Notes and Queries

loo BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NOTES AND QUERIES Frederic Seebohm. — In the passing away of Frederic Seebohm Second month, 1912, the Society of Friends lost one of its foremost men of letters. He was the son of Benjamin Seebohm, whose religious visit to this country during the years 18461850 , produced a lasting effect upon many members of the Society . Frederic Seebohm was born 1833, and studied law at the Middle Temple under Joseph Bevan Braithwaite. He practiced but little, and soon entered the banking business at Hitchin. He did not allow his business to engross all his attention, but fulfilled many civic duties with success. It is, however, as an historian that he claims the attention of the readers of the Bulletin. He was drawn to the study of the religious movements of the sixteenth century, and as early as his twenty-sixth year began contributing papers on this subject to the great English reviews. In 1867 he published his first great work, " The Oxford Reformers of 1498 " ; a second edition appeared in 1869 under the title, " The Oxford Reformers, Colet, Ersamus and More"; a third and fourth edition were subsequently issued. In 1876 or 1877 he contributed to the " Epoch Series " his " Era of the Protestant Revolution," which remains as the best brief handbook of that period. Perhaps no work gives in so small a compass as clear a survey of the causes, currents, and results of that great era. His attention was then directed to economic history, to which he devoted the rest of his literary labor. For the general public his works on this field are too technical to attract many readers, and it is rather to be regretted that one so fitted to treat of religious progress and reform should have left these subjects. To students of economic history his volumes, " The English Village Community ," "The Tribal System in Wales," "Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law," and others are well known. Some of his positions on matters connected with these subjects were controverted by other students, but there can be little doubt that his " English Village Community " opened to English scholars a then almost untrodden field. His patient study, and his unvarying adherence to truth as he was able to discover it, were worthy of all admiration. Jordans Guest House.—The Friends' Guest House at Jordans , Buckinghamshire, was formally opened Seventh month 13, 1912. The house is about one hundred yards from Jordans NOTES AND QUERIES. ?6? Meeting House. It was the old farm house and the scene of many stirring incidents in the days of persecution. The property was acquired by Friends, and the house renovated and enlarged in keeping with the old portion. SiIvanus P. Thompson, and J. Rendel Harris made the addresses at the opening, Dr. Harris unlocked the door and the building was thrown open for inspection. It was stated that about £1,500 is still needed to complete all plans. Visitors to the historic Jordans and the grave of William Penn will now have a place where meals can be obtained, and arrangements made for a stay of a few days or weeks. George Fox's Writing Desk.— Dr. Thomas Hodgkin writes In "The Friend" (London), Ninth month 20, 1912, " The old bedstead (said, but I believe incorrectly , to have been used by George Fox), was bought by Lawrence R. Wilson, on behalf of the Society; and the desk, which is believed to have really belonged to him, was bought by Mrs. Kennedy, of Stone Cross, Ulverston, and most kindly presented by her and her husband ' to the Society of Friends, to remain in Fox's old meeting house forever," Marriages among Early Friends.—The following extract from " Extracts from State Papers Relating to Friends, Third Series, 1664 to 1669," p. 236, shows some of the difficulties Friends labored under in refusing to be " married by a priest." " Hee further sayth, that Peter Johnson of Hollam tooke one Rebecah who he liues withall as his wife and hath children by her, that he ownes to be his, and hath not caused them to be baptized to this deponants knowledge nether doth it appeare to this deponant, that the said Peter...