be filled up with the word firmam, whereby the whole will be rendered perfectly intelligible, viz. that Peter Baldwin held the serjeantry in Cumbe by collecting the queen's wool, not per albas spinas," off the thorns and briers of the manor, but "per albam firmam," i. e. by compositions in silver, to be paid by the respective under-tenants, to the amount of 20s. a year-or, whether he did or not, should at least pay that sum annually himself for the same at the Treasury.

1789, March.

PALEOPHILUS Surr.

CXV. Meretrices-An Ancient Tenure investigated and explained.

66

MR. URBAN,

IN the Gentleman's Magazine for 1773, it is said that, among other strange customs in England, there is one, that, whenever the King comes to Lothesley manor, near Guildford, the Lord is to present his Majesty with three

WHORES.

A correspondent in some measure rectifies the mistake, by informing us that, "instead of Lothesley, it was the manor of Catteshill that was meant;" and that this manor "was holden by the service of being marshal of the MERETRICES when the King came that way; that it is well known that MERETRIX, in later Latin writers, is equivalent to lavatrix, or lotrix; and, therefore, that these twelve young women (for such, as he observes, they are called, and such is their number said to have been by Blount, in his account of Ancient Tenures, p. 80), were to follow the court in the capacity of laundresses, to be furnished by the Lord of the manor of Catteshill."

Another correspondent carries the custom back again to Lothesley, which, he tells us, " was holden in grand serjeantry by the master of the King's MERETRICES, i. e. (says he) laundresses." Perhaps a more full and accurate account of this matter may not be unacceptable.

You are to understand then, Mr. Urban, that from the accession of King Henry II. our kings had a mansion house and park at Guildford, where they occasionally resided and kept their court; during which time, certain of the inferior offices of the household were supplied by the tenants of two different estates holden of the crown in this neighbourhood. I. One of these was what is now called the manor of

Poyle, in Guildford; which had been given, in earlier times, to the family of Testard. During the minority of William, a heir of this family, in the time of Henry II. the wardship of him and his estate was given to one Ranulph de Broc, from whom it descended to Edeline his daughter, who held it per serjantiam mareschalli in curia domini regis*. Stephen de Turnham, who married her, succeeded to the trust, and held it by the same servicef. To this William, who died in 14 Henry III. anno 1230, succeeded Robert, his son, who is described as holding it, in 19 Henry III. 1235, per serjantiam custodiendi MERETRICES in curia domini regist. Thomas succeeded to the inheritance; and, after him, Richard his brother; in the account of whose serjeantry it is set forth, as a part of his office of mareschal, that he was servare LOTRICES curiæ domini regis§. About this time Richard sold this estate to Thomas de la Puille, or Poyle (from whom it took its present name, and) who held it by the same service : and in his family it continued till 9 Henry V, But this whimsical tenure having, before this, been converted into knight's service, we hear no more of it after 11 Edward II. or thereabouts.

2. The other estate, holden by this tenure, was the manor of CATTESHILL in Godelming, distant about four miles from the court of Guildford. Ranulph de Broc, already spoken of as guardian of the heir of Testard, had a grant of this manor from King Henry II. to hold by the service of ostiarius in camera domini regis. Edeline, his daughter, and Stephen de Turnham, her husband, held it by the same service **. Robert de Gatton, who married a granddaughter and co-heir of Stephen's, is called mareschallus custodiendo MERETRICES de curia domini regis††; and mareschallus duodecim PUELLARUM que sequuntur curiam domini registt. Hamo de Gatton, his son and heir, mareschallus MERETRICUM cum dominus rex venerit in illis partibus§§; and ostiarius camera regis. Hamo, the younger, maresckallus

de COMMUNIBUS FOEMINIS sequentibus hospitium domini regis*. Robert de Northwode, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of the last Hamo, and died seised of this manor in 34 Edward III. anno 1360, is styled ostiarius in camera regist. Joan and Agnes, daughters, and, at length heirs of Robert, on a partition made between them in 37 Edward III. are said to have holden by the service of mareschallus in hospitio regist. After which we hear no more of it, except that Nicholas Hering, who married Agnes, claimed, in her right, the office of usher (ostiarius) of the king's chamber at the coronation of Richard II. but the consideration thereof was postponed.

What we collect from all this is, that the office of marshal of the king's household, as often as the court resides at Guildford, was executed by the lords of the manors of Poyle and Catteshill, who held their lands by this tenure; and that, though they are respectively styled, in different records, marshal of the king's court, marshal of the king's household, and ostiarius, or usher, of the king's chamber, their office was one and the same; it being part of the office of marshal, by himself or deputy, to keep the door of the king's chamber §. We learn, moreover, that it was part of their duty (as often as the king came into these parts, not otherwise therefore) to provide women-servants for the meaner offices of the household; and that these women-servants were, on different occasions, called by different names, and, amongst the rest, by that of MERETRICES; which last hath given occasion, it seems, to ludicrous reflections on the court of that time, as if the grants of the prince had been made subservient to his pleasures. Whereas, in truth, the word MERETRICES was here used in an indifferent sense; and, agreeably to the known import of the word mereo or mereor, from which it is derived, as a general description of such women as served for hire, and who, in the present instance, are accordingly called, in the different records, puellæ, communes famine, and lotrices: the service here spoken of being, after all, no other than this, viz. that, whereas the court, in those days, was frequently removed to Guildford, certain persons, who held immediately of the king in that neighbourhood, were obliged, by the terms of their respective grants, to provide, as often as this should happen, a

* Esch. 29 E. I. n. 58. .

