adoration, rather than part with their hopes of Empire."--Pp. 6, 7. R. S. F. Perth. Minor Queries. _John Ap Rice's Register._--Two ancient charters, formerly belonging to the abbey of Bury St. Edmund's, and now in the possession of the corporation of King's Lynn, bear the indorsement of J. Rhesensis, _i.e._ John Ap Rice, the commissioner who was sent by Hen. VIII. to investigate the affairs of this abbey; and whose letter upon the subject to secretary Cromwell is published in _Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries._ On one of the charters the indorsement has been erased all but the name; on the other it runs thus:--"Relat' in regi[=u] Registr' ad v'b[=u], 1536, J. Rhesens', Registr'." Is anything known of the Royal Register referred to? C. W. G. _Prideaux's Doctrine of Conscience._--Who was the author of the address to the reader in the _Doctrine of Conscience_, by Bishop Prideaux, published in 1656? it is signed Y. N. Bishop Prideaux died in 1650. G. P. P. _John Adair, Geographer for Scotland (alive in 1715)._--I am anxious to obtain some information respecting the ancestry, wife, death, and descendants of this individual. I am already aware of the notices of him in Chalmers's _Caledonia_ (ii. 58.), and in the _Bannatyne Miscellany_ (ii. 347.). E. N. _Clergymen first styled Reverend._--I should be obliged if any of your correspondents would inform me when the word "Reverend" first came into use as distinctive of a clergyman. It never seems to have been applied to Hooker, who is always called Mr. Hooker in the different editions of his works. QUESTOR. _Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes._--Information is requested as to the descendants of the Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes, one of the Nonjuring divines, who died July 28, 1727. He was rector of Glinton with Peakirk, Northamptonshire; and it appears from Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_ that he left two children, William Spinckes, Esq., and Anne, who married Anthony Cope, Esq. J. P. JR. _Meaning of the Word "Elvan."_--Will any kind philologist come to the aid of the geologists in ascertaining the meaning of this uncouth word? In the current number of the _Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society_ (No. 29.) we read: "Certain quartziferous porphyries which occur in the mining districts of Cornwall as veins, partly in granite, partly in clay-slate, have been long there known under the name of 'Elvans.' We have in vain sought for the origin of this term in English writers. Henwood expressly says (_Trans. Geol. Soc. of Cornwall_, vol. v.) that the etymology of the word is unknown. May it not perhaps be derived from a place called 'Elvan?' Reuss says, in his _Lehrbuch der Geognosie_, that porphyry occurs near Elvan in Westmoreland." On turning to Borlase (_Natural History of Cornwall_, p. 91.), I find that he gives the derivation as follows: