It was probably to his mother's influence, who was (like many other ladies of that period) a woman of very considerable attainments and culture, that Thomas, Earl of Arundel owed the taste which he afterwards indulged as a collector of relics of Grecian and Italian art. My next extract brings him before us in a pleasing light, as paying a tribute of honour to his last surviving kinsman of the old Dacre stock. 1634 "Buried Randall Dacre Esqre. sonne and heyre of Francis Dacre Esq. deceased, being the last heire male of that lyne. wh. så. Randall dyed at London and was brought downe at the charge of the Right Hoble Thomas Earl of Arrundell and Surrye, Earl Marshall of England." William, Lord Dacre of Gillesland, Greystoke, and Wemm, died in 1564, leaving issue Thomas who succeeded him, Leonard, Edward, and Francis. Thomas survived his father but three years, leaving four children, George, Anne, Mary and Elizabeth.

His widow Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Leyburne, married afterwards Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, who had the children committed to his wardship, and the three daughters were married to his three sons. Of Anne and Elizabeth I spoke under our last entry. Mary, the second daughter, was married to Thomas Lord Howard of Walden, and died without issue.

George, Lord Dacre, was accidentally killed in 1569, and left his three sisters coheirs. On this their uncle Leonard Dacre claimed the estates as heir in tail male; but both he and his brothers were attained for an attempt in favour of Mary Queen of Scots. Leonard died an exile at Louvaine in 1581, and Edward had predeceased him in 1547. Francis is mentioned here. In a letter written by him to Queen Elizabeth, from Croglin, in September 1589, (Nicolson and Burn, ii. 352) he thus speaks of his poverty, and of his son Randal. "Seeing the case to stand so hard against me, and that I have the last penny of maintenance that ever I can make, besides the great debt I am in, having no shift now left me whereby to live, To beg I am ashamed, To work I cannot, To want I will not, Therefore I am forced to seek for maintenance where I may with credit gain the same, and have determined to employ that little that should have brought me to attend your majesty to carry me elsewhere. I have taken my son with me, for that I have left him nothing to tarry behind me withal; and if God hath provided a living for us we will live together; if not we will starve together." The son Randal, survived his father but two years; and, as we see, was buried

among

-among his kin in Greystoke Church, at the expense of his relative Thomas, Earl of Arundel.

The power of excommunication which during the time of Charles I. had been chiefly exercised against the Romanists, was, at the commencement of James II's reign turned against the Protestant Nonconformist, for on March 29, 1585 "Were these persons whose names and sirnames are hereunder written denounced excomunicate for their offences and other their contumacye in not appearing at consistorye court for the reformation of their lives and manners: vizt. John Slee, Jacob Relf, John Atkinson, Scoolm' at Motherby and Mary his wife, John Noble and Jone his wife, John Todd and Agnes his wife, Adam Bird and Isabell his wife, Henry Sheapherd Mary Todd wid. John Jack and Elizabeth his wife, Henry Winder of Hutton John and his wife" and twenty-eight other persons. Some of these persons were quakers, and some persons of immoral character, but Henry Winder, Adam Bird, John Noble, and John Atkinson were Presbyterians. During the latter part of the Commonwealth, Richard Gilpin, M.D., the amiable founder of that accomplished family the Gilpins of Scaleby Castle, held the Rectory of Greystoke. Quakerism was then spreading in Cumberland and Westmorland; and its professors would go into the Parish Church and disturb Dr. Gilpin in his pulpit. "Such" we are told, "were their novel phrases and cross-questions and answers, that the Doctor seemed sometimes at a loss what to say to them." Among others, Henry Winder, a yeoman, living at Green-close, in the township of Hutton Soyle, was drawn away from the Prebyterians and openly joined the Quakers, who placed great trust in him, and made him Receiver of all their collections in the County. Winder continued among them some years; but being, as he said, disturbed by their "jarring and discord, secret envyings and different opinions," and especially by their views as to the insufficiency of Holy Scripture, he and his second wife finally left them and returned to the Presbyterians who now were removed by the Restoration from the Parish Church to their Chapel (then new) at Penruddock. In 1683 Winder became the hero of some very curious transactions, into which we need not digress.

Henry Winder himself tells the story in a curious tact, which is now very scarce, entitled "The Spirit of Quakerism, and the Danger of Their Divine Revelation laid open, London, 1696. John Atkinson, John Noble, and Adam Bird,

whose

whose names appear in the excommunication, attest along with Andrew Huddlestone, Esq., of Hutton John, and three others, the truth of the narration. Thomas Camm, of Camsgill, Westmorland, published about 1700, two tracts in reply to Winder, one of which was called "Truth prevailing with Reason against Clamour and Railing." Camm vouches over nine witnesses to the truth of his story. To these tracts the curious about the squabble must refer. I would observe in conclusion that none of these troubles seem to have shortened the sufferer's days, for we find in the 2nd volume of the Registers that on February 9th, 1716-7 was "buried Henry Winder, Sen., of Hutton Soyle; who dyed of a Dropsy in the Hundred & first year of His Age.

