432
NOTES AND QUERIES. [us. in. JUNE 3,1911.
The proprietors of The Dundee Courier do
not claim for their paper the honour of being
- ' the first halfpenny daily " even for Scot-
land, much less for Britain. So far as Scotland is concerned, The Glasgow Evening Citizen preceded the Courier, being pub- lished as a halfpenny evening paper on 8 August, 1864. As regards the first half- penny daily in the United Kingdom, The Greenock Evening Telegraph, established in 1857, is asserted by its publishers to be " the pioneer of halfpenny evening papers in Britain." W. SCOTT.
The following dates are taken from the Jubilee number of The Dundee Courier and Argus, for Friday, 21 April, 1911 : 26 Sep- tember, 1816, first issued as a weekly at Id. per copy. 20 September, 1836, reduced to 4%d. per copy. 27 August, 1860, first issued as a tri-weekly at Id. 22 April, 1861, first issued as a daily at Id. 17 Sep- tember,^! 866, first issued as a halfpenny morning paper/]! ^ R. F. GARDINER.
Glasgow.
Fox Bourne, i. 119, mentions The Half- penny Post, printed by Parker the elder, oi Salisbury Street, which in 1724 was " a recently established paper." Read of White- friars was at this date publishing another Hal/penny Post.
Andrews, ii. 340, says : " Another cheap Evening News, the London Evening News, which afterwards took the title o The Day, was tried at a halfpenny, but brok< down before long."
I suppose this refers to The Day, which having existed for about twenty years merged into Stoddart's New Times, 1817.
MB. BOBBINS will probably be familiar with the fact that The Clerkenwell New, began in 1855 as a halfpenny newspaper. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
BLACK BANDSMEN IN THE ARMY (US. iii 287, 336, 370). Black musicians were no means confined to the British Army Alfred Assollant, in his historical nove . ' La Croix des Preches ' (Paris, E. Dentu 1877), mentions negro trumpeters as serving in France with a regiment of German cavalrj (to which he gives the title " des dragons d Royal-Allemand " ) during the seventeenth century. From Assollant' s two volumes make the following extracts :
" Cinq compagnies de dragons en tout peu pres trois cent hommes faisaient leur entr6 dans la ville, le sabre nu, le mousquet haul portant des torches allum^es et pr6ced6s de di trompettes negres dont Faspect barbare effra yait tout le monde." Vol. i. p. 127.
" Pour dire la vrite jusqu'au bout, malgr6 le
son bruyant des trompettes et le defile des dix
egres qui soufflaient dans leurs instruments avec
ne force epouvantable, la consternation regnait
ans la ville." Vol. i. p. 193.
" Quatre dragons a cheval parurent les remiers, precedes de six trompettes n egres." r ol. ii. p. 383.
T. H. BARROW. 23, Henrietta Street, W.C.
Were not coloured bandsmen first in- roduced by Marlborough ? Not long ago ! saw an engraving representing that general urrounded by his staff at, I think, the battle >f Blenheim, 'all the officers being mounted ; and one of the figures was that of a negro ,rumpeter. N. W. HILL.
New York.
BISHOP BARTHOLOMEW VIGORS (11 S. iii. 289). The entry in the Matriculation Register of Trinity College, Dublin, runs as 'ollows :
" 1663. Vicesimo tertio die Maij,
(Pupillus) Bartholomew Vigers [sic], pension- arius.
(Par ens) ffilius Urban i Vigers P'sbiteri.
(^Etas) Natus annos novemdecim.
(Ubinatus) Natus Tautonise in Com itatu Devon ias.
( Ubi educatus) Educatg ibidem sub M ro Crab.
(Tutor) D r Ward."
ERSKINE E. WEST.
Cowper Gardens, Dublin.
HOLWELL FAMILY : J. PIGOTT : J. POWER (11 S. ii. 528; iii. 74, 111, 192, 272). If the 39th Regiment was also named Adlercron's Regiment, there would seem to be a slight discrepancy in the statement made by W. S. that Ensign John Pigott, whose commission to the 39th Regiment is dated 5 January, 1750, was promoted to his captaincy in this regiment on 6 May, 1772.
According to Exshaw's Magazine of February, 1763, p. 112, "John Pigott, Esq., was appointed Ensign to Adlercron's Regi- ment." The Army List has Lieut. John Pigot to be captain in the 39th Regiment, 16 May, 1778, by purchase, vice Thomas Cuppage ; and on 15 August, 1778, Capt. Lieut. John Pigot of the 39th Foot to be captain in the 56th Foot in place of John White. Finally, Lieut. William Wilson of the 56th Regiment takes Pigot's place in the 39th Foot. There seems to have been an exchange.
Besides, Lieut. John Pigott, whose com- mission in the 39th Foot as ensign is dated 5 January, 1750, is out of this regiment in 1758 ; and he may have been the prisoner of the Black Hole, 1756, and at Plassey 1757, with his brother-in-law (?) John Power, A.D.C. to General Clive.
