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Michael Cresap.-Mr. Jefferson, in his "Notes on the State of Virginia," page 91, says: "Colonel Cresap, a man infamous for his many murders," killed the family of Logan, a Mingo chief." Mr. Jefferson was utterly mistaken in charging that Colonel Cresap was "a man infamous for his many murders," or that he killed the family of Logan. Cresap was the first captain appointed by the State of Maryland, in 1776, and lies buried in the Trinity grave-yard, in New York. I was born in Ohio, near the scene of that murder, and in my boyhood have heard, time and again, from the old men of that part of the country, men who were present, the facts connected with that murder.

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Lenet-Monat.-The picture in the Saxon Calendar now gives us distinctly the seed time. But the tools of the laborers are the spade and the pick-axe. We are looking upon the garden operations of the industrious Saxons. They called this month " Lenet-Monat," length-month (from the lengthening of the days); Verstegan says: "and this month being by our ancestors so called when they received Christianity, and consequently therewith the ancient Christian custom of fasting, they called this chief season of fasting the fast of Lenet, because of the Lenet-Monat, wherein the most parts of the time of this fasting always fell."

The great season of abstinence from flesh, and the regular recurrence through the year of days of fasting, rendered a provision for the supply of fish to the population a matter of deep concern to their ecclesiastical instructors. In the times when the Pagan Saxons were newly converted to Christianity, the missionaries were the great civilizers, and taught the people how to avail themselves of the abundant supply which the sea offered to the skillful and the enterprising. Bede tells us that Wilfred so taught the people of Sussex. "The bishop, when he came into the province, and found so great

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misery of famine, taught them to get their food by fishing. Their sea and rivers abounded in fish, and yet the people had no skill to take them, except only eels. The bishop's men having gathered eel-nets everywhere, cast them into the sea, and by the help of God took three hundred fishes of several sorts, the which being divided into three parts, they gave a hundred to the poor, a hundred to those of whom they had the nets, and kept a hundred for their own use." The Anglo-Saxons had oxen and sheep, but their chief reliance for flesh meat, especially through the winter season, was upon the swine, which, although private property, fed by thousands in the vast woods with which the country abounded. Our word Bacon is "of the beechen-tree, anciently called bucon, and whereas swine's flesh is now called by the name of bacon, it grew only at the first unto such as were fatted with bucon or beech mast." As abundant as the swine were the eels that flourished in their ponds and ditches. The consumption of this species of fish appears from many incidental circumstances to have been very great. Rents were pad in eels, boundaries of lands were defined by cel-dykes, and the monasteries required a regular supply of eels from their tenants and dependents. We find, however, that the people had a variety of fish, if they could afford to purchase of the industrious laborers in the deep. In the Dialogues of Alfric," which we have already quoted from Mr. Turner, there is the following colloquy with a fisherman: “What gettest thou by thine art?-Big loaves, clothing and money. How do you take them ?-I ascend my ship, and cast my net into the river, I also throw in a hook, a bait and a rod. Suppose the fishes are unclean?—I throw the unclean out, and take the clean for food. Where do you sell your fish? In the city. Who buys them ?—The citizens; I cannot take so many as I can sell. What fishes do you take?—Eels, haddocks, minnies, and eel-pouts, skate and lampreys, and whatever swims in the river. Why do you not fish in the sea?-Sometimes I do; but rarely, because a great ship is necessary there. What do you take in the sea?-Herrings and salmons, porpoises, sturgeons, oysters, and crabs, muscles, wincles, cockles, flounders, plaice, lobsters, and such like. Can you take a whale ?-No, it is dangerous to take a whale; it is safer for me to go to the river with my ship than to go with many ships to hunt whales. Why?-Because it is more pleasant for me to take fish which I can kill with one blow, yet many take whales without danger, and then they get a great price; but I dare not from the fearfulness of my mind." We thus see that three centuries after Wilfred had taught the people of Sussex to obtain something more from the waters than the rank eels in their mud ponds, the produce of the country's fishery had become an article of regular exchange. The citizens bought of the fisherman as much fish as he could seil; the fisherman obtained big loaves and clothing from the citizens. The enterprise which belongs to the national character did not rest satisfied with the herrings and salmons of the sea. Though the little fisherman crept along his shore, there were others who went with many ships to hunt whales. We cannot have a more decisive indication of the general improvement which had followed in the wake of Christianity, even during a period of constant warfare with predatory invaders.

