Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 131, May 1, 1852 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

by Various

Replies.

RALPH WINTERTON.
(Vol. v., p. 346.)

There appears to be a slight error in the Editor's reply to E. D.'s Query respecting Ralph Winterton's translation of Gerard's Meditations and Prayers. I have an earlier edition than that of 1631. It is dated 1627,[3] printed at Cambridge by Thomas and John Bucke, and possesses no less than four dedications, which throw some little, and rather curious light on his history. The first, "To the Right Worsh. my most worthy Friend and Benefactour, Mr. John Bowle, Doctor of Divinitie, and Deane of Salisbury," in which he mentions "the fatherly care" he had experienced from that divine, "when he was at Kensington, in the house of that most vertuous and literate Lady, the Lady Coppen." "By your indeficient liberalitie," he says, "all defects were supplyed, all difficulties remooved, horses provided, a man appointed, and, to conclude, by the grace of God, after many a troublesome and wearysome step, to my rest I returned." The second Dedication is, "To the Right Worshipp. vertuous and learned Lady, the Lady Coppen, Mr R. Coppen, Mr T. Coppen, her Sonnes; Mris Elizabeth Coppen, her Daughter-in-Law, &c., Internall, Externall, Eternall Happiness." In this he records, that "scarce had he entered her doores at Kensington, but he was saluted and made welcome by a gentlewoman well deserving at his hands, whose name must not be concealed, Mris Francis Thorowgood, who hasted to carrie news to your Ladyship. Dixirat et dicto citius. Hereupon your Ladyship," he adds, "was pleased, out of hand, leaving all other business, not to send to mee, but to descend yourself to mee; not so much by the degrees of staires, as by a naturall inclination to show your hospitality," &c.; and speaks of her as understanding "the scholler's Languages as well as they that do profess them;" and as being "highly honoured by Queene Elizabeth." The third Dedication is "To the Right Worship. my most munificent Friend, Sir John Hanburie, of Kelmash, in Northamptonshire." The fourth, "To the Worsh. my very worthy Friends, Mr William Bonham (of Paternoster Rowe, in London), and Mris Anne Bonham, his Wife, Mr. Nathaniell Henshawe, of Valence, in Essex; Mr Benjamin Henshawe, of Cheapside, in London; and Mr Thomas Henshawe, of Saffron Walden, in Essex." The third Dedication is dated from Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, May 10: the others from King's Coll., June 12, 1627.

C. W. B.

[3] [The edition of 1627 was unknown to Watt, and is not to be found in the libraries of the British Museum or the Bodleian.—ED.]

MS. Account of Fellows of King's, anno 1616.

"Ralph Winterton of Lutterworth, Leicester, Bro. of Fran., who was Gent. of the Pr. Chamber to Hen. Maria, and served under D. of Hamilton in Germ., and was killed at Custrin, on the Borders of Silesia. See History of that Expedition.

"M.D., Prof. Regi Med., Sept. 13, 1636, at which time all the Reg. Prof. were of K. C.

"He was a great Physician & Scholar, insomuch that he was a Candidate to succeed Downes as Greek Prof. He translated Gerhard's Sum of Xtian Doctri., 1640, of which see Dedication. On his Bro. departing for Germany, he translated Drescelius on Eternity, and on another occasion returned to Gerhard. This was probably on some difficulty which was started to his Degree of M.D. by Provost Collins. He is said at one time to have suffered so, as for a time to have lost his senses. His Books are prefaced by recommendatory Verses from K. C. men, viz. D. Williamson, 1627; R. Newman, H. Whiston, and Thomas Page, 1627; Wym Carew, 1622; Tho. Bonham, 1621; Edm. Sheafe, 1613; R. Williams, 1623; T. Yonge, 1624.

"He published Dionysius de Situ Orbis, with a Dedication to Sir H. Wotton, and Hippocrates' Aphorisms in Gr. Verse, 1633. Que, if the Lat. Verses not written by Fryer, an eminent Physician at Camb. Que, the Poetæ Minores."

See, too, a short account in Harwood's Alumni Etonensis, p. 218.

J. H. L.

MEANING AND ORIGIN OF "ERA."
(Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.; Vol. v., p. 106.)

