CURIOSITIES
OF
PURITAN NOMENCLATURE
By the same Author.
Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d.
OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources and Significations.
“Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediæval documents andworks from which the origin and development of surnames can alone besatisfactorily traced. He has furnished a valuable contribution to theliterature of surnames, and we hope to hear more of him in thisfield.”—Times.
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W.
CURIOSITIES
OF
PURITAN NOMENCLATURE
BY
CHARLES W. BARDSLEY
AUTHOR OF “ENGLISH SURNAMES, THEIR SOURCES AND SIGNIFICATIONS”
| “O my lord, The times and titles now are alter’d strangely” King Henry VIII. |
London
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880
[The right of translation is reserved]
Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles.
DEDICATED TO
HIS FELLOW MEMBERS
OF THE
HARLEIAN SOCIETY.
PREFACE.
I will not be so ill-natured as to quote the names of all the writers whohave denied the existence of Puritan eccentricities at the font. One, atleast, ought to have known better, for he has edited more books of thePuritan epoch than any other man in England. The mistake of all is that,misled perhaps by Walter Scott and Macaulay, they have looked solely tothe Commonwealth period. The custom was then in its decay.
I have to thank several clergymen for giving me extracts from theregisters and records under their care. A stranger to them, I felt somediffidence in making my requests. In every case the assistance I asked forwas readily extended. These gentlemen are the Rev. W. Sparrow Simpson, St.Matthew, Friday Street, London; the Rev. W. Wodehouse, Elham, Canterbury;the Rev. J. B. Waytes, Markington, Yorks.; the Rev. William Tebbs,Caterham Valley; the Rev. Canon Howell, Drayton, Norwich; the Rev. J. O.Lord, Northiam, Staplehurst; and the Rev. G. E. Haviland, Warbleton,Sussex. The last-named gentleman copied no less than 120[Pg viii] names, all ofPuritan origin, from the Warbleton records. I beg to thank him mostwarmly, and to congratulate him on possessing the most remarkable registerof its kind in England. Certain circumstances led me to suspect thatWarbleton was a kind of head-quarters of these eccentricities; I wrote tothe rector, and we soon found that we had “struck ile.” That Mr. Heley,the Puritan incumbent, should have baptized his own children by such namesas Fear-not and Much-mercy, was not strange, but that he should havepersuaded the majority of his parishioners to follow his example proveswonderful personal influence.
Amongst the laity, I owe gratitude to Mr. Chaloner Smith, Richmond,Surrey; Mr. R. R. Lloyd, St. Albans; Mr. J. E. Bailey,