tion as they arrive; but, after the voluntary on the organ has commenced, all decent by-standers are admitted into the vacant seats by the pew-openers, who have express orders to that effect. This procedure, surely, is liberal, and ill demands the harsh constructions of your warm Correspondent. When the attendants are informed previously, that such or such a family will be absent, they never stay till the voluntary begins, but fill the pew, forthwith, with persons of a sober and decent appearance.t

Money, " in the suspicious shape of douceur," is most positively forbidden to be taken for seats; if, therefore, a delay of accommodation takes place at Brompton at any time, the cause is not so much churlishness in any of the parties concerned, as compliance with obvious and imperious necessity. AYA CHURCHMAN, &c. &c.

I a Drawing by Dr. Stukeley, (Plate II. fig. 1.) with a description of it in his own hand-writing, dated March 28, 1754, and called by him, "Antiquarian Society's Arms." That respectable Body, it is needless to add, preferred another design; but the one now sent you is worth preserving in your Miscellany of Curiosities. M. GREEN.

"The lyon intimates that generous nature and noble ardor which preserves and restores from the injury of Time, Regardant, he looks back to time past. He holds a sun in glory in his right paw. The rising sun dissipates the mists and obscurity of night and oblivion. The field is partè per pale Azure et Sable, meaning day and night; the lyon is Argent; sun, Or. The crest is an eagle, whose sharpest sight reaches to the greatest distance. He holds in his talon a wolf's head erased, the wolf is the emblem of devouring time. Supporters, a golden lyon, as a compliment to the Sovereign, who gave the charter; and an eagle Sable. This is in a method strictly heraldic. Otherways, for scutcheon, take the picture of Britannia as on reverse of halfpennys; for crest an antique lamp; a Druid for supporter."

The Ring, fig. 2, was found, about twenty years ago, in Strelley Park, about four miles West of Nottingham, the property of Thomas-Webb Edge, esq. who built the beautiful mansion there, and laid out the pleasure GENT. MAG. June, 1812.

grounds and plantations about the year 1795. [A picturesque view of the house has been published by Mr. Throsby, in his new edition of Thoroton.] The figure of St. Edith is well preserved. The ring, probably, belonged to the Abbess of some religious house in that neighbourhood.

Fig 3. (from the Church of Lee in Kent is thus described by Dr. Thorpe, in the "Registrum Roffense," page 851.

"On the South side of the communion-table is a mural monument of stone, with the effigies in brass of a man in armour, kneeling at a desk, with a book open before him, and underneath this inscription in black letter: "When that Quene Elizabeth full five

yeres had rain'd, [here interred, Then Nicholas Ansley, whos corps lyes At five and twenty yeres of age was en

tertayn'd carred Into her servis, where well himselfe he In eche man's love 'till fifty and eyght

The other autographs are taken from the following agreement, dated Feb. 18, 1733-4.

"We Henry Baker of Enfield, gent. and Thomas Worrall, of London, bookseller, agree as follows :

In consideration of eight guineas (which Mr. Worrall has given me a note of hand for, payable within one month after the date hereof) Mr. Henry Baker sells to Thomas Worrall the copy of a poem, called the Universe, in manner following: That is to say,

The right and property of the said copy shall belong intirely to the said Thomas Worrall; but Mr. Baker shall be at liberty after one year, and not sooner, to print the same amongst his other poems, if so be he pleases; but shall never print it by itself, or in any manner prevent Mr. Worrall from printing or disposing of it in what manner he thinks fit.

N. B. Mr. Worrall shall make a present of a dozen books to Mr. Baker. In witness of the above agreement, both parties set their hands.

1

J. BAKER. THOS. WORRALL."

Mr. URBAN,

May 29.

SHALL be extremely obliged to any of your Correspondents (fond of genealogical researches) who can point out the immediate descendants of Sir John Woodcock, knt. Lord Mayor of London 1405. His arms, field Or, on a bend Gules, three crosses pomée fitchée of the field; crest, on a wreath, a demy lion rampant Gules, supporting a cross pomée fitchée of the field, were assigned to Ralfe Woodcock, of Keame, alias Cayham, co. Leicester, son of Thomas Woodcock of Keame aforesaid, in the Visitation held by the College of Arms 1683, and are so registered in that office; whence it is presumed the above Thomas and Ralfe were proved to be such, but none of the intermediate generations are noticed. From Maitland and Stowe's History

of London, as well as from Weever's Funeral Monuments, it appears that Sir John Woodcock was an upright and vigilant magistrate.

