NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOK 



LITERillY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



"IVben found, make a note of."— Captain Cuttle. 



No 75.] 



Saturday, April 5. 1851. 



( Price, Threepence. 

 I Stamped Edition, 4(f. 



- 259 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — ^^f e 



Two Cliancellors, by Edward Foss ... 2S7 



lUiistr.itioiis of Chaucer, No III. - . . - 258 



Folk Lore : — Cure n( Hooping Cou?h — Charms from 



Devoiifhire — Lent Lilies— O.ik Webs, &c. - - 258 



The Threnodia Carolina of Sir Thomas Herbert, by 



Bolton Coniey - - - - - 



Minor Notes : — Shaksprare's Venus and Adonis- Moor- 



fields in Charles 11. 's Time — Derivation of Yankee 



_ A Word to Literary Men - - - - 260 



QCERiES : 



Poems of John Sejnard of Norwich, by Sir F. Madden 261 

 Epitaph on tlip Countess of Pembroke - - - 262 



Minnr Queries; — The Vellum-bouiid Junius — What is 



aXyi?? " M.irriage is such a IJ.ibhle Runt" — .irms 



of Robert Nelson — Kiiehsend or Nebsend, co. York 



^loore's Alni.inack — .\rclibishop LoftiK — Matrix 



of Monastic Seal — Syriic Scriptures and Lexicon — 

 Villiers Duke of Buckingham -.I'orci solidi-pe:les — 

 The llevwoo;! F.innlv — W.is Charles II. ever in 

 %Vale> ? — Dog's Head in the Pot — "Poor Alinda's 

 growing old" _.---- 2G2 

 Minor Queries Answered : — Who was the Ailhnr of 

 " The Modest Enquiry, &c."?— William Penn's K;in)ily 



Deal, Dover, and Harwich — .Author of Brond 



Stone of Honour— Pope Joan — The Well o' the 

 World's End— Sidr-s and Angles—MeaniLig of Ratche 

 " Feist of Reason," &c Tu autem - - 204 



Replies : — 



Barons of Hugh Lupus . . . - . 266 



Edmund Prideaus and the First Post-office - - 266 



L idy Jane of Westmoreland ... - 26S 



Replies to Minor Queries: — Ulm Manuscript — Father 

 Maximilian Hell — Meaning of " strained ' as used by 

 Shakspeare— Headings of Chapters in English Bibles 269 



MlSCELUNEOlIS : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 

 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Adveitisements ... 



- 269 



. 27.1 



- 2711 



- 271 



iJatrS. 



TWO CHANCELLORS. 



Althoiigli neitlier your readers nor I are politi- 

 cians enou.'li to interfere in the changes proposed 

 witli reference to the oltice of Lord Chancellor, I 

 doubt not that some of them, now the subject is 

 on the tapis, may feel interested in a fact con- 

 iiectwl with it, which our ancient records disclose : 

 namely, that on one occasion there were tivo 

 cfutHcellorn acting at the same time for several 

 months together, and both regularly appointed by 

 the kinn;. 



It is an unique instance, occurring in the reign 

 of Edward IV. : the two chancellors being Thomas 

 Kotheram, Bishop of Lincoln, and John Alcock, 

 Bishop of Rochester. The former received the 

 Great Seal in May, 1474, in the fourteenth year 

 of the reign, and" without any doubt continued 

 chancellor^till the king's death ; and yet, from 

 April to September in the following year, the lat- 

 ter was also addressed by the same title. During 

 that interval of five months, there are numerous 

 writs of Privy Seal addressed by the king to both, 

 in which each of them is styled " our chancellor." 



This curious circumstance may be thus ac- 

 counted for. King Edward had for some time 

 been contemplating an invasion of France ; and 

 when his preparations were completed (about 

 April), as he required bis chancellor, Bishop 

 Rotheram, to attend him on the expedition, it 

 became necessary to provide some competent per- 

 son to transact the business of the Chancery in his 

 absence. On previous occasions of this nature, it 

 had been usual to place the seal that \v as used in 

 Enoland, when the king was abroad, in the hands 

 of the Master of the Rolls, or some other master 

 in Chancery, with the title of Keeper : but, for 

 some unexplained reason (perhaps because Bishop 

 Alcock was a man whom the king delighted to 

 honour), this prelate was dignified with the sujie- 

 rior designation, although Bishop Rotheram still 

 retained it. The voyage being delayed from 

 Ajnil to July, during' the whole of that period, 

 each being in England, both acted in the same 

 character r Privy Seals, as I have said, being sent 

 to both, and bills in Chancery being addressed also 

 to Bishop Alcock as chancellor. Rotheram was 

 with the king in France as his chancellor, and is 

 so described on opening the negotiation in August, 

 which led to the disci-editable peace by which 

 Edward made himself a pensioner to the French 

 king. No Privy Seals were addressed to Alcock 

 aftei- September 28 ; which may therefore be 

 considered the close of this double chancellorship, 

 and the date of Bishop Rotheram's return to 

 England. 



AVho knows whether the discovery of this an- 

 cient authority may not suggest to our legislators 

 the division of the title between two possessors 



Vol. til— No. 75. 