An Old Family Bible.-I wish to seek, through the me dium of the MONTHLY, for information respecting an ol Family Bible. My ancestor, John Lawes, came to this country from England in 1672, and entered a grant of lani on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, on Deal's Island and the mainland adjoining, and in Accomac County, Virginia, near what is now Modesttown. His eldest son, John, was Sur veyor of Accomac until after the year 1700, and then s his lands and went to near Snow Hill, Maryland. The t John Lawes, who came from England, brought with him the old Family Bible, a large quarto, which tradition says coa £40 sterling. It contained, on a large sheet in it, the family genealogical tree. At the death of John Lawes, about 1600, this Bible was left, by special devise in the will, to his clust son, John, the Surveyor of Accomac, and descended in s family until the death of his grandson, Elijah Laws, whe lived a few miles from Snow Hill, and at the sale of has effects, about 1812, was said to have been purchased by 1 Colonel Houston. There is an old lady, a daughter of Fish Laws, living now near Moor's Hill, Indiana, who recollers distinctly the old Bible and the fact of its having been sil with her father's goods. I am very desirous to obtain trace of it, and if any of your readers can give me informatico leading to its recovery, it will be duly appreciated by

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The Utica (N. Y.) Observer mentions as a fact which has not been used by any of Poe's biographers that the t was a grandson of Benedict Arnold, his mother hasing kan a natural daughter of the traitor. BALI MOLE

Van Braght's Martyr's Mirror.-Can any reader di the MONTHLY inform me where I can procure, and hw much I shall have to pay for a copy of Van Braght's Mars tyr's Mirror, published at Ephrata, Lancaster County. There are not many of them about, on account of a large part of tor edition being seized upon to be used for cartri lys at the battle of Brandywine.

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The Oldham Line of the Neville Family. In answer to the inquiry in relation to the Oldham family (page 145 of the MONTHLY for February), I will state that Winifred Oldhim was a daughter of John Oldham and Anne his wife; she was born November 19, 1736, and on the 24th of August, 1754, she married Captain (afterwards General) John Neville; she had a brother, Captain Oldham, killed at the Larle of Eutaw Springs, September 8, 1781. Another brother, Colonel William Oldham, commanded the Kentucky troops in St. Clair's unfortunate expedition against the Indians, and fell in the disastrous fight of November 4th, 1791. Winifred's sister, Mary Anne, married Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, an officer of the Maryland Line in the Revolution.

To go back: John Oldham (the father of Winifred) was born in 1705, and was a son of Colonel Samuel Oldham and Elizabeth his wife, of Westmoreland County, Virginia. Samuel was born in 1680, and was a worthy, prominent, and influential man; he died about 1760-62. I have not been able to ascertain positively his father's name; but his grandfather was John Oldham, who emigrated to Virginia from England in March, 1635, and left two sons, John and Thomas, one of whom was the father of Colonel Samuel Oldham John Oldham, the emigrant, in an old deed, speaks of his "grandson, Samuel Oldham, of Westmoreland County."

the Loire, seven miles from Nantes, he took both with him; and that this one is amply authenticated by successive family testimony. We are told, too, that it is believed that Charles Polk was connected with the American army, in what relation the "belief" does not specify. Henry T. Tuckerman, in his charming gossip about "American Artist Life," in his "Book of the Artists," says, on page 45: "More than one portrait of Washington and a few of his cotemporaries bear the name of Polke, who passed a year or so in America. One of the former was found at Leesburg, on the estate of Arthur Lee, and sent to Washington City during the war, but returned by the Government at its close. Some of the portraits have characteristic merits." Now, who was this Polk or Polke? was he an Englishman "who passed a year or two in America," or a member of the American army, and thus an American, whether native or foreign born? In either case, what was his anterior and posterior history?

