2»a S. IX. Feb. 11. '60. j 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



97 



I have said that this letter is interesting as re- 

 lating to the spiriting uway of gentlewomen and 

 young boys. It is, however, perhaps scarcely cor- 

 rect to apply the term "spiriting away" to Ru- 

 bens and Don Juan de Vasquez for persuading 

 these people to leave their native country for a 

 foreign state. A few years later it might per- 

 haps have been called so by many who then com- 

 plained of somewhat similar practices. 



By reference to one of the volumes of Mr. 

 Bruce's Calendar, Car. I. vol. i. p. 196. art. 23., 

 I find that one John Philipot, bailiff of Sandwich, 

 petitions the council in consequence of an occur- 

 rence somewhat similar to that described in 

 Secretary Coke's letter. The bailiff complains 

 that divers watermen of London had lately con- 

 veyed two boats full of young children to Tilbury 

 Hope, where a ketch stayed to take them to Flan- 

 ders ; and he prays that the Master of the Water- 

 men's Company may be required to bring forth 

 these men, " that so they may answer for this 

 offence, and some remedy may be given for pre- 

 venting the like courses in time to come." This 

 petition is endorsed " Mr. Phillpott about spirits." 



In the early part of the succeeding reign, the 

 practice of spiriting away was much resorted to, 

 and a thriving trade was driven by many "wicked 

 persons" who by fraud or violence sent over 

 "servants" and others to inhabit the then rapidly 

 increasing English plantations abroad. Several 

 petitions were presented to Charles II. and his 

 council from merchants, as well as planters, mas- 

 ters of ships, and others, against " the wicked 

 practise of a lewd sort of people called Spirits and 

 their complices." Complaints were made that there 

 was " a wicked custom to seduce or spirit away 

 young people" to go to the foreign plantations in 

 various capacities; and that such a practice existed 

 seems to have been so universally believed that when 

 any persons, more particularly of inferior station, 

 were about to leave the country, it was concluded 

 that they were spirited away. This led to incal- 

 culable mischief, and many frauds and robberies 

 were committed in consequence. " Evil-minded 

 people " voluntarily offered to go on a voyage, or 

 to settle in a distant colony. They received money, 

 clothes, and other necessaries for their outfit ; but 

 no sooner did the vessel get clear of Gravesend, 

 or put into any port, than they contrived to get 

 away. They pretended they were betrayed, car- 

 ried off without their consent, in fact, spirited 

 away. 



William Haverland, himself " a spirit," in his 

 information taken upon oath, declares that John 

 Steward, of St. Katherine's parish, Middlesex, 

 hath used to spirit persons away beyond the seas 

 for the space of twelve years ; and he several times 

 confessed that " he had spirited away Jive hundred 

 in a year." 



To prevent the evils which must have resulted 



from such extraordinary proceedings, Charles II. 

 granted a commission, in Sept. 1664, to the Duke 

 of York and others to examine all persons before 

 going abroad ; whether " they go voluntarily, 

 without compulsion, or any deceitful or sinister 

 practise whatsoever." At the same time the King 

 erected an " office for taking and registering the 

 consents, agreements, and covenants of such per- 

 sons, male or female, as shall voluntarily go or be 

 sent as servants to any of our plantations in 

 America." It was however, notwithstanding this 

 commission, found necessary to resort to parlia- 

 ment for prevention of these abuses ; and at 

 length, on 18th March, 1670, "An Act" was 

 passed (see Commons' Journal, p. 142.) " to pre- 

 vent stealing and transporting children and other 

 persons ; " whereby any person spiriting away by 

 fraud or enticement, with the design to sell, carry 

 away, or transport any person beyond the sea, 

 shall suffer death as a felon without clergy. 



W. Noel Sainsbury. 



THE NINE MEN'S MORRIS. 



In the note on " The nine men's morris is filled 

 up with mud" (M. N. D., ii. 1.), in the Variorum 

 Shakespeare this game is described by Mr. James, 

 evidently from his own knowledge of it, and a 

 diagram is annexed ; but from neither the de- 

 scription nor the diagram can I form the slightest 

 conception of the manner of playing the game. 

 How, for example, can eighteen men be employed 

 when there are only sixteen places ? It would be 

 well if some resident of Warwickshire were to 

 send the " N. & Q." a more accurate description ; 

 for I suppose it is still played. I have sometimes 

 thought, by the way, that Shakespeare may have 

 made a mistake, and meant the game of " nine- 

 holes," which, as it must be on a flat, was more 

 likely to be affected by the overflow of a river. 



" These figures," says Mr. James, " are, by the 

 country people, called nine mens morris or merrils, 

 and are so called because each party has nine 

 men." Now merril is plainly the French merille 

 or marelle, .of which the following account is 

 given by M. Chabaille in his Supplement to the 

 Roman du Renart : — 



" Le jeu de mirille or marelle, tres en vogue avant l'in- 

 vention des cartes, se joue sur une espece d"lchiquier coupe 

 de lignes qu'on tire des angles et des cole's par le centre. 

 Les deux jouers ont chacun trois jetons qu'ils placent al- 

 ternativement a l'extremite' de cliaque ligne, et celui qui 

 les range le premier sur un meme cote [ligne?] gagne 

 la partie. On nomme aussi marelle un autre jeu d'en- 

 fnnts, oil les joueurs poussent a. cloclie-pied un petit palet 

 dans cliaque carre' d'une espece d'e'chelle trace'e sur le 

 terrain." 



In this last description every one will recognise 

 at once the well-known game of "hop-scotch," 

 called in Ireland " scotch-hop ;" and, as a proof of 

 its Caledonian origin I presume, the highest bed 



