Chapter 31

86.A well-known Durham family of the name of ‘Burletson’ existed till the close of the eighteenth century in that county, and I am not sure that it does not still survive there. This, I doubt not, is but a corruption of ‘Bartelotson’ or ‘Bartleson.’ (VideSurtees’History of Durham, vol. i. p. 106.)

87.John Toloson was Sheriff of London in 1237.

88.The romance form, ‘Thomasine,’ existed till recent days, and was at the zenith of its popularity in Elizabeth’s reign. It is found in every register of that period. It is found as ‘Thomasing’ in Worksworth Ch. (Derbyshire): ‘Thomasing, filia William Sympson; buried Jan. 31, 1640.’

89.Thus Skelton, inWhy come ye nat to Courte?says:—‘Twit, Andrewe, twit, Scot,Ge hame, ge scour thy pot.’

89.Thus Skelton, inWhy come ye nat to Courte?says:—

‘Twit, Andrewe, twit, Scot,Ge hame, ge scour thy pot.’

‘Twit, Andrewe, twit, Scot,

Ge hame, ge scour thy pot.’

90.An instance of the diminutive is found in ‘Thomas Jemmitt,’ recorded in Clutterbuck’sHertford, Index, vol. i.

91.Thus, inWhy come ye nat to Courte?Skelton introduces such fictitious characters as—‘Havell, and Harvy Hafter,Jack Travell, and Cole Crafter.’

91.Thus, inWhy come ye nat to Courte?Skelton introduces such fictitious characters as—

‘Havell, and Harvy Hafter,Jack Travell, and Cole Crafter.’

‘Havell, and Harvy Hafter,

Jack Travell, and Cole Crafter.’

92.I have stated in p.80that Polson is nothing more than Paulson. A proof of this is found in the case of ‘Pol Withipol,’ who was summoned to attend the council to show why the statute passed 27th Henry VIII., for the making of broadcloths and kerseys, should not be repealed.—Proc. and Ord. Privy Council, vii. 156.

93.Capgrave, in his ‘Chronicles,’ under date 1394, says: ‘In this time the Lolardis set up scrowis at Westminster and at Poules.’

94.Lord Macaulay has noticed this. Speaking of the Old Testament, and in respect of the old Puritans, he says: ‘In such a history it was not difficult for fierce and gloomy spirits to find much that might be distorted to suit their wishes. The extreme Puritans, therefore, began to feel for the Old Testament a preference which, perhaps, they did not distinctly avow even to themselves, but which showed itself in all their sentiments and habits. They paid to the Hebrew language a respect which they refused to that tongue in which the discourses of Jesus and the epistles of Paul have come down to us. They baptized their children by the names, not of Christian saints, but of Hebrew patriarchs and warriors.’—(Hist. Eng.ch. 1.)

95.The most curious illustration of this class is that of ‘Melcom Groat’ (T.T.). ‘Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon.’—2 Kings, xxiii. 13. This is a conversion by baptism which would astonish equally Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Pusey, I should imagine. A sister of Archbishop Leighton (son of a much persecuted Presbyterian minister) was ‘Sapphira.’

96.The same writer quotes from the register of Waldron the following curious entry:—‘Flie-fornication, the bace sonne of Catren Andrewes, bapt. ye 17th Desemb., 1609.’

97.‘The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., born Feb. 5th, 1673, died of an apoplexy, Nov. 9th, 1758.’ He was a missionary to Vineyard Island. (Vide‘Pulpit,’ Dec. 6, 1827.)

98.‘Here lieth the body of Abstinence Pougher, Esq., who died Sept. 5th, 1741, aged 62 years.’ (All Saints, Leicester.VideNicholls’ ‘Leicester.’)

99.Dr. Increase Mather was sent from New England to represent to James II. the gratitude of the Dissenters for a Toleration Act in 1685. (VideNeales’ ‘Puritans,’ vol. v. p. 31.)

