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CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE




BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

_Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d._

OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources and Significations.

"Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediaeval documents and
works from which the origin and development of surnames can alone be
satisfactorily traced. He has furnished a valuable contribution to the
literature of surnames, and we hope to hear more of him in this
field."--_Times._

_CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W._




  CURIOSITIES OF
  PURITAN NOMENCLATURE


  BY CHARLES W. BARDSLEY

  AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SURNAMES, THEIR SOURCES AND SIGNIFICATIONS"


                              "O my lord,
    The times and titles now are alter'd strangely"
                                        KING HENRY VIII.


  London
  CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
  1880

  [_The right of translation is reserved_]




_Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles._




DEDICATED TO HIS FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE HARLEIAN SOCIETY.




PREFACE.


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

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

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

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

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

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

  VICARAGE, ULVERSTON,
    _March, 1880_.




NOTE.

W. D. S. in the Prologue = "Wappentagium de Strafford."

C. S. P. = "Calendar of State Papers."




CONTENTS.


  PROLOGUE.

  THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND.

                                                                  PAGE

      I. THE PAUCITY OF NAMES AFTER THE CONQUEST                     1

     II. PET FORMS                                                   9
         (_a._) Kin                                                  9
         (_b._) Cock                                                13
         (_c._) On or In                                            17
         (_d._) Ot or Et                                            21
         (_e._) Double Terminatives.                                30

    III. SCRIPTURE NAMES ALREADY IN USE AT THE REFORMATION          34
         (_a._) Mystery Names                                       34
         (_b._) Crusade Names                                       35
         (_c._) The Saints' Calendar                                36
         (_d._) Festival Names                                      36


    CHAPTER I.

    THE HEBREW INVASION.

      I. THE MARCH OF THE ARMY                                      38

     II. POPULARITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT                            59

    III. OBJECTIONABLE SCRIPTURE NAMES                              70

     IV. LOSSES                                                     76
         (_a._) The Destruction of Pet Forms                        76
         (_b._) The Decrease of Nick Forms                          82
         (_c._) The Decay of Saint and Festival Names               92
         (_d._) The Last of some Old Favourites                     99

      V. THE GENERAL CONFUSION                                     109


    CHAPTER II.

    PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES.

      I. INTRODUCTORY                                              117

     II. ORIGINATED BY THE PRESBYTERIAN CLERGY                     121

    III. CURIOUS NAMES NOT PURITAN                                 128

     IV. INSTANCES                                                 134
         (_a._) Latin Names                                        134
         (_b._) Grace Names                                        138
         (_c._) Exhortatory Names                                  155
         (_d._) Accidents of Birth                                 166
         (_e._) General                                            176

      V. A SCOFFING WORLD                                          179
         (_a._) The Playwrights                                    182
         (_b._) The Sussex Jury                                    191
         (_c._) Royalists with Puritan Names                       194

     VI. BUNYAN'S DEBT TO THE PURITANS                             198

    VII. THE INFLUENCE OF PURITANISM ON AMERICAN NOMENCLATURE      201


    EPILOGUE.

    DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES: THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS.

      I. ROYAL DOUBLE NAMES                                        213

     II. CONJOINED NAMES                                           222

    III. HYPHENED NAMES                                            224

     IV. THE DECAY OF SINGLE PATRONYMICS IN BAPTISM                228

      V. THE INFLUENCE OF FOUNDLING NAMES UPON DOUBLE BAPTISMAL
         NAMES                                                     233


    INDEX                                                          239




CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.




PROLOGUE.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND.

    "One grows too fat, another too lean: modest Matilda, pretty pleasing
    Peg, sweet-singing Susan, mincing merry Moll, dainty dancing Doll,
    neat Nancy, jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate, bouncing Bess with
    black eyes, fair Phillis with fine white hands, fiddling Frank, tall
    Tib, slender Sib, will quickly lose their grace, grow fulsome, stale,
    sad, heavy, dull, sour, and all at last out of fashion."--_Anatomy of
    Melancholy._

    "Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid,
    and everything in order?"--_The Taming of the Shrew._


I. THE PAUCITY OF NAMES AFTER THE CONQUEST.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The register of Raby, Leicestershire, has this entry:

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

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

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

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

No one would think of describing Wat Tyler's--we should now say Walter
Tyler's--insurrection as Gowen does:

    "_Watte_ vocat, cui _Thoma_ venit, neque _Symme_ retardat,
      _Bat_--que _Gibbe_ simul, _Hykke_ venire subent:
    _Colle_ furit, quem _Bobbe_ juvat, nocumenta parantes,
      Cum quibus, ad damnum _Wille_ coire volat--
    _Crigge_ rapit, dum _Davie_ strepit, comes est quibus _Hobbe_,
      _Larkin_ et in medio non minor esse putat:
    _Hudde_ ferit, quem _Judde_ terit, dum _Tibbe_ juvatur
      _Jacke_ domosque viros vellit, en ense necat."