Your correspondents do not seem to be aware that this questio vexata has given rise to a volume in folio! In 1744 Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar published, at the expense of the Academy of Valencia, a volume containing nearly 400 pages under the following title: Obras Chronologicas de Don Gaspar Ibañes, &c., Marquis de Mondejar, &c. &c., which is principally occupied by a discourse entitled, "Origen de LA ERA ESPAÑOLA i su Diferencia con los años de Christo."[4] Prefixed to this is a very able and learned Preface, by the editor, of nearly 100 pages; and one would have thought that between these distinguished scholars the subject in dispute would be set at rest.

[4] A re-impression of the Valencia edition was made at Madrid in the year 1795.

Unfortunately, however, Spanish scholars and antiquaries have too much neglected the Gothic element in their language, and they have consequently missed the only source from whence, as it appears to me, the true origin of Era could be developed. The Marquis de Mondejar indeed seems to have had a suspicion of the true source; for he has a chapter thus entitled "Si puede ser Gothica la voz ERA i aver introducido los Godos su computo en España?" in which he thus expresses his incapacity to answer his own question:

"I assi contentandonos con aver expressado nuestra imaginacion con el mismo recelo que la discurrimos, prohibendonos la ignorancia de la lengua Gothica antigua, el que podamos justificar si pudo aver procedido de ella la voz ERA propria del computo de que hablamos."

As long since as 1664 that eminent northern philologist Thomas Marshall, in his notes on the Gothic Gospels, had thus expressed himself, confirming, if not anticipating, Spelman:

"{jER} proprie significat annum, sicque usurpatur in omnibus linguis Gothicæ cognatis; suâ scilicet cuique Dialecto asservatâ. Videant Hispani, nunquid eorum HERA vel ERA, quod Ætatem et tempus dicitur interdum significare, debeat originationem suam Gothico {jER}, atque num forsan hinc quoque aliquid lucis affulserit indagantibus originem vexatissimi illius Æra, quatenus significat Epocham Chronologicam."

In the Glossary the further development of the origin of the word is ingenious, but not satisfactory:

"Prisca interim Gothorum atque Anglo-Saxonum orthographiâ inducor ut credam {ger} vel {gear} esse à γυροῦν Gyrare, in orbem circumvolvere, juxta illud poetæ principis, Georg. II. 402.:

'Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.'

"Unde et Annum idem poëta, Æneid. I. 273., Orbem dixit:

'Triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbes

Imperio explebit,'

"ubi Servius: Annus dictus quasi Anus, id est Anulus; quod in se redeat, &c."

That the Roman word Æra signified number in earlier times, we learn from Nonius Marcellus:

"Æra numeri nota, Lucilius lib. xxviiij. Hoc est ratio perversa, æra summa, et subducta improbe."

Those who desire further confirmation will find it in that extraordinary storehouse of erudition, the Exercitationes Pliniana of Salmasius, p. 483., ed. 1689.

It is equally certain that, soon after the establishment of the Gothic domination in Spain, it was applied in its present signification; but that it also signified time or period will be evident from the following passage of the Coronica General, Zamora, 1541. fol. CCC.XXVJ. Speaking of the numbers of the extraordinary armament assembled by Don Alonzo, preparatory to the battle of Las Navas:

"E para todo esto complir avia menester el rey Don Alfonso de cada dia doze mil maravedis de aquella ERA, que era buena moneda."

That is to say, money of that time.

From our imperfect acquaintance with the early history of the Goths, it is not easy to decide upon the reasons why they adopted their mode of reckoning from thirty-eight years before the Christian epoch; but if we accept the signification which we know it was not unusual to affix to the word Era, namely, that of year, time, or period, the solution is easy as to its origin. It was only the engrafting of their own vernacular word into the barbarous Latin of the time, from whence also it was adopted into the Romance, Castilian, or Spanish.

It may also be observed that Liutprand uses the word in this sense: in speaking of the Mosque of San Sophia at Constantinople, and how the course of the reign of its rulers was noted there, so as to be manifest to all, he concludes:

"Sic ÆRAM qui non viderunt intelligunt."

So Dudo, De Actis Normannorum, lib. v. p. 111.:

"Transacta denique duarum Herarum intercapedine, mirabilibusque incrementis augmentata profusus Ricardo Infante, cœpit Dux Willelmus de Regni commodo salubriter tractare."

