Curiosities of Puritan nomenclature

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CURIOSITIES

PURITAN NOMENCLATURE

By the same Author.

Croivn SvOj cloth exti^a, ys. ()d.

OUR ENGLISH SURNAMES: their Sources
and Significations.

*' Mr. Bardsley has faithfully consulted the original mediaeval
documents and works from which the origin and development of
surnames can alone be satisfactorily traced. He has furnished a
valuable contribution to the literature of surnames, and we hope to
hear more of him in this field." — Times.

CHATTO AND WIND US, PICCADILLY, W.

CURIOSITIES

OF

PURITAN NOMENCLATURE

CHARLES W. BARDSLEY

n

AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SURNAMES, THEIR SOURCES AND SIGNIFICATIONS"

*' O my lord,
" The times and titles now are alter'd strangely "

King Henry VIII.

Honlron
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY

1880

[The right of translation is reserved]

^3

► ••-•• „ • ,

Printed by V/illia7n Clowes and Sons, Limited, Loiidon and Beules.

DEDICATED TO

HIS FELLOW MEMBERS

OF THE

HARLEIAN SOCIETY.

247490

PREFACE.

I WILL not be so ill-natured as to quote the names
of all the writers who have denied the existence
of Puritan eccentricities at the font. One, at least,
ought to have known better, for he has edited
more books of the Puritan epoch than any other
man in England. The mistake of all is that, misled
perhaps by Walter Scott and Macaulay, they have
looked solely to the Commonwealth period. The
custom was then in its decay.

I have to thank several clergymen for giving me
extracts from the registers and records under their
care.' A stranger to them, I felt some diffidence in
making my requests. In every case the assistance
I asked for was 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, Mark-
ington, Yorks. ; the Rev. William Tebbs, Caterham
Valley; the Rev. Canon Howell, Drayton, Nor-
wich ; the Rev. J. O. Lord, Northiam, Staplehurst ;
and the Rev. G. E. Haviland, Warbleton, Sussex.
The last-named gentleman copied no less than 120

viii PREFACE.

names, all of Puritan origin, from the Warbleton
records. I beg to thank him most warmly, and
to congratulate him on possessing the most re-
markable register of its kind in England. Certain
circumstances led me to suspect that Warbleton
was a kind of head-quarters of these eccentricities ;
I wrote to the rector, and we soon found that we
had "struck ile." That Mr. Heley, the Puritan
incumbent, should have baptized his own children
by such names as Fear-not and Much-mercy, was
not strange, but that he should have persuaded the
majority of his parishioners to follow his example
proves wonderful personal influence.

Amongst the laity, I owe gratitude to Mr. Cha-
loner Smith, Richmond, Surrey ; Mr. R. R. Lloyd,
St. Albans ; Mr. J. E. Bailey, F.S.A., Manchester ;
Mr. J. L. Beardsley, Cleveland, U.S.A. ; Mr.
Tarbutts, Cranbrook, Kent ; and Mr. Speed,
Ulverston.

Of publications, I must needs mention Notes
and QuerieSy a treasure-house to all antiquaries ;
the Sussex Archaeological Society's works, and
the Yorkshire Arckceo logical and Topographical
Journal, The " Wappentagium de Strafford " of
the latter is the best document yet published for
students of nomenclature. Out of it alone a com-
plete history of English surnames and baptismal
names might be written. Though inscribed with
clerkly formality, it contained more pet forms than

PREFACE, ix

any other record I have yet seen ; and this alone
must stamp it as a most important document.
The Harleian Society, by publishing church regis-
ters, have set a good example, and I have made
much use of those that have been issued. They
contain few instances of Puritan extravagance, but
that is owing to the fact that no leading Puritan was
minister of any of the three churches whose records
they have so far printed. I sincerely hope the list
of subscribers to this society may become enlarged.

For the rest — the result of twelve years' research
— I am alone responsible. Heavy clerical respon-
sibilities have often been lightened by a holiday
spent among the yellow parchments of churches in
town and country, from north to south of England.
As it is possible I have seen as many registers
as any other man in the country, I will add one
statement — a very serious one : there are thou-
sands of entries, at this moment faintly legible,
which in another generation will be wholly illegible.
What is to be done }

Should this little work meet the eye of any of
the clergy in Sussex, Kent, and, I may add, Surrey,
I would like to state that if they will search the
baptismal records of the churches under their
charge, say from 1580 to 1620, and furnish me
with the result, I shall be very much obliged.

Vicarage, Ulverston,
■March, 1880.

NOTE.

W. D. S. in the Prologue — * ' Wappentagium de Strafford."
C. S. P. = "Calendar of State Papers."

CONTENTS.

PROLOGUE.
THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND.

PAGE

I. The Paucity of Names after the Conquest ... i

II. Pet Forms ... . ... ... .. 9

(a.) Kin ... ... ... ... ... 9

(^.) Cock ... ... ... ... ... 13

(c.) On or In ... ... ... ... ... 17

(^.)OtorEt ... ... ... ... ... 21

[e,) Double Terminatives... ... ... ... 30

III. Scripture Names already in use at the Re-
formation ... ... ... ... ... 34

(a.) Mystery Names ... ... ... ... 34

(d.) Crusade Names ... ... ... ... 35

{c.) The Saints' Calendar ... ... ... 36

{d.) Festival Names ... ... ... ... 36

CHAPTER I.
THE HEBREW INVASION.

I. The March of the Army ... ... ... 38

II. Popularity of the Old Testament ... ... 59

III. Objectionable Scripture Names ... ... 70

IV. Losses ... ... ... ... ... ... 76

(a,) The Destruction of Pet Forms ... ... 76

(d.) The Decrease of Nick Forms ... ... 82

{c.) The Decay of Saint and Festival Names ... 92

(d.) The Last of some Old Favourites ... 99

V. The General Confusion ... ... ... 109

xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 11.
PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES,

PAGE

I. Introductory ... ... .. ... ... 117

II. Originated by the Presbyterian Clergy ... 121

III. Curious Names not Puritan ... ... ... 128

IV. Instances ... ... ... ... ... 134

{a.) Latin Names ... ... ... ... 134

{J},) Grace Names ... ... ... ... 138

(^.) Exhortatory Names ... ... ... ... 155

(^.) Accidents of Birth ... ... ... ... 166

{e,) General ... ... » ... ... ... 176

V. A Scoffing World ... ... ... ... 179

{a.) The Playwrights ... ... ... ... 182

{J}.) The Sussex Jury ... ... ... ... 191

{c.) Royalists with Puritan Names .. . ... ... 194

VI. Bunyan's Debt to the Puritans ... ... 198

VII. The Influence of Puritanism on American

Nomenclature ... ... ... ... 201

EPILOGUE.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES : THEIR RISE AND
PROGRESS.

I. Royal Double Names ... ... ... ... 213

II. Conjoined Names ... ... ... ... 222

III. Hyphened Names ... ... ... ... 224

IV. The Decay of Single Patronymics in Baptism ... 228
V. The Influence of Foundling Names upon Double

Baptismal Names ... ... ... ... 233

Index ... ... ... ... ... ... 239

CURIOSITIES

PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

PROLOGUE.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND.

" One grows too fat, another too lean : modest Matilda, pretty
pleasing Peg, sweet-singing Susan, mincing merry Moll, dainty
dancing Doll, neat Nancy, jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate,
bouncing Bess with black eyes, fair Phillis with fine white hands,
fiddling Frank, tall Tib, slender Sib, will quickly lose their grace,
grow fulsome, stale, sad, heavy, dull, sour, and all at last out of
fashion." — Anatomy of Melancholy.

** Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets laid,
and everything in order ? " — The Taming of the Shrew.

I. The Paucity of Names after the
Conquest.

There were no Scripture names in England when
the Conqueror took possession ; even in Normandy
they had appeared but a generation or two before
William came over. If any are found in the old

B

2 ' ^ c'lfR^d^iTlES' 'Of 'pVritan nomenclature,

English period, we may feel assured they were
ecclesiastic titles, adopted at ordination. Greek
and Latin saints were equally unnoticed.

It is hard to believe the statement I have made.
Before many generations had passed, Bartholomew,
Simon, Peter, Philip, Thomas, Nicholas, John, and
Elias, had engrossed a third of the male popu-
lation ; yet Domesday Book has no Philip, no
Thomas, only one Nicholas, and but a sprinkling of
Johns. It was not long before Jack and Jill took
the place of Godric and Godgivu as representative
of the English sexes, yet Jack was from the Bible,
and Jill from the saintly Calendar.

Without entering into a deep discussion, we
may say that the great mass of the old English
names had gone down before the year 1200 had
been reached. Those that survived only held on for
bare existence. From the moment of William's
advent, the names of the Norman began to prevail.
He brought in Bible names, Saint names, and his
own Teutonic names. The old English names
bowed to them, and disappeared.

A curious result followed. From the year 1 1 50
to 1550, four hundred years in round numbers,
there was a very much smaller dictionary of
English personal names than there had been for
four hundred years before, and than there has been

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 3

in the four hundred years since. The Norman list
was really a small one, and yet it took possession
of the whole of England.

A consequence of this was the Pet-name Epoch.
In every community of one hundred English-
men about the year 1300, there would be an
average of twenty Johns and fifteen Williams ;
then would follow Thomas, Bartholomew, Nicholas,
Philip, Simon, Peter, and Isaac from the Scrip-
tures, and Richard, Robert, Walter, Henry, Guy,
Roger, and Baldwin from the Teutonic list. Of
female names, Matilda, Isabella, and Emma were
first favourites, and Cecilia, Catharine, Margaret,
and Gillian came closely upon their heels. Behind
these, again, followed a fairly familiar number of
names of either sex, some from the Teuton, some
from the Hebrew, some from the Greek and
Latin Church, but, when all told, not a large
category.

It was, of course, impossible for Englishmen and
Englishwomen to maintain their individuality on
these terms. Various methods to secure a per-
sonality arose. The surname was adopted, and
there were John Atte-wood, John the Wheelwright,
John the Bigg, and John Richard's son, in every
community. Among the middle and lower classes
these did not become hereditary till so late as 1450

4 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

or 1500.* This was not enough, for in common
parlance it was not likely the full name would
be used. Besides, there might be two, or even
three, Johns in the same family. So late as
March, 1545, the will of John Parnell de Gyrton
runs :

"Alice, my wife, and Old John, my son, to occupy my farm
together, till Olde John marries ; Young John, my son, shall have
Brenlay's land, plowed and sowed at Old John's cost."

The register of Raby, Leicestershire, has this
entry :

** 1559. Item : 29th day of August was John, and John Picke, the
children of Xtopher and Anne, baptized.

" Item : the 31st of August the same John and John were buried."

Mr. Burns, who quotes these instances in his
" History of Parish Registers," adds that at this

* This is easily proved. In the wardrobe accounts for Edward IV.,
1480, occur the following items : —

"John Poyntmaker, for pointing of xl. dozen points of silk pointed
with agelettes of laton.

"John Carter, for cariage away of a grete loode of robeux that
was left in the strete.

** To a laborer called Ry chard Gardyner working in the gar-
dyne.

"To Alice Shapster for making and washing of xxiiii. sherts, and
xxiiii. stomachers."

Shapster is a feminine form of Shapper or Shaper — one who
shaped or cut out cloths for garments. All these several individuals,
having no particular surname, took or received one from the occu-
pation they temporarily followed. — "Privy Purse Expenses, Eliz. of
York," p. 122.

THE PET- NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 5

same time " one John Barker had three sons
named John Barker, and two daughters named
Margaret Barker." *

If the same family had but one name for the
household, we may imagine the difficulty when this
one name was also popular throughout the village.
The difficulty was naturally solved by, firstly^ the
adoption of nick forms ; secondly, the addition of
pet desinences. Thus Emma became by the one
practice simple Emm, by the other Emmott ; and
any number of boys in a small community might
be entered in a register as Bartholomew, and
yet preserve their individuality in work-a-day
life by bearing such names as Bat, Bate, Batty,
Bartle, Bartelot, Batcock, Batkin, and Tolly, or
Tholy. In a word, these several forms of Bar-
tholomew were treated as so many separate proper
names.

No one would think of describing Wat Tyler's —

* Any number of such instances might be recorded. Mr. W. C.
Leighton, in Notes and Queries, February 23, 186 1, notices a
deed dated 1347, wherein two John de Leightons, brothers, occur.
Mr. "Waters, in his interesting pamphlet, "Parish Registers"
(p. 30), says that Protector Somerset had three sons christened
Edward, born respectively 1529, 1539, and 1548. All were living
at the same time. He adds that John Leland, the antiquary, had
a brother John, and that John White, Bishop of Winchester
1 556-1560, was brother to Sir John White, Knight, Lord Mayor
in 1563.

6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

we should now say Walter Tyler's — insurrection as
Gowen does :

^^ Watte vocat, cui Thorn a venit, neque Symme retardat,

Bat — que Gibbe simul, Hykke venire subent :
Colle furit, quern Bobbe juvat, nocumenta parantes,

Cum quibus, ad damnum Wille coire volat —
Crigge rapit, dum Davie strepit, comes est quibus Hobbe^

Larkin et in medio non minor esse putat :
Hudde ferit, quern Judde terit, dum Tibbe juvatur

Jacke domosque viros vellit, en ense necat. "

These names, taken in order, are Walter, Thomas,
Simon, Bartholomew, Gilbert, Isaac, Nicholas,
Robert, William, Gregory, David, Robert (2), Law-
rence, Hugh, Jordan (or George), Theobald, and
John.

Another instance will be evidence enough. The
author of " Piers Plowman '* says —

" Then goeth Glutton in, and grete other after,
Cesse, the sonteresse, sat on the bench :
Watte, the wamer, and his wife bothe :
Tymme, the tynkere, and twayne of his prentices :
Hikke, the hackney man, and Hugh, the pedlere,
Clarice, of Cokkeslane, and the clerke of the churche :
Dawe, the dykere, and a dozen othere."

Taken in their order, these nick forms represent
Cecilia, Walter, Timothy, Isaac, Clarice, and David.
It will be seen at a glance that such appellatives
are rare, by comparison, in the present day. Tricks
of this kind were not to be played with Bible
names at the Reformation, and the new names

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 7

from that time were pronounced, with such ex-
ceptions as will be detailed hereafter, in their
fulness.

To speak of William and John is to speak of
a race and rivalry 800 years old. In Domesday
there were 6% Williams, 48 Roberts, 28 Walters, to
10 Johns. Robert Montensis asserts that in 1173,
at a court feast of Henry II., Sir William St. John
and Sir William Fitz-Hamon bade none but those
who bore the name of William to appear. There
were present 120 Williams, all knights. In Ed-
ward I.'s reign John came forward. In a Wilt-
shire document containing 588 names, 92 are
William, %% John, 55 Richard, 48 Robert, 23
Roger, Geoffrey, Ralph, and Peter 16. A century
later John was first. In 1347, out of 133 common
councilmen for London, first convened, 35 were
John, 17 William, 15 Thomas, (St. Thomas of
Canterbury was now an institution), 10 Richard,
8 Henry, 8 Robert. In 1385 the Guild of St.
George at Norwich contained 377 names. Of
these, John engrossed no less than 128, William
47, Thomas 41. The Reformation and the Puritan
Commonwealth for a time darkened the fortunes
of John and William, but the Protestant accession
befriended the latter, and now, as 800 years ago,
William is first and John second.

8 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

But when we come to realize that nearly one-
third of Englishmen were known either by the
name of William or John about the year 1300,
it will be seen that the pet name and nick form
were no freak, but a necessity. We dare not
attempt a category, but the surnames of to-day
tell us much. Will was quite a distinct youth
from Willot, Willot from Wilmot, Wilmot from
Wilkin, and Wilkin from Wilcock. There might
be half a dozen Johns about the farmstead, but
it mattered little so long as one was called Jack,
another Jenning, a third Jenkin, a fourth Jack-
cock (now Jacox as a surname), a fifth Brown-
john, and a sixth Micklejohn, or Littlejohn, or
Properjohn (j.e, well built or handsome).

The nick forms are still familiar in many in-
stances, though almost entirely confined to such
names as have descended from that day to the
present. We still talk of Bob, and Tom, and
Dick, and Jack. The introduction of Bible names
at the Reformation did them much harm. But the
Reformation, and the English Bible combined,
utterly overwhelmed the pet desinences, and they
succumbed. Emmot and Hamlet lived till the
close of the seventeenth century, but only be-
cause they had ceased to be looked upon as
altered forms of old favourite names, and were

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 9

entered in vestry books on their own account as
orthodox proper names.

II. Pet Forms.
These pet desinences were of four kinds.

(a) Kin,
The primary sense of km seems to have been
relationship : from thence family, or offspring. The
phrases "from generation to generation," or "from
father to son," in " Cursor Mundi " find a briefer
expression :

** This writte was gett fra kin to kin,
That best it cuth to haf in min."

The next meaning acquired by kin was child, or
" young one." We still speak in a diminutive sense
of a manikin, kilderkin, pipkin, lambkin, jerkin,
minikin (little minion), or doitkin. Appended to
baptismal names it became very familiar. "A
litul soth Sermun " says —

*' Nor those prude yongemen
That loveth Malekyn,
And those prude maydenes
That loveth Janekyn :

Masses and matins
Ne kepeth they nouht,

For Wilekyn and Watekyn
Be m their thouht."

Unquestionably the incomers from Brabant and

lo CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Flanders, whether as troopers or artisans, gave a
great impulse to the desinence. They tacked it
on to everything :

^^ Rutierkin can speke no Englyssh,
His tongue runneth all on buttyred fyssh,
Besmeared with grece abowte his dysshe
Like a rutter hoyda. "

They brought in Hankin, and Han-cock, from
Johannes ; not to say Baudkin, or Bodkin, from
Baldwin. Baudechon le Bocher in the Hundred
Rolls, and Simmerquin Waller, lieutenant of the
Castle of Harcourt in "Wars of the English in
France," look delightfully Flemish.
Hankin is found late :

** Thus for her love and loss poor Hankin dies,
His amorous soul down flies."

" Musarum Delicise," 1655.

To furnish a list of English names ending in kin
would be impossible. The great favourites were
Hopkin (Robert),* Lampkin and Lambkin (Lam-
bert), Larkin (Lawrence), Tonkin (Antony),
Dickin, Stepkin (Stephen),*!- Dawkin (David), Ad-
kin, J now Atkin (Adam, not Arthur), Jeffkin (Jef-

* " I also give to the said Robert .... that land which Hobbe-
kin de Bothum held of me." — Ext. deed of Sir Robert de Stoke-
port, Knight, 1189-1199 : Earwaker's *'East Cheshire," p. 334.

+ I have seen Stepkin as a surname but once. Lieutenant Charles
Stepkin served under the Duke of Northumberland, in 1640. —
Peacock's " Army List of Roundheads and Cavaliers," p. 78.

Adekyn was the simple and only title of the harper to Prince

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. ii

frey), Pipkin and Potkin (Philip), Simkin, Tipkin
(Theobald), Tomkin, Wilkin, Watkin (Walter),
Jenkin, Silkin (Sybil),* Malkin (Mary), Perkin
(Peter), Hankin (Hans), and Halkin or Hawkin
(Henry). Pashkin or Paskin reminds us of Pask
or Pash, the old baptismal name for children born
at Easter. Judkin (now as a surname also Juckin)
was the representative of Judd, that is, Jordan.
George afterwards usurped the place. All these
names would be entered in their orthodox bap-
tismal style in all formal records. But here and
there we get free and easy entries, as for instance :

'* Agnes Hobkin-wyf, iiii**."— W. D. S.

"Henry, son of Halekyn, for 17^ acres of land." — "De Lacy
Inquisition," 131 1.

"Emma Watkyn-doghter, iiii^."— W. D. S.
** Thi beste cote, Hankyn,

Hath manye moles and spottes,
It moste ben y-wasshe."

"Piers Plowman."

Malkin was one of the few English female
names with this appendage. Some relics of this
form of Mary still remain. Malkin in Shakespeare
is the coarse scullery wench :

Edward in 1306, who attended the cour pleniire held by King Edward
at the feast of Whitsuntide at Westminster. — Chappell, "Popular
Music of ye Olden Time," p. 29.

* Sill was the nick form of Sybil and Silas till the seventeenth
century, when the Puritan Silence seized it. I have only seen one in-
stance of the surname, "John Silkin " being set down as dwelling in
Tattenhall, Cheshire, in 1531 (Earwaker's "East Cheshire," p. 56).

13 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

** The kitchen malkin pins
Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck,
Clambering the walls to eye him."

**Coriolanus," Act ii. sc. I.

While the author of the " Anatomy of Melancholy "
IS still more unkind, for he says —

" A filthy knave, a deformed quean, a crooked carcass, a maukin,
a witch, a rotten post, a hedge -stake may be so set out and tricked
up, that it shall make a fair show, as much enamour as the rest. ^ —
Part iii. sect. 2, mem. 2, sub-sect. 3.

From a drab Malkin became a scarecrow.
Hence Chaucer talks of " malkin-trash." As if this
were not enough, malkin became the baker's clout
to clean ovens with. Thus, as Jack took the name
of the implements Jack used, as in boot-jack, so
by easy transitions Malkin. The last hit was when
Grimalkin (that is, grey-malkin) came to be the cant
term for an old worn-out quean cat. Hence the
witch's name in " Macbeth."

It will be seen at a glance why Malkin is the
only name of this class that has no place among
our surnames.* She had lost character. I have
suggested, in *' English Surnames," that Makin,
Meakin, and Makinson owe their origin to either
Mary or Maud. I would retract that supposition.
There can be little doubt these are patronymics of

* Nevertheless the surname did exist in Yorkshire in Richard II. 's
reign :
**Willelmus Malkynson, and Dionisia uxor ejus, iiii^." — W. D. S.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 13

Matthew, just as is Maycock or Meacock. May-
kinus Lappyng occurs in " Materials for a History
of Henry VH./' and the Maykina Parmunter of
the Hundred Rolls is probably but a feminine
form. The masculine name was often turned into
a feminine, but I have never seen an instance of
the reverse order.

Terminations in kin were slightly going down in
popular estimation, when the Hebrew invasion
made a clean sweep of them. They found shelter
in Wales, however, and our directories preserve in
their list of surnames their memorial for ever.*

{h) Cock,

The term " cock *' implied pertness : especially
the pertness of lusty and swaggering youth. To
cock up the eye, or the hat, or the tail, a haycock
in a field, a cock-robin in the wood, and a cock-
horse in the nursery, all had the same relationship
of meaning — brisk action, pert demonstrativeness.
The barn-door cockerel was not more cockapert

* I need not quote, in proof of the popularity of kin, our surnames
of Simpkinson, Hopkins, Dickens, Dickenson, Watkins, Hawkins,
Jenkinson, Atkinson, and the rest. I merely mention that the
patronymics ending in kins got abbreviated into kiss^ and kes,
and ks. Hence the origin of our Perkes, Purkiss, Hawkes, and
Hawks, Dawks, Jenks, Juckes, and Jukes (Judkins).

14 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

than the boy in the scullery that opened upon the
yard where both strutted. Hence any lusty lad
was "Cock/' while such fuller titles as Jeff-cock,
or Sim-cock, or Bat-cock gave him a preciser
individuality. The story of " Cocke Lorelle " is
a relic of this ; while the prentice lad in " Gammer
Gurton's Needle," acted at Christ College, Cam-
bridge, in 1566, goes by the only name of '' Cock/*
Tib the servant wench says to Hodge, after the
needle is gone —

* * My Gammer is so out of course, and frantic all at once,
That Cock our boy, and I, poor wench, have felt it on our bones. "

By-and-by Gammer calls the lad to search :

" Come hither, Cock : what. Cock, I say.
Cock. How, Gammer?

Gammer. Go, hie thee soon: and grope behind the old brass pan."

Such terms as nescock, meacock, dawcock,
pillicock, or lobcock may be compounds —
unless they owe their origin to " cockeney," a
spoiled, home-cherished lad. In "Wit without
Money " Valentine says —

" For then you are meacocks, fools, and miserable."

In "Appius and Virginia" (1563) Mausipula
says (Act i. sc. i) — ^

" My lady's great business belike is at end, V

When you, goodman dawcock, lust for to wend."

ft

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. ij

In "King Lear"

* ' Pillicoek sat on pillicock-hill

seems an earlier rendering of the nursery rhyme —

" Pillicoek, Pillicoek sate on a hill,
If he's not gone, he sits there still."

In "Wily Beguiled" Will Cricket says to
Churms —

" Why, since you were bumbasted that your lubberly legs would
not carry your lobcoek body. "

These words have their value in proving how
familiarly the term cock was employed in forming
nicknames. That it should similarly be appended
to baptismal names, especially the nick form of
Sim, Will, or Jeff, can therefore present no difficulty.
Cock was almost as common as " kin " as a
desinence. Sim-cock was Simcock to the end of
his days, of course, if his individuality had come
to be known by the name.

" Hamme, son of Adeeock, held 29 acres of land.
"Mokock de la Lowe, for 10 acres.
" Mokoek dal Moreclough, for six acres.

"Dik, son of Mocock, of Breercroft, for 20 acres." — "TheDe
Lacy Inquisition," 131 1.

Adeeock is Adam, and Mocock or Mokoek
IS Matthew. In the same way Sander-cock is a
diminutive of Sander, Lay-cock of Lawrence,
Luccock of Luke, Pidcock and Peacock of Peter,

i6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Maycock and Mycock of Matthew, Jeff-cock of
Jeffrey, Johncock of John, Hitch-cock or Hiscock
or Heacock of Higg or Hick (Isaac), Elcock
of Ellis, Hancock or Handcock of Han or Hand
(Dutch John), Drocock or Drewcock of Drew,
Wilcock of William, Badcock or Batcock of
Bartholomew, and Bawcock of Baldwin, Adcock
or Atcock of Adam, Silcock of Silas, and Palcock
of Paul :

"Johannes Palcock, et Beatrix uxor ejus, iiii^."— W. D. S.
Ricardus Sylkok, et Matilda uxor ejus, iiii^."— W. D. S.

The difficulty of identification was manifestly
lessened in a village or town where Bate could
be distinguished from Batkin^ and Batkin from
Batcock. Hence, again, the common occurrence
of such a component as cock. This diminutive is
never seen in the seventeenth century ; and yet
we have many evidences of its use in the beginning
of the sixteenth. The English Bible, with its
tendency to require the full name as a matter of
reverence, while it supplied new names in the
place of the old ones that were accustomed to
the desinence, caused this. It may be, too, that
the new regulation of Cromwell in 1538, requiring
the careful registration of all baptized children,
caused parents to lay greater stress on the name
as it was entered in the vestry-book. i

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 17

Any way, the sixteenth century saw the end of
names terminating in " cock."

(^.) On or In.

A dictionary instance is " violin," that is, a little
viol, a fiddle of four strings, instead of six. This
diminutive, to judge from the Paris Directory,
must have been enormously popular with our
neighbours. Our connection with Normandy and
France generally brought the fashion to the Eng-
lish Court, and in habits of this kind the English
folk quickly copied their superiors. Terminations
in kin and cock were confined to the lower orders
first and last. Terminations in on or in, and ot or
et, were the introduction of fashion, and being
under patronage of the highest families in the land,
naturally obtained a much wider popularity.

Our formal registers, again, are of little assistance.
Beton is coldly and orthodoxly Beatrice or Beatrix
in the Hundred Rolls. Only here and there can
we gather that Beatrice was never so called in
work-a-day life. In " Piers Plowman " it is said —

** Beton the Brewestere

Bade him good morrow."

And again, later on :

** And bade Bette cut a bough,
And beat Betoun therewith."

1 8 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

If Alice IS Alice in the registrar's hands, not so
in homely Chaucer :

"This Alison answered : Who is there
That knocketh so ? I warrant him a thefe."

Or take an old Yorkshire will :

" Item : to Symkyn, and Watkyn, and Alison Meek, servandes of
John of Bolton, to ilk one of yaim, 26^ 8^."—" Test. Ebor." iii. 21.
Surtees Society.

Hugh, too, gets his name familiarly entered

occasionally :

^^ Hugyn held of the said earl an oxgang of land, and paid yearly
iii^ vi**." — "The De Lacy Inquisition," 131 1.

Huggins in our directories is the memorial of
this. But in the north of England Hutchin was
a more popular form. In the " Wappentagium de
Strafford " occurs —

" Willelmus Huchon, & Matilda uxor ejus, iiii**."

Also—

** Elena Houchon- servant, iiii*."

that is, Ellen the servant of Houchon. Our Hut-
chinsons are all north of Trent folk. Thus, too,
Peter (Pier) became Perrin :

** The wife of Peryn."—" Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne," Chetham
Society, p. 87.

Marion, from Mary, is the only familiar instance

that has descended to us, and no doubt we owe

this fact to Maid Marion, the May-lady. Many a

Mary Ann, in these days of double baptismal

J

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND 19

names, perpetuates the impression that Marion or
Marian was compounded of Mary and Ann.

Of familiar occurrence were such names as
Perrin^ from Pierre, Peter ; Robin and Dobbin, from
Rob and Dob, Robert ; Colin, from Col, Nicholas ;
Diccon, from Dick, Richard ; Huggin, from Hugh ;
Higgin, from Hick or Higg, Isaac ; Figgin, from
^^Z'^i Fulke ; * Phippin, from Phip and Philip ;
and Gibbin, or Gibbon, or Gilpin, from Gilbert.
Every instance proves the debt our surnames have
incurred by this practice.

Several cases are obscured by time and bad
pronunciation. Our Tippings should more rightly
be Tippins, originally Tibbins, from Tibbe (Theo-
bald) ; our Collinges and CoUings, Collins ; and our
Gibbings, Gibbins. Our Jennings should be Jennins
Jennin Caervil was barber to the Earl of Suffolk in
the French wars (" Wars of England in France,"
Henry VI.). Robing had early taken the place of
Robin :

**Johanne Robyng-doghter, iiii^" — W. D. S.

* In this class we must assuredly place Figgins. In the Hun-
dred Rolls appears "Ralph, son of Fulchon." Here, of course, is
the diminutive of the once common Fulke. Fick and Figg were
the nick forms :

" I Henry VIII. To Fygge the taborer, 6**." — Churchwarden's
Books of Kingston-on-Thames, Brand's " Pop. Ant.," i. 147.

The London Directory has all the forms and corruptions as sur-
names, including Fick, Ficken, Figg, Figgs, Figgess, and Figgins.

20 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

Such entries as Raoulin Meriel and Raoul Partrer
(this Raoul was private secretary to Henry VI.)
remind us of the former popularity of Ralph
and of the origin of our surnames Rawlins and
Rawlinson :

" Dionisia Rawlyn-wyf, iiii^."— W. D. S.

Here again, however, the " in " has become " ing','
for Rawlings is even more common than Rawlins.
Deccon and Dickin have got mixed, and both are
now Dickens, although Dicconson exists as distinct
from Dickinson. Spenser knew the name well :

** Diggon Davie, I bid her * good-day ; '
Or Diggon her is, or I missay."
"Matilda Dicon-wyf, webester, iiii*^." — W. D. S.

The London Directory contains Lamming and
Laming. Alongside are Lampin, Lamin, and
Lammin. These again are more correct, all being
surnames formed from Lambin, a pet form of
Lambert :

** Willelmus Lambyn, et Alicia uxor ejus, iiii**." — W. D. S.

Lambyn Clay played before Edward at West-
minster at the great festival in 1306 (ChappelFs
" Popular Music of ye Olden Time,'^ i. 29). The
French forms are Lambin, Lamblin, and Lam-
berton, all to be met with in the Paris Directory.

All these names are relics of a custom that is
obsolete in England, though not with our neigh-
bours.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 21

{d) Ot and Et.

These are the terminations that ran first in
favour for many generations.

This diminutive ot or et is found in our language
in such words as poppet^ jacket, lancety balloty
gibbet, target, gigot, chariot, latchet, pocket, ballet.
In the same way a little page became a paget,
and hence among our surnames Smallpage, Little-
page, and Paget.

Coming to baptism, we find scarcely a single
name of any pretensions to popularity that did
not take to itself this desinence. The two favourite
girl-names in Yorkshire previous to the Refor-
mation were Matilda and Emma. Two of the
commonest surnames there to-day are Emmott
and Tillot, with such variations as Emmett and
Tillett, Emmotson and Tillotson. The archbishop
came from Yorkshire. Tyllot Thompson occurs
under date 14 14 in the " Fabric Rolls of York
Minster" (Surtees Society). /

**Rome, April 27, Eugenius IV. (1433). Dispensation from
Selow for Richard de Akerode and Emmotte de Greenwood to
marry, they being related in the fourth degree." — "Test. Ebor.,"

iii. 317-

"Licence to the Vicar of Bradford to marry Roger Prestwick
and Emmote Crossley. Bannes thrice in one day " (1466). — "Test.
Ebor.,'! iii. 338.

22 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Isabella was also popular in Yorkshire: hence our
Ibbots and Ibbotsons, our Ibbetts and Ibbet-
sons. Registrations such as " Ibbota filia Adam,"
or " Robert filius Ibote," are of frequent occur-
rence in the county archives. The "Wappentagium
de Strafford " has :

** Johanna Ibot-doghter, iiii^.

" Willelmus Kene, et Ibota uxor ejus, iiii^

** Thomas Gaylyour, et Ebbot sa femme, iiii'*."

Cecilia became Sissot or Cissot :

" Willelmus Crake, & Cissot sa femme, iiii^."— W. D. S.

In the " Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne " (Chetham
Society), penned fortunately for our purpose in
every-day style, we have such entries as —

*' Syssot, wife of Patrick.
** Syssot, wife of Diccon Wilson.
*' Syssot, wife of Thomas the Cook.
" Syssot, wife of Jak of Barsley."

Four wives named Cecilia in a community of
some twenty-five families will be evidence enough
of the popularity of that name. All, however, were
known in every-day converse as Sissot.

Of other girl-names we may mention Mabel,
which from Mab became Mabbott; Douce be-
came Dowcett and Dowsett ; Gillian or Julian,
from Gill or Jill (whence Jack and Jill), became
Gillot, Juliet, and Jowett ; Margaret became Margett

THE PET'NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 23

and Margott, and in the north Magot. Hence such
entries from the Yorkshire parchments, already-
quoted, as —

"Thomas de Balme, et Magota uxor ejus, chapman, iiii^.
" Hugo Farrowe, et Magota uxor ejus, smyth, iiii^.
"Johannes Magotson, iiii*^."

Custance became Cussot, from Cuss or Cust, the
nick form. The Hundred Rolls contain a " Cussot
Colling " — a rare place to find one of these diminu-
tives, for they are set down with great clerkly
formality.

From Lettice, Lesot was obtained :

" Johan Chapman, & Lesot sa femme, iiii*^." — W. D. S.

And Dionisia was very popular as Diot :

"Johannes Chetel, & Diot uxor ejus, iiii*^.

" Willelmus Wege, & Diot uxor ejus, iiii"*."— W. D. S.

Of course, it became a surname :

" Robertus Diot, & Mariona uxor ejus, iiii**,
"Willelmus Diotson, iiii^."— W. D. S.

It is curious to observe that Annot, which now
as Annette represents Anne, in Richard H/s
day was extremely familiar as the diminutive
of Annora or Alianora. So common was Annot
in North England that the common sea-gull
came to be so known. It is a mistake to suppose
that Annot had any connection with Anna. One
out of every eight or ten girls was Annot in York-

24 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

shire at a time when Anna is never found to be in
use at all :

**Stephanus Webester, & Anota uxor ejus, iiii<^.
"Richard Annotson, wryght, iiii**." — W. D. S.

As Alianora and Eleanora are the same, so were
Enot and Anot :

**Henricus filius Johannis Enotson, iiii**." — ^W. D. S.

Again, Eleanor became Elena, and this Lina and
Linot. Hence in the Hundred Rolls we find
"Linota atte Field." In fact, the early forms of
Eleanor are innumerable. The favourite Sibilla
became Sibot :

"Johannes de Estwode, et Sibota uxor ejus, iiii**.

** Willelmus Howeson, et Sibbota uxor ejus, iiii**." — W. D. S.

Mary not merely became Marion, but Mariot,
and from our surnames it would appear the latter
was the favourite :

"Isabella serviens Mariota Guile, iiii^." — W. D. S.
"Mariota in le Lane." — Hundred Rolls.

Eve became Evot, Adam and Eve being
popular names. In the will of William de Kirkby,
dated 1391, are bequests to " Evae uxori Johannes
Parvying " and " Willielmo de Rowlay," and later
on he refers to them again as the aforementioned
" Evotam et dictum Willielmum Rowlay " ('* Test.
Ebor.,*' i. 145. Surtees Society).

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 25

But the girl-name that made most mark was
originally a boy's name, Theobald. Tibbe was the
nick form, and Tibbot the pet name. Very speedily
it became the property of the female sex, such
entries as Tibot Fitz-piers ending in favour of
Tibota Foliot After the year 1300 Tib, or Tibet,
is invariably feminine. In " Gammer Gurton's
Needle," Gammer says to her maid —

" How now, Tib? quick ! let's hear what news thou hast brought
hither."— Act i. sc. 5.

In " Ralph Roister Doister," the pet name is used
in the song, evidently older than the play :

** Pipe, merry Annot, etc.,
Trilla, Trilla, Trillary.
Work, Tibet ; work, Annot ; work, Margery ;
Sew, Tibet ; knit, Annot ; spin, Margery ;
Let us see who will win the victory."

Gib, from Gilbert, and Tib became the common
name for a male and female cat. Scarcely any
other terms were employed from 1350 to 1550 :

** For right no more than Gibbe, our cat.
That awaiteth mice and rattes to killen,
Ne entend I but to beguilen."

Hence both Tibet and Gibbet were also used
for the same ; as in the old phrase " flitter-
gibbett," for one of wanton character. Tom \w
tom-cat came into ordinary parlance later. All
our modern Tibbots, Tibbetts, Tibbitts, Tippitts,

26 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Tebbutts, and their endless other forms, are
descended from Tibbe.

Coming to boys' names, all our Wyatts in the
Directory hail from Guiot,* the diminutive of Guy,
just as Wilmot from William :

"Adam, son of Wyot, held an oxgang of land." — "De Lacy In-
quisition."

*'Ibbote Wylymot, iiii^."— W. D. S.

Payn is met in the form of Paynot and Paynet,
War in as Warinot, Drew as D re wet, Philip as
Philpot, though this is feminine sometimes :

"Johannes Schikyn, et Philipot uxor ejus, iiii^." — W. D. S.

Thomas is found as Thomaset, Higg (Isaac) as
Higgot, Jack as Jackett, Hal (Henry) as Hallet
(Harriot or Harriet is now feminine), and Hugh
or Hew as Hewet :

"Dionisia Howet-doghter, iiii^."— W. D. S.

The most interesting, perhaps, of these ex-
amples is Hamnet, or Hamlet. Hamon, or
Hamond, was introduced from Normandy :

" Hamme, son of Adcock, held 29 acres of land."—" De Lacy
Inquisition," 131 1.

It became a favourite among high and low,

* Guion was not half so popular in England as Guiot. There
are fifty-five Wyatts to three Wyons in the London Directory
(1870). If Spenser had written of Guyon two centuries earlier, this
might have been altered. Guy Fawkes ruined Guy. He can never
be so popular again.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 27

and took to itself the forms of Hamonet and
Hamelot :

"The wife of Richard, son of Hamelot. "—" De Lacy Inqui-
sition," 131 1.

These were quickly abbreviated into Hamnet and
Hamlet. They ran side by side for several
centuries, and at last, like Emmot, defied the
English Bible, the Reformation, and even the
Puritan period, and lived unto the eighteenth
century. Hamlet Winstanley, the painter, was
born in 1700, at Warrington, and died in 1756.
In Kent's London Directory for 1736 several
Hamnets occur as baptismal names. Shake-
speare's little son was Hamnet, or Hamlet, after
his godfather Hamnet Sadler. I find several
instances where both forms are entered as the
name of the same boy :

"Nov. 13, 1502. Item: the same day to Hamlet Clegge, for
money by him layed cut ... to the keper of Dachet Ferrey in re-
warde for conveying the Quenes grace over Thamys there, iii^ iiii**."

Compare this with —

"June 13, 1502. Item : the same day to Hampnet Clegge, for
mone by him delivered to the Quene for hir offring to Saint
Edward at Westm., vi». viii<*."— "Privy Purse Expenses, Eliz.
of York," pp. 21 and 62.

Speaking of Hamelot, we must not forget that
ot and et sometimes became elot or elet. As a

28 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

diminutive it is found in such dictionary words
as bracelet, tartlet, gimblet, poplet (for poppet).
The old ruff or high collar worn alike by men
and women was styled a partlet :

** Jan. 1544. Item: from Mr. Braye ii. high collar partletts,
iii^. ix^." — "Privy Purse Expenses, Princess Mary."

Hence partlet, a hen, on account of the ruffled
feathers, a term used alike by Chaucer and
Shakespeare.

In our nomenclature we have but few traces of
it. In France it was very commonly used. But
Hughelot or Huelot, from Hugh, was popular, as
our Hewletts can testify. Richelot for Richard,
Hobelot and Robelot for Robert, Crestolot for
Christopher, Cesselot for Cecilia, and Barbelot for
Barbara, are found also, and prove that the desi-
nence had made its mark.

Returning, however, to ot and et : Eliot or Elliot,
from Ellis (Elias), had a great run. In the north
it is sometimes found as Aliot :

" Alyott de Symondeston held half an oxgang of land, xix**." —
* * De Lacy Inquisition, " 1 3 1 1 .

The feminine form was Elisot or Elicot, although
this was used also for boys. The will of William
de Aldeburgh, written in 13 19, runs —

** Item : do etlego Elisotse domicellse me^e40^" — ** Test. Ebor.,"
i. 151.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 29

The will of Patrick de Barton, administered in the
same year, says —

" Item : lego Elisotse, uxori Ricardi Bustard unam vaccam, et 10"."
— **Test. Ebor.," i. 155.
* ' Eliseus Carpenter, cartwyth, et Elesot uxor ejus, vi*^. " — W. D. S.

^- As Ellis became Ellisot, so Ellice became EUicot,
whence the present surname. Bartholomew be-
came Bartelot, now Bartlett, and from the pet
form Toll, or Tolly, came Tollett and Tollitt.

It is curious to notice why Emmot and Hamlet,
or Hamnet, survived the crises that overwhelmed
the others. Both became baptismal names in
their own right. People forgot in course of time
that they were diminutives of Emma and Hamond,
and separated them from their parents. This did
not come about till the close of Elizabeth's reign,
so they have still the credit of having won a
victory against terrible odds, the Hebrew army.
Hamnet Shakespeare was so baptized. Hamon
or Hamond would have been the regular form.

Looking back, it is hard to realize that a custom
equally affected by prince and peasant, as popular
in country as town, as familiar in Yorkshire and
Lancashire as in London and Winchester, should
have been so completely uprooted, that ninety-nine
out of the hundred are now unaware that it ever
existed.. This was unmistakably the result of

30 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

some disturbing element of English social life.
At the commencement of the sixteenth century
there was no appearance of this confusion. In
France the practice went on without let or hin-
drance. We can again but attribute it to the
Reformation, and the English Bible, which swept
away a large batch of the old names, and pro-
nounced the new without addition or diminution.
When some of the old names were restored, it was
too late to fall back upon the familiarities that
had been taken with them in the earlier period.

(^.) Double Terminatives,

In spite of the enormous popularity in England
of ot and et^ they bear no proportion to the number
in France. In England our local surnames are
two-fifths of the whole. In France patro7iymic
surnames are almost two-fifths of the whole.
Terminatives in on or in^ and ot and ety have done
this. We in England only adopted double diminu-
tives in two cases, those of Colinet and Robinet,
or Dobinety and both were rarely used. Robinet
has come down to us as a surname ; and Dobinet
so existed till the middle of the fifteenth century,
for one John Dobynette is mentioned in an inven-
tory of goods, 1463 (Mun. Acad. Oxon.). This Do-
binet seems to have been somewhat familiarly used.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND. 31

for Dobinet Doughty is Ralph's servant in " Ralph
Roister Doister." Matthew Merrygreek says —

" I know where she is : Dobinet hath wrought some wile."

Tibet Talkapace. He brought a ring and token, which he said
was sent
From our dame's husband." — Act. iii. sc. 2.

Colin is turned into Colinet in Spenser's '* Shep-
herd's Calendar," where Colin beseeches Pan :

" Hearken awhile from thy green cabinet,
The laurel song of careful Colinet ? "

Jannet is found as Janniting (Jannetin) once on
English soil, for in the " London Chanticleers," a
comedy written about 1636, Janniting is the apple-
wench. Welcome says —

** Who are they which they're enamoured so with?

Bung. The one's Nancy Curds, and the other Hanna Jenniting ;
Ditty and Jenniting are agreed already . . . the wedding will be
kept at our house." — Scene xiii.

But the use of double diminutives was of
every-day practice in Normandy and France, and
increased their total greatly. I take at random
the following surnames (originally, of course, chris-
tian names) from the Paris Directory : — Margotin,
Marioton, Lambinet (Lambert), Perrinot, Perrotin,
Philiponet, Jannotin, Hugonet, Huguenin, Jac-
quinot, and Fauconnet (English Fulke). Huguenin
(little wee Hugh) repeats the same diminutive ;
Perrinot and Perrotin (little wee Peter) simply
reverse the order of the two diminutives. The

32 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

" marionettes " in the puppet-show take the same
liberty with Mariotin (little wee Mary) above
mentioned. Hugonet, of course, is the same as
Huguenot ; and had English, not to say French,
writers remembered this old custom, they would
have found no difficulty in reducing the origin of
the religious sect of that name to an individual
as a starting-point. Guillotin (little wee William)
belongs to the same class, and descended from a
baptismal name to become the surname of the
famous doctor who invented the deadly machine
that bears his title. I have discovered one in-
stance of this as a baptismal name, viz. Gillotyne
Hansake ("Wars of English in France: Henry

VL,"vol.ii.p. 531).

Returning to England, we find these pet forms
in use well up to the Reformation :

"Nov., 1543. Item: geven to Fylpot, my Lady of Suffolk's
lackaye, vii^ vi^.

"June, 1537. Item : payed to Typkyn for cherys, xx**." — " Privy
Purse Expenses, Princess Mary."

" 1548, July 22. Alson, d. of Jenkin Rowse." — St. Columb Major.

" 1545, Oct. 3. Baptized Alison, d. of John James." — Ditto.*

* Cornwall would naturally be last to be touched by the Refor-
mation. Hence these old forms were still used to the close of
Elizabeth's reign, as for instance :

"1576, March 24. Baptized Ibbett, d. of Kateryne Collys,
bastard.

" 1576, July 30. Baptized Isott, d. of Richard Moyle.*' — St.
Columb Major.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 33

" Ralph Roister Doister/' written not earlier than
1545, and not later than 1550, by Nicholas Udall,
contains three characters styled Annot Alyface,
Tibet Talkapace, and Dobinet Doughty. Christian
Custance, Sim Suresby, Madge Mumblecheek, and
Gawyn Goodluck are other characters, all well-
known contemporary names.

In *' Thersites," an interlude written in 1537,
there is mention of

** Simkin Sydnam, Sumnor,
That killed a cat at Cumnor."

Jenkin Jacon is introduced, also Robin Rover.
In a book entitled " Letters and Papers, Foreign
and Domestic" (Henry VIIL), we find a document
(numbered 1939, and dated 1526) containing a list
of the household attendants and retinue of the
king. Even here, although so formal a record,
there occurs the name of " Hamynet Harrington,
gentleman usher."

We may assert with the utmost certainty that,
on the eve of the Hebrew invasion, there was not
a baptismal name in England of average popu-
larity that had not attached to it in daily converse
one or other of these diminutives — kin^ cock, in,
on, ot, and et ; not a name, too, that, before it had
thus attached them, had not been shorn of all its
fulness, and curtailed to a monosyllabic nick form.

D

34 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURK.

Bartholomew must first become Bat before it
becomes Batcock, Peter must become Pierre before
Perrot can be formed, Nicholas must be abbreviated
to Col or Cole before Col or Cole can be styled
Colin, and Thomas must be reduced to Tom before
Tomkin can make his appearance.

Several names had attached to themselves all
these enclytics. For instance, Peter is met with,
up to the crisis we are about to consider, in the
several shapes of Perkin or Parkin, Peacock,
Perrot, and Perrin ; and William as Willin (now
Willing and Willan in our directories), Wilcock,
Wilkin, and Wilmot, was familiar to every district
in the country.

III. Scripture Names already in use at the
Reformation.

It now remains simply to consider the state of
nomenclature in England at the eve of the Re-
formation in relation to the Bible. Four classes
may be mentioned.

(^.) Mystery Names.

The leading incidents of Bible narrative were
familiarized to the English lower orders by the
performance of sacred plays, or mysteries, rendered

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 35

under the supervision of the Church. To these
plays we owe the early popularity of Adam and
Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Sara,
Daniel, Sampson, Susanna, Judith, Hanna or
Anna, and Hester. But the Apocryphal names
were not frequently used till about 1 500. Scarcely
any diminutives are found of them. On the other
hand, Adam became Adcock and Adkin ; Eve,
Evott and Evett ; Isaac, Hickin, and Higgin, and
Higgot, and Higget ; Joseph, Joskin ; and Daniel,
Dankin and Dannet.

(b^ Crusade Names,

The Crusaders gave us several prominent names.
To them we are indebted for Baptist, Ellis, and
Jorda7i : and John received a great stimulus. The
sacred water brought in the leathern bottle was
used for baptismal purposes. The Jordan com-
memorated John the Baptist, the second Elias, the
forerunner and baptizer of Jesus Christ. Children
were styled by these incidents. Jordan became
popular through Western Europe. In England he
gave us, as already observed, Judd, Judkin, Judson,
Jordan, and Jordanson. Elias, as Ellis, took about
the eighth place of frequency, and John, for a while,
the first.

36 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURE.