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

Another instance will be evidence enough. The author of "Piers Plowman"
says--

    "Then goeth Glutton in, and grete other after,
    _Cesse_, the sonteresse, sat on the bench:
    _Watte_, the warner, and his wife bothe:
    _Tymme_, the tynkere, and twayne of his prentices:
    _Hikke_, the hackney man, and _Hugh_, the pedlere,
    _Clarice_, of Cokkeslane, and the clerke of the churche:
    _Dawe_, the dykere, and a dozen othere."

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

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

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

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


II. PET FORMS.

These pet desinences were of four kinds.


(_a_) _Kin._

The primary sense of _kin_ seems to have been relationship: from thence
family, or offspring. The phrases "from generation to generation," or
"from father to son," in "Cursor Mundi" find a briefer expression:

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

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

    "Nor those prude yongemen
      That loveth Malekyn,
    And those prude maydenes
      That loveth Janekyn:

      *       *       *

    Masses and matins
      Ne kepeth they nouht,
    For Wilekyn and Watekyn
      Be in their thouht."

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

    "_Rutterkin_ can speke no Englyssh,
    His tongue runneth all on buttyred fyssh,
    Besmeared with grece abowte his dysshe
                  Like a rutter hoyda."

They brought in Hankin, and Han-cock, from Johannes; not to say Baudkin,
or Bodkin, from Baldwin. _Baudechon le Bocher_ in the Hundred Rolls, and
_Simmerquin Waller_, lieutenant of the Castle of Harcourt in "Wars of the
English in France," look delightfully Flemish.

Hankin is found late:

    "Thus for her love and loss poor Hankin dies,
    His amorous soul down flies."
                                    "Musarum Deliciae," 1655.

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

    "Agnes Hobkin-wyf, iiii{d}."--W. D. S.

    "Henry, son of Halekyn, for 17-1/2 acres of land."--"De Lacy
    Inquisition," 1311.

    "Emma Watkyn-doghter, iiii{d}."--W. D. S.

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

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

                  "The kitchen malkin pins
    Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
    Clambering the walls to eye him."
                                "Coriolanus," Act ii. sc. 1.

While the author of the "Anatomy of Melancholy" is still more unkind, for
he says--

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

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

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

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


(_b_) _Cock._

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

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

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

    "Come hither, Cock: what, Cock, I say.
    _Cock._                          How, Gammer?
    _Gammer._ Go, hie thee soon: and grope behind the old brass pan."

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

    "For then you are meacocks, fools, and miserable."

In "Appius and Virginia" (1563) Mausipula says (Act i. sc. 1)--

    "My lady's great business belike is at end,
    When you, goodman dawcock, lust for to wend."

In "King Lear"

    "Pillicock sat on pillicock-hill"

seems an earlier rendering of the nursery rhyme--

    "Pillicock, Pillicock sate on a hill,
    If he's not gone, he sits there still."

In "Wily Beguiled" Will Cricket says to Churms--

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

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

_Cock_ was almost as common as "_kin_" as a desinence. _Sim-cock_ was
_Simcock_ to the end of his days, of course, if his individuality had come
to be known by the name.

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

    "Mokock de la Lowe, for 10 acres.

    "Mokock dal Moreclough, for six acres.

    "Dik, son of Mocock, of Breercroft, for 20 acres."--"The De Lacy
    Inquisition," 1311.

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

    "Johannes Palcock, et Beatrix uxor ejus, iiii{d}."--W. D. S.

    "Ricardus Sylkok, et Matilda uxor ejus, iiii{d}."--W. D. S.

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

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


(_c._) _On or In._

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

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

    "_Beton_ the Brewestere
      Bade him good morrow."

And again, later on:

    "And bade Bette cut a bough,
      And beat _Betoun_ therewith."

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

    "This _Alison_ answered: Who is there
    That knocketh so? I warrant him a thefe."

Or take an old Yorkshire will:

    "Item: to Symkyn, and Watkyn, and Alison Meek, servandes of John of
    Bolton, to ilk one of yaim, 26{s}. 8{d}."--"Test. Ebor." iii. 21.
    Surtees Society.

Hugh, too, gets his name familiarly entered occasionally:

    "_Hugyn_ held of the said earl an oxgang of land, and paid yearly
    iii{s}. vi{d}."--"The De Lacy Inquisition," 1311.

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

    "Willelmus Huchon, & Matilda uxor ejus, iiii{d}."

Also--

    "Elena Houchon-servant, iiii{d}."

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

    "The wife of Peryn."--"Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne," Chetham Society,
    p. 87.

Marion, from Mary, is the only familiar instance that has descended to us,
and no doubt we owe this fact to Maid Marion, the May-lady. Many a Mary
Ann,