It is also remarkable that we find it in use only in those places under the domination of the Goths, as in the southern provinces of France,—the Council of Arles, for instance.—V. Mansi Collect. Concil., t. xiv. col. 57.

The earliest inscription in which it has been found was at Lebrija, in the kingdom of Seville, and the date corresponds with that of the year 465 from the birth of Christ. It runs thus:

ALEXANDRA . CLARISSIMA . FEMINA

VIXIT . ANNOS . PLVS . MINVS . XXV

RECESSIT . IN . PACE. X . KAL . IANVAR

ERA . DIII . PROBVS . FILIVS . VIXIT

ANNOS . DVOS . MENSEM . VNVM.

It is possible there may be some error even here, for no other inscription yet recorded is so early by eighty years.

Had it been in use at an earlier period, the Spaniard, Paulus Orosius, whose History ends with A.D. 417, would doubtless have used it; whereas we find that he makes use of the Anno Mundi, of the Olympiads, and of the A.U.C. of the Romans.

All circumstances, therefore, considered, we may safely conclude that in the Spanish Era we have nothing more than the adoption of the jera of Ulfilas, by whom it is used for ἔτος and χρόνος. The Gothic word being written with the consonant j {j} will account for the form in which, to mark the aspiration, Era is often found with the initial H. Whoever may desire to trace the etymology further will do well to consult Dieffenbach's very valuable Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Gothischen Sprache.

S. W. SINGER.

LADY ARABELLA STUART.
(Vol. i., pp. 10. 274.)

It may be interesting to some of the readers of "N. & Q." to peruse the following observations made by the Venetian ambassador resident in England in 1606, respecting that "child of woe" the Lady Arabella Stuart, whose romantic history forms one of the most pleasing of D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. The extract I send you is taken from a little French work, which professes to be a translation from the manuscript "Italian Relation of England" by Marc-Antonio Correr, the Venetian ambassador, and was printed at Montbéliard in 1668. The Lady Arabella is here spoken of as Madame Isabelle.

"La personne la plus proche de sang de sa Majesté après ses enfans, est Madame Isabelle, laquelle descend, ainsi que le Roy, de Marguerite fille de Henry VII., estant née d'un frère naturel du père de S. M., par où elle luy est Cousine. Elle est âgée de 28 ans; elle n'est pas bien belle, mais en recompense elle est ornée de mille belles vertus, car outre qu'elle est noble et dans ses actions et dans ses mœurs, elle possède plusieurs Langues en perfection, sçavoir le Latin, l'Italien, le François, et l'Espagnol; elle entend le Grec et l'Hebreu, et estudie sans cesse. Elle n'est pas beaucoup riche, car la Reyne deffunte prenant jalousie de tout le monde, et principalement de ceux qui avoient quelque pretention à la couronne, luy osta sous divers pretextes, la plus grand part de ses revenus; c'est pourquoy la pauvre Dame ne peut pas vivre dans la splendeur, et n'a pas le moyen de faire du bien à ceux qui la servent, comme elle voudroit. Le Roy témoigne avoir de l'affection et de l'estime pour elle, le laissant vivre en cour, ce que la Reyne deffunte ne luy voulut jamais permettre. Le Roy luy avoit promis de luy rendre ses biens et de luy donner un mary; elle est neantmoins encore privée et de l'un et de l'autre."

Relation d'Angleterre, p. 82.

Her Flight.—Phineas Pette, the shipwright at Chatham, received orders to assist in the capture of the unfortunate lady; and it would appear, from his manuscript Diary (Harl. MS. 6279.), that he did his best to execute them. His statement is as follows:—

"The 4th of June (1611), being Tuesday, being prepared to have gone to London the next day, about midnight one of the King's messengers was sent down to me from the Lord Treasurer to man the light horsemen [Query, what kind of boats were these?] with 20 musquetteers, and to run out as low as the Noor Head to search all shipps, barks, and other vessells for the Lady Arabella that had then made a scape, and was bound over for France; which service I performed accordingly, and searched Queenborough, and other vessells I could meet withall; then went over to Lee, in Essex, and searched the Towne; and when we could hear no news of her went to Gravesend, and thence took post-horse to Greenwich, where his Majesty then lay, and delivered the account of my journey to the Lord Treasurer by his Majties command, and soe was dismissed, and went that night to Ratcliffe," &c.

