of Oxford University to sell good beer, 1434. (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p.
595). ‘Williametta Cantatrix.’ (Rot. Lit. Clausarum).
Footnote 30:
A curious spelling of this is found in the entry, ‘Haunce, the Luter,
ii.s—vi.d.’ (_Privy Purse Exp. Princess Mary_, p. 104.) ‘Hankin Booby’
was the common name for a clown. (_Chappell’s English Songs_, i. 73.)
‘Thus for her love and loss poor Hankin dies,
His amorous soul down flies.’
_Musarum Deliciæ_, 1655.
Footnote 31:
‘Jack’ was really the nickname of Jacobus or James. Jacques was the
common name among the peasantry of France, and as a national sobriquet
was to that country what John was to England. On its introduction to
ourselves, it seems to have been tacitly accepted as but a synonym for
John, and has been used as such ever since.
Footnote 32:
‘Sir John’ (‘sir’ being the simple old-fashioned title of respect, as
in ‘sir knight,’ ‘sir king,’ &c.) was the familiar expression for a
priest. Bishop Bale speaks of them as ‘babbling Sir Johns.’ Bradford,
too, writing on the Mass, asks, ‘Who then, I say, will excuse these
mass-gospellers’ consciences? Will the Queen’s highness? She shall
then have more to do for herself than, without hearty and speedy
repentance, she can ever be able to answer, though Peter, Paul, Mary,
James, John, the Pope and all his prelates, take her part, with all
the singing “Sir Johns” that ever were, are, and shall be.’—_Bishop
Bradford’s Works._ Park. Soc., p. 391.
Footnote 33:
Thus Thomas Hale, a Puritan, writing in 1660 against May Games, has
some verses in which the Maypole is represented as saying—
I have a mighty retinue,
The scum of all the raskall crew
Of fidlers, pedlers, jayle scaped slaves,
Of tinkers, turncoats, tospot knaves,
Of theeves and scape-thrifts many a one,
With bouncing Besse and jolly Jone.
Footnote 34:
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a popular sobriquet for
Jane or Joan was ‘Jugg.’ In Espinasses’ ‘Lancashire Worthies,’ Joan,
the daughter of the celebrated Dr. Byrom, is familiarly styled ‘Jugg.’
A song of James I.’s reign says—
‘_Joan_, Siss, and Nell, shall all be ladified,
Instead of hay carts, in coaches shall ride.’
This is Mr. Chappell’s version. (_English Songs_, i. 327.) In Hunter’s
‘Hallamshire,’ it runs—
‘_Jugg_, Cis, and Nell, shall all be ladified.’
A ballad of Queen Anne’s reign represents John, the swain, as singing—
‘My heart and all’s at thy command,
And tho’ I’ve never a foot of land,
Yet six fat ewes and one milch cow,
I think, my Jug, is wealth enow.’
(_Pills to Purge Melancholy_, i. 293.)
Footnote 35:
In the _Athenæ Oxoniensis_ the account of Martin Marprelate begins
‘John Penry, or Ap-Henry, that is, the son of Henry, better known by
the name of Martin Marprelate, or Marpriest, &c.’ (Edit. 1813, vol. i.
p. 591.)
Footnote 36:
An uncouth spelling of this is met with in the De Lacy Inquisition,
where the entry occurs: ‘Henry, son of Holekyn, for 17½ acres of land,
4_s._ 6_d._ (Cheth. Soc., p. 12.) ‘King Hal’ is still familiar to us.
Footnote 37:
‘To Garrett Jonson, for shoes, x_s._ x_d._’ ‘To Garratt Jonson, for
shoes, iii_s._’ (Hous. Exp. Princess Eliz., Cam. Soc., pp. 16–18.)
Footnote 38:
‘The account of Wattare Taylor and Wyllyam Partrynge, beynge
churchewardens, in the xxxii. yere of the rayne of Kyng Henry the
eighth, A.D. 1541.’ (Ludlow: Churchwardens’ Accounts, p. 6, Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 39:
Agnes Antonison is found in the ‘Proc. in Chancery.’ (Elizabeth.)
Footnote 40:
Fuller, in his _Book of Worthies_, writes:—‘St. Anthony is universally
known for the patron of hogs, having a pig for his page in all
pictures, though for what reason is unknown, except, because being a
hermit, and having a well or hole digged in the earth, and having his
general repast on roots, he and hogs did in some sort enter common
both in their diet and lodging.’
Footnote 41:
Thus in the comedy of the ‘Western Lass’ (circa 1720) the heroine
sings:—
‘Is Love finer than money,
Or can it be sweeter than honey?
I’m, poor girl, such a Toney,
Evads, that I cannot guess.’
Footnote 42:
‘To our well-beloved servaunt, Antony Lambeson.’
(Grants of Ed. V. Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 43:
‘Walter fil. Kitte.’ (Household Exp. Bishop Swinfield, p. 170, Cam.
Soc.)
Footnote 44:
In the ‘Romaunt of the Rose,’ it is said—
‘For right no more than Gibbe, our cat,
That awaiteth mice and rattes to killen,
Ne entend I but to beguilen.’
In Peele’s ‘Edward I.,’ too, the Novice says to the Friar—
‘Now, Master, as I am true wag,
I will be neither late, nor lag,
But go and come with gossips cheer,
Ere Gib, our cat, can lick her ear.’
Footnote 45:
Hence the old term, ‘flibber-gib,’ or ‘flitter-gibbett,’ employed by
Latimer, Burton, &c.; and later, by Walter Scott, for one of vile
propensities.
Footnote 46:
A notorious rascal named ‘Gybby Selby’ is mentioned in ‘Calendar of
State Papers’ for 1562. This accords with ‘Robert Gybbyson,’ found in
the Corpus Christi Guild, York, a few years earlier.
Footnote 47:
‘Item, payde to Hew Watson, for a bawdrike to the first belle, x_d._’
(1546.) (Churchwardens’ Accounts at Ludlow, Camden Soc.) ‘Item, for
markynge of Hew Davis’ pew, xii_d._’ (1552.) (do.)
Footnote 48:
‘Hugyn held of the same Earl an oxgang of land.’ (De Lacy Inquisit.,
Cheth. Soc., p. 6.) ‘Huckin’ seems to be a corruption of ‘Hughkin.’
‘Hughkin Byston’ occurs in ‘Wills and Inventories.’ (Cheth. Soc., i.
142.)
Footnote 49:
A servant of King Henry III. was called by the simple and only name of
‘Pentecostes.’ (Inquisit. 13 Ed. I. No. 13.)
Footnote 50:
In the old published orders for the sheriff’s annual riding in the
city of York, occurs this rule among others:—
‘Also, we command that no manner of men walk in the city, nor in the
suburbs by night, without Torch before him, _i.e._ from _Pasche_ to
Michaelmas after ten of the clock, and from Michaelmas to _Pasche_
after nine of the clock.’ These rules are thus prefaced. ‘The
sheriffs, by the custom of the city, do ride to several parts thereof
every year, betwixt Michaelmas and _Midwinter_, that is _Yoole_.’
(‘Hist. and Ant. York,’ vol. ii. p. 54.) Lancashire Easter-eggs are
still called Pace-eggs.—The harder ‘Paske’ is found in Wicklyffe’s
Version of Matt. xxvi. 1:—‘Whaune Jhesus hadde endid all these words
he seide to his disciplis, ye weten that after tweyn days, Paske schal
be made.’
Footnote 51:
Richard Domesdaye was Rector of Caldecote, Norfolk, in 1435.
(Blomefield). This would be synonymous with ‘Termday.’
Footnote 52:
I see, however, from the Clerical Directory, that ‘Hindson’ is still
in existence. A ‘Nicholas Hopperson’ is found in an old college
register for 1582. (Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam.)
Footnote 53:
This name seems to have been very popular in Yorkshire. The instances
given in the index are taken from papers relating to that county.
Thus, again, we find it occurring in the marriage dispensations and
licences of the period. ‘Dispensation from Selow for Richard de
Akerode and Emmotte de Greenwood to marry, they being related in the
fourth degree. Issued from Rome by Jordan Bishop of Alba, Apr. 27th,
3rd Eugenius IV.’ (1433.)—(Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 317); ‘Licence to
the Vicar of Bradford to marry Roger Prestwick and Emmote Crossley.
Banns thrice in one day.’ (1466.)—Do. p. 338.
Footnote 54:
We must not forget that at first a certain strangeness must have been
felt in terming a woman by such a contradictory sobriquet as ‘Alice
John_son_’ or ‘Parnel Sim_son_.’ The feminine desinence was
occasionally attempted. ‘Alicia Thom_doghter_’ is found in the ‘Test.
Ebor.’ (Sur. Soc.), ‘Isabella Peers_doghter_’ and ‘Isolda
Peers_doghter_’ in Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Sur. Soc.), and ‘Avice
Matte_wife_’ in the ‘Issue Roll.’
Footnote 55:
‘Item, I gyffe to Sicille Metcalfe, my sister’s doughter,
20_s._’—‘Richmondshire Wills,’ p. 128.
Footnote 56:
A curious proof of the popularity of this pet form is met with in the
Manor of ‘Ashton-under-Lyne’ (Ch. Soc.). In a community of some 20 or
25 families were the following:—‘Syssot, wife of Patrick,’ ‘Syssot,
wife of Diccon Wilson,’ ‘Syssot, wife of Thomas the Cook,’ and
‘Syssot, wife of Jak of Barsley.’ Robert Syssottysone, Rector of
Lecceworthe, 1478 (xx. 2, p. 187).
Footnote 57:
In the Corpus Christi Guild, York, 1433 (Sur. Soc.), Dyot is feminine.
There is set down, ‘Robert Hayne et Dyot uxor.’ The patronymic
‘Diotson’ is found in the same register.
Footnote 58:
I say ‘perhaps’ because it may be but a corruption of the local
Mapleston.
Footnote 59:
Sabyn or Sabina is frequently met with in the Hundred Rolls, as also
Sybyl, referred to in the line before. A church at Rome was dedicated
to a St. Sabina. Sybyl has bequeathed us ‘Sibson.’ In Cocke Lorelles
Bote, one of the personages introduced is ‘Sybby Sole, mylke wyfe of
Islynton.’
Footnote 60:
Jack and Jill seem ever to have been associated.
Will squabbled in a tavern very sore,
Because one brought a _gill_ of wine no more;
Fill me a quart, quoth he, I’m called Will,
The proverbe is, each _Jack_ shall have his _Gill_.
_Satyricall Epigrams_, 1619.
Footnote 61:
One can scarce forbear a smile to find in the ‘Townley Mysteries’
Noah’s wife, being pressed by her husband to enter the ark, replying—
Sir, for Jak nor for Gille
Wille I turne my face
Tille I have on this hille
Spun a space upon my rok (distaft).
Footnote 62:
We must not forget a once familiar corruption of the diminutive
‘Juliet’ into ‘Juet.’ Such entries as ‘Juetta fil. William’ (T.),
‘Richard fil. Juetta’ (T.), ‘William Juet’ (A.), or ‘Christopher
Jewitson’ (Z.) are very common in the rolls of the xiiith and xivth
centuries. This, in the North, was pronounced ‘Jowet,’ hence such
entries as ‘Roger fil. Jowettæ’ (T.), ‘Jowet Barton’ (W. 11), and our
surname ‘Jowett.’ ‘Jewitt’ also exists. One of this name was a jockey
in the Derby of 1874.
Footnote 63:
So, also, in another place the same translator says: ‘The kyngdom of
hevenes is lyk to a marchaunt that seekith gode margarites, but whanne
he hath founde one precious margarite, he wente and solde alle thingis
that he hadde and boughte it.’—Matt. xiii. 45, 46. Foxe too, in his
‘Book of Martyrs,’ quotes Isidorus to the effect that John the Apostle
‘turned certain pieces of wood into gold, and stones by the seaside
into margarites.’—Vol. i. p. 28, edit. 1844.
Footnote 64:
‘Barbara,’ as another Greek virgin-martyr, may be set beside Margaret.
‘Barbe’ was the French form. As we shall see by-and-by, our
‘Simbarbes’ and ‘Simbarbs’ hail from St. Barbe in Normandy. (Jordan de
St. Barbe, M., Thomas Seyntbarbe, B.) The Hundred Rolls register three
pet forms as surnames. ‘Bertol Babbe,’ ‘John Barbot,’ and ‘Nicholas
Barbelot.’ The latter belongs to the class in _elot_ of which
‘Robelot,’ ‘Hewelot’ and ‘Hamelot’ are instances.
Footnote 65:
The various forms of the diminutive are found as Christian names in
the ‘Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne’ (Ch. Soc.), where occur such entries
as ‘Magot, that was wife of Richard,’ ‘Merget of Staley,’ ‘Marget of
Stanly,’ ‘Mergret, that was wife of Hobbe.’—pp. 96–7.
Footnote 66:
Since writing the above, I find several notices in Brand’s ‘Popular
Antiquities’ which, while corroborating the view I have taken, shed a
clearer light as to Maid Marian’s other sobriquet of ‘Malkin.’ In his
allusion to the Morris dances, he quotes Beaumont and Fletcher as
saying—
‘Put on the shape of order and humanity,
Or you must marry Malkin, the May-lady.’
Thus far, then, adding this to Mr. Halliwell’s quotation, we find that
Maid Marian for several centuries was also ‘Malkin.’ But we must
remember that it was during this very period that Robin Hood and his
mistress were popularly believed to be Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, and
Matilda, daughter of Lord Fitzwalter. That the May Queen, therefore,
should be occasionally styled ‘Malkin’ will appear natural enough if
we accept the view of the origin of that name as recorded in the text.
But it may be asked how did she get the sobriquet of ‘Marian’? Perhaps
Mr. Steevens’s quotation from an old play, ‘The Downfall of Rob. Earl
of Huntingdon,’ dated 1401, may help us—
‘Next ’tis agreed (if thereto she agree)
That fair Matilda henceforth change her name;
And, while it is the chance of Robin Hoode
To live in Sherwodde a poor outlaw’s life,
She by Maid Marian’s name be called.’
Footnote 67:
It has been thought by some that our ‘Makins’ and ‘Makinsons’ are from
Matthew, and not in any way connected with feminine nomenclature. This
may be so, for although there is the entry ‘Maykina Parmunter’ in the
Parliamentary Rolls, there is also ‘Maykinus Lappyng’ in Materials for
Hist. Reign of Henry VII.
Footnote 68:
Thomas Mawdeson (F. F.) would lead one to suppose that Mawson was a
direct corruption. It may be so, but ‘Maw’ itself seems to have
existed as a pet form of Maud. In the ‘De Lacy Inquisition’ (1311)
there occurs ‘Richard, son of Mawe, for 25 acres, etc.’—p. 10 (Chelt.
Soc.)
Footnote 69:
The preceding paragraphs will sufficiently answer, I doubt not, the
questions of correspondents in ‘Notes and Queries,’ as to whether we
have _any_ surnames derived from female baptismal names.
Footnote 70:
Elizabeth came into use too late to leave any mark upon our surnames.
I have not come across, to the best of my remembrance, a single
instance in any record earlier than the fifteenth century. ‘Bess,’ or
‘Bessie,’ was the first pet name formed from it, and this very
probably began to grow into favour about the time of Elizabeth
Woodville’s marriage. With the proud imperious Queen Bess, however,
came in every conceivable variety that could be played upon the name,
‘Betsey,’ or ‘Betsy,’ ‘Betty,’ ‘Eliza,’ ‘Lizzie,’ and ‘Libbie’ being
the favourites. The first ‘Bessie’ I find is that of ‘Bessye Tripps,’
1558; the first ‘Betty’ being that of ‘Bettye Sheile,’ 1580, both
being in a Newcastle will. Betty for two centuries was, perhaps, the
form most in favour in aristocratic circles. How fickle is fashion! It
is entirely tabooed there in the nineteenth.
Footnote 71:
Thomas and John Ibson are recorded in the ‘Corpus Christi Guild,’
York. (Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 72:
‘George Hall et Ezota uxor ejus.’ York Guild (W. 11).
Footnote 73:
‘Hamne, son of Adecok, held 29 acres.’ (De Lacy Inquis. p. 19, Ch.
Soc.)
Footnote 74:
A proof that this origination is correct is found in a York will dated
1391. William de Kyrkby bequeaths articles to ‘Evæ uxori Johannes
Parvying,’ and to ‘Willielmo de Rowlay,’ and then at the close he
speaks of them as the aforementioned ‘Evotam et dictum Willielmum
Rowlay.’ (Test. Elor., vol. i. p. 145–6. Surt. Soc.) An old London
record, dated 1379, contains amongst other names those of ‘Custance
Busshe’ and ‘Evota de Durham.’ The owner would be familiarly known
among her acquaintances as ‘Evote’ or ‘Evette.’ (_Memorials of
London_, p. 435.)
Footnote 75:
‘Sacred to the memory of George Higgott,’ etc. Bonsall Church,
Derbyshire. The more common form is ‘Higgett.’
Footnote 76:
‘Dawe Robson, et Alicia uxor ejus.’ (W. 11.)
Footnote 77:
‘Damsel’ is, of course, the diminutive of this. As a surname, it is
found in the cases of ‘Simon Damesell’ (H.R.) and ‘Lawrence Damysell’
(W. 2). Other diminutives are met with in ‘Damietta Porcell’ (Hist.
and Ant. Survey, index), ‘Damietta Avenell’ (F. F.), ‘Dametta fil.
Morell’ (D. D.); hence as surnames our ‘Damets,’ ‘Dametts,’ ‘Damiots,’
and ‘Domitts.’ Entries like ‘Alice Damyett’ (Z), ‘Hugh Damiot’ (A),
‘Henry Damett’ (R), and ‘Henry Domet’ (A) are common.
Footnote 78:
Thomas Jordanson and Margery Jordanson occur in ‘Three Lancashire
Documents’ (Cheth. Soc.).
Footnote 79:
‘Jud,’ now the pet form of George, was formerly that of Jordan. In
Gower’s lines, already quoted, it is said—
‘Hudde’ ferit, quem ‘Judde’ terit,
This reminds us of Aron Judde in the Hundred Rolls.
Footnote 80:
Dean Stanley seems to have the impression that this custom was
confined to the pilgrims of Italy and Spain. In his _Sinai and
Palestine_, page 333, he says: ‘The name of the river has in Italy and
Spain, by a natural association, been turned into a common Christian
name for children at the hour of baptism, which served to connect them
with it.’ Judging by existing traces merely, I doubt whether the
practice was quite so familiar in those countries as our own.
Footnote 81:
Ellicot seems to be a sort of feminine from Elisota. ‘Item do et lego
Elisotæ domicellæ meæ 40_s._’ (Will of William de Aldeburgh, 1391.
Test. Ebor. vol. i. p. 151.) ‘Item, lego Elisotæ, uxori Ricardi
Bustard unam vaccam et 10_s._’ (Will of Patrick de Barton, 1391. Test.
Ebor. vol. i. p. 155.)
Footnote 82:
We cannot but believe, however, that in many instances these two are
but the offspring of ‘Alice,’ at this period one of the most popular
of female names. Nor must we forget that Alison was itself a personal
name, this being the Norman-French pet form of Alice, after the
fashion of Marion, Louison, Beaton, etc. We are all acquainted with
the ‘Alison’ of the ‘Canterbury Tales’—
‘This Alison answered: Who is there
That knocketh so? I warrant him a thefe.’
We meet with it again in an old Yorkshire will: ‘Item, to Symkyn, and
Watkyn and Alison Meek, servandes of John of Bolton, to ilk on of yaim
(them) 26_s._ 8_d._’ (Test. Ebor., vol. iii p. 21. Surtees. Soc.) This
name is found in our more formal registers in such an entry as ‘Alison
Gelyot.’ (Parl. Rolls.) With regard to ‘Alis’ and ‘Elis,’ and ‘Alison’
and ‘Elison,’ recorded in the text, I may remind the reader that A and
E were all but convertible letters with the Normans. One of their
favourite female names, that of ‘Aveline,’ is found equally often as
‘Eveline,’ and in the form of ‘Evelyn’ it came down to the
distinguished writer of the seventeenth century. ‘Arnold’ and
‘Ernold,’ ‘Americ’ and ‘Emeric,’ ‘Amelia’ and ‘Emilia,’ ‘Anota,’ and
‘Enota,’ and ‘Amelot’ and ‘Emelot’ are but other instances in point.
Footnote 83:
I am confirmed in my view by finding ‘Eliot’ registered as ‘Alyott.’
‘Alyott de Symondston held half an oxgang of land, xix_d._’ (De Lacy
Inquisition (1311) Cheth. Soc.)
Footnote 84:
Perrin was formed from ‘Pierre,’ as ‘Huggin’ from Hugh or ‘Colin’
from Nicol. ‘The wife of Peryn’ is mentioned in ‘Manor of
Ashton-under-Lyne’ (Ch. Soc.), p. 97. Perrot, or Parrot, represents
also the French diminutive. ‘Alan Fitz-Pirot was a benefactor to St.
Alban’s Monastery.’ (See Clutterbuck’s _Hertford_, Appendix, vol.
i.) Prince Edward used to call the favourite, Piers Gaveston, by the
familiar title of ‘Perot.’ (See _Notes and Queries_, vii. 280, and
Lower on ‘Perrot.’)
Footnote 85:
There can be little doubt that ‘Potts’ comes from ‘Philpotts.’ We
light upon a ‘Thomas Potkin’ (H.H.), proving that the abbreviation was
in use.
Footnote 86:
A well-known Durham family of the name of ‘Burletson’ existed till the
close of the eighteenth century in that county, and I am not sure that
it does not still survive there. This, I doubt not, is but a
corruption of ‘Bartelotson’ or ‘Bartleson.’ (_Vide_ Surtees’ _History
of Durham_, vol. i. p. 106.)
Footnote 87:
John Toloson was Sheriff of London in 1237.
Footnote 88:
The romance form, ‘Thomasine,’ existed till recent days, and was at
the zenith of its popularity in Elizabeth’s reign. It is found in
every register of that period. It is found as ‘Thomasing’ in
Worksworth Ch. (Derbyshire): ‘Thomasing, filia William Sympson; buried
Jan. 31, 1640.’
Footnote 89:
Thus Skelton, in _Why come ye nat to Courte?_ says:—
‘Twit, Andrewe, twit, Scot,
Ge hame, ge scour thy pot.’
Footnote 90:
An instance of the diminutive is found in ‘Thomas Jemmitt,’ recorded
in Clutterbuck’s _Hertford_, Index, vol. i.
Footnote 91:
Thus, in _Why come ye nat to Courte?_ Skelton introduces such
fictitious characters as—
‘Havell, and Harvy Hafter,
Jack Travell, and Cole Crafter.’
