he word "Proctors." Who were they? One of the legends
has it that the obsolete word "Proctors" referred to certain sturdy
mendicants who swarmed in the south of England, and went about
extracting money from the charitable public under the pretence of
collecting "Peter's Pence" for the Pope; or, as the compiler of Murray's
_Handbook to the County of Kent_ suggests, "were probably the bearers of
licences to collect alms for hospitals," etc. Possibly the worthy Master
Richard Watts objected to the levying of this blackmail; or he may in
his walks have been subjected to the proctors' importunities, and
consequently in his will rigorously debarred them in all futurity from
any share in his Charity.

The other legend is that Master Watts, being grievously sick and sore to
die, sent for his lawyer, who in those days acted as proctor as
well,--Steerforth in _David Copperfield_ calls the proctor "a monkish
kind of attorney,"--and bade him prepare his will according to certain
instructions. The will was made, but not in the manner directed, and
subsequently, on the testator regaining his health, he discovered the
fraud which the crafty lawyer or proctor had tried to perpetrate--which
was, in fact, to make himself the sole legatee. In his just indignation
he made another will, and in it for ever excluded the fraternity of
proctors from benefiting thereby. The reader is at liberty to accept
whichever of the two legends he chooses. It is right to say that Mr.
Roach Smith utterly rejects the second story. He says proctors were
simply rogues, although some of them may have been licensed.

The following is a foot-note to Fisher's _History and Antiquities of
Rochester and its Environs_, MDCCLXXII.

[Illustration: Watts' Almshouses: Rochester]

"It is generally thought that the reason of Mr. Watts's excluding
proctors from the benefit of the Charity, was that a proctor had been
employed to make his will, whereby he had given all the estates to
himself; but I am inclined to believe that the word proctor is derived
from procurator, who was an itinerant priest, and had dispensations from
the Pope to absolve the subjects of this realm from the oath of
allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign there were many such
priests."

When the identity of Miss Adelaide Anne Procter, the gifted author of
the pure and pathetic _Legends and Lyrics_ (who had been an anonymous
contributor to _Household Words_ for some time under the _nom de plume_