“1557, Nov. 8. Buried Austin Clarke.
“1567, April 22. Married Richard Staper and Dennis Hewyt.
“1573, Sep. 25. Married John Carrington and Gyllian Lovelake.
“1574, Oct. 23. Buried Joyce, d. of John Bray.
“1594, Nov. 1. Married Gawyn Browne and Sibbell Halfhed.”
So they run. How quaint and pretty they sound to modern ears! Amongst the above I have mentioned some girl-names. The change is strongly marked here. It was Elizabeth’s reign saw the end of Joan. Jane Grey set the fashionable Jane going; Joan was relegated to the milkmaid, and very soon even the kitchen wench would none of it. Joan is obsolete; Jane is showing signs of dissolution.[27]
It was Elizabeth’s reign saw the end of Jill, or Gill, which had been the pet name of Juliana for three centuries:
“1586, Feb. 5. Christening of Gillian Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones, grocer.”—St. Peter, Cornhill.
“1573, Sep. 25. Married John Carrington, Cheape, and Gillian Lovelake.”—St. Dionis Backchurch.
In one of our earlier mysteries Noah’s wife had refused to enter the ark. To Noah she had said—