Mar. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



223 



(a stork) to a marriage with an heir of Starkey, 

 which I have been unable to verify. A Visitation 

 of Cornwall, to which I have had access, gives a 

 grant, or probably a confirmation of the arms by 

 Cooke. If this celebrated Herald's grants are on 

 record, some clew would probably be found ; but 

 I doubt not that many of your readers well versed 

 in genealogical research can readily answer my 

 Query, and I trust to their kindness to do so. B. 

 Birkenhead. 



ifttnar <8}uzxit& tut'ti) 3n£roer£. 



Bunyan's Descendants. — As a recent Query re- 

 specting John Bunyan may lead to some notices 

 of his descendants, perhaps I may be informed in 

 what edition of his works it is stated that a branch 

 of his family settled in Nottingham ? for I find 

 in the burgess-roll of that borough that George 

 Bunyan was entered freeman in 1752. William 

 Bunyan, lieutenant in the navy, 1767; Thomas 

 Bunyan, hosier, 1776. In event of the above 

 story being verified, a pedigree may possibly be 

 extracted hereafter from the parish registers of 

 the town. As far as my own examination goes, 

 the editions in the British Museum afford no cor- 

 roboration to what I have heard. Furvus. 



Plumstead Common. 



[We have been favoured with the following article 

 on this subject from George Offor, Esq., of Hackney : 



" Where are John Bunyan 's Descendants ? — It is na- 

 tural to inquire after the ancestors and descendants of 

 great men, although experience proves that intellectual 

 greatness runs not in blood, for earth's great and most 

 illustrious sons descended from and left descendants 

 who merged among the masses of her little ones. Of 

 his ancestors Bunyan boasted not, but pleaded witli 

 the readers of the first edition of his Sighs from Hell, 

 1 Be not ashamed to own me because of my low and 

 contemptible descent in the world.' From the life of 

 the great dreamer, appended to my second edition of 

 Bunyan's works (Blackie, Glasgow), it appears that 

 he left three children: Thomas, a valuable member of 

 his church ; Joseph, who settled in Nottingham ; and 

 Sarah. Joseph is named by one of Bunyan's earliest 

 biographers, who told his father that 'a worthy citizen 

 of London would take him apprentice without money, 

 which might be a great means to advance him ; but he 

 replied to me, God did not send him to advance his family, 

 but to preach the Gospel.' 



" The Rev. J. H. A. Rudd of Bedford and Elstow has 

 most kindly searched the registers of Elstow and Gold- 

 ington, and has discovered some interesting entries ; 

 and, as his numerous engagements will permit, he will 

 search the registry of the parish churches in Bedford 

 and its vicinity. Information would be most accept- 

 able relative to Bunyan's father and mother, his two 

 wives, and his children, John, Elizabeth, arid Mary, 

 who died in his life-time ; and also as to Joseph. If 

 your correspondent Furvus would search the registers 

 at Nottingham, he might discover some valuable re- 



cords of that branch of the family. Bunyan is said to 

 have been baptized about 1653 ; and in the Elstow re- 

 gister it appears that his daughter Mary was registered 

 as baptized July 20, 1650, while his r.sxt daughter, 

 Elizabeth, is on the register as born April 14, 1654, 

 showing the change in his principles, as to infant bap- 

 tism, to have taken place between those periods. The 

 family Bible given by John Bunyan to his son Joseph, 

 now in my possession, confirms the statement verbally 

 communicated to me by his descendant Mrs. Senegar, 

 that her great-grandfather Joseph, having conformed to 

 please his rich wife, was anxious to conceal his affinity 

 to the illustrious tinker. The registers contained in it 

 begin with Joseph's son Thomas and Susannah his wife, 

 and it is continued to Robert Bunyan, born 1775, and 

 who was lately living at Lincoln. I should be most 

 happy to show the Bible and copies of registers in my 

 possession to any one who will undertake to form a 

 genealogy." George Offor.] 



Epigram on Dennis. — 

 " Should Dennis publish you had stabb'd your brother, 

 Lampoon'd your monarch, or debauch'd your mo- 

 ther," &c. 



is printed as by Savage in Johnson's Life of 

 Savage. In the notes to The Dunciad, i. 106., it 

 is said to be by Pope. Utri credemus ? S. Z. Z. S. 

 [From the fact, that this epigram was not only at- 

 tributed to Pope, in the notes to the second edition 

 of The Dunciad, published in 1729, but also in those of 

 1 743, the joint edition of Pope and Warburton, and 

 both published before the death of Pope, it seems ex- 

 tremely probable that he was the author of it ; more 

 especially as he had been exasperated by a twopenny 

 tract, of which Dennis was suspected to be the writer, 

 called A True Character of Mr. Pope and his Writings : 

 printed for S. Popping, 1716. DTsraeli however, in 

 his Calamities of Authors, art. " The Influence of a bad 

 Temper in Criticism," quoting it from Dr. Johnson, 

 conjectures it was written on the following occasion : 

 " Thomson and Pope charitably supported the veteran 

 Zoilus at a benefit play, and Savage, who had nothing 

 but a verse to give, returned them very poetical thanks 

 in the name of Dennis. He was then blind and old, 

 but his critical ferocity had no old age ; his surliness 

 overcame every grateful sense, and he swore as 

 usual, ' They could be no one's but that fool Sa- 

 vage's,' an evidence of his sagacity and brutality. This 

 perhaps prompted ' the fool ' to take this fair revenge 

 and just chastisement." After all, Dr. Johnson, who 

 was at the time narrating Savage's intimate acquaint- 

 ance with Pope, may have attributed to the former 

 what seems to have been the production of the latter.] 



Football played on Shrove Tuesday. — The people 

 of this and the neighbouring towns invariably play 

 at football on Shrove Tuesday. What is the ori- 

 gin of the custom ? and does it extend to other 

 counties ? J. P. S. 



Dorking. 



[" Shrove-tide," says Warton, " was formerly a season 

 of extraordinary sport and feasting. There was an- 