(c) The Saints' Calendar,

The legends of the saints were carefully taught
by the priesthood, and the day as religiously
observed. All children born on these holy days
received the name of the saint commemorated :
St. James's Day, or St. Nicholas's Day, or St.
Thomas's Day, saw a small batch of Jameses,
Nicholases, and Thomases received into the fold of
the Church. In other cases the gossip had some
favourite saint, and placed the child under his or
her protection. Of course, it bore the patron's
name. A large number of these hagiological
names were extra-Biblical — such as Cecilia, Catha-
rine, or Theobald. Of these I make no mention
here. All the Apostles, save Judas, became house-
hold names, John, Simon, Peter, Bartholomew,
Matthew, James, Thomas, and Phihp being the
favourites. Paul and Timothy were also utilized,
the former being always found as Pol.

{d) Festival Names.

If a child was born at Whitsuntide or Easter,
Christmas or Epiphany, like Robinson Crusoe's
man Friday, or Thursday October Christian of the
Pitcairn islanders, he received the name of the day.
Hence our once familiar names of Noel or Nowell,
Pask or Pascal, Easter, Pentecost, and Epiphany or
Tiffany.

THE PET-NAME EPOCH IN ENGLAND, 37

It will be observed that all these imply no direct
or personal acquaintance with the Scriptures. All
came through the Church. All, too, were in the
full tide of prosperity — with the single exception of
Jordan, which was nearly obsolete — when the Bible,
printed into English and set up in our churches,
became an institution. The immediate result was
that the old Scripture names of Bartholomew,
Peter, Philip, and Nicholas received a blow much
deadlier than that received by such Teutonic
names as Robert, Richard, Roger, and Ralph.
But that will be brought out as we progress.

The subject of the influence of an English Bible
upon EngUsh nomenclature is not uninteresting.
It may be said of the "Vulgar Tongue" Bible that
it revolutionized our nomenclature within the space
of forty years, or little over a generation. No such
crisis, surely, ever visited a nation's register before,
nor can such possibly happen again. Every home
felt the effect. It was like the massacre of the
innocents in Egyptian days : " There was not one
house where there \yas not one dead." But in
Pharoah's day they did not replace the dead with
the living. At the Reformation such a locust army
of new names burst upon the land that we may
well style it the Hebrew Invasion.

38 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

CHAPTER I.

THE HEBREW INVASION.

** With what face can they object to the king the bringing in of
forraigners, when themselves entertaine suchanarmy of Hebrewes?"
The Character of a London Diurnall (Dec. 1644).

" Albeit in our late Refonnation some of good consideration have
brought in Zachary, Malachy, Josias, etc., as better agreeing with our
faith, but without contempt of Country names (as I hope) which
have both good and gracious significations, as shall appeare here-
after."— Camden, Re??taines. 1614.

I. The March of the Army.

The strongest impress of the English Reformation
to-day is to be seen in our font-names. The
majority date from 1560, the year when the Ge-
nevan Bible was published. This version ran
through unnumbered editions, and for sixty, if not
seventy, years was the household Bible of the
nation. The Genevan Bible was not only written
in the vulgar tongue, but was printed for vulgar
hands. A moderate quarto was its size ; all pre-
ceding versions, such as Coverdale's, Matthew's,

THE HEBREW INVASION, 39

and of course the Great Bible, being the ponderous
folio, specimens of which the reader will at some
time or other have seen. The Genevan Bible, too,
was the Puritan's Bible, and was none the less
admired by him on account of its Calvinistic
annotations.

But although the rage for Bible names dates
from the decade 1560-1570, which decade mark^>
the rise of Puritanism, there had been symptoms
of the coming revolution as early as 1543. Richard
Hilles, one of the Reformers, despatching a letter
from Strasburg, November 15, 1543, writes:

**My wife says she has no doubt but tha* God helped her the
sooner in her confinement by reason of your good prayers. On the
second of this month she brought forth to the Church of Christ a
son, who, as the women say, is quite large enough for a mother of
tall stature, and whom I immediately named Gershomy — "Original
Letters,** 15 37-1 558, No. cxii. Parker Society.

We take up our Bibles, and find that of Zipporah
it is said —

"And she bare him (Moses) a son, and he called his name Ger-
shom : for he said, / have been a stranger in a strange land,'"* —
Exod. ii. 22.

The margin says, " a desolate stranger." At this
time Moses was fled from Pharaoh, who would kill
him. The parallel to Richard Hilles's mind was
complete. This was in 1643.*

♦ This connection of Scripture name with present circumstance
ran oiit its full period. In the diary of Samuel Jeake, a well-

40 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

In Mr. Tennyson's drama " Mary," we have the
following scene between Gardiner and a yokel :

" Gardiner. I distrust thee,

There is a half voice, and a lean assent :
What is thy name ?

Man, Sanders !

Gardiner. What else ?

Man. Zerrubabel."

The Laureate was right to select for this rebel-
lious Protestant a name that was to be popular
throughout Elizabeth's reign ; but poetic license
runs rather far in giving this title to a full-grown
man in any year of Mary's rule. Sanders might
have had a young child at home so styled,
but for himself it was practically impossible. So

known Puritan of Rye, occurs this reference to his son, born August
13, 1688 : "At 49 minutes past li p.m. exactly (allowing 10' that
the sun sets at Rye before he comes to the level of the horizon, for
the watch was set by the sun-setting), my wife was safely delivered
of a son, whom I named Manasseh, hoping that God had now made
TCiQ forget all my toils." — -"History of Town and Port of Rye,"
p. 576. Manasseh = forgetfulness.

A bishop may be instanced. Aylmer, who succeeded Sandys in
the see of London, was for many years a favourer of Puritanism,
and had been one of the exiles. His sixth son was Tobel {i.e. God
is good), of Writtle, in Essex. Archbishop Whitgift was his god-
father, and the reason for his singular appellation was his mother's
being overturned in a coach without injury when she was pregnant
(Cooper's *' Ath. Cant." ii. 172).

Again : "At Dr. Whitaker's death, his wife is described as being
* partui vicina,' and a week afterwards her child was christened by
the name of Jabez, doubtless for the scriptural reason * because, she
said, I bare him with sorrow.' " — Cooper's " Ath. Cant." ii. 197.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 41

clearly defined is the epoch that saw, if not one
batch of names go out, at least a new batch come
in. Equally marked are the names from the Bible
which at this date were in use, and those which
were not. Of this latter category Zerrubabel was
one.

In the single quotation from Hilles's letter of
1543 we see the origin of the great Hebrew inva-
sion explained. The English Bible had become a
fact, and the knowledge of its personages and
narratives was becoming directly acquired. In
every community up and down the country it was
as if a fresh spring of clear water had been found,
and every neighbour could come with jug or pail,
and fill it when and how they would. One of the
first impressions made seems to have been this :
children in the olden time received as a name a
term that was immediately significant of the cir-
cumstances of their birth. Often God personally,
through His prophets or angelic messenger, acted
as godparent indeed, and gave the name, as in
Isaiah viii. i, 3, 4 :

"Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and
write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

*' And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare
a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-
hash-baz.

"For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father,

42 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria
shall be taken away before the king of Assyria."

Here was a name palpably significant. Even
before they knew its exact meaning the name was
enrolled in English church registers, and by-and-
by zealot Puritans employed it as applicable to
English Church politics.

All the patriarchs, down to the twelve sons of
Jacob, had names of direct significance given them.
Above all, a peculiar emphasis was laid upon all
the titles of Jesus Christ, as in Isaiah vii. 14 :

' ' Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call
his name Immanuel."

At the same time that this new revelation came,
a crisis was going on of religion. The old Romish
Church was being uprooted, or, rather, a new
system was being grafted upon its stock, for the
links have never been broken. The saints were
shortly to be tabooed by the large mass of English
folk ; the festivals were already at a discount.
Simultaneously with the prejudice against the very
names of their saints and saintly festivals, arose
the discovery of a mine of new names as novel as
it was unexhaustible. They not merely met the
new religious instinct, but supplied what would
have been a very serious vacuum.

But we must at once draw a line between the

THE HEBREW INVASION, 43

Reformation and Puritanism. Previous to the
Reformation, so far as the Church was concerned,
there had been to a certain extent a system of
nomenclature. The Reformation abrogated that
system, but did not intentionally adopt a new one.
Puritanism deliberately supplied a well-weighed
and revised scheme, beyond which no adopted
child of God must dare to trespass. Previous to
the Reformation, the priest, with the assent of the
gossip, gave the babe the name of the saint who
was to be its patron, or on whose day the birth or
baptism occurred. If the saint was a male, and
the infant a female, the difficulty was overcome
by giving the name a feminine form. Thus
Theobald become Theobalda ; and hence Tib
and Tibot became so common among girls, that
finally they ceased to represent boys at all. If
it were one of the great holy days, the day or
season itself furnished the name. Thus it was
Simon, or Nicholas, or Cecilia, or Austen, or
Pentecost, or Ursula, or Dorothy, became so fami-
liar. From the reign of Elizabeth the clergy,
and Englishmen generally, gave up this practice.
Saints who could not boast apostolic honours
were rejected, and holy men of lesser prestige,
together with a large batch of virgins and mar-
tyrs of the Agnes, Catharine, and Ursula type,

44 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

who belonged to Church history, received but scant
attention. As a matter of course their names lapsed.
But the nation stood by the old English names
not thus popishly tainted. Against Geoffrey,
Richard, Robert, and William, they had no pre-
judice: nay, they clung to them. The Puritan
rejected both classes. He was ever trotting out
his two big '^ P's," — Pagan and Popish. Under the
first he placed every name that could not be found
in the Scriptures, and under the latter every title
in the same Scriptures, and the Church system
founded on them, that had been employed pre-
vious, say, to the coronation day of Edward VI.
Of this there is the clearest proof. In a " Directory
of Church Government," found among the papers
of Cartwright, and written as early as 1565, there
is the following order regarding and regulating
baptism : —

"They which present unto baptism, ought to be persuaded not to
give those that are baptized the names of God, or of Christ, or of
angels, or of holy offices, as of baptist, evangelist, etc. , nor such as
savour of paganism or popeiy : but chiefly such whereof there are
examples, in the Holy Scriptures, in the names of those who are
reported in them to have been godly and virtuous." — Neale, vol. v.
Appendix, p. 15.

Nothing can be more precise than this. To the
strict Puritan to reject the Richards, Mileses, and
Henrys of the Teutonic, and the Bartholomews,

THE HEBREW INVASION. 45

Simons, Peters, and Nicholases of the ecclesiastic
class, was to remove the Canaanite out of the land.
How early this " article of religion " was obeyed,
one or two quotations will show. Take the first
four baptismal entries in the Canterbury Cathe-
dral register :

** 1564, Dec. 3. Abdias, the sonne of Robert Pownoll.
** 1567, April 26. Barnabas, the sonne of Robert Pownoll.
" 1569, June I. Ezeckiell, the sonne of Robert Pownoll.
** 1572, Feb. 10. Posthumus, the sonne of Robert Pownoll."

Another son seems to have been Philemon :

'* 1623, April 27. John, the sonne of Philemon Pownoll."

A daughter " Repentance " must be added :

** 1583, Dec. 8. Married William Amolde and Repentance
Pownoll."

Take another instance, a little later, from the
baptisms of St. Peter's, Cornhill :

** 1589, Nov. 2. Bezaleell, sonne of Michaell NichoUson, cord-
wayner.

*' 1599? Sep. 23. Aholiab, sonne of Michaell Nicholson, cord-
wainer.

" 1595, May 18. Sara, daughter of Michaell NichoUson, cobler.

" 1599, Nov. I. Buried Rebecca, daughter of Michaell Nichol-
son, cordwainer, 13 yeares."

Rebecca, therefere, would be baptized in 1586.
Sara and Aholiab died of the plague in 1603.
Both old Robert Pownoll and the cobler must
have been Puritans of a pronounced type.

46 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

The Presbyterian clergy were careful to set an
example of right name-giving :

** 1613, July 28. Baptized Jaell, daughter of Roger Main waring,
preacher." — St. Helen, Bishopsgate.

** 161 7, Jan. 25. Baptized Ezekyell, sonne of Mr. Richard Cul-
verwell, minister." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

" 1582, . Buried Zachary, sonne of Thomas Newton,

minister." — Barking, Essex.

A still more interesting proof comes from North-
ampton. As an example of bigotry it is truly
marvellous. On July 16, 1590, Archbishop Whit-
gift furnished the Lord Treasurer with the following,
amongst many articles against Edmond Snape,
curate of St. Peter's, in that town :

" Item : Christopher Hodgekinson obteyned a promise of the
said Snape that he would baptize his child ; but Snape added,
saying, * You must then give it a christian name allowed in the
Scriptures.' Then Hodgekinson told him that his wife's father,
whose name was Richard, desired to have the giving of that name."

