In conclusion a few words must be said about tree names, so common in

their simple form and in topographical compounds. Here, as in the

case of most of the etymons already mentioned in this chapter, the

origin of the surname may be specific as well as general, i.e. the

name Ash may come from Ash in Kent rather than from any particular

tree, the etymology remaining the same. Many of our surnames have

preserved the older forms of tree names, e.g. the lime was once the

line, hence Lines, Lynes, and earlier still the Lind, as in the

compounds Lyndhurst, Lindley, etc. The older form of Oak appears in

Acland, Acton, and variants in Ogden and Braddock, broad oak. We have

ash in Aston, Ascham. The holly was once the hollin, whence Hollins,

Hollis, Hollings; cf. Hollings-head, Holinshed. But hollin became

colloquially holm, whence generally Holmes. Homewood is for

holm-wood. The holm oak, ilex, is so called from its holly-like

leaves. For Birch we also find Birk, a northern form. Beech often

appears in compounds as Buck-; cf. buckwheat, so called because the

grains are of the shape of beech-mast. In Poppleton, Popplewell we

have the dialect popple, a poplar. Yeo sometimes represents yew,

spelt yowe by Palsgrave. [Footnote: The yeo of yeoman, which is

conjectured to have meant district, cognate with Ger. Gau in Breisgau,

Rheingau, etc., is not found by itself.]

In Sallows we have a provincial name for the willow, cognate with Fr,

saule and Lat. salix. Rowntree is the rowan, or mountain ash, and

Bawtry or Bawtree is a northern name for the elder. The older forms

of Alder and Elder, in both of which the _d_ is intrusive (Chapter

III), appear in Allerton and Ellershaw. Maple is sometimes Mapple and

sycamore is corrupted into Sicklemore.

Tree-names are common in all languages. Beerbohm Tree is pleonastic,

from Ger. Bierbaum, for Birnbaum, pear-tree. A few years ago a

prominent Belgian statesman bore the name Vandenpereboom, rather

terrifying till decomposed into "van den pereboom." Its Mid. English

equivalent appears in Pirie, originally a collection of pear-trees,

but used by Chaucer for the single tree

"And thus I lete hym sitte upon the pyrie."

(E. 2217.)

From trees we may descend gradually, via Thorne, Bush, Furze, Gorst

(Chapter I), Ling, etc., until we come finally to Grace, which in some

cases represents grass, for we find William atte grase in 1327, while

the name Poorgrass, in Mr. Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, seems

to be certified by the famous French names Malherbe and Malesherbes.

But Savory is the French personal name Savary.

The following list of trees is given by Chaucer in the Knight's tale--

"The names that the trees highte,--

As ook, firre, birch, aspe, alder, holm, popeler,

Wylugh, elm, plane, assh, box, chasteyn, lynde, laurer,

Mapul, thorn, beck, hasel, ew, whippeltre." (A. 2920.)

They are all represented in modern directories.

CHAPTER XIII. THE HAUNTS OF MAN

"One fels downs firs, another of the same

With crossed poles a little lodge doth frame:

Another mounds it with dry wall about,

And leaves a breach for passage in and out:

With turfs and furze some others yet more gross

Their homely sties in stead of walls inclose:

Some, like the swallow, mud and hay doe mixe

And that about their silly [p. 209] cotes they fixe

Some heals [thatch] their roofer with fearn, or reeds, or rushes,

And some with hides, with oase, with boughs, and bushes,"

(SYLVESTER, The Devine Weekes, )

In almost every case where man has interfered with nature the

resulting local name is naturally of Anglo-Saxon or, in some parts of

England, of Scandinavian origin. The Roman and French elements in our

topographical names are scanty in number, though the former are of

frequent occurrence. The chief Latin contributions are -Chester,

-cester, -caster, Lat. castrum, a fort, or plural castra, a camp;

-street, Lat. via strata, a levelled way; -minster, Lat. monasterium;

and -church or -kirk, Greco-Lat. kuriakon, belonging to the Lord.

Eccles, Greco-Lat. ecclesia, probably goes back to Celtic

Christianity. Street was the high-road, hence Greenstreet. Minster

is curiously corrupted in Buckmaster for Buckminster and Kittermaster

for Kidderminster, while in its simple form it appears as Minister

(Chapter III).

We have a few French place-names, e.g. Beamish (Chapter XIV),

Beaumont, Richmond, Richemont, and Malpas (Cheshire), the evil pass,

with which we may compare Maltravers. We have the apparent opposite

in Bompas, Bumpus, Fr. bon pas, but this was a nickname. Of late

there has been a tendency to introduce the French ville, e.g.

Bournville, near Birmingham. That part of Margate which ought to be

called Northdown is known as Cliftonville, and the inhabitants of the

opposite end of the town, dissatisfied with such good names as

Westbrook and Rancorn, hanker after Westonville. But these

philological atrocities are fortunately too late to be perpetuated as

surnames.

I have divided the names in this chapter into those that are connected

with

(1) Settlements and Enclosures,

(2) Highways and Byways,

(3) Watercourses,

(4) Buildings,

(5) Shop Signs.

And here, as before, names which neither in their simple nor compound

form present any difficulty are omitted.

SETTLEMENTS AND ENCLOSURES

The words which occur most commonly in the names of the modern towns

which have sprung from early homesteads are borough or bury,

[Footnote: Originally the dative of borough.] by, ham, stoke, stow,

thorp, tun or ton, wick, and worth. These names are all of native

origin, except by, which indicates a Danish settlement, and wick,

which is supposed to be a very early loan from Lat. vicus, cognate

with Greek oikos, house. Nearly all of them are common, in their

simple form, both as specific place-names and as surnames. Borough,

cognate with Ger. Burg, castle, and related to Barrow (Chapter XII),

has many variants, Bury, Brough, Borrow, Berry, whence Berryman, and

Burgh, the last of which has become Burke in Ireland.

In Atterbury the preposition and article have both remained, while in

Thornber the suffix is almost unrecognizable. By, related to byre and

to the preposition by, is especially common in Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire. It is sometimes spelt bee, e.g. Ashbee for Ashby. The

simple Bye is not uncommon. Ham is cognate with home. In compounds

it is sometimes reduced to -um, e.g. Barnum, Holtum, Warnum. But in

some such names the -um is the original form, representing an old

dative plural (Chapter III). Allum represents the usual Midland

pronunciation of Hallam. Cullum, generally for Culham, may also

represent the missionary Saint Colomb. In Newnham the adjective is

dative, as in Ger. Neuenheim, at the new home. In Bonham, Frankham,

and Pridham the suffix -ham has been substituted for the French homme

of bonhomme, franc homme, prudhomme, while Jerningham is a perversion

of the personal name Jernegan or Gernegan, as Garnham is of Gernon,

Old French for Beard (Chapter XXI). Stead is cognate with Ger. Stadt,

place, town, and with staith, as in Bickersteth(Chapter III).

Armstead means the dwelling of the hermit, Bensted the stead of Benna

(Chapter VII) or Bennet.

Stoke is originally distinct from Stock, a stump, with which it has

become fused in the compounds Bostock, Brigstocke. Stow appears in

the compound Bristol (Chapter XI) and in Plaistow, play-ground (cf.

Playsted). Thorp, cognate with Ger. Dorf, village, is especially

common in the eastern counties

"By twenty thorps, a little town,

And half a hundred bridges."

(Tennyson, The Brook, 1. 5.)

It has also given Thrupp and probably Thripp, whence Calthrop,

Winthrop, Westrupp, etc.

Ton, later Town, gave also the northern Toon, still used in Scotland

with something of its original sense (Chapter XII). Boston is

Botolf's town, Gunston Gunolf's town. So also Tarleton (Thurweald),

Monkton (monk), Preston (priest). Barton meant originally a

barley-field, and is still used in the west of England for a paddock.

Wick appears also as Wych, Weech. Its compounds cannot be separated

from those of wick, a creek (Chapter XII). Bromage is for Bromwich,

Greenidge for Greenwich, Prestage for Prestwich; cf. the place-name

Swanage (Dorset), earlier Swanewic.

Worth was perhaps originally applied to land by a river or to a holm

(Chapter XII); cf. Ger. Donauwert, Nonnenwert, etc. Harmsworth is for

Harmondsworth; cf. Ebbsworth (Ebba), Shuttleworth (Sceotweald),

Wadsworth (Wada). Sometimes we find a lengthened form, e.g.

Allworthy, from ald, old (cf. Aldworth), Langworthy. Rickworth,

further corrupted to Record, is the Anglo-Saxon name Ricweard.

Littleworth may belong to this class, but may also be a nickname.

This would make it equivalent to the imitative Little-proud, formerly

Littleprow, from Old French and Mid. Eng. prou, worth, value.

To this group may be added two more, which signify a mart, viz. Cheap

or Chipp (cf. Chepstow, Chipping Barnet) and Staple, whence Huxtable,

Stapleton, etc. Liberty, that part of a city which, though outside

the walls, shares in the city privileges, and Parish also occur as

surnames, but the latter is usually for Paris.

Many other words connected with the delimitation of property occur

commonly in surnames. Croft or Craft, a small field, is common in

compounds such as Beecroft or Bearcroft (barley), Haycraft (see hay,

below), Oscroft(ox), Rycroft, Meadowcroft. [Footnote: I remember

reading in some story of a socially ambitious lady who adopted this

commonplace name instead of Gubbins. The latter name came over, as

Gobin, with the Conqueror, and goes back to Old Ger. Godberaht, whence

Old Fr. Godibert.] Fold occurs usually as Foulds, but we have

compounds such as Nettlefold, Penfold or Pinfold (Chapter XIII). Sty,

not originally limited to pigs, has given Hardisty, the sty of

Heardwulf. Frith, a park or game preserve, is probably more often the

origin of a surname than the other frith (Chapter XII). It is cognate

with Ger. Friedhof, cemetery. Chase is still used of a park and Game

once meant rabbit-warren. Warren is Fr. garenne. Garth, the

Scandinavian doublet of Yard, and cognate with Garden, has given the

compounds Garside, Garfield, Hogarth (from a place in Westmorland),

and Applegarth, of which Applegate is a corruption. We have a

compound of yard in Wynyard, Anglo-Sax. win, vine. We have also the

name Close and its derivative Clowser. Gate, a barrier or opening,

Anglo-Sax. geat, is distinct from the Scandinavian gate, a street

(Chapter XIII), though of course confused with it in surnames. From

the northern form we have Yates, Yeats, and Yeatman, and the compounds

Byatt, by gate, Hyatt, high gate. Agate is for atte gate, and

Lidgate, whence Lidgett, means a swing gate, shutting like a lid.

Fladgate is for flood-gate. Here also belongs Barr. Hatch, the gate

at the entrance to a chase, survives in Colney Hatch. The apparent

dim. Hatchett is for Hatchard (Chapter VIII); cf. Everett for Everard

(Chapter II). Hay, also Haig, Haigh, Haw, Hey, is cognate with Hedge.

Like most monosyllabic local surnames, it is commonly found in the

plural, Hayes, Hawes. The bird nickname Hedgecock exists also as

Haycock. The curious-looking patronymics Townson and Orchardson are

of course corrupt. The former is for Tomlinson and the latter perhaps

from Achard (Chapter VIII).

Several places and families in England are named Hide or Hyde, which

meant a certain measure of land. The popular connection between this

word and hide, a skin, as in the story of the first Jutish settlement,

is a fable. It is connected with an Anglo-Saxon word meaning

household, which appears also in Huish, Anglo-Sax. hi-wisc. Dike, or

Dyke, and Moat, also Mott, both have, or had, a double meaning. We

still use dike, which belongs to dig and ditch, both of a trench and a

mound, and the latter was the earlier meaning of Fr. motte, now a

clod, In Anglo-French we find moat used of a mound fortress in a

marsh. Now it is applied to the surrounding water. From dike come

the names Dicker, Dickman, Grimsdick, etc. Sometimes the name Dykes

may imply residence near some historic earthwork, such as Offa's Dyke,

just as Wall, for which Waugh was used in the north, may show

connection with the Roman wall. With these may be mentioned the

French name Fosse, whence the apparently pleonastic Fosdyke and the

name of Verdant Green's friend, Mr. Four-in-hand Fosbrooke. Delves is

from Mid. Eng. dell, ditch. Jury is for Jewry, the quarter allotted

to the Jews, but Jewsbury is no doubt for Dewsbury; cf. Jewhurst for

Dewhurst.

