Replies to Minor Queries.
_Rotten Row._--I cannot agree with any of the etymologies of this
phrase, as given at p. 441. of Vol. i., p. 235. of Vol. ii., or at p.
40. of Vol. v. of "N. & Q.," because I have found the same applied to
many places with which such etymologies could not, by any possibility,
have the remotest connexion. In my examination of the _Hundred Rolls_ or
_Acre Books_ of the various parishes in the hundred of Skirbeck in
Lincolnshire, I found that a portion of several of those parishes was
named _Rotten Row_: I will instance two, Freiston and Bennington. Upon
consulting the best authorities I could meet with, I found that Camden
derives the name from _Rotteran_, to muster; and we know that the Barons
de Croun and their descendants, the Lords Rous, who formerly held the
manor of Freiston, were in the habit of mustering their vassals under
arms. "William Lord Ros, then residing at Ros Hall, Freiston, received a
command to attend Edward II. at Coventry; and hastened to him with all
his men at arms, divers _Hoblers_, and some foot soldiers accordingly."
(See Dugdale's _Baronage_.) That the term _Rotten Row_ has this military
origin receives additional corroboration from the fact, that in Blount's
_Glossographia_, 1670, the word ROT is defined to be "a term of war; six
men (be they pikes or musketeers) make a _Rot_ or file." Under the word
BRIGADE in the same dictionary, I find it stated that "six men make a
_Rot_, and three _Rots_ of Pikes make a corporalship, but the
musqueteers have four _Rots_ to a corporalship. Nine _Rots_ of pikes and
twelve _Rots_ of musqueteers, or 126 men, make a complete company." In
Cole's _Dictionary_, 1685, I find "ROT, a file of six soldiers."
From these authorities I am led to infer that the term _Rotten Row_ is
a corruption of the name originally applied to the place where the
feudal lord of a town or village held his _Rother_ or muster, and where
the _Rots_, into which his vassals were divided, assembled for the
purpose of military exercise.