+ Esch. 34 E. III. n. 72,
Rot. Commun.

Spelm. Gloss. Madox, Excheq. c. 2. sec. 5.

Sea Coal, or Pit Coal, when first used in this Kingdom. 425 certain number of female servants for the laundry, and other inferior offices of the household.

The manor of Shirefield in Hampshire, was holden temp. Edward II. and III. by John de Warbleton, by the sanie serjeantry; and probably with a view to the occasional residence of the court at Odiham, in its neighbourhood.

1789, April.

Yours, &c.

PAL. SURR.

CXVI. Sea Coal, or Pit Coal, when first used in this Kingdom.

MR. URBAN,

THE much-applauded "History and Antiquities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne," by the Rev. John Brand, Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, London, is not come to hand yet; but I learn from your Review (and I give the Reviewer perfect credit for his commendation of the work in general), that, in the second volume, there is a history " of the coaltrade, from the first mention of coal in Britain, to the present time," p. 533; and the note there, collected I presume from the author, is, "sea-coal first occurs in records of the time of Henry III." But this, Sir, I apprehend, should not go down thus to posterity, as it intimates that sea-coal*, or pitcoal, or lithanthracest, for they are all the same, was not known in our island till the time here mentioned, which, in my opinion, is by no means strictly true.

The island at first was extremely woody, and afforded fuel of that kind, no doubt, in great abundance; but, nevertheless, there appears to have been some pit-coal gotten here very early; however, long before the reign of Henry III. as I shall now shew, after previously observing, that it is not my meaning to contend that pit-coal was in general use in the times I shall speak of, but only that it was then known and mentioned on certain occasions. It was needful, Sir, to make this remark, in order to prevent any objection that might be made by the reader upon this head.

There is a remarkable passage in Solinus, who flourished at least before St. Jerome, which in all reason ought to be

*Junius, in his Etymologicum Anglic. writes the word cole; and indeed it is pity the letter a ever got into it, as it is undoubtedly the Sax. Color Coll.

+ Camden, vol. III. p. 231, edit. Gough.

interpreted of pit-coal. Speaking of warm, and probably of medicinal, springs in Britain, he says, "quibus fontibus præsul est Minerva numen, in cujus æde perpetuo ignes nunquam canescunt* in favillas, sed ubi ignis tabuit, vertitur in globos saxeost." These globi saxei can be nothing else but the cinders of pit-coal, for faville or residuum of wood or turf have nothing of the stony or hard matter in them. Bishop Gibson renders it accordingly, round pieces of hard stone, and Mr. Gough, stone balls. It is observable, that pit-coal itself is commonly translated in Latin by carbo saxeus; and we all know that Bath in Somersetshire, the place particularly intended by the author, has much fossile coal not far distant from it.

Bishop Watson, in his Chemical Essays, II. p. 364, observes, we have good reason to believe that the Newcastle coal-pits were wrought in the time of the Romans, for coal cinders have been found at the bottom of the foundation of a city built by the Romans in that country; but whether they were not wrought by the Britons, before the Roman invasion, is a question which cannot, perhaps, be possibly decided either way." It signifies nothing, Sir, in the present case, which nation sunk the pits, since the consequence will be the same, viz. that pit-coal was known in our island, in some parts, and in some degree, before the reign of Henry III. And, moreover, that the Romans in particular were not more strangers to British pit-coal than they were to British lead, will appear by consulting Dr. Stukeley's Itin. II. p. 54 of second edition; Mr. Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides, p. 55; and Bishop Watson, II. pp. 362, 363.

In Venerable Bede's times, who died A.D. 755, Britain produced gagates, or peat §, which by Camden is thought may be canole coal; but this, I think, could scarcely be used for fuel, though it seems it was plentiful. Be this as it will, the abbot and convent of Peterborough¶ demised to Wulfred, A.D. 852, the land of Sempilgahain** for his life, on certain conditions, whereof two are, to pay annually

*The various reading in H. Steph. edit. 1577, is çassescunt; and Ric. Corin, transcribing this passage, p. 19, has labascunt.

+ Solinus, cap. 25.

Wallis, Hist. of Northumberland.
Beda, Hist. Eccles. I. cap. I.

Vol. III. p. 103, edit. Gough. Some think this to be a corruption of candle coal, it lights or kindles so easily.

Chron. Sax. An. 852.

** Rob. Swapham, p. 106, writes Semplingham, or Sempringham.