Here may be mentioned a few local surnames which are hard to classify.

We have the apparently anatomical Back, Foot, Head, and, in compounds,

-side. Back seems to have been used of the region behind a building

or dwelling, as it still is at Cambridge. Its plural has given Bax.

But it was also a personal name connected with Bacon (Chapter XXIII).

We should expect Foot to mean the base of a hill, but it always occurs

in early rolls without a preposition. It may represent in some cases

an old personal name of obscure origin, but it is also a nickname with

compounds such as Barfoot, Lightfoot. The simple Head, found as Mid.

Eng. del heved, is perhaps generally from a shop sign. Fr. Tête, one

origin of Tait, Tate, and Ger. Haupt, Kopf, also occur as surnames.

As a local suffix -head appears to mean top-end and is generally

shortened to -ett, e.g. Birkett (cf. Birkenhead), [Footnote: No doubt

sometimes, like Burchett, Burkett, for the personal name Burchard,

Anglo-Sax. Burgheard] Brockett (brook), Bromet, Bromhead (broom),

Hazlitt (hazel). The same suffix appears to be present in Fossett,

from fosse, and Forcett from force, a waterfall (Scand.). Broadhead

is a nickname, like Fr. Grossetête and Ger. Breitkopf. The face-value

of Evershed is boar's head. Morshead may be the nickname of mine host

of the Saracen's Head or may mean the end of the moor. So the names

Aked (oak), Blackett, Woodhead may be explained anatomically or

geographically according to the choice of the bearer. Perrett,

usually a dim. of Peter, may sometimes represent the rather effective

old nickname "pear-head."

Side is local in the uncomfortable sounding Akenside (oak), Fearenside

(fern), but Heaviside appears to be a nickname. Handyside may mean

"gracious manner," from Mid. Eng. side, cognate with Ger. Sitte,

custom. See Hendy (Chapter XXII). The simple end survives as Ind or

Nind (Chapter III) and in Overend (Chapter XII), Townsend. Edge

appears also in the older form Egg, but the frequency of place-names

beginning with Edge, e.g. Edgeley, Edgington, Edgworth, etc., suggests

that it was also a personal name.

Lynch, a boundary, is cognate with golf-links. The following sounds

modern, but refers to people sitting in a hollow among the

sand-ridges--

"And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' a' the gangrel bodies that

ye find cowering in a sand-bunker upon the links?"

(Redgauntlet, ch. xi.)

Pitt is found in the compound Bulpitt, no doubt the place where the

town bull was kept. It is also the origin of the Kentish names Pett

and Pettman (Chapter XVII). Arch refers generally to a bridge.

Lastly, there are three words for a corner, viz. Hearne, Herne, Hurne,

Horn; Wyke, the same word as Wick, a creek (Chapter XII); and Wray

(Scand.). The franklin tell us that "yonge clerkes" desirous of

knowledge--

"Seken in every halke and every herne

Particular sciences for to lerne"

(F, 1119).

Wray has become confused with Ray (Chapter III). Its compound

thack-wray, the corner where the thatch was stored, has given

Thackeray.

HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS

The word road was not used in its current sense during the surname

period, but meant the art of riding, and specifically a raid or

inroad. Therefore the name Roades is unconnected with it and

represents merely a variant of Royds (Chapter XII). This name and its

compounds belong essentially to the north, the prevailing spelling,

Rhodes, being artificial. It has no connection with the island of

Rhodes.

The meaning of Street has changed considerably since the days when

Icknield Street and Watling Street were great national roads. It is

now used exclusively of town thoroughfares, and has become such a mere

suffix that, while we speak of the Oxford Róad, we try to suppress the

second word in Ox'ford Street. To street belong our place-names and

surnames in Strat-, Stret-, etc., e.g. Stratton, Stretton, Stredwick.

Way has a number of compounds with intrusive _a_, e.g. Challaway,

Dallaway (dale), Greenaway, Hathaway (heath), Westaway. But Hanway is

the name of a country (Chapter XI), and Otway, Ottoway, is Old Fr.

Otouet, a dim. of Odo. Shipway is for sheep-way. In the north of

England the streets in a town are often called gates (Scand.). It is

impossible to distinguish the compounds of this gate from those of the

native gate, a barrier (Chapter XIII), e.g. Norgate may mean North

Street or North Gate.

Alley and Court both exist as surnames, but the former is for a'lee,

i.e. Atlee (Chapter XII), and the latter is from court in the sense of

mansion, country house. The curious spelling Caught may be seen over

a shop in Chiswick. Rowe (Chapter I) sometimes means row of houses,

but in Townroe the second element is identical with Wray (Chapter

XIII). Cosway, Cossey, is from causeway, Fr. chaussée; and Twitchers,

Twitchell represent dialect words used of a narrow passage and

connected with the Mid. English verb twiselen, to fork, or divide;

Twiss must be of similar origin, for we find Robert del twysse in

1367. Cf. Birtwistle and Entwistle. With the above may be classed

the west-country Shute, a narrow street; Vennell, a north-country word

for alley, Fr. venelle, dim. of Lat. versa, vein; Wynd, a court, also

a north-country word, probably from the verb wind, to twist; and the

cognate Went, a passage--

"Thorugh a goter, by a prive wente."

(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 788.)

WATER

Names derived from artificial watercourses are Channell, now replaced

as a common noun by the learned form canal; Condy or Cundy, for the

earlier Cunditt, conduit; Gott, cognate with gut, used in Yorkshire

for the channel from a mill-dam, and in Lincolnshire for a water-drain

on the coast; Lade, Leete, connected with the verb to lead; and

sometimes Shore (Chapter XII), which was my grandfather's

pronunciation of sewer. From weir, lit. a protection, precaution,

cognate with beware and Ger. wehren, to protect, we have not only

Weir, but also Ware, Warr, Wear, and the more pretentious Delawarr.

The latter name passed from an Earl Delawarr to a region in North

America, and thus to Fenimore Cooper's noble red men. But this group

of names must sometimes be referred to the Domesday wars, an outlying

potion of a manor. Lock is more often a land name, to be classed with

Hatch (Chapter XIII), but was also used of a water-gate. Key was once

the usual spelling of quay. The curious name Keylock is a perversion

of Kellogg, Mid. Eng. Kill-hog. Port seldom belongs here, as the Mid.

English is almost always de la Porte, i.e. Gates. From well we have a

very large number of compounds, e.g. Cauldwell (cold), Halliwell, the

variants of which, Holliwell, Hollowell, probably all represent Mid.

Eng. hali, holy. Here belongs also Winch, from the device used for

drawing water from deep wells.

BUILDINGS

The greater number of the words to be dealt with under this heading

enter into the composition of specific place-names. A considerable

number of surnames are derived from the names of religious buildings,

usually from proximity rather than actual habitation. Such names are

naturally of Greco-Latin origin, and were either introduced directly

into Anglo-Saxon by the missionaries, or were adopted later in a

French form after the Conquest. It has already been noted (Chapter I)

that Abbey is not always what it seems; but in some cases it is local,

from Fr, abbaye, of which the Provençal form Abadie was introduced by

the Huguenots. We find much earlier Abdy, taken straight from the

Greco-Lat. abbatia. The famous name Chantrey is for chantry, Armitage

was once the regular pronunciation of Hermitage, and Chappell a common

spelling of Chapel--

"Also if you finde not the word you seeke for presently after one sort

of spelling, condemne me not forthwith, but consider how it is used to

be spelled, whether with double or single letters, as Chappell, or

Chapell" (Holyoak, Latin Dict., 1612).

We have also the Norman form Capel, but this may be a nickname from

Mid. Eng. capel, nag--

"Why nadstow (hast thou not) pit the capul in the lathe (barn)?" (A,

4088.)

A Galilee was a chapel or porch devoted to special purposes--

"Those they pursued had taken refuge in the galilee of the church"

(Fair Maid of Perth, ch. ix.).

The tomb of the Venerable Bede is in the Galilee of Durham Cathedral.

I had a schoolfellow with this uncommon name, now generally perverted

to Galley. In a play now running (Feb. 1913) in London, there is a

character named Sanctuary, a name found also in Crockford and the

London Directory.

I have only once come across the contracted form Sentry [Footnote: On

the development in meaning of this word, first occurring in the phrase

"to take sentrie," i.e. refuge, see my Romance of Words, ch. vii.]

(Daily Telegraph, Dec. 26, 1912), and then under circumstances which

might make quotation actionable. Purvis is Mid. Eng. parvis, a porch,

Greco-Lat. paradises. It may be the same as Provis, the name selected

by Mr. Magwitch on his return from the Antipodes (Great Expectations,

ch. xl.), unless this is for Provost. Porch and Portch both occur as

surnames, but Porcher is Fr. porcher, a swineherd, and Portal is a

Huguenot name. Churcher and Kirker, Churchman and Kirkman, are

usually local; cf. Bridges and Bridgman.

The names Temple and Templeman were acquired from residence near one

of the preceptories of the Knights Templars, and Spittlehouse (Chapter

III) is sometimes to be accounted for in a similar way (Knights of the

Hospital). We even find the surname Tabernacle. Musters is Old Fr.

moustiers (moutiers), common in French place-names, from Lat.

monasterium. The word bow, still used for an arch in some old towns,

has given the names Bow and Bowes. A medieval statute, recently

revived to baffle the suffragettes, was originally directed against

robbers and "pillers," i.e. plunderers, but the name Piller is also

for pillar; cf. the French name Colonise. With these may be mentioned

Buttress and Carvell, the latter from Old Fr. carnet (créneau), a

battlement.

As general terms for larger dwellings we find Hall, House, also

written Hose, and Seal, the last-named from the Teutonic original

which has given Fr. Lasalle, whence our surname Sale. To the same

class belong Place, Plaice, as in Cumnor Place.

The possession of such surnames does not imply ancestral possession of

Haddon Hall, Stafford House, etc., but merely that the founder of the

family lived under the shadow of greatness. In compounds -house is

generally treated as in "workus," e.g. Bacchus (Chapter VIII),

Bellows, Brewis, Duffus (dove), Kirkus, Loftus, Malthus, Windus (wynd,

Chapter XIII). In connection with Woodhouse it must be remembered

that this name was given to the man who played the part of a "wild man

of the woods" in processions and festivities. William Power, skinner,

called "Wodehous," died in London in 1391. Of similar origin is

Greenman. The tavern sign of the Green Man is sometimes explained as

representing a forester in green, but it was probably at first

equivalent to the German sign "Zum wilden Mann." Cassell is sometimes

for Castle, but is more often a local German name of recent

introduction. The northern Peel, a castle, as in the Isle of Man, was

originally applied to a stockade, Old Fr. pel (pieu), a stake, Lat.

Palos. Hence also Peall, Peile. Keep comes from the central tower of

the castle, where the baron and his family kept, i.e. lived. A moated

Grange is a poetic figment, for the word comes from Fr, grange, a barn

(to Lat. granum); hence Granger.

With Mill and the older Milne (Chapter II) we may compare Mullins, Fr.

Desmoulins. Barnes is sometimes, but not always, what it seems

(Chapter XXI). With it we may put Leathes, from an obsolete

Scandinavian word for barn (see quot. Chapter XIII), to which we owe

also the names Leatham and Latham. Mr. Oldbuck's "ecstatic

description" of the Roman camp with its praetorium was spoilt by Edie

Ochiltree's disastrous interruption

"Praetorian here, praetorian there, I mind the bigging o't."

(Antiquary, ch. iv.).

DWELLINGS

The obsolete verb to big, i.e. build, whence Biggar, a builder, has

given us Biggins, Biggs (Chapter III), and Newbigging, while from to

build we have Newbould and Newbolt. Cazenove, Ital. casa nuova, means

exactly the same. Probably related to build is the obsolete Bottle, a

building, whence Harbottle. A humble dwelling was called a Board--

Borde, a little house, lodging, or cottage of timber (Cotgrave)--

whence Boardman, Border. Other names were Booth, Lodge, and Folley,

Fr. feuillée, a hut made of branches--

"Feuillée, an arbor, or bower, framed of leav'd plants, or branches"

(Cotgrave).

Scale, possibly connected with shealing, is a Scandinavian word used

in the north for a shepherd's hut, hence the surname Scales. Bower,

which now suggests a leafy arbour, had no such sense in Mid. English.

Chaucer says of the poor widow--

"Ful sooty was hir bour and eek hire halle."

(B, 4022.)

Hence the names Bowerman, Boorman, Burman.

But the commonest of names for a humble dwelling was cot or cote

Born and fed in rudenesse

As in a cote or in an oxe stalle

(E, 397)

the inhabitant of which was a Colman, Cotter, or, diminutively,

Cottrell, Cotterill. Hence the frequent occurrence of the name

Coates.

There are also numerous compounds, e.g. Alcott (old), Norcott,

Kingscote, and the many variants of Caldecott, Calcott, the cold

dwelling, especially common as a village name in the vicinity of the

Roman roads. It is supposed to have been applied, like Coldharbour,

to deserted posts. The name Cotton is sometimes from the dative

plural of the same word, though, when of French origin, it represents

Colon, dim. of Cot, aphetic for Jacot.

Names such as Kitchin, Spence, a north-country word for pantry

(Chapter XX), and Mews, originally applied to the hawk-coops (see

Mewer, Chapter XV), point to domestic employment. The simple Mew,

common in Hampshire, is a bird nickname. Scammell preserves an older

form of shamble(s), originally the benches on which meat was exposed

for sale. The name Currie, or Curry, is too common to be referred

entirely to the Scot. Corrie, a mountain glen, or to Curry in

Somerset, and I conjecture that it sometimes represents Old French and

Mid. Eng. curie, a kitchen, which is the origin of Petty Cury in

Cambridge and of the famous French name Curie. Nor can Furness be

derived exclusively from the Furness district of Lancashire. It must

sometimes correspond to the common French name Dufour, from four,

oven. We also have the name Ovens. Stables, when not identical with

Staples (Chapter XIII), belongs to the same class as Mews. Chambers,

found in Scotland as Chalmers, is official, the medieval de la Chambre

often referring to the Exchequer Chamber of the City of London.

Bellchambers has probably no connection with this word. It appears to

be an imitative spelling of Belencombre, a place near Dieppe, for the

entry de Belencumbre is of frequent occurrence.

Places of confinement are represented by Gale, gaol (Chapter III),

Penn, whence Inkpen (Berkshire), Pond, Pound, and Penfold or Pinfold.

But Gales is also for Anglo-Fr. Galles, Wales. Butts may come from

the archery ground, while Butt is generally to be referred to the

French name Bout (Chapter VII) or to Budd (Chapter VII). Cordery, for

de la corderie, of the rope-walk, has been confused with the much more

picturesque Corderoy, i.e. coeur de roi.

SHOP SIGNS

As is well known, medieval shops had signs instead of numbers, and

traces of this custom are still to be seen in country towns. It is

quite obvious that town surnames would readily spring into existence

from such signs. The famous name Rothschild, always mispronounced in

English, goes back to the "red shield" over Nathan Rothschild's shop

in the Jewry of Frankfurt; and within the writer's memory two brothers

named Grainge in the little town of Uxbridge were familiarly known as

Bible Grainge and Gridiron Grainge. Many animal surnames are to be

referred partly to this source, e.g. Bull, Hart, Lamb, Lyon, Ram,

Roebuck, Stagg; Cock, Falcon, Peacock, Raven, Swann, etc., all still

common as tavern signs. The popinjay, or parrot, is still

occasionally found as Pobgee, Popjoy. These surnames all have, of

course, an alternative explanation (ch. xxiii.). Here also usually

belong Angel and Virgin.

A considerable number of such names probably consist of those taken

from figures used in heraldry or from objects which indicated the

craft practised, or the special commodity in which the tradesman

dealt. Such are Arrow, Bell, Buckle, Crosskeys, Crowne, Gauntlett,

Hatt, Horne, Image, Key, Lilley, Meatyard, measuring wand--

"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight,

or in measure" (Lev. xix. 35)--

Mullett, [Footnote: A five-pointed star, Old Fr. molette, rowel of a

spur.] Rose, Shears, and perhaps Blades, Shipp, Spurr, Starr, Sword.

Thomas Palle, called "Sheres," died in London, 1376.

But here again we must walk delicately. The Germanic name Hatto,

borne by the wicked bishop who perished in the Mäuseturm, gave the

French name Hatt with the accusative form Hatton, [Footnote: In Old

French a certain number of names, mostly of Germanic origin, had an

accusative in -on, e.g. Guy, Guyon, Hugues, Hugon. From Lat. Pontius

came Poinz, Poinson, whence our Poyntz, less pleasingly Punch, and

Punshon. In the Pipe Rolls these are also spelt Pin-, whence Pinch,

Pinchin, and Pinches.] Horn is an old personal name, as in the

medieval romance of King Horn, Shipp is a common provincialism for

sheep, [Footnote: Hence the connection between the ship and the

"ha'porth of tar."] Starr has another explanation (see Starling) and

Bell has several (chapter 1). I should guess that Porteous was the

sign used by some medieval writer of mass-books and breviaries. Its

oldest form is the Anglo-Fr. Porte-hors, corresponding to medieval

Lat. portiforium, a breviary, lit. what one carries outside, a

portable prayer-book--

"For on my porthors here I make an oath." (B, 1321.)

But as the name is found without prefix in the Hundred Rolls, it may

have been a nickname conferred on some clericus who was proud of so

rare a possession.

CHAPTER XIV. NORMAN BLOOD

"Such, however, is the illusion of antiquity and wealth that decent

and dignified men now existing boast their descent from these filthy

thieves"

(EMERSON, English Traits, ch. iv.).

Not every Norman or Old French name need be included in the group

described by Emerson when talking down to an uneducated audience. In

fact, it is probable that the majority of genuine French names belong

to a later period; for, although the baron who accompanied the

Conqueror would in many cases keep his old territorial designation,

the minor ruffian would, as a rule, drop the name of the obscure

hamlet from which he came and assume some surname more convenient in

his new surroundings. Local names of Old French origin are usually

taken from the provinces and larger towns which had a meaning for

English ears. I have given examples of such in chapter xi. Of course

it is easy to take a detailed map of Northern France and say, without

offering any proof, that "Avery (Chapter VIII) is from Evreux, Belcher

(Chapter XXI) from Bellecourt, Custance (Chapter X) from Coutances,"

and so on. But any serious student knows this to be idiotic nonsense.

The fact that, except in the small minority composed of the senior

branches of the noblest houses, the surname was not hereditary till

centuries after the Conquest, justifies any bearer of a Norman name

taken from a village or smaller locality in repudiating all connection

with the "filthy thieves" and conjecturing descent from some decent

artisan belonging to one of the later immigrations.

That a considerable number of aristocratic families, and others, bear

an easily recognizable French town or village name is of course well

known, but it will usually be found that such names are derived from

places which are as plentiful in France as our own Ashleys, Barton,

Burton, Langleys, Newtons, Suttons, etc., are in England. In some

cases a local French name has spread in an exceptional manner.

Examples are Baines (Gains, 2 [Footnote: The figures in brackets

indicate the number of times that the French local name occurs in the

Postal Directory. The above is the usual explanation of Baines.

found with de in the Hundred Rolls. But I think it was sometimes a

nickname, bones, applied to a thin man. I find William Banes in

Lancashire in 1252; cf. Langbain.] ), Gurney (Gournai, 6), Vernon (3).

But usually in such cases we find a large number of spots which may

have given rise to the surname, e.g. Beaumont (46, without counting

Belmont), Dampier (Dampierre, i.e. St. Peter's, 28), Daubeney, Dabney

(Aubigné, 4, Aubigny, 17), Ferrers (Ferriéres, 22), Nevill (Neuville,

58), Nugent (Nogent, 17), Villiers (58). This last name, representing

Vulgar Lat. villarium, is the origin of Ger. -weiler, so common in

German village names along the old Roman roads, e.g. Badenweiler,

Froschweiler, etc.

When we come to those surnames of this class which have remained

somewhat more exclusive, we generally find that the place-name is also

comparatively rare. Thus Hawtrey is from Hauterive (7), Pinpoint from

Pierrepont (5), Furneaux from Fourneaux (5), Vipont and Vipan from

Vieux-Pont (3), and there are three places called Percy.

The following have two possible birthplaces each-Bellew or Pellew

(Belleau), Cantelo (Canteloup [Footnote: But the doublet Chanteloup is

common.]), Mauleverer (Maulévrier), Mompesson (Mont Pinçon or

Pinchon), Montmorency, Mortimer (Morte-mer). The following are

unique--Carteret, Doll [Footnote: This may also be a metronymic, from

Dorothy.] (Dol), Fiennes, Furnival (Fournival), Greville, Harcourt,

Melville (Meleville), Montresor, Mowbray (Monbrai), Sackville

(Sacquenville), Venables. These names are taken at random, but the

same line of investigation can be followed up by any reader who thinks

it worth while.

CORRUPT FORMS

Apart from aristocratic questions, it is interesting to notice the

contamination which has occurred between English and French surnames

of local origin. The very common French suffix -ville is regularly

confounded with our -field. Thus Summerfield is the same name as

Somerville, Dangerfield is for d'Angerville, Belfield for Belleville,

Blomfield for Blonville, and Stutfield for Estouteville, while

Grenville, Granvillehave certainly become confused with our Grenfell,

green fell, and Greenfield. Camden notes that Turberville became

Troublefield, and I have found the intermediate Trubleville in the

twelfth century. The case of Tess Durbeyfield will occur to every

reader. The suffix -fort has been confused with our -ford and -forth,

so that Rochford is in some cases for Rochefort and Beeforth for

Beaufort or Belfort. With the first syllable of Beeforth we may

compare Beevor for Beauvoir, Belvoir, Beecham for Beauchamp, and

Beamish for Beaumais.

The name Beamish actually occurs as that of village in Durham, the

earlier form of which points Old French origin, from beau mes, Lat.

bellum mansum, a fair manse, i.e. dwelling. Otherwise it would be

tempting to derive the surname Beamish from Ger, böhmisch, earlier

behmisch, Bohemian.

A brief survey of French spot-names which have passed into English

will show that they were acquired in exactly the same way as the

corresponding English names. Norman ancestry, is, however, not always

to be assumed in this case. Until the end of the fourteenth century a

large proportion of our population was bi-lingual, and names

accidentally recorded in Anglo-French may occasionally have stuck.

Thus the name Boyes or Boyce may spring from a man of pure English

descent who happened to be described as del boil instead of atte wood,

just as Capron (Chapter XXI) means Hood. While English spot-names

have as a rule shed both the preposition and the article (Chapter

XII), French usually keeps one or both, though these were more often

lost when the name passed into England. Thus our Roach is not a

fish-name, but corresponds to Fr. Laroche or Delaroche; and the blind

pirate Pew, if not a Welshman, ap Hugh, was of the race of Dupuy, from

Old Fr. Puy, a hill, Lat. podium, a height, gallery, etc., whence also

our Pew, once a raised platform.

In some cases the prefix has passed into English; e.g. Diprose is from

des préaux, of the meadows, a name assumed by Boileau among others.

There are, of course, plenty of places in France called Les Préaux,

but in the case of such a name we need not go further than possession

of, or residence by, a piece of grass-land--

"Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre,

Qui, n'ayant pour tout bien qu'un seul quartier de terre,

Y fit tout alentour faire un fossé bourbeux,

Et de monsieur de l'Isle en prit le nom pompeux."

(Molière L'Ecole des Femmes, i. 1.)

The Old French singular préal is perhaps the origin of Prall, Prawle.

Similarly Preece, Prees, usually for Price, may sometimes be for des

Pres. With Boyes (Chapter XIV) we may compare Tallis from Fr.

taillis, a copse (tailler, to cut). Garrick, a Huguenot name, is Fr,

gangue, an old word for heath.

TREE NAMES

Trees have in all countries a strong influence on topographical names,

and hence on surnames. Frean, though usually from the Scandinavian

name Fraena, is sometimes for Fr. frêne, ash, Lat. fraxinus, while

Cain and Kaines [Footnote: There is one family of Keynes derived

specifically from Chahaignes (Sarthe).] are Norm. quêne (chêne),

oak. The modern French for beech is hêtre, Du. heester, but Lat.

fagus has given a great many dialect forms which have supplied us with

the surnames Fay, Foy, and the plural dim. Failes. Here also I should

put the name Defoe, assumed by the writer whose father was satisfied

with Foe. With Quatrefages, four beeches, we may compare such English

names as Fiveash, Twelvetrees, and Snooks, for "seven oaks."

In Latin the suffix -etum was used to designate a grove or plantation.

This suffix, or its plural -eta, is very common in France, becoming

successively -ei(e), -oi(e), -ai(e). The name Dobree is a Guernsey

spelling of d'Aubray, Lat. arboretum, which was dissimilated (Chapter

III) into arboretum. Darblay, the name of Fanny Burney's husband, is

a variant. From au(l)ne, alder, we have aunai, whence our Dawnay. So

also frênai has given Freeney, chênai, Chaney, and the Norm. quênai

is one origin of Kenney, while the older chesnai appears in Chesney.

Houssaie, from hoax, holly, gives Hussey; chastenai, chestnut grove,

exists in Nottingham as Chastener; coudrai, hazel copse, gives Cowdrey

and Cowdery; Verney and Varney are from vernai, grove of alders, of

Celtic origin, and Viney corresponds to the French name Vinoy, Lat.

vinetum.

We have also Chinnery, Chenerey from the extended chênerai, and

Pomeroy from pommerai. Here again the name offers no clue as to the

exact place of origin. There are in the French Postal Directory eight

places called Épinay, from épine, thorn, but these do not exhaust the

number of "spinnies" in France. Also connected with tree-names are

Conyers, Old Fr, coigniers, quince-trees, and Pirie, Perry, Anglo-Fr.

périe, a collective from peire (poire).

Among Norman names for a homestead the favourite is mesnil, from

Vulgar Lat. mansionile, which enters into a great number of local

names. It has given our Meynell, and is also the first element of

Mainwaring, Mannering, from mesnil-Warin. The simple mes, a southern

form of which appears in Dumas, has given us Mees and Meese, which are

thus etymological doublets of the word manse. With Beamish (Chapter

XIV) we may compare Bellasis, from bel-assis, fairly situated. Poyntz

is sometimes for des ponts; cf. Pierpoint for Pierrepont.

Even Norman names which were undoubtedly borne by leaders among the

Conqueror's companions are now rarely found among the noble, and many

a descendant of these once mighty families cobbles the shoes of more

recent invaders. Even so the descendants of the Spanish nobles who

conquered California are glad to peddle vegetables at the doors of San

Francisco magnates whose fathers dealt in old clothes in some German

Judengasse.

CHAPTER XV. OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

"When Adam delved and Eve span,

Who was then the gentleman?"

Chant of Wat Tyler's followers.

The occupative name would, especially in villages, tend to become a

very natural surname. It is not therefore surprising to find so large

a number of this class among our commonest surnames, e.g. Smith,

Taylor, Wright, Walker, Turner, Clark, Cooper, etc. And, as the same

craft often persisted in a family for generations, it was probably

this type of surname which first became hereditary. On the other

hand, such names as Cook, Gardiner, Carter, etc., have no doubt in

some cases prevailed over another surname lawfully acquired (Chapter

I). It is impossible to fix an approximate date for the definite

adoption of surnames of this class. It occurred earlier in towns than

in the country, and by the middle of the fourteenth century we often

find in the names of London citizens a contradiction between the

surname and the trade-name; e.g. Walter Ussher, tanner, John Botoner,

girdler, Roger Carpenter, pepperer, Richard le Hunte, chaundeler,

occur 1336-52.

The number of surnames belonging to this group is immense, for every

medieval trade and craft was highly specialized and its privileges

were jealously guarded. The general public, which now, like Issachar,

crouches between the trusts and the trades unions, was in the middle

ages similarly victimized by the guilds of merchants and craftsmen.

Then, as now, it grumblingly recognized that, "Plus ça change, plus ça

reste la même chose," and went on enduring. [Footnote: If a student

of philology were allowed to touch on such high matters as

legislation, I would moralize on the word kiddle, meaning an illegal

kind of weir used for fish-poaching, whence perhaps the surname

Kiddell. From investigations made with a view to discovering the

origin of the word, I came to the conclusion that all the legislative

powers in England spent three centuries in passing enactments against

these devices, with the inevitable consequence that they became ever

more numerous.]

SOCIAL GRADES

By dealing with a few essential points at the outset we shall clear

the ground for considering the various groups of surnames connected

with trade, craft, profession or office. To begin with, it is certain

that such names as Pope, Cayzer, King, Earl, Bishop are nicknames,

very often conferred on performers in religious plays or acquired in

connection with popular festivals and processions--

"Names also have been taken of civil honours, dignities and estate, as

King, Duke, Prince, Lord, Baron, Knight, Valvasor or Vavasor, Squire,

Castellon, partly for that their ancestours were such, served such,

acted such parts; or were Kings of the Bean, Christmas-Lords, etc."

(Camden).

We find corresponding names in other languages, and some of the French

names, usually preceded by the definite article, have passed into

English, e.g. Lempriere, a Huguenot name, and Levêque, whence our

Levick, Vick, Veck (Chapter III). Baron generally appears as Barron,

and Duke, used in Mid. English of any leader, is often degraded to

Duck, whence the dim. Duckett. But all three of these names can also

be referred to Marmaduke.

It would be tempting to put Palsgrave in this class. Prince Rupert,

the Pfalzgraf, i.e. Count Palatine, was known as the Palsgrave in his

day, but I have not found the title recorded early enough.

With Lord we must put the northern Laird, and, in my opinion, Senior;

for, if we notice how much commoner Young is than Old, and Fr. Lejeune

than Levieux, we must conclude that junior, a very rare surname, ought

to be of much more frequent occurrence than Senior, Synyer, a fairly

common name. There can be little doubt that Senior is usually a

latinization of the medieval le seigneur, whence also Saynor. Knight

is not always knightly, for Anglo-Sax. cniht means servant; cf. Ger.

Knecht. The word got on in the world, with the consequence that the

name is very popular, while its medieval compeers, knave, varlet,

villain, have, even when adorned with the adj. good, dropped out of

the surname list, Bonvalet, Bonvarlet, Bonvillain are still common

surnames in France. From Knight we have the compound Road-night, a

mounted servitor. Thus Knight is more often a true occupative name,

and the same applies to Dring or Dreng, a Scandinavian name of similar

meaning.

Other names from the middle rungs of the social ladder are also to be

taken literally, e.g. Franklin, a freeholder, Anglo-Fr. frankelein--

"How called you your franklin, Prior Aylmer?"

"Cedric," answered the Prior, "Cedric the Saxon"

(Ivanhoe, ch. i.)--

Burgess, Freeman, Freeborn. The latter is sometimes for Freebairn and

exists already as the Anglo-Saxon personal name Freobeorn. Denison

(Chapter II) is occasionally an accommodated form of denizen,

Anglo-Fr. deinzein, a burgess enjoying the privileges belonging to

those who lived "deinz (in) la cité." In 1483 a certain Edward

Jhonson--

"Sued to be mayde Denison for fer of ye payment of ye subsedy."

(Letter to Sir William Stonor, June 9, 1483.)

Bond is from Anglo-Sax, bonda, which means simply agriculturist. The

word is of Icelandic origin and related to Boor, another word which

has deteriorated and is rare as a surname, though the cognate Bauer is

common enough in Germany. Holder is translated by Tennant. For some

other names applied to the humbler peasantry see Chapter XIII.

To return to the social summit, we have Kingson, often confused with

the local Kingston, and its Anglo-French equivalent Fauntleroy.

Faunt, aphetic for Anglo-Fr. enfaunt, is common in Mid. English. When

the mother of Moses had made the ark of bulrushes, or, as Wyclif calls

it, the "junket of resshen," she--

"Putte the litil faunt with ynne"

(Exodus ii. 3)

The Old French accusative (Chapter I) was also used as a genitive, as

in Bourg-le-roi, Bourg-la-rein, corresponding to our Kingsbury and

Queensborough. We have a genitive also in Flowerdew, found in French

as Flourdieu. Lower, in his Patronymics Britannica (1860), the first

attempt at a dictionary of English surnames, conjectures Fauntleroy to

be from an ancient French war-cry Défendez le roi! for "in course of

time, the meaning of the name being forgotten, the de would be

dropped, and the remaining syllables would easily glide into

Fauntleroy." [Footnote: I have quoted this "etymology" because it is

too funny to be lost; but a good deal of useful information can be

found in Lower, especially with regard to the habitat of well-known

names.]

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES

Names of ecclesiastics must usually be nicknames, because medieval

churchmen were not entitled to have descendants. This appears clearly

in such an entry as "Bishop the crossbowman," or "Johannes Monacus et

uxor ejus Emma," living in Kent in the twelfth century. But these

names are so numerous that I have put them with the Canterbury

Pilgrims (ch. xvii.). Three of them may be mentioned here in

connection with a small group of occupative surnames of puzzling form.

We have noticed (Chapter XII) that monosyllabic, and some other,

surnames of local origin frequently take an -s, partly by analogy with

names like Wills, Watts, etc. We rarely find this -s in the case of

occupative names, but Parsons, Vicars or Vickers, and Monks are

common, and in fact the first two are scarcely found without the -s.

To these we may add Reeves (Chapter XVII), Grieves (Chapter XIX), and

the well-known Nottingham name Mellers (Chapter XVII). The

explanation seems to be that these names are true genitives, and that

John Parsons was John the Parson's man, while John Monks was employed

by the monastery. This is confirmed by such entries as "Walter atte

Parsons," "John del Parsons," "Allen atte Prestes," "William del

Freres," "Thomas de la Vicars," all from the thirteenth and fourteenth

centuries.

Another exceptional group is that of names formed by adding -son to

the occupative names, the commonest being perhaps Clarkson, Cookson,

Smithson, and Wrightson. To this class belongs Grayson, which

Bardsley shows to be equivalent to the grieve's son.

Our occupative names are both English and French, [Footnote: We have

also a few Latinizations, e.g. Faber (wright), Messer (mower). This

type of name is much commoner in Germany, e.g. Avenarius, oat man,

Fabricius, smith, Textor, weaver, etc. Mercator, of map projection

fame, was a Fleming named Kremer, i.e. dealer.] the two languages

being represented by those important tradesmen Baker and Butcher. The

former is reinforced by Bollinger, Fr. boulanger, Pester, Old Fr.

pestour (Lat. piston), and Furner--

"Fournier, a baker, or one that keeps, or governs a common oven"

(Cotgrave).

The English and French names for the same trade also survive in

Cheeseman and Firminger, Old Fr. formagier (fromage).

We have as endings -er, -ier, the latter often made into -yer, -ger,

as in Lockyer, Sawyer, Kidger (Chapter XIX), Woodger, [Footnote:

Woodyer, Woodger, may also be for wood-hewer. See Stanier] and -or,

-our, as in Taylor, Jenoure (Chapter III). The latter ending,

corresponding to Modern Fr. -eur, represents Lat. -or, -orem, but we

tack it onto English words as in "sailor," or substitute it for -er,

-ier, as in Fermor, for Farmer, Fr. fermier. In the Privy Purse

Expenses of that careful monarch Henry VII. occurs the item--

"To bere drunken at a fermors house . . . 1s."

In the same way we replace the Fr. -our, -eur by -er, as in Turner,

Fr. tourneur, Ginner, Jenner for Jenoure.

The ending -er, -ier represents the Lat. -arius. It passed not only

into French, but also into the Germanic languages, replacing the

Teutonic agential suffix which consisted of a single vowel. We have a

few traces of this oldest group of occupative names, e.g. Webb, Mid.

Eng. webbe, Anglo-Sax. webb-a, and Hunt, Mid. Eng. hunte, Anglo-Sax.

hunt-a--

"With hunte and horne and houndes hym bisyde"

(A, 1678)--

which still hold the field easily against Webber and Hunter.

So also, the German name Beck represents Old High Ger. pecch-o, baker.

