YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

€nalis|) Surnames.

CrtfiltsJ) Surnames*
AN ESSAY
ON
FAMILY NOMENCLATUKE,
HISTORICAL, ETYMOLOGICAL, AND HUMOROUS ;
WITH
SEVERAL ILLUSTRATIVE APPENDICES.
BY MARK ANTONY LOWER, M.A.
Cfjtttf IBtfttum, lEnlargrtJ.
IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. I.

LONDON :
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO SQUARE.
MDCCCXLIX.

" WHAT'S IN A NAME ?"
' Imago auimi, vnltus., vitse, Nomen est."— -Futeanus.

CONTENTS OP VOL. I.

PAGE
Preface . . . . . vii
Chapter I.
Of Proper Names of Persons in general . . .1
Chapter II.
Of Surnames .... 13
Chapter III.
History of English Surnames — Anglo-Saxon Period . 21
Chapter IV.
History of English Surnames since the Norman Conquest . 31
Chapter V.
Of Local Surnames . . . . .42
Note to Chapter V . . . .92
Chapter VI. '
Of Surnames derived from Occupations and Pursuits . 98
Note to Chapter VI . . . .121
Chapter VII.
Of Surnames derived from Dignities and Offices . . 123

VI CONTENTS. PAGE
Chapter VIII.
Of Surnames derived from Personal and Moral Qualities . 139
Chapter IX.
Of Surnames derived from Baptismal Names . . 149
Chapter X.
Of Surnames derived from Natural Objects . . 175
Chapter XI.
Of Surnames derived from Heraldric Charges and from Traders'
Signs . . . . .192
Chapter XII.
Of Surnames derived from the Social Relations, Periods of
Time, Age, &c. &e. . . . . 212
Chapter XIII.
Of Surnames indicative of Contempt and Ridicule . . 220
Chapter XIV.
Of Surnames derived from the Virtues, &c. . . 228
Chapter XV.
Of Surnames derived from Oaths and Exclamations . . 237
Chapter XVI.
Of Surnames originally Sobriquets . 240

Chapter XVII.
Surnominal Puns

244

¦^

F the oft-quoted sentiment of Te
rence —
" Homo sum ; humani nihil a me alienum puto,"
which drew down thunders of applause
from the auditories of antient times, be
equally deserving of respect in our own ;
and if the assertion of Puteanus be true,
that, "Sine Nomine, Homo non est,"*
— that the name is essential to the man, —
few apologies will be necessary for the
publication of the following Prolusions,
whose design is to illustrate the personal
and generic nomenclature of an impor
tant and influential section of the human
race. The utilitarian, it is true, may regard my
labours as of little value, and put in a ' Cui bono ?'
but my reply to him shall be a brief one. — "Whatever
* Diatr. De Erycio.

Vlll PREFACE.
serves to gratify a laudable, or even a merely harm
less, curiosity, is useful, and therefore not to be
despised." That a curiosity as to the origin of proper names,
and particularly of surnames, has prevailed to some
extent is certain, from the number of literary men
in England who have written (however slightly and
unsatisfactorily) upon the subject, within the last
three centuries ; and that it still prevails is shown
by the fact that since I undertook, a few years ago,
more fully to illustrate the history and signification
of our Family Names, scarcely a single week has
passed without my receiving communications on the
subject, both from literary friends, and from total
strangers, unconnected with literature. Hundreds
of letters from all parts of this country, from Scot
land, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, and America,
convince me, at least, that the inquiry is not devoid
of interest, while at the same time they afford a
flattering testimony that my investigations have
been well received and appreciated.
The history of proper names not only affords a
very curious chapter for the etymologist, but also
illustrates the progress of society, and throws much
light upon the customs and pursuits of departed ages.
With regard to English Surnames, there are two
circumstances which demand remark in this Preface:
namely, their great variety, and their extraordinary
number.

PREFACE. IX
That they should exhibit the former feature is not
surprising, since, in the words of an eminent anti
quary,* " we have borrowed names from everything
both good and bad." As this variety will fully
develope itself in the respective chapters of the pre
sent Essay, I shall merely insert here, by way of
proof, two or three hsts of the surnames occurring
among many others, in some of our public bodies.
The first is from the humorous ' Heraldic Anomalies'
of Dr. Nares :

" I have seen what was called an ' Inventory of the Stock Exchange
Articles,' to be seen there every day (Sundays and holidays excepted)
from ten till four o'clock.
" A Raven, a Nightingale, two Daws and a Swift.
APlightandaEall!Two Eoxes, a Wolf and two Shepherds.
A Taylor, a Collier, a Mason, and a Tanner.
Three Turners, four Smiths, three Wheelers.
Two Barbers, a Paynter, a Cook, a Potter, and five Coopers.
Two Greens, four Browns, and two Greys.
A Pilgrim, a King, a Chapel, a Chaplain, a Parson, three Clerks,
and a Pope.
Three Baileys, two Dunns, a  , and a Hussey !
A Hill, a Dale, and two Eields.
A Rose, two Budds, a Cherry, a Elower, two Vines, a Birch, a
Eearn, and two Peppercorns.
A Steel, two Bells, a Pulley, and two Bannisters.
" Of towns : Sheffield, Dover, Lancaster, Wakefield, and Ross.
Of things : Barnes, Wood, Coles, Staples, Mills, Pickles, and, in fine,

* Camden,

X PREFACE.
" Our House of Commons has at different and no very distant times
numbered amongst its members —
A Fox, A Hare, A Rooke,
Two Drakes, A Pinch, Two Martins,
Three Cocks, A Hart, Two Herons,
Two Lambs, A Leach, A Swan,
Two Bakers, Two Taylors, A Turner,
A Plummer, A Miller, A Parmer,
A Cooper, An Ahbot, A Falconer,
Nine Smiths ! ! !
A Porter, Three Pitts, Two Hills,
Two Woods, An Orchard, and a Bame,
Two Lemons with One Peel !
Two Roses, One Eord, Two Brookes,
One Flood and yet but one Pish !
A Forester, an Ambler, a Hunter,
and only One Ryder.
" But what is the most surprising and melancholy thing of all, it
has never had more than one Christian belonging to it, and at present
is without any !"
From many other pieces of humour of the same
kind I select the two following. The first is an
impromptu occasioned by the proposed elevation of
Alderman Wood to the office of Lord Mayor, some
years since :
" In choice of Mayors 'twill be confest,
Our citizens are prone to jest :
Of late a gentle Mower they tried,
November came, and check'd its pride.
A Hunter next on palfrey grey
Proudly pranced his year away.
They next, good order's foes to scare,
Placed Birch upon the civic chair.
Alas ! this year, 'tis understood,
They mean to make a Mayor of Wood .'"

PREFACE. XI
The next is from a Methodist Almanack pub
lished three or four years since, and is entitled
' Wesleyan Worthies, or Ministerial Misnomers.'
" If ' union is strength,' or if aught's in a name,
The Wesleyan Connexion importance may claim ;
For where is another — or Church, or communion —
That equals the following pastoral union :
A Dean and a Deakin, a Noble, a Squire,
An Officer, Constable, Sargeaut, and Cryer,
A Collier, a Carter, a Turner, a Tayler,
A Barber, a Baker, a Miller, a Naylor,
. A Walker, a Wheeler, a Waller, a Ridler,
A Fisher, a Slater, a Harpur, a Fidler,
A Pinder, a Palmer, a Shepherd, and Crook,
A Smith, and a Mason, a Carver, and Cook ;
An Abbott, an Usher, a Batcheler Gay,
A Marshall, a Steward, a Knight, and a Day,
A Meyer, an Alde-mann, Burgess, and Ward,
A Wiseman, a Trueman, a Freeman, a Guard,
A Bowman, a Cheeseman, a Colman, with Slack,
A Britten, a Savage, a White, and a Black,
French, English, and Scots— North, Southeme, and West,
Meek, Moody, and Meysey, Wilde, Giddy, and Best,
Brown, Hardy, and Ironsides, Manly, and Strong,
Lowe, Little, and Talboys, Frank, Pretty, and Young,
With Garretts, and Chambers, Halls, Temple, and Flowers,
Groves ,Brooks, Banks, and Levells, Parkes, Orchards, and Bowers,
Woods, Warrens, and Burrows, Cloughs, Marshes, and Moss,
A Vine, and a Garner, a Crozier, and Cross ;
Furze, Hedges, and Hollis, a Broomfield, and Moor,
Drake, Partridge, and Woodcock — a Beach, and a Shoar,
Ash, Crabtree, and Hawthorn, Peach, Lemmon, and Box,
A Lyon, a Badger, a Wolfe, and a Fox,
Fish, Hare, Kidd, and Roebuck, a Steer, and a Ray,
Cox, Ca'ts, and a Talbot, Strawe, Cattle, and Hay,

Xll PREFACE.
Dawes, Nightingales, Buntings, and Martins, aRowe,
With Bustard, and Robin, Dove, Swallow, and Crowe,
Ham, Bacon, and Butters, Salt, Pickles, and Rice,
A Draper, and Chapman, Booths, Byers, and Price,
Sharp, Sheers, Cutting, Smallwood, a Cubitt, and Rule,
Stones, Gravel, and Cannell, Clay, Potts, and a Poole,
A Page, and a Beard, with Coates and a Button,
A Webb, and a Cap — Lindsay, Woolsey, and Cotton,
A Cloake, and a Satchell, a Snowball, and Raine,
A Leech, and a Bolus, a Smart, and a Payne,
A Stamp, and a Jewel, a Hill, and a Hole,
A Peck, and a Possnet, a Slug, and a Mole,
A Horn, and a Hunt, with a Bond, and a Barr,
A Hussey, and Wedlock, a Driver, and Carr,
A Cooper, and Adshead, a Bird, and a Fowler,
A Key, and a Castle, a Bell, and a Towler,
A Tarr, and a Shipman, with Quickfoot, and Toase,
A Leek, and a Lilly, a Green, Budd, and Bowes,
A Creed, and a Sunday, a Cousen, a Lord,
A Dunn, and a Bailey, a Squarebridge, and Ford,
A No-all, and Doolittle — Hopewell, and Sleep,
And Kirks, Clarkes, and Parsons, a Grose, and a Heap,
With many such worthies, and others sublimer,
Including a Homer, a Pope, and A RHYMER."
If English Surnames are remarkable for their
variety, they are no less so for their number. How
great the latter may be, it would be a hopeless task
to attempt to ascertain : it is sufficient to say with
the Rev. Mark Noble, that " it is almost beyond
belief." A friend of that gentleman " amused him
self with collecting all such as began with the
letter A : they amounted to more than one thousand
five hundred. It is well known that some letters
of the alphabet are initials to more surnames than A :

PREFACE. xiii
allowing for others which have not so many, the
whole number will be between thirty and forty
thousand !" *
The Rev. E. Duke, in his valuable and extremely
curious ' ®alle of SiOfjlt lalle,' starts the ques
tion, " whether the English nomenclature is or is
not on the increase?" and he decides that, not
withstanding many of the older surnames become
extinct every century,f it is still on the increase,
* Hist. Coll. Arms, Prelim. Dissertation. My late learned and highly
esteemed correspondent E. J. Vernon, Esq. B.A., in some strictures on
the second edition of this work, published in the Literary Gazette, ex
presses a doubt as to this estimate. He says the surnames derived " from
Christian and Anglo-Saxon names and their modifications, amount to
about 700 ; names from trades and offices, &c. to between 300 and 400 ;
and 500 may be allowed for the other smaller classes ; making in all 1500
or 1600. If now we keep to the random, but we think most ample, guess,
of as many thousand local surnames, the total, which may be called
between 15,000 and 20,000, will, we think, be much nearer the mark
than Mr. Noble's estimate of ' between 30,000 and 40,000.' "
I must beg, however, to state my conviction of the correctness of this esti
mate, or rather assert its falling short of the truth. There are thousands
of names borrowed from places which are almost limited to the localities
which gave them birth, and which would consequently elude the notice of
the name-hunter, unless he penetrated into every nook and corner of the
kingdom. There are more than 10,000 parishes in England ; and topo
graphical antiquaries will bear me out in the assertion, that a single parish
often comprises six, ten, or even more manors, hamlets, and other sub
divisions, each of which has surnamed its family. Besides, Mr. Noble's
calculation is formed upon a basis which would rather fall short of, than
exceed, the truth.
f I am disposed to doubt the utter extinction of any name, when it has
once become widely spread. Families, it is true, may fail iff the elder or
wealthier line, and female heirs convey property into other names ; but
in an overwhelming majority of cases there are descendants of other lines
of the family left, and these often ramify and spread extensively in a more

XIV PREFACE.
and he accounts for this singular fact, by the fol
lowing arguments: " Some [names] originated from
the influx of foreigners caused by royal marriages —
by refuge from persecutions — by expatriations arising
from revolutions — by the settlement of alien manu
facturers ; and the names of many of these have
often been altered and anglicised, and then' pos
terity have in the bearing thereof become as genuine
Englishmen. At other times fictitious names have
started up and been perpetuated within our own
country, from their adoption, in the removal from
one part of the kingdom to another, by the criminal
and by the insolvent. Another increment of names
arises perhaps from the occasional settlement here
of Americans and West Indians ; for it is a certain*
and curious fact that although America was JH(K
nally peopled from this country, yet it varies very *
essentially in its nomenclature from that^ of Eng.
land."* Our great antiquary, the illustrious Camden, was
among the first who paid any considerable attention
plebeian grade. Hundreds of our old patrician names have survived the
wreck of that greatness with which they were once invested. Why, the
illustrious names inscribed on the famous Battel-Abbey Roll nearly all
exist at this day, after a lapse of eight centuries, if not in the peerage, at
least in the cottages of the poor, and often disguised in an orthography
which almost -defies identification. The reader will find this subject more
fully discussed hereafter.
* Vol. I, Notes, p. 404. One reason, among others, that might he
assigned for this dissimilarity, is the large intermixture of Dutch. German
and French families with those of English extraction.

PREFACE. XV
to the subject of English Surnames. He has an
amusing and learned chapter on the subject in his
' Remaines/ occupying, in an early edition, about
forty- eight pages of that work. This forms the
basis of all that can be said on English family
names. After Camden comes Verstegan, who,
though less accurate in his knowledge of the sub
ject, gives many useful hints which serve greatly
for the purpose of amplification. Among more
recent writers, four clergymen, the Rev. Dr. Pegge,
the Rev. Mark Noble, the Rev. E. Duke, and the
Rev. G. Oliver, have each added something new in
illustration of the subject. It seems that various
other antiquaries, whose productions have never
seen the light, have been labourers in the same
field. In Collet's ' Relics of Literature,' 1823,
it is stated that,
" Mr. Cole, the antiquary, was very industrious in collecting names,
and in one of his volumes of MSS. he says, he had the intention,
some time or other, of making a list of such as were more particularly
striking and odd, in order to form the foundation of an Essay upon
the subject. A friend of the present writer has gone much farther,
and has collected several thousand rare names, which he has partly
classified." The late Mr. Haslewood also appears to have
done something of the same kind. He had a most
extensive collection, which was disposed of at the
sale of his library, but which I have not been able
to trace to its final destination.

XVI PREFACE.
There are two manuscripts on Surnames in the
Harleian collection. The first, No. 4056, < Origin
of Surnames,' is loosely written upon seven pages;
It is a mere abstract from Camden, with scarcely
anything additional, except a paragraph in which
the writer differs from that author (as it will be
seen that I also do), with respect to the precise
date of the introduction of Surnames into England.
The second MS. No. 4630, ' The original or begin
ning of Surnames,' is likewise from Camden, and
has only a single original paragraph : of this I have
availed myself at the proper place. Both MSS.
form only portions of the volumes in which they
occur. Some years since, the Rev. George Oliver, of
Grimsby, announced that he was preparing for the
press a work on Surnames. This intention has not,
I believe, been carried into effect. Judging from
his able communication on the subject to the
' Gentleman's Magazine,'* we cannot but regret the
abandonment of his design. From that communi
cation I shall take the liberty of making an extract,
which, while it expresses precisely my own views,.
will also serve as an apology for any incorrect con
clusions I may have arrived at in the course of
these volumes.
"To account for, and accurately to class the
whole circle of Surnames which at present abound
* For 1830, i, 298.

PREFACE. XVU
in the world, would probably exceed the capacity of
the most talented individual, unless his whole and
undivided attention were devoted to its study and
developement ; and it is to be feared that the effect
might appear greatly disproportionate to the means
employed. In this respect the theory of surnames
bears an affinity to the doctrine of fluxions, without
the advantage of equal utility ; for as a knowledge
of algebra, geometry, logarithms, and infinite series,
is equally and indispensably necessary to a right
understanding of fluxions ; so, to enter fully into
the theory of surnames, an intimate acquaintance
with history and antiquities, — dead and living lan
guages, — the state of society and manners in all
ages and nations, — localities and peculiarities, —
national and family connexions, — the passions and
prejudices of human nature, — the cant words and
technical phrases of every description of men, — is
absolutely essential ; else the anxious theorist will
be at a loss to comprehend the origin of many un
couth names, or the relation they bear to each other,
diversified as they are by a succession of shades and
tints which are almost imperceptible ; and he will
find it difficult to determine with undeviating
accuracy whether many of the names he investi
gates be primitive, derivative, or contingent ; or to
trace them through all the devious and uncertain
etymologies in which they are imbedded and en
twined."

XV1U PREFACE.
Having thus mentioned what my predecessors have
done, it may be expected that I should give some
account of my own humble labours. But as they are
before the reader, I shall content myself with bor
rowing the words of Verstegan : " Because men are
naturally desirous to know as much as they may, and'
are much pleased to understand of their own offspring
[descent] which by their Surnames may well be dis
cerned, if they be Surnames of continuance, I have,
herein, as near as I can, endeavoured myself to give
the courteous reader satisfaction."
And, as I have been actuated by this desire, I
deem it but justice to myself to state, that if I have
assigned to any name a meaning that is little compli
mentary to the persons who happen to bear it, it has
been the farthest from my intention to insult their
feelings. So little has this been my wish or my endea
vour, that I have, on the contrary, made it one of my
chief objects to investigate the etymology of many
names which have generally been considered to imply
something low or disgraceful, and have proved, satis
factorily I trust, that they mean nothing that their
possessors have the slightest reason to be ashamed of.
Thus, while I have "filched" no one of his "good
name," I have, I hope, been so happy as to make
many a person upon better terms with his own appel
lative — which he may hitherto have considered
(etymologically) anything but a good one— than he
has ever been before.

PREFACE. XIX
After all, "What's in a name?" "for neither the
good names do grace the bad, neither doe evill names
disgrace the good. If names are to be accounted
good or bad, in all countries both good and bad haue
bin of the same Surnames which as they participate
one with the other in glory, so sometimes in shame.
Therefore for ancestors, parentage, and names, as
Seneca said, let every man say, Vix ea nostra voco.
Time hath intermingled and confused all, and wee
are come all to this present by successive variable
descents from high and low ; or as hee saith more
plainely, the low are descended from the high, and,
contrariwise, the high from the low."*

The present Edition of this work contains nearly
three times as much matter as the first, and about
double that of the second. The general arrangement
is nearly that of the former editions, but every chapter
has been materially enlarged, and several new chap
ters have been added. These additions, coupled with
the rejection of whatever hypotheses formerly ad
vanced I have found untenable, almost constitute the
present edition a new work. Proceeding upon the
principle — "facile est inventis addere," my 'lyttel
boke' has become a somewhat large one— the largest,

* Camden.

XX PREFACE.
I think I may say, that has yet appeared upon the
subject of proper names. It is also the only one of
any considerable extent exclusively devoted to family
nomenclature. This extension will explain itself to those readers
who have honoured my former editions with a
perusal. I have not forgotten the venerable adage,
that ' a great book is a great evil ;' but the continual
occurrence of names heretofore unknown or unno
ticed, and the extensive correspondence before alluded
to, have almost inevitably conduced to this result.
That my additional lucubrations may meet with the
same indulgent reception as the former ones have
done, is all that I can reasonably expect or desire.
I cannot but anticipate disappointment, on the
part of numerous readers, at the non-appearance of
their names in these volumes. The immense scope
of the subject must be my only apology. A vast
multitude of names must necessarily have escaped
my notice, and a large number have baffled all
attempts on my part to give a reasonable account of
their origin. Although it is quite true that " he
teaches well who teaches all," yet is the sentiment
of the Greek philosopher* no less so : " As it is the
commendation of a good huntsman to find game in a
wide wood, so it is no imputation if he hath not
caught all." * Plato.

PREFACE. xxi
In conclusion ; I should be guilty of great ingra
titude, were I to omit to offer my sincerest thanks to
those gentlemen who have rendered me valuable
assistance in the production of these volumes. And
first, my special acknowledgments are due to my
intelligent and worthy publisher, Mr. John Russell
Smith, who has spared no pains in placing within
my reach many valuable works, to which I could not
otherwise have had convenient access. To Charles
Clark, Esq., of Great-Totham Hall, I am indebted
for a list of upwards of 1500 of the most singular
surnames in existence, which were collected by that
gentleman, and with many of which this publication
is enriched. The reference to the two manuscripts
in the British Museum I owe to the Rev. George C.
Tomlinson, rector of Staughton in Huntingdonshire,
whose polite and unsolicited kindness entitles him to
my warmest acknowledgments.
Thus much as regards the original edition, which;
on its publication in 1842, immediately attracted the
attention of those directors of the public taste, the
Reviewers, whose notices of my humble performance
were, upon the whole, most flattering. My thanks
are especially due to the conductors of the ' Literary
Gazette' for the handsome manner in which they
threw open the columns of their valuable Journal, in
ten or twelve of its numbers, to the discussion of the
subject of this volume. The letters bearing the
signature of B. A. Oxon. were of a peculiarly in-

XXU PREFACE.
teresting character, and I was fortunately enabled to
open a correspondence with the author, E. J,
Vernon, Esq., a gentleman of extensive erudition
and etymological skill. To him, as a trifling ex
pression of my sense of the value of his communi
cations, I had the pleasure of dedicating the second
edition. With him I took much ' sweet counsel'
upon the subject of our mutual researches, but alas!
that remorseless Tyrant, who regards neither youth,
nor virtue, nor talents, proved both the falsity and
the truth of his own ambiguous motto — cVER-non
semper viret' — and laid him low ere yet he had
reached the summer of his days. He died in July,
1847, after a brief illness ; and in him society has
lost a member of unspeakable worth, and the world
of letters a most promising labourer.*
To the Reverend Stephen Isaacson, M.A., I
am greatly indebted, both for numerous anecdotes
and suggestions, and for copious lists of surnames of
remarkable character.
I have likewise received considerable aid from the
Reverend F. O. Morris, M. A., vicar of Nafferton,
who has furnished me with several lists of names.
George Monkxand, Esq., of Bath, forwarded
me a highly curious classified list of surnames made,
* His only published work is ' A Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue'
(London, 1846), one of the best treatises of the kind extant; hut I can state
that he was engaged for the last two or three years of his life iu collecting
materials for one or more volumes of a philological character.

PREFACE. xxm
like the others, with the most scrupulous attention
to their authenticity. Of all these I have largely
availed myself.
Further names and illustrations have also been
obligingly contributed by J. 0. Halliwell, Esq.,
F.R.S., F.S.A.; R. Almack, Esq., F.S.A., of
Melford; E. Pretty, Esq., of Northampton; W. H.
Blaauw, Esq., M.A., &c. ; Jabez Allies, Esq., F.S.A.;
Clement Ferguson, Esq., of Dublin; North Ludlow
Beamish, Esq., F.R.S., &c. of Cork; Miss Twynam;
John Sykes, Esq., of Doncaster; J. H. Fennell,
Esq., &c. &c. «&c. The Hon. and Rev. C. W.
Bradley, M.A., of Connecticut, U. S., most politely
transmitted me a copy of his privately-printed bro
chure mentioned below.

The following works have been consulted :
Camden's "Remaines concerning Britaine, but especially England,
and the Inhabitants thereof. The third Impression." Printed
in 1623.
Verstegan's " Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities con
cerning Our Nation." 1605.
The AechjEOLogia of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. xviii, pp. 105-
111, " Remarks on the Antiquity and Introduction of Surnames
into England. By James H. Markland, Esq. F.S.A." 1813.
"Peoltjsiones Histokic.3!, or the Halle of John Halle; by the Rev.
Edward Duke, M.A., E.S.A., &c." Vol. I, Essay I.
"A Histoky of the College on? Arms; with a Preliminary Dis
sertation relative to the different Orders in England since the
Norman Conquest. By the Rev. Mark Noble, P.A.S. of L. and E.,
Rector of Banning in Kent, &c." 1801.

XXIV PREFACE.
"The Gentleman's Magazine," 1772. Several Essays, by Dr. Pegge,
under the signature of T. Row (The Rector of Whittington) ;
and many subsequent volumes of the same periodical.
"A Dissertation on the Names of Persons. By J. H. Brady."
12mo. London, 1822. With numerous manuscript additions by
an unknown hand.
" Ctjrialia Miscellanea, or Anecdotes of Old Times. By Samuel
Pegge, Esq., E.S.A." 1818.
" The Stranger in America. By E. H. Lieber."
" An English Dictionary  By N. Bailey (piKoXoyog." 9th
Edit. 1740.
"Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary."
"Buchanan on Antient Scottish Surnames [or Clans."]—
Reprint. 1820.
"Blount's Law Dictionary."
"Talbot's English Etymologies." 1847. 8vo.
"Patronomatology, an Essay on the Philosophy of Surnames. By
C. W. Bradley, M. A., Rector of Christchurch, Connecticut."
Baltimore, 1842. Pp. 16, 8vo.
"The Irish Penny Journal." Dublin, 1841. A series of six
articles on the 'Origin and Meanings of Irish Eamily Names.'
By Mr. John O'Donovan. P. 326 et seq.
"Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary." New edition.
"Essai HiSTORiauE et Philosophique sur les Noms d'Hommes;,,
de Peuples, et de Lieux, &c. Par Eusebe Salverte." Two
vols. 8vo. Paris, 1824.
" Traite de l'Origine des Noms et des Surnoms. Par G. A.
de la Roque." Paris, 1681.
"On the Names, Surnames, and Nicknames of the Anglo-
Saxons. By J. M. Bumble, Esq." 8vo, pp. 22. 1846.
"A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, &c. By
J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., E.R.S." Two vols. 8vo. 1847.
" Three Letters on Norman Proper Names. By M. de Gerville."
In * Memoires de la Soc. des Antiquaires de Normandie,' vol. xiii,
p. 265 et seq.
Lewes, March, 1849.

AN ESSAY

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

CHAPTER I.
OF PROPER NAMES OF PERSONS IN GENERAL.
" Notre nom propre c'est nous-memes."

TJR proper name (observes the learned
and elegant Salverte) is ourself — in
our thoughts, and in the thoughts of
those who know us ; and nothing can
separate it from our existence.
A name, however apparently insignificant, instantly
recalls to our remembrance the man, his personal ap
pearance, his moral attributes, or some remarkable
event with which he is identified. The few syllables
constituting it suffice to reopen the fountain of a be
reaved mother's tears — to cover with blushes the fore
head of the maiden who believes her secret about to be
revealed — to agitate the heart of the lover — to light
up in the eyes of an enemv the fire of rage — and to
i. 1

2 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
awaken in the breast of one separated by distance from
his friend the liveliest emotions of hope or of regret.*
" This energetic power," remarks the same writer,
" distinguishes the Proper Noun from the common
substantive." It suggests no vague idea, but enforces
one that is positive and distinct.
" Our proper name is ourself ;" — without it we have
not more than half an existence. Hence in the earliest
and the rudest states of social life every human being
received a name. I am aware that Herodotus and
Pliny, and one or two modern writers, mention some
barbarous races who bear no distinctive appellations;
but a little reflection before making the statement
would have convinced them of the impossibility of the
existence of language without proper names ; for in the
most degraded condition of human existence, the occa
sional necessity of speaking of absent persons would
involve the use of some epithet, and that epithet
would he to all intents and purposes a Proper Name.
The father of a family would impose a peculiar appel
lation upon each of his children, and they in return
would give him a name by which to distinguish him
from other men. In like manner, a name would be
affixed to the superior power which was the object
of their adoration or their superstitious dread; and
all names so imposed must of necessity have been sig
nificant. As a principle so immediately connected with the
design of this Essay, I repeat — that all names weke
originally SIGNIFICANT; although in the course of
ages the meaning of most of them may have lapsed
from the memory of mankind. It is most unphiloso-
phical to arrive at the opposite conclusion. Invention
* Salverte.

PROPER NAMES. 3
without motives and without principles is as difficult in
relation to this subject as to any other.*
If the names of common objects were not dictated
by mere caprice, how can we imagine that those of
persons and of places had so vague a beginning. Let
any one call to remembrance the names of his nearest
friends and neighbours, and he will immediately recog
nise in them an identity with the names of the most
familiar objects, as Wood, Church, Hall, Tree; while
others are epithets, as Wise, Good, Long, Little ; and
a third class represent localities, as York, Chichester,
Forest, Heath. He will then scarcely bring his mind
to doubt that these, in their primitive application to
persons, had some connexion with those objects, epi
thets, and localities respectively; and if he thinks
wisely, he will hardly reject as destitute of sense or
meaning the still larger number of personal appella
tives which convey no distinct idea to his mind.
It is matter to me of no little surprise, that among
civilized nations the generality even of educated persons
should be so incurious as they are on this subject.
They seem .indeed in this respect behind many of the
barbarous tribes of both continents, who evince a desire
with respect to a stranger coming amongst them, either
to ascertain the meaning of his name in his own lan
guage, and to translate it, or to apply to him a signifi
cant appellation borrowed from their own dialect.
From numerous anecdotes which might be adduced to
prove this remark I will select one or two.
The Sultan of Muscat taking for his physician an
Italian gentleman, demanded by what name he was
called. " Vincenzo," was the reply. " I don't under
stand you," said the monarch ; " tell me the meaning
* Salverte.

4 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
of the word in Arabic." The Italian translated it by
' Mansour/ victorious ; and the prince, charmed with
the happy presage attached to this designation, uni
formly styled him Cheik Mansour.
A chief of the Delaware tribe once asked the mean
ing of the name of Colonel Sprout, a gentleman of
extraordinary stature. He was told that it signified a
bud or sprig. "No," replied the Indian, "he cannot
be a sprig — he is the tree itself!"*
If any further arguments are necessary to prove that
Proper Names were originally significant, let us refer to
the uniform practice of nautical discoverers with respect
to names of places. Do they ever give to a rock, an
island, a promontory, or a river an appellation without
a meaning ? It requires but a moderate share of ety
mological knowledge to ascertain the origin of the
greater part of the names of localities in any given
country with whose ancient and modern dialects the
inquirer is acquainted. A learned German, M.
Frederick Schlegel, has thus found in nearly all the
proper names of the Hindoos significant epithets; and
any one tolerably skilled in Anglo-Saxon, old French,
and the English of the Middle Ages, might in like
manner explain probably two thirds of our own proper
appellatives both of places and persons. All the names
of the Hebrews, as Salverte remarks, had a sense so
marked that their influence is strongly felt in the lite
rature of that people. The same observation will apply
with considerable force to the Arabs, the Greeks, and
the Teutonic nations. Among uncivilized tribes the
same significant force attaches to their personal nomen
clature ; and the American Indians, the Koriacs, the
Marquesans, and the Kamtschatdales may be referred
* Salverte.

PROPER NAMES. 5
to as never imposing a name with the meaning of
which they are unacquainted.
It is an inquiry not devoid of some interest, " What
would the annals of mankind and the records of bio
graphy be if people had never borne proper names ?"
A mere chaos of undefined incidents, an unintelligible
mass of facts, without symmetry or beauty, and without
any interest for after ages : " sine nomine homo non
est." Indeed, without names, mankind would have
wanted what is perhaps the greatest stimulus of which
the mind is susceptible, namely, the love of fame; and,
consequently, many of the mightiest achievements in
every department of human endeavour would have
been lost to the world.
In the first ages of the world a single name was
sufficient for each individual — "nomen olim apud omnes
fere gentes simplex ;" and that name was generally
invented for the person, in allusion to the circumstances
attending his birth, or to some personal quality he
possessed, or which his parents fondly hoped he might
in future possess. The writings of Moses and some
other books of the Old Testament furnish many proofs
of this remark. This rule seems to have uniformly
prevailed in all the nations of antiquity concerning
which we have any records, in the earliest periods of
their history. Jn Egypt we find persons of distinction
using only one name, as Pharaoh, Potiphar ; in Canaan,
Abraham, Isaac; in Greece, Diomedes, Ulysses; in
Rome, Romulus, Remus ; in Britain, Bran, Caradoc, &c.
Among most nations the imposition of names has
been connected with religious rites. Among the Jews
circumcision was the rite, as baptism is in the Christian
church. The Greeks commonly named their infants
on the tenth day after birth, on which occasion a hos-

6 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
pitable entertainment was given by the parents to their
friends, and sacrifices were offered to the gods. Thus
in the ' Birds' of Aristophanes we read :
¦  Qvtit ryv 8ekclti]v ravrriQ eyw,
Kal tovvo\i iltairsp iraiSLtp vvv 3k Srkpijv.
" On the tenth day I offered sacrifice,
And as a child's, her name imposed."
The Romans gave names to their male children on
the ninth day, and to girls on the eighth. The ninth
day was called dies lustricus, or the day of purification,
when religious ceremonies were practised. When the
Persians name a child a religious service is performed,
and five names are written by the father upon as many
slips of paper, and laid upon a copy of the Koran. The
first chapter of that sacred book is then read, and the
slip bearing the future name of the child is drawn at a
venture. The sources of Proper Names are exceedingly nu
merous as well as various. In very remote times per
sonal appellations marked some wish or prediction on
the part of parents. To select fortunate names — the
' bona nomina' of Cicero, and the ' fausta nomina' of
Tacitus — was ever a matter of solicitude, since it be
came a popular maxim, ' Bonum nomen, bonum omen.'
" Plautus thought it quite enough to damn a man that
he bore the name of Lyco, which is said to signify a
greedy wolf, and Livy calls the name Atrius Umbei
' abominandi ominis nomen/ — a name of horrible
portent."* " Ex bono nomine oritur bona prsesumptio"— from
a good name arises a good anticipation, says Panormitan;
* Nares, Heraldic Anomalies.

PROPER NAMES. 7
and Plato in the same spirit advises all people to select
happy names, — a recommendation which our novelists
and dramatists are ever ready to follow with respect to
their heroes. Victor, Probus, Faustus, Felix, and all
similar appellatives, must in the first instances have
been employed to mark the wishes of affectionate pa
rents, though the subsequent lives of the objects of
those wishes often gave the lie to their names. We
can hardly suppose that had the parents of Alexander
been gifted with prescience they would have honoured
that "murderer of millions" with a name signifying
' the helper of mankind.'
Many of the earlier Hebrew names were composed
of the first words uttered by the mother, the father, or
some other person present at the instant of the birth.
The dying Rachel called her infant ' Benoni,' the Son
of my Sorrow, but Jacob gave him the name of
' Benjamin,' the Son of my Strength. Incidents con
nected with the birth or early infancy of children also
furnished many names, as the earlier books of the Old
Testament sufficiently prove.
Complexion and other personal qualities often gave
rise to names, as Pyrrhus, ruddy ; Macros, tall ; Niger,
black; Paulus, little. The order of birth originated
others, as Quintus, the fifth, Septimus, the seventh;
while some had reference to the time of nativity, as
Martius, Maius.
All the foregoing classes of names might have been
appropriately bestowed by parents upon their offspring;
but there is a very numerous class with the imposition
of which they can have had nothing to do, and which
we may suppose parental partiality would fain have
prevented. I allude to those names which reflect upon
personal blemishes or moral obliquities, and which we

8 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
should now call nick-names or sobriquets, such as
Tpvn-og, eagle-nose; Qvcskwv, gorge-belly; Calvus, bald;
Codes, one-eyed; Flaccus, flap-eared; Fronto, heavy-
browed. These, from their very nature, must have
been applied to adults, and by others than their parents
or friends. Neither were the complimentary names,
KaXXiw/cog, 'renowned for victory,' 3>iXci§eX<£oc, 'a
lover of his brethren,' EvEp-ytrrjc, fa benefactor,' &c.
&C, conferred in very early life.
Thus much for single names : in process of time the
love of imitation led persons to adopt names which
had been, and were, borne by others ; and in order to
obviate the inconvenience resulting from the difficulty
of distinguishing contemporaries designated by a com*
mon appellative, some second name was necessary. The
most obvious mode of distinction would be by the use
of the father's name or patronymic, and this is the
earliest approach to the modern system of nomencla
ture. Caleb the son of Jephunneh, Joshua the son of
Nun, are early examples ; so also I/capoe tov AaiSaXov,
AeuSaXoe rov HLvn-aXfiov — Icarus the son of Daedalus,
Daedalus the son of Bupalmus; and it is worthy of
observation that this primitive practice has descended
to modern times in such designations as William Fitz-
Hugh, Stephen Isaacson.
Sometimes the adjunct expressed the country or
profession, sometimes some excellence or blemish of
the bearer, as Herodotus of ' Halicarnassus,' Polycletes
'the Sculptor,' Diogenes fthe Cynic,' Dionysius 'the
Tyrant.' The Romans had a very complete system of nomen
clature. The whole commonwealth was divided into
various clans called ' Gentes,' each of which was sub
divided into several families (' Familiae'). Thus in the

PROPER NAMES. 9
Gens Cornelia were included the families of the Scipi-
ones, Lentuli, Cethegi, Dolabellae, Cinnae, Syllae, &c.
It is doubtful, however, whether these familiae were
descended from a common ancestor, though they had
religious rites in common. To mark the different
gentes and familiae, and to distinguish the individuals
of the same race, they had usually three names, viz. the
' Praenomen,' the ' Nomen,' and the ' Cognomen.'*
The Praenomen denoted the individual, the Nomen
marked the Gens, and the Cognomen distinguished the
Familia, Thus in Publius Cornelius Scipio, Publius
corresponded to our John, Thomas, William ; Cornelius
pointed out the ' clan' or ' gens ;' and Scipio conveyed
the information that the individual in question belonged
to that particular family of the Cornelii which descended
from the pious Scipio, who, from his practice of leading
about his aged and blind father, thus figuratively be
came his scipio or staff.
Persons of the highest eminence, particularly military
commanders, sometimes received a fourth name, or
' Agnomen,' often commemorative of conquests, and
borrowed from the proper name of the hostile country,
as Coriolanus, Africanus, Asiaticus, Germanicus, &c.
In general, only two of the names were used — fre
quently but one. In addressing a person, the praeno
men was generally employed, since it was peculiar to
citizens, for slaves had no prsenomen.f Hence Horace
says, " delicate ears love the praenomen" —
 gaudent prsenomine molles
Auriculae. { Sat. ii. 5, 32.
* Adam's Rom. Antiq. t Adam.
% In Germany at the present day the lower ranks of society are re
minded of their inferiority, by having the definite article prefixed to their
1 §

10 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Two brothers sometimes bore the same praenomen.
So in England, some centuries since, two brothers oc
casionally had the same Christian name ; and Salverte
mentions an enthusiastic Scot, a partizan of the fallen
house of Stuart, who gave four of his sons the name of
Charles-Edward !
The Romans borrowed the form of their names from
the older natives of Italy, and particularly from the
Etruscans. In all those parts of Italy which the
Greeks had not penetrated, the personages quoted in
history anteriorly to the conquest of their country by
the Romans bore family names, preceded or followed by
an individual denomination ; and, among the Etruscans,
it is clear from Passeri,* that there existed the nomen,
praenomen, and cognomen, as among the Romans, who
adopted not only their mode of nomenclature, but also
a great number of their names themselves. Passeri
found the names of Horatius, Livius, Aulus, Marcus,
Publius, Severus, and many of a similar kind in Etrus
can inscriptions. Hence the difficulty of finding a
satisfactory etymology for many of the Roman appella
tives — words of venerable antiquity, of which those
who bore them knew as little the meaning as ourselves.
It has been customary in nearly all ages to apply to
monarchs some distinguishing epithet, usually termed
a Surname, although that word may be fairly objected
to as tending to confusion, by leading the uninformed to
suppose it an actual ' nomen' or hereditary designation.
Tarquinius Superbus, at Rome, Ptolemy Philadelphos,
Christian names : e. g. " Wo ist mein bedienter der Georg ?" Where is
my valet the George ? — Salverte. In Scotland, on the other hand, the
same prefix betokens respect, and is applied to the heads of clans, as ' the
Chisholm.' * Salv. i. 189.

PROPER NAMES. 11
in Egypt, Henry the Fowler, in Germany, William the
Lion, in Scotland, Charles the Bald, in France, and our
own Richard Coeur de Lion, may all have merited the
appellations bestowed upon them ; but they partake
more of the character of sobriquets than of surnames, in
the modern meaning of the term. In most cases, too,
they were posthumously applied. Speaking of this
subject, Archdeacon Nares, the humorous author of
' Heraldic Anomalies,' remarks :
" There are some significant titles, names, and attri
butes, to which I have no objection, as for instance,
Alfred the Great, for great he was ; but as to Canute
the Great I doubt : his speech to his courtiers on the
sea-shore had certainly something sublime in it, and
seems to bespeak the union of royalty and wisdom, but
Voltaire will not allow that he was great in any other
respect than that he performed great acts of cruelty.
Edmund Iron-side, I suppose, was correct enough, if
we did but understand the figure properly (for as to his
really having an iron side, I conclude no one fancies it
to have been so, though there is no answering for
vulgar credulity). Harold Harefoot betokened, no
doubt, a personal blemish or some extraordinary swift
ness of foot. Among the kings of Norway there was
a Bare-foot ! William Rufus was probably quite cor
rect, as indicative of his red head of hair, or rather
head of red hair. Henry the First was, I dare say, for
those times, a Beau Clerc, or able scholar. Richard
the First might very properly be called, by a figure of
speech, Coeur de Lion, and his brother John quite as
properly, though to his shame literally, rather than
figuratively, Lack-land. Edward Long-shanks cannot
be disputed, since a sight was obtained of his body not
very long ago, but at the least 467 years after hia

12 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
death, and which, from a letter in my possession,
written by the President of the Antiquarian Society,
who measured the body, appeared to be at that remote
period six feet two inches long."*
The same writer, speaking of the adjunct used by
the Norman William, assigns to it the definition of
Spelman, which differs from that in general accepta
tion : " Conquestor dicitur quia Anglia conquisivit, i. e.
acquisivit (purchased) non quod subegit; . . . here
agreeing," he humorously adds, "with the good old
women who attended William's birth, and who having
quite a struggle with the new-born brat to get out of
his clenched fist a parcel of straws he happened to
catch hold of (his mother, perhaps, being literally in
the straw), made them say in the way of prophecy, that
he would be a great acquirer."
* Heraldic Anom. vol. i, p. 107.

CHAPTER II.
OF SURNAMES.

" Nous affirmerons que l'etude des noms propres n'est point sans interet
pour la morale, l'organisation politique, la legislation, et 1'histoire meme
de la civilisation." — Salverte.

IN the present brief chapter it is my
intention to refer to the usages of
several modern nations in relation to
second or family names, usually desig
nated Surnames. A remark or two
on the definition and etymology of that term may be
premised. Our great lexicographer. Dr. Johnson, gives the
definition as follows :
" Surname : The name of a family; the name which
one has over and above the Christian name."
Until about the middle of the last century it was
sometimes written ' SiRname.' Whether this variation
originated in the lax orthography of other times, or
whether it was adopted to express a slight difference
of meaning, I will not undertake to decide. Some
writers have held the latter opinion, and defined ' Sir-
name' as " nomen patris additum proprio," and ' Sur-
name' as " nomen supra nomen additum." Mac-Allan,

14 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Fitzherbert, Ap Evan, and Stephenson would accordingly
be sir or ' sire' -names, equivalent to the son of Allan,
of Herbert, of Evan, and of Stephen.
Of ' Sur' -names, Du Cange says, they were at first
written " not in a direct line after the Christian name,
but above it, between the lines," and hence they were
called in Latin Supranomina, in Italian Supranome,
and in French Surnoms, — " over-names."
Those who contend for the non-identity of the two
words, assert that although every Sir-name is a Sur
name, every Sur-name is not a Sir-name — a question
which I shall not tarry to discuss.*
The causes which led to the adoption of family
names in the different countries of Europe are ably
stated by Salverte, and I may have occasion to refer
to them hereafter. For our present purpose, it will be
sufficient to observe that their adoption has generally
marked the arrival of a people at a certain point in
civilization. We have seen that all names were origi
nally single, and that second names were imposed for
the sake of distinguishing from each other the persons
who bore a common appellative. After the gradual
conversion of the European states to the Christian faith,
the old Pagan names were generally laid aside. New
names, borrowed from Scripture or from early church
history, were imposed at the baptism of the converts.
In particular localities, of which some saint was sup
posed to have the peculiar guardianship, great numbers
of persons received his or her name ; and great incon
venience must have been the result. When, in 1387,
Ladislaus Jagellon, duke of Lithuania, became a Chris-
* See on this subject the Literary Gazette for Nov. 1842, the corre
spondence of B. A. Oxon, and G., arising out of a notice of the first edition
of this work.

SURNAMES. 15
tian, and king of Poland, he persuaded his ancient
subjects to abjure, after his own example, their national
faith. The nobles and the warriors were baptized
separately ; but the plebeian candidates for the sacred
rite were divided into many companies, and the priests
conferred it at one time upon a whole company, and
gave the same name to all the individuals composing
that company. In the first baptism, all the men were
designated Peter, and all the women Catherine ; in the
second, all became Pauls and Margarets !*
In the countries into which Christianity had been
introduced many centuries earlier than the event just
referred to, that civilization which is ever the conco
mitant or the consequence of it had rendered second
names to a great extent necessary. In very early times,
accordingly, sobriquets and other marks of distinction
were frequently used; and towards the close of the
tenth century and the commencement of the eleventh,
when the number of persons bore a great disproportion
to the number of personal names, it was found neces
sary to add in all public acts a distinctive appellation
for the sake of identifying individuals. Such names
figure in great numbers in the records of all the king
doms of Christendom up to the fourteenth century. t
By degrees, this means of remedying the confusion be
came insufficient. Those sobriquets which described
physical and moral qualities, habits, professions, the place
of birth, &c, might be imposed upon many who bore
the same name of baptism, and thus the inconvenience
was rather augmented than diminished : a total change
in the system of names became indispensable — and
hereditary Surnames in most countries became general.
* Salv. i. 223. t Salverte.

16 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
We have seen that the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans
in very early periods used the patronymic or Father-
Name as a second designation, either with an appro
priate termination or with some prefix expressive of the
filial relation. This has also been the practice of many
modern nations. Thus in Spain, in the twelfth century,
the son of Gongale, who is regarded as the founder of
the principality of Castile, was called Fernand Goncalez,
and his son, in turn, received the name of Garcia
Fernandez. The Highlanders of Scotland employed the sire-
name with Mac, and hence our Macdonalds and
Macartys, meaning respectively the son of Donald and
of Arthur. The Irish had the practice (probably de-,
rived from the patriarchal ages) of prefixing Oy or 0',
signifying grandson* as O'Hara, O'Neale ; a form still
retained in many Hibernian surnames. Many of the
Irish also use Mac. According to the following distich,
the titles Mac and 0' are not merely what the logicians
call accidents, but altogether essential to the very being
and substance of an Irishman : —
" Per Mac atque 0, tu veros cognoscis Hibernos,
His duobus demptis, nullus Hibernus adest."
which has been translated —
" By Mac and 0,
You'll always know
True Irishmen they say ;
For if they lack
Both 0 and Mac,
No Irishmen are they."f
* It is related in the Eneyclopsedia Perthensis that an antiquated Scot
tish dame used to make it a matter of boasting that she had trod the
world's stage long enough to possess one hundred Oyes !
f Notes of a Bookworm.

SURNAMES. 17
Among the archives of the corporation of Galway is
an order dated 1518, prohibiting any of the Burkes,
Mc Williams, Kellys, or any other sept, from coming
into the town, which at that time was occupied by a
race who prided themselves in not being Irishmen, and
further declaring that "neither O ne Mac shoulde
strutte ne swagger through the streetes of Galway."*
The old Normans prefixed to their names the word
' Fitz' a corruption of Fils, and that derived from the
Latin Filius; as Fitz-Hamon, Fitz-Gilbert. The pea
santry of Russia, who are some centuries behind the
same class in other countries, affix the termination
cwitz' (which seems to have some affinity to the
Norman Fitz) to their names ; thus, Peter Paulowitz,
for Peter the son of Paul. The Poles employ sky in
the same sense, as James Petrowsky , James the son of
Peter; and the Biscayans adopt a similar method, f
Until a comparatively recent period no surnominal
adjunct was used in Wales, beyond ap, or son, as
David ap Howell, Evan ap Rhys, Griffith ap Roger,
John ap Richard, now very naturally corrupted into
Powell, Price, Prodger, and Pritchard. To a like origin
may be referred a considerable number of the surnames
beginning with P and B now in use in England,
amongst which may be mentioned Price, Pumphrey,
Parry, Probert, Probyn, Pugh, Penry; Bevan, Bithell,
Barry, Benyon, and Bowers. A more antient form
than ap is hab. This or vap constantly occurs in
charters of the time of Henry the Sixth. It was not
* Hardiman's Galway, quoted in the Journal of the Brit. Arch. Assoc.
vol. i, p. 98.
f The most singular deviation from the general rule is found among the
Arabians, who use their father'3 name without a fore-name, as Aven Pace,
Aven Rois, the son of Pace, the son of Rois.

18 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
unusual even but a century back, to hear of such com
binations as Evan-ap-Griffith-ap-David-ap-Jenkin, and
so on to the seventh or eighth generation, so that an
individual carried his pedigree in his name. The fol
lowing curious description of a Welshman occurs 15
Hen. VII : " Morgano Philip alias dicto Morgano vap
David vap Philip." The church of Llangollen in Wales
is said to be dedicated to St. Collen-ap-Gwynnawg-ap-
Clyndawg-ap-Cowrda-ap-Caradoc-Freichfras-ap - Llynn-
Merim-ap-Einion-Yrth-ap-Cunedda-Wledig,* a name
that casts that of the Dutchman, Inkvervankodsdor-
spanckinkadrachdern, into the shade.
To burlesque this ridiculous species of nomenclature,
some seventeenth-century wag described cheese as being
" Adam's own cousin-german by its birth,
Ap-Curds-ap-Milk-ap-Cow-ap-Grass-ap-Earth!"
The following anecdote was related to me by a na
tive of Wales : " An Englishman, riding one dark
night among the mountains, heard a cry of distress,
proceeding apparently from a man who had fallen into
a ravine near the highway, and, on listening more ak
tentively, heard the words, ' Help, master, help !' in a
voice truly Cambrian. 'Help! what, who are you?'
inquired the traveller. Jenkin-ap-Griffith-ap-Robin-
ap-William-ap-Rees-ap-Evan," was the response. ' Lazy
fellows that ye be,' rejoined the Englishman, setting
spurs to his horse, ' to lie rolling in that hole, half a
dozen of ye ; why, in the name of common sense, don't
ye help one another out ?' "
This story may have been suggested by a passage
occurring in ' Sir John Oldcastle,' a play, printed in
1600, and falsely attributed to Shakspeare :
* Recreative Review, vol. ii. p. 189.

SURNAMES. 19
Judge. What bail ? What sureties ?
Davy. Her cozen ap Rice, ap Evan, ap Morice, ap Morgan, ap LIuellyn,
ap Madoc, ap Meredith, ap Griffin, ap Davis, ap Owen, ap Shiukin Jones.
Judge. Two of the most sufficient are enow,
Sheriff. And't please your Lordship, these are all but one I"
In England, when the patronymic was used, the
word son was usually affixed, as John Adamsore; in
Wales, on the contrary, although the staple of the
national nomenclature was of this kind, no affix was
used, but the paternal name was put in the genitive,
as Griffith William's, David John's or Jones, Rees
Harry's or Harris. As the personal names were few in
number, when they became hereditary surnames they
were common to so many families, that they were
almost useless for the purposes of generic distinction,
and this still remains to a great extent the case. A
friend, who remembers the Monmouth and Brecon
militia about half a century since, informs me that it
had at that time no less than thirty- six John Joneses
upon its muster-roll; and it was at a somewhat later
period a matter of notoriety that a large Welsh village
was, with the exception of some two or three indivi
duals, entirely populated with Williamses.
Even the gentry of Wales bore no hereditary sur
names until the time of Henry the Eighth. That
monarch, who paid great attention to heraldric matters,
strongly recommended the heads of Welsh families to
conform to the usage long before adopted by the
English, as more consistent with their rank and dignity.
Some families accordingly made their existing siren&mes
stationary, while a few adopted the surnames of English
families with whom they were allied, as the ancestors
of Oliver Cromwell, who thus exchanged Williams

20 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
for Cromwell, which thenceforward they uniformly
used.* Having thus glanced at the usages of various nations
with respect to second names, let us next trace the
history of family names in England.
* Vide Noble's House of Cromwell. Other authentic instances of the
adoption of stationary surnames by great families may be found by refer?
ring to the following works :
( Williams of Abercamlais.) Jones's Brecon, iii. 696.
(Herbert, Lord of Blealevenny.) Mon. Aug. 17, 134. ;
(Herbert of Llanowell.) Coxe's Monmouth, 421.
It may be observed that several Norman families who settled in Wales,
left their original surnames, and conformed to the mode of the country ;
thus the Boleyns took the name of Williams.

CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH SURNAMES*— ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.
LTHOUGH our ancestors the Anglo-
Saxons had no regular system of family
nomenclature resembling that of the
Romans, or that which we now possess,
there was occasionally among them
something like an attempt to show derivation and family
relationships by the use of similar personal names.
"In one family," observes Mr. Kemble, (to whose able
paper I am much indebted,)t "we shall find in suc
cession or simultaneously, Wigmund, Wighelm, Wiglaf,
Wihstan ; or Beornric, Beornmod, Beornheah, Beorn-
helm." Among several other instances of this practice cited
by Mr. Kemble are the following : " Of the seven sons
of iEthelfrith, king of Northumberland, five bore names
compounded with Os (semideus), thus Oslaf, Oslac,
Oswald, Oswin, and Oswidu. In the succession of the
same royal family we find the male names, Osfrith,
Oswine, Osric, Osraed, Oswulf, Osbald, and Osbeorht,
and the female name, Osthryth ; and some of these are
repeated several times.
* The word surname is here employed in a somewhat loose sense, im
plying in general nothing more than the name home by an individual, to
distinguish him from other persons of the same forename or name of
baptism. t On the Names, Surnames, and Nicknames of the Anglo-Saxons. By
J. M. Kemble, Esq. 8vo. pp. 22, 1846.

22

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

The subjoined genealogical table shows how strongly
this practice was adhered to by the illustrious progeny
of Alfred the Great.

iELFRED.

1
Eadweard the Elder=Eadgyfu.

Ill I
E&dwine. Eadmund I. EMred (king.) Eadburh,

Eadwig (king.)

I
Eadgar (king.)

Eadweard. Eadgyth.

. I
Eadmund.

JEUhelrad.

I
Eadmund.

Eadwig.

I
Eadgyth.

Eadwe.ard.

Eadmund.

E&dweard;

Eadgar- ^Etheling (the Unfortunate.)

The second names treated of by Mr. Kemble may be
reduced to five general heads.
I. Those borrowed from the father's name. "In the
year 804, we find, among several Eadberhts in the
same court, that one is pointed out as Eadgaring, or
the son of Eadgar ; among several iEthelheahs, one is

HISTORY. 23
Esning, or the son of Esne." In a certain grant we
read this description of one —
" qui Leofwine nomine et Boudan sunu appellatur cognomine."
' whose name is Leofwine, and his surname Boudanson.'
In a genealogy of the West-Saxon kings, among
the Cotton MSS., we find — "Eadgar Eadmundimy,
Eadmund Eadwardiw.gr, Eadweard JElfreding, iElfred
Awolfira?," &c. upwards, through Woden to " Bedwig
Sce&fing," ' which Scef was Noah's son,' and thence to
Adam.* Ing, inge, or inger, we may remark, is found in the
sense of ' progeny' or ' offspring,' in most of the Teu
tonic languages. Ing, in modern German, is a young
man, but in a more extended sense signifies a de
scendant. Wachter derives it from the British engi,
to produce, bring forth, t Such names as Bering,
Browning, Whiting, may owe their origin to this ex
pression, and so mean respectively dear, tawny, and
fair offspring.
II. Those indicative of title or office, as Princeps,
Dux, Minister, or Pedissequus, in Latin records, and
Pren (priest), Biscop (bishop) in the vernacular.
III. Those from personal and other characteristics.
Bede, speaking of the two missionary apostles of the
old Saxons, says —
" And as they were both of one devotion, so they both had one name,
for each of them was called Hewald, yet with this distinction, taken from
the colour of their hair, that one was styled Black Hewald, and the other
White Hewald."
White, Black, Red, Bald, &c. were common as
second or descriptive names, as were also Good, Cun
ning, Proud, &c.
* Reliquia: Antique, ii. 172. t Vide Bosworth, A.-S. Diet.

24 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
In the Life of Here ward the Saxon, one of the last
of his race who withstood the Norman despots, we find
several such names as —
Martin with the Light Foot, from his agility.*
Siward the Red, from his complexion.
Leoeric the Mower, from his having overcome
twenty men with a scythe.
Leofric Prat, or the cunning.
Wulric the Black, so named because on one oc
casion he had blackened his face with charcoal, and in
that disguise penetrated unobserved among his enemies,
ten of whom he killed with a spear before making his
retreat. f
Some of the names of this class were somewhat
poetical, as Harald Haranfot (Harefoot), Eadgyfu
Swanhals (Edith the Swan-Necked), Eadmund Iren-
sida (Ironside).
IV. Nicknames "not used with, but in place of,
baptismal names." Several of these denote endear
ment and affection, and are equivalent to the modern
English expressions ' Darling,' ' Duck,' &c. The mean
ing of others is so very obscure, as even to conquer the
acumen of Mr. Kemble. Simeon of Durham, under
the year 799, says —
" Eodem anno Brorda Merciorum princeps, qui et Hildegils vocatur,
defunctus est."
Now Hildegils, it appears, was the baptismal name
of the magnate, and Brorda only an alias or nickname,
which had usurped its place, in consequence of the
military prowess of the bearer, Brorda meaning ' One
that hath the Sword' — a name belonging to the same
* Lightfoot still exists as a surname.
t Wright's Essays on the Literature, &c. of the Middle Ages,ii, 101,'fa.

HISTORY. 25
category as the Longespee and Strongbow of more
recent times. Another eminent Anglo-Saxon, distin
guished alike for greatness of stature and elevated
qualities of mind, bore the sobriquet of Mucel or
' Great,' which he employed in a legal way, as " Ego
Mucel, dux, consensi, &c." His baptismal name was
iEthelred, and had he lived some ages later, he would
probably have been known as Ethelred Michel, in the
same way that the Norman Gilbert de Aquila, after the
Conquest of 1066, was designated by this very epithet
in conjunction with his baptismal name.
V. Those taken from the place of residence, with the
particle mt or at, as 'Eadmser aet Burhham.'
The precise period at which such second names as
those above enumerated first became stationary, or, in
other words, began to descend hereditarily, it would at
this distance of time be impossible to show. It is
probable, however, that some of them passed through
several generations, according to the practice of our
own times, at a date considerably earlier than our
antiquaries are disposed to admit. This remark would
peculiarly apply to those of the fifth or local class,
since the son, then as now, often became proprietor of
the same estate as that from which his father borrowed
his second name ; and it would, I think, be unreason
able to decide that surnames of the first or patrony-
mical kind, such as Herdingson, Swainson,* Cerdicson,
did not pass occasionally from father to son, as well as
* This name is probably Danish. In the Confessor's time it was written
Sweynsen, but under the Normans it became Fits-Swain, and, ultimately,
in more English times, Swainson. ' Swain Fitz Swain' occurs in Norman
times as the grantor, to Sallay abbey in Ribblesdale, of lands at ' Swain-
side.'
i. 2

26 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
our more recent Thompson and Williamson. Camden
and others concur in the opinion that hereditary sur
names were not known in England before the Norman
Conquest ; yet I hope I shall not be deemed guilty of
presumption if, by and by, I offer a few suggestions
in support of the opinion that they were not altogether
unknown before that epoch.
Camden says, " about the year of our Lord 1000,
(that we may not minute out the time) surnames be
came to be taken up in France ; and in England about
the time of the Conquest, or else a very little before,
vnder King Edward the Confessor, who was all Frenchi
fied  This will seem strange to some English
men and Scottishmen, whiche, like the Arcadians,
thinke their surnames as antient as the moone, or at
the least to reach many an age beyond the Conquest.*
But they which thinke it most strange, (I speake vnder
correction,) I doubt they will hardly finde any surname
which descended to posterity before that time : neither
haue they seene (I feare) any deede or donation befoke
the Conquest, but subsigned with crosses and single
names without surnames, in this manner: »$<Ego
Eadredus confirmaui. *fr Ego Edmundus corroboraui,
*¦£* Ego Sigarius conclusi. >J< Ego Olfstanus consoli-
daui, &c.
Our great antiquary declares that both he and divers
of his friends had " pored and pusled vpon many an
old record and evidence" for the purpose of finding
hereditary surnames before the Conquest, without suc-
* Buchanan asserts that the family of Douglas have borne that name
from the reign of Solvathius, king of Scotland, the year 770 ; and that one
Sir William Douglas of Scotland entered into the service of Charlemagne,
He settled in Tuscany, and was the great ancestor of the Douglasii of that
country.

HISTORY. 27
cess; what then would he have said to a document
like the following, containing the substance of a grant
from Thorold of Buckenhale, sheriff of Lincolnshire, of
the manor of Spalding, to Wulgate, abbot of Croyland,
dated 1051, the 10th year of Edward the Confessor,
and fifteen years before the Conquest ?
" I have given to God and St. Guthlac of Croyland,
&c. all my manor situate near the parochial church of
the same town, with all the lands and tenements, rents
and services, &c. which I hold in the same manor, &c.
with all the appendants ; viz. Colgrin, my reeve, (prse-
positum meum,) and his whole sequell, with all the
goods and chattels which he hath in the same town,
fields and marshes. Also Harding, the smith, (fabrum,)
and his whole sequell. Also Lefstan, the carpenter,
(carpentarium,) and his whole sequell, &c. Also
Ryngulf the first, (primum,) and his whole sequell,
&c. Also Elstan the fisherman, (piscatorem,) and his
whole sequell, &c. Also Gunter Liniet, and his
whole sequell, &c. Also Onty Grimkelson, &c.
Also Turstan Dubbe, &c. Also Algar, the black,
(nigrum,) &c. Also Edric, the son of Siward, (filium
Siwardi,) &c. Also Osmund, the miller, (molendina-
rium,) &c. Also Besi Tuk, &c. Also Elmer de
PlNCEBECK, &C. Also GoUSE GAMELSON, &C."  With
the same clauses to each as before.*
Now while the terms reeve, smith, carpenter, the
first, fisher, the black, miller, &c. applied respectively
to Colgrin, Harding, Lefstan, &c. are merely personal
descriptions; Liniet, Dubbe, Tuk, and de Pincebeck,
have the appearance of settled surnames. The same dis
tinction is observable between ' Edric, the son of Siward,'
and Grimkelson and Gamelson. Indeed some of
* See the entire deed in Gough's History of Croyland Abbey. (App. p. 29.)

28 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
these surnames are yet remaining amongst us, as
Dubbe, Tuk, Liniet, and Pincebeck —now spelt Dubb,
Tuck, Linney, and Pinchbeck, a fact which I think
goes far to prove that they were hereditary at the
time when the deed of gift above recited was made.
This document is also opposed to another opinion
prevalent among antiquaries, namely, that surnames
were assumed by the nobles long before the commonalty
took them. Here we see that the bondmen or churls
of the Lincolnshire sheriff used them at a period when
many of the landed proprietors had no other designa
tion than a Christian name.
A great many surnames occur in Domesday book;
(Camden says, they first occur there.) Some of these
are loca l, as De Grey, de Vernon, d' Oily ; some pa-
tronymical, as Richardus filius Gisleberti ; and others
official or professional, as Gulielmus Camerarius,
(the chamberlain,) Radulphus Venator, (the hunter,)
Gislebertus Cocus, (the cook,) &c. &c. "But very
many," as Camden remarks, " (occur) with their
Christian names only, as Olaff, Nigellus, Eustachius,
Baldricus." It is to be observed, that those with
single names are " noted last in every shire, as men of
least account," and as sub-tenants. Here a query
arises. Are we to conclude that because many names
are given in the single form, that the individuals to
whom they belonged had only one ? I think not ; and
notwithstanding all that Camden and others assert on
the subject, I am strongly of opinion that hereditary
surnames were sometimes used before the Conquest.
Camden's remark, that these single-named persons
come "last in every shire," strengthens my supposition.
It is probable that their inferiority of rank was the
cause of the non-insertion of the second, or sur-name.

HISTORY. 29
We must not forget that many of these "men of least
account," were of the conquered Saxon race, who
would be treated with as little ceremony in their
names as in anything else. Do not modern usages with
respect to the nomenclature of inferiors support this
idea? We rarely speak of our superiors without the
double or triple designation : Lord So-and-So, Sir John
Such-a-one, or Mr. This-or-That, while the single
names Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson, suffice for
persons of lower grade. I will venture to say that one
half of the masters and mistresses of houses in large
towns do not even know more than one of the two
names borne by their servants, some accustoming them
selves to command them exclusively by their Christian
names, others as exclusively using their Surnames. I
know that many of my readers will regard all this as
inconclusive gossip, but having hazarded an opinion, I
am unwilling to leave anything unsaid that could be
said in support of it.
The manors of Ripe and Newtimber, in Sussex, are
mentioned in Domesday as having been, before the
Conquest, the estates, respectively, of Cane and JElfech.
Now these names are still found in the county as sur
names ; the former under its antient orthography, and
the latter under that of Elphick ; but were these ever
used as Christian names ? iElfech may be the same
with Alphage, a Saxon fore-name ; but Cane was cer
tainly never so used. By the way, it is an extraordi
nary fact that the name of Cane is still borne by two
respectable farmers at Ripe, in which neighbourhood, I
have scarcely a doubt, their ancestors, all bearing the
same monosyllabic designation, have dwelt from the days
of the Confessor : an honour which few of the mighty
and noble of this land can boast !

30 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Mr. Grimaldi, in his ' Origines Genealogicse,' speak
ing of the Winton Domesday, a survey of the lands
belonging to Edward the Confessor, made on the oath
of eighty- six burgesses of Winchester, in the reign of
Henry I, says : " The most remarkable circumstance
in this book is the quantity of Surnames among the
tenants of Edward, as Alwinus Idessone, Edwinus
Godeswale, Brumanus de la Forda, Leuret de Essewem,
which occur in the first page.
It would however be preposterous to assert that sur
names universally prevailed so early as the eleventh
century : we have overwhelming evidence that they did
not ; and must admit that although the Norman Con
quest did much to introduce the practice of using them,
it was long before they became very common. All I
am anxious to establish is, that the occasional use of
family names in England dates beyond the ingress of the
Normans.

CHAPTER IV.
HISTORY OF ENGLISH SURNAMES, SINCE THE NORMAN
CONQUEST.
HATEVER may be advanced in favour of
an earlier adoption of family designa
tions or Surnames in particular cases, it
is certain that the practice of making
the second name of an individual sta
tionary, and transmitting it to descendants, came gra
dually into common use during the eleventh and three
following centuries. By the middle of the twelfth it
began, in the estimation of some, to be essential that
persons of rank should bear some designation in addition
to the baptismal name. We have an instance of this in
the wealthy heiress of the powerful Baron Fitz-Hamon's
making the want of a surname in Robert, natural son
of King Henry the First, an objection to his marriage
with her. The lady is represented as saying :
5t torn to me great jihame,
Co Ijabe a lorU mftrjouten his tma name!*
when the monarch, to remedy the defect, gave him the
surname of Fitz-Roy ; a designation which has been
given at several subsequent periods to the illegitimate
progeny of our kings.

* Robert of Gloucester. This will remind the reader of Juvenal-
"  tanquam habeas tria nomina.'' v. 127.

32 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
The unsettled state of surnames in those early times
renders it a difficult matter to trace the pedigree of any
family beyond the thirteenth century. In Cheshire, a
county remarkable for the number of its resident fami
lies of great antiquity, it was very usual for younger
branches of a family, laying aside the name of their
father, to take their name from the place of their re
sidence, and thus in three descents as many surnames
are found in the same family. This remark may be
forcibly illustrated by reference to the early pedigree of
the family of Fitz-Hugh, which name did not settle
down as a fixed appellative until the time of Edward III.
Thus we read in succession —
Bardolph,Akaris Fitz-Bardolph,
Hervey Fitz- Akaris,
Henry Fitz-Hervey,
Randolph Fitz- Henry,
Henry Fitz-Randolph,
Randolph Fitz-Henry,
Hugh Fitz-Randolph,
Henry Fitz-Hugh,
which last was created a baron, assuming that name as
his title, and giving it permanence as a family appella
tive.* When there were several sons in one family.
instances are found where each brother assumed a dif
ferent surname. Hence the great difficulty in tracing
the pedigrees of families in those early times.
It has been asserted that an act of parliament was
passed in the reign of Edward the Second for enforcing
the practice of using family names ; hut it seems more
probable that necessity led the common people to adopt
them. Before the Conquest there was much greater
* Halle of John Halle, i, 10.

HISTORY. 33
variety in the baptismal names than at present, though,
as we have seen, the Anglo-Saxons were frequently
driven to the adoption of second names for the identi
fication of individuals. The ingress of the Normans
introduced the use of Scripture names, and the Saxon
names for the most part became obsolete after a cen
tury or two, while the Johns, Jameses, Thomases, and
Peters became so numerous, that Surnames were indis
pensable. In the thirteenth century it is probable that
most persons of ignoble rank bore a sobriquet instead
of the Christian name. For example, in the Household
Expenses of Eleanor, Countess of Montfort, 1265, all
the menials in her service bear designations such as
were never conferred at the font : e. g. Hand was her
baker, Hicque her tailor, and Dobbe her shepherd.
Her carriers or messengers were Diquon, Gobithesty,
Treubodi, and Slingawai!*
Two or three generations later, the commonalty were
generally distinguished by names like the following,
taken principally from the Inquisitiones Nonarum,
1340, (13 Edw. III.)
Johes over the Water
William at Byshope Gate
Johes o' the Shephouse
Johes q'dam s'viens Rog. Leneydeyman
Johes vicarii eccl. Ste Nich. .
Agnes, the Pr'sts sisterf
Johes at the Castle Gate
Johes in the Lane
Thorn in Thelane
Johes at See
Rog' atte Wodegatehouse
Thorn' le Fytheler
* Blaauw's Barons' War. t Gent. Mag. June 1821.
2§

34 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Joh' ate Mouse
Johes le Taillour
Johes up the Pende
Petr' atte the Bell
Johes of the Gutter
Thomas in the Willows
Steph' de Portico
William of London-bridge.

About this time (to speak generally) the surnames
of the middle and lower ranks began to descend from
father to son ; but even at the commencement of the
fifteenth century there was much confusion in family
names. Sometimes, indeed, the same person bore dif
ferent surnames at different periods. Thus, a person
who in 1406 describes himself as William, the son of
Adam Emmotson, calls himself, in 1416, William
Emmotson. Another person who is designated John,
the son of William, the son of John de Hunshelf, ap
pears soon after as John Wilson. Other names, such as
Willielmus - Johnson -Wilkinson, Willielmus- Adamson,
Magotson, and Thomas-Henson-Magot, prevail about
this period.* In the Battel Abbey Deeds the names
John Hervy, John Fitz-Hervie de Sudwerk, and John
de London are given to one and the same person.
The following names from the same source occur in
this and the preceding centuries, and it may be ob
served, en passant, that they were borne not by the
lowest of the vulgar, but by persons who either gave
possessions to the Abbey, or witnessed the deeds by
which such gifts were made.
* Penny Cyclopaedia.

HISTORY. 35
Henry le Assedrumere (Ass-drummer !)
Edelina Husewyf, late wife of Thomas Pet.
Walter le Bceuf (the bullock).
Peter le Cuckou.
John God-me-fetch !
Reginald de la Chambre or De Camera.
William at Bachuse.
Richard Havedman (qu. headsman?).
Bartholomew le Swan.
Coke Crul. Crul is an archaism for ' curled' or
' crooked,' and, presuming that the personal name and
the sur-name have been transposed, may mean 'the
deformed cook !'
Vitellius Curtius. This may be a latinization of
Vital Curteis.
Ralph Yvegod.
Giles Smith, son of Luke de Swineham.
Thomas Gadregod (Gathergood).
Roger le Bunch.
Margery Domesday.
Richard Grym, called Frend.
John Couper, son of William atte Water.
The following address to the populace, at the begin
ning of one of the Coventry Mysteries, serves to illus
trate the state in which the family nomenclature of the
humbler classes stood in the fifteenth century :
"| A voyd sers ! And lete me lord the bischop come
And syt in the court, the laws for to doo ;
And I schal gon in this place, them for to somowne ;
The that ben in my book, the court ye must come to.
If I warne you her', all abowte,
That I somown you, all the rowte,
Loke ye fayl, for no dowte,
At the court to " per" (appear).

36 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Both John Jurdon' and Geffrey Gyle
Malkyn Mylkedoke and fayre Mabyle,
Stevyn Sturdy, and Jack-AT-THE Style,
And Sawdyr Sadeler.
U Thom Tynker' and Betrys Belle
Peyrs Potter, and Whatt-AT-THE-WELLE,
Symme Smal-feyth, and Kate Kelle,
And Bertylmew the Bocher (butcher).
Kytt Cakeler, and Colett Crane,
Gylle Fetyse and fayr Jane
Powle Powter', and P[ar]nel Prane,
And Phelypp the good Fleccher.
IT Cok Crane, and Davy Dry-dust
Luce Lyer, and Letyce Lytyl-Trust,
Miles the Miller, and Colle Crake-crust
Both Bette the Baker, and Robyn Rede.
And loke ye rynge wele in yowr purs
For ellys yowr cawse may spede the wurs,
Thow that ye slynge goddys curs,
Evy[n] at my hede.
% Both Bontyng the Browster, and Sybyly Slynge,
Megge Mery-wedyr, and Sabyn Sprynge
Tyffany Twynkeler ffayle for no thynge,
Ffast co' a way
The courte shall be this day."
In COffe* $LQVtllZ*& IjOtf, a satirical poem im*
printed by Wynkyn de Worde, there is a similar rig
marole of names :
" The pardoner sayd I will rede my roll,
And ye shall here the names poll by poll.
Pers Potter of brydge water,
Saunder Sely the mustard maker,
With Jelyan Jangeler.
Here is Jenkyne Berwarde of Barwycke,
And Tom Tombler of warwyke,
With Phylypp Fletcher of ffernam,
Here is Wyll Wyly the myl pecker,

HISTORY. 37
And Patrycke Pevysshe heerbeter,
With lusty Hary Hange man.
Also Mathewe Tothe drawer of London,
And Sybby Sole mylke wyfe of Islyngton
With Davy Drawelache of rockyngame.
* * * *
Also Hycke Crokenec the rope maker,
And Steven Mesyll-mouthe muskyll taker
With Jacke Basket-seler of alwelay,
Here is George of Podyng lane Carpenter,
And Patrycke Pevysshe a conynge dyrte-dauber,
Worshypfull wardayn of Sloven's In ;
There is Martyn Peke small fremason,
And Pers Peuterer that knocketh a basyn,
With Gogle-eyed Tomson shepster of lyn,"
&c. &c. &c.
That many persons in the fifteenth century carried
on the trades from which either themselves or their
ancestors had borrowed their family names, is proved
by reference to various contemporary documents. The
following entries were found by Mr. Thomas Wright
among the municipal records of Southampton :
" Item, payd to Davy Berebrewere for a pyp of bere that was dronke at
the Barrgate, when the ffurst affray was of the ffrenshemen, vi. viij."
" Item, payd to Saumdere Lokyere for the makyng of a band and ij
boltes and cheyns, and viij fforlokkes to the gone [gun] that standeth in
Godeshows yeate, xijd."
[1432.] Hereditary surnames can scarcely be said to have
been permanently settled among the lower and middle
classes before the era of the Reformation. The intro
duction of parish registers was probably more instru
mental than anything else in settling them ; for if a
nerson were entered under one surname at baptism, it
is not likely that he would be married under another,
and buried under a third. Exceptions to a generally
established rule, however, occurred in some places. The

38

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

Rev. Mark Noble affirms that "it was late in the seven
teenth century that many families in Yorkshire, even of
the more opulent sort, took stationary names. Still later,
about Halifax, surnames became in their dialect genea
logical, as William a Bills, a Toms, a Luke.*
In the south of England the same irregularity pre
vailed to some extent. In the will of one Rafe Willard,
of Ifield, Sussex, dated 1617, I find several persons in
the household of the great family of Covert of Slaugham
thus loosely described : " Item, I give unto Mr.
Ffettyplace * * * unto John white, unto Harry [the]
post, unto James Jorden, unto Leonard the Huntsman,
unto Christopher the Footman, and to olde Rycharde
Davye the porter, to each and every of them ten shil
lings a peece."f
In Scotland, designations were equally loose, down
to the times of James V. and Mary. Buchanan men
tions, that he has seen deeds of that date "most confused
and unexact in designations of persons inserted therein,''
parties being described as "John, son of black William,"
" Thomas, son of long or tall Donald," &c. Even so
late as 1723, there were two gentlemen of Sir Donald
Mac Donald's family, who bore no other name than
Donald Gorm, or Blue Donald.J
* Hist. Coll. Arms, Introd. p. 29. I am informed that this sort of
nomenclature still prevails among the humbler classes in some partB of
Westmoreland and Cumberland.
f Regist. of Wills at Lewes.
% Scottish Surnames, p. 18. Such epithets were sometimes called
To-Names. " They call my kinsman ' Ludovic with the Scar,' " said
Quentin. Our family names are so common in a Scottish house, that,
where there is no land in the house we always give a to-name." " A nam
de guerre, I suppose you mean," answered his companion, " and the man
you speak of, we, I think, call Le Balafre, from that scar on his face, a
proper man, and a good soldier." (Quentin Durward, vol. i. 53.)

HISTORY. 39
On the remark of Tyrwhitt, in his edition of Chaucer,
that it is "probable that the use of surnames was not
in Chaucer's time fully established among the lower
class of people," a more recent editor of the same poet
says, " Why, the truth is, that they are not now, even
in the nineteenth century, fully established in some
parts of England. There are very few, for instance, of
the miners of Staffordshire who bear the names of their
fathers. The Editor knows a pig-dealer, whose father's
name was Johnson, but the people call him Pigman, and
Pigman he calls himself. This name may be now seen
over the door of a public-house which this man keeps in
Staffordshire." But this is nothing to the practice of bearing a
double set of names, which, we are assured, prevails
among these colliers. Thus a man may at the same
time bear the names of John Smith and Thomas Jones,
without any sinister intention ; but it must not be
imagined that such regular names are in common use.
These are a kind of best names, which, like their Sunday
clothes, they only use on high-days and holidays, as at
christenings and marriages. For every-day purposes
they use no appellative, except a nickname, as Nosey,
Soiden-mouth* Soaker, or some such elegant desig
nation ; and this is employed, not by their neighbours
alone, but by their wives and children, and even by
themselves ! A correspondent of Knight's Quarterly
Magazine,t who is my authority for these statements,
says, "I knew an apothecary in the collieries, who, as
a matter of decorum, always entered the real names of
his patients in his books ; that is, when he could ascer
tain them. But they stood there only for ornament;
for use he found it necessary to append the sobriquet,
* With the mouth awry. t Vol. i. p. 297 et seq.

40 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
which he did with true medical formality, as, for in
stance, ' Thomas Williams, vulgo diet., Old Puff.'
. . . Clergymen have been known to send home a
wedding party in despair, after a vain essay to gain from
the bride and bridegroom a sound by way of name,
which any known alphabet had the power of committing
to paper !" A story is told of an attorney's clerk who
was professionally employed to serve a process on one
of these oddly-named persons, whose real name was en
tered in the instrument with legal accuracy. The clerk,
after a great deal of inquiry as to the whereabouts of
the party, was about to abandon the search as hopeless,
when a young woman, who had witnessed his labours,
kindly volunteered to assist him.
" Oy say, Bully ed," cried she, to the first person they
met, "does thee know a mon neamed Adam Green?"
The bull-head was shaken in token of ignorance.
" Loy-a-bed, dost thee ?"
Lie-a-bed's opportunities of making acquaintance
had been rather limited, and she could not resolve the
difficulty. Stumpy (a man with a wooden leg), Cowskin, Spin-
dleshanks, Cockeye, and Pigtail were severally invoked,
but in vain ; and the querist fell into a brown study, in
which she remained for some time. At length, however,
her eyes suddenly brightened, and slapping one of her
companions on the shoulder, she exclaimed trium
phantly, "Dash my wig! whoy he means moyfeyther!"
and then turning to the gentleman, added, "Yo
should'n ax'd for Ode Blackbird!"
I could adduce similar instances, where persons
among the peasantry of my native county are much
better known by sobriquets than by their proper sur
names; and many only know them by the former.

HISTORY. 41
This is particularly the case where several families in
one locality bear the same name. There were lately
living in the small town of Folkestone, co. Kent, fifteen
persons, whose hereditary name was Hall; but who,
gratia distinctionis, bore the elegant designations of
Doggy-Hall, Ptjmble-Foot,
Feathertoe, Cold-Flip,
Bumper, Silver-Eye,
Bubbles, Lumpy,
Pierce-Eye, Sutty,
Faggots, Thick-Lips,
Cula, and
Jiggery, Old Hare.
It is not probable that advancing civilization will
ever materially interfere with our present system of
nomenclature, which admirably answers, in most cases,
the purposes for which it is designed.

CHAPTER V.
LOCAL SURNAMES.

" Nomina locorum et pradiorum, quae ii incolerent, aut quorum domini
erant." — Ducange.
" Souvent empruntes d'idiomes veillis, leur sens est aujourd'lmi perdu;
souvent tires des noms des lieux, leur signification est uniquement relative
a des localites." — Salverte.

HE practice of assuming second names
from the place of the person's birth or
residence is of very high antiquity : we
have examples in 'Herodotus of Hali-
carnassus' and 'Diodorus Siculus.' The
surname, Iscariot, borne by the betrayer of our Lord,
is supposed to have been derived from his patrimonial
estate. Mr. Kemble has shown, that this practice prevailed
to some extent among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, who
placed the preposition <set before the surname, as:
Godwine set Fecham.
Eadric set Ho.
^Elfgar set Meapaham.
Under the general head of local surnames are com
prised three classes : 1, Those which express the country
of the original assumer ; 2, Those which point to his
estate or place of abode; and, 3, Those that describe

LOCAL. 43
the nature or situation of his residence. Such names
as Scott and France belong to the first; Middeton
and Winchester to the second; and Hill and Forest
to the third.
It is generally supposed that the practice of bor
rowing family names from patrimonial estates became
usual about the close of the tenth century, or the com
mencement of the eleventh, particularly in Normandy
and the contiguous parts of France. Chiefly of this
kind are the names in that far-famed, though apocry
phal document, the <Bl'tnt 3&0ll Ot Battel gfofap,
a list of the principal commanders and companions in
arms of William the Conqueror, to which hereafter the
reader's attention will be directed. Under the feudal
system the great barons assumed as surnames the proper
names of their seignories, the knights who held under
them did the like, and these in turn were imitated by
all who possessed a landed estate, however small.
Camden remarks, that there is not a single village in
Normandy that has not surnamed some family in
England.* The French names introduced at the Con
quest may generally be known by the prefixes de, du,
des, de la, st. or sainct, and by the suffixes font, ers,
FANT, BEAU, AGE, MONT, ARD, AUX, BOIS, LY, EUX, ET,
VAL, COURT, VAUX, LAY, FORT, OT, CHAMP and VILLE ;
most of which are component parts of proper names of
places, as every one may convince himself by the slight
est glance at a map of northern France.
I shall here set down, from Camden, some of the
principal surnames imported into England from the
opposite side of the channel in the eleventh century,
* A thorough examination of the sources of those of our local surnames
which have been borrowed from towns and seignories in Normandy would
furnish materials for a very interesting essay.

44 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
which he classifies into those of Normandy, Bretagne,
France, and the Netherlands.
From Normandy. Mortimer, Warren, Albigny, Percy,
Gournay, Devereux, Tankerville, St.-Lo, Argenton,
Marmion, St.-Maure (corruptly Seymour), Bracy,
Maigny, Nevill, Ferrers, Harcourt, Baskerville, Mor-
tagne, Tracy, Beaufoy, Valoins (now Valance?), Cayly,
Lucy, Montfort, Bonville, Bouil, Avranche, &c.
From Bretagne. St. Aubin, Morley, Dinant (cor
rupted to Dinham), Dole, Balun, Conquest, Valletort,
Lascelles, Bluet, &c.
From other parts of France. Courtenaye, Corby,
Boleyn, Crevequer, St. Leger, Bohun, St. Andrew,
Chaworth, St. Quintin, Gorges, Villiers, Cromar, Paris,
Rheims, Cressy (now Creasy), Fynes, Beaumont,
Coignac, Lyons, Chalons, Chaloner, Estampes or Stamps,
and many more.
From the Netherlands. Louvaine, Gaunt (Ghent),
Ipres, Bruges (now Brydges), Malines, Odingsels,
Tournay, Douay, Buers (now Byers), Beke; and, in latter
ages, Daubridgcourt, Rosbert, Many, Grandison, &c.
Many persons who bear names of French origin
jump, without any evidence of the fact from historical
records, to the conclusion, that they must needs be de
scended from some stalwart Norman, who hacked his
way to eminence and fortune through the serried ranks
of the Saxons at Hastings. Such ambitious individuals
ought to be reminded that, in the eight centuries that
have elapsed since the Conquest, there have been nu
merous settlements of the French in this country; for
instance, Queen Isabella of France, the consort of
Edward II. introduced in her train many personages
bearing surnames previously unknown in England, as
Longchamp, Conyers, Devereux, D'Arcy, Henage,

LOCAL. 45
Savage, Molineux, and Danvers;* to say nothing of the
various settlements of merchants, mechanics, artists, and
refugees of all kinds, who have sought and found an
"island home" in Britain.
Although the practice of adopting hereditary sur
names from manors and localities originated in Nor
mandy, we are not therefore to conclude that all those
names that have de, &c. prefixed were of Norman
origin; for many families of Saxon lineage copied the
example of their conquerors in this particular. If the
Normans had their De Warrens, De Mortimers, and
D'Evereuxes, the English likewise had their De
Ashburnhams, De Fords, DeNewtons, &c. ad infinitum.
In some cases the Normans preferred the surname
derived from their antient patrimonies in Normandy ;
in others they substituted one taken from the estate
giyen them by the Conqueror and his successors. In a
few instances the particle de or d' is still retained; but,
generally speaking, it was dropped from surnames about
the time of Henry the Sixth, when the title armiger
or £Si(JUt£t" among the heads of families, auAgenerosus
or gttttpltnait among younger sons, began pretty
generally to be substituted. Thus, instead of John de
Alchorne, William de Catesby, &c. the landed gentry
wrote themselves, John Alchorne of Alchorne, Esq.,
William Catesby of Catesby, Gent. &c. Our quaint
old friend Verstegan thinks this change began to take
place " when English men and English manners began
to prevail unto the recovery of decayed credit ;"* or, in
other words, when the native English began to breathe
from the tyranny of their Norman conquerors. This
may be true of the former, but it cannot apply to the
* Anglorum Speculum, 1684, p. 26. f Restitution, p. 311.

46 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
latter. Brevity appears to have been the real motive
for the omission of the de, and other particles pre
viously used with surnames. Had euphony been
regarded, it would never have occurred with the French
particles ; for, however much better Hall and Towers
may sound than Atte Halle and Atte Tower, it cannot
be denied that De la Chambre and Le Despenser are
shorn of all their beauty when curtailed to Chambers
and Spencer. But to return ; to bear the denomi
nation of one's own estate — to write himself ' of that
Ilk' — was antiently, as it is still, considered a peculiar
honour and a genuine mark of gentility: but sic transit
gloria mundi, that I could name instances of persons
having become absolutely pauperised on the very spot
from which their ancestors had been surnamed.*
From these observations, however, it must not be in
ferred that all families bearing local surnames were
originally possessors of the localities from which those
names were borrowed. In all probability a great num
ber of such names were never used with the de at all.
In Germany and Poland they discriminate in this re
spect by using the word in, when possessors of the
place, and of, when only born or dwelling there. The
like, Camden tells us, was formerly done in Scotland,
"where you shall have Trotter o/Folsham, and Trotter
in Fogo; Haitley of Haitley, and Haitley in Haitley.
The foregoing remark is satisfactorily borne out by such
names as these, occurring at an early period in the
neighbourhood of Hull : Ralph le Taverner de Notting-
* A correspondent remarking upon this passage says, " At Allsop, co.
Derby, there are numerous AUsops of every grade in society, and at
Tissington the same remark applies." I may add, that at Heathfield and
Lindfield, co. Sussex, there have been peasants of those names re
spectively.

LOCAL. 4,7
ham de Kyngeston super Hull; Robert de Dripol de
Kyngeston, &c*
Salverte justly remarks, that " the peasant who re
moved from his native place was often sufficiently
distinguished by the name of that place as a surname
among the inhabitants of the town or village in which
he took up his abode, and the designation passing to his
children became hereditary. Hence, without having
aspired to such an honour, the poor plebeian found him
self assimilated to the lord of his native hamlet."
Generally speaking, the practice of adopting surnames
from territorial possessions ceased at the period when
that of making family appellatives stationary was intro
duced. John de Wilton might acquire an estate at
Barham and fix his residence there, but he would not
write himself John de Barham, but John de Wilton of
Barham. In the county of Cornwall, however, and
perhaps in other districts, even so lately as the sixteenth
century, gentlemen often left their antient surnames on
the purchase or inheritance of a new estate. Thus a
member of the family of Lothon, buying the lands of
Busvargus, near the Land's End, about the year 1560,
relinquished his ancestral denomination, and wrote him
self Busvargus. In Scotland the practice is but recently
extinct. There are several antient baronial surnames to which
our old genealogists assigned a false origin. Some of
these may be called Crusading names, from the suppo
sition that they were derived from places visited by the
founders of the families during the holy wars. Mortimer
was, according to these etymologists, de Mortuo Mari,
" from the Dead Sea," and Dacre, D'Acre, a town on
the coast of Palestine; but it is well known that the
* Frost's History of Hull.

48 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
places from which these two are derived are situated,
the one in Normandy, the other in Cumberland.
Jordan is reputed to have been borrowed from the famous
river of that name in Palestine ; and Mountjoy is said
to have been adopted from a place near Jerusalem,
which, according to that worthy old traveller, Sir John
Maundevile, " men clepen Mount- Joye, for it zevethe
joy to pilgrymes hertes, be cause that there men seen
first Jerusalem .... a full fair place and a delicyous."*
There is a vulgar error, that places borrowed their
designations from families instead of the contrary. On
this subject Camden says, — "Whereas therefore these
locall denominations of families are of no great anti-
quitie, I cannot yet see why men should thinke that
their ancestors gave names to places, when the places
bare those very names before any men did their sur
names. Yea, the very terminations of the names are
such as are only proper and applicable to places, and
not to persons in their significations, if any will marke
the locall terminations which I lately specified. Who
would suppose Hill, Wood, Field, Ford, Ditch, Poole,
Pond, Town or Tun, and such like terminations, to be
convenient for men to beare their names, vnlesse they
could also dreame Hills, Woods, Fields, Ponds, &c. to
have been metamorphosed into men by some super-
naturall transformation ?
"And I doubt not but they will confesse that townes
stand longer than families.
* Some religious houses in England had their mountjoys, a name given
to eminences where the first view of the sacred edifice was to be obtained.
This name is still retained in a division of the hundred of Battel, not far
from the remains of the majestic pile reared by William the Conqueror.
Boyer defines 'Mont-joie' as " a heap of stones made by a French army as
a monument of victory."

LOCAL. 49
" It may also be prooued that many places which now
haue Lords denominated of them had .... owners of
other surnames and families not many hundred yeeres
since. " I know neverthelesse, that albeit most townes haue
borrowed their names from their situation and other
respects, yet some with apt terminations, have their
names from men, as Edwardston, Alfredstone, Ubsford,
Malmesbury (corruptly for Maidulphsbury) . But these
were from forenames or Christian names, and not from
surnames. For Ingulphus plainly sheweth that
Wiburton and Leffrington were so named, because two
knights, Wiburt and Leofric, there sometime inha
bited. But if any one should affirme that the gentle
men named Leffrington, Wiburton, Lancaster, Leicester,
Bossevill, or Shor ditch, gave the names to the places so
named, I would humbly, without prejudice, craue respite
for a further day before I beleeued them  "*
This error possibly originated either in the flattering
tales of the genealogists, f or from the fact of surnames
having been occasionally appended to the proper names
of towns and manors, for the sake of distinction ; or, as
Camden says, "to notifie the owner," as Hurst-Per-
point, and Hurst-Monceux ; Tarring-Neville, and
Tarring-Peverell ; Rotherfield- Greys, and Rotherfield-
Pypard. It is true that a vulgar ostentation has often
induced the proprietors of mansions to give their own
names to them, as Hammond' s-Place, Latimer's, Camois-
* Camd. Rem. p. 108.
t Among other instances of this kind, I recollect that, in the pedigree
of Roberts, antiently called Rookhurst, (Hayley's Sussex MSS. Brit. Mus.)
compiled in the reign of Elizabeth, it is asserted that a gentleman of Scot
land, named Rookhurst, settling in Kent, in the eleventh century, gave that
name to the manor so designated !
I. 3

50 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Court, Mark's-Hall, Theobald's, &c. &c. " when as now
they have possessors of other names ; and the old verse
is, and alwayes will be, verified of them, which a right
worshipfuU friend of mine not long since writ upon
his new house :
jgunc mca, mox hujug, detf po^tea m&tio nijus."
While on this subject I would remind the reader,
that the practice of borrowing the designations of
places from personal names has prevailed in various ages
and countries : history, both sacred and profane, fur
nishes us with innumerable instances. Canaan, Nineveh,
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, are
familiar ones. " Romulus excipiet gentem, et Mavortia condet
Mcenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet." Mn. i, 276-7.
" jEneadasque meo nomen de nomine fingo." lb. iii, 18.
Among the Anglo-Saxons it was pretty usual up to
the period of the Norman Conquest to denominate places
from their proprietors' personal names, and it is by no
means improbable that in some instances the locality
gave back to the posterity of an individual, as a sur
name, the very designation which it had originally
assumed from his baptismal appellation. I am not pre
pared to support this remark by any better instance than
the following, the doubtfulness of which I am willing to
admit. The Featherstonhaughs of Northumberland are
said to be descended from a Saxon chieftain named
Frithestan, who denominated his estate Frithestanhaugh
or the hill of Frithestan; and his descendants, continuing
in possession until the Norman period, are alleged to
have adopted from it the hereditary surname of Be
Featherstonhaugh.

LOCAL. 51
The following interesting extract from Mr. Wright's
History of Ludlow needs no apology :
" Many of the names of places, of which the mean
ing seems most difficult to explain, are compounded of
those of Anglo-Saxon possessors or cultivators ; and the
original forms of such words are readily discovered by
a reference to Domesday book. Thus, on the Here
fordshire side of Ludlow we have Elmodes-treow or the
tree of Elmod (now Aymestry) ; Widferdestune, or the
enclosure of Widferd (Woofferton); Willaves-lage, or
the lee (saltus) of Willaf (probably Willey) ; Edwardes-
tune, or the enclosure of Edward (Adferton) ; Elnodes-
tune, or the enclosure of Elnod (Elton) ; Bernoldune, or
the hill of Bernold. In Shropshire there are Chinbaldes-
cote, or the cot of Chinbald, a place mentioned as de
pendent upon Bromfield; iElmundes-tune, or the
enclosure of Elmund; Elmund-wic, or the dwelling of
Elmund; Alnodes-treow, or the tree of Elnod, &c.
Names of places having ing in the middle are generally
formed from patronymics, which in Anglo-Saxon had
this termination. Thus a son of Alfred was an
iElfreding; his descendants in general were iElfredingas
or Alfredings. These patronymics are generally com
pounded with ham, tun, &c, and whenever we can find
the name of a place in pure Saxon documents, we have
the patronymic in the genitive case plural. Thus
Birmingham was Beorm-inga-ham, the home or residence
of the sons or descendants of Beorm. There are not
many names of this form in the neighbourhood of
Ludlow; Berrington (Beoringatun) was perhaps the
enclosure of the sons or family of Beor, and Culmington
that of the family of Culm."
But enough of these preliminary observations. It is
now time to classify the local surnames into their

52 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
various kinds. Following the order just now laid down,
let us first speak of patrial names — those derived from
the country of the original bearers.* They are more
numerous than might be expected ; and they usually
occur in antient records with the prefix Le.
Alman, from Almany (Germany.)
Angevin, from Anjou. Camden.
Beamish (Bohmisch) from Bohemia. This is the
traditional origin of the name, but there is a township
so . called in the county of Durham.
Braban, from Brabant. Vide Hanway, infra.
Bret, Breton, Britton, from Bretagne.
Burgoyne, from Burgundy.
Cornish, Cornwallis, from Cornwall.
Champagne 1 „ „,
„ ^from Champagne.
Champneys J r n
D'Almaine (D'AUemagne), from Germany; also
Dalman. Dane, Denis, Dench, from Denmark.
Estarling, awkwardly corrupted to Stradling, from
' the East,' probably Greece.
English, England. It is difficult to account for
these. Inglis is the Scottish orthography.
French, France. (Le) Franceys (unde Francis.)
Goth and Gaul occur among the freeholders of
Yorkshire. These, if not corruptions of other words,
were probably sobriquets.
Flanders, Fleming, from Flanders.
Gael or Gale, a Scot.
Germaine, from Germany.
Gascovne, from Gascony ; also Gaskoin, and Gaskin.
* These are not of the same kind as the agnomina, Africanus, Ger-
manicus, &c, of the antients, which were conferred upon generals for great
exploits against hostile nations. Vide p. 9.

