1571

Jtm. paid to Smalls of Ershm for draw Ryver in west meddowe, wichich was veri full

Jtm. paid to the said Molle for a Bor Jnclosing the vice* goyng vp to the orga for steys for the church gates

Jtm. paid to Robt. Spillyng for a new geon for the iiijth belle

Jtm. paid to the same for a newe Dra for righten the old draffte for the Bells Jtm. paid to the same for a cryngle † f Belle

Jtm. paied rent to Bungaye priorie fo grownde that the Steepull ys bylded vpor The following memorandum occurs a few pages further on "Md ther remaynethe in Barres of yron wch were grats, one and fforty barres of Dyu'sse wayght.' And in the margin opposite is

"Ao 1565, in the torche house in ye churche." Another Mem. also occurs, viz :

"For the Belle." "Md the pewter in An' d'm the custody of Thomas Curteys, and yt was gyuen p'ishe of the Trynyte in Bu'gaye, Aforsaid, beyng f filds, and contaynyd in waight ffifften pownds of pe Bungay.

* i.e. Stairs.

+ Wright, in his Dictionary, calls Cringle a withe or rope

GOLD RELIQUARY FOUND AT CLARE, SUFFOLK.

The following notes on a precious relic, found at Clare Castle, in Suffolk, in December, 1865, deserve to find a place in the enduring pages of the East Anglian. The first is from the pen of the Rev. J. C. Coleman, Vicar of Clare; and the second is from a communication to the papers by the Rev. Stephen Jenner, the proprietor of the Castle.

I. As some workmen in the employment of Mr. Holt, contractor, were digging in the Castle Bailey, Clare, Suffolk, in a place known as the Lady's Walk, they turned up one of the most interesting relics yet found in this vicinity. It is a gold cross attached to about two feet of ornamental gold chain. The cross is about an inch and a half long, with a large pearl at each intersection of the upright and transverse pieces. On the upper side of the cross is a representation of the Saviour, as crucified, with the glory and the crown of thorns about his head. On the scroll over him, are the letters I. N. R. I., for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The same letters occur, one on each limb of the cross, surrounded by ornamental tracery. When a small pin is removed, a portion of the upper side of the cross may be taken off; in the cavity beneath is a small piece of wood and a minute fragment, apparently of granite. Very probably the wood is a supposed fragment of the "true cross," and the pebble a memorial from some sacred locality in the Holy Land. In the year 1378, Philippa, Countess of March, bequeathed to her son, Edmond, a piece of the true cross, charging him on her blessing to keep it carefully. The same Edmond, Earl of March, and Lord of Clare, bequeathed to Wygmore Abbey, "a cross of gold set with stones, with a relic of the true cross.' In many ancient wills we meet with similar bequests. Thomas de Vere, Earl of Oxford, in his will dated August 1st, 1371, bequeaths to Maud his wife, all his reliques then in his own keeping, and "a cross made of the very wood of Christ's cross." In the inventory of Crown Jewels, 3 Edward III, we find mention of a little linen bag or purse, containing the keys of the cross, 66 Gneyth,' ," which was kept in the chapel of the Tower of London. This, we are told, was a piece of the wood of the cross, which the Welsh called Crosse neyt, and for the recovery of which, when brought to him at Conway, King Edward bestowed on the finders important privileges by way of reward. The Chronicler of Tewkesbury Abbey records with great satisfaction, that in the year 1235, H. F. Tancintune gave to the Abbey Church the relics which his father had collected, viz., some bones, blood, flesh, and hair of several Saints, a piece of the stake or beam to which the cross was fastened, a bit of stone from Mount Calvary, and another from the Saviour's Sepulchre." The cross and chain are in excellent preservation.

II. The discovery was a matter of great interest and curiosity to the lovers of antiquity throughout the kingdom, and Mr. Stephen Jenner, the owner of Castle Bailey, forwarded particulars of the discovery to her Majesty's Treasury, whereupon her Majesty was pleased to express a desire to possess the curious relic. Accordingly it was delivered to the Treasury, and the Queen expressing a wish for the true history of this curious relic to be searched out, the Secretary of the Treasury has favoured Mr. Jenner with the following very interesting particulars of the re

66

search. There is strong reason for believing that the cross formed at one time a part of the royal collection of jewels belonging to King Edward III, for it is recorded that he had among his jewels, kept for safe preservation in the Tower of London, "un croys d'or double overe de driffure que est de la croys Jhesu Crist, et ne puit estre preise,"- a cross of gold which represents the cross of Jesus Christ, set with pearls, and cannot be valued." This description exactly answers to the cross found at Clare, which has four large pearls, one on each transverse section of the cross, while the cross itself, with the figure of our Saviour upon it, was most beautifully foliated, and the chain, about two feet long, was of the richest description. How this precious royal jewel came to be found in the ruins of Clare Castle is thus accounted for :-It was the common practice of our sovereigns, in former ages, to bestow on their children and grandchildren, as wedding gifts, rare jewels and relics; and as Edward the III's granddaughter Phillipa was married to Edmund Mortimer, the Lord of Clare, and upon her marriage came to reside at the Castle, she in all probability, had this jewel given to her on the occasion, and it was by her taken to the Castle, where it got lost. What confirms this history, almost beyond all doubt, is the fact that this particular jewel, before described in old French, disappeared from that very time from the numerous inventories which are extant of the royal jewels. Thus this once royal jewel, which has been buried at Clare, lost for 500 years, has once more come into royal possession in the person of our beloved Queen The finder of this curiosity was a poor lad of Clare, named Walter Lorking, and Her Majesty has been pleased to forward him a donation of three pounds.

