The Project Gutenberg eBook ofCuriosities of Puritan Nomenclature

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofCuriosities of Puritan NomenclatureThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureAuthor: Charles Wareing Endell BardsleyRelease date: March 28, 2012 [eBook #39284]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureAuthor: Charles Wareing Endell BardsleyRelease date: March 28, 2012 [eBook #39284]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)

Title: Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature

Author: Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

Release date: March 28, 2012 [eBook #39284]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE ***

By the same Author.Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources and Significations.“Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediæval documents and works from which the origin and development of surnames can alone be satisfactorily traced. He has furnished a valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to hear more of him in this field.”—Times.CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W.

By the same Author.

Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.

OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources and Significations.

“Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediæval documents and works from which the origin and development of surnames can alone be satisfactorily traced. He has furnished a valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to hear more of him in this field.”—Times.

CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W.

CURIOSITIESOFPURITAN NOMENCLATURE

BYCHARLES W. BARDSLEYAUTHOR OF “ENGLISH SURNAMES, THEIR SOURCES AND SIGNIFICATIONS”

LondonCHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY1880

[The right of translation is reserved]

Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles.

DEDICATED TOHIS FELLOW MEMBERSOF THEHARLEIAN SOCIETY.

I will not be so ill-natured as to quote the names of all the writers who have denied the existence of Puritan eccentricities at the font. One, at least, ought to have known better, for he has edited more books of the Puritan epoch than any other man in England. The mistake of all is that, misled perhaps by Walter Scott and Macaulay, they have looked solely to the Commonwealth period. The custom was then in its decay.

I have to thank several clergymen for giving me extracts from the registers and records under their care. A stranger to them, I felt some diffidence in making my requests. In every case the assistance I asked for was readily extended. These gentlemen are the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, St. Matthew, Friday Street, London; the Rev. W. Wodehouse, Elham, Canterbury; the Rev. J. B. Waytes, Markington, Yorks.; the Rev. William Tebbs, Caterham Valley; the Rev. Canon Howell, Drayton, Norwich; the Rev. J. O. Lord, Northiam, Staplehurst; and the Rev. G. E. Haviland, Warbleton, Sussex. The last-named gentleman copied no less than 120names, all of Puritan origin, from the Warbleton records. I beg to thank him most warmly, and to congratulate him on possessing the most remarkable register of its kind in England. Certain circumstances led me to suspect that Warbleton was a kind of head-quarters of these eccentricities; I wrote to the rector, and we soon found that we had “struck ile.” That Mr. Heley, the Puritan incumbent, should have baptized his own children by such names as Fear-not and Much-mercy, was not strange, but that he should have persuaded the majority of his parishioners to follow his example proves wonderful personal influence.

Amongst the laity, I owe gratitude to Mr. Chaloner Smith, Richmond, Surrey; Mr. R. R. Lloyd, St. Albans; Mr. J. E. Bailey, F.S.A., Manchester; Mr. J. L. Beardsley, Cleveland, U.S.A.; Mr. Tarbutts, Cranbrook, Kent; and Mr. Speed, Ulverston.

Of publications, I must needs mentionNotes and Queries, a treasure-house to all antiquaries; the Sussex Archæological Society’s works, and theYorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal. The “Wappentagium de Strafford” of the latter is the best document yet published for students of nomenclature. Out of it alone a complete history of English surnames and baptismal names might be written. Though inscribed with clerkly formality, it contained morepet formsthanany other record I have yet seen; and this alone must stamp it as a most important document. The Harleian Society, by publishing church registers, have set a good example, and I have made much use of those that have been issued. They contain few instances of Puritan extravagance, but that is owing to the fact that no leading Puritan was minister of any of the three churches whose records they have so far printed. I sincerely hope the list of subscribers to this society may become enlarged.

For the rest—the result of twelve years’ research—I am alone responsible. Heavy clerical responsibilities have often been lightened by a holiday spent among the yellow parchments of churches in town and country, from north to south of England. As it is possible I have seen as many registers as any other man in the country, I will add one statement—a very serious one: there are thousands of entries, at this moment faintly legible, which in another generation will be wholly illegible. What is to be done?

Should this little work meet the eye of any of the clergy in Sussex, Kent, and, I may add, Surrey, I would like to state that if they will search the baptismal records of the churches under their charge, say from 1580 to 1620, and furnish me with the result, I shall be very much obliged.

Vicarage, Ulverston,March, 1880.

W. D. S. in the Prologue = “Wappentagium de Strafford.”

C. S. P. = “Calendar of State Papers.”

CONTENTS.

CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND.

“One grows too fat, another too lean: modest Matilda, pretty pleasing Peg, sweet-singing Susan, mincing merry Moll, dainty dancing Doll, neat Nancy, jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate, bouncing Bess with black eyes, fair Phillis with fine white hands, fiddling Frank, tall Tib, slender Sib, will quickly lose their grace, grow fulsome, stale, sad, heavy, dull, sour, and all at last out of fashion.”—Anatomy of Melancholy.“Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and everything in order?”—The Taming of the Shrew.

“Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid, and everything in order?”—The Taming of the Shrew.

I.The Paucity of Names after the Conquest.

There were no Scripture names in England when the Conqueror took possession; even in Normandy they had appeared but a generation or two before William came over. If any are found in the oldEnglish period, we may feel assured they were ecclesiastic titles, adopted at ordination. Greek and Latin saints were equally unnoticed.

It is hard to believe the statement I have made. Before many generations had passed, Bartholomew, Simon, Peter, Philip, Thomas, Nicholas, John, and Elias, had engrossed a third of the male population; yet Domesday Book has no Philip, no Thomas, only one Nicholas, and but a sprinkling of Johns. It was not long before Jack and Jill took the place of Godric and Godgivu as representative of the English sexes, yet Jack was from the Bible, and Jill from the saintly Calendar.

Without entering into a deep discussion, we may say that the great mass of the old English names had gone down before the year 1200 had been reached. Those that survived only held on for bare existence. From the moment of William’s advent, the names of the Norman began to prevail. He brought in Bible names, Saint names, and his own Teutonic names. The old English names bowed to them, and disappeared.

A curious result followed. From the year 1150 to 1550, four hundred years in round numbers, there was a very much smaller dictionary of English personal names than there had been for four hundred years before, and than there has beenin the four hundred years since. The Norman list was really a small one, and yet it took possession of the whole of England.

A consequence of this was the Pet-name Epoch. In every community of one hundred Englishmen about the year 1300, there would be an average of twenty Johns and fifteen Williams; then would follow Thomas, Bartholomew, Nicholas, Philip, Simon, Peter, and Isaac from the Scriptures, and Richard, Robert, Walter, Henry, Guy, Roger, and Baldwin from the Teutonic list. Of female names, Matilda, Isabella, and Emma were first favourites, and Cecilia, Catharine, Margaret, and Gillian came closely upon their heels. Behind these, again, followed a fairly familiar number of names of either sex, some from the Teuton, some from the Hebrew, some from the Greek and Latin Church, but, when all told, not a large category.

It was, of course, impossible for Englishmen and Englishwomen to maintain their individuality on these terms. Various methods to secure a personality arose. The surname was adopted, and there were John Atte-wood, John the Wheelwright, John the Bigg, and John Richard’s son, in every community. Among the middle and lower classes these did not becomehereditarytill so late as 1450or 1500.[1]This was not enough, for in common parlance it was not likely the full name would be used. Besides, there might be two, or even three, Johns in the same family. So late as March, 1545, the will of John Parnell de Gyrton runs:

“Alice, my wife, and Old John, my son, to occupy my farm together, till Olde John marries; Young John, my son, shall have Brenlay’s land, plowed and sowed at Old John’s cost.”

The register of Raby, Leicestershire, has this entry:

“1559. Item: 29th day of August was John, and John Picke, the children of Xtopher and Anne, baptized.“Item: the 31st of August the same John and John were buried.”

“1559. Item: 29th day of August was John, and John Picke, the children of Xtopher and Anne, baptized.

“Item: the 31st of August the same John and John were buried.”

Mr. Burns, who quotes these instances in his “History of Parish Registers,” adds that at thissame time “one John Barker had three sons named John Barker, and two daughters named Margaret Barker.”[2]

If the same family had but one name for the household, we may imagine the difficulty when this one name was also popular throughout the village. The difficulty was naturally solved by,firstly, the adoption ofnickforms;secondly, the addition ofpetdesinences. Thus Emma became by the one practice simpleEmm, by the otherEmmott; and any number of boys in a small community might be entered in a register as Bartholomew, and yet preserve their individuality in work-a-day life by bearing such names as Bat, Bate, Batty, Bartle, Bartelot, Batcock, Batkin, and Tolly, or Tholy. In a word, these several forms of Bartholomew were treated as so many separate proper names.

No one would think of describing Wat Tyler’s—weshould now say Walter Tyler’s—insurrection as Gowen does:

“Wattevocat, cuiThomavenit, nequeSymmeretardat,Bat—queGibbesimul,Hykkevenire subent:Collefurit, quemBobbejuvat, nocumenta parantes,Cum quibus, ad damnumWillecoire volat—Criggerapit, dumDaviestrepit, comes est quibusHobbe,Larkinet in medio non minor esse putat:Huddeferit, quemJuddeterit, dumTibbejuvaturJackedomosque viros vellit, en ense necat.”

These names, taken in order, are Walter, Thomas, Simon, Bartholomew, Gilbert, Isaac, Nicholas, Robert, William, Gregory, David, Robert (2), Lawrence, Hugh, Jordan (or George), Theobald, and John.

Another instance will be evidence enough. The author of “Piers Plowman” says—

“Then goeth Glutton in, and grete other after,Cesse, the sonteresse, sat on the bench:Watte, the warner, and his wife bothe:Tymme, the tynkere, and twayne of his prentices:Hikke, the hackney man, andHugh, the pedlere,Clarice, of Cokkeslane, and the clerke of the churche:Dawe, the dykere, and a dozen othere.”

Taken in their order, these nick forms represent Cecilia, Walter, Timothy, Isaac, Clarice, and David. It will be seen at a glance that such appellatives are rare, by comparison, in the present day. Tricks of this kind were not to be played with Bible names at the Reformation, and the new namesfrom that time were pronounced, with such exceptions as will be detailed hereafter, in their fulness.

To speak of William and John is to speak of a race and rivalry 800 years old. In Domesday there were 68 Williams, 48 Roberts, 28 Walters, to 10 Johns. Robert Montensis asserts that in 1173, at a court feast of Henry II., Sir William St. John and Sir William Fitz-Hamon bade none but those who bore the name of William to appear. There were present 120 Williams, all knights. In Edward I.’s reign John came forward. In a Wiltshire document containing 588 names, 92 are William, 88 John, 55 Richard, 48 Robert, 23 Roger, Geoffrey, Ralph, and Peter 16. A century later John was first. In 1347, out of 133 common councilmen for London, first convened, 35 were John, 17 William, 15 Thomas, (St. Thomas of Canterbury was now an institution), 10 Richard, 8 Henry, 8 Robert. In 1385 the Guild of St. George at Norwich contained 377 names. Of these, John engrossed no less than 128, William 47, Thomas 41. The Reformation and the Puritan Commonwealth for a time darkened the fortunes of John and William, but the Protestant accession befriended the latter, and now, as 800 years ago, William is first and John second.

But when we come to realize that nearly one-third of Englishmen were known either by the name of William or John about the year 1300, it will be seen that thepet nameandnick formwere no freak, but a necessity. We dare not attempt a category, but the surnames of to-day tell us much. Will was quite a distinct youth from Willot, Willot from Wilmot, Wilmot from Wilkin, and Wilkin from Wilcock. There might be half a dozen Johns about the farmstead, but it mattered little so long as one was called Jack, another Jenning, a third Jenkin, a fourth Jackcock (now Jacox as a surname), a fifth Brownjohn, and a sixth Micklejohn, or Littlejohn, or Properjohn (i.e.well built or handsome).

Thenickforms are still familiar in many instances, though almost entirely confined to such names as have descended from that day to the present. We still talk of Bob, and Tom, and Dick, and Jack. The introduction of Bible names at the Reformation did them much harm. But the Reformation, and the English Bible combined, utterly overwhelmed thepetdesinences, and they succumbed. Emmot and Hamlet lived till the close of the seventeenth century, but only because they had ceased to be looked upon as altered forms of old favourite names, and wereentered in vestry books on their own account as orthodox proper names.

II.Pet Forms.

These pet desinences were of four kinds.

(a)Kin.

The primary sense ofkinseems to have been relationship: from thence family, or offspring. The phrases “from generation to generation,” or “from father to son,” in “Cursor Mundi” find a briefer expression:

“This writte was gett fra kin to kin,That best it cuth to haf in min.”

The next meaning acquired bykinwas child, or “young one.” We still speak in a diminutive sense of a manikin, kilderkin, pipkin, lambkin, jerkin, minikin (little minion), or doitkin. Appended to baptismal names it became very familiar. “A litul soth Sermun” says—

“Nor those prude yongemenThat loveth Malekyn,And those prude maydenesThat loveth Janekyn:····Masses and matinsNe kepeth they nouht,For Wilekyn and WatekynBe in their thouht.”

Unquestionably the incomers from Brabant andFlanders, whether as troopers or artisans, gave a great impulse to the desinence. They tacked it on to everything:

“Rutterkincan speke no Englyssh,His tongue runneth all on buttyred fyssh,Besmeared with grece abowte his dyssheLike a rutter hoyda.”

They brought in Hankin, and Han-cock, from Johannes; not to say Baudkin, or Bodkin, from Baldwin.Baudechon le Bocherin the Hundred Rolls, andSimmerquin Waller, lieutenant of the Castle of Harcourt in “Wars of the English in France,” look delightfully Flemish.

Hankin is found late:

“Thus for her love and loss poor Hankin dies,His amorous soul down flies.”“Musarum Deliciæ,” 1655.

To furnish a list of English names ending inkinwould be impossible. The great favourites were Hopkin (Robert),[3]Lampkin and Lambkin (Lambert), Larkin (Lawrence), Tonkin (Antony), Dickin, Stepkin (Stephen),[4]Dawkin (David), Adkin,[5]now Atkin (Adam, not Arthur), Jeffkin(Jeffrey), Pipkin and Potkin (Philip), Simkin, Tipkin (Theobald), Tomkin, Wilkin, Watkin (Walter), Jenkin, Silkin (Sybil),[6]Malkin (Mary), Perkin (Peter), Hankin (Hans), and Halkin or Hawkin (Henry). Pashkin or Paskin reminds us of Pask or Pash, the old baptismal name for children born at Easter. Judkin (now as a surname also Juckin) was the representative of Judd, that is, Jordan. George afterwards usurped the place. All these names would be entered in their orthodox baptismal style in all formal records. But here and there we get free and easy entries, as for instance:

“Agnes Hobkin-wyf, iiiid.”—W. D. S.“Henry, son of Halekyn, for 17½ acres of land.”—“De Lacy Inquisition,” 1311.“Emma Watkyn-doghter, iiiid.”—W. D. S.“Thi beste cote, Hankyn,Hath manye moles and spottes,It moste ben y-wasshe.”“Piers Plowman.”

“Agnes Hobkin-wyf, iiiid.”—W. D. S.

“Henry, son of Halekyn, for 17½ acres of land.”—“De Lacy Inquisition,” 1311.

“Emma Watkyn-doghter, iiiid.”—W. D. S.

“Thi beste cote, Hankyn,Hath manye moles and spottes,It moste ben y-wasshe.”“Piers Plowman.”

Malkinwas one of the few English female names with this appendage. Some relics of this form of Mary still remain. Malkin in Shakespeare is the coarse scullery wench:

“The kitchen malkin pinsHer richest lockram ’bout her reechy neck,Clambering the walls to eye him.”“Coriolanus,” Act ii. sc. 1.

While the author of the “Anatomy of Melancholy” is still more unkind, for he says—

“A filthy knave, a deformed quean, a crooked carcass, a maukin, a witch, a rotten post, a hedge-stake may be so set out and tricked up, that it shall make a fair show, as much enamour as the rest.”—Part iii. sect. 2, mem. 2, sub-sect. 3.

From a drab Malkin became a scarecrow. Hence Chaucer talks of “malkin-trash.” As if this were not enough, malkin became the baker’s clout to clean ovens with. Thus, as Jack took the name of the implements Jack used, as in boot-jack, so by easy transitions Malkin. The last hit was when Grimalkin (that is, grey-malkin) came to be the cant term for an old worn-out quean cat. Hence the witch’s name in “Macbeth.”

It will be seen at a glance why Malkin is the only name of this class that has no place among our surnames.[7]She had lost character. I have suggested, in “English Surnames,” that Makin, Meakin, and Makinson owe their origin to either Mary or Maud. I would retract that supposition. There can be little doubt these are patronymics ofMatthew, just as is Maycock or Meacock. Maykinus Lappyng occurs in “Materials for a History of Henry VII.,” and the Maykina Parmunter of the Hundred Rolls is probably but a feminine form. The masculine name was often turned into a feminine, but I have never seen an instance of the reverse order.

Terminations inkinwere slightly going down in popular estimation, when the Hebrew invasion made a clean sweep of them. They found shelter in Wales, however, and our directories preserve in their list of surnames their memorial for ever.[8]

(b)Cock.

The term “cock” impliedpertness: especially the pertness of lusty and swaggering youth. To cock up the eye, or the hat, or the tail, a haycock in a field, a cock-robin in the wood, and a cock-horse in the nursery, all had the same relationship of meaning—brisk action, pert demonstrativeness. The barn-door cockerel was not more cockapertthan the boy in the scullery that opened upon the yard where both strutted. Hence any lusty lad was “Cock,” while such fuller titles as Jeff-cock, or Sim-cock, or Bat-cock gave him a preciser individuality. The story of “Cocke Lorelle” is a relic of this; while the prentice lad in “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” acted at Christ College, Cambridge, in 1566, goes by the only name of “Cock.” Tib the servant wench says to Hodge, after the needle is gone—

“My Gammer is so out of course, and frantic all at once,That Cock our boy, and I, poor wench, have felt it on our bones.”

By-and-by Gammer calls the lad to search:

“Come hither, Cock: what, Cock, I say.Cock.How, Gammer?Gammer.Go, hie thee soon: and grope behind the old brass pan.”

Such terms as nescock, meacock, dawcock, pillicock, or lobcock may be compounds—unless they owe their origin to “cockeney,” a spoiled, home-cherished lad. In “Wit without Money” Valentine says—

“For then you are meacocks, fools, and miserable.”

In “Appius and Virginia” (1563) Mausipula says (Act i. sc. 1)—

“My lady’s great business belike is at end,When you, goodman dawcock, lust for to wend.”

In “King Lear”

“Pillicock sat on pillicock-hill”

seems an earlier rendering of the nursery rhyme—

“Pillicock, Pillicock sate on a hill,If he’s not gone, he sits there still.”

In “Wily Beguiled” Will Cricket says to Churms—

“Why, since you were bumbasted that your lubberly legs would not carry your lobcock body.”

These words have their value in proving how familiarly the termcockwas employed in forming nicknames. That it should similarly be appended to baptismal names, especially the nick form of Sim, Will, or Jeff, can therefore present no difficulty.

Cockwas almost as common as “kin” as a desinence.Sim-cockwasSimcockto the end of his days, of course, if his individuality had come to be known by the name.

“Hamme, son of Adecock, held 29 acres of land.“Mokock de la Lowe, for 10 acres.“Mokock dal Moreclough, for six acres.“Dik, son of Mocock, of Breercroft, for 20 acres.”—“The De Lacy Inquisition,” 1311.

“Hamme, son of Adecock, held 29 acres of land.

“Mokock de la Lowe, for 10 acres.

“Mokock dal Moreclough, for six acres.

“Dik, son of Mocock, of Breercroft, for 20 acres.”—“The De Lacy Inquisition,” 1311.

Adecock is Adam, and Mocock or Mokock is Matthew. In the same way Sander-cock is a diminutive of Sander, Lay-cock of Lawrence, Luccock of Luke, Pidcock and Peacock of Peter,Maycock and Mycock of Matthew, Jeff-cock of Jeffrey, Johncock of John, Hitch-cock or Hiscock or Heacock of Higg or Hick (Isaac), Elcock of Ellis, Hancock or Handcock of Han or Hand (Dutch John), Drocock or Drewcock of Drew, Wilcock of William, Badcock or Batcock of Bartholomew, and Bawcock of Baldwin, Adcock or Atcock of Adam, Silcock of Silas, and Palcock of Paul:

“Johannes Palcock, et Beatrix uxor ejus, iiiid.”—W. D. S.“Ricardus Sylkok, et Matilda uxor ejus, iiiid.”—W. D. S.