LOCAL. 53
Hanway, Hainault was so denominated in the time
of Henry the Eighth. In Andrew Borde's 'Boke of
the Introduction of Knowledge,' we are informed that
the "money, maners and fashyons" of the inhabitants of
Holland "is lyke Flaunders, Hanway, andBraban, which
be commodious and plentyful contreys."
Holland, Douche ; the latter is the antient form
of 'Dutch.'
Janeway, a Genoese.
"There was one amonge the Janwayes that the
Frenche kyng hyred to make warre agaynst the Eng-
lysshe men, whiche bare an oxe heed peynted in his
shelde : the which shelde a noble man of France chal
lenged : and so longe they stroue, that they must nedes
fyght for it. So at a day and place appointed, the
frenche gallaunt came into the felde, rychely armed at
all peces. The Janwaye, all vnarmed, came also in to
the felde, and said to the frenche man, wherefore shall
we this day fight? Mary, said the frenche man, I wyll
make good with my body, that these armes were myne
auncetours before thyne. What were your auncetours
armes ? quod the Janwaye. An oxe heed, sayd the
frenche man. Than sayde the Janwaye, here nedeth no
batayle: For this that I beare is a cowes heed !" {From
' Tales, and quicke Answeres, very mery, and pleasant
to rede,' written about temp. Henry VIII.)
Ireland, Irish.
Jew. There is a bookseller at Gloucester bearing
this name.
Lombard, Lambarde, from Lombardy.
Mayne, from the French province.
Man, from the Island.
Moore, Morris. The former may be, and probably
is derived from the topographical expression, as it occurs

54 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
in the form of Atmoor, Amoore, &c. q. d. at the Moor.
With respect to the latter name I may observe that it
is variously spelt Morys, Moris, Morris, Morice, Morrice,
Mawrice, &c, and compounded with various initial
expressions, De, Mont, Fitz, Clan, &c. Some of the
families bearing this name are of Welsh extraction,
Mawrrwyce, being the Welsh form of Mavors (Mars),
the god of war, antiently given to valorous chieftains of
that country. One of the Welsh family mottoes has
reference to this etymology, "Marte et mari faventi-
bus." The other Morrices are supposed to be of Moorish
blood ; their progenitors having come over from Africa,
by way of Spain, into various countries of western
Europe at an early period. It is a well-known fact that
the particular species of saltation, called the morrice-
dance, and several branches of magic lore, were intro
duced into these regions many centuries since by natives
of Morocco. The professors of those arts, enriching
themselves by their trade, seem in some instances to
have embraced Christianity, and to have become founders
of eminent families; certain it is that several magnates
bearing the names of Morice, Fitz-Morice and Mont-
morice, attended William the Conqueror in his descent
upon England, and, acquiring lands, settled in this
country. The name Montmorris is said to signify "from
the Moorish mountains."*
Norman, from Normandy. Also a christian name.
Picard, from Picardy, a province of France.
Poitevin, from Poitou. Camd. I have not seen
this name elsewhere ; Poitlevin however occurs.
Poland!
Polack J
Romayne, from Rome.
* Vide Burke's Commoners, vol. iv.

LOCAL. 55
Rhodes, from the island in the Mediterranean.
Scott, from Scotland.*
Saxon.Spain.
Wales, Walsh, Wallis, from Wales.
Westphaling, from Westphalia, in Germany ; also
Westphal. Wight, from the island of that name.
To these may be added Payne/)" (latinized Paganus,)
probably given to some Paynim or Mussulman, who em
braced the Christian faith during the Crusades ; and
Gipsey, bestowed on some person who had left the
mysterious nomadic tribe, so well known, and become
naturalized as an Englishman. Be this as it may, it is
now borne by a very respectable family, who take rank
as gentry, and reside, if my recollection serves me,
somewhere in Kent.
From names of Counties in the British dominions
we derive the following family names : Cheshire, Kent,
Essex, % Surrey, Cornwall, Devonshire, Devon, Darbishire,
* " Le celebre Walter Scott porte le nom de la tribu Scott, dont le due
de Buccleugh est le chef ; et ce qu'il y a de curieux, e'est que ce due cherche
son nom en Normandie et pretend que le nom primitif etait I'Bscot !" —
De Gereille.
t Persons who wilfully remained unbaptized were antiently called
Pagani. (Vide Fosbroke's Encyc. of Antiq.) Paganus is also a personal
name. % There is now living in the weald of Kent a person called Essex, from
the circumstance of his father having migrated from that county. The
cause of this change of the family appellation was the oddity of the original
name, which the honest ' Wealdishers' found some difficulty in pronouncing.
The surname Wildish (cognate with Cornish, Londonish, &c.) was probably
given to its first bearer, not from any particular wildness of demeanour, but
because he came from the wild or weald of Sussex. The peasants who go
to the South-Down farms to assist in the labours of harvest, are still called
by their hill-country brethren, ' Wildish men.'

56 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Hampshire, Durham, Norfolk, Rutland, Wiltshire,
Dorset, Somerset, Cumberland, Renfrew, Westmoreland,
Denby, Montgomery (?), Clare (?), Down (?), Ross (?), &c.
Also Kentish, Devenish, and Cornish, with which last I
may add Londonish and Londonoys. The singular name
Bishopirick was probably given to a native of the county
of Durham. The second class of local surnames consists of those
derived from cities and towns; as London, Yorke,
Winchester, Chichester, Rochester, Oxford, Bristowe
(Bristol), Warwick, Buckingham, Bedford, Carlisle, Lan
caster, Hertford, Lincoln, Lester, Coventry, Portsmouth,
Lewes, Hastings, Arundel, Rye, Blackburn, Hampton,
Huntingdon, Grantham, Rugby, Halifax, Grimsby, Bath,
Wells, Poole, Dartmouth, Hull, Kingston, Winchelsea*
and others far too numerous to mention. The town of
Devizes is often called ' The Vise .•' hence, in all proba
bility, we have the name of Vyse.
Thousands of English surnames are derived from
villages and obscure towns. The following are selected
from the county of Sussex alone, and the number might
be greatly increased. Most of them are still borne by
families in various conditions in life residing in the
county. Alfriston, Arlington, Ashburnham.
Brede, Battle, Bexle,t Balcombe, Barwicke, Barnham,
Bolney, Beckley, Buxted, Burwash.
Compton, Coombs, Chailey, Crowhurst, Clayton.
Denton, Deane, Dicker, Ditchling, Dallington.
* The names of Brighton, Devonport, and other very modern towns,
which occasionally occur, (in police reports, &c.) must be of recent
assumption, and are probably adopted by dehnquents for the purpose of
concealment. t Hodie Bexhill.

LOCAL. 57
Eckington, Ernley, Echingham.
Firle, Folkington.
Glynde, Goring, Grinstead, Guestling.
Hailsham, Heathfield, Hartfield* Hurst, Hel-
lingly, Hoo.
Iden, Icklesham, Ifield, Itchingfield, Jevington.
Kingston.
Lindfield, Lulham.
Mayfield, Madehurst, Mailing, Meeching.
Nutley, Nytimber.
Ore, Oxenbridge.
Preston, Patching, Penhurst, Poynings, Pevensey,
Patcham, Preston.
Radmell.Stanmer, Sedlescombe, Sutton, Stedham, Shoreham,
Seaford. Ticehurst, Trotton.
Vinehall.
Waldron, Wistonneston, Washington, Watlington,
Wadhurst, Willingdon.
Numerous as are the surnames derived from villages,
those borrowed from manors, farms, and single houses,
are very much more so. Old records prove that five,
eight, or ten, local surnames, have originated in a single
parish of considerable extent, and a county of average
dimensions yields hundreds of such names. It follows
therefore that the local surnames of English origin must
be many thousands in number.
To collect a complete list of local names would
require the labour and research of years. Well may
M. de Gerville remark on this subject, " ce chapitre est
immense !" The best sources for such a collection would
be the indexes of places usually inserted in our larger
county histories and other topographical works. A
3§

58 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
careful examination of the ordnance surveys, and other
similar documents, would convince the inquirer that
thousands of family names of uncouth sound and ortho
graphy, and whose origin seemed to baffle his ingenuity,
are in reality derived from obscure hamlets and insig
nificant landed properties ; but more on this subject in
a future chapter.
As we retain most of the names of places imposed
by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, with their significant
terminations, it is no wonder that —
" fa dForB, in lam, m £tg antt Eon
Cht most of lingu'si) £umanu* run."
I am not quite sure, however, whether the proverb
is sufficiently comprehensive, and I would therefore
take the liberty of adding :
Ing, Hurst and Wood, Wick, Sted and Field,
Full many English surnames yield.
These ten may perhaps be regarded as the principal
terminations, but there are several others only second
to them in frequency :
With Thorpe and Bourne, Cote, Caster, Oke,
Combe, Bury, Don and Stowe, and Stoke ;
With Ey and Port, Shaw, Worth, and Wade,
Hill, Gate, Well, Stone are many made ;
Cliff, Marsh, and Mouth, and Down, and Sand,
And Beck and Sea with numbers stand.
Most of these also occur as distinct surnames.
Identity of surname is not always proof of the
consanguinity of the persons bearing it; for in some
instances two families have derived their surname from
one place, in other cases from two different places
bearing the same designation. As nearly every county

LOCAL. 59
has its Norton, its Newton* its Stoke, or its Sutton,
there may be nearly as many distinct families of those
names as there are counties. Much less are such
names as Attwood, Waters, Wells, Banks, &c. peculiar
to one family.
" Rivers," says Camden, " have imposed names to
some men, as the old Baron Sur-Teys (hodie Surtees),
that is, upon the Tees . . . Derwentwater, Eden,
Troutbeck, Hartgill, Esgill, Wampull, Swale, Stour,
Temes (and Tamys), Trent, Tamar, Grant, Tyne, Croc,
Lone, Lund, Calder." To these I add Severn, Parret,
Dee, Kennett,f Loddon, Yarrow, Mole, Lea, Cam, Dart,
Dore, Welland, Sour, Don, Shannon, Ure, Wear, Yare.
I think Pickersgill belongs to this class, as it signifies
" a stream inhabited by pike or pickerell."

Hitherto I have treated of surnames derived from
the proper names of places : let us now turn to those
of the third class, namely those which describe the
nature or situation of the original bearer's residence,
such as Hill, Dale, Wood.
After the practice of adopting the name of one's
own estate had become pretty general amongst the
landed families, men of the middle and lower classes,
(' Ungf ntpIttWtt,* as the Boke of St. Alban's has it,)
imitating their superiors, borrowed their family names
* It is remarkable that many of the most antique places in the kingdom
bear this name, which signifies New-town. This definition reminds me of
an epitaph in a churchyard in the north of England :
" Here lies (alas !) and more's the pity,
All that remains of John New-city.''
To which the following somewhat important nota bene is attached :
" 03* The man's name was New-Town, which would not rhyme."
f If not from the Scottish personal name Keneth.

60 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
from the situation of their residences; thus, if one
dwelt upon a hill, he would style himself Atte Hull;-
if on a moor, Attmore, or Amore; if under a hill,
Underdown ; if near some tower or gate, Atte Tower
or Agate ; if by some lake or shore, Bywater or
Bythesea ;* if near the public road, Bytheway, &c.
The prefix principally made use of was atte, which
was varied to atten when the name began with a
vowel. " An instance of this kind occurs in the sur
name of that celebrated personage in legal matters, Mr.
John a-Noke, whose original appellation was John Atten
Oak, as that of his constant antagonist was John Atte
Style. That the letter n is apt to pass from the end
of one word to the beginning of. another, is shown in
newt, which has certainly been formed by a corruption
from an ewt or eft."f Noke is now seldom met with,
but its corruption Noakes is one of the most common
of surnames. The phrase, " Jack Noakes and Tom
Styles," is familiarly employed to designate the rabble,
and it is not, as to the former name at least, a thing
of yesterday, for Skelton, who wrote in the early part
of the sixteenth century, in his ' Colin Clout,' a satire
on the bishops of his time, says :
" Their mules gold do eat,
Their neighbours die for meat ;
What care they though Gill sweat
Or Jack of the Noke ?"
* One family of Bythesea, who have been gentry for upwards of three
centuries, have a tradition that the founder of their house was a foundling,
and that the name was given him (in reference to the situation where he
was discovered) by a gentleman who bequeathed to him the whole of his
estate. Names and dates, those useful verifiers of tradition, are wanting,
I fear, in this case. The Dutch have their De Meer, and the Spaniards
their Delmar, both signifying ' Of the sea.'
t Glossary to Chaucer's Poems, edit. 1825.

LOCAL. 61
The singularly inelegant name of Boaks appears to
be a contraction of ' By the Oaks,' and Haynoke is
doubtless ' a' Noke.' Nash is, in like manner, a
corruption of Atten-Ash* and Nye of Atten-Eye, at
the island.
In the course of a few generations the prefixes atte,
&c, were softened to a, and with the latter some few
names have descended to our own times, as Agate,
Amoore, Acourt, &c. Generally speaking, however,
the a was dropped towards the end of the sixteenth or
the beginning of the seventeenth century. Camden
supposes the a to be a softening of or, as Adam
a'Kerby for Adam of Kirby. I think it may be deduced
from four different sources :
1. From At, as above — John a'Gate.
2. From Of, as in the case of Adam a'Kerby.
3. From the Latin preposition a, signifying from,
as ' Thomas a' Dover,' equivalent to ' Thomas who
came from Dover.'
4. From the same preposition in a genealogical
sense, as ' Peter a' James,' for Peter the son of, or
one descended from, James.
As a proof of the great frequency of names with
the prefix at and its variations, the following are cited
from the records of the county of Northampton alone,
and the number might be greatly increased :
Athill. Atmere. Atmore.
Atbrigge. Attechurch. Attediche.
Atte Holle. Atte Hawe. Atte Hall.
Atte-Kirk. Atte Mylle. Atte Mylne.
Atte-wall. Attewelle. Attewind.
Attegate. Attercliffe. Atwyk.f
• Ade. atte Nasche, 1296.
f From Bridges' Northamptonshire.

62 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
'By' and 'under' were sometimes used as prefixes,
e. g. : Bygrove. Bythesea. Bywater.
Byfield. Byford. Bygate.
Underbill. Underdown. Underwood.
Undercliff.

Since this kind of designations forms no inconsider
able portion of the family nomenclature of Englishmen,
I must beg my indulgent reader to don his hat and
gloves, and accompany me to inspect the places and
objects from which our simple ancestors delighted to
denominate themselves, and which, for the purpose of
getting a better view, I shall digest into an alphabetical
list, after the example, and with the aid of, my great
predecessor in these matters, Master William Camden;*
making, in the course of the perambulation, such ex
planatory observations as may be deemed necessary ;
and relating such anecdotes as may seem meet to en
liven a part of my subject which all but antiquaries
and philologists will perchance consider excessively
dull. A.
Abbey. This name was probably conferred upon some
menial attached to a monastery.
Alehouse.
Applegarth. An orchard. Applegate, Appleyard.
Armitage. A hermitage.
Ash. See Tree.
* Camden's list contains 253 names. Verstegan has likewise a similar
list. I have derived much assistance from Halliwell's ' Archaic and Pro
vincial Dictionary,' and most of the illustrations from MS. sources are bor
rowed from that work.

LOCAL.

03

Back. In some places a ferry; at Bristol, a wharf;
in Cheshire it is synonymous with ' Beck,' q. v.
Baine (Fr.) A bath.* Hence Baynes.
Barrack.Bank, Banks.
Barn, Barnes.
Barrow (A.-S.Bearw.) A barrow; a high or hilly place;
a wood or grove ; a hill covered with wood.
Barton. A curtilage. In Devonshire it is applied to
any freehold estate not possessed of manorial privileges.
Beacon, Becon. A beacon is
any contrivance by which in
formation may be conveyed
either by sea or land, generally
by means of fire. At the pe
riod when family names were
first generally adopted, it was
a kind of fire-cage attached to
a high pole, and was employed
either for the purposes of the
modern lighthouse orforalarm-
ing the country in case of in
vasion by the enemy. In woody
districts the beacon consisted of a huge pile of brush
wood or furze which was set fire to in such an emergency.
Nearly every spot of unusual height in the county of
Sussex is called a beacon, and was until a comparatively
recent date crowned with its stack of fuel.
* There is a remarkable coincidence as to the name of Banwell in
Somersetshire, where a great deposit of fossil bones has been discovered,
and from which the place might be supposed to be denominated — ban
being the A.-S. for bone; but Collinson mentions a much esteemed sul
phureous spring there, which doubtless, as a former bain or bath, originated
the name.

64 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Beck (A.-S. Becc.) A brook; and
Beckett. A little brook.*
Bellchambers. Probably a church tower.
Bent. A plain ; a common ; a field ; a moor ; so
called from those places being frequently covered with
the bent-grass. Willan says bents are " high pastures
or shelving commons." " The term," says Halliwell,
"is very common in early English poetry:
' Appone a bent without the borghe
With scharpe arowes 3e schote hym thurge.'
MS. Lincoln, A. i. 17."
Bearne. A wood.
Biggin. A building ; hence Newbiggin is ' a new
building.' Borde. A cottage. In Domesday, 'bordarii' are
cottagers. Boys (A.-N.) A wood ; bois.
" And bad them go betyme
To the boys Seynt Martyne." MS. Cantab., f.ii. 38.
Borstall. Much discussion has been wasted on this
word. In Sussex (where alone I have met with it as
a surname), it signifies a winding road up a hill, and
only occurs on the northern escarpment of the South
Downs. ' Robert atte Borstall.' Sussex Subsidy Roll,
1296. Bourne. 1. A boundary or limit (Fr. Borne). "The
undiscovered country — from whose bourne no traveller
returns." 2. A stream (A.-S. Burne). Such names
as Seaborn, Winterborn, and Newborn seem rather to
have been derived from this local source than from the
original bearers having been born at sea, in winter, &c.
* Parker, in his ' Glossary of Heraldry,' mentions a bird of this name,
and states, without however naming his authority, that Thomas a' Becket
bore three of them in his arms.

LOCAL. 65
Boroughs, Burg, Burke, Borrow, Burrows, are sy
nonymous. Bottle (A.-S. Both) A seat or chief mansion-house ;
more usually a village. The German battel, in Wolf-
enbiittel and many other names has the same significa
tion. It also occurs simply, and in composition, in
many names of places in England, as Bootle, Newbottle,
Harbottle, &c. A sailor who had served on board of
a man-of-war called the Unity, and bore this surname,
gave one of his sons the name of ' Unity Bottle.'
The baptismal rite was performed at a village church .
in Sussex, and the minister hesitated some time before
he would confer so truly ridiculous a name. Booth,
in Cheshire, has the same meaning.
Bottom (A.-S. Botm.) In Sussex the words dale,
vale, and valley are rarely used; Bottom is the substi
tute. In some cases hills, or rather their summits, are
called 'Tops;' e. g. Norton Top; Houndene Bottom.
The term under consideration signifies any low ground
or valley ; hence Longbottom, Sidebottom, Winterbottom,
Rowbottom, Rosebottom, Shoebotham, Tarbottam, and
that elegant surname Shuffiebottom, which, when under
stood to signify ' shaw-field-bottom,' has nothing ridi
culous in it.
"Ramsbottom," observes an intelligent correspondent,
"is the name of a township in the parish of Bury,
Lancashire. In the same locality is a place called
' Ramsden.' These places are vulgarly pronounced
RoMsbottom and RoMsden : their signification is, the
Valley of Roms. Roms or Rhoms are the wild onions
which abound in these two places, and nowhere else in
the neighbourhood. In many parts of the North,"
he continues, " this word is compounded with names of
trees, as Oakenbottom,Ashenbottom,Owler (that is Alder-)

66 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
bottom. In Lancashire hickin is the mountain ash,
whence perhaps Higginbottom."* In another chapter,
however, I have assigned a German etymology for this
name. Bower. Bridge (Briggs, Bridges, Attibridge).
Brunne, v. Bourne. In some instances perhaps from
' brun,' Fr. and O. E. for brown.
Brough, Burgh, v. Borough.
Bree (Celtic Bre or Brae), a declivity.
Brook, Abrook ; Addenbrookc = Atten-brooke.
Bury, a hill, a barrow; a court, a house or castle. In
Herefordshire and some other counties the chief house
of a manor is still called a bury.
Burne, a brook ; a northern pronunciation of Bourne,
whence Burns, Aburne, &c.
By (Danish), a habitation ; hence the strange-look
ing surnames terminating in bee, as Ashbee, Holmbee,
Battersbee. Burtenshaw was antiently written ' Byrchenshaw/
that is, the little wood or thicket of birch-trees.
Bush. Although it may seem exceedingly trivial
that so insignificant an object should name one of the
lords of the creation, there is little doubt of the fact.
There was lately living in Scotland a peasant who, with
his children, was called Funns, because his cot was
surrounded by furze, called, in some parts of the country,
by that name. This sobriquet had so completely
* ' Whitford and Mitford ply your pumps ;
You Clutterbuck, come, stir your stumps ;
Why are you in such doleful dumps ?
A fireman — and afraid of bumps !
What are they feared on ? fools— od rot 'em !'
Were the last words of Higginbottom. Rejected Addresses.

LOCAL. 67
usurped the place of his hereditary surname that his
neighbours called him by no other name.*
Butts, marks for archery. In the days when
 lEnglantl was but a fling
J&abe for the 'Cfoofect) ^ttcfe' anil tht ' ©rq)*@ooSe OTtng,'
most parishes had a place set apart for this necessary
sport, and the place is still indicated in many parishes
by the name of " the Butts." A person resident near
such a spot would very naturally assume the name of
" John at the Butts." C.
Camp. Camps, an earthwork.
Carr (Caer, Brit.), frequently applied to elevations
where castles have stood. "A wood or grove on a
moist soil, generally of alders. A remarkable floating
island nearly covered with willows, and called the Car,
is mentioned in the Diversions of Purley, p. 443.
Any hollow place or marsh is also termed a car"
(HaLliwell.) A pool (Bailey.) In Lincolnshire it means
a gutter ; in Yorkshire, moist, boggy land. The word
in Anglo-Saxon, on the contrary, signifies a rock.
Came (cairn), a Druidical heap of stones. A plough-
land. (Halliwell.)
Cave. A good name for a person residing in, or
near the mouth of a cavern. This name probably
originated in Derbyshire or some other mountain region.
Castell, Castle. Chatto seems to be a corruption of
the French chateau.
Chantrey. In many instances the lands formerly
* Vide an early Number of the Saturday Magazine. I may remark, how
ever, that Bush was formerly the common denotement, and sometimes the
sign, of an inn. Vide Chapter XI.

68 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
given by persons to support a chantry for their souls'
health in parish or other churches still bear such de
signations, as Chantry Land, Chantry Farm, &c.
Chapel. Chappie.
Church. Churchyard. Channel. The Italians have a noble family of Canali,
a name of the same import. A feud once happened
between this family and that of Da Ponte (Bridge) on
the subject of precedence. "The bridges," said the
latter, " are higher than the canals !'' " The canals,"
retorted the former, "are more antient than the bridges!"
The quarrel grew to so great a height, and was of such
long continuance, that the Venetian senate was com
pelled to interpose its authority; and hence it was
said, that that august body had 'broken down the
Bridges and filled up the Canals !'*
Chase, a forest or hunting-ground. The distinction
between a chase and a forest seems to be this: the
former generally belongs to a subject — the latter to
the crown.
Clive, (A.-S.), a cliff. Cleave, Cleve, are other or
thographies of the same word.
Clough, a ravine, or narrow glen, a deep descent
between hills ; sometimes a cliff. 'Clym of the Clough,'
a Cumberland ballad.
Clow (whence Clowes). In A.-S. a rock.
" Sende him to seche in clif and clow.'' (Halliwell.)
In the North it means a floodgate.
Close, an enclosure.
Cobb, a harbour, as the Cobb of Lyme Regis, co.
Dorset. * Salverte.

LOCAL. 69
Copp or Cap, a mound or bank, the summit of a hill.
Combe, a valley (A.-S.)
Corner.
Cot {Cote, Cotes), a cottage (A.-S. Cote); a den; a
salt-pit. Court, the principal house of a village, (Halliwell ;)
more properly a manor-house.
Cove, a cavern ; a harbour for boats.
Covert. " The coverts of a forest technically signify
thickets full of trees touching each other, those places
wherein they are scattered and stand apart being only
termed woods." — Thomson's Magna Charta, 340.
Cowdray (Fr. Coudraie), a grove of hazel trees.
Cotterel, in Domesday, is a cottage; but in the
Promptorium Parvulorum the inhabitant of one — a
cottager. Cragg, Craig, a rock or precipice (Celtic) ; perhaps
also a creek from the A.-S. Crecca.
Croft, a small enclosed field (A.-S.) Craft is a
Northern pronunciation.
Cross, given to one who dwelt by a market-cross or
near cross-roads.
Crouch, a cross (from the Latin crux). That all
cross-roads formerly had a cross of wood or stone
erected near the intersection, is pretty clear from the
names still retained, as John's Cross, Mark-Cross,
Stone-Cross, High-Cross, Hand-Cross, New-Cross,
Wych-Cross (perhaps so named in honour of St.
Richard de la Wych, bishop of Chichester). All these,
and many others, occur in Sussex.* At Seaford such
* These crosses served also for direction-posts. Probably this was their
primary use, the religious idea being an after-thought. The annexed cut
is borrowed from one in Barclay's " Ship of Fooles." (Vide Fosbroke's
Encyc.)

70

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

a spot bears the name of ' the Crouch.' We find also
High Crouch, Katty's* Crouch, Fair Crouch, Crow
Crouch, &c. Sec Crouched or Crutched Friars were
an order of religious who wore a cross upon their
robes. The name crutch applied to the supports used
by cripples is evidently from the same root. A person
dwelling near some wayside cross would feel proud of
such an appellative as John atte Crouch, a form in
which the name frequently occurs.

* Saint Katherine's.

LOCAL. 71

Dale, Dean, Dell. Nearly synonymous. " Some
times," as a friend observes, " dean means a bushy
dingle or vale ; but, occasionally, something much
greater, as Dean Forest, and Axden, co. Warwick."
The Sussex family of Atte Denne inverted the syllables
of their name, and made it Dennat or Dennett.*
Derne, a solitary place (A.-S. Dierna).
Ditch. Dyke. In the South and East this word signifies a
ditch; elsewhere an elevated ridge of earth serving as
a barrier against water.
Donne, Don, Dun (A.-S.), a down.
E.
Ey, Eye, a watery place; an island (A.-S. Ig).
Eruth, Rith, a ford, " John i' the Eruth," Nona ;=
John Ford.
East, West, North, South.

Farme.
Fell, Fells, barren, stony hills. Mr. Halliwell says,
a hill, moor, valley, or pasture ; any unenclosed space
without many trees (v. ' Frith') .
Moyses wente up on that fell
Fourty dayes there gon dwelle. Cursor Mundi.
Fenn. The old family of Atte Fenne of Sussex
dropped the prefix, added an r, and became Fenner or
Fenour. Femes (A.-S.), a desert, wilderness : hence Fames.
Field, Byfield, Attfield.
* Cartwright's Rape of Bramber.

72 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Fleet, a tide creek ; formerly any stream.
Fold. In some places the enclosure for impounded
cattle is so called.
Forest. In Holland, Van Voorst ; in France, La-
foret. Forth, a ford.
Font, a spring.
Fountain. Fossey (fosse- way).
Foss, a ditch.
Foot, Foote, the bottom of a hill.
Frith. In Scotland, an arm of the sea ; elsewhere,
a plain among woods ; elsewhere, a hedge or coppice.
" Also there is difference between the fryth and the
fell; the fels are understood the mountains, vallyes,
and pastures, with corne and such like; the frythes
betoken the springs and coppyses." Noble Art of
Venerie. (Halliwell.)
" Whersoever ye fall by fryth or by fell,
My deer chylde take heed how Tristom dooth you tell,
How many maner beestys of venery ther were," &c.
Boke of St. Albans.
Furlong, a division in an unenclosed or tenantry field.
Many fields after enclosure are thus called.
Furnace.

Garden.
" The name of the grandson of Bocchoris, Tilgamus
or Tilganus, signifies ' garden child.' The fable is, that
the infant having been cast from the top of a tower,
by the order of his unnatural grandfather, was caught
in mid-air by an eagle, which safely deposited him in
a garden." Salverte.

LOCAL. 73
Garth, a yard, a little close behind a house, a warren,
a churchyard; in fact, almost any small enclosure. Also
a garden, as in the following quotation :
" Tak a peny-weghte of garthe-cresse sede, and gyff
hym, at ete, and gare hym after a draghte of gude rede
wyne."— MS. Line. Med. f. 292.
Garnett, a granary.
Garrison.Gate, whence Agate, Gates, Bygate. Gate in Scot
land means a way or road.
" He Mowed thame thorowe the wod,
Alle the gatis that they gode."
MS. Lincoln, A. i, 17, f. 136.
Gill, a small pebbly rivulet, a ravine or dell.
Glyn (Celtic), a glen.
Goole, a canal.
Gore, a word used in old records to describe a narrow
slip of ground.
Grave, Graves, a grove ; a cave.
Grange, a large farm, kept in hand by a religious
fraternity, with buildings and often a chapel attached.
Grove, Groves. A foundling, now living at Tun-
bridge, bears this name, from his having been exposed
in the Grove at Tunbridge Wells.
Green, Greene.
Gravett, a little grove.
Gurnall, a granary. (Scot.) H..
Hall, a great house.
Halliwell, a holy well.
Haycock. Probably given to a foundling exposed in
a hay-field. i. 4

74 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Ham (A.-S.), a dwelling, whence home. In the
West, a rich level pasture; in Sussex, a plot of land
near water ; sometimes a small triangular field or croft.
Harbour, Havens.
Hatch, a floodgate ; in Cornwall, a dam or mound ;
in forest districts, the gateways on the verge of a forest
across a public road, as Cooper's Hatch, Mersham Hatch.
Haugh (whence Hawes), How, a green plot in a
valley ; a hillock ; flat ground by a river.
Hay, a hedge, an enclosure ; in medieval Latin, a
minor park or enclosure in the forests for taking deer,
&c, is called a ' Haia.'
Haystack.
Head, a foreland or promontory, as Beachy Head,
St. Alban's Head. Several names derived from locali
ties are identical in sound and orthography with parts
of the person, as Head, Back, Foot.
Hedge, Hedges. There is a great disposition among
the illiterate to pluralize their names, as Woods for
Wood, Holms for Holme, Reeves for Reeve.
Heath. Heme, a house (Bede).
Hithe (A.-S. Hyd), a haven, a wharf.
Hide, an old law term for as much land as can be
cultivated with one plough. Sometimes a field; occa
sionally a common or unenclosed pasture, as Arlington
Hide, in Sussex.
Hill, Hull. From hill came 'At the hill,' whence
Thill. So also ' Nill,' from Atten-hill, which, lest they
should appear to be nonentities, some who bear it have
changed to Knill ! From the corresponding French
term ' Dumont' came our Dymond.
Holme, Holmes, flat land, a meadow surrounded with
water ; other islands, like those in the Bristol Channel.

LOCAL. 75
Holt, a grove, or small forest (Halliw.) ; in Sussex,
invariably a small hanging wood, as Jevington Holt,
Wilmington Holt, Box Holt ; a grove of trees about a
house (Howell) ; a peaked hill covered with wood
(Brockett) . Nolt = Atten-Holt.
" Ye that frequent the hilles,
And highest holtes of all,
Assist me with your skilful quilles,
And listen when I call."
Tuberville's Songs and Sonnets (Percy Ant. Bel.)
Hold, a fortress, a tenement. Holden is probably a
corruption of ' holding,' in the latter sense.
Hope, a valley; a small field; a mountain dingle;
Camden says, " the side of an hill."
Hoo, How, Hoe (A.-S. ' How'), a high place, as the
Hoe at Plymouth ; a hill.
House. This seems a strange word to adopt as a
name, since residence in a house was never so unusual a
circumstance as to stamp any peculiarity upon a person
or a family. John at Tower and Roger at Church
might well distinguish individuals from their neigh
bours, but William at House could scarcely be deemed
a description at all. The same name occurs in other
languages, as Las Casas in Spanish, Dellacasa in Italian.
It may here be remarked that the termination us or
hus is a corruption of house, as —
Stonnus from Stonehouse,
Woodus Woodhouse,
Duffus " Dovehouse,
Malthus " Malthouse,*
Hoppus Hophouse,
Aldus and 1 „ .,, ,. v t i ,
Alldis } Aid- (i. e.) old-house-
* Mme. D'Arblay's Mem.

76 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Windus from Windhouse (?),
Loftus " Lofthouse, and
Bacchus " Bakehouse or Backhouse.
This last corruption took place in the sixteenth cen
tury. In 1 551, the benefice of Addington-Magna was
presented to Christopher Backhouse, and only seventeen
years subsequently, George Bacchus and others present
the same living to another Christopher Bacchus, evi
dently a family connection of the former.* ;To this
class may probably be referred such names as Tyas,
Nyas, Dallas.
Hole. In the south of England this word is fre
quently applied to a house occupying a low site, as
' Hill' with some prefix is to one in an elevated situ
ation : sometimes both terms occur in immediate
proximity to each other, as Burghill and BurgAofe,
Thunder's Hill and Thunder's Hole, in Sussex.
Hooke and Howke. This word occurs in various
places as the name of a trivial locality, but I cannot
ascertain its meaning. Atte Hooke, which is found in
the Nonee return, probably became ' Tooke.'
Holloway (the 'hollow -way'), a deep road between
high banks.
Holyoak, some oak which a superstitious legend had
rendered famous.
Hospital. I have not found this word used as a
surname, but Spital and Spittle, its contractions, are not
uncommon. Ashpital is probably a provincial form of
it ; while Spittlehouse is a somewhat pleonastic word of
the same import.
Hunt, a chase, as Foxhunt in Sussex.
* Vide Bridges' Northamptonshire, ii, 204.

LOCAL. 77
Hume, Home, a corner. Johes in le Hurne, that
is, John in the Corner, occurs in the Nonse, 1341.
Chaucer spells it heme :
" Lurking in hemes and in lanes blinde,
Wherof these robbours and these theves by kinde
Holden Mr privee fereful residence." Chanones-Yemannes Prol.
Hurst (A.-S.), a wood.

Ing, a meadow near a river.
Inch, Ince, an island.
Isle, an eminent family called De I'Isle, and after
wards Lisle, borrowed that name from the Isle of
Wight; another family borrowed the same surname
from the Isle of Ely. K.
Kay, a quay ; sometimes Key, and thence Atkey.
Kirk, a church.
Knapp ('Cnsep,' A.-S.), the top of a hill. "A hillocke
or knap of a hill." Cotgrave.
Knoll, whence Knowles, the top of a hill (' Cnoll,'
A.-S.), a little round hill.

L.

Law, a hill or eminence (' Hlewe,' A.-S.)
Lade (A.-S.), a passage for water, a drain.
Land (v. Launde).
Lane.Lath, a barn.

78 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Launde (whence belike Lowndes), a plain place in a
wood, a lawn. " Now is Gy to a launde y-go
Where the dragon duelled tho." Guy of Warwicke, p. 262.
" For to hunt at the hartes in thas hye loundes.'' Morte Arthure.
Lee, Legh, Lea, Leigh, Lye, various spellings of one
and the same word, meaning a pasture. In names of
British origin, Lie, a place.
Lodge. Locke, a place where rivers meet with a partial ob
struction from a wooden dam ; or, Loch, a lake.
Loppe, an uneven place.
Lough, a lake.
Lowe, a small round hill (A.-S. ' Lowe'), a tumulus or
barrow. " With oure sheep upon the lowe." Cursor Mundi.
Sometimes it signifies a farm, otherwhile a grove.
Lynn (Celtic), a pool. Some families so surnamed
may derive from the town in Norfolk.
Lynch, a small hanging wood or thicket, on the
South Downs called a ' link ;' a strip of sward between
the ploughed lands in common fields. In Gloucester
shire, a hamlet. M.
March, a boundary, as the Marches of Wales ; a
landmark. To march is to extend : so Sir John
Maundevile :
"Arabye durethe fro the endes of the reme of
Caldee unto the last ende of Affryk, and marchethe to
the lond of Ydumee."
Market. Marsh.

LOCAL. 79
Mead, Meadow, Meadows, Mees. Syn. The French
have Paquier, Pasquier, and Pasquet (which we have
naturalized in Packet), meaning pasturage.
Meer, Meeres, a lake, a shallow water (A.-S. ' Mere');
a boundary. Mill. Milne, and Mulne are antient orthographies.
From the Fr. Des Moulins comes our Mullins.
Minster (A.-S.) a monastery.
More, Moore, Attemoore, Amoor, Amor.*
Moss, a moor or boggy plain.
Mote, Moate.
Mouth, a haven.
Mount.
Mountain. This name once gave occasion to a pun,
which would have been excellent had the allusion been
made to any other book than the Holy Scriptures. Dr.
Mountain, chaplain to Charles II, was asked one day
by that monarch to whom he should present a certain
bishopric, just then vacant. "If you had but faith,
Sire," replied he, " I could tell you who." " How so,"
said Charles, "if I had but faith?" "Why yes," said
the witty cleric, "your majesty might then say to this
Mountain ' Be thou removed into that See.' "
N.
Narraway (narrow-way).

Orchard. A correspondent of the Gentleman's
Magazine, Oct. 1820, suggests that such names as
* A facetious correspondent of the Literary Gazette (B. A. Oxon, Sept.
1842) says, he cannot pass 135, New Bond Street, without being reminded
of the 10th Eclogue, " Omnia vincit amor ;'' and he suggests a free trans
lation of the passage, viz. ; " Amor is the best wine-merchant in London !"

80 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Townsend, Street, Churchyard, Stair, Barn, Lane, and
Orchard, " originated with foundlings, and that they
possibly pointed out the places where they were ex
posed," — a plausible suggestion, had we not abundant
evidence of their having been first given to persons
from their residing, when masters of families, in or
near to such places. P.
Park, Parkes (Celt. ' Pare').
Penn (Celt.), the top of a hill.
Pende, an arch, generally one under which there is a
roadway or passage.
Peak.
Pitt, Pitts. Referring to the remark above, I may
mention that surnames of this kind have, occasionally,
been given to foundlings, and that even in recent times.
I perfectly recollect the grim visage of a surly septua
genarian named Moses Pitt, who had been exposed in
infancy in a marl-pit. " Nobody likes you," said this
crabbed piece of humanity, in a quarrel with a neigh
bour. " Nor you," replied the latter, " not even your
mother." Moses was silent.
Pinnock or Pennock, in Sussex, is the little frame
work above an archway over a stream, like that repre
sented in the. engraving.

LOCAL. 81
Pine, a pit (Bailey).
Pinfold or Penfold, a pound for cattle or sheep.
Thus, in the ' Two Gentlemen of Verona,' —
" Proteus. Nay, in that you stray ; 'twere best pound you.
Speed. Nay, sir ! less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter.
Pro. You mistake ; I mean the pound— a pinfold.
Speed. From a pound to a. pin, fold it over and over,
'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover."
Plaine.
Plott, Piatt, a little piece of ground ; a field of even
surface. Place, a mansion.
Peel (Celtic ' Pil'), primarily, perhaps, a pool ; now,
on the Scottish border, a moated fort. "Within my
recollection," says the Rev. A. Hedley, " almost every
old house in the dales of Rede and Tyne was what is
called a peel-house, built for securing the inhabitants
and their cattle in moss-trooping times."*
Pell, a deep standing water.
Pollard, a cropped tree.
Poole, Pole. Shakspeare plays with the name of De
la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, in Henry VI, Part II, where
he makes ,the captain who seizes him at sea tell him
that he is the pool or puddle —
" whose filth and dirt
Troubles the silver spring where England drinks."
Pont, a bridge. The kindred names Pontius, PontoT
Dupont, Da Ponte, &c, occur in most of the antient
and modern languages of Europe.
Playsted, Playstow, a place for sports ; still found in
many places.
Port, a haven.
Pond. * Archaeologia iEliana, i, p. 213.
4§

83 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Pound.
Prindle, a croft. Q.
Quarry.Quarel, Quarll, a quarry. R. *
Rayne, Raynes, a bound or limit.
Rick (whence Rix), a stack of hay or corn.
Ridge, Attridge.
Rigg, a ridge. By dropping A from At Rigg we get
Trigg and thence Triggs.
Rill, a small stream. John at the Rill would first
become John Atterill, and afterwards John Trill. How
subtle are the clues that guide us in etymological in
vestigations !
River, Rivers.
Rock. In French, roche, whence our Roach.
Ring, a circular enclosure for bull-baiting, &c.

c corruptions of road.
nodes, \ r
Rodd, Rode, Royd, an obsolete participle of ' rid,'
meaning a ' ridding,' or forest grant. It sometimes
occurs in the last form as an addition to the name of
an early proprietor, or to the names of the trees cleared,
as Ack-royd, Hol-royd, &c.
Rowe, a street ; in Scotland, a raw, whence Rawes.
Ross, a heath (Brit. ' Rhos'), peat land, a morass ;
also a promontory.
Rye, a bank or shore. Atte Rye became Try.
Perhaps from the town of this name in Sussex.
s.
Sanctuary. This name may have been borne, pri-

LOCAL. 83
marily, by a criminal who had 'taken sanctuary' in
some privileged place.
Sale, Sales, a hall.
" Sone they sembled in sale
Bothe kynges and cardenale." MS. Lincoln, A. i.
Sand, whence Sands and Sandys.
Sea, originally At *Sea.
Shaw, a small wood or copse.
" In somer when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is fulle mery in foyre foreste
To here the foulys song." MS. Cantab. Ff. v. 48.
Shallow, a ford.
Shank, the projecting point of a hill connecting it
with the plain.
Shiel, originally a temporary hut for shepherds,
(q. d. ' shield,' i. e. against wind and rain) ; afterwards
applied to fixed habitations.
Shore, the sea-side. — In London, and in the West
of England, this is the vulgar pronunciation of sewer.
Sike (whence Sykes), a small rill, a spring, a wa
terfall. Skell, "a well in the old Northern English." (Camd.)
Slade. Many significations are attached to this word,
viz., a valley, a ravine, a plain, a breadth of green land .
in plantations or ploughed fields, a small open hanging
wood. " It had been better of William a Trent
To have been abed with sorrowe,
Than to be that day in the greenwood slade,
To meet with Little John's arrowe." Robin Hood.
" And how he climbeth up the bankis,
And falleth into sladis depe." Gower.
Slack, low ground, a gap or pass between two moun
tains or hills. —

84 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
" They took the gallows from the slack,
They set it in the glen,
They hang'd the proud sheriff on that,
Releas'd their own three men." Robin Hood.
Slonk, a hollow place (A.-S. 'Slog'). Applied on the
South Downs to the little branch valleys communicating
with a combe. ».
Slough,Spence, a yard or enclosure; a buttery.
Spring, a well.
Spiire, Spires, a steeple.
Steele, locus, a place.
Strand, the sea-shore, or the bank of a river.
Street. The French have De-la- Rue, the Italians
Strada. Stonestreet, Stanistreet.
Strood, Stroud, "the bank of a river, as some doe
think." (Camd.) Baxter makes it 'Strawd;' that is,
'Ys-trawd,' the lower traject.
Stable.Stead (A.-S.), a farm-house and offices; a standing-
place. Steeple.
Stile, Styles, 'W. atte Stighele.' Sussex, 1296.
Stock — of a tree, I suppose, though its adoption as
a name is not easily accounted for. There are similar
names elsewhere. Zouch and Curzon (Fr.), mean, re
spectively, the trunk of a tree and the stem of a vine.
Stowe, Stoke, Stokes, a place.
Stone, Steane. Given first to some onewhose residence
was near a Druidical, or other remarkable stone.*
* Since the above was written, I find the following in M. de Gerville's
Essay on Norman Names. " Les pierres meme n'echappent pas a nos
nomenclatures. Le nom de La Pierre, chez uous, remonte parfois aux
pierres druidiques."

LOCAL.

85

Temple. The preceptories of the knights-templars
were often called 'temples.' Hence this name, as well
as Templeman.Tern or Dern, a standing pool.
Thorn, the tree, or perhaps ' Thurn,' a tower.
Thorpe (A.-S.), a village.
Thwaite, land reclaimed from a wood or forest; a
rough marshy ground; a pasture.
Toft, "a piece of ground where there hath been a
house." (Camd.) Halliwell says, "open ground; a
plain; a hill.''
Tree, whence Attree, &c.
The following names of trees occur as surnames :

Alder,

Box,

Hawthorne,

Plumtree,

Applelree,

Cherry,

Laurel,

Sickelmore,

Ashe,

Chesnut,

Maple,

Thorn,

Aspen,

Crab tree,

Oakes,

Vine,

Beech,

Elmes,

Peartree,

Willows,

Birch,

Hazel,

Pine,

Wych;

to which may be added Apps, a provincial name for the
aspen, Lind, a lime-tree, and Holm, a holly or evergreen
oak. The French have several names of the same
kind, some of which have been introduced into England,
as Coigners, a quince-tree, Cheyney, an oak.
Toll, a small grove of lofty trees.
Torr, a tower, or rather a castle-like, though uncas-
tellated, hill or crag.
Tourelle (Fr.), a diminutive of tower ; a turret. This
appears to be the origin of our names, Torell, Tourle, &c,
though most families of these names bear canting arms
of bulls' heads, allusive to 'taureau,' a bull.

86 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Tower, Towers,
Town.
Townsend, Townshend. At the end of the town,
'Atte Tunishend.'
Tune (A.-S.), an enclosure.
Trench.
Twitten is a Sussex provincialism for a narrow alley
or entry. 'Ascelota atte Twytene' occurs in that county
in 1296. v.
Vale. The French have Duval, Dellavalle, &c.
Vennell, a gutter, a sink (Halliw.) Venella, accord
ing to Du Cange, is viculus, angiportus, via strictior,
more properly speaking, a passage or alley that had a
gate annexed.*
Venables. This name appears to be a slight modi
fication of the Fr. vignobles, vineyards.
w.
Wade, a meadow; a ford.
Wall, Walls.
Wake or Werk, some work or building.
Warren, a colony of rabbits. This is also a Norman
local name.
Water, Waters; also Attwater and Bywater.
Way.
Weir. In Scotland there is a family called Dur-
hamweir. Welter (A.-S. 'Wellere'), a hollow or gulf (sinus.)
Wells. 'At Well' became Twell.
Wick (whence Wicks and Wix), a hold or place of
* Gent. Mag., March, 1830.

LOCAL. 87
defence ; Halliwell says, ' a bay, small port, or village
on the side of a river.
Wold, a hill destitute of wood.
Wood {Woods, Attwood, By wood, Underwood, Ne-
therwood.) Worth. Who shall decide when etymologists dis
agree? No less than six origins have been found for
this little word, which has been made to stand for a pos
session, a court, a farm, a place, a fort, and an island !
A very worth-j subject for the etymologist.*
Whitaker. To this word Bailey assigns this some
what unintelhgible definition: "The north-east part of
a flat or shore; the middle ground." Qu. white-acre ?
Wyche, a salt work, a salt spring.
Y.
Yarde.
Yate, Yates, old word for gate.

Before leaving this subject I must observe — what the
reader will probably have noted — that many of these
names of locality bear very different acceptations in
different districts. In proof of this remark I will cite
a short passage from the late Dr. Hamilton's {miscalled)
'" Nugcs Literaria3.''t After expatiating upon the
copiousness of the English language, the author says:
"The Saxon, which is the foundation of our language,
often presented a great discrimination, and this is proved
in the names which it gave to places. Combe, is a valley,
or rather gorge, between two hills, and where there is
* The family of names ending in -with, as Beckwith, Skipwith, Sand-
with, &c, probably corrupt that syllable from viorth.
t On Correlates and Synonyms, p. 390.

88 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
a wood. Clough, is a wooded valley, or rather hollow,
by the road-side. Slack, is a valley stretching beneath
a precipitous range. Firth, is a very retired, Shaw, is
a well-wooded, glen. Den, is a valley that is very deep.
Here, with the appearances of synonyms, are real dis
tinctions. Once more: Hope, is a small stream;
Thwaite, a rivulet; Fleet, an sestuary; Gool, a canal;
Wath, a ford; Burn, a runnel; Hithe, a landing-place;
Sike, a waterfall; Holm, contiguity to water. Much
circumlocution would be required to express these shades
of meaning in any other tongue. A third series may
be arranged: Holt, a hill; Fell, a wild upland; Wold, an
undulating country; Knoll, a small but sudden rise;
Ness, a head-land overhanging the sea, or a mountain
near it."
Dr. Hamilton's field of observation is Yorkshire, —
but the topographical terms there extant apply in other
districts to places of a materially different character.
For example, in Sussex, many of the Combes, with
which the county abounds, have no wood near them.
Out of Yorkshire, a Firth is often a water rather than
a ' retired glen;' and in the south of England a 'glen'
is not a necessary feature in the Shaw. In many places
a Hope is anything but a 'stream,' and a Thwaite any
thing but a 'rivulet.' The same remark applies, in a
more limited sense, to several other expressions in the
passage. From these trivial topographical words, and many
others of a similar kind which must have escaped our
notice, did numbers of our ancestors borrow their family
names; short, and generally monosyllabic, they were
well suited to the plain, hardy, Anglo-Saxon race who
assumed them; and well adapted to distinguish that race
from their Norman oppressors : a distinction now happily

LOCAL.

89

merged, so that we cannot say with an antient poet
of ours —
" ®l tfjt J3onnam> fctth these high nunne, ttjntitof th»5lontt,
Sntl ttj« Ionic memu of g>axonsi." 
Some names of this class had the termination er or
man attached to them: thus

From Beck was formed Beckman.

Bourne

3

Bourner.

Bridge

3

Bridger and Bridgman.

Brook

J

Brooker.

Castle

3

Castleman.

Crouch

J

Croucher and Crouchman

Church

3

Churcher and Churchman

Dean ,

3

Denman.

Fenne

3

Fenner.

Field

}

Fielder.

Furlong

3

Furlonger.

Grove

3

Grover.

Heath

„

Heather and Hother.

Holt

JJ

Hotter and Holtman.

Hold

)3

Holder.

Hope

)}

Hoper.

Kirk

>3

Kirkman.

Knap

13

Knapper.

Lake

'3

Laker and Lakeman.

Lowe

33

Lower (?)

Marsh

13

Marshman.

Moor

Moorman.

Plain

>'

Plainer.

Park

Parkman.

Pit

13

Pittman.

Pond

)3

Ponder

90 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
From Rayne was formed Rayner.

Ridge

33

Ridger and Ridgman

Ross

3>

Rosser.

Rye •

33

Ryman.

Slade

33

Slader.

Street

33

Streeter.

Stile

33

Styleman.

Stock

33

Stocker.

Stone

33

Stoner.

Toll

33

Toller.

Town

33

Towner.

Wych

33

Wicher or Witcher.

