268 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2b4 S. IX. April 7. '60. 



On the reverse, in the field, is a ship on fire, and 

 •within the legend line is the motto, urens won 

 ltjcens. Under the ship is xni. Sep., and in the 

 exergue below a. je. c. mdccxxxxii. 



Can the junk-ship medals be those alluded to 

 by Major Heise as made of the precious metals ? 

 Of the gold medals to the generals, and silver 

 ones to the Hanoverians, there can now be no 

 question; but of the issue of gold and silver 

 medals to the entire garrison there certainly is 

 great doubt, and so there is of the issue of copper 

 ones ; but the existence of one only is sufficient to 

 give colour to the belief that there was a general 

 distribution of the junk-ship sort. 



There is, as you will see, muck curious confu- 

 sion about these medals which it would be worth 

 while to investigate, since it seems there is no 

 mention of the whole facts in any work with 

 which the military world is acquainted. If it be 

 established that medals were distributed to every 

 officer and soldier at the siege, probably this is 

 the first service so recognised in this country, by 

 any general or government. 



A friend whom I employed to make inquiries 

 about this junk-ship medal informed me it was 

 the only one he ever saw at the fortress ; and 

 from this I conclude it must be very rare. 



M. S. R. 



Brompton Barracks. 



SHAKSPEARE'S JUG. 



(2 nd S. ix. 198.) 



Having for many years been in the habit of 

 preserving cuttings from magazines, newspapers, 

 &c, from any scrap in which historical information 

 relating to Shakspeare occurs, I have among my 

 Shakspeariana the advertisement of the sale of 

 the Shakspeare jug by auction at Tewkesbury on 

 the 11th May, 1841. I have preserved also a 

 copy of A Feiv Remarks, Traditionary and De- 

 scriptive, respecting the celebrated Shakspeare Jug 

 publicly exhibited at the Great Industrial Exhi- 

 bition of 1853 by permission of Mrs. Fletcher of 

 Glocesler, written by the Firm of Messrs. Kerr, 

 Binns & Co. of Worcester, Mrs. Fletcher having 

 entrusted them with it to manufacture at their 

 China Works a perfect facsimile. Messrs. Kerr 

 & Co. give the following history and authentication 

 of the jug : — 



" As this interesting relic was never, until the last three 

 years, out of the possession of the collateral descendants 

 of the ' immortal bard of Avon,' it becomes necessary to 

 trace its history. Its present possessor purchased it from 

 a daughter of the late James Kingsbury, Esq., of Tewkes- 

 bury, whose wife inherited it from her mother. This 

 lady, whose name was Richardson, was, through her 

 husband, whom she survived, related to the Hart family, 

 direct, descendants of Shakspere's sister Joan; and the 

 Harts having fallen into depressed circumstances, gave 

 up the Jug to their relative, Mr. Richardson, in compen- 



sation for a considerable debt owing to him about 1787. 

 Sarah Hart, who thus disposed of the Jug, was fifth in 

 descent from Shakspere's sister Joan, who married Wil- 

 liam Hart, of Stratford-on-Avon, and previously to this 

 the Harts had constantly kept the Jug as brought into 

 their family by Joan Shakspere. 



"It appears from Shakspere's will, that he left his sister 

 Joan all his wearing apparel, together with the house in 

 which he was born, besides which, other property that 

 had been Shakspere's was devised to the Hart family by 

 Lady Barnard, the granddaughter of Shakspere, in whom 

 the line of Shakspere's own body terminated. It therefore 

 becomes certain that various relics of Shakspere were at 

 one time in their possession. Of these, however, none 

 appear to have been treasured with an}' care except this 

 Jug, which was ever denominated Shakspere's, as having 

 truly belonged to the immortal bard. 



"The subsequent history of the Jug is as follows: — It 

 descended to Miss Richardson, who married James Kings- 

 bury, Esq., of Tewkesbury, and from them it passed to 

 her daughter, who sold it to Edwin Lees, Esq., of Fort- 

 hampton Cottage, and thus for a period it passed out of 

 the family. In May, 1841, it was offered for sale among 

 Mr. Lees' other effects, and some members of the Hart 

 family attended in the hope of getting back amongst 

 them this interesting relic and link of connection between 

 them and Shakspere ; but the price went higher than 

 their means, and it was knocked down to Mr. Jame3 Ben- 

 nett, printer, of Tewkesbury, for twenty guineas and the 

 auction duty. Mr. Bennett sold it to Miss Turberville, a 

 lady residing near Cheltenham, for 30/., and in June last 

 it was again offered for sale by auction among the other 

 property of the last-named lady. Mrs. Fletcher, of Glou- 

 cester, who is descended from the Harts, was among the 

 bidders for the Jug. Several other persons also attended 

 for the purpose of purchasing it; but in consideration of 

 the anxiety which Mrs. Fletcher evinced to get back into 

 her family a relic which was so greatly prized, they with- 

 drew their opposition, and allowed her to be the purchaser 

 at 19 guineas and the auction duty. Now, Mrs. Fletcher 

 and her husband are in that situation in life to whom the 

 setting up a fraudulent and fictitious character for this 

 Jug would be seriously injurious; but they are also not 

 so affluent as to make it a matter of indifference that they 

 should spend 19 guineas uselessly. Indeed, nothing hut 

 a strong feeling of family ties and pride of Shaksperian 

 ancestry could have induced them to make such a sacri- 

 fice of money, which has been further very greatly in- 

 creased by the handsome and elaborately carved case 

 which they caused to be manufactured in order to pre- 

 serve their cherished relic from accidental injury. 



" The authentic history of this Jug, then, goes so far 

 back as the lifetime of Sarah Hart, born in 1730, or there- 

 abouts; previously to which time it had evidently been a 

 household god in the Hart family. It is true the Jug is 

 not mentioned in Shakspere's will. It would be very 

 surprising if it were : it had no intrinsic value. As well 

 might we expect him to enumerate all his domestic 

 utensils. Its value accrued after the great poet's death, 

 and was prized because it had been Shakspere's, and not 

 from any preciousness of material or manufacture ; and 

 yet for the time at which it was made, it is an interesting 

 artistic curiosity, — while the groups of Heathen divinities, 

 with which it is surrounded, add to the regard in which 

 it cannot fail to be held by any person at all familiar with 

 the writings of the immortal bard, and who can call to 

 mind the numberless mythological allusions with which 

 his plays abound." 



Should the editor of " N. & Q." receive no other 

 and more authentic reply to the question of his 



