- 

 nected with them in that interval are of interest. 

 I would, therefore, with permission, ask of your 

 intelligent correspondents who was Swift's "Cousin 

 Launcelot? " 



On Nov. 10, 1730, Swift wrote to Lord Ches- 

 terfield what he called " a letter of solicitation," in 

 whicli he thus asked a favour: — 



" There is an honest man whose name is Launcelot ; he 

 has been long a servant to my Lord Sussex. He married 

 a relation of mine, a widow, with a tolerable jointure ; which, 

 depending upon a lease which the Duke of Grafton suffered 

 to expire about three years ago, sunk half her fortune. 

 Mr. Launcelot had many promises from the Duke of Dor- 

 set while his grace held that office, which is now in your 

 Lordship ; but they all failed." 



After apologies, he proceeds : — 



" This is the strongest argument I have to entreat 

 your Lordship's favour for Launcelot, who is a perfectly 

 honest man, and as loyal as you could wish. His wife, 

 my near relation, has been mxj favorite from her youth, and 

 as deserving as it is possible for one of her level. It is un- 

 derstood that some little employments about the court 

 ma}' be often in your Lordship's disposal, and that my 

 Lord Sussex will give Mr. Launcelot the character he 

 deserves ; and then let my petition be (to speak in my 

 own trade) a drop in the bucket." 



, Lord Chesterfield's reply, so far as we are con- 

 cerned, was as follows : — 



"/ very well knoio the person you recommend to me, having 

 lodged at his house a whole summer at Richmond. I have 

 always heard a very good character of him, which alone 

 would incline me to serve him ; but j-our recommenda- 

 tion, I can assure you, will make me impatient to do it." 



Now who was this " near relation," — his " fa- 

 vourite from her youth? " What was her maiden 

 name ? What was the name of her first husband ? 

 Where did she reside as maiden, and where and 

 when first married? We find from Lord Chesterfield 

 that Launcelot had lived at Richmond, and had 

 been seemingly settled there. Stella, we are told, 

 was born at Richmond ; but there are doubts and 

 mysteries about her birth. She was educated, 

 brought up, and provided for very difierently from 

 her brother and sisters. I do not mean to be 

 scandalous or slanderous, for I have not know- 

 ledge enough to help me even to a slanderous 

 conjecture. But if we can get at the facts about 



