Notes and Queries, Number 25, April 20, 1850 | Page 9

the office an honorary appointment? They used to meet periodically, was it for the transaction of business? if so, what business? Does the office still exist?
S.S.S.
_Buccaneers--Charles II._--There is a passage in Bryan Edward's History of the West Indies (vol. i. p. 164. 4to edit. 1793), in which he gives an opinion that the buccaneers of Jamaica were not the pirates and robbers that they have been commonly represented; and mentions, on the authority of a MS. journal of Sir William Beeston, that Charles II. had a pecuniary interest in the buccaneering, and continued to receive a share of the booty after he had publicly ordered the suppression of buccaneering: and also, speaking of Sir Henry Morgan, and the honours he received from Charles II., gives an opinion that the stories told of Morgan's cruelty are untrue. Can any of your readers tell me who Sir William Beeston was, and what or where his journal is? or refer me to any accessible information about Charles II.'s connection with the buccaneers, or that may support Bryan Edwards's favourable opinion of the Jamaica buccaneers and of Sir Henry Morgan?
C.
_Travelling in 1590.--Richard Hooker._--Could any of your readers give me some particulars of travelling at the above period between London and Salisbury? I should also feel greatly indebted for any unpublished particulars in the life of the "Judicious Richard Hooker" after his marriage. Answers might be sent, either through "NOTES AND QUERIES," or direct to me,
W. HASTINGS KELKE. Drayton Beauchamp, Tring.
_Decker's Raven's Almanack--Nash's Terrors of the Night, &c._--Having lately picked up a volume of old tracts, I am anxious to learn how far I may congratulate myself on having met with a prize. Among the contents are--
1. "The Rauen's Almanacke," for the year 1609, purporting to be by T. Deckers. Is this the same person with Thomas Dekker the dramatist?
2. Nashe's "Terrors of the Night" (wanting eight leaves at the beginning.) Of this, Beloe (the only authority within my reach) says, that only one copy is known to exist; can his statement be correct?
3. A religious tract, which seems only remarkable for its bad printing, obscure wording, and almost invariably using the third person singular of the verb, whatever be the nominative. It begins--
"To all you who profess the name of our Lord Jesus in words, and makes mention of his words, &c."....
And the first division ends--
"This have I written in love to all your soules, who am one who did drinke of the cup of fornication, and have drunke of the cup of indignation, but now drinkes the cup of salvation, where sorrow and tears is fled away; and yet am a man of sorrows and well acquainted with griefe, and suffers with the seed, and travels that it may be brought forth of captivity; called by the world F.H."
Who is F.H.?
4. Sundry poems on husbandry, housewifery, and the like, by Thomas Tusser; but as the tract is mutilated up to cap. 3.,
"I have been prayde, To shew mine aide," &c.,
I am not book-learned enough to know whether it be the same as Tusser's Five Hundred Poynts of Good Husbandry. Information on any of the above points would oblige.
J.E.
_Prebendaries._--When were prebendaries first appointed, and what the nature of their duties generally? What is the rank of a prebendary of a cathedral or other church, whether as a layman or a clerk in orders? Would a vicar, being a prebendary, take precedence as such of a rector not being one? Where is the best account of prebends to be found?
S.S.S.
_Luther's Portrait at Warwick Castle._--There is at Warwick Castle a fine half-length portrait of Luther by Holbein, very unlike the ordinary portraits of the great reformer. Is this portrait a genuine one? Has it been engraved?
E.M.B.
_Rawdon Papers._--The Rev. Mr. Berwick, in introducing to the public, in 1819, the interesting volume known by the name of _Rawdon Papers_, says,--
"They are a small part of a correspondence which was left in the Editor's hands after the greater portion had been sent several years before to the Marquis of Hastings, whose absence at this time prevents the Editor's making such additions to his stock as might render it more interesting to the public."
Do these papers still exist in the possession of {401} the Hastings family, and is there any chance of a further publication? The volume published by Mr. Berwick contains some very interesting incidental illustrations of the politics, literature, and society of the seventeenth century, and much might be expected from the remaining papers. I may add, that this volume has not been so much used by historians as it should be; but, as was to be expected, it has not escaped Mr. Macaulay. It is not not well edited.
C.
_Wellington, Wyrwast, Cokam._--In a MS. letter which I have relating to the siege of Taunton in the Civil war,