[Sir Henry Skipwith was created a baronet Dec. 20, 1622, and in 1629 obtained, jointly with Sir Thomas Walsingham, Knt., a grant of lands in the counties of Leicester, Derby, &c.; in 1631 a grant of free-warren for his lands in Leicestershire; in 1636 was high sheriff for the county; and in 1637 certain amerciaments against him on account of that office, which had been returned into the Court of Chancery, were certified to the Court of Exchequer. Heartily espousing the cause of Charles I., he was one of the Commissioners of Array for this county, and on May 28, 1645, had the honour of entertaining his sovereign at Cotes, after which he was fined 1114l. by the parliamentary sequestrators. He was the last of the family who resided at Cotes; and amongst his poems is "An Elegy on the Death of my never enough lamented master, King Charles I." The others are chiefly of a melancholy turn. Sir Henry, his second son, died soon after his father, unmarried; whereupon his title and estate went to his next brother Sir Gray, who, after the death of the king, went with several other gentlemen, to avoid the usurpation, over to Virginia, and there married, and left one son.--Nichols's _Leicestershire_, vol. iii. p. 367., which also contains a pedigree of the family. Consult also Lloyd's _Worthies_, p. 649.] _College Battel._--What is the derivation of a word peculiar to the universities, _battels_: is it connected with _batten?_ S. A. [In Todd's _Johnson_ we read, "BATTEL, from Sax. [taelan] or [tellan], to count, or reckon, having the prefix _be_. The account of the expenses of a student in {327} any college in Oxford." In the _Gent. Mag._ for Aug. 1792, p. 716., a correspondent offers the following probable etymology: "It is probably derived from the German _bezahlen_; in Low German and Dutch _bettahlen_; in Welsh _talz_; which signifies to pay; whence may be derived likewise the English verb _to tale_, and the noun a _tale_, or _score_, if not the corrupted expressions _to tell_ or _number_, and _to tally_ or _agree_."] _Origin of Clubs._--Can any of your correspondents inform me from whence the cognomen of "club" came to be applied to select companies, and which was the first society that bore that title? F. R. B.