Louisville, Ky.
_Keats_, Keat, Keyt, Kate. In Collins' History, page 557, Vol. 2,
the reader notes the following reference to this name--"The most
celebrated female school in the West at the time was in Washington,
1807-12; that of Mrs. Louisa Caroline Warburton Fitzherbert Keats,
sister of Sir George Fitzherbert, of St. James Square, and wife of
Reverend Mr. Keats, a relation of the celebrated poet."--The Keats
family of Louisville (closely related to the poet) was conspicuous in
the early history of that city. They were connections of the famous
Speed family of Kentucky.
_Kehoe._ (French) Cahot; Cahut; Cayeux, p. n.
_Kenney_ (De Kani, 1198, Normandy).
_Kentain_, for Kintan or Quentin. Simon Kenton was always known among
the plain people as Kinton, though, in early Kentucky statutes,
the name is spelled _Canton_, no doubt as then pronounced, even by
"scollards." Kenton, a "place" name near the northeast coast of
England. Much of our old Kentucky stock is Northumbrian.
_Keith._
_Key._
_Keyes._
_Kimball_, for Kemble.
_King_ (Rex de LeRoy, Normandy, 1180).
_Kinsey_, for Kensey.
_Kirk_, or Quirk, de Querçu.
_Kissill._ For Cecil, which is also sometimes Sissell, Knight (Miles
or Knight, Normandy).
_Knott_, for Canot or Canute.
_Knott_ (Danish), Knouth. Norse Knöttr (a ball or knob, as a Knot on
oak).
_Kydd_, or Kidd.
_Kyle_, or Keyle.
_Lacy_, or Lacey. A baronial name from Lasey, between Vire and Aulnay.
Walter de Lacy was in the battle of Hastings, and Captain Walter Lacy
of Kentucky was a soldier in the Mexican War.
_Lamb_ (Robert, Agnus, and Ralph, Normandy, 1180).
_Lambton._ A Durham family from the Barons of Tarp and Normandy.
_Landor_, or Lander. From Landers, Burgundy. From this family Walter
Landor, the poet.
_Larken_, Larkin, Largan, Largant, Larcamp, Larkins, Normandy, 1180.
_Laurence_, Lorenz, Normandy, 1180; also Lawrence.
_Lawson_, from Loison, Normandy, 1180.
_Lee_, Leigh, De la Mare. Stephen Lee, the progenitor of the Kentucky
Lees, was born in Prince William County, Virginia, and died in Mason
County, Kentucky. His first wife--the widow Magruder--was the mother
of Priscilla Lee, who married William Botts of Virginia. His second
wife died without issue. His third wife was Mrs. Ann Dunn. Her son,
Henry, who rose to distinction in the history of Kentucky, was born
April 2, 1757. He married Mary Young.
The question is sometimes asked, "How were the descendants of Stephen
Lee related to the Lees of the Northern Neck?" Many years ago the
writer of this note saw in a collection of old papers made by that
able and conscientious antiquary, William D. Hixson,[13] a letter from
General Henry Lee of Virginia ("Light-Horse Harry") to General Henry
Lee of Kentucky, in which the latter was addressed as "Dear Cousin."
The letter was in relation to certain lands in Mason County then
owned by a daughter, Priscilla Lee; and was of peculiar interest as
confirming the familiar tradition of a connection by blood between the
two families of Lee. The name "Lee" is traced by English genealogists
to Scandinavia. (Vide sketch of the Lee family in the "Register," by
Lucy Coleman Lee.)
[13] W. D. Hixson, the "Old Mortality" of Mason, is now a resident of
Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.
_Lemon_, Lemmus, Normandy, 1180.
_Lenard_, or Leonard. For Leonard from St. Leonard near Fecamp,
Normandy.
_Lenney_, or Linney, from Launer, Normandy.
_Lewis_, DeLues or Luiz, Normandy, 1180.
_Liddell._ From Lydale, on Scottish border; seat of a Norman.
_Lile_, for Lisle.
_Lincoln._ Alured de Lincoln came from Normandy with the Conqueror;
held a great barony in Lincoln and Bedford. From a collateral branch,
it is said--and the branches were numerous--descended the greatest of
the "Rulers of Men," Abraham Lincoln.
_Lincoln._ The following appreciation of the character of Abraham
Lincoln is from Paul Bourget's Outre-Mer. The judgment of posterity
is probably anticipated in this discriminating characterization
by an able foreign writer: "That heroic struggle has left more
noble vestiges than the shameful abuse of electoral pensions: the
recollection in the first place of a common bravery, the proof that
American industrialism has not in the least diminished the energies
of the race; again, the legend of Lincoln, of one of those men who by
their example alone model after their mind the conscience of an entire
country. That personage, so American by the composite character of his
individuality, humorous and pathetic at the same time; that politician
experienced in all trickeries and nevertheless so capable of idealism
and mysticism; that half-educated man who had at times magnificent
simplicities of eloquence; that old wood-cutter, his face bitter with
disgust, yet luminous with hope, worn out with trials and still so
strong; that statesman so close to the people and nevertheless with
so broad a vision, remains the most modern of heroes, one whom the
United States can boldly place in opposition to a Napoleon, a Cavour,
a Bismarck. The South to-day recognizes his greatness as well as the
North. He had the luck to be exactly the workman that was needed for
the task which he undertook, and to die as soon as that task was
achieved. Such circumstances continued form great destinies."
"Abraham Lincoln" (says one of his admiring compatriots) "was an
incomparable leader of men. While McClellan and Grant could conduct
more or less successfully the operations of a hundred thousand men
in the field, it was Abraham Lincoln alone that could keep in hand
the vast and turbulent electorate of eighteen Northern States. It was
Lincoln's consummate generalship, happily for the South, that held
these radical and aggressive elements in check: '_Unus homo nobis
cunctando restituit rem._'"
_Lindsay_, or de Lines. Branch of a baronial Norman house; one of the
sovereign families that ruled in Norway till dispossessed by Harold
Harfager. The name "Lindsay" is from the Norman seigneury Limesay.
There are various branches with armorial identifications pointing to a
common origin. Chief Justice Lindsay, of Kentucky, stands in the front
rank of Anglo-Norman lawyers.
_Lisle._
_Littell_, or Little. Parvus or Le Petit, Normandy, 1180.
_Littleton_, or Lytleton.
_Lockett_, for Lockhart.
_Long._ Petrus de Longa, Normandy.
_Lovell._ Louvel, Normandy, 1180.
_Lucas._ From De Lukes or Luches.
_Luckett_, for Lockett.
_Luke._ From St. Luc, near Evreux, Normandy.
_Luttrell_, Ralph and Robert Lotrel, Normandy, 1180.
_Lyle_, for Lisle.
_Lyon._ From Lions, Normandy.
_Lyttleton._ From Vantort, Maine. Lord Chief Justice Lytleton was of
this house.
_Machin._ From LeMachun or LeMeschun.
_Mainwaring._ Mesnil, Larin, a well-known Norman family.
_Major._ Normandy, 1198.
_Maltby._ (Scandinavian.)
_Malby._ For Malbiæ, Normandy, 1180.
_Man_, or Mann.
_Manning._ From Maignon, Normandy, 1180.
_March._ From Marchie, Normandy.
_Markland._ An old Scandinavian name. It was given by Eric in his
voyage of exploration (year 1000) to the "wooded" coast of Cape
Breton, or Nova Scotia.
_Marsh._ DeMarisco, Normandy, 1180.
_Marshall._ There are 62 coats of arms of this name, generally
Normans, the principal of these being the Earls of Pembroke. Colonel
Thomas Marshall of Virginia, the father of the great Chief Justice,
lived near Washington, Mason County, Ky. He died in 1802. His grave in
the family burying-ground near the old home ("The Hill") has attracted
many visitors of late years, and the family homestead near Washington
was once visited by the Chief Justice himself. John Marshall was
probably the greatest American lawyer of Anglo-Norman descent; and
certainly, as Mr. Barrett Wendell says, "the most eminent Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States."
Judge Thomas A. Marshall, who recently passed away at Salt Lake City,
a grandson of old Colonel Thomas Marshall, was also a "pioneer." He
became the greatest mining lawyer in the West, and President of the
Central Pacific Railroad. Lytleton, Coke, Chitty, Denman, and other
great English lawyers were derived from that same learned, astute, and
litigious Norman race.
_Martin._ Ralph, John, William, Normandy, 1198; William Martin,
England, 1178.
_Mason._ William Le Mazon, Normandy, 1198; Hugh Le Maun, England,
1198. Mason County, named after the famous Virginian, George Mason, by
the Legislature of Virginia in 1788, and not (as recently proclaimed)
after a Governor of Michigan, who in all likelihood was not born when
the county was named.
_Massey._
_Massie._
_Massy._ A well-known Norman family, Macy, whence the name is derived,
was seated near Coutances and Avranches, Normandy.
_May._ From De Mai, Normandy, 1180; De May, England, 1272. Maysville,
Ky., named after John May.
[Illustration: COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG.]
_Mayhew_, for Mayo.
_Mead_, or Meade. The English form of De Prato, Normandy, 1180.
_Menzies_, or De Maners, or later in Scotland, Manners.
_Mercer_, Mercier; Normandy.
_Merrill._
_Miall_, Miel, Mihell, Mighell (the last a mediæval form of Michael).
Lower also derives Mitchell from Michael through the French form
Michel.
_Miles._
_Mill._
_Miller_, or Milner, in Normandy Molendinarius.
_Mills_, from Miles.
_Milton_, or Middleton. Armorially identified with the Norman family
De Camville, in the Cotentin. The poet Milton was of this stock.
_Minors_, or Minor. A distinguished family long settled in Virginia.
De Mineriis, Normandy, 1198; in England also, 1198.
_Mitchell_, for Michel.
_Mitchell._ Rudulphus Michael, Normandy, 1180-'95. William de St.
Michael, England, 1198. Michael, Michel, Michell.
_Montagu._ From Montaigu or Montacute, Normandy.
_Montgomery_, DeMonte. Gourmeril, Normandy, many branches.
_Moodie._
_Moody._
_Moore_ (de More).
_Morey._ English pronunciation of Moret.
_Morton_, for Moreton.
_Morton._ Ralph de Morteine.
_Mountjoy._ Pagonus de Montegaii, Normandy, 1097; the family was
seated in Notts and Derby. Early settlers in Virginia and Kentucky.
_Mowbray._ Baronial family, Castle of Molbrai.
_Mullins_, for Molines.
_Mundey_, for Munday.
_Murrell_, for Morrall.
_Nelson_, Nilson. Of Norman descent, who settled in Norfolk, was the
direct ancestor of Admiral Lord Nelson. Original form Neilson or
Neilsen.
_Neville_, De Nova Villa, Normandy, 1180. The families of Neville,
Beaugenay, and Baskeville are descended from a common ancestor. The
Nevilles are most numerous in Lincoln.
_Newton._ The most famous of this large family, Sir Isaac Newton, was
of Norman descent.
_Nicholas._ Richard Nicholas, Normandy, 1198; Nicholas, Nicolaus,
England, 1198. A distinguished name in Kentucky.
_Norman._ Ralph Normannus, Normandy, 1180; Henry Norman, England,
1272. This name has a social and official conspicuity in the State of
Kentucky; and in whatever position found it shows the characteristic
marks of the old blood.
_Norris_, William Norensis, Normandy, 1180; Thomas Norensis, England,
1198.
_Northcott_, or Northcote.
_Norton_, or Conyers. Elder branch of the family of Conyers, or
Cognieres, Normandy; named from the Barony of Norton, York, the chief
English seat of the family.
_Nye_, for Noye.
_O'Hara_, Hare, O'Hare, O'Hara (fleet-footed). Scions of the House of
Hare-court, or Harcourt, Counts of Normandy.
Theodore O'Hara was a Kentuckian by birth and training. He was a
gallant soldier in the Mexican War; second officer in the first Lopez
Expedition; a colonel in the Confederate service. He is best known
by those fine elegiac lines which seem to be following the military
cemeteries of the English-speaking race:
"On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread."
[See Ranck's Biography of O'Hara, and "Lopez's Expeditions," published
by The Filson Club, No. 21, this series.]
_Ormsby._
_Orr_ (Danish). A parish in Kirk and Brightshire.
_Orr._ Norse, Orri (heathcock tetras tetrix).
_Orth._
_Osborne._
_Owen_, from St. Owen, near Caen.
_Palmer._
_Patterson_, the son of Patricius (vide Lower).
_Paul._
_Payne._
_Paynter_ (de Peyntre). Thos. H. Paynter, United States Senator from
Kentucky.
_Pearce._
_Peed._
_Peel_, Pele, Norman, 1180. Peels of Yorkshire and Lancashire,
ancestors of Sir Robert Peel.
_Peers._
_Pelham._
_Percy._
_Perry_, or Perrie.
_Peters_ and _Peter_ (Pierre). Doctor Thomas Lounsbury, who combines
erudition most agreeably with common sense, says in a recent
paper that at particular periods there is manifested a feeling of
"hostility" to certain words. We have an illustration of this in the
history of the proper name _Peter_, which, as one of the philologists
tells us, "at one time was odious to English ears." For example,
we find in the statistical nomenclature of Wiltshire only sixteen
Peters to ninety-two Johns, and the ratio elsewhere in other shires
or districts is about the same. Yet we find many traces of Peter or
Pierre (the original French form) in other names, as Pears, Peers,
Pars, etc. Peter has been a prolific propagator of patronymics in
spite of its temporary eclipse; Peterson, Pearson, Peterman, Pierson,
etc. It does not seem to have recovered its early popularity, or to be
able to stand alone; but with desinences attached it takes and retains
its old position, as in Perkins, Peterkin, Perrins, Perrutts, etc. It
is a buoyant, resilient Norman vocable with the characteristic Norman
facility of assimilation. This one surname covers many others.
_Pettit._
_Peyton._
_Philpot._
_Picard_, Pykart, Pecor, Pecar.
_Pickett._ (Picot.)
_Pinckard._
_Pirtle._ Norman French. A diminutive of "Pert"; is common in the
arrondissement of Bayeux.
_Pitt._ Taine's ideal type of an Englishman was William Pitt, who is
thus described by that admirable observer: "Sometimes," in his rounds
of observation, he "detects the physiognomy of Pitt; the slight face,
impressive and imperious; the pale and ardent eyes; the look which
shines like the gleam of a sword. The man is of a finer mould, but his
will is only the more incisive and firmer; it is iron transformed into
steel." Contrast this portraiture of Pitt with his pictures of the
taurine type of Englishman.
That munificent English savant, General Pitt-Rivers, is of the same
Norman stock. He was a gallant soldier in the Crimean War.
_Plunkett._
_Poague._
_Pollitt._
_Porter._
_Potter._
_Potts._
_Poyntz_, or Ponz, a branch of Fitz-Poyntz, Ponz, tenant D. B.
Nicholas Printz held land in Gloucestershire, temp. K. John. Under
_Poyntz_, Lower says, Walter Julius Ponz, a tenant in chief at the
time of the Norman survey, was son of Walter Ponz, a noble Norman.
The surname Poyntz may be traced from Normandy through England and
Virginia to Kentucky.
Many years before the establishment in Kentucky of a club or society
with a roving commission for historic research, there dwelt in the
northern highlands of the Bluegrass region a sagacious and successful
cattle-breeder, who was a practical student of pedigrees and had
put the knowledge thus acquired to a profitable use. _All_ of his
theories would not have been accepted by Weismann; nor, on the other
hand, would all of Weismann's theories been accepted by _him_. The
conclusions which lay nearest his special vocation had been carefully
"applied" after his own fashion, and he was satisfied with the
results. Francis Galton, himself, had no better grounds for belief in
the laws of heredity.
