April 28. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



325 



Etiquette Query. — Ts it the eldest daughter or 

 the eldest sister of the head of a family tliat is 

 entitled to the appellation of " Miss "joar excel- 

 lence f jE. g-., given John Smith, the head and 

 patriarch of all the Smiths : — does " Miss Smith " 

 denote John's sister or daiighter ? R. G. 



Notice of Funerals ly the Town Crier. — At 

 Penrith the bellman, or town crier, gives notice of 

 funerals in this way ; after ringing his bell, — 



" I am to give notice to all friends and neighbours that 



are inclined to attend the funeral of , of 



Street, to attend at o'clock." 



The man is paid by the parties. Does such a 

 custom prevail in any other town, and how long 

 has it existed ? H. T. Ellacombe. 



" Aisnesce.'''' — I find this terra used in ancient 

 documents relating to the partition of property be- 

 tween daughters coheiresses, the eldest daughter 

 being alleged to be entitled to her reasonable part 

 of the property " cum aisnesce ; " and in another 

 instance I find it Latinised thus : " cum aisnescia." 

 The term does not appear in any dictionary or 

 glossary that I have access to. Can any of your 

 readers say what it imports ? Karl. 



Cliffords of Suffolk. — Information is requested 

 respecting a branch of the ancient family of Clif- 

 ford, seated in the locality of Lavenham or Ips- 

 wich, in Suffolk, temp. Carolus II. Any notices 

 of pedigrees, individuals, arms, or monuments 

 would be much appreciated. 



John Thos. Abbott. 



Hawkins's " Life of Prince Henry." — I have a 

 manuscript account, or life, of Prince Henry, the 

 eldest son of James I., by John Hawkins. The 

 writer (who was evidently of the prince's court) 

 dedicates it " To the worshipfuU fauourer of learn- 

 ing and arts, my worthie aproued good freind 

 Mr. Thomas Chapman." 



The manuscript consists of one hundred and 

 twenty small quarto pages, bound in parchment ; 

 and, amongst other curious matter, gives a full 

 and particular account of the illness, last days, 

 and death of this excellent young prince. It ap- 

 pears also that Sir Oliver Cromwell, Knt., the 

 uncle and godfather of the Protector, orjce enter- 

 tained the prince at Hinchinbrook. Was this 

 manuscript ever published ; or is anything known 

 of John Hawkins, and his friend Thomas Chap- 

 man ? J. W. 



Barton-on-Humber. 



"Foundling Hospital for Wit:" "New Foundling 

 Hospital for Wit." — Information as to the ori- 

 ginal projectors and writers in the above; and as 

 to earliest and best editions ; and indeed any in- 

 formation illustrative of their bibliographical and 

 literary history, will greatly oblige Witling. 



Feast of St. John and St. James. — In what 

 month, and on what day of the month, was the 

 feast of SS. John and James held in the 

 19 Ric. II.? 



I have referred in vain for an explanation to 

 Sir Harris Nicolas' Chronology of History and 

 L'Art de Verifier les Dates. F. C. B. 



:^tn0r <k\xtxit^ iut'tS %ni\x^tvi. 



Sir Stephen Fox. — In Lord John Russell's 

 Memoirs of Chas. Jas. Fox, it is stated that Sir 

 Stephen Fox, the father of Stephen, first Earl 

 of Ilchester, and of Henry, first Lord Holland, 

 was himself " of a very humble stock." 



I feel much inclined to question this disparaging 

 account of Sir Stephen's " humble " origin ; — not 

 merely because Lord Clarendon mentions him in 

 1655 as a young man, who had been bred under 

 the severe discipline of the Lord Percy, Lord 

 Chamberlain of the King's Household, and so 

 greatly extols his many excellent qualifications, 

 when he was appointed, about the age of twenty- 

 eight, to have the entire management of the king's 

 monies and finances ; though these events in the 

 career of his early life would furnish a strong 

 presumption of the respectability of the stock 

 from which he sprung. But I have long enter- 

 tained the belief that he was descended from an 

 ancient and opulent family of the name of Fox, in 

 the parish of Stradbrook, in the county of Suffolk, 

 who, though not belonging to the titled aristo- 

 cracy, possessed considerable property and in- 

 fluence in the neighbourhood where they resided 

 for many generations. 



Of this Suffolk family to which I allude was 

 Simon Fox, Esq., of Stradbrook, and of St. 

 Clement's parish, London, who died in 1697. He 

 married a daughter of Sir Roger Nevinson; and 

 his son, Nevinson Fox, gent., is described in a 

 paper now before me as " having a coat of arms : 

 and in 1673 he attended Henry Howard, Earl of 

 Norwich, and Earl Marshal, on his embassy into 

 Africa." 



These slight hints may perhaps lead some of 

 your correspondents to make some investigation 

 relative to Sir Stephen's connexion with this 

 Suffolk family. Sir Stephen Fox was born in 

 1627, and died in 1715. J. T. A. 



[Evelj'n, who was intimately acquainted with Sir 

 Stephen Fox, has left a summary sketch of his life in his 

 Diary, Sept. 6, 1680. He says, " 1 dined with Sir Stephen 

 Fox, now one of the Lords Commissioners of the Trea- 

 sury. This gentleman came first a poor boy from the 

 choir of Salisbury ; then was taken notice of by Bishop 

 Duppa, and afterwards waited on my Lord Percy, who 

 procured for him an inferior place amongst the clerks of 

 the kitchen and green cloth side." In the Memoirs of 

 the Life of Sir Stephen Fox, from his first entrance vpon. 

 the Stage of Action under Lord Percy till his Decease, 