Of the very picturesque name Crosweller I do not
know the origin, unless it has been derived from the
residence of the first bearer, near such a spot as that
described in Marmion —
" A little fountain-cell,
Where water, clear as diamond spark,
In a stone bason fell.
Above, some half- worn letters say —
'IBrt'nh . hwarg . pilgrim ; Urinfe . & . ptan .
dfov . the . fetnO . Soul . of . Jgnbtl . <©wn .
bo . Built . thus . Ol<©&& . an* . WHEEIC.' "

Wells of reputed sanctity were often ornamented with
an image of the patron saint, and with a cross. The
primitive Crosweller may have been the custodian of
such a sacred fountain.
Several other names similarly formed are referable
to occupations, and will therefore be enumerated in a
future chapter ; such are Miller, Parker, Forester, &c.
Before leaving Local Surnames, I must mention such
as are derived from apartments in houses, and which

LOCAL. 91
were, most likely, first given to menial servants who
served in the respective rooms. Like the foregoing,
they generally occur in old records in the form of John
i'the Kitchen, William atte Chamber, &c. Jorden de
la Sekestrie (sextry), and Ricard. diet' atte Parlour,
occur in the fourteenth century among the records of
Lewes Priory : J. atte Lote (loft,) in a subsidy roll of
1296. Besides these we have Garret* Buttery, and
Stair, and Camden says Sellar, which I have never seen.
Chalmers is the Scottish form of Chambers; and Hall is
otherwise accounted for. (p. 73.) Drawbridge was
probably given to the porter of some old moated man
sion, and Cullis may be an abbreviation of Port-cullis.
To these may be added Chimney.
Thus, gentle reader, I have, in humble sort, set forth
the origin, antiquity, and varieties of that branch of our
family nomenclature borrowed from the names of places,
and if thou hast found aught of gratification in my lucu
brations I am satisfied: if not, close the book; thy taste
and mine concur not. I quarrel not with thee, and I
trust that thou wilt exercise like forbearance with me,
recollecting that — "De gustibus non disputandum est,"
— "and soe I bid thee right heartilie farewel."
* A facetious correspondent suggests that ' Garret' maybe a translation
of Atticus !

92 ENGLISH SURNAMES.

NOTE TO CHAPTER V.

In the illustration of Local Surnames in the fore
going chapter, I have confined myself to a few examples,
unwilling to encumber my pages, as I might have done,
with many thousands of names taken from the towns,
villages, and hamlets of England. No reader would
thank me for presenting him with a transcript of the
Villare Anglicanum, which must have been the case had
I achieved the laborious task of collecting a list of all
the local surnames extant.
When the name of a family coincides with that of a
place, it will be safe,, as a general rule, to conclude that
the surname was borrowed from the locality, and a
reference to a topographical dictionary of England will
solve many a problem in regard to family nomenclature.
It may not be amiss, however, to furnish a few ob
servations to enable the general reader to trace the
origin of many names of this class.
It will be necessary to premise, that as Britain has
been successively occupied by various races of people, so
each race has stamped upon its localities proper names
borrowed from its own language. Hence the existing
local nomenclature, though derived for the most part
from the Anglo-Saxon or primitive English tribes, com
prises a few words from other sources, Celtic, Roman,
Danish, and French. I speak, of course, of England,
for Wales and the Highlands of Scotland borrow most

LOCAL. 93
of their names from the Celtic tongue, and with these
we have very little to do.
The earliest and most obvious mode of naming places,
is the conferring upon them of appellations answering
to their nature and situation in the language of the
respective occupants. In the Celtic dialects, for in
stance, Glynde means a vale, Comb (cwm) a deep valley,
and Caburn (caer-bryn) a fortified hill. All these occur
in Sussex. In the Latin, Castrum is a fortified station :
this word, corrupted by the Saxons to 'ceaster' or
'chester,' is common as a termination to many English
towns. In the Anglo-Saxon, Ley and Tun mean a
field and an enclosure. In French, Malfosse stands
for a dangerous ravine, and Beaulieu for a pleasant
situation. Sometimes the name of a place describes its situation,
or some peculiarity, in a word or phrase taken from the
existing language, as Hull (hill) Poole,* Newhaven,
Newcastle, Bishop's Stoke.
Another, but a very limited, number of places, bear
names derived from some transaction which has occurred
in them. Battel in Sussex is an eminent example of
this species. Lichfield, 'the field of corses,' is another.
Some places bear the names of antient possessors, as
iElfriches-tune, now Alfriston, Clappa-ham, now Clap-
ham, Cissan-ceaster, now Chichester; literally, iElfrick's
enclosure, Clappa's home, and Cissa's fortress. So like-
* M. de Gerville observes, that most of the original names of places in
Normandy are simply words of description, " often signifying merely rivers,
mountains, or rocks, without addition ; for example, Vire, the name of a
town, and Ver, that of two communes, in Lower Normandy, mean ' river,'
or the ' water side ;' Abrant, the antient name of Avranches, means nothing
else but the embouchure of a river, from ' Aber,' mouth, and ' ant,'
river."

94 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
wise in Normandy, Foucarville, Barneville, the town or
residence of Fulcard, of Bernard, &c.
Many take their designations from the rivers on
which they stand, as Exeter, on the Exe, Plymouth, on
the Plym, Yarmouth, on the Yare, Cambridge, on the
Cam, Axminster, on the Axe. One very unimportant
little river in Dorsetshire called the Piddle gives names
to the following parishes in its course, viz., Piddle-
trenthide, Piddlehinton, Piddletown, Tolpiddle, Alf-
piddle, and Turner's Piddle.
The names affixed to places by the Anglo-Saxons are
in general very descriptive, a circumstance which enables
a person tolerably acquainted with their noble language
to arrive at an accurate idea of their situation, or of
some principal feature.
The noun which denotes a locality is often combined
with an epithet descriptive of some circumstance, quality,
or natural production of the place. For instance, innu
merable places, on their first colonization by the Anglo-
Saxons, received the generic name of tun, signifying an
enclosure, or what the Americans would call a 'location.'
If such a place had a clayey soil it would become
Clayton ; if it had been previously unoccupied it would
be Newton; if it lay in a level, meadow country, it
would be Leighton ; if it occupied an eminence it would
be Hilton. In like manner a thorp, or village, would
be styled Aldthorue, iVewthorpe, or Hightnor^e, accord
ing to the attribute of antiquity, recency, or loftiness of
situation, proper to it. Again, Stanley would describe
a stony field; Horsley, a field or district noted for
horses; Ashley, a field favourable for the growth of
ash-trees. The animal kingdom frequently furnishes the de
scription, thus: —

LOCAL. 95

QUADRUPEDS.

The Ox. Oxley, Oxenden, Oxenham.
Horse. Horsley, Horsfield, Horsebridge.*
Cow. Cowley, Cowfold, Cowden.
Sheep. Shipley, Shepscombe, Shepton.
Ram. Ramsey, Ramslie, Ramscombe.
-Hare. Haredean, Hareford, Harewood.
Goat. Goatley, Gotham.
Lamb. Lambton, Lamporte, Lambley.
Fox. Foxhunt, Foxley, Foxcote.
Boar. Boreham, Boresley, Boarswood.
Hart. Hartford, Harthill, Hartfield.
Deer. Dereham, Deerhurst.
Brock (a badger.) Brockesley, Broxbourne.
BIRDS.
Bird. Birdbrook, Birdham, Birdsall.
Swan. Swanscombe,f Swanbourne.
Eagle. Eaglesfield, Eglesham, Eaglescliffe.
Em (A.-S. for eagle.) Ernley, Earnsford.
Crow. Crowham, Crawley, Crowhurst.
Rook. Rokewood, Rookwith, Rookhurst.
Raven. Ravensdale, Ravenscroft, Ravensden.
Finch. Finchley, Fincham, Finchdean.
Hawk. Hawkhurst, Hawkesborough.
Goose (A.-S.'gos.') Gosfield, Gosden, Gosford.
* While satisfied with the accuracy of the principle of these derivations,
I am probably in error in particular instances ; for example, the first sylla
ble of this name, Horsebridge, may be the A.-S. 'hurst,' a wood, rather
than the quadruped.
¦ t This however may be Suane's combe, from Suane or Sweyn, an early
proprietor.

96 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Many names of places are compounded of one or
other of the generic terms alluded to, with a specific
word derived from the vegetable kingdom, as : —
Oak. Oakley, Ockham, Ockwood.
Ac (A.-S. for oak.) Acton, Acland, Ackworth.
Beech. Beechland, Coldbeche, Holbeche.
Buch (A.-S. for beech.) Buckingham, Buxted.
Box. Boxhill, Boxley, Boxgrove.
Ash. Ashley, Ashcombe, Ashburnham.
Elm. Elmingley, Elmgrove.
Thorn. Thornhill, Thornton, Thornham.
fTiZfow.Willoughby, Willowshed.
Alder. Aldershaw, Alderton.
Pine. Pinehurst, Pinewell.
Birch. Bircham, Birchensty.
Hazel. Haselgrove, Haslewood, Hazelden.
Holm. Holmwood, Holmbush, Holmstye.
Maple. Maplested, Maplesden, Mapledurham.
Heath. Heathfield, Heathcote, Hetherington.
Broom. Bromley, Bromfield, Bromsgrove.
To enumerate the principal elements of names of
places would be little more than to repeat the topo
graphical terms defined in the latter portion of the
foregoing chapter, the majority of which not only stand
as names of places (and, consequently, as we have seen,
as surnames), but are likewise used in composition with
other words. To show in what a variety of connections'
a single word of this class is found in the formation of
place-names, I subjoin a list of those in which stone is
a component syllable.
Stone, Stondon, Stonebeck, Stonegrave, Stoneham,
Stonehouse, Stoneleigh, Stonesby, Stonesfield, Stonham,

LOCAL. 97
Stonton. The Anglo-Saxon orthography is Stan,
whence Stanage, Stanborough, Stancil, Stanbridge,
Standewick, Stanford, Stanground, Standish, Stanlake,
Stanfield, Stanhoe, Stanhope, Stanion, Stanley, Stanlow,
Stanmer, Stanmore, Stanney, Stanningfield, Stanning-
ton, Stansfield, Stansted, Stanthorne, Stanton, Stanway,
Stanwell, Stanwich, Stanwix. The old English pro
nunciation was Stane, whence Staines, Steyning,
Stainborough, Stainburn, Stainly, Staincliff, Staincross,
Staindross, Stainfield, Stainforth, Stainland, Stainley,
Stainmore, Stainton.
Here are upwards of fifty parishes, or larger districts
(as hundreds, &c), having stone in some one of its forms,
for their initial syllable ; and the number might easily
be increased twentyfold, were all those places adduced
which have it in the middle or as a termination.

CHAPTER VI.
OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS.

" It is not to be doubted but their ancestors have first gotten them by
using trades, and the children of such parents being contented to take
them upon them, after-coming posterity could hardly avoid them." —
Verstegan.

FTER these locall names," saith Master
Camden, "the most in number have
been derived from Occupations or Pro
fessions ;" for which reason I purpose
to make these the subject of my Sixth
Chapter. And as some perplexity might arise in mar
shalling the various Surnames according to right rules
of precedence, I shall consider it no small advantage to
follow so skilful a herald as Mr. Clarencieux through
out these pages.*
The practice of borrowing names from the various
avocations of life is of high antiquity. Thus the
Romans had among them many persons, and those too
* Since the above paragraph was written, I have been partly induced to
believe that the surnames'derived from individual, fore, or, as they are
improperly called, Christian names, are more numerous than those which
form the topic of the present chapter. Be this as it may, I have not
thought it worth while to disarrange the method adopted in my previous
editions. M. de Gerville asserts that 'Le Christianisme a introduit la
moitii de nos noms de famille,' but, ?

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 99
of the highest rank, who bore such names as Figulus,
Pictor, Fabricius, Scribonius, Salinator, Agricola, &c,
answering to the Potters, Paynters, &c. of our own
times. These names became hereditary, next in order
after the local names, about the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Cocus, Dapifer, &c, we have already seen
were borne by men of high rank soon after the Con
quest. There was, as Camden observes, no employ
ment that did not give its designation to one, or to
many families. As local names generally had the prefix
de or at, so these frequently had le, as Stephen le
Spicer, Walter le Boucher, John le Bakere, &c, in the
records of the twelfth and two subsequent centuries.*
Pre-eminent in this family of Surnames, and afford
ing wellnigh matter enough for a separate dissertation,
stands Smith, unquestionably the commonest Surname
in use. Verstegan asks —
" From whence comes Smith, all be he Knight or Squire,
But from the Smith thdiforgeth at the fire ?"
— but the antiquary should have been aware that the
radix of this term is the Anglo-Saxon ' smitan,' to
smite, and that it was therefore originally applied not
* In the ' Chronicon Monasterii de Bello' is a list, drawn up about the
year 1080, of the inhabitants of the then recently-built town of Battel.
Here the tradesmen are entered only with their baptismal names, and the
designations of their respective employments, as ... ' Goduini coci' . .
' iEdvardi purgatoris' . . ' Rotberti molendinarii,' . 'Lamberti sutoris.'
These are mere descriptions — not surnames. In the course, however, of
100 or 150 years from that date, in the records of the same establishment,
we meet with Surnames borrowed from trades written with capital initial
letters, and either with the prefix ' Le,' or without it, as in modern times,
as Le Plomer, Le Corduainer, Le Vanner (basket-maker) ; Sanator (phy
sician), Pessoner (fishmonger), Teyntner (dyer), Bottoner (button-maker?),
and Panetier (a server of bread).

100 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
merely to the Cyclopean fraternity, but also to wheel
wrights, carpenters, masons, and smiters* in general.
It was in fact precisely among our ancestors what
'faber' was among the Romans — any smith, forger,
hammerer, maker, or mechanical ivorkman. Otherwise
it would be difficult to account for the great frequency
of the name.
The prevalency of this Surname, common alike to
country and to town, to the North, the South, the
East, the West, to peer and to plebeian, to the Old
World and the New, has given rise to a host of jokes
and witticisms, good, bad, and indifferent. Some of
these Smithiana, rescued from the ephemeral columns
of the newspaper, may not be undeserving of a place in
our more permanent page.
John Smith is, par excellence, the binominal designa
tion most obnoxious to these sallies. Can any reader's
knowledge of his species be so limited as that he can
not immediately call to mind at least half a dozen
individuals bearing it? "We remember," says the
editor of the Literary Gazette, " a bet laid and won,
that a John Smith had been condemned either to death
or transportation at every Old Bailey session during
(we forget) two or three years !" Smith, without some
rather unusual forename, is scarcely sufficient to identify
a person ; and John being perhaps the commonest of
Christian names, John Smith may safely be pronounced
no name at all. What then shall we say of the coun-
* The word occurs in the Saxon Chronicle in a warlike sense :
" Angles and Saxons
came to land,
o'er the broad seas,
Britain sought ;
Mighty WAR-SMITHS
the Welsh o'ercame !"

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 101
tryman who directed a letter, " For Mr. John .Smith
at London, — with spead !" A missive addressed to
Prester- John or the Man in the Moon would have been
almost as likely to arrive at its destination. " Might
your name be John Smith ?" asked an inquisitive New
Englander of a stranger. "Well, yes, it might," was the
reply, "but it aint by a long chalk !" ' Robson's Com
mercial Directory,' for 1839, comprises a catalogue of
no less than nine hundred and sixty-seven traders, in
London only, bearing this ubiquitous surname, consi
derably more than one hundred of whom are Johns !
It is clear therefore that the wag who got too late to a
crowded theatre, could not have adopted a better stra
tagem for obtaining a seat than that of shouting at the
top of his voice, " Mr. Smith's house is on fire !" He
well knew that the audience would at once undergo a
discount of some three or four per cent. A late
number of the .Boston Post states that " in March last
there was to have been a great meeting of Smiths on
Boston Common, to ascertain what branch of the
family fell heir to a certain property in England — but
the meeting was adjourned, as the common was found
inadequate to the accommodation of the large number
of the name anxious to attend !" Perhaps the best
piece of humour relating to this name is that which
appeared some years since in the newspapers, under
the title of " the smiths.
" Some very learned disquisitions are just now going
on among the American journals touching the origin
and extraordinary extension of the family of ' the
Smiths.' Industrious explorers after derivatives and
nominal roots, they say, would find in the name of

102 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
John Smith a world of mystery ; and a philologist in
the Providence Journal, after having written some
thirty columns for the enlightenment of the public
thereanent, has thrown down his pen and declared the
subject exhaustless. From what has hitherto been
discovered, it appears that the great and formidable
family of the Smiths are the veritable descendants in a
direct line from Shem, the son of Noah, the father of
the Shemitish tribe, or the tribe of Shem : and it is
thus derived — Shem, Shemit, Shmit, Smith. Another
learned pundit, in the Philadelphia Gazette, contends
for the universality of the name John Smith — not only
in Great Britain and America, but among all kindreds
and nations on the face of the earth. Beginning with
the Hebrew, he says the Hebrews had no Christian
names, consequently they had no Johns, and in Hebrew
the name stood simply Shem or Shemit; but in the
other nations the John Smith is found at full, one and
indivisible. Thus : Latin, Johannes Smithius ; Italian,
Giovanni Smithi ; Spanish, Juan Smithas ; Dutch, Hans
Schmidt ; French, Jean Smeets ; Greek, Ion Skmiton ;
Russian, Jonloff Skmittowski ; Polish, Ivan Schmitti-
wciski ; Chinese, Jahon Shimmit ; Icelandic, Jahne
Smithson; Welsh, Iihon Schmidd; Tuscarora, Ton Qa
Smittia; Mexican, Jontli F'Smitli. And then, to
prove the antiquity of the name, the same savant ob
serves that ' among the cartouches, deciphered by
Rosselini, on the temple of Osiris, in Egypt, was found
the name of Pharaoh Smithosis, being the 9th in the
18th dynasty of the Theban kings. He was the founder
of the celebrated temple of Smithopohs Magna.' We
heartily congratulate the respectable multitude of the
Smiths on these profound researches : researches which
bid fair to explode the generally received opinion that

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 103
the great family of the Smiths were the descendants of
mere horse-shoers and hammer-men !"
The following piece of banter, in the same style, is
from a newspaper paragraph of July, 1842 : "By a
chain of reasoning not less logical and conclusive than
that which enabled Home Tooke to establish the ety
mological deduction of the word gerkin from King
Jeremiah, Sir Edward Bulwer proves, in his beautiful
prose-poem of ' Zanoni,' that the common surname of
Smith which I had hitherto supposed to have been pro
fessionally derived from Tubal-Cain, or from the family
of the Fabricii, so celebrated in Roman history, owes
its origin, in point of fact, to the term ' Smintheus,' a
title bestowed upon the Phrygian Apollo ! Sir Edward,
following the scholiast upon Homer, assigns the name
to one of the god's high priests : but Strabo assures us
that it was bestowed upon the deity himself, in conse
quence of his having destroyed an immense number of
'Sfuvdai, or rats, with which the country was infested."
Smith is probably of more frequent use as an alias
than any other name whatever. A couple of historical
instances may be cited. At the beginning of the
reign of Henry IV, the head of the great family of
Carrington, a partisan of Richard II, forsook his pa
ternal estate, and became a John Smith ; and when the
quondam King of the French, Louis Philippe, abdicated
his throne and fled for his life, he assumed the alias of
Mr. William Smith !
Some of the most unusual, as well as others of the
most ordinary, Surnames, are compounds of Smith.
It is rather curious, that although the appellations of
the blacksmith and the whitesmith, both very common
avocations, do not occur as Surnames, that of Brown-
smith, an obsolete calling, does. The brownsmith of

104 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
five centuries since must have been a person of some
consideration, when the far-famed brown-bills of our
warlike ancestors struck terror into the hearts of their
enemies. Nasmyth is probably a corruption of ' nail-
smith.' The Spearsmiths and Shoesmiths were respec
tively makers of spears and of horseshoes. Knyfesmyth,
a name occurring in some records of the county of
Derby, explains itself. Goldsmiths are numerous every
where. Arrowsmith is not uncommon, but it must
not be confounded with Arsmith, meaning in Anglo-
Saxon, a brazier, from ' ar,' brass. Bucksmith is
doubtless a corruption of ' bucklesmith.'
" Brydel bytters, blacke-smythes, and ferrars,
Bokell-smythes, horse leches and gold beters."
Cocke Lorelle's Bote.
In the north of England a sock means a plough
share ; hence ' socksmith,' ludicrously corrupted to
Sucksmith and Sixsmiths ! I may further remark that
Smith in Gaelic is Gow : hence M'Gowan is Smithson.
The Gows were once -as numerous in Scotland as the
Smiths in England, and would be so at this time had
not many of them, at a very recent date, translated
the name to Smith.
But leaving the Smiths and their relatives, let us
notice the long list of English Surnames derived from
other trades and professions. We have then the
Masons and Carpenters, the Bakers and Butchers, the
Braziers and Ironmongers, the Butlers and Taverners,
the Carters and Wagners,* the Sadlers and Girdlers,
the Tylers and Slaters, the Cartwrights and Plow-
rights, the Wainwrights and Sievewrights, the Colemans
and Woodyers, the Boxers and Siveyers, the Taylors
* This is from the German : it is equivalent, however, to our ' waggoner.'

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 105
and Drapers, the Plowmans and Thatchers,* the Far
mers and Shepherds, the Cappers and Shoewrights, the
Chapmans\ and Grocers, the Cowpers or Coopers, the
Browkers or Brokers, the Cutlers and Ironmongers,
the Wheelers and Millers, the Tanners and Glovers,
the Oxlads and Steermans, the Wrights and Joiners,
the Salters and Spicers, the Grinders and Boulters,
the Poefo and Prophets, the Hedgers and Ditchers, the
Stayners and Gilders, the Moulders and Callenders,
the Miners and Mariners, the Spaders and Harrowers,
the Thrashers and Mowers, the Pursers and Banckers,
the Po«^ and Messengers, the Ensigns and Sargents,
the Beemans and Honeymans, the Pilots and Caulkers,
the Copperwrights and Staplers, the Drivers and
Drovers, the Milliners and Collarmakers, the Bellmans
and Paviours, the Trappers and Ginmans, the Lawyers
and Barristers, the Scholars and Preachers, the
Jugglers and Praters, the Stonecutters and Day-
laborers, the Stalkers and Challengers, the Talkers
and Laughers, the Ashburners and Mustardmakers, the
Bards and Rhymers, the Gardeners and Tollers, the
Cardmakers and Bookers, the Armorers and Furbishers,
the Shipwrights and Goodwrights, the Marchants and
Brewers, the Pipers and Vidlers, the Homers and
Drummers, the Bellringers and Hornblowers, the Mer-
ketmans and Fairmans, the Cooks and Porters, the
Hosiers and Weavers, the Caterers and Cheesemans,
the Colliers and Sawyers, the Turners and Naylors,
(nail-makers,) the Potters and Potmans, the Hoopers
* Thacker, and the German Decker, and Dutch Dekker, have the same
meaning. t " Chapman was formerly a seller, a eAeap-man, from ' chepe,' a
market, and it is still used in this sense legally, as when we say ' dealer
and chapman.' " — Knight's Shakspere.
5§

106 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
and Hookers, the Portmans and Ferrimans, the Poti-
carys and Farriers, the Sellers and Salemans, the Fire-
mans and Watermans, the Plummers and Glaisyers,
the Alemans and Barleymans, the Skinners and Woolers,
the Paynters and Dyers, the Mercers and Bucklers, the
Workmans and Pedlars, the Boardmans and Inmans,
the Chandlers and Pressmans, the Fiddlers and Players,
the Rhymers and Readers, the Oastlers and Tappers,
the Whiters and Blackers, the Grooms and Stallmans,
the Ropers and Corders, the Twiners and Stringers,
the Leadbeaters and Stonehewers, to which may be
added from the Nona Rolls — whether extinct or not I
cannot say, the Quarreours, the Swepers, the Water-
leders, the Lymberners and the Candlemakers.
A very great number of words obsolete in our lan
guage, or borrowed from other languages, and there
fore unintelligible to all but philologists and antiqua
ries, are retained in surnames, which thus furnish the
etymologist with many an agreeable reminiscence of
the pursuits and manners of our ancestors. Thus
Sutor,* is the Latin, Old English, and Saxon (sutere)
for shoemaker ; Latimer is a writer of Latin, or as
Camden has it " an interpretour." Chaucer, like
Sutor, signifies a member of the gentle craft. Leech,
the Anglo-Saxon (lasce) for physician, is still partially
retained in some parts of the country in " cow-leech,"
a business usually connected with that of the farrier.
Henry the First, according to Robert of Gloucester,

-TOllrtJ of a Iampwgt to tti,

JSut hfe Etches htm berfcrtir, bor gt mas a ftble mttt."
* The native of Lancashire and the lover of Scottish song will under
stand the meaning of this term without my aid. Soutar, Sowter, Shuter,
and Suter are only variations of the same name.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 107
Thwaytes, according to Verstegan, means a feller of
wood, an etymology supported by the A.-S. verb
' thweotan,' to cut, exscindere. Barker is synonymous
with Tanner. In the dialogue between King Edward
the Fourth and the Tanner of Tamworth, in Percy's
Reliques, we have the following lines :
" What craftsman art thou, said the King,
I pray thee telle me trowe ?
I am a Barker, Sir, by my trade,
Now tell me, what art thou ?."
Jenner is an old form of joiner, Bowcher of butcher,
and Milner of miller. A Lorimer is a maker of hits
for bridles, spurs, &c. There is or was a " Lorimers'
Company" in London. An Arkwright was in old
times a maker of meal-chests, an article found in every
house when families dressed their own flour. Furner
is an anglicised form of Fournier (French), a man
who keeps an oven or four, a baker, (a baker is still
called a fourner in some parts of Kent) ; Lavender of
Lavandier, a washerman; {Launder and Lander are
further contractions of the same word) ; and Pullinger
of Boulanger a baker. A Pargiter is a plasterer : the
terms ' pargetting' and ' parge-work' are of common
use in medieval documents in the sense of ornamental
plastering :
" Some men wyll have their wallys plastered, some
pergetted and whytlymed, some roughecaste."
Hormani Vulgaria quoted in Gloss, of Architecture.
A Dawber is also a plasterer, but probably for a
plainer part of the trade. A ' wimple' was a kind of
tippet or kerchief for the neck and shoulders of four
teenth-century ladies ; hence Wympler. Webbe, Webber,
(and Weber from the German,) are equivalent to

108 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
weaver ; a Sayer is an assayer of metals ; Tucker, a
fuller ; and Shearman one who shears worsteds, fustians,
&c. — an employment formerly known at Norwich by
the designation of " shermancraft ;"* Banister is the
keeper of a bath ; a Pointer was a maker of " points,"
an obsolete article of dress ; and a Pilcher a maker of
pilches, a warm kind of upper garment, the great-coat
of the fourteenth century ; hence Chaucer :
" After gret hete cometh cold,
No man cast his pylch away."t
Kidder and Kidman are obsolete words for huxter,
(Goth, "kyta," to deal, hawk), Hellier for tyler, slater,
or thatcher, (A.-S. helan,) and Crowther (and Crowder)
for one who plays upon the crowd, an antient stringed
instrument, the prototype of the modern violin, called
in Welsh cmvth, and in Irish cruit. Spenser, in his
Epithalamion, has
" The pipe, the tabor, and the trembling croud."
A Conder was a person stationed on the sea-shore to
watch the approach of the immense shoals of pilchards
and herrings, and give notice thereof to the fishermen
by certain understood signals, it being, singularly, a
fact, that those migrations cannot be perceived at sea,
although from the shore they appear literally to darken
the deep. In Cornwall these men are called Hewers
* " As for the cloth of my ladies, Hen. Cloughe putt it to a shereman
to dight, and he sold the cloth and ran away."— Plumpton Cor., Camd.
Soc. p. 30.
t The A.-S. pylcbe, whence Pilcher, is equivalent to our (or rather to
the French) pelisse, which is derived immediately from the Latin petlis,
pellicum, skin or fur. A pilcher was also a scabbard, as being made of
hide or leather. Mercutio says to Tybalt, " Will you pluck your sword
out of the pitcher by the ears ?"

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 109
(a name probably derived from the A.-S. eawian, to
show), and hence the surnames Hewer, Huer, and Ewer.
A Ridler was a maker of sieves ; a Wait is a minstrel ;
aFricker (A.-S. 'fricca'), a crier or preacher; a Tranter,
a carrier; and a Footman, a messenger.
In the north of England a " hack" means a mattock
or axe ; hence Hackman is possibly either the maker or
the user of such an implement. Crocker (and perhaps
Croker) means a maker of coarse pottery. The word
' crock,' in the provincial dialects of the south, signifies
a large barrel-shaped jar. It was in general use in
Chaucer's days :
" Spurn not as doth a crocke against a wal."
Maunder (from the Old Eng. verb ' maund,' to beg,)
is beggar, and Card, a word still in use in Scotland,
means a travelling tinker ! ' Napery' is household
linen ; hence Napper probably stands for a manufacturer
or seller of that article. Seamer is the A.-S. for tailor,
and Lomer for a maker of ' lomes' or tubs. Fortner is
believed to mean a combatant in a tilting match, from
the old English ' fortuny,' a tournament — the issue of
such conflicts being very much dependent upon fortune
or chance. Sanger is singer. Monger (A.-S. mancgere
and monger) is merchant. The monger of Saxon times
was a much more important personage than those who,
in our days, bear the name. He was the prototype of
the merchant- princes of the nineteenth century ; he was
a dealer in many things (unde nomen) which his ship-
men brought from many lands ; but our modern mon
gers, be they Ironmongers, Cheesemongers, Fellmongers,
Woodmongers, or Icemongers (?), traffic chiefly in a
single article. All these compounds stand, I believe,
as surnames, but Horsemonger, Newsmonger, Match-

HO ENGLISH SURNAMES.
monger, and Costardmonger, (i. e. a dealer in apples,)
have never been used as such.
Tyerman and Tireman probably mean a maker of
ornaments for the head; tire being, as Johnson sup
poses, a corruption either of ' tiara' or of ' attire.'
" On her head she wore a tire of gold,
Adorned with gems and ouches." Spenser.
" Round tires like the moon." Isaiah, c. iii, v. 18.
'Tirewoman,' an obsolescent word, meaning one
whose business it is to make dresses for the head, is re
tained by Johnson. Perhaps, however, the TyerMAn
of olden times was no man-milliner, but followed the
more masculine occupation of making ready the furni
ture of the battle-field :
" Immediate sieges and the tire of war,
Rowl in thy eager mind." Philips.
Lunhunter has cost me conjectures not a few. An
ingenious correspondent suggests the two following
etymons : I . Lone, solitary, having no companion — one
who hunted by himself. 2. Loon, Icelandic ' lunde,'
a sea-fowl of the genus Colymbus — a hunter of that
species of bird. I confess that it would have been more
satisfactory had my correspondent identified lun or lund
with some quadruped bearing such trivial or provincial
appellation. Shipster is the Anglo-Saxon 'scip-styra,' ship-steerer
or pilot. " Gogle-eyed Tomson, shepster of Lyn." Cocke Lorelle's Bote.
Comber, Camber, and the feminine form Kempster,
are from 'came,' and 'kembe,' old forms of comb, and
are synonymous with Coomber, a wool-comber. Carder,
Towzer, and Tozer, point to another branch of the

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. Ill
same craft : ' toze' and ' towse' are synonymous with
tease : "  Upon the stone

His wife sat near him teasing matted wool,
While from the twin cards tooth'd with glittering wire
He fed the spindle of his youngest child."
To 'toom' is to take wool off the cards — hence
Toomer ; a ' slay' is an instrument belonging to a loom,
whence Slaymaker. A Blower, sometimes corrupted to
Blore, was the man who superintended the blast at a
furnace. A Raper is a ropemaker ; a Tupman a breeder
of rams, called in some places ' tups ;' and a Tilman a
farm-labourer ; ' Note' in the North signifies oxen or
neat cattle : hence Notman, which might appear to
belong to a coward, really denotes a cowherd ! Vacher
is certainly a cow-keeper. Akerman is the A.-S. 'secer-
mon,' a fieldman or husbandman; Flatman, 'flot-mon,'
a sailor; Firman, 'ferd-mon,' a soldier; and Score is
probably the 'sceawere,' beholder, spectator, or spy, of
the same language. In the fourteenth century the
jurats of Pevensey, co. Sussex, were called ' skawers,'
in the sense of overseers or superintendents of the
marshes. A Tasker is a thrasher, and occurs in that
sense in the fifteenth century, — ' Triturator, a tasker.'
(Halliw.) Tubman, Tupper, and Dubber are probably synony
mous with the Germ. ' Taubmann,' a maker of tubs.
' Daube' in that language is a stave used in making
tubs, and to 'dub,' a piece of wood, in the language of
our shipwrights and coopers, means to fashion it with
an adze.
Pulter, Potter, and Poulter are the original and true
forms of poulterer (to which, as in the cases of fruiterer,
upholsterer, &c. an extra -er has been added). In the

112 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
directions to the Lord Mayor of London for the re
ception of the suite of Charles V when he visited
Henry VIII, appears this,
" Item, to appoynt iiij putters to serve for the said persons of all maner
pultry," and the same king incorporated a "Poulters' Company."
Cramer is German (kramer), and signifies a retail
dealer. A 'cade' is a cask; hence Cadman is a maker of cades
or kegs. Cade, in this sense, was used in Shakspeare's
days : " Cade. We John Cade, so termed of our supposed father."
" Dick. Or rather of stealing a cade of herrings .'"
Hen. VI. Act iv, Sc. 2.
In the same play we have an illustration of the
name Shearman, before mentioned (page 108). George
Bevis loquitur :
" I tell thee, Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the commonwealth
and turn it, and set a new nap upon it." Act iv, Sc. 2.
Stafford (to Cade.)
" Villain, thy father was a plasterer, and thou thyself a shearman, art
thou not ?"
' Aledraper,' a cant term applied to the keeper of an
alehouse, is probably of too modern date to have become
a family name, yet we have the equally ridiculous de
signation, Alefounder. A Satcher is a maker of sacks
or satchells, and a Kilner is a man who attends a fur
nace or kiln, A ' slop' is a kind of cloak or mantle,
also a buskin or boot much used in the fifteenth cen
tury — hence Sloper*
* The modern stop-seller, or dealer in ready-made clothes, probably
owes his designation to this source.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 113
As a general rule, all names terminating with er
indicate some employment or profession, er is un
questionably derived from the Anglo-Saxon ' wer' or
'were' a man; hence Salter is Salt-maw, and Miller,
Mill-maw. These terminations er and man are often
used interchangeably; thus we have Potter and Pottman,
Tiler and Tileman, Carter and Cartman, Wooler and
Woolman, cum multis aliis. Besides these, we have
Horseman, Palfriman, Coltman, Padman (a ' pad' was
an easy-paced nag), Wainman (corrupted to Wenman),
Carman, Coachman, Boatman, Clothman, Seaman, Tub
man, and Spelman, which, Camden says, means 'learned
man,' but which, I should rather say, signifies a man
who worked by ' spells' or turns with another, if indeed
it be not intended for a necromancer, charmer, or
worker of spells.
Tha ongunnon lease men wyrcan ' spell.'
Then began false men to work spells. Boet. 38, i.
I may add, however, that ' spelman' is the Swedish,
and ' speilmann' the German, for a wandering musi
cian, while ' spielman' in the Scottish dialect means a
climbing man.
A ' spill' is a spindle or a lath; hence Spiller, Speller,
and Spillman may be makers of spindles or makers of
laths. The latter business, it may be observed, still
maintains its existence as a separate branch of employ
ment in some districts.
One of the most singular features in this department
of our family nomenclature is the existence of several
surnames terminating in -ster, which is the regular
Anglo-Saxon form of feminine nouns of action, as er is
of masculine ones. The word ' Spinster' is the regular
feminine of ' spinner' and not of bachelor, as Lindley

114 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Murray would have us suppose. Bacestre, sangstre,
and seamestre, are the regular feminines of bmcere,
baker, sang ere, singer, and seamere, tailor; hence it is
evident that —
Tapster is the feminine of Tapper.
Baxter and Bagster Baker.
Whitster „ Whiter (a fuller.)
Webster „ Webber (weaver.)
Kempster „ Kember (comber.)*
Sangster „ Sanger (singer.)
Fewster „ Fewer (A.-S. feoh-fee) a feofee.
Brewster „ Brewer.
That the business of brewing was antiently carried
on by women is evident from the following authorities :
In Sir John Skene's Borough Laws, 'Browsters' are
described as ' Wemen quha brewes aill to be sauld.'
" Gif she makes gude ail," says an old Scottish statute,
" that is sufficient. Bot gif she makes evill ail she
shall pay aucht shillinges or sail be put upon the cock-
stule, and the aill sail be distributed to the pure
folke." In the Custumal of the town of Rye we read,
" if a bruster, free, hath made ale, and sell it in the
foreign, in fairs or in markets, and the lord of the soil
will distress her against her will for the sale of the
said ale, &c."t
Mr. Poulson, in his ' History of Beverley,' observes
that "Artificers were by statute of 27, Edw. Ill, c. 5, 6.
tied down to one occupation with an exception of
female brewers, bakers, weavers, spinners and other
women employed upon works in wool, linen, or silk
* Pectriw, a ' kempster.' Nominale MS.
t Holloway's Rye, p. 155.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 115
embroidery, &c. If this act had been in the language
of the country, the same terms would have been used
as will frequently occur in these pages, namely
Brewster, Baxter, Webster, &c, the termination ster
signifying a woman (not a man) who brews, bakes,
weaves, &c." The same learned writer thus shows
how these names of feminine employments could be
come hereditary surnames : " When men began to in
vade those departments of industry by which women
used to earn an honest livelihood, they retained the
feminine appellations for some time, as men-midwives
and men-milliners do now ; but afterwards masculine
words drove the feminine ones out of the language, as
men had driven the women out of the employments.
' Spinster' still retains its genuine termination ; and
the language of the law seems to presume that every
unmarried woman is employed in spinning."*
Dexter appears to be a feminine form — but of what ?
Although no such word as ' daegestre' occurs in the
Saxon dictionary, may it not be a compound of ' daeg,'
' dag,' day, and the feminine termination alluded to,
and so signify a woman that works by the day — a
charwoman ?
Pewtress looks like the feminine of pewterer, but I am
not aware that this calling was ever carried on by women.
There is a string of names derived from occupations
which sound right oddly when placed in juxta-position,
* Beverlac, p. 128. This curious subject deserves further illustration;
but it belongs rather to general etymology than to my special department.
I cannot, however, pass unnoticed a singular fact in relation to the words
younker and youngster, the former of which is the proper masculine, and
the latter the correct feminine. In the mutation which nearly the whole
of this class of words has undergone, younker has been discarded from
the vocabulary of polite persons, and degraded to a nautical vulgarism,
while youngster has been transferred from the girl to the boy !

116 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
and which, primd facie, would appear to be fully as
applicable to the equine as to the human species;
namely, Traveller, Walker, Ryder, Ambler, Trotter,
Hopper, Skipper, Jumper, and Hobler ! Of these, Tra
veller was probably given to some one who, like
Maundevile, had visited 'straunge contries and ilands.'
A Trotter (synonymous with Trotman) was the run
ning-footman of the middle ages. So early as the
thirteenth century we find the word latinized ' Trotta-
rius ;' and in some monkish statutes of the date of 1218,
mentioned by Fosbroke, it is enjoined that " everyone
be content with a horse and a trotter." In the MS.
romance of Aubrey the hero's valet is called his trotting
servitor — son serjant trotier, and it is from this expres
sion that Taylor, the water-poet, speaks of a trotting
footman.* Walker signifies either (A.-S. wealcere) a fuller, f
or an officer, whose duty consisted in ' walking" or in
specting a certain space of forest-ground. Rider
means another forest officer, a superintendent (as I
take it) of the ' walkers,' — a ranger, who derived his
name from the circumstance of his being mounted, as
having a larger district to supervise. In the ballad of
' William of Cloudesley,' &c. the king, rewarding the
dexterity of the archer who shot the apple from his
child's head, says : —
" I give thee eightene-pence a day,
And my bowe thou shalt bere,
And over all the north countre,
I make thee chyfe rydereV'X Percy's Reliques.
* Encyclopaedia of Antiq., voc. Running-footman.
f In the North of England a fulling-mill is still called a ' waZi-mill,'
and at Alfrich, co. Worcester, there are some thin strata of unctuous clay
of a whitish hue, still called "walker's clay." Ex inf. Jabez Allies, Esq. f.s.a.
J It is worthy of remark, however, that Ryder, Lord Harrowby claims
from Ryther in Yorkshire.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 117
Ambler, antiently le Amblour, is from the French,
' ambleur,' an officer of the king's stable. Hopper
probably signified an officer who had the care of swans.
By swan-' hopping,' or ' upping,' was meant the search
ing for and marking of the swans belonging to parti
cular proprietors. It must not be forgotten, however,
that the A.-S. hoppere means a dancer. Skipper
(A.-S. scipere, a sailor) is a very ancient term for the
captain or master of a vessel ; Jumper possibly meant
a maker of 'jumps,' that is, a kind of short coats or
boddices for women;* while Hobler is most unques
tionably a contraction of ' hobbelar' or ' hobiler,' a
person who by the tenure of his lands was obliged to
keep a hobby or light horse, to maintain a watch by the
side of a beacon, and to alarm the countryf in case of
the enemy's approach in the day-time, when the fire of
the beacons would not be discernible from a distance.
It would seem also that the term was sometimes used
to signify persons of an equestrian order, lower in
dignity than knights, and probably mounted on meaner
and smaller animals. In an antient romance we read
of " Ten thousand knights stout and fers (fierce)
Withouten hobelers and squyers."
The etymology of Dancer is sufficiently obvious;
the first of that name doubtless possessed peculiar skill
in the art saltatory. Perhaps, after all, the names
Hopper and Jumper were acquired by proficiency in
the gymnastic exercises to which at first sight they
seem to refer.
Massenger is an evident corruption of the French
' messager,' a messenger, a bearer of despatches, &c.
* Bailey's Dictionary. t Fenn's Paston Letters.

118 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Pottinger is the Scottish for apothecary,* and Lardner
is an obsolete word for swine-herd, or rather a person
who superintended the pannage of hogs in a forest.
Names of the foregoing description, however mean
in their origin, are now frequently found among the
highest classes of society. The names Collier and
Salter are, or have been, in the British peerage,
although those occupations were once considered so
menial and vile that none but bondmen would follow
them. Some names of this sort have been changed in
orthography to hide their original meanness ; " molli
fied ridiculously," as Master Camden hath it, " lest
their bearers should seem vilified by them." Carteer,
Smeeth, Tayleure,f Cuttlar, &c, are frequently met
with as the substitutes of Carter, Smith, Tailor, and
Cutler. " Wise was the man that told my Lord Bishop
that his name was not Gardener as the English pro
nounce it, but Gardiner, with the French accent, and
therefore a gentleman.''^
Some names have reference to military pursuits, as
Arblaster,\ Hookman, Billman, Spearman, Bowman,
Bannerman. The number and variety of surnames connected with
the pleasures of the chase furnish evidence of the pre
dilection of our progenitors for field-sports. Thus we
have in great abundance our Hunters, Fowlers, Fishers,
Falconers, {Faulkners, and Faivkeners,) Hawkers, Anglers,
Warreners, Bowyers, and Bowmakers, Stringers, that is
* Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary.
t A Mr. Taylor who had by " ridiculous mollification'7 become Mr.
Tayfawe, once haughtily demanding of a farmer the name of his dog, the
honest son of the soil replied, " Why, sir, his proper name is Jowler, but
since he's a consequential kind of puppy, we calls him Jouleure .'"
t Camden. § Vide infra.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 119
bow-string makers, Arrow-smiths, Fletchers (from the
Fr. ' fleche'), that is, either an arrow-maker, or more
generally, a superintendent of archery. But some of
these may be official names, and, therefore, more pro
perly belong to my next chapter. Buckmaster, Buck-
man, Hindman, Stagman, and Hartman were probably
servants to the ' Parker,' and had the care of herds of
venison. Brockman is a hunter of ' brocks' or badgers.
A ' tod' in Scotland and the North of England, is a
fox; hence Todhunter is a foxhunter, though not in
the red-coated sense of that term. A northern cor
respondent informs me that he knows an old man, a
destroyer of foxes, who calls himself, and is called, the
"Old Tod-hunter of Grapington," in Craven. The
expression " wily tod " occurs in the writings of
Wy cliff e.* Bur der signifies a bird-catcher or fowler,
as the following jest, written upwards of three centuries
since, will prove -. —
" There was a doctour on a tyme, whiche desired a
fouler, that went to catche byrdes with an owle, that
he might go with hym. The byrder was content, and
dressed him with bows, and set hym by his oule, and
bade him say nothynge. When he saw the byrdes a
lyght a pace, he sayde : There be many byrdes alyghted,
drawe thy nettes, where-with the byrdes flewe awaye.
The byrder was very angry, and blamed him greatly
for his speakyng. Than he promysed to hold his peace.
When the byrder was in again and many byrdes were
alyghted, mayster Doctour said in Latyn, Aves per-
mtjlte adstjnt : wherwith the byrdes flewe away. The
byrder came out ryghte angrye and sore displeased, and
sayde, that by his bablynge he had twyse loste his pray.
* Todman also occurs as a surname.

120 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
' Why, thynkest thou, foole,' quoth the doctour, ' that
the byrdes do vnderstand Latin ?' "*
' Low' is the Scottish for fire, and ' low-bellers' are,
according to Blount,t men " who go with a light and
a bell, by the sight whereof birds, sitting on the ground,
become somewhat stupified, and so are covered with a
net and taken." Hence Lower is perhaps a bird-
catcher. The Teutonic ' loer' is one who lays snares,
and Lowrie in the Scottish dialect signifies a crafty
person, in allusion probably to the same occupation.
In the records of the Middle Ages the surnames of
individuals are generally latinized, and the Latin ex
pressions seem occasionally to have superseded the ori
ginal English ones. Hence Mercator, Tonsor, Faber,
in this class, are still found as family names.
Although the opinion of Verstegan, cited in the
motto of the present chapter, is supported by th»
strongest possible evidence as to the vast majority ofi
instances, it is equally certain that in a fe\yfa cases
names of trades have been given as cognomens. "copper-
sons above the plebeian rank. For example, Willelmus"
Faber, a Norman monk who enjoyed the favour of
William the Conqueror, and assisted him in the foun
dation of Battel Abbey on the site of the conflict which
had given him the crown, acquired his surname from
the following circumstance. As he was engaged one
day with his brethren in the not very ascetic pursuit of
hunting, the party had exhausted their arrows, and
were fain to apply to a neighbouring blacksmith for a
new stock of these missiles; but the mechanic being
unskilled in this kind of work, William seized his tools
and presently produced an arrow of excellent work-
* Tales and Quicke Answers, very mery, &c.
t Law Dictionary.

OCCUPATIONS AND PURSUITS. 121
manship. Hence his companions jocularly called him
Faber, or the smith, a name which he was unable
afterwards to lay aside.*
The following somewhat analogous instance may well
excite the reader's astonishment : the surname Butcher
was given as a title of honour. " Le Boucher," says
Saintfoix, "was antiently a noble surname given to a
general after a victory, in commemoration of his
having slaughtered some thirty or forty thousand men!"f
Horribile dictu ! — henceforward let all lovers of peace
exclaim, " One murder makes a villain ; millions a Butcher !"

NOTE TO CHAPTER VI.

With respect to the application of the surnames
treated of in the foregoing Chapter, we may observe that
there was much greater propriety in making the names
of occupations stationary family names than appears
at first sight ; for the same trade was often pursued for
many generations by the descendants of the individual
who in the first instance used it. Sometimes a parti
cular trade is retained by most of the male branches
of a family even for centuries. Thus the family of
* Quod cum sodalibus venatum alkjuando profectus, sagittis forte de-
ficientibus, cum quendam fabrum hujuscemodi operis ignarum adissent,
ipse malleis arreptis mox sagittam artificio ingenio compegit. Hinc Fabri
nomen obtinuit. — Chronicon Monasterii de Bella.
f Le Boucher etoit anciennement un surnom ghrieux, qn'on donnoit a
un general, apres unevictoire — en reconnoisance du carnage qu'il avoitfait
de trente ou quarante millehommes. — Saintfoix, Historical Essays.
i. 6

122 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Oxley, in Sussex, were nearly all smiths or iron-founders
during the long period of 250 years. Most of the
Ades of the same county have been farmers for a still
longer period. The trade of weaving has been carried
on by another Sussex family named Webb (weaver) as
far back as the traditions of the family extend, and it
is not improbable that this business has been exercised
by them ever since the first assumption of the term as
a surname, by some fabricator of cloth in the thirteenth
or fourteenth century. But the most remarkable in
stance of the long retention of a particular avocation
by one man's posterity is in the family of Purkess, of
the New Forest in Hampshire. The constant tradition
of the neighbourhood states, that when William Rufus
met his untimely end in that forest, there lived near
the fatal oak a poor " coleman," or maker of charcoal,
who lent his cart for the purpose of conveying the
royal corpse to Winchester, and was rewarded with an
acre or two of land round his hut. His immediate
descendants of the same name live there still, and yet
carry on the same trade, without one being richer than
another for it. This family is deemed the most antient
in the county. {Gough's Camden.) According to a
recent newspaper paragraph, the last representative of
this antient plebeian line is lately deceased.

CHAPTER VII.

OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
DIGNITIES, AND FROM OFFICES.

LOSELY allied to the Surnames dis
cussed in the preceding chapter are
those which were originally borrowed
from dignities and offices.
The following lists of names of this
class are arranged according to the

rules of precedence.

CIVIL DIGNITIES.

Emperor,

Lord,

King,

Knight,

Prince,

Chevalier,

Duke,

Squire,

Marquis,

Gentleman,

Earle,

Yeoman ;

Barron {sic),

to which may be added the corrupt latinizations,
Prinsep (princeps), and Arminger (armiger.)