Footnote 92:
I have stated in p. 80 that Polson is nothing more than Paulson. A
proof of this is found in the case of ‘Pol Withipol,’ who was summoned
to attend the council to show why the statute passed 27th Henry VIII.,
for the making of broadcloths and kerseys, should not be
repealed.—Proc. and Ord. Privy Council, vii. 156.
Footnote 93:
Capgrave, in his ‘Chronicles,’ under date 1394, says: ‘In this time
the Lolardis set up scrowis at Westminster and at Poules.’
Footnote 94:
Lord Macaulay has noticed this. Speaking of the Old Testament, and in
respect of the old Puritans, he says: ‘In such a history it was not
difficult for fierce and gloomy spirits to find much that might be
distorted to suit their wishes. The extreme Puritans, therefore, began
to feel for the Old Testament a preference which, perhaps, they did
not distinctly avow even to themselves, but which showed itself in all
their sentiments and habits. They paid to the Hebrew language a
respect which they refused to that tongue in which the discourses of
Jesus and the epistles of Paul have come down to us. They baptized
their children by the names, not of Christian saints, but of Hebrew
patriarchs and warriors.’—(_Hist. Eng._ ch. 1.)
Footnote 95:
The most curious illustration of this class is that of ‘Melcom Groat’
(T.T.). ‘Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon.’—2 Kings,
xxiii. 13. This is a conversion by baptism which would astonish
equally Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Pusey, I should imagine. A sister of
Archbishop Leighton (son of a much persecuted Presbyterian minister)
was ‘Sapphira.’
Footnote 96:
The same writer quotes from the register of Waldron the following
curious entry:—‘Flie-fornication, the bace sonne of Catren Andrewes,
bapt. ye 17th Desemb., 1609.’
Footnote 97:
‘The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., born Feb. 5th, 1673, died of an
apoplexy, Nov. 9th, 1758.’ He was a missionary to Vineyard Island.
(_Vide_ ‘Pulpit,’ Dec. 6, 1827.)
Footnote 98:
‘Here lieth the body of Abstinence Pougher, Esq., who died Sept. 5th,
1741, aged 62 years.’ (All Saints, Leicester. _Vide_ Nicholls’
‘Leicester.’)
Footnote 99:
Dr. Increase Mather was sent from New England to represent to James
II. the gratitude of the Dissenters for a Toleration Act in 1685.
(_Vide_ Neales’ ‘Puritans,’ vol. v. p. 31.)
Footnote 100:
Rev. Accepted Frewen (died 1664) was Archbishop of York, and son of a
Puritan minister in Sussex. (_Vide_ Walker’s ‘Sufferings of Clergy,’
p. 38.) ‘Thankfull’ was his brother.
Footnote 101:
Mr. Livewell Sherwood, an alderman of Norwich, was put on a commission
for sequestering Papists, in 1643. (Scobell’s ‘Orders of Parl.,’ p.
38.)
Footnote 102:
Faythful Fortescue. (‘Visitation of Yorkshire.’)
Footnote 103:
‘Robert Thyer and Silence Leigh, married Dec. 9, 1741.’ (St. Ann’s,
Manchester.) She was evidently the daughter of some old stickler for
St. Paul’s doctrine—‘Let the women learn in silence, with all
subjection’—or had he been himself a sufferer in his married life?
Footnote 104:
Charles Chauncy died in New England, 1671. He went from Hertfordshire,
where the family had been settled for centuries. His children were
‘Isaac,’ ‘Ichabod,’ ‘Sarah,’ ‘Barnabas,’ ‘Elnathan,’ ‘Nathaniel,’ and
‘Israel.’ (Clutterbuck’s _Hertford_, vol. ii. 401.) Elnathan and
Nathaniel are the same, with syllables reversed, like ‘Theodora’ and
‘Dorothea.’
Footnote 105:
‘What is your name?’ then said Robin Hood,
‘Come, tell me, without any fail;’
‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,
‘My name it is Allan a Dale.’
(_Robin Hood_, vol. ii, 261.)
Footnote 106:
One of the best puns extant is put to the credit of the Duke of
Buckingham by Walter Scott, in his _Peveril of the Peak_. A Mrs.
Cresswell, who had borne anything but a creditable character,
bequeathed 10_l._ for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill-natured
was to be said of her. The duke wrote the following brief but pointed
discourse: ‘All I shall say of her is this: she was born _well_, she
married _well_, she lived _well_, and she died _well_; for she was
born at “Shad-well,” married to “Cress-well,” lived at “Clerken-well,”
and died in “Bride-well.”’
Footnote 107:
A will, dated 1553, among other bequests mentions: ‘Also to _my nawnt_
Bygott an old angell of golde.’ The old angel, I need not say, refers
to the coin, not the aunt. (Richmondshire Wills, p. 76.)
Footnote 108:
This name thus formed existed till the sixteenth century, at least,
for ‘Christopher Nend’ is set down in the Corpus Christi Guild, York,
1530.
Footnote 109:
William de Okholt is found in the ‘Inquis. post mortem.’ This would be
the original form.
Footnote 110:
‘Emelina de Hogshawe’ (Inquis. post mortem). The name is now extinct,
I believe.
Footnote 111:
Our ‘Deardens,’ however, may be in some cases but a corruption of the
old ‘Derneden’—that is, the secret or secluded den. The Hundred Rolls
give us, for instance, a ‘Ralph de Derneden.’ This word ‘dern’ was
then in the most familiar use. Thus, in ‘Cursor Mundi,’ mention is
made of ‘a mountain dern.’ Chaucer speaks of ‘derne love,’ and Piers
Plowman of ‘derne usurie.’ Our ‘Durnfords’ but represent such an early
entry as ‘Robert de Derneford;’ and of names now obsolete, we might
instance ‘Dernehus,’ found also in the same roll as the above. Our
‘Dernes’ simple probably originated in the reticent and cautious
disposition of their first ancestor. We may take this opportunity of
noticing that ‘Dibdin’ is but ‘Deepden.’ One of our older rolls has a
‘Randolph de Depeden.’
Footnote 112:
By ‘ley’ I include both ‘lee,’ a shelter, and ‘lea,’ a pasture, for it
is impossible to distinguish the two.
Footnote 113:
‘John de Foxlee’ is mentioned. (Fines, Ric. I.)
Footnote 114:
More personal forms are found in ‘Henry Legeman’ (H.R.) and ‘Elias
Layman’ (H.R.).
Footnote 115:
‘William de Waldeslade’ occurs in the ‘Great Roll of the Pipe.’
Footnote 116:
Quite as good a story, and one less objectionable, is told of a
Scottish Member of Parliament called Dunlop, who, at a large dinner
party, having asserted that no one could make a pun upon his name, met
with the instant reply from one of his guests, ‘Oh, yes, I can. _Lop_
off the last syllable, and it is _done_.’
Footnote 117:
Thus in the ‘Proverbs of Hending,’ it is said: ‘When the coppe is
fullest, then the hair is fairest.’
Footnote 118:
Talking of ‘Manners,’ however, we may add one on the celebrated
Marquis of Granby:—
‘What conquest now will Britain boast,
Or where display her banners?
Alas! in Granby she has lost
True courage and good _Manners_.’
Puns of this nature may be met with frequently in books of the last
century. Some complimentary verses to Dr. Gill, on account of a
supposed victory in a public controversy, in 1727, in support of
immersion at baptism, have a play of this kind at one part:—
‘Stennet,’ at first, his furious foe did meet,
Cleanly compelled him to a swift retreat;
Next powerful ‘Gale,’ by mighty blast made fall
The Church’s Dagon, the gigantic ‘Wall.’
(_Gill’s Works_, edit. 1839.)
Footnote 119:
Our now vulgar term ‘nob’ is a relic of this: ‘To hit a man on the
nob’ is, in the north, to strike on the head. In the same districts a
‘nob’ is a rich man, one of family and influence.
Footnote 120:
Our Authorised Version has it, in Exodus xxv. 33: ‘Three bowls made
like unto almonds, with a knop and flower in one branch.’ Here a bud
is evidently intended. I need scarcely say that ‘knob’ is but the
modern form of this word.
Footnote 121:
Besides ‘David atte Lawe’ (M.), we have the more personal ‘John
Laweman’ (A.), or ‘Ranulf Laweman’ (A.). I doubt not these are also
local, but one cannot help thinking of Chaucer’s ‘Sergeant of the
Lawe, ware and wise.’
Footnote 122:
‘William de Thornover’ and ‘Walter de Ashovere’ will represent
compound forms.
Footnote 123:
Several local names of this class are found with ‘tree’ appended.
Thus, ‘Thomas Appletree’ occurs in the Chancery suits of Elizabeth;
and ‘Crabtree,’ ‘Plumtree,’ or ‘Plumptree,’ and ‘Rowntree’ (rowantree)
may still be seen in our busiest streets.
Footnote 124:
In the ‘Townley Mysteries,’ Jacob, in his vision, is represented as
saying:—
‘And now is here none othere gate
But Godes howse and hevens yate.’
Footnote 125:
I believe this word is not yet extinct in our North-country
vocabulary. A Yorkshire inventory of goods, of 1540 or thereabouts,
concludes by stating what moneys had been discovered in corners and
out of the way places in the house: ‘In hernes, xiii_s._ iiii_d._;
item, x sylver spones, xxiii_s._iiii_d._’ (Richmondshire Wills, p.
41.)
Footnote 126:
Thus, also, is it with ‘Duffus.’ We find it in the Hundred Rolls set
down in the same form as ‘de Duffus’ or ‘del Duffus,’ the more literal
dress being met with in the London city archives in the name of
‘Thomas Dufhous.’ (_Vide_ Riley’s _Memorials of London_, p. 555.)
‘Dove-house’ is the root.
Footnote 127:
‘Agnes atte Punfald’ (A.) reminds us of our ‘Penfold,’ or ‘Pinfold,’
_i.e._ the pound.
Footnote 128:
‘Ralph ate Med’ (A.). ‘Philip atte Medde’ (M). In the Hundred Rolls we
find ‘William le Medward’ corresponding to ‘Hayward.’ (_Vide_ p. 198.)
Footnote 129:
‘His tenants, the graingers, are tyed to come themselves and winde the
woll, they have a fatte weather and a fatte lambe killed, and a dinner
provided for their paines.’ (Henry Best’s _Farming Book_ (1641), p.
97.)
Footnote 130:
‘John Grangeman’ occurs in the Proc. in Chancery. (Elizabeth.)
Footnote 131:
The coney, or rabbit, has made a mark upon our local nomenclature. An
old form of the word was ‘coning’ or ‘conig.’ Thus Piers Plowman
says:—
‘The while he caccheth conynges,
He coveiteth naught youre caroyne,
But feedeth hym all with venyson.’
Relics of this are found in such an entry as ‘Nicolas Conyng’ or
‘Peter Conyng,’ though now met with as ‘Coney.’ More local
registrations, such as ‘Thomas de Conyton,’ ‘John de Conington,’ ‘John
de Conyngsby,’ or ‘Walter de Cunnyngby,’ are still familiarised to us
in ‘Conington’ and ‘Coningsby.’ The North English form was ‘Cuning,’
whence the ‘de Cunnyngby’ above instanced and our modern
‘Cunninghams.’
Footnote 132:
_Vide_ Lower’s _Surnames_.
Footnote 133:
One of Edward III.’s regulations concerning the sale and purchase of
wool speaks of ‘merchandises en Engleterre, Gales, ou Irlande;’ and
further on more personally of ‘merchantz Engleis, Galeis, ou Irreis.’
(‘Stat. of Realm,’ vol. i. p. 334.) ‘Henry le Galeys,’ that is, as we
should say now, ‘Henry Welsh,’ was Mayor of London in 1298.
Footnote 134:
In two different rolls we come across such cognomens as ‘Osbert
Diabolus’ and ‘Roger le Diable.’ These are very likely but relics of
early jesting upon the local forms mentioned in the text. A ‘Thomas de
Devyle’ occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls, while in the Writs of the
same we find a ‘John de Evylle.’ The former instance, again, may be
but a sarcastic reduplication of the prefix. Dean Milman, quoting the
author of _Anglia Judaica_, tells the following story, which shows how
early this name had been so played upon:—‘A certain Jew travelling
towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche, Archdeacon of
Malpas, in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was “Deville,” was
told amongst other things, by the former, that his “jurisdiction was
so large as to reach from a place called Ill Street all along till
they came to Malpas, and took in a wide circumference of country.” To
which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied:
“Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance! For it seems I
am riding in a country where Sin (Péché) is the archdeacon, and the
Devil himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in
Ill Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas).”’ (_History of
Jews_, vol. iii. p. 232.)
Footnote 135:
Hall, in his ‘Chronicles,’ speaks of the ‘Duke of Burgoyne.’ (F.
xxiiii.)
Footnote 136:
‘Champaigne,’ of course, means simply _plain-land_, and is found
locally in various parts of Western Europe. I have included ‘Champion’
with the others because, though sometimes a combative sobriquet, it is
as often found to be the mediæval form of the local term, ‘Champian’
and ‘Champain’ being other modes of spelling the same to be met with
at this period. Thus we find such double entries as ‘Katerina le
Champion’ and ‘Roger de Champion.’ Our present Authorised Version uses
the word twice, as in Deut. xi. 30:—‘Are they not on the other side
Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the
Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside
the _plains_ of Moreh?’ In the various translations of this passage
almost all the above modes of spelling have been used.
Footnote 137:
_Vide_ _Words and Places_, p. 436.
Footnote 138:
Camden says: ‘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 English tongue, “Ne se, by God”—“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.”’
Footnote 139:
‘John Spaynard’ is found in the _Cal. Rot. Patentium_; but the name is
now obsolete, I imagine. ‘Peter Ispanier’ occurs in Clutterbuck’s
_Hertford_ (vol. i. Index).
Footnote 140:
Hence we find Skelton speaking in one of his poems of ‘That gentyll
Jorge the Januay.’
Footnote 141:
Wicklyffe, in his preface to St. Paul’s Epistle to the ‘Romayns,’
quotes St. Jerome, and adds, ‘This saith Jerom in his prologe on this
pistle to Romaynes.’
Footnote 142:
‘Turk,’ we must not forget, was a general term for anyone of the
Mahommedan faith. It still lingers in that sense in the _Jews, Turks,
Infidels, and Heretics_ of our Book of Common Prayer.
Footnote 143:
Thus we find Bishop Coverdale, in his _Prologue to the New Testament_,
written 1535, saying, ‘And to help me herein I have had sundry
translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters,
whom, because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the
Bible, I have been the more glad to follow.’ (_Park: Soc._ p. 12.)
Here he is manifestly speaking of the German reformers.
Footnote 144:
Andrew Borde speaks of ‘Flaunders, Hanway, and Braban, which be
commodious and plentiful contreys.’—_Boke of the Introduction of
Knowledge._
Footnote 145:
An act passed in 1464 speaks of tonnage upon wines brought into
England ‘by eny Marchaunt Alien, as well by the Marchauntes of Hance
and of Almayn, as of eny other Marchauntes Alien.’ (Rot. Parl. Ed.
IV.) Bishop Coverdale’s exposition of the 22nd Psalm is entitled, ‘A
very excellent and swete exposition upon the two and twenty Psalme of
David, called in Latyn, “Dominus regit me, et nihil.” Translated out
of hye Almayne in to Englyshe by Myles Coverdale, 1537.’
Footnote 146:
The old form of ‘Dutch’ was ‘Douch’ or ‘Dowch.’ Skelton in his
‘Parrot’ says that, besides French, Lattyn, Ebrew,
‘With Douch, with Spanysh, my tong can agree.’
Our ‘Dowch’s’ and ‘Douch’s’ still preserve this spelling.
Footnote 147:
Our ‘Sarsons’ may be metronymically descended from ‘Sare’ or ‘Sarra.’
Skelton, in ‘Elynore Rummyng,’ speaks of
‘Dame Dorothe and lady Besse,
Dame Sare, our pryoresse.’
Nevertheless the same writer, in his ‘Poem against Garnesche,’
addresses a Saracen thus—
‘I say, ye solem Sarson, alle blake is your ble.’
Such entries as ‘William fil. Sare,’ ‘John Saresson,’ ‘Henry Sarrasin’
or ‘Peter Sarracen,’ show both origins to be possible.
Footnote 148:
This surname is found uncorrupted so late as 1626. A ‘John Jewry’ is
set down in C. C. Coll. register for that date. (_Vide Hist. C. C.
Coll._) ‘Jewsbury’ has the same origin.
Footnote 149:
We must not forget, however, that the term ‘convert’ was applied to
such as were lay members of a monastery. They were also working
brethren, and thus were distinguished from the ‘monachi,’ or monks,
who were wholly confined to religious offices and meditation. Thus, in
the _Life of Hugh of Lincoln_, it is said, ‘Omnes interea Hugonem
loquebantur sive prior, sive monachus, sive _conversus_, gratiam
attolebat collatam Hugoni.’ (P. 46. See, also, Glossary to same.)
Footnote 150:
‘Edward I. went so far as to give the Dominican Friars, at their
particular request, power to constrain the Jews to listen to their
preaching, and even proceeded to waive his claim for seven years to
more than a moiety of the goods of the converts, the other half being
given to maintain the poor in the Hospital for Converts.’ (_Anglia
Judaica_, p. 231.)
Footnote 151:
Hall, in his _Chronicles_, spells it ‘Bullein.’ (F, xxiii.)
Footnote 152:
So late as the year 1562 we find, in an old inventory, mention made of
‘One bede coveringe of ariesworke, 8_s._ (_Richmondshire Wills_, p.
161.) ‘Grant to John Bakes, arras-maker, of the office of maker and
mender of the King’s cloths and pieces of arras and tapestry, with
12_d._ a day for wages.’—_Materials for History of Reign of Henry
VII._ (p. 259).
Footnote 153:
The _Gildhallæ Munimenta_ mention, among other goods, ‘mercerie,
canevas, conins-panes, fustiane, chalons, _draps du Reynes_, et draps
de soye.’ (P. 231.) ‘Then take a towell of reynes of two yerdes and an
halfe, and take the towell by ye endes double and laye it on the
table.’—_The Boke of Kervynge._
Footnote 154:
Foxe, in his _Martyrology_, speaks of the ‘Bishop of Mentz, of Cullen,
and of Wormes.’ (Vol. i. p. 269, ed. 1844.)
Footnote 155:
The same remark will apply to our ‘Cardinals’ and ‘Pontifexs.’
‘Cardinal’ is early found in ‘Walter Cardinall’ (P.), and ‘William
Cardynall’ (Z.).
Footnote 156:
In one of our old mediæval ‘mysteries,’ representing the Nativity, one
of the Magi says:—
Certain Balaam speakys of this thyng,
That of Jacob a star shall spryng,
That shall overcom kasar and kyng.
—_Townley Mysteries._
Footnote 157:
Some of these forms may be but corruptions of ‘Casier,’ the old
cheese-maker, found in the Writs of Parliament in such entries as
‘Michael le Casiere,’ or ‘Benedict le Casiere.’ ‘Cayser’ would require
little variation to make it such.
Footnote 158:
‘Ellice Prynce’ (Z.), ‘John le Cunte’ (E.), ‘Peter le Counte’ (G.),
‘John le Viscounte’ (B.).
Footnote 159:
‘William le Duck’ (T.). Our ‘Ducks’ may thus be official rather than
ornithological.
Footnote 160:
This word is found as a compound in ‘William Burtheyn,’ a Saxon title
equivalent to the Norman ‘Chamberlain.’ The Prompt. Par. has
‘burmayden,’ _i.e._ ‘chamber-maid.’
Footnote 161:
In the Hundred Rolls we find a ‘Will Litleking.’ This sobriquet would
readily attach to one such feast-appointed monarch whose diminutive
stature would but impart additional merriment to the occasion. ‘Roger
Wyteking’ (_Testa de Neville_) would owe his _nom-de-plume_ to the
dress he wore. It is to such an institution as this, again, we must
ascribe the origin of such names as ‘Reginald Kyngessone,’ and
perchance ‘Richard Kyngesman,’ both found in the Hundred Rolls also.
That our ‘Kings’ are but a memorial of the festivities of our
forefathers, is an undoubted fact. Every great nobleman had not merely
a professed ‘fool,’ but at particular seasons a ‘King of Misrule.’
This ‘king’ initiated and conducted the merry doings of Christmastide,
and was a proper officer. Besides the ‘King of Misrule,’ there were
also the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of each village enthroned on May morning,
who would be sure to keep their regal title through the year at least.
Thus, among the twenty or thirty families that comprised the manor of
Ashton-under-Lyne in 1422, we find ‘Hobbe the King,’ while a festival
to be held there in that year is to be under the supervision of
‘Margaret, widow of Hobbe the King, Hobbe Adamson, Jenkin of the Wood,
Robert Somayster (Sum-master), etc.’ (_Three Lancashire Documents._
Cheth. Soc.) ‘We, Adam Backhous and Harry Nycol, hath made account for
the Kenggam (King-game), that same tym don William Kempe, _Kenge_, and
Joan Whytebrede, _Quen_, and all costs deducted, 4_l._ 5_s._ 0_d._
(_Ch.wardens’ Accounts_: Kingston-upon-Thames. Lyson.)
Footnote 162:
The Ordinary was any ecclesiastic judge, the bishop himself, or his
deputy. Thus, in a statute of Edward III., dated 1341, it is
said:—‘Item, it is accorded and assented that the king and his heirs
shal have the conisance of the usurers dead, and that the Ordinaries
of Holy Church—_les Ordinares de Seinte Esglise_—have the conisance of
usurers in life, as to them appertaineth, to make compulsion by the
censures of Holy Church for the sin,’ &c. (_Stat. Realm_, vol. i. p.
296.) We still call the gaol chaplain the _ordinary_ who conducts the
condemned prisoner to the scaffold and reads the appointed service.
The Parliamentary Writs give us a ‘John Ordeiner’ and a ‘Stephen
Ordinar.’
Footnote 163:
The term ‘poll’ for the head, was far more familiar to our forefathers
than to ourselves, as such terms as ‘poll-tax,’ or ‘going to the
poll,’ testify. It was in great favour for nickname purposes, and
beside the one in the text gave rise to such sobriquets as
‘ranti-poll,’ _i.e._, boisterous fellow; ‘doddy-poll,’ or
‘doddy-poul,’ as Latimer spells it, _i.e._, blockhead; or
‘withy-poll,’ _i.e._, spoiled one. The latter was a term of
endearment, and as such would not be resented. Hence it is found twice
as a surname:—‘Poule Withipoule, taillour’ (_Rutland Papers_, Cam.
Soc.); ‘Edmund Withipole’ (_State Papers, Domestic_).
Footnote 164:
An old sermon, written in the fourteenth century, upon Matt. xxiv. 43,
speaks of those whom we should now term as the ‘Devil and his angels’
as the ‘Devil and his kachereles.’
Footnote 165:
We have the surname of ‘Outlawe,’ or ‘Outlaghe,’ figuring in several
rolls, and that of ‘Felon,’ or ‘le Felun,’ in at least one. These
would be both unpleasant names to bear, perhaps more so then than now.
A ‘felon’ was one who had, by court adjudicature, and for some
specific crime, forfeited all his property, lands, or goods. An
‘outlaw’ was one who had been cited to judgment for some misdemeanour,
and by refusing to make an appearance had put himself out of the
protection of the law. Thus, Robin Hood was an outlaw. ‘Adam Outelaw’
signs ordinances of Guild of St. John Baptist, West Lynn, 1374.
(_English Gilds_, p. 102.) This name, strange to say, lingered on to
within the last two hundred years, a ‘Thomas Outlaw’ being found in a
college register for 1674. (Vide _Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam._) In 1661,
too, ‘Ralph Outlaw’ was rector of Necton in Norfolk. (_Hist. Norf._,
vi. 55.)
Footnote 166:
‘On the 30th ult., at Greenheys, Manchester, formerly of Oxton,
Cheshire, Sarah, widow of R. Bellringer, of Pendleton, aged 82.’
(_Manchester Courier_, May 2, 1874.) This is the only instance of this
name I have hitherto met with.
Footnote 167:
‘Thomas le Await’ occurs in the _Rot. Curiæ Regis_. This reminds us
that our ‘waiter’ was once prefixed with ‘a’ likewise—‘xii. esquiers
awaiters.’ (_Ord. Household of Duke of Clarence_, 1493.)
Footnote 168:
‘And to meyris or presidentis and to kyngis ye shall be led for me in
witnessyng to them.’—Matt x. 18 (Wicklyffe). In a Petition to
Parliament, dated 1461, the following varieties of spelling occur
within the space of thirty lines:—‘Maier,’ ‘Mayer,’ ‘Mayre,’and
‘Maire.’ (_Rot. Parl._ Ed. IV.)
Footnote 169:
I suspect the difference between the ‘claviger’ and the ‘clavier’ lay
in that the former bore the key, and perhaps even the mace, in all the
many public processions and pageants of the day.
Footnote 170:
The old and general custom of electing a boy-bishop on St. Nicholas’
Day gave their title, doubtless, to most of our ‘bishops.’ The
familiarity of the ceremony is fully attested by Brand. To him I refer
the reader. The boy thus elevated by his fellows could not but retain
the sobriquet. Lyson quotes from the _Lambeth Ch.wardens’ Accounts_,
1523: ‘For the Bishop’s dynner and hys company on St. Nycolas’ Day,
ii_s._ viii_d._’
Footnote 171:
Daniel Archdeacon was recommended to the King for his services, 1610.
(_State Papers_, 1623–5, p. 545.)
Footnote 172:
‘Roger le Archeprest’ (J.). The term was in use in the seventeenth
century. Smith, the ‘silver-tongued’ preacher, speaks of ‘priest, or
priests, or archpriests, or any such like.’ (_God’s Arrow against
Atheists._)
Footnote 173:
As in occupative names, such as ‘Fisherman’ and ‘Poulterer,’ there was
a tendency to repeat the suffix, or to add ‘man’ to a term that itself
expressed a personal agent, so it was in official names. We have just
spoken of ‘Vickerman’ and ‘Priestman.’ ‘Symon Priorman’ (W. 15) and
‘William Munkeman’ (W. 15) are other cases in point.
Footnote 174:
A curious, not to say cumbrous, surname is met with in the
Parliamentary Writs—that of ‘Holywaterclerk’—a certain ‘Hugh
Haliwaterclerk’ being set down as dwelling at Lincoln. Doubtless he
was connected with the cathedral body of that city. The name, I need
not say, is obsolete; and the Reformation has removed the office
denoted. A ‘Walter le Churcheclerk’ is found in the same record.
Footnote 175:
The charge of the vestry seems to have been given also to the
‘revetour,’ from ‘revestir.’ A ‘William Revetour, clericus, filius
Rogeri Morbet, revetour,’ was admitted to freedom of York City in
1420. He died in 1446, and in his will makes mention of his father as
‘Roger Revetour.’ (_Corpus Christi Guild_, p. 24. Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 176:
A curious, not to say cumbrous, surname is met with in the
Parliamentary Writs—that of ‘Holywaterclerk’—a certain ‘Hugh
Haliwaterclerk’ being set down as dwelling at Lincoln. Doubtless he
was connected with the cathedral body of that city. The name, I need
not say, is obsolete; and the Reformation has removed the office
denoted. A ‘Walter le Churcheclerk’ is found in the same record.
Footnote 177:
The charge of the vestry seems to have been given also to the
‘revetour,’ from ‘revestir.’ A ‘William Revetour, clericus, filius
Rogeri Morbet, revetour,’ was admitted to freedom of York City in
1420. He died in 1446, and in his will makes mention of his father as
‘Roger Revetour.’ (_Corpus Christi Guild_, p. 24. Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 178:
‘John Closterer.’ (_Three Histories of Durham._ Surt. Soc.) This would
be a general term for one who dwelt in a monastic institution.
Shakespeare uses the feminine ‘cloistress.’ Of a similar character
would be ‘Nicholas Brotherhood’ (Nicholls’ _Leicester_, 1633), ‘John
Brotherhood’ (W. 20), or ‘William Felliship’ (W. 11).
Footnote 179:
In the _Monastical Church of Durham_, written in 1593, we are told of
the ‘Cellarer’ that ‘the chambre where he dyd lye was in the dorter.’
(P. 83.)
Footnote 180:
Hence the local surname ‘Spital’ or ‘Spittle:’ ‘Richard ate Spitale,’
M. ‘Gilbert de Hospitall,’ A.
Footnote 181:
Our ‘Amners’ are but a corruption of this same name. The word had
become early so corrupted—‘For in tymes paste kynges have geven theyr
bysshoprycks to theyr councellers, chaplaynes ... or to suche which
have taken paynes in theyr householde, as amners, and deans of the
chappell,’ &c. (_A Supplycacion to our moste Soveraigne Lorde Kynge
Henry the Eyght_, p. 34.)
Footnote 182:
It was thus in the case of Simon the Leper of Bethany. The fact of
there being a feast in his house shows that he had been cured of his
disorder. None the less, however, did the surname cling to him.
Footnote 183:
‘Go ye and tell agen to Jon those things that ye have herd and seen.
Blind men seen, crokide goen, mesels ben maad clene, defe men heren,’
&c. (Matt. xi., Wicklyffe.)
Footnote 184:
Pilgrims to Rome were ‘Romers;’ whence such an entry as ‘Cristiana la
Romere’ (H.R.) Piers Plowman in ‘Passus IV.’ speaks, within eight
lines, of ‘religious romares’ and ‘Rome-runners.’
Footnote 185:
Capgrave, under date 1293, says: ‘In the xxii. yere was Celestius the
Fifte, Pope, take fro’ his hous, for he was a ankir.’ This Celestius
at once passed a law that a Pope might resign, and instantly gave it
up, returning to his old life again.
Footnote 186:
The Hundred Rolls contain ‘Geoffrey Halve Knit’ and ‘Nicholas Halve
Knycht.’ They would seem to have arrived at some half stage toward
chivalric rank.
Footnote 187:
Swyan, in _Morte Arthure_, slays Child-Chatelain, and
‘The swyers swyre-bane (neck-bone) he swappes in sondre.’
Footnote 188:
An ordinance of Edward III. declares that ‘men of arms, hoblers’ and
archers (gentz darmes, hobelers et archers) chosen to go in the king’s
service out of England, shall be at the king’s wages from the day that
they depart out of the counties where they were chosen, till their
return.’ (_Stat. Realm_, vol. i. p. 301.) Of the hobby itself, too, we
have mention. Thus a list of the royal stud at Eltham, in the
seventeenth year of Henry VIII., includes ‘coursers, 30; young horses,
8; barbary horses, 4; stallions, 8; hobbyes and geldings, 12.’
(_Collection of Ordinances_, p. 200.)
Footnote 189:
In the _Life of Hugh of Lincoln_ mention is made of ‘Marchadeus
princeps Rutariorum’ (p. 264). See the glossary, however, from which I
have derived much of the above.
Footnote 190:
In the _Morte Arthure_ mention is made of a youth named ‘Chastelayne,
a chylde of the Kynges chambyre.’
Footnote 191:
Such names as ‘Alice Suckling’ (ff.), or ‘William Firstling,’
(ditto)—both terms familiarised to us by the Authorised
Version—belong, seemingly, to the same class.
Footnote 192:
Among other duties the usher lay at the door of his lord’s sleeping
apartment. The _Boke of Curtasye_ says the
‘Usher before the dore
In outer chambur lies on the flore.’
Footnote 193:
Our friends across the border have this surname in the form of
‘Chalmers.’
Footnote 194:
The more correct form is found in the name of ‘William Summaster,’ who
is met with in an old Oxford record as having deposited, in 1462, a
caution for ‘Sykyll-Halle,’ of which he was principal. (Vide _Mun.
Acad. Oxon._)
Footnote 195:
A strange and yet most natural change gradually crept over this word.
There can be no doubt that the original ‘potager,’ or ‘potinger,’ had
his place in the baronial household as the superintendent of the
mess-making department. From his knowledge of herbs thus acquired he
evidently came to be looked upon in a medicinal capacity. Thus the
term came to be used synonymously with ‘apothecary.’ In the
_Archæologia_ (vol. xxii) we find it recorded that one of the horses
connected with the household of James V. of Scotland was called ‘le
Pottinger’—‘uno equo pharmacopile, vulgo le Pottinger.’ In an old
university record, dated 1439, I find, too, a certain ‘Ralph
Prestbury’ mentioned as sworn to keep the peace towards ‘Thomam Halle,
potygare, alias chirurgicum.’ (_Mun. Acad. Oxon._, p. 523.) Probably,
however, it was the lowly herbalist, rather than the professional
druggist, who acquired the sobriquet.
Footnote 196:
Amongst other gifts from the City of London to the Black Prince on his
return to London from Gascoigne, in 1371, were ‘48 _esqueles_ and 24
saltcellars, weighing by goldsmiths’ weight, 76_l._ 5_s._’ (Riley’s
_London_, p. 350.) ‘The 11 messes to the children of the Kechyn,
_Squillery_, and Pastrey, with Porters, Scowerers, and Turnbroches,
every mess at 23_l._ 16_s._ 9½_d._, in all 261_l._ 13_s._ 7_d._’ (Ord.
Henry VIII. at Eltham.) Apart from such entries as ‘John le Squylier,’
or ‘Geoffrey le Squeller,’ the Parl. Rolls gave us a ‘John de la
Squillerye.’
Footnote 197:
I may here mention that our brushes were almost entirely made of furze
or ling; bristles were rarely used. Hence such a name as ‘Robert le
Lingyure’ (H.R.), doubtless a maker and seller of brushes and brooms.
Footnote 198:
The ‘Promp. Par.’ has ‘Swyllare: Dysche-weschour.’
Footnote 199:
In an inventory of household chattels, dated so late as 1574, we find
the furniture of the hall first described, and this begins, ‘A
cupboard and a _spence_, 20_s._; xxiii pewter dublers, 20_s._;
seventene sawsers and potingers, 6_s._’ (_Richmondshire Wills_, p.
248.)
Footnote 200:
‘The Sewer muste speke with the panter and offycers of ye spycery for
fruytes that shall be eten fastynge.’—_The Boke of Kervynge._
Footnote 201:
A manciple was an achatour for a more public institution, such as an
Inn of Court or College. It is quite possible that our ‘Mansels’ and
‘Maunsels’ are thus derived, relics as they undoubtedly are of the ‘le
Maunsels’ or ‘le Mansells’ of this period. The corruption colloquially
of ‘manciple’ into ‘maunsell’ would be a perfectly natural one. An
instance of the purer form is found in the name of ‘Thomas Mancipill,’
met with in _Munimenta Academica_ (Oxon.) p. 525, under the date 1441.
That this was a common term at that university we may prove from an
indenture found in the same book, dated 1459, in which are mentioned
‘catours, manciples, spencers, cokes, lavenders, &c.’ (P. 346.) It may
be interesting to some to state that to this day this is the term for
the chief cook in several of the colleges.
Footnote 202:
A ‘William Celarer’ is mentioned in the Churchwardens’ Accounts of
Horley, Surrey, 1526. (_Brand._ vol. i. 226.) A Saxon form of this
existed in the term, ‘Hoarder,’ _i.e._ one who stored up. ‘Richard le
Hordere’ (H.R.), ‘Adam le Horder’ (Parl. Writs). The form ‘hordestre,’
or cellaress, is met with in contemporaneous writings.
Footnote 203:
The duties of Butler and Panter being so all-important, they are often
found encroaching on one another’s vocation. Thus the _Boke of
Curtasye_ says:—
‘Botler schalle sett for each a messe,
A pot, a lofe, withouten distress.’
Footnote 204:
This was evidently in existence as a surname formerly, although I have
only been able to discover one instance of it. The Principal of Bedel
Hall, one of the numerous smaller establishments at Oxford in mediæval
times, was in the year 1462 a certain Dr. Schalke. (_Mun. Acad.
Oxon._) It is very likely that our present ‘Chalk’ represents this
name.
Footnote 205:
‘The sewer must serve, and from the borde convey all manner of
potages, metes, and sauces.’—_The Boke of Kervynge._
Footnote 206:
We still use the compounds of this, as in ‘pursue,’ ‘ensue,’ or
‘issue;’ but we scarcely now employ the simple root-word so freely as
it evidently was employed in Wicklyffe’s time. He translates Mark ii.
14 as follows: ‘And whaune he passide he saygh Levy of Alfey sittynge
at the tolbothe and he seide to hym, sue me, and he roos and suede
him.’
Footnote 207:
‘Item: A Duke’s eldest sonn is borne a Marquisse, and shall goe as a
Marquisse, and have his Assayes, the Marquisse being present.’ (_A
Book of Precedence._) Hall, speaking of King Richard’s murder, says of
Sir Piers that he ‘came to Pomfret, commanding that the esquier whiche
was accustomed to sewe and take the assaye before Kyng Rychard should
no more use that maner of service.’ F. xiv.
Footnote 208:
Forks, used first in Italy, were not introduced into the French Court
till late in the sixteenth century. In England they did not make their
appearance till 1608, and it is said they were there the immediate
result of the published travels of Thomas Coryat, who visited Italy in
that year. I am sorry to say that I cannot find any instance of
‘Spooner’ in our earlier archives. Foxe mentions, in his
_Martyrology_, a ‘Robert Catlin, spoonmaker,’ persecuted in 1552 at
Byebrook, Suffolk.
Footnote 209:
‘To Percivall Smallpage, for his expences, xx_s._’ (_Household
Account, Princess Elizabeth._ Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 210:
We find the modern spelling of this sobriquet little varied from that
of the fifteenth century. An act, passed in 1463, to restrain excess
in apparel, makes a proviso in favour of ‘Hensmen, Heroldes,
Purceyvantes, Swerdeberers, as Maires, Messagers, and Minstrelles.’
(_Stat. Realm_, vol. ii. p. 402.) Sir Harris Nicolas says: ‘No word
has been more commented upon than “Henchmen,” or “Henxmen.” Without
entering into the controversy, it may be sufficient to state that in
the reign of Henry VIII. it meant pages of honour. They were the sons
of gentlemen, and in public processions always walked near the
monarch’s horse.’ (_Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII._, p. 327.)
Footnote 211:
Words terminating in this ‘ager’ seem invariably to have been changed
in the manner seen above. Thus, besides ‘Massinger’ and ‘Pottinger,’
we have ‘Arminger’ from the old ‘Armiger,’ ‘Firminger’ from the once
not unfamiliar ‘Furmager,’ or ‘Clavinger’ from ‘Claviger.’
Footnote 212:
This is confirmed by the _Promp. Par._ ‘Brevetowre: brevigerulus.’
Footnote 213:
Perhaps I ought to have placed ‘le Breviter’ in the dining-hall, as
but another name for the steward or steward’s lieutenant. It was one
among other duties of this officer to set down not merely the courses
as they came in, but what and how much was placed before each, so that
all might tally with the sum allowed for culinary expenses. This is
alluded to in the _Boke of Curtasye_. Speaking of the steward’s
offices in the hall, it says:—
‘At counting stuard schalle ben,
Tyll alle be _brevet_ of wax so grene,
Wrytten into bokes, without let,
That before in tabuls hase been set.’
Further on, too, it adds—
‘The clerke of the kitchen shalle alle thyngs _breve_.’
The name itself lingered on uncorrupted for some time; for as simple
‘Breviter’ it is found in 1580 in a Cambridge University list. (_Hist.
C. C. Coll. Cam._) The corrupted ‘Bretter’ still exists, and is met
with in ‘William Bretter,’ a name entered in the _Calendar to
Pleadings_ of Elizabeth’s reign.
Footnote 214:
‘To John Redyng, avener, for the expenses of le palfrais, 50_l._’
_Materials for Hist. of Reign of Henry VII._, p. 407.
Footnote 215:
‘Item: It is ordeyned that the King’s Avenor, with the two clerkes of
the said office, doe give their dayly attendance, as well as for the
check roll, as all other concerning provisions to be made for the
king’s stable, according to the statutes made and ordeyned for the
same.’ (Extract from _Ordinances of Henry VIII. at Eltham_.)
Footnote 216:
The _Liber Albus_, among other entries, has the following: ‘Qe nul
teigne Escole de Eskermerye, ne de Bokeler deins la citee.’
Footnote 217:
The old Norman word was either ‘healme’ or ‘heaume.’ The more ordinary
term for the former now is ‘helmet.’ Hall, writing of the Battle of
Bosworth Field, after mentioning the fact of the armies coming in
sight the one of the other, says: ‘Lord, how hasteley the souldyoures
buckled their healmes, how quickly the archers bent their bowes and
frushed their feathers, how redely the bilmen shoke their billes and
proved their staves.’ (Hall, _Richard III._, fol. 32 b.)
Footnote 218:
It is thought by several writers that the ‘Sworder’ was one who
performed feats of jugglery, the sword, after the fashion of the
times, forming the most important feature in his art, his hairbreadth
tricks being especially popular with the country people. It is quite
possible this may be its real origin. The only early instances I find
of the name are in the Parliamentary Writs and the Parliamentary
Rolls, where are recorded respectively a ‘John le Serdere’ and a
‘Henry Swerder.’
Footnote 219:
In Mr. Riley’s interesting _Memorials of London_ there is recorded not
merely a ‘Richard le Kissere,’ but the occupation itself is clearly
marked in the entry, ‘Walter de Bedefont, kissere.’ (P. xxii.) There
need be no hesitation in accepting the statement that the ‘kisser’ was
thus occupied. It is merely spelt according to the then pronunciation.
In the _Statutes of Arms_ it is said: ‘And no son of a great lord,
that is to say, of an earl or baron, shall have other armour than
mufflers and cuishes (“ne seit arme fors de mustilers e de quisers”).’
(_Stat. of Realm_, vol. i. p. 231.)
Footnote 220:
The obsolete ‘Bucklermaker’ must be set here. Our Authorized Version
has made us familiar with ‘sword and buckler.’ ‘Item: Payd to Phillip
Tynker and Mathou Bucler-maker, for drawyenge of the yron and makynge
of the stapuls, ii_s._’ (_Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accounts_, Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 221:
We find the Pattenmakers of London petitioning the Commons, in 1464,
that they may have restored to them the use of the ‘tymber called
Aspe,’ which had been of late entirely in the hands of the
manufacturers of arrows, ‘so that the Flecchers thorough the Reame may
sell their arrowes at more esy price than they were wonte to doo.’ The
aspe was a species of poplar.—Rol. Parl. Ed. IV.
Footnote 222:
The ‘arrowsmith’ has a much longer and less euphonious title in a
statute of Elizabeth regarding the hiring of servants by the year. In
it are included ‘Weavers, Tuckers, Fullers, Pewterers, Cutlers,
Smithes, Farrours, Sadlers, Spurryers, Turners, Bowyers, Fletchers,
_Arrowhead-makers_, Butchers, Cookes, or Myllers.’—5 Eliz. c. iv. 2.
Footnote 223:
Thus, among the London occupations, Cocke Lovell includes those of the
‘Spooners, turners, and hatters,
Lyne-webbers, _setters_, and lyne-drapers.’
Footnote 224:
Since writing this, I have discovered the names of ‘John Fusilier’ and
‘—— Fuzelier.’ (See _Proc. and Ord. Privy Council_, under dates 1437
and 1439.)
Footnote 225:
We have a similar interchange of these two initial letters in the
cases of ‘Gervais’ and ‘Jervis,’ ‘Geoffrey’ and ‘Jeffrey,’ and ‘Gill’
and ‘Jill.’
Footnote 226:
‘Thomasine Woodkeeper’ is set down in the Index to _State Papers
(Domestic)_ for 1635. This is a name, I doubt not, of later origin.
Footnote 227:
The stringent care taken of the beasts of chase may be gathered from
the various laws passed regarding the dogs of such swineherds, &c., as
had right of entry in the woods. The chief one related to what was
called the lawing of dogs. By this rule the three claws of the
forefoot of every mastiff were to be cut off by the skin, and the
forest assize was to make special inquisition to see that it was in
all cases done. (See _Stat. de Finibus_, 27 Edward I.)
Footnote 228:
‘He seide also to hise discipilis, ther was a riche man that hadde a
baylyf, and this was defamed to him as he hadde wastid hise goodis.
And he clepide him and seyde to him, what here I this thing of thee?
Yelde rekenyng of thi Baylye, for thou myght not now be baylyf.’ (Luke
xvi. 1, 2—Wicklyffe.)
Footnote 229:
The first instance I have met with of this name is in a formal
declaration against Popish doctrine, dated 1534, and signed among
others by ‘Gulielmus Buckmaster.’ (Foxe’s _Martyrology_.)
Footnote 230:
The Hundred Rolls have the abbreviated form in ‘Godfrey le Futur.’
Footnote 231:
Not very long previously to this we find Trevisa writing: ‘There are
many harts, and wild beasts, and few wolves, therefore sheep are the
more sykerlyche’ (secure). Thus we have ample evidence, apart from the
existence of the name, that this depredator of the farming stock was
anything but unknown during mediæval times.
Footnote 232:
Of course the breeding of falcons was a favourite as well as important
care. By a special statute of Edward I.’s reign, every freeman could
have in his own wood ‘ayries of hawks, sparrowhawks, faulcons, eagles,
and herons.’ (25 Edward I. c. 13.) By a statute passed in the reign of
Edward III., anyone who found a strayed hawk or tercelet was to bring
it to the sheriff of the county, through whom proclamation to that
effect was to be made in the towns. If the finder concealed the bird,
he was rendered liable to two years’ imprisonment. (34 Ed. III. c.
22.) This will give some idea of the value attached to a good falcon
in those days.
