Sept. 24. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



297 



be continued to hold that living till his death, 

 which took place at the end of April, 1628. 

 He was buried in the chancel of his own church, 

 May 2nd ; and a plain stone on the floor, with an 

 inscription, marks the place of his interment. He 

 was a learned and pious Puritan divine, and 

 wrote : 



1. " Ceitaine Frultfull Instruction.? and necessary 

 Doctrine meete to edify in the feare of God." 1587, 

 18mo. 



2. " Certaine Fruitful! Instructions for the generall 

 Cause of Reformation against tlie Slanders of the Pope 

 and League, &c." 1589, small 4to. 



3. He edited and wrote the preface to — 



" A Courteous Conference with the English Catho- 

 lickes Romane, about the Six Articles ministered unto 

 the Seminarie Priestes, wherein it is apparently proved 

 by theire owne divinitie, and the principles of their 

 owne religion, that the Pope cannot depose her Majestie, 

 or release her subjects of their alleageance unto her, 

 &c. ; written by John Bishop, a recusant Papist." 

 1598. Small 4to. 



4. " Certaine Sermons on the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 

 verses of the Eleventh chapter of S. Paule his Epistle 

 to the Romanes." 1612, 12rao. 



5. " Certaine choise Grounds and Principles of our 

 Christian Religion," 1621, 12mo. 



6. A large unpublished work in MS. entitled 

 " Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion," 

 left unfinished (probably age and infirmity pre- 

 vented him from completing it) : it consisted of 

 seven books, of which two only (the fourth and 

 fifth, of 95 and 98 folio pages respectively) have 

 been preserved. 



John Frewen had three wives, and by each of 

 the first two several children, of whom the follow- 

 ing lived to grow up, viz. by Eleanor his first 

 wife, (1.) Accepted Frewen, Archbp. of York; 

 (2.) Thankful F., Purse Bearer and Secretary of 

 Petitions to Lord Keeper Coventry; (3.) John 

 P., Rector of Northiam ; (4.) Stephen F., Alder- 

 man of the Vintry Ward, London ; (5.) Mary, 

 wife of John Bigg of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; (6.) 

 Joseph F. By his second wife, Helen, daughter 



of Hunt, J. F. had (7.) Benjamin, Citizen 



of London; (8.) Thomas F. ; (9.) Samuel, 

 Joseph, Thomas, and Samuel joined Cromwell's 

 army for invading Ireland ; and one of them 

 (Captain Frewen) fell at the storming of Kil- 

 kenny ; another of them died at Limerick of the 

 plague, which carried oflf General Freton ; the 

 other (Thomas) founded a family at Castle Connel, 

 near Limerick. 



John Frewen's Sermons in 1612 are In some 

 respects rare ; but the following copies are extant, 

 viz. one in the Bodleian at Oxford ; one in the 

 University Library at Cambridge ; one in posses- 

 sion of Mr. Frewen at Brickwall, Northiam ; and 

 one sold by Kerslake of Bristol, for 75. 6c?., to the 

 Rev. John Frewen Moor, of Bradfield, Berks. 



If R. C. Wabdb, of Kidderminster, has a copy 

 which he would dispose of, he may communicate 

 with T. F., Post-office, Northiam, who would be 

 glad to purchase It. J. F. 



" VOIDING KNIFE," " VOIDER," AND " ALMS-BASKET." 



(Vol. vl., pp. 150. 280. ; Vol. vlii., p. 232.) 



In later times (the sixteenth century) the good 

 old custom of placing an alms-dish on the table was 

 discontinued, and with less charitable intentions 

 came the less refined custom of removing the 

 broken victuals after a meal by means of a voiding- 

 knife and voider : the latter was a basket into 

 which were swept by a large wand, usually of 

 wood, or voiding-hnife, as It was termed, all the 

 bones and scraps left upon the trenchers or scat- 

 tered about the table. Thus, in the old plays, 

 Lingua^ Act V. Sc. 13. : " Enter Gustus with a 

 voiding-knife ;" and in A Woman killed with Kind- 

 ness, " Enter three or four serving men, one with 

 a voider and loooden knife to take away." 



The voider was still sometimes called the alms- 

 basket, and had its charitable uses In great and 

 rich men's houses : one of which was to supply 

 those confined in gaols for debt, and such pri- 

 soners as had no means to purchase any food. 



In Green's Tu Quoque, a spendthrift is cast Into 

 prison ; the jailer says to him : 



" If you have no money, you had best remove into 

 some cheaper ward ; to the twopenny ward, it is 

 likeliest to hold out with your means ; or, if you will, 

 you may go into the hole, and there you may feed for 

 nothing." 



To which he replies : 



" Ay, out of the alms-baskei, where charity appears 

 in likeness of a piece of stinking fish." 



Even this poor allowance to the distressed pri- 

 soners passed through several ordeals before It 

 came to them ; and the best and most wholesome 

 portions were filched from the alms-basket, and 

 sold by the jailers at a low price to people out of 

 the prison. In the same play it is related of a 

 miser, that — 



" He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these 

 four-and-twenty years, but always cozened the poor 

 prisoners, for he bought bis victuals out of the alms' 

 basket." 



In the ordinances of Charles II. (Ord. and Reg. 

 Sac. Ant. 367.), it is commanded — 



" That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away any 

 meat or wine from the table, or out of the chamber, 

 upon any pretence whatsoever ; and that the gentle- 

 men-ushers take particular care herein, that all the 

 meate that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates 

 be put into a basket for the poore, and not undecently 

 eaten by any servant in the roome ; and if any person 

 shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited 



