68
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ym. JULY 26, wis.
If this Walter's wife was not Rohese de
Verdon, we have the conclusion forced upon
us that Lesceline de Verdon must have been
a first wife of Hugh de Laci, unrecorded by
the peerage compilers, and that she died
without issue ; further, that his second wife,,
and the only wife of Stephen de Longespee.
was, as stated in ' B.E.P.' and Banks' s
' Dormant and Extinct Baronage,' Emeline,
daughter of Walter de Ridelsford, alias de
Reddesford, Baron of Bray.
I shall be most grateful for any information which will assist me to solve this genealogical puzzle. FRANCIS H. RELTON.
9, Broughton Road, Thornton Heath.
" TRADESMAN." It is generally known
that this word has two meanings, depending
upon two distinctly developed senses of
" trade," which find favour in different
localities. In London, and perhaps in the
south-east of England generally, " trades-
man usually means a "shopkeeper,"
the explanation given in Dr. Johnson's
' Dictionary,' and certainly known to Shak-
.spere, whether or not he learnt it in Strat-
ford-on-Avon. But in other districts
" tradesman " means .a man who has a
regular trade, a handicraftsman or artisan.
This is often put down in dictionaries as
" Scotch " ; but it is the ordinary sense,
not merely in Scotland and Northern
England, but also, according to the ' English
Dialect Dictionary,' over a great part of
the Midlands, in Cheshire, Notts, Warwick-
shire, Oxfordshire, as well as in the south-
west from Hampshire to West Somerset,
and in the Isle of Wight. Outside England,
this is recorded also as the usage in Australia
and the W^est Indies, and (I am told) in
Canada, and in Greater Britain generally.
This seems to leave rather a limited area
for the London or shopkeeper sense.
In order to have the limits of this more exactly defined than is done in the ' Dialect Dictionary,' may I ask every reader o ' N. & Q.' to send me a post-card (addressed Sir James Murray, Oxford) stating in what sense or senses " tradesman " is used in towns ; villages, or districts known to them ? I suspect that the London sense will be found to prevail in towns, even in districts where the more widely diffused sense is retained in the country. This I know to be the case in Oxford, as distinct from rural Oxfordshire. A servant from a parish not ten miles from Oxford, when asked what a tradesman is, at once replied, " A carpenter,
or mason, or plumber, or thatcher " ; and
a country clergyman still nearer the town,
who had some building going on, was " told
that a mason, stone-setter, or bricklayer is
a tradesman, and the man who serves him
a labourer." We may also remember that
a trade union or trade's union is primarily
a union of skilled artisans, not of shop-
keepers. And, by the way, too much stress
must not be laid upon the inscription
" Tradesmen's entrance " on doors and
gates ; for this admits plumbers, gasfitters,
plasterers, and carpenters, as well as
grocers' boys or dairymen, and may belong
to an original comprehensive sense of
" tradesman."
Please send post-cards at once. I will publish the results.
J. A. H. MURRAY.
Oxford.
1. MORRIS. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.* tell me anything of the family of William Morris, a master in the Royal Navy, born 1749 at Bermondsey, who married Anne Hart the parents of Admiral George Morris, who died in 1857 ? Any notes on the naval career of the latter would be Welcome.
2. PAWLETT : SMITH. Is anything known
of the family of the Rev. Smith, who
married Annabella, daughter of Wm. Paw- let t, M.P. for Lymington in 1729, and Win- chester in 1741 ? X, Y. Z.
FINGER BOARD. In the churchwardens' accounts of Ecclestoii, in Leyland Hun- dred, Lancashire, for the year 1723, occur the following items : Paid to Jas. Balshaw for making a new finger
board for within the church. Paid to Hugh Worsley for making a finger board
and pannel, and helping to fix him up 3s. 2d.
Spent at that time upon the workmen and some
others that helped him up with the finger
board ! 1^.
Paid to Geo. Wright for painting and gilding the
finger board within and without, and for gold
and writing ll.2s.Gd.
What is the meaning of the term " finger board " ? The cost of that made by Balshaw is not separately given, it being lumped with several other items. Hugh Worsley, who made a finger board in 1723, had mended the " finger of the clock " in 1717, and he " mended the clock " again in 1719. Balshaw's " finger board " ifl specially referred to as " within the church," and Geo. Wright painted and