100.Rev. Accepted Frewen (died 1664) was Archbishop of York, and son of a Puritan minister in Sussex. (VideWalker’s ‘Sufferings of Clergy,’ p. 38.) ‘Thankfull’ was his brother.

101.Mr. Livewell Sherwood, an alderman of Norwich, was put on a commission for sequestering Papists, in 1643. (Scobell’s ‘Orders of Parl.,’ p. 38.)

102.Faythful Fortescue. (‘Visitation of Yorkshire.’)

103.‘Robert Thyer and Silence Leigh, married Dec. 9, 1741.’ (St. Ann’s, Manchester.) She was evidently the daughter of some old stickler for St. Paul’s doctrine—‘Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection’—or had he been himself a sufferer in his married life?

104.Charles Chauncy died in New England, 1671. He went from Hertfordshire, where the family had been settled for centuries. His children were ‘Isaac,’ ‘Ichabod,’ ‘Sarah,’ ‘Barnabas,’ ‘Elnathan,’ ‘Nathaniel,’ and ‘Israel.’ (Clutterbuck’sHertford, vol. ii. 401.) Elnathan and Nathaniel are the same, with syllables reversed, like ‘Theodora’ and ‘Dorothea.’

105.‘What is your name?’ then said Robin Hood,‘Come, tell me, without any fail;’‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,‘My name it is Allan a Dale.’(Robin Hood, vol. ii, 261.)

105.

‘What is your name?’ then said Robin Hood,‘Come, tell me, without any fail;’‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,‘My name it is Allan a Dale.’(Robin Hood, vol. ii, 261.)

‘What is your name?’ then said Robin Hood,‘Come, tell me, without any fail;’‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,‘My name it is Allan a Dale.’

‘What is your name?’ then said Robin Hood,

‘Come, tell me, without any fail;’

‘By the faith of my body,’ then said the young man,

‘My name it is Allan a Dale.’

(Robin Hood, vol. ii, 261.)

106.One of the best puns extant is put to the credit of the Duke of Buckingham by Walter Scott, in hisPeveril of the Peak. A Mrs. Cresswell, who had borne anything but a creditable character, bequeathed 10l.for a funeral sermon, in which nothing ill-natured was to be said of her. The duke wrote the following brief but pointed discourse: ‘All I shall say of her is this: she was bornwell, she marriedwell, she livedwell, and she diedwell; for she was born at “Shad-well,” married to “Cress-well,” lived at “Clerken-well,” and died in “Bride-well.”’

107.A will, dated 1553, among other bequests mentions: ‘Also tomy nawntBygott an old angell of golde.’ The old angel, I need not say, refers to the coin, not the aunt. (Richmondshire Wills, p. 76.)

108.This name thus formed existed till the sixteenth century, at least, for ‘Christopher Nend’ is set down in the Corpus Christi Guild, York, 1530.

109.William de Okholt is found in the ‘Inquis. post mortem.’ This would be the original form.

110.‘Emelina de Hogshawe’ (Inquis. post mortem). The name is now extinct, I believe.

111.Our ‘Deardens,’ however, may be in some cases but a corruption of the old ‘Derneden’—that is, the secret or secluded den. The Hundred Rolls give us, for instance, a ‘Ralph de Derneden.’ This word ‘dern’ was then in the most familiar use. Thus, in ‘Cursor Mundi,’ mention is made of ‘a mountain dern.’ Chaucer speaks of ‘derne love,’ and Piers Plowman of ‘derne usurie.’ Our ‘Durnfords’ but represent such an early entry as ‘Robert de Derneford;’ and of names now obsolete, we might instance ‘Dernehus,’ found also in the same roll as the above. Our ‘Dernes’ simple probably originated in the reticent and cautious disposition of their first ancestor. We may take this opportunity of noticing that ‘Dibdin’ is but ‘Deepden.’ One of our older rolls has a ‘Randolph de Depeden.’

112.By ‘ley’ I include both ‘lee,’ a shelter, and ‘lea,’ a pasture, for it is impossible to distinguish the two.

113.‘John de Foxlee’ is mentioned. (Fines, Ric. I.)

