Chapter VI (part 2 of 2)

Chapter VI (part 2 of 2)

This is confirmed by the Promp. Par. ‘Brevetowre: brevigerulus.’

Footnote 213:

Perhaps I ought to have placed ‘le Breviter’ in the dining-hall, as but another name for the steward or steward’s lieutenant. It was one among other duties of this officer to set down not merely the courses as they came in, but what and how much was placed before each, so that all might tally with the sum allowed for culinary expenses. This is alluded to in the Boke of Curtasye. Speaking of the steward’s offices in the hall, it says:—

‘At counting stuard schalle ben, Tyll alle be brevet of wax so grene, Wrytten into bokes, without let, That before in tabuls hase been set.’

Further on, too, it adds—

‘The clerke of the kitchen shalle alle thyngs breve.’

The name itself lingered on uncorrupted for some time; for as simple ‘Breviter’ it is found in 1580 in a Cambridge University list. (Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam.) The corrupted ‘Bretter’ still exists, and is met with in ‘William Bretter,’ a name entered in the Calendar to Pleadings of Elizabeth’s reign.

Footnote 214:

‘To John Redyng, avener, for the expenses of le palfrais, 50_l._’ Materials for Hist. of Reign of Henry VII., p. 407.

Footnote 215:

‘Item: It is ordeyned that the King’s Avenor, with the two clerkes of the said office, doe give their dayly attendance, as well as for the check roll, as all other concerning provisions to be made for the king’s stable, according to the statutes made and ordeyned for the same.’ (Extract from Ordinances of Henry VIII. at Eltham.)

Footnote 216:

The Liber Albus, among other entries, has the following: ‘Qe nul teigne Escole de Eskermerye, ne de Bokeler deins la citee.’

Footnote 217:

The old Norman word was either ‘healme’ or ‘heaume.’ The more ordinary term for the former now is ‘helmet.’ Hall, writing of the Battle of Bosworth Field, after mentioning the fact of the armies coming in sight the one of the other, says: ‘Lord, how hasteley the souldyoures buckled their healmes, how quickly the archers bent their bowes and frushed their feathers, how redely the bilmen shoke their billes and proved their staves.’ (Hall, Richard III., fol. 32 b.)

Footnote 218:

It is thought by several writers that the ‘Sworder’ was one who performed feats of jugglery, the sword, after the fashion of the times, forming the most important feature in his art, his hairbreadth tricks being especially popular with the country people. It is quite possible this may be its real origin. The only early instances I find of the name are in the Parliamentary Writs and the Parliamentary Rolls, where are recorded respectively a ‘John le Serdere’ and a ‘Henry Swerder.’

Footnote 219:

In Mr. Riley’s interesting Memorials of London there is recorded not merely a ‘Richard le Kissere,’ but the occupation itself is clearly marked in the entry, ‘Walter de Bedefont, kissere.’ (P. xxii.) There need be no hesitation in accepting the statement that the ‘kisser’ was thus occupied. It is merely spelt according to the then pronunciation. In the Statutes of Arms it is said: ‘And no son of a great lord, that is to say, of an earl or baron, shall have other armour than mufflers and cuishes (“ne seit arme fors de mustilers e de quisers”).’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 231.)

Footnote 220:

The obsolete ‘Bucklermaker’ must be set here. Our Authorized Version has made us familiar with ‘sword and buckler.’ ‘Item: Payd to Phillip Tynker and Mathou Bucler-maker, for drawyenge of the yron and makynge of the stapuls, ii_s._’ (Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accounts, Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 221:

We find the Pattenmakers of London petitioning the Commons, in 1464, that they may have restored to them the use of the ‘tymber called Aspe,’ which had been of late entirely in the hands of the manufacturers of arrows, ‘so that the Flecchers thorough the Reame may sell their arrowes at more esy price than they were wonte to doo.’ The aspe was a species of poplar.—Rol. Parl. Ed. IV.

Footnote 222:

The ‘arrowsmith’ has a much longer and less euphonious title in a statute of Elizabeth regarding the hiring of servants by the year. In it are included ‘Weavers, Tuckers, Fullers, Pewterers, Cutlers, Smithes, Farrours, Sadlers, Spurryers, Turners, Bowyers, Fletchers, Arrowhead-makers, Butchers, Cookes, or Myllers.’—5 Eliz. c. iv. 2.

Footnote 223:

Thus, among the London occupations, Cocke Lovell includes those of the

‘Spooners, turners, and hatters, Lyne-webbers, setters, and lyne-drapers.’

Footnote 224:

Since writing this, I have discovered the names of ‘John Fusilier’ and ‘—— Fuzelier.’ (See Proc. and Ord. Privy Council, under dates 1437 and 1439.)

Footnote 225:

We have a similar interchange of these two initial letters in the cases of ‘Gervais’ and ‘Jervis,’ ‘Geoffrey’ and ‘Jeffrey,’ and ‘Gill’ and ‘Jill.’

Footnote 226:

‘Thomasine Woodkeeper’ is set down in the Index to State Papers (Domestic) for 1635. This is a name, I doubt not, of later origin.

Footnote 227:

The stringent care taken of the beasts of chase may be gathered from the various laws passed regarding the dogs of such swineherds, &c., as had right of entry in the woods. The chief one related to what was called the lawing of dogs. By this rule the three claws of the forefoot of every mastiff were to be cut off by the skin, and the forest assize was to make special inquisition to see that it was in all cases done. (See Stat. de Finibus, 27 Edward I.)

Footnote 228:

‘He seide also to hise discipilis, ther was a riche man that hadde a baylyf, and this was defamed to him as he hadde wastid hise goodis. And he clepide him and seyde to him, what here I this thing of thee? Yelde rekenyng of thi Baylye, for thou myght not now be baylyf.’ (Luke xvi. 1, 2—Wicklyffe.)

Footnote 229:

The first instance I have met with of this name is in a formal declaration against Popish doctrine, dated 1534, and signed among others by ‘Gulielmus Buckmaster.’ (Foxe’s Martyrology.)

Footnote 230:

The Hundred Rolls have the abbreviated form in ‘Godfrey le Futur.’

Footnote 231:

Not very long previously to this we find Trevisa writing: ‘There are many harts, and wild beasts, and few wolves, therefore sheep are the more sykerlyche’ (secure). Thus we have ample evidence, apart from the existence of the name, that this depredator of the farming stock was anything but unknown during mediæval times.

Footnote 232:

Of course the breeding of falcons was a favourite as well as important care. By a special statute of Edward I.’s reign, every freeman could have in his own wood ‘ayries of hawks, sparrowhawks, faulcons, eagles, and herons.’ (25 Edward I. c. 13.) By a statute passed in the reign of Edward III., anyone who found a strayed hawk or tercelet was to bring it to the sheriff of the county, through whom proclamation to that effect was to be made in the towns. If the finder concealed the bird, he was rendered liable to two years’ imprisonment. (34 Ed. III. c. 22.) This will give some idea of the value attached to a good falcon in those days.

Footnote 233:

This form of spelling is used by Burton in his Anatomy. He asks, how would Democritus have been affected ‘to see a scholar crouch and creep to an illiterate peasant for a meal’s meat, a scrivener better paid for an obligation, a faulkner receive greater wages than a student?’ (P. 37.)

Footnote 234:

Juliana Berners says: ‘Ye shall understonde that they ben called Ostregeres that kepe goshawkes or tercelles.’ (Ed. 1496, b. iii.)

Footnote 235:

‘Thacker’ represented the northern pronunciation, ‘Thatcher’ the south. Compare ‘kirk’ and ‘church,’ ‘poke’ and ‘pouch,’ ‘dike’ and ‘ditch,’ or the surnames ‘Fisk’ and ‘Fish.’ A ‘Nathaniel Thackman’ is set down in the index to State Papers (Domestic) for 1635.

Footnote 236:

A ‘John Thaxter’ is met with in a college register for 1567 (Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam.), and far earlier than this, in the Parliamentary Writs, we light upon a ‘Thomas Thackstere.’ This is one more instance of the feminine termination. That the word itself was in familiar use is proved by the fact that in the ordinance arranging the Norwich Trades Procession we find among others the ‘Thaxteres’ marching in company with the ‘Rederes.’ (Hist. Norfolk, vol. iii.) As a surname the term still survives.

Footnote 237:

‘Robertus Brown, redere,’ Guild of St. George, Norwich.

Footnote 238:

‘Also, that no tylers called hillyers of the cite compelle, ne charge ne make no tyler straunger to serve at his rule and assignment, etc.’—The Ordinances of Worcester, English Guilds, 398.

Footnote 239:

According to Walsingham, Wat the rebel was ‘Walterus helier, vel tyler.’ The word is prettily used in an old Saxon Psalter, where, in the stead of our present ‘He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him,’ we read that a

‘Forhiler is He Of all that in Him hoping be.’

The following quotations from Wicklyffe’s New Testament will prove how familiar was the term in his day: ‘And lo a greet stiryng was made in the see so that the schip was hilid with wavis’ (Matt. viii. 24); ‘For I hungride and ye gaven me to ete, I thirstide and ye gaven me to drynke, I was herbarweles and ye herboriden me, naked and ye hiliden me’ (Matt. xxv. 35); ‘No man lightnith a lanterne, and hilith it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed’ (Luke viii. 16).

Footnote 240:

Among other items of an entry in the Issues of the Exchequer we find for ‘putting the shingles on the king’s kitchen, for the aforesaid week, 17_s._ 4_d._’ (43 Hen. III.)

Footnote 241:

We find all these various forms of the same occupation mentioned in a statute of Elizabeth relating to the apprenticeship of children. In it are included ‘Lymeburner, Brickmaker, Bricklayer, Tyler, Slater, Healyer, Tilemaker ... Thatcher or Shingler.’ (5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.)

Footnote 242:

Hugh Marbeler was sheriff of London in 1424.

Footnote 243:

Another Saxon name, that of ‘John le Sclabbere,’ is met with in the Parliamentary Writs. It is, however, but an isolated instance, and I do not suppose there was any particular craft in masonry that went by that title.

Footnote 244:

‘Item: Payd to a laborer for to pargytt, vii_d._ (P. 4, Churchwardens’ Accounts, Ludlow, Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 245:

Thus, our ‘Freebodys’ are found alike in this guise, and in that of ‘Frybody.’ ‘Robert Frybody’ is set down in Proc. and Ord. Privy Council.

Footnote 246:

A curiously contradictory name is met with in ‘Robert Frebond,’ found in the Hundred Rolls. The same roll contains the names of ‘Roger le Neubonde’ and ‘Emma Newbonde.’

Footnote 247:

Among the peasantry of Yorkshire the simple farm labourer is still a ‘hine’ or ‘hind.’

Footnote 248:

A ‘Cropper’ was a farm labourer who superintended the growth and cutting of the crops. In the Custom Roll of the Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne (Ch. Soc.) occurs the following:—‘Roger the Cropper, for his tenement, and whole service, the present 8_d._; the farm, 15_s._’ &c. Lower down mention is made also of ‘Robin the Cropper.’

Footnote 249:

‘Digger’ also exists, and is found in an epitaph in St. Sepulchre’s, Middlesex.

‘Here lyes Robert Diggs and William Digger, There’s no living soule knew which was the bigger, They fared well and lived easy, And now they’re both dead, an ’t shall please ye.’

Dingley’s History from Marble (Cam. Soc.).

Footnote 250:

Chappell’s Ballad Music, vol. i. 327.

Footnote 251:

Thus we find in the forest charter of Edward III.: ‘Unus quisque liber homo faciat in bosco suo vel in terra sua, quam habet in foresta marleram (marl-pit), fossatum, vel terram arabile,’ &c. (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 121.)

Footnote 252:

As there was the ‘Miller’ and the ‘Milward,’ so there was the ‘Marler’ and the ‘Marlward:’ ‘Alice le Marlere’ (H.R.), ‘John Marleward’ (H.R.).

Footnote 253:

‘He shall be called ... a lamb of Christ’s fold, a sheep of his pasture, a branch of his vine, a member of his Church, an imp of his kingdom.’—Bishop Bale.

Footnote 254:

‘Peachman’ must be set here. ‘Daniel Peachman’ occurs in Blomefield’s Norfolk (Index).

Footnote 255:

Thus it is expressly stated in the Forest Charter, as of importance to the holder, that every freeman should have a right to the honey found within his woodland: ‘Habeat similiter mel quod inventum fuerit in boscis suis.’ (Stat. Realm, vol. i. p. 121.)

Footnote 256:

‘Hewer’ often occurs in composition, as in ‘Robert le Wodehyewere,’ ‘Richard Stonhewer,’ ‘Richard le Blockhewere,’ or ‘William Flesschewer.’ This last may be but a corruption of ‘Flesher.’ After the prevailing fashion of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the termination ‘ster’ was sometimes added instead of ‘er.’ Thus, in the Chester Play we find the procession joined by the ‘Hewsters.’ Richard le Hewster was sheriff in 1382. (Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. i. 302.)

Footnote 257:

The ashburner is incidentally alluded to in a statute of Elizabeth’s reign, in which, among other occupations, is mentioned the ‘Burner of Oore and woad ashes.’—5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.)

Footnote 258:

This spelling lasted till the seventeenth century. Henry Best, in his Farming Book, 1641, says: ‘The noutheard wages were, for every beast, 2_d._’ (P. 119, Sur. Soc.)

Footnote 259:

‘Adam le Roc’ (H.R.), represented by our modern ‘Rooks,’ reminds us of the older form.

Footnote 260:

It will give the reader some idea of the importance of this root-word when I say that these five names appear in a list of thirty-one persons dwelling in the village of Aynwyk. (Surtees Soc. Hexham Priory, vol. ii. p. 4.)

Footnote 261:

In an old book of tenures kept in York Castle occurs, or did occur, the following: ‘David le Lardiner holds one Serjeantry, and he is Keeper of the Gaol of the Forest, and Seizer of the Cattle which are taken for the king’s debts.’

Footnote 262:

Nicolas Goteman (W. ii.) occurs in an old Yorkshire register, but the name is now obsolete, I think.

Footnote 263:

In a statute of Edward III.’s reign, dated 1363, in defining the attire suitable for those whose chattels came under 40_s._ value, we find enumerated with others, ‘tenders of oxen, cow-herds, shepherds, swineherds, deyes, and all other keepers of live-stock’ (‘bovus, vachers, berchers, porchers, deyes, et tous autres gardeinz des bestes’). (Vide Prom. Par., p. 116.)

Footnote 264:

‘William Wyndmilward’ occurs in the Cal. Rot. Chartarum.

Footnote 265:

‘Manumissio Thomæ Haale, alias dicti Mylleward de Hextone,’ 1480 (xx. 2, p. 210). ‘Milmaster’ is also found. ‘Mr. Andrew Milmaster, of the Old Jewry, died Aug. 23, 1630.’ (Smith’s Obituary.)

Footnote 266:

We may here mention several surnames whose original possessors were evidently confrères of the miller. ‘John le Melmongere’ (M.), i.e., mealmonger; ‘Denis le Otemonger’ (X.), ‘Walter le Heymongere’ (G.), ‘Ralph le Cornmonger’ (T.), and ‘Henry le Cornmongere’ (M.). These are all obsolete, I fear.

Footnote 267:

‘Adam Taskermale’ (H.R.). This would be a sobriquet taken from the ‘male,’ or bag in which the tasker carried his day’s provision.

Footnote 268:

In the Ordinances of the Household of Henry VI., dated 1455, we find the ‘Bakhous’ (bakehouse) to be under thirteen officers, and of them are ‘6 Gromes Bulters.’ (Pro. Ord. Privy Council, vol. vi. 226.)

Footnote 269:

‘Robert le Whelere,’ G., ‘Walter Welwryghte,’ A., ‘Robert le Wainwright,’ H., ‘Robert le Cartwright,’ B., ‘Hugh le Schipwryte,’ A., ‘John Botewright,’ F.F.

Footnote 270:

So late as 1541 we have such an entry as this: ‘Item, to John Glassier for mendynge the wyndowe over the gallery, v_s._ viii_d._’ (Churchwardens’ Accounts, Ludlow, p. 8, Cam. Soc.) A little later we find: ‘Item, to John Pavier for his labour, iii_d._ Item, for pavinge before the gate, i_d._’ (P. 10, do.) These are both interesting instances of the late formation of surnames. Both evidently took their second sobriquets from their occupation. ‘Pavier,’ I need hardly say, still exists.

Footnote 271:

Since writing the above I find my latter conjecture to be confirmed. Miss Meteyard, in her interesting life of Josiah Wedgwood, says: ‘The surname of ‘Tellwright,’ or ‘Tilewright,’ which, variously spelt, fills a considerable portion of the parish register of Burslem down to a late period of the eighteenth century, and is still common, is curious evidence of the antiquity of the tilewright’s craft in this locality.... Every worker in its clays became a tilewright, whether he moulded tiles or formed the homely pipkin or porringer, the slab-like dish or ale-vat for the hall.’ (Vol. i. p. 93.)

Footnote 272:

In an inventory of household furniture, dated 1559, we have amongst other articles, ‘One trussin bed with a teaster of yealow and chamlet, one old arke, old hangyers of wull grene and red, 6_s._ 8_d._’ (Richmondshire Wills, p. 135.) Another writer, twenty years earlier, relating the contents of the ‘mylke howse,’ includes ‘an arke, a tube (tub), a stande, a chyrne.’ (P. 42, do.) The earliest instance of the surname I have yet met with is found in the same book, where, in a will dated 1556, the testator bequeaths a sheep to ‘Henry Arkwright.’ (Do. p. 155, note.) Both the ark itself and the trade are of North English origin.

Footnote 273:

‘Shuxsmith’ seems but a corruption of this. The intermediate form is found in Wills and Inventories (Ch. Soc.), in the names of ‘Margerie Shughsmythe’ and ‘Henry Shughsmythe.’

Footnote 274:

‘Buckler’ may be mentioned here. ‘John le Bockeler’ (A.), ‘Richard Bokeler’ (Z).

Footnote 275:

With our ‘Locksmiths’ we must, of course, ally our ‘Lockmans,’ ‘Lockyers,’ and ‘Lockers,’ and perchance ‘Lookers.’ We find a ‘Henry le Lokier’ set down in the Hundred Rolls, and in an old Oxford record, dated 1443, there occurs the name of ‘Robert Harward, loker,’ who doubtless found plenty of employment in providing for the security of the various rooms attached to the different colleges and halls. (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 535.)

Footnote 276:

There are several single representatives of occupations connected with the smith which I have not mentioned in the text, not having met with any trace of their continued existence amongst us. Thus, in the London Memorials we find a ‘John Chietesmyth,’ which, so far, I have found to be wholly unintelligible. I must say the same in regard to ‘Cokesmyth,’ occurring in the Boldon Book. ‘John Rodesmith,’ if not a scribe’s error for ‘Redesmith,’ would be the manufacturer of the then familiar ‘rood’ or ‘rode,’ the cross which we occasionally may see still standing beside our old turnpikes. ‘William Watersmith,’ it is quite reasonable, may have spent his energies on water-wheels and such other machinery as helped to turn the mill. All these are now, and probably were then, almost immediately obsolete. On the other hand, we have ‘Wildsmith’ existing in our midst, only one representative of which am I able to discover in our olden records. It is just possible that, like the obsolete ‘Youngsmith,’ it originally referred to the characteristics of the man as well as of his trade.

Footnote 277:

The roads between Cumberland and Northumberland were of the roughest and most dangerous character till the seventeenth century, when General Wade, in the course of his progress against the rebels, laid down some of a better kind. The following couplet has been handed down as the effort of some local poet:—

‘If you’d ever been here When these roads were not made, You would lift up your hands And bless General Wade.’

Footnote 278:

In the Rolls of Parliament special mention is made of the King’s Corser, he who acted as the king’s agent in regard to the purchase of horses. A certain ‘Johannes Martyr, corsere,’ occurs in an old Oxford record, dated 1451. (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 616.)

Footnote 279:

Thus, in the Itinerarium of Richard I., it is said that, after a conflict with the Greeks, ‘Rex igitur cum persecutus esset imperatorem fugientem lucratus est runcinum vel jumentum sacculo retro sellam collocato,’ &c.—P. 191. We may quote, also, the Wardrobe of Edward I.: ‘Magistro Willelmo de Apperle, pro restauro unius runcini favi appreciati pro Roberto de Burton, valletto suo, &c., 8_l._’—P. 172.

Footnote 280:

The Test. Ebor. (W. 2) gives us a ‘John Charioteer,’ and the Cal. Proc. Chancery (Z.Z.) a ‘Thomas Charietter.’

Footnote 281:

This is confirmed by the existence of ‘Chartman,’ more modernly ‘Cartman.’ A ‘John Chartman’ was rector of Sedistern, Norfolk, in 1361. (Blomefield.)

Footnote 282:

The following entry is found in the Issue Rolls: ‘To Master William la Zousche, clerk of the king’s great wardrobe in money, paid to him by the hands of John le Charer, for making a certain chariot for the use and behoof of Lady Eleanor, the king’s sister, by writ of liberate containing 1000_l._’ (Issues of the Exchequer, 6 Ed. III.) Capgrave, too, may be cited. Writing of Helianore, daughter to the King of France, when given to Richard of England, he says, under date 1394: ‘She was ful scarsly viii yere of age, but she brought oute of Frauns xii chares ful of ladies and domicelles.’ Mr. Way says that in 1294 the use of this vehicle by the wives of wealthy citizens in Paris had become so prevalent that it was forbidden them by an ordinance of Philippe le Bel.

Footnote 283:

‘Couchman’ and ‘Coachman’ must be set here. ‘Aug. 4, 1640. Dorothy Coachman, daughter of Tilney Coachman, buried’ (Smith’s Obituary, p. 17). This Tilney is recorded elsewhere as ‘Tilney Couchman.’ Mr. Wedgewood says, ‘Coach. The Fr. coucher became in Dutch koetsen—to lie; whence “koetse,” a couch—a litter, a carriage in which you may recline, a coach’ (p. 159). The twofold spelling of this Tilney’s name is thus explained. Hence, too, ‘Couchmen’ represents but the older form of ‘Coachman’—Richard Couchman, Z., ‘William Cowcheman,’ EE., John Coacheman, Z.

Footnote 284:

In the York Pageant the ‘Sellers’ and the ‘Satellers’ went together. The latter, doubtless, made satchels, and would differ little from the ‘bourser’ or ‘pouchemaker’ of that period. In the Prompt. Parv. we find ‘Sele, horsys harneys.’ A ‘John de Essex, Selmakere,’ occurs in the London Records, 1310, and a ‘Robert Newcomen, Sealmaker,’ 1311. (Riley’s London, pp. xxii., xxx.) The latter, doubtless, was a maker of seals, like some of the ‘le Selers’ of this period. I have mentioned them elsewhere.

Footnote 285:

While, as I have just said, in the York Pageant it is the ‘Satellers’ and ‘Sellers’ who go together, in the Chester Play it is the ‘Saddlers’ and ‘Fusterers.’

Footnote 286:

In Holland’s version of Pliny it is said that the Empress Poppæa ‘was knowne to cause her ferrers ordinarily to shoe her coach horses and other palfries, &c., with cleane gold.’ (Way’s Prompt. Par.)

Footnote 287:

A suggestion I received at a dinner-table the other day that ‘ostler’ was merely a corruption of ‘oat-stealer’ I may as well mention here. It is certainly suggestive, if not overburdened with accuracy.

Footnote 288:

‘William le Vendour’ is registered in the Cal. Rot. Chartarum.

Footnote 289:

Mr. Riley, in his interesting Memorials of London, quotes from the Rolls of Gaol Delivery, temp. Edward I., the name of ‘Richard Witbred, hodere,’ who had been slain in one of the city streets. (Introduction, p. xi.)

Footnote 290:

An act of Edward VI. speaks of ‘the buying of anye corne, fyshe, butter, or cheese by any suche Badger, Lader, Kyddier, or Carrier as shal be assigned and allowed to that office.’ (5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 14.) A confirmation of this act by Elizabeth alters ‘Kyddier’ to ‘Kydder.’ The lader was the old carrier or leader. I have deferred speaking of him till my next chapter.

Footnote 291:

The greed of these strolling ecclesiastics is frequently alluded to in the writings of this period. An old song on the Minorite friars says—

‘They preche alle of povert, but that love they naught, For gode mete to their mouthe the toun is through sought.’ (Pol. Poems, vol. i. p. 270.)

Footnote 292:

An act was passed in Edward VI.’s reign to suppress in some degree the number of this wandering fraternity:—‘Forasmuch as it is evident that Tynkers, Pedlers, and such like vagrant persones are more hurtfull than necessarie to the Commen Wealth of this realme, be it therefore ordeyned ... that ... no person or persones commonly called Pedler, Tynker, or Pety Chapman, shall wander or go from one towne to another, or from place to place, out of the towne, parishe, or village, where such person shall dwell, and sell pynnes, poyntes laces, gloves, knyves, glasses, tapes, or any suche kynde of wares whatsoever, or gather connye skynnes, &c.’ (5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 21)

Footnote 293:

‘John le Coper’ is found in the Hundred Rolls.

Footnote 294:

‘Lambert Hardewareman’ (W. ii.) is met with in York in 1473. Whether he was a travelling dealer or no, I cannot say.

Footnote 295:

It is to the humorous and familiar associations inseparably connected with the early chapman we owe our ‘chap,’ a mere corruption of the above.

Footnote 296:

Mr. William Markettman was appointed by the Committee of Plundered Ministers in 1650 to the Rectory of Elstree. (Clutterbuck’s Hertford, vol. i. 161.) ‘Articles exhibited against Clement Marketman, executor of Clement Stuppeney, &c.’ (State Papers, July 25, 1623.)

Footnote 297:

‘Willmo Mone sometario ad unum somerum pro armis Regis.’ (Wardrobe of Edward I., p. 77.)

Footnote 298:

Thus the somewhat incongruous expression in Psalm cxxvii. 1, ‘the watchman waketh but in vain,’ is explained. That a sentinel should require rousing is opposed to all our ideas of the duties associated with this office. It should be ‘the watchman watcheth but in vain.’

Footnote 299:

It is in allusion to the disturbance thus created in the small hours of the night we find a writer of the Stuart period saying, not unwittily, to one thus rudely aroused:—

‘That you are vext their wakes your neighbours keep They guess it is, because you want your sleep: I therefore wish that you your sleep would take, That they (without offence) might keep their wake.’ (Brand’s Pop. Ant. iii. 9.)

Footnote 300:

Isaac Wake was university orator in 1607. He preached Rainold’s funeral sermon. Dr. Sleep was the leading preacher in Cambridge at the same time. James I., who dearly loved a pun, said ‘he always felt inclined to Wake when he heard Sleep, and to Sleep when he heard Wake,’ i.e., he could not decide on the relative merits of the two. (Brooks’ Puritans, vol. ii. p. 180.)

Footnote 301:

Thus, in the Winter’s Tale, the servant says: ‘I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry-lace and a pair of gloves.’

Footnote 302:

A law was passed at Winchester in 1285 that no fair or market should be held in the churchyard, as had previously been the case.

Footnote 303:

The same record, however, contains a ‘Fairman Alberd,’ so that, like ‘Coleman’ and ‘Bateman,’ it may have been but a personal name.

Footnote 304:

It is from this same root that our ‘Kemp’ is derived, meaning a soldier.

Footnote 305:

In the Complaint of the Plowman, too, we are told that the priests were always—

‘At the wrestling and the wake, And chief chantours at the nale.’

Footnote 306:

In the Household Book of the Earl of Northumberland, in 1511, under the head of ‘Rewards,’ is one of ‘6_s._ 8_d._ to the Kyngs and Queenes Barward, if they have one, when they come to the Earl’ (Way). In the Parliamentary Rolls mention is made concerning the ‘Beremaistre of the Forest of Peake.’ It was not till 1835 that bear or bull baiting was finally forbidden by Act of Parliament.

Footnote 307:

An old tavern-sign in Cheshire bore the following inscription:—

‘Good bear sold here, Our own Bruin.’

The book which records this quotes from the Congleton Town Register: ‘1599.—Paid the bearward, 4_s._ 4_d._’ ‘1601.—Gave the bearward at the great cock-fight, 6_s._ 8_d._’ (Cheshire Ballads, p. 259.)

Footnote 308:

A story is told of an officious clerk belonging to an old rural church who, overwhelmed with the honour of having a bishop presiding at a visitation there, ransacked his brains for something worthy the occasion, and then in stentorian voice gave out, instead of the usual Sternholdic lines, the following variation:—

‘Ye little hills and dales, Why do ye skip and hop? Is it because yer glad to see His Grace the Lord Bish-op?’

Footnote 309:

Curiously enough, we have the name of ‘Robert Harpmaker’ mentioned in an old Oxford record, 1452. (Mun. Acad. Oxon.) This we may look upon, therefore, as an old-standing nuisance.

Footnote 310:

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says: ‘Let them freely feast, sing, and dance, have their poppet-playes, hobby-horses, tabers, crouds, bag-pipes,’ &c. (P. 276.)

Footnote 311:

The names of ‘William Elyott, luter,’ and ‘William Spenser, harpour,’ occur in 1432 in an old York will. (Test. Eboracensia, vol. ii. p. 21, Surtees Soc.) ‘Haunce (Hans) the luter’ and ‘Philip the luter’ are frequently mentioned in Privy Expenses (Princess Mary).

Footnote 312:

This name evidently lasted till the seventeenth century, for in 1641 an ‘Adam Orgener’ entered C. C. Coll. Cam. (Vide Masters’ history of that college.)

Footnote 313:

The ‘Rhymer’ is often mentioned as belonging to the royal or feudal retinue. Like many of the above, he may be set among our list of early officerships.

Footnote 314:

We may set here our ‘Bidders,’ or ‘Ernald le Bidere,’ as he was once recorded. He was the general beggar of that day, and no doubt a rich harvest would be the result of his attendance at the fair. Piers Plowman says:—

‘Bidderes and beggares Faste about yede, With their belies and their bagges Of bread ful y-crammed.’

‘Simon le Shobeggere’ (H.R.), or ‘Shoe-beggar,’ as I presume means, seems to have followed a more particular line of business.

Footnote 315:

Here is Glyed Wolby of Gylforde squyere, Andrew of Habyngedon, apell byer.

(Cocke Lorelle’s Bote.)

I am afraid the reader will scarcely recognise ‘Wool-buyer’ in ‘Wolby,’ but I doubt not such was the trader referred to. ‘Geoffrey le Wolle-byer’ occurs in the Parliamentary Writs.

Footnote 316:

One of Edward III.’s statutes says: ‘That a certain number of portours, pakkers, gwynders (winders), and other laborers of wools and all other merchandizes, be sufficiently ordained for the place where the staple is.’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 341.)

Footnote 317:

It is not impossible that this species of cloth was in use by the lower classes for articles of apparel. Chaucer, in his Romance, refers to such a habit when he says:—

‘She ne had on but a straite old sacke, And many a cloute on it there stacke, This was her cote, and her mantele.’

Footnote 318:

A prayer to the Commons, in 1464, respecting the importation of foreign goods and merchandise, mentions ‘the makers of wollen cloth within this Reame, as Wevers, Fullers, Dyers, Kempsters, Carders, and Spynners.’ (Rot. Parl. Ed. IV.)

Footnote 319:

A recipe from an old Harleian MS. thus begins: ‘Recipe brawne of capons or of hennys, and dry them wele, and towse them small.’

Footnote 320:

In the south walk, Westminster Abbey, are gravestones recording the deaths of ‘George Slemaker,’ 1802, and ‘Susannah Slemaker,’ his widow, 1818. (Vide Neale’s Westminster Abbey.)

Footnote 321:

Richard Slawright was prior of the Hermit Friars of St. Augustine Warrington, in 1516. (Warrington in 1465. Ch. Soc., p. xliv.)

Footnote 322:

A chantry to the church of All Saints, York, was erected in the fifteenth century by Adam del Bank, Littester.’ (Hist. and Ant. of York, vol. ii. p. 269.) The Promp. Par. has ‘Lystare, or Lytaster of cloth dyynge—Tinctor.’

Footnote 323:

‘William Fulman,’ a learned antiquary, died in 1688. (Vide Dyce’s Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 35.)

Footnote 324:

A statute of Elizabeth regarding the apprenticeship of poor children includes among others, ‘Wollen-weaver, weaving housewiefes or householde clothe onely and none other, Clothe-Fuller, otherwise called Tucker, or Walker.’ (5 Eliz. c. 4, 23.) ‘Of William Reynolles, walker, for half a pewe with Edward Doughtie, 3_s._ 4_d._’ (Churchwardens’ Expenses, Ludlow, p. 154 (1571), Cam. Soc.) In the Chester Play the ‘weavers and walkers’ marched together. (Vide Appendix.)

Footnote 325:

This practice of treading the cloth is referred to in a complaint concerning the fulling of caps and hats in fulling mills, made to Edward IV. It begins by saying that hats, caps, and bonnets hitherto had been made, wrought, fulled, and thicked in the wonted manner, that is to say, with hands and feet—‘mayns et pees’—and then proceeds to urge that the use of mills brought inferior articles into the market. (Stat. of Realm, vol. ii. p. 473.)

Footnote 326:

A ‘John Wollebeter’ is mentioned in an old Suffolk will of 1370.

Footnote 327:

We have the word ‘bat’ used in Wicklyffe’s Testament: ‘In that hour Jhesus seide to the people, as to a theef ye han gon out with swerdis and battis to take me.’ (Matt. xxvi. 55.)

Footnote 328:

God made ‘ffor to cover us and clethe us also lyne, and wolle and lethire.’ (Mirror of St. Edmund, Early Eng. Text Soc., p. 21.)

Footnote 329:

The bailiff of Norwich in 1250 was ‘Otto le Texter or Weaver.’ (Hist. Norfolk, iii. 58.) ‘John Tixter’ was Mayor of Gloucester in 1270. (Rudder’s Gloucestershire, p. 113.) On the 30th April 1873, the Manchester Courier announced ‘the suspension of Messrs. Textor and Co., silk merchants, London.’

Footnote 330:

In the Prompt. Parv. we find the feminine termination to have been in general use in Norfolk. The author has ‘pleykstare—candidarius,’ and further on, ‘whytstare, or pleykstare—candidarius, candidaria.’ Earlier in the work, too, occurs ‘bleystare, or wytstare (bleykester or whytster)—candidarius.’ That the name lingered there for a considerable period is proved by the fact of a ‘Robert Blaxter’ appearing as defendant in the Court of Chancery in a Norfolk case at the close of the sixteenth century. (Proceedings in Chancery (Elizabeth), vol. i. p. 250.) The earlier spelling is found in such entries as ‘Will le Bleckestere’ (H.R.) or ‘Richard le Blekstare’ (P. W.). Blackister, like Blaxter, still exists.

Footnote 331:

Sylkewomen, pursers, and garnysshers, Tablemakers, sylkedyers, and shepsters.

(Cocke Lorelle’s Bote.)

Footnote 332:

In A Complaint of Artificers to Parliament, in 1463, there is included amongst other productions, ‘Laces, corses, ribans, frenges of silke and of threde, threden laces, throwen silke, silke in eny wise embrauded.’ (Rot. Parl., Ed. IV.)

Footnote 333:

‘Edmund Barkmaker’ occurs in ‘Calendar to Pleadings.’ (Elizabeth.)

Footnote 334:

According to Strype, the ‘Company of Megusers’ dealt in the skins of dead horses, and flayed them. He mentions ‘Walter le Whitawyer’ in the same account. (London, vol. ii. p. 232.)

Footnote 335:

Since writing the above, I have discovered in the same rolls a ‘Gilbert le Tower’ and a ‘Thomas le Touere,’ proving my surmise to be correct. The feminine form is also to be met with in a ‘Juliana le Touestre,’ this entry, too, being found in the same register.

Footnote 336:

Many of these cries originated surnames, which, however, in most cases, died with their owners. ‘Fresh-fish’ is found as the sobriquet of a fishmonger; and ‘Coloppes,’ ‘Mackerell,’ and ‘Peascod,’ all figure in the rolls of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Footnote 337:

A complaint of craftsmen presented to Parliament in the reign of Edward IV. speaks of ‘silke in eny wise embrauded, golden laces, tyres of silke or of gold, sadles,’ &c. (Rot. Parl.)

Footnote 338:

The caul, or membrane occasionally found round the head of a newly-born child, was ever preserved by the midwife, in accordance with an old superstition, as a preservative against accidents, but especially against drowning. So late as Feb. 27, 1813, the Times newspaper had the following advertisement in its pages: ‘To persons going to sea.—A child’s caul, in a perfect state, to be sold cheap. Apply at 5, Duke Street, Manchester Square, where it may be seen.’ An inventory of goods, dated 1575, we find thus beginning: ‘Imprimis, a cubborde, 20_s._; a calle, 5_s._; a table, 3_s._ 4_d._’ (Richmondshire Wills, p. 259.) With regard to the caul as an article of dress, we may quote the following: ‘Maydens wear sylken callis, with the whyche they kepe in ordre theyr heare, made yellow with lye.’ (Hormani Vulgaria.)

Footnote 339:

Query—Did ‘Richard le Couhelere,’ recorded in the Parliamentary Writs, dress, prepare, and sell cow-heels? There is nothing improbable in it.

Footnote 340:

‘E qe chascun esquier porte chapel des armes son Seigneur:’—‘And that every esquire do bear a cap of the armes of his lord.’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 220.)

Footnote 341:

A complaint on the subject of hats, bonnets, and caps, in 1482, speaks of these three specific articles as ‘hœures, bonnettez, et cappez.’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. ii. p. 473.) ‘Bonnet,’ I need scarcely add, is here used, as it is still in Scotland to this day, as meaning a cap or covering generally for the head.

Footnote 342:

The ecclesiastic tailor was not wanting, judging by such an entry as ‘Robert Vestment-maker’ (W. 2).

Footnote 343:

Talking of Latin forms, however, we are reminded that not unfrequently an artisan of this class would be recorded as ‘William Scissor,’ or ‘Walter Cissor,’ a mode of writing the name very common in our more formal records.

Footnote 344:

As a common instance of the transition process then at work we may cite the name of ‘John le Wympler, Goldsmith,’ which occurs in the London records of this time.

Footnote 345:

A ‘Robert Ornel, paternostrer,’ is mentioned, under date 1276, by the same writer. (Memorials of London, p. xxi.)

Footnote 346:

‘Richard le Nedeler’ represented Chichester in Parliament in 1305. (Hist. West. Div. of Sussex.)

Footnote 347:

The different materials used for the manufacture of buttons are incidentally declared in such entries as ‘Jacob le Horner et Botoner,’ or ‘John le Botoner et Latoner,’ found in the Cal. and Inventories of the Treasury.

Footnote 348:

Among other entries in the Liber Albus occurs a list of customs for exposure of merchandise to sale:—

‘La charge de mercerie, La charge de leyne d’Espagne, La charge de canevas, La charge de hapertas, La charge de chalouns et draps du Reyns,’ etc.

An entry almost immediately ensuing, after mentioning most of the above, when come to ‘hapertas,’ speaks of ‘haberdashery.’ (Gildhallæ Munimenta.)

Footnote 349:

Capgrave says that when Charles was at Constantinople the Emperor gave him ‘a part of Jesu crowne, that flowered there in their sight, and a nayle with which oure Lord was nayled to the tre, and a part of oure Lordis crosse: the smok of oure Ladi: the armé of Seynt Simeon. Alle these relikes broute he to Acon.’ (P. 106.)

Footnote 350:

‘A Marquise (to have) for his gowne, slope, and mantell, xvi yards, and livery for xvi servants.’ (A Book of Precedence.)

Footnote 351:

‘To William Courteray, of London, Embroiderer, in money paid to him for orfries, and other things by him purchased for a velvet vest for the King, therewith embroidered with pelicans, images, and tabernacles of gold, etc., 20_l._’ (40 Edward III. Issues of Exchequer.)

‘Brouderers, strayners, and carpyte-makers.’ (Cocke Lorelle’s Bote.)

Footnote 352:

As a proof of the costliness of this raised needlework, we may quote the following entry found in the Issues of the Exchequer: ‘To William Mugge, chaplain of the King’s Chapel at Windsor, in money paid to Thomas Cheiner, of London, in discharge of 140_l._ lately due to him for a vest of velvet embroidered with divers work, purchased by him for the chaplain aforesaid.’ (24 Edward III.)

The higher nobility seem to have had their special embroiderers. There was certainly a court craftsman of this kind. An act of the first year of Edw. IV. speaks of ‘oure Glasier, Messagiers of oure Exchequer, Browderer, Plumber, Joynour, Maker of Arrows within the Toure of London,’ &c. (Rot. Parl. Edward IV.)

Footnote 353:

An act, elsewhere referred to, passed in the first year of Edward IV., mentions among others the ‘Keper of oure Armour in the Toure of London, maker of Poyntes, Constable of oure Castell or Lordship of Hadleigh,’ etc.—Rot. Parl. Edward IV.

Footnote 354:

‘Hugh le Ceinter’ was Mayor of Gloucester in the reign of Henry the Third. (Rudder’s Hist. Gloucestershire, p. 113.) ‘Benet Seinturer’ was Sheriff of London in 1216. (Strype.)

Footnote 355:

Under date 1355, Mr. Riley, in his interesting Memorials of London, gives the ‘Articles and Ordinances of the Braelers.’ He also has an account of the burning of some gloves and braels for being of false make and fashion in 1350. (Vide pp. 277 and 249.)

Footnote 356:

And ‘also, every sowtere that maketh shoon of new rothes’ lether,’ etc. (Usages of Winchester. English Guilds, 359.)

Footnote 357:

‘Item, received of John Bent and John Davies, cordiner, for one pew, ii_s._’ 1571. (Churchwardens’ Exp. Ludlow, p. 148. Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 358:

In the Mysteries composed for the City Pageant by Randle, a monk of Chester Abbey, in the thirteenth century, a part in it is directed to be sustained by the ‘Corvesters and Shoemakers.’ (Ormerod’s Cheshire, p. 301). In this case we have the strictly speaking Saxon feminine termination appended to a Norman word. I have found three ‘Shoemakers.’ ‘Harry Shomaker’ was an attendant of the Princess Mary (1542). (Privy Purse Expenses, p. 2.) ‘Christopher Shoomaker’ was burnt at Newbury (1518), whose story is related by Foxe. The name seems to have lingered on till the close of the xviiith cent., for it is found in St. Anne’s register, Manchester, in 1781, as ‘Showmaker:’ ‘Mary, wife of John Showmaker, buried Aug. 26, 1781.’ This spelling reminds me of an entry in the Household of Princess Elizabeth, Cam. Soc.:—‘Robert Waterman for showing (shoeing) xvii_s._’ (p. 29.)

‘And that the corvesers bye ther lether in the seid Gild-halle.’ (Ordinances of Worcester, English Guilds, 371).

Footnote 359:

Another form of the name and occupation is met with in the Corp. Christi Guild, York, in the case of ‘Robert Patener, et Mariona uxor ejus’ (W. ii.).

Footnote 360:

‘John Rykedon, patynmaker,’ occurs in the Patent Rolls (R.R., 1).

Footnote 361:

It is evidently in a depreciatory sense that Bishop Latimer in one of his sermons makes use of this word, while his very employment of it shows how familiar was its meaning as a term of occupation, even in the sixteenth century. He says, speaking of a certain bishop, ‘There stood by him a dubber, one Doctor Dubber: he dubbed him by-and-by, and said,’ &c. Second Sermon before Edward VI.

