CII. Midwives formerly baptized Infants. MR. URBAN, MIDWIVES, heretofore, frequently performed the office of baptizing infants in cases of necessity. The following process, relative to that custom, is entered in the Consistorial Acts of the diocese of Rochester, and if you are of opinion that it may be a curious anecdote to the readers of the Gentleman's Magazine, you will be pleased to favour them with the perusal of it. W. and D. "1523, Oct. 14.-Eliz. Gaynsford, obstetrix, examinat dicit in vim juramenti sui sub hac forma verborum-" I, the aforesaid Elizabeth, seeing the childe of Tho. Everey, late born in jeapardy of life, by the authorite of my office, then beyng midwyfe, dyd christen the same childe under this manner, In the name of the Fader, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I christen thee Denys, iffundend' meram aquam super caput infantul'.-Interrogata erat, Whether the childe was born and delivered from the wyfe of the said Thomas; whereto she answereth and saith, that the childe was not born, for she saw nothing of the childe but the hedde, and for perell the childe was in, and in that tyme of nede, she christened as is aforesaid, and cast water with her hand on the childe's hede. After which so done, the childe was born, and was had to the churche, where the Priest gave to it that chrystynden that takkyd, and the childe is yet alyf." "Let the Devil wear black, I'll have a suit of sables." THIS strange speech of Hamlet may, perhaps, receive some elucidation from part of a statute of Brazen Nose College, Oxford, which was shewn to me in MS. by a deceased friend. The statutes bear date primo die Februarii, anno Regis Henrici Octavi tertio-decimo, A. D. 1522. It should seem that sables were reckoned finery in those days, and had nothing to do with mourning." Statuimus præterea, quod omnes et singuli prædicti togis longis in parte anteriore consutis infra universitatem utantur, et quod nul lus eorum pelluris pretiosis ut sumptuosis, vulgariter dictis sabills, sive matrons, pannove de velvet, damasco, sattin, aut chamblet, in suis vestibus, internis sive externis, aut earum fimbriis sive extremitatibus, vel in eorum liripipiis in universitate quoquo modo utatur."-Let the Devil mourn for me, I'll dress gaily, is Hamlet's meaning, and I think this interpretation is countenanced by the quotation. A picture of Richard Gardiner, some time rector of Whitechapel, hangs in the vestry-room there. It was painted in 1617, the 15th of James I. and is a hard, poor picture. Gardiner is represented with sables, which occupy the place at this day filled with the scarf. He was 48 years rector of the parish, and his name appears in the list of benefactors to it. CIV. On the Antiquity and Name of the Jew's Harp. MR. URBAN, THE Jew-trump, or Jew's-harp, as it is often called, (and indeed it has more of the tone of a wire-strung harp than of a trumpet,) is now a boy's instrument, bought at fairs; it however was, it seems, an ancient instrument; for Mr. Pennant informs us (Tour to Scotland, p. 195,) that one made of gilt brass was found in Norway, deposited in an urn. The Scotch also have it as well as we. There is an evident allusion in the name to the inhabitants of Judea*; and I observe, that in Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. IV. p. 171, Quick calls the usurer, on account of his Jewish avarice, a notable Jew's trump. In the plate, however, of Jewish musical instruments, presented to us by Calmet, in his Dictionary, nothing of this kind occurs; so that I much suspect that there is a corruption here of Jeu-trompe, a play-thing or Playtromp, as it is now only used by boys for that purpose. 1786, Aug. Yours, &c. T. Row. [Jew's harp is probably a corruption of Jaw's harp, from the circumstance of its being placed between the teeth when played. E CV. Extract from Whitechapel Registers. MR. URBAN, THE extravagancies of the last age in regard to dropping the word saint, &c. and the solemnization of marriage before or by a justice of the peace, will receive some little elucidation, if you insert the following extracts from the register of St. Mary's, Whitechapel, in your valuable and entertaining Miscellany. Publications and Marriages in December 1653. "26. Julius Wood of Nightingale-lane in this parish, mariner, and Martha Waggdon, of the same, widdow, were published in the market-place at Leaden-hall three severall market days in three severall weeks (viz.) on the 16th day, on the 19th day, and on the 26th day of December, 1653; and the said Julius Wood and Martha Waggdon were married by me Richard Loton, esq. and justice of peace in the county of Middlesex, on the 26th day of December, 1653. Edward Callis, and Tobias Harborough, witnesses present." Publications and Marriages in December 1654. "Robert Allison of the parish of Botolph, Aldgate, gunsmith, and Ellinor Hathaway, of the parish of White Chappell, spinster, aged 22 years, were published three several Lord's Days, at the close of the morning exercise at the publique meeting-place, commonly called Mary Whitechapel church, in the county of Middlesex, viz. on the 10th, 17th, and 24th days of December, 1654, and the said Robert Allison and Ellinor Hathaway were married before Richard Loton, esq. and one of the justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex, on the 25th day December 1654.