In 1522 Roger Woodcock was buried in St. Michael le Querne's Church, London.

In 1580 Ralph Woodcock was Sheriff of London, and in 1658 a Mr. Woodcock of London (called, in the Index of Heath's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, Sir Thomas Woodcock) is mentioned as a firm Loyalist; and caped execution for being con

cerned in a supposed conspiracy, " by so handsomely and bravely defending himself, that his accusers could not fasten the charge." Thero are supposed to be descendants from the family of the Lord Mayor; some branches thereof being now living in London and its vicinity, as also in the county of Leicester.

T

A CONSTANT READER.

May 27.

Mr. URBAN, THE statement below, as made, we are told, by the Southwark Bridge Company, may be thought worth insertion..

Daily number of Passengers, Horses, &c. going over London and Blackfriars Bridges.

London Bridge. Persons on foot 89,640, horses 764, coaches 1240, waggons 763, carts, &c.2924, gigs, &c. 435.

Blackfriars Bridge.-Persons on foot 61,069, horses 822, coaches 990, waggons 533, carts, &c. 150%, gigs, &c. 590. Yours, &c. P.

B

ETTER late than never," and "it is never too late to do well," are proverbial sayings, that, perhaps, are more frequently expressed than properly attended to; but when we feel their force in a consciousness of our own past omissions, even with respect to matters not of the greatest importance, a desire is sometimes excited to endeavour to atone for the past by an amendment in future.

I believe there are many veteran Readers of the Gentleman's Magagine besides myself, who have excused themselves, on the pleas of want of leisure and other impediments, from communicating occasional corrections of errors, that, from the nature of such miscellaneous publications are often unavoidable, but which they could, from their own knowledge, prevent being handed down to posterity without the means of rectifying them. As this valuable compilation is likely to be referred to by future writers, on a variety of subjects, it seems very desirable that, at least, such mistakes as relate to matters of fact, should be corrected, before the opportunity of doing it may become irrecoverably lost.

A casual turning over the leaves of Volume LV. (1785) lately, gave rise to the foregoing reflections, and the application of them to my own omis

sions. In page 504, there appears a Latin letter with this address"Springeto Pennio, Liberalium Artium Studioso, Gulielmus Sevelius, S. D. P." and dated "Amstelodamo, VI kalend, Novemb. cloloxcIII." In the ruming title and index, it is termed " Letter from Doctor Seveley to Springet Penn," of whose illness and death, in 1696, an interesting account is added in a long note (in English), extracted from a narrative written by William Penn, the father of this amiable young man. The practice that prevailed formerly of Latinizing surnames has given rise to many mistakes; and it is no wonder that a stranger to the parties and their connexions should substitute the supposititious appellation of "Dr. Seveley" for the real name of

the writer of this letter, who was no other than "William Sewel, of Amsterdam," known in this country as the author of an excellent Dictionary of the Low Dutch and English languages, and of the earliest genuine History of the People called Quakers, That he was a valued Correspondent of William Penn's, the eminent founder of the Province (now State) of Pennsylvania, is clearly evinced by an original letter which I have seen; and having been deservedly esteemed in his own country as an useful literary character, although certainly not of the first class, perhaps some little account of hin, derived from his own occasional communications in his various writings, and from other authentic sources, may not be deemed altogether uninteresting, especially as nothing, in any detached form, has hitherto appeared respecting him in our language.

William Sewel was the son of Jacob Williamson Sewel, a free citizen (burgher) and surgeon of Amsterdam, by his wife Judith Zinspenning, and appears to have been born there about the year 1650. His paternal grandfather, William Sewel, was an Englishman, and had resided at Kidderminster; but, being one of those Brownists that left their native country to enjoy more religious liberty in Holland, married a Dutch wife at Utrecht, and settled there. Both the parents of the subject of this brief memoir died while he was young: but having instructed him in the principles of the people called Quakers, which they were amongst the

earliest professors of in Amsterdam, the religion of his education became that of his judgment; and, through the course of a long life, he continued to be a steady, useful member of the before-mentioned religious society. It is believed he had not much schoollearning, as it is known that the proficiency he attained to in the knowledge of the Latin, Greek, English, French, and High Dutch languages, was acquired, principally, whilst throwing the shuttle in the loom, during his apprenticeship to a stuff manufacturer. His natural abilities being good, his application unwearied, and his habits strictly temperate, he soon became noticed by some of the most respectable booksellers in Holland; and the translation of works of credit, chiefly from the Latin and English tongues, into Low Dutch, seems to have been one of the principal sources from which his moderate income was derived, in addition to the part he took, at different times, in several approved periodical publications. His modest unassuming manners gained him the esteem of several of that knot of literary men, for which Amsterdam was at that period distinguished; and

