This is confirmed by the burial records:
“Sept. 2, 1611. Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, as is mentioned in the register of christenings.”
The reference, of course, is to Job ii. 8:
“And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.”
This was somewhat grim fun, though. Probably Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, during his brief life, would be styled by the curter title of “Ashes.” It is somewhat curious to notice that Camden, writing three years later, says Ashes existed. Perhaps this was the instance.
A similar instance of waggery is found in the parish church of Old Swinford, where the following entry occurs:—
“1676, Jan. 18. Baptized Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-Dallery-Gallery-Cesar, sonn of Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-Dallery-Gallery-Cesar Williams.”
Allowing the father to be thirty years of age, the paternal christening would take place in 1646, which would be a likely time in the political history of England for a mimical hit at Puritan eccentricity.
(a.) The Playwrights.
There is a capital scene in “The Ordinary” (1634), where Andrew Credulous, after trolling out a verse of nonsensical rhyme against the Puritan names, says to his friends Hearsay and Slicer, in allusion to these new long and uncouth names: