May 27. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



493 



dtatrtaf* 



JOHN LOCKE. 



I shall be much obliged if any gentleman who 

 has the power of access to the registers of Wring- 



ton, Somerset, or who may otherwise take an inte- 

 rest in the descent of John Locke the philosopher, 

 will kindly assist me to prove that the parents of 

 that eminent man were as supposed to be in the 

 accompanying pedigree. 



Edmund Keene of Wrington,=Mary, daughter of described as a widow, 



county Somerset. I October 15, 1631. (Court RolL) 



Edmund Keene of=Frances, daugh- 



John. 



Wrington, Yeo- 

 man. Will dated 

 September 12, 

 1667 (in which 

 he mentions his 

 " loving brother 

 Peter Locke." 

 Who was he P) 



ter of . 

 Locke (?). Ex- 

 ecutrix of her 

 husband's will. 



I 

 Richard (?). 



Agnes Keene, married=John Locke 

 at Wrington, July 15, • 

 1630. : 



A 



Morris. 



John Locke the philosopher, baptized August 29, 1632. 



I 

 Samuel Keene. 



I 



John, bap- 

 tized Oc- 

 tober 8, 

 1635. 



Peter. Sarah. 



Both baptized Oc- 

 tober 24, 1639. 



Frances Keene. (Daughter of=Joseph Watkins of 

 Samuel or John ?) I Abingdon. 



I 

 Mary, baptized at Wrington, February 27,1633,= John Darbie of 

 by her father's will had lands at Wrington Shirbourne, 

 and Ley. Will dat. August 16, 1717, by 

 which she devised her estate at Wrington 

 to her niece Frances Watkins of Abingdon, 

 widow, remainder to her son Joseph. Died 

 November 27, 1717. 



Dorset, 

 Mercer. 

 (Deed, Au- 

 gust 16, 1676.) 



Joseph Watkins of Clapton, Middlesex, Esq.=Magdalen, daughter of 



A 



I observe that in Chalmers' Dictionary the 

 mother of Locke is called Anne, whereas, in the 

 Wrington register, I am informed that it appears 

 as Agnes, — " 1630, July 15, (married) John 

 Locke and Agnes Keene." I believe, however, 

 that in former days Anne and Agnes were not 

 unfrequently confounded, so that the apparent 

 discrepancy may not be material. 



The best evidence that is at present within my 

 reach, in support of the connexion here given, is a 

 letter from Mrs. Frances Watkins, a daughter of 

 either Samuel or John Keene, dated "Abingdon, 

 January, 1754," addressed to her son " Joseph 

 Watkins, Esq., at John's Coffee House, Cornhill, 

 London," and from which I make the following 

 extract for the information of those who may be 

 disposed to look into this question. She says, — 



" I am allied to Mr. Lock thu« : His father and my 

 grandmother were brother and sister, and his mother 

 and my grandfather were also sister and brother, con- 

 sequently my father and the great Lock were doubly 

 first cousins. My grandfather's sister and my grand- 

 mother's brother produced this wonder of the world. 

 To make you more sensible of it, a Lock married a 

 Keen, and a Keen married a Lock. My aunt Keen 

 was a most beautiful woman, as was all the family ; 

 and my uncle Lock an extream wise man. So much 

 for genealogy. My Lord Chancellor King was allied 

 thus near. I forgett whether his mother was a Keen 

 or a Lock. I had this information from my aunt 

 Darby. Mr. Lock had no advantage in his person, but 

 was a very fine gentleman. From foreign Courts they 

 used to write, ' For John Lock, Esq., in England.'" 



C.J. 



fflinax eauemtf. 



" The Village Lawyer? — Can you inform me 

 who is the author of that very popular farce, The 

 Village Lawyer? It was first acted about the 

 year 1787. It has been ascribed to Mr. Ma- 

 cready, the father of Mr. W. C. Macready, the 

 eminent tragedian. The real author, however, is 

 6aid to have been a dissenting minister in Dublin, 

 and I would be obliged to any of your readers 

 who could give me his name. Sigma. 



Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cambridge. — In 

 a note in the first volume of Miss Strickland's 

 Lives of the Queens of Scotland, she remarks that 

 Bourchier, Earl of Essex, " was near of kin to the 

 royal family, being grand-nephew to Richard, 

 Duke of York, father of Edward IV., but did not 

 share the blood of the heiress of March, Jane 

 Mortimer." I quote from memory, not having 

 the book at hand ; but allowing that Jane for 

 Anne may be a slip of the pen, or a mistake of the 

 press, where did Miss Strickland discover any 

 second marriage of Richard, Earl of Cambridge ? 

 All pedigrees of the royal family that I have seen 

 agree in giving him only one wife, and in ex- 

 pressly stating her to be mother to Isabel, Countess 

 of Essex. J. S. Warden. 



Highland Regiment. — Can any of your Gaelic 

 or military correspondents inform me whether it 

 is at present the custom for the officers in the 

 Highland regiments to wear a dirk in addition to 

 the broadsword ? Also whether the Highland 

 regiments were ever armed with broadswords, and 