124 ENGLISH SURNAMES.

ECCLESIASTICAL DIGNITIES.

Pope, Cardinal,
Bishop, Bysshopp, &c.
Abbott,Prior, Pryor,
Dean (qu. local?),
Archdeacon, Rector,
Parsons,
Vicar (Vickers),

Priest,
Deacon, Deakin, &c.
Clerk, Clarke, &c*
Chaplin (Caplin ?),
Friar, Fryer, Freere,
Frere (Chaucer, passim),
Monk,
Nunn (!),
Saxton ;

and the latinized form, Pontifex ; to which may be
added, Benet (now Bennett), one of the orders of the
Catholic church, the ' exorcista,' conjuror, or caster out
of evil spirits, and Colet, an acolyte, the fourth of the
minor orders of priests. " Boniface V," says Becon,
" decreed that such as were but benet and colet should
not touch the reliques of saints, but they only which
are subdeacons, deacons, and priests."f Noviss (novice)
is likewise a surname, and Lister is in all probability
the Anglo-Saxon ' listre,' a person who read some part
of the church service.
The following offices have lent their designations as
surnames : Alderman, Bailey, Beadle, Botiler or Butler,
Burgess, Chancellor, Chamberlayne, Constable, Castellan,
Champion (and Campion), Councilman, Catchpole,
Forester, Falconer (often written Falconar, and still
oftener Fawkner and Faulkner), Groome, Henchman,
* Adam the clerk, son of Philip the scribe, occurs as the designation of
a person mentioned in an antient record at Newcastle.
f Way's Prompt. Parv. in voc. ' Benett.'

OFFICIAL. 125
Legatt (i. e. legate), Mayor (with its French form
Lemaire, anitheO.'Eiig.Meyer),Marshall,Provost (with
its corruption Provis), Page, Proctor, Porter, Portman,
Ranger, Reeve (pluralized to Reeves), Steward (and
Stewart or Stuart, by crasis Sturt?), Sizar, Sheriff
(with Shireff), Serjeant (corruptly Sargent), Tipstaff,
Ussher, Warden, and Woodreeve, with its various forms
of Woodriff, Woodroafe, Woodruff, Woodrough, and
(probably) Woodrow.
The names of many offices, obsolete either as to
themselves or as to their antient designations, are re
tained as family names, as —
Chalmers (Scot.)= Camerarius, chamberlain.
Le Despenser, corruptly Spencer, a steward. Horden
has the same import. The ancestor of the family of
Spencer, Duke of Marlborough, was ' dispensator' or
steward to the household of William the Conqueror.
Grosvenor, antiently held the office of le Gros Veneur,
or great huntsman to the Dukes of Normandy.
Bannerman, in Scotland, was a name of office, borne
by the king's standard-bearer. It was an hereditary
post, and existed temp. Malcolm IV, and William the
Lion.* ' Seneschal,' a steward, is now vilely corrupted to
Snashall !
Staller, according to Camden, is a standard-bearer.
Foster, a - nourisher — one who had the care of the
children of great men. We have also Nurse, as a sur
name. Foster, however, is sometimes a corruption of
'forester.' Kempe, a soldier, especially one who engaged in single
combat. In this sense it has been revived in the works
* Nisbet. Syst. of Heraldry, vol. i, p. 405.

126 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
of Sir Walter Scott. Kempes and kemperye-men for
warriors or fighting-men occur in the ballad of King
Estmere in Percy's Reliques :
" They had not ridden scant a myle,
A myle forthe of the towne,
But in did come the kynge of Spayne,
With kempes many a one.
Up then rose the kemperye-men
And loud they gan to crye
Ah ! traytors, you have slayne our kynge,
And therefore you shall dye."
A kemper is still used in Norfolk in the sense of a
stout, hearty, old man — a veteran. The A.-S. cempa
has also supplied us with the surnames Camp, Champ,
and Camper. Campion and Champion have come to us
through the French, from the same root. The Swedish
Kempenfelt and the Spanish Campeador belong to this
family. Kimber is also synonymous; " kimber, enim,
homo bellicosus, pugil robustus, miles, &c. significat."*
' Bate' is conflict, contention ; and hence Bateman is
a member of the same belligerent tribe.
Segar and Seagar, (A.-S. sigere), a vanquisher. So
says Verstegan ; but a Northern correspondent informs
me that this is a provincialism for ' sawyer.'
Wardroper, a keeper of the royal wardrobe : the
officer bore this designation temp. Hen. VIII.
Latimer. This name was first given to Wrenoc ap
Merrick, a learned Welshman, who held certain lands
by the service of being latimer or interpreter between
the Welsh and the English ; and the name of his office
descended to his posterity, who were afterwards ennobled
as English peers. f The older and more correct form is
* Sheringham. f Vide Burke's Ext. Peerage.

OFFICIAL. 127
Miner, one who understands Latin. Maundevile directs
travellers to take with them "Latyneres to go with hem
into tyme (until) they conne the langage."
Valvasour (now more generally written Vavasour),
an office or dignity taking rank below a baron, and
above a knight. Bracton says, "there are for the civil
government of mankind, emperors, kings, and princes,
magnates, or valvasours, and knights." In the Norman
reigns there was a king's valvasour, whose duty pro
bably consisted in keeping ward ad valvas Regni, at
the entrances and borders of the realm; whence the
name. Arblaster, a corruption of Balistarius, one who
directed the great engines of war used before the in
vention of cannon, a crossbow-man.
" In the kernils (battlements) here and there,
Of Arblastirs grete plentie were j
None armour might ther stroke withstonde,
It were foly to prese to honde." Rom. of the Rose.
From another form of the word — ' Alblastere,' comes
the apparently absurd name Alabaster.
Spigumell, a sealer of writs.
Avery. Camden places this among Christian names,
but query, is it not the name of an office — Aviarius, a
keeper of the birds ? The Charter of Forests (section
14) enacts that "every freeman may have in his woods
avyries of sparhawks, falcons, eagles, and herons." But
there is another distinct derivation of this name, for
avery, according to Bailey, signifies "a place where
the oats {avenae) or provender are kept for the king's
horses." Franklin, a dignity next to the esquires and gentle
men of olden times, the antient representative of the
class of superior freeholders, known in later times as

128 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
country 'squires. Fortescue (De Legibus Angliae, c. 29)
describes a franklein as "pater-familias — magnis ditatus
possessionibus." "Moreover, the same country (namely
England) is so filled and replenished with landed menne,
that therein so small a thorpe cannot be found wherein
dwelleth not a knight or an esquire, or such a house
holder as is there commonly called a franklein, enriched
with great possessions, and also other freeholders and
many yeomen, able for their livelyhood to make a jury
in form aforementioned."* Chaucer's description of a
Franklin is everything that could be wished :
"A Frankelein was in this compagnie;
White was his herd, as is the dayesie.
Of his complexion he was sanguin.
Wei loved he by the morwe a sop in win[e]
To liven in delit was ever his wone,
For he was Epicure's owen sone,
That held opinion that plein delit
Was veraily felicite parfite.
An housholder, and that a grete was he ;
Seint Julian,-)- he was in his contree ;
His brede, his ale, was alway after on ;
A better envyned% man was no wher non,
Withouten bake-mete never was his hous,
Of fish and flesh, and that so plenteous,
It snewed in his hous of mete and drinke,
Of alle daintees that men coud of thinke,
After the sondry sesons of the yere,
So changed he his mete and his soupere.
Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe,
And many a breme, and many a luce in stewe.
Wo was his coke, but if his sauce were
Poinant and sharpe, and ready all his gere.
* Old Translation of Fortescue de L. L. Ang.
f St. Julian was the patron of hospitality.
% Envyned, that is, stored with wine.

OFFICIAL. 129
His table dormant in his halle alway
Stode redy covered alle the long^ day.
At sessions ther was he lord and sire,
Ful often time he was knight of the shire j
An anelace, and a gipciere all of silk
Heng at his girdel, white as morwe milk.
A shereve hadde he ben, and a countour.
Was no wher swiche a worthy vavasour."*
Heriot, a provider of furniture for an army. Versteg.
Cohen, a common name amongst the Jews, signifies
priest. Somner, one whose duty consisted in citing delin
quents to the ecclesiastical courts ; an apparitor. The
office existed in Chaucer's time under the orthography
of sompnoure, literally summoner — sompne being then
the mode of spelling the verb. In the Coventry Mys
teries we have the following :
" Sim Somnor, in hast wend thou thi way,
Byd Joseph, and his wyff,.be name,
At the coorte to apper this day,
Hem to pourge of her defame."
Chaucer's portrait of the Sompnour is one of the best
in his inimitable gallery. He
" . . . hadde a fire-red cherubinnes face
With scalled browes blake and pilled herd,
Of his visage children were sore aferd.
[He loved] to drinke strong win as rede as blood,
Then wolde he speke, and crie as he were wood.
And whan that he wel dronken had the win,
Than wolde he speken no word but Latin.
Afewi termes coudef he, two or three
That he had lerned out of som decree ;

* Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Vol. i, p. 44. Edit. 1825.
f He knew.
6§

130 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
No wonder is, he herd it all the day ;
And eke ye knowen wel, how that a jay
Can clepen watte, as wel as can the pope.
But who so wolde in other thing him grope,*
Than hadde he spent all his philosophie,
Ay, Questio quid juris, wolde he crie," &c. &c.f
To this list of official names I may add Judge ; but
how the word Jury became the name of a single person
I do not pretend to guess. (On reconsideration, 'Jury'
appears to be a corrupt spelling of Jewry, and is there
fore a local name. That part of a city or town inha
bited by Jews was formerly styled 'the Jewrie,' as the
Old Jewry in London. Chaucer, in his Prioress's Tale
(14899), says :
" There was in Acy (Asia) in a great citee,
Amonges Cristen folk a Jewerye,
Susteyned by a lord of that contre,
For foul usure, and lucre of felonye,
Hateful to Crist and to his compaigne :
And thurgh the strete men might ride and wende,
For it was fre, aud open at everich ende."
Foreman was probably adopted by some one who had
served on a jury in that capacity. Association of ideas
reminds me of another important functionary, Dempster,
the common hangman, unless indeed it signify a judge
of the Isle of Man, as the judges of that little kingdom
formerly bore this designation. Lockman is a Scottish
word for the public executioner.
Several names end in grave, meaning a steward or
disposer; as Waldegrave, a steward of the forest ; Mar
grave, a steward or warden of the marches or frontiers;
Hargrave, the provider of an army. I think, however,
that these names were not indigenous to England, but
* Examine. t Cant. Tales, Prologue.

OFFICIAL. 131
brought from Germany, where <BVHt is synonymous
with count, and ' Pfalzgraf,' whence our Palgrave, is a
count-palatine. Grave, in Lancashire, especially in the
disafforested districts, means a constable, and constables'
rates are called ' grave-leys.' A ' dikereeve' or 'dike-
grave,' in Lincolnshire, means one who has the care of
dikes and drains. Dykeman and Dickman probably
signify the same official.
Pilgrim and Palmer are neither offices nor dignities,
yet they may find a place here. The Palmer differed
from a common pilgrim in making a profession of wan
dering. The pilgrim laid aside his weed and cockle
when his pilgrimage was done, and returned to the
world ; but the palmer wandered about incessantly ; his
pilgrimage was only laid aside at death. He derived
his name from the palm-branch he constantly carried as
a pledge of his having been in the Holy Land. In
the church of Snodland, in the diocese of Rochester,
was formerly an inscription to the memory of 
Palmer, of Otford, Esq. containing several puns or
allusions to this name and profession.
" palmers all ofor dfatfers toew,
5 a palmer Ituntl hm,
ah& traujjl'tt SIM, till foorne font!) age,
I triBvtl tftfe foorttf'3 pulgrarnajrs.
<©n the fclnsSt ateSmtton^ag,
In the chrefut month of dWag,
*B. thofotfantr foutfi fofore ijunttrgti, Stum,
Shun took nu) ioxmja tynSt to Sfwnt."
Sir Walter Scott has given us a sketch of a palmer
in "Marmion :"
" Here is a holy Palmer come
From Salem first, and last from Rome,
One that hath kissed the blessed tomb,

132 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
And visited each holy shrine
In Araby and Palestine;
On hills of Armenie hath been,
Where Noah's ark may yet be seen ;
By that Red Sea too hath he trod
Which parted at the Prophet's rod ;
In Sinai's wilderness he saw
The Mount where Israel heard the law,
Mid thunder-dint and flashing levin,*
And shadowy mists and darkness given.
He shows St. James's cockle shell ;
Of fair Montserrat too can tell ;
And of that Grot where olives nod,
Where, darling of each heart and eye,
From all the youth of Sicily
Saint Rosalie retired to God.
*****
His sable cowl o'erhung his face ;
In his black mantle was he clad ;
With Peter's keys in cloth of red
On his broad shoulders wrought ;
The scallop-shell his cap did deck ;
The crucifix around his neck
Was from Loretto brought ;
His sandals were with travel tore,
Staff, budget, bottle, scrip he wore ;
The faded palm-branch in his hand
Shewed pilgrim from the Holy Land."

* Levin, lightning. I have a cordial hatred of the hypercritical spirit
which delights in preferring the charge of plagiarism against any poet who
happens to express a sentiment in words resembling those of some pre
vious author ; it is not therefore out of any such feeling that I beg to call
the attention of the reader to the striking resemblance between Scott's
line — " Mid thunder-dint and flashing levin,"
and Chaucer's (v. 5858 Wright,)
" With wilde thunder dynt and fuyry levene" —
which is probably purely accidental.

OFFICIAL. 133
The origin of the name of Gear is curious. In the
" olden tyme" great men employed an officer to super
intend the provision of their entertainments and the
equipment of their armed retainers ; and, as all sorts of
wearing apparel, arms,* utensils, and chattels in general,
were called gere or gear, this person would very natu
rally acquire the name oiJohn-of-the-Gear, John-o-Gear,
and, at length, John Gear.
The termination ward indicates some office, and is
equivalent to keeper or custos — thus Milward is the
keeper of a mill (probably some manorial or monastic
mill) ; Kenward, the dog-keeper, or more properly, Kine-
ward, cow-keeper ; Aylward, the ale-keeper ; Durward,
the porter or door-keeper; Hayward, the keeper of a
common herd of cattle belonging to some town ; and
Woodward, a forest-keeper, " an officer that walks with
a forest-bill, and takes cognizance of all offences com
mitted, at the next swain-mote or court of attach
ments, "f Howard certainly belongs to this family of
names, but antiquaries are not agreed as to the meaning
of the first syllable. Camden makes it the high-warden;
Spelman, the hall-keeper ; Verstegan, the keeper of a
strong -hold ; and Skinner, a keeper of hospitality.
What such great names cannot agree upon, I shall
not attempt to decide. Ward also stands as a sur
name, as do Warden and Guard, which have the same
meaning. Costomer, a collector of customs.
* Thus in the old poem of Flodden Field :
" Then did he send Sir William Bulmer,
And bad hym on the borders lye,
With ordinance and other gear,
Each fenced house to fortify."
t Bailey's Diet.

134 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Granger, the superintendent of a grange — a great
farm pertaining to some abbey or priory.
Portman, an officer, now called a portreeve, with
duties similar to those of a mayor. The sessions of
some of the older corporations were formerly called
portmannimotes, or portman's courts.
Landseer, probably a land-steward or bailiff.
Palliser, a person who had the care of the palings of
a park or forest.
Poynder, a bailiff, one who distrains.
The singular name of Twentyman appears to be a
translation of Vintenarius, a military officer who had
the charge of twenty soldiers, as the Centenarius, his
superior, had of a hundred. Both these terms occur
in a muster-roll of temp. Edw. Ill, before me.
Having given this long list of names derived from
titles and offices, I shall next attempt to account for
their having been adopted as the designations of families.
That the first of the name of King, Prince, or Duke,
held either of those dignities is too preposterous for
belief. Nor is it more likely that the inferior titles of
Knight and Squire were so derived, for that would
have been a mean kind of nomenclature. If a person
were really a knight or an esquire, he would prefer
styling himself Sir Roger de Such-a-place, or John So-
and-So, Esquire, to taking the simple designation of
his rank as a surname. Again, in ecclesiastical digni
ties, such names if adopted could not have been perpe
tuated, seeing that all churchmen, from his holiness of
Rome down to the meanest mass-priest, led a life of
celibacy, and consequently had no recognised posterity.
It has been conjectured, however, that these names
indicate bastardy, and that the persons bearing them
are thus bona fide of royal, papal, knightly, squirely, or

DIGNITIES. 135
priestly descent — a plausible surmise, but the proofs
are wanting.
Most of these names, particularly of the secular de
scription, were probably borrowed from the first users
of them having acted or personated such characters in
mysteries or dramatic representations; or from their
having been chosen, as Camden supposes, leaders of the
popular sports of the times, as Kings of the Bean,
Christmas Lords, &c. The same high authority re
minds us that the classical antients had such names as
"Basilius, Archias, Archelaus, Flaminius, Csesarius,
Augustulus, &c, who, notwithstanding, were neither
Kings, Priests, Dukes, nor Caesars;" though Sigonius
thinks the Flaminii and the Pontificii descendants of
persons who held the sacerdotal office.
There are those who think the clerical names ori
ginated from widowers, who had gone into the church
and gained particular offices in it, having given the
designations of such offices as surnames to their chil
dren. The Rev. Mark Noble thinks that such as took
these names held lands under those who really bore
them. This may be true of some of them, both lay
and clerical, but it does not account for the higher
dignities, as Pope and Emperor, which have never
existed in this country. Of all these conjectures,
Camden's, although the most humiliating, seems the
most probable.
The French name of Archevesque (Archbishop) is
thus accounted for. Hugh de Lusignan, an archbishop,
becoming unexpectedly entitled to the seignories of
Parthenay, Soubize, &c, obtained the pope's dispensa
tion to marry, on the condition that his posterity should
take the name of Archbishop, and bear, for ever, a mitre
over their arms.

136 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Mr. Kemble mentions an instance of an Anglo-
Saxon, a. d. 653, who, according to Florence of Wor
cester, bore the name of Benedictus Biscop (bishop),
but who certainly never enjoyed episcopal honours.
And Eadberht, the last trueborn king of Kent, was
surnamed ' Pren/ or the priest : this personage, how
ever, had received ordination to the clerical office
prior to his advancement to the regal dignity.
None of the objections just adduced apply to sur
names borrowed from offices of the inferior kind, as
Steward, Reeve, Parker, &c. ; and we have evidence
that family names were borrowed from the offices held
by the founders of houses. According to Carew, the
Porters of Cornwall derived their name from the office
of porter of Trematon Castle, antiently hereditary in
the family under the Dukes of Cornwall. We have
already seen that the name of Spencer originated in a
similar manner ; but there is a more illustrious instance.
The name of Stuart, borne for centuries by the regal
family of Scotland and England, descended to them
from Walter, grandson of Banquo, who in the eleventh
century was steward of Scotland.
In conclusion, I may remark that these high-sound
ing surnames are a very numerous class. Almost every
village has its King or Prince, or at least its Knight or
Squire. Bishops are, I think, rather more numerous
than parish churches ; and as for Popes, it is no unusual
circumstance to find eight or ten dwelling together in
perfect amity, a thing never heard of at Rome, where
only two have been known to set Christendom in a
blaze ! The following humorous morceau will form an
appropriate tail-piece to my present Chapter.

DIGNITIES. 137
"Cttlt Copgof a jurytaken before Judge Doddridge,
at the assizes holden at Huntingdon, a. d. 1619." [It
is necessary to remark that "the judge had, in the
preceding circuit, censured the sheriff for empanneling
men not qualified by rank for serving on the grand jury,
and the sheriff, being a humourist, resolved to fit the
judge with sounds at least. On calling over the fol
lowing names, and pausing emphatically at the end of
the Christian, instead of the surname, his lordship
began to think he had indeed a jury of quality] :
" Maximilian King of Toseland,
Henry Prince of Godmanchester,
George Duke of Somersham,
William Marquis of Stukeley,
Edmund Earl of Hartford,
Richard Baron of Bythorn,
Stephen Pope of Newton,
Stephen Cardinal of Kimbolton,
Humphrey Bishop of Buckden,
Robert Lord of Waresley,
Robert Knight of Winwick,
William Abbott of Stukeley,
Robert Baron of St. Neots.
William Dean of Old Weston,
John Archdeacon of Paxton,
Peter Esquire of Easton,
Edward Fryer of Ellington,
Henry Monk of Stukeley,
George Gentleman of Spaldwick,
George Priest of Graffham,
Richard Deacon of Catworth.
" The judge, it is said, was highly pleased with this

138 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
practical joke, and commended the sheriff for his inge
nuity. The descendants of some of these illustrious
jurors still reside in the county, and bear the same
names; in particular, a Maximilian King, we are in
formed, still presides over Toseland."*
* History of Huntingdon, 12mo, 1824.

CHAPTER VIII.
OF SURNAMES DEDUCED FROM PERSONAL AND MORAL
QUALITIES ATTRIBUTED TO THEIR ORIGINAL BEARERS.

j|F all the modes of distinguishing an in
dividual (observes Salverte) " the most
natural, and the one which best unites
the identity and the name of the per
son, is that of giving a designation
which relates to his most conspicuous
qualities," — and a truly prolific source of nomenclature
it has been.
In almost all countries, and in nearly every stage of
civilization, individuals have been denominated from
some physical quality or external peculiarity. The
Greeks had their Pyrrhus, Chlorus, Strabo, Chryses ;
the Romans their Candidus, Rutilus, Longus, Paulus ;
the French their Blond, Petit, Front-de-Bceuf; and the
Anglo-Saxons their Micel, Swanhals, Irensida.
So also of moral and mental peculiarities : the
Greeks imposed such names as Agathias, Andragathius,
Sophocles; the Romans, such as Pius, Prudentius,
Constans; the Anglo-Saxons, such as Prat, Alfred,
Godard; and the French, such as Le Sage, Le Bon,
Genereux, Prudent.
These were all in their primary application strictly
personal, though in the course of time they became,

140 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
like the other classes already discussed, generic and
hereditary designations among modern nations.
Colour and Complexion have given rise to such
surnames as Black, Blackman, Blaunkfrount (i. e. white
face), Browne, Dark, Darkman, Fair, Fairbaim (Scot.),
Fairchild, Fagg (A.-S. faeg), discoloured, pale, Lilywhite,
Motley, Pink, Rufus, Rous, Russell (and the French
Rousseau — these four mean ' red'), Redman, Ruddiman,
Silversides, Scarlett, White, Whiteman, and Whitesides.
Purple, which occurs in America, may have been ori
ginally applied to a devotee of Bacchus ! As no per
son ever had a green face (however green in other
respects) we must refer the very common surname
representing that colour to a local origin — ' John atte
Greene,' ' Roger a' Green,' &c. being among the most
familiar designations of that class.
The Colour of the Hair led to a numerous
train of these hereditary sobriquets, for such they cer
tainly must be considered ; hence Blackhead, Blacklock,
Fairhaire, Grey, Gray, Grissel, Hoare and Hore, Red
head, Silverlock, Whitelock, Whithair, Whitehead, and
Yalowhaire. The Form of the Head has added a few; to wit,
Longhead, Broadhead, Greathead, Half head. — Grosteste
(great-head), a famous name in English ecclesiastical
history, also belongs to this category. Even the beard
originated some, as Langbeard, Fairbeard, Hevyberd,
(1296,) Blackbeard.
But it was not from the head alone that names of
this description were taken, for we have in respect of
other personal qualities our Longs and our Shorts ; our
Langmans, Longmans, and Longfellows ; our Tallmans
and our Prettymans ; our Biggs and our Broads ; our
Greats and our Smalls; our Strongs and our Weakleys ;

QUALITIES. 141
our Petits and Smallmans; our Strongmans, Strongi'th'-
arms, and Armstrongs ; our Plaines and our Hansoms ;
our Groses, our Littles, our Thynnes, our Thicks, and
our Lowes. These names are of a pretty positive cha
racter, but we have a few comparatives ; our Littler s
and Shorters, to wit, our Plainers, our Strangers, and
our Lowers !
To avoid criticism on one hand, and misapprehen
sion on the other, it is right to state that some of
the names in the last paragraph are derived with greater
probability from other sources. Two or three at least
are of the local kind, such as Plain, and probably also
Plainer ; Littler is known to be a corruption of Little-
over, co. Derby, — a manor whose lords originally wrote
themselves De Littleover, but who afterwards became
Litteler and Littler, until eventually they were quite
extinct ! Neither must we take the Thynnes as living
witnesses of the meagreness of their original ancestor,
who was no other than one John de Botteville. This
gentleman, who flourished so recently as the reign of
Edward IV, resided at one of the Inns of Court, and
was thence named John of the Inn, John o'th'ynne, or
John Thynne.
We have, moreover, our Prettys and our Lovelys*
our Larges and our Pettys, our Fatts and our Stouts,
together with our Swifts, our Quicks, our Speeds, and
Lightfoots, and Quicklys, well balanced by our less
mercurial Slows and Slowmans, and our more deliberate
Heavisides. There are other surnames no less characteristic ;
though less intelligible to ordinary observers. Among
these may be noted Starkie, strong-bodied ; Fiest,
* ' Editha la Lovelich.' MS. Harl. 1708, fol. 217.

142 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
broad-footed ; Crumpe, crooked ; Mewet, one who
speaks inwardly ; Lizar, a leprous person ; Morphew, a
scrofulous one; Michel (A.-S.), great, whence also
Michell and Mitchell; Hale, healthful; Holder, thin
(Camd.) ; and Fleet, swift. Bel, with le prefixed, is
from the French, fair; and Pigot, with its varieties
Piggott and Pickett (picote), in the same language
means pitted with the smallpox. Car and Ker are
synonymous, signifying stout. Wychals (A.-S.), now
Wiggles, means 'bad neck.' Lit and Lite are old
English forms of ' little.'
Snell is from the Anglo-Saxon, and signifies agile or
hardy. " Cabmunb cmg Ipen-rib paer geclypob pop hir
8nell-j'cipe : King Eadmund was called Iron-side for his
hardihood, agility," says the Saxon Chronicle. Before
the Conquest this epithet had become a proper name,
as had also its compound, Snelson. Basset (Fr.) signifies
low of stature.
To dade, in some dialects, signifies to walk with short
steps, whence the diminutive ' daddle,' applied to the
pace of infants. Dadd or Dade was probably given
in the first instance to some person who had shorter
legs than his neighbours.
The very common surname Read, Reid, or Reed
(sometimes pluralized to Reeds), is an old spelling of
red, and was primarily applied in reference to com
plexion. Chaucer speaks of
" Floures both white and rede ;"
and Sir John Maundevile, describing the Red Sea, says:
" That see is not more reed than another see ; hut in
some places thereof is the gravelle reede ; and therefore
men clepen it the Rede Sea."
Fairfax, from the Anglo-Saxon, and Blound, from the

QUALITIES. 143
French, denote a light hair and complexion. The
latter name has declined into Blount and Blunt.
Camoys is an Old' English word signifying turned
upwards ; and is generally applied to the nose in a
sense identical with the French expression 'nez re
trousse.' Chaucer employs it in his quaint description
of the daughter of the Miller of Trompington :
" This wenche thikke and well i-growen was,
With camoys nose and eyghen gray as glas."
Wright's Chaucer, 3971.
It is sometimes written ' camuse,' and our surname
Kemyss may mean the same thing.
Among the names indicative of mental or moral
qualities, we have our Hardys and our Cowards ; our
Meeks and our Moodys ; our Bolds and our Styes ; our
Livelys and our Sullens ; our Eagers and our Dulmans;
our Giffords or liberal ones, and our Curteises. Cur-
teis appears to be an antient spelling of the adjective
courteous. Chaucer says of his " yong squier" —
" Curteis he was, gentil and affable."
So in Percy's Reliques :
" And as the lyoune, which is of bestis kinge,
Unto thy suhjectis be kurteis and benygne."
Nor must we overlook our Wilds and our Sangwines ;
our Merry s and our Sobers; our Nobles and our
Willeys, or favorable ones ; our Blythes and our Cleeres;
our Stemes and our Bonnys ; our Godmans and our
Godlimans ; our Wakes or watchfuls; our Terrys or
tearful ones;* our Forwards and our Wises; our

* Verstegan; a more probable derivation is from the Fr. Thierry,
Theodoric.

144 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Wooralls or worth-alls,* our Aylwins, or beloved of all ;
our Proudes and our Humbles ; our Sharpes and our
Blunts ; our Sweets and our Sweetmans, not forgetting
our Bitters; our Illmans and our Freemans ;t our
Wisemans and our Booklesses ; our Stables and our
Hasties ; our Gentles and our Lawlesses ; our Giddys
and our Carelesses ; our Perts, our Recklesses, and our
Peaceables ; our fifties and our £li££s ; our Roughs arid
our Toughs ; our Sadds and our Merrymans ; our 7m-
nocents and our Peerlesses ; our Luckies and our Faith
fuls ; our TWj/s and our Tidymans ; our Gaudys and
our Decents ; our Gallants and our Trustys ; our Dear-
foves and our Trueloves ; our Truemans and our
Thankfuls ; our Brisks and our Doolittles ; our Dears
and our Darlings ; our Closes and our Allfrees ; our
Brightmans and our Flatmans ; and, to close this long
catalogue, our Goods, % Goodmans, Goodchilds,§ Good-
fellows, our Thoroughgoods, Allgoods, Bests, Perfects,
and Goodenoughs, our Conquergoods, and what is very
extraordinary indeed, our Toogoods !
Idle, for the honour of the family bearing it, I would
rather deduce from the river so designated, than in
sinuate that the founder of that name and lineage was
deficient in industry.
Some names of this class, also, convey no meaning
to the uninitiated observer, and others may even give
rise to an erroneous impression ; for instance Gaylord
* So Verstegan, Restit. ; but more probably from Wirral in Cheshire.
t The name Fry is a modernized spelling of Frie, free.
{ Goad, a corrupt spelling of the 0. E. gode, good.
§ The French likewise have Goodman and Goodson — Bonhomme and
Bonfils. The surname of Pope Gregory XIII was Buoncompagno, good
companion, and that of his secretary of the treasury Buonfigluolo, good

QUALITIES. 145
(gaillard, Fr. gaylard, O. E.) has no reference to aris-
tocratical gaieties, but means simply jovial or jolly •
" A prentys dwelled whilom in oure citee.
And of a craft of vitamers was he :
Gaylard he was as goldfynch in the schawe,
Brown as a bery, and a proper felawe."
Wright's Chaucer, 4364.
Ramage (A.-Norman,) is wild, haggard, or homely.
Mr. Halliwell says it was very often applied to an
untaught hawk. " So ramage as she would be re
claimed with no leave." (Gwydonius, 1593.)
Lelhome is probably true or leal man ; and Follet,
which is also French, signifies foolish.
Leeny, according to Grose, is active, alert; hence
Leaney and Leney.
Stunt (A.-S.) means stupid, foolish; taken substan
tively it means a fool, by no means an enviable desig
nation, but far from applicable to all who bear it. In
a Saxon translation of the book of Job, that patriarch
Calls his wife " stunt wif," i. e. a foolish woman.
Widmer ('wyd' wide, and 'mear' fame, A.-S.) widely
renowned; Hubbard ('hughbert,' A.-S.) disposed to
joy and gladness ; Joyce (Fr.), the same ; Hogarth
(Dutch,) high-natured, generous ; Shire (A.-S.) clear;
Baud, pleasant ; Rush, subtle ; Barrat, cunning ;
Bowne, ready; Bonner (Fr. bonaire, O. E. boner,)
kind, gracious. Eldridge is defined by Percy as wild,
hideous, ghostly. See a description of an " Eldridge
knight," in the ballad of Sir Cauline. Joliffe is the
O.E. 'jolif,' jolly.
" Up ryst this jolyf lover Absolon." Chaucer, 3688.
To this list of names from personal and mental
qualities, I may appropriately adjoin such as had their
i. *  7

146 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
origin in some feat of personal strength or courage, as
Armstrong (already mentioned), All-fraye, Langstaff,
Wagstaff, Hackstaff, Hurlbat* Winspear, Shakeshaft,
Shakestaff, and Shakspeare, or, as Mr. C. Knight will
have it, Shakspere. Also Box-all, Tirebuck, Turnbull,
and Breakspear, which last was the original name of our
countryman, Pope Hadrian the Fourth.
" Harman," observes Verstegan, " should rightly be
Heartman, to wit, a man of heart or courage." It
also signifies a soldier or constable, in both which
vocations "heart, or courage" is necessary. Holman
may be ' Wholeman,' a man of undeniable valour —
a man, every inch of him. Analogous to this etymology
is that of the patrial noun Alman or German, which,
according to Verstegan, " is as much to say as all or
wholly man," attributed to that nation "in regard
to their great manliness and valour."
In some of our provincial dialects a Dummerel or
Dumbrell is a silent person, and Dunch means deaf or
dull. The not very dissimilar name of Dench means,
in the north of England, squeamish or dainty. Smelt,
though the name of a fish, is more probably the A.-S.
adjective signifying gentle, placid, mild. ' To coll,'
in the North, is to saunter, to idle ; hence a Colter is
an idler.
Surnames of the descriptive class assume a very
ludicrous appearance when ranged in a list and fol
lowed by the baptismal name ; for example :
Black Barnabas, Careless Eliza,
Brown Benjamin, Godly Obadiah,
Blunt Timothy, Long Sarah,
Bonny Simon, Perfect Lucy,
* Bat is an 0. E. word still used in Sussex and elsewhere for any thick
stick or bludgeon, unde cricket-Jar.

QUALITIES. 147
Proud Fanny, Sterne Nicholas,
Pretty Jane, Smart Isabella,
Peerless Peter, Sharp Walter,
Savage Solomon, Wild Caleb.
Nor is the effect much less odd with such names as
the following :
Bachelor Mary, Farmer Laura,
Champion Anna, King Caroline,
Duke Dorothy, Pope Susannah,
Friend Jonathan, Squire Marmaduke,
Fisher Anne, Wheeler Emma.
But to return : Wight is strong, and Doughty for
midable, (A.-S. dohtig.)
" Lordynges, lysten, and you shal here,
You shall well heare of a knight,
That was in warre full wyght,
And doughtye of his dede." Dowsabell.
Many names of Welsh or Gaelic origin, common in
England, have similar meanings : thus, More, great ;
Begg, little ; Roy, red ; Duff, Dove, Dow, Dee, black ;
Bane (whence belike Baynes), white or fair ; Vaughan,
little; Moel, or Mole, bald; Gam, crooked; Fane,
slender; Grimm, strong ; Gough, red; Gwynne, white;
Greig and Gregg, hoarse ; Gleg, quick ; Balloch, spotted
in the face.
There are certain surnames which I have the greatest
difficulty in assigning to any particular class. Gladman
may have been the appropriate name originally applied
to some jocund individual; though an esteemed cor
respondent suggests two other origins for it ; namely,
1, that it is a corruption of (clad-man) clothman ; and

148 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
2, that as ' gley'd' or ' gleed,' in Scotland, means
squinting as applied personally, or crooked as applied
to things inanimate, a gledeman might be either a
squinting man or a crooked man. What shall be said
of Deadman, which must be acknowledged to be the
most absurd name ever bestowed upon living creature ?
The somewhat similar name of Dudman occurs in that
celebrated burlesque poem, " The Tournament of
Tottenham," and Bailey defines it as "a malkin or
scare-crow, a hobgoblin or spright !"

CHAPTER IX.
OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES.

" Mais de ces denominations individuelles et fugitives, comment se sont
formes des noms de famille permanents ?" — Salverte.

OVERYONE must have remarked the
great number of names of this kind.
Who is there among my readers who
does not immediately call to mind some
score or two of Edwardses, Johnsons,
Stevenses, and Harrisons, in the circle
of his acquaintance? Yet such names are far more
common than at first sight they appear to be, as I shall
prove before I arrive at the end of this Chapter ; for
in addition to all or nearly all the personal, Christian,
or baptismal names antiently in use, a number truly
surprising of modifications of such appellations has be
come part and parcel of our hereditary nomenclature.
This feature is by no means peculiar to us. It obtains
among the French, Germans, and other continental
nations, and is nowhere more observable than in the
nomenclature of ancient Rome. Salverte has remarked
that there was scarcely one family name (nomen) which
did not arise from either a prsenomen or a cognomen,
by simply changing the termination into ius, as Marcus,
Marcius, Quintus, Quintius. He even goes so far as

150

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

to say that all Roman names (nomina) terminated in
ius originally: such names as Peducaeus, Annaeus,
having been in their primitive form Peducaius, An-
naius, &c. That this ius signifies ' son' must be ad
mitted by all, but whether it is derived from the Greek
vioq, as maintained by one or two writers, I leave to
abler etymologists to determine.
Among the English surnames which have been de
rived from baptismal names are the following :

Abel,

Bryan,

Giles,

Martin,

Abraham,

Cecil,

Gilbert,

Matthew,

Absolom,

Charles,

Goddard,

Maurice,

Adam,

Christopher,

Godfrey,

Meredith,

Adelard,

Clement,

Godwin,

Meyrick,

Adolphus,

Cuthbert,

Gregory,

Miles,

Adrian,

Daniel,

Griffith,

Morgan,

Aldred,

David,

Guy,

Moses,

Alexander,

Dennis,

Henry,

Nathan,

Allen,

Derick,

Herbert,

Neale,

Ambrose,

Donald,

Hilary,

Nicholas,

Amos,

Dunstan,

Howell,

Noel,

Andrew,

Edgar,

Hubert,

Oliver,

Anthony,

Ellis,

Humphry,

Osbern,

Arnold,

Evan,

Isaac,

Osmond,

Arthur,

Everard,

James,

Owen,

Aubrey,

Eustace,

Jeffrey,

Paul,

Bardolf,

Fabian,

Lambert,

Percival,

Baldwin,

Francis,

Lawrence,

Philip,

Barnard,

Frederick,

Launcelot,

Ralph,

Bartholomew,

George,

Leonard,

Randal,

Basil,

Gerard,

Lewis,

Raymond,

Benjamin,

Gervaise,

Madoc,

Reynard,

Boniface,

Gideon,

Malachy,

Reynold,

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES.

151

Rice,

Saull,

Swithin,

Valentine

Richard,

Silvanus,

Sylvester,

Vincent,

Roger,

Simeon,

Theobald,

Vyvian,

Roland,

Simon,

Thomas,

Walter,

Sampson,

Solomon,

Titus,

&c.

Great numbers of these have been assumed in the
genitive case, as John Reynolds, for John the son of
Reynold, James Phillips, for James the son of Philip ;
others have been corrupted in various ways ; thus,
Bennet from Benedict, Cutbeard from Cuthbert, Bryant
from Brian, Emary (whence Emmerson) from Almeric,
Errey from Eric, &c. Others seem to be French cor
ruptions of Latin names, as Stace from Statius, Aurel
from Aurelius, Gelt from Gellius.
Those who are conversant with documents belonging
to the middle ages, are well aware of the disposition
that then existed to make the father's christian name
the surname of the child. Even at a much more recent
date, the sire-name was frequently preferred to the sta
tionary surname of the family. In Dr. Fiddes's ' Life
of Cardinal Wolsey,' Edmund Bonner, bishop of London,
is called Dr. Edmunds, and Stephen Gardiner, bishop
of Winchester, Dr. Stephens. These prelates, indeed,
had no children ; but such instances may serve to show,
nevertheless, with what facility christian names would
pass into surnames in cases where there were children.*
Camden has a list of surnames, formed of such fore
names as are now obsolete, and only occur in Doomsday
Book and other records of antient date. From this list,
and from another by Dr. Pegge in the Gentleman's
Magazine for 1772, p. 318, I select such as I have
myself met with, omitting from the Doctor's catalogue

* Notes of a Bookworm.

152 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
those names which are still common as christian names,
and adding others.*
Anstis (Anastasius).
Ayscough, Askew (Asculphus). Huskisson =
Askew's son ?
Aucher.Ansell (Anselm).
Austin (Augustine).
Baynard.Brand {Sax. Chron.)
Bennet (St. Benedict).
Brandon.
Baldric.
Bardolph.
Barchard (Belchard).
Barringer (Berengerius).
Berners.
Bryant (Brient).
Coleman {Bede).
Cadman (Caedman).
Christian.Calfe.
Degory. Durrant (Durandus).
Drew (Drogo).
Dodd. Whence Dodson,
* From this enumeration I also omit many of the names called by
Camden " Christian names in use about the time of the Conquest," such as
Hasting, Howard, Talbot, Pipard, Poyntz. What, I ask, are these but
surnames ? Does not the fact of such names occurring singly in Doomsday
Book, add weight to the opinion I expressed at page 29 ?

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 153
Edolph (Eadulph, Sax. Chron.)
Ellis (Elias).*
Elmer (iElmer).
Everest, Every, Everett and Verry (Everard).
Eachard (Achard, Doomsday).
Etty (Eddy).
Edlin (Atheling).
Eade, Eades (Eudo).
Fulke (Fulco).
Farand, Farrant (Ferdinand).
Folkard, Folker (Fulcher).f
Freeman (Fremund).
Girth. Godwin, Goodwin.
Goodrich.
Goodluck {Doomsday).
Grimes (Grime).
Gunter {Ingulphus).
Gamble (Gamel, Sax.)
Grimbell (Grimbald).
Hassell (Asceline).
Hesketh (Hascuith).
Harman {Sax. Chron.) — See page 146.
Hode, Hoad, Hood (Odo).
Hake (Haco).
Hamlin (Hammeline).
Harding {Ingulph.)
Hammond (Hamon).
* The Ellises of Yorkshire consider themselves to be surnamed from
Eliseuoc in Normandy.
t Fulcher is evidently the origin of Fullagar.

154 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Harvey (Herve).
Heward. Herward.
Hubert.
Ingram (Ingelram).
Ive. Jarvis (Gervaise).
Jernegan. jollande. Kettle (Chetell, Doomsday).
Killick (Calixtus).
Lucy (Lucius).
Mallet {Sax. Chron.)
Maynard. Masse y (Macey, Doomsday).
Mervyn (Merfin).
Orso (Urso), whence Fitz-Urse.
Ody (Odo).
Orme. Other. Relfe (Ralph).
Reyner (Reinardus).
Raymond.
Rothery (Rodericus).
Rolle (Raoul).
Stiggins (Stigandus or Stigand), whence Stiggson.
Saer, now Sayers.
Searle (Serlo).
Semar.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 155
Sewell (Sewallus).
Seaward (Siwardus).*
Swain (Sweyn).
Seabright (Sigebert).
Selwyn.Savery (Savaricus).
Sankey (Sancho).
Semple, Sampol (St. Paul).
Sampiere (St. Peter).
Stydolph (St. Edolph).
Samand (St. Amado).
Simberd (St. Barbe).
Tankard (Tancred).
Tipple (Theobald).
Tippet (the same).
Toly (St. Olave).
Terry (Theodoric).
Tovy.
Turrold, or Turrel (Thorold).
Tudor, Welsh (Theodore).
Ulmer.
Vivian. Wishart (Wiscard).
Wade.Warner.
Wimble, Wimboll (Winebald, Doomsday.)-\
* This was also a name of office : the Anglo-Saxon Saeweard was a high
admiral, who kept the sea against pirates. The surname is likewise found
in the forms of Saward and Seward.
t Wimbledon, in Surrey, is probably the tun or enclosure of one
Winebald, a Saxon.

'56 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
In the remarkable discovery of Anglo-Saxon coins
of the eleventh century lately made near Alfriston,
co. Sussex, among the names of the moneyers occurring
on the reverses, are several which are still extant as
family names in this part of the country ; e. g. —
Bridd (of Hastings). A family of Breeds is still
resident in that town. ' Brid' is the A.-S. form of
Bird. Wulgar, now written Woolgar and Woollgar.
Boge, hodie Bogue.
Wulmer, now Woolmer.
Swetman, now Sweatman and Sweetman.
Elard, hodie Ellard.
Dunning has preserved its original orthography for
upwards of eight centuries.*
We have a few surnames from Welsh names, as
Cradock (from Caradoc), Chowne (from Chun), Merricks
and Meyrick (from Meirric), Meredith, and Madox,
corrupted to Maddicks, ' whereby hangs a tale.' " Are
you acquainted with ' mathematics ?" asked a young
pedant of a country acquaintance. " No," was the
reply ; " I know Tom Maddicks and Will Maddicks, but
as to Matthy, I never heard tell on him before."
Next in order come the names terminating with son,
as Adamson, Johnson, Henry son, Clementson, Richardson,
Philipson, &c. whose derivation is clear, together with
Heardson, Crowson, Quilson, Wigson, &c. from cor
rupted names, or from names no longer in use. Many
of these were doubtless assumed before the Conquest,
as we find Grimkelson, Gamelson, &c. in the time of
Edward the Confessor, if not earlier. The Norman
fitz, a corruption of fils, was used in the same way,
* E should be observed, however, that several of these names occur on
coins not struck in this part of England.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 157
and among the conquered Saxons was sometimes adopted
instead; thus Sweynsonne and Hardingsonne became
Fitz-Swain and Fitz-Harding ;* generally however the
fitz denotes a Norman extraction. Sometimes, but
rarely, son was appended to a profession, trade, title,
or condition, as Dukeson, Clarkson, Cookson, Wrightson,
Smithson, Masterson, Stewardson, Hindson, and Widowson.
In Scotland there are several names analogous to
these, as McMaster, McKnight, McPriest, McQueen.
McBride seems to perpetuate a scandal; but what
shall be said of McCambridge and McQuaker ! It
may well be supposed that some of these are cor
ruptions. The fitz or son conjoined to a female name is
thought to denote illegitimacy, as Fitz-Parnell, Fitz-
Emma ; Anson, Eveson, Emson, and Nelson, from Ann,
Eve, Emma, and Nel or Eleanor.f So also Susans,
Maudlins (Magdalene), Anne, Avis (Hawisa), Grace,
Hannah, Pegge, that is Margery, Betty, Sail, Nance,
Mary, Rachel, Jane, and the like. But it should be
remembered, that the Romans occasionally used their
mother's name, when born in wedlock, and that our
Henry the Second called himself Fitz-Empress.
Other names are formed of, and upon, the cant or
abbreviated Christian names ; (" pardon me," saith
Master Camden, "if I offend any, for it is but my
coniecture,") as Nat for Nathaniel, Bill for William,
Wat for Walter, and many such like, which you may
learn of nurses! Whether these odd monosyllables were
* " The use of the prefix fitz has, with propriety, been revived in mo
dern times. The eldest son of Harris, Earl of Malmesbury, is, by title of
courtesy, Viscount Fitzharris."
f Some of these apparently female names are possibly corruptions of
masculine ones ; thus Anson may be Hanson — Nelson, Neilson, &c.