Footnote 362:

The word was evidently in familiar use. Thus in the will of one William Askame, dated 1390, it is said, ‘Item, Margaretæ prenticiæ Willielmi Askham do et lego a fedir bedd and i matras, ii shetes and a coverlet, i bacyn and i laver, and a bras potte and volette of crysp. Item Johannæ Dagh crisp volet and a chalon.’—Test. Ebor., vol. i. p. 130. (Surt. Soc.)

‘And that no chalon of ray, or other chalon, shall be made, if it be not of the ancient lawful assize, ordained by the good folks of the trade.’ (Ext. from Ordinances of the Tapicers, Riley’s London, p. 179.)

‘Also, non of the Citee ne shal don werche qwyltes ne chalouns withoute the walles of the Citee (i.e. Winchester).’ (English Guilds, p. 351.)

The Chaloner is styled the ‘Chaloun-makyere’ in this ordinance.

Footnote 363:

In the Guild of St. George, Norwich, 1385, is mentioned the name of ‘Geoffrey Bedwevere.’ He would be either a quilter, or one of those artisans alluded to by Cocke Lorelle.

‘Fyners, plummers, and peuters, Bedmakers, fedbedmakers, and wyredrawers.’

Footnote 364:

I find several writers speaking (Mr. Riley among them) as if the upholder was simply an undertaker. He may have been this, but it is evident it was but a subordinate branch of his occupation. We find in 1445 a certain ‘Richard Upholder’ appraising the bedroom furniture of James Hedyan, the Principal of ‘Eagle Hall.’ (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 544.)

Footnote 365:

The ordinances for the Guild of St. Katharine, Lynn, are signed by ‘Peter Tapeser.’—English Guilds, p. 68. (E. E. Text Soc.)

The following entry from the Exchequer Issues will give the reader a fair idea of the work that came under the tapiser’s hands:—‘To John Flessh, tapestry maker. In money paid to him for a side cushion, or carpet, a bench, and five cushions worked with the king’s arms ... to be placed about, and hung at the back of the king’s justice seats of his common bench within Westminster Hall.’—14 Henry VI.

Footnote 366:

It is only right to say that there seems to have been a term ‘coucher’ to imply one who resided in certain towns for purposes of trade of a somewhat doubtful character. In this sense it was but a French sobriquet, meaning in English ‘a lurker.’ A statute of Edward III. concerning the prices of wine and their import speaks of ‘Cochoures Engleys’ (English couchers, or lurkers), living in Rochelle, Bordeaux, etc., who traded in wines. The tenor of the allusion to them, however, is such that we could hardly expect them to be represented openly in an English pageant.

Footnote 367:

An old Yorkshire will, dated 1383, contains the following bequest: ‘To John Couper, a docer, and a new banaquer (a seat-cover) and ij cochyns (cushions).’ (Surtees Soc.)

Footnote 368:

Beatrice ap Rice, laundress to Princess Mary (daughter of Henry VIII.), is always set down as ‘Mistress Launder.’ ‘Item, paid for 2 lb. of starche for Mts Launder, viiid.’ (Privy Purse Expenses, p. 160.)

Footnote 369:

The ordinances of the Guild of the Purification, Bishop’s Lynn, 1367, are signed by ‘Johannes Austyn, Baxter.’ (English Guilds, p. 90.)

Capgrave, under date 205 B.C., says, ‘In this same tyme lyved the eloquent man which hite (was called) Plautus, and for al his eloquens he was compelled for to dwel with a Baxter, and grinde his corn at a querne.’

Footnote 370:

The curious name of ‘Sara le Bredemongestere’ occurs in the ‘London Memorials’ (Riley).

Footnote 371:

It is in this more general sense we find the word used in our present Authorized Version. Thus in Lev. ii. 4, it is said: ‘And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.’—‘Pay to Ralph Crast the waferer, 40_s._ of our gift.’ (‘Issues of Exchequer,’ 26 Henry III.)

Footnote 372:

This corruption seems to have early become the accepted one. A John Flanner entered C.C. Col., Cambridge, in 1649. (Hist. C.C. Coll.). In 1641 another John Flanner was Rector of Kilverstone. (Hist. Norf., I. 546.)

Footnote 373:

Since writing the above I have found a ‘William Buttyrman’ in the Test. Ebor., vol. iii., Surtees Soc., but I can discover no trace of its continuance beyond its immediate possessor.

Footnote 374:

The Hundred Rolls furnish us with the local ‘Adam del Cheshus,’ i.e., Cheese-house. He would be connected with some country dairy or city store-room. The name is formed like ‘Malthus,’ from ‘Malt-house,’ or ‘Loftus,’ from ‘Loft-house.’

Footnote 375:

In the country, and more north, we shall scarcely find the term to have made any way till even the fifteenth century. In the York Pageant which occurred in 1415, and was supposed to represent, as a survey of its programme shows it evidently did, every trade or occupation that could claim the slightest right to attention, we do not find it having a place. The ‘Spicers’ and ‘Sauce-makers’ are prominent, however, and they, no doubt, even then were upholding the interests of the trade which by-and-by was to go under this new sobriquet.

Footnote 376:

‘Joan Sausemaker’ occurs in the Corpus Christi Guild, York.

Footnote 377:

‘John Nutmaker’ gave to a loan upon Middlesex in 1463. (Vide Scobell’s Declarations of Parl., 429.) This name has troubled me much. Halliwell has ‘nut,’ a term for sweet-bread in the eastern counties. Failing this, I can only suggest ‘nutmegger,’ and place it among those set down in the text.

Footnote 378:

We are all familiar with the old adage,

‘After dinner sit awhile, After supper walk a mile’:

it often used to puzzle me that this last line, while speaking from a medical point of view, should so calmly give up the general question as to whether suppers were or were not advisable as a part of the domestic régime. When we remember, however, that the couplet doubtless arose in a day when dinner was at twelve and supper at five or six, we can better understand its intent.

Footnote 379:

William Fleshmonger, D.C.L., was Dean of Chichester in 1528. (Hist. Univ. Oxford. Ackermann, p. 154.)

‘Also, the usage of fleshemongeres ys swych, that everych fleshemongere’ not a freman shall pay 25_d._ a year to the King if he have a stall. (Usages of Winchester. English Gilds, 354.)

Footnote 380:

The following list in one of our early statutes will help to familiarize the reader’s mind with some of these mediæval Latinisms:

‘Item, sallarii, pelletarii, allutarii, sutores, cissores, fabri, carpentarii, cementarii, tegularii, batellarii, carectarii, et quicunque alii artifices non capiant pro labore et artificio suo,’ etc.

‘Item, quod carnifices, piscenarii, hostellarii, braciatores, pistores, pulletarii et omnes alii venditores victualium teneantur hujus-modi victualia vendere,’ etc. [Stat. of Realm, vol. 1. p. 308.)

The first list refers to the ‘saddlers, skinners, whitetawyers, shoemakers, taylors, wrights, carpenters, masons, tylers, boatwrights, and carters;’ the second to the ‘butchers, fishmongers, taverners, brewers, bakers, and poulterers.’ With regard to the ‘Carnifex’ we may add that among other items of expenditure belonging to Edw. I.’s Queen at Cawood is mentioned ‘expensa duorum carnificum eosdem boves emencium.’

Footnote 381:

‘Egeas Fisher, or Pessoner,’ was Mayor of Gloucester in 1241. (Rudder’s Gloucestershire, p. 113.) ‘Ralf le Pecimer’ was bailiff of Norwich in 1239. (Blomefield, iii. 58.) This is a manifest corruption of Pessoner.

Footnote 382:

That this is the real origin of this name may be proved by 1 James I. c. xxiii., which is entitled an ‘Acte for the better preservation of Fishinge in the Counties of Somersett, Devon, and Cornwall, and for the relief of Balkers, Conders, and Fishermen against malicious suites.’ In it too is found the following: ‘And whereas also for the necessarie use of the takinge of the said Herring ... divers persons ... called Balcors, Huors, Condors, Directors, or Guidors, at the fishing tymes ... tyme out of mynde have used to watch and attend upon the high hilles and grounde near adjoining to the sea coast ... for the discoverie and givinge notice to the fisherman,’ etc. (Stat. of Realm.)

Footnote 383:

‘Lawrence Beerbrewer’ occurs in a Norfolk register. (Hist. Norf. iv. 357.) ‘Lambert Beerbrewer’ was one of the Corp. Christi Guild, York. (Surt. Soc.)

Footnote 384:

‘Malter’ I have failed to discover in our archives, but ‘Aleyn le Maltestere’ and ‘Hugh le Maltmakere’ are both found. On the other hand, while I have no feminine ‘Tapster’ to adduce, I have hit upon ‘Robert le Tappere’ and ‘John le Tapper’ in two separate records.

Footnote 385:

A curious name is found in the St. Edmund’s Guild, Bishop’s Lynn, the ordinances of which are signed by ‘Johannes Mashemaker’ (English Guilds, p. 96), evidently a maker of mash-vats or of the mashel, i.e., the rudder used for mixing the malt. (v. Maschel Pr. Par.)

Footnote 386:

Another proof of this is contained in the fact that in all allusions in our olden ordinances to false dealings in the brewing and sale of ale the punishment affixed is that of the tumbrel, the instrument for women, corresponding to the pillory for men. I would not be mistaken. I cannot doubt but that malster, tapster, baxter, webster, and kempster were feminine occupations, and arose first in these forms as such. But in the xivth century the distinction between ‘er’ and ‘ster’ was dropped through the Norman-French ‘ess’ becoming the popular termination. As ‘ess’ became still more strongly imbedded in the language, ‘ster’ came into but more irregular use, and by the time of Elizabeth men spoke of ‘drugster,’ ‘teamster,’ ‘rhymster,’ ‘whipster,’ ‘trickster,’ ‘gamester.’ (English Accidence, p. 90.) That this confusion was marked even in the earlier part of the xivth century, not to say the close of the xiiith, is clearly proved by such registered names as ‘Thatcher’ and ‘Thaxter,’ ‘Palliser’ and ‘Pallister,’ ‘Hewer’ and ‘Hewster,’ ‘Begger’ and ‘Beggister,’ ‘Blacker’ (bleacher) and ‘Blaxter,’ ‘Dyer’ and ‘Dyster,’ ‘Whiter’ and ‘Whitster,’ ‘Corviser’ and ‘Corvester,’ and ‘Bullinger,’ or ‘Billinger,’ and ‘Billingster.’ An old statute of Ed. III. (Statute Realm, 1, 380) mentions ‘filesters,’ ‘throwsters,’ and ‘brawdesters;’ and Dr. Morris quotes ‘bellringster,’ ‘hoardster,’ and ‘washster.’ These latter are xiith and xiiith century words, and were strictly confined to women.

Footnote 387:

I find the term used occupatively once. Cocke Lorelle speaks of

‘Spynsters, carders, and cappe-knytters.’

Footnote 388:

‘Juliana Rokster’ occurs in an old record of 1388 (R.R. 2). The ‘rock’ was the old distaff. (Vide p. 74, note 2.)

Footnote 389:

‘Edmund le Tonder’ was bailiff of Norwich, 1237.

Footnote 390:

The bailiff of Gloucester, in the year 1300, was ‘Robert L’espicer, or Apothecary.’ (Rudder’s Gloucestershire, p. 114.)

Footnote 391:

We have a similar curtailment in our ‘Prentices’ or ‘Prentis’s’ (relics of ‘William le Prentiz’ or ‘Nicholas Apprenticius’) a name of the most familiar import at the time of which we are speaking. Chaucer begins his ‘Cook’s Tale’ by saying—

‘A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee, And of a craft of vitaillers was he.’

In the early days of national commerce and industry, when the jealousy of foreign craftsmen was at its height, the prentice boys showed themselves on various occasions a formidable body, capable of arousing riots and tumults of the most serious character.

Footnote 392:

Early Eng. Text Soc., Extra Series, vol. viii. p. 6.

Footnote 393:

The surname of ‘Shaver’ was not unknown then as now. ‘Jeffery Schavere’ was rector of Fincham, Norfolk, in 1409 (Blomefield). ‘Henry Shavetail,’ an evident nickname, occurs in the Patent Rolls (R.R.1).

Footnote 394:

In a popular poem of Henry the Eighth’s time mention is made of—

‘Harpemakers, leches, and upholdsters, Porters, fesycyens, and corsers.’

Footnote 395:

Johannes Thurton, Candelere. (Guild of St. George, Norwich.)

Footnote 396:

Thus we find in an indenture of Henry the Seventh’s reign it is said at the close: ‘And over this oure said Souveraigne Lorde graunteth by these presents to the said Abbas and Convent that they shall have as well this present Indenture as all other grauntes necessary, ... wythout eny fyne, fee, or other thyng to hym orto his use in his Chauncerie, or Hanapore, or other place to be payde.’ (Stat. of Realm, vol. ii. p. 671.)

Footnote 397:

Vide Way’s Prompt Parv., p. 124.

Footnote 398:

Thus the author of Cocke Lorelle’s Bote refers to—

‘Yermongers, pybakers, and waferers, Fruyters, chesemongers, and mynstrelles.’

Footnote 399:

‘There dwelled also turners of beads, and they were paternoster-makers’ (Stow, iii. 174). The term was evidently very general.

Footnote 400:

‘Founders, laten-workers, and broche-makers.’ (Cocke Lorelle’s Bote.)

Footnote 401:

A law passed in the first year of Richard II. forbids halfpennies and farthings to be melted for vessels or other things, on pain of forfeiting the money so melted and the imprisonment of the founder—‘surpeine de forfaitre del monoie founder et imprisonement del foundour.’ (Stat. Realm.) The ‘founder,’ as his name implies, melted down the metal, and then poured it (fundere) into the mould. We still speak familiarly of a foundry; but the term ‘founder’ as a worker therein is now, I believe, obsolete. Such names, however, as ‘Robert le Fundour’ or ‘John le Funder,’ whose descendants are still with us, show that this was once in common use. As an additional proof that they were formerly more distinctively engaged in the manufacture of pots and vessels, we may state that in the York Pageant, elsewhere spoken of, the ‘Pewterers’ and ‘Founders’ marched together. Speaking of ‘Founder,’ we are reminded of ‘Alefounder.’ In 1374 William Alefounder was Rector of Bichamwell. (Hist. Norf., vii. 295.) The alefounder took his name from his duty as an inspector, appointed by the Court Leet, of assizing and supervising the brewing of malt liquor. He examined it as it was poured out. Thus ‘fundere,’ and not ‘fundare,’ is its root. Another name he bore was that of ‘ale-conner.’ A poem of James the First’s reign says—

‘A nose he had that gan show, What liquor he loved I trow; For he had before long “seven yeare, Been of the towne the ale-conner.”’

