and attractive, is the announcement made in the Press of Dec. 21, that the Army Council has decided, in view of the continued improvement of the conduct of soldiers, to extend the privilege of wearing plain clothes when off-duty to non-commissioned officers below the rank of sergeant and to men of good character when on furlough or pass, and also when "walking out" at their station. The privilege, which will be granted at the discretion of commanding officers, comes into effect forthwith, and will thus be available for all ranks while on Christmas leave. the ON Dec. 20, in The Times, we read that the habitués of the Paris Opera are perturbed by the reported decision of M. Rouché, the Director, to deprive them of the oldestablished privilege of going behind scenes which a regular subscription to a place in the stalls carries with it. The abonnés have included well-known artists such as Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec; Forain is still of their number. These and others have prided themselves on having the key to the side door which leads to the coulisses. ballet nights in particular a group of whitewhiskered old gentlemen, complete with opera hats, white waistcoats, and silver--knobbed canes, can usually be seen between the acts conversing with the ballineras. This amiable tradition has preserved between the walls of the Opera something of the atmosphere of the Second Empire. Now it seems the privilege is to be abolished and the abonnés are loud in their protests. On some E read in Monday's Times that, after all WE the activity of so many brains have been expended on the subject, no suitable motto has been found for London. The subcommittee who report upon it consider that the matter must wait over until a suitable motto emerges spontaneously out of striking event in the Council's history.' The Council had been advised to adopt Loci dulcedo nos attinet, from Tacitus's account of the citizens' reluctance to leave London when threatened by Queen Boadicea; but Latin was objected to and an English motto was demanded. EARLY in the New Year the Cambridge University Press will publish (Cambridge English Classics') an edition of Thomas Hobbe's Elements of Law,' with critical notes by Dr. Ferdinand Tönnies. A collation of the best MSS. of the work has shown Dr. Tönnies that the current text contains many errors; he has prepared a revised Falling Sicknefs 518 Swelling 35 Teeth 27 9 Water in the head 63 5 Worms Broken Leg 1, Bruifed 5, Burnt 2, Drowned 90, Exceffive Drinking 16, Executed 11. Found dead 44, Frighted 2, Kill'd by the Fall of old Houses 6, Kill'd by feveral other Acci dents 55, Made away themselves 48, Murder'd 6, Overlaid 87, Preffed to death in a Crowd 1, Scalded 15, Stabb'd 2, Suffocated 2. Chriftned Males 9396. Females 9186. In all 18582. Buried Males 14384. Females 14582. In all 28966. Decreafed in the Burials this Year 1198. ERS Literary and Historical PROVINCIAL BOOKSELLERS AND PRINTERS. 1698 Peter Swinton, of Knutsford, bookseller. Ad. 1698 Zachariah Whitworth, of Manchester (? printer). (See reference under John Brown, 1612, p. 22). 1701 Ralph Shelmerdine, of Manchester, bookseller. (See Trans. Lancs. and Chesh. Antiq. Soc., vol. vi. p. 12). 1706 James Steward, of Lathom (Lancs.), Ad. Ad. Ad. bookseller. 1708 John Taylor, of Nantwich, bookseller. 1718 Henry Eyres, of Warrington, book- 1718 Ric. Dodd, of Manchester, book 1718 Roger Wright, of Nantwich, sta tioner. 1721 Rob. Scholefield, of Rochdale, bookseller. 1725 and 1736 Wm. Clayton, of Manchester, sta tioner. VAR VARIOUS lists of these have appeared from time to time in N. & Q.' The following one gives the names, with dates of probate of will or grant of administration, of some of those who appear in the Calendar of Wills proved at Chester to 1810, published by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. The wills themselves have not been seen. The Calendars begin in 1545, but as before 1700 it is the exception for a testator to be described in them, it follows that the names of some more booksellers or printers may be given in the Calendars, but, not being described there as such, they will not be found here. My list adds several names to Plomer's 'Dictionaries of Booksellers and Printers, 1641-1725,' and provides a final date for others there noted. The names for Chester and Liverpool are not included. I have reserved the former for more detailed