there is reason to believe that their productions were, not unfrequently, revised and prepared for the press by him. His knowledge of his native tongue was profound; his Dictionary, Grammar, and other treatises thereon, having left very little room for succeeding improvement, and he assisted materially in the compilation of Halma's French and Dutch Dictionary. His History of the People called Quakers, written first in Low Dutch, and afterwards, by himself, in English (dedicated to King George 1.) was a very laborious undertaking, as he was scrupulously nice in the se lection of his materials, which he had been during many years engaged in collecting. Of the English copy, it cannot be properly called a translation; it may be truly said, that as the production of a foreigner who had spent only about ten months in England, and that above 40 years before, the style is far superior to what could have been reasonably expected. One principal motive to his entering upon this work, was, a desire to endeavour to counteract the effects of the gross misrepresentations that had been widely disseminated by a Latin publication, intituled "Historia Qua keriana," keriana," written by Gerard Croese, a learned German, who, after soliciting and obtaining information from both friends and foes to this religious society, seemed to have taken no pains to make any proper discrimination; so that his history (as he calls it) is a strange compound of truth and falsehood; but, being written in elegant Latin, and the Learned, throughout Europe, having been long waiting for something in the form of an historieal account of that singular people, it obtained a place in most university and other public libraries; and being afterwards adopted by the editors of a splendid French work, bearing, in the English translation, the title of "The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the various Nations in the Known World," as the principal authority upon which their unfair representation of the Quakers is founded; this farrago of Croese's may be considered as the chief cause of those mistaken notions that have prevailed very extensively throughout the Continent, respecting the doctrines and practices of that class of Protestants.

The exact time of William Sewel's death does not appear; but, in a note of the editor's prefixed to the third edition of his Dictionary, in 1726, he is mentioned as being lately deceased. He left a son of the same name, of whom considerable hopes were entertained in his youth; but going to England with a view of attending the yearly meeting of the religious society before-mentioned, (whereof he was a member), in company with a young man to whom he was strongly attached in the line of friendship; the vessel in which they had embarked was, in a violent storm, wrecked near the Texel. Sewel, being an excellent swimmer, undertook to endeavour to save his companion, who could not swim, by means of a rope fastened round their bodies; but, on reaching the shore, and drawing the rope, he found his friend was gone. This melancholy event had such an effect upon his brain, that a settled gloom clouded bis mental faculties during the whole remainder of his life,

To those who have been long wishing to see a biographical memoir of William Penu, upon a more extended scale than any that has hitherto appeared, it may be gratifying to

know that a considerable progress has been made in collecting materials for such a work, by a Member of the Established Church. It is said, strange as it may appear, that hardly a letter or paper formerly belonging to this truly great man is now in the possession of any one of his descendants. A FRIEND TO ACCURACY.

Mr. URBAN,

YOUR Correspondent

April. "Scrutator

Oxoniensis," your last number p. 219, has reduced Dr. Marsh's arguments against the Bible Society within the contracted span of a syllogism, which, in my opinion, by no means embraced the whole scope of his reasoning. That this subject, therefore, may have the justice done to it that is due to its importance, I beg your insertion of this letter, letter, containing the result of cool deliberation on the point in question. When this matter was first proposed for public discussion, I, in common with many others, who look upon the Bible as dispensing light and life to mankind, hailed the approach of that day when the Gospel would be made known to all nations, and in all tongues; and, under that persuasion, was on the point of contributing my mite to its support, when the objections of Dr. Wordsworth first made me pause, and those of Dr. Marsh at length fixed in me the resolution to withhold my assistance from an institution which was, to say the least of it, so suspicious in its tendency. As I consider Dr. Marsh's to be the most luminous production hitherto offered upon the subject, my intention, at present, is simply to condense within as few words as possible, what I conceive to be the substance of the Doctor's argument. I must premise what your Correspondent Scrutator certainly must have overiooked, that Dr. Marsh does not object to a Bible Society; on the contrary, he maintains, " that the more widely the Scriptures are disseminated, the great, er in all respects must be the good produced;" but he objects to a Bible Society so constituted as to give away the Bible without the Prayer-book. His leading arguments, against such a Society, may be comprehended under three heads, namely, that it is unnecessary, it is unnatural, and it is hurtful. This Society is unnecessary; the