The messenger above alluded to, whose name was John Price, received 6l. for his pains in making "haste, post-haste," to Gravesend, Rochester, and Queenborough. (See Devon's Pell Records.)

And Capture.—This honour—or misfortune, rather, as it proved to be—was reserved for Admiral Sir William Monson, who, in his Naval Memoirs, p. 210., makes this self-satisfied remark:

"Sir W. Monson had orders to pursue her, which he did with that celerity, that she was taken within four miles of Calais, shipped in a French bark of that town, whither she was bound."

A. GRAYAN.

NEWTON, CICERO, AND GRAVITATION.
(Vol. v., p. 344.)

"When shall we three meet again?" Let no one smile at your correspondent's question, for the common mode of stating Newton's claim makes it natural enough to ask whether the ancients were aware that bodies fall to the earth, and to produce proof that they had such knowledge. But Cicero had more: he not only knew the fall of bodies, but he had a medius locus mundi, or centrum mundi, as it was afterwards called, to which bodies must fall. This was his law of gravitation, and that of his time. Without describing the successive stages of the existence of this centre, it may be enough here to state, that a part of Newton's world-wide renown arises from his having cashiered this immovable point from the solar system, and sent it on its travels in search of the real centre of gravity of the whole universe. Newton substituted, for the old law of gravitation towards a centre, his law of universal gravitation, namely, that every particle gravitates towards every other. There had been some idea of such a law in the minds of speculative men: it was Newton who showed that one particular law, namely, that of the inverse square of the distance, would entail upon a system, all whose particles are subject to it, those very motions which are observed in our system. Cicero would have been startled to know that, when a body falls towards the earth, the earth rises towards it, medius locus and all: not quite so fast, it is true, nor so far. But it must not be supposed that we could move our earth any distance in course of time by continually dropping heavy weights upon it; for the truth is, that when the weight is raised the earth is a little lowered, or at least made to move the other way. Archimedes said that, with a place to stand on, he could move the earth; not aware that he was doing it at the time he spoke, by the motion of his arm.

M.

May I ask your correspondent S. E. B. where he has discovered that the world-wide reputation of Newton was founded upon a notion of his being the first person who pointed out that bodies are attracted, or seem to be attracted, towards the centre of the earth? and, on the other hand, what traces there are in Cicero of the real "law of gravity," which Newton did discover, and with such immense labour demonstrate and illustrate, namely, that attraction (that is, not to the centre of the earth or world in particular, but between every particle of matter and the rest) varies inversely as the square of the distance?

To come to a minor question; your correspondent reads the passage qua delata gravitate—so I should read, decidedly. The whole sentence, which is a long one, is a series of questions (which, by-the-bye, is an additional reason against quoting it as an assertion).

"Inde est indagatio nata ... unde essent omnia orta ... quæque cujusque generis ... origo quæ vita, ... quæque ex alio in aliud vicissitudo ... unde terra, et quibus librata ponderibus, quibus cavernis maria sustineantur; qua omnia, delata gravitate, medium mundi locum semper expetant."

It is in qua in Ernesti, unnoticed. In was inserted by those who thought that qua agreed with terra; which, if otherwise probable, is negatived by the use of the word mundi in the clause.

C. B.

Sir Isaac Newton's discovery was the law of universal gravitation, viz. that the solar system is kept together by the gravity of the heavenly bodies towards the sun. This was founded on terrestrial gravitation, of which the falling apple put him in mind, applied first to the moon, and then universally to the universe. (See Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Gravitation;" Biot, "Life of Newton," in the Biographie Universelle; or the translation of it in the "Life of Newton" in the Library of Useful Knowledge, p. 5.) This is very different from Cicero's words; in which[5] (sc. the earth) all things borne downwards by their weight ever seek to reach the middle point of the universe, which is also the lowest point in the earth (qui est idem infimus in rotundo).

[5] Moser's text has in qua, &c. terra.

ED. S. JACKSON.

Saffron Walden.