At the time of service Snape proceeded till they
came to the place of naming : they said " Richard ;"

"But hearing them calling it Richard, and that they would not
give it any other name, he stayed there, and would not in any case
baptize the child. And so it was carried away thence, and was
baptized the week following at Allhallows Churche, and called
Richard. "-Strype's ** Whitgift," ii. 9.

This may be an extreme case, but I doubt not
the majority of the Presbyterian clergy did their
best to uproot the old English names, so far as
their power of persuasion could go.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 47

Even the pulpit was used in behalf of the new
doctrine. William Jenkin, the afterwards ejected
minister, in his " Expositions of Jude," delivered in
Christ Church, London, said, while commenting
on the first verse, " Our baptismal names ought
to be such as may prove remembrances of duty."
He then instances Leah, Alpheus, and Hannah as
aware of parental obligations in this respect, and
adds —

" *Tis good to impose such names as expresse our baptismal pro-
mise. A good name is as a thread tyed about the finger, to make
us mindful of the errand we came into the world to do for our
Master." — Edition 1652, p. 7.

As a general rule, the New Testament names
spread the most rapidly, especially girl-names of
the Priscilla, Dorcas, Tabitha, and Martha type.
They were the property of the Reformation.
Damaris bothered the clerks much, and is found
indifferently as Tamaris, Damris, Dammeris, Dam-
pris, and Dameris. By James I.'s day it had
become a fashionable name :

"1617, April 13. Christened Damaris, d. of Doctor Masters.

** , May 29. Christened Damaris, d. of Doctor Kingsley."

— Canterbury Cathedral.

Martha, which sprang into instant popularity,
is registered at the outset :

"1563, July 25. Christened Martha Wattam."— St. Peter,
Comhill.

48 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.
Phebe had a great run. The first I have seen is —

" 1568, Oct. 24. Christened Phebe, d. of Harry Cut."— St.
Peter, Comhill.

Dorcas was, perhaps, the prime favourite, often
styled and entered Darcas. Every register has it,
and every page. A political ballad says —

** Come, Dorcas and Cloe,
With Lois and Zoe,

Young Lettice, and Beterice, and Jane ;
Phill, Dorothy, Maud,
Come troop it abroad.
For now is our time to reign."

Persis, Tryphena, and Tryphosa were also largely
used. The earliest Persis I know is —

** 1579, Maye 3. Christened Persis, d. of William Hopkinson,
minister heare. " — Salehurst.

Some of these names — as, for instance, Priscilla,
Damaris, Dorcas, and Phebe — stood in James's
reign almost at the head of girls' names in Eng-
land. Indeed, alike in London and the provinces,
the list of girl-names at Elizabeth's death was a
perfect contrast to that when she ascended the
throne. Then the great national names of Isabella,
Matilda, Emma, and Cecilia ruled supreme. Then
the four heroines Anna, Judith, Susan, and Hester,
one or two of whom were in the Apocryphal narra-
tive, had stamped themselves on our registers in
what appeared indelible lines, although they were

THE HEBREW INVASION, 49

of much more recent popularity than the others.
They lost prestige, but did not die out. Many
Puritans had a sneaking fondness for them, find-
ing in their histories a parallel to their own
troubles, and perchance they had a private and
more godly rendering of the popular ballad of
their day :

** In Ninivie old Toby dwelt,

An aged man, and blind was he :
And much affliction he had felt,

Which brought him unto poverty :
He had by Anna, his true wife.

One only sonne, and eke no more."

Esther* is still popular in our villages, so is Susan.
Hannah has her admirers, and only Judith may
be said to be forgotten. But their glory was from
1450 to 1550. After that they became secondary
personages. Throughout the south of England,
especially in the counties that surrounded London,
the Bible had been ransacked from nook to corner.
The zealots early dived into the innermost re-
cesses of Scripture. They made themselves as
familiar with chapters devoted solely to genea-
logical tables, as to those which they quoted to

* Esther's other name of Hadassah had a share of favour. So late
as William and Mary's reign we find the name in use :

"1691, May 24. Christened Hadasa, daughter of Arthur
Richardson.

" 1693, Sep. 4. Christened John, son of Nicholas and Hadassah
Davis. "-^St. Dionis Backchurch.

50 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

defend their doctrinal creed. The eighth chapter
of Romans was not more studied by them than
the thirty-sixth of Genesis, and the dukes of Edom
classified in the one were laid under frequent
contribution to witness to the adoption treated of
in the other. Thus names unheard of m 1558
were "household words" in 1603.

The slowest to take up the new custom were
the northern counties. They were out of the
current ; and Lancashire, besides being inacces-
sible, had stuck to the old faith. Names lingered
on in the Palatinate that had been dead nearly
a hundred years in the south. Gawin figures in
all northern registers till a century ago, and
Thurston'^ was yet popular in the Fylde district,
when it had become forgotten in the Fens. Scot-
land was never touched at all. The General
Assembly of 1645 makes no hint on the subject,
although it dwelt on nearly every other topic.
Nothing demonstrates the clannish feeling of
North Britain as this does. At this moment
Scotland has scarcely any Bible names.

In Yorkshire, however, Puritanism made early
stand, though its eff"ects on nomenclature were

* In the Lancashire *' Church Surveys," 1649- 1655, being the first
volume of the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society's publica-
tions, edited by Colonel Fish wick, occur Thurston Brown, Thurston
Brere, Thurston Brich, on one single page of the index.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 51

not immediately visible. It was like the fire
that smoulders among the underwood before it
catches flame ; it spreads the more rapidly after-
wards. The Genevan Bible crept into the dales
and farmsteads, and their own primitive life
seemed to be but reflected in its pages. The
patriarchs lived as graziers, and so did they.
There was a good deal about sheep and kine
in its chapters, and their own lives were spent
among the milk-pails and wool shears. The
women of the Old Testament baked cakes, and
knew what good butter was. So did the dales*
folk. By slow degrees Cecilia, Isabella, and Emma
lapsed from their pedestal, and the little babes
were turned into Sarahs, Rebeccas, and Deborahs.
As the seventeenth century progressed the state
of things became still more changed. There had
been villages in Sussex and Kent previous to
Elizabeth's death, where the Presbyterian rector,
by his personal influence at the time of baptism,
had turned the new generation into a Hebrew
colony. The same thing occurred in Yorkshire
only half a century later. As nonconformity
gained ground, Guy, and Miles, and Peter, and
Philip became forgotten. The lads were no sooner
ushered into existence than they were transformed
into duplicates of Joel, and Amos, and Obediah.

52 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

The measles still ran through the family, but it
was Phineas and Caleb, not Robert and Roger,
that underwent the infliction. Chosen leaders of
Israel passed through the critical stages of teeth-
ing. As for the twelve sons of Jacob, they could
all have answered to their names in the dames'
schools, through their little apple-cheeked repre-
sentatives, who lined the rude benches. On the
village green, every prophet from Isaiah to Malachi
might be seen of an evening playing leap-frog :
unless, indeed, Zephaniah was stealing apples in
the garth.

From Yorkshire, about the close of the seven-
teenth century, the rage for Scripture names passed
into Lancashire. Nonconformity was making pro-
gress ; the new industries were already turning
villages into small centres of population, and the
Church of England not providing for the increase,
chapels were built. If we look over the pages of
the directories of West Yorkshire and East Lan-
cashire, and strike out the surnames, we could
imagine we were consulting anciently inscribed
registers of Joppa or Jericho. It would seem as
if Canaan and the West Riding had got inex-
tricably mixed.

What a spectacle meets our eye ! Within the
limits of ten leaves we have three Pharoahs, while

THE HEBREW INVASION. 53

as many Hephzibahs are to be found on one
single page. Adah and Zillah Pickles, sisters,
are milliners. Jehoiada Rhodes makes saws — not
Solomon's sort — and Hariph Crawshaw keeps a
farm. Vashni, from somewhere in the Chronicles,
is rescued from oblivion by Vashni Wilkinson, coal
merchant, who very likely goes to Barzillai Wil-
liamson, on the same page, for his joints, Bar-
zillai being a butcher. Jachin, known to but a
few as situated in the Book of Kings, is in the
person of Jachin Firth, a beer retailer, familiar to
all his neighbours. Heber Holdsworth on one page
is faced by Er Illingworth on the other. Asa and
Joab are extremely popular, while Abner, Adna,
Ashael, Erastus, Eunice, Benaiah, Aquila, Elihu,
and Philemon enjoy a fair amount of patronage.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, having been
rescued from Chaldaean fire, have been deluged
with baptismal water. How curious it is to
contemplate such entries as Lemuel Wilson,
Kelita Wilkinson, Shelah Haggas, Shadrach
Newbold, Neriah Pearce, Jeduthan Jempson,
Azariah Griffiths, Naphtali Matson, Philemon
Jakes, Hameth Fell, Eleph Bisat, Malachi Ford,
or Shallum Richardson. As to other parts of the
Scriptures, I have lighted upon name after name
that I did not know existed in the Bible at all

54 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

till I looked into the Lancashire and Yorkshire
directories.

The Bible has decided the nomenclature of the
north of England. In towns Hke Oldham, Bolton,
Ashton, and Blackburn, the clergyman's baptismal
register is but a record of Bible names. A clerical
friend of mine christened twins Cain and Abel,
only the other day, much against his own wishes.
Another parson on the Derbyshire border was
gravely informed, at the proper moment, that the
name of baptism was Ramoth-Gilead. " Boy or
girl, eh } " he asked in a somewhat agitated
voice. The parents had opened the Bible hap-
hazard, according to the village tradition, and
selected the first name the eye fell on. It was but
a year ago a little child was christened Tellno in a
town within six miles of Manchester, at the sug-
gestion of a cotton-spinner, the father, a workman
of the name of Lees, having asked his advice. " I
suppose it must be a Scripture name," said his
master. " Oh yes ! that's of course." " Suppose
you choose Tellno^' said his employer. "That'll
do,'* replied the other, who had never heard it be-
fore, and liked it the better on that account. The
child is now Tell-no Lees, the father, too late,
finding that he had been hoaxed.* ^^ Sirs I' was the
* To tell a lie is to tell a lee in Lancashire.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 55

answer given to a bewildered curate, after the usual
demand to name the child. He objected, but was
informed that it was a Scripture name, and the
verse " Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " was
triumphantly appealed to. This reminds one of
the Puritan who styled his dog " Moreover '' after
the dog in the Gospel : " Moreover the dog came
and licked his sores."

There is, again, a story of a clergyman making
the customary demand as to name from a knot
of women round the font. "Ax her," said one.
Turning to the woman who appeared to be in-
dicated, he again asked, '* What name 1 " " Ax
her," she replied. The third woman, being
questioned, gave the same reply. At last he dis-
covered the name to be the Scriptural Achsah,
Caleb's daughter — a name, by the way, which
was somewhat popular with our forefathers. No
wonder this mistake arose, when Achsah used to
be entered in some such manner as this :

** 1743-4, Jan. 3. Baptized Axar Starrs (a woman of ripe
years), of Stockport.

" 1743-4, Jan. 3. Married Warren Davenport, of Stockport,
Esq., and Axar Starrs, aforesaid, spinster." — Marple, Cheshire.

Axar's father was Caleb Starrs. The scriptural
relationship was thus preserved. Achsah crossed
the Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers, and has

56 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

prospered there ever since. It is still popular
in Devonshire and the south-west of England.
All these stories serve to show the quarry whence
modern names are hewn.

I have mentioned the north because I have
studied its Post-Office Directories carefully. But if
any one will visit the shires of Dorset, and Devon,
and Hampshire, he will find the same result. The
Hebrew has won the day. Just as in England, ^
north of Trent, we can still measure off the ravages
of the Dane by striking a line through all local
names lying westward ending in " by," so we have /
but to count up the baptismal names of the
peasantry of these southern counties to see that
they have become the bondsmen of an Eastern
despot. In fact, go where and when we will from
the reign of Elizabeth, we find the same influence
at work. Take a few places and people at random.

