sure whether use of tobacco or the craving for it in its absence is the greatest sin. He philosophises thus: "Sabbath, July 5, 1667. This base tobacco. Take it before secret duties, then it prevents them; put it off, and then my base heart would count of it all the time of duty."

John Heywood, or Heawood, made his will September 10th, 1662, in which, after disposing of his soul and body in the manner usual to all goodly Puritans, he gives to his daughter Anna, who at that time was unmarried and under the age of twenty-one, four score and five pounds sterling, being an equal portion to that of her married sister, Mary. If Anna died before twentyone or marriage this sum to be equally divided among the rest of his children, namely, Samuel, John, and Mary.

Samuel had six children, viz., John, Daniel, Isaack, James, Mary, and Sarah, to each of whom he gives. twenty shillings.

John had three children, viz., John, Timothie, and Mary, to each of whom he gives twenty shillings.

Mary had four children, viz., Daniel, James, Samuel, and Susanna, who had twenty shillings each. In case of death before maturity, to be equally divided among the other brothers and sisters of the same family. To Daniel, second son of Samuel, he also gives two sheep, then in the keeping of Edmund Buckley, of Shelderslow.

He gives to every one he is uncle to one shilling each.

He gives to his son Samuel his part of the Martyr's Book. He also gives to his son Samuel the great Bible, to be continued where it is for his son that shall survive him. Remainder to be divided among his four children equally. John Loton, of Grotton, and Edmund Buckley, of Shelderslow, to be executors. His two sons, Samuel

and John, to be supervisors. Witnesses, Edmund Buckley and John Whitehead. Signed, John Heawood. His effects were "prized" on the 10th October, 1662, by James Lees, James Clayton, Joseph Taylor, and Ottiwell Wyld. In sheep he had £11. IOS., Cows £85. 13s. 4d., corn and hay £5. 13s. 4d., wooll, yarn, and cloth £4.9s. 8d., brass and pewter £1. 7s., five coffers £1. 5s., three bedsteads and press 14s. 6d., bedding £3, arks, iron-ware, chairs, and other huslements £1. 7s., purse and apparel £3. 10s., debts owing to testator £74. 12s. 4d., total £193. 2s. 2d. Duly signed by the prizers, two of whom have a private mark as sign manual. Proved at Chester, November 8th, 1662.

I have given the children's names for the sake of the many Samuels, Daniels, Isaacs, Johns, Jameses, and others, who rejoice in the name of Heywood. I have given the amount "prized” appraised or valued, to show what the fortune of a comfortable yeoman during the Commonwealth, was like. I have given the names of the executors, &c., to show who John Heywood's friends and neighbours were, probably they were they were Puritans like

himself.

I have mentioned the Book of Martyrs, because, next to the Bible, Foxe's Book of Martyrs was the great text book of the Puritans, even the Quakers searched it closely, and John Heywood's share of the book was bound up in other people's shares, and probably the big volume was deposited in some church or chapel for the use of the public, like a kind of free reference library, and probably like some other books it was chained down lest some "Egyptian" might carry it away, all unbeknown to the subscribers.

But what care John Heywood took to perpetuate and entail the use of his great Bible. How this act reminds

us of some precepts of this great book, "when thou sittest in thine house or walkest by the way, or liest down or risest up." John Richard Green tells us, writing of a period a few years anterior to John Heywod's death, but within his life time, "England became the people of a book, and that book was the Bible. It was as yet the one English book which was familiar to every Englishman; it was read at churches and read at home, and everywhere its words, as they fell on ears which custom had not deadened to their force and beauty, kindled a startling enthusiasm."

THE STYCAS OF NORTH HUMBRIA.

WH

BY NATHAN HEYWOOD.

WHEN Mr. D. H. Haigh, of Leeds, published his costly and artistic essay on the coinage of East Anglia, in 1845, he intimated that if his work were favourably received it would be followed immediately by one on the coins of North Humbria, and at short intervals by others of the coins of the heptarchic kingdoms. Unfortunately Mr. Haigh's labours were inadequately rewarded, and on that account no second publication took place. In the following pages it is my intention to place in the hands of the reader an essay on the stycas; but before proceeding further permit me to explain that when the word styca is used it is intended to express a coin in silver or other metal issued from North Humbrian mints previous to the issue of the silver penny in that kingdom. Hitherto it has been customary to describe the early coins of the kingdom when struck in silver or debased white metal as sceattas, and stycas when struck in copper, bronze, or orichalcum (yellow brass). I shall, however, only call attention to the metal of the coins when struck in silver, so that when no allusion is made to the metal it is to be understood as being of a baser denomination. It has not yet been ascertained to what extent the coinage of North Humbria is inten

G

tionally of silver or copper respectively, and the question is the more difficult to fathom owing to all the silver coins containing an alloy of copper in their composition, whilst a large percentage of the copper coins of some reigns contain an alloy of silver. Those who are interested in this quære should carefully read the vigorous paper in the Numismatic Chronicle, n.s., vol. xx., by Major A. B. Creeke, and the masterly reply of the late Mr. Hyman Montagu, which followed it (Numismatic Chronicle, third series, vol. iii.).

During the Saxon period the word styca appears to have been used to express the small North Humbrian coins (and probably included Roman small copper) which circulated in North Humbria, whilst the sceatta was in circulation in other parts of the heptarchy. So far as I am aware, finds of sceattas are (with one exception*) unknown in North Humbria. Mr. Lindsay was inclined to assign five sceattas (engraved on plate i. of his coins of the heptarchy) to North Humbria on account of the animals upon them being similar to the quadrupeds on the stycas of Eadberht, Alchred, and other kings, but (in my opinion) such an attribution should be supported by stronger evidence than he was able to supply. It frequently happens that the inscriptions on the stycas have runes mixed promiscuously with Saxon and Roman letters, thus showing that runic characters had not at that time become entirely superseded. Previous to the present century stycas do not appear to have been abundant, and, if we may judge by Sir Andrew Fountaine's work on the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Danish coinage (Oxon., 1705), they appear to have received less consideration than the coinage of the other kingdoms of

* Manchester.