families that formerly lived in good estate. Petitioners pray. that the offenders may be punished.

1661-2, Jan. 28. Amendments to the Bill for restoring Charles Earl of Derby to the manors of Mold and Moldsdale, Hope and Hopesdale, in the county of Flint. (L. J., xi, 372.)

1662-3, March 14. Application for an order to stay proceedings in a suit touching the manor of Brockton, in the county of Salop, wherein the title of Viscount Stafford is concerned during the privilege of Parliament.

1663, June 18. Engrossment of an Act for keeping and holding of the court of great sessions, and of the general quarter sessions of the peace for the county of Carnarvon, at the town of Carnarvon, in the said county for ever. Brought from the Commons this day, but not further proceeded with. (L. J., xi, 539.)

1663-4, March 21. Petition of Robert Robartes, son and heir apparent of John Lord Robartes and Sarah his wife, sole daughter and heir of John Bodvile, Esquire, deceased, and Charles Bodvile Robartes, an infant, second son of the said Robert and Sarah; they complain that after John Bodvile, who was possessed of an estate in the counties of Anglesea and Carnarvon, worth £2,000 per annum, had made a will in favour of his daughter, Sarah, and her son Charles Bodvile Robartes, Thomas Wynn, and others, having got entire possession of him when weak in body and mind, induced him to make a will in favour of Griffith Wynn (son of Thomas Wynn), and one Thomas Bodvile; petitioners proceeded in Chancery for relief in 1663, when the annexed order was made, declaring that the will was obtained by fraud, but that as there was no precedent for giving relief in such a case, and the Court was unwilling to create one, a year's time was given to the petitioners to seek relief elsewhere, an injunction being granted in the interim to stay proceedings at law upon the pretended will. Petitioners pray the House to hear the case and grant them relief. (L. J., xi, 583.)

1664, Nov. 28. Petition of Robert Robartes, Esq. (son and heir apparent of John Lord Robartes and Sarah his wife, sole daughter and heir of John Bodvile, Esquire, deceased), and Charles Bodvile Robartes, an infant, second son of the said Robert and Sarah; pray the House to proceed in the consideration of their cause against Thomas Wynne and others, and to give directions to the Lord Chancellor according to the several orders made in May last. (L. J., xi, 630.)

Annexed: 1. Copy of petition of same of 21 March, 1663-4; 2. Precedents and reasons for relief; 3. Answers to Wynne's exceptions to the order in Chancery.

4TH SER., VOL. XIV.

6

1664, Dec. 9. Draft of an Act for the enabling of Thomas Juckes of Treliddan (Trelydan) in the county of Montgomery, Esq., to sell lands for the payment of his debts and raising of younger children's portions. Read first this day, and received the royal assent 2nd March, 1664-5. (L. J., xi, 635.)

1664, Dec. 20. Statement respecting the imprisonment of John Langford, servant to Lord Powis, contrary to privilege. (L. J., xi, 641.)

1664-5, Feb. 11. Order for the High Sheriff of the county of Carmarthen to cause speedy restitution to be made of the corn belonging to Lord Vaughan, forcibly carried away by Rowland Gwynne and others. (L J., xi, 655.)

On the same paper is a certificate of the High Sheriff of the proceedings taken by him for the recovery of the corn.

Annexed: 1. Application for preceding order, and for an order for the arrest of the rioters. 2. List of the rioters.

1666, Dec. 11. Petition of Griffith Wynne, alias Bodvile, and Thomas Bodvile, infants. A Bill is now before the House to make void the last will of John Bodvile, by which his estate in the counties of Carnarvon and Anglesey is devised, after payment of debts and legacies, for the benefit of petitioners and their heirs. The case has been twice heard in Chancery; the last time upon a direction from the House, but the plaintiff's were dismissed, and no relief given against the will. Petitioners therefore pray to be heard in support of the will. (L. J., xii, 43.)

[A bill for settling the estate of John Bodvile, Esq., deceased, received the royal assent on the 18th of January following, 18 Car. ii, c. 4, in List of Private Acts, 8vo., and L. J., xii, 81, For the first proceedings in Chancery, referred to in the petition, see "Roberts v. Wynn", Reports in Chancery, ed. 1693, vol. i, p. 236, seq.]

etc.

Annexed: 1. Case of Robert Roberts, Esq., and Sarah, his wife, sole daughter and heir of John Bodvile, Esq., deceased, and Charles Bodvile Roberts, second son of the said Robert and Sarah. They complain of the conduct of Thomas Wynn, in inducing John Bodvile, when weak and not in his right mind, to make a will to the prejudice of his wife, Sarah Roberts, and her son, Charles Bodvile Roberts, contrary to a previous will made in consequence of a settlement made by Lord Roberts upon his son. Upon a hearing in Chancery it was declared that, in spite of the evidence of fraud, there was no precedent for relief. Application was then made by petition to the Lords in Parliament, who, after examining the case, referred it back to the Lord Chancellor to make a decree in Chancery; but, on a re-hearing, it was decided that their Lordships' direction did

not empower the Court to make a decree, there being no precedent for so doing. 2. The case of Griffith Wynn, an infant, son and heir apparent of Thomas Wynn, Esq., and Thomas Bodvile, an infant, and of the said Thomas Wynn, the father (presented to the House of Commons). John Bodvile, of Bodvile, in the county of Carnarvon, on his marriage with Anne, daughter of Sir William Russell, settled his estate and the reversion of his wife's jointure upon his own right heirs, with certain powers of charging his estate if he had only daughters. He had issue two daughters only, Elizabeth and Sarah, of whom Elizabeth died in 1661. There were great differences between John Bodvile and his wife; he was a colonel in the king's service, and his wife procured a warrant to have him tried by a High Court of Justice, which Bodvile escaped by notice from Thomas Wynn. In 1650, under a decree for alimony, Mrs. Bodvile got her husband's estate put into the Bill of Sale, notwithstanding his composition, and obtained a sequestration of it, and in 1657 married her daughter Sarah to Mr. Roberts without her husband's consent. In 1662 Bodvile was arrested by his wife for alimony, and threats were used to induce him to settle his estate on Mr. Roberts and his wife and children. In the same year Bodvile was arrested by his creditors, but released on bail being given up by Wynn; and afterwards Mrs. Bodvile, having procured an order in Chancery for her husband's commitment to the Fleet, he removed to Islington and there lived under a feigned name, and being seriously ill made his will, by which he left £5,000 to his daughter, Sarah, upon certain conditions; and the residue of his estate to Griffith Wynn and Thomas Bodvile equally. Bodvile died on the 28th March, 1663, whereupon Mrs. Bodvile and Mr. Roberts entered upon and still retain his whole estate. In April 1663 they commenced proceedings in Chancery against the trustees, to set aside the will, on the ground that it was obtained by fraud. The Court decided that they could give no relief, but allowed the plaintiffs to seek relief elsewhere; upon which they applied to the House of Lords, who referred the case back to the Lord Chancellor to make a decree according to equity, though there were no precedents for so doing; but in July 1666, after a very full hearing, the Court decided that the plaintiffs were not relieveable. The charges of fraud cannot be substantiated; but ever since Bodvile's death the trustees have been kept out of the estate, and debts are unpaid, while the trustees cannot sue at law, by reason of Mr. Bodvile's privilege. (C. J., viii, 640, etc.) 3. Reasons against the receiving of any petition in either House of Parliament against Mr. Bodvile's will.

Biographical Notice.

MATTHEW HOLBECHE BLOXAM, F.S.A.