To these must be added Kemp, a champion, a very early loan-word

connected with Lat. campus, field, and Wright, originally the worker,

Anglo-Sax. wyrht-a. Camp is sometimes for Kemp, but is also from the

Picard form of Fr, champ, i.e. Field. Of similar formation to Webb,

etc., is Clapp, from an Anglo-Sax. nickname, the clapper--

"Osgod Clapa, King Edward Confessor's staller, was cast upon the

pavement of the Church by a demon's hand for his insolent pride in

presence of the relics (of St. Edmund, King and Martyr)."

(W. H. Hutton, Bampton Lectures, 1903.)

NAMES IN -STER

The ending -ster was originally feminine, and applied to trades

chiefly carried on by women, e.g. Baxter, Bagster, baker, Brewster,

Simister, sempster, Webster, etc., but in process of time the

distinction was lost, so that we find Blaxter and Whitster for

Blacker, Blakey, and Whiter, both of which, curiously enough, have the

same meaning--

"Bleykester or whytster, candidarius" (Prompt. Parv.)--

for this black represents Mid. Eng. bla-c, related to bleak and

bleach, and meaning pale--

"Blake, wan of colour, blesme (blême)" (Palsgrave).

Occupative names of French origin are apt to vary according to the

period and dialect of their adoption. For Butcher we find also

Booker, Bowker, and sometimes the later Bosher, Busher, with the same

sound for the ch as in Labouchère, the lady butcher. But Booker may

also mean what it appears to mean, as Mid. Eng. bokere is used by

Wyclif for the Latin scriba.

Butcher, originally a dealer in goat's flesh, Fr. bouc, has ousted

flesher. German still has half a dozen surnames derived from names

for this trade, e.g. Fleischer, Fleischmann, [Footnote: Hellenized as

Sarkander. This was a favourite trick of German scholars at the

Renaissance period. Well-known examples are Melancthon (Schwarzerd),

Neander (Neumann).] Metzger, Schlechter; but our flesher has been

absorbed by Fletcher, a maker of arrows, Fr. flêche. Fletcher Gate at

Nottingham was formerly Flesher Gate. The undue extension of Taylor

has already been mentioned (Chapter IV). Another example is Barker,

which has swallowed up the Anglo-Fr. berquier, a shepherd, Fr. berger,

with the result that the Barkers outnumber the Tanners by three to one

"'What craftsman are you?' said our King,

'I pray you, tell me now.'

'I am a barker,' quoth the tanner;

'What craftsman art thou?'"

(Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth.)

The name seems to have been applied also to the man who barked trees

for the tanner.

MISSING TRADESMEN

With Barker it seems natural to mention Mewer, of which I find one

representative in the London Directory. The medieval le muur had

charge of the mews in which the hawks were kept while moulting (Fr.

muer, Lat. mutare). Hence the phrase "mewed up." The word seems to

have been used for any kind of coop. Chaucer tells us of the

Franklin--

"Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in muw" (A, 349).

I suspect that some of the Muirs (Chapter XII) spring from this

important office. Similarly Clayer has been absorbed by the local

Clare, Kayer, the man who made keys, by Care, and Blower, whether of

horn or bellows, has paid tribute to the local Bloor, Blore.

Sewer, an attendant at table, aphetic for Old Fr. asseour, a setter,

is now a very rare name. As we know that sewer, a drain, became

shore, it is probable that the surname Shore sometimes represents this

official or servile title. And this same name Shore, though not

particularly common, and susceptible of a simple local origin, labours

under grave suspicion of having also enriched itself at the expense of

the medieval le suur, the shoemaker, Lat. sutor-em, whence Fr.

Lesueur. This would inevitably become Sewer and then Shore, as above.

Perhaps, in the final reckoning, Shaw is not altogether guiltless, for

I know of one family in which this has replaced earlier Shore.

The medieval le suur brings us to another problem, viz. the poor show

made by the craftsmen who clothed the upper and lower extremities of

our ancestors. The name Hatter, once frequent enough, is almost

extinct, and Capper is not very common. The name Shoemaker has met

with the same fate, though the trade is represented by the Lat. Sutor,

whence Scot. Souter. Here belong also Cordner, Codner, [Footnote:

Confused, of course, with the local Codnor (Derbyshire)] Old Fr.

cordouanier (cordonnier), a cordwainer, a worker in Cordovan leather,

and Corser, Cosser, earlier corviser, corresponding to the French name

Courvoisier, also derived from Cordova. Chaucer, in describing the

equipment of Sir Thopas, mentions

"His shoon of cordewane" (B, 1922).

The scarcity of Groser, grocer, is not surprising, for the word,

aphetic for engrosser, originally meaning a wholesale dealer, one who

sold en gros, is of comparatively late occurrence. His medieval

representative was Spicer.

On the other hand, many occupative titles which are now obsolete, or

practically so, still survive strongly as surnames. Examples of these

will be found in chapters xvii.-xx.

Some occupative names are rather deceptive. Kisser, which is said

still to exist, means a maker of cuishes, thigh-armour, Fr, cuisses--

"Helm, cuish, and breastplate streamed with gore."

(Lord of the Isles, iv. 33.)

Corker is for caulker, i.e. one who stopped the chinks of ships and

casks, originally with lime (Lat. calx)--

"Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk'd and bitumed ready"

(Pericles iii. 1).

Cleaver represents Old Fr, clavier, a mace-bearer, Lat. clava, a club,

or a door-keeper, Lat. clavis, a key. Perhaps even clavus, a nail,

must also be considered, for a Latin vocabulary of the fifteenth

century tells us--

"Claves, -vos vet -vas qui fert sit claviger."

Neither Bowler nor Scorer are connected with cricket. The former made

wooden bowls, and the latter was sometimes a scourer, or scout, Mid.

Eng. scurrour, a word of rather complicated origin, but perhaps more

frequently a peaceful scullion, from Fr. écurer, to scour, Lat.

ex-curare--

"Escureur, a scourer, cleanser, feyer" (Cotgrave).

[Footnote: Feyer: A sweeper, now perhaps represented by Fayer.]

A Leaper did not always leap (Chapter XVII). The verb had also in

Mid. English the sense of running away, so that the name may mean

fugitive. In some cases it may represent a maker of leaps, i.e. fish

baskets, or perhaps a man who hawked fish in such a basket.

A Slayer made slays, part of a weaver's loom, and a Bloomer worked in

a bloom-smithy, from Anglo-Sax. blo-ma, a mass of hammered iron.

Weightman and Warman represent Mid. Eng, waþeman, hunter; cf. the

common German surname Weidemann, of cognate origin. Reader and Booker

are not always literary. The former is for Reeder, a thatcher--

"Redare of howsys, calamator, arundinarius" (Prompt. Parv.)--

and the latter is a Norman variant of Butcher, as already mentioned.

SPELLING OF TRADE-NAMES

The spelling of occupative surnames often differs from that now

associated with the trade itself. In Naylor, Taylor, and Tyler we

have the archaic preference for y. [Footnote: It may be noted here

that John Tiler of Dartford, who killed a tax-gatherer for insulting

his daughter, was not Wat Tiler, who was killed at Smithfield for

insulting the King. The confusion between the two has led to much

sympathy being wasted on a ruffian.] Our ancestors thought sope as

good a spelling as soap, hence the name Soper. A Plummer, i.e. a man

who worked in lead, Lat. plumbum, is now written, by etymological

reaction, plumber, though the restored letter is not sounded. A man

who dealt in 'arbs originated the name Arber, which we should now

replace by herbalist. We have a restored spelling in clerk, though

educated people pronounce the word as it was once written

"Clarke, or he that readeth distinctly, clericus." (Holyoak's Lat.

Dict., 1612.)

In many cases we are unable to say exactly what is the ocpupation

indicated. We may assume that a Setter and a Tipper did setting and

tipping, and both are said to have been concerned in the arrow

industry. If this is true, I should say that Setter might represent

the Old Fr, saieteur, arrow-maker, from saiete, an arrow, Lat.

sagitta. But in a medieval vocabulary we find "setter of mes,

dapifer," which would make it the same as Sewer (Chapter XV).

Similarly, when we consider the number of objects that can be tipped,

we shall be shy of defining the activity of the Tipper too closely.

Trinder, earlier trenden, is from Mid. Eng. trender, to roll (cf.

Roller). In the west country trinder now means specifically a

wool-winder--

"Lat hym rollen and trenden withynne hymself the lyght of his ynwarde

sighte" (Boece, 1043).

There are also some names of this class to which we can with certainty

attribute two or more origins. Boulter means a maker of bolts for

crossbows, [Footnote: How many people who use the expression "bolt

upright," associate it with "straight as a dart"?] but also a sifter,

from the obsolete verb to bolt--

"The fanned snow, that's bolted

By the northern blasts twice o'er."

(Winter's Tale, iv. 3.)

Corner means horn-blower, Fr, cor, horn, and is also a contraction of

coroner, but its commonest origin is local, in angulo, in the corner.

Curren and Curryer are generally connected with leather, but Henry

VII. bestowed £3 on the Curren that brought tidings of Perkin

War-beck. Garner has five possible origins: (i) a contraction of

gardener, (ii) from the French personal name Garner, Ger. Werner,

(iii) Old Fr. grenier, grain-keeper, (iv) Old Fr, garennier, warren

keeper, (v) local, from garner, Fr. grenier, Lat. granarium. In the

next chapter will be found, as a specimen problem, an investigation of

the name Rutter.

PHONETIC CHANGES

Two phonetic phenomena should also be noticed. One is the regular

insertion of n before the ending -ger, as in Firminger (Chapter XV),

Massinger (Chapter XX), Pottinger (Chapter XVIII), and in Arminger,

Clavinger, from the latinized armiger, esquire, and claviger,

mace-bearer, etc. (Chapter XV). The other is the fact that many

occupative names ending in -rer lose the -er by dissimilation (Chapter

III). Examples are Armour for armourer, Barter for barterer, Buckler

for bucklerer, but also for buckle-maker, Callender for calenderer,

one who calendered, i.e. pressed, cloth

"And my good friend the Callender

Will lend his horse to go."

(John Gilpin, 1. 22)--

Coffer, for cofferer, a treasurer, Cover, for coverer, i.e. tiler, Fr.

couvreur, when it does not correspond to Fr. cuvier, i.e. a maker of

coves, vats, Ginger, Grammer, for grammarer, Paternoster, maker of

paternosters or rosaries, Pepper, Sellar, for cellarer (Chapter III),

Tabor, for Taberer, player on the taber. Here also belongs Treasure,

for treasurer. Salter is sometimes for sautrier, a player on the

psaltery. We have the opposite process in poulterer for Pointer

(Chapter II), and caterer for Cator (Chapter III).

NAMES FROM WARES

Such names as Ginger, Pepper, may however belong to the class of

nicknames conferred on dealers in certain commodities; cf. Pescod,

Peskett, from pease-cod. Of this we have several examples which can

be confirmed by foreign parallels, e.g. Garlick, found in German as

Knoblauch, [Footnote: The cognate Eng. Clove-leek occurs as a surname

in the Ramsey Chartulary.] Straw, represented in German by the

cognate name Stroh, and Pease, which is certified by Fr. Despois. We

find Witepease in the twelfth century.

Especially common are those names which deal with the two staple foods

of the country, bread and beer. In German we find several compounds

of Brot, bread, and one of the greatest of chess-players bore the

amazing name Zuckertort, sugar-tart. In French we have such names as

Painchaud, Painlevê, Pain-tendre--

"Eugene Aram was usher, in 1744, to the Rev. Mr. Painblanc, in

Piccadilly"

(Bardsley).

Hence our Cakebread and Whitbread were probably names given to bakers.

Simnel is explained in the same way, and Lambert Simnel is understood

to have been a baker's lad, but the name could equally well be from

Fr. Simonel, dim. of Simon. Wastall is found in the Hundred Rolls as

Wasted, Old Fr. gastel (gâteau). Here also belongs Cracknell--

"Craquelin, a cracknell; made of the yolks of egges, water, and

flower; and fashioned like a hollow trendle" (Cotgrave).

Goodbeer is explained by Bardsley as a perversion of Godber (Chapter

VII), which may be true, but the name is also to be taken literally.

We have Ger. Gutbier, and the existence of Sourale in the Hundred

Rolls and Sowerbutts at the present day justifies us in accepting both

Goodbeer and Goodale at their face-value. But Rice is an imitative

form of Welsh Rhys, Reece, and Salt, when not derived from Salt in

Stafford, is from Old Fr. sault, a wood, Lat. saltus. [Footnote: This

is common in place-names, and I should suggest, as a guess, that

Sacheverell is from the village of Sault-Chevreuil-du-Tronchet

(Manche).] It is doubtful whether the name Cheese is to be included

here. Jan Kees, for John Cornelius, said to have been a nickname for

a Hollander, may easily have reached the Eastern counties. Bardsley's

earliest instance for the name is John Chese, who was living in

Norfolk in 1273. But still I find Furmage as a medieval surname.

We also have the dealer in meat represented by the classical example

of Hogsflesh, with which we may compare Mutton and Veal, two names

which may be seen fairly near each other in Hammersmith Road (but for

these see also Chapter XXIII), and I have known a German named

Kalbfleisch. Names of this kind would sometimes come into existence

through the practice of crying wares; though if Mr. Rottenherring, who

was a freeman of York in 1332, obtained his in this way, he must have

deliberately ignored an ancient piece of wisdom.

CHAPTER XVI. A SPECIMEN PROBLEM: RUTTER

"Howe sayst thou, man? am not I a joly rutter?"

(Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1. 762.)

The fairly common name Rutter is a good example of the difficulty of

explaining a surname derived from a trade or calling no longer

practised. Even so careful an authority as Bardsley has gone

hopelessly astray over this name. He says, "German ritter, a rider,

i.e. a trooper," and quotes from Halliwell, "rutter, a rider, a

trooper, from the German; a name given to mercenary soldiers engaged

from Brabant, etc." Now this statement is altogether opposed to

chronology. The name occurs as le roter, rotour, ruter in the Hundred

Rolls of 1273, i.e. more than two centuries before any German name for

trooper could possibly have become familiar in England. Any stray

Mid. High Ger. Riter would have been assimilated to the cognate Eng.

Rider. It is possible that some German Reuters have become English

Rutters in comparatively modern times, but the German surname Reuter

has nothing to do with a trooper. It represents Mid. High Ger.

riutaere, a clearer of land, from the verb riuten (reuten),

corresponding to Low Ger. roden, and related to our royd, a clearing

(Chapter XII). This word is apparently not connected with our root,

though it means to root out, but ultimately belongs to a root ru which

appears in Lat. rutrum, a spade, rutabulum, a rake, etc.

There is another Ger. Reuter, a trooper, which has given the

sixteenth-century Eng. rutter, but not as a surname. The word appears

in German about 1500, i.e. rather late for the surname period, and

comes from Du. ruiter, a mercenary trooper. The German for trooper is

Reiter, really the same word as Ritter, a knight, the two forms having

been differentiated in meaning; cf. Fr. cavalier, a trooper, and

chevalier, a knight. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Ger.

Reiter was confused with, and supplanted by, this borrowed word

Reuter, which was taken to mean rider, and we find the cavalry called

Reuterei well into the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact the

two words are quite unrelated, though the origin of Du. ruiter is

disputed.

The New English Dictionary gives, from the year 1506, rutter (var.

ruter, ruiter), a cavalry soldier, especially German, from Du. ruiter,

whence Ger. Reuter, as above. It connects the Dutch word with

medieval Lat. rutarius, i.e. ruptarius, which is also Kluge's view.

[Footnote: Deutsches Etymologisches Wrterbuch.] But Franck [Footnote:

Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal.] sees phonetic

difficulties and prefers to regard ruiter as belonging rather to

ruiten, to uproot. The application of the name up-rooter to a lawless

mercenary is not unnatural.

But whatever be the ultimate origin of this Dutch and German military

word, it is sufficiently obvious that it cannot have given an English

surname which is already common in the thirteenth century. There is a

much earlier claimant in the field.

The New English Dictionary has roter (1297), var. rotour, rotor, and

router (1379), a lawless person, robber, ruffian, from Old Fr. rotier

(routier), and also the form rutar, used by Philemon Holland, who, in

his translation of Camden's Britannia (1610), says "That age called

foraine and willing souldiours rutars." The reference is to King

John's mercenaries, c. 1215. Fr, routier, a mercenary, is usually

derived from route, a band, Lat. rupta, a piece broken off, a

detachment. References to the grander routes, the great mercenary

bands which overran France in the fourteenth century, are common in

French history. But the word was popularly, and naturally, connected

with route, Lat. (via) rupta, a highway, so that Godefroy [Footnote:

Dictionnaire de rancien Français.] separates routier, a vagabond,

from routier, a bandit soldier. Cotgrave has--

"Routier, an old traveller, one that by much trotting up and down is

grown acquainted with most waies; and hence, an old beaten souldier;

one whom a long practise hath made experienced in, or absolute master

of, his profession; and (in evill part) an old crafty fox, notable

beguiler, ordinary deceiver, subtill knave; also, a purse-taker, or a

robber by the high way side."

It is impossible to determine the relative shares of route, a band,

and route, a highway, in this definition, but there has probably been

natural confusion between two words, separate in meaning, though

etymologically identical.

Now our thirteenth-century rotors and rulers may represent Old Fr.

routier, and have been names applied to a mercenary soldier or a

vagabond. But this cannot be considered certain. If we consult du

Cange, [Footnote: Glossarium ad Scriptures medics et inflows

Latinitatis.] we find, s.v. rumpere, "ruptarii, pro ruptuarii, quidam

praedones sub xi saeculum, ex rusticis. . . collecti ac conflati,"

which suggests connection with "ruptuarius, colonus qui agrum seu

terram rumpit, proscindit, colic," i.e. that the ruptarii, also called

rutarii, rutharii, rotharii, rotarii, etc., were so named because they

were revolting peasants, i.e. men connected with the roture, or

breaking of the soil, from which we get roturier, a plebeian. That

would still connect our Rutters with Lat. rumpere, but by a third

road.

Finally, Old French has one more word which seems to me quite as good

a candidate as any of the others, viz. roteur, a player on the rote,

i.e. the fiddle used by the medieval minstrels, Chaucer says of his

Frere--

"Wel koude he synge and playen on a rote."

(A, 236.)

The word is possibly of Celtic origin (Welsh crwth) and a doublet of

the archaic crowd, or crowth, a fiddle. Both rote and crowth are used

by Spenser. Crowd is perhaps not yet obsolete in dialect, and the

fiddler in Hudibras is called Crowdero. Thus Rutter may be a doublet

of Crowther. There may be other possible etymologies for Rutter, but

those discussed will suffice to show that the origin of occupative

names is not always easily guessed.

Since the above was written I have found strong evidence for the

"fiddler" derivation of the name. In 1266 it was decided by a

Lancashire jury that Richard le Harper killed William le Roter, or

Ruter, in self-defence. I think there can be little doubt that some,

if not all, of our Rutters owe their names to the profession

represented by this enraged musician. William le Citolur and William

le Piper also appear from the same record (Patent Rolls) to have

indulged in homicide in the course of the year.

CHAPTER XVII. THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

"In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,

Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage,

To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

At nyght were come into that hostelrye

Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye

Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle

In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,

That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde."

(Prologue, 1. 20.)

This famous band of wayfarers includes representatives of all classes,

save the highest and the lowest, just at the period when our surnames

were becoming fixed. It seems natural to distinguish the following

groups. The leisured class is represented by the Knight (Chapter XV)

and his son the Squire, also found as Swire or Swyer, Old Fr. escuyer

(écuyer), a shield-bearer (Lat. Scutum), with their attendant Yeoman,

a name that originally meant a small landowner and later a trusted

attendant of the warlike kind--

"And in his hand he baar a myghty bow"

(A, 108.)

With these goes the Franklin (Chapter XV), who had been Sherriff, i.e.

shire-reeve. He is also described as a Vavasour (p. ii)--

"Was nowher such a worthy vavasour" (A, 360.)

From the Church and the professions we have the Nunn, her attendant

priests, whence the names Press, Prest, the Monk, the Frere, or Fryer,

"a wantowne and a merye," the Clark of Oxenforde, the Sargent of the

lawe, the Sumner, i.e. summoner or apparitor, the doctor of physic,

i.e. the Leech or Leach--

"Make war breed peace; make peace stint war; make each

Prescribe to other, as each other's leech"

(Timon of Athens, v. 4)--

[Footnote: The same word as the worm leech, from an Anglo-Saxon word

for healer.]

and the poor parson. Le surgien and le fisicien were once common

surnames, but the former is almost swallowed up by Sargent, and the

latter seems to have died out. The name Leach has been reinforced by

the dialect lache, a bog, whence also the compounds Blackleach,

Depledge. Loosely attached to the church is the Pardoner, with his

wallet--

"Bret-ful of pardon, comen from Rome al hoot."

(A, 687.)

His name still survives as Pardner, and perhaps as Partner, though

both are very rare.

Commerce is represented by the Marchant, depicted as a character of

weight and dignity, and the humbler trades and crafts by--

"An haberdasher, and a Carpenter,

A Webbe, a deyer (Dyer), and a tapiser."

(A, 361.)

To these may be added the Wife of Bath, whose comfortable means were

drawn from the cloth trade, then our staple industry.

From rural surroundings come the Miller and the Plowman, as kindly a

man as the poor parson his brother, for--

"He wolde threshe, and therto dyke and delve,

For Cristes sake, for every poure wight,

Withouten hire, if it lay in his myght."

(A, 536.)

The Miller is the same as the Meller or Mellor--

"Upon the whiche brook ther stant a melle;

And this is verray sooth, that I yow tell."

(A, 3923.)

[Footnote: Melle is a Kentish form, used by Chaucer for the rime; cf.

pet for pit (Chapter XIII).]

The oldest form of the name is Milner, from Anglo-Sax. myln, Lat.

molina; cf. Kilner from kiln, Lat. culina, kitchen.

The official or servile class includes the manciple, or buyer for a

fraternity of templars, otherwise called an achatour, whence Cator,

Chaytor, Chater (Chapter III), [Footnote: Chater, Chaytor may be also

from escheatour, an official who has given us the word cheat.] the

Reeve, an estate steward, so crafty that--

"Ther nas baillif (Chapter IV), ne herde (Chapter III), nor oother

hyne (Chapter III),

That he ne knew his sleights and his covyne"

(A, 603);

and finally the Cook, or Coke (Chapter I)--

"To boylle the chicknes and the marybones."

(A, 380.)

In a class by himself stands the grimmest figure of all, the Shipman,

of whom we are told

"If that he faught, and hadde the hyer hond,

By water he sente hem hoom to every lond."

(A, 399.)

The same occupation has given the name Marner, for mariner, and

Seaman, but the medieval forms of the rare name Saylor show that it is

from Fr. sailleur, a dancer, an artist who also survives as Hopper and

Leaper--

"To one that leped at Chestre, 6s. 8d."

(Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII, 1495.)

[Footnote: He was usually more generous to the high arts, e.g. "To a

Spaynarde that pleyed the fole, £2," "To the young damoysell that

daunceth, £30." With which cf. "To Carter for writing of a boke, 7s.

4d."]

The pilgrims were accompanied by the host of the Tabard Inn, whose

occupation has given us the names Inman and Hostler, Oastler, Old Fr.

hostelier (hôtelier), now applied to the inn servant who looks after

the 'osses. Another form is the modern-looking Hustler. Distinct

from these is Oster, Fr. oiseleur, a bird-catcher; cf. Fowler.

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES

If we deal here with ecclesiastical names, as being really nicknames

(Chapter XV), that will leave the trader and craftsman, the peasant,

and the official or servile class to be treated in separate chapters.

Social, as distinguished from occupative, surnames have already been

touched on, and the names, not very numerous, connected with warfare

have also been mentioned in various connections.

Among ecclesiastical names Monk has the largest number of variants.

Its Anglo-French form is sometimes represented by Munn and Moon, while

Money is the oldest Fr. monie; cf. Vicary from Old Fr. vicarie. But

the French names La Monnaie, de la Monnaie, are local, from residence

near the mint. The canon appears as Cannon, Channen, and Shannon, Fr.

chanoine--

"With this chanoun I dwelt have seven yere"

(G, 720);

but Dean is also local sometimes (Chapter XII) and Deacon is an

imitative form of Dakin or Deakin, from David (Chapter VI). Charter

was used of a monk of the Charter-house, a popular corruption of

Chartreuse

"With a company dyde I mete,

As ermytes, monkes, and freres,

Chanons, chartores . . ."