158 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
originally applied to children* as terms of endearment,
and thus acquired the appellation of nurse-names, I
cannot say. Camden favours this opinion. They
"seem," says he, "to proceede from nurses to their
nurslings ; or from fathers and maisters to their boyes
and seruants : for as according to the old proverbe
Omnis herus seruo monosyllabus, in respect to their
short commands ; so Omnis seruus hero monosyllabus, in
respect to the curtolling their names."
The Anglo-Saxons sometimes shortened proper names
in this manner : e. g. Saba for Saeborht ; Totta for
Torhthelm, Sicgga for Sigefrith or for Sigibed, Eda for
Eadwine, Mile for ^Elfwine, &c. " We are led to be
lieve," observes Mr. Kemble, " in the gradual reception
by bodies of men of such misnomers as delight us in
our nurseries, and to accept the ways of society in very
early periods, not indeed as child-like but as childish."
In the fifteenth century these misnomers were so
commonly applied that they were even introduced into
* How came such names as the following to be appropriated to birds,
quadrupeds, and fishes ?
Jack-Daw. Bob ; Robin, theredbreast.
Mag-Pie (Margaret). Jack-Hern, the heron,
Chick-a-Biddy (Bridget). Will, the sea-gull.
Hedge-Mike (Michael), the hedge- Reynard, the fox.
sparrow. Jenny- Wren.
Jack-Ass. Tom-Tit, the titmouse.
Poll-Parrot. Jack, the pike.
Dicky-Bird. Dobbin, a horse (Robert).
Neddy- Ass. Billy- and Nanny -Goat.
Tib, a cat (Theobald). Phipp (Philip), a sparrow. (Skelton.)
Tom- Cat. Jack-Avil, a species of crab.
Gib, a cat (Shakspeare, Henry IV Tabby-Cat (Tabitha).
—Gilbert).
Even inanimate things, as machines, bear similar appellations ; witness
Roasting-jack and Spinning-Jenny 1

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 159
legal documents. Personages of some distinction are
called indifferently Roger and Hodgkyn, Walter and
Watkyn, in the course of the same deed. Monarchs
themselves deemed it no slight to be thus miscalled;
thus our later Henries were frequently designated
Harry. The poet Gower has the following verses on
the occasion of Wat Tyler's insurrection, which are
curious as containing several of these abbreviated names
in a Latin dress :
" Watte vocat, cui Thoma venit, neque Symme retardat,
BATque, Gibbe simul, Hykke venire subent :
Colle furit, quem Bobbe juvat, nocumenta parantes
Cum quibus ad damnum Wille coire volat,
Grigge rapit, dum Davie strepit, comes est quibus Hobbe,
Larkin et in medio non minor esse putat ;
Hudde ferit, quem Juode terit, dum Tibbe juvatur,
Jacke domosque viros velUt, en ense necat," &c.
Andrews has rendered these lines in the following
humorous manner :
" Wat cries, Tom flies, nor Symkin stays aside ;
And Batt and Gibb and Hyke, they summon loud ;
Collin and Bob combustibles provide,
While Will the mischief forwards in the crowd ;
Greg hawls, Hob bawls, and Davy joins the cry,
With Larkin not the least among the throng ;
Hodd drubs, Judd scrubs, while Tib stands grinning by,
And Jack with sword and fire-brand madly strides along !"
The names of the class of which I am now treating
are exceedingly numerous, as eight, ten, or even fif
teen surnames are sometimes formed upon a single
Christian name. The name of William, indeed, is the
basis of no less than twenty-nine such names, as will
be seen by referring to the list I am about to place
before the reader. Besides the syllable son, annexed

160 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
to the cant names Sim, Will, Hodge, &c. we have
three principal terminations; kin, ot, and cock, as
Simkin, Wilmot, Hedgecock. Of the first two it is only
necessary to state that they are diminutives ; -kin being
derived from the Flemish,* and -ot from the French.
Thus Timpkin stands for " little Tim" or Timothy, and
Adcot for " little Ade," or Adam. But the termination
cock is not so easily disposed of. Camden appears to
derive it from the male of birds : hence among his
names deduced from the "winged nation," he places
Alcocke, Wilcocke, and Handcocke ; but, so far as I am
acquainted with our provincial dialects, those are not
names locally assigned to any particular species of birds,
as some others (shrillcock, stormcock, &c.) are well
known to be. We must therefore look elsewhere for
the origin of the termination.
Considerable discussion on this subject took place in
the pages of the Gentleman's Magazine some years since,
the substance of which is given below. A correspondent,
J. A. C. K., in an article published in that periodical
in the number for May 1837, speaking of the great
number of surnames of which cock is a component
syllable, observes, that "many of them are evidently
borrowed from the animal creation, as Peacock, em
ployed to designate a vain, showy fellow; Woodcock,
applied to a silly coxcomb ; and Shilcock, that is
shrillcock, a Derbyshire provincialism for the throstle.
Bocock or Bawcock, is, of course, nothing more nor
* It may be remarked that names with this or a similar termination are
still very numerous in Holland. There is a great similarity between the
family nomenclature of that country and our own, especially in those
names which have Christian names as their basis. Thus Symonds is
Simmonds ; Huygens, Higgins ; Pieters, Peters, &c. The termination -son
is found in most of the languages of Gothic origin.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 161
less than the French Beaucoq, fine fellow." Alcock,
Badcock, Drawcock, Grocock, Slocock, this sapient
scribbler casts aside as "indelicate;" "Luccock or
Luckcock," he continues, "probably denotes some
lucky individual (!) With respect to Hitchcock, it
appears to have been synonymous with woodcock, and
employed to signify a silly fellow  Glasscock,
Adcock, Mulcock, bid defiance to all etymology, unless
the termination be a corruption of cot. Thus Glasscock
becomes Glas-cote, Adcock, At-cote, &c  It
seems highly probable that Atcock and Alcock,
Hiccock and Wilcock, are but varieties of Atcot and
Alket, Hickot and Wilkot, the familiar terms At and
Hal, Hick and Will, for Arthur, Henry, Isaac, and
William. As far as relates to the latter name, Wilcock,
I am decidedly of opinion that such has been its ori
ginal form, corroborated as it is by the surnames of
Wilcockes and Wilcoxon, still existing amongst us."
This communication led to a second, (Gent. Mag.
Sept. 1837,) in which the writer observes, that only
six out of the one hundred and fifty names contain
ing this mysterious syllable can be assigned to the
animal creation ; while he is inclined to think many of
the names local, being derived from cock, a hillock :
Cockbum, the burn by the hillock ; Cockham, the ham
let by the hillock : so also Cockfield, Cocksedge, Cock-
wood, &c. The reader will remark that in this article
the examples are chosen from such names as have cock
for their initial, and not for their final, syllable, and
therefore do not aid our inquiry ; although the deriva
tion of Cockburn, &c. is probably correct.
J. G. N. in a third article on the same topic, (Gent.
Mag. May, 1838,) remarks that the word " often occurs
in the records of this country under the various forms

162 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
of Coc, Koc, le Cok, le Coq, &c, answering in fact, to
the Latin Coquus, more usually, during the middle
ages, written Cocus, and while the greater number of
those antient professors of the culinary art have modi
fied their orthography to Coke, or Cooke, or Cook,
others have evidently retained the final c, and thus
assimilated their names to the victims instead of the
lords of the kitchen. Hence we proceed to Cock,
Cocks, and Cox." He then quotes the Great Rolls of
the Exchequer for 25 Hen. Ill, 1241, in which one
Adam Coc or Cok is commissioned by the king to
superintend certain repairs at Clarendon palace, "and
to instruct the workmen, so that the kitchen and stables
might be enclosed within the outer wall." Having hit
upon this clue, he thinks it leads to an " explanation
of some of the names ending in cock, as Meacock, the
MEAT-cook (!) Salcock, the SALT-MEAT-cook (! !) Slocock,
the sLow-cook (! ! !) and Badcock, the imperfect-cooIc
(!!!!)  Grococke is the gross or wholesale cook
... or, perhaps, le gros coc, or fat cook (! !) and those
compounded with Christian names are thus readily
accounted for. Wilcox will be William the Cook;
Hancock, Johan the Cook; Sandercock, Alexander
the Cook; Jeffcock, Jeffry the Cook, &c* The
Allcocks may be descended from Hal the Cook, unless
their great ancestor was Aule cocus, the Hall-Cook."
Some others, he thinks, have originated from names of
places, as Laycock from Lacock, in Wiltshire, &c. &c;
others from the bird, from their being persons of noisy
or pugnacious dispositions, or perhaps from their prac
tice of early rising (!) Cockerell (he justly says) is
* If Christian names were ever so compounded with vocations, how is
it that we have no such names as Han-SMiTa as well as Hancock ; Will-
miller as well as Wilcock; Sander-TAiLOR as well as Sandercock?

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 163
derived " from cockerel, a young or dwarf bird of that
species." "Ariel. Which of he, or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow?
Seb. The old cock.
Ant. The cockrel.
Seb. Done : the wager ?" Tempest, Act ii, Scene i.
That Peacock, Woodcock, and a few others, are
derived from birds, is unquestionable, seeing that we
have the congenerous names Raven, Finch, Sparrow, &c.
from that source; and that others are corruptions of
cot, cannot, I think, be denied ; but that cock, as a
termination, has aught to do with cocus, coq, or cook,
is a supposition perfectly ridiculous. As to J. G. N.'s
record in the Exchequer Rolls, it is a most amusing
piece of nonsense to imagine that the said Adam Coc
was the royal cook. Who indeed ever heard of a cook's
possessing any architectural skill beyond what is re
quired in the construction of the walls of a gooseberry
tart or a venison pasty ? Besides, what had a cook to
do with walling in the royal stables? We have just
as much right to assume that he was the king's farrier.
But even admitting this same Adam's surname to have
been originally derived from that necessary office of the
kitchen, does it at all explain Meacock, Salcock, &c. ?
I do not consider the question deserving of a serious
reply.* What then is the meaning of cock ? Why, it is,
simply a diminutive, the same as ot or kin. This
opinion I had formed long before I saw the correspond
ence just noticed, and it is supported by numerous
* Let me not be understood as entertaining the slightest disrespect for
J. G. N., who occupies a deservedly exalted station in English archaeologi
cal literature. Homer himself sometimes sleeps.

164 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
proofs. I do not profess to assign a satisfactory mean
ing to all the names with this termination ; yet I think
I have been successful in affixing that of five sixths of
all such names as I have ever met with. And I doubt
not that the remainder might be explained with equal
facility were not the Christian names of which they are
the diminutives extinct. Badcock and Salcock in
J. G. N.'s list are evidently " Little Bat," that is,
Bartholomew; and "Little Saul," which, however
unenviable a name, was sometimes used by our ances
tors. In like manner we may account for Wilcocke or
Wilcox, "Little William," Allcock, "little Hal or
Harry," Luckock, "little Luke," and the rest.* My
old friend, N. Bailey, <I>iXoAoyoe, whom I have found
very useful in these matters, has not the word cock in
this sense, but he has the low Latin terms Coca, a little
boat, and Cocula, a small drinking cup, which I think
help me a "little." The term, in its simple form, was
probably never used except in a familiar colloquial
manner, and in this way the lower orders in the south
of England are still accustomed to address "little"
boys with " Well, my little Cock," a piece of tautology
of which they are not at all aware.
In Lincolnshire a little fussy person is called a
Cockmarall, and in other districts any diminutive per
son is designated Cock-o-my -Thumb. The true meaning
of the much debated expression Cockney seems to be a
spoilt or effeminate boy. " Puer in deliciis matris
nutritus— Anglice a feOfttnaj)."t
* A correspondent reminds me that " ock is still a common diminutive
in Scotland, as Willock, Lassock, Naunock." This suggestion enables us
to account for Pollock, Mattock, and Baldock, which are evident modifi
cations of Paul, Matthew, and Baldwin.
t MS. in Bibl. Reg. quoted by Halliwell.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 165
In Scotland, a cock-laird is a landowner who culti
vates the whole of his estate ; a little or minor laird.
Nor must we forget the use of this mysterious syllable
in the antient nursery-rhyme of —
Ride a cock-horse
To Banbury Cross, &c.
where little horse is evidently intended. I was long
puzzled with the surname Coxe, which I have now no
hesitation in calling a synonyme of Little. Mt.Coxhead
is probably Mr. Little-head, (in contradistinction, I
presume, to Mr. Greathead. What a pity it is the
syllables of that gentleman's name were not trans
posed, for he might then stand a fair chance of ob
taining the preferment of Head-Cook in J. G. N.'s
kitchen !*
* I thought I had settled the true etymology of this termination — cock ;
but from the correspondence of several literary friends I find that it still
remains a moot point. It would be no difficult matter to gossip over an
additional half-dozen of pages in a similar style to the preceding ; but as
the tendency of such discussions is rather to darken than to elucidate the
subject in hand, I deem it most prudent to leave the matter to the decision
of the reader. I cannot however resist the temptation to quote a few ob
servations with which I have been favoured by the secretary of the Gaelic
Society of London. " Coch, the Welsh for red," says that gentleman,
" makes in English, Cox and Cocks."  " They" — namely, the surnames
in Cock — " are merely Gaehc, Cornish, and Welsh terms (! !), expressive
of personal qualities slightly modified into English, as —
" &aelic.
Algoch, great, Alcock,
Stangoch, pettish, Stancock,
Magoch, clumsy or large-fisted,
Macock and Meacock,
Bacoch, lame, Bacock,
Leacoch, high-cheeked, Laycock,
Lucoch, bow-legged, Lucock,
Peacocb, gay, handsome, Peacock.
"WMteh.
Bochog, blob-cheeked, Pocock,
Bachog, crooked, Bacock, &c. &c."

166

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

But lest I should be accused of making "much ado
about nothing," I proceed to set down my list of son-
names, nurse-names, and diminutives, which I hope
will furnish some amusement to the reader : —
From Adam are derived Adams, A damson, Ade,* Adye,
Adey, Addis, Addy, Addison, Adcock, Addiscot,
Addiscock, Adkins, and Addecott.
Abraham, Abrahams, Abramson, Mabb, Mabbs,
and Mabbot.
Arthur, Atts, Atty, Atkins, Atkinson, and
Atcock; perhaps also Aitkin and Aikin.
Andrew, Andrews, Anderson, Henderson.
Aldred, Alderson.
Alexander, Sanders, Sanderson, Sandercock,
Allix, Aiken, Alley.
Ainulph, Haynes, Hainson.
Allan, Allanson, Hallet, Elkins, Elkinson.
Anthony, Tony, Tonson, Tonkin.
Benjamin, Benn, Benson, Bancock, and Ben-
hacock.
Baldwin, Ball, Bawcock, Baldey, Baldock,
Balderson, Bawson.
Bartholomew, Batts, Bates, Batson, Bartlett,
Batcock, Badcock, Batty, Batkin.
Bernard, Bernards, Bernardson, Barnard,
Barnett,t Berners.
Christopher, Christopherson, Kister, Kitts,
Kitson.
Cuthbert, Cuthbertson, Cutts.
* Adam is usually abbreviated to Ade in the Nonarum Rolls, and other
antient records.
f Often so corrupted.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 167
Clappa, an obs. Saxon name, Clapp, Clapps,
Clapson.*
Crispin, Crispe, Cripps.
Clement, Clements, Climpson.
Charles, Kell, Kelson, Kelley.
Digory, Digg, Digges, Diggins, Digginson,
Tegg?
Drogo, Drew, Dray, Drayson, Drocock.
Doda, an obsolete Saxon name, Dodd, Dodson.
Donald, Donaldson, Donkin.
Dennis, Denison, Tennison.
Daniel, Dann,f Daniels, Tancock.
Dunstan, Dunn (if not from the colour).
David, Davey, Daffy, Davison, Davis, Dawes,J
Dawkins, Dawkinson, Dawson, Davidge, (i. e.
David's,) &c.
Edward, Edwards, Ethards, Edes, Edkins,
Edwardson, Tedd.
Elias, Ellis, Ellison, Elliot, Elliotson, Elson,
Elley, Ellet, Lelliot.
Edmund, Edmunds,Edmundson, Munn, Monson.
Eustace, Stace, Stacekyn.
Francis, Frank, Frankes.
* Clapham, in Surrey, is the ham or house of ' Clappa,' a Saxon, who
held the manor temp. Confessoris.
t Unless it be from Dan, an antient title of respect from the Lat.
Dominus. t A correspondent protests against the derivation of Dawes from David,
and quotes the ' Glossaire' of Roquefort : " Awe ; eau, riviere, fontaine,
etang, aq,tja ;" adding that the name was spelt with an apostrophe,
D'Awes, so lately as 1724, by Sir William D'Awes, archbishop of
Canterbury. I still think, however, that in many instances Dawes is a
simple ' nurse-name:' without it I do not see how we can get our Dawson,
Dawkins, Dawkinson, &c, any more than we can get Hawkins and
Hawkinson from Henry without the intermediate Hawes.

168 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
From Fergus, Ferguson.
Gideon, Gyde, Giddy, Giddings, Giddies, Geddes.
Gilbert, Gill, Gillot, Gilpin, Gibb, Gibbs,
Gibbon, Gibbons, Gibson, Gubbins, Gibbings,
Gipp, Gipps.
Giles, Gillies, Gilkes,* Gilkin, Gilkinsou.
Gregory, Gregg, Gregson, Grocock, Gregorson,
Griggs.
Godard or Godfrey, Godkin, Goddin, Goad.
Geoffry, Jefferson, Jeffson, Jepson, Jeffcock,
Jeffries, Jifkins.
Henry, Henrison, Harry, Harris, Herries,
Harrison, Hal, Halket, Hawes, Halse, Hawkins,
Hawkinson, Halkins, Allkins, Haskins, Alcock,
Hall (sometimes).
Hugh, Hewson, Hugget, Huggins, Hugginson,
Hewet.
Joseph, Joskyn, Juggins.
John, Johnes, Jones, Johnson, Johncock, Janson,
Jennings, Jenks, Jenkins, Jenkinson, Jack,
Jackson, Juxon, Hanson, Hancock, Hanks,
Hankinson, Jockins.
Jude, Judd, Judkin, Judson.
Job, Jubb, Jobson.
Jacob, Jacobs, Jacobson, Jeakes.
James, Jamieson.
Jeremy, Jerrison, Gerison, Jerkin.
Isaac, Isaacs, Isaacson, Hyke, Hicks, Hixon,
Higson, Hickot, Hiscock (q. d. Isaac-ocK),
Hickox.
Lawrence, Larry, Larkins, Lawes, Lawson,
Lawrie.
* When the initial G is soft, those names above assigned to Gilbert
probably belong to Giles.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 169
From Luke, Luckins, Luckock, Lucock, Locock, Lukin,
Luckin, Luckings, Luckett.
M atth e w, Mathews, Matheson, M atson, Madison,
Mathey, Matty, Maddy.
Maurice, Morrison, Mockett, Moxon.
Mark, Markcock, Marks.
Nicholas, Nichol, Nicholls, Nicholson, Niekson,
Nixon, Cole, Colet, Colson, Collins,* Collison,
Glascock, Glasson.
Neal or Nigell, Neale, Neilson, Nelkins.
Nathaniel, Natkins.
Oliver, Olliver, Oliverson, Olley, Nolls, Nolley,
Nollekins.
Peter, Peterson, Pierce, Pierson, Perkin, Perkins,
Purkiss, Perk, Parkins, Parkinson, Peters, Parr,
Porson, Parson (sometimes).
Philip, Phillips, Philps, Phelp, Phipson, Phipp,
Phipps, Phippen, Philpot, Phillot, Philcox,f
Philippo, Phillopson, Philipson.
Paul, Paulett, Pallett, Pawson, Porson, Pocock,
P alcock, Palk, Pollock, Polk. J
Patrick, Patrickson, Paterson, Patson, Pattison.
* ' Colline,' Fr., a hill, may be the origin of this name.
f " Pillycock, Billycock, sate on a hill,
If he's not gone, he sits there still."
From the ' Nursery Rhymes of England,' by Mr. Halliwell, who observes
that this word also occurs in (MS. Harl. 913) a manuscript of the fourteenth
century. It is probably an older form of Philcox.
J Mr. Polk, late President of the United States, is the third in descent
from a Mr. Pollock. Powell, generally regarded as a contraction of the
Welsh Ap-Howell, may with equal probability be deduced from Paul.
Indeed Powel is a common orthography of the latter name :
" After the text of Crist, and Powel and Ion."
Wright's Chaucer, 7229.
I. 8

170 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
From Ralph, Rawes, Rawson, Rawlins, Rawlinson,
Rason, Roaf.*
Randolph, Randalls, Rankin, Ranecock.
Rhys (Welsh), Ap Rhys, Price, Apreece, Preece,
Brice.
Richard, Richards, Richardson, Ritchie, Richards,
Hitchins, Hitchinson, Hitchcock, Dick, Dickson,
Dixon, Dickens, Dickinson, Dickerson.
Robert, Robins, Robinson, Roberts, Robertson,
Robison, Robson, Roby,Dobbs,Dobbie,Dobson,
Dobbin, Dobinson, Hoby, Hobbs, Hobson,
Hobkins, Hopkins.
Roger, Rogers, Rogerson, Hodges, Hodgson,
Hodgkin, Hodgkinson, Hoskin ( ? ), Hodd,
Hodson (if not from Odo), Hudson.
Reynold, Renolds, Reynoldson, Raincock.
Samuel, Samson, Samkin.
Sweyne, Swaine, Swainson, Swinson.
Simon, Simmonds, Simpson, Simmes, Symes,
Simcock, Simpkin, Simpkinson.
Stephen, Stephens, Stephenson, Stercock (?),
Steen, Steenson, Stimson, Stinson, Stiff (?),
Stebbing, Stubbs, Tiffany.
Silas or Silvester, Silcock.
Timothy, Tim, Timms, Timmings, Timpson,
Timpkins.
Thomas, Thorn, Tom, Thorns, Thompson, Thomlin,
Thomlinson, Tompkins, Tampkins (a northern
pronunciation), Thompkisson, Thompsett,
Tampsett (northern).
Tobit, Toby, Towes, Towson, Tobin, Tubbe,
Tubbes.
Turchetil, Turke.
* See Paston Letters.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 171
From Theobald, Tibbald, Tipple (a murderous corrup
tion),* Tipkins, Tibbs, Tippet ! Tibbats.
Walter, Walters, Watt, Watts, Watson, Watkins,
Watkinson, Watcock.
William, Williams, Williamson, Wills, Wilks,
Wilkins, Wilkinson, Wickens, Wickeson, Bill,
Bilson, Wilson, Woolcock, Woolcot, Wilcocke
and Wilcox, Wilcockson, Wilcoxon, Willet,
Willmot, Willy, Willis, Wylie, Willott, Till,
Tillot, Tilson, Tillotson, Tilly, Guilliam.t
APPARENTLY DERIVED FROM FEMALE NAMES :
From Agatha, Agg.
Alice, Alee and Alison.
Agnes, Annis.
Barbara, Babb.
Katherine, Kates.
Margaret, Marjory, Margerison, Margetts,
Margetson, Margison, Maggs, Magson.
Mary, Moll, Malkin, Makins, Makinson,Molson,
May cock (?).
Nib and Ib are French nurse-names for Isabel,
whence Nibbs, Niblett, Ibson, Ibbotson.
Such names as these are supposed to denote the
illegitimacy of the original bearers. Natural children
among the Romans took their mothers' names, and
our own laws sanction the same practice. In the
* At Heathfield, in Sussex, is a place called Tipple's Green : in old
writings it is called Theobald's.
t The baptismal name is so spelt by Leland. " By the wich churche
enhabited of old tyme agentilman, Johannes de St. Winnoco. After, the
lordes Hastinges wer owners of it, and they sold to Guilliam Lowre's
gret grandfather now lyving." — Itin. Cornwall.

172 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Swiss canton of Appenzel a law prevails compelling
illegitimates to bear the name and bourgeoisie of their
mother, and they accordingly use such designations as
"Pagan, fils de Marie," or, more simply, "Pierre, fils
de sa mere," — a name implying, according to Ducange,
that the father's name was unknown.
On the other hand, and for the benefit of such as
bear these names, but who object to this insinuation
of the bend sinister into their pedigree, I would observe
that the rule above alluded to does not always hold
good. The Romans often gave their sons and daughters
names representing those of their mothers : " In many
Roman inscriptions," as Salverte remarks, " it is seen
that a son with equal respect and tenderness towards
both the authors of his being, employed after his own
name the maternal designation as well as the paternal."*
In the town of Montdoubleau in France (dep. de Loire-
et-Cher) immemorial usage has given to a younger, or
to the youngest, child, the surname of the mother ; and
other instances might easily be adduced. The ana
logous practice of bearing the armorial ensigns of the
mother when she was an heiress or belonged to a higher
rank than the father, is familiar to the student of our
medieval heraldry.
We have already seen that the Romans frequently
formed one name from another by elongation, as
Constans, Constantius, Constantinus, a series of names
exactly parallel to our Wilks, Wilkins, Wilkinson;
* Since the tria nomina are becoming nearly as indispensable among
us as they were in old Rome, I would suggest to parents the desirableness
of making the mother's maiden surname the second appellative, as ' J ohn
Russell Smith.' Were such a practice general, how much assistance would
be rendered to future genealogists ! And as I wish to promote by humble
example what I recommend in words, I have given all my own children
the maternal surname in this manner.

FROM BAPTISMAL NAMES. 173
and a still farther analogy is observable in the names
which end in por, which is said to be a contraction of
puer: hence Publipor, Marcipor, Lucipor, and our own
Johnson, Wilson, and Richardson, originated in the
same principle.
There is no reason to suppose that the abbreviated
or nurse-names implied any disrespect to the persons
to whom they were given, or that the Dicks and
Dicksons were less respectable than the Richards
or Richardsons of olden times. The Lincolnshire
innkeeper mentioned by Camden laboured, therefore,
under a mistake; — but let Mr. Clarencieux tell his
own story :
" Daintie was the deuice of my host of Grantham,
which would wisely make a difference of degrees in
persons, by the termination of names in this word
Son, as between Robertson, Robinson, Robson, Hobson;
Richardson, Dickson, and Dickinson; Wilson, Wil
liamson, and Wilkinson ; Jackson, Johnson, Jenkinson,
as though the one were more worshipfuU than the
other by his degrees of comparison."
Some christian names have been oddly compounded
with other words to form surnames, as Goodhugh,
Matthewman, Marklove, Fulljames (perhaps Foljambe),
Harryman, Cobbledick, (on J. G. N.'s theory ' Dick
the Cobbler !') Jackaman, and Dulhumphrey !
The name of John has at least seven of these
strange appendages, viz. : LittleJOHN, MicklejoHN,
UpjoHN, PretteJOHN, ApplejoHN, ProperjoHN, and
BrownJOHN ! ! ! I cannot consider these last corrup
tions of other names, as the prefixes seem to be all
significant and descriptive. Indeed so common is the
forename John, that before the invention of regular
surnames, these sobriquets might have been given with

174 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
great propriety, for the sake of distinction, to as many
inhabitants of any little village. Thus the least John
of the seven would be the Little John of the locality ;
while Mickle (that is great) John would be a very ap
propriate designation for the most bulky of the number;
John at the upper end of the street might be called
Up- John ; Pretty John was, I suppose, the beau of the
village ; while the goodman who had the best orchard
was styled Apple-John ; * Proper-John, no doubt,
answered to his name, and was a model of propriety to
all the youth of the parish ;f while, to complete the list,
Brown- John possessed a complexion which would not
have disgraced a mulatto. All this may be rejected
by profound etymologists and grave and solemn anti
quaries as inconsiderate trifling, though to the good-
natured 'gentle reader' it may appear quite as satisfactory
as some of their more recondite speculations.
The foregoing paragraph had been twice in print
before the etymology of a very curious name, which I
had often seen, occurred to me, as being similar — I
mean Grosjean, which literally signifies ' Big or Fat
John,' and is still applied in France by way of sobriquet
to any self-important person. The occurrence of this
name in another language seems a strong proof of my
hypothesis. It is by no means uncommon in England.
* I may remark, in support of this etymology, that I once knew a person
who was famous for growing an excellent kind of potatoes, on which
account he was often spoken of by his rustic neighbours as Tater-John !
Applejohn, in Shakspeare's time, was the name of a species of apple.
"Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle?" says Falstaff; "why my skin
hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown ; I am withered like an old
Apple-John." — Hen. IV, act iii.
f Sometimes 'proper' signified handsome; as " Moses was a proper
child."— Heb. xi, 23. "A proper youth and tall."— Old Ballad.

CHAPTER X.

OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM NATURAL OBJECTS.

NE would suppose that when almost
every description of locality, whether
town, village, manor, park, hill, dale,
bridge, river, pond, wood or green;
every dignity, office, profession and
trade; every peculiarity of body and
of mind, and every imaginable modification of every
christian name, had contributed their full quota to the
nomenclature of Englishmen, the few millions of
families inhabiting our island would have all been
supplied with surnames ; but no : the thirst for variety
(that charming word !) was not yet satisfied ; and con
sequently recourse was had to
" objects celestial and things terrene,
The wondrous glories of the firmament,
And all the creatures of this nether scene,
Beasts, fishes, birds, and trees, in beauteous green
Yclad, and even stones  ."
Accordingly we find the names of the heavenly
bodies, beasts, birds, fishes, insects, plants, fruits,
flowers, metals, &c. &c. very frequently borne as sur
names. I shall first attempt a classification of these
names under their various genera, and then offer some
remarks on their probable origin.

176 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
I. From the Heavenly Bodies. Sun, Moon, Star.
II. From Quadrupeds;
Ass,* Bear, Buck, Badger, Bull, Bullock, Boar,
Beaver, Catt, Colt, Coney, Cattle (!), Cow, Calfe, Deer,
Doe, Fox, Fawn, Goat, Goodsheep, Hart, Hogg, Hare,
Hound, Heifer, Kine (!), Kitten, Kydd, Lyon, Leppard,
Lambe,\ Leveret, Mare, Mule, Mole, Oxen (!), Otter,
Oldbuck, Panther, Puss, Poodle (!), Palfrey, Pigg, Roe
buck, Ram, Rabbit, Roe, Setter, Steed, Stallion, Steere,
Squirrel, Seal, Stagg, Tiger, Wildbore and Wetherhogg.
Some names of animals now obsolete, or only used in
our provincial dialects, are retained in surnames, as —
Brock, a badger, in various dialects. In others it
means an inferior horse, and "hence," says Kennett,
"the name of 'brockman' in Kent, i. e. horseman."
The surname Brockman is still in use, but I think
analogy (see p. 119,) is in favour of the 'brockman'
of old having been a hunter of badgers. The Wicliffite
version of the N. Test, renders Hebr. xi, 37, " Thei
wenten about in brok skynnes, and in skynnes of
geet." t
* This is mentioned as a surname by one or two authorities : I must
confess I have never met with it.
f Charles Lamb, in reply to the question, " Who first imposed thee,
gentle name ?" comes to the conclusion that his ancestors were shepherds !
J See more in Halliwell's Diet, and Way's Parv. Prompt, in voc. Brock.
Both this word and ' stot' are employed by Chaucer to designate beasts
of draught. " Thay seigh a cart, that chargid was with hay,
Which that a carter drof forth in his way.
Deep was the way, for which the cart stood ;
The carter smoot, and cryde as he wer wood ;
' Hayt, brok ; hayt, stot; what spare ye for the stones?
The fend,' quoth he, ' now fech body and bones !' "
Wright's Chauc. 7121, &c.

NATURAL OBJECTS. 177
Todd, a fox (see p. 119).
Talbot, a mastiff; a familiar heraldric term.
Gray, another provincialism for the badger.
{Clutterbuck, which I have heretofore assigned to
this class, is supposed by Mr. Talbot* to be a local
name from the A.-S. and German ' cluttr,' 'kluttr,'
clear, pure, transparent, and ' beck,' a little stream.)
Fitchett, a stoat or polecat.
Stott, a young ox.
Veal (in Anglo-Norman records, Le Veal), a calf.
Moyle is the O. E. for any labouring beast, and Capel
is an old word, signifying a strong horse; hence Chaucer,
" And gave him caples to his carte."
In an antient " ballade of Robyn Hood" we have,
" Yonder I heare Syr Guy's home blow,
It blows so wel in tyde ;
And yonder he comes, that wight yeoman,
Clad in hys capux-hide."
I have not found the name of Mouse in modern
times, but " le Mouse" occurs in the Nonarum Rolls.
One of the most singular designations I ever met with
is that of a gentleman of fortune in Kent. His family
name was Bear, and as he had maternal relatives of the
name of Savage, his parents gave him the christian
(or rather un-christian) name of Savage ! Hence he
enjoyed the pleasing and amiable name of Savage
Bear, Esquire ! !
Not content with having appropriated the names of
the living animals, our ancestors sometimes, oddly
enough, adopted the terms applied to their flesh,
&c. when dead, as Mutton, Tripe, Pigfat, Gammon,
* English Etymol. 8§

178 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Brawn, Giblets, Hogsfiesh* and Bacon. These two last
were once borne by two innkeepers at Worthing, then
a very small town ; whereupon a rustic poetaster penned
the ensuing most elegant stanza :
" Worthing is a pretty place,
And if I'm not mistaken,
If you can't get any butcher's meat,
There's Hogsflesh and Bacon .'"
III. Surnames derived from Birds are fully as
numerous as those from quadrupeds :
Bird, Blackbird, Bunting, Bulfinch, Buzzard, Bar
nacle, Bustard, Coote, Crane, Cock, Cuckoo, Crake,
Chick, Chicken, Chaffinch, Crowe, Capon, Drake, Duck,
Dove, Daw, Egles, Fowle, Finch, Falcon, Goshawk,
Grouse, Gander, Goose, Gosling, Gull, Goldfinch,
Hawke, Howlett, Heron, Heme, Jay, Kite, Linnet,
Larke, Mallard, Nightingale, Peacock, Partridge, Phea
sant, Pigeon, Parrot, Raven, Rooke, Ruff, Swan, Sparrow,
Swallow, Sparrowhawk, Starling, Stork, Sivift, Turtle,
Teale, Tfirush, Throssel, Wildrake, Wildgoose, Wood
cock,^ Woodpecker, Wren!
Obsolete or Provincial Names of Birds used as sur
names : —
Culver (A.-S.), a pigeon, whence the local names
Culverhouse (dove-cot), Culverwell, &c.
Bisset (Fr.), a wild pigeon.
Henshaw (O. E. ' hernshaw;' in blazon, ' heronsewe'),
* The mistress of a ladies' seminary in a fashionable watering-place,
who used to advertise her establishment under this name, now spells it
Ho' flesh !
t Woodcock was an unfortunate name. It was often given by way of
sobriquet to vain and silly people, from the vulgar notion that the bird
designated by it was brainless !

NATURAL OBJECTS. 179
a young heron. One family of this name bear the
allusive coat of three herons.*
Popjay (O. E. 'popinjay'), a parrot. Shooting at
the popinjay was a favourite amusement among our
antient toxophilites.
Carnell, a bird, but of what species I am not quite
certain. Hone mentions a Christmas carol com
mencing, " As I passed by a river side,
And as I there did rein (ramble),
In argument I chanced to hear
A carnal and a crane."
"A cardnell volant" occurs in Bossewell's 'Workes
of Armorie,' 1572. " Cljpsi Igttle fcprttt (0 fyttt
figurttt, gesante a seatie of tfje tln'stle, for
ftnt $bt lybett) 6p ti)t stfa&es of tftem, unde
illi inditum nomen. Jz>J)t Jjati) a Ytiltlt J)ta&£,
pealofoe tamps, tu'stmctt toftfc fo&fte antr
6Iatltt»" Iu the margin is placed the word Carduelis
(a linnet), but the description evidently refers to the
goldfinch. It is not so likely that cardnell or carnell
is derived from 'carduus,' a thistle, as the old herald-
rist imagines, as that it comes from cardinal, in allusion
to the hood of red with which nature has invested this
sprightly and beautiful little bird.
* " He don't know a hawk from a handsaw" is a proverb often
applied to an ignoramus. For handsaw read hernshaw. The saying ori
ginally and primarily referred to ignorance of a favourite sport — that of
falconry — when the said ignoramus could not discriminate between the
hawk and its prey. I cannot help just remarking here that several of our
most vulgar proverbs had a worthier origin than would appear at first
sight. For example, " To be called over the coals," in the sense of being
questioned upon some alleged fault — apparently a meaningless expression
— loses all its coarseness when we associate with it the ordeal by fire, so
much in use among our medieval ancestors.

180 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Spink is a provincialism for chaffinch, probably bor
rowed from the peculiar note of the bird.
Goldspink, a goldfinch.
Guilliam, a provincial name for the sea-gull ; it is
also an O. E. orthography for William. (See p. 171.)
Pocock is peacock. Chaucer's ' Yeman' was
" clad in coote and hood of grene
A shef of pocok arwes bright and kene,
Under his belte he bar full thriftily."
Hannah (A.-S. 'hana'), a cock.
Goss (A.-S. ' gos'), a goose.
Laverock, a lark.
Balchin in the midland and western counties means
an unfledged bird.
Pye, which might be supposed to be derived from
the bird so called, is a corruption from the Welsh Ap-
Hugh — u in that language having sometimes the sound
of y. This name is exceedingly common in some dis
tricts of England and Wales, a fact that can excite no
surprise in any one who " marks the conclusion" of the
following epitaph from Dewchurch near Kevenol :
" 1550.
Here lyeth the
Body of John Pye
of Minde,
a travayler in far countryes,
his life ended ; he left be
hind him Walter, his son,
heire of Minde ; a hundred and
six yeares he was truly, and had
sons and daughters two and forty .'"
Corbet, the name of more than one eminent family
in the North of England, is raven. In Scotland, the

NATURAL OBJECTS. 181
name, both of the bird and the family, is varied to
Corby. The reader who is versed in the old Scottish
ballads will call to mind that of the Twa Corbies, which
for tragic effect and wildness of diction is unequalled,
and which, for the benefit of those to whom it may be
new, I shall here take the liberty to introduce.
"€\)t Ctoa Corbies*
As I gaed doun by yon house-een',
Twa Corbies there were sitting their lane ;
The ane unto the tother did say : —
' 0 where shall we gae dine ta-day ?'
0 doun beside yon new-faun birk,
There, there lies a new-slain knicht ;
Nae livin' kens that he lies there,
But his horse, his hounds, and his ladye fair.
His horse is to the hunting gane,
His hounds to bring the wild deer hame ;
His lady's taen another mate ;
Sae we may mak our dinner sweet !
0 we'll sit on his bonny breist-bane,
And we'll pyke out his bonny grey een ;
Wi' ae lock o' his gowden hair
We'll theek our nest when it blaws bare !
Many a ane for him maks mane,
But none sail ken where he is gane ;
Ower his banes when they are bare,
The wind sail blawfor evermair!"
So numerous are the names derived from this source
that in a small congregation of dissenters at Feversham,
co. Kent, there were lately no less than twenty-three
names taken from the " feathered nation," their pastor,
a very worthy man, bearing the singularly appropriate
name of Rooke !

182 ENGLISH SURNAMES.

Jo'II bt the Pansounc?"
" i," auoth ge moofec,
" Wj)ti) mg It'ttcl bookt,
&nU J'll ue lot $ar£forme."
Nurserie Romaunt of Cocke Robyn !
Many names of this sort have been the subjects of
excellent puns, among which may be noticed the fol
lowing. " When worthy master Hern, famous for his
living, preaching and writing, lay on his death-bed,
(rich only in goodness and children,) his wife made
womanish lamentations what would become of her little
ones? 'Peace, sweetheart,' said he, 'that God who
feedeth the ravens will not starve the herns ;' — a speech
(says Fuller) censured as light by some, observed by
others as prophetical; as indeed it came to pass they
were all well disposed of." Akin to this were the
words of John Huss at his burning; who, fixing his
eyes steadfastly upon the spectators, said with a solemn
voice — " They burn a goose, but in a hundred years a
swan will arise out of the ashes :" words which many
have regarded as a prediction of the reformer of
Eisleben ; the name of Huss signifying a goose, and
that of Luther a swan.
The following is of a more humorous cast. As
Mr. Jay, the eminent nonconformist divine of Bath, and
his friend Mr. Fuller were taking an evening walk, an
owl crossed their path, on which Mr. Fuller said to his
companion, " Pray, sir, is that bird a jay ?" " No,
sir," was the prompt reply ; " it's not like a jay, — it's
fuller in the eyes, and fuller in the head, and fuller all
over !"*
* Since the above was written, a correspondent informs me that the
same story is told "by that excellent old English classic, Miller, hight
Joseph, reading however Woodcock for Jay."

NATURAL OBJECTS. 183
It is related in Collins's Peerage that a certain un
married lady once dreamed of finding a nest containing
seven young finches, which in course of time was realized
by her becoming the wife of a Mr. Finch, and mother
of seven children. From one of these nestlings is de
scended the present earl of Winchelsea, who still retains
the surname of Finch.
IV. From Fishes.
Bream, Burt, Base, Cod, Crabbe, Cockle, Chubb, Dol
phin, Eel, Flounders, Gudgeon, Grayling, Gurnard,
Haddock, Herring, Jack, Ling, Lamprey, Mullett,
Minnow, Pilchard, Plaice, Piper, Pike, Perch, Pikerell,
Ray, Roach, Sharke, Sturgeon, Salmon, Sole, Scate,
Smelt, Sprat, Seal, Trout, Tench, Whiting, Whale; to
which may be added Fish and Fisk, the latter being
the true A.-S. form of the same word.
V. From Insects and Reptiles.
Bugg, Bee, Beetle, Cricket, Emmett, Flea, Fly, Grubb,
Moth, Spider, Wasp, Worms, and Blackadder.
Some of these again are probably corruptions, but
the first, at least, is of antient use as a second name,
for Mr. Kemble mentions an Anglo-Saxon lady named
Hrothwaru, who bore the sobriquet of ' Bucge' (cimex,
bug,) "perhaps (as Mr. K. jocularly observes) upon the
principle of that insect being 'a familiar beast and a
friend to man.' "
VI. From Vegetable Productions (omitting the
names of trees, already mentioned.)
Ashplant, Almond, Bays, Barberry, Balsam, Bramble,
Brier, Beet, Budd, Bean, Broome, Codlin, Clover, Cran
berry, Cabbage, Clove, Cherry, Cockle, Darnell, Damson,
Daisy, Feme, Fennel, Flower, Flowers, Flax, Furze,

184

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

Grain, Garlick, Gourd, Grapes, Holyoak, Hip, Herbage,
Hempe, Ivy* Ivyleaf Lily, Laurel, Leaf, Leeves, Leek,
Millet, Medlar, Melon, Nutt, Nuts, Nettle, Oates, Onion,
Orange, Olive, Pepper, Peppercorn,f Peascod, Pease
(lately among the M. P.'s), Primrose, Peach, Pippin,
Plum, Plant, Poppy, Parsley, Quince, Quickset, Raisin,
Rue, Row{d)ntree, Rose, Seed, Stock, Straw, Sorrell,
Sage, Spinage, Spice, Savory, Sweetapple, Tares, Tulip,
Thistle, Violets, Vetch, Weed and Woodbine.
* Holly and Ivy were personated in the antient holiday games. In
Hone's Mysteries is the following quotation from a MS. carol, called "A
Song on the Holly and the Ivy." (p. 94.)
" Nay, Ivy, nay, hyt shal not be I wys,
Let holy hafe the maystry ; as the maner ys :
Holy stand in the halle, fayre to behold
Ivy stond without the dore she is ful sore acold.
Nay, Ivy, nay, Sfc.
Holy and hys mery men, they dawnsyn and they syng,
Ivy and hur maydyns, they wepyn and they wryng.
Nay, Ivy, nay, fyc."
In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, a correspondent, under the name
of Kitty Curious, describes an odd kind of sport which she witnessed in an
obscure village in Kent on the festival of St. Valentine. The girls and
young women were assembled in a crowd, burning an uncouth effigy which
they called a Holly Boy, and which they had stolen from the boys ; while the
boys revenged themselves in another part of the village by burning a similar
figure taken from the girls, and called an Ivy Girl. The sport was carried
on with great noise and much glee. Kitty inquired the meaning of the
observance from the most aged people of the place, but could only learn
from them that it was a "very old antient custom." That surnames
were occasionally assumed from such and similar mummeries, is confirmed
by the following short extract from Fabyan's Chronicle (edit. 1559), sub
anno 1502 : " About Mydsomer was taken a felow wych had renued (re
newed) many of Robyn Hodes pagentes, which named hymselfe Grenelef."
This name is not extinct.
t There were formerly living in two adjacent houses in Deptford Broad
way, Mr. Pluckrose, a perfumer, and Mr. Peppercorn, a grocer.

NATURAL OBJECTS. 185
Roser is an obsolete word for rose-bush or tree, (Fr.
'rosier,') as the following true tale from our unsophisti
cated friend Sir John Maundevile, will show :
" And betwene the cytee [of Bethlehem] and the
chirche is the felde floridus ; that is to seyne, the feld
florisched : for als moche as a fayre mayden was blamed
with wrong and sclaundred,  for whiche cause
sche was demed to the dethe, and to be brent in that
place, to the whiche sche was ladd (led). And as the
fyre began to brenne aboute hire, sche made hire
preyeres to our Lord, that als wissely as sche was not
gylty of that synne, that he wold help hire, and make
it to be knowen to alle men of his mercyfulle grace.
And whan sche hadde thus seyd, sche entred in to the
fuyer ; and anon was the fuyr quenched and oute; and
the brondes that weren brennynge becomen rede
Roseres; and the brondes that weren not kyndled,
becomen white Roseres fulle of roses. And theise
weren the first Roseres and roses, both white and rede,
that evere ony man saugh."
There are several other surnames which at first sight
aprjear to belong to this class, but which really belong to
others. Of these some are local, as Barley, a parish in
Hertfordshire, Smallwood, in Cheshire, &c. Lemon
and Peel would look well enough in juxta-position
among vegetable surnames, but the truth is that neither
of them belongs to the category. Of Peel I have
already spoken among local names, and Leman is a cor
rupt spelling of the O. E. 'lemman,' a paramour or
mistress, a word of frequent occurrence in Chaucer.
Filbert and Pear, again, are corruptions of the French
proper names Philibert and Pierre.
Lis and Blanchflower (Fr.), 'lily' and 'white-flower,'
might be added to the foregoing list.

186 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
VII. From Minerals.
Alum* Amber, Brass, Corall, Chrystal, Coale, Copper,
Diamond and Dymond, Freestone, Gold, Garnett, Gravel,
Irons, Jewell, Pewter, Silver and Steele.
Clay, Chalk, Flint, Stone, Sands and Whetstone, are
local names, and therefore do not belong to this
class. Hone is an old spelling of ' hand.'
Coke has nothing to do with charred coal : it is the
old orthography of cook : —
" A coke they hadden with hem for the nones
To boile the chickenes and the marie-bones,
He coud-e roste and sethe and boile and frie,
Maken mortrew-es and wel bake a pie."
Chaucer, Prologue.
Having thus classified the surnames which are iden
tical with names of natural objects, it is our next duty to
inquire in what manner they have got into our nomen
clature. After much research I have arrived at the
conviction that their assumption is traceable to at least
four different causes.
I. Some were given to, or assumed by, the original
bearers, as emblematical of their characters, as Lyon,
Fox, Lambe.
II. Others were sobriquets in allusion to some inci
dent in their personal history.
III. Some were borrowed from the blazonry of the
warrior's shield.
IV. The majority were adopted from inn and traders'
Signs. In this chapter I shall discuss the two former
* Perhaps local. Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. Allom is a nursename of
Absolom.

NATURAL OBJECTS. 187
branches only. The third and fourth are connected
with artificial objects, and to prevent confusion must be
treated separately.
The Greeks and Romans frequently applied the names
of animals to persons who were supposed to bear some
resemblance to them in the main features of their cha
racter. Among the latter people such names as Leo,
Ursinicus, Catullus, Leporius, Aper, Gallus, Picus, Falco,
are sufficiently abundant. The Persian name Cyrus
means a dog, and may possibly be related to our
English word c cjr ! - And it is a singular and humorous
coincidence that the nurse of Cyrus bore a name sig
nifying bitch ! Among less civilized races the same
practice prevailed. The antient Germans, and the
American Indians of the present day may be mentioned
as instances. Verstegan says, " The pagan Germans,
especially the noblemen, did sometimes take the
names of beasts, as one would be called a Lion, another
a Bear, another a Wolf, &c."
One of the most widely-spread names of this kind is
Wolfe, which occurs in the classical, as well as in many
modern, languages, as Au/coe (Gr.), Lupus and Lupa
(Lat.), Loupe (Fr.), Wulp (Sax.), and Guelph (Germ.)
— the surname of the existing royal family of Great
Britain.* The old baronial name of Lovel is from the
* Siste Viator ! and read the subjoined most veritable history ! "It is
told in the chronicles, that as far back as the days of Charlemagne, one Count
Isenbrand, who resided near the Lake of Constance, met an old woman who
had given birth to three children at once, a circumstance which appeared to
him so portentous and unnatural, that he assailed her with a torrent of
abuse. Stung to fury by his insults, she cursed the Count, and wished that
his wife, then enceinte, might bring at a birth as many children as there are
months in the year. The imprecation was fulfilled, and the Countess became
the mother of a dozen babes at once. Dreading the vengeance of her severe
lord, she badeher abigailgo drown elevenof the twelve. But whom should the

188 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
same source. The original name of that family was
Perceval, from a place in Normandy ; until Asceline, its
chief, who flourished in the early part of the twelfth
century, acquired, from his violent temper, the sobriquet
of Lupus. His son William, earl of Yvery, was nick
named Lupellus, the little wolf, which designation was
softened into Lupel, and thence to Luvel, and became
the surname of most of his descendants.* Fosbroke
mentions the name of Archembaldus Pejor-Lupo,
Archibald Worse-than-a-Wolf ! out does not give his
authority.f A seal lately found at Colchester bears the
figure of a wolf carrying off a ram, with the not very
complimentary legend, s' roberti dicti lvpi, 'the
seal of Robert called the Wolf
The female name ' Ursula' signifies little-she-bear —
not a very good denomination for a saint ! Ursula
Shebeare, a name I have somewhere met with, is, in
sound, rather agreeable than otherwise, but, etymologi-
cally, how dreadful ! The expression ' a bear,' some
times applied to an unamiable specimen of the genus
homo, is repulsive enough ; a ' she-bear' is still more
odious ; but when two she-bears unite in one of nature's
gentlest works, what word is sufficiently strong to ex
press our abhorrence?
girl meet, while on this horrible errand, but the Count himself, who, sus
pecting that all was not right, demanded to know the contents of the
basket. " Welfen," was the intrepid reply, (i. e. the old German term for
puppies, and now traceable in our word whelps.) Dissatisfied with this
explanation, the Count lifted up the cloth, and found under it eleven bonny
infants nestled together. Their unblemished forms reconciled the scrupu
lous knight, and he resolved to recognise them as his lawful progeny.
Thenceforward their children and their descendants went by the name of
Guelph or Welf; and from these identical little innocents does our liege
lady Victoria inherit her cognomen." — Newspaper Paragraph.
* Burke's Extinct Peerage. f Encyc. of Antiq. p. 429.

NATURAL OBJECTS. 189
Lupa was the name given as a sobriquet to the wife
of Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus, on
account of the rudeness of her temper. Hence the
well-known fable of those illustrious twins having been
suckled by a she-wolf. Many of the classical tales of
antiquity doubtless originated in similar misapprehen
sions ; so also, let us charitably hope, did some of the
most incredible miracles of medieval times. The case
of the virgin-martyr Undecemilla having given rise to
the story of the eleven thousand virgins is generally
known. " We should think Ass and Sow not very elegant
names," observes the witty author of Heraldic Anoma
lies, " and yet there were persons of respectability at
Rome who bore them — no less indeed than the Corne
lian and Tremellian families. The former got the name
of Asinia by one of the family having agreed to buy a
farm, who, being asked to give pledges for the fulfilment
of his engagement, caused an ass, loaded with money,
to be led to the Forum as the only pledge that could
be wanted. The Tremellian family got the name of
Scropha or Sow, in a manner by no means reputable ;
but by what we should call, in these days, a hoax, and
a very unfair one into the bargain. A sow having
strayed from a neighbour's yard into that of one of the
Tremellii, the servants of the latter killed her. The
master caused the carcase to be placed under some bed
clothes, where his lady was accustomed to lie, and, when
his neighbour came to search for the pig, undertook to
swear that there was no old sow in his premises, except
the one that was lying among those bed-clothes, which
his neighbour very naturally concluded to be the lady
herself. How the latter liked the compliment the his
tory does not relate, but from that time the Tremellii

190 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
acquired the cognomen of Scropha or Sow, which
became afterwards so fixed a family name as to make
sows of all their progeny, both male and female."
One of the Fabian family received the name of
buzzard (Buteo), because a bird of this species (always
regarded as a good omen) happened to fall upon the
vessel in which he was making a voyage. Corvinus is
an example, more generally known, to which I shall
have occasion to refer in my next chapter.
These instances illustrate the first and second causes
of the use of such names in my classification, as far as
relates to animals ; and the following remark is equally
relevant of those belonging to the vegetable kingdom.
In the early periods of the Roman republic, when
the plough was regarded as only second to the sword,
and ' Bonus Agricola' was equivalent to ' Vir Bonus,'
some of the noblest families adopted their family names
from their having cultivated particular kinds of vege
tables, as the Fabii, Pisones, Lentuli, and Cicerones,
who were respectively famous for the excellence of their
beans, peas, lentils and vetches.*
Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors sometimes gave as
sobriquets to individuals the names of birds. Mr.
Kemble mentions two ladies of those times who bore
the appellations of Crow and Duck (Crawe and Enede.)
With respect to the latter, Mr. K. most gallantly ob
serves, " I would rather believe that modern slang had
an antient foundation, than suggest that the lady's walk
or gait had anything to do with the appellation."
With respect to the more modern and regular sur
names of this sort, I would remark, that they generally
occur in medieval records with the Norman-French
* Vide Adams's Roman Hist.