DEFERRED EXECUTIONS.
(Vol. iv., pp. 191. 243.)

Although your correspondent E. S. attempts to throw discredit on M. W. B.'s narration of a deferred execution at Winchester, and carps at the mention of a "warrant," as if that militated against the fact; yet doubtless, in times when carelessness among official personages was not uncommon, many deferred executions may have taken place.

It must be evident, that in the case of a convict respited during pleasure, that an order must at last be formally made for such person's execution or commutation of punishment; during which interval the prisoner would remain in custody of the gaoler. This in effect would be tantamount to a warrant, and of course communicated to the unfortunate delinquent.

A case somewhat similar to the Winchester one was told me by an old and respectable inhabitant of Worcester, who was himself cognisant of the circumstance, and had frequently seen the convict. It occurred in the gaolership of the father of the present governor of the city gaol. A boy of only thirteen or fourteen had been convicted of some capital offence, but on account of his youth was respited indefinitely. He remained in the gaol, was found to be a docile lad, and much liberty was accorded to him; the authorities expecting that he would receive a pardon. Time flew on, many months—I think my informant said nearly two years elapsed, and his case seemed forgotten. If he was not actually sent on errands out of the gaol, so loose was his captivity, that he might easily have slipt away at any time, and been scarcely missed. In fact, he had the full run of the prison, and was a great favourite with the debtors, whose sports and amusements he joined in, for discipline was very lax in those days. He was playing at ball one day in the yard with some debtors, full of life and glee, when suddenly, to the utter astonishment of the gaoler, and the awe of his associates, there came an order from London for his execution. Why he had remained so long forgotten, or why such extreme severity fell on him so unexpectedly at last, none could tell; but his case was considered a very hard one, and was commiserated by the whole city. My informant saw the poor boy conducted to execution. The old citizen who gave me this account is dead, or I could have recovered the date of its occurrence.

AMBROSE FLORENCE.

Worcester.

I observe that the substance of M. W. B.'s Note has been reprinted in a mutilated form in several newspapers; his preliminary remark, and concluding Query, being omitted! The effect of this is to circulate as a fact what your correspondent himself questions. My object however in this communication, is not so much to draw attention to the injurious effects of partial quotation, as to point out what, in my opinion, renders the occurrence of an execution under the circumstances detailed a manifest impossibility. I believe I am correct in stating that there never was, nor is there now (out of London), such a thing as a warrant for the execution of a criminal. At the close of each Assize, a fair copy of the Calendar, with the sentences in the margin, is signed by the Judges, and left with the sheriff; this is the only authority he has given him; and in the event of a sentence of death, he has no alternative but carrying it into effect; unless he receives from the Crown a pardon, a reprieve, or a warrant commuting the sentence. Blackstone observes upon this:

"It may afford matter of speculation, that in civil causes there should be such a variety of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the king's name, and under the seal of the court, without which the sheriff cannot legally stir one step; and yet that the execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of any, should depend upon a marginal note."

J. B. COLMAN.

Eye.

DUCHESS OF LANCASTER.
(Vol. v., p. 320.)

Your correspondent is alarmed lest the honour he claims for the Lancastrians should be denied them, because it has been "discovered that William III. never created himself Duke of Lancaster." Where is it asserted that either he or any other of our sovereigns ever did? When Henry of Bolingbroke merged the lesser name of duke in the greater name of king, he was no more Duke of Lancaster than he was Earl of Derby or Duke of Hereford; but the title of Duke of Lancaster he willed not to be lost altogether as the others were, and therefore by an act of parliament (1 Hen. IV., Art. 81.) it was enacted Que le Prince porte le nom de Duc de Lancastre. The act, after reciting that "our said Lord the King, considering how Almighty God of his great grace had placed him in the honorable Estate of King, and nevertheless he cannot yet for certain cause bear the name of Duke of Lancaster," then ordains that "Henry his eldest son should have and bear the name of Duke of Lancaster, and that he be named Prince of Wales, Duke of Aquitaine, of Lancaster, and of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester." The fact is, that the King or Queen of England cannot be Duke or Duchess in the realm of England. Our kings have held inferior titles drawn from other kingdoms, as Duke of Normandy and Earl of Anjou; but Lord Coke says the sovereign cannot be rex and dux in the same realm. The Queen, as queen, holds her palatinate of Lancaster, and the other duchy lands and franchises; but she holds them jure ducatus, so distinguished from those estates which she holds jure coronæ. She cannot however properly be styled Duchess of Lancaster.