Looking at our testamentary records, we find
the will of Kerenhappuch Benett proved in 1762,
while Kerenhappuch Horrocks figures in the
Manchester Directory for 1877. Onesiphorus
Luffe appears on a halfpenny token of 1666 ;
Habakkuk Leyman, 1650; Euodias Inman, 1650;
Melchisedek Fritter, 1650; Elnathan Brock, 1654;
and Abdiah Martin, 1664 ("Tokens of Seventeenth
Century"). Shallum Stent was married in 1681

THE HEBREW INVASION. 57

(Racton, Sussex) ; Gershom Baylie was constable
of Lewes in 161 9, Araunah Verrall fulfilling the
same office in 1784. Captain Epenetus Crosse pre-
sented a petition to Privy Council in 1660 (C. S. P.
Colonial); Erastus Johnson was defendant in 1724,
and Cressens Boote twenty years earlier. Barjonah
Dove was Vicar of Croxton in 1694. Tryphena
Monger was buried in Putney Churchyard in 1702,
and Tryphosa Saunders at St. Peter's, Worcester,
in 1770. Mahaliel Payne, Azarias Phesant, and
Pelatiah Barnard are recorded in State Papers,
1650-1663 (C. S. P.), and Aminadab Henley was
dwelling in Kent in 1640 ("Proceedings in Kent."
Camden Society). Shadrack Pride is a collector
of hearth-money in 1699, and Gamaliel Chase is
communicated with in 1635 (C. S. P.). Onesiphorus
Albin proposes a better plan of collecting the alien
duty in 1692 (C. S. P.), while Mordecai Abbott is
appointed deputy-paymaster of the forces in 1697
(C. S. P.). Eliakim Palmer is married at Somerset
House Chapel in 1740 ; Dalilah White is buried
at Cowley in 1791, and Keziah Simmons is chris-
tened there in 1850. Selah Collins is baptized
at Dyrham, Gloucestershire, in 1752, and Keturah
Jones is interred at Clifton in 1778. Eli-lama-
Sabachthani Pressnail was existing in 1862 {Notes
and Qtceries), and the Times recorded a Talitha-

58 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Cumi People about the same time. The will of
Mahershalalhashbaz Christmas was proved not
very long ago. Mrs. Mahershalalhashbaz Bradford
was dwelling in Ringwood, Hampshire, in 1863 ;
and on January 31, 1802, the register of Beccles
Church received the entry, "Mahershalalhashbaz,
son of Henry and Sarah Clarke, baptized," the same
being followed, October 14, 1804, by the baptismal
entry of " Zaphnaphpaaneah," another son of the
same couple. A grant of administration in the
estate of Acts-Apostles Pegden was made in 1865.
His four brothers, older than himself, were of
course the four Evangelists, and had there been
a sixth I dare say his name would have been
" Romans." An older member of this family, many
years one of the kennel-keepers of Tickham fox-
hounds, was Pontius Pilate Pegden. At a con-
firmation at Faversham in 1847, the incumbent of
Dunkirk presented to the amazed archbishop a
boy named *^ Acts-Apostles." These are, of course,
mere eccentricities, but eccentricities follow a
beaten path, and have their use in calculations of
the nature we are considering. Eccentricities in
dress are proverbially but exaggerations of the pre-
vailing fashion.

THE HEBREW INVASION, 59

II. Popularity of the Old Testament.

The affection felt by the Puritans for the Old
Testament has been observed by all writers upon
the period, and of the period. Cleveland's remark,
quoted by Hume, is, of course, an exaggeration.

** Cromwell," he says, " hath beat up his drums cleane through the
Old Testament — you may learne the genealogy of our Saviour by the
names in his regiment. The muster-master uses no other list than
the first chapter of Matthew."

Lord Macaulay puts it much more faithfully in
his first chapter, speaking, too, of an earlier period
than the Commonwealth :

**In such a history {i.e. Old Testament) it was not difficult for
fierce and gloomy spirits to find much that might be distorted to
suit their wishes. The extreme Puritans, therefore, began to feel
for the Old Testament a preference which, perhaps, they did not
distinctly avow even to themselves, but which showed itself in all
their sentiments and habits. They paid to the Hebrew language a
respect which they refused to that tongue in which the discourses of
Jesus and the Epistles of Paul have come down to us. They bap-
tized their children by the names, not of Christian saints, but of
Hebrew patriarchs and warriors."

The Presbyterian clergy had another objection
to the New Testament names. The possessors
were all saints, and in the saints' calendar. The
apostolic title was as a red rag to his blood-shot
eye.

" Upon Saint Peter, Paul, John, Jude, and James,
They will not put the * saint' unto their names,"

says the Water-poet in execrable verse. Its local

6o CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

use was still more trying, as no man could pass
through a single quarter of London without seeing
half a dozen churches, or lanes, or taverns dedi-
cated to Saint somebody or other.

" Others to make all things recant
The christian and surname of saint,
Would force all churches, streets, and towns
The holy title to renounce."

To avoid any saintly taint, the Puritan avoided
the saints themselves.

But the discontented party in the Church had,
as Macaulay says, a decided hankering after the
Old Testament on other grounds than this. They
paid the Hebrew language an almost superstitious
reverence.* Ananias, the deacon, in the "Alche-
mist," published in 1610, says —

** Heathen Greek, I take it.

Subtle. How ! heathen Greek ?

Ananias. All's heathen but the Hebrew, "t

* Several names seem to have been taken directly from the
Hebrew tongue. * * Amalasioutha " occurs as a baptismal name in
the will of a man named Corbye, 1594 (Rochester Wills) ; Bari-
jirehah in that of J. Allen, 165 1, and Michalaliel among the Pilgrim
Fathers (Hotten).

t Colonel Cunningham, in his annotations of the ** Alchemist,"
says, speaking of the New Englanders bearing the Puritan pre-
judices with them : ** So deeply was it rooted, that in the rebellion
of the colonies a member of that State seriously proposed to Congress
the putting down of the English language by law, and decreeing the
universal adoption of the Hebrew in its stead." — ^Vol. ii. p. 33,
Jonson's Works.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 6i

Bishop Corbet, in his " Distracted Puritan," has
a lance to point at the same weakness :

** In the holy tongue of Canaan
I placed my chiefest pleasure,
Till I pricked my foot
With an Hebrew root,
That I bled beyond all measure. '*

In the " City Match," written by Mayne in 1639,
Bannsright says —

** Mistress Dorcas,
If you'll be usher to that holy, learned woman.
That can heal broken shins, scald heads, and th* itch,
Your schoolmistress : that can expound, and teaches
To knit in Chaldee, and work Hebrew samplers,
I'll help you back again."

The Puritan was ever nicknamed after some
Old Testament worthy. I could quote many in-
stances, but let two from the author of the " Lon-
don Diurnall " suffice. Addressing Prince Rupert,
he says —

** Let the zeal-twanging nose, that wants a ridge,
Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver bridge :
Yes, and the gossip's spoon augment the summe,
Altho' poor Caleb lose his christendome. "

More racy is his attack on Pembroke, as a member
of the Mixed Assembly :

** Forbeare, good Pembroke, be not over-daring :

Such company may chance to spoil thy swearing ;

And these drum -major oaths of bulk unruly

May dwindle to a feeble ' by my truly.'

He that the noble Percy's blood inherits,
. Will he strike up a Hotspur of the spirits ?

62 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

He'll fright the Obediahs out of tune,
With his uncircumcis-ed Algernoon :
A name so stubborne, 'tis not to be scanned
By him in Gath with the six-fingered hand."

If a Bible quotation was put into the zealot's
mouth, his cynical foe took care that it should
come from the older Scriptures. In George Chap-
man's *' An Humorous Day's Work," after Lemot
has suggested a " full test of experiment " to prove
her virtue, Florilla the Puritan cries —

**0 husband, this is perfect trial indeed."

To which the gruff Labervele replies —

"And you will try all this now, will you not?

Florilla. Yes, my good head : for it is written, we must pass to
perfection through all temptation : Abacuk the fourth.

Labervele. Abacuk ! cuck me no cucks : in a-doors, I say :
thieves, Puritans, murderers ! in a-doors, I say !"

In the same facetious strain, Taylor, the Water-
poet, addresses a child thus :

** To leame thy duty reade no more than this :
Paul's nineteenth chapter unto Genesis. "

This certainly tallies with the charge in "Hudibras,"

that they

"Cormpted the Old Testament
To serve the New as precedent."

This affection for the older Scriptures had its
effect upon our. nomenclature. No book, no story,
especially if gloomy in its outline and melancholy
in its issues, escaped the more morbid Puritan's

THE HEBREW INVASION. 63

notice. Every minister of the Lord's vengeance, f
every stern witness against natural abomination,
the prophet that prophesied ill — these were the
names that were in favour. And he that was least
bitter in his maledictions was most at a discount.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in every-
day request, Shadrach and Abednego being the
favourites. Mordecai, too, was daily commemo-
rated ; while Jeremiah attained a popularity, as
Jeremy, he can never altogether lose. " Lamenta-
tions " was so melancholy, that it must needs be
personified, don a Puritanical habit, and stand
at the font as godfather — I mean witness — to
some wretched infant who had done nothing to
merit such a fate. '* Lamentations Chapman "
appeared as defendant in a suit in Chancery about
1590. The exact date is not to be found, but
the case was tried towards the close of Elizabeth's
reign (" Chancery Suits, Elizabeth ").

It is really hard to say why names of melan-
choly import became so common. Perhaps it was
a spirit morbidly brooding on the religious oppres-
sions of the times ; perhaps it was bile. Any way,
Camden says " Dust " and '' Ashes '* were names in
use in the days of Elizabeth and Jarnes. These, no
doubt, were translations of the Hebrew "Aphrah".
into the " vulgar tongue," the name having become

64 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

exceedingly common. Micah, in one of the most
mournful prophecies of the Old Testament, says —

** Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all : in the house of
Aphrah roll thyself in the dust."

Literally : " in the house of dust roll thyself in the
dust." The name was quickly seized upon :

** Sept., 1599. Baptized Affray, d. of Richard Manne of Lyme-
hus." — Stepney.

"May 15, 1576. Wedding of William Brickhead and Affera
Lawrence." — St. Peter's, Cornhill.

This last entry proves how early the name had
arisen. In Kent it had become very common.
The registers of Canterbury Cathedral teem with it:

" 1 601, June 5. Christened Afra, the daughter of William
Warriner.

*' 1614, Oct. 30. Christened Aphora, the daughter of Mr. Merre-
wether.

** 1635, July 20. Robert Fuller maryed Apherie Pitt."

In these instances we see at a glance the origin
of the licentious Aphra Behn's name, which looks
so like a no7n- de-plume, and has puzzled many.
She was born at Canterbury, with the surname of
Johnson, baptized Aphra, and married a Dutch
merchant named Behn. When acting as a Govern-
ment spy at Antwerp in 1666, she signs a letter
" Aphara Behn " (C. S. P.), which is nearer the
Biblical form than many others. It is just possible
her father might have rolled himself several times
in the dust had he lived to read some of his

THE HEBREW INVASION, 65

daughter's writings. Their tone is not Puritanic.
The name has become obsolete ; indeed, it scarcely
survived the seventeenth century, dying out within
a hundred years of its rise. But it was very
popular in its day.

Rachel, in her dying pains, had styled, under
deep depression, her babe Benoni ("son of my
sorrow " ) ; but his father turned it into the more
cheerful Benjamin (" son of the right hand "). Of
course, Puritanism sided with the mother, and the
Benonis flourished at a ratio of six to one over
the Benjamins :

" 1607. Christened Benony, sonneof Beniamyn Ruthin, mariner."
— Stepney.

** 1661, Dec. 20. Christened Margrett, d. of Bennoni Wal-
lington, goldsmith." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

*' 1637, May 6. Order to transmit Benoni Bucke to England
from Virginia."— "C. S. P. Colonial."

*' 1656, March 25. Petition of Benoni Honeywood." — **C. S. P.
Colonial."

I don't think, however, all these mothers died in
childbed. It would speak badly for the chirurgic
skill of the seventeenth century if they did. It was
the Church of Christ that was in travail.

Ichabod was equally common. There was some-
thing hard and unrelenting in Jael (already men-
tioned) that naturally suited the temper of every
fanatic :

" 1613, July 28. Christened Jaell, d. of Roger Manwaryng,
preacher.*' — St. Helen, Bishopsgate.

F

66 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Mehetabell had something in it, probably its length,
that made it popular among the Puritan faction
It lasted well, too :

" 1680, March 24. Married Philip Penn and Mehittabela Hilder."
—Cant. Cath.

** 1693, May 21. Baptized Mehetabell, d. of Jeremiah Hart,
apothecary."— St Dionis Backchurch.

But while Deborah, an especial pet of the fanatics,
Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, Zipporah, and Leah were
in high favour as Old Testament heroines, none
had such a run as Abigail :

** I573» Oct. AbigoU Cumberford, christened." — Stepney.

** 1617, Oct. 15. Christened Abbigale, d. of John Webb, sho-
maker." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

*' 1635, Jan. 19. Married Jarrett Birkhead and Abigaile White-
head."—Ditto.