-Witnesses present were Thomas Prichard, and Richard Woodcock, and others." One Richard Digglis was appointed registrar, being sworn into office and approved by Loton, and he it was who made publication in the market. In the year 1660, at the Restoration, the old forms and appellations immediately appear in the register. Yours, &c, 1786, Sept. D. N. CVI. Observations on Fuller's Charge against an Abbey in Essex MR. URBAN, WHOEVER has attentively considered the history of the Reformation in England, cannot but be convinced that, however the hand of Providence may be conspicuously traced in its rise and progress, the instruments made use of to effect it were the ambition, lust, and avarice, of Hen. VIII. To gratify these reigning passions, which adinitted no restraint or opposition, every measure that tended to shake off the authority of the see of Rome, whether sanctified by specious reasons or not, was eagerly adopted. To bring about the dissolution of monasteries, charges were alleged by visitors, and crimes extorted by forced confessions from the members of those societies, which posterity cannot read without horror, and which, in many instances, are but the too fatal consequences of celibacy ill understood, and absurdly enforced-crimes, for the commission of which the warmest advocates of such celibacy must tremble in every age. But, while these charges were brought, and crimes confessed in our own country, from the motives above-mentioned, can we give credit to such a bare-faced abomination as that which honest Fuller (Church Hist. b.VI. c. 31.) charges an abbey in a county adjacent to the capital? Your readers will perceive I mean the clause pretended to have been inserted in the leases, whereby the lessee was enjoined yearly to provide a young girl to gratify the abbot's desires. The charge is general; for, though the two paragraphs preceding that in which it is made, treat of the supposed intrigues between the monks of Waltham and the nuns of Cheshunt, by favour of supposed subterraneous vaults or sewers, common to every monastery, and in many applied, by vulgar fame, to a like use; we are not to fix the scandalous covenant on that particular house. "A reverend divine" (who in the margin is called Mr. Stephen Marshall) "hath informed me," says Fuller, "that he hath seen such a passage in the lease of the abbey of Essex, &c. &c." It is but an hearsay story after all; and Fuller himself treats it as "more improbable (though generally reported)", than the scandalous fancies about the souterains, and reasons against it with equal plausibility and charity. It is, as we have before seen, a general charge, not levelled against any specific abbey in this extensive county of Essex, which had another mitred abbey (St. John's at Colchester.) Wealth and power are temptations to vitious ease and indulgence, which fall not within the reach of an inferior foundation. But, leaving the objects of this charge, let us see whom our gossipping punster has given as his authority for it: Stephen Marshall "B. D. minister of Finchingfield in Essex, and archflamen of the rebellious rout," as Wood calls him, Ath. Ox. II. 38; and in his Fasti, II. 31, "that most notorious independent." He had the nick-name of the Geneva Bull, and was one of those factious and rebellious divines that preached up the lawfulness of resistance in matters of religion; and his initials stood foremost in the composition of Smectymnuus*, the most audacious blow against episcopacy that had been attempted. (Newcourt, Rep. II. 265.) How far this man's evidence is to be admitted, must be submitted to the judgment of the readers; as also, how far he might be qualified to read or understand the extraordinary tenures by which lands were formerly holden. The church, and a portion of the tythes of Finchingfield, whereof Marshall was vicar, were given to the prior and convent of St. Mary at Thetford by William Bigod, son of the founder of that house: a vicarage was endowed 1225, and the vicar was charged with 5 marks annuity to the poor vicars of St. Paul's, London. Another portion of tythes out of Ashfield manor, in Finchingfield, was given to Dunmow priory. This manor was held by service of sending a turnspit for the king at his coronation. The priory of Stoke by Clare had another portion of tythes here (Mon. Ang. I. 1096,) and the hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in London had land here. (Ib. II. 526, 543, 553.) It should seem, therefore, that this wicked clause, which made such an impression on the good reformer, is to be sought for in the writings or registers of one of these three priorics; and if it be, as he said, an Essex abbey, the priory of Dunmow must clear itself of the reproach for that Waltham is not to bear the blame is clear, both from what has been before observed, and also from Fuller's not repeating it in his history of that town and abbey. The great probability that Marshall misread or misunderstood this tenure, will further appear from a similar mistakę made by Dr. Plot (Staffordsh, c. VIII. § xxi. 278.) "The places where now Borow English obtains, were anciently liable to the same ungodly custom granted to the lords of manors in Scotland by king Evenus, or Eugenius, whereby they had the privilege of enjoying the first night's lodging with their tenants' brides. That this custom obtained in * [Stephen Marshall, Edmund Calamy, Thomas Young, Matthew NewComen, William Spinstow.. E] |