114.More personal forms are found in ‘Henry Legeman’ (H.R.) and ‘Elias Layman’ (H.R.).

115.‘William de Waldeslade’ occurs in the ‘Great Roll of the Pipe.’

116.Quite as good a story, and one less objectionable, is told of a Scottish Member of Parliament called Dunlop, who, at a large dinner party, having asserted that no one could make a pun upon his name, met with the instant reply from one of his guests, ‘Oh, yes, I can.Lopoff the last syllable, and it isdone.’

117.Thus in the ‘Proverbs of Hending,’ it is said: ‘When the coppe is fullest, then the hair is fairest.’

118.Talking of ‘Manners,’ however, we may add one on the celebrated Marquis of Granby:—‘What conquest now will Britain boast,Or where display her banners?Alas! in Granby she has lostTrue courage and goodManners.’Puns of this nature may be met with frequently in books of the last century. Some complimentary verses to Dr. Gill, on account of a supposed victory in a public controversy, in 1727, in support of immersion at baptism, have a play of this kind at one part:—‘Stennet,’ at first, his furious foe did meet,Cleanly compelled him to a swift retreat;Next powerful ‘Gale,’ by mighty blast made fallThe Church’s Dagon, the gigantic ‘Wall.’(Gill’s Works, edit. 1839.)

118.Talking of ‘Manners,’ however, we may add one on the celebrated Marquis of Granby:—

‘What conquest now will Britain boast,Or where display her banners?Alas! in Granby she has lostTrue courage and goodManners.’

‘What conquest now will Britain boast,

Or where display her banners?

Alas! in Granby she has lost

True courage and goodManners.’

Puns of this nature may be met with frequently in books of the last century. Some complimentary verses to Dr. Gill, on account of a supposed victory in a public controversy, in 1727, in support of immersion at baptism, have a play of this kind at one part:—

‘Stennet,’ at first, his furious foe did meet,Cleanly compelled him to a swift retreat;Next powerful ‘Gale,’ by mighty blast made fallThe Church’s Dagon, the gigantic ‘Wall.’(Gill’s Works, edit. 1839.)

‘Stennet,’ at first, his furious foe did meet,

Cleanly compelled him to a swift retreat;

Next powerful ‘Gale,’ by mighty blast made fall

The Church’s Dagon, the gigantic ‘Wall.’

(Gill’s Works, edit. 1839.)

119.Our now vulgar term ‘nob’ is a relic of this: ‘To hit a man on the nob’ is, in the north, to strike on the head. In the same districts a ‘nob’ is a rich man, one of family and influence.

120.Our Authorised Version has it, in Exodus xxv. 33: ‘Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and flower in one branch.’ Here a bud is evidently intended. I need scarcely say that ‘knob’ is but the modern form of this word.

121.Besides ‘David atte Lawe’ (M.), we have the more personal ‘John Laweman’ (A.), or ‘Ranulf Laweman’ (A.). I doubt not these are also local, but one cannot help thinking of Chaucer’s ‘Sergeant of the Lawe, ware and wise.’

122.‘William de Thornover’ and ‘Walter de Ashovere’ will represent compound forms.

123.Several local names of this class are found with ‘tree’ appended. Thus, ‘Thomas Appletree’ occurs in the Chancery suits of Elizabeth; and ‘Crabtree,’ ‘Plumtree,’ or ‘Plumptree,’ and ‘Rowntree’ (rowantree) may still be seen in our busiest streets.

124.In the ‘Townley Mysteries,’ Jacob, in his vision, is represented as saying:—‘And now is here none othere gateBut Godes howse and hevens yate.’

124.In the ‘Townley Mysteries,’ Jacob, in his vision, is represented as saying:—

‘And now is here none othere gateBut Godes howse and hevens yate.’

‘And now is here none othere gate

But Godes howse and hevens yate.’

