462 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[and S. VI. 153., Dec. 4. '58. 



Tarnaway occur. In Percy's Beliqiies, vol. ii. p. 

 215, note to "Young AVaters," the name of Du- 

 nilbrissel is found : — 



" The seventh of February this year, 1592, the Earle 

 of Murray was cruelly murtbered by the Earle of Hunt- 

 ley at Lis house in Dunilbrissel, Fyffe-shyre," &c. 



Any information as to the identity of the names, 

 and the name of present possessor (if Lord Mer- 

 veny ?) will much oblige Sakah Uvvins. 



Staines. 



[Dujielvessel, now spelt Donibristle, is in the parish of 

 Dalgety, in Fifeshire. It is the seat of the Earl of Moray, 

 and was, in 1592, the scene of the cruel murder of the 

 bonny or handsome Earl, whose charms were supposed to 

 have engaged the heart of Anne of Denmark, and to have 

 excited the jealousy of her royal spouse. The former, at 

 least, was the popular notion of the time : — 

 " He was a braw gallant, 



And he play'd at the gluve ; 

 And the bonny Earl of Murray, 

 Oh ! he was the Queene's love." 

 Tarnaway, now spelt Darnaway, is the name of another 

 seat of the Earl of Moray, in the parish of Dyke in Elgin- 

 shire. For a description of it see Statistical Account of 

 Scotland, xiii. 222. (Elginshire), and Carlisle's Topog. 

 JJict. of Scotland, art. Dyke.] 



Maryland, U. S. — After whom was it so 

 called ? Abhba. 



[Maryland was named from Henrietta Maria, Queen of 

 Charles 1., who was called Queen Mary by the King and 

 her Court. Charles I. granted a charter for the territoiy 

 to Lord Baltimore in 1632.] 



Fadera. — Are there any good collections of 

 treatises published, besides Rymer's well-known 

 work ? I shall feel greatly obliged if some kind 

 reader will furnish a list. Herbert. 



[We know only of Rj'mer's work quoted by our corre- 

 spondent. There are in the British Museum fifty-nine 

 folio volumes of unpublished documents collected by 

 Rymer for his great work. They extend from the reign 

 of Henry III. to Elizabeth, and are numbered Add. MSS. 

 4573—4630.] 



PARISH KEGISTEKS. 



(2»« S. vi. 379.) 



I have recently devoted two months (off and 

 on) to the examination of the contents of the pa- 

 rish chest belonging to Sidmouth, Devon, with 

 the consent of the vicar and churchwardens. 

 Apart from my general turn for antiquarian and 

 genealogical pursuits, I was moved to do this for 

 the sake of historical research relating to my own 

 neighbourhood. What is called the Parish Regis- 

 ter, that is, the register of marriages, births, and 

 deaths (why do the newspapers wrongly put the 

 births before the marriages ?), is commonly kept 

 at the vicarage house in all parts of the country, 

 I presume for the greater convenience of making 



the entries. This is a reprehensible practice. 

 These important books, by being pushed away 

 into any odd corner, or, as Mr. Lakgmead and 

 Mr. Bruce say, with too much truth, into damp 

 places under stairs, or into back kitchens, become 

 looked upon with indifference, and then are treated 

 with neglect. It is astonishing to me that the 

 Bishops, and Deans and Chapters, do not exercise 

 an authority over these things. If careless minis- 

 ters are not amenable to any power, what hope is 

 there of their amendment? The mere fiict of 

 being a clergyman does not make a man an anti- 

 quary. But this is not the point. The clergy- 

 man who, by neglect, allows injury to come to 

 these records, betrays a trust which had been re- 

 posed in him when he was presented to his parish. 

 Is this strong language ? That, however, is not 

 the question. The question is this — am I stating ' 

 things true or false ? A few years ago the vicar- 

 age house in a parish not far from where I live, 

 was accidentally burnt down ; the registers, ac- 

 cording to the much-to-be-condemned practice, 

 being kept in it. Some time after this, when a 

 new house had been erected on the site of the old 

 one, I was sitting with the vicar in his dining- 

 room, listening to an account of the accident. I 

 inquired after the fate of the registers, when I 

 was told that they were spoilt, and of no farther 

 use. But manifesting a curiosity to see them, a 

 servant was summoned, and told to bying in " that 

 basket from the back parlour." An old basket 

 was brought in, at the bottom of which lay two or 

 three lumps of what looked like half-burnt pieces 

 of wood. The fire had surrounded them, and re- 

 duced them to charcoal, all but a mass in the 

 centre, fortunately containing the greater part of 

 the writing. The inch of margin round the writ- 

 ing was a cinder ; and the heat had cockled and 

 twisted up all the rest so much that it was im- 

 possible to separate the skins of vellum. The 

 worthy vicar seemed surprised that I should think 

 there was now any value in these remains, or that 

 I should lay any stress upon the fact that they 

 still ought to be carefully preserved. It was 

 after this visit that I wrote to "K & Q." (P' S. 

 X. 106.) to make inquiry about the restoration of 

 singed vellum. Mr. Langmead comments on the 

 neglected state of the registers in the IFesf of Eng- 

 land, as far as his own observation went ; and with 

 respect to the Eastern part of the country, I may 

 remark, that I did not find them much better last 

 year, when I examined several, in pursuit of some 

 genealogical inquiries relating to my own ances- 

 toi's. I scarcely know what to think of the plan 

 of sending them all to the Record Offices in Chan- 

 cery Lane ; and the Editor points out some diffi- 

 culties. If that were done, attested copies ought 

 of course to be left in the various parishes for 

 local reference ; but would not the originals be 

 safe in a parish chest, especially if of iron, kept in 



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