On August 24th, 1653, the Rump Parliament passed an act, under which marriages might take place before a Justice of the Peace on the production of a certificate from the Registrar, that the Banns had been published by him on three successive Lord's Days, at the close of the morning exercise, in the Church or Chapel, or (if the parties desired it) in the market place next to the said Church or Chapel, on three successive market days, if no impediment had been alleged. Only one couple at Greystoke availed themselves of this, and their marriage is thus entered: 1654-5 February "The 22th married John Canon younger And Dorothy Johnson Both of Greaistocke by Thomas Langhorne Esq. one of the Justices of peace for this county," By the same Act each parish was to elect a person to be sworn and approved of by one Justice of the Peace, to keep the registers of marriages, births, and burials. This Act was confirmed in 1656, and on June roth, 1657, we read "Be it remembered that Thomas Atkinson was this day aboue sayd sworne and Approved by me to be the Parish Register for Gristock according to y Act of Parliamt in ye case provided. Thomas Langhorne."

At the Restoration the business of keeping the registers devolved again on the parochial clergyman, William Morland the restored Rector, and "William Hodgson of little Blencowe was chosen Parrish Clarke."

Of the Visitation of the Plague, which in 1597-8, carried off 2260 victims in Penrith and its vicinity, the only mention we find at Greystoke is this: November 14th, 1598 "the same day was buried Margaret Sle a child of John Sle of Hutton John wch child was suspected to dye of the plague." When we come, however, to examine the Register we find that

though

though the average number of burials at this time was but about forty-five per annum, in 1597 (of which the records of the first seventeen days are wanting) there were 182. Hence we may conclude that this Parish was not exempt from the devastation which was wasting the neighbourhood. Ten years previously, in 1587 there were 108 burials.

When I first undertook the examination of these Registers, my attention was drawn by Mr. Jackson, who was similarly employed on those of the neighbouring parish of Newton, to the prevalence of a great mortality in 1623. At Greystoke, during that year, there were 163 burials, or about five times the average number. I select a few of the entries:

March 27th "The same daye buried a poore hunger sterven begor child, Dorothie the daughter of Henry Patteson, Miller."

May 6th "Buried Richard lambe a poor inhabitant of Patterdale who dyed in the barne of Willm Langhorn of Graystock."

November 8th "Buried Jo: Nicholson the yonge child of a poore begger of the pishe of Broughton, wch child died at the towne crosse in Graistocke."

Many of the entries terminate with the phrase "who died of want of means to live." From the registers of St. Bees, Crosthwaite, Penrith, Newton Regny, Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale, Crosby Garret, Cartmel, Heversham, and Middleton near Oldham, we find that the death rate during this year was excessive, varying in the respective parishes from three to five times the usual average. A communication from me on the subject of this visitation will be found, by those who feel interested in the matter, in Mr. Stockdale's valuable History of Cartmel, published at the commencement of the present year. Thomas Saunderson, in his Guide to the Lakes (1807), is, so far as my knowledge goes, the only writer who had previously mentioned this subject, and he alludes to the prevalence of the mortality at Keswick only.

I shall next bring to your notice some miscellaneous entries which will perhaps serve to show you how very varied the contents of this old volume are.

1587-8 March "Tewsday the xiith day was buried one ppofer Buckbarrow wch went about for god-sake." The same phrase occurs again in 1602 applied to a poore woman," both were probably licensed beggars.

1587-8 February "Monday the vth day was buried Robert Hodgson husbandman and walker of cloth." Fulling mills were called Walk mills.

1592-3 April xiiith "The same day was Christ: Thomas a child of one wch. is a spayner at Whytbarrow." This spayner was I presume, a person to whom children were sent to be weaned. In the Yorkshire Dialect we find "to spane" used for "to wean and in modern Cumbrian the word takes the form "spean." Burns used the word in this sense in his Tam o' Shanter :

"But withered beldams old and droll

Ringwoodie hags wad spean a foal."

A friend has pointed out to me that the derivation of this word is probably from the Anglo Saxon "Spana" which Somner, in his Anglo Saxonm. Dictionarium gives as meaning "Mammo, ubra, the duggs, teats, or speanes of a female, especially of a

COW.*

1604-5 January "Wednesday the xxiiith daye was buryed Wylm browne son of Robert browne of graistock, whch Wylm was hurt by chance wth a dagger, by lawrence Clemetson upon sondaye at night before in Cuthbert Nanson's house of graistock, and so the coroners quest dyd passe upon him before hys buriall."

1608-9 February 12th "This daye two Sermons by Mr. p'son one affore none and the other after none and Edward Dawson taylyor dyd openlye conffess before the Congregation that he had abused the mynister Sr Matthew Gibson upon the Saboth daye at Eavenynge prayer." 1617-8 March 8th day. Burried Isabell wyfe of John .of graistock towne who were married together 61 yeares and she was nurse to George Earl of Cumberland last deceased." This George, Earl of Cumberland, was the famous sailor, courtier, and champion of Queen Elizabeth, and father of a hardly less remarkable daughter, Anne Countess of Pembroke. The death of his nurse at Greystoke may be probably accounted for by the fact that his mother was Anne daughter of William Lord Dacre ef Gillesland, Greystoke, and Wemme.

* Spane, to wean. Germ., spanen, Low Germ., spennen, to wean; Ang-Sax. Spana, Old Norse, Speni a teat: see The Dialect of Cumberland, by Ferguson, (Robert) p. 133. There is another meaning, apparently obvious, for a spayner, from the word spay (Lat. Spado): the word spay only applies to female animals (see Latham's Johnson's Dictionary) and hence would hardly be the derivation of a general professional term.-EDITOR,

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