Footnote 233:
This form of spelling is used by Burton in his _Anatomy_. He asks, how
would Democritus have been affected ‘to see a scholar crouch and creep
to an illiterate peasant for a meal’s meat, a scrivener better paid
for an obligation, a faulkner receive greater wages than a student?’
(P. 37.)
Footnote 234:
Juliana Berners says: ‘Ye shall understonde that they ben called
Ostregeres that kepe goshawkes or tercelles.’ (Ed. 1496, b. iii.)
Footnote 235:
‘Thacker’ represented the northern pronunciation, ‘Thatcher’ the
south. Compare ‘kirk’ and ‘church,’ ‘poke’ and ‘pouch,’ ‘dike’ and
‘ditch,’ or the surnames ‘Fisk’ and ‘Fish.’ A ‘Nathaniel Thackman’ is
set down in the index to _State Papers (Domestic)_ for 1635.
Footnote 236:
A ‘John Thaxter’ is met with in a college register for 1567 (_Hist. C.
C. Coll. Cam._), and far earlier than this, in the Parliamentary
Writs, we light upon a ‘Thomas Thackstere.’ This is one more instance
of the feminine termination. That the word itself was in familiar use
is proved by the fact that in the ordinance arranging the Norwich
Trades Procession we find among others the ‘Thaxteres’ marching in
company with the ‘Rederes.’ (_Hist. Norfolk_, vol. iii.) As a surname
the term still survives.
Footnote 237:
‘Robertus Brown, redere,’ Guild of St. George, Norwich.
Footnote 238:
‘Also, that no tylers called hillyers of the cite compelle, ne charge
ne make no tyler straunger to serve at his rule and assignment,
etc.’—_The Ordinances of Worcester, English Guilds_, 398.
Footnote 239:
According to Walsingham, Wat the rebel was ‘Walterus helier, vel
tyler.’ The word is prettily used in an old Saxon Psalter, where, in
the stead of our present ‘He is a buckler to all those that trust in
Him,’ we read that a
‘Forhiler is He
Of all that in Him hoping be.’
The following quotations from Wicklyffe’s New Testament will prove how
familiar was the term in his day: ‘And lo a greet stiryng was made in
the see so that the schip was hilid with wavis’ (Matt. viii. 24); ‘For
I hungride and ye gaven me to ete, I thirstide and ye gaven me to
drynke, I was herbarweles and ye herboriden me, naked and ye hiliden
me’ (Matt. xxv. 35); ‘No man lightnith a lanterne, and hilith it with
a vessel, or putteth it under a bed’ (Luke viii. 16).
Footnote 240:
Among other items of an entry in the Issues of the Exchequer we find
for ‘putting the shingles on the king’s kitchen, for the aforesaid
week, 17_s._ 4_d._’ (43 Hen. III.)
Footnote 241:
We find all these various forms of the same occupation mentioned in a
statute of Elizabeth relating to the apprenticeship of children. In it
are included ‘Lymeburner, Brickmaker, Bricklayer, Tyler, Slater,
Healyer, Tilemaker ... Thatcher or Shingler.’ (5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.)
Footnote 242:
Hugh Marbeler was sheriff of London in 1424.
Footnote 243:
Another Saxon name, that of ‘John le Sclabbere,’ is met with in the
Parliamentary Writs. It is, however, but an isolated instance, and I
do not suppose there was any particular craft in masonry that went by
that title.
Footnote 244:
‘Item: Payd to a laborer for to pargytt, vii_d._ (P. 4,
_Churchwardens’ Accounts, Ludlow_, Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 245:
Thus, our ‘Freebodys’ are found alike in this guise, and in that of
‘Frybody.’ ‘Robert Frybody’ is set down in _Proc. and Ord. Privy
Council_.
Footnote 246:
A curiously contradictory name is met with in ‘Robert Frebond,’ found
in the Hundred Rolls. The same roll contains the names of ‘Roger le
Neubonde’ and ‘Emma Newbonde.’
Footnote 247:
Among the peasantry of Yorkshire the simple farm labourer is still a
‘hine’ or ‘hind.’
Footnote 248:
A ‘Cropper’ was a farm labourer who superintended the growth and
cutting of the _crops_. In the Custom Roll of the Manor of
Ashton-under-Lyne (Ch. Soc.) occurs the following:—‘Roger the Cropper,
for his tenement, and whole service, the present 8_d._; the farm,
15_s._’ &c. Lower down mention is made also of ‘Robin the Cropper.’
Footnote 249:
‘Digger’ also exists, and is found in an epitaph in St. Sepulchre’s,
Middlesex.
‘Here lyes Robert Diggs and William Digger,
There’s no living soule knew which was the bigger,
They fared well and lived easy,
And now they’re both dead, an ’t shall please ye.’
_Dingley’s History from Marble (Cam. Soc.)._
Footnote 250:
Chappell’s Ballad Music, vol. i. 327.
Footnote 251:
Thus we find in the forest charter of Edward III.: ‘Unus quisque liber
homo faciat in bosco suo vel in terra sua, quam habet in foresta
marleram (marl-pit), fossatum, vel terram arabile,’ &c. (_Stat. of
Realm_, vol. i. p. 121.)
Footnote 252:
As there was the ‘Miller’ and the ‘Milward,’ so there was the ‘Marler’
and the ‘Marlward:’ ‘Alice le Marlere’ (H.R.), ‘John Marleward’
(H.R.).
Footnote 253:
‘He shall be called ... a lamb of Christ’s fold, a sheep of his
pasture, a branch of his vine, a member of his Church, an imp of his
kingdom.’—Bishop Bale.
Footnote 254:
‘Peachman’ must be set here. ‘Daniel Peachman’ occurs in Blomefield’s
_Norfolk_ (Index).
Footnote 255:
Thus it is expressly stated in the _Forest Charter_, as of importance
to the holder, that every freeman should have a right to the honey
found within his woodland: ‘Habeat similiter mel quod inventum fuerit
in boscis suis.’ (_Stat. Realm_, vol. i. p. 121.)
Footnote 256:
‘Hewer’ often occurs in composition, as in ‘Robert le Wodehyewere,’
‘Richard Stonhewer,’ ‘Richard le Blockhewere,’ or ‘William
Flesschewer.’ This last may be but a corruption of ‘Flesher.’ After
the prevailing fashion of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
termination ‘ster’ was sometimes added instead of ‘er.’ Thus, in the
Chester Play we find the procession joined by the ‘Hewsters.’ Richard
le Hewster was sheriff in 1382. (Ormerod’s _Cheshire_, vol. i. 302.)
Footnote 257:
The ashburner is incidentally alluded to in a statute of Elizabeth’s
reign, in which, among other occupations, is mentioned the ‘Burner of
Oore and woad ashes.’—5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.)
Footnote 258:
This spelling lasted till the seventeenth century. Henry Best, in his
_Farming Book_, 1641, says: ‘The noutheard wages were, for every
beast, 2_d._’ (P. 119, Sur. Soc.)
Footnote 259:
‘Adam le Roc’ (H.R.), represented by our modern ‘Rooks,’ reminds us of
the older form.
Footnote 260:
It will give the reader some idea of the importance of this root-word
when I say that these five names appear in a list of thirty-one
persons dwelling in the village of Aynwyk. (Surtees Soc. _Hexham
Priory_, vol. ii. p. 4.)
Footnote 261:
In an old book of tenures kept in York Castle occurs, or did occur,
the following: ‘David le Lardiner holds one Serjeantry, and he is
Keeper of the Gaol of the Forest, and Seizer of the Cattle which are
taken for the king’s debts.’
Footnote 262:
Nicolas Goteman (W. ii.) occurs in an old Yorkshire register, but the
name is now obsolete, I think.
Footnote 263:
In a statute of Edward III.’s reign, dated 1363, in defining the
attire suitable for those whose chattels came under 40_s._ value, we
find enumerated with others, ‘tenders of oxen, cow-herds, shepherds,
swineherds, deyes, and all other keepers of live-stock’ (‘bovus,
vachers, berchers, porchers, deyes, et tous autres gardeinz des
bestes’). (Vide _Prom. Par._, p. 116.)
Footnote 264:
‘William Wyndmilward’ occurs in the _Cal. Rot. Chartarum_.
Footnote 265:
‘Manumissio Thomæ Haale, alias dicti Mylleward de Hextone,’ 1480 (xx.
2, p. 210). ‘Milmaster’ is also found. ‘Mr. Andrew Milmaster, of the
Old Jewry, died Aug. 23, 1630.’ (Smith’s _Obituary_.)
Footnote 266:
We may here mention several surnames whose original possessors were
evidently confrères of the miller. ‘John le Melmongere’ (M.), _i.e._,
mealmonger; ‘Denis le Otemonger’ (X.), ‘Walter le Heymongere’ (G.),
‘Ralph le Cornmonger’ (T.), and ‘Henry le Cornmongere’ (M.). These are
all obsolete, I fear.
Footnote 267:
‘Adam Taskermale’ (H.R.). This would be a sobriquet taken from the
‘male,’ or bag in which the tasker carried his day’s provision.
Footnote 268:
In the _Ordinances of the Household of Henry VI._, dated 1455, we find
the ‘Bakhous’ (bakehouse) to be under thirteen officers, and of them
are ‘6 Gromes Bulters.’ (_Pro. Ord. Privy Council_, vol. vi. 226.)
Footnote 269:
‘Robert le Whelere,’ G., ‘Walter Welwryghte,’ A., ‘Robert le
Wainwright,’ H., ‘Robert le Cartwright,’ B., ‘Hugh le Schipwryte,’ A.,
‘John Botewright,’ F.F.
Footnote 270:
So late as 1541 we have such an entry as this: ‘Item, to John Glassier
for mendynge the wyndowe over the gallery, v_s._ viii_d._’
(_Churchwardens’ Accounts, Ludlow_, p. 8, Cam. Soc.) A little later we
find: ‘Item, to John Pavier for his labour, iii_d._ Item, for pavinge
before the gate, i_d._’ (P. 10, do.) These are both interesting
instances of the late formation of surnames. Both evidently took their
second sobriquets from their occupation. ‘Pavier,’ I need hardly say,
still exists.
Footnote 271:
Since writing the above I find my latter conjecture to be confirmed.
Miss Meteyard, in her interesting life of Josiah Wedgwood, says: ‘The
surname of ‘Tellwright,’ or ‘Tilewright,’ which, variously spelt,
fills a considerable portion of the parish register of Burslem down to
a late period of the eighteenth century, and is still common, is
curious evidence of the antiquity of the tilewright’s craft in this
locality.... Every worker in its clays became a tilewright, whether he
moulded tiles or formed the homely pipkin or porringer, the slab-like
dish or ale-vat for the hall.’ (Vol. i. p. 93.)
Footnote 272:
In an inventory of household furniture, dated 1559, we have amongst
other articles, ‘One trussin bed with a teaster of yealow and chamlet,
one old arke, old hangyers of wull grene and red, 6_s._ 8_d._’
(_Richmondshire Wills_, p. 135.) Another writer, twenty years earlier,
relating the contents of the ‘mylke howse,’ includes ‘an arke, a tube
(tub), a stande, a chyrne.’ (P. 42, do.) The earliest instance of the
surname I have yet met with is found in the same book, where, in a
will dated 1556, the testator bequeaths a sheep to ‘Henry Arkwright.’
(Do. p. 155, note.) Both the ark itself and the trade are of North
English origin.
Footnote 273:
‘Shuxsmith’ seems but a corruption of this. The intermediate form is
found in _Wills and Inventories_ (Ch. Soc.), in the names of ‘Margerie
Shughsmythe’ and ‘Henry Shughsmythe.’
Footnote 274:
‘Buckler’ may be mentioned here. ‘John le Bockeler’ (A.), ‘Richard
Bokeler’ (Z).
Footnote 275:
With our ‘Locksmiths’ we must, of course, ally our ‘Lockmans,’
‘Lockyers,’ and ‘Lockers,’ and perchance ‘Lookers.’ We find a ‘Henry
le Lokier’ set down in the Hundred Rolls, and in an old Oxford record,
dated 1443, there occurs the name of ‘Robert Harward, loker,’ who
doubtless found plenty of employment in providing for the security of
the various rooms attached to the different colleges and halls. (_Mun.
Acad. Oxon._, p. 535.)
Footnote 276:
There are several single representatives of occupations connected with
the smith which I have not mentioned in the text, not having met with
any trace of their continued existence amongst us. Thus, in the
_London Memorials_ we find a ‘John Chietesmyth,’ which, so far, I have
found to be wholly unintelligible. I must say the same in regard to
‘Cokesmyth,’ occurring in the _Boldon Book_. ‘John Rodesmith,’ if not
a scribe’s error for ‘Redesmith,’ would be the manufacturer of the
then familiar ‘rood’ or ‘rode,’ the cross which we occasionally may
see still standing beside our old turnpikes. ‘William Watersmith,’ it
is quite reasonable, may have spent his energies on water-wheels and
such other machinery as helped to turn the mill. All these are now,
and probably were then, almost immediately obsolete. On the other
hand, we have ‘Wildsmith’ existing in our midst, only one
representative of which am I able to discover in our olden records. It
is just possible that, like the obsolete ‘Youngsmith,’ it originally
referred to the characteristics of the man as well as of his trade.
Footnote 277:
The roads between Cumberland and Northumberland were of the roughest
and most dangerous character till the seventeenth century, when
General Wade, in the course of his progress against the rebels, laid
down some of a better kind. The following couplet has been handed down
as the effort of some local poet:—
‘If you’d ever been here
When these roads were not made,
You would lift up your hands
And bless General Wade.’
Footnote 278:
In the Rolls of Parliament special mention is made of the King’s
Corser, he who acted as the king’s agent in regard to the purchase of
horses. A certain ‘Johannes Martyr, corsere,’ occurs in an old Oxford
record, dated 1451. (_Mun. Acad. Oxon._, p. 616.)
Footnote 279:
Thus, in the _Itinerarium of Richard I._, it is said that, after a
conflict with the Greeks, ‘Rex igitur cum persecutus esset imperatorem
fugientem lucratus est runcinum vel jumentum sacculo retro sellam
collocato,’ &c.—P. 191. We may quote, also, the _Wardrobe of Edward
I._: ‘Magistro Willelmo de Apperle, pro restauro unius runcini favi
appreciati pro Roberto de Burton, valletto suo, &c., 8_l._’—P. 172.
Footnote 280:
The _Test. Ebor._ (W. 2) gives us a ‘John Charioteer,’ and the _Cal.
Proc. Chancery_ (Z.Z.) a ‘Thomas Charietter.’
Footnote 281:
This is confirmed by the existence of ‘Chartman,’ more modernly
‘Cartman.’ A ‘John Chartman’ was rector of Sedistern, Norfolk, in
1361. (Blomefield.)
Footnote 282:
The following entry is found in the _Issue Rolls_: ‘To Master William
la Zousche, clerk of the king’s great wardrobe in money, paid to him
by the hands of John le Charer, for making a certain chariot for the
use and behoof of Lady Eleanor, the king’s sister, by writ of liberate
containing 1000_l._’ (_Issues of the Exchequer_, 6 Ed. III.) Capgrave,
too, may be cited. Writing of Helianore, daughter to the King of
France, when given to Richard of England, he says, under date 1394:
‘She was ful scarsly viii yere of age, but she brought oute of Frauns
xii chares ful of ladies and domicelles.’ Mr. Way says that in 1294
the use of this vehicle by the wives of wealthy citizens in Paris had
become so prevalent that it was forbidden them by an ordinance of
Philippe le Bel.
Footnote 283:
‘Couchman’ and ‘Coachman’ must be set here. ‘Aug. 4, 1640. Dorothy
Coachman, daughter of Tilney Coachman, buried’ (Smith’s Obituary, p.
17). This Tilney is recorded elsewhere as ‘Tilney Couchman.’ Mr.
Wedgewood says, ‘Coach. The Fr. _coucher_ became in Dutch _koetsen_—to
lie; whence “koetse,” a couch—a litter, a carriage in which you may
recline, a _coach_’ (p. 159). The twofold spelling of this Tilney’s
name is thus explained. Hence, too, ‘Couchmen’ represents but the
older form of ‘Coachman’—Richard Couchman, Z., ‘William Cowcheman,’
EE., John Coacheman, Z.
Footnote 284:
In the _York Pageant_ the ‘Sellers’ and the ‘Satellers’ went together.
The latter, doubtless, made satchels, and would differ little from the
‘bourser’ or ‘pouchemaker’ of that period. In the _Prompt. Parv._ we
find ‘Sele, horsys harneys.’ A ‘John de Essex, Selmakere,’ occurs in
the _London Records_, 1310, and a ‘Robert Newcomen, Sealmaker,’ 1311.
(Riley’s _London_, pp. xxii., xxx.) The latter, doubtless, was a maker
of seals, like some of the ‘le Selers’ of this period. I have
mentioned them elsewhere.
Footnote 285:
While, as I have just said, in the _York Pageant_ it is the
‘Satellers’ and ‘Sellers’ who go together, in the _Chester Play_ it is
the ‘Saddlers’ and ‘Fusterers.’
Footnote 286:
In Holland’s version of Pliny it is said that the Empress Poppæa ‘was
knowne to cause her ferrers ordinarily to shoe her coach horses and
other palfries, &c., with cleane gold.’ (Way’s _Prompt. Par._)
Footnote 287:
A suggestion I received at a dinner-table the other day that ‘ostler’
was merely a corruption of ‘oat-stealer’ I may as well mention here.
It is certainly suggestive, if not overburdened with accuracy.
Footnote 288:
‘William le Vendour’ is registered in the _Cal. Rot. Chartarum_.
Footnote 289:
Mr. Riley, in his interesting _Memorials of London_, quotes from the
_Rolls of Gaol Delivery_, temp. Edward I., the name of ‘Richard
Witbred, hodere,’ who had been slain in one of the city streets.
(Introduction, p. xi.)
Footnote 290:
An act of Edward VI. speaks of ‘the buying of anye corne, fyshe,
butter, or cheese by any suche Badger, Lader, Kyddier, or Carrier as
shal be assigned and allowed to that office.’ (5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 14.) A
confirmation of this act by Elizabeth alters ‘Kyddier’ to ‘Kydder.’
The _lader_ was the old carrier or leader. I have deferred speaking of
him till my next chapter.
Footnote 291:
The greed of these strolling ecclesiastics is frequently alluded to in
the writings of this period. An old song on the Minorite friars says—
‘They preche alle of povert, but that love they naught,
For gode mete to their mouthe the toun is through sought.’
(_Pol. Poems_, vol. i. p. 270.)
Footnote 292:
An act was passed in Edward VI.’s reign to suppress in some degree the
number of this wandering fraternity:—‘Forasmuch as it is evident that
Tynkers, Pedlers, and such like vagrant persones are more hurtfull
than necessarie to the Commen Wealth of this realme, be it therefore
ordeyned ... that ... no person or persones commonly called Pedler,
Tynker, or Pety Chapman, shall wander or go from one towne to another,
or from place to place, out of the towne, parishe, or village, where
such person shall dwell, and sell pynnes, poyntes laces, gloves,
knyves, glasses, tapes, or any suche kynde of wares whatsoever, or
gather connye skynnes, &c.’ (5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 21)
Footnote 293:
‘John le Coper’ is found in the Hundred Rolls.
Footnote 294:
‘Lambert Hardewareman’ (W. ii.) is met with in York in 1473. Whether
he was a travelling dealer or no, I cannot say.
Footnote 295:
It is to the humorous and familiar associations inseparably connected
with the early chapman we owe our ‘chap,’ a mere corruption of the
above.
Footnote 296:
Mr. William Markettman was appointed by the Committee of Plundered
Ministers in 1650 to the Rectory of Elstree. (Clutterbuck’s
_Hertford_, vol. i. 161.) ‘Articles exhibited against Clement
Marketman, executor of Clement Stuppeney, &c.’ (_State Papers_, July
25, 1623.)
Footnote 297:
‘Willmo Mone sometario ad unum somerum pro armis Regis.’ (_Wardrobe of
Edward I._, p. 77.)
Footnote 298:
Thus the somewhat incongruous expression in Psalm cxxvii. 1, ‘the
watchman waketh but in vain,’ is explained. That a sentinel should
require rousing is opposed to all our ideas of the duties associated
with this office. It should be ‘the watchman watcheth but in vain.’
Footnote 299:
It is in allusion to the disturbance thus created in the small hours
of the night we find a writer of the Stuart period saying, not
unwittily, to one thus rudely aroused:—
‘That you are vext their _wakes_ your neighbours keep
They guess it is, because you want your _sleep_:
I therefore wish that you your _sleep_ would take,
That they (without offence) might keep their _wake_.’
(Brand’s _Pop. Ant._ iii. 9.)
Footnote 300:
Isaac Wake was university orator in 1607. He preached Rainold’s
funeral sermon. Dr. Sleep was the leading preacher in Cambridge at the
same time. James I., who dearly loved a pun, said ‘he always felt
_inclined_ to Wake when he heard Sleep, and to Sleep when he heard
Wake,’ _i.e._, he could not decide on the relative merits of the two.
(Brooks’ _Puritans_, vol. ii. p. 180.)
Footnote 301:
Thus, in the _Winter’s Tale_, the servant says: ‘I have done. Come,
you promised me a tawdry-lace and a pair of gloves.’
Footnote 302:
A law was passed at Winchester in 1285 that no fair or market should
be held in the churchyard, as had previously been the case.
Footnote 303:
The same record, however, contains a ‘Fairman Alberd,’ so that, like
‘Coleman’ and ‘Bateman,’ it may have been but a personal name.
Footnote 304:
It is from this same root that our ‘Kemp’ is derived, meaning a
soldier.
Footnote 305:
In the Complaint of the Plowman, too, we are told that the priests
were always—
‘At the wrestling and the wake,
And chief chantours at the nale.’
Footnote 306:
In the _Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland_, in 1511, under
the head of ‘Rewards,’ is one of ‘6_s._ 8_d._ to the Kyngs and Queenes
Barward, if they have one, when they come to the Earl’ (Way). In the
Parliamentary Rolls mention is made concerning the ‘Beremaistre of the
Forest of Peake.’ It was not till 1835 that bear or bull baiting was
finally forbidden by Act of Parliament.
Footnote 307:
An old tavern-sign in Cheshire bore the following inscription:—
‘Good bear sold here,
Our own Bruin.’
The book which records this quotes from the _Congleton Town Register_:
‘1599.—Paid the bearward, 4_s._ 4_d._’ ‘1601.—Gave the bearward at the
great cock-fight, 6_s._ 8_d._’ (_Cheshire Ballads_, p. 259.)
Footnote 308:
A story is told of an officious clerk belonging to an old rural church
who, overwhelmed with the honour of having a bishop presiding at a
visitation there, ransacked his brains for something worthy the
occasion, and then in stentorian voice gave out, instead of the usual
Sternholdic lines, the following variation:—
‘Ye little hills and dales,
Why do ye skip and hop?
