Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature

by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

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.