He was a Kentuckian of the early type--not unlike the Kentuckians
and Virginians that the English traveler, Mr. Pym Fordham, describes
in a series of letters from the South and West. His mental gifts and
pleasing manners, to say nothing of his commanding stature, not only
made him conspicuous, but wherever he went assured him welcome and
the right of way. There was a look of quiet resourcefulness in the
man. His facial contour was striking. The features, seen in profile,
were large, strong, and regular, and their impressiveness was notably
enhanced by a broad, flowing beard with the same reddish tinge
that brightened his locks of long brown hair. His eye was steady,
soft, and penetrating--noting everything, overlooking nothing. His
complexion was peculiar--not "ruddy" or glowing from daily exposure,
at all seasons, in the open air, but of an almost bloodless hue; as
colorless, at least, and as clear as if untouched by sun, or wind, or
rain, in his active routine of life upon a Bluegrass ranch. It was the
life of a man whose time was largely given to observation and thought;
and as one might suppose, he had an ample field for the indulgence of
his studious tastes. His special line of work was the propagation of
"high-grade" cattle by crossing our native stock with fine imported
strains.
In our pastoral mid-century days the casual traveler passing along a
mountain road in the Red River region of Eastern Kentucky could not
have failed to observe, in the great forests that cast their dense
shadows as far as the headwaters of Buckhorn, large herds of native
cattle that browsed and "drowsed" in the shade of those deep Druidic
woods. If the traveler were a man of the English race, and as well
informed and observant as a traveler should be, he would say at once,
"These cattle are in no degree akin to the English blood-stock which
I have seen in the Bluegrass lowlands of the State. They are wholly
unlike; their 'lines' are wholly different,--size, shape, coloring,
deer-like delicacy of structure and peculiar curve of horn; nothing in
their construction is heavy or cumbrous except the deep, rich golden
udders of the kine. They remind one of no familiar English stock. They
are not Durhams nor Herefords, nor Devons. Are they not _Alderneys_?"
At all events, this was the native stock from which our practical
Bluegrass theorist obtained his "high-grade" cattle, by crossing it
judiciously with fine imported strains from the Channel Isles. The
results were all that could be desired. The half-grade cattle were
scarcely distinguishable from the imported stock, and if the milk was
not so "rich," the quantity was much larger. The same was true of
the _uncrossed_ mountain stock which was brought to Kentucky by the
"comelings" of the Eighteenth Century, and was never a "degenerate"
stock in any practical sense. The "deer-like" structure of the
mountain cow came partly from environment and partly from race. It was
one of the rough-hewn maxims of mountain husbandry--"The best milker
is a cow with a little foot,"--a foot that can thread the brushiest
"cove" or climb the airiest height to crop the nutrient herbage that
makes the nutritious milk. The succulent "pea-vine" made the milk;
the tissue-forming "mast" or acorn made the meat. The little-footed
heifer had the freedom of the range; and, by some subtle morphologic
law, the locomotive organ that was small, firm, and well-shaped seemed
to imply or determine the full symmetric development of _thorax_
and _brain_ and an easy, unobstructed operation of the functions
associated with both. The loyal mountaineer of the old stamp was
chauvinistic to the core. Though fifty years have passed, he still
grows eloquent when he recalls the "fighting bulls" and the flowing
pails of his boyhood days. A handsome, vivacious Highlander of this
class--a gentleman of marked Gallic aspect and scion of an early
pioneer stock--recently boasted to the writer, and almost in the
language of the Vergilian swain (_bis venit ud mulctram_), that old
"White-face" came regularly to the pail twice a day--yielding six
gallons in two milkings. These mountain kine were not large; but they
were gentle, spirited, clean-limbed, fine-haired, and carried in their
generous udders an abundance of wholesome milk. They bore indelible
marks of race. Had they been larger, they might have remained to this
day an untraveled stock. Their size favored easy transportation,
and the canny emigrant made note of the fact. As a consequence of
this demand from emigrants, no doubt, great numbers of cattle were
shipped from the Channel Islands to England in the early decades of
the Nineteenth Century--a circumstance which completely answers the
assumption that our mountain cattle were derived originally from an
English stock. For many years the name "Alderney" was applied without
discrimination to all cattle imported from the _Anglo-Norman islands_
of the English Channel--islands which England has held with an iron
grip since the Conqueror brought them under English rule. The thrifty
islanders--descendants of the old Norman stock and for years clinging
tenaciously to the old Norman dialect--are now true Anglo-Normans,
making daily proclamation of their loyalty to the English crown, and,
until a very recent period, always in Anglo-Norman French.
