The fact that Gervase and Alan were brothers tempts one to recognize in them the "Alanus juvenis et Gervasius fratres," who witness a grant to (their cousin) Robert fitz Ralph fitz Herlwin,[915] and the "Alanus juvenis" and "Gervasius frater Alani" of a similar document.[916] But, unluckily, we find this same Alan elsewhere styled "Alanus filius _Huberti_ juvenis."[917] Possibly they were sons of that Hubert to whom his father was "nepos." But the question, for the present, must be left in doubt. Both Gervase de Cornhill and Henry his son appear, it may be added, from the evidence of charters, to have lent money on mortgage, and to have acquired landed property by foreclosing. A curious allusion to the mercantile origin and the profitable money-lending transactions of Geoffrey is found in a sneer of Becket's biographer, when, as Sheriff of Kent, he opposed the primate's landing.[918] The contemporary allusion to such pursuits, in the _Dialogus_, breathes the same scornful spirit for the trader and all his works.[919] Gervase, I think, may have been that "Gervase" who, at the head of the citizens of London, met Henry II. in 1174 (_Fantosme_, l. 1941); he would seem to have lived on till 1183, and was probably, at his death, between seventy and seventy-five years old. Among his descendants were a Dean of St. Paul's (1243-1254) and a Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1215-1223). [881] _Dialogus_, i. 10. [882] Such is the reading given by Anstis, who saw this star among the duchy records. It is greatly to be hoped that it may still be found. Anstis describes the device as "a Lyon." [883] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 22. [884] _Rot. Pip._, 31 Hen. I., pp. 144, 145, 147-149. Compare the clause in Henry's charter guaranteeing to the citizens "terras suas et vadimonia." Here the possession has to be paid for. [885] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 8. [886] "Gervasio de Corn ..., Johanne filio Radulfi" (Madox's _Formularium_, 293). [887] Duchy of Lancaster: _Cart. Misc._, ii. 57. [888] _Rot. Pip._, 31 Hen. I., pp. 150, 151. [889] Duchy of Lancaster: Royal Charters, No. 3. [890] _Ibid._, No. 26 (see Pipe-Roll Society: _Ancient Charters_, p. 66). [891] Grants in boxes, A., No. 156. [892] _Ibid._, 154. [893] "Ego Radulfus Archiepiscopus [1114-1122] concedo Æadwardo de Cornhelle et uxori ejus Godelif et hæredibus suis terram de Eadintune ... quam æ. desudwerc dedit cum filia sua æ. de Cornhelle" (_ibid._, 154). We have here an instance of the caution with which official calendars should be used. In the official abstract of the above record (_Thirty-fifth Report of Dep. Keeper_, p. 15), the above words are rendered, "with his daughter æ. de Cornhelle," the dative being taken for an ablative, and the wife transformed into her husband! [894] _London and Middlesex Arch. Journ._, v. 477.