Footnote 402:

The following entry appears in the Issues of Exchequer:—‘20_l._ paid to John le Discher, of London, for him and his companions to provide plates, dishes, and saltsellers for the coronation.’ (1 Ed. II.)

Footnote 403:

As an illustration of the use to which the art of working in pewter was put, we may instance one of the ‘Richmondshire Wills’ in which the following articles of this mixture are bequeathed: ‘iij basyns, ij uers, one doson plait trenchers, one brode charger, iiij potigers, xx^{tie} platters, x dishes, and vj sausers.’ (Surtees Soc.)

Footnote 404:

We find this now well-known surname thus spelt in a statute passed in Elizabeth’s reign, in which are included the ‘lynnen-weaver, turner, cowper, millers, earthen-potters.’ (5 Eliz. c. iv. 23.)

Footnote 405:

In the Issues of the Exchequer we find a ‘Ric. le Cuver’ at one time providing three buckets, and at another working with other eight carpenters upon the outer chamber of the King’s Court. (43 Henry III.)

Footnote 406:

‘John Busheler’ occurs in Valor. Eccles. Henry VIII. He probably made the old bushel measure, once in common use. ‘Is a candle bought to be put under a bushel?’ (Mark iv. 26.)

Footnote 407:

Mr. Way, in his valuable series of notes to the Promptorium Parvulorum, quotes a later Wicklyffite version, in which the ‘basket of bulrushes’ in which Moses was placed is termed ‘a leep of segg’ (sedge). An old list of words which he also quotes has ‘a lepe maker, cophinarius.’ (Cath. Ang.) I mention this latter especially, as I have not been able so far to light upon any instance of the sobriquet. I have no hesitation in saying, however, that if ‘Leaper’ and ‘Leapman’ be not manufacturers, they have, at any rate, as fish-sellers, originated from the same root. ‘And thei eeten and weren fulfilled, and thei taken up that that lefte of relifs sevene leepis.’ (Matt. viii. 8. Wicklyffe.)

Footnote 408:

Thus in the Trevelyan papers (Cam. Soc.) we frequently come across such a record as the following: ‘Item, to Edmund Peckham, coferer of the Kinge’s House for th’expenses and charges, etc.’

Footnote 409:

The list of tradesmen in Cock Lorelle’s Bote includes—

‘Pype-makers, wode-mongers, and orgyn-makers, Coferers, carde-makers, and carvers.’

Footnote 410:

An Act of Edward VI. relative to the buying of tanned leather speaks of the ‘mysterie of Coriar (currier), Cordewainer, Sadler, Cobler, Girdler, Lether-seller, Bottelmaker.’ (3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 6.)

Footnote 411:

‘William le Orbater’ (goldbeater) is also found in the Hundred Rolls.

Footnote 412:

A ‘Bartholomew le Tableter’ is also found in the ‘Memorials of London’ (Riley). The date being the same or nearly the same as that of ‘Bartholomew le Tabler’ inscribed in the Parliamentary Writs for the capital, we may feel assured both are one and the same person.

Footnote 413:

‘And thei bikenyden to his fadir, that he wolde that he were clepid. And he axinge a poyntel wrote seiynge Jon is his name.’ (Luke i. 63. Wicklyffe.)

Footnote 414:

I have since discovered another instance of this name—‘To Bartholomew le Orologius, after the arrival of William de Pikewell, 23 gallons.’ 1286 (Domesday Book, St. Paul’s, Cam. Soc.).

Footnote 415:

‘Imprimis Thomæ Clokmaker for makyng of the sail when it was broken, viii_s._’ 1428 (Pro. Ord. Privy Council).

Footnote 416:

Stowe and Strype, however, while aware of the corruption, were both ignorant of its meaning. Speaking of the woodmongers, the former says, ‘Whether some of these woodmongers were called ‘Billiters’ from dealing in billets I leave to conjecture. In the register of wills, London, mention is made of one William Burford, billeytere.’ (ii. p. 226.) The Woodmongers were sellers of fuel. ‘Robert Wudemonger’ is found in the H.R.

Footnote 417:

I may quote a statement recorded of Congham Manor. ‘In 1349 Thomas de Baldeswell presented to the church aforesaid, as chief lord of this fee; in 1367, Adam Humphrey, of Refham, and in 1385, but soon after, in 1388, Adam Pyk; and in 1400, Edmund Belytter, alias Belzeter, who with his parceners,’ &c. (Hist. Norf., viii. 383.) The said Edmund is also met with elsewhere as ‘Belleyeter’ and Belyetter.’

Footnote 418:

Another ‘Ralph Balancer’ was sheriff of London in 1316.

Footnote 419:

This weight was abolished in 1351, and the balance made universal. ‘Item, whereas great damage and deceit is done to the people by a weight which is called Auncel (par une pois qu’est appelle Aunsell), it is accorded and established that this weight called Auncel betwixt buyers and sellers shall be wholly put out, and that every person do sell and buy by the balance.’ (Stat. Realm, vol. i. p. 321.) Cowell, in his Interpreter, suggests as the origin of the term ‘auncel’ handsale, that is, that which is weighed by the poised hand!

Footnote 420:

Another form is found in 1389. William Parchmenter was seized for holding independent views of the Sacraments. (Nicholls’ Leicester.)

Footnote 421:

In the Exchequer Issues we find the following:—‘To John Heth, one of the clerks in the office of privy seal of the Lord the King, in money, paid to his own hands, in discharge of 66_s._ which the said Lord the King, with the assent of his Council, commanded to be paid to the said John, for 66 great “quaternes” of calf skins, purchased and provided by the said John to write a Bible thereon for the use of the said King.’ In an old Oxford indenture between the University and the Town, dated 1459, we find the more usual ‘parchemener’ spelt ‘pergemener.’ The agreement includes ‘Alle Bedels with dailly servants, and their householdes, alle stacioners, alle bokebynders, lympners, wryters, pergemeners, barbours, the bellerynger of the universitie,’ &c. (Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 346.)

Footnote 422:

Another ordinance has the following:—‘And that all Jews shall dwell in the Kings own cities and boroughs, where the chests of chirographs of Jewry are wont to be’ (‘ou les Whuches (hutches) cirograffes de Geuerie soleient estre’). [Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 221.)

Footnote 423:

‘Nicholas Cotes, lummer.’ (Corpus Christi Guild, York.)

Footnote 424:

In the Mun. Acad. Oxon., p. 550, we find a quarrel settled by the Chancellor between ‘John Conaley, lymner,’ and ‘John Godsend, stationarius.’ Through him it is arranged that the former shall occupy himself in ‘liminando bene et fideliter libros suos.’ In the York Pageant the ‘Escriveners’ and ‘Lumners’ went together.

Footnote 425:

Thus in Kaye’s description of the siege of Rhodes it is said: ‘Anone after that the Rhodians had knowledge of thees werkes a shipman wel experte in swymmyng, wente by nyghte and cutted the cordes fro’ the ancre.’

Footnote 426:

In the Itinerarium of Richard I. we find it recorded that while the Christians were besieging Acre Saladin’s army began to hem them in. ‘In hoc itaque articulo positos visitavit eos Oriens exalto; nam ecce! quinquagintas naves, quas vulgo coggas dicunt, cum duodecim millibus armatorum, tanto gratias venerunt quanto nostris auxilium in angustia majore rependunt.’—p. 64. The Cog was evidently in common use as a transport. To judge from the following entries, it was, in some cases, at any rate, of considerable size:—‘Henrico Aubyn, magistro coge Sancti Marie, et 39 sociis suis nautis, 23_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._’ ‘Thomo de Standanore, magistro coge Sancti Thomæ, et 39 sociis suis, 23_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._’ (Ed. I. Wardrobe.)

Footnote 427:

‘Benjamin Cogman’ occurs in an old Norfolk register. Hence ‘Cockman,’ like ‘Cocker,’ may in some instance belong to this more seafaring occupation.

Footnote 428:

‘John Shipgroom’ occurs in the Rot. Orig. (G.); ‘John Shypward’ in Cal. Rot. Chartarum (D.); and ‘Alexander Schipward’ in Rolls of Parl. (H.).

Footnote 429:

‘Richard Drawater’ (A.) would be a nickname.

Footnote 430:

This word ‘lead’ is worthy of some extended notice. We still speak of a path leading our steps to a place, but we scarcely now would say that we lead our steps to it. Shakespeare, however, does so, where Richard III. addresses Elizabeth—

‘Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul Leads discontented steps in foreign soil.’

Several commentators on Shakespeare have proposed ‘treads’ in the place of ‘leads,’ not knowing, seemingly, how familiar was this sense of carrying or bearing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A century earlier the Malvern Dreamer says—

‘And maketh of Lyere a lang cart To leden all these othere:’

while just before he writes—

‘And cart-saddle the commissarie, Oure cart shall he lede And fecchen us vitailles.’

In North Yorkshire to this very day they do very little carting. They all but invariably ‘lead hay,’ ‘lead corn,’ etc. An old form of ‘lead’ was ‘lode.’ We still talk of a ‘lode-stone.’ This explains such an entry as ‘Emma le Lodere’ or ‘Agnes le Lodere.’ They were both doubtless ‘leaders’ or ‘carriers,’ that is, wandering hucksters.

Footnote 431:

‘Item, that all wines, red and white, which shall come unto the said realm shall be well and lawfully gauged by the King’s Gaugers, or their deputies’ (‘bien et loialment gaugez par le gaujeour le Roi, ou son deputé.’). (Stat. of Realm, vol. i. p. 331.)

Footnote 432:

An epitaph in St. Anthony’s, London, dated 1400, says of the deceased that he was—

‘The King’s weigher more than yeres twentie, Simon Street, callyd in my place.’ (Maitland, ii. 375.)

Footnote 433:

The local form is found in the case of ‘Jeffery Talbothe,’ a Norfolk Rector in 1371. (Blomefield). The ‘receipt of custom’ is with Wickliffe the ‘tolbothe.’

Footnote 434:

Skelton seems of the same mind as the author of Cocke Lorelle.

‘So many lollers, So few true tollers, So many pollers, Saw I never.’

Footnote 435:

I need not remind the majority of my readers of the origin of our term ‘lumber room,’ that it is but a corruption of lombard-room, or the chamber in which the mediæval pawnbroker stored up all his pledges. Hence we now speak of any useless cumbrous articles as ‘lumber.’

Footnote 436:

Mr. Halliwell gives ‘chevisance,’ an agreement, and ‘chevish,’ to bargain. Mr. Way commenting on ‘chevystyn,’ quotes Fabyan as saying—‘I will assaye to have hys Erldom in morgage, for welle I knowe he must chevyche for money to perfourme that journey.’ Mr. Wright’s Glossary to Piers Plowman has ‘chevysaunce, an agreement for borrowing money.’ The word often occurs in mediæval writers, and no wonder at least one surname arose as a consequence.

Footnote 437:

An act of Richard II. speaks of officers and ministers made by brocage, and of their broggers, and of them that have taken the said brocage, ‘pour brogage, et de lor broggers, et de,’ etc.

Footnote 438:

I use this phrase as the most convenient. I shall have to record many descriptive compounds under every separate division, but it is the most suited for my purpose, and will embrace all the more eccentric nicknames that I have met with in my researches, especially those made up of verb and substantive, a practice which opened out a wide field for the inventive powers of our forefathers.

Footnote 439:

‘Lease to Thomas Unkle of a wood within the manor of Bolynbroke, Nov. 30, 1485.’ (Materials for Hist. Henry VII. 593 p.)

Footnote 440:

The English form of Guido was commonly Wydo—hence such entries as ‘Wydo Wodecok,’ or ‘William fil. Wydo.’ Thus, as I have already said, ‘Widowson’ may be a patronymic.

Footnote 441:

The curious name of ‘John Orphan-strange’ is found in a Cambridge register for 1544. (Hist. C.C. Coll. Cam.) Doubtless he had been a foundling.

Footnote 442:

Some Norman-French terms of relationship have been translated, resulting in names of utterly different sense. Thus Beaupere, a stepfather, has become ‘Fairsire;’ ‘Beaufils,’ a step-son (still surviving in Boffill), ‘Fairchild’; and ‘Beaufrere,’ a step-brother, ‘Fairbrother,’ or ‘Farebrother.’

Footnote 443:

‘Adam de Halfnaked’ (H.), ‘Adam de Halnaked’ (M.).

Footnote 444:

The Hundred Rolls have a ‘Henry Mucklebone.’

Footnote 445:

‘Lusty,’ ‘Fat,’ and ‘Stout’ evidently were not expressive enough for some of our forefathers, to judge by such entries as ‘Henry Pudding,’ ‘William Broadgirdel,’ or ‘Joan Broad-belt.’ The last still lives.

Footnote 446:

Epitaph on William Younger, Rector of Great-Melton, deceased March 6th, 1661, ætat. 57—

‘Younger he was by name, but not in grace, Elder than he, in this, must give him place.’

(Hist. of Norfolk, vol. v. p. 13.) ‘Youngerman’ may be seen over a shop in Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester.

Footnote 447:

‘Littler’ and ‘littlest’ were once the common degrees of comparison. Shakespeare uses the superlative. Mr. Halliwell gives the Norfolk dialect a large range. Besides ‘less’ and ‘least’ he adds ‘lesser’ and ‘lessest,’ ‘lesserer’ and ‘lesserest,’ ‘lesserer still’ and ‘lessest of all,’ and ‘littler’ and ‘littlest.’

Footnote 448:

The former ‘Haut,’ that is, high or tall, is obsolete, I think. ‘Robert le Haut’ is met with in a Norfolk register. (Hist. Norf., Index.)

Footnote 449:

It is curious to compare local registers with local dictionaries. Thus the Promptorium Parvulorum gives as a familiar Norfolk term in the fourteenth century, ‘craske, fryke of fatte,’ or ‘lusty,’ as we should now say. This crask was a vulgar form of the French ‘cras’ (Latin, ‘crassus’). Turning to our registers, we find that while our ‘Crass’s’ are found in our more general rolls as ‘Richard le Cras’ or ‘John le Cras’ or ‘Stephen Crassus,’ our ‘Crasks’ must go to a Norfolk entry for a ‘Walter le Crask.’ (Vide Hist. Norfolk, Index. Blomefield.)

Footnote 450:

‘Robert Manekin,’ A. Nevertheless this is a baptismal name also with the diminutive ‘kin’ appended. ‘Manekyn le Heaumer,’ H.

