Queries.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE: LICENCES TO CRENELLATE.

Previous to the publication of the second volume of the Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, you were kind enough to insert some Queries for me respecting existing remains of houses of the fourteenth century, which elicited some useful Notes, partly through your columns and partly from private friends who were thus reminded of my wants. I am now preparing for the press the third and concluding volume of that work, comprising the period from the reign of Richard II. to that of Henry VIII. inclusive. I shall be glad of information of any houses of that period remaining in a tolerably perfect state, in addition to those mentioned in the Glossary of Architecture. I have reason to believe that there are many; and one class, the halls of the different guilds, seem to have been generally overlooked.

With the kind assistance of Mr. Duffus Hardy, I have obtained a complete list of the licences to crenellate contained in the Patent Rolls, and some other records preserved in the Tower. Most of these have the name of the county annexed; but there are a few, of which I add a list, in which no county is mentioned, and local information is necessary in order to identify them. Perhaps some of your numerous readers will be able to assist me.

Licences to Crenellate.

When granted. Name of Place. To whom granted.

22 Edward I. Melton. John de Cokefeld.

17 Edward II. Molun. Raymond de Grismak.

5 Edward III. Newton in Makerfeld. Robert de Langeton.

9 Edward III. Esselyngton. Robert de Esselyngton.

12 Edward III. Cublesdon. John Trussell.

Ditto. La Beche. Nicholas de la Beche.

Ditto. Beaumes. Ditto.

15 Edward III. Pringham. Reginald de Cobham.

Ditto. Orkesdene. Ditto.

Ditto. Stanstede. Robert Burghchier.

16 Edward III. Credonio. Bernard de Dalham.

Ditto. Heyheved. William Lengleys.

18 Edward III. Chevelyngham. Thomas de Aeton.

J. H. Parker.

DIXON OF BEESTON.

Will the Editor be kind enough to insert the accompanying letter, for if true it is worthy of a place in the heraldic portion of "N. & Q.," and if not true, its imposture should stand recorded? On receiving it I sent a copy to my brother, Mr. J. H. Dixon, an able antiquary, and late of the council of the Percy Society, who, somewhat too hastily I think, and without sufficient proof, rejected the information offered. That the family which my brother represents is a "good old" one, is sufficiently attested by the pedigree furnished by Thoresby in the Ducatus Leodiensis, and thence copied by Mr. Burke in his Landed Gentry; but of its earlier history there is no reliable account, unless that by Mr. Spence can be considered such.

I shall feel very much obliged if any of your correspondents learned in the genealogies of Yorkshire and Cheshire could either corroborate the genuineness of the information tendered by Mr. Spence, or prove the reverse; and it is only fair to that gentleman to add that he is entitled to credibility on the written testimony of the Rev. Mr. Knox, Incumbent of Birkenhead.

R. W. Dixon, J.P.

Seaton Carew, co. Durham.

Having been engaged by Miss Cotgreave, of Notherlegh House, near Chester, to inspect and arrange the title-deeds and other documents which belonged to her father, the late Sir John Cotgreave, I find a very ancient pedigree of the Cotgreaves de Hargrave in that county; which family became extinct in the direct male line in the year 1724, but which was represented through females by the above Sir J. C.

It is the work of the great Camden, anno 1598, from documents in the possession of the Cotgreave family, and contains the descents of five generations of the Dixons of Beeston, in the county of York, and Congleton, Cheshire, together with their marriages and armorial bearings, commencing with "Ralph Dixon, Esq., de Beeston and Congleton, living temp. Hen. VI., who was slain whilst fighting on the part of the Yorkists, at the battle of Wakefield, A.D. 1460."

Presuming that you are descended from this ancient family, I will (if you think proper) transmit to you extracts from the aforesaid pedigree, as far as relates to your distinguished progenitors, conditionally that you remunerate me for the information and definition of the armorial bearings, there being five shields, containing twelve quarterings connected with the family of Dixon.

Miss Cotgreave will allow me to make the extracts, and has kindly consented to attest the same.

The arms of Dixon, as depicted in the Cotgreave pedigree, are "Sable, a fleur-de-lis or, a chief ermine," quartering the ensigns of the noble houses of "Robert Fitz-Hugh, Baron of Malpas in the county of Chester, temp. William the Conqueror; Eustace Crewe de Montalt, Lord of Hawarden, Flintshire, during the said reign; Robert de Umfreville, Lord of Tours, and Vian, and Reddesdale, in Northumberland, who flourished in the same reign also; Pole, Talboys, Welles, Latimer," and others.

In the pedigree, Camden states that the aforesaid "Ralph Dixon quartered the ensigns of the above noble families in right of his mother Maude, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Ralph Fitz-Hugh de Congleton and Elton in the county palatine of Chester."