[Footnote 7: It appears from a note in Pepys's _Diary_, June 23, 1660, that the library of the Duke of Sussex contained four several editions of the Book of Common Prayer, all printed after the accession of the House of Hanover, and all containing, as an integral part of the service, "The Office for the Healing."--ED.] _Creole_ (Vol. vii., p. 381. Vol. viii., p. 138.).--I have never met with any satisfactory explanation of the origin of this word; its meaning has undergone various modifications. At first it was limited in its application to the descendants of Europeans born in the colonies. By degrees it came to be extended to all classes of the population of colonial descent and now it is indiscriminately employed to express things as well as persons, of local origin or growth. We say a _creole_ Negro, as contra-distinguished from a negro born in Africa or elsewhere; a _creole_ horse, as contra-distinguished from an English or an American horse; and we speak "Creole" when we address the uneducated classes in their native jargon. HENRY H. BREEN. St. Lucia. _Daughter pronounced "Dafter"_ (Vol. viii., p. 292.).--This pronunciation is universal in North Cornwall and North-west Devonshire. J. R. P. _Richard Geering_ (Vol. viii., p. 340.).--If Y. S. M. will favour me with the parentage of "Richard Geering, one of the six clerks in chancery in Ireland," I shall be better able to judge whether he was of the family of Geering, Gearing, or Geary, of South Denchworth in the co. of Berks, of which family I have a pedigree. I can also supply their coat of arms and crest. Any information of the Geerings, ancestors of the said Richard, the chancery clerk, will be acceptable to your occasional correspondent H. C. C. If this Richard Geering is related to the Geerings of South Denchworth, in Berkshire, I refer Y. S. M. to Clare's _Hundred of Wanting_, Parker, Oxford, 1824. The Geerings bought the manor of Viscount Cullen. It was formerly in the possession of the Hydes: several of the Geering monuments are in the church. Their arms, Or, on two bars gules six mascles of the field, on a canton sable a leopard's face of the first. The Geerings were long tenants of a part of the estate which they purchased; they are extinct in the male line. A grandson, John Bockett, Esq. (by the female line), of the last heir, possessed a small farm in the parish which was sold by him some years ago. The manor now belongs to Worcester College, Oxford, who purchased it of Gregory Geering, gent., in 1758. The name is spelt Gearing and Geary in the early registers. The books in the small study (mentioned in "N. & Q." some time ago) were given by Gregory Geering, Esq., Mr. Ralph Kedden, vicar of Denchworth, and Mr. Edward Brewster, stationer, of London, most of which are attached by long chains to the cases. JULIA R. BOCKETT. Southcote Lodge.