NATURAL OBJECTS. 191
prefix ' le,' as Roger le Buck, Nicholas le Hart,
Richard le Stere, Adam le Fox, Peter le Hogge. In
their primary application they were sobriquets, allusive,
as in the cases above cited, either to the characteristic
qualities of the persons, or to some incident of their
lives. Of the latter class various instances will be found
in the course of these volumes.
A few have been latinized, as Leo, Avis, Mus and
Aries, and still retain that form.

CHAPTER XI.
OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM HERALDRIC CHARGES
AND FROM TRADERS' SIGNS.
j T may appear somewhat incongruous to
combine in one chapter Surnames de
rived from such opposite sources as
those indicated above, and thus to
associate the armorial shield of the
patrician warrior with the sign-post
of the plebeian innholder or shopkeeper. However
infra dignitatem such a procedure may appear, it is
quite necessary for the developement of my subject,
though I cannot here give my reasons for it, without
unduly anticipating certain matters and conclusions
which will occur before this chapter is brought to a
close. I have already in another place partially discussed
this subject, and must therefore be guilty of a little
self-plagiarism here.* I would also premise that this
chapter, although in the main supplementary to the
preceding one, will necessarily embrace some surnames
not borrowed from the kingdoms of Nature.
Armorial ensigns and family nomenclature possess

* Curiosities of Heraldry, p. 130.

HERALDRIC CHARGES. 193
several features in common. They originated about
the same period, and in part from the same causes ;
and they serve alike to distinguish one race from
another. The most incurious observer must have noticed that
very many heraldric bearings coincide with the surnames
of the families to which they appertain. Thus the
Herons bear herons, the Beevors a beaver, the Corbets
a raven, and the Hogges a boar. In all cases either the
coat of arms or the surname must have originated first.
When the surname was first adopted the arms are a
mere play or pun upon it ; and in a great majority of
instances this is the case. A series of illustrations of
these allusive or canting arms will be given in the Ap
pendix. At present we have only to inquire into the
fact of certain families having borrowed their names
from the insignia of heraldry.
Salverte is of opinion that many of the chiefs who
engaged in the Crusades assumed and handed down to
their posterity names allusive to the devices which de
corated their banners of war. He also notices the fact
that there were in Poland, in the twelfth century, two
families called respectively Rose and Griffin, because
those objects formed their ensigns or armorial devices.
Hereditary surnames were not established in Poland
for some ages subsequently, and those two names do
not now exist there, though the descendants of those
who adopted them probably do. In Sweden, also, there
is proof that the nobles followed such a practice :
" One who bore in his arms the head of an ox assumed
the name of Oxenstiern (front-de-bceuf), and another
adopted that of Sparr from the cheveron which formed
the principal feature of his coat."*
* Salverte, i, 240.
i. 9

194 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
" A particular instance of the armorial ensign being
metonymically put for the bearer of it, occurs in the
history of the Troubadours, the first of whom was
called the Dauphin, or knight of the Dolphin, because
he bore this figure on his shield. In the person of
one of his successors the name Dauphin became a title
of sovereign dignity. Many other surnames were in
this manner taken from arms, as may be inferred from
the ordinary phraseology of romance, where many of
the warriors are styled knights of the Lion, of the
Eagle, of the Rose, &c, according to the armorial
figures they bore on their shields."* To this we may
add that at tournaments the combatants usually bore
the title of knights of the Swan, Dragon, Star, or
whatever charge was most conspicuous in their arms.t
" In the tournament and in the battle-field," observes
Salverte, " a knight presented himself with the vizor
of his helmet down, and he was only known by the
symbol he affected to bear. The designation of this
symbol, associated as it was with every one of his glo
rious exploits, became a veritable surname."
Before proceeding to more special instances in this
country, I would refer to the classical story of the
origin of the cognomen Corvinus, assumed by M.
Valerius the Roman tribune, which is not wholly irre
levant of our subject. According to Eutropius, " Qui-
dam ex Gallis unum e Romanis, qui esset optimus,
provocavit. Turn se Marcus Valerius, tribunus militum,
obtulit, et cum processit armatus, Corvus ei supra dex-
trum brachium sedit mox, commissa adversus Galium
pugna, idem corvus alis et unguibus Galli oculos ver-
beravit, ne rectum posset aspicere, ita ut a Tribuno
* Brydson's Summary View of Heraldry, pp. 98-9.
t Menestrier.

HERALDRIC CHARGES. 195
Valerio interfectus, non solum victoriam ei, sed etiam
nomen dederit. Nam postea idem Corvinus est dictus,
ac propter hoc meritum, annorum trium et viginti
consul est factus."*
Eutropius is by no means an imaginative writer, and
he doubtless delivers the story as he received it ; but
Salverte rejects it as fabulous, and observes that the
name may be traced with much greater probability to
a figure of the bird which Valerius placed upon his
helmet as a crest. The distinction of a crest was pecu
liar to commanders,f and some occult virtue may have
been ascribed to this of the tribune, as was often done
to the swords of the heroes of romance, and thus the
tale became current that he had achieved his victory
by the help of a raven.
The illustrious line of Plantagenet derived their
surname from the broom-plant, the badge of their
founder. The great English family of Septvans or ' Seven-
fans ' are said to have borrowed their name from their
singular armorials, which were wicker baskets used for
winnowing corn. It may be objected that the num
ber of these objects borne by Sir Robert Septvans, as
represented upon his tomb in Chartham church, co.
Kent (1306) is but three. This does not prove, how
ever, that the number may not originally have been
* Rom. Hist., lib. ii, cap. 6. " A certain Gaul challenged one of the
Romans to a single combat, which Marcus Valerius, a military tribune,
accepted. And as he went forth armed, a raven presently settled upon
his right arm, and, after the combat commenced, so beat about the eyes
of the Gaul with its wings and claws, that he could not see before him ;
in consequence of which he lost his life, and the tribune Valerius gained
the victory and a name. For thenceforth he was called Corvinus ; and on
account of this service he was made consul for three and twenty years."
t The crests of antient heroes were personal, not hereditary.

196 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
seven, as there are several instances
of the diminution of a greater num
ber of charges to three in those
times ; witness the royal arms of
France, which were originally semee-
de-lis, but reduced in this century to three. The arms
of Trusbut are three water-bowgets, 'tres boutz,' and
Mr. Montagu thinks the name was taken from the
bearings.* The six swallows (in French hirondelles) in the arms
of the eminent Cornish family of Arundel, furnish one
of the most familiar instances of the agreement between
the surname and the heraldric insignia of a family.
In a poem by William de Brito, written in the twelfth
century (an early age, be it remembered, in the history
both of heraldry and of hereditary surnames), the
Arundel of that period (about the year 1170) is asserted
to have derived his name from the charge of his shield.
He is represented as attacking William de Barr, a
French knight. " Vidit hirundela velocior alite quae dat
Hoc agnomen ei, fert cujus in asgide signum,
Se rapit agminibus mediis clypeoque nitenti,
Quem sibi Guillelmus Ueva prsetenderat ulna,
Immergit validam prseacutse cuspidis hastam."
Camden's Remaines.
" Swift as the swallow, whence his arms' device
And his own name are took, enraged he flies
Through gazing troops, the wonder of the field,
And sticks his lance in William's glittering shield."
C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i, p. 470.
To this the genealogist will object that there is histo
rical evidence that the Arundels took their surname
* Study of Heraldry, p. 70.

HERALDRIC CHARGES. 197
from the town of that name in Sussex; and this is
really the case. Still our extract is not the less valu
able, as proving from contemporary evidence that the
practice of assuming a surname from the devices of the
warrior's shield was not unknown.
Of the name Griffinhoof, Mr. Talbot observes, that
it is " a literal translation of the German family name
Greifen-klau, or the Griffin's-claw, which I conceive
must have taken its origin from some armorial bearings
or device assumed by that family." Mr. Talbot then
quotes an old Latin poem of the tenth or eleventh
century, in which the hero is represented as sallying
forth in quest of adventures accompanied by a single
esquire, and bearing suspended from his neck a griffin's
claw adorned with polished brass by way of a hunting-
horn.* It was probably made of some foreign material
of unknown origin, and, upon the principle omne ig-
notum pro mirifico, ascribed to the fabulous creature
half lion, half eagle, so familiar in heraldry. Mr. Way,
in his edition of the ' Promptorium Parvulorum,' men
tions several griffins' claws which were formerly pre
served in various public collections. The one in the
museum of the Royal Society, Dr. Grew pronounced
to be the horn of a roebuck or of the Ibex mas.
We may fairly conclude, I think, that sometimes
such surnames as Lyon, Buck, Tiger, Leppard, Hawke,
Raven, Heron, and some others which indicate courage
or agility, have been borrowed from the shields and
banners of war; but let no man glorify himself with
the notion that he is sprung from some stalwart
Crusader who fought under his own banner at Aeon ;
or descended from some doughty champion of the
* Vide English Etymologies, p. 302.

198 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
tournament, until he can show proof that the founder
of his race was not a craftsman or an innholder who
borrowed his name from his own sign !
I have only to add on this part of the subject, that
there are a few surnames which can have no other than
an heraldric source, such as Cheveron and Barr, in
whose arms the ' cheveron' and ' bar' are the principal
features. The names of Saltire, Canton, Pile, Paly,
Billet, Mascle, are found among us, although the arms
attached to them do not consist of the charges from
which they seem to have been originally borrowed;
while in some other cases, where the surname and arms
agree, as in Cross, Gore, and Delves, the former may,
with greater probability, be derived from other sources.
To turn to the more plebeian part of our subject —
I will quote from Camden* a passage which will at
once enable the reader to understand the origin of a
vast multitude of our family names :
" Many names that seem vnfitting for men, as of
brutish beasts, &c. come prom the very signes of the
houses where they inhabited ; for I have heard of them
which sayd they spake of knowledge, that some in late
time dwelling at the signe of the Dolphin, Bull, White-
horse, Racket, Peacocke, &e. were commonly called
Thomas at the Dolphin, Will at the Bull, George at the
Whitehorse, Robin at the Racket, which names, as many
other of like sort, with omitting at, became afterward
hereditary to their children."
To this may be added the testimony of Salverte,
whose aid is always valuable : " Some traders," says he,
"derived their names from the emblems they had adopted
* Remaines, p. 102.

TRADERS SIGNS. 199
as the signs of their establishments, in the same man
ner as the nobles had taken theirs from armorial
bearings." Such signs, though now almost exclusively confined
to inns, were formerly exhibited over the shop-doors
of tradesmen. They formed one of the most curious
features of our towns and cities in the ' olden tyme.'
Every quadruped from the lyon and hee-cow (!) down
to the hedgehogge, — every bird from the eagle to the
sparrowe, — every fysshe of the sea, almost every object,
in fact, artificial, natural, prsetematural, and super
natural, good, bad, and indifferent, from the angel to
the devil, lent its aid in those days to excite the atten
tion of passers-by to the various articles of commerce
exhibited for sale. This practice has long since given
way to the more convenient one of numbering the
houses of every street. It is still retained in many
towns on the Continent.
The city of Malines is said to abound with signs,
and they add much to the picturesque effect of the
streets of that remarkable place.* Even in England
some faint traces of the practice remain, particularly
in the more antique portions of old cities and country
towns, where we occasionally find the Golden Fleece
at the Drapers', the Pestle and Mortar at the Apo
thecaries', the Sugar-loaf at the Grocers', &c. The
Red Hat, the Golden Boot, the Silver Canister, and
others of that kind, which are everywhere pretty nu
merous, are modern imitations of the antient fashion,
and are certainly preferable to such names as 'Commerce
House,' ' Waterloo Establishment,' and 'Albion House,'
by which enterprising traders dignify their shops. A
* Vide Gent. Mag. March, 1842,

200 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
collection of antient signs still retained in use would be
a curious and not uninteresting document. A great
number of them might be collected from the imprints
of old books.
A famous bridge built at Paris in 1609 was called
le Pont aux Oiseaux : it was covered with houses uni
formly built, painted with oil-colours, and distinguished
by signs representing different birds.*
We may fairly conclude that the names adopted
from signs generally originated in towns, as such names
as Field, Wood, and Grove did in the country; a con
sideration not devoid of some interest, as from it a
conclusion may be arrived at as to whether one's an
cestors were citizens or ' rusticall men.'
In Pasquin's ' Night-Cap,' printed in 1612, we have
the following lines, which show that at that compa
ratively recent date, individuals were recognizable by
the signs of their shops;
" First there is maister Peter at the Bell,
A linen-draper and a wealthy man ;
Then maister Thomas that doth stockings sell ;
And George the grocer at the Frying-pan ;
And maister Timothie the woollen-draper ;
And maister Salamon the leather-scraper ;
And maister Frank ye goldsmith at the Rose ;
And maister Philip with the fiery nose.
And maister Miles the mercerf at the Harrow ;
And maister Nicke the silkman at the Plow ;
And maister Giles the Salter at the Sparrow ;
And maister Dicke the vintner at the Cow ;

* Salverte.
t The word Mercer is now exclusively applied to dealers in silk ; but
its original and true meaning is a general dealer. Gospatric Mercenarius
occurs in this sense among the burgesses of Clithero, co. Lancaster, in the
twelfth century.

TRADERS SIGNS. 201
And Harry haberdasher at the Home ;
And Oliver the dyer at the Thome ;
And Bernard, barber-surgeon at the Fiddle :
And Moses, merchant-tailor at the Needle."*
The following names are probably derived from this
source :
Arrow, Axe, Barrett, Bullhead, Bell, Block, Board,
Banner, Bowles, Baskett, Cann, Coulter, Chisel, Clogg,
Crosskeys, Crosier, Funnell, Forge, Fyrebrand, Grapes,
Griffin, Home, Hammer, Hamper, Hodd, Harrow,
Image (the sign originally in honour of some saint, per
haps), Jugg, Kettle, Knife, Lance, Mallet, Maul, Mattock (?),
Needle, Pail, Pott, Potts, Plowe, Plane, Pipes, Pottle,
Patten, Posnet (a purse or money-bag), Pitcher, Rule,
Rainbow, Sack, Saw, Shovel, Shears, Scales, Silverspoon,
Swords, Tankard, Tabor (a drum), Trowel, Tubb, and
Wedge. I would have wound up this catalogue with a
Winch ! but that name is more probably derived from
a place so called in the county of Norfolk.
Most of these were inn signs, particularly those
which are denominations of vessels for containing
liquors, as Barrell, Potts, Tankard, &c. In villages, in
our own times, the trade of the innkeeper is often
united to that of some handicraft. Hence come the
names of tools, &c. Particular houses were formerly,
as now, the resort of a particular class of artizans; thus
the bricklayers would resort to the Trowel or the Hodd,
the master of which would himself be a bricklayer;
the carpenters to the Chisel or the Mallet ; the black
smiths to the Hammer or the Forge, the tailors to the
Needle, &c.f
* Vide Gent. Mag. Jan. 1842.
t Nowadays the more pretending inn-keeping artificers give the armo*
rials of their respective crafts as signs, e. g. the Blacksmiths' Arms, the
9§

202 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Phenix and Spinks (sphinx) might probably be added
in this connexion.
As in the other classes of surnames, certain words
which have become obsolete as to general use are re
tained ; I would in particular notice Cowlstick (often
refined to Costic), Cade* Cottrell, and Cresset. A
cowl is a vessel with two ears, generally made of wood,

Carpenters' Arms, &c. ; those of a less ambitious grade give the Jolly
Tanner, the Jolly Butcher, the Jolly Blacksmith, &c. ' Arms' are occa
sionally 'found ' for callings hitherto unwarranted to bear them, as the
Sawyers' Arms, the Navigators' Arms ! There is some very queer
heraldry recently sprung up, especially in the vicinity of railways, as the
Railway Arms and the Tunnel Arms ! ! Both these occur at Lewes, as
does also the Mount-Pleasant Arms ! ! !
* As I intend " to put into my book as much as my book will hold," I
take an opportunity here, on mentioning the name of Cade, to correct an
error into which most of our historians have fallen relative to that arch-
traitor Jack Cade, temp. Hen. VI. They uniformly state that he was an
Irishman by birth, but there is strong presumptive evidence that to Sussex
belongs the unenviable claim of his nativity. Speed states that " he had
bin seruant to Sir Thomas Dagre." Now this Sir Thomas Dagre or Dacre
was a Sussex knight of great eminence, who had seats at Hurstmonceux
and Heathfield, in this county. Cade has for several centuries been a
common name about Mayfield and Heathfield, as is proved both by nume
rous entries in the parish registers and by lands and localities designated
from the family. After the defeat and dispersion of his rabble-rout of
retainers, Cade is stated to have fled into the woods of Sussex, where, a
price being set upon his head, he was slain by Sir Alexander Iden, sheriff
of Kent. Nothing seems more probable than that he should have sought
shelter from the vindictive fury of his enemies among the woods of his
native county, with whose secret retreats he was doubtless well acquainted,
and where he would have been likely to meet with friends. The daring
recklessness of this villain's character is illustrated by the tradition of the
district, that he was engaged in the rustic game of bowls in the garden of
a little alehouse at Heathfield, when the well-aimed arrow of the Kentish
sheriff inflicted the fatal wound. The place is still called Cade Street ;
and the present writer once occupied for a short time the identical garden
in which the rebel fell.

TRADERS' SIGNS.

203

and for the sake of convenience carried between two,
on a staff, thence called a cowl-staff or cowl-stick.
Cade is an old word for a barrel or cask, and hence a
very appropriate sign for an alehouse or tavern.
Cottrell, according to Grose, is a provincial word for
a trammel for hanging an iron pot over the fire ; but
this name, as I have elsewhere shown, is as probably
derived from a very different source. A Cresset was
an article used during the middle ages by soldiers ; it
was a kind of portable beacon made of wires in the
shape of an inverted cone, and filled with match or
rope steeped in pitch, tallow, resin, and other inflam-

204 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
mable matters. One man carried it upon a pole, an
other attending with a bag to supply materials and a
Ught. Shakspeare and Milton both allude to the
cresset as a familiar object :
" The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes
Of burning cressets." Henry IV, 1.
" Pendent by subtle magic many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets." Parad. Lost.
I have made the annexed sketch of a cresset from a
description in Fosbroke's Encyclopaedia : I cannot an
swer for its being very correct. A "cresset with
burning fire " was formerly a badge of the Admiralty.
In the Coventry Mysteries, p. 270, we read —
" €xessztgS, larttenuig, atrtf tovcfys Igtft."
This name, Cresset, is the designation of at least
one family of gentry ; and should my humble lucubra
tions meet the eyes of any who happen to bear it, I
trust they will pardon my insinuation that they are
descended from tradesmen — vulgar persons who had
great flaring signs over their doors — when they call to
remembrance that all families of gentle blood must
have been amongst the plebeian ranks of society, till
some adventitious circumstance raised them to eminence
and wealth. A large number of our peerage families
are proud to record their descent from Lord Mayors of
London, who must necessarily have been tradesmen ;
and it is probable that many of our great bouses of
Norman origin, on tracing their pedigrees beyond the
Conquest (were such a thing possible), would find them
selves sprung from the poor and servile peasantry of
Normandy. For pride of ancestry there is perhaps no
antidote more salutary or more humiliating than a

traders' signs. 205
calm consideration of the question proposed by the
jester to the Emperor Maximilian, when engaged, one
day, in making out his pedigree :
OThen $ftam Mbrtl atrtf l£be Span,
m mas then the gentleman?

Bickerstaff (with its corruption Bickersteth) was pro
bably the sign of an inn. It seems to mean a staff
for tilting or skirmishing. (Vide Bailey's Diet, voce
' Bicker.') In the old ballad of Chevy Chase we

read —

" Bowmen bicier'd upon the bent
With their broad arrows clear."

A Brandreth was an iron tripod fixed over the fire,
on which the pot or kettle is placed (Halliw.) ; but the
very similar word Brandrith means a fence placed for
safety round a well. A Hassell was an instrument
formerly used for breaking flax and hemp. Elsewhere
I have deduced Jubb from the personal name, Job; but
it may be from ' jubbe,' a medieval term for a vessel to
hold wine or ale.
" With him brought he a. jubbe of Malvesie
And eek another ful of wyn vernage." Wright's Chaucer, 14481.
The singular name of Burden is probably a corruption
of ' bourdon/ a pilgrim's staff — a very appropriate sign
for a wayside hostelrie.
Several names are borrowed from habiliments of the
person, as Cope, Mantell, Coates, Cloake, Meddlicote,
(that is, a coat of many or mixed colours, a favourite
fashion of our ancestors,) Bootes, Sandall, Slipper,
Frocke, Hose, Hat, Bodicoate, Capp, Peticote, Freemantle,

206 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Gaicote, and Mapes* I have no doubt that all these
have been used as signs of houses, perhaps of inns;
certain it is that there was a tavern in Southwark
called the Tabard (a herald's coat), and a very famous
tavern it was too, which will never be forgotten so long
as the name of Chaucer survives.
" Befelle, that in that season on a day
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury with devout corage,
At night was come into that hostelrie,
Wel nine and twenty in a compagnie,
Of sondry folk, by aventure yfalle
In felawship, and pilgrimes were they alle,
That toward Canterbury wolden ride."f
Startup is an obsolete name for rough country boots
with high tops.
" A payre of startuppes had he on his feete,
That lased were up to the small of the legge ;
Homelie they were, and easier than meete,
And in their soles full many a wooden pegge."
Thynne's Debate (Halliwell).
Barrette (Fr.) is a cap or bonnet, and a Capelin (Fr.
' capeline') is another species of female head-dress.
Some of the names borrowed from habiliments,
however, were given as sobriquets to those who first set
the fashion of wearing them. Of this we have an
instance in Curtmantle, the surname of our Henry the
Second, given him from his having introduced the
fashion of wearing shorter mantles than had been pre
viously used. This rule was reversed in later days by
one Spencer, who gave his surname to the article bear-
* Vide Archaeologist, vol. i, p. 102.
t Chauc. Cant. Tales, Prologue.

TRADERS SIGNS. 207
ing that name ; which is said to have originated in the
following manner : Spencer was a celebrated exquisite,
who stood so high in these matters that he had only to
don any particular fashion of garment, to be imitated
by all the dandies of the day ; and so confident was he
of his influence in this respect, that he once declared
that he verily believed that if he wore a coat without
tails, others would do the same. He assumed this
ridiculous vestment — so did they !
The surname Tabberer was in all probability first
applied to some wearer of the garment so called. Ac
cording to Nares, the name of ' tabarder' is still given
at Queen's College, Oxon, to the scholars, whose ori
ginal dress, the tabard, was not peculiar to heralds.
Hugh Capet, the founder of the royal line of France
in the tenth century, is said to have acquired that sur
name from a freak of which, in his boyhood, he was
very fond ; that of snatching off the caps of his play
fellows. De la Roque, however, gives a different origin
for this name, deriving it from ' le bon sens et esprit
qui residoit k sa teste ! '
The names derived from parts o£_armour, as Helme,
Shield, Greaves, Swords, Buckler, Gauntlett, Gunn,
Muskett, Brownbill, Brownsword, Shotbolt, and Broad-
spear, were also, in all probability, signs of inns kept
by those who first bore them. Some similar names,
however, originated from fashions in warlike imple
ments, and were given to the persons who first used
them. Strongbow, the cognomen of the famous Earl of
Pembroke, and Fortescue, that is, strong-shield, are of
this kind. Longespee, the cognomen of William first
Earl of Salisbury, and son of Fair Rosamond, was given
him from his using a longer sword than usual; and
William, son of Robert de Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury,

208 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
gained the name of Talvas from the kind of shield so
called. The French name Beauharnois is literally ' fine-
harness,' and was originally applied to a person who
took pride in splendid armour.
To return to Signs, there is another class of surnames
referable to this origin, such as Angel, Virgin, Saint,
Apostles, Martyr, — names quite inapplicable to any
living man, unless through the medium referred to.
The Angel is still a common sign for inns, as Saints
doubtless were before the Reformation. St. George
and the Dragon still retain their post at the doors of
some country alehouses. Martyrs, too, I dare say,
were plentiful enough in those days; but the only
vestige of them remaining, so far as I am aware, is St.
Catherine on her Wheel, now usually termed the Catton
Wheel. Indeed, I am not quite sure whether it has
not been corrupted still further to the Cat and Wheel !
There are some other names of a religious cast, as
Crucifix, Challis, Paten, Hallowbread, Pix, a little chest
for the reception of the consecrated host ; Pascall, an
other article used in the service of the church ; and
Porteus, a breviary or priest's office-book ;* to which I
am disposed to assign the same origin.
Several family names represent articles of diet, &c,
as Butter, Drybutter, Figg (an excellent name for a
grocery), Honey, % Milk,\ Mustard, Pickles, Pepper, Salt,
* " Item, I bequeath to the chappel of Richborough one Portuys printed,
with a Mass-book which was Sir Thomas, the old Priest's." Will of Sir
Jno. Saunder, parson of Dimchurch, &c. 1509. Somner's Ports of Kent.
" By God and by this partus wil I swere." Wright's Chaucer, 14546.
f " Johnny Figg was a green and white grocer." Old Song.
X The number of Surnames of which Honey forms a component part is
remarkable : Honeyman, Honeysett, Honeychurch, Honywood, Honeyball,
Honeywill, Honeybone, and Hunnybum!
§ There is a dairyman bearing this appropriate name near Dorset Square.

TRADERS' SIGNS. 209
Sugar, Suet. Others correspond with beverages, as
Ale, Beer, Claret, Ginn, Portwine, Perry, Negus, Rum,
Sider,* Sherry. Some of these may have been given
to persons who traded in the respective commodities, but
the majority might probably have a more satisfactory
origin. For instance, the name Earle is pronounced
Ale in some districts, and Beer is the name of two small
towns in the county of Devon, while Rum is the de
signation of one of the Hebrides.
I must not close this Chapter without adverting to
one further batch of names connected with the fore
going; namely, those corresponding with the designa
tions of the divinities and celebrated persons of classical
antiquity, such as Venus, Mars, Bacchus,-[ Homer, Tulley,
Horace, Vergil, Cwsar. These are doubtless derived
from traders' signs. The former three would be appro
priate for inns, the remainder for the shops of medieval
dealers in books or their materials. So recently as the
last generation a celebrated publisher gave his establish
ment the name of the ' Cicero's Head.'
It is sometimes amusing to find these immortal
names in the oddest possible associations : " Many years
have not elapsed," says Mr. Brady, in his humorous
dissertation, " since Horace drew beer at Wapping ;
Homer was particularly famous for curing sore legs;
and Gesar was unambitious of any other post than
that of shopman to a mercer !"J
* Sider or Syder may be synonymous with Sidesman, the name of a
petty civil office.
t See, however, p. 76. The name of Steph. de Venuse, miles, occurs
31 Edw. I, a quo, perhaps, Venus.
X Since the above paragraph was written, a Julius Csesar was found fight-
ing in ihe forum or market-place of a town in Surrey with one ' Colpus' and
others. Caesar, on this occasion, sustained a defeat, for a body of " caerulei
Britanni" (in the shape of policemen) made him their prisoner, and

210

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

" Pan," I am assured by a correspondent, " keeps a
village inn."*
Hector -was the champion of Petersfield and an M.P.
Cato is a wire- worker on Holborn Hill.
Such surnames do not belong exclusively to England,
for Victor Hugof assures us that
M. Janus is a baker at Namur !
M. Marius a hairdresser at Aries ! ! and
M. Nero a confectioner at Paris ! ! !
Of Mr. Sylvius, one of the courtiers of Charles II,
we are told, that he was " a man who had nothing of a
Roman in him except the name."|
The failure of a person named Homer once gave rise
to the following admirable (or execrable ?) puns :
" That Homer should a bankrupt be,
Is not so very odd-d'ye-see,
If it be true, as I'm instructed,
So ill-he-had his books conducted !"§
Mr. Potiphar would probably experience some„ diffi
culty in tracing up to his Egyptian namesake.
brought him before the local bench, in petty sessions assembled. A de
tailed Commentary of this ' Civil War' was given in the Sussex Express in
December last ; and future editors of the warrior classic can do as they
please about consulting it.
* Several Roman families bore names which as they fondly believed
furnished proof of their descent from Gods and Heroes. Halesus passed
as the descendant of Neptune, and the Antonia family derived themselves
from Anton, the companion of Hercules. Virgil makes Cluentius a de
scendant of the hero Cloanthes — " Cloanthus
 genus unde tibi Romane Cluenti." JEn. v, 123.
And Julius Caesar is deduced from lulus (Ascanius) :
" Julius, a magno dimissum nomen Iulo." JEn. i, 288.
t The Rhine, vol. i, p. 76.
% Grammont's Memoirs.
§ Herald. Anom.

TRADERS SIGNS. 211
Had we not evidence that such names as Colbrand,
Guy, and Bevis were antiently used as Christian names,
I should not hesitate to add them to this catalogue of
celebrated persons as being derived respectively from
the Danish Giant, from the famous Earl of Warwick,
and from the no less doughty, if less illustrious, Bevis
of Southampton :
" Which geaunt was myghtie and strong,
And full fourty feet was long ;
A foote he had betwene each brow,
His head was bristled like a sowe !"
Romance of Syr Bevis.
It is remarkable that there is still living at South
ampton, the scene of his giantship's adventures, a
family of Bevis, who from time immemorial have been
located there ; but whether they are lineally or collate
rally descended from this giant (whose effigies still
adorn the Bar-gate of the town), I leave to the proper
authorities at the Heralds' College to determine.
The name of Littlejohn may be imagined to have
been borrowed from the far-famed compeer of that most
redoubtable deer-killing, bishop-robbing, and sheriff-
tormenting wight, Master Robyn Hood of Nottingham
shire. That the name of a person so popular, so
courageous, and so worthy as in some respects this
antient forester was, should be adopted as a surname
by some lover of "hunting craft and the green- wood
glade," in the next generation, would have been a cir
cumstance by no means extraordinary. Lord Abinger's
family may be descended from a representative of the
no less renowned Will Scarlett, another of the worthies
of ' merrie Sherwood.'

CHAPTER XII.
OF SURNAMES BORROWED FROM THE SOCIAL RELATIONS,
PERIODS OF TIME, AGE, &c. &c.

HERE are several English Surnames
derived from consanguinity, alliance,
and other social relations, which,
Camden thinks, have originated from
the necessity of a second appellative,
when two persons bearing the same
baptismal name resided in close proximity to each other.
This is a feasible derivation for several of them, but for
others it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
account. The following are more or less usual in
many parts of England :
Father, Brothers, Br other son and Cousins; Oldson and
Youngson; Batchelor, Lover, Paramour, Bridegroom and
Bride ; Neighbour, Gossip and Guest ; Husband, Young-
husband* and Goodhusband ; Master and Servant;
Masterman, Prentice and Nurse; Friend and Foe;
Kinsman, Quaintance and Stranger,
From obsolete words or forms :
Fader, father.
Waller, from the A.-S. ' waller- wente,' foreign men,
strangers. "Elles or Ellis, in British," says Hals, " is a son-in-

* W. le Youngehusbande. Subsidy Roll, Sussex, 1296.

SOCIAL RELATIONS. 213
law by the wife, and Els or Ells, a son-in-law by the
husband." *
Beldam (beldame) formerly meant grandmother, and
was a respectful term. In course of time it has become
synbnymous with hag or witch. Kennett applies it to
" an old woman that lives to see a sixth generation
descended from her." Spenser uses it in its original
French signification, ' fair lady.' (Halliwell.) How it
became an hereditary surname, is not very obvious.
The same observation applies to another female name,
which, however, does not exactly belong to this class —
I mean Rigmaiden. 'A Rig' is deduced by Bailey
from the Latin ridendo, and defined as ' a wanton,
romping girl,' and this appellation was probably first
affixed to some fourteenth-century hoyden. There were
at least two families of our gentry who bore this name,
with dissimilar coats of arms.f
Bellamy. Dr. Giles, in his notes on the Saxon
Chronicle, considers this a corruption of the Norman
name ' Belesme,' but Halliwell produces a host of
authorities for the O. English, or rather French, ' Bel-
Amy,' fair friend :
" Belamy, he seyde, how longe
Shal they folye y-laste ?" MS. Coll. Trin. Oxon, 57.
Robert of Gloucester and Chaucer employ this word.
Farebrother, father-brother, a Scottish term for
uncle ; and a much more rational appellative than
Bairnsf other , also a Scottish surname.
Leif child. ' Lefe' is an archaism for love; and
' love-child' a provincialism for an illegitimate ; still
this name may mean no more than ' dear,' or ' beloved
* D. Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. iii, p. 429.
t Vide Gent. Mag. 1830, i. 305.

214 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
child,' an opinion which is supported by the use of the
phrase in the following lines, quoted by Halliwell, from
a poem of the fifteenth century :
" Therfor my leffe chyld, I schalle teche the,
Herken me welle the maner and the gyse,
How thi sowle inward schalle aqueyntyd be
With thewis * good, and vertw in alle wysse."
Filiol, a Norman name of high degree, is probably
the French ' filleul,' equivalent to our own Godson.
From periods of age, or the phases of human exist
ence, we have Infant, Baby,\ and Suckling; Littlechild;
Child, Children (!); Boys and Littleboys; Goodboys
and Tallboys; Stripling and Youngman, —
" The diapason closing full in Mann .'"
To these may be added Maiden, and its latinization,
Virgo. Gasson looks like a corruption of the French
' garcon,' a boy. Littlepage speaks for itself.
That some of these are corruptions, or words having
a double meaning, is, I think, unquestionable. Mann,
for instance, as I have already surmised, may be from
the island in the Irish Sea; Batchelor is applicable
otherwise as well as to an unmarried man ; and Boys,
with its compounds, is, in all likelihood, a mis-spelling
and false pronunciation of the French bois, a wood.
The French surname Du Bois, naturalized amongst us,
is equivalent to our Attwood, &c. Child is frequently
used by our old writers as a title. It seems to be
equivalent to Knight. In the ' Faerie Queen' it is
applied to the son of a king. Child Waters, the Child
of Elle and Gil or Child-M.orice, are personages well
* 'Manners, deportment.
f I have three or four authorities for this name.

SOCIAL RELATIONS. 215
known to the readers of Percy's Reliques. The word
sometimes occurs in its plural form as children. Thus
in the ballad of Sir Cauline :
" The Eldridge knight he pricked his steed ;
Syr Cauline bold abode :
Then either shooke his trustye speare,
And the timber these two children bare
Soe soone in sunder slode ! (split.)"
Perc. Ret. Ed. 1839, p. 12.
" In former times the cognomen Childe was prefixed
to the family name by the eldest son ; and the appel
lation was continued until he succeeded to the title of
his ancestors, or gained new honours by his prowess."*
To such names of distinction also belong Rich and
Poore, Vassall, Bond, Freeman, Freeborn, and Burrell.
Borel is used in Chaucer in the sense of lay, as
Borel-clerks, lay clerks; Borel-folk, laymen.
The surname of Wardedu or Wardeux, formerly
borne by the feudal lords of Bodiham, co. Sussex, is of
very singular origin. Henry, a younger son of the
house of Monceux, was a ward op the Earl of Ou in
the thirteenth century, from which circumstance he
left his antient patronymic, and assumed that of
Ward de Ou. This Henry Wardeou or Wardedu
was knight of the shire for Sussex in 1302.f
Harmer, a name of rather dangerous sound, is really
very harmless if its origin be traced, as I rather suspect
it may, to the German anttfF, poor.
Closely connected with some of the foregoing, are
the names derived from periods of age, as Young,
Younger, Eld, and Senior. Rathbone, from the Saxon,
signifies ' an early gift.'
* London Encyc. 1836. t Gleanings of Battel Abbey, p. 63.

216 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
This class of surnames presents some very strange
anomalies; for instance, though Eld or Senior might
serve very well to designate a man in the decline of
life, how could it apply to his children? "Yong,"
says Verstegan, "was derived from one's fewness of
yeares;" if so, every day of his life must have made
the absurdity of the name increasingly apparent. How
oddly do such announcements as the following sound :
" Died, on Tuesday week, Mr. Young, of Newton,
aged 97." " The late Mr. Cousins, the opulent banker,
of Kingston, is said to have left the whole of his pro
perty to public charities, as he could not ascertain that
he had a single relative in the world !" " Died, on
the 10th inst., Miss Bridget Younghusband, spinster,
aged 84." " Birth : Mrs. A. Batchelor, of a son,
being her thirteenth," &c. &c.
From periods of time we have several names, as
Spring, Summer, Winter. The writer of the article
" Names," in the ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' thinks these
three corruptions of other words, because the remaining
season, Autumn, does not stand as a surname. Thus,
he says, Spring signifies a hill; Summer, somner ;*
and Winter, vintner. This is far-fetched ; besides, I
would not undertake to say that we have no Autumns
in our family nomenclature. It is a word easily cor
rupted to the more natural spelling of Otham or
Hotham, although I am quite aware that some families
bearing that designation take it from places where they
were originally settled.f Moreover, it is no greater
* See p. 129.
f " The non-existence of Autumn as a surname may be accounted for
by the recent introduction of that word into Enghsh : ' fall' was the old
name for the season, and is still retained in America. Fall occurs as a
surname, though not so frequently as Spring, probably because not of
such good augury." — From a Correspondent.

PERIODS OF TIME. 217
matter of surprise that names should be borrowed from
the seasons than from the months, the days of the
week, and festivals of the church, like the following :
Day, with its compounds Goodday, Singleday, and
Doubleday ; Evening, Mattin, Vesper, Dawn, Noon, Eve,
Morrow, Weekes ; March, May, August ; Sunday,
Monday, Thursday, Friday ; Christmas (and Noel, Fr.),
Easter, Paschall, Pentecost, Harvest, Middlemiss, that is,
if I mistake not, Michaelmas ; Holiday, Midwinter, &c.
Domesday seems to be a corruption of " domus Dei,"
a name given to some religious houses. We are not
singular in the possession of such names : the Romans
had their Januarii, Martii, Maii, Festi, and Virgilii —
the last so named from having been "borne at the.
rising of the Virgilii or seven stars, as Pontanus
learnedly writeth against them which write the name
Virgilius." *
Varro says that when two or more persons among
the Romans bore the same appellative, Terentius, for
instance, they were distinguished from each other by
an additional name ; thus, if one was born early in the
morning, he would be called Manius ; if in the day
time, Lucius ; if after the death of his father, Post-
humus, f
In Cambodia, at the present time, a child is fre
quently named from the day on which he was born;
and in some parts of Abyssinia, according to Salt, the
father often gives his infants names allusive to the cir
cumstances under which they came into the world, as
' Night-born,' ' Born-on-the-Dust,' &c.
On the name of Day it may be remarked that it
may signify one of the humblest class of husbandry
* Remaines, p. 111.
f De Latina lingua, lib. viii.
i. 10

218 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
servants, or, as we now call them, day-labourers. In
a statute of Rich. II. regulating wages, we have
" a swineherd, a female labourer, and a deye," put
down at six shillings per annum.* Deye is also an
Old English term for a dairy-maid, and as such is used
by Shakspeare.
It is probable that most of these names originated
from the period of the birth of the persons to whom
they were first assigned, or from some notable event
which occurred to those persons on the particular day
or month. The name Friday, which De Foe makes
Robinson Crusoe give to his savage, is extremely
natural. Perhaps they were occasionally applied to
foundlings, after the fashion mentioned in Crabbe's
' Parish Register :'
" Some hardened knaves that roved the country round,
Had left a babe within the parish bound.
But by what name th' unwelcome guest to call
Was long a question, and it ' posed' them all ;
For he who lent it to a babe unknown,
Censorious men might take it for his own.
They look'd about ; they gravely spoke to all,
And not one Richard answered to the call.
Next they enquired the day when , passing by,
Th' unlucky peasant heard the stranger's cry.
This known, how food and raiment they might give
Was next debated, for the rogue would live !
At last, with all their words and work content,
Back to their homes the prudent vestry went,
And Richard Monday to the workhouse sent."
I shall close this short Chapter with a few names,
without offering a single conjecture as to their origin,
viz. Quickly, Soone, Quarterly, Sudden, Later, Latter,
* Knight's Pictorial Shakspere.

PERIODS OE TIME. 219
and Last. Well may Master Camden remark of such —
" To FIND OUT THE TRUE ORIGINALL OF SURNAMES
is full of difficulty," an observation which also
applies with equal if not greater force to many others
which will occur in subsequent chapters.

CHAPTER XIII.
OF SURNAMES INDICATIVE OF CONTEMPT AND RIDICULE.

" J'ai ete tousjours fort etonne, que les Families qui portent un Nom
odieux on ridicule, ne le quittent pas." — Bayle.

HE Leatherheads and Shufflebottoms, the
Higginses and Huggenses, the Scroggses
and Scraggses, the Sheepshanks and
Ramsbottoms* the Woodheads and
Addleheads, the Hytches and the
Huddles, seem for the most part to have
entertained no such dislike to their surnames, because,
perhaps, having examined them etymologically, they
have found nothing in them which ought to be taken
in mala parte. But it is indeed remarkable, that many
surnames really expressive of bodily deformity or of
moral obliquity, should have descended to the posterity
of those who perhaps well deserved, and so could not
escape them; particularly when we reflect how easily
such names might have been avoided in almost every
state of society by the adoption of others; for although
in our days it is considered an act of villany, or at least
a 'suspicious affair,' to change one's name unless in
compliance with the will of a deceased friend, when an

* The Doctor.

OF CONTEMPT AND RIDICULE. 221
act of the senate or the royal sign-manual is required,
the case was widely different four or five centuries ago,
and we know from antient records that names were fre
quently changed at the caprice of their owners. The
law seems originally to have regarded such changes,
even in the most solemn acts, with great indifference.
Lord Coke observes : " It is requisite that a purchaser
be named by the name of baptism and his surname, and
that special heed be taken to the name of baptism, for
that a man cannot have two names of baptism as he
may have divers surnames." And again, " It is
holden in our antient books that a man may have
divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian
names." " The question how far it is lawful for an individual
to assume a surname at pleasure came before Sir Joseph
Jekyll, when Master of the Rolls in 1730, who, in
giving judgment upon the case (Barlow v. Bateman),
remarked, ' I am satisfied the usage of passing Acts of
Parliament for the taking upon one a surname is but
modern, and that any one may take upon him what
surname, and as many surnames, as he pleases, without
an Act of Parliament.' It is right, however, to add,
that the above decision was reversed by the House of
Lords."* Names of this unenviable description are not very
numerous ; still we have Bad; Trollope, that is, slattern,
Stunt, that is, fool, Wanton, Outlaw, Lawless, Parnell,
that is, a woman of stained character, Puttock, the
same, Bastard, Silly, Silliman, Harlott, Hussey, Trash,
Gubbins, the refuse parts of a fish, and Gallows, which
strongly implies that the founder of that family attained
* Archaeologia, vol. xviii, p. 110.

222 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
a station more exalted than enviable before he left the
world! Bene or Bean is an expression of contempt, the
meaning of which is obscure.* Sometimes, however,
it means good, and sometimes, obedient. Coe is a
Norfolk provincialism, employed to designate 'an odd
old fellow.' Cokin (whence Cockin) is the Anglo-
Norman for 'rascal.'
" Quoth Arthour, thou he'then cokin,
Wende to tbi devel Apolin." (Apollyon.) Arthour and Merlin.
Penny father is a penurious person:
" Rich mysers and pennyfathers." Topsetts Beasts, 1607.
" Rancke penyfathers scud, with their half hammes
Shadowing their calves, to save their silver dammes."
Morgan's Phoenix Britan. (Halliwell.)
Kennard, antiently Kaynard, from 'caignard' (Fr.),
literally means "you dog." It also signifies a sordid
fellow, a rascal. " A kaynard and an old folte,
That thryfte hath loste, and boghte a bolte,"
MS. Harl. 1701. (H.)
Cheale, in the southern dialect, is probably the same
with chield in the northern, where it is applied to per
sons in a slighting, contemptuous manner. The A.-S.
'ceorl,' whence our modern English 'churl,' is probably
the root. Goff means fool.f
Craven, the surname of a noble family, might be
* Percy's Rel. Ant. Poet.
t ' To give a goff,' is a phrase used among the vulgar in Sussex, to
express a peculiar contortion of the face indicative of extreme stupidity.

OF CONTEMPT AND RIDICULE. 223
thought to belong to the same class,* but this is a local
name derived from a district in Yorkshire.
The surname Devil is found in many countries.
'Wilielmus cognomento Diabolus' was an English monk.
In France we meet with Rogerius Diabolus, lord of
Montresor, and Hughes le Diable, lord of Lusignan,
not to mention Robert the Devil, duke of Normandy,
who had this delicate cognomen as a 'nom de nique.'
In Norway and Sweden there were two families of the
name of Trolle (devil), and every branch of these fami
lies had a figure of the Evil One for their coat of arms.
Diable occurs in Brittany, and Teufels (or devils) in
Holland.t In the rage for applying opprobrious epithets in
dulged by our ancestors, even the infernal regions
supplied a surname. A priory of Dominicans was
founded at King's Langley, co. Herts, by Roger Helle,
an English baron, presumed to be of the Lucy family,
who lived at the beginning of the thirteenth century,
and was so called because he had ' played the devil'
with the Welsh : " a Vallensibus ita cognominatus, eo
quod eosdem Wallicos, regi Angliee rebelles, tanquam
infemi (sic) undique devastavit. "%
Many of the names mentioned in former chapters
might be placed among these surnames of contempt.
Such also are many of those indicative of ill-formed
limbs or features, as Cruickshank, or Crookshanks,
Longshanks, Legless, Hunchback, Greathead, Longnesse,
&c. The antient Romans, like ourselves, had many
* Craven, antiently a term of disgrace, when the party that was over
come in a single combat yielded and cried Cravent, &c. — Bailey's
Dictionary. t Hone's Table Book, vol. i, p. 699.
{ Weever's Fun. Mon. edit. 1631, p. 583. Gough, i, 349.

224. ENGLISH SURNAMES.
family names implying something defective or disgrace
ful. Their Plauti, Pandi, Vari, Scauri, and Tuditani
would have been with us the Splay-foots, the Bandy-
legs, the In-knees, the Club-foots, and the Hammer
heads ! The meanness of the origin of some of the
Patrician families is hinted at in their names. The
Suilli were descended and denominated from a swine
herd, the Bubulci from a cow-herd, and the Porci from
a hog-butcher ! Strabo would have been with us a
Mr. Squintum, Naso (Ovid) a Mr. Bignose, and Publius,
the propraetor, a Mr. Snubnose. Cincinnatus, and the
curly poll of the Dainty Davie of Scottish song, are,
strange to say, identical ideas.*
There is no doubt, I think, that such names as
Servus (slave) and Spurius (illegitimate) originally in
dicated the real condition of their primitive owners,
though Salverte very ingeniously attempts to disprove
it.f The modern Italians are not more courteous than
their ancestors of " old Rome" in the names they give
to some families ; as, for instance, Malatesta, chuckle-
headed; Boccanigras, black-muzzled; Porcina, a hog;
and Gozzi, chubby- chops!
To this place may also be referred the by-names of
kings, as Unready, Shorthose, Sans-terre, Crookback.
William the Conqueror was so little ashamed of the
illegitimacy of his birth, that he sometimes commenced
his charters with William the Bastard, &c. !
Among other names not yet mentioned may be
noticed Whalebelly (for which, with all the rest that
follow, I have good authority), the designation, pro
bably, of some corpulent person ; Rotten, Bubblejaw, and
Rottenheryng, a name which occurs in some antient
* Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. t Essai, i, 162.

