Mae. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



221 



of your numerous readers will be able to assist 

 me. 



Licences to Crenellate. 



J. H. Parker. 



DIXON OF BEESTON. 



Will the Editor be kind enough to insert the 

 accompanying letter, for if true, it is worthy of a 

 place in the heraldic portion of "N. & Q.," and 

 if not true, its imposture should stand recorded? 

 On receiving it I sent a copy to my brother, Mr. 

 J. H. Dixon, an able antiquary, and late of the 

 council of the Percy Society, who, somewhat too 

 hastily I think, and without sufficient proof, re- 

 jected the information offered. That the family 

 which my brother represents is a "good old" one, 

 is sufficiently attested by the pedigree furnished 

 by Thoresby in the Ducatus Leodiensis, and thence 

 copied by Mr. Burke in his Landed Gentry ; but 

 -of its earlier history there is no reliable account, 

 unless that by Mr. Spence can be considered 

 such. 



I shall feel very much obliged if any of your 

 correspondents learned in the genealogies of York- 

 shire and Cheshire could either corroborate the 

 genuineness of the information tendered by Mr. 

 Spence, or prove the reverse ; and it is only fair 

 to that gentleman to add that he is entitled to 

 credibility on the written testimony of the Rev. 

 Mr. Knox, Incumbent of Birkenhead. 



K. W. Dixon, J. P. 



Seaton Carew, co. Durham. 



Sir, 



Having been engaged by Miss Cotgreave, of No- 

 therlegh House, near Chester, to inspect and arrange 

 the title-deeds and other documents which belonged to 

 her father, the late Sir John Cotgreave, I find a very 

 ancient pedigree of the Cotgreaves de Hargrave in that 

 county ; which family became extinct in the direct 

 male line in the year 1724, but which was represented 

 through females by the above Sir J. C. 



It is the work of the great Camden, anno 1598, from 

 documents in the possession of the Cotgreave family, 

 and contains the descents of five generations of the 

 Dixons of Beeston, in the county of York, and Con- 

 gleton, Cheshire, together with their marriages and 

 armorial bearings, commencing with " Ralph Dixon, 

 Esq., de Beeston and Congleton, living temp. Hen. VI., 



who was slain whilst fighting on the part of the York- 

 ists, at the battle of Wakefield, a.d. 1460." 



Presuming that you are descended from this ancient 

 family, I will (if you think proper) transmit to you 

 extracts from the aforesaid pedigree, as far as relates to 

 your distinguished progenitors, conditionally that you 

 remunerate me for the information and definition of 

 the armorial bearings, there being five shields, contain- 

 ing twelve quarterings connected with the family of 

 Dixon. 



Miss Cotgreave will allow me to make the extracts, 

 and has kindly consented to attest the same. 



The arms of Dixon, as depicted in the Cotgreave 

 pedigree, are " Sable, a fleur-de-lis or, a chief ermine," 

 quartering the ensigns of the noble houses of " Robert 

 Fitz-Hugh, Baron of Malpas in the county of Chester, 

 temp. William the Conqueror ; Eustace Crewe de 

 Montalt, Lord of Hawarden, Flintshire, during the 

 said reign ; Robert de Umfreville, Lord of Tours, and 

 Vian, and Reddesdale, in Northumberland, who flou- 

 rished in the same reign also ; Pole, Talboys, Welles, 

 Latimer," and others. 



In the pedigree, Camden states that the aforesaid 

 " Ralph Dixon quartered the ensigns of the above 

 noble families in right of his mother Maude, daughter 

 and co-heiress of Sir Ralph Fitz-Hugh de Congleton 

 and Elton in the county palatine of Chester." 

 1 have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your very obedient humble servant, 



William Sidney/ Spence, 



Priory Place, Birkenhead, 



Chester. 



Dec. 14. 1848. 



^Itnor <Rucvic£. 



Atherstone Family. — Can any of your readers 

 oblige me with information concerning the Ather- 

 stone family ? Is it an old name, or was it first 

 given some three or four generations back to a 

 foundling, picked up near the town of Atherston ? 



M. A. B. 



Classic Authors and the Jeivs. — Where can I 

 find a complete or full account of passages in 

 Greek and Latin authors, which refer to Judea 

 and the Jews ? It has been said that these refer- 

 ences are very few, and that in Cicero, for in- 

 stance, there is not one. This last is wrong, I 

 know. (See e. g. Cic. Pro L. Flacco, 28., and De 

 Prov. Consul. 5.) B. H. C. 



Bishop Hoopers Argument on the Vestment 

 Controversy. — Glocester llidley, in his Life of 

 Bishop Ridley, p. 315., London, 1763, states, in 

 reference to Bishop Hooper's Book to the Council 

 against the use of those Habits which were then used 

 by the Church of England in her sacred Ministries, 

 written October, 1550, " Part of Hooper's book I 

 have by me in MS." Could any one state whe- 

 ther that MS. is now in existence, or where it is 

 to be found ? It is of much importance to obtain 