treatment in a list of Chester stationers, booksellers printers which I have in hand, and I have supplied the Liverpool names to Mr. G. W. Mathews, F.S. A., who is working upon a Liverpool list. Many of the names on the list are of persons already known, but no doubt the will or administration, if examined, will provide data not on record, in most Ad. 1749 James Laland, of Wigan, bookcases. Where the date is preceded by "Ad.' this signifies letters of administration, but otherwise the date is that of probate of a will. The documents are at the Probate Registry, Chester, except where the Diocesan Registry is indicated. Some of those described as printers " may turn out to be calico printers. and 1612 (Inventory) John Brown, of Man- Lancs. and Cheshire Antiq. Soc., 1639 James Milner, of Warrington, sta- 1669 Brown, ride, of Nantwich, book seller. Ad. 1786 Samuel Leech, of Knutsford, bookbinder. 1795 Thomas printer (?) Beswick, of Ardwick, Ad. 1796 George Swindells, of Manchester, printer. Ad. 1794 Wm. Newton, of Manchester, bookseller. 1797 John Randle, of Ainsworth, printer (?) 1798 Edmund Snelson, of Nantwich, bookseller (bur. there 13 July, 1798). 1799 Ric. Hartley, of Manchester, bookseller. Ad. 1799 Albon Syers, of Salford, bookbinder. Ad. 1800 Jonathan Waterworth, of Blackburn, printer. Ad. 1808 John Northall, of Stockport, bookseller. 1805 Thomas Raven, of Manchester, bookseller. George Etherege, his father, had been ir Bermuda in August, 1628 and was there in December, 1630, and styled Capt. George His father died when he was about fourteen. Etherege. He had remained there for two or three years, had been there a subsequent half year and then for about four years returning to England in the Spring of 1634. Two years after his marriage in October, 1634, with £600 he bought a place at Court worth about £200 a year before the troubles,"-his entire income. He died on September 29, 1649, in France. Did he follow the fortunes of the Court thither? Was his oldest son George with him there, and was this the beginning of the dramatist's familiarity with spoken and written French and with Paris? Practically no estate was left to the children who were obliged to live now with one relative now with another, the main burden of their maintenance being borne by 1802 Thomas Sowler, of Manchester, their Grandfather Etherege. stationer. 1801 Henry Spencer, of Goodham Hill, bookseller. Ad. 1804 Gerard Bancks, of Manchester, stationer. 1807 Robert Butler, of Blackburn, letter printer. 1804 Wm. Cartwright, of Collyhurst, Manchester, printer (?) 1808 Wm. Clegg, of Bold, printer (?) 1804 John Evans, of Nether Knutsford, stationer. Ad. 1807 Thos. Garner, of Bolton-le-Moors, stationer. 1810 Robert Haworth, of Bury, printer (?) 1804 Geo. Linney, of Salford, printer (?) Ad. 1803 Wm. Lyon, of Wigan, stationer. 1810 Wm. Eyres, of Warrington, gent. (printer). R. STEWART-BROWN. SIR GEORGE ETHEREGE : COLLECTIONS. (See ante pp. 417, 435). THIS suit supplies both information and atmosphere for Sir George Etherege's early years. He was evidently born in Maidenhead, probably in his grandfather's house in 1635*, the oldest of seven children. Unfortunately the earliest extant volume of the Bray Parish Register begins only with 1652. The preceding volume has been lost. By his grandfather, George Etherege the younger was apprenticed in about 1653 to a Mr. Gosnoll an attorney, the sum of £50 being paid for this purpose. This is undoubtedly the origin of the tradition that he had been at one of the Inns of Court. I can find no authority for the rumour that he had been at the University of Cambridge.* Dr. John Venn states that he has no record of this for the second volume containing the Es of his 'Alumni Cantabrigienses From Earliest Times to 1751.' In about 1651 Mary Powney Etherege married Christopher Newsted.