12 SEPTEMBER 1952, Page 18

Penn and Mead

SIR,—Sir Norman Birkett's review of the new edition of George Fox's Journal is very interesting, like all his writings. But if he will look at the brass tablet on a wall inside the new Old Bailey, commemorating Bushell's Case, 1670, he will see that Edward Bushell was not the foreman of the jury at the trial of Penn and Mead. I regret that I cannot recall the foreman's name. He will also find that Penn's co- defendant was William Mead, not Meade. Until the eighteenth century spelling of surnames was very lax—even rare Ben Jonson is spelt Johnson in Westminster Abbey !

One of the reports of the Habeas Corpus application gives the spell- ings Pen and Mede. But the best report, edited by the son of the . Chief Justice (Vaughan, 135), usually gives the spelling Mead, though it occurs as Meade in one place.—Yours faithfully,

9 Bereweeke Avenue, Winchester. J. GORDON STANIER.