To these moreover I have further added one fishery in the Isles of Ely which supplies a thousand and a half of dried eels, and a present of forty eels, that is to say fat eels. And in the vill which is called Mose I have granted, besides the above, three thousand dried herrings.

Also Thorald, my steward, has granted to the said Church and has confirmed the same, placing his right hand upon the Altar, together with the offering of his son Ralph, two-thirds of the tythe of all his corn in Ockendon,¶ and the whole tythe of all his live and dead stock, without partition; and in Bordesden* the whole tythe of all his corn and of all his stock, without partition.

Edric, my bailiff, has given the whole tythe of his corn and of all his live and dead stock in the same place, without partition.

Now I, for the completion of this my so great bounty and for the sole support of the Convent of monks continually serving God in the said Church, have under the influence of Divine Grace besought my Lord King William that, in order to preserve the everlasting integrity and endurance of the place, all these things might be confirmed, to the honour of God and for the salvation of my own soul and of that of all my heirs and successors; and that that place—a place which was also distinguished by the guardianship of royalty— should always be held by me as the chief one having a call upon my protection and defence, and as my highest honour, and be free and clear from disquietude at the hands of all men.

And so, on the same day on which the Church was Dedicated, by the said Bishop and by Gilbert, Abbot of Westminster, together with many other men and persons of high authority, I caused that all who should violate or reduce these my alms should be excommunicated, that their habitation should ever be with the accursed Judas, the betrayer of our Lord, and that they should go down alive into the pit of eternal damnation together with Dathan and Korah, under the

§ Chippenham, in Cambridgeshire, although not in the Isle of Ely, is very near it. It belonged to Geoffrey de M. and had a fishery assessed at 1,500 eels! In Doomsday the Inquisitors say of this fishery "De piscariâ 1500 anguillarum in totis valentiis valet £20: quando recepit £16: tempore R.E. £12."

|| Mose; a hamlet in Beaumont Parish in Essex; 10 miles south-east of Colchester. Mose was formerly a separate and distinct parish, but wag consolidated with Beaumont in 1678. Doomsday says that the King gave the Manor of Mose to Geoffrey de M. "quando remansit Londoniæ."

Doomsday gives Ockendon (in Essex) as held by Geoffrey de M., and "Turoldus de eo."

*Bordesden Manor is in Essex.

eternal malediction [of God] unless they shall have repented and made due satisfaction.

Wherefore I call to witness, by the terrible judgment of God and by His Almighty power in heaven and earth, all my sons, that is to say my heirs and all my successors, that they themselves do not, nor suffer to be done, any violation of this my gift; moreover that they increase and stablish the same, so that God may increase and stablish their days, and their life in everlasting happiness; and that they may on account of these my alms take part with me in the heavenly Rest.

Witnesses

The said Bishop Osmund-Gilbert, Abbot of Westminster-The lady Leceline my wife-William of Mandeville-Richard of Mandeville-Hugh Marshall-Thorald of Ockendon, the steward-Geoffrey of Ockendon-Walter Marshall-Ascelin, the chaplain-Agamund, the parson of Ockendon-Godwin of Turrock, the chaplain-Ralph of Hairun-Arnulf of Grenford-Robert, his nephew-Engeram, the cup-bearer-Richer, knight—Roger Blond-Wymund of BlangeyEdric, the bailiff-Elfric, the builder-together with many other men and persons of authority and dignity, who were present at Hurley on that day but whose names it is not necessary to record.

After counsel, then, taken with honest men, three brief Charters recording this my Gift and Foundation have been made; one I have deposited at Westminster, another at the Church at Hurley, and a third for myself and my heirs who will succeed me; [and this I have done] in order to secure the everlasting integrity and permanence of the place.

L.S.

Geoffrey de Mandiville.

In A.D. 1258 Godfrey, Prior of Hurley, in order to avoid a quarrel with Absolom, Abbot of Walden, surrendered a large portion of the Tythes belonging to Hurley Monastery ("tam majores quam minores") in exchange for the Church and Patronage of Streatley (Harleian M.S. No. 369, Walden Series of Hurley Charters). And, in the Patent Roll of 36 Henry VIII. (Part 12, Memb. 30), we find Henry VIII. making over to Leonard Chamberlayne all his Rectories and Churches "de Hurley Waltham et Stretley cum eorum juribus et pertinenciis universis in dicto Comitatu nostro Berk dicto nuper Prioratui de Hurley" &c.

Swallowfield and its Owners.

By Lady Russell.

(Continued from page 38.)'

There is a monument to the memory of William and Mary Standen and their infant, Nicholas Love Standen, in Arborfield Church, two miles from Swallowfield. On it are the effigies

of a man and woman in a recumbent position and a child at their feet, with a Latin inscription which states that Mary was "singulari castitate pietate, et in inopes beneficentia spectabilis." On the front and sides are various escutcheons. Edward Standen, the last heir male of this family, died in 1639, and was the lovesick swain alluded to in the curious old Ballad entitled Molly Moggs." This Ballad, printed in Swift's "Miscellanies," is said. to have been the joint composition of Gay and his boon companions while detained by the weather at the "Rose" Inn, Wokingham. Molly Moggs was the landlord's daughter, and her beauty was equalled only by her insensibility to the tender passion. Edward Standen sighed in vain, and his death, which occurred in 1730, at the age of 27, was attributed to her indifference. She died aged 67, a spinster.