Footnote 451:

‘To make a mow’ was to put on a mocking expression. The word was once very familiar, though rarely used now. Bishop Bradford, speaking of the Romish priesthood, says—‘They never preach forth the Lord’s death but in mockery and mows.’ (Parker Soc., p. 395.) Mow has no relation to mouth.

Footnote 452:

‘William Malregard’ (T.), or ‘Geoffrey Malreward’ (T.), i.e. Evil-eye, would not possess enviable sobriquets, but the name lingered on for several centuries.

Footnote 453:

‘John Monoculus’ occurs in Memorials of Fountains Abbey.

Footnote 454:

A ‘William Blackhead’ entered C. C. Coll. Cam. in 1669, and a ‘Thomas Hardhede’ in 1467. (Hist. C. C. Coll.)

Footnote 455:

The Abbot of Leicester in 1474 was one ‘John Sheepshead.’ ‘William Sheepshead’ is also mentioned in the Index to Nicholls’ Leicester.

Footnote 456:

We must not forget, however, that ‘swier’ is early found as a provincialism for ‘squier,’ so that it may be referred in some cases to that once important officer. (v. p. 199.)

Footnote 457:

‘Guy le Armerecte’ (A.) would seem to be a Latinization of the name.

Footnote 458:

‘Henry Langbane’ occurs in the list of the Corpus Christi Guild, York. (Surt. Soc.)

Footnote 459:

I see ‘Catterman’ also exists. This is early faced by ‘Richard Catermayn’ (H.).

Footnote 460:

Robert Pettifer was Sheriff of Gloucester in 1603. (Rudder’s Gloucestershire, p. 116.)

Footnote 461:

The famous old surname of ‘Ironsides’ is found so late as 1754, the Lord Mayor of London for that year being ‘Edward Ironside.’ The Bishop of Bristol in 1689 was ‘Gilbert Ironside.’ His father, ‘Gilbert Ironside,’ preceded him in the same see.

Footnote 462:

‘Antony Knebone’ (Z.). This would seem to belong to a similar class.

Footnote 463:

‘Leg’ did not come into use till the beginning of the xiiith century, when it was imported from Norway. ‘Shank,’ as the various compound sobriquets found below will fully prove, did duty.

Footnote 464:

Mr. Halliwell quotes the following couplet from an old manuscript:

‘Hir one schanke blak hir other graye, A nd all her body like the lede.’—(Dic. I. 1.)

Footnote 465:

‘Gerald Bushanke’ (A.). This might be ‘Beau-shank,’ and therefore equivalent to ‘Bellejambe,’ but such an admixture of languages is not likely. We still speak of ‘bow-leg,’ and this is the more probable origin.

Footnote 466:

Swift, however, is not the only courier’s sobriquet preserved to us. ‘In the Countess of Leicester’s service were several whose real names were sunk in titles ridiculously descriptive of their qualities. “Slingaway,” the learned editor of the Household Roll, has pointed out, he might have added “Gobithestie” (go a bit hasty) and “Bolett” (bullet), so denominated from their speed, and “Truebodie” (true body) from his fidelity. These were all couriers.’ (Hous. Exp. Bish. Swinfield, p. 143.)

Footnote 467:

‘C. P. Golightly,’ ‘Thomas Golightly.’ Vide Clergy List, 1848, and other directories.

Footnote 468:

I have mentioned ‘Matilda Finger’ (H.). I do not find any ‘Toe’ in our Directories, but ‘Peter Pricktoe’ (M.) and ‘Thomas Pinchshu’ (A.) existed in the xivth century.

Footnote 469:

Accidents of this kind naturally became sobriquets, and then surnames. Hence such entries as ‘William Crypling’ (A.), ‘William Onhand’ (B.), ‘John Onehand’ (D.), or ‘John Handless’ (W. 11). ‘John Gouty’ (V. 1) represents a still troublesome complaint, and may be mentioned here.

Footnote 470:

‘Jordan le Madde’ occurs in the Placita de Quo Warranto.

Footnote 471:

‘William Whitehand’ is set down in the C. C. Coll. records for 1665. (Hist. C. C. Coll. Cam.) ‘Humbert Blanchmains’ is found in Nicholls’ Leicestershire.

Footnote 472:

In the Prompt. Parv. we find not merely ‘slyke, or smothe,’ but ‘slykeston.’ The slick or sleek stone was used for smoothing linen or paper; vide Mr. Way’s note thereon, p. 458. ‘The eban stone which goldsmiths used to sleeken their gold with,’ etc. (Burton’s Anatomy.)

Footnote 473:

Thus ‘Bell’ comes into three categories—the local, the baptismal, and the sobriquet, represented in our registers by three such entries as ‘John atte Bell’ (X.), ‘Richard fil. Bell’ (A.), and ‘Walter le Bel’ (G.).

Footnote 474:

‘Katharine Prettyman’ (Z.), ‘William Prettiman’ (F.F.). The name still flourishes, and as ‘Miss Prettiman’ figures in the Caudle Lectures.

Footnote 475:

‘Nutbrown’ is found in several early records, and existed till 1630 at least. ‘George Nutbrowne was sworne the same daye pistler, and Nathaniel Pownell, gospeller.’ (Cheque Bk., Chapel Royal (Cam. Soc.), p. 12.)

Footnote 476:

‘White’ and ‘Grissel’ are combined in ‘Anne Griselwhite,’ a name occurring in an old Norfolk register. (Vide Index, Hist. Norfolk, Blomefield.)

Footnote 477:

‘Thomas Pock-red’ in the Hundred Rolls would not be acceptable.

Footnote 478:

‘Blanchfront’ seems to have been common, as I find it in three distinct registers. ‘Joan Blaunkfrount,’ a nun of Molseby. (Letters from Northern Registers, p. 319.) ‘Philip Blanchfront’ (F. F.), ‘Amabil Blanchfront.’ (Fines, Ric. i.)

Footnote 479:

It was in the house of a Josias Roughead, of Bedford, that John Bunyan was first licensed to preach in 1672.

Footnote 480:

‘Richard Flaxennehed’ occurs in the Hundred Rolls.

Footnote 481:

‘Antony Wiselheade’ is registered in Elizabeth’s reign in the Calendar to Pleadings.

Footnote 482:

‘William Whiteheare’ was Dean of Bristol, 1551. (Barrett, Hist. Bristol.)

Footnote 483:

‘1522, 31 Dec. To Mr. William Farehaire, Doctor of Laws.’ (Letters of Fraternity (Durham Priory), p. 119. Surt. Soc.)

Names like ‘William Harebrown,’ ‘Ralph Lightred,’ and ‘John Litewhyte’ seem to belong to the same category with the above.

Footnote 484:

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says, ‘Apollonius will have Jason’s golden hair to be the main cause of Medea’s dotage on him. Castor and Pollux were both yellow-haired. Homer so commends Helen, makes Patroclus and Achilles both yellow-haired; Pulchricoma Venus, and Cupid himself was yellow-haired.’

Footnote 485:

This sobriquet, as old as the Hundred Rolls, is found in the xviith cent., at Durham. ‘Peter Blackbeard’ was ‘brought up for not paying Easter reckonings, 1676.’ (Dean Granville’s Letters, p. 235.)

Footnote 486:

A contributor to Notes and Queries, Jan. 14, 1860, quotes an old Ipswich record in which is mentioned an ‘Alexander Redberd’ dwelling there in the early part of the sixteenth century.

Footnote 487:

‘John Brounberd, son of William, a hostage from Galloway.’

(Letters from Northern Registers, p. 163.)

‘Janet Brounebeard’ was an inmate of St. Thomas’s Hospital, York, February 6, 1553. (W. 11, p. 304.)

Footnote 488:

I find this name still exists as ‘Pickavant.’ It may be seen over a boot and shoe warehouse by the Railway Station at Southport, Lancashire. Probably ‘Pickance’ is an abbreviated form. ‘Charles, son of Daniel and Eliza Pickance, bapt. March 26, 1754.’ (St. Ann’s, Manchester.)

Footnote 489:

Many of my readers will be familiar with the sobriquet ‘nottpated,’ which Shakespeare puts in Prince Henry’s mouth several times.

Footnote 490:

‘Calvus protests for foes he doth not care; For why? They cannot take from him one hair.’ (Satyrical Epigrams, 1619.)

Footnote 491:

The Athenæum thinks the more manifest origin is the local ‘peel,’ a small fortress used by Chaucer in the House of Fame—

‘God save the lady of this pele.’

I was not ignorant of the word, but as I could not find any examples in the old rolls, I gave the preference to the nickname. I have since met with an entry which justifies the Athenæum’s remark: ‘1605, Nov. 14, Rodger of ye Peele.’ Also, ‘1621, July 10, Robarte Rodley, of ye Peele in Chetham.’ (Memorials of Manchester Streets, p. 282.)

Footnote 492:

‘John Lytlehare’ occurs in a Norfolk register. Query, is it meant for ‘Littlehair’? Probably it is. (Blomefield’s Norfolk.) ‘Simon Lytehare’ (lyte = little) is found in the Parl. Writs. ‘Richard le Herprute’ occurs in the H.R. The modern form would be ‘Hairproud.’

Footnote 493:

‘Plunket’ was in early use as a perversion of ‘blanket.’ Thus a statute of Richard III. relating to this stuff calls it ‘plonket.’ The form in the Prompt. Parv. is ‘plunket;’ and Mr. Way, commenting upon it, quotes a line from the Awntyrs of Arthure—

‘Hir belte was of plonkete, with birdis fulle baulde.’

Footnote 494:

This was a nickname of Sir Thomas Woodcock, Lord Mayor of London, 1405—

‘Hic jacet, Tom Shorthose, Sine tomb, sine sheets, sine riches.’

In the neighbourhood of Belper this surname may be commonly met with. Some change of fashion at this date, encouraged by the mayoralty, would readily give rise to the sobriquet in the metropolis. Some country squire or bumpkin carried the new style into Derbyshire, and the Belper people still relate the fact of the grotesque appearance he then made in their eyes by the nom-de-plume that as a necessary consequence arose. ‘Sic est vita nominum.’

Footnote 495:

‘Agnes Blakmantyll’ (W. 11) occurs in an old York register, 1455, but must have become obsolete with the bearer, I should imagine.

Footnote 496:

‘John Caury-Maury’ (V. 8) belongs to this class. It was a nickname given to him on account of the exceedingly coarse cloth in which he was attired. In Skelton’s Elynour Rummyng, some slatterns are thus described—

‘Some loke strawry, Some cawry mawry.’

‘Item, presentatum est quod ‘Johannes Caurymaury,’ ‘Johannes le Fleming,’ ‘Hugo Bunting,’ ‘Isaac de Stanford,’ et Lucas de eadem consueti fuerunt currere cum canibus suis sine warento,’ etc. (Chronicon Petroburgense. Cam. Soc., p. 138.)

Footnote 497:

This may be local.

Footnote 498:

We all remember in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ how Armado, being pressed to fight, refuses to undress, and says: ‘The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt; I go woolward for penance.’

Footnote 499:

One feels much tempted to add ‘Roylance’ to this list. It certainly has a most kingly aspect. Still there can be little doubt that it is but a corruption of ‘Rylands.’

Footnote 500:

I need not stay to point out the early familiar use of ‘yard’ as a stick or staff of any length. In Wicklyffe’s New Testament we find the following:—‘And he seide to hem nothing take ye in the weye—neither yerde, ne scrippe, neither breed, ne money.’ (Luke ix. 3.) Our Authorized Version still preserves the meteyard from obsoletism: ‘Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.’ (Lev. xix. 35.)

Footnote 501:

The horn was carried by the watchman as well as the huntsman and the cryer. ‘Henry Watchorn’ was mayor of Leicester in 1780, and the name occurs in the Nottingham Directory for 1864. Other compounds besides ‘Waghorn’ are ‘Crookhorn,’ ‘Cramphorn’ (i.e., crooked horn), ‘Langhorn’ and ‘Whitehorn.’

Footnote 502:

It was a Captain Waghorn who was tried by court-martial for the wreck of the Royal George, which went down off Portsmouth in 1782. He was acquitted, however.

Footnote 503:

‘Anne, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth Shakeshaft, baptized Dec. 6, 1744.’ (St. Ann’s, Register, Manchester.)

Footnote 504:

‘Robert Go-before’ in the Rolls of Parl. is an evident sobriquet affixed upon some official of this class.

Footnote 505:

‘John Swyrdebrake,’ alias ‘John Taillour.’

(Materials for Hist. Henry VII., p. 441.)

Footnote 506:

In a list of bankrupts, dated the thirteenth year of Elizabeth, and quoted in Notes and Queries, Jan. 1860, occurs an ‘Anthony Halstaffe,’ doubtless originally ‘Halestaffe,’ from ‘hale,’ to drag, and thus a likely sobriquet for a catchpoll or bailiff.

Footnote 507:

In the biographical notice appended to Archbishop Sandys’ Sermons, published by the Parker Society, we find that one of his friends was called ‘Hurlestone.’ This will be of similar origin with ‘Hurlebat.’ (pp. 13, 14.)

Footnote 508:

‘Thomas Crakyshield’ was Rector of North Creak in Norfolk in the year 1412. (Hist. Norfolk, vii. 77.)

Footnote 509:

‘William Ryghtwys’ was Vicar of Fouldon in 1497. (Blomefield’s Norfolk.) ‘Upright’ appeared in a trial at Exeter in October 1874.

Footnote 510:

‘Make’ was a familiar compound. ‘Joan Make-peace’ was sister to Henry III., and so named by the Scotch through her betrowal to their monarch, by which peace was brought about. Bishop Hall uses the opposite for a quarrelsome fellow—

‘If brabbling Makefray, at each faire and ’size, Picks quarrels for to show his valiantise.’

‘Julian Make-blisse’ and ‘John Make-blythe’ occur in two separate rolls, and Mr. Lower mentions a ‘Maud Make-joy’ in an old Wardrobe Account: ‘1297, Dec. 26. To Maud Make-joy for dancing before Edward Prince of Wales, at Ipswich, 2_s._’ Here the sobriquet is adopted in compliment to the profession.

Footnote 511:

Our ‘Hardmans’ are but a corruption of ‘Hardyman.’ John Hardyman, D.D., was installed prebend of Chester in June, 1563. (Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. i. p. 223.)

Footnote 512:

‘Reginald Littleprowe’ was Mayor of Norwich in 1532, and ‘John Littleproud’ was buried at ‘Attleburgh’ in 1619. (Hist. Norf., iii. 219, and i. 535.) This sobriquet, I doubt not, was in sarcastic allusion to the haughty demeanour of its first possessor. As in so many cases, however, there seems to have been no objection to its acceptance on the part of his posterity.