** May 30, 1 721. Married Robert EUes and Abigail Six." — Cant.
Cath.

Few Scripture names made themselves so
popular as this. At the conclusion of the sixteenth
century it was beginning its career, and by Queen
Anne's day had reached its zenith. When the
Cavalier was drinking at the alehouse, he would
waggishly chant through his nose, with eye up-
turned—

" Come, sisters, and sing
An hymne to our king,

Who sitteth on high degree.
The men at Whitehall,
And the wicked, shall fall.

And hey, then, up go we !

THE HEBREW INVASION. 67

* A match,' quoth my sister Joice,
* Contented,' quoth Rachel, too ;
Quoth Abigaile, * Yea,' and Faith, * Verily,'
And Charity, *Let it be so.'"

A curious error has been propagated by writers
who ought to have known better. It is customarily-
asserted that abigail, as a cant term for a waiting-
maid, only arose after Abigail Hill, the Duchess
of Marlborough's cousin, became waiting- woman
to the queen, and supplanted her kinswoman.
Certainly we find both Swift and Fielding using
the term after this event. But there is good reason
for believing that the sobriquet is as old as
Charles I.'s reign. Indeed, there can be no reason-
able doubt but that we owe the term to the enor-
mous popularity of Beaumont's comedy, " The
Scornful Ladie," written about 161 3, and played m
161 6. The chief part falls to the lot of " Abigal,
a waiting-gentlewoman," as the dramatis personce
styles her, the playwright associating the name
and employment after the scriptural narrative.
But Beaumont knew his Bible well.

That Abigail at once became a cant term is
proved by '* The Parson's Wedding," written by
Killigrew some time between 1645 and 1650.
Wanton addresses the Parson :

** Was she deaf to your report ?
Parson. Yes, yes.

Wanton. And Ugly, her abigail, she had her say, too ?
Parson, Yes, yes."

68 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

That this sentence would never have been
written but for Beaumont's play, there can be no
reasonable doubt. It was performed so late as
1783. In 1673, after yearly performances, it was
published as a droll, and entitled "The False
Heir." In 1742 it appears again under the title
of " The Feigned Shipwreck.'' Samuel Pepys, in
his Diary, records his visits to the playhouse
to see " The Scornful Lady " at least four
times, viz. 1661, 1662, 1665, and 1667. Writing
December 2J, 1665, he says —

** By coach to the King's Playhouse, and there saw *The Scornful
Lady' well acted : Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently."

Abigail passed out of favour about the middle
of the last century, but Mrs. Masham's artifices
had little to do with it. The comedy had done
its work, and Abigail coming into use, like Malkin
two centuries before, as the cant term for a
kitchen drab, or common serving wench, as is
sufficiently proved by the literature of the day,
the name lost caste with all classes, and was
compelled to bid adieu to public favour.

This affection for the Old Testament has never
died out among the Nonconformists. The large
batch of names I have already quoted from
modern directories is almost wholly from the
earlier Testament. Wherever Dissent is strong.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 69

there will be found a large proportion of these
names. Amongst the passengers who went out
to New England in James and Charles's reigns will
be found such names as Ebed-meleck Gastrell,
Oziell Lane, Ephraim Howe, Ezechell Clement,
Jeremy Clement, Zachary Cripps, Noah Fletcher,
Enoch Gould, Zebulon Cunninghame, Seth Smith,
Peleg Bucke, Gercyon Bucke (Gershom), Rachell
Saunders, Lea Saunders, Calebb Carr, Jonathan
Franklin, Boaz Sharpe, Esau del a Ware, Pharaoh
Flinton, Othniell Haggat, Mordecay Knight, Obe-
diah Hawes, Gamaliell Ellis, Esaias Raughton,
Azarias Pinney, Elisha Mallowes, Malachi Mal-
lock, Jonadab Illett, Joshua Long, Enecha Fitch
(seemingly a feminine of Enoch), and Job Perridge.
Occasionally an Epenetus Olney, or Nathaniell
Patient, or Epaphroditus Haughton, or Cornelius
Conway, or Feleaman Dickerson (Philemon), or
Theophilus Lucas, or Annanias Mann is met with ;
but these are few, and were evidently selected for
their size, the temptation to poach on apostolic
preserves being too great when such big game
was to be obtained. Besides, they were not in
the calendar ! These names went to Virginia, and
they are not forgotten.

70 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

III. Objectionable Scripture Names.
Camden says —

**In times of Christianity, the names of most holy and vertuous
persons, and of their most worthy progenitors, were given to
stirre up men to the imitation of them, whose names they bare.
But succeeding ages, little regarding St. Chrysostome's admonition
to the contrary, have recalled prophane names, so as now Diana,
Cassandra, Hyppolitus, Venus, Lais, names of unhappy disastre, are
as rife somewhere, as ever they were in Paganisme." — ** Remaines,"
P- 43-

The most cursory survey of our registers proves

this. Captain Hercules Huncks and Ensign

Neptune Howard fought under the Earl of

Northumberland in 1640 (Peacock's "Army

List of Roundheads and Cavaliers"). Both were

Royalists.

** 1643, Feb. 6. Buried Paris, son of William and Margaret
Lee." — St. Michael, Spurriergate, York.

"1670, March 13. Baptized Cassandra, d. of James Smyth."
— Banbury.

" i^79> July 2. Buried Cassandra, ye wife of Edward Williams."
— St. Michael, Barbados, (Hotten).

" 1631, May 26. Married John Cotton and Venus * Levat." — St.
Peter, Cornhill.

Cartwright, the great Puritan, attacked these
names in 1575, as "savouring of paganism*'
(Neal, V. p. XV. Appendix). It was a pity he did
not include some names in the list of his co-

* The following entry is a curiosity :

" 1756, May 24. Buried Love Venus Rivers." — St. Peter, Corn-
hill.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 71

religionists, for surely Tamar and Dinah were
just as objectionable as Venus or Lais. The
doctrine of a fallen nature could be upheld, and
the blessed state of self-abasement maintained,
without a daily reminder in the shape of a Bible
name of evil repute. Bishop Corbett brought it
as a distinct charge against the Puritans, that they
loved to select the most unsavoury stories of Old
Testament history for their converse. In the
" Maypole " he makes a zealot minister say —

**To challenge liberty and recreation,
Let it be done in holy contemplation.
Brothers and sisters in the fields may walk,
Beginning of the Holy Word to talk :
Of David and Uria's lovely vi^ife.
Of Tamar and her lustful brother's strife."

One thing is certain, these names became popular :

" 1610, March. Baptized Bathsheba, d. of John Hamond, of
Ratcliffe."— Stepney.

" 1672, Feb. 23. Buried Bathsheba, wife of Richard Brinley,
hosier." — St. Denis Backchurch.

The alternate form of Bath-shua (i Chron. iii. s)
was used, although the clerks did not always know
how to spell it :

** 1609, July I. Baptized Bathshira and Tabitha, daughters of
Sir Antonie Dering, Knight.

*' 1609, July 5. Buried Bathshira and Tabitha, ds. of Sir
Antonie Dering, Knight, being twines." — Pluckley, Kent.

* * 1 601, Jan. Baptized Thamar, d. of Henry Reynold. " — Stepney.

" 1691, Nov. 20. Baptized Tamar, d. of Francis and Tamar
Lee. " — St. Dionis Backchurch.

72 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

** 1698, April 10. Buried Tamar, wife of Richard Robinson, of
Fell-foot."— Cartmel.

As for Dinah, she became a great favourite from
her first introduction ; every register contains her
name before Elizabeth's death :

** 1585, Aug. 15. Christening of Dina, d. of John Lister, harbor.
**I59I, Aug. 21. Buried Mrs. Dina Walthall, a vertuous yong
woman, 30 years. " — St. Peter, Cornhill.

Crossing the Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers,

she settled down at length as the typical negress ;

yet Puritan writers admitted that when she " went

out to see the daughters of the land,'* she meant to

be seen of the sons also !

Taylor, the Water-poet, seems to imply that

Goliath was registered at baptism by the Puritan :

** Quoth he, * what might the child baptized be? '
Was it a male She, or a female He ? * —

* I know not what, but 'tis a Son,' she said. —

* Nay then,' quoth he, *a wager may be laid

It had some Scripture name.' — * Yes, so it had,'
Said she : * but my weak memory's so bad,
I have forgot it : 'twas a godly name,
Tho' out of my remembrance be the same :
'Twas one of the small prophets verily :
'Twas not Esaias, nor yet Jeremy,
Ezekiel, Daniel, nor good Obadiah,
Ah, now I do remember, 'twas Goliah ! '"

Pharaoh occurs, and went out to Virginia, where
it has ever since remained. It is, as already shown,
familiar enough in Yorkshire.

Of New Testament names, whose associations are

THE HEBREW INVASION, 73

of evil repute, we may mention Ananias, Sapphira,
and Antipas. Ananias had become so closely
connected with Puritanism, that not only did
Dryden poke fun at the relationship in the " Al-
chemist," but Anajiias Dulman became the cant
term for a long-winded zealot preacher. So says
Neal.

** 1603, Sep. 12. Buried Ananias, sonne of George Warren, 17
years." — St. Peter, Comhill.

** 1621, Sep. Baptized Ananias, son of Ananias Jarratt, glass-
maker. " — Stepney.

Sapphira occurs in Bunhill Fields :

** Here lyeth the body of Mrs. Sapphira Lightmaker, wife of
Mr. Edward Lightmaker, of Broadhurst, in Sussex, gent. She
died in the Lorde, Dec. 20, 1704, aged 81 years."

She was therefore born in 1633. Her brother
(they were brought up Presbyterians) was Robert
Leighton, who died Archbishop of Glasgow.

Drusillay again, was objectionable, but per-
chance her character was less historically known
then :

** 1622. Baptized Drusilla, d. of Thomas Davis." — Ludlow.

Antipas y curiously enough, was almost popular,
although a murderer and an adulterer :

** 1633, Feb. 28. Baptized Antipas, sonne of Robert Barnes, of

Shadwell. " — Stepney.

" 1662. Petition of Antipas Charrington."— " Cal. St. P. Dom."
" 1650. Antipas Swinnerton, Tedbury, wollman." — ** Tokens of

Seventeenth Century."

74 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

Dr. Increase Mather, the eminent Puritan, in his
work entitled ''Remarkable Providences," pub-
lished at Boston, U.S.A., in 1684, has a story of
an interposition in behalf of his friend Antipas
Newman.

Of other instances, somewhat later, Sehon Stace,
who lived in Wartling in 1707 ("Suss. Arch. Coll.,"
xii. 254), commemorates the King of the Amorites,
Milcom Groat ("Cal. St. P.," 1660) representing on
English soil "the abomination of the children of
Ammon." Dr. Pusey and Mr. Spurgeon might be
excused a little astonishment at such a conversion
by baptism.

Barrabas cannot be considered a happy choice :

** Buried, 17 13, Oct. 18, Barabas, sonne of Barabas Bowen." —
All- Hallows, Barking.

Mr. Maskell draws attention to the name in his
history of that church. There is something so
emphatic about " now Barrabas was a robber," that
thoughts of theft seem proper to the very name.
We should have locked up the spoons, we feel
sure, had father or son called upon us. The father
who called his son " Judas-not-Iscariot " scarcely
cleared the name of its evil associations, nor would
it quite meet the difficulty suggested by the
remark in " Tristram Shandy : "

*'Your Billy, sir— would you for the world have called him

THE HEBREW INVASION. 75

Judas ? . . . Would you, sir, if a Jew of a godfather had proposed
the name of your child, and offered you his purse along with it —
would you have consented to such a desecration of him ? "

We have all heard the story of Beelzebub. If
the child had been inadvertently so baptized, a
remedy might have been found in former days by
changing the name at confirmation. Until 1552,
the bishop confirmed by name. Archbishop
Peccham laid down a rule :

** The minister shall take care not to permit wanton names, which
being pronounced do sound to lasciviousness, to be given to children
baptized, especially of the female sex : and if otherwise it be done,
the same shall be changed by the bishop at confirmation."

That this law had been carelessly followed after
the Reformation is clear, else Venus Levat, already
quoted, would not have been married in 1631
under that name. Certainly Dinah and Tamar
come under the ban of this injunction.

Curiously enough, the change of name was
sanctioned in the case of orthodox names, for
Lord Coke says —

*' If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his
confirmation by the Bishop, he is named John, his name of con-
firmation shall stand."

He then quotes the case of Sir Francis Gawdie,
Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
whose name by baptism was Thomas, Thomas
being changed to Francis at confirmation. He

76 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

holds that Francis shall stand ("Institutes," i. iii.).
This practice manifestly arose out of Peccham's
rule, but it is strange that wanton instances should
be left unchanged, and the orthodox allowed to
be altered.

Arising out of the Puritan error of permitting
names like Tamar and Dinah to stand, modern
eccentricity has gone very far, and it would be
satisfactory to see many names in use at present
forbidden