1626. Samuel Backhouse was succeeded by his eldest son, John Backhouse, who was 42 years of age when he came into possession of Swallowfield, and had lived at Windsor during the lifetime of his father. He married in July, 1615, Flower, daughter of Thomas Henshaw, of London, Merchant Tailor and Silkman to King James I., by his wife Flower Gouldesborough, but had no issue. He got with his wife £4,000, and at her mother's death, in 1616, received £1,500 more.

In 1621 John Backhouse was one of the jury empannelled to try a very remarkable case. Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury, going into Hampshire to consecrate a Chapel for Lord Zouche, at his house at Bramshill, went out hunting in the park on the 24th July. Aiming at a buck with his cross bow, the bolt glanced and killed

the keeper, Peter Hawkins. Upon this accident, by the Canon Law, the Archbishop was suspended from all ecclesiastical function, and by the Civil Law had incurred the forfeiture of all his goods and chattels to the King. His Majesty, however, as soon as he was informed of it, remarked that "an angel might have miscarried in that sort," and addressed to the Primate a consolatory letter written with his own hand, in which he assured him "that he would not add affliction to his sorrow, nor take one farthing from his chattels." Thus far all was well, but the Church was not so easily satisfied, and Williams, Bishop of Lincoln and Keeper of the Great Seal, wrote a letter in which he said "to leave virum sanguineum, or a man of blood, Primate and patriarch of all the King's Churches, is a thing that sounds very harsh in the canons of the Church." The King then found it necessary to nominate to Commissioners, five of whom were Bishops, to decide the cause. After many conferences this Synod could not come to any agreement, so the King settled the question by declaring the Primate capable of using all the authority of a Metropolitan in the same manner as if the homicide had never happened.

Sir Dudley Carleton, writing August 4th, 1621, thus alludes to the event: "Upon the fall of the fellow, who lived not half-an-hour, the Lord of Canterbury sent away to inform His Majesty, who returned a gracious answer; that such an accident might befall any man; that himself once had the ill luck to kill the keeper's horse under him, and that his Queen in like sort killed him the best brache (hound) he ever had, and therefore willed him not to discomfort himself. The keeper and he were both on horseback, and in a standing, as was reputed. It is given out his Lordship will provide for the widow and three children in competent manner, some say more—some less.* John Backhouse was present and one of the jury, to inquire, as the manner is, how he came by his death; and they gave up a strange kind of verdict, and found it done 'per infortuniam suâ propriâ culpâ." The Archbishop keenly felt his situation, and during the rest of his life kept a monthly fast in memory of his misfortune. Yet, we are told, it always served his enemies, a pretext for slighting his authority. Laud and two other Bishops-elect who were awaiting consecration implored that they might not receive consecration at his hands, and he ultimately delegated the duty to the Bishop of London.

* The Archbishop settled £20 a year on the widow, which soon procured her another husband.

John Backhouse sat for Great Marlow in the first Parliament of Charles I., Thomas Cotton being the other Burgess. In 1626 he sat again with Sir William Hicks, and the following year with Sir Miles Hobart. He fought for the King, and we are told in his epitaph that he suffered imprisonment for his fidelity to his Royal Master. He was made a Knight of the Bath before 1632.

1632. There is a letter preserved in the Bodleian from Mr. Bernard Lee and Sir John Backhouse concerning the ownership and rating of some land, written from Worlam, April 29th, 1632. [Clarendon Papers, 303].

1642. And in the same Collection (No. 1793) is to be found the affidavit of Sir John Backhouse of the assessment of £40 as the twentieth part of his property at the time of the making of the ordinance of November 29th, 1642, for assessment.

There is also (No. 1877) a copy of the petition of Sir John Backhouse, Knight of the Bath, to the Committee of Sequestration, complaining that his property in Berkshire has been seized, though no proof of his delinqueney or any definite accusation has been made against him.

1647-8. Lord Darnley has amongst other papers of the Backhouses at Cobham, "a Booke containing a Copie of the Deed of Draft from Sir John Backhouse and Codrington and others of the whole estate of Sir John Backhouse, dated 29th May, 1647, and “ a Copie of Sir John Backhouse, his will in the same booke," dated 1648.

1649. He died on the 9th October, 1649, aged 65, and was buried at Swallowfield, where there is in the Russell Tribune a black and white marble monument, originally erected to his memory on the north wall of the Chancel, by his widow Flora. It has a long Latin inscription, of which the following is a translation : "Sacred to the memory of John Backhouse, of Swallowfield, of the most honourable Order [which is called the Bath] most worthy Knight sprung from an ancient family in the county of Lancaster. He awaits the glorious coming of his Lord in these ashes the revivers of a blest hereafter to be born again—a man imbued with no slight tincture of every sort of learning, highly skilled in languages, particularly in Greek, which with a surprising sagacity and talent he had seized and acquired as a grown-up man without anybody to instruct him, that he might listen intimately to the oracles of the Christian religion. The faith of the stream being suspected he penetrated to the clear springs of the fountains. The best sup