“Johannes Palcock, et Beatrix uxor ejus, iiiid.”—W. D. S.

“Ricardus Sylkok, et Matilda uxor ejus, iiiid.”—W. D. S.

The difficulty of identification was manifestly lessened in a village or town whereBatecould be distinguished fromBatkin, andBatkinfromBatcock. Hence, again, the common occurrence of such a component ascock. This diminutive is never seen in the seventeenth century; and yet we have many evidences of its use in the beginning of the sixteenth. The English Bible, with its tendency to require the full name as a matter of reverence, while it supplied new names in the place of the old ones that were accustomed to the desinence, caused this. It may be, too, that the new regulation of Cromwell in 1538, requiring the careful registration of all baptized children, caused parents to lay greater stress on the name as it was entered in the vestry-book.

Any way, the sixteenth century saw the end of names terminating in “cock.”

(c.)On or In.

A dictionary instance is “violin,” that is, a little viol, a fiddle of four strings, instead of six. This diminutive, to judge from the Paris Directory, must have been enormously popular with our neighbours. Our connection with Normandy and France generally brought the fashion to the English Court, and in habits of this kind the English folk quickly copied their superiors. Terminations inkinandcockwere confined to the lower orders first and last. Terminations inonorin, andotoret, were the introduction of fashion, and being under patronage of the highest families in the land, naturally obtained a much wider popularity.

Our formal registers, again, are of little assistance. Beton is coldly and orthodoxly Beatrice or Beatrix in the Hundred Rolls. Only here and there can we gather that Beatrice was never so called in work-a-day life. In “Piers Plowman” it is said—

“Betonthe BrewestereBade him good morrow.”

And again, later on:

“And bade Bette cut a bough,And beatBetountherewith.”

If Alice is Alice in the registrar’s hands, not so in homely Chaucer:

“ThisAlisonanswered: Who is thereThat knocketh so? I warrant him a thefe.”

Or take an old Yorkshire will:

“Item: to Symkyn, and Watkyn, and Alison Meek, servandes of John of Bolton, to ilk one of yaim, 26s. 8d.”—“Test. Ebor.” iii. 21. Surtees Society.

Hugh, too, gets his name familiarly entered occasionally:

“Hugynheld of the said earl an oxgang of land, and paid yearly iiis. vid.”—“The De Lacy Inquisition,” 1311.

Huggins in our directories is the memorial of this. But in the north of England Hutchin was a more popular form. In the “Wappentagium de Strafford” occurs—

“Willelmus Huchon, & Matilda uxor ejus, iiiid.”

Also—

“Elena Houchon-servant, iiiid.”

that is, Ellen the servant of Houchon. Our Hutchinsons are all north of Trent folk. Thus, too, Peter (Pier) became Perrin:

“The wife of Peryn.”—“Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne,” Chetham Society, p. 87.

Marion, from Mary, is the only familiar instance that has descended to us, and no doubt we owe this fact to Maid Marion, the May-lady. Many a Mary Ann, in these days of double baptismalnames, perpetuates the impression that Marion or Marian was compounded of Mary and Ann.

Of familiar occurrence were such names asPerrin, from Pierre, Peter;RobinandDobbin, from Rob and Dob, Robert;Colin, from Col, Nicholas;Diccon, from Dick, Richard;Huggin, from Hugh;Higgin, from Hick or Higg, Isaac;Figgin, from Figg, Fulke;[9]Phippin, from Phip and Philip; andGibbin, orGibbon, orGilpin, from Gilbert. Every instance proves the debt our surnames have incurred by this practice.

Several cases are obscured by time and bad pronunciation. Our Tippings should more rightly be Tippins, originally Tibbins, from Tibbe (Theobald); our Collinges and Collings, Collins; and our Gibbings, Gibbins. Our Jennings should be Jennins;JenninCaervil was barber to the Earl of Suffolk in the French wars (“Wars of England in France,” Henry VI.). Robing had early taken the place of Robin:

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