Welsh Journals

184 BYE-GONES. Feb., 2S83. to consider the claims of the candidates, and to report. On Tuesday, January 23, they reported that out of the sixty- four applicants they had selected nine whose testimonials hey considered were the best. This number was after¬ wards reduced to four, and the Rector and Mr. Bromfield were deputed to communicate with these four gentlemen, and invite their attendance at the next meeting of the Governors.—At an adjourned meeting of the Governors held in the School yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon the ap¬ pointment of Head Master was further considered. With the exception of Mr. E. J. Howell, all of the Governors were present, viz., Messrs. W. L. Brookes (Chairman), R. P. Ethelston (vice-chairman), Geo. Brookes, James Joyce, Thomas 0. Howell, W. Pearson, T. Groom, M.D., and Rev. John .Lee (old Feoffees) ; Major Cust and Mr. A. P. Heywood-Lonsdale, elected by the magistrates, and Messrs. B. LI. Vawdrey, and W. Hassall, elected by the Board of Guardians, and the Rev. W. H. Egerton, ex-officio. The four selected candidates, three of whom were clergymen, attended the meeting yesterday. After a couple of hours deliberation the Rev. Edward Duncan Holditch, St. John's College, Cambridge, M.A., F.C.S., at present Master of the Gram¬ mar School, Wisbeach, Derbyshire, was appointed. Mr. Holditch is 38 years of age, and is married. FEBRUARY 7, 1883. NOTES. MASTERS OF OSWESTRY SCHOOL.—One notable pupil and assistant master of this school was omitted in the sketch of its history publiehed in the Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society last spring, and that was the Rev. Dr. Worthington, the friend of Dr. Johnson. Mr. Williams in his Eminent Welshmen says he was " born in Merionethshire in 1703, and was educated at Oswestry School, from whence he re¬ moved to Jesus Coll: Oxford, where he made great pro¬ ficiency in learning. He returned to Oswestry, and became usher at the school." He was for some time vicar of Llanrhaiadr, Oswestry, and there was visited by Dr. Johnson in 1774. Archbishop Drummond, " to whom he had been chaplain for several years, presented him to a stall in the Cathedral of York. He was charitable in an eminent degree, and he closed a life of distinction and studious labour, Oct. 6, 1778." After his death, Dr. John¬ son, writing to Mrs. Thrale, says, " My clerical friend Worthington i.s dead. 1 have known him long—and to die is dreadful. I believe he was a very good man." Jarco. CATHERINE OF BERAIN.-I have an oil painting in my possession of this very beautiful woman, copied I believe from one of those mentioned in Bye- (/ones of Jan. 3. She is highly spoken of by the Bards of her day, and many are the scraps written about her by her warm-hearted countrymen, who for some reason or other took an interest in her history. I found the following note about her in the hand-writing of Richard Llwyd :— " Gwilym ap Gruffydd of Penrhyn married Jane Stanley, and had Anne Gruffydd, who married Sir Rowland Vel- ville, natural son of Henry the 7th, at one time Constable of Beaumaris Castle. Their daughter Jane Velville married Tudor ap Robert of Berain in Denbighshire, and Catherine Tudor—commonly called Cathrin o'r Berain— was their only daughter. She married the heir of Lleweni, and so carried her estates to the Salusburies." Upon another sheet he writes—" Tudor ap Robert had descended from the renowned Marchweithian, founder of the Eleventh Royal Tribe of Wales thus—Robert ap Tudor, ap Ievan, ap Tudor, ap Gruffyth, ap Heilyn, ap Kynfrig Vychan, apKynfrig, ap Llowarch, ap Heilyn, ap Tyfed, ap Tangno, ap Ystrwyth, ap Marchwystl, ap Marchweithian." Our " celebrated beauty," who mar¬ ried four husbands, and is called to this day " the Mother of Wales," had no need to care very much for her ques¬ tionable descent from Henry the Seventh, it being a far higher honour to be able to trace it from the noble March¬ weithian. Lewys Dwnn says her second son—John Salusbury—married Ursula, daughter of Henry, Earl of Derby, and it was the eldest sou of this marriage— Henry—who was created a baronet in the year 1619. He married Hester, daughter of Sir Thomas Myddleton of Chirk Castle, Bart., and it is worth noticing that his sister, Jane Salusbury, married the gallant Thomas Prys of Plas-Iollyn, a name to be revered by every Welshman. Another sister of his, Arabella Salusbury, married John Johnesof Halkyn ; and another sister, Uriana Salusbury, married John Barry, an Irishman. D. OSWESTRY CORPORATION RECORDS. (Nov. 29,1882.) A Mayor's Account in 1700-1. In looking over the expenditure authorized by our Cor¬ poration early in its history, it would appear that but for the Recorder's salary and the Bellman's clothes, there was nothing to pay for save in shewing hospitality. My Lord Bishop seems to have been a periodical and expensive guest. The following is— The Account of Francis Tomkics, Esqr zvhcn Mayor. li. s. d. Nov' 6. Imp' is Paid for shoes for the Bellman 00 03 06 paid for y'e postage of a Letter from Mr. Greene concerneing the poore money ...............00 00 03 Jan'y 20th. Payd for wine to treate my Lord Bi'opp Humfreys two qrts. of Clarett...............00 03 04 one quarte of Sherry att ......00 02 00 one quarte of Canary att ......00 02 00 fforCakes...............00 01 00 ffeb'r 11th. paid for the Bellmans Cloath ...01 01 00 18. paid for 2 yds. and a halfe of Lineing 00 02 11 2 dozen of buttons .........00 00 08 thrid and tape att............00 00 07A ffor makeing ............00 04 00 Lineing for Briches and pocketts ... 00 02 02 paid Mr. Felton for Standard weight... 00 12 06 Paid the Recorder .........05 00 00 Payd for wine to treate my Lord Bi'opp when he was last in towne one bottle of Clarett 18d. and one bottle of Canary 2s.............00 03 08 Sum tot' .. 08 00 OH A shilling for cakes and twelve shillings for wine to regale the Bishop seems but a small modicum of bread to an " intolerable quantity of sack " ! Jarco. QUERIES. MR. CATHRALL.— I think a query has been put in Bye-gones asking who Mr. Cathrall was who once pub¬ lished a newspaper in Oswestry, and, thiity years later, wrote a history of the town? I have just seen a stray number of the paper, dated Dec. 26, 1820, and in it the death is recorded of Mr. Richard Nield, of Queen-street, Chester, who was stated to be a brother-in-law of Mr. Cathrall's. Mr. C, I believe, left Oswestry for Man¬ chester, after the Oswestry Herald was discontinued, and