125.I believe this word is not yet extinct in our North-country vocabulary. A Yorkshire inventory of goods, of 1540 or thereabouts, concludes by stating what moneys had been discovered in corners and out of the way places in the house: ‘In hernes, xiiis.iiiid.; item, x sylver spones, xxiiis.iiiid.’ (Richmondshire Wills, p. 41.)

126.Thus, also, is it with ‘Duffus.’ We find it in the Hundred Rolls set down in the same form as ‘de Duffus’ or ‘del Duffus,’ the more literal dress being met with in the London city archives in the name of ‘Thomas Dufhous.’ (VideRiley’sMemorials of London, p. 555.) ‘Dove-house’ is the root.

127.‘Agnes atte Punfald’ (A.) reminds us of our ‘Penfold,’ or ‘Pinfold,’i.e.the pound.

128.‘Ralph ate Med’ (A.). ‘Philip atte Medde’ (M). In the Hundred Rolls we find ‘William le Medward’ corresponding to ‘Hayward.’ (Videp. 198.)

129.‘His tenants, the graingers, are tyed to come themselves and winde the woll, they have a fatte weather and a fatte lambe killed, and a dinner provided for their paines.’ (Henry Best’sFarming Book(1641), p. 97.)

130.‘John Grangeman’ occurs in the Proc. in Chancery. (Elizabeth.)

131.The coney, or rabbit, has made a mark upon our local nomenclature. An old form of the word was ‘coning’ or ‘conig.’ Thus Piers Plowman says:—‘The while he caccheth conynges,He coveiteth naught youre caroyne,But feedeth hym all with venyson.’Relics of this are found in such an entry as ‘Nicolas Conyng’ or ‘Peter Conyng,’ though now met with as ‘Coney.’ More local registrations, such as ‘Thomas de Conyton,’ ‘John de Conington,’ ‘John de Conyngsby,’ or ‘Walter de Cunnyngby,’ are still familiarised to us in ‘Conington’ and ‘Coningsby.’ The North English form was ‘Cuning,’ whence the ‘de Cunnyngby’ above instanced and our modern ‘Cunninghams.’

131.The coney, or rabbit, has made a mark upon our local nomenclature. An old form of the word was ‘coning’ or ‘conig.’ Thus Piers Plowman says:—

‘The while he caccheth conynges,He coveiteth naught youre caroyne,But feedeth hym all with venyson.’

‘The while he caccheth conynges,

He coveiteth naught youre caroyne,

But feedeth hym all with venyson.’

Relics of this are found in such an entry as ‘Nicolas Conyng’ or ‘Peter Conyng,’ though now met with as ‘Coney.’ More local registrations, such as ‘Thomas de Conyton,’ ‘John de Conington,’ ‘John de Conyngsby,’ or ‘Walter de Cunnyngby,’ are still familiarised to us in ‘Conington’ and ‘Coningsby.’ The North English form was ‘Cuning,’ whence the ‘de Cunnyngby’ above instanced and our modern ‘Cunninghams.’

132.VideLower’sSurnames.

133.One of Edward III.’s regulations concerning the sale and purchase of wool speaks of ‘merchandises en Engleterre, Gales, ou Irlande;’ and further on more personally of ‘merchantz Engleis, Galeis, ou Irreis.’ (‘Stat. of Realm,’ vol. i. p. 334.) ‘Henry le Galeys,’ that is, as we should say now, ‘Henry Welsh,’ was Mayor of London in 1298.

134.In two different rolls we come across such cognomens as ‘Osbert Diabolus’ and ‘Roger le Diable.’ These are very likely but relics of early jesting upon the local forms mentioned in the text. A ‘Thomas de Devyle’ occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls, while in the Writs of the same we find a ‘John de Evylle.’ The former instance, again, may be but a sarcastic reduplication of the prefix. Dean Milman, quoting the author ofAnglia Judaica, tells the following story, which shows how early this name had been so played upon:—‘A certain Jew travelling towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche, Archdeacon of Malpas, in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was “Deville,” was told amongst other things, by the former, that his “jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called Ill Street all along till they came to Malpas, and took in a wide circumference of country.” To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied: “Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance! For it seems I am riding in a country where Sin (Péché) is the archdeacon, and the Devil himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in Ill Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas).”’ (History of Jews, vol. iii. p. 232.)

135.Hall, in his ‘Chronicles,’ speaks of the ‘Duke of Burgoyne.’ (F. xxiiii.)

136.‘Champaigne,’ of course, means simplyplain-land, and is found locally in various parts of Western Europe. I have included ‘Champion’ with the others because, though sometimes a combative sobriquet, it is as often found to be the mediæval form of the local term, ‘Champian’ and ‘Champain’ being other modes of spelling the same to be met with at this period. Thus we find such double entries as ‘Katerina le Champion’ and ‘Roger de Champion.’ Our present Authorised Version uses the word twice, as in Deut. xi. 30:—‘Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside theplainsof Moreh?’ In the various translations of this passage almost all the above modes of spelling have been used.

137.VideWords and Places, p. 436.

138.Camden says: ‘When Rollo had Normandy made over to him by Carolus Stultus, with his daughter Gisla, he would not submit to kiss Charles’s foot. And when his friends urged him by all means to kiss the king’s foot, in gratitude for so great a favour, he made answer in the English tongue, “Ne se, by God”—“Not so, by God”—upon which the king and his courtiers, deriding him, and corruptly repeating his answer, called him “Bigod,” from whence the Normans are to this day termed “Bigodi.”’

139.‘John Spaynard’ is found in theCal. Rot. Patentium; but the name is now obsolete, I imagine. ‘Peter Ispanier’ occurs in Clutterbuck’sHertford(vol. i. Index).

140.Hence we find Skelton speaking in one of his poems of ‘That gentyll Jorge the Januay.’

141.Wicklyffe, in his preface to St. Paul’s Epistle to the ‘Romayns,’ quotes St. Jerome, and adds, ‘This saith Jerom in his prologe on this pistle to Romaynes.’

142.‘Turk,’ we must not forget, was a general term for anyone of the Mahommedan faith. It still lingers in that sense in theJews, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticsof our Book of Common Prayer.

143.Thus we find Bishop Coverdale, in hisPrologue to the New Testament, written 1535, saying, ‘And to help me herein I have had sundry translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch interpreters, whom, because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more glad to follow.’ (Park: Soc.p. 12.) Here he is manifestly speaking of the German reformers.

144.Andrew Borde speaks of ‘Flaunders, Hanway, and Braban, which be commodious and plentiful contreys.’—Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge.

145.An act passed in 1464 speaks of tonnage upon wines brought into England ‘by eny Marchaunt Alien, as well by the Marchauntes of Hance and of Almayn, as of eny other Marchauntes Alien.’ (Rot. Parl. Ed. IV.) Bishop Coverdale’s exposition of the 22nd Psalm is entitled, ‘A very excellent and swete exposition upon the two and twenty Psalme of David, called in Latyn, “Dominus regit me, et nihil.” Translated out of hye Almayne in to Englyshe by Myles Coverdale, 1537.’

146.The old form of ‘Dutch’ was ‘Douch’ or ‘Dowch.’ Skelton in his ‘Parrot’ says that, besides French, Lattyn, Ebrew,‘With Douch, with Spanysh, my tong can agree.’Our ‘Dowch’s’ and ‘Douch’s’ still preserve this spelling.

146.The old form of ‘Dutch’ was ‘Douch’ or ‘Dowch.’ Skelton in his ‘Parrot’ says that, besides French, Lattyn, Ebrew,

‘With Douch, with Spanysh, my tong can agree.’

Our ‘Dowch’s’ and ‘Douch’s’ still preserve this spelling.

147.Our ‘Sarsons’ may be metronymically descended from ‘Sare’ or ‘Sarra.’ Skelton, in ‘Elynore Rummyng,’ speaks of‘Dame Dorothe and lady Besse,Dame Sare, our pryoresse.’Nevertheless the same writer, in his ‘Poem against Garnesche,’ addresses a Saracen thus—‘I say, ye solem Sarson, alle blake is your ble.’Such entries as ‘William fil. Sare,’ ‘John Saresson,’ ‘Henry Sarrasin’ or ‘Peter Sarracen,’ show both origins to be possible.