(Cock Lorelles Bote.)

Charter also comes from archaic Fr. chartier (charretier), a carter,

and perhaps sometimes from Old Fr. chartrier, "a jaylor; also, a

prisoner" (Cotg.), which belongs to Lat. carcer, prison. [Footnote:

The sense development of these two words is curious.]

Charters may be from the French town Chartres, but is more likely a

perversion of Charterhouse, as Childers is of the obsolete

"childer-house," orphanage.

Among lower orders of the church we have Lister, a reader, [Footnote:

Found in Late Latin as legista, from Lat. Legere, to read.] Bennet,

an exorcist, and Collet, aphetic for acolyte. But each of these is

susceptible of another origin which is generally to be preferred.

Chaplin is of course for chaplain, Fr. chapelain. The legate appears

as Leggatt. Crosier or Crozier means cross-bearer. At the funeral of

Anne of Cleves (1557) the mass was executed--

"By thabbott in pontificalibus wthis croysyer, deacon and subdeacon."

Canter, Caunter is for chanter, and has an apparent dim. Cantrell,

corresponding to the French name Chantereau. The practice, unknown in

English, of forming dims. from occupative names is very common in

French, e.g. from Mercier we have Mercerot, from Berger, i.e.

Shepherd, a number of derivatives such as Bergerat, Bergeret,

Bergerot, etc. Sanger and Sangster were not necessarily

ecclesiastical Singers. Converse meant a lay-brother employed as a

drudge in a monastery. Sacristan, the man in charge of the sacristy,

from which we have Secretan, is contracted into Saxton and Sexton, a

name now usually associated with grave-digging and bell-ringing,

though the latter task once belonged to the Knowler--

"Carilloneur, a chymer, or knowler of bells" (Cotgrave).

This is of course connected with "knell," though the only Kneller who

has become famous was a German named Kniller.

Marillier, probably a Huguenot name, is an Old French form of

marguillier, a churchwarden, Lat. matricularius. The hermit survives

as Armatt, Armitt, with which cf. the Huguenot Lermitte (l'ermite),

and the name of his dwelling is common (Chapter XIII); Anker, now

anchorite, is also extant. Fals-Semblant says--

"Somtyme I am religious,

Now lyk an anker in an hous."

(Romaunt of the Rose, 6348.)

PILGRIMS

While a Pilgrim acquired his name by a journey to any shrine, a Palmer

must originally have been to the Holy Land, and a Romer to Rome. But

the frequent occurrence of Palmer suggests that it was often a

nickname for a pious fraud. We have a doublet of Pilgrim in Pegram,

though this may come from the name Peregrine, the etymology being the

same, viz. Lat. peregrines, a foreigner.

CHAPTER XVIII. TRADES AND CRAFTS

"What d'ye lack, noble sir?--What d'ye lack, beauteous madam?"

(Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i.)

In the Middle Ages there was no great class of retail dealers distinct

from the craftsmen who fashioned objects. The same man made and sold

in almost every case. There were of course general dealers, such as

the French Marchant or his English equivalent the Chapman (Chapter

II), the Dutch form of which has given us the Norfolk name Copeman.

The Broker is now generally absorbed by the local Brooker. There were

also the itinerant merchants, of whom more anon; but in the great

majority of cases the craftsman made and sold one article, and was, in

fact, strictly forbidden to wander outside his special line.

ARCHERY

Fuller tells us that--

"England were but a fling,

Save for the crooked stick and the gray-goose-wing,"

and the importance of the bow and arrow is shown by the number of

surnames connected with their manufacture. We find the Bowyer, Bower

or Bowmaker, who trimmed and shaped the wand of yew, [Footnote: This

is also one source of Boyer, but the very common French surname Boyer

means ox-herd.] the Fletcher (Chapter XV), Arrowsmith, or Flower, who

prepared the arrow--

"His bowe he bente and sette therinne a flo" (H, 264)--

[Footnote: The true English word for arrow, Anglo-Sax. fla.]

and the Tipper, Stringer, and Horner, who attended to smaller details,

though the Tipper and Stringer probably tipped and strung other

things, and the Horner, though he made the horn nocks of the long-bow,

also made horn cups and other objects.

The extent to which specialization was carried is shown by the trade

description of John Darks, longbowstringemaker, who died in 1600. The

Arblaster may have either made or used the arblast or cross-bow,

medieval Lat. arcubalista, bow-sling. His name has given the

imitative Alabaster. We also find the shortened Ballister and

Balestier, from which we have Bannister (Chapter III). Or, to take an

example from comestibles, a Flanner limited his activity to the making

of flat cakes called flans or flawns, from Old Fr. flaon (flan), a

word of Germanic origin, ultimately related to flat

"He that is hanged in May will eat no flannes in Midsummer."

(The Abbot, ch. xxxiii.)

Some names have become strangely restricted in meaning, e.g. Mercer,

now almost limited to silk, was a name for a dealer in any kind of

merchandise (Lat. merx); in Old French it meant pedlar--

"Mercier, a good pedler, or meane haberdasher of small wares"

(Cotgrave).

On the other hand Chandler, properly a candle-maker, is now used in

the compounds corn-chandler and ship's chandler. Of all the -mongers

the only common survival is Ironmonger or Iremonger, with the variant

Isemonger, from Mid. Eng. isen, iron. Ironmonger is also dealer in

eggs, Mid. Eng. eiren.

CLOTHIERS

The wool trade occupied a very large number of workers and has given a

good many surnames. The Shearer was distinct from the Shearman or

Sherman, the former operating on the sheep and the latter on the nap

of the cloth. For Comber we also have the older Kempster, and

probably Kimber, from the Mid. Eng. kemben, to comb, which survives in

"unkempt". The Walker, Fuller, and Tucker, all did very much the same

work of "waulking," or trampling, the cloth. All three words are used

in Wyclif's Bible in variant renderings of Mark ix. 3. Fuller is from

Fr. fouler, to trample, and Tucker is of uncertain origin. Fuller is

found in the south and south-east, Tucker in the west, and Walker in

the north. A Dyer was also called Dyster, and the same trade is the

origin of the Latin-looking Dexter (Chapter II). From Mid. Eng.

litster, a dyer, a word of Scandinavian origin, comes Lister, as in

Lister Gate, Nottingham. With these goes the Wadman, who dealt in, or

grew, the dye-plant called woad; cf. Flaxman. A beater of flax was

called Swingler--

"Fleyl, swyngyl, verga, tribulum" (Prompt. Parv.).

A Tozer teased the cloth with a teasel. In Mid. English the verb is

taesen or tosen, so that the names Teaser and Towser, sometimes given

to bull-terriers, are doublets. Secker means sack-maker.

We have already noticed the predominance of Taylor. This is the more

remarkable when we consider that the name has as rivals the native

Seamer and Shapster and the imported Parmenter, Old Fr. parmentier, a

maker of parements, now used chiefly of facings on clothes. But

another, and more usual, origin of Parmenter, Parminter, Parmiter, is

parchmenter, a very important medieval trade. The word would

correspond to a Lat. pergamentarius, which has given also the German

surname Berminter. Several old German cities had a Permentergasse,

i.e. parchment-makers' street. A Pilcher made pilches, i.e. fur

cloaks, an early loan-word from Vulgar Lat. pellicia (pellis, skin).

Chaucer's version of

"Till May is out, ne'er cast a clout"

is

"After greet heet cometh colde;

No man caste his pilche away."

Another name connected with clothes is Chaucer, Old Fr. chaussier, a

hosier (Lat. calceus, boot), while Admiral Hozier's Ghost reminds us

of the native word. The oldest meaning of hose seems to have been

gaiters. It ascended in Tudor times to the dignity of breeches (cf.

trunk-hose), the meaning it has in modern German. Now it has become a

tradesman's euphemism for the improper word stocking, a fact which led

a friend of the writer's, imperfectly acquainted with German, to ask a

gifted lady of that nationality if she were a Blauhose. A Chaloner or

Chawner dealt in shalloon, Mid. Eng. chalons, a material supposed to

have been made at Châlons-sur-Marne--

"And in his owene chambre hem made a bed,

With sheetes and with chalons faire y-spred."

(A. 4139.)

Ganter or Gaunter is Fr. gantier, glove-maker.

METAL WORKERS

Some metal-workers have already been mentioned in connection with

Smith (Chapter IV), and elsewhere. The French Fèvre, from Lat. faber,

is found as Feaver. Fearon comes from Old Fr, feron, ferron, smith.

Face le ferrun, i.e. Boniface (Chapter III) the smith, lived in

Northampton in the twelfth century. This is an example of the French

use of -on as an agential suffix. Another example is Old Fr. charton,

or charreton, a waggoner, from the Norman form of which we have

Carton. In Scriven, from Old Fr. escrivain (écrivain), we have an

isolated agential suffix. The English form is usually lengthened to

Scrivener. In Ferrier, for farrier, the traditional spelling has

prevailed over the pronunciation, but we have the latter in Farrar.

Ferrier sometimes means ferryman, and Farrar has absorbed the common

Mid. English nickname Fayrhayr. Aguilar means needle-maker, Fr.

aiguille, but Pinner is more often official (Chapter XIX). Culler,

Fr. coutelier, Old Fr. coutel, knife, and Spooner go together, but the

fork is a modern fad. Poynter is another good example of the

specialization of medieval crafts: the points were the metal tags by

which the doublet and hose were connected. Hence, the play on words

when Falstaff is recounting his adventure with the men in buckram--

Fal. "Their points being broken--"

Poins. "Down fell their hose."

(I Henry IV., ii, 4.)

Latimer, Latner sometimes means a worker in latten, a mixed metal of

which the etymological origin is unknown. The Pardoner--

"Hadde a croys of latoun ful of stones" (A, 699).

For the change from -n to -m we may compare Lorimer for Loriner, a

bridle-maker, belonging ultimately to Lat. lorum, "the reyne of a

brydle" (Cooper). But Latimer comes also from Latiner, a man skilled

in Latin, hence an interpreter, Sir John Mandeville tells us that, on

the way to Sinai--

"Men alleweys fynden Latyneres to go with hem in the contrees."

The immortal Bowdler is usually said to take his name from the art of

puddling, or buddling, iron ore. But, as this process is

comparatively modern, it is more likely that the name comes from the

same verb in its older meaning of making impervious to water by means

of clay. Monier and Minter are both connected with coining, the

former through French and the latter from Anglo-Saxon, both going back

to Lat. moneta, [Footnote: On the curiously accidental history of this

word see the Romance of Words, ch. x.] mint. Conner, i.e. coiner, is

now generally swallowed up by the Irish Connor.

Leadbitter is for Leadbeater. The name Hamper is a contraction of

hanapier, a maker of hanaps, i.e. goblets. Fr. hanap is from Old High

Ger. hnapf (Napf), and shows the inability of French to pronounce

initial hn- without inserting a vowel: cf. harangue from Old High Ger.

hring. There is also a Mid. Eng. nap, cup, representing the cognate

Anglo-Sax. hnaep, so that the name Napper may sometimes be a doublet

of Hamper, though it is more probably for Napier (Chapter I) or

Knapper (Chapter XII). The common noun hamper is from hanapier in a

sense something like plate-basket. With metal-workers we may also put

Furber or Frobisher, i.e. furbisher, of armour, etc. Poyser, from

poise, scales, is official. Two occupative names of Celtic origin are

Gow, a smith, as in The Fair Maid of Perth, and Caird, a tinker--

"The fellow had been originally a tinker or caird."

(Heart of Midlothian, ch. xlix.)

A few more names, which fall into no particular category, may conclude

the chapter. Hillyer or Hellier is an old name for a Thacker, or

thatcher, of which we have the Dutch form in Dekker. It comes from

Mid. Eng. helen, to cover up. In Hillard, Hillyard we sometimes have

the same name (cf. the vulgar scholard), but these are more often

local (Chapter XIII). Hellier also meant tiler, for the famous Wat is

described as tiler, tegheler, and hellier.

An Ashburner prepared wood-ash for the Bloomer (Chapter XV), and

perhaps also for the Glaisher, or glass-maker, and Asher is best

explained in the same way, for we do not, I think, add -er to

tree-names. Apparent exceptions can be easily accounted for, e.g.