Will any one learned in Old French, explain the exact meaning of the words overe le driffure P and refer me to the precise inventory from which this item is taken ?-L.

EAST ANGLIAN FOLK-LORE (VOL. III, P. 27.)

Calling at a cottage in a retired lane in the parish of Carlton Colville, near this town, a few weeks since, I saw on the chimney-piece what appeared to be a fine specimen of fossil echinus, though sadly disfigured by the successive coats of black lead used to give it a polish. Asking permission to look at it, I was informed that it had been found on the land some twenty years before; that it was a Fairy Loaf"; and that whoever had one of these loaves in the house would never want for bread. Is this opinion a popular one; or confined to the locality in which I heard it.—E., Lowestoft.

QUERIES.

Pugh, Rev. Mr.. Vicar of Birling, in Kent, died December 15th, 1743, ætat. 80, He was born in Merionethshire, in North Wales, &c., &c. (Gent's. Mag., 1744, p. 47.) Can and will any correspondent furnish his christian name and the places of his officiating at, or was he at one time Curate at Llanfoist, in Monmouthshire, or where can any further account of him be met with.-WM. PRICE, Llanfoist, Abergavenny.

ANNE, THE LADÝ VAUGHAN, 1672.

On the north wall of the chancel in the old church at Carmarthen, in South Wales, is a mural monument with the following inscription. Can any of your readers oblige me with information as to the lady to whom it refers?

Kind reader, underneath doth lie
Choice Elixir of mortalitie;

By carefull Providence, great wealth did store

For her relations and the poore.

In Essex born, but spent her gainfull daies

In Terra cold, to her eternal prayse;

Where by her loanes, in spite of adverse fates,

She did preserve men's persons and estates.

A great exemplar to our nation,

Her to imitate in life and action;

Would you then know who was this good woman,
'Twas virtuous Anne, the lady Vaughan.

She died August 15th, 1672,

Being about 84 years.

D.

LAWRENCE WASHINGTON, RECTOR OF PURLEIGH, ESSEX.

From a pamphlet recently published at Boston, U. S.-and which is a reprint of an article that appeared both in the London Herald and Genealogist, and the Boston Heraldic Journal, and is entitled, A Preliminary investigation of the alleged Ancestry of George Washington, first President of the United States, by Jos. Lemuel Chester-I learn that the Laurence Washington, who was sequestered from the Rectory of Purleigh, in 1641, (See Davids' Annals of Evangelical Nonconformity in the County of Essex, p. 246; Walker's Suff. of Clergy, part ii, p. 395) was the 5th son of Laurence Washington, of Sulgrave, co. Northampton, entered Brazenose, Oxford circ. 1619, matriculated November, 1621, æt. 19; took his B.A. 1623, became fellow of his college 1624, was lecturer from 1627 to 1632 inclusive, and one of the proctors of the University, in 1631. Walker says, that after his sequestration he was "permitted to have and continue upon a living in these parts; but it was such a poor and miserable one, that it was always with difficulty that any one was persuaded to accept of it."-Any information about this Washington would be very acceptable. I am especially anxious to know what was "the living" of which Walker speaks, and when, and under what circumstances the sequestered rector possessed and avoided it. As John Head, formerly of Trosley, co. Kent (Newcourt's Repertorium, ii, 476), according to the MS. Returns for that period, now preserved at Lambeth (see also Morant's Essex, i, 348), was presented by Richard Horsmanden, of Goodhurst, co. Kent, 2nd March, 1658, on the death of William Bragge, it should appear that Washington was then dead, as the living had then returned to the patron.

D.

The East Anglian.

JANUARY, 1867.

NOTES.

THE EAST ANGLIAN TRADESMENS' TOKENS.-No. 5.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE.

Your valued correspondent, Mr. Justin Simpson, has so well done the seventeenth century tokens (vol. I, pp. 349, 367; vol. ш, pp. 2, 39) that little remains to be done; but, as you solicit remarks from any other correspondent, I venture to add the following notes to two of the seventeenth century; and also continue the list to the present time, as far as regards the county of Cambridge.

No. 49. PEYTON. (vol. II, p. 368.) The Peyton family, who took their name from Peyton Hall, in Boxford, co. Suffolk, resided at Doddington, in Cambridgeshire, and Henry Peyton espoused the royal cause in King Charles' time, but was killed by his own soldiers at Banbury, he having forgotten the watch-word. Algernon Peyton was created a Baronet by King Charles II, in 1666, and the Arms are similar to those on the token, viz :-Sable, a cross engrailed Or, with a crescent for distinction. Crest, a Gryphen sejant Or.

No. 53. RUSSELL. (vol. II, p. 368.) The Russell family, of Chippenham, in Cambridgeshire, were of the same family. Sir Francis Russell, married at Chippenham, 1631, had issue six sons and six daughters. Arms, a lion rampant. Crest, a goat. These arms also agree with those on the token.

Tokens of the Eighteenth Century.

From 1672, when the former tokens ceased, the regal issue of coins appears to have supplied the general requirements of the period, as, with the exception of Ireland, where many specimens of an unauthorized coinage are to be met with, varying in date from the years 1721 to 1796, the English series, with but very few scarce examples, do not appear to have come into use until about 1791, when they again become plentiful and were issued sometimes in large numbers, but of Cambridgeshire examples we can only trace these :

R.

Cambridgeshire.

1. 0. CURRENT. IN. THE. COUNTIES. OF. 1795-a druid's head. INDUSTRY. HAS. ITS. SURE. REWARD.-8 beehive and bees. Edge. CAMBRIDGE. BEDFORD. AND. HUNTINGDON.