_The Character_ "&".--This character your correspondent will at once see
is only the Latin word "et", written in a flourishing form; as we find
it repeated in the abbreviation "&c.," for "et cetera". Its adoption as
a contraction for the English word "and", arose, no doubt, from the
facility of its formation; and the name it acquired was "and-per
se-and", "and by itself and," which is easily susceptible of the
corruptions noticed by MR. LOWER.
[Greek: PHI].
_Walrond Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 206.).--Burke, in his _History of the
Commoners_, only gives the name of George, _one_ of the sons of Colonel
Humphry Walrond. He also states that the colonel married _Elizabeth_,
daughter of Nathaniel Napier, Esq., of More Critchel. Now Colonel
Walrond appears from his petition (Royalist Comp. Papers, State Paper
Office) dated 12th February, 1648, addressed to the Commissioners for
Compounding with Delinquents, to have had _nine_ other children then
living. He states: "Thus his eldest sonne George Walrond did absente
himselfe for a short time from his father's house, and went into the
king's army, where he unfortunately lost his right arme. That he having
no estate at present, and but little in expectancy after his father's
death, _he having ten_ children, and all _nine_ to be provided for out
of y'e petitioner's small estate." In a similar petition, dated about
two years later, from "_Grace_, the wife of Humphry Walrond, of Sea, in
the county of Somerset, Esquire," she states "herself to be weake woman,
and _having_ TEN children (whereof many are infants) to maintain." That
he was married to this _Grace_, and _not to Elizabeth_ (as stated by
Burke), as early as 1634, is clear from a licence to alienate certain
lands at Ilminster, 10 Ch. I. (_Pat. Rolls_.)
That they were both living in 1668 is proved by a petition in the State
Paper Office (Read in Council, Ap. 8, 1688. Trade Papers, Verginia, No.
I. A.):--"To the King's most excellent Ma'tie and the rt. hon'ble the
Lords of his Maj. most hon'ble Privy Councel," from "Grace, the wife of
Humphry Walrond, Esq." In this petition she states that her husband had
been very severely prosecuted by Lord Willoughby, whose sub-governor he
had been in Barbadoes. "He had contracted many debts by reason of his
loyalty and suffering in the late troubles, to the loss of at least
thirty thousand pounds." "That his loyalty and sufferings are
notoriously known, both in this kingdom and the Barbadoes, where he was
banished for proclaiming your Ma'tie after the murder of your royal
father." Colonel Walrond is mentioned by Clarendon, Rushworth,
Whitelock, &c.; but of the date of his death, the maiden name of his
wife, and the Christian names of all his ten children, I can find no
account.
The arms S.S.S. inquires about on the monument {285} of Humphry Walrond,
Esq., in Ilminster Church, are those of the family of Brokehampton.
Humphry Walrond (who died 1580) married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir
of John Brokehampton., of Sea, and so obtained that estate.