July 16. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



51 



marriages, and issues descending, in the register of the 

 Gentle and Noble." 



Thus wrote Sir John Feme in The Blazon of 

 Gentrie, printed in the year 1586. So also Coates, 

 in his additions to Gwillim, writing in 1724, says : 



" For though arms, in their first acceptation, were 

 (as is shewed) taken up at any gentleman's pleasure, 

 yet hath that liberty for many ages been deny'd ; and 

 they, by regal authority, made the rewards and en- 

 signs of merit, &c., the gracious favours of princes ; 

 no one being, by the law of gentility in England, 

 allowed the bearing thereof, but those that either have 

 them by descent, or grant, or purchase from the body 

 or badge of any prisoner they in open and lawful war 

 had taken." 



He proceeds to adduce various autliorities on 

 this subject, for which I would refer to the Intro- 

 duction to the last edition of Gwillim's Heraldry, 

 p. 16. &c. 



Porny defines assumptive arms to be — 



" Such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of 

 upstarts, who, being advanced to a degree of fortune, 

 assume them without having deserved them by any 

 glorious action. This, indeed (he adds), is great abuse 

 of heraldry ; but yet so common, and so much tole- 

 rated, almost everywhere, that little or no notice is 

 taken of it." 



This was written in 1765. Archdeacon Nares, 

 in his very amusing Heraldic Anoinalies, printed 

 in 1823, says : 



" At present, similarity of name is quite enough to 

 lead any man to conclude himself to be a branch of 

 some very ancient or noble stock, and, if occasion arise, 

 to assume the arms appropriate to such families, with- 

 out any appeal to the Heralds' office ; nor would any 

 Alderman Gathergrease, living in affluence, be without 

 such marks and symbols on his plate, seals, carriages, 

 &c., with no higher authority, perhaps, than his own 

 fancy and conceit." 



It must be confessed that the middle of the 

 nineteenth century offers the most ample facilities 

 for the would-be aristocrats of the age, and that 

 without troubling Sir Charles Young or the Col- 

 lege of Arms ; witness the following advertisement 

 cut from a newspaper of the day : — 



" The Family Livery. — Arms and Crests cor- 

 rectly ascertained, and in any case a steel die expressly 

 «ut for the buttons, free of cost," &c. 



There can, indeed, be no doubt that this foolish 

 practice of assuming arms without right has of 

 late years grown to an absurd height ; and I fear 

 the assumption is by no means confined to persons 

 who have risen by trade, or by some lucky specu- 

 lation in railways, &c. ; even those who have been 

 "advanced into an office or dignity of puhlique 

 •administration " have but seldom made their in- 

 stant reqiiest " to the heralds " to devise a coate of 

 amies to be borne by them without reproch''' 



The episcopal bench, in particular, are very 

 generally faulty in this respect, and, for the greater 

 part, content themselves (if not by birth entitled 

 to bear arms) by assuming the coat of some old- 

 established family of the same, or nearly the same, 

 name. In the case of temporal peerages, which 

 are not seldom, thanks to the ancient constitution 

 of England, renovated from the middle and lower 

 classes, the practice is more in accordance with 

 the precepts of The Blazon of Gentrie ; but I be- 

 lieve there is at least one instance, that of a lawyer 

 of the greatest eminence, who was last year ad- 

 vanced to a peerage, and to the highest rank in 

 his profession, who has assumed both arms and 

 supporters without the fiat of the College of Arms, 

 The " novi homines " of a former age set a better 

 example to those of the present day, and were 

 not ashamed to go honestly to the proper office 

 and take out their patent of arms, thus " founding 

 a family " who have a right to the ensigns of 

 honour which they assume. Spjbs. 



MOBLEE AND LOVEL. 



The following document, in connexion with the 

 trial between Morlee and Lovell, in the Court of 

 Chivalry, will probably interest your heraldic 

 readers. L. B. Larking. 



Ceste indentur tesmoyne q' mos' Johii de 

 Cobehm s"" dp Cobehm ad bailie p assent de les 

 sires de Morlee et Louel dys lib' de bone moneye 

 amest' Johii Barnet, cest assau' cent south p' le 

 un ptye et cent south p"" lautre ptye acause q' 

 mesme le dit mestre John et mest' Willm Dawode 

 et mest' WiUiii Sondeye serrount assessours sur la 

 matire pendaunt pentre les deux syngn' susdite p' 

 leur armes en le Court de Cbiualerie. En tesmoy- 

 naunce de quel payment a ycestes endentur lez 

 ptyes susditez entrechaungeablement ount mys 

 lours sceals. 



Don aLoundres le xx iu' de Feu'er Ian du rengne 

 le Roy Richard secounde quinzisme. 



[In dorso.] 

 Lendentur de x ii paye a mest' John Barnet p^ 

 Morlee et Louel. 



SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE. 



Shakspeare Emendations. — As this is the age of 

 Shakspeare emendations, I beg to propose the 

 following for the consideration of the numerous 

 readers of " N. & Q." I am the more emboldened 

 to do so, as I find several marginal corrections 

 made from time to time are verified by the manu- 

 script corrections in Me. Collier's folio of 1632. 

 These proposed are not, however, there, or I would 

 not have troubled you, though it is many months 

 since I first altered the reading of my copy. 



