Chapter X

_Genealogical Queries._--Can any of your genealogical readers oblige me with replies to the following Queries?

1. To what family do the following arms belong? They are given in Blomfield's _Norfolk_ (ix. 413.) as impaled with the coat of William Donne, Esq., of Letheringsett, Norfolk, on his tomb in the church there. He died in 1684.

On a chevron engrailed, two lioncels rampant, between as many
crescents.

Not having seen the stone, I cannot say whether Blomfield has blazoned it correctly; but it seems possible he may have _meant_ to say,--

On a chevron engrailed, between two crescents, as many lioncels
rampant.

2. _Which_ Sir Philip Courtenay, of Powderham, was the father of Margaret Courtenay, who, in the fifteenth century, married Sir Robert Carey, Knt.? and who was her mother?

3. Where can I find a pedigree of the family of Robertson of _Muirtown_, said to be descended from _John_, second son of Alexander Robertson, of _Strowan_, by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of John, Earl of Athol, brother of King James II.? which John is omitted in the pedigree of the Strowan family, in Burke's _Landed Gentry_.

C.R.M.

_Parson, the Staffordshire Giant._--Harwood, in a note to his edition of Erdeswick's _Staffordshire_, p. 289., says,--

"This place [Westbromwich] gave birth to _William_ Parsons,
[query Walter,] the gigantic porter of King {136} James I.,
_whose picture was at Whitehall_; and a bas-relief of him, with
Jeffry Hudson the dwarf, was fixed in the front of a house near
the end of a bagnio court, Newgate-street, probably as a sign."

Plot, in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_, gives some instances of the great strength of Parsons.

I shall feel much obliged if you or your readers will inform me, 1. Whether there is any mention of Parsons in contemporary, or other works? 2. Whether the portrait is in existence? if so, where? Has it been engraved?

C.H.B.

Westbromwich.

_Unicorn in the Royal Arms._--When and why was the fabulous animal called the unicorn first used as a supporter for the royal arms of England?

E.C.

_The Frog and the Crow of Ennow._--I should be glad to get an answer to the following Query from some one of your readers:--I remember some few old lines of a song I used to hear sung many years ago, and wish to learn anything as regards its date, authorship,--indeed, any particulars, and where I shall be likely to find it at length. What I remember is,--

"There was a little frog, lived in the river swim-o,
And there was an old crow lived in the wood of Ennow,
Come on shore, come on shore, said the crow to the frog again-o;
Thank you, sir, thank you, sir, said the frog to the crow of Ennow,

...

But there is sweet music under yonder green willow,
And there are the dancers, the dancers, in yellow."