W. H.

In your last Number (Vol. v., p. 320.) is an inquiry on the Duchess of Lancaster. The best answer to this is to be found in a book, 8vo., entitled Harrison on Crown Revenues, or a Memoir, &c. respecting the Revenues of the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster: no date or printer's name. I purchased a copy at a sale a short time ago. Everything will be ascertained here perhaps better than any where else.

J. D.

Is Queen Victoria the possessor of this title? It would appear so. Sir N. Harris Nicolas, in his Synopsis of the Peerage, speaking of the dukedom, says:

"1399. Henry Plantagenet, son and heir, ascended the throne 29th Sept. 1399; when this title, with all his other honours, became merged in the crown, in which it has ever since remained vested."

Your correspondent may be referred to Blackstone (Introd. §4.), where is a very interesting account of the Palatinate and Duchy of Lancaster. We are there told that on his succession to the crown, Henry IV. was too prudent to suffer his Duchy of Lancaster to be united to the crown, and therefore he procured an act of parliament ordaining that this duchy and his other hereditary estates—

"Should remain to him and his heirs for ever, and should remain, descend, be administered, and governed in like manner as if he had never attained the regal dignity."

In the first of Edward IV., Henry VI. was attainted, and the Duchy of Lancaster declared forfeited to the crown. At the same time an act was passed to continue the county palatine, and to make the same part of the duchy; and to vest the whole in King Edward IV. and his heirs, kings of England, for ever. Blackstone then mentions that in the first Henry VII. an act was passed vesting the Duchy of Lancaster in that king and his heirs; and in a note examines the question whether the duchy vested in the natural or political person of the king. He then says:

"It seems to have been understood very early after the statute of Henry VII., that the Duchy of Lancaster was by no means thereby made a separate inheritance from the royal patrimony, since it descended, with the crown, to the half-blood in the instances of Queens Mary and Elizabeth; which it could not have done as the estate of a mere Duke of Lancaster in the common course of legal descent."

If, in saying that William III. never created himself Duke of Lancaster, your correspondent means that he caused no patent to issue granting himself that dignity, he is, I doubt not, correct. But if, after the above quotations, any doubt could remain on the subject, possibly the following extract from the act 1 Will. & Mar. sess. 2. cap. 2. ("An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown") will sufficiently dispel it:—

"And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons seriously considering, &c., do hereby recognise, acknowledge, and declare, that King James II. having abdicated the Government, and their Majesties having accepted the Crown and Royal dignity as aforesaid, their said Majesties did become, were, and are, and of right ought to be, by the laws of this realm, our sovereign liege lord and lady the King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, in and to whose princely persons the Royal state, crown, and dignity of the said realms, with all honours, styles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, powers, jurisdictions, and authorities to the same belonging and appertaining, are most rightfully and entirely invested and incorporated, united and annexed."

In conclusion, will you allow me to ask some correspondent to set forth at length the titles of our Sovereign Lady the Queen? In confessing that I do not know, I fancy that I state the case as regards the majority of the lieges of her Majesty. Indeed, a tale sometime ago went "the round of the papers," to the effect that the "Duke of Rothsay" was one day announced to his Royal Highness Prince Albert. The prince, who was not aware of the existence of such a personage, at length ordered him to be admitted, and was not a little astonished at beholding his eldest son! This, though doubtless the coinage of some ingenious but hungry penny-a-liner, pre-supposes so large an amount of general ignorance on the subject, that I hope some well-informed individual will, through your columns, enlighten the world on the point.

TEE BEE.

SURNAMES.
(Vol. v., pp. 290. 326.)

Variations of surnames occur much later than the close of the fourteenth century, the period cited by your correspondent COWGILL. I have seen a document of the date of Charles I., which names one Agnes Wilson, otherwise Randalson, widow of John, son of Randal Wilson; thus showing that the patronymic was liable to vary in every generation, even in the seventeenth century.