Elmer is Anglo-Sax. AElfmaer, and Beecher is Anglo-Fr. bechur, digger

(Fr. bêche, spade). Neither Pitman nor Collier had their modern

meaning of coal-miner. Pitman is local, of the same class as

Bridgeman, Pullman, etc., and Collier meant a charcoal-burner, as in

the famous ballad of Rauf Colyear. Not much coal was dug in the

Middle Ages. Even in 1610 Camden speaks with disapproval, in his

Britannia, of the inhabitants of Sherwood Forest who, with plenty of

wood around them, persist in digging up "stinking pit-cole."

Croker is for Crocker, a maker of crocks or pitchers. The Miller's

guests only retired to bed--

"Whan that dronken al was in the crowke" (A, 4158)

The spelling has affected the pronunciation, as in Sloper and Smoker

(Chapter III). Tinker is sometimes found as the frequentative

Tinkler, a name traditionally due to his approach being heralded by

the clatter of metal utensils--

"My bonny lass, I work on brass,

A tinkler is my station."

(BURNS, Jolly Beggars, Air 6.)

The maker of saddle-trees was called Fewster, from Old Fr. fust (fût),

Lat. fustis. This has sometimes given Foster, but the latter is more

often for Forster, i.e. Forester--

"An horn he bar, the bawdryk was of grene,

A forster was he soothly as I gesse,"

(A, 116.)

The saddler himself was often called by his French name sellier,

whence Sella', but both this and Sellars are also local, at the

cellars (Chapter III). Pargeter means dauber, plasterer, from Old Fr.

parjeter, to throw over. A Straker made the strakes, or tires, of

wheels. A Stanger made stangs, i.e. poles, shafts, etc.

The fine arts are represented by Limmer, for limner, a painter, an

aphetic form of illumines, and Tickner is perhaps from Dutch tekener,

draughtsman, cognate with Eng, token, while the art of self-defence

has given us the name Scrimgeoure, with a number of corruptions,

including the local-looking Skrimshire. It is related to scrimmage

and skirmish, and ultimately to Ger. schirmen, to fence, lit. to

protect. The name was applied to a professional swordplayer--

"Qe nul teigne escole de eskermerye ne de bokeler deins la citee."

(Liber Albus.)

SURNOMINAL SNOBBISHNESS

A particularly idiotic form of snobbishness has sometimes led people

to advance strange theories as to the origin of their names. Thus

Turner has been explained as from la tour noire. Dr. Brewer, in his

Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, [Footnote: Thirteenth edition, revised

and corrected.] apparently desirous of dissociating himself from malt

liquor, observes that--

"Very few ancient names are the names of trades. . . A few examples

of a more scientific derivation will suffice for a hint:--

Brewer. This name, which exists in France as Bruhière and Brugère, is

not derived from the Saxon briwan (to brew), but the French bruyère

(heath), and is about tantamount to the German Plantagenet (broom

plant). Miller is the old Norse melia, our mill and maul, and means a

mauler or fighter.

Ringer is the Anglo-Saxon hring-gar (the mailed warrior). Tanner,

German Thanger, Old German Dane-gaud, is the Dane-Goth...

This list might easily be extended."

There is of course no reason why such a list should not be

indefinitely extended, but the above excerpt is probably quite long

enough to make the reader feel dizzy. The fact is that there is no

getting away from a surname of this class, and the bearer must try to

look on the brighter side of the tragedy. Brewer is occasionally an

accommodated form of the French name Bruyère or Labruyère, but is

usually derived from an occupation which is the high-road to the House

of Lords. The ancestor of any modern Barber may, like Salvation Yeo's

father, have "exercised the mystery of a barber-surgeon," which is

getting near the learned professions. A Pottinger (Chapter XV) looked

after the soups, Fr. potage, but the name also represents Pothecary

(apothecary), which had in early Scottish the aphetic forms Poticar,

potigar--

"'Pardon me,' said he, 'I am but a poor pottingar. Nevertheless, I

have been bred in Paris and learnt my humanities and my cursus

medendi'"

(Fair Maid of Perth, ch. vii.).

CHAPTER XIX. HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

"Jacque, il me faut troubler ton Somme;

Dans le village, un gros huissier

Rôde et court, suivi du messier.

C'est pour l'impôt, las! mon pauvre homme.

Lève-toi, Jacque, lève-toi:

Voici venir I'huissier du roi."

BÉRANGER.

General terms for what we now usually call a farmer are preserved in

the surnames Bond (Chapter XV), whence the compound Husband, used both

for the goodman of the house and in the modern sense, and Tillman.

The labouring man was Day, from the same root as Ger. Dienen, to

serve. It persists in "dairy" and perhaps in the puzzling name

Doubleday (? doing two men's work). A similar meaning is contained

in the names Swain, Hind, for earlier Hine (Chapter III), Tasker,

Mann. But a Wager was a mercenary soldier. The mower has given us

the names Mather (cf. aftermath), and Mawer, while Fenner is sometimes

for Old Fr. feneur, haymaker (Lat. foenum, hay). For mower we also

find the latinized messor, whence Messer. Whether the Ridler and the

Sivier made, or used, riddles and sieves can hardly be decided.

[Footnote: Riddle is the usual word for sieve in the Midlands. Hence

the phrase "riddled with holes, or wounds."]

With the Wenman, who drove the wain, we may mention the Leader or

Loader. The verbs "lead" and "load" are etymologically the same, and

in the Midlands people talk of "leading," i.e. carting, coal. But

these names could also come from residence near an artificial

watercourse (Chapter XIII). Beecher has already been explained, and

Shoveler is formed in the same way from dialect showl, a shovel--

" 'I,' said the owl,

'With my spade and showl.' "

To the variants of the Miller (Chapter XXIII) may be added Mulliner,

from Old French. Tedder means a man who teds, i.e. spreads, hay, the

origin of the word being Scandinavian

"I teede hey, I tourne it afore it is made in cockes, je fene."

(Palsgrave.)

But the greater number of surnames drawn from rural occupations are

connected with the care of animals. We find names of this class in

three forms, exemplified by Coltman, Goater, Shepherd, and it seems

likely that the endings -er and -erd have sometimes been interchanged,

e.g. that Goater may stand for goat-herd, Calver for calf-herd, and

Nutter sometimes for northern nowt-herd, representing the dialect

neat-herd. The compounds of herd include Bullard, Calvert, Coltard,

Coward, for cow-herd, not of course to be confused with the common

noun coward (Fr. couard, a derivative of Lat. cauda, tail), Evart,

ewe-herd, but also a Norman spelling of Edward, Geldard, Goddard,

sometimes for goat-herd, Hoggart, often confused with the local

Hogarth (Chapter XIII), Seward, for sow-herd, or for the historic

Siward, Stobart, dialect stob, a bull, Stodart, Mid. Eng. stot,

meaning both a bullock and a nag. Chaucer tells us that--

"This reve sat upon a ful good stot" (A, 615 ).

Stoddart is naturally confused with Studdart, stud-herd, stud being

cognate with Ger. Stute, mare. We also have Swinnert, and lastly

Weatherhead, sometimes a perversion of wether-herd, though usually a

nickname, sheep's head. The man in charge of the tups, or rams, was

called Tupman or Tupper, the latter standing sometimes for tup-herd,

just as we have the imitative Stutter for Stodart or Studdart. We

have also Tripper from trip, a dialect word for flock, probably

related to troop. Another general term for a herdsman was Looker,

whence Luker.

BUMBLEDOM

I have headed this chapter "Hodge and his Friends," but as, a matter

of strict truth he had none, except the "poure Persons," the most

radiant figure in Chaucer's pageant. But his enemies were

innumerable. Béranger's lines impress one less than the uncouth "Song

of the Husbandman" (temp. Edward I.), in which we find the woes of

poor Hodge incorporated in the persons of the hayward, the bailif, the

wodeward, the budel and his cachereles (catchpoles)--

"For ever the furthe peni mot (must) to the kynge."

The bailiff has already been mentioned (Chapter IV). The budel, or

beadle, has given us several surnames. We have the word in two forms,

from Anglo-Sax. bytel, belonging to the verb to bid, whence the names

Biddle and Buddle, and from Old Fr. bedel (bedeau), whence Beadle and

its variants. The animal is probably extinct under his original name,

but modern democracy is doing its best to provide him with an army of

successors. The "beadle" group of names has been confused with

Bithell, Welsh Ap Ithel.

Names in -ward are rather numerous, and, as they mostly come from the

titles of rural officials and are often confused with compounds of

-herd, they are all put together here. The simple Ward, cognate with

Fr. garde, is one of our commonest surnames. Like its derivative

Warden it had a very wide range of meanings. The antiquity of the

office of church-warden is shown by the existence of the surname

Churchward. Sometimes the surname comes from the abstract or local

sense, de la warde. As the suffix -weard occurs very frequently in

Anglo-Saxon personal names, it is not always possible to say whether a

surname is essentially occupative or not, e.g. whether Durward is

rather "door-ward" or for Anglo-Sax. Deorweard. Howard, which is

phonetically Old Fr. Huard, is sometimes also for Hayward or Haward

(Hereward), or for Hayward. It has no doubt interchanged with the

local Howarth, Haworth.

Owing to the loss of w- in the second part of a word (Chapter III),

-ward and -herd often fall together, e.g. Millard for Milward, and

Woodard found in Mid. English as both wode-ward and wode-hird.

Hayward belongs to hay, hedge, enclosure (Chapter XIII), from which we

also get Hayman. The same functionary has given the name Haybittle, a

compound of beadle. Burward and Burrard may represent the once

familiar office of bear-ward; cf. Berman. I had a schoolfellow called

Lateward, apparently the man in charge of the lade or leet (Chapter

XIII). Medward is for mead-ward.

The name Stewart or Stuart became royal with Walter the Steward of

Scotland, who married Marjorie Bruce in 1315. It stands for sty-ward,

where sty means pen, not necessarily limited to pigs. Like most

official titles, it has had its ups and downs, with the result that

its present meaning ranges from a high officer of the crown to the

sympathetic concomitant of a rough crossing.

The Reeve, Anglo-Sax. ge-refa, was in Chaucer a kind of land agent,

but the name was also applied to local officials, as in port-reeve,

shire-reeve. It is the same as Grieve, also originally official, but

used in Scotland of a land steward--

"He has got a ploughman from Scotland who acts as grieve."

(Scott, Diary, 1814.)

This may be one source of the names Graves and Greaves. The name

Woodruff, Woodroffe is too common to be referred to the plant

woodruff, and the fact that the male and female of a species of

sand-piper are called the ruff and reeve suggests that Woodruff may

have some relation to wood-reeve. It is at any rate a curious

coincidence that the German name for the plant is Waldmeister,

wood-master. Another official surname especially connected with

country life is Pinder, also found as Pinner, Pender, Penner, Ponder

and Poynder, the man in charge of the pound or pinfold; cf. Parker,

the custodian of a park, of which the Palliser or Pallister made the

palings.

ITINERANT MERCHANTS

The itinerant dealer was usually called by a name suggesting the pack

which he carried. Thus Badger, Kidder, Kiddier, Pedder, now pedlar,

are from bag, kid, related to kit, and the obsolete ped, basket; cf.

Leaper, Chapter XV. The badger, who dealt especially in corn, was

unpopular with the rural population, and it is possible that his name

was given to the stealthy animal formerly called the bawson (Chapter

I.), brock or gray (Chapter XXIII). That Badger is a nickname taken

from the animal is chronologically improbable, as the word is first

recorded in 1523 (New English Dictionary).

To the above names may be added Cremer, Cramer, a huckster with a

stall in the market, but this surname is sometimes of modern

introduction, from its German cognate Krämer, now generally used for a

grocer. Packman, Pakeman, and Paxman belong more probably to the

font-name Pack (Chapter IX), which also appears in Paxon, either

Pack's son, or for the local Paxton.

The name Hawker does not belong to this group. Nowadays a hawker is a

pedlar, and it has been assumed, without sufficient evidence, that the

word is of the same origin as huckster. The Mid. Eng. le haueker or

haukere (1273) is quite plainly connected with hawk, and the name may

have been applied either to a Falconer, Faulkner, or to a dealer in

hawks. As we know that itinerant vendors of hawks travelled from

castle to castle, it is quite possible that our modern hawker is an

extended use of the same name.