+ Newsted had "Tis thought he had some education at the University of Cambridge, but it seems he travelled into France, and perhaps Flanders also, in his younger years; and at his return, studied for a while, the municipal Laws, at one of the Inns of Court in London." From Oldys's account of Etherege in Biographia Britannica,' London, 1750, vol. iii. t See D.N.B.' and J. W. Walker's History of Maidenhead,' pp. 40, 45-7, for accounts of Christopher Newsted (1597-1662). Born, South Somercotes, Lincolnshire; matriculated, Alban Hall, Oxford, November, 1616; chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe during his embassy to Turkey, 1621-29; married Mary Fulhurst of Great Oxendon, Northamptonshire; Vicar, St. Helen's, Abingdon, Berkshire, 1629-35; chaplain extraordinary to the King, 1641 (L.C. 3/1. Public Record Office); nominated by Laud at instigation of Roe to Stisted Rectory, Essex. Mar., 1642; opposed by the lords, but granted presentation, May, 1643; opposed by parishioners; given through grant to wife one fifth of the rectory profits; sequestered, 1644 or 1645; appointed to Maidenhead Chapel, 1650. come to Maidenhead in 1650, having been appointed Chaplain of Maidenhead Chapel by the Committee for Plundered Ministers, after disagreeable experiences with his parishioners in his previous living at Stisted resulting in sequestration. Suspicion of his religious and political views followed him. Though allowed to preach at Maidenhead, he did so while a commission was investigating his fitness. This was still going on while the Etherege lawsuit was in progress, and must have added to Mary Newsted's anxieties. Newsted's son by his first wife, Christopher, who had been born in 1637, was, however, doing well. A scholar of Eton in 1654, he became a Fellow at King's College, Cambridge in 1658. Newsted's wife, supposed by the D.N.B. to be his first wife, is stated to have been in such straits after his death that she was "supported by the charity of the Corporation for Ministers' Widows." The next new information concerning the Etherege family comes from the will of Anne Etherege* proven by that document to have been the sister of Sir George Etherege. 'The Bray Parish Register records her burial: "1681 Mrs. Anne Ederidge-of LondonMarch ye 25th." Her will was proved and her executors, John Powney, "Armiger," and Martha Griffin, sworn on Apr. 30, 1681. "Anne Etheridge now of Edmunton in the County of Midds Spinster being in very good and perfict mind and memory but somewhat weak in Body and considering with my selfe the certainty of Death but the uncertainty of the time I do therefore make and ordayne this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme followeing, And first and principally I Commend my Soule unto the hands of Almighty God my Creator assuredly trusting and believing in and through the merritts of my Deare Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive full pardon and remission of all my Sinns, And for my Body I Committ it to the earth to bee decently interred at the Parish for Church of Bray in the County of Berks in the Chancill as neare as conveniently may bee to my deare Grandfather George Etheridge without any manner of Ceremony, but only to be carryed in a Herse privately and late buryed only giveing Mourning Rings to my cousin Germans, and sending Three Mourning Rings into Scotland to the Lady Lockhart and her two Daughters and to my two Brothers Sr George Etheridge and Mr Richard Etheridge Two Mourning Rings, And I give to that parish where I shall decease to the poore thereof Twenty shillings and to the poore of the parish where I am buried Twenty shillings. And likewise I give to the Library of the parish of Bray the some of fforty shillings to bestowed in a Booke in the name and for the remembrance of the said Anne Etheridge And for the rest of my worldly estate which it hath pleased God to bestowe upon mee: ffuneral I give and bequeath after my Charges as farr as ffifty pounds expended as followeth. Item I give to my Deare Mother Mary Neewsted the Interest money Three hundred pounds hereafter bequeathed or ffifteene pounds yearly in lieue thereof at her electōn to bee paid her halfe yearly during her life by my Executors Item I give my Sister Margarett fferrers the Inter. est money for One hundred and ffifty pounds hereafter bequeathed Seaven pounds and Tenn shillings yearly to bee paid her halfe yearly during her life And after her decease I give the said One hundred and ffifty pounds to Edmond Ferrers sonne of my Sister Margarett when hee shall attaine the age of Three and Twenty yeares, and in the mean tyme from his Mothers Death I give him the Interest money thereof for his maintenance breeding upp and so much of the said one Hundred and ffifty pounds as shall bee necessary to put him out Apprentice Item I give to my nephew George Etheridge One Hundred pounds to bee imployed in cloathing and putting him forth to some Trade or Calling that my Executors shall think fitting, And