The earliest mention found of this saint is in the _Saxon Chronicle_, under the year 654, when he began to build his minster at Ycean-ho, probably Boston or Botulph's-town in Lincolnshire. His {567} life was first put into regular form by Fulcard, a monk of Thorney, who was made abbot of that monastery in 1068. Fulcard tells us in his preface what his materials were: "Reperta sunt quædam in veteribus libris vitiose descripta, quædam ab ipso præcipuo præsuli in privilegiis ejusdem coenobii sunt breviter annotata, cætera ex relatione veterum ut ab antiquioribus sunt eis exhibita." An early MS. of this life is in the Harleian collection, No. 3097. It was printed (somewhat curtailed) by Capgrave in the _Legenda Nova_, and seems to have furnished all that our antiquaries know about St. Botulph. Camden indeed refers to _Bede_, iv. 3., as containing some mention of him; but I can find no such passage, and I believe that Botulph is nowhere mentioned in the _Historia Anglorum_. The remains of Botulph were taken up in the days of King Edgar, and his head was allotted to Ely, while the rest of his bones were divided between the abbeys of Thorney and Westminster. The cause of his extended popularity it is difficult to discover. His fame even passed over to Denmark, and an office is allotted to him in the Sleswick Breviary, _Britannia Sacra_, vol. i. p. 370. It has been surmised that he was a patron saint of seamen, and that his name indicates this character, _i. e._ boat-help! See Allen's _History of Lincoln_, vol. i. p. 245. His brother Adulf was made Bishop of Trajectum, probably Utrecht. Your correspondents may be referred to Capgrave; to Leland, _Collectanea_, vol. i. p. 217., and vol. iii. p. 33.; and to Ellis's _Monasticon_, vol. ii. p. 596., and vol. vi. p. 1621. St. Botulph's day is the 17th of June. C. W. G. * * * * * SIR RICHARD POLE, THE FATHER OF CARDINAL POLE. (Vol. v., pp. 105. 163.) Without presuming to contravene the high authorities quoted by J. G. N. on the pedigree of Sir Richard Pole, the father of the celebrated Cardinal Pole, I am inclined to the belief that he descended from a common ancestor with the Cheshire family of "Poole," as suggested by your correspondent I. J. H. H. Wotton[6] says, in his pedigree of "Poole, baronets of Poole" (from whom, by the way, the _Poles_ of Shute collaterally derived):