16 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2 n <» S. IX. Jaw. 7. '60. 



where was many thynges practesed. Gaston hadde an 

 old wyffe who was leyde under the horde alle nyght for 

 deade, and when the womene in the mornynge came too 

 wynde her, they founde thatt ther was lyffe in her, and 

 so recovered her, and she lived abouts too yeres after. 



" By the resworte off souche as came to seke for thynges 

 stollen and lost, wiche they wolde hyde for the nonst, to 

 bleare ther husehandes' ies withalle, saynge ' the wyse 

 mane tolde them,' off souche Gastone hadde choyce for 

 hyra selffe and his frendes, younge la\ver3 of the Temple." 



To the name of " Gastone " I Lave appended 

 this note : — 



" This is probably the true name, and not Gascoigne. 

 One of the Knights of the Bath made at the coronation 

 of Queen Mary was Sir Henry Gaston. 



And in the Appendix I have added these 

 further remarks : — 



" The authors of the Alhence Cantubrigienses, vol. i. 

 p. 374. are inclined to ' fear ' that this was George Gas- 

 coigne, afterwards distinguished as a poet. Still there is 

 room to hope to the contrary, not only because Gas- 

 coigne's flowers of poesy did not begin to bud until 1562, 

 whereas poets generally show themselves at an early age : 

 but further, because ' Gastone the lawyer ' had ' "an old 

 wife ' as early as the date of UnderhiU's anecdotes, that 

 is, about 1551." 



The names Gascoigne and Gaston are, I pre- 

 sume, really distinct, and not interchangeable, 

 like Berkeley and Burtlett, Fortescue and Foslteiu, 

 Throckmorton and Frogmorton, Foljambe and 

 Fulgeham, and some others : but of this I am not 

 sure, and should be glad to be further informed. 



John Gougii Nichols. 



We beg to refer G. H. K. to Strype's Memo- 

 rials, ii. 114. Strype cites Foxii MSS. 



C. H. & Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



BARONY OF BROUGHTOX 

 TRIAL. 



REMARKABLE 



(2 ai S. viii. 376. 438.) 



Although, as G. J. says, there never were a 

 provost and bailies of the barony of Broughton, 

 there existed at the beginning of last century, and 

 long previously, a court presided over by a Baron 

 Bailie appointed by the superior of the barony 

 and regality of Broughton (otherwise Brochtoun 

 and Burghton), who also possessed the office of 

 Justiciar.* At one time the burgh and regality of 

 Canongate, part of Leith, and lands in the coun- 

 ties of Haddington, Linlithgow, Stirling, and 

 Peebles, were included under his j urisdietion, whih 

 originally the whole formed part of the lordship 

 of Holyrood House. The magistrates of Edin- 

 burgh afterwards acquired the superiority of 

 Canongate and other lands, and the Governors of 



* Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchineule had a charter in 

 1591 of the barony of Broughton, and his grandson Sir 

 William Bellenden was, 10 June, 1CG1, created Lord Bel- 

 lenden of Broughton. 



Heriot's Hospital the greater part of the remain- 

 der. A remarkable instance of the exercise by 

 this court of the highest criminal jurisdiction oc- 

 curred 142 years ago.* Two boys, the sons of 

 Mr. Gordon of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, were mur- 

 dered on 28th April, 1717, by their tutor Robert 

 Irvine, in revenge for their having blabbed some 

 moral indiscretion on his part which they had wit- 

 nessed. This took place on a spot now forming 

 part of the new town of Edinburgh, but then open 

 ground, and, being in sight of the Castle Hill, 

 it is said persons walking there saw the deed 

 committed. The murderer was taken red-hand, 

 i. e. immediately after the fact, and put on his 

 trial on 30th April before the Baron Court of 

 Broughton, when, being convicted by a jury, he 

 was sentenced to be hanged next day at Green- 

 side (now a part of Edinburgh), having his hands 

 first struck off. This sentence was accordingly 

 carried into execution on 1st May, and his body 

 was thrown into a quarry hole near the place of 

 the murder. In this the bailie followed the usage 

 of inferior criminal courts possessed of such juris- 

 diction, of trying and executing criminals within 

 three suns, although the act 1695, cap. 4, ex- 

 tended the time of execution to a period not ex- 

 ceeding nine days after sentence. In such an 

 atrocious case there could be no room for the 

 royal mercy. It has been erroneously stated that 

 the perpetrator of this crime was taken before the 

 Lord Provost of Edinburgh as High Sheriff, who 

 had him tried, convicted, sentenced, and executed 

 within twenty-four hours. This is negatived by 

 the above facts, which are derived from the con- 

 temporary notices contained in three numbers of 

 the Scots Ccurant newspaper. It certainly seems 

 startling that at that period the comparatively 

 humble judge of a court of barony and regality 

 to the south of the Forth should have exercised 

 such high functions, and that these powers still 

 existed in 1747, when the Heritable Jurisdiction 

 Abolition Act (20 Geo. II. c. 43.) was passed. 



R. R. 



Bocardo (2 nd S. viii. 270.) — It is here stated 

 (on the authority of Nares) that Bocardo was 

 " the old north gate of Oxford, taken down in 

 1771," and used as a prison. The following ad- 

 ditional information may be acceptable. 



In the Preface to Pointer's Oroniensis Academia, 

 the aiithor says : — 



" Bocardo (which is now— i. e. 1749 — the City Prison 

 for Debtors and Felons) was then (i. e. the thirteenth 

 century) their Public Library, where not only Books 

 were kept, but University Records preserv'd." 



* On a previous occasion, John Balleny, bailie of the 

 regality of Broughton, having waived his privilege of 

 exclusive jurisdiction in a case of murder, took his seat 

 as cojusticiar on the bench of the Supreme Justice Court, 

 14 February, 1621. 