THE EDITOR.

Andrew Allen.-In the "Public Ledger Almanac" for 1876, page 7, I find the following: "Of the nine delegates appointed by Pennsylvania seven only were present on July Ist in Committee of the Whole. Edward Biddle was sick, and Andrew Allen had joined, or was about to join, the Perhaps it may be proper to add that Winifred Oldham | British." Then, on page 9, I find: "Biddle was sick; Neville was the mother of Colonel Presley Neville, who | Dickinson, Humphreys and Willing were opposed to indemarried Nancy, daughter of General Daniel Morgan, and of! pendence. Allen had become alarmed at the progress of Amelia, who married Major Isaac Craig, of the Fourth Pennsylvania (commonly called Proctor's) Regiment of Artillery in the Revolutionary army. GENEALOGIST.

The Preble-Tripoli Medal.-The Boston Herald of a late date contains the following:

"A CURIOUS MEDAL.-A large copper medal of a peculiar character was brought into St. Louis a few days ago, by Col. Maupin, of Franklin County, who intends presenting it to the Centennial Commission. The medal is two inches in diameter, and weighs three ounces. On its face it bears a portrait of a naval officer, with an inscription which is illegible, and on the reverse a naval battle scene is depicted, with the inscription: Vindici Commercii Americani Ante Tripoli. MDCCCIV. The medal was evidently struck to commemorate the destruction, by the American fleet, of the system of levying blackmail on civilized commerce, which had been in use for ages by the Barbary States; but how on earth such a curious relic came to be buried in the soil of a farm in Missouri is at present a mystery."

This is one of the copies in copper of the celebrated Preble-Tripoli Medal, awarded to Commodore Edward Preble upon his return from the expedition against Tripoli.

J. H. M.

Charles Polk, the Artist.-In our record of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, on page 235, we mention an original portrait of George Washington, recently presented to that Society, painted at Valley Forge by Charles Polk, and shall be obliged to any of our readers who can favor us with information concerning the artist. The portrait differs from all others that we have ever seen, showing creditable individuality on the part of the painter. All we have been able to learn of the matter is that Charles Polk painted two portraits, one of Commodore John J. Audubon and this one of Washington; that, when the Commodore went to his home on

affairs, was opposed to independence, and in December, 1776, put himself under the protection of General Howe." Now, can the MONTHLY tell anything concerning the Andrew Allen of the above delegation? WALTER DEANE.

REPLY.-We have spent no little time in seeking information in response to the above, and all we have secured amounts to little more than is given in the "Almanac," as quoted by Mr. Deane. Mr. Allen was a son of William Allen, Chief-Justice of Pennsylvania from 1750 to 1774, when, being a loyalist, he went to England, and there published "The American Crisis" [London, 1774], a pamphlet suggesting a plan for reconciling the Government and Colonies. Judge Allen had three sons, John, Andrew and William. Of John we know nothing; William was for a time an officer in the American Army, and a "conservative" patriot; as soon as the independence of the Colonies became the American policy, he asked and obtained of the Congress leave to resign his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel. Andrew followed his father's profession, becoming a lawyer of considerable local repute; in 1774, upon Benjamin Chew's elevation to the Chief-Justiceship, Andrew Allen was made his successor as Attorney-General of Pennsylvania. November 4th (not 3d), 1775, he was elected one of the nine delegates from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress, and in the Journal record of the Congress for that day we find he was in attendance, as he was named on a committee; from that day, we find his name occasionally in the Journal, until the month of March, after which his name does not appear therein; in "Force's Archives," however, in the proceedings of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he appears to have been still in attendance in the Congress as late as June 14th, for on that day he was of the number of delegates in whose behalf an appropriation passed to pay their salaries. From th

date we can find no authentic record of Mr. Allen's course, except that he “died in London, March 7th, 1825, aged 85." It does not appear that he formally resigned his office as delegate, but probably simply ceased his attendance, and was superseded when a new delegation was chosen, July 20th, 1776. THE EDITOR.