Only this then remains to be said. A thoughtful Bluegrass
cattle-breeder, bearing a distinctively Anglo-Norman name that
had come down from Normandy--through England and Virginia to
Kentucky[14]--and bearing in his own person characteristics and
distinctive marks of his Anglo-Norman descent--utterly indifferent
to "ethnological" theories and absolutely unconscious of his own
descent from the Anglo-Norman race, is convinced--not by "herd-books"
or historic pedigrees--but simply and solely by the evidence of his
own eyes, that a certain native stock of cattle in the mountains of
Kentucky were merely an _earlier importation than his own_ from the
Anglo-Norman islands of the English Channel. He had the courage to
put his theory to the touch of practical experimentation, and the
astonished "experts" at the great cattle-fairs of the country bore
generous testimony to the quality of his work.
[14] John Baldwin Poyntz. Norman name _Poyntz_ in alphabetical list.
If such conclusions are fairly deducible from an imperfect or
incomplete study of a race of CATTLE in the mountain region of
Kentucky, why should a logical mind discredit like conclusions resting
upon testimony that is singularly cumulative and convergent in regard
to a contemporaneous race of MEN that is historically traceable from
Normandy--through England and Virginia--to the same or a similar
physical environment in that same State of Kentucky? Could there be a
better example of cumulative verification?
_Preston._ General William Preston, "The Last of the Cavaliers."
_Pyle._
_Quantrell_, or Quantrall.
_Quarrier._
_Quay_, or Kay.
_Quincey._
_Raines._
_Rankin._
_Ransome._
_Raynes_, or Rains.
_Reine._
_Respess_, Respis, Res-bisse, Respeig, Respisch.
One of the seconds of Casto in the famous Metcalfe-Casto duel was
Colonel Thomas A. Respess, of Mason, a member of the Kentucky bar, and
associated for many years with the distinguished jurist and author
Judge Richard H. Stanton (Stanton and Respess). Colonel Respess is
an able and scholarly man, and retains, at a very advanced age, the
conversational brilliancy of his prime.
_Reynolds._
_Riaud_ (pronounced Ree-o). An old Virginian name, of French
derivation. In Norman records the name is _Riau_, not _Riaud_, the
terminal "d" in the latter form representing the "territorial"
particle in the original name; thus _Riau_ de Alençon; _Riau_
d'Alençon; _Riaud_. By syllabic transposition (as Mackall, Almack)
Riaud is now Orear--a well-known Kentucky name.
_Rich._ Riche was near Nancy, in Lorraine. John de Riches, Thirteenth
Century. Riche, Riches; Richeson.
_Riddell._
_Roff._
_Roper._
_Ross._
_Roswell._
_Rowan._ John Rowan, a jurist and scholar; lived at "Federal
Hill,"--_the Old Kentucky Home_.
_Rucker._
_Ruddell._
_Russell._
_Ryder._ Hreidarr (Norse).
_Ryder._ There was a Ryder in Mason County, who never _rode_, but was
a great walker.
_Sandford._ Scandinavian, Sandefiorde.
_Sargeant._ Normandy, 1180; England, 1198.
_Savage._
_Scott_, Governor of Kentucky.
_Schofield._