And in Acts vii. 41., the golden calf is designated by the same word, in the singular number:
"And thei maden a calf in the daies, and offriden a sacrifice to the mawmet."
In the first line of the quotation last given from Richard Cœur de Lion, your correspondent H. T. G. will find an early instance of the word came; whether early enough, I cannot say. In Wiclif's version, cam, came, and camen are the usual expressions answering to "came" in our translation. If above five hundred and fifty years' possession does not give a word a good title to its place in our language, without a conformity to Anglo-Saxon usage, the number of words that must fall under the same imputation of novelty and "violent infringement" is very great indeed.
J. W. Thomas.
Dewsbury.
THE GOSLING FAMILY.
(Vol. vi., p. 510.)
One of the Flock asks for information relative to the antiquity of the name and family of Gosling. The Norman name of Gosselin is evidently the same as that of Jocelyn, the tendency of the Norman dialect being to substitute a hard g for the j or soft g, as gambe for jambe, guerbe for gerbe. As a family name it is far from uncommon in Normandy, and many of your antiquarian readers may recognise it as the name of a publisher at Caen of works on the antiquities of that province. A family of the name of Gosselin has been established for many centuries in the island of Guernsey. William Gocelyn was one of those sworn upon the inquest as to the services, customs, and liberties of the island, and the laws established by King John, which inquest was confirmed by King Henry III. in the year 1248. In the year 1331 an extent of the crown revenues, &c. was made by order of Edward III., and in this document the name of Richard Gosselin appears as one of the jury of the parish of St. Peter-Port.
A genealogy of the Guernsey family of Gosselin is to be found in the appendix to Berry's history of that island, and it is there stated that—