—Can any of your genealogical readers give a clue to his family, and their armorial bearings?
J. K.
[Thomas Burton was a French merchant, not a prelate. A short notice of him and his gifts will be found in the Reports of Commissioners of Inquiry into Charities, and in Carlisle's Endowed Charities; but no account of his family has been given by his namesake, William Burton, in his History of Leicestershire, or by Nichols in his History.]
Hoo.
—What is the meaning of this word? In Bedfordshire there are two houses and estates called by this name, Luton Hoo and Pertenhall Hoo; and in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent are villages so called.
ARUN.
[Luton Hoo, in Bedfordshire, was the manor of the family of Hoo, or De Hoo, who are said by Sir Henry Chauncy to have been settled there before the Norman Conquest. Hasted, in his Kent, says, "Hoo comes from the Saxon hou, a hill." Ihre derives the word from hoeg, high. Spelman, vo. Hoga, observes that ho, how, signifies mons, collis. Jamieson says "How is certainly no other than Isl. haug, Suio-Gothic hoeg, the name given to sepulchral mounds." See also Lemon's English Etymology, s. v. Hough, how.]
Replies.
MODERN NAMES OF PLACES.
(Vol. iv., p. 470.)
Your correspondent L. H. J. T. has noticed the corruption of Greek topographical names, arising from the use of the definite article, which the ear of a traveller not skilled in the language supposes to be a part of the name, and so makes Statines or Satines from Athens, Stives from Thebes, &c.