147.Our ‘Sarsons’ may be metronymically descended from ‘Sare’ or ‘Sarra.’ Skelton, in ‘Elynore Rummyng,’ speaks of

‘Dame Dorothe and lady Besse,Dame Sare, our pryoresse.’

‘Dame Dorothe and lady Besse,

Dame Sare, our pryoresse.’

Nevertheless the same writer, in his ‘Poem against Garnesche,’ addresses a Saracen thus—

‘I say, ye solem Sarson, alle blake is your ble.’

Such entries as ‘William fil. Sare,’ ‘John Saresson,’ ‘Henry Sarrasin’ or ‘Peter Sarracen,’ show both origins to be possible.

148.This surname is found uncorrupted so late as 1626. A ‘John Jewry’ is set down in C. C. Coll. register for that date. (Vide Hist. C. C. Coll.) ‘Jewsbury’ has the same origin.

149.We must not forget, however, that the term ‘convert’ was applied to such as were lay members of a monastery. They were also working brethren, and thus were distinguished from the ‘monachi,’ or monks, who were wholly confined to religious offices and meditation. Thus, in theLife of Hugh of Lincoln, it is said, ‘Omnes interea Hugonem loquebantur sive prior, sive monachus, siveconversus, gratiam attolebat collatam Hugoni.’ (P. 46. See, also, Glossary to same.)

150.‘Edward I. went so far as to give the Dominican Friars, at their particular request, power to constrain the Jews to listen to their preaching, and even proceeded to waive his claim for seven years to more than a moiety of the goods of the converts, the other half being given to maintain the poor in the Hospital for Converts.’ (Anglia Judaica, p. 231.)

151.Hall, in hisChronicles, spells it ‘Bullein.’ (F, xxiii.)

152.So late as the year 1562 we find, in an old inventory, mention made of ‘One bede coveringe of ariesworke, 8s.(Richmondshire Wills, p. 161.) ‘Grant to John Bakes, arras-maker, of the office of maker and mender of the King’s cloths and pieces of arras and tapestry, with 12d.a day for wages.’—Materials for History of Reign of Henry VII.(p. 259).

153.TheGildhallæ Munimentamention, among other goods, ‘mercerie, canevas, conins-panes, fustiane, chalons,draps du Reynes, et draps de soye.’ (P. 231.) ‘Then take a towell of reynes of two yerdes and an halfe, and take the towell by ye endes double and laye it on the table.’—The Boke of Kervynge.

154.Foxe, in hisMartyrology, speaks of the ‘Bishop of Mentz, of Cullen, and of Wormes.’ (Vol. i. p. 269, ed. 1844.)

155.The same remark will apply to our ‘Cardinals’ and ‘Pontifexs.’ ‘Cardinal’ is early found in ‘Walter Cardinall’ (P.), and ‘William Cardynall’ (Z.).

156.In one of our old mediæval ‘mysteries,’ representing the Nativity, one of the Magi says:—Certain Balaam speakys of this thyng,That of Jacob a star shall spryng,That shall overcom kasar and kyng.—Townley Mysteries.

156.In one of our old mediæval ‘mysteries,’ representing the Nativity, one of the Magi says:—

Certain Balaam speakys of this thyng,That of Jacob a star shall spryng,That shall overcom kasar and kyng.—Townley Mysteries.

Certain Balaam speakys of this thyng,

That of Jacob a star shall spryng,

That shall overcom kasar and kyng.

—Townley Mysteries.

157.Some of these forms may be but corruptions of ‘Casier,’ the old cheese-maker, found in the Writs of Parliament in such entries as ‘Michael le Casiere,’ or ‘Benedict le Casiere.’ ‘Cayser’ would require little variation to make it such.

