At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the
left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but
more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston
and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole; from a person of that name
who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only
name of antiquity among us.
The particle _de_, between the christian and surname, is of French
extraction, and came over with William the First: It continued tolerably
pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an
English garb, in the particle _of_: The _a_, therefore is only a
corruption of the latter. Hence the time of this unhappy man's
misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.