The Union Flag of January 1, 1776.-I accept Dr. Lossing's correction, and cheerfully accord to him the pri ority of reference with regard to this banner. My error in supposing Mr. Bancroft the earlier authority arose from my making my first note concerning it from his History, stating, however, that he did not furnish his authority, and from Dr. Lossing's sending me afterwards, in 1866, the drawing of the flag found by him among the Schuyler papers, without stating it had been engraved for his " Field-Book" in 1855. Until I read his note in the MONTHLY, I thought he had recently found it in 1866.

I wish to state that Plate V., opposite page 133 of my History of "Our Flag," designed to show the formation of the Union or King's colors of 1606, and the Union Ensign of 1707, and thence derived the Grand Union Flag of 1776 (exactly similar to the flag found in the Schuyler papers), was drawn by me long before I had read Bancroft or received from Dr. Lossing the fac-simile of the Flag of the Royal Savage found in the Schuyler papers, which I therefore hailed, as establishing beyond a doubt what I already had imagined and believed to be, and had drawn as the Grand Union Flag unfurled by Washington on New Year's day in Cambridge.

A union flag had existed for one hundred and seventy years, and a union red ensign for seventy years. The natural expedient of striping the red field of the latter with white a dividing it into thirteen alternate red and white stripes, converted it from an emblem of the sovereignty of Great Britain into an emblem of the union of the thirteen revolting colonies-still bearing in its jack or canton the blended crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, emblems of the union of the kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1606.

GEO. HENRY PREBLE.

Two Old-Time Epitaphs.-I have in my scrap-book the following, which may not be uninteresting to some readers who are pleased with curious epitaphs. The note as to where the original is found, and its explanation, has been torn off:

"Interred here a son doth lie,

As likewise doth the mother;
A sister too doth lie close by,
And near her lies the brother;
The father, by the daughter's side,
Is turning into clay;

The husband, by his loving bride,
Does moulder too away."

"The number seems to eight to mount,
As you may plainly see;
Yet sum them all in one account
They make no more than three!".

The following is upon the reverse of the same leaf as the above, and the solution and place are likewise gone:

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A Few Words to Historical and Antiquarian Societies. What we have to say may appear out of place here, but we have said the same without effect elsewhere T than once, and repeat it now under the NOTES AND QUERIES head, because doubtless this department is generally read the parties we most desire to reach.

We sincerely desire to make our department of REcorts OF SOCIETIES a full exhibit of all matters of general intere in connection with the transactions, plans, etc., of Historical and Antiquarian Societies; but in order to do this we mest have the assistance of the Secretary or some other member of each Society. Mr. William A. Whitehead, of the Histo rical Society of New Jersey, is the only mutual friend of his Society and the MONTHLY who invariably forwards a report of the successive meetings of that admirable Society. Occa sionally some others thus favor us, but there are sothe Societies from which we never hear.

CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION MEMORANDA.

The Congress and the Centennial.-Not very often, though too often, we feel actually ashamed of our National Congress, and are constrained to wonder how men of such small calibre or, worse, such questionable patriotism, as some of the Representatives, succeed in inducing any intelligent constituency to send them to the Congress. The recent discussion in the House of Representatives upon the question. of appropriating one and a half million dollars towards the great Exposition, was nothing less or more than disgraceful: those members who manfully battled for the National honor deserve the highest praise, but the mere fact that a measure if that character required so much and such able speaking in its behalf, is in itself a sufficient disgrace to make Americans blush, without noting the more shameful fact that there were individuals in the American Congress capable of speaking against the appropriation, and entirely ignoring the crowning shame that, after all the unanswerable arguments of the best men in the body in its favor, it was carried by the close vote of 146 to 130. But we cannot think it right to ignore this record-indeed, the names of those voting in the negative should never be forgotten. We give the names in full; the record may be even more interesting hereafter than

it is now:

ALARAMA:
Ayes.