OF CONTEMPT AND RIDICULE. 225
records of the town of Hull, and was most likely given,
in the first instance, to a dishonest dealer in fish. In
deed, I have little doubt that these odd appellations all
applied with great propriety to those who primarily bore
them. How well might Save-all designate a miserly
fellow ! and Scrape-skin would answer the same purpose
admirably. Doubleman would be odious if it related to
duplicity of character, but humorous if it originated in
some person's being double the size of ordinary people.
Stabback and Killmaster, though really horrible in
sound, are not so in sense, as they are corruptions of
local names.
Ugly and Badman are not desirable appellatives,
though of very honourable extraction : the former is
the name of a village in Essex, and the latter a slight
contraction of 'headman,' one who prays for another,
— certainly no bad man would do that ! Blackmonster
again does not bespeak our admiration, though it is a
natural and not very distant departure from Blanch-
minster (' the white monastery') a local name.
Opprobrious surnames have certainly diminished in
number within the last four centuries. Our old records,
both civil and ecclesiastical, abound with them. Dr.
Whitaker says, "if any antiquary should think fit to
write a dissertation on the antiquity of nicknames in
England, he may meet with ample materials in the
Compotus of Bolton Abbey ; for here are found Adam
Blunder, Simon Paunche, Richard Drunken, Tom Noght,
and Whirle the carter — the last, I suppose, by an anti-
phrasis, from the slowness of his rotatory motions."
The records of Lewes Priory afford many names of
this kind. Oculus Ferreus (' iron eye') was a donor of
tythes ; Moper was an excellent name for a recluse, and
William Cakepen was literally a baker (pistor) ; Mange-
10 §

226 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
fer ('eat-iron') might have given an ostrich for his
crest ; Ylbod (ill-bode) and Malfeythe, if there be any
truth in names, were men to be avoided ; while William
de Toto Mundo must have travelled very extensively.
Pympe, Scoldecok, Greybaster, Takepaine, Burdenbars,
and Sikelfot (sickle-foot? — a friend suggests 'siker,' that
is sure, foot, as a better etymon), also occur in these
documents. It is perhaps scarcely fair to take many of the above
names au pied de la lettre, as they may not be really
what they appear at the first sight or sound ; " and a
more diligent search into our own antient dialects, as
well as into those foreign ones from whence we receive
so many recruits, would doubtless rescue some of them
from unmerited opprobrium." Nor should it be for
gotten that in the mutations to which a living language
is ever exposed many expressions which now bear a bad
sense had originally a very different meaning : the words
knave, villain, and rascal, for instance, would not have
been regarded as opprobrious in the thirteenth cen
tury. The name Coward may be adduced in support
of these remarks. " The Argillarius or Hayward of a
town or village was one whose duty it was to supervise
the greater cattle, or common herd of beasts, and keep
them within due bounds. He was otherwise called
Bubulcus, q. d. Cow-ward, whence the reproachful term
Coward." * With respect to the term nickname, I
may observe that it comes to us from the French {nom
de nique), in which language nique is a movement of
the head to mark a contempt for any person or thing.
The following anecdote will serve to show how easily,
even in modern times, a nickname may usurp the place
* Rees's Encyclopaedia.

OF CONTEMPT AND RIDICULE. 227
of a true family name. " The parish clerk of Lang-
ford near Wellington, was called Red Cock for many
years before his death; for having one Sunday slept
in church, and dreaming that he was at a cock-fighting,
he bawled out : 'a shilhng upon the red cock !' And
behold," says Lackington, " the family are called Red-
cock to this day."* * Lackington's Life.

CHAPTER XIV.
OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM THE VIRTUES, AND OTHER
ABSTRACT IDEAS ;
WITH some others related to these.

Y business, here, is first to name — and
then to endeavour to account for — such
names as Hope, Peace* Joy, Love; An
guish, Bliss, Conscience, Comfort, Death,
Grace, Justice, Liberty, Luck, Laugh
ter, Mercy, Pardon, Piety, Power,
Pride, Patience, Prudence, Reason, Ransom, Verity,
Virtue, War, Want, and Wisdom. To these may be
added Bale, sorrow or misery, and a few other obsolete
terms of similar character.
It can hardly be supposed that these names were
assumed by persons who fancied themselves pre-eminent
for the possession of such attributes. Such arrogance
would certainly have failed of its object, and have ex
posed the assumers to the contempt they deserved.
To this remark it may be objected that the Puritans of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries adopted a no
menclature precisely similar in the personal or Christian
names, which they are asserted to have taken up in

* The name Peace-of-Heart, Paix-du- Coeur, occurs among the merchants
of Rouen.

THE VIRTUES, ETC. 229
lieu of the more ordinary and long-established appella
tives of general society.
"It was usual," says Hume, (quoting Brome's
Travels,) " for the pretended saints of that time [a.d.
1653] to change their names from Henry, Edward,
Anthony, William, which they regarded as heathenish
and ungodly, into others more sanctified and godly.
Sometimes a whole godly sentence was adopted as a
name. Here are the names of a jury inclosed in
Sussex about this time :
" Accepted Trevor of Norsham.
Redeemed Compton of Battle.*
Faint-not Hewett of Heathfield.
Make-peace Heaton of Hare.
God-reward Smart of Fivehurst.
, Stand fast-on-high Stringer of Crowhurst.
Earth Adams of Warbleton.
Called Lower of the same.
Kill-sin Pimple of Witham.
Return Spelman of Watling.
Be-faithful Joiner of Britling.
Fly-debate Roberts of the same.
Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White of Emer.
More-fruite Fowler of East-Hadley.
Hope-for Bending of the same.
Graceful Harding of Lewes.
Weep-not Billing of the same.
Meek Brewer of Okeham."
Had Hume taken a little pains to investigate this
subject he might have saved himself the reiteration of
* Minister of Heathfield (1608.)

230 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Brome's sneer about the " pretended saints," for we
have indubitable evidence that such names were not
assumed by the parties who bore them, but imposed as
baptismal names. Take, in corroboration of this re
mark, a few instances from the parochial register of
Warbleton : 1617, Bestedfast Elyarde.
 Goodgift Gynninges.
1622, Lament Willard.
1624, Depend Outered.
1625, Faint-not Dighurst.
 Fere-not Rhodes.
1677, Replenish French.
Hence it will be seen that fully as much of blame
(if any exist) rests with the clergy who performed the
rite of baptism in these cases as with the " sanctified
and godly" parents who proposed such names of pre
tended saintship. I do not for a moment wish to ex
tenuate the folly of the persons who gave such absurd
names to their children, but I deem it an act of justice
to the much-maligned, though, in many respects, mis
guided and even fanatical Puritans of that period, to
show that the sarcasm of the illiberal historian falls
pointless to the ground, because, generally speaking at
least, the bearers of such names had nothing at all to do
with their imposition, and could no more get rid of them
than any persons now living can dispense with the
Christian names they have borne from their infancy.
Indeed it seems to have become fashionable towards
the close of the sixteenth century for parents to choose
such forenames for their offspring, and scarcely any of
the parish registers of the period, that I have examined,
are free from them. It seems that Sussex was parti-

THE VIRTUES, ETC. 231
cularly remarkable for the number of such names, long
before the unhappy dissensions which disgraced the
middle portion of the seventeenth century. There is
another jury-list of the same kind for the county in
the Burrell Manuscripts, Brit. Mus. without date, but
which I have good reason for assigning to about the
year 1610, many years, be it remarked, prior to the
era of Barebones and his " pretended saints ;" and
Camden, who wrote about the same time, alludes to
these " new names. Free-gift, Reformation, Earth, Dust,
Ashes, Delivery, More-fruit, Tribulation, The Lord is
neare, More-tryall, Discipline, Joy-againe, From-above,
which have lately [that is probably about the close of
Elizabeth's reign] been given by some to their children
with no evil meaning, but upon some singular and
precise conceit." The names ' Remedium amoris,'
' Imago seeculi,' are mentioned by this author, among
the oddities of personal nomenclature of the same date.
While upon this subject, I am sure I shall be par
doned for the introduction of the other Sussex jury-
list just referred to, particularly as it will probably be
new to most readers.
"Approved Frew en of Northiam.*
Bethankful Maynard of Brightling.
Be-courteous Cole of Pevensey.
Safety-on-High Snat of Uckfield.
* He was a near relative of Archbishop Frewen ; and, since the authen
ticity of these lists has been questioned, I would add, that my somewhat
intimate acquaintance with the parish registers of Eastern Sussex enables
me to state that many of the names they contain, besides hundreds of
others, are to be found in those documents. The following extract from
the register of Waldron may serve as a specimen of many entries I have
met with :
" Flie-fornication, the bace sonne of Catren Andrewes, bapt. y 17th.
Desemb. 1609."

232 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Search-the-Scriptures Moreton of Salehurst.
More-fruit Fowler of East-Hothly.
Free-gift Mabbs of Chiddingly [1616].
Increase Weeks of Cuckfield.
Restore Weeks of the same.
Kill-sin Pemble of Westham.
Elected Mitchell of Heathfield.
Faint-not Hurst of the same.
Renewed Wisberry of Hailsham.
Return Milward of Hellingly.
Fly-debate Smart of Waldron.
Fly-fornication Richardson of the same.
Seek-wisdom Wood of the same.
Much-mercy Cryer of the same.
Fight-the-good-fight-of-Faith White of Ewhurst.
Small-hope Biggs of Rye.
Earth Adams of Warbleton.
Repentance Avis of Shoreham.
The-peace-of-God Knight of Burwash.
This species of nomenclature, then, appears to have
been extensively fashionable at the periods above re
ferred to ; and although I entirely concur with those
who object to it on the ground of taste, we should do
well to recollect that many well-accepted baptismal
names are equally objectionable for the same reason.
Rejoice Newton is not more puritanical than Letitia
Smith ; nor Lovegod Jones than Theophilus Brown ;
nor Pure Robinson than Catharine Styles; nor Good
Noakes than Agatha Sutton.* In Beverston church,
* One Deodatus was Archbishop of Canterbury ; and in the list of
African primates we find ' Deo-datus,' ' Deo-gratias,' ' Quid-vult-Deus,'
' Habet-Deum ;' while ' Pius' and ' Innocent' have frequently been assumed
by tenants of the holy see. Of Puritan bishops we have read ; of Puritan
popes, never !

THE VIRTUES, ETC. 233
co. Gloucester, is the following curious Puritan
memorial :
" &m tteth the fcoilj> of lta€ffi3£Mfl3E $iRtg!E, tfte
totfe of Chomas Purge, mutuiter of the wortf in this place,
who Hgetf t|)e 1 Hag of ©ecemh : in the geare of the Hotfce
1604, an* of her life the 67th.

" Qua? defuncta jacet saxo tumulata sub illo
Bis Cathara, haud ficto nomine, dicta fuit.
Nomen utrumque sonat mundam, puram, piamq. .
Et vere nomen quod referebat, erat.
Nam puram puro degebat pectore vitam,
Pura fuit mundo, nunc mage pura Deo.
" Hdvra KaSapa role KaSapotg.
Omnia pura puris.
Tit. i, ver. 15.
" She whom this stone doth quietly immure
In no feign'd way had twice the name of Pure ;
Pure, pious, clean, each name did signify,
And truly was she what those names imply ;
For in pure paths, while yet she lived, she trod ;
Pure was she in this world, and now more pure with God."*
To return from this long, though not perhaps irrele
vant digression, to the names which stand at the head
of this chapter : I am inclined to think they originated
in the allegorical characters who performed in the
antient mysteries or moralities ; a species of dramatic
pieces, which before the rise of the genuine drama
served to amuse, under the pretext of instructing, the
* Relton's Sketches of Churches, B. 2.

234 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
play-goers of the " olden tyme." The favourite cha
racters in these performances were Charity, Faith, Pru
dence, Discretion, Good-doctrine, Death, Vice, Folly,
and Iniquity,* who strutted upon the stage in gro
tesque costume, and did far more to injure than
promote good morals. The humour of these performers
was of the broadest kind, and their acting irresistibly
droll, but indecencies both in gesture and language
neutralized their attempts to improve the moral feelings
of their audiences, and eventually brought them into
disrepute. It is probable that the actors in these per
formances acquired the names of the characters they
personated, which thus became surnames, and descended
to their posterity. We have already seen that the
names King, Lord, Knight, &c. originated in a manner
very similar.
The not very uncommon name Vice is doubtless
borrowed from a character in the mysteries and pa
geants of the middle ages. " He appears," says
Gifford, "to have been a perfect counterpart of the
Harlequin of the modern stage, and had a twofold
office ; to instigate the hero of the piece to wickedness,
and, at the same time, to protect him from the Devil,
whom he was permitted to buffet and baffle with his
wooden sword, till the process of the story required
that both the protector and the protected should be
carried off by the fiend; or the latter driven roaring
from the stage by some miraculous interposition in
favour of the repentant offender." The name seems
also to have been applied generally to any impersona
tion of wickedness. In Ben Jonson's ' The Devil is
an Ass,' we read : —
* Strutt's Sports and Pastimes.

THE VIRTUES, ETC. 235
" Sat. What Vice ?
What kind wouldst thou have it of ?
Pug. Why, any. Fraud,
Or Covetousness, or Lady Vanity,
Or old Iniquity."*
The name of Woodhouse may be either a local one,
or the designation of a favourite character in the mum-
mings and Christmas festivities of our ancestors — if the
latter, it may find a place here. The Wodehouse, or
Wild Man of the Woods, was usually represented as
a hairy monster wreathed about the temples and loins
with holly and ivy, and much resembling the " wild
man," so familiar in heraldric bearings. I am inclined
to think he was originally derived from theWoden of the
Saxon mythology. The etymon of Woden appears to
be pobe, mad, wild, furious, which agrees well enough
with the assumed character of the " Wodehouse
straunge" of the olden days of merrie England. As the
Wodehouse was distinct from the religious cast of the
characters who performed in the Mysteries just referred
to, he survived the- Reformation, and continued to be
a favourite till a comparatively recent period. " When
Queen Elizabeth was entertained at Kenil worth Castle,
various spectacles were contrived for her amusement,
and some of them produced, without any previous no
tice, to take her, as it were, by surprise. It happened
about nine o'clock one evening, as her majesty returned
from hunting, and was riding by torch-light, there
came suddenly out of the wood by the road-side, a man
habited like a savage, covered with ivy, holding in one
of his hands an oaken plant torn up by the roots, who
* Knight's Pict. Shakspere.

236

ENGLISH SURNAMES.

placed himself before her, and after holding some dis
course with a counterfeit echo, repeated a poetical
oration in her praise, which was well received. This
man was Thomas Gascoyne the poet ; and the verses
he spoke on the occasion were of his own composition."*

As an accompaniment to this Chapter I here present
the " lively effigies " of a Wodehouse, " set down," as
old Verstegan would say, " in picture."

* Nicholl's Progresses, vol. i, quoted in Hone's Stmtt's Sports and Pas
times, p. 253.

CHAPTER XV.

OF SURNAMES DERIVED FROM OATHS AND EXCLAMATIONS.

j]T is highly probable that not a few of
the family names which baffle the
etymologist, and seem to have no
manner of propriety in them, were
originally applied to persons who ha
bitually employed some oath or other
exclamation, and so interlarded their conversation with
it, that it was associated with all their neighbours'
recollections of them. In a rude state of society these
expressions would become the sobriquets by which such
persons would be known ; and upon the establishment
of an hereditary nomenclature they would descend as
veritable surnames.
How readily any habitual expression of a person
may be turned against him by his neighbours, and be
come a nickname, must be familiar to all who have
had some experience of village life. We have known
a stammerer acquire a sobriquet from the broken syl
lables of his rapid speech. Say-Say was the established
appellation of an old gentleman whose address in con
versation was uniformly, " I say-say, old boy ;" while
another was constantly called By George, from his use
of that expression on all occasions. In the same
manner the whole nation of the Teutonic Normans,
after their settlement in Neustria, acquired from the

238 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
French the sobriquet ot Bigod, because (as Camden says)
" at every other word they would swear " By God." *
Thus ' Norman' and ' Bigod' became synonymous ex
pressions. Hence our old English baronial surname
Bigod, and hence, as philologists assure us, the English
word 'bigot,' which was antiently equivalent to super
stitious. And it is not a little curious that the equi
valent French oath, ' Par-Dieu,' has become naturalized
among us under the various modifications of Par dew,
Pardoe, Pardow, and Pardee.
The singular name of Parcel, sometimes written
Parsall, is probably corrupted from ' Par-Ciel,' and
corresponds with the indigenous one of Heaven.
Profane swearing was one of the commonest vices of
early times. To make asseverations by the soul or
the body of the Creator was thought little of. Edward
the Third had the motto —
"feu, hag, the uigfhe Jjfoan;
<Bp (gfibe'Si SOUl « am th» man,"
wrought upon his shield and surcoat. I think the
family names of Godsall and Godbody are from this
source. Body and Soul, with their corruptions Sowle and
Boddy, may have the same origin.
* The occasion when the sobriquet was given was as follows : — "When
Rollo had Normandy made over to him by Carolus Stultus, with his
daughter Gisla, he would not submit to kiss Charles's foot. And when
his friends urged him by all means to kiss the king's foot, in gratitude for
so great a favour, he made answer in the Enghsh tongue £5e St BJ) <&otf,
that is, Not so by God. Upon which the king and his courtiers deriding
him, and corruptly repeating his answer, called him Bigod; from whence
the Normans are to this day termed Bigodi." (Camd. Britannia, edit. 1722.
vol. i, p. ccix.) Rollo's answer, however, was not English, but the old
Teutonic of his ancestors.

FROM OATHS AND EXCLAMATIONS. 239
Godhelpe, Godbehere, Godmefetch were probably
habitual expressions of the persons who first acquired
those names. These are all names of great antiquity ;
so also are Olyfader (Holy Father) and Helpusgod,
occurring in the Sussex Subsidy Rolls for 1296.
Many of the names of Saints may have become sur
names in this manner; and hence we may account for
the various names of which ' Lady' forms a part. In
Catholic times, ' By our Lady' was a common oath.
Among the names referred to are Ladyman, Shakelady,
Tiplady, Taplady, and Toplady, and that most odd and
most polysyllabic of Enghsh Surnames — God-love-mi
lady !
Godkin, Blood, and Sacre (Fr.) may be regarded as
' clipped oaths,' while Bodkin is, perhaps, a contraction
of the medieval oath, ' Ods bodikins.'
I shall close this short Chapter with a list of names
of very doubtful origin, but which may have been de
rived in each case from some expression much used in
conversation by the person to whom it was originally
given :
Truly, Fudge, Hayday, So (?), Heigho, Hum, Well-
done, Goodlad, Farewell, Goodsir, Godsalve, Goodluck.
Goodday, Godden (good-even), still used in the North.
Belcher is, perhaps, the O. French bel chere, good
company :
" For cosynage and eek for bele cheer." Chaucer, 14820.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF OTHER SURNAMES ORIGINALLY SOBRIQUETS.

GREAT proportion of nearly all the
preceding classes of Surnames were in
their primary application merely nick
names or sobriquets; but there are
many others which do not admit of
classification with any of the kinds
already reviewed. I shall proceed to give a few of
these, with their probable derivations.
Some seem to have been imposed on account of
peculiarities of gait, as Steptoe, Standfast, Golightly,
Rushout, Treadaway, Dance, Dancey, Standeven, Skyp.
Others on account of a gossiping propensity, as
Earwhisper, Chataway, Hearsay, Cant, and Lip-trot !
Some indicate industry in various useful callings, as
Clapshoe, Gathercoal, Gather good, Tugwell, Clinkscales (!).
Others on the contrary denote indolence, as Doo-
little, Timeslow*
Some seem to refer to poverty ; as Houseless, Hunger,
Drought, Need, Dearth.

* This is a name of no modern origin. Katherine Swinford, third wife
of John of Gaunt, had a waiting chambermaid so called. Her tomb, for
merly in St. Andrew's church, Hertford, was thus inscribed : " Hie jacet
Alice Tyme-slow, quondam dominella Ducissae Lancastriae, qui obiit
xvi Sept. mcccxcvi."

SOBRIQUETS. 241
Others to some habit, as Whistler, Eatwell, Cram (!),
Rideout, Chew, Drawwater, Twiceaday, Gotobed, Daily,
Go-cum. Some seem appropriate to braggarts, as Challenge,
Boast, Brag, Lustyblood; and some to mischievous
persons, as Scattergood.
Swindles and Bilke would be unfortunate names for
a couple of honest tradesmen; but I cannot guess at
their origin.
Some appear to refer to character and disposition, as
Dudgeon, Wagg, Raw, Smoothman.
A few may refer to accidents which befel the original
bearers, as Fallover, Quickfall,* Crusheye.
Others may indicate cowardice, as Chick, Faint.
Drinkwater, Drinkmilk, Drinksop, and Drinkdregs
form a queer quartette of names, and seem to refer
to fondness of the respective beverages, though Camden
places the first among local names.
Brownsword, Dagger, Pistol, Trigger, Warbolt,
Shotbolt, if not nicknames, may have been inn-signs.
Pay body was perhaps a very honest trader ; Ruegain
was certainly a very foolish one, if honest !
Such names as Window, Doors, Pillar, Porch,
Tomb, Coffin, Casement, Treasure, Ring, Rope, Bridle,
Latch, Lintell, Sheath, Goldring, doubtless refer to some
forgotten incident in the life of the first bearer.
In the wardrobe accounts of Edward I, the follow
ing sobriquets, become surnames, appear.f Thomas
Thousandpound ; Robert Snowball (Snouball), by anti-
phrasis perhaps for a dark complexion ; Nicholas
Malemeyns (bad hands). Dulcia ffynamour ('Sweet
* " Died on the 7th inst. at Came, co. Dorset, Mrs. Ann Quick-fall,
aged 90!" — Lady's Newspaper, June 17, 1848.
t Ex. inf. W. H. Blaauw, Esq.
I. 11

242 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Fine-love') was a dealer in beer, and supplied the king
at Westminster with 450 gallons of that refreshing
fluid, which, if it possessed the same excellent qualities
as the name of its vendor, must have been the
' superior XXX' of the thirteenth century.
Some appear to have been given on account of pe
culiarity of costume, as High-hat, Slipshoe, Gaicote.
In a Sussex subsidy roll for 1296 occur the follow
ing names : /. Klenewater, Roger Sexapple, Walter
Pudding, R. Pluckrose, J. Pullerose, R. Slytbody (!),
W. Bronwere (' brown-ware'), T. Spendelove, — Moke-
trot, W. Storm, Nic. Trusselove, and W. Wolfheryng !*
Symon Knave, in the same list, was not opprobrious in
those early times, but still retained its primitive mean
ing of servant.
An accidental mispronunciation of a word, or an
inane and silly remark, has often been cast back, as a
sobriquet, upon the person using it ; from this con
temptible source may spring such names as Sayce,
Guppy,\ Maingy, Twigger, Wools, Agg, Digmeed, Bubb
and Grubb (all on the books of Pemb. Coll. Oxford
in 1832), Twithy, Nutchy, Jowsy, Snarry, Vitty,
Thruttles, Jagger, Wox, Fligg, Jibb, Ragg, Lutt, and
Brabbs. (It is but right to add that these last names
have been selected from a list compiled from such
authorities as Police Reports and the Newgate Calendar.
Hence probably many of them are modem sobriquets
and aliases.) Diggle, Bultitude, Stubbin, Bibby, Duddy,
Kebby, Pilley, Cupples, Hoppy, Twiddy, Humpage,
Guy dickens, Puddy, Quelly, Repuke {sic !), Quomman,
* The same. William le Hog, and Roger le Waps, occur in this roll.
Waps is still a Sussex provincialism for wasp.
f This may however be a corruption of Goupil, an obsolete French word
for fox, which is still retained as a surname in Normandy.

SOBRIQUETS. 243
Killikilly and Bospidnick ! Doo, Datt, Dudge, Prigg,
Shikes, Bole, Jeve, Twinks, Pupp, Titt, Hext, Fake,
Wodge, Fooks, Baa, Coggs, Snigg, Snagg, Smouch,
Shick, Shum,Lum, Lush, Gagg, Smy, Voak, and Chout,
seem to set all etymology at defiance. Several of
them might probably be found in a ' slang* dictionary,
and others would in all likelihood prove, on investiga
tion, to have originated within the last century.

CHAPTER XVII.

SURNOMINAL PUNS.— A HALF-CENTURY OF FACETIAE.

ECTOR BENEVOLE ! Lovest thou a
Pun? Or art thou of like opinion
with that most grave and profound
Doctor, that severe moralist, Johnson,
hight Samuel; to wit, that he who
would make a pun would pick a pocket?*
If so, turn, I pray thee, to another chapter, and be thou
no partaker of the evil deeds of those who idly play with
words, and waste their breath to tickle their ears;
for be it known that this chapter is to be devoted
to puns.It is not my intention to dissertate upon puns and
punning, but only to set down at random such of
these "conceits, quirks, quibbles, jests, and repartees"f
as relate to family names. I would, however, premise
a word or two in defence of the practice.
The Great Author of man's redemption, addressing
one of his disciples, says: "Thou art Peter, and upon
this Rock will I build my church." Thus the sublimest
Teacher of the sublimest morality saw no impropriety iu
an allusion in the nature of a pun.

* And yet this very Samuel, once at least in his lifetime, perpetrated a
pun. When Mrs. Barbauld was introduced to him, he growled (suo more),
"Bare-bald/ why that's the very pleonasm of baldness /"
t Dr. Watts.

puns. 245
Sophocles, whom no one will suspect of false taste,
making allusion to the name of Pyrrhus, calls him,
« 0 Pur'— O fire ! Philoctet. act iv, sc. 2.
When the defender of a certain extortioner, whom
Lutatius Catulus accused, thought he could by a sar
casm disconcert his too vehement adversary : "Why,"
said he, "do you bark, little dog?" (Quid latras
Catule?) "Because I saw a thief!" replied Catulus.
jEschylus and Horace occasionally pun.
Thus punning has the sanction of antiquity.
Much of the piquancy of modern dramatists results
from their employment of this species of wit. Shak
speare abounds in puns on names.
Punning was much affected in Germany in the six
teenth century, not only in literature, hut in affairs of
the most serious nature. Many of our old divines of a
later period frequently indulge in a pun.
Of Hudibras we are informed that —
" he scarce could ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope ;"
and I have known some, equally fecund in puns, who,
nevertheless, would not " pick a pocket" for the world.

I. Sir Thomas More enjoyed a pun and a repartee.
On one occasion his fondness for this species of humour
got the better of his persecuting zeal. A man named
Silver being brought before him, he said, " Silver, you
must he tried, by fire." "Yes," replied the prisoner,
" but you know, my Lord, that Quick Silver cannot abide

246 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
the fire!" Pleased with this answer, Sir Thomas suf
fered the man to depart.
II. In the seventeenth century, Attorney-general
Noy was succeeded by Sir John Bankes, and Chief-
justice Heath being found guilty of bribery, Sir John
Finch obtained the office : hence it was said :
" Noy's flood is gone,
The Banks appear;
Heath is shorn down,
And Finch sings there !"
III. Camden closes his curious collection of Epitaphs
with the following, on "Thomas Churchyard, the poore
Court-Poet." " Come, Alecto, and lend me thy torch,
To finde a Church-yard in the Church-porch,
Pouerty and Poetry this Tombe doth inclose,
Therefore, Gentlemen, be merry in Prose."*
IV. Dr. Lettsom, a famous physician of the last
century, used to sign his prescriptions " I. Lettsom,"
which gave rise to the following :
" When any patients calls in haste,
I physics, bleeds, and sweats 'em;
If after that they choose to die,
Why, what cares I? — I Lets'em."
V. A person whose name was Gunn complained to
* There is a little mistake here, for Churchyard was buried in the choir
of St. Margaret's, Westminster.— Weever's Fun. Man. p. 271.

puns. 247
a friend that his attorney in his bill had not let him off
easily. " That is no wonder," said his friend, "as he
charged you too high .'" But this is not so good as an
entry in the custom-house books of Edinburgh, where
it appears that, A, meaning Alexander — "A. Gunnwas
discharged for making a false report!"
VI. The late Mr. I. Came, the wealthy shoemaker
of Liverpool, who left his immense property to public
charities, opened his first shop on the opposite side of
the street to that in which he had been a servant, and
inscribed its front with — "I Came from over the
way." VII. A friend of mine on being introduced to a
Rev. Canon of St. Paul's, named Wodsworth, remarked
{aside) that the latter was non verbo dignus — not
Wordsworth !
VIII. On the failure of two bankers in Ireland,
named Gonne and Going, some one wrote:
" Going and Gonne are now both one,
For Gonne is Going, and Going's gone !"
IX. A paragraph to the following effect went the
round of the papers- not many years since: Two
attorneys in partnership in a town in the United States
had the name of the firm, which was " Catcham and
Chetum," inscribed in the usual manner upon their office
door; but as the singularity and ominous juxta-position
of the words led to many a coarse joke from passers-by,
the men of law attempted to destroy, in part, the effect
of the odd association by the insertion of the initials of
their Christian names, which happened to be Isaiah and

248 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Uriah; but this made the affair ten times worse, for the
inscription then ran
"I. CATCHAM AND U. CHETUM." ! ! !*
X. Most persons object to having their names made
the subjects of a pun. " I was once," says F. Leiber,
"in company with a Mr. Short, in whose presence a
Mr. Shorter was mentioned. ' Your son ?' said a by
stander quite gravely to Mr. Short, who, like most
people, disrelished the joke on his name very much."f
Shenstone is said to have comforted himself with the
consciousness that his name was not obnoxious to
a pun. XL The following epitaph on Constance Lucy (one
of the Shakspearean Lucys), who died in 1596, aged 10,
is in the church of the Holy Trinity, Minories.
— " Et quondam lucida, luce caret,
Ante annos Constans, humilis, mansueta, modesta."
XII. In 1818, a person named Danger kept a pub
lic-house near Cambridge, on the Huntingdon road.
On being compelled to quit his house, he built an inn
on the opposite side of the road, and placed beneath
his sign, " Danger from over the way," whereupon his
successor in the old hostel inscribed over his door,
" There is no Danger here now," — a fair measure of
vintner's wit.
* Chetum is probably a corruption of Chetham, the name of an antient
family in Lancashire, of which the munificent founder of Manchester Col
lege was a member.
t Stranger in America, vol. ii ; a work which contains a very curious
letter on American names.

PUNS. 249
XIII. Fogg and Mist were china-men in Warwick
street. The firm afterwards became Fogg and Son, on
which it was remarked that "the Sun had driven away
the Mist!"
XIV. At Thtjndridge, co. Herts, is an inscription
to the memory of Roger Gardiner, son of Edward
Gardiner, Esq., who died in 1558, aged 21.
"iftojjer Iks here hefove his hour.
ChuS tooth the ©arttner lose his flower."
XV. The senior churchwarden of Hackney some
time since was Mr. Dunn, and his junior, Mr. Welldone,
which involved a paradox, for by this arrangement Mr.
Welldone was under -Dunn!
XVI. Within the precincts of one of our cathedrals,
a ball being about to take place at the house of one of
the canons, a gentleman of the name of Noys was asked
in company whether he was to be present at it. " To
be sure," said a gentleman who heard it ; " how should
a canon-ball go off without Noys ?"
XVII. In All-Saints, Hertford, is the following
somewhat contradictory epitaph :
" Here sleeps Mr. Wake,
Who gave four small bells."
XVIII. Skin and Bone were the names of two
millers at Manchester, on whom Dr. Byrom wrote : —
" Bone and Skin, two millers thin,
Would starve us all or near it ;
But be it known to Skin and Bone,
That flesh and blood can't bear it."
H §

250 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
XIX. One of Curran's wittiest repartees was made
at the expense of Egan, an Irish barrister. Entering
court one day, Egan saw a certain nameless intruder on
his friend's wig, and tapping him on the shoulder, ex
claimed, with a knowing shrug —
" Cujum pecus ? an Melibcei ?"
to which, with admirable promptitude, Curran replied —
"Non, verum iEgonis : nuper mihi tradidit Egan!"
XX. A countryman reading upon a waggon the
names of John Fell and Richard Fell, exclaimed with
a horse-laugh, " Ho, ho ! Then I s'pose they both
toombled together !"
XXI. Lord Norbury was asking the reason of the
delay that happened in a cause, and was answered it
was because Mr. Serjeant Joy, who was to lead, was
absent, but Mr. Hope, the solicitor, had said he would
return immediately; upon which his lordship humo
rously repeated the well-known lines,
" Hope told a flattering tale
That Joy would soon return."
XXII. An Irishman saw the sign of the Rising
Sun near Seven Dials, beneath which the name of the
landlord, Aaron Moon, was written with only the initial
letter of the Christian name, whereupon he exclaimed
to a friend, " Och ! Phelim, dear, see here. They talk
of Irish bulls : why here's a fellow now, who puts up
the Rising Sun and calls it A. Moon !"
XXIII. Nicholson, whose portrait by Reinagle

PUNS. 251
adorns the University Library at Cambridge, originally
hawked prints and maps round the colleges for sale,
and it was his custom to bawl at the foot of the stair
cases, " Maps." This at length became his sobriquet,
and elicited from a learned Cantab the following witty
hexameter :
" Mad) avrov KaXioVGi Qsoi ; avSpse $£ N/^oXo-ov."
" Snobs call him Nicholson, plebeian name,
Which ne'er could hand a snobite down to fame ;
But to posterity he'll go — perhaps,
Since Granta's classic sons have dubbed him Maps."
XXIV. An epitaph on Mr. John Berry.
" How ! how ! who's buried here ?
John Berry: Is't the younger?
No, it is the ZJWer-BERRY.
An Elder-Berry buried surely must
Rather spring up and live than turn to dust :
So may our Berry, whom stern Death has slain,
Be only buried to rise up again." Heraldic Anomalies.
XXV. On the worthy Dr. Fuller :
" Here lies Fuller's Earth !"
XXVI. On Dr. Walker, who wrote a book on the
English particles :
" Here lie Walker's Particles."
XXVII. Who has not read, in the Prolusiones Phi-
losophicse of the venerable Josephus Millerius, the sex
ton's bill for making Mr. Button's grave ? —
" To making a Button-hole, 4s. 6d."

252 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Here is a variorum edition of the same pun:
"Which is the deepest, the longest, the broadest, and
the smallest grave in Esher churchyard? Ans. That
in which Miles Button lies buried ; for it contains Miles
below the sod, Miles in length, and Miles in breadth —
and yet is only a Button-hole !"
XXVIII. Giraldus Cambrensis tells a curious
anecdote of three persons travelling together, of whom
the first was an archdeacon named Peche (latinized Pec-
catum), the second a rural dean called Deville, and the
third, a Jew. When they arrived at Illstreet, on the
borders of Wales, the archdeacon remarked to his subor
dinate that their jurisdiction began there and extended
to Malpas. " Ah !" said their companion, " is it even
so ? a great marvel be it if I escape with a whole skin
out of this jurisdiction, where the archdeacon is Sin,
the dean a Devil, and the boundaries Ill-street and
Mal-passe!"* XXIX. The name of the celebrated Alexander
Nequam (Anglice ' Bad') furnished the wits of his age
with food for merriment. Wishing to devote himself
to a monastic life in the abbey of St. Albans (his na
tive town) he applied to the ruler of that establishment
for admission. The abbot's reply was thus laconically
expressed :
"JH honus Sis, bemas, Si Jiequam, nequaqttam."
If you be good you may come; if Wicked, by no means!
He changed his name to Neckham, and was received
into the fraternity. * Camd. Rem. p. 141.

puns. 253
Philip, bishop of Lincoln, once sent Nequam this
challenge :
" Et niger et nequam, cum sis cognomine Nequam,
Nigrior esse potes, nequior esse nequis."
' Both black and bad, whilst Bad the name to thee,
Blacker thou mayst, but worse thou canst not be.'
To this nominal compliment Alexander retorted —
"Phi, nota faetoris, lippus malus omnibus horis;
Phi malus et lippus, totus malus ergo Philippus."
' Stinks are branded with a Phi,
Lippus Latin for blear eye;
Phi and lippus, bad though either,
What must they be both together !'*
Neckham died in 1227.
XXX. Curran's bon-mot on a brother barrister
named Going is quite worthy of him. This gentleman
fully verified the time-honoured adage, that 'a story
never loses in the telling,' and took care to add to every
anecdote all the graces that could be derived from his
own embellishment. An instance of this was once re
marked to Curran, who scarcely knew one of his own
stories, it had so grown by the carriage. "I see,"
said he, " the proverb is quite applicable, 'Vires
acquirit eundo' — It gathers by Going !"
XXXI. Curran's ready wit never failed him. A
gentleman named JEneas Macdonnell had been con
ducted to the watchhouse in a state of great 'incapa
bility,' as he was returning from the enjoyment of the
* Fuller's Worthies, p. 25.

254 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
hospitality of Archbishop Troy, and was charged with
the offence the following morning; when Curran re
marked, that the patrol had been guilty of a great
blunder as well as a gross libel, since the gentleman was
no less a person than "Pius JEneas escaping from
Troy's sack .'"
XXXII. " Sir," said a guest to his host one day at
dinner, "this is a most excellent sirloin — pray what is
the name of your purveyor?" "Addison," was the
reply. " Any relation to the Spectator ?" added the
guest. "Most probably," was the prompt rejoinder,
" for I often see steel by his side !"
XXXIII. On Mr. Aire, in St. Giles's Cripplegate :
"Methinks this was a wondrous death,
That Aire should die for want of breath !"
XXXIV. Dr. Hawes was a physician in full prac
tice. His name, one Christmas, called forth the
following epigram :
" Perpetual freezings, and perpetual thaws,
Though bad for hips, are special good for Hawes !"
XXXV. " Inscription on my bed-maker- at Cam
bridge, by J. M., Nov. 1789.
" Homini
qui hie jacet
Nomen erat
Mus;
Licet igitur viatori
exclamare
eras-mus."

puns. 255
" Poor Mus when here a Gyp of lowly house,
Might wantonly be called a man or mouse;
But dead, he seems by virtue of his name,
To be a man of an immortal fame !"
XXXVI. Three celebrated physicians of Cambridge
bore the names of Short, Long, and Askew. In Dyer's
History of Cambridge is the following punning conun
drum on this trio: A
J?
" What's Doctor, and Dr., and ^° writ so ? — "
" Doctor Long, Doctor Short, and Doctor Askew ! .'"
XXXVII. Mr. Flower, formerly rector of St. Mar
garet's, Lothbury, for nearly half a century, had the
following quaint inscription, probably written by him
self, inscribed on his tomb:
" I came up like a Flower, anno 1622, and was cut
down anno 1698, but shall flourish again."
" Nunc nihil suave superest, prseter nomen."
XXXVIII. A short time since a tradesman named
James Fell migrated from Ludgate Hill to Fleet
Street, and announced the event in the following
manner:
" I FELL
from Ludgate Hill;"
under which a wag wrote —
" Oh ! what a fall was there, my countryman !"
XXXIX. An old lady, who was very anxious re
specting a favourite nephew, a student at Catherine

256 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Hall, enquired of his tutor how he conducted himself.
" Oh," replied the latter, " very well indeed, madam; he
sticks to Catherine Hall." " Sticks to Catherine Hall,
does he ? the young reprobate — but his father was just
like him, always fond of the girls !"
XL. Sir John Manners, who was created Earl of
Rutland, told Sir Thomas More that he was too much
elated by his preferment, and really verified the old
proverb, ' Honores mutant Mores.' " Nay, my lord,"
retorted Sir Thomas, "the proverb does much better in
English : Honours change Manners!"
XLI. A gentleman, named Page, picked up a lady's
glove, and presented it to her with the following im
promptu :
" If that from Glove you take the letter G,
Then glove is love, and that I give to thee."
To which she wittily responded :
" If that from Page you take the letter P,
Then Page is age, and that won't do for me !"
This small anecdote may probably be not very new
to the readers of Josephus (Millerius, I mean) ; the fol
lowing better one is an acknowledged extract from that
classical writer : " It being proved in a trial at Guild
hall that a man's name was really Inch, who pretended
it was Linch: 'I see,' said the judge, 'the proverb is
verified in this man, who, being allowed an inch, has
taken an LP " " Out of this," adds a learned editor of
our venerable author, "comes the jeu d' esprit fathered
upon Liston and his fascinating and petite spouse.

puns. 257
Some one having addressed the lovely little lady as
" Mrs. L," " Mrs. L !" repeated the comedian, " I call
her Mrs. Inch."
XLII. Epitaph :
" Here lieth Jack Meadow,
Whose dayes passed away like a shadow.
N.B. His proper name was Field, but it is changed
here for the sake of the rhyme ! !"
XLIII. The following jeu d'esprit appeared in the
newspapers in 1841.
The 'Logue' Family.
" The crier of a neighbouring county-court was upon
a certain occasion required to go to the court-house
door, and, as is usual in the absence of a witness, call
out for Philip Logue, one of the sons of Erin, who had
been summoned in a certain case then pending. The
man of the baton accordingly stepping to the door, sang
out at the top of his voice, Philip Logue! Philip Logue!
A wag of a lawyer, happening to pass the door at the
time, whispered in his ear, ' Epilogue' also. Eppy
Logue ! bawled the crier. ' Decalogue,' too, prompted
the lawyer, sotto voce. Dicky Logue ! vociferated the
crier. ' Apologue,' suggested the man of law. Apo
Logue ! reiterated the official, at the same time expos
tulating with the lawyer, — 'Surely you want the whole
family of 'em, Sir !' ' Prologue,' said the persevering
lawyer, with assumed indifference. Pro Logue ! rang
through the hall, attracting the attention of everybody
in court, and shocking the tympana of the dignitaries
on the bench themselves, who not understanding the

258 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
cause of all this vociferation, dispatched a tipstaff with
all haste to order the crier to desist from any further
invocation of the numerous family of the Logues .'"
So much, at present, for direct puns. Let us now
turn for awhile to the odd and curious associations in
the nature of puns to be met with in every-day life.
Marriage, commercial partnerships, and similar relations
frequently exhibit very humorous combinations, and
sometimes the name of a person suits admirably to, or
differs toto ccelo from, his office or vocation.
XLIV. Hymen plays sad vagaries with the nomencla
ture of his votaries. We have seen Mr. Good married
to Miss Evil ; Mr. Bean to Miss Pease ; Mr. Brass to
Miss Mould ; and Mr. Gladdish to Miss Cleverly* " Two
Messrs. Lamb of Salisbury Square, London," writes a
facetious correspondent, " married the two Misses Wolfe
of Ewell, thus fulfilling an antient prophecy, si ita
dicam!" In Edinburgh lately the following ornitho
logical match took place, which set the whole neigh
bourhood in a flutter. Miss .Henrietta Peacock was
espoused to Mr. Robin Sparrow, by the Rev. Mr. Dow,
the bridesman being Mr. Philip Hawk, and the brides-
woman Miss -Latins. The marriage lines were ex
tracted by Mr. John Crow, session clerk. It is worthy
of further remark that the sexton's name is Raven, one
of the pew-openers is a Gull, and the assistant-sexton,
not of course in holy orders, is a Henry Lay-coc& .'f
Mr. Goose, according to a provincial paper, lately
married a Miss Flock. Hence a troop of goslings may
result; while from the union of Mr. Dunbar, iron-
* Collet's Relics of Literature, p. 395.
f Newspaper paragraph.

puns. 259
founder, to Miss Link a long chain of posterity may be
expected. XLV. In partnerships we often discover a singular
junction of names, as 'Bowyer and Fletcher;' 'Carpenter
and Wood ;' ' Spinage and Lamb ;' ' Sage and Gosling ;'
'Rumfit and Cutwell, tailors,-' 'Pipe and Tabor;'
' Greengoose and Measure,' another firm of tailors ;
'Single and Double;' 'Evans and Liberty' (Piccadilly
— a political cry) ; ' Foot and Stocking, hosiers ;' and
' Wright, late Read and Wright.' ' Adam and Eve'
were surgeons in partnership in Paradise Row ! In
Holborn, ' Byers' and ' Sellers' live in fortunate proxi
mity on opposite sides of the street,
XL VI. Sometimes (as I have said) the occupation of
persons harmonizes admirably with their surnames. I
have noticed this fact particularly in relation to inn
keepers. Gin and Ginman are publicans; so is Alehouse.
Seaman is landlord of the ' Ship' Hotel, and A King
holds the ' Crown and Sceptre' in City Road! Portwine
and (his poor relative ?) Negus are very properly licensed
victuallers, one in Westminster, the other in Bishopsgate
Street. Corker is a pot-boy, whose name affords a
happy omen of his one day rising to the rank of a
butler. Mixwell keeps a country inn.
Again, Tugwell is a shoemaker ; so are Fitall and
Treadaway ; so is Pinch (bad in to-to). Another Tugwell
is a dentist ; Bird an egg-merchant ; Hemp a sheriff's
officer; Isaac Paddle commands a steam-boat; and
Mr. Punt is a member of the Surrey wherry-club !
Laid-man was a pugilist ; and Smooker (qu. ' smoker?')
a lime-burner !

260 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
Brand-ram is the name of an excellent episcopalian
pastor; Nigh-font is a clergyman, and Order-son a
Catholic priest.
" Major Dives," says a correspondent, " lives next
door to me, and Lazarus picks up his crumbs as a
hawker, round the corner."
A Sacheverel, according to Mr. Halliwell, means
' the iron door or blower at the mouth of a stove.'
What an appropriate designation for the only historical
person bearing it, who was a most successful blower of
the fires of discord !
Pop-ham is a general in the army ; Dun-man is the
toll-taker upon Waterloo Bridge ; Light-foot was a
dancing-master; Ride-out a stable-keeper; and Pye a
pastry-cook. XL VII. Sometimes, however, the name assorts very
badly with the occupation. For instance, Littlefear,
Butcher, Death, and Coffin were the names of so many
apothecaries and surgeons ; and Mrs. Despair was a
monthly nurse ! Grind-all was an archbishop — should
have been a miller.
" In the neighbourhood of a fashionable square in
London," deponeth a late newspaper paragraph, " are
now living surgeons whose names are Churchyard,
Death, Blood, and Slaughter."
A correspondent sends me the following list of gen
tlemen of the medical profession known to him :
Doctors. Physick, Galen, Butcher, Slaughter, Coffin,
and Tomb.
Surgeons. Blood, Bone, Braine, Cutler, Cutting,
Cannon (in the Artillery), Rawbone, Stabb, Burns, Hurt,
and Smart !
Three butchers in Sussex bear the singularly ro-

puns. 261
mantic, but wholly inappropriate, surnames of Venus,
Love, and Myrtle !
A 'long beard' does not seem an appropriate ap
pendage to the chin of a pastry-cook. It is, however,
no less strange than true, that some few years since
there were on the eastern side of Regent Street only
three confectioners, whose surnames were —
' VERRY' LONG
BEARD !
• With such names before him, Horace Smith asserts
that " Surnames ever go by contraries."
" Mr. Oldcastle dwells in a modern-built hut,
Miss Sage is of mad-caps the archest,
Of all the queer bachelors Cupid e'er cut,
Old Mr. Younghusband's the starchest.
*****
Mr. Swift hobbles onward, no mortal knows how,
He moves as though cords had entwined him ;
Mr. Metcalfe ran off upon meeting a cow,
With pale Mr. Turnbull behind him !
*****
Mr. Barker's as mute as a fish in the sea,
Mr. Miles never moves on a journey
Mr. Gotobed sits up till half-after three,
Mr. Makepeace was bred an attorney.
Mr. Gardener can't tell a flower from a root,
Mr. Wild with timidity draws back ;
Mr. Rider performs all his travels on foot,
Mr. Foote all his journeys on horseback !"
XL VIII. " What a name," the Doctor would say
"is Lamb for a soldier; Joy for an undertaker; Rich for
a pauper, or Noble for a tailor ; Big for a lean or little
person ; and Small for one who is broad in the rear and
abdominous in the van; Short for a fellow six feet

262 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
without hi3 shoes ; or Long for him whose high heels
hardly elevate him to the height of five ; Sweet for one
who has either a vinegar face or a foxy complexion ;
Younghusband for an old bachelor ; Merryweather for
any one in November, or February, a black spring, a
cold summer, or a wet autumn ; Goodenough for a per
son no better than he should be; Toogood for any
human creature ; and Best for a subject who is perhaps
too bad to be endured."*
XLTX. Our painters of sign-boards are seldom very
learned in punctuation. They generally either pre
sent us with a redundancy of stops, or totally omit
them. In the latter case we sometimes meet with
such inscriptions as — 'A Wood Smith,' ' Lion Butcher,'
' Clay Baker,' ' Winch Turner,' ' Peacock Builder,'
' Gay Painter,' ' Church Saddler,' ' Moon Gilder !'
L. The godfathers of one Jeremiah Ekins were
James Nott and John Butt, after whom he was baptized
with both their Christian and surnames. The effect of
his name, when heightened with a comma or two, is
very singular :
James, Nott John, Butt Jeremiah, Ekins !
LI. A huxter or market-gardener in Middlesex
was brought before a magistrate for not having com
plied with the Act of Parliament which required that
every owner of a cart should have his name, and that
of his place of residence, with the words ' a taxed cart,'
legibly painted thereon. In reply to the charge, the
man asserted that he had done what the law demanded,
* Southey's Doctor, vol. vii.

puns. 263
as the magistrate might easily convince himself; where
upon, a ' view' of the cart being taken, the following
words were read :
a most odd act on a taxed cart.
This looked strange, not to say contumacious, until it
was explained to mean —
AMOS TODD, ACTON, A TAXED CART. !
LII. A man of the name of Nobis having
opened a public 'accommodation' on the high road
leading from Pappenburgh, his neighbours caused him
no little vexation by their opposition, &c. ; but this,
and other difficulties, he overcame by industry and
perseverance, and after he had established himself, he
made the following addition to his sign-board : " Si
Deus pro Nobis, quis contra nos ?" If God be for us,
who can be against us ?
LILT. Southey tells a story of a lady who ordered
a book entitled ' An Essay on Burns,' thinking it was
a dissertation on the genius of her favourite Scottish
bard, but found to her disappointment that its ' subject-
matter5 was burns and scalds, and that the author was
a surgeon.* I might add what would be a new ' fact
for the faculty/ and contend that Burns and Scalds
were synonymous, for the latter, among the old Scandi
navians, were poets.
LIV. William III, and his followers, landed at Tor-
* The Doctor. I once happened to be in a bookseller's shop when a
rustic messenger who had been desired to order a copy of a well-known
poem for his master, asked — " Please, Sir, have you got one of them books
about Young Knight's Thoughts ?"

264 ENGLISH SURNAMES.
bay, on Nov. 5, 1688. A Mr. John Duke (of Otterton),
a man of wealth and influence in Sidmouth, joined the
hero on his arrival : being presented to the king, who
asked him for his name, he replied, with a timid hesi
tation, " John Duke of Otterton." The prince ex
pressed his surprise, and taking from his pocket a list
of the nobility, which he had been led to suppose was
correct, looked over it, and then declared that no such
duke was to be found there ! The gentleman, how
ever, soon rectified the mistake, by repeating his name
with an accelerated pronunciation, — John Duke, of
Otterton. The mistake being thus corrected, William
smiled at it, and embraced John Duke with joy.

END OF VOL. I.

PRINTED BY C AND J. ADLARD, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

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