[6] Sill was the nick form of Sybil and Silas till the seventeenth century, when the Puritan Silence seized it. I have only seen one instance of the surname, “John Silkin” being set down as dwelling in Tattenhall, Cheshire, in 1531 (Earwaker’s “East Cheshire,” p. 56).
[7] Nevertheless the surname did exist in Yorkshire in Richard II.’s reign:
“Willelmus Malkynson, and Dionisia uxor ejus, iiiid.”—W. D. S.
[8] I need not quote, in proof of the popularity of kin, our surnames of Simpkinson, Hopkins, Dickens, Dickenson, Watkins, Hawkins, Jenkinson, Atkinson, and the rest. I merely mention that the patronymics ending in kins got abbreviated into kiss, and kes, and ks. Hence the origin of our Perkes, Purkiss, Hawkes, and Hawks, Dawks, Jenks, Juckes, and Jukes (Judkins).
[9] In this class we must assuredly place Figgins. In the Hundred Rolls appears “Ralph, son of Fulchon.” Here, of course, is the diminutive of the once common Fulke. Fick and Figg were the nick forms:
“1 Henry VIII. To Fygge the taborer, 6d.”—Churchwarden’s Books of Kingston-on-Thames, Brand’s “Pop. Ant.,” i. 147.
The London Directory has all the forms and corruptions as surnames, including Fick, Ficken, Figg, Figgs, Figgess, and Figgins.
[10] Guion was not half so popular in England as Guiot. There are fifty-five Wyatts to three Wyons in the London Directory (1870). If Spenser had written of Guyon two centuries earlier, this might have been altered. Guy Fawkes ruined Guy. He can never be so popular again.
[11] Cornwall would naturally be last to be touched by the Reformation. Hence these old forms were still used to the close of Elizabeth’s reign, as for instance:
“1576, March 24. Baptized Ibbett, d. of Kateryne Collys, bastard.