158.‘Ellice Prynce’ (Z.), ‘John le Cunte’ (E.), ‘Peter le Counte’ (G.), ‘John le Viscounte’ (B.).

159.‘William le Duck’ (T.). Our ‘Ducks’ may thus be official rather than ornithological.

160.This word is found as a compound in ‘William Burtheyn,’ a Saxon title equivalent to the Norman ‘Chamberlain.’ The Prompt. Par. has ‘burmayden,’i.e.‘chamber-maid.’

161.In the Hundred Rolls we find a ‘Will Litleking.’ This sobriquet would readily attach to one such feast-appointed monarch whose diminutive stature would but impart additional merriment to the occasion. ‘Roger Wyteking’ (Testa de Neville) would owe hisnom-de-plumeto the dress he wore. It is to such an institution as this, again, we must ascribe the origin of such names as ‘Reginald Kyngessone,’ and perchance ‘Richard Kyngesman,’ both found in the Hundred Rolls also. That our ‘Kings’ are but a memorial of the festivities of our forefathers, is an undoubted fact. Every great nobleman had not merely a professed ‘fool,’ but at particular seasons a ‘King of Misrule.’ This ‘king’ initiated and conducted the merry doings of Christmastide, and was a proper officer. Besides the ‘King of Misrule,’ there were also the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ of each village enthroned on May morning, who would be sure to keep their regal title through the year at least. Thus, among the twenty or thirty families that comprised the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne in 1422, we find ‘Hobbe the King,’ while a festival to be held there in that year is to be under the supervision of ‘Margaret, widow of Hobbe the King, Hobbe Adamson, Jenkin of the Wood, Robert Somayster (Sum-master), etc.’ (Three Lancashire Documents.Cheth. Soc.) ‘We, Adam Backhous and Harry Nycol, hath made account for the Kenggam (King-game), that same tym don William Kempe,Kenge, and Joan Whytebrede,Quen, and all costs deducted, 4l.5s.0d.(Ch.wardens’ Accounts: Kingston-upon-Thames. Lyson.)

162.The Ordinary was any ecclesiastic judge, the bishop himself, or his deputy. Thus, in a statute of Edward III., dated 1341, it is said:—‘Item, it is accorded and assented that the king and his heirs shal have the conisance of the usurers dead, and that the Ordinaries of Holy Church—les Ordinares de Seinte Esglise—have the conisance of usurers in life, as to them appertaineth, to make compulsion by the censures of Holy Church for the sin,’ &c. (Stat. Realm, vol. i. p. 296.) We still call the gaol chaplain theordinarywho conducts the condemned prisoner to the scaffold and reads the appointed service. The Parliamentary Writs give us a ‘John Ordeiner’ and a ‘Stephen Ordinar.’

163.The term ‘poll’ for the head, was far more familiar to our forefathers than to ourselves, as such terms as ‘poll-tax,’ or ‘going to the poll,’ testify. It was in great favour for nickname purposes, and beside the one in the text gave rise to such sobriquets as ‘ranti-poll,’i.e., boisterous fellow; ‘doddy-poll,’ or ‘doddy-poul,’ as Latimer spells it,i.e., blockhead; or ‘withy-poll,’i.e., spoiled one. The latter was a term of endearment, and as such would not be resented. Hence it is found twice as a surname:—‘Poule Withipoule, taillour’ (Rutland Papers, Cam. Soc.); ‘Edmund Withipole’ (State Papers, Domestic).

164.An old sermon, written in the fourteenth century, upon Matt. xxiv. 43, speaks of those whom we should now term as the ‘Devil and his angels’ as the ‘Devil and his kachereles.’

