340 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 105. 



behaviour had furnished a contrast with that of 

 Vane, was sent to Guernsey, and remained a 

 prisoner for thirty years." Mr. Hallam does not 

 quote his autliority for this st.atement, whicli I 

 also find in the older biographical dictionaries. 

 There exists, however, in the library of (he Ply- 

 jnouth Athensiun, a MS. record which a])parently 

 .contradicts it. Tiiis is a volume called Pliminoitth 

 Memoirs, collected by James Yoyige, 1684. It 

 contains " a Catalogue of all the Mayors, tngetlier 

 with the memorable occurrences in their respective 

 years," beginning in 1440. Yonge himself lived 

 in Plymouth, and the later entries are therefore 

 made from I'is own knowledge. There are two 

 concerning Lambert : 



" 1667. Lambert, the arch-rebeU, brought prisoner to 

 fhis Hand." 



[The Island of St. Nicholas at the entrance of the 

 harbour, fortified from a very early period.] 



" 1 68.'?, Easter day. My Lord Dartmouth arrived 

 in Plimm". from Tangier. In March, Sir G. Jeffry, 

 the fanxously [Query, infamous! i/~\ loyal I.,ord Cliief 

 Justice, came hither from Launceston assize : lay at 

 the IMayor's : viewed y* citadells, M'. Edgecumhe, &c. 



" The winter of this yeare proved very seveare. East 

 wind, frost, and snow, continued three moneths ; so tliat 

 ships were starved in the mouth of the channell, and 

 almost all the cattel famisht. Y<' tish left y'^' coast al- 

 most 5 moneths. All provisions excessive deare ; and 

 had we not had a frequent supply from y'' East, come 

 would have been at 30'. ])er bushell, — above l.'iO.OOO 

 husliells b^'ing imported hither, besides what \s-ent to 

 Dartm"., Fawy, &c. 



" The Tliames was frozen up some moneths, so that 

 it became a smdl citty, with boothcs, coftee bouses, 

 taverns, glasse houses, printing, bull-baiting;, shops of 

 all sorts, and whole streetes made on it. The birdes of 

 the aire died numerously. Lambert, that olde rehell, 

 dyed this winter on Plimm'^. Island, where he had been 

 prisoner 15 years and mo." 



The trial of Lambert took place in 1661. He 

 may have been sent at first to Guernsey, but 

 could onlv have remained there until removed in 

 1667 to Plymouth. His imprisonment altogether 

 lasted twenty-one years. 



Lambert's removal to Plymouth has, I believe, 

 been hitherto unnoticed. Probably it was thought 

 a safer (and certainly, if he were confined in the 

 little island of St. Nicholas, it was a severer) 

 prison than Guernsey. Eichakd John King. 



THE CAXTON COFFETl. 



An opinion prevails that biographers who lived 

 nearest the times of the individuals whom they 

 commemorate are most entitled to belief, as having 

 at command the best sources of information. To 

 this rule, however, there are numerous exceptions; 

 for time, which casts some facts into oblivion, also 



produces fresh materials for historians and bio- 

 graphers. 



It is certainly advisable to consult the earliest 

 memoir of an individual in whose fate we take aa 

 interest, and even each successive memoir, in order 

 that we may trace the more important historical 

 particulars., and such ciitical opinions as seem to 

 require discussion, to their true source. The 

 result of some comparisons of this description, oa 

 former occasions, has almost led me to consider 

 biographers as mere copyists — or, at the best, 

 artists in patch-work. I shidl now compare, on 

 one point, the earlier biographers of .Caxton : — 



" GvLlhelmus Caxton, .Anglus — bahitavit interim in 

 Flandria 30 annis cum domina Margareta Burgundiae 

 ducissa regis Edwardi sorore." — Joannes Bai-e, 1559.. 



" Gvilhelmvs Caxtonus, natione Anglus. Vir plus, 

 doctus, etc. In Flandria qu idem tiiginta annis vixit 

 cum Margareta Burgundiae duce, regis Edwardi quarti 

 sorore." — .Joannes PixsF.us, 1619. 



" William Caxton, born in that town [sc. Caxton!]. 

 He liad most of l)is edticatiun beyond the seas, living 

 SO years in the court of Margaret dutcliesse of Bur- 

 gundy, sistea- to king Edward the Fourth, whence I 

 conclude him an Anti-Lancastrjan in his affection."..™. 

 'I'liomas FuLLEK, 166'J, 



" William Caxton — was a menial servant, for thirty 

 years together, to Margaret dutchess of Burgundy, 

 sister to our king Edward IV., in Flanders." — William 

 NiCOLSON, 1714. 



" Gulielmus Caxton natus in sylvestri regione Can- 

 tiae ; in Flandria, Bvabantia, Ilollandia, Zelandia xxx 

 annis cum domina Margareta, l^urgundiae ducissa, regis 

 Edwardi IV. sorore vixit." — Thomas Tannerus, 1748, 



Now, according to Fabian, Stow, and others, 

 JMargaret of York was jnariied to Charles duke of 

 Burgundy in 1468 ; and if Ca.xton did not return 

 to England about the year 14/1, as Stow asserts, 

 he was certainly established at Westminster in 

 1477. The thi?-ty years of the learned writers 

 must therefore be reduced to less than ten years! 



The discrepancy between these writers, on 

 another important point, is not less remarkable 

 than their agreement in error, as above-described. 

 Pits says Caxton flourished in 14S3 ; Fuller, that 

 he died in 1486; and Tanner, that ha flourished 

 about 1483, and died in 1491. Shakspere died in 

 1616 : in what jear did he flourish ? 



Bolton Corset. 



diHftior IJntfiS. 



A Hint to Catalogue Malters. — Among the 

 many excellent schemes proposed for the arrange- 

 ment and diffusion of common means of inform- 

 ation, one simple one appears to have been passed 

 over by your many and excellent correspondents. 

 I will briefly illustrate an existing deficiency b}' an 

 example. 