Ir notices of distinguished men are usually postponed until they are removed from among us, yet there may be exceptions to the rule: and if so, Matthew Holbeche Bloxam must be generally considered as worthy of being thus excepted. There are few names more widely known and more generally esteemed than this veteran of architectural archæologists, who may be said to have been the first who put into the hands of novices a clear and faithful guide to a knowledge of Gothic architecture. Before his time others had written on the same subject works at the present time held of small value. Rickman succeeded them with his valuable work, An Attempt to Diseriminate the Styles of Architecture in England from the Conquest to the Reformation. He was followed by Mr. Bloxam with his Guide, and soon after by Mr. John Henry Parker with his admirable Glossary. All these works are still in a great requisition as ever. Mr. Bloxam's work has one valuable advantage over the others, namely the popular character of the book, which is and was in every one's hands; whereas those of the other two authors, valuable as they are, would be considered by many as too expensive or too advanced for ordinary folk: hence the enormous circulation of the smaller and more modest, but by no means less valuable, volumes of Mr. Bloxam. A circumstance, however, occurred last year which has no little connection with the present notice. Mr. R. H. Wood of Rugby and Warwick, an accomplished antiquary, a neighbour and friend of Mr. Bloxam, who knew how to appreciate his friend's value, had his likeness engraved as a frontispiece for the then forthcoming eleventh edition of the Guide. The likeness is so perfect, and the engraving so remarkable, that it was thought desirable, if possible, to gratify the members of the Association with copies of it. No formal request was made to Mr. Wood; but on his understanding the feeling on the subject, he most readily not only offered the use of the plate to the Association, but generously presented the five hundred impressions, the required number.

The subjoined can hardly be an account of such a life as Mr. Bloxam has been permitted to extend to a venerable age, and which all must wish may be prolonged some years yet. It is more properly a brief and imperfect notice of a few details of a life spent in good and useful work, the benefits of which will be felt by future generations.

Mr. Matthew H. Bloxam was born at Rugby, in the county of Warwick, on Tuesday, May 12, 1803. He was the fifth son and eighth child of the Rev. Richard Rouse Bloxam, D.D., an Assistant Master of Rugby School, by Ann his wife, sister of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the celebrated President of the Royal Academy. His father

was descended from the old family of Underhill, of Eatington in Warwickshire. From certain members of this family Shakespeare purchased New Place, in Stratford-upon Avon, where he resided the latter part of his life, and where he died. His mother was descended from the ancient family of Hill of Court Hill, of the Powys (? Powis), and Littletons of Salop and Worcestershire. Matthew had four sisters and five brothers. At the age of two years he was stricken with fever; and the year following he was sent to a small school consisting only of four boys, of which he was the youngest, two of the others being the sons of solicitors in Rugby; the other, the son of a medical practitioner in the same town. In consequence of the master, who was under-writing-master to Rugby School, leaving the town, young Bloxam was sent, at the age of four years, to a mixed English school at Rugby, consisting of poor children of the parish, who received their education gratis, and partly of the sons of tradesmen and professional gentlemen and clergymen of Rugby, there being no preparatory school for those intended for the public school at Rugby. At this English school, called the Elborowe School (after the founder of that name), the subject of this notice, or, as he will be subsequently known by the initial letters of his name, M. H. B., remained four years, and learned to read and write. The most remarkable circumstance he remembered was seeing the scholars of Rugby School walking two and two together to church on the occasion of the Jubilee kept in October 1809, on the completion of the fiftieth year of the reign of George III.

In August 1813 he was entered at Rugby School, and placed at first in the lowest form. He remained for eight years, gradually rising to the fifth form, the second in position. During the time he was in the School his exercises were generally, if not always, marked mediocriter; and if there was an absence of bene and optime, the same may be said of male or pessime; so that our young scholar was considered to be a dull, plodding boy attempting his best. Rugby School was then far different from what it is now, and has been during the last half century. Latin and Greek, writing and arithmetic (the latter only up to a certain point), were taught, and nothing more. The masters were good classical scholars, as scholarship was then esteemed. The study of the French language was an extra, optional to parents. As, however, this language was attempted to be taught by a French emigré (a worthy man in his way, but one who had no command over his pupils), and the time was taken out of play-hours, French was considered an enforced grievance, and no boy attempted to learn anything. It was an involuntary task which did not excite the smallest emulation. That it should have been so was a grievous mistake. Neither modern history nor English composition was taught, and boys desirous of reading out of schooltime were at a nonplus for want of books. If during the time M. H. B. was at Rugby, schoolboys could borrow an edition (abbreviated or otherwise) of Gulliver's Travels, Don Quixote, or the Arabian Nights, they considered themselves most fortunate. Sometimes