165.We have the surname of ‘Outlawe,’ or ‘Outlaghe,’ figuring in several rolls, and that of ‘Felon,’ or ‘le Felun,’ in at least one. These would be both unpleasant names to bear, perhaps more so then than now. A ‘felon’ was one who had, by court adjudicature, and for some specific crime, forfeited all his property, lands, or goods. An ‘outlaw’ was one who had been cited to judgment for some misdemeanour, and by refusing to make an appearance had put himself out of the protection of the law. Thus, Robin Hood was an outlaw. ‘Adam Outelaw’ signs ordinances of Guild of St. John Baptist, West Lynn, 1374. (English Gilds, p. 102.) This name, strange to say, lingered on to within the last two hundred years, a ‘Thomas Outlaw’ being found in a college register for 1674. (VideHist. C. C. Coll. Cam.) In 1661, too, ‘Ralph Outlaw’ was rector of Necton in Norfolk. (Hist. Norf., vi. 55.)

166.‘On the 30th ult., at Greenheys, Manchester, formerly of Oxton, Cheshire, Sarah, widow of R. Bellringer, of Pendleton, aged 82.’ (Manchester Courier, May 2, 1874.) This is the only instance of this name I have hitherto met with.

167.‘Thomas le Await’ occurs in theRot. Curiæ Regis. This reminds us that our ‘waiter’ was once prefixed with ‘a’ likewise—‘xii. esquiers awaiters.’ (Ord. Household of Duke of Clarence, 1493.)

168.‘And to meyris or presidentis and to kyngis ye shall be led for me in witnessyng to them.’—Matt x. 18 (Wicklyffe). In a Petition to Parliament, dated 1461, the following varieties of spelling occur within the space of thirty lines:—‘Maier,’ ‘Mayer,’ ‘Mayre,’and ‘Maire.’ (Rot. Parl.Ed. IV.)

169.I suspect the difference between the ‘claviger’ and the ‘clavier’ lay in that the former bore the key, and perhaps even the mace, in all the many public processions and pageants of the day.

170.The old and general custom of electing a boy-bishop on St. Nicholas’ Day gave their title, doubtless, to most of our ‘bishops.’ The familiarity of the ceremony is fully attested by Brand. To him I refer the reader. The boy thus elevated by his fellows could not but retain the sobriquet. Lyson quotes from theLambeth Ch.wardens’ Accounts, 1523: ‘For the Bishop’s dynner and hys company on St. Nycolas’ Day, iis.viiid.’

171.Daniel Archdeacon was recommended to the King for his services, 1610. (State Papers, 1623–5, p. 545.)

172.‘Roger le Archeprest’ (J.). The term was in use in the seventeenth century. Smith, the ‘silver-tongued’ preacher, speaks of ‘priest, or priests, or archpriests, or any such like.’ (God’s Arrow against Atheists.)

173.As in occupative names, such as ‘Fisherman’ and ‘Poulterer,’ there was a tendency to repeat the suffix, or to add ‘man’ to a term that itself expressed a personal agent, so it was in official names. We have just spoken of ‘Vickerman’ and ‘Priestman.’ ‘Symon Priorman’ (W. 15) and ‘William Munkeman’ (W. 15) are other cases in point.

174.A curious, not to say cumbrous, surname is met with in the Parliamentary Writs—that of ‘Holywaterclerk’—a certain ‘Hugh Haliwaterclerk’ being set down as dwelling at Lincoln. Doubtless he was connected with the cathedral body of that city. The name, I need not say, is obsolete; and the Reformation has removed the office denoted. A ‘Walter le Churcheclerk’ is found in the same record.

175.The charge of the vestry seems to have been given also to the ‘revetour,’ from ‘revestir.’ A ‘William Revetour, clericus, filius Rogeri Morbet, revetour,’ was admitted to freedom of York City in 1420. He died in 1446, and in his will makes mention of his father as ‘Roger Revetour.’ (Corpus Christi Guild, p. 24. Surt. Soc.)

176.A curious, not to say cumbrous, surname is met with in the Parliamentary Writs—that of ‘Holywaterclerk’—a certain ‘Hugh Haliwaterclerk’ being set down as dwelling at Lincoln. Doubtless he was connected with the cathedral body of that city. The name, I need not say, is obsolete; and the Reformation has removed the office denoted. A ‘Walter le Churcheclerk’ is found in the same record.

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