in default thereof I give him the said One hundred pounds when hee shall attaine the age of Three and Twenty yeares, And the Interest money thereof meane time Item I devise That after the decease of my said Mother I give One hundred of the said Three Hundred pounds whereof she is to have the Interest for her or in and the *No inscription remains to mark either grave in the renovated Bray Church of to-day. life to my said Nephew George Etheridge said Mother's decease I give to my Sister given to them are paiable to them and not before And I doe hereby Nominate and appoint my Couzen John Powney Esq: and my said Aunt Mrs. Martha Griffin* my full and sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament, and doe hereby give them power dureing their Lifes to lett out or continue the moneys herein bequeathed at ffive in the hundred. And my Will is that they shall not bee answerable if the same bee put forth upon bad Securityes in regard I have a full Confidence in them That they will use their utmost care and integrity in putting forth the same to the best advantage. And I do hereby Revoke all former Wills and Testaments by mee at any time heretofore made and Declare this to bee my last Will and Testament. In witnes whereof I the said Anne Etheridge to this my last Will and Testament in Three sheets of paper have sett my hand and Seale The Thirteenth Day of March in the Three and Thirtieth yeare of the Reigne of Our Soveraigne Lord King Charles the Second over England or Anno Dni 1680 .. The importance of this will is that of the keystone to the arch. It gives conclusive proof that the dramatist, the only Sir George Etherege of his day, did belong to that family of Ethereges whose fortunes I have been tracing. decrees, in event of the death of any of her nephews and nieces, what disposal shall be made of her legacy or legacies to the deceased among the survivors. If all her nephews and nieces die before their legacies become payable, she states,] Then I will that the Interest money of the said Legacies to them hereby intended goe to my said Sisters Margarett and Elizabeth during their Lives share and share like and to In an earlier article (Times Literary Sup the Survivour of them during life, plement, Feb. 16, 1922) I stated that Sir and after their deceases to my Brothers, George Etherege and his wife in 1687 sought George Etheridge Knight and Richard to recover £300 lent by the latter in 1677 on Etheridge during their Lives and to the landed security or to foreclose. Their lawSurvivour of them dureing his life and suit is referred to in Etherege's letter to Mr. after their deceases I give the said Legacies Bradbury from Ratisbon, 2/12 Jan., 1687/8, to my Couzen John Powney of Old Windsor in the Etherege Letter Book (Add. MS. 11, Esq And also I give the residue of my 513, Brit. Mus., p. 158 verso): 'I referr'd Estate not hereby bequeathed to him and wholly to you the determining of the suite to his Children. As for my Weareing depending with West and Barbone, it is now Clothes except my best Petticoate I give and five or six months since, & you have not yet dispose the same to my Mother said Sisters acquainted me wth so much as your opinion of and Neece Mary Etheridge to bee equally it." The complaint of "Sr George Etherege of devided betweene them Item I give my said the parish of St Martins in the ffields in the best Petticoat to my Couzen Powneys daughter Item I give to my Aunt Griffin my Gould Watch to my said Couzen Powneys Wife my Lady Lockharts picture Item my Will is that my Trunk of Linnen my Plate and other things except what is herein otherwise given bee sold for the discharging my Debts ffunerall and Legacies herein given paid and satisfied I will the surplusage which shall remaine of my Estate to my Nephew and Neece George and Mary Etheridge and to the Survivour of them at such times as the other Legacies herein County of Midd. Knt and Dame Mary his wife," and the answers of the various defendants are preserved in the Public Record Office in Chancery Proceedings: Whittington C 10/274/436, Mitford C 8/510/40 and Hamilton C 7/573/66.+ The main interest of the This is probably Martha Etherege Canning Griffin. See ante p. 417. + Whittington C 19/274/36 contains (1) the Etherege and Dame Mary his wife, May 10, complaint of the plaintiffs, Sir George 1687; (2) the joint answer of John West and Roger Locke, June 20, 1687, and Oct. 28, 1687; |