Is it because yer glad to see
His Grace the Lord Bish-op?’
Footnote 309:
Curiously enough, we have the name of ‘Robert Harpmaker’ mentioned in
an old Oxford record, 1452. (_Mun. Acad. Oxon._) This we may look
upon, therefore, as an old-standing nuisance.
Footnote 310:
Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, says: ‘Let them freely feast,
sing, and dance, have their poppet-playes, hobby-horses, tabers,
crouds, bag-pipes,’ &c. (P. 276.)
Footnote 311:
The names of ‘William Elyott, luter,’ and ‘William Spenser, harpour,’
occur in 1432 in an old York will. (_Test. Eboracensia_, vol. ii. p.
21, Surtees Soc.) ‘Haunce (Hans) the luter’ and ‘Philip the luter’ are
frequently mentioned in _Privy Expenses_ (Princess Mary).
Footnote 312:
This name evidently lasted till the seventeenth century, for in 1641
an ‘Adam Orgener’ entered C. C. Coll. Cam. (_Vide_ Masters’ history of
that college.)
Footnote 313:
The ‘Rhymer’ is often mentioned as belonging to the royal or feudal
retinue. Like many of the above, he may be set among our list of early
officerships.
Footnote 314:
We may set here our ‘Bidders,’ or ‘Ernald le Bidere,’ as he was once
recorded. He was the general beggar of that day, and no doubt a rich
harvest would be the result of his attendance at the fair. Piers
Plowman says:—
‘Bidderes and beggares
Faste about yede,
With their belies and their bagges
Of bread ful y-crammed.’
‘Simon le Shobeggere’ (H.R.), or ‘Shoe-beggar,’ as I presume means,
seems to have followed a more particular line of business.
Footnote 315:
Here is Glyed Wolby of Gylforde squyere,
Andrew of Habyngedon, apell byer.
(_Cocke Lorelle’s Bote._)
I am afraid the reader will scarcely recognise ‘Wool-buyer’ in
‘Wolby,’ but I doubt not such was the trader referred to. ‘Geoffrey le
Wolle-byer’ occurs in the Parliamentary Writs.
Footnote 316:
One of Edward III.’s statutes says: ‘That a certain number of
portours, pakkers, gwynders (winders), and other laborers of wools and
all other merchandizes, be sufficiently ordained for the place where
the staple is.’ (_Stat. of Realm_, vol. i. p. 341.)
Footnote 317:
It is not impossible that this species of cloth was in use by the
lower classes for articles of apparel. Chaucer, in his _Romance_,
refers to such a habit when he says:—
‘She ne had on but a straite old sacke,
And many a cloute on it there stacke,
This was her cote, and her mantele.’
Footnote 318:
A prayer to the Commons, in 1464, respecting the importation of
foreign goods and merchandise, mentions ‘the makers of wollen cloth
within this Reame, as Wevers, Fullers, Dyers, _Kempsters_, Carders,
and Spynners.’ (_Rot. Parl._ Ed. IV.)
Footnote 319:
A recipe from an old Harleian MS. thus begins: ‘Recipe brawne of
capons or of hennys, and dry them wele, and towse them small.’
Footnote 320:
In the south walk, Westminster Abbey, are gravestones recording the
deaths of ‘George Slemaker,’ 1802, and ‘Susannah Slemaker,’ his widow,
1818. (_Vide_ Neale’s _Westminster Abbey_.)
Footnote 321:
Richard Slawright was prior of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine
Warrington, in 1516. (_Warrington in 1465._ Ch. Soc., p. xliv.)
Footnote 322:
A chantry to the church of All Saints, York, was erected in the
fifteenth century by Adam del Bank, Littester.’ (_Hist. and Ant. of
York_, vol. ii. p. 269.) The _Promp. Par._ has ‘Lystare, or Lytaster
of cloth dyynge—Tinctor.’
Footnote 323:
‘William Fulman,’ a learned antiquary, died in 1688. (_Vide_ Dyce’s
_Shakespeare_, vol. i. p. 35.)
Footnote 324:
A statute of Elizabeth regarding the apprenticeship of poor children
includes among others, ‘Wollen-weaver, weaving housewiefes or
householde clothe onely and none other, Clothe-Fuller, otherwise
called Tucker, or Walker.’ (5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.) ‘Of William Reynolles,
walker, for half a pewe with Edward Doughtie, 3_s._ 4_d._’
(_Churchwardens’ Expenses, Ludlow_, p. 154 (1571), Cam. Soc.) In the
_Chester Play_ the ‘weavers and walkers’ marched together. (_Vide_
Appendix.)
Footnote 325:
This practice of treading the cloth is referred to in a complaint
concerning the fulling of caps and hats in fulling mills, made to
Edward IV. It begins by saying that hats, caps, and bonnets hitherto
had been made, wrought, fulled, and thicked in the wonted manner, that
is to say, with hands and feet—‘mayns et pees’—and then proceeds to
urge that the use of mills brought inferior articles into the market.
(_Stat. of Realm_, vol. ii. p. 473.)
Footnote 326:
A ‘John Wollebeter’ is mentioned in an old Suffolk will of 1370.
Footnote 327:
We have the word ‘bat’ used in Wicklyffe’s Testament: ‘In that hour
Jhesus seide to the people, as to a theef ye han gon out with swerdis
and battis to take me.’ (Matt. xxvi. 55.)
Footnote 328:
God made ‘ffor to cover us and clethe us also lyne, and wolle and
lethire.’ (_Mirror of St. Edmund_, Early Eng. Text Soc., p. 21.)
Footnote 329:
The bailiff of Norwich in 1250 was ‘Otto le Texter or Weaver.’ (_Hist.
Norfolk_, iii. 58.) ‘John Tixter’ was Mayor of Gloucester in 1270.
(Rudder’s _Gloucestershire_, p. 113.) On the 30th April 1873, the
_Manchester Courier_ announced ‘the suspension of Messrs. Textor and
Co., silk merchants, London.’
Footnote 330:
In the _Prompt. Parv._ we find the feminine termination to have been
in general use in Norfolk. The author has ‘pleykstare—candidarius,’
and further on, ‘whytstare, or pleykstare—candidarius, candidaria.’
Earlier in the work, too, occurs ‘bleystare, or wytstare (bleykester
or whytster)—candidarius.’ That the name lingered there for a
considerable period is proved by the fact of a ‘Robert Blaxter’
appearing as defendant in the Court of Chancery in a Norfolk case at
the close of the sixteenth century. (_Proceedings in Chancery_
(Elizabeth), vol. i. p. 250.) The earlier spelling is found in such
entries as ‘Will le Bleckestere’ (H.R.) or ‘Richard le Blekstare’ (P.
W.). Blackister, like Blaxter, still exists.
Footnote 331:
Sylkewomen, pursers, and garnysshers,
Tablemakers, sylkedyers, and shepsters.
(_Cocke Lorelle’s Bote._)
Footnote 332:
In _A Complaint of Artificers to Parliament_, in 1463, there is
included amongst other productions, ‘Laces, corses, ribans, frenges of
silke and of threde, threden laces, _throwen_ silke, silke in eny wise
embrauded.’ (_Rot. Parl._, Ed. IV.)
Footnote 333:
‘Edmund Barkmaker’ occurs in ‘Calendar to Pleadings.’ (Elizabeth.)
Footnote 334:
According to Strype, the ‘Company of Megusers’ dealt in the skins of
dead horses, and flayed them. He mentions ‘Walter le Whitawyer’ in the
same account. (_London_, vol. ii. p. 232.)
Footnote 335:
Since writing the above, I have discovered in the same rolls a
‘Gilbert _le_ Tower’ and a ‘Thomas _le_ Touere,’ proving my surmise to
be correct. The feminine form is also to be met with in a ‘Juliana le
Touestre,’ this entry, too, being found in the same register.
Footnote 336:
Many of these cries originated surnames, which, however, in most
cases, died with their owners. ‘Fresh-fish’ is found as the sobriquet
of a fishmonger; and ‘Coloppes,’ ‘Mackerell,’ and ‘Peascod,’ all
figure in the rolls of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Footnote 337:
A complaint of craftsmen presented to Parliament in the reign of
Edward IV. speaks of ‘silke in eny wise embrauded, golden laces, tyres
of silke or of gold, sadles,’ &c. (_Rot. Parl._)
Footnote 338:
The caul, or membrane occasionally found round the head of a
newly-born child, was ever preserved by the midwife, in accordance
with an old superstition, as a preservative against accidents, but
especially against drowning. So late as Feb. 27, 1813, the _Times_
newspaper had the following advertisement in its pages: ‘To persons
going to sea.—A child’s caul, in a perfect state, to be sold cheap.
Apply at 5, Duke Street, Manchester Square, where it may be seen.’ An
inventory of goods, dated 1575, we find thus beginning: ‘Imprimis, a
cubborde, 20_s._; a calle, 5_s._; a table, 3_s._ 4_d._’
(_Richmondshire Wills_, p. 259.) With regard to the caul as an article
of dress, we may quote the following: ‘Maydens wear sylken callis,
with the whyche they kepe in ordre theyr heare, made yellow with lye.’
(_Hormani Vulgaria._)
Footnote 339:
Query—Did ‘Richard le Couhelere,’ recorded in the Parliamentary Writs,
dress, prepare, and sell cow-heels? There is nothing improbable in it.
Footnote 340:
‘E qe chascun esquier porte _chapel_ des armes son Seigneur:’—‘And
that every esquire do bear a cap of the armes of his lord.’ (_Stat. of
Realm_, vol. i. p. 220.)
Footnote 341:
A complaint on the subject of hats, bonnets, and caps, in 1482, speaks
of these three specific articles as ‘hœures, bonnettez, et cappez.’
(_Stat. of Realm_, vol. ii. p. 473.) ‘Bonnet,’ I need scarcely add, is
here used, as it is still in Scotland to this day, as meaning a cap or
covering generally for the head.
Footnote 342:
The ecclesiastic tailor was not wanting, judging by such an entry as
‘Robert Vestment-maker’ (W. 2).
Footnote 343:
Talking of Latin forms, however, we are reminded that not unfrequently
an artisan of this class would be recorded as ‘William Scissor,’ or
‘Walter Cissor,’ a mode of writing the name very common in our more
formal records.
Footnote 344:
As a common instance of the transition process then at work we may
cite the name of ‘John le Wympler, Goldsmith,’ which occurs in the
London records of this time.
Footnote 345:
A ‘Robert Ornel, paternostrer,’ is mentioned, under date 1276, by the
same writer. (_Memorials of London_, p. xxi.)
Footnote 346:
‘Richard le Nedeler’ represented Chichester in Parliament in 1305.
(_Hist. West. Div. of Sussex._)
Footnote 347:
The different materials used for the manufacture of buttons are
incidentally declared in such entries as ‘Jacob le Horner et Botoner,’
or ‘John le Botoner et Latoner,’ found in the _Cal. and Inventories of
the Treasury_.
Footnote 348:
Among other entries in the _Liber Albus_ occurs a list of customs for
exposure of merchandise to sale:—
‘La charge de mercerie,
La charge de leyne d’Espagne,
La charge de canevas,
La charge de hapertas,
La charge de chalouns et draps du Reyns,’ etc.
An entry almost immediately ensuing, after mentioning most of the
above, when come to ‘hapertas,’ speaks of ‘haberdashery.’ (_Gildhallæ
Munimenta._)
Footnote 349:
Capgrave says that when Charles was at Constantinople the Emperor gave
him ‘a part of Jesu crowne, that flowered there in their sight, and a
nayle with which oure Lord was nayled to the tre, and a part of oure
Lordis crosse: _the smok of oure Ladi_: the armé of Seynt Simeon. Alle
these relikes broute he to Acon.’ (P. 106.)
Footnote 350:
‘A Marquise (to have) for his gowne, slope, and mantell, xvi yards,
and livery for xvi servants.’ (_A Book of Precedence._)
Footnote 351:
‘To William Courteray, of London, Embroiderer, in money paid to him
for orfries, and other things by him purchased for a velvet vest for
the King, therewith embroidered with pelicans, images, and tabernacles
of gold, etc., 20_l._’ (40 Edward III. _Issues of Exchequer_.)
‘Brouderers, strayners, and carpyte-makers.’
(_Cocke Lorelle’s Bote._)
Footnote 352:
As a proof of the costliness of this raised needlework, we may quote
the following entry found in the _Issues of the Exchequer_: ‘To
William Mugge, chaplain of the King’s Chapel at Windsor, in money paid
to Thomas Cheiner, of London, in discharge of 140_l._ lately due to
him for a vest of velvet embroidered with divers work, purchased by
him for the chaplain aforesaid.’ (24 Edward III.)
The higher nobility seem to have had their special embroiderers. There
was certainly a court craftsman of this kind. An act of the first year
of Edw. IV. speaks of ‘oure Glasier, Messagiers of oure Exchequer,
_Browderer_, Plumber, Joynour, Maker of Arrows within the Toure of
London,’ &c. (_Rot. Parl._ Edward IV.)
Footnote 353:
An act, elsewhere referred to, passed in the first year of Edward IV.,
mentions among others the ‘Keper of oure Armour in the Toure of
London, maker of Poyntes, Constable of oure Castell or Lordship of
Hadleigh,’ etc.—_Rot. Parl._ Edward IV.
Footnote 354:
‘Hugh le Ceinter’ was Mayor of Gloucester in the reign of Henry the
Third. (Rudder’s _Hist. Gloucestershire_, p. 113.) ‘Benet Seinturer’
was Sheriff of London in 1216. (Strype.)
Footnote 355:
Under date 1355, Mr. Riley, in his interesting _Memorials of London_,
gives the ‘Articles and Ordinances of the Braelers.’ He also has an
account of the burning of some gloves and _braels_ for being of false
make and fashion in 1350. (_Vide_ pp. 277 and 249.)
Footnote 356:
And ‘also, every sowtere that maketh shoon of new rothes’ lether,’
etc. (_Usages of Winchester. English Guilds_, 359.)
Footnote 357:
‘Item, received of John Bent and John Davies, cordiner, for one pew,
ii_s._’ 1571. (_Churchwardens’ Exp. Ludlow_, p. 148. Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 358:
In the Mysteries composed for the City Pageant by Randle, a monk of
Chester Abbey, in the thirteenth century, a part in it is directed to
be sustained by the ‘Corvesters and Shoemakers.’ (Ormerod’s
_Cheshire_, p. 301). In this case we have the strictly speaking Saxon
feminine termination appended to a Norman word. I have found three
‘Shoemakers.’ ‘Harry Shomaker’ was an attendant of the Princess Mary
(1542). (_Privy Purse Expenses_, p. 2.) ‘Christopher Shoomaker’ was
burnt at Newbury (1518), whose story is related by Foxe. The name
seems to have lingered on till the close of the xviiith cent., for it
is found in St. Anne’s register, Manchester, in 1781, as ‘Showmaker:’
‘Mary, wife of John Showmaker, buried Aug. 26, 1781.’ This spelling
reminds me of an entry in the Household of Princess Elizabeth, Cam.
Soc.:—‘Robert Waterman for showing (shoeing) xvii_s._’ (p. 29.)
‘And that the corvesers bye ther lether in the seid Gild-halle.’
(_Ordinances of Worcester, English Guilds_, 371).
Footnote 359:
Another form of the name and occupation is met with in the _Corp.
Christi Guild_, York, in the case of ‘Robert Patener, et Mariona uxor
ejus’ (W. ii.).
Footnote 360:
‘John Rykedon, patynmaker,’ occurs in the Patent Rolls (R.R., 1).
Footnote 361:
It is evidently in a depreciatory sense that Bishop Latimer in one of
his sermons makes use of this word, while his very employment of it
shows how familiar was its meaning as a term of occupation, even in
the sixteenth century. He says, speaking of a certain bishop, ‘There
stood by him a dubber, one Doctor Dubber: he dubbed him by-and-by, and
said,’ &c. Second Sermon before Edward VI.
Footnote 362:
The word was evidently in familiar use. Thus in the will of one
William Askame, dated 1390, it is said, ‘Item, Margaretæ prenticiæ
Willielmi Askham do et lego a fedir bedd and i matras, ii shetes and a
coverlet, i bacyn and i laver, and a bras potte and volette of crysp.
Item Johannæ Dagh crisp volet and a _chalon_.’—_Test. Ebor._, vol. i.
p. 130. (_Surt. Soc._)
‘And that no chalon of ray, or other chalon, shall be made, if it be
not of the ancient lawful assize, ordained by the good folks of the
trade.’ (Ext. from _Ordinances of the Tapicers_, Riley’s _London_, p.
179.)
‘Also, non of the Citee ne shal don werche qwyltes ne chalouns
withoute the walles of the Citee (_i.e._ Winchester).’ (_English
Guilds_, p. 351.)
The Chaloner is styled the ‘Chaloun-makyere’ in this ordinance.
Footnote 363:
In the Guild of St. George, Norwich, 1385, is mentioned the name of
‘Geoffrey Bedwevere.’ He would be either a quilter, or one of those
artisans alluded to by Cocke Lorelle.
‘Fyners, plummers, and peuters,
Bedmakers, fedbedmakers, and wyredrawers.’
Footnote 364:
I find several writers speaking (Mr. Riley among them) as if the
upholder was simply an undertaker. He may have been this, but it is
evident it was but a subordinate branch of his occupation. We find in
1445 a certain ‘Richard Upholder’ appraising the _bedroom_ furniture
of James Hedyan, the Principal of ‘Eagle Hall.’ (_Mun. Acad. Oxon._,
p. 544.)
Footnote 365:
The ordinances for the Guild of St. Katharine, Lynn, are signed by
‘Peter Tapeser.’—_English Guilds_, p. 68. (E. E. Text Soc.)
The following entry from the _Exchequer Issues_ will give the reader a
fair idea of the work that came under the tapiser’s hands:—‘To John
Flessh, tapestry maker. In money paid to him for a side cushion, or
carpet, a bench, and five cushions worked with the king’s arms ... to
be placed about, and hung at the back of the king’s justice seats of
his common bench within Westminster Hall.’—14 Henry VI.
Footnote 366:
It is only right to say that there seems to have been a term ‘coucher’
to imply one who resided in certain towns for purposes of trade of a
somewhat doubtful character. In this sense it was but a French
sobriquet, meaning in English ‘a lurker.’ A statute of Edward III.
concerning the prices of wine and their import speaks of ‘Cochoures
Engleys’ (English couchers, or lurkers), living in Rochelle, Bordeaux,
etc., who traded in wines. The tenor of the allusion to them, however,
is such that we could hardly expect them to be represented openly in
an English pageant.
Footnote 367:
An old Yorkshire will, dated 1383, contains the following bequest: ‘To
John Couper, a docer, and a new banaquer (a seat-cover) and ij cochyns
(cushions).’ (Surtees Soc.)
Footnote 368:
Beatrice ap Rice, laundress to Princess Mary (daughter of Henry
VIII.), is always set down as ‘Mistress Launder.’ ‘Item, paid for 2
lb. of starche for Mts Launder, viiid.’ (_Privy Purse Expenses_, p.
160.)
Footnote 369:
The ordinances of the Guild of the Purification, Bishop’s Lynn, 1367,
are signed by ‘Johannes Austyn, Baxter.’ (_English Guilds_, p. 90.)
Capgrave, under date 205 B.C., says, ‘In this same tyme lyved the
eloquent man which hite (was called) Plautus, and for al his eloquens
he was compelled for to dwel with a Baxter, and grinde his corn at a
querne.’
Footnote 370:
The curious name of ‘Sara le Bredemongestere’ occurs in the ‘London
Memorials’ (Riley).
Footnote 371:
It is in this more general sense we find the word used in our present
Authorized Version. Thus in Lev. ii. 4, it is said: ‘And if thou bring
an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be
unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers
anointed with oil.’—‘Pay to Ralph Crast the waferer, 40_s._ of our
gift.’ (‘Issues of Exchequer,’ 26 Henry III.)
Footnote 372:
This corruption seems to have early become the accepted one. A John
Flanner entered C.C. Col., Cambridge, in 1649. (_Hist. C.C. Coll._).
In 1641 another John Flanner was Rector of Kilverstone. (_Hist.
Norf._, I. 546.)
Footnote 373:
Since writing the above I have found a ‘William Buttyrman’ in the
_Test. Ebor._, vol. iii., Surtees Soc., but I can discover no trace of
its continuance beyond its immediate possessor.
Footnote 374:
The Hundred Rolls furnish us with the local ‘Adam del Cheshus,’
_i.e._, Cheese-house. He would be connected with some country dairy or
city store-room. The name is formed like ‘Malthus,’ from ‘Malt-house,’
or ‘Loftus,’ from ‘Loft-house.’
Footnote 375:
In the country, and more north, we shall scarcely find the term to
have made any way till even the fifteenth century. In the York Pageant
which occurred in 1415, and was supposed to represent, as a survey of
its programme shows it evidently did, every trade or occupation that
could claim the slightest right to attention, we do not find it having
a place. The ‘Spicers’ and ‘Sauce-makers’ are prominent, however, and
they, no doubt, even then were upholding the interests of the trade
which by-and-by was to go under this new sobriquet.
Footnote 376:
‘Joan Sausemaker’ occurs in the _Corpus Christi Guild_, York.
Footnote 377:
‘John Nutmaker’ gave to a loan upon Middlesex in 1463. (_Vide_
_Scobell’s Declarations of Parl._, 429.) This name has troubled me
much. Halliwell has ‘nut,’ a term for sweet-bread in the eastern
counties. Failing this, I can only suggest ‘nutmegger,’ and place it
among those set down in the text.
Footnote 378:
We are all familiar with the old adage,
‘After dinner sit awhile,
After supper walk a mile’:
it often used to puzzle me that this last line, while speaking from a
medical point of view, should so calmly give up the general question
as to whether suppers were or were not advisable as a part of the
domestic _régime_. When we remember, however, that the couplet
doubtless arose in a day when dinner was at twelve and supper at five
or six, we can better understand its intent.
Footnote 379:
William Fleshmonger, D.C.L., was Dean of Chichester in 1528. (_Hist.
Univ. Oxford._ Ackermann, p. 154.)
‘Also, the usage of fleshemongeres ys swych, that everych
fleshemongere’ not a freman shall pay 25_d._ a year to the King if he
have a stall. (_Usages of Winchester. English Gilds_, 354.)
Footnote 380:
The following list in one of our early statutes will help to
familiarize the reader’s mind with some of these mediæval Latinisms:
‘Item, sallarii, pelletarii, allutarii, sutores, cissores, fabri,
carpentarii, cementarii, tegularii, batellarii, carectarii, et
quicunque alii artifices non capiant pro labore et artificio suo,’
etc.
‘Item, quod carnifices, piscenarii, hostellarii, braciatores,
pistores, pulletarii et omnes alii venditores victualium teneantur
hujus-modi victualia vendere,’ etc. [_Stat. of Realm_, vol. 1. p.
308.)
The first list refers to the ‘saddlers, skinners, whitetawyers,
shoemakers, taylors, wrights, carpenters, masons, tylers, boatwrights,
and carters;’ the second to the ‘butchers, fishmongers, taverners,
brewers, bakers, and poulterers.’ With regard to the ‘Carnifex’ we may
add that among other items of expenditure belonging to Edw. I.’s Queen
at Cawood is mentioned ‘expensa duorum carnificum eosdem boves
emencium.’
Footnote 381:
‘Egeas Fisher, or Pessoner,’ was Mayor of Gloucester in 1241.
(Rudder’s _Gloucestershire_, p. 113.) ‘Ralf le Pecimer’ was bailiff of
Norwich in 1239. (_Blomefield_, iii. 58.) This is a manifest
corruption of Pessoner.
Footnote 382:
That this is the real origin of this name may be proved by 1 James I.
c. xxiii., which is entitled an ‘Acte for the better preservation of
Fishinge in the Counties of Somersett, Devon, and Cornwall, and for
the relief of Balkers, Conders, and Fishermen against malicious
suites.’ In it too is found the following: ‘And whereas also for the
necessarie use of the takinge of the said Herring ... divers persons
... called Balcors, Huors, Condors, Directors, or Guidors, at the
fishing tymes ... tyme out of mynde have used to watch and attend upon
the high hilles and grounde near adjoining to the sea coast ... for
the discoverie and givinge notice to the fisherman,’ etc. (_Stat. of
Realm._)
Footnote 383:
‘Lawrence Beerbrewer’ occurs in a Norfolk register. (_Hist. Norf._ iv.
357.) ‘Lambert Beerbrewer’ was one of the Corp. Christi Guild, York.
(Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 384:
‘Malter’ I have failed to discover in our archives, but ‘Aleyn le
Maltestere’ and ‘Hugh le Maltmakere’ are both found. On the other
hand, while I have no feminine ‘Tapster’ to adduce, I have hit upon
‘Robert le Tappere’ and ‘John le Tapper’ in two separate records.
Footnote 385:
A curious name is found in the St. Edmund’s Guild, Bishop’s Lynn, the
ordinances of which are signed by ‘Johannes Mashemaker’ (_English
Guilds_, p. 96), evidently a maker of mash-vats or of the mashel,
_i.e._, the rudder used for mixing the malt. (v. _Maschel Pr. Par._)
Footnote 386:
Another proof of this is contained in the fact that in all allusions
in our olden ordinances to false dealings in the brewing and sale of
ale the punishment affixed is that of the _tumbrel_, the instrument
for women, corresponding to the _pillory_ for men. I would not be
mistaken. I cannot doubt but that malster, tapster, baxter, webster,
and kempster were feminine occupations, and arose first in these forms
as such. But in the xivth century the distinction between ‘er’ and
‘ster’ was dropped through the Norman-French ‘ess’ becoming the
popular termination. As ‘ess’ became still more strongly imbedded in
the language, ‘ster’ came into but more irregular use, and by the time
of Elizabeth men spoke of ‘drugster,’ ‘teamster,’ ‘rhymster,’
‘whipster,’ ‘trickster,’ ‘gamester.’ (_English Accidence_, p. 90.)
That this confusion was marked even in the earlier part of the xivth
century, not to say the close of the xiiith, is clearly proved by such
registered names as ‘Thatcher’ and ‘Thaxter,’ ‘Palliser’ and
‘Pallister,’ ‘Hewer’ and ‘Hewster,’ ‘Begger’ and ‘Beggister,’
‘Blacker’ (bleacher) and ‘Blaxter,’ ‘Dyer’ and ‘Dyster,’ ‘Whiter’ and
‘Whitster,’ ‘Corviser’ and ‘Corvester,’ and ‘Bullinger,’ or
‘Billinger,’ and ‘Billingster.’ An old statute of Ed. III. (_Statute
Realm_, 1, 380) mentions ‘filesters,’ ‘throwsters,’ and ‘brawdesters;’
and Dr. Morris quotes ‘bellringster,’ ‘hoardster,’ and ‘washster.’
These latter are xiith and xiiith century words, and were strictly
confined to women.
Footnote 387:
I find the term used occupatively once. Cocke Lorelle speaks of
‘Spynsters, carders, and cappe-knytters.’
Footnote 388:
‘Juliana Rokster’ occurs in an old record of 1388 (R.R. 2). The ‘rock’
was the old distaff. (_Vide_ p. 74, note 2.)
Footnote 389:
‘Edmund le Tonder’ was bailiff of Norwich, 1237.
Footnote 390:
The bailiff of Gloucester, in the year 1300, was ‘Robert L’espicer, or
Apothecary.’ (Rudder’s _Gloucestershire_, p. 114.)
Footnote 391:
We have a similar curtailment in our ‘Prentices’ or ‘Prentis’s’
(relics of ‘William le Prentiz’ or ‘Nicholas Apprenticius’) a name of
the most familiar import at the time of which we are speaking. Chaucer
begins his ‘Cook’s Tale’ by saying—
‘A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee,
And of a craft of vitaillers was he.’
In the early days of national commerce and industry, when the jealousy
of foreign craftsmen was at its height, the prentice boys showed
themselves on various occasions a formidable body, capable of arousing
riots and tumults of the most serious character.
Footnote 392:
Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series, vol. viii. p. 6.
Footnote 393:
The surname of ‘Shaver’ was not unknown then as now. ‘Jeffery
Schavere’ was rector of Fincham, Norfolk, in 1409 (Blomefield). ‘Henry
Shavetail,’ an evident nickname, occurs in the Patent Rolls (R.R.1).
Footnote 394:
In a popular poem of Henry the Eighth’s time mention is made of—
‘Harpemakers, leches, and upholdsters,
Porters, fesycyens, and corsers.’
Footnote 395:
Johannes Thurton, Candelere. (Guild of St. George, Norwich.)
Footnote 396:
Thus we find in an indenture of Henry the Seventh’s reign it is said
at the close: ‘And over this oure said Souveraigne Lorde graunteth by
these presents to the said Abbas and Convent that they shall have as
well this present Indenture as all other grauntes necessary, ...
wythout eny fyne, fee, or other thyng to hym orto his use in his
Chauncerie, or Hanapore, or other place to be payde.’ (_Stat. of
Realm_, vol. ii. p. 671.)
Footnote 397:
_Vide_ Way’s _Prompt Parv._, p. 124.
Footnote 398:
Thus the author of _Cocke Lorelle’s Bote_ refers to—
‘Yermongers, pybakers, and waferers,
Fruyters, chesemongers, and mynstrelles.’
Footnote 399:
‘There dwelled also turners of beads, and they were
paternoster-makers’ (Stow, iii. 174). The term was evidently very
general.
Footnote 400:
‘Founders, laten-workers, and broche-makers.’ (_Cocke Lorelle’s
Bote._)
Footnote 401:
A law passed in the first year of Richard II. forbids halfpennies and
farthings to be melted for vessels or other things, on pain of
forfeiting the money so melted and the imprisonment of the
founder—‘surpeine de forfaitre del monoie founder et imprisonement del
foundour.’ (_Stat. Realm._) The ‘founder,’ as his name implies, melted
down the metal, and then poured it (fundere) into the mould. We still
speak familiarly of a foundry; but the term ‘founder’ as a worker
therein is now, I believe, obsolete. Such names, however, as ‘Robert
le Fundour’ or ‘John le Funder,’ whose descendants are still with us,
show that this was once in common use. As an additional proof that
they were formerly more distinctively engaged in the manufacture of
pots and vessels, we may state that in the York Pageant, elsewhere
spoken of, the ‘Pewterers’ and ‘Founders’ marched together. Speaking
of ‘Founder,’ we are reminded of ‘Alefounder.’ In 1374 William
Alefounder was Rector of Bichamwell. (_Hist. Norf._, vii. 295.) The
alefounder took his name from his duty as an inspector, appointed by
the Court Leet, of assizing and supervising the brewing of malt
liquor. He examined it as it was _poured_ out. Thus ‘fundere,’ and not
‘fundare,’ is its root. Another name he bore was that of ‘ale-conner.’
A poem of James the First’s reign says—
‘A nose he had that gan show,
What liquor he loved I trow;
For he had before long “seven yeare,
Been of the towne the ale-conner.”’
Footnote 402:
The following entry appears in the _Issues of Exchequer_:—‘20_l._ paid
to John le Discher, of London, for him and his companions to provide
plates, dishes, and saltsellers for the coronation.’ (1 Ed. II.)
Footnote 403:
As an illustration of the use to which the art of working in pewter
was put, we may instance one of the ‘Richmondshire Wills’ in which the
following articles of this mixture are bequeathed: ‘iij basyns, ij
uers, one doson plait trenchers, one brode charger, iiij potigers,
xx^{tie} platters, x dishes, and vj sausers.’ (_Surtees Soc._)
Footnote 404:
We find this now well-known surname thus spelt in a statute passed in
Elizabeth’s reign, in which are included the ‘lynnen-weaver, turner,
cowper, millers, earthen-potters.’ (5 Eliz. c. iv. 23.)
Footnote 405:
In the _Issues of the Exchequer_ we find a ‘Ric. le Cuver’ at one time
providing three _buckets_, and at another working with other eight
_carpenters_ upon the outer chamber of the King’s Court. (43 Henry
III.)
Footnote 406:
‘John Busheler’ occurs in Valor. Eccles. Henry VIII. He probably made
the old bushel measure, once in common use. ‘Is a candle bought to be
put under a bushel?’ (Mark iv. 26.)
Footnote 407:
Mr. Way, in his valuable series of notes to the _Promptorium
Parvulorum_, quotes a later Wicklyffite version, in which the ‘basket
of bulrushes’ in which Moses was placed is termed ‘a leep of segg’
(sedge). An old list of words which he also quotes has ‘a lepe maker,
cophinarius.’ (_Cath. Ang._) I mention this latter especially, as I
have not been able so far to light upon any instance of the sobriquet.
I have no hesitation in saying, however, that if ‘Leaper’ and
‘Leapman’ be not manufacturers, they have, at any rate, as
fish-sellers, originated from the same root. ‘And thei eeten and weren
fulfilled, and thei taken up that that lefte of relifs sevene leepis.’
(Matt. viii. 8. Wicklyffe.)
Footnote 408:
Thus in the Trevelyan papers (Cam. Soc.) we frequently come across
such a record as the following: ‘Item, to Edmund Peckham, coferer of
the Kinge’s House for th’expenses and charges, etc.’
Footnote 409:
The list of tradesmen in _Cock Lorelle’s Bote_ includes—
‘Pype-makers, wode-mongers, and orgyn-makers,
Coferers, carde-makers, and carvers.’
Footnote 410:
An Act of Edward VI. relative to the buying of tanned leather speaks
of the ‘mysterie of Coriar (currier), Cordewainer, Sadler, Cobler,
Girdler, Lether-seller, Bottelmaker.’ (3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 6.)
Footnote 411:
‘William le Orbater’ (goldbeater) is also found in the Hundred Rolls.
Footnote 412:
A ‘Bartholomew le Tableter’ is also found in the ‘Memorials of London’
(Riley). The date being the same or nearly the same as that of
‘Bartholomew le Tabler’ inscribed in the Parliamentary Writs for the
capital, we may feel assured both are one and the same person.
Footnote 413:
‘And thei bikenyden to his fadir, that he wolde that he were clepid.
And he axinge a poyntel wrote seiynge Jon is his name.’ (Luke i. 63.
Wicklyffe.)
Footnote 414:
I have since discovered another instance of this name—‘To Bartholomew
le Orologius, after the arrival of William de Pikewell, 23 gallons.’
1286 (Domesday Book, St. Paul’s, Cam. Soc.).
Footnote 415:
‘Imprimis Thomæ Clokmaker for makyng of the sail when it was broken,
viii_s._’ 1428 (Pro. Ord. Privy Council).
Footnote 416:
Stowe and Strype, however, while aware of the corruption, were both
ignorant of its meaning. Speaking of the woodmongers, the former says,
‘Whether some of these woodmongers were called ‘Billiters’ from
dealing in billets I leave to conjecture. In the register of wills,
London, mention is made of one William Burford, billeytere.’ (ii. p.
226.) The Woodmongers were sellers of fuel. ‘Robert Wudemonger’ is
found in the H.R.
Footnote 417:
I may quote a statement recorded of Congham Manor. ‘In 1349 Thomas de
Baldeswell presented to the church aforesaid, as chief lord of this
fee; in 1367, Adam Humphrey, of Refham, and in 1385, but soon after,
in 1388, Adam Pyk; and in 1400, Edmund Belytter, alias Belzeter, who
with his parceners,’ &c. (_Hist. Norf._, viii. 383.) The said Edmund
is also met with elsewhere as ‘Belleyeter’ and Belyetter.’
Footnote 418:
Another ‘Ralph Balancer’ was sheriff of London in 1316.
Footnote 419:
This weight was abolished in 1351, and the balance made universal.
‘Item, whereas great damage and deceit is done to the people by a
weight which is called Auncel (par une pois qu’est appelle Aunsell),
it is accorded and established that this weight called Auncel betwixt
buyers and sellers shall be wholly put out, and that every person do
sell and buy by the balance.’ (_Stat. Realm_, vol. i. p. 321.) Cowell,
in his _Interpreter_, suggests as the origin of the term ‘auncel’
_handsale_, that is, that which is weighed by the poised hand!
Footnote 420:
Another form is found in 1389. William Parchmenter was seized for
holding independent views of the Sacraments. (Nicholls’ _Leicester_.)
Footnote 421:
In the _Exchequer Issues_ we find the following:—‘To John Heth, one of
the clerks in the office of privy seal of the Lord the King, in money,
paid to his own hands, in discharge of 66_s._ which the said Lord the
King, with the assent of his Council, commanded to be paid to the said
John, for 66 great “quaternes” of calf skins, purchased and provided
by the said John to write a Bible thereon for the use of the said
King.’ In an old Oxford indenture between the University and the Town,
dated 1459, we find the more usual ‘parchemener’ spelt ‘pergemener.’
The agreement includes ‘Alle Bedels with dailly servants, and their
householdes, alle stacioners, alle bokebynders, lympners, wryters,
pergemeners, barbours, the bellerynger of the universitie,’ &c. (_Mun.
Acad. Oxon._, p. 346.)
Footnote 422:
Another ordinance has the following:—‘And that all Jews shall dwell in
the Kings own cities and boroughs, where the chests of chirographs of
Jewry are wont to be’ (‘ou les Whuches (hutches) cirograffes de
Geuerie soleient estre’). [_Stat. of Realm_, vol. i. p. 221.)
Footnote 423:
‘Nicholas Cotes, lummer.’ (_Corpus Christi Guild_, York.)
Footnote 424:
In the _Mun. Acad. Oxon._, p. 550, we find a quarrel settled by the
Chancellor between ‘John Conaley, lymner,’ and ‘John Godsend,
stationarius.’ Through him it is arranged that the former shall occupy
himself in ‘liminando bene et fideliter libros suos.’ In the York
Pageant the ‘Escriveners’ and ‘Lumners’ went together.
Footnote 425:
Thus in Kaye’s description of the siege of Rhodes it is said: ‘Anone
after that the Rhodians had knowledge of thees werkes a shipman wel
experte in swymmyng, wente by nyghte and cutted the cordes fro’ the
ancre.’
Footnote 426:
In the _Itinerarium_ of Richard I. we find it recorded that while the
Christians were besieging Acre Saladin’s army began to hem them in.
‘In hoc itaque articulo positos visitavit eos Oriens exalto; nam ecce!
quinquagintas naves, _quas vulgo coggas dicunt_, cum duodecim millibus
armatorum, tanto gratias venerunt quanto nostris auxilium in angustia
majore rependunt.’—p. 64. The Cog was evidently in common use as a
transport. To judge from the following entries, it was, in some cases,
at any rate, of considerable size:—‘Henrico Aubyn, magistro _coge_
Sancti Marie, et 39 sociis suis nautis, 23_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._’ ‘Thomo de
Standanore, magistro _coge_ Sancti Thomæ, et 39 sociis suis, 23_l._
12_s._ 6_d._’ (Ed. I. Wardrobe.)
Footnote 427:
‘Benjamin Cogman’ occurs in an old Norfolk register. Hence ‘Cockman,’
like ‘Cocker,’ may in some instance belong to this more seafaring
occupation.
Footnote 428:
‘John Shipgroom’ occurs in the Rot. Orig. (G.); ‘John Shypward’ in
Cal. Rot. Chartarum (D.); and ‘Alexander Schipward’ in Rolls of Parl.
(H.).
Footnote 429:
‘Richard Drawater’ (A.) would be a nickname.
Footnote 430:
This word ‘lead’ is worthy of some extended notice. We still speak of
a _path_ leading our steps to a place, but we scarcely now would say
that _we_ lead our steps to it. Shakespeare, however, does so, where
Richard III. addresses Elizabeth—
‘Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul
Leads discontented steps in foreign soil.’
Several commentators on Shakespeare have proposed ‘treads’ in the
place of ‘leads,’ not knowing, seemingly, how familiar was this sense
of carrying or bearing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A
century earlier the Malvern Dreamer says—
‘And maketh of Lyere a lang cart
To leden all these othere:’
while just before he writes—
‘And cart-saddle the commissarie,
Oure cart shall he lede
And fecchen us vitailles.’
In North Yorkshire to this very day they do very little _carting_.
They all but invariably ‘lead hay,’ ‘lead corn,’ etc. An old form of
‘lead’ was ‘lode.’ We still talk of a ‘lode-stone.’ This explains such
an entry as ‘Emma le Lodere’ or ‘Agnes le Lodere.’ They were both
doubtless ‘leaders’ or ‘carriers,’ that is, wandering hucksters.
Footnote 431:
‘Item, that all wines, red and white, which shall come unto the said
realm shall be well and lawfully gauged by the King’s Gaugers, or
their deputies’ (‘bien et loialment gaugez par le gaujeour le Roi, ou
son deputé.’). (_Stat. of Realm_, vol. i. p. 331.)
Footnote 432:
An epitaph in St. Anthony’s, London, dated 1400, says of the deceased
that he was—
‘The King’s weigher more than yeres twentie,
Simon Street, callyd in my place.’
(_Maitland_, ii. 375.)
Footnote 433:
The local form is found in the case of ‘Jeffery Talbothe,’ a Norfolk
Rector in 1371. (Blomefield). The ‘receipt of custom’ is with
Wickliffe the ‘tolbothe.’
Footnote 434:
Skelton seems of the same mind as the author of _Cocke Lorelle_.
‘So many lollers,
So few true tollers,
So many pollers,
Saw I never.’
Footnote 435:
I need not remind the majority of my readers of the origin of our term
‘lumber room,’ that it is but a corruption of lombard-room, or the
chamber in which the mediæval pawnbroker stored up all his pledges.
Hence we now speak of any useless cumbrous articles as ‘lumber.’
Footnote 436:
Mr. Halliwell gives ‘chevisance,’ an agreement, and ‘chevish,’ to
bargain. Mr. Way commenting on ‘chevystyn,’ quotes Fabyan as saying—‘I
will assaye to have hys Erldom in morgage, for welle I knowe he must
chevyche for money to perfourme that journey.’ Mr. Wright’s Glossary
to _Piers Plowman_ has ‘chevysaunce, an agreement for borrowing
money.’ The word often occurs in mediæval writers, and no wonder at
least one surname arose as a consequence.
Footnote 437:
An act of Richard II. speaks of officers and ministers made by
brocage, and of their broggers, and of them that have taken the said
brocage, ‘pour brogage, et de lor broggers, et de,’ etc.
Footnote 438:
I use this phrase as the most convenient. I shall have to record many
descriptive compounds under every separate division, but it is the
most suited for my purpose, and will embrace all the more eccentric
nicknames that I have met with in my researches, especially those made
up of verb and substantive, a practice which opened out a wide field
for the inventive powers of our forefathers.
Footnote 439:
‘Lease to Thomas Unkle of a wood within the manor of Bolynbroke, Nov.
30, 1485.’ (Materials for Hist. Henry VII. 593 p.)
Footnote 440:
The English form of Guido was commonly Wydo—hence such entries as
‘Wydo Wodecok,’ or ‘William fil. Wydo.’ Thus, as I have already said,
‘Widowson’ may be a patronymic.
Footnote 441:
The curious name of ‘John Orphan-strange’ is found in a Cambridge
register for 1544. (_Hist. C.C. Coll. Cam._) Doubtless he had been a
foundling.
Footnote 442:
Some Norman-French terms of relationship have been translated,
resulting in names of utterly different sense. Thus Beaupere, a
stepfather, has become ‘Fairsire;’ ‘Beaufils,’ a step-son (still
surviving in Boffill), ‘Fairchild’; and ‘Beaufrere,’ a step-brother,
‘Fairbrother,’ or ‘Farebrother.’
Footnote 443:
‘Adam de Halfnaked’ (H.), ‘Adam de Halnaked’ (M.).
Footnote 444:
The Hundred Rolls have a ‘Henry Mucklebone.’
Footnote 445:
‘Lusty,’ ‘Fat,’ and ‘Stout’ evidently were not expressive enough for
some of our forefathers, to judge by such entries as ‘Henry Pudding,’
‘William Broadgirdel,’ or ‘Joan Broad-belt.’ The last still lives.
Footnote 446:
Epitaph on William Younger, Rector of Great-Melton, deceased March
6th, 1661, ætat. 57—
‘Younger he was by name, but not in grace,
Elder than he, in this, must give him place.’
(_Hist. of Norfolk_, vol. v. p. 13.) ‘Youngerman’ may be seen over a
shop in Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester.
Footnote 447:
‘Littler’ and ‘littlest’ were once the common degrees of comparison.
Shakespeare uses the superlative. Mr. Halliwell gives the Norfolk
dialect a large range. Besides ‘less’ and ‘least’ he adds ‘lesser’ and
‘lessest,’ ‘lesserer’ and ‘lesserest,’ ‘lesserer still’ and ‘lessest
of all,’ and ‘littler’ and ‘littlest.’
Footnote 448:
The former ‘Haut,’ that is, high or tall, is obsolete, I think.
‘Robert le Haut’ is met with in a Norfolk register. (_Hist. Norf._,
Index.)
Footnote 449:
It is curious to compare local registers with local dictionaries. Thus
the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ gives as a familiar Norfolk term in the
fourteenth century, ‘craske, fryke of fatte,’ or ‘lusty,’ as we should
now say. This crask was a vulgar form of the French ‘cras’ (Latin,
‘crassus’). Turning to our registers, we find that while our ‘Crass’s’
are found in our more general rolls as ‘Richard le Cras’ or ‘John le
Cras’ or ‘Stephen Crassus,’ our ‘Crasks’ must go to a Norfolk entry
for a ‘Walter le Crask.’ (_Vide Hist. Norfolk_, Index. Blomefield.)
