_Pedigree of Sir Francis Bryan._--This accomplished statesman, and ornament of Henry VIII.'s reign, married Joan of Desmond, Countess Dowager of Ormonde, and died childless in Ireland A.D. 1550. Query, Did any cadet of his family accompany him to that country? I found a Louis Bryan settled in the county of Kilkenny in Elizabeth's reign, and suspect that he came in through the connexion of Sir F. Bryan with the Ormonde family. Any information as to the arms and pedigree of Sir F. Bryan will greatly oblige JAMES GRAVES. Kilkenny. * * * * * Minor Queries with Answers. "_The Whole Duty of Man._"--Of what nature is the testimony that this book was written by Dorothy Coventry, "the good Lady Pakington?" QUÆSITOR. [The supposition that Lady Packington was the author of _The Whole Duty of Man_, arose from a copy of it in her handwriting having been found at Westwood after her death. (Aubrey's _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 125.) But the strongest evidence in favour of Lady Packington is the following note: "Oct. 13, 1698. Mr. Thomas Caulton, Vicar of Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, in the presence of William Thornton, Esq., and his lady, Mrs. Heathcote, Mrs. Ashe, Mrs. Caulton, and John Hewit, Rector of Harthill, declared the words following: 'Nov. 5, 1689. At Shire-Oaks, Mrs. Eyre took me up into her chamber after dinner, and told me that her daughter Moyser, of Beverley, was dead. Among other things concerning the private affairs of the family, she told me who was the author of _The Whole Duty of Man_, at the same time pulling out of a private drawer a MS. tied together, and stitched in 8vo., which she declared was the original copy written by Lady Packington her mother, who disowned ever having written the other books imputed to be by the same author, excepting _The Decay of Christian Piety_. She added, too, that it had been perused in MS. by Dr. Covel, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Dr. Stamford, Prebendary of York, and Mr. Banks, Rector of the Great Church at Hull.' Mr. Caulton declared this upon his death-bed, two days before his decease. W. T. and J. H." This is quoted from the Rev. W. B. Hawkins's Introduction to Pickering's edition of 1842; and a similar account, with unimportant variations, is given in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii. p. 292.: see also Vol. v., p. 229., and Vol. vi., p. 537.] {565}