William H. Forney,
Jeremiah Haralson.
Nays.

Burwell B. Lewis,
Taul Bradford,

John H. Caldwell,
Goldsmith W. Hewitt.
Not Voting.

Jeremiah N. Williams,
Charles Hays.

ARKANSAS:
Ayes.

Lucien C. Ganse,
William F. Slemons,
W. W. Wilshire.
Nay.

Thomas M. Gunter.
CALIFORNIA:
Ayes.

W. A. Piper,
H. F. Page,
John K. Luttrell,

P. D. Wigginton.
CONNECTICUT:
Ayes.

George M. Landers,

William H. Barnum.

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FLORIDA::
Ayes.
William J. Purman,
J. T. Walls.

GEORGIA:
Aye.

Benjamin Hill.
Nays.
Julian Hartridge,
William E. Smith,
Philip Cook,
Henry R. Harris,
Milton A. Candler,
James H. Blount,
William H. Felton.

Not Voting.
Alex. II. Stephens (sick)
ILLINOIS:
Ayes.

Carter H. Harrison,
Charles B. Farwell,
Stephen A. Hurlbut,
Richard H. Whiting.
Nays.
Barnard G. Caulfield,
Horatio C. Burchard,
Thomas J. Henderson,
Alexander Campbell,
Greenbury L. Fort,
John C. Bagby,
Scott Wike,
William M. Springer,

H. H. Starkweather (sick, Adlai E. Stevenson,

since deceased).

DELAWARE:

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Joseph G. Cannon,
John R. Eden,
W. A. J. Sparks,
William R. Morrison,

William Hartzell,
William B. Anderson.
INDIANA:
Ayes.
Benoni S. Fuller,
Morton C. Hunter,
Thomas J. Cason.
Nays.
James D. Williams,
Jephtha D. New,
William S. Holman,
Milton S. Robinson,
Franklin Landers,
William S. Haymond,
James L. Evans,
Andrew H. Hamilton,
John H. Baker.

Not Voting.

Michael C. Kerr (Speaker).
IOWA:
Aves.
George W. McCrary,
Henry O. Pratt,
E. S. Sampson,
John A. Kasson,
James W. McDill,

Addison Oliver.
Nays.

John Q. Tufts,
L. L. Aimsworth,
James Wilson.

KANSAS:
Ayes.
William R. Philips,
William R. Brown.
Nays.

John R. Goodin.
KENTUCKY:
Ayes.
Thomas L. Jones.
Nays.

A. R. Boone,
John Y. Brown,
Charles W. Milliken,
J. Proctor Knot,
J. C. S. Blackburn,
Milton J. Durham,
John B. Clarke.

Not Voting.

E. Y. Parsons,
John D. White.

LOUISIANA:
Ayes.

Randall L. Gibson,
E. John Ellis,
Chester B. Darrall,
William M. Levy,
Frank Morey,
Charles E. Nash.
MAINE:
Ayes.

John H. Burleigh,
William P. Frye,
James G. Blaine,

Harris M. Plaisted,
Eugene Hale.

MARYLAND:

Ayes.
Charles B. Roberts,
William J. O'Brien,
Thomas Swann.
Nays.

Philip F. Thomas,
Eli F. Henkle,
William Walsh.

MASSACHUSETTS:
Ayes.

W. R. Crapo,
Benjamin W. Harris,
Henry L. Pierce,
Rufus S. Frost,
Nathan P. Banks,
Charles P. Thompson,
John K. Tarbox,
William W. Warren,

George F. Hoar,
Julius H. Seelye,
Chester W. Chapin.

MICHIGAN:
Ayes.

A. S. Williams,
W. B. Williams,
Nathaniel B. Bradley,
Jay A. Hubbell.
Nays.

Henry Waldron,
George Willard,
Allen Potter,
Omar D. Conger.

Not Voting.

G. H. Durand.

MINNESOTA:
Ayes.

Mark H. Dunnell,
Horace B. Strait,
William S. King.

MISSISSIPPI:

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