This is still the practice in the hill country of Lancashire, bordering upon Yorkshire, where people are seldom known by a family name. The individual is distinguished by the addition of the father's or mother's Christian name, and sometimes by the further addition of those of forefathers for a generation or two, as in the designation of Welshmen in times past. The abode sometimes varies the style.

As an example, I may mention that a few years ago I sought an heir-at-law in a town on the borders. I was referred to a man called "Dick o' Jenny's;" he being the son of a second marriage, the mother's name was used to distinguish him rather than his father's. Pursuing the inquiry I found the first wife had been a "sister of ould Tommy at top of th' huttock;" her daughter had married "John o' Bobby," and "John o' Bobby's lad" was the man I wanted. When I had made him out, it was with some difficulty that I ascertained (though amongst his kindred) that he bore the family name of "Shepherd."

W. L.

I perceive that your correspondents COWGILL and J. H. (p. 290.), and MR. MARK ANTONY LOWER (p. 326.), make use of the word surname to signify "the permanent appellative of particular families."

Now, I have always considered that the English language, in this as in many other instances, possessed two words which, though alike in sound, were very different both in origin and meaning:—surname, i.e. sur-nom, the name added to the common appellation, for the purpose of distinguishing an individual; as Rufus, Cœur de Lion, Lackland, in the case of our early kings: and sir-name, or sire-name, being that which in recent times, and in most countries, every one born in wedlock has inherited from his sire, and which is the subject of the articles in "N. & Q."

As I do not suppose that your correspondents, the last of whom is of considerable authority on this subject, have used the term unadvisedly, I am anxious to know the grounds on which they would disallow my theory.

E. H. Y.

I am glad to perceive that MR. LOWER has on the stocks a systematic Dictionary of Surnames. For the reason stated by him, it is neither desirable nor possible that it should include all English surnames. The majority derive their origin from places or districts of limited dimensions, and to enumerate them would be an interminable and very thankless task. MR. L. has therefore judiciously determined to exercise his discretion on this class of cases. Nor are the names derived from Christian names generally worth insertion, for every Christian name has, in some form, been converted into a surname, either with or without alteration. Those which originate in extinct or provincial employments and trades will supply an instructive and interesting collection, such as Tucker, Challoner, Tozer, Crowder, Berner, &c.; and will also afford scope for glossarial illustration.

I also trust that his etymological research will be successfully exercised on such names as—

Nettleship

Moneypenny

Peabody

Sidebottom

Sheepshanks

Snodgrass

Wiggins

Figgins

Higgins

Wigglesworth

Calcraft

Lammercraft, and other crafts (crofts?)

Pennefather

Ocock

Pocock

Locock, and omne quod exit in cock, of which some forty or fifty are in use.

Let me also bring under his notice the singularly unattractive name of Suckbitch. It is used by more than one branch of a respectable and ancient family in the West of England, and I have traced its existence for at least five centuries. Instead of availing themselves of the recent opinions of some great lawyers, that a surname may be changed at will, this family rather pride themselves on a name that can boast an antiquity probably not surpassed by that of any family in England. The shape of it has, however, deviated from the ancient form, so as to become more significant, but certainly less graceful than it was; and the change is probably an illustration of a familiar fact: viz. that we are not generally the authors of our own surnames, but receive them from our neighbours, and that, to a certain extent, they continue to have the same character of instability which they originally possessed. The earliest form of it known to me is Sokespic,—a word which seems to indicate a Saxon origin. The spic, or bacon end of it has now generally become spitch in the names of places; as in Spitchwick, a well-known seat in Devonshire. Whether the soke or suck end of it be from sucan, and the whole name equivalent to the modern Chawbacon, is a matter which I leave for the investigation of MR. LOWER. At all events, the old form will be a warning to the etymologist not to search for the origin of the name in any legend like that which ascribes the nutrition of the infant founders of Rome to a she-wolf.

I have met with many modern instances of the mutability of surnames among labouring people, and even in a class above them. In 1841 a person named Duke was on the list of voters for Penryn, in Cornwall. His original name was Rapson; but the name being very common in his neighbourhood, people long distinguished him by the name of Duke, because he kept the "Duke of York's Arms:" and this last name has since become the permanent recognised family name. This is a fact which I have had satisfactory means of verifying.

E. S.