Footnote 513:

‘Oswin Sharparrow’ (W. 3), ‘John Sharparrow’ (W. 2), ‘William Sharparrow’ (W. 11). The original nominee was probably of a sarcastic turn. The following inscription was once to be seen in York Minster: ‘Orate pro anima dom. Johannis Sharparrowe, quondam parsone in Eccles. Cath. Ebor., qui obiit xxv. die Oct. an. 1411.’ (Drake’s Eboracum, p. 498.)

Footnote 514:

‘Deliver’ as an adjective meant ‘nimble,’ ‘lithe.’ It was familiarly used. Chaucer has ‘deliverly,’ ‘deliverness,’ and ‘deliver.’ Of the young squier he says—

‘Of his stature he was of even lengthe, And wonderly deliver, and great of strengthe.’

‘Ralph le Delivre’ is found in the Rot. Curiæ Regis.

Footnote 515:

The names of ‘Thomas le Busteler’ (F.F.) and ‘Robert le Bustler’ (T.) are less complimentary than most of the above. ‘Nicholas le Medler’ (A.) would be quite as objectionable.

Footnote 516:

‘Craske, fryke of fatte,’ i.e., lusty, fresh. (Pr. Par.)

Footnote 517:

‘Richard Curtevalur’ (A.) would seem to have had an instinctive acquaintance with the moral of that couplet which asserts that

‘He who fights and runs away Shall live to fight another day.’

There are a good many people, I fancy, who thus ‘take thought for the morrow.’

Footnote 518:

Fr. Preux = valiant.

Footnote 519:

‘Simon Stallworthe’ is mentioned in the Grants of Edward the Fifth. (Cam. Soc.) The modern form of the term colloquially used is ‘stalwart.’

Footnote 520:

‘Arthur Purefoy’ or ‘Purefaye’ was Rector of Redenhall in 1584. (Hist. Norf., v. 363.)

Footnote 521:

Thus Archbishop Sandys commences a sermon at Paul’s Cross:—‘The Apostle St. Peter, like a perfit workman and a skilful builder, first layeth a sure foundation.’ (Parker Soc., p. 386.)

Footnote 522:

‘Thomas Bontemps’ appears in a Norfolk register of the fourteenth century. (Hist. Norfolk, Index.) It seems somewhat analogous to the now familiar ‘Bonheur.’

Footnote 523:

The son and successor of Charlemagne, Louis First, went by the sobriquet of ‘le Debonnaire,’ on account of his courteous and affable character.

Footnote 524:

‘Thomas Gentilhomme’ in the Writs of Paul represents the Norman-French form. The surname still exists in France, as does ‘Gentleman’ in England.

Footnote 525:

Akin to ‘Malcolm le Musard’ (M.) was ‘Alan le Mute’ (A.). ‘Henry Duceparole’ (T.) or ‘Richard Parlebien’ (M.) is decidedly complimentary, but ‘William Spekelital’ (P.) would seem to have been morose.

Footnote 526:

‘John Strictman’ (A.) and ‘John le Severe’ (A.) may be set here.

Footnote 527:

The Babees’ Book (Early Eng. Text. Soc.).

Footnote 528:

‘Every midwyfe shulde be presented with honest women of great gravity to the Bysshop,’ for she ‘shulde be a sadde woman, wyse and discrete, having experience.’ (Andrew Boorde.)

Footnote 529:

The Hundred Rolls give us a ‘Robert le Sotele.’ ‘Salomon le Sotel’ was Sheriff of London in 1290, according to Stow. There is no reason to suppose that either of these was distinguished for any of the unpleasant features that often belong to sharp characteristics.

Footnote 530:

The Issue Roll gives us an opposite characteristic in ‘Thomas Litilskill.’

Footnote 531:

‘Christopher Greynhorne’ (W. 15) would represent the modern sense of this word.

Footnote 532:

There used to be an old proverb—

‘Whylst grasse doth growe oft sterves the seely steede.’

Vide Dyce’s notes to ‘All’s Well that Ends Well.’ (Shakespeare’s Works, vol. iii. p. 288.) One of the best illustrations of this word, however, is to be met with in Foxe’s Martyrology, where, describing the martyrdom of a young child not seven years old, he says: ‘The captain, perceiving the child invincible and himself vanquished, committed the silly soul, the blessed babe, the child uncherished, to the stinking prison.’ (Vol. i. p. 126, Edit. 1844.)

Footnote 533:

Thomas Selybarn (i.e. Silly-child) occurs in the York Guild. (W. 11.)

Footnote 534:

Joyce may belong either to the nickname or the baptismal class. ‘Richard le Joyce,’ J., ‘Joyce Faukes,’ H., ‘Joice Frankline,’ W. 9.

Footnote 535:

‘William Gladchere’ (‘Gladcheer’) (F.F.) would be a pleasant sobriquet.

Footnote 536:

‘Alicia Blissewenche’ occurs in the Hundred Rolls—a light-hearted ruddy-faced country girl of happy disposition and blithe expression. I doubt not he was a lucky swain who got her to go to the priest with him to sue wedlock. Cf. ‘Jeffery Joyemaiden’ in the same record.

Footnote 537:

The early ‘John Bellewether’ (H.) may be either a partial translation of this, or that which is more likely, a sobriquet taken from the custom of fastening a bell around the neck of the leading sheep, by which to conduct the rest. We still term such an one the ‘bell-wether.’

Footnote 538:

We never use ‘merry’ now in relation to sacred things, though our English Bible does. The fact is, the word has somewhat sunk in the social scale. Few preachers would say, as Bishop Bradford could say quite naturally in his day, ‘The Lord for Christ’s sake give us merry hearts to drink lustily of His sweet cup.’ A monument in Marshfield Church on A. Meredeth ends thus —

‘Judge then, what he did lose who lost but breath, Lived to die well, and dyed A MEREDETH. (Rudder’s Gloucestershire.)

Footnote 539:

‘Sweetlove’ is met by ‘Duzamour;’ ‘Felicia Duzamour’ occurs in the Domesday, St. Paul’s (Cam. Soc.). ‘Dulcia Fynamour’ is set down in the Wardrobe Accounts Ed. 1.

Footnote 540:

‘Wooer,’ and even ‘Wooeress,’ seem to have existed. ‘John le Wower’ (A.), ‘Hugh le Wewer’ (R.), ‘Emma Woweres’ (A.).

Footnote 541:

‘Ralph Full-of-Love’ was Rector of West Lynn in the year 1462. (Hist. of Norfolk, vol. viii. p. 536.)

Footnote 542:

‘Well beloved’ was the usual term applied in any formal address in the Middle Ages, such as when a king in council made any public announcement, or when a priest addressed his people, or when a testator mentioned a legatee. It was then a perfectly familiar expression, and would easily affix itself as a sobriquet. A Rev. C. Wellbeloved published a translation of the Bible in 1838, printed by Smallfield and Co., London.

Footnote 543:

‘Sweet’ and its compounds, however, are most probably to be referred to our baptismal nomenclature. A ‘Swet le Bone’ is found in the Hundred Rolls, and in the same record occur such other forms as ‘Swetman fil. Edith’ and ‘Sweteman Textor.’

Footnote 544:

In All Saints Church, Hertford, exists or existed a tablet with an inscription dated 1428, beginning thus—

‘Here lyeth under this stone William Wake, And by him Joane his wife and make.’ (Clutterbuck’s Hertfordshire, vol. ii., p. 165.)

Footnote 545:

‘Prudens’ should more properly, perhaps, be placed among abstract virtues. ‘Richard Prudence’ F.F. Later on it became a baptismal name—‘Prudence Howell.’ (Proceedings in Chancery: Elizabeth.)

Footnote 546:

‘Richard Merricocke’ (F.F.) was evidently a jovial fellow.

Footnote 547:

‘Parramore’ is always found as ‘Paramour’ in early rolls, and in this form existed till the xviith century. ‘April 18, 1635, Whitehall. Captain Thomas Paramour appointed to the Adventure.’ State Papers, 1635 (Domestic).

Footnote 548:

It was a favourite joke some few years ago in the House of Commons to say that there were in it two Lemons and but one Peel. While Sir Robert Peel was Irish Secretary, from 1812 to 1818, and was somewhat remarkable in that capacity for his opposition to the Roman Catholics, it was customary to style him by the sobriquet of ‘Orange Peel.’

Footnote 549:

‘Lyare, or gabbare—mendax, mendosus.’ (Prompt. Parv.) ‘Henry le Liere’ (H.R.) speaks for himself, unless he belies himself.

Footnote 550:

Like ‘Gabelot,’ ‘Hamelot,’ ‘Hughelot,’ ‘Crestelot,’ etc., ‘Gibelot’ may be a diminutive, in which case ‘Gilbert’ will be the root, and the name will belong to the patronymic class. (Vide p. 16, note 1.)

Footnote 551:

A ‘William Gidyheved’ (Giddyhead) is mentioned by Mr. Riley as living in London in the xivth century. (X. index.)

Footnote 552:

In the Pr. Par., ‘Gybelot’ (or Gyglot) is rendered ‘ridax.’

Footnote 553:

Teetotalism was not without its representatives—‘Thomas le Sober’ (M.), ‘Richard Drynkewatere’ (M.), ‘John Drinkewater’ (A.). There is no proof for Camden’s statement that this is a corruption of Derwentwater. From the earliest days it appears in its present dress.

Footnote 554:

‘Memorandum, quod die sancti Leonardi, fecit Galfridus Dringkedregges de Ubbethorp homagium.’ (V. 8, p. 151.)

Footnote 555:

‘Thomas Sourale’ (A.) is met by ‘John Sweteale,’ a member of St. George’s Guild, Norwich (V.). The former, I doubt not, was a crabbed peevish fellow.

Footnote 556:

‘Simon le Chuffere’ occurs in the H.R. This was a common term of opprobrium for a miser. As ‘Chuffer’ it is found in the Townley Mysteries.

Footnote 557:

‘The wife of Mr. Turnpenny, newsagent, Leeds, was yesterday delivered of two sons and one daughter, all of whom are doing well (Manchester Evening News, July 1, 1873.)

Footnote 558:

‘William Taylemayle’ is found in the Chronicon Petroburgense. (Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 559:

We may also mention ‘Gilbert le Covetiose’ (M.) and ‘Robert Would-have.’ We still say ‘much would have more.’ ‘Robert Would-have, sergeant-at-mace, witness in trial before the Mayor of Newcastle, March 23, 1662.’ (W. 16.)

Footnote 560:

‘William Rakestraw’ reminds us of ‘Piers Plowman’s ‘ratoner and rakyer of Cheape,’ i.e., ratcatcher and scavenger of Cheapside. A still more objectionable name was that of ‘Adam Ketmongere’ (H.R.), Ket = filth, carrion. ‘Honorius le Rumonjour’ (Rummager) (N.) would seem to have followed a similar calling. These sobriquets would readily be affixed upon men of a penurious and scraping character.

Footnote 561:

‘William Wildeblood’ is found in a Yorkshire Roll (W. 9), and ‘Jordan Kite-wilde’ in the H.R.

Footnote 562:

Also ‘Agnes Gyngyvere’ in Riley’s Memorials of London. Like ‘John Vergoose’ (W. 13) i.e., vinegarish, they would seem to hit off the sharp temperament of their owners.

Footnote 563:

Vide Lower’s English Surnames, i. 242.

Footnote 564:

Thus it is with our ‘Roses.’ The Rot. Fin. in Turri London. give us a ‘John de la Rose,’ while the Hundred Rolls furnish us with a ‘Nicholas de la Rose.’

Footnote 565:

‘Paid John of the hall, of tow (two) urchines, 0_l._ 0_s._ 4_d._’ (Hist. and Ant. Staffordshire, i. 197.)

Footnote 566:

George Camel and Jane Camel were apprehended as Popish recusants, May 2, 1673. (Dean Granville’s Letters, p. 225.) ‘William Cammille’ (V. 4), ‘George Camil’ (W. 20).

Footnote 567:

‘1438.’ “Item, pro aula ‘Olefante,’ Magister Kyllynworth.” (Mun. Acad. Oxon. p. 522.) This hall or smaller college was so called from the sign over the door. Skelton has both ‘olyfant’ and ‘olyphante.’ He describes a woman in ‘Eleanor Rummyng’ as

‘Necked lyke an olyfant.’

Footnote 568:

‘Herveus de Lyons,’ C., ‘Richard de Lyouns,’ M.

Footnote 569:

It was ‘Hugues le Loup’ the Conqueror appointed Second Count of the Cheshire Palatinate.

Footnote 570:

‘Lovel’ is the diminutive. ‘Maulovel’ will thus be ‘Bad-wolfkin.’

Footnote 571:

A Rascal was a lean, ragged deer; Shakespeare so uses it. Very early, however, the term was applied to the vulgar herd of human kind, but with far less opprobious meaning than now. Hall, quoting Henry of Northumberland, speaks of Henry IV. as having obtained his crown ‘by the counsaill of thy frendes, and by open noising of the rascale people’ (f. xxi.), i.e. the rabble. An extract from the Ordinances of Henry VIII. at Eltham says, ‘It is ordained that none of the sergeants at arms, heralds ... have, retain, or bring into the court any boyes or rascalles, nor also other of their servants.’ The surname was very common, and lasted a long time—‘John Raskele’ (H.), ‘Henry Rascall’ (Z.). Robert Rascal was persecuted for his religion in 1517 (Foxe). ‘Received for a pewe in the lower end of the churche set to Richard Rascalle, vi_s._’ (Ludlow Churchwardens’ Accounts, Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 572:

As we have Cock and Cockerell, Duck and Duckrell, so we have Buck and Buckerell—‘Peter Bokerel’ (A.), ‘Matthew Bokerel’ (A.). Cf. Mackarel and Pickerell.

Footnote 573:

Sometimes this is local, and a mere corruption of Beauvoir—‘Roger de Belvoir’ (M.).

Footnote 574:

‘Duncalf’ may be seen over a window in Oldham Road, Manchester. ‘William Duncalf’ (A.A. 1), ‘John Duncalf’ (A.A. 1).

Footnote 575:

Such names as Roger Runcy, Richard Palefray, John Portehors, or Ralph Portehos represent terms very familiar to our forefathers.

Footnote 576:

This word ‘beef’ as denotive of the living animal was in vogue in the seventeenth century at least. The plural ‘beeves’ is still to be found in our Authorized Version. For instance, Levit. xxii. 19, is translated, ‘Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats.’ Shakespeare, also, has the word in this sense. He speaks in his ‘Merchant of Venice’ of the—

‘Flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.’

