426 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 236. 



Exchange, between the hours of twelve and one, on 

 Monday the 17th March, in the presence of the Lord 

 Mayor of the City of London,' &c." 



Doleman's Conference about the next Succession 

 to the Crown of England, reprinted at N. with 

 licence, in 1681, was, in 1683, condemned by the 

 University of Oxford, and burnt by the common 

 hangman. 



In the above examples I have confined myself 

 to those books, &c. only which were expressly 

 consigned to the flames by the hangman. The 

 instances of book-burning where this indignity 

 was either not imposed, or its infliction not re- 

 corded, are numerous. Among the curiosities of 

 literature of Elizabeth's reign, were certain books 

 ascribed to a Dutchman, by name Henry Nicholas, 

 translated into English, and probably imported 

 from the Low Countries. This person, imbibing 

 the "damnable heresies" of David George, of 

 Leyden, became the apostle of a sect who styled 

 themselves "The Family of Love;" and their 

 fanatical books becoming obnoxious to the do- 

 minant party, they were, by proclamation, ordered 

 to be burnt ; and, as such manifestations of the 

 royal will usually ran, all persons were held pun- 

 ishable for having them in their possession. (See 

 Herbert's Ames.) As an example of the spiritual 

 power thus dealing with a book, apparently upon 

 its own authority, the following may be offered : — 

 Servetus de Trinitate, frc. (London, 1723.) This 

 edition, which is without name of place or printer, 

 and without date, was printed by Palmer for 

 Osborne the bookseller ; but, as soon as completed, 

 was Seized at the instance of Dr. Gibson, Bishop 

 of London, and burnt, with the exception of a 

 very few copies. (Davis' Journey round the Li- 

 brary, $-c.) The last unfortunate book I shall 

 mention is the Metrical Psalms of Dod ; which 

 was also, most likely, an episcopal seizure. Mr. 

 Holland, in his Psalmists of Britain, quoting from 

 George Withers' Scholler's Purgatory, says, " Dod 

 the silkman's late ridiculous translation of the 

 Psalms was, by authority, worthily condemned to 

 the fire," and, judging from its extreme scarcity, 

 I should say very few escaped. J. O. 



I have not seen in your list of martyred books 

 the following, in the year a.d. 1684 : A Plea for 

 the Nonconformists, by Thomas De Laune, Gentle- 

 man. He died in Newgate, during his imprison- 

 ment for the book, in pursuance of the following 

 sentence : 



" Ad General. Quartercal. Session. Pacis Dom. 

 Regis tent, pro Civitat. London per adjornament. 

 apud Justice-hall in le Old Bayly, die Mercurii Scil. 

 Decimo Sexto die January, Anno Regis Caroli Se- 

 cundi nunc Ang. &c. 



" Thomas De Laune Convict, pro illicite Scribend. 

 Imprimend. et Publicand. Libel. Seditios. dert. con- 

 cerned librum Communis prascationis. Fin. 100 Marc. 



Et committit, etc. ! Et ulterius quousq; Inven. bon. 

 de se bene gerend. per spacium Unius Anni Integri ex 

 tunc prox. sequen. Et quod libel, sedit. cum igne 

 Combust, sint apud Excambium Regal, in London, 

 et si Del. Sol. 5 shil. Wagstaffe." 



In a letter containing a narrative of his trial 

 and imprisonment, written by him from prison, 

 occur many touches of humour. In his remarks 

 on the sentence he says, — 



" The six shillings to be paid on my discharge is to 

 the hangman, for the faggots, 1 suppose." 



" The Court told us that, in respect to our education 

 as scholars, we should not be pillory'd, though ('twas 



said) we deserved it We were sent back to our 



confinement, and the next execution-day our books were 

 burnt with fire (not with water, you must note), and 

 we continue here ; but, since I writ this, Mr. Ralphson 

 had a supersedeas by death to a better place ! '" 



In his account he affirms that, on his own con- 

 fession of being the author of The Plea, and be- 

 cause he could find no bail, he was committed to 

 Newgate — 



" Lodged among the felons, whose horrid company 

 made a perfect representation of that horrible place 

 which you describe when you mention hell. A hard 

 bench was my bed, and two bricks my pillow. But 

 after two days and nights, without any refreshment, the 

 unusualness of that society and place having impaired 

 my health, which at the very best is tender, and crazy, 

 I was removed, and am now in the press-yard, a place 

 of some sobriety, though still a prison ubi nihil amabile 

 est ! " 



Twenty years after, 1704, his Plea was re- 

 published, with his narrative, by one of his fel- 

 low-prisoners, who had been released, and who 

 calls it " an elaborate piece " ! He adds, that De 

 Laune, being unable to pay 



" the seventy-five pound, his children, his wife, and 

 himself were imprison'd, and all dy'd in New-gate ; of 

 which myself was an eye-witness, and a companion 

 with him for the same cause in the same prison, where 

 I continued above a year after his death." 



E. F. Woodmaw. 

 P. S. — Query, What is the meaning, in the fore- 

 going, of the expression " at the next execution- 

 day" ? Have we any instance on record of the 

 execution of a malefactor in front of the Royal 

 Exchange ? and, if not, did the hangman come 

 from Newgate, after " doing duty " there, and 

 burn the book at the Exchange ? 



In 1611 the books of Conrad Vorstius were 

 publicly burnt in St. Paul's Churchyard and both 

 the universities by the king's order. (Wilson's 

 Life and Reign of James L, p. 120.) 



On Sunday, November 21, 1613, the books of 

 Francis Suarez, the Spanish Jesuit, were publicly 

 burnt at St. Paul's Cross. {Court and Times of 

 James L, vol. i. pp. 279, 280.) C. H. Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