Footnote 450:
‘Robert Manekin,’ A. Nevertheless this is a baptismal name also with
the diminutive ‘kin’ appended. ‘Manekyn le Heaumer,’ H.
Footnote 451:
‘To make a mow’ was to put on a mocking expression. The word was once
very familiar, though rarely used now. Bishop Bradford, speaking of
the Romish priesthood, says—‘They never preach forth the Lord’s death
but in mockery and mows.’ (_Parker Soc._, p. 395.) _Mow_ has no
relation to _mouth_.
Footnote 452:
‘William Malregard’ (T.), or ‘Geoffrey Malreward’ (T.), _i.e._
Evil-eye, would not possess enviable sobriquets, but the name lingered
on for several centuries.
Footnote 453:
‘John Monoculus’ occurs in _Memorials of Fountains Abbey_.
Footnote 454:
A ‘William Blackhead’ entered C. C. Coll. Cam. in 1669, and a ‘Thomas
Hardhede’ in 1467. (_Hist. C. C. Coll._)
Footnote 455:
The Abbot of Leicester in 1474 was one ‘John Sheepshead.’ ‘William
Sheepshead’ is also mentioned in the Index to Nicholls’ _Leicester_.
Footnote 456:
We must not forget, however, that ‘swier’ is early found as a
provincialism for ‘squier,’ so that it may be referred in some cases
to that once important officer. (v. p. 199.)
Footnote 457:
‘Guy le Armerecte’ (A.) would seem to be a Latinization of the name.
Footnote 458:
‘Henry Langbane’ occurs in the list of the Corpus Christi Guild, York.
(Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 459:
I see ‘Catterman’ also exists. This is early faced by ‘Richard
Catermayn’ (H.).
Footnote 460:
Robert Pettifer was Sheriff of Gloucester in 1603. (Rudder’s
_Gloucestershire_, p. 116.)
Footnote 461:
The famous old surname of ‘Ironsides’ is found so late as 1754, the
Lord Mayor of London for that year being ‘Edward Ironside.’ The Bishop
of Bristol in 1689 was ‘Gilbert Ironside.’ His father, ‘Gilbert
Ironside,’ preceded him in the same see.
Footnote 462:
‘Antony Knebone’ (Z.). This would seem to belong to a similar class.
Footnote 463:
‘Leg’ did not come into use till the beginning of the xiiith century,
when it was imported from Norway. ‘Shank,’ as the various compound
sobriquets found below will fully prove, did duty.
Footnote 464:
Mr. Halliwell quotes the following couplet from an old manuscript:
‘Hir one _schanke_ blak hir other _graye_,
A nd all her body like the lede.’—(Dic. I. 1.)
Footnote 465:
‘Gerald Bushanke’ (A.). This might be ‘Beau-shank,’ and therefore
equivalent to ‘Bellejambe,’ but such an admixture of languages is not
likely. We still speak of ‘bow-leg,’ and this is the more probable
origin.
Footnote 466:
_Swift_, however, is not the only courier’s sobriquet preserved to us.
‘In the Countess of Leicester’s service were several whose real names
were sunk in titles ridiculously descriptive of their qualities.
“_Slingaway_,” the learned editor of the Household Roll, has pointed
out, he might have added “_Gobithestie_” (go a bit hasty) and
“_Bolett_” (bullet), so denominated from their speed, and
“_Truebodie_” (true body) from his fidelity. These were all couriers.’
(_Hous. Exp. Bish. Swinfield_, p. 143.)
Footnote 467:
‘C. P. Golightly,’ ‘Thomas Golightly.’ _Vide_ Clergy List, 1848, and
other directories.
Footnote 468:
I have mentioned ‘Matilda Finger’ (H.). I do not find any ‘Toe’ in our
Directories, but ‘Peter Pricktoe’ (M.) and ‘Thomas Pinchshu’ (A.)
existed in the xivth century.
Footnote 469:
Accidents of this kind naturally became sobriquets, and then surnames.
Hence such entries as ‘William Crypling’ (A.), ‘William Onhand’ (B.),
‘John Onehand’ (D.), or ‘John Handless’ (W. 11). ‘John Gouty’ (V. 1)
represents a still troublesome complaint, and may be mentioned here.
Footnote 470:
‘Jordan le Madde’ occurs in the _Placita de Quo Warranto_.
Footnote 471:
‘William Whitehand’ is set down in the C. C. Coll. records for 1665.
(_Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam._) ‘Humbert Blanchmains’ is found in Nicholls’
_Leicestershire_.
Footnote 472:
In the _Prompt. Parv._ we find not merely ‘slyke, or smothe,’ but
‘slykeston.’ The slick or sleek stone was used for smoothing linen or
paper; _vide_ Mr. Way’s note thereon, p. 458. ‘The eban stone which
goldsmiths used to sleeken their gold with,’ etc. (Burton’s
_Anatomy_.)
Footnote 473:
Thus ‘Bell’ comes into three categories—the local, the baptismal, and
the sobriquet, represented in our registers by three such entries as
‘John atte Bell’ (X.), ‘Richard fil. Bell’ (A.), and ‘Walter le Bel’
(G.).
Footnote 474:
‘Katharine Prettyman’ (Z.), ‘William Prettiman’ (F.F.). The name still
flourishes, and as ‘Miss Prettiman’ figures in the _Caudle Lectures_.
Footnote 475:
‘Nutbrown’ is found in several early records, and existed till 1630 at
least. ‘George Nutbrowne was sworne the same daye pistler, and
Nathaniel Pownell, gospeller.’ (_Cheque Bk._, Chapel Royal (Cam.
Soc.), p. 12.)
Footnote 476:
‘White’ and ‘Grissel’ are combined in ‘Anne Griselwhite,’ a name
occurring in an old Norfolk register. (_Vide_ Index, _Hist. Norfolk_,
Blomefield.)
Footnote 477:
‘Thomas Pock-red’ in the Hundred Rolls would not be acceptable.
Footnote 478:
‘Blanchfront’ seems to have been common, as I find it in three
distinct registers. ‘Joan Blaunkfrount,’ a nun of Molseby. (_Letters
from Northern Registers_, p. 319.) ‘Philip Blanchfront’ (F. F.),
‘Amabil Blanchfront.’ (Fines, Ric. i.)
Footnote 479:
It was in the house of a Josias Roughead, of Bedford, that John Bunyan
was first licensed to preach in 1672.
Footnote 480:
‘Richard Flaxennehed’ occurs in the Hundred Rolls.
Footnote 481:
‘Antony Wiselheade’ is registered in Elizabeth’s reign in the
_Calendar to Pleadings_.
Footnote 482:
‘William Whiteheare’ was Dean of Bristol, 1551. (Barrett, _Hist.
Bristol_.)
Footnote 483:
‘1522, 31 Dec. To Mr. William Farehaire, Doctor of Laws.’ (_Letters of
Fraternity_ (Durham Priory), p. 119. Surt. Soc.)
Names like ‘William Harebrown,’ ‘Ralph Lightred,’ and ‘John Litewhyte’
seem to belong to the same category with the above.
Footnote 484:
Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, says, ‘Apollonius will have
Jason’s golden hair to be the main cause of Medea’s dotage on him.
Castor and Pollux were both yellow-haired. Homer so commends Helen,
makes Patroclus and Achilles both yellow-haired; Pulchricoma Venus,
and Cupid himself was yellow-haired.’
Footnote 485:
This sobriquet, as old as the Hundred Rolls, is found in the xviith
cent., at Durham. ‘Peter Blackbeard’ was ‘brought up for not paying
Easter reckonings, 1676.’ (_Dean Granville’s Letters_, p. 235.)
Footnote 486:
A contributor to _Notes and Queries_, Jan. 14, 1860, quotes an old
Ipswich record in which is mentioned an ‘Alexander Redberd’ dwelling
there in the early part of the sixteenth century.
Footnote 487:
‘John Brounberd, son of William, a hostage from Galloway.’
(_Letters from Northern Registers_, p. 163.)
‘Janet Brounebeard’ was an inmate of St. Thomas’s Hospital, York,
February 6, 1553. (W. 11, p. 304.)
Footnote 488:
I find this name still exists as ‘Pickavant.’ It may be seen over a
boot and shoe warehouse by the Railway Station at Southport,
Lancashire. Probably ‘Pickance’ is an abbreviated form. ‘Charles, son
of Daniel and Eliza Pickance, bapt. March 26, 1754.’ (St. Ann’s,
Manchester.)
Footnote 489:
Many of my readers will be familiar with the sobriquet ‘nottpated,’
which Shakespeare puts in Prince Henry’s mouth several times.
Footnote 490:
‘_Calvus_ protests for foes he doth not care;
For why? They cannot take from him _one hair_.’
(_Satyrical Epigrams_, 1619.)
Footnote 491:
The _Athenæum_ thinks the more manifest origin is the local ‘peel,’ a
small fortress used by Chaucer in the House of Fame—
‘God save the lady of this _pele_.’
I was not ignorant of the word, but as I could not find any examples
in the old rolls, I gave the preference to the nickname. I have since
met with an entry which justifies the _Athenæum’s_ remark: ‘1605, Nov.
14, Rodger of ye Peele.’ Also, ‘1621, July 10, Robarte Rodley, of ye
Peele in Chetham.’ (_Memorials of Manchester Streets_, p. 282.)
Footnote 492:
‘John Lytlehare’ occurs in a Norfolk register. Query, is it meant for
‘Littlehair’? Probably it is. (Blomefield’s _Norfolk_.) ‘Simon
Lytehare’ (lyte = little) is found in the Parl. Writs. ‘Richard le
Herprute’ occurs in the H.R. The modern form would be ‘Hairproud.’
Footnote 493:
‘Plunket’ was in early use as a perversion of ‘blanket.’ Thus a
statute of Richard III. relating to this stuff calls it ‘plonket.’ The
form in the _Prompt. Parv._ is ‘plunket;’ and Mr. Way, commenting upon
it, quotes a line from the _Awntyrs of Arthure_—
‘Hir belte was of plonkete, with birdis fulle baulde.’
Footnote 494:
This was a nickname of Sir Thomas Woodcock, Lord Mayor of London,
1405—
‘Hic jacet, Tom Shorthose,
Sine tomb, sine sheets, sine riches.’
In the neighbourhood of Belper this surname may be commonly met with.
Some change of fashion at this date, encouraged by the mayoralty,
would readily give rise to the sobriquet in the metropolis. Some
country squire or bumpkin carried the new style into Derbyshire, and
the Belper people still relate the fact of the grotesque appearance he
then made in their eyes by the nom-de-plume that as a necessary
consequence arose. ‘Sic est vita _nominum_.’
Footnote 495:
‘Agnes Blakmantyll’ (W. 11) occurs in an old York register, 1455, but
must have become obsolete with the bearer, I should imagine.
Footnote 496:
‘John Caury-Maury’ (V. 8) belongs to this class. It was a nickname
given to him on account of the exceedingly coarse cloth in which he
was attired. In Skelton’s _Elynour Rummyng_, some slatterns are thus
described—
‘Some loke strawry,
Some cawry mawry.’
‘Item, presentatum est quod ‘Johannes Caurymaury,’ ‘Johannes le
Fleming,’ ‘Hugo Bunting,’ ‘Isaac de Stanford,’ et Lucas de eadem
consueti fuerunt currere cum canibus suis sine warento,’ etc.
(_Chronicon Petroburgense. Cam. Soc._, p. 138.)
Footnote 497:
This may be local.
Footnote 498:
We all remember in ‘_Love’s Labour’s Lost_’ how Armado, being pressed
to fight, refuses to undress, and says: ‘The naked truth of it is, I
have no shirt; I go woolward for penance.’
Footnote 499:
One feels much tempted to add ‘Roylance’ to this list. It certainly
has a most kingly aspect. Still there can be little doubt that it is
but a corruption of ‘Rylands.’
Footnote 500:
I need not stay to point out the early familiar use of ‘yard’ as a
stick or staff of any length. In Wicklyffe’s New Testament we find the
following:—‘And he seide to hem nothing take ye in the weye—neither
yerde, ne scrippe, neither breed, ne money.’ (Luke ix. 3.) Our
Authorized Version still preserves the meteyard from obsoletism: ‘Ye
shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in
measure.’ (Lev. xix. 35.)
Footnote 501:
The horn was carried by the watchman as well as the huntsman and the
cryer. ‘Henry Watchorn’ was mayor of Leicester in 1780, and the name
occurs in the Nottingham Directory for 1864. Other compounds besides
‘Waghorn’ are ‘Crookhorn,’ ‘Cramphorn’ (_i.e._, crooked horn),
‘Langhorn’ and ‘Whitehorn.’
Footnote 502:
It was a Captain Waghorn who was tried by court-martial for the wreck
of the _Royal George_, which went down off Portsmouth in 1782. He was
acquitted, however.
Footnote 503:
‘Anne, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth Shakeshaft, baptized Dec. 6,
1744.’ (St. Ann’s, Register, Manchester.)
Footnote 504:
‘Robert Go-before’ in the Rolls of Parl. is an evident sobriquet
affixed upon some official of this class.
Footnote 505:
‘John Swyrdebrake,’ alias ‘John Taillour.’
(_Materials for Hist. Henry VII._, p. 441.)
Footnote 506:
In a list of bankrupts, dated the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, and
quoted in _Notes and Queries_, Jan. 1860, occurs an ‘Anthony
Halstaffe,’ doubtless originally ‘Halestaffe,’ from ‘hale,’ to drag,
and thus a likely sobriquet for a catchpoll or bailiff.
Footnote 507:
In the biographical notice appended to Archbishop Sandys’ Sermons,
published by the Parker Society, we find that one of his friends was
called ‘Hurlestone.’ This will be of similar origin with ‘Hurlebat.’
(pp. 13, 14.)
Footnote 508:
‘Thomas Crakyshield’ was Rector of North Creak in Norfolk in the year
1412. (_Hist. Norfolk_, vii. 77.)
Footnote 509:
‘William Ryghtwys’ was Vicar of Fouldon in 1497. (Blomefield’s
_Norfolk_.) ‘Upright’ appeared in a trial at Exeter in October 1874.
Footnote 510:
‘Make’ was a familiar compound. ‘Joan Make-peace’ was sister to Henry
III., and so named by the Scotch through her betrowal to their
monarch, by which peace was brought about. Bishop Hall uses the
opposite for a quarrelsome fellow—
‘If brabbling Makefray, at each faire and ’size,
Picks quarrels for to show his valiantise.’
‘Julian Make-blisse’ and ‘John Make-blythe’ occur in two separate
rolls, and Mr. Lower mentions a ‘Maud Make-joy’ in an old Wardrobe
Account: ‘1297, Dec. 26. To Maud Make-joy for dancing before Edward
Prince of Wales, at Ipswich, 2_s._’ Here the sobriquet is adopted in
compliment to the profession.
Footnote 511:
Our ‘Hardmans’ are but a corruption of ‘Hardyman.’ John Hardyman,
D.D., was installed prebend of Chester in June, 1563. (Ormerod’s
_Cheshire_, vol. i. p. 223.)
Footnote 512:
‘Reginald Littleprowe’ was Mayor of Norwich in 1532, and ‘John
Littleproud’ was buried at ‘Attleburgh’ in 1619. (_Hist. Norf._, iii.
219, and i. 535.) This sobriquet, I doubt not, was in sarcastic
allusion to the haughty demeanour of its first possessor. As in so
many cases, however, there seems to have been no objection to its
acceptance on the part of his posterity.
Footnote 513:
‘Oswin Sharparrow’ (W. 3), ‘John Sharparrow’ (W. 2), ‘William
Sharparrow’ (W. 11). The original nominee was probably of a sarcastic
turn. The following inscription was once to be seen in York Minster:
‘Orate pro anima dom. Johannis Sharparrowe, quondam parsone in Eccles.
Cath. Ebor., qui obiit xxv. die Oct. an. 1411.’ (Drake’s _Eboracum_,
p. 498.)
Footnote 514:
‘Deliver’ as an adjective meant ‘nimble,’ ‘lithe.’ It was familiarly
used. Chaucer has ‘deliverly,’ ‘deliverness,’ and ‘deliver.’ Of the
young squier he says—
‘Of his stature he was of even lengthe,
And wonderly deliver, and great of strengthe.’
‘Ralph le Delivre’ is found in the Rot. Curiæ Regis.
Footnote 515:
The names of ‘Thomas le Busteler’ (F.F.) and ‘Robert le Bustler’ (T.)
are less complimentary than most of the above. ‘Nicholas le Medler’
(A.) would be quite as objectionable.
Footnote 516:
‘Craske, fryke of fatte,’ _i.e._, lusty, fresh. (_Pr. Par._)
Footnote 517:
‘Richard Curtevalur’ (A.) would seem to have had an instinctive
acquaintance with the moral of that couplet which asserts that
‘He who fights and runs away
Shall live to fight another day.’
There are a good many people, I fancy, who thus ‘take thought for the
morrow.’
Footnote 518:
Fr. Preux = valiant.
Footnote 519:
‘Simon Stallworthe’ is mentioned in the _Grants of Edward the Fifth_.
(Cam. Soc.) The modern form of the term colloquially used is
‘stalwart.’
Footnote 520:
‘Arthur Purefoy’ or ‘Purefaye’ was Rector of Redenhall in 1584.
(_Hist. Norf._, v. 363.)
Footnote 521:
Thus Archbishop Sandys commences a sermon at Paul’s Cross:—‘The
Apostle St. Peter, like a perfit workman and a skilful builder, first
layeth a sure foundation.’ (_Parker Soc._, p. 386.)
Footnote 522:
‘Thomas Bontemps’ appears in a Norfolk register of the fourteenth
century. (_Hist. Norfolk_, Index.) It seems somewhat analogous to the
now familiar ‘Bonheur.’
Footnote 523:
The son and successor of Charlemagne, Louis First, went by the
sobriquet of ‘le Debonnaire,’ on account of his courteous and affable
character.
Footnote 524:
‘Thomas Gentilhomme’ in the Writs of Paul represents the Norman-French
form. The surname still exists in France, as does ‘Gentleman’ in
England.
Footnote 525:
Akin to ‘Malcolm le Musard’ (M.) was ‘Alan le Mute’ (A.). ‘Henry
Duceparole’ (T.) or ‘Richard Parlebien’ (M.) is decidedly
complimentary, but ‘William Spekelital’ (P.) would seem to have been
morose.
Footnote 526:
‘John Strictman’ (A.) and ‘John le Severe’ (A.) may be set here.
Footnote 527:
_The Babees’ Book_ (Early Eng. Text. Soc.).
Footnote 528:
‘Every midwyfe shulde be presented with honest women of great gravity
to the Bysshop,’ for she ‘shulde be a sadde woman, wyse and discrete,
having experience.’ (Andrew Boorde.)
Footnote 529:
The Hundred Rolls give us a ‘Robert le Sotele.’ ‘Salomon le Sotel’ was
Sheriff of London in 1290, according to Stow. There is no reason to
suppose that either of these was distinguished for any of the
unpleasant features that often belong to sharp characteristics.
Footnote 530:
The Issue Roll gives us an opposite characteristic in ‘Thomas
Litilskill.’
Footnote 531:
‘Christopher Greynhorne’ (W. 15) would represent the modern sense of
this word.
Footnote 532:
There used to be an old proverb—
‘Whylst grasse doth growe oft sterves the seely steede.’
_Vide_ Dyce’s notes to ‘All’s Well that Ends Well.’ (_Shakespeare’s
Works_, vol. iii. p. 288.) One of the best illustrations of this word,
however, is to be met with in Foxe’s _Martyrology_, where, describing
the martyrdom of a young child not seven years old, he says: ‘The
captain, perceiving the child invincible and himself vanquished,
committed the silly soul, the blessed babe, the child uncherished, to
the stinking prison.’ (Vol. i. p. 126, Edit. 1844.)
Footnote 533:
Thomas Selybarn (_i.e._ Silly-child) occurs in the York Guild. (W.
11.)
Footnote 534:
Joyce may belong either to the nickname or the baptismal class.
‘Richard le Joyce,’ J., ‘Joyce Faukes,’ H., ‘Joice Frankline,’ W. 9.
Footnote 535:
‘William Gladchere’ (‘Gladcheer’) (F.F.) would be a pleasant
sobriquet.
Footnote 536:
‘Alicia Blissewenche’ occurs in the Hundred Rolls—a light-hearted
ruddy-faced country girl of happy disposition and blithe expression. I
doubt not he was a lucky swain who got her to go to the priest with
him to sue wedlock. Cf. ‘Jeffery Joyemaiden’ in the same record.
Footnote 537:
The early ‘John Bellewether’ (H.) may be either a partial translation
of this, or that which is more likely, a sobriquet taken from the
custom of fastening a bell around the neck of the leading sheep, by
which to conduct the rest. We still term such an one the
‘bell-wether.’
Footnote 538:
We never use ‘merry’ now in relation to sacred things, though our
English Bible does. The fact is, the word has somewhat sunk in the
social scale. Few preachers would say, as Bishop Bradford could say
quite naturally in his day, ‘The Lord for Christ’s sake give us merry
hearts to drink lustily of His sweet cup.’ A monument in Marshfield
Church on A. Meredeth ends thus —
‘Judge then, what he did lose who lost but breath,
Lived to die well, and dyed A MEREDETH.
(Rudder’s _Gloucestershire_.)
Footnote 539:
‘Sweetlove’ is met by ‘Duzamour;’ ‘Felicia Duzamour’ occurs in the
Domesday, St. Paul’s (Cam. Soc.). ‘Dulcia Fynamour’ is set down in the
_Wardrobe Accounts_ Ed. 1.
Footnote 540:
‘Wooer,’ and even ‘Wooeress,’ seem to have existed. ‘John le Wower’
(A.), ‘Hugh le Wewer’ (R.), ‘Emma Woweres’ (A.).
Footnote 541:
‘Ralph Full-of-Love’ was Rector of West Lynn in the year 1462. (_Hist.
of Norfolk_, vol. viii. p. 536.)
Footnote 542:
‘Well beloved’ was the usual term applied in any formal address in the
Middle Ages, such as when a king in council made any public
announcement, or when a priest addressed his people, or when a
testator mentioned a legatee. It was then a perfectly familiar
expression, and would easily affix itself as a sobriquet. A Rev. C.
Wellbeloved published a translation of the Bible in 1838, printed by
Smallfield and Co., London.
Footnote 543:
‘Sweet’ and its compounds, however, are most probably to be referred
to our baptismal nomenclature. A ‘Swet le Bone’ is found in the
Hundred Rolls, and in the same record occur such other forms as
‘Swetman fil. Edith’ and ‘Sweteman Textor.’
Footnote 544:
In All Saints Church, Hertford, exists or existed a tablet with an
inscription dated 1428, beginning thus—
‘Here lyeth under this stone William Wake,
And by him Joane his wife and make.’
(Clutterbuck’s _Hertfordshire_, vol. ii., p. 165.)
Footnote 545:
‘Prudens’ should more properly, perhaps, be placed among abstract
virtues. ‘Richard Prudence’ F.F. Later on it became a baptismal
name—‘Prudence Howell.’ (Proceedings in Chancery: Elizabeth.)
Footnote 546:
‘Richard Merricocke’ (F.F.) was evidently a jovial fellow.
Footnote 547:
‘Parramore’ is always found as ‘Paramour’ in early rolls, and in this
form existed till the xviith century. ‘April 18, 1635, Whitehall.
Captain Thomas Paramour appointed to the _Adventure_.’ State Papers,
1635 (Domestic).
Footnote 548:
It was a favourite joke some few years ago in the House of Commons to
say that there were in it two Lemons and but one Peel. While Sir
Robert Peel was Irish Secretary, from 1812 to 1818, and was somewhat
remarkable in that capacity for his opposition to the Roman Catholics,
it was customary to style him by the sobriquet of ‘Orange Peel.’
Footnote 549:
‘Lyare, or gabbare—mendax, mendosus.’ (_Prompt. Parv._) ‘Henry le
Liere’ (H.R.) speaks for himself, unless he _belies_ himself.
Footnote 550:
Like ‘Gabelot,’ ‘Hamelot,’ ‘Hughelot,’ ‘Crestelot,’ etc., ‘Gibelot’
may be a diminutive, in which case ‘Gilbert’ will be the root, and the
name will belong to the patronymic class. (_Vide_ p. 16, note 1.)
Footnote 551:
A ‘William Gidyheved’ (Giddyhead) is mentioned by Mr. Riley as living
in London in the xivth century. (X. index.)
Footnote 552:
In the _Pr. Par._, ‘Gybelot’ (or Gyglot) is rendered ‘ridax.’
Footnote 553:
Teetotalism was not without its representatives—‘Thomas le Sober’
(M.), ‘Richard Drynkewatere’ (M.), ‘John Drinkewater’ (A.). There is
no proof for Camden’s statement that this is a corruption of
Derwentwater. From the earliest days it appears in its present dress.
Footnote 554:
‘Memorandum, quod die sancti Leonardi, fecit Galfridus Dringkedregges
de Ubbethorp homagium.’ (V. 8, p. 151.)
Footnote 555:
‘Thomas Sourale’ (A.) is met by ‘John Sweteale,’ a member of St.
George’s Guild, Norwich (V.). The former, I doubt not, was a crabbed
peevish fellow.
Footnote 556:
‘Simon le Chuffere’ occurs in the H.R. This was a common term of
opprobrium for a miser. As ‘Chuffer’ it is found in the _Townley
Mysteries_.
Footnote 557:
‘The wife of Mr. Turnpenny, newsagent, Leeds, was yesterday delivered
of two sons and one daughter, all of whom are doing well (_Manchester
Evening News_, July 1, 1873.)
Footnote 558:
‘William Taylemayle’ is found in the _Chronicon Petroburgense_. (Cam.
Soc.)
Footnote 559:
We may also mention ‘Gilbert le Covetiose’ (M.) and ‘Robert
Would-have.’ We still say ‘much would have more.’ ‘Robert Would-have,
sergeant-at-mace, witness in trial before the Mayor of Newcastle,
March 23, 1662.’ (W. 16.)
Footnote 560:
‘William Rakestraw’ reminds us of ‘Piers Plowman’s ‘ratoner and rakyer
of Cheape,’ _i.e._, ratcatcher and scavenger of Cheapside. A still
more objectionable name was that of ‘Adam Ketmongere’ (H.R.), Ket =
filth, carrion. ‘Honorius le Rumonjour’ (Rummager) (N.) would seem to
have followed a similar calling. These sobriquets would readily be
affixed upon men of a penurious and scraping character.
Footnote 561:
‘William Wildeblood’ is found in a Yorkshire Roll (W. 9), and ‘Jordan
Kite-wilde’ in the H.R.
Footnote 562:
Also ‘Agnes Gyngyvere’ in Riley’s _Memorials of London_. Like ‘John
Vergoose’ (W. 13) _i.e._, vinegarish, they would seem to hit off the
sharp temperament of their owners.
Footnote 563:
_Vide_ Lower’s _English Surnames_, i. 242.
Footnote 564:
Thus it is with our ‘Roses.’ The Rot. Fin. in _Turri London_. give us
a ‘John de la Rose,’ while the Hundred Rolls furnish us with a
‘Nicholas de la Rose.’
Footnote 565:
‘Paid John of the hall, of tow (two) urchines, 0_l._ 0_s._ 4_d._’
(_Hist. and Ant. Staffordshire_, i. 197.)
Footnote 566:
George Camel and Jane Camel were apprehended as Popish recusants, May
2, 1673. (_Dean Granville’s Letters_, p. 225.) ‘William Cammille’ (V.
4), ‘George Camil’ (W. 20).
Footnote 567:
‘1438.’ “Item, pro aula ‘Olefante,’ Magister Kyllynworth.” (_Mun.
Acad. Oxon._ p. 522.) This hall or smaller college was so called from
the sign over the door. Skelton has both ‘olyfant’ and ‘olyphante.’ He
describes a woman in ‘Eleanor Rummyng’ as
‘Necked lyke an olyfant.’
Footnote 568:
‘Herveus de Lyons,’ C., ‘Richard de Lyouns,’ M.
Footnote 569:
It was ‘Hugues le Loup’ the Conqueror appointed Second Count of the
Cheshire Palatinate.
Footnote 570:
‘Lovel’ is the diminutive. ‘Maulovel’ will thus be ‘Bad-wolfkin.’
Footnote 571:
A Rascal was a lean, ragged deer; Shakespeare so uses it. Very early,
however, the term was applied to the vulgar _herd_ of human kind, but
with far less opprobious meaning than now. Hall, quoting Henry of
Northumberland, speaks of Henry IV. as having obtained his crown ‘by
the counsaill of thy frendes, and by open noising of the rascale
people’ (f. xxi.), _i.e._ the rabble. An extract from the Ordinances
of Henry VIII. at Eltham says, ‘It is ordained that none of the
sergeants at arms, heralds ... have, retain, or bring into the court
any boyes or rascalles, nor also other of their servants.’ The surname
was very common, and lasted a long time—‘John Raskele’ (H.), ‘Henry
Rascall’ (Z.). Robert Rascal was persecuted for his religion in 1517
(Foxe). ‘Received for a pewe in the lower end of the churche set to
Richard Rascalle, vi_s._’ (Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accounts, Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 572:
As we have Cock and Cockerell, Duck and Duckrell, so we have Buck and
Buckerell—‘Peter Bokerel’ (A.), ‘Matthew Bokerel’ (A.). Cf. Mackarel
and Pickerell.
Footnote 573:
Sometimes this is local, and a mere corruption of Beauvoir—‘Roger de
Belvoir’ (M.).
Footnote 574:
‘Duncalf’ may be seen over a window in Oldham Road, Manchester.
‘William Duncalf’ (A.A. 1), ‘John Duncalf’ (A.A. 1).
Footnote 575:
Such names as Roger Runcy, Richard Palefray, John Portehors, or Ralph
Portehos represent terms very familiar to our forefathers.
Footnote 576:
This word ‘beef’ as denotive of the living animal was in vogue in the
seventeenth century at least. The plural ‘beeves’ is still to be found
in our Authorized Version. For instance, Levit. xxii. 19, is
translated, ‘Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish of
the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.’ Shakespeare, also, has the
word in this sense. He speaks in his ‘Merchant of Venice’ of the—
‘Flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.’
We have here mutton used in the same manner. Edward the Second was
accustomed ‘to breede upp beeves and motonnes in his parkes to serve
his household.’ (_Liber Niger_, Ed. IV.)
Footnote 577:
Apart from such entries as ‘William le Lamb,’ we find a ‘John
Lambgrome’ in the Hundred Rolls. Though obsolete, we must set him by
our ‘Shepherds.’ A brother-in-law of John Wesley bore the name of
‘Whitelamb.’ I am not sure whether this surname has died out or not.
In the _Visitation of Yorkshire_, 1665, it is found in the person of
‘Isabel Whitlamb.’
Footnote 578:
‘Robert Spichfat’ (X.), ‘William Spichfat’ (W. 11.), from the old
‘spic,’ bacon, seem to refer to the greasy habits of their owners.
Footnote 579:
Christopher Pigg was Mayor of Lynn Regis in 1742.
Footnote 580:
An old political poem says the Italians bring in
‘Apes and japes and mamusetts taylede,
Nifles, trifles, that litelle have avayled.’
Footnote 581:
_Raton_ is still the term in the North. Langland uses it, and in
Chaucer the Potecary is asked by a purchaser—
‘That he him would sell
Some poison, that he might his ratouns quell.’
Footnote 582:
‘Some bileve that yf the kite or the puttock fle ovir the way afore
them that they should fare wel that daye, for sumtyme they have
farewele after that they see the puttock so fleyinge.’ (_Brand_, iii.
113.)
Footnote 583:
Our present Authorized Version retains the term in Deut. xiv. 13,
where mention is made of ‘the glede, and the kite, and the vulture
after his kind.’ Locally it is found in ‘Gledhill’ and ‘Gladstone,’ or
more correctly ‘Gledstane,’ that is, the hill or crag which the kites
were wont to frequent. A ‘William de Gledstanys’ is met with in the
Coldingham Priory Records of the date of 1357, proving its North
English origin. ‘Hawkstone’ and ‘Gladstone’ are thus synonymous.
Footnote 584:
‘Richard Sparhawke’ was Rector of Fincham in 1534. (_Hist. Norf._,
vii. 358.)
Footnote 585:
‘Philip Chikin’ (A.), ‘John Chikin’ (A.). The name existed in the
xviith cent., for one ‘George Chicken’ was summoned at Ryton ‘for not
payeing his assessments, July 28, 1673.’ (_Dean Granville’s Letters_,
Sur. Soc.).
Footnote 586:
‘Peter le Goos,’ F.F., ‘Walter le Gows,’ A., ‘Amicia le Gos,’ J.,
‘John le Gos,’ M. The latter, as ‘Goss,’ is the present most common
form.
Footnote 587:
This is as often from Joscelyn. ‘Gosceline fil. Gawyn,’ A., ‘Roger
fil. Gocelin,’ A.
Footnote 588:
A tablet with the inscription ‘Sacred to the Memory of Priscilla
Blackbird’ has been put up in Stepney churchyard within the last few
years.
Footnote 589:
‘The bailiffs and commons granted to Robert Popingeay, their fellow
citizen, all their tenement and garden in the Parish of St. Mary in
the Marsh.’ 1371. (_Hist. Norf._, iii. 97.) ‘Richard Popingay,’ T.T.
‘To a servaunt of William ap Howell for bringing of a popyngay to the
Quene to Windesore, xiii_s._ iiii_d._’ (_Privy Purse Expenses of
Elizabeth of York_, 1502.)
Footnote 590:
‘He turnede upso down the boordis of chaungeris, and the chayers of
men that solden culvers.’ (Matt. xxi. 12. v. Wicklyffe.)
Footnote 591:
The _Prompt. Par._ has ‘reyn-fowle, a bryd,’ so called, the Editor
says, because its cry was supposed to prognosticate rain.
Footnote 592:
‘Thomas le Whal’ (B.), ‘Ralph le Wal’ (A.). As with Oliphant,
over-corpulence would give rise to the sobriquet.
Footnote 593:
‘Reymund Heryng’ (M.). The diminutive is found in the case of ‘Stephen
Harengot’ (D.D.), _i.e._, ‘Little Herring.’
Footnote 594:
‘Elizabeth Salmon’ (G.). _It is said_, a Mr. Salmon having been
presented by his wife with three boys at one birth, gave them the
names of ‘Pickled,’ ‘Potted,’ and ‘Fresh.’ I would call the reader’s
attention to the italicised words that preface the statement.
Footnote 595:
Daniel Turbot was summoned ‘for not paying Easter reckonyngs, Aug.
23rd, 1674.’ (_Granville’s Letters._ Sur. Soc.)
Footnote 596:
‘Matthew Chubb,’ a member of the ‘Gild of Tailors, Exeter.’—21 Ed. IV.
(_English Gilds_, 323 p.)
Footnote 597:
‘John Tenche’ (A.). Tenche is the name of one of the yeomen of the
Guard to Queen Mary when Princess Mary. (_Priv. Purse Exp._ 1543.)
Footnote 598:
Thomas Spratt was Bishop of Rochester in 1688.
Footnote 599:
This is doubtless but a feminine form of Odo.
Footnote 600:
‘Roger le Waps’ is found in a Sussex subsidy roll of 1296. (Lower, i.
242.)
Footnote 601:
In Ricart’s _Kalendar of Bristol_ (Cam. Soc.), William and Robert
Snake are set down among the earlier ‘Prepositi.’
Footnote 602:
In 1433 it had got corrupted into ‘Querdling,’ a ‘Thomas Querdling’
occupying an official position in Norwich in that year. Of him the
following rhyme speaks—
‘Whoso have any quarrel or pie,
If he but withstand John Hankey,
John Querdlyng, Nic Waleys, John Belagh, John Meg,
Sore shall him rewe
For they rule all the court with their lawes newe.’
(Blomefield, iii. 145.)
I doubt not ‘Curling’ is the modern representative of this name.
Footnote 603:
This name is not obsolete. Mr. Lower quotes a local rhyme thus—
‘Worthing is a pretty place,
And if I’m not mistaken,
If you can’t get any butcher’s meat,
There’s “hogs’ flesh” and “bacon.”’
Footnote 604:
‘William Wolfheryng’ occurs in a Sussex subsidy roll, 1296. (Lower, i.
242.)
Footnote 605:
‘Joan Blackdam’ occurs in _Hist. Norfolk_. (Blomefield, v. Index.)
Footnote 606:
‘Anna Hellicate’ was called before the Archdeacon of Durham, for not
coming to the Church, 27th July, 1673.’ (_Dean Granville’s Letters_,
Surt. Soc.)
Footnote 607:
This most curious name appears in the _Manchester Directory_ for 1861.
Footnote 608:
This seems to have been a surname—‘John Drawlace’ (W. 18).
Footnote 609:
The President of the College of Physicians in 1665 was Sir Francis
Prujean. Bramston, in his _Autobiography_ (Cam. Soc.), styles him
‘Prugean.’
Footnote 610:
The newspapers for June 6th, 1874, mention a ‘Mr. Youngjohn’ in
connection with an election petition at Kidderminster.
Footnote 611:
We have already noticed that ‘Robin Hood’ had become in itself a
surname. It is quite possible our ‘Little-johns’ have arisen in a
similar manner. Little John, I need not say, was as carefully
represented at the May-day dance as Robin himself or Maid Marian.
Ritson has preserved us a rhyme on the subject—
‘This infant was called John Little,’ quoth he
‘Which name shall be changed anon;
The words we’ll transpose, so wherever he goes,
His name shall be called “Little John.”’
Footnote 612:
‘Item, to Guillam de Vait, Guillam de Trope, and Pety John
mynstralles, iv_l._’ (_Trevelyan Papers_, ii. 20. Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 613:
We might be tempted to place our ‘Brownbills’ here, but I have
recently shown them to be representative of the old and famous pikes
known as ‘brownbills,’ used so commonly in war previous to the
introduction of gunpowder.
Footnote 614:
Thus Desdemona says to Emilia (_Othello_, iv. 3)—
‘This Lodovico is a proper man;’
and the latter responds—
‘A very handsome man.’
Footnote 615:
‘Apple-john’ must be looked upon as a nickname taken from the fruit of
that name. An apple-john was a species of apple which was never fully
ripe till late in the season, when it was shrivelled. Hence
Shakespeare’s allusion in 2 Henry IV. ii. 4. ‘Sweet-apple’ will belong
to this category.
Footnote 616:
‘Full-James’ must be looked upon as a corruption of Foljambe. I prefer
the original, though that is not complimentary.
Footnote 617:
This name lingered on till 1674 at least, for one of the private
musicians attached to the household of Charles II. was ‘John
Godegroome.’ (_Vide_ Chappell’s _Ballad Literature_, p. 469.) ‘Robert
le Godegrom’ had appeared three centuries before in the Hundred Rolls.
Footnote 618:
‘King’ I have already suggested as a sobriquet given to one who
represented such a rank in some mediæval pageant. Peculiarities of
stature, manner, or dress would readily give rise to the compound
forms.
Footnote 619:
Archbishop Chichele, when founding All Souls’ College, purchased for
this purpose the sites of ‘Beresford’s Hall, St. Thomas’s Hall,
Tyngewyck Hall, and Godknave Hall.’ (_Hist. Univ. Oxon_, vol. i. p.
195.)
Probably its founder bore that name.
Footnote 620:
‘Godfrey Mauclerk’ was mayor of Leicester in 1286. Also, ‘Walter
Malclerk’ (P.P.). Corrupted into ‘Manclerk,’ this name still exists.
(Cf. _Clerical Directory_, 1874.)
Footnote 621:
‘Johan le Redeclerk, hosier de Coventry.’ (V. 9, p. xxiv.)
Footnote 622:
The first ‘Littlepage’ I can light upon is in the case of ‘John
Littlepage’ and ‘Joan Littlepage,’ persecuted for their religion in
1521. (Foxe’s _Martyrology_.)
Footnote 623:
‘Man’ in the sense of servant is found appended to several Christian
names. Thus we come across such combinations as ‘Mathewman,’
‘Harriman,’ and ‘Thomasman.’ The wonder is more are not to be met
with. The customary way of registering servants in the old rolls is
‘William Matthew’s man,’ or ‘John’s man Thomas.’ Thus the surname
arose. The _Proceedings in Kent_, 1640 (Cam. Soc.), contained the name
of ‘Nicholas Hodgman,’ and ‘John Hobman’ was buried May 17th, 1649.
(_Smith’s Obituary._ Cam. Soc.)
Footnote 624:
‘Grant to Henry Goodclerk for his services in the parts beyond the
sea, 23rd Sep. 1485.’ (_Materials for Hist. Henry VII._, p. 557.)
Footnote 625:
‘Goodwife’ seems to have existed formerly. A ‘William Goodwyfe’ was
Rector of Stapleford, Herts, in 1443. (Clutterbuck’s _Hertfordshire_,
vol. ii. p. 218.)
Footnote 626:
‘Alan Bondame’ represents the feminine (P.P.).
Footnote 627:
John Beaufitz was Sheriff of Warwick in 1485.
Footnote 628:
A curious circumstance happened, I believe, but a few years ago,
causing the increase of a forename, unintended, we may feel sure, by
those most immediately concerned. A child was taken to church to be
baptized. The clergyman at the usual place turned to the mother and
asked what name the infant was to bear. ‘Robert,’ was the reply. ‘Any
other name?’ he inquired. ‘Robert honly,’ she answered, her grammar
not being of the best description. ‘Robert Honly, I baptize thee, in
the name,’ etc., at once continued the clergyman, and the child was
therefore duly so registered.
Footnote 629:
A ‘Savage Bear’ was at large in Kent a few years ago. (Lower i. 177.)
Footnote 630:
‘Ivory Malet’ (D.D.) This, though registered in the xiiith, would seem
to have anticipated the croquet of the xixth cent. ‘Ivray’ was a
baptismal name at the earlier date.
Footnote 631:
‘More Fortune, bayliff of St. Martin’s, died May 17th, 1367.’
(_Smith’s Obituary_, p. 13.)
Footnote 632:
‘May 27th, 1805. River, son of River and Rebecca Jordan.’
(_Christenings_, St. Ann’s, Manchester.)
Footnote 633:
Several ‘Pine Coffins’ may be seen in the Clerical Directories of
1840–1850.
Footnote 634:
‘Jean Gottam,’ the Frenchman’s title for ‘John Bull,’ is old. A
witness in the trial of Joan of Arc used the term ‘Godon,’ and
explained it to be a sobriquet of the English from their use of the
oath ‘God damn.’
Footnote 635:
A clever article in the _Edinburgh Review_, April 1855, suggests
‘Blood’ and ‘Death’ from ‘S’Blood’ and ‘S’Death,’ the abbreviated
‘God’s blood’ and ‘God’s death.’
Footnote 636:
_Vide_ page 160. Camden says the Normans were so called because ‘at
every other word they would swear _by God_.’
Footnote 637:
‘Henry Godsalve’ entered C.C. Coll. Cam. in 1614. (_Masters’ Hist._,
C.C. Coll.)
Footnote 638:
‘Item, to Jannett God-send-us, I give a caldron, and a pare of
tonges.’ (Extract of will of William Hardinge, Vicar of Heightington,
1584. W. 13.) The editor suggests she was a foundling.
Footnote 639:
The _Saturday Review_, in a criticism of my book, mentions a Rogerus
Deus-salvet-dominas in the Essex Domesday.
Footnote 640:
‘Mr. Gracedieu, Incumbent of St. James’s, Duke’s Place.’ (Strype,
London.)
Footnote 641:
A curious heraldic name is found in the 17th cent. John Poyndexter,
fellow of Exeter Coll., Oxford, was dispossessed. (Walker, _Sufferings
of the Clergy_.)
Footnote 642:
Our ‘Olyfadres’ will similarly be the expletive ‘Holy-father,’ unless,
like ‘Thomas Worthship’ (Z.), the name be but a title of respect to
some ecclesiastic functionary.
Footnote 643:
‘Good-speed’ may belong to the same class as Swift, Golightly,
Lightfoot, Roefoot, etc.—V. p. 388.
Footnote 644:
The Constable of Nottingham Castle in 1369 was one Stephen Rummelowe,
or Rumbilowe, for both forms are to be found.
Footnote 645:
‘Fulco Twelvepence’ was perhaps related to ‘Robert Shillyng,’ found in
the ‘Patent Rolls’ (State Paper Office).
Footnote 646:
A most anachronistic name is met with in the ‘Calend. Inquis. Post
Mortem,’ 30 Henry VI., in the entry ‘Robert Banknott.’ A ‘knot’ was a
small local prominence. On the bank or side of this the nominee
doubtless dwelt.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
● Transcriber’s Notes:
○ There are many instances of words and names that are hyphenated in
the body of the book, but not in the index. There are a few that
are hyphenated in the index, but not in the body of the book. The
hyphenation was left as printed.
○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
○ Typographical errors were silently corrected.
○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
when a predominant form was found in this book.
○ The footnotes have been gathered into one section at the end of
the book.
○ The use of a caret (^) before one or more letters shows they are
intended to be a superscript, as in “S^t Bartholomew” or“ xx^{tie}
platters”.
○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).