Referring again to Breydenbach, Dr. Kitto (no mean authority) is of opinion that the account which goes under his name was written by the Dominican monk Felix Faber, who was Breydenbach's secretary and companion in the journey. (See Kitto's Physical History of Palestine, p. 9.)
PEREGRINE A.
SURNAMES.
The subject of surnames has more than once been referred to in the pages of "N. & Q.," and it may assist those of your readers who have investigated the question of their origin and use, to offer them the following examples of peculiar forms of personal designation which occur in certain of the more ancient public muniments of the city of Norwich.
It is the opinion of Camden, Du Cange, Pegge, Sharon Turner, and other writers, that the custom of appropriating a permanent appellation to particular families, became fully established in this country at the period (sooner or later) of the Norman Conquest. The instances, however, exhibited below, prove that such custom was not, at any rate, universally prevalent at that time amongst us. And, indeed, whatever might have been the case in reference to "the high men of the lond," it is very certain that surnames, properly so called, were not completely adopted by the mass of the people until the close of the fourteenth century.
But as the intention of this Note is simply to adduce original examples of individual designations, without inquiring into the circumstances attending their acquisition, or pointing to the causes, obvious enough for the most part, to which their various after-changes and modifications are to be attributed, the subject calls for no other general remark, except, perhaps, as to the prefixes "Le"[1] and "De," which, it may be noticed in passing, are, though not constantly, as is commonly asserted, attached to names in records of an older date than the time of Edward IV., when they began to fall into desuetude.
[1] This prefix was occasionally in Cheshire, and in the North with few exceptions, contracted into "A," as Thomas à Becket, Thomas à Dutton, &c.
With these introductory observations are now given, from the source above indicated,—
I. Examples of sons bearing a name different to that of their fathers:—
"1230. Will. fil. Silvestri, als. Will. Silvestre, fil. Silvestri Pudding de Holmestrete;