266 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 75. 



the Fellow tliat sat in his place cried, Tu autem. Some 

 have been at a loss for the meaning of this ; but it 

 is the beginning of ihe suffrage, which was supposed 

 to follow the reading of the Scripture, which the read- 

 ing scholar was to continue by saying Miserere met, 

 Domine. But at last it came to mean no more than 

 to be a cue to the reader to desist or give over."] 



BARONS OF HUGH LUPUS. 



(Vol. iii., pp. 87. 189.) 



The inquiry of P., in p. 87., seems to indicate 

 an impression that all the witnesses to the charter 

 of Hugh Lupus to Chester Abbey were barons of 

 the Palatinate, but only a few of them were such, 

 the rest being of England generally. 



The original barons of the Paktiinate were 

 clearly distinguishable by possession of privileges 

 confirmed to them by a well-known charter of 

 Earl Ranulph III. ; and all the Norman founders 

 of their baronies will be found, under Cestrescire, 

 in Domesday, as ten.ants in capite, from the Earl 

 Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county. 



Sigod de Loges (one of the subjects of P.'s in- 

 quiry) win not bear this test, unless he was iden- 

 tical with Bigot, Norman lord of the manors 

 afterwards comprised in Aldfbrd Fee, which is not 

 known to have been the case. For this last-named 

 Bigot, whose lands descended through the Alfords 

 to Arderne, reference may be made to the History 

 of Cheshire, i. xxix., n. 411. 



William Malbanc, the other subject of inquiry, 

 who lias eluded M. J. T.'s searches, is easily iden- 

 tified. He was the Norman baron of Nantwich, 

 the Willclmus Malbedeng of the Domesday Sur- 

 vey (vol. i. p. 265. col. 2.), and the nnnie is also 

 written thus in the copy of H. Lupus's charter 

 referred to, which was ratified under inspection 

 by Guncelyn de Badlesmere, Justiciary of Chester 

 in 8 Edw. L 



The charter, with Badlesmere's attestation pre- 

 fixed, will be found in Leycester's Cheshire Anti- 

 quities, p. 109., and in Ormerod's Hist, of Cheshire, 

 vol. i. p. 12. In the latter work, in vol. iii., the 

 inquirer will also find an account of William Mal- 

 bedeng or Malbanc, his estates, his descendant 

 coheirs, and their several subdivisions, extending 

 from p. 217. to p. 222., under the proper head of 

 Nantwich or Wich Malbanc, a still existing Pala- 

 tine barony; Lancabteiensis. 



Tour correspondent M. J. T. says it appears 

 from — 



" The MS. Catalogue of the Norman nobility before 

 the Conquest, that Robert and Roger de Loges pos- 

 sessed lordships in the districts of Coutances in Nor- 

 mandy." 



Will be be so good as to say what MS. Catalogue 

 he refers to? He seems to speak of the MS. 



Catalogue of Norman nobility as if it were some 

 well-known public and authentic record. Q. G. 



EDMUND PEIDEAUX AND THE FIRST POST-OmCB. 



(Vol. iii., p. 186.) 



In a recent nuniber of " Notes and Queries " 

 (which, by the way, I have only recently become 

 acquainted with) I saw the Queries of your corre- 

 spondent G. P. P. upon the above subject, and 

 having some time ago had occasion to investigate 

 it, I accumulated a mass of notes from various 

 sources, — and these I send you, rougii and un- 

 polished as they are, in the hope that in the ab- 

 sence of better information, they may prove to be 

 acceptable. 



Herodotus (viii. 98.) mentions the existence of 

 a method of communication among the Persians, 

 by means of horsemen placed at certain distances. 



In the Close and Misag Rolls (temp. King John 

 et post) payments are recorded for nuncii who were 

 charged with the carriage of letters. 



In 1481, Edward IV., during his war with Scot- 

 land, established horse riders at posts twenty 

 miles apart, by which letters were conveyed two 

 hundred miles in two days (Gale's Hist. Croy- 

 land) ; and the Scottish Parliament issued an 

 ordinance for facilitating the expedition of couriers 

 throushout the kinjjdom. Carriers of letters also 

 existed In England about this time, for in a letter 

 from Sir J. Paston, written in 1471, we are in- 

 formed that " Courby, the earlier, hath had 40(i. 

 for the third hired horse," for a journey from 

 Norwich to London and back. (Fenn's Paston 

 Letters, 4to. vol. v. p. 73.) 



In 1542, letters reached Edinburgh on the fourth 

 day from their despatch from London. (Sadler's 

 Letters and Negociations.) 



In 1548, the rate to be charged for post-horse 

 hire was fixed by statute (2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. 3.) 

 at one penny per mile. 



In 1581 (according to Camden), Thomas Ran- 

 dolph was aj)polnted the first Chief Postmaster of 

 all England. 



James I. established (date unknown) the office 

 of Foreign Postmaster, which was first held by 

 Mathewe le Questor. 



In 1631, Charles I. appointed AVilllam Frizell 

 and Thomas Witherings (in revereion) to the sole 

 management of the foreign post-office. And at 

 this date it seems a regular home post was also 

 carried on, as appeai-s by the following entry from 

 the Corporation Books of Great Yarmouth : — 

 " 1631. Agreed, June 6, with the Postmaster of 

 Ipswich to have Quarterly 20*. paid him for carry- 

 ing and bringing lettei*s to and from London tO 

 Yarmouth for the vse of the Towne." 



In 1635, Charles I. Issued a proclamation for 

 the establishment of " a running post or two, to 