We have here mutton used in the same manner. Edward the Second was accustomed ‘to breede upp beeves and motonnes in his parkes to serve his household.’ (Liber Niger, Ed. IV.)

Footnote 577:

Apart from such entries as ‘William le Lamb,’ we find a ‘John Lambgrome’ in the Hundred Rolls. Though obsolete, we must set him by our ‘Shepherds.’ A brother-in-law of John Wesley bore the name of ‘Whitelamb.’ I am not sure whether this surname has died out or not. In the Visitation of Yorkshire, 1665, it is found in the person of ‘Isabel Whitlamb.’

Footnote 578:

‘Robert Spichfat’ (X.), ‘William Spichfat’ (W. 11.), from the old ‘spic,’ bacon, seem to refer to the greasy habits of their owners.

Footnote 579:

Christopher Pigg was Mayor of Lynn Regis in 1742.

Footnote 580:

An old political poem says the Italians bring in

‘Apes and japes and mamusetts taylede, Nifles, trifles, that litelle have avayled.’

Footnote 581:

Raton is still the term in the North. Langland uses it, and in Chaucer the Potecary is asked by a purchaser—

‘That he him would sell Some poison, that he might his ratouns quell.’

Footnote 582:

‘Some bileve that yf the kite or the puttock fle ovir the way afore them that they should fare wel that daye, for sumtyme they have farewele after that they see the puttock so fleyinge.’ (Brand, iii. 113.)

Footnote 583:

Our present Authorized Version retains the term in Deut. xiv. 13, where mention is made of ‘the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind.’ Locally it is found in ‘Gledhill’ and ‘Gladstone,’ or more correctly ‘Gledstane,’ that is, the hill or crag which the kites were wont to frequent. A ‘William de Gledstanys’ is met with in the Coldingham Priory Records of the date of 1357, proving its North English origin. ‘Hawkstone’ and ‘Gladstone’ are thus synonymous.

Footnote 584:

‘Richard Sparhawke’ was Rector of Fincham in 1534. (Hist. Norf., vii. 358.)

Footnote 585:

‘Philip Chikin’ (A.), ‘John Chikin’ (A.). The name existed in the xviith cent., for one ‘George Chicken’ was summoned at Ryton ‘for not payeing his assessments, July 28, 1673.’ (Dean Granville’s Letters, Sur. Soc.).

Footnote 586:

‘Peter le Goos,’ F.F., ‘Walter le Gows,’ A., ‘Amicia le Gos,’ J., ‘John le Gos,’ M. The latter, as ‘Goss,’ is the present most common form.

Footnote 587:

This is as often from Joscelyn. ‘Gosceline fil. Gawyn,’ A., ‘Roger fil. Gocelin,’ A.

Footnote 588:

A tablet with the inscription ‘Sacred to the Memory of Priscilla Blackbird’ has been put up in Stepney churchyard within the last few years.

Footnote 589:

‘The bailiffs and commons granted to Robert Popingeay, their fellow citizen, all their tenement and garden in the Parish of St. Mary in the Marsh.’ 1371. (Hist. Norf., iii. 97.) ‘Richard Popingay,’ T.T. ‘To a servaunt of William ap Howell for bringing of a popyngay to the Quene to Windesore, xiii_s._ iiii_d._’ (Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York, 1502.)

Footnote 590:

‘He turnede upso down the boordis of chaungeris, and the chayers of men that solden culvers.’ (Matt. xxi. 12. v. Wicklyffe.)

Footnote 591:

The Prompt. Par. has ‘reyn-fowle, a bryd,’ so called, the Editor says, because its cry was supposed to prognosticate rain.

Footnote 592:

‘Thomas le Whal’ (B.), ‘Ralph le Wal’ (A.). As with Oliphant, over-corpulence would give rise to the sobriquet.

Footnote 593:

‘Reymund Heryng’ (M.). The diminutive is found in the case of ‘Stephen Harengot’ (D.D.), i.e., ‘Little Herring.’

Footnote 594:

‘Elizabeth Salmon’ (G.). It is said, a Mr. Salmon having been presented by his wife with three boys at one birth, gave them the names of ‘Pickled,’ ‘Potted,’ and ‘Fresh.’ I would call the reader’s attention to the italicised words that preface the statement.

Footnote 595:

Daniel Turbot was summoned ‘for not paying Easter reckonyngs, Aug. 23rd, 1674.’ (Granville’s Letters. Sur. Soc.)

Footnote 596:

‘Matthew Chubb,’ a member of the ‘Gild of Tailors, Exeter.’—21 Ed. IV. (English Gilds, 323 p.)

Footnote 597:

‘John Tenche’ (A.). Tenche is the name of one of the yeomen of the Guard to Queen Mary when Princess Mary. (Priv. Purse Exp. 1543.)

Footnote 598:

Thomas Spratt was Bishop of Rochester in 1688.

Footnote 599:

This is doubtless but a feminine form of Odo.

Footnote 600:

‘Roger le Waps’ is found in a Sussex subsidy roll of 1296. (Lower, i. 242.)

Footnote 601:

In Ricart’s Kalendar of Bristol (Cam. Soc.), William and Robert Snake are set down among the earlier ‘Prepositi.’

Footnote 602:

In 1433 it had got corrupted into ‘Querdling,’ a ‘Thomas Querdling’ occupying an official position in Norwich in that year. Of him the following rhyme speaks—

‘Whoso have any quarrel or pie, If he but withstand John Hankey, John Querdlyng, Nic Waleys, John Belagh, John Meg, Sore shall him rewe For they rule all the court with their lawes newe.’ (Blomefield, iii. 145.)

I doubt not ‘Curling’ is the modern representative of this name.

Footnote 603:

This name is not obsolete. Mr. Lower quotes a local rhyme thus—

‘Worthing is a pretty place, And if I’m not mistaken, If you can’t get any butcher’s meat, There’s “hogs’ flesh” and “bacon.”’

Footnote 604:

‘William Wolfheryng’ occurs in a Sussex subsidy roll, 1296. (Lower, i. 242.)

Footnote 605:

‘Joan Blackdam’ occurs in Hist. Norfolk. (Blomefield, v. Index.)

Footnote 606:

‘Anna Hellicate’ was called before the Archdeacon of Durham, for not coming to the Church, 27th July, 1673.’ (Dean Granville’s Letters, Surt. Soc.)

Footnote 607:

This most curious name appears in the Manchester Directory for 1861.

Footnote 608:

This seems to have been a surname—‘John Drawlace’ (W. 18).

Footnote 609:

The President of the College of Physicians in 1665 was Sir Francis Prujean. Bramston, in his Autobiography (Cam. Soc.), styles him ‘Prugean.’

Footnote 610:

The newspapers for June 6th, 1874, mention a ‘Mr. Youngjohn’ in connection with an election petition at Kidderminster.

Footnote 611:

We have already noticed that ‘Robin Hood’ had become in itself a surname. It is quite possible our ‘Little-johns’ have arisen in a similar manner. Little John, I need not say, was as carefully represented at the May-day dance as Robin himself or Maid Marian. Ritson has preserved us a rhyme on the subject—

‘This infant was called John Little,’ quoth he ‘Which name shall be changed anon; The words we’ll transpose, so wherever he goes, His name shall be called “Little John.”’

Footnote 612:

‘Item, to Guillam de Vait, Guillam de Trope, and Pety John mynstralles, iv_l._’ (Trevelyan Papers, ii. 20. Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 613:

We might be tempted to place our ‘Brownbills’ here, but I have recently shown them to be representative of the old and famous pikes known as ‘brownbills,’ used so commonly in war previous to the introduction of gunpowder.

Footnote 614:

Thus Desdemona says to Emilia (Othello, iv. 3)—

‘This Lodovico is a proper man;’

and the latter responds—

‘A very handsome man.’

Footnote 615:

‘Apple-john’ must be looked upon as a nickname taken from the fruit of that name. An apple-john was a species of apple which was never fully ripe till late in the season, when it was shrivelled. Hence Shakespeare’s allusion in 2 Henry IV. ii. 4. ‘Sweet-apple’ will belong to this category.

Footnote 616:

‘Full-James’ must be looked upon as a corruption of Foljambe. I prefer the original, though that is not complimentary.

Footnote 617:

This name lingered on till 1674 at least, for one of the private musicians attached to the household of Charles II. was ‘John Godegroome.’ (Vide Chappell’s Ballad Literature, p. 469.) ‘Robert le Godegrom’ had appeared three centuries before in the Hundred Rolls.

Footnote 618:

‘King’ I have already suggested as a sobriquet given to one who represented such a rank in some mediæval pageant. Peculiarities of stature, manner, or dress would readily give rise to the compound forms.

Footnote 619:

Archbishop Chichele, when founding All Souls’ College, purchased for this purpose the sites of ‘Beresford’s Hall, St. Thomas’s Hall, Tyngewyck Hall, and Godknave Hall.’ (Hist. Univ. Oxon, vol. i. p. 195.)

Probably its founder bore that name.

Footnote 620:

‘Godfrey Mauclerk’ was mayor of Leicester in 1286. Also, ‘Walter Malclerk’ (P.P.). Corrupted into ‘Manclerk,’ this name still exists. (Cf. Clerical Directory, 1874.)

Footnote 621:

‘Johan le Redeclerk, hosier de Coventry.’ (V. 9, p. xxiv.)

Footnote 622:

The first ‘Littlepage’ I can light upon is in the case of ‘John Littlepage’ and ‘Joan Littlepage,’ persecuted for their religion in 1521. (Foxe’s Martyrology.)

Footnote 623:

‘Man’ in the sense of servant is found appended to several Christian names. Thus we come across such combinations as ‘Mathewman,’ ‘Harriman,’ and ‘Thomasman.’ The wonder is more are not to be met with. The customary way of registering servants in the old rolls is ‘William Matthew’s man,’ or ‘John’s man Thomas.’ Thus the surname arose. The Proceedings in Kent, 1640 (Cam. Soc.), contained the name of ‘Nicholas Hodgman,’ and ‘John Hobman’ was buried May 17th, 1649. (Smith’s Obituary. Cam. Soc.)

Footnote 624:

‘Grant to Henry Goodclerk for his services in the parts beyond the sea, 23rd Sep. 1485.’ (Materials for Hist. Henry VII., p. 557.)

Footnote 625:

‘Goodwife’ seems to have existed formerly. A ‘William Goodwyfe’ was Rector of Stapleford, Herts, in 1443. (Clutterbuck’s Hertfordshire, vol. ii. p. 218.)

Footnote 626:

‘Alan Bondame’ represents the feminine (P.P.).

Footnote 627:

John Beaufitz was Sheriff of Warwick in 1485.

Footnote 628:

A curious circumstance happened, I believe, but a few years ago, causing the increase of a forename, unintended, we may feel sure, by those most immediately concerned. A child was taken to church to be baptized. The clergyman at the usual place turned to the mother and asked what name the infant was to bear. ‘Robert,’ was the reply. ‘Any other name?’ he inquired. ‘Robert honly,’ she answered, her grammar not being of the best description. ‘Robert Honly, I baptize thee, in the name,’ etc., at once continued the clergyman, and the child was therefore duly so registered.

Footnote 629:

A ‘Savage Bear’ was at large in Kent a few years ago. (Lower i. 177.)

Footnote 630:

‘Ivory Malet’ (D.D.) This, though registered in the xiiith, would seem to have anticipated the croquet of the xixth cent. ‘Ivray’ was a baptismal name at the earlier date.

Footnote 631:

‘More Fortune, bayliff of St. Martin’s, died May 17th, 1367.’ (Smith’s Obituary, p. 13.)

Footnote 632:

‘May 27th, 1805. River, son of River and Rebecca Jordan.’ (Christenings, St. Ann’s, Manchester.)

Footnote 633:

Several ‘Pine Coffins’ may be seen in the Clerical Directories of 1840–1850.

Footnote 634:

‘Jean Gottam,’ the Frenchman’s title for ‘John Bull,’ is old. A witness in the trial of Joan of Arc used the term ‘Godon,’ and explained it to be a sobriquet of the English from their use of the oath ‘God damn.’

Footnote 635:

A clever article in the Edinburgh Review, April 1855, suggests ‘Blood’ and ‘Death’ from ‘S’Blood’ and ‘S’Death,’ the abbreviated ‘God’s blood’ and ‘God’s death.’

Footnote 636:

Vide page 160. Camden says the Normans were so called because ‘at every other word they would swear by God.’

Footnote 637:

‘Henry Godsalve’ entered C.C. Coll. Cam. in 1614. (Masters’ Hist., C.C. Coll.)

Footnote 638:

‘Item, to Jannett God-send-us, I give a caldron, and a pare of tonges.’ (Extract of will of William Hardinge, Vicar of Heightington, 1584. W. 13.) The editor suggests she was a foundling.

Footnote 639:

The Saturday Review, in a criticism of my book, mentions a Rogerus Deus-salvet-dominas in the Essex Domesday.

Footnote 640:

‘Mr. Gracedieu, Incumbent of St. James’s, Duke’s Place.’ (Strype, London.)

Footnote 641:

A curious heraldic name is found in the 17th cent. John Poyndexter, fellow of Exeter Coll., Oxford, was dispossessed. (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy.)

Footnote 642:

Our ‘Olyfadres’ will similarly be the expletive ‘Holy-father,’ unless, like ‘Thomas Worthship’ (Z.), the name be but a title of respect to some ecclesiastic functionary.

Footnote 643:

‘Good-speed’ may belong to the same class as Swift, Golightly, Lightfoot, Roefoot, etc.—V. p. 388.

Footnote 644:

The Constable of Nottingham Castle in 1369 was one Stephen Rummelowe, or Rumbilowe, for both forms are to be found.

Footnote 645:

‘Fulco Twelvepence’ was perhaps related to ‘Robert Shillyng,’ found in the ‘Patent Rolls’ (State Paper Office).

Footnote 646:

A most anachronistic name is met with in the ‘Calend. Inquis. Post Mortem,’ 30 Henry VI., in the entry ‘Robert Banknott.’ A ‘knot’ was a small local prominence. On the bank or side of this the nominee doubtless dwelt.

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● Transcriber’s Notes: ○ There are many instances of words and names that are hyphenated in the body of the book, but not in the index. There are a few that are hyphenated in the index, but not in the body of the book. The hyphenation was left as printed. ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected. ○ Typographical errors were silently corrected. ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book. ○ The footnotes have been gathered into one section at the end of the book. ○ The use of a caret (^) before one or more letters shows they are intended to be a superscript, as in “S^t Bartholomew” or“ xx^{tie} platters”. ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (italics).

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