"Putte the litil faunt with ynne"
(Exodus ii. 3)
The Old French accusative (Chapter I) was also used as a genitive, as in Bourg-le-roi, Bourg-la-rein, corresponding to our Kingsbury and Queensborough. We have a genitive also in Flowerdew, found in French as Flourdieu. Lower, in his Patronymics Britannica (1860), the first attempt at a dictionary of English surnames, conjectures Fauntleroy to be from an ancient French war-cry Défendez le roi! for "in course of time, the meaning of the name being forgotten, the de would be dropped, and the remaining syllables would easily glide into Fauntleroy." [Footnote: I have quoted this "etymology" because it is too funny to be lost; but a good deal of useful information can be found in Lower, especially with regard to the habitat of well-known names.]
Names of ecclesiastics must usually be nicknames, because medieval churchmen were not entitled to have descendants. This appears clearly in such an entry as "Bishop the crossbowman," or "Johannes Monacus et uxor ejus Emma," living in Kent in the twelfth century. But these names are so numerous that I have put them with the Canterbury Pilgrims (ch. xvii.). Three of them may be mentioned here in connection with a small group of occupative surnames of puzzling form. We have noticed (Chapter XII) that monosyllabic, and some other, surnames of local origin frequently take an -s, partly by analogy with names like Wills, Watts, etc. We rarely find this -s in the case of occupative names, but Parsons, Vicars or Vickers, and Monks are common, and in fact the first two are scarcely found without the -s. To these we may add Reeves (Chapter XVII), Grieves (Chapter XIX), and the well-known Nottingham name Mellers (Chapter XVII). The explanation seems to be that these names are true genitives, and that John Parsons was John the Parson's man, while John Monks was employed by the monastery. This is confirmed by such entries as "Walter atte Parsons," "John del Parsons," "Allen atte Prestes," "William del Freres," "Thomas de la Vicars," all from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Another exceptional group is that of names formed by adding -son to the occupative names, the commonest being perhaps Clarkson, Cookson, Smithson, and Wrightson. To this class belongs Grayson, which Bardsley shows to be equivalent to the grieve's son.
Our occupative names are both English and French, [Footnote: We have also a few Latinizations, e.g. Faber (wright), Messer (mower). This type of name is much commoner in Germany, e.g. Avenarius, oat man, Fabricius, smith, Textor, weaver, etc. Mercator, of map projection fame, was a Fleming named Kremer, i.e. dealer.] the two languages being represented by those important tradesmen Baker and Butcher. The former is reinforced by Bollinger, Fr. boulanger, Pester, Old Fr. pestour (Lat. piston), and Furner—
"Fournier, a baker, or one that keeps, or governs a common oven" (Cotgrave).
The English and French names for the same trade also survive in Cheeseman and Firminger, Old Fr. formagier (fromage).
We have as endings -er, -ier, the latter often made into -yer, -ger, as in Lockyer, Sawyer, Kidger (Chapter XIX), Woodger, [Footnote: Woodyer, Woodger, may also be for wood-hewer. See Stanier] and -or, -our, as in Taylor, Jenoure (Chapter III). The latter ending, corresponding to Modern Fr. -eur, represents Lat. -or, -orem, but we tack it onto English words as in "sailor," or substitute it for -er, -ier, as in Fermor, for Farmer, Fr. fermier. In the Privy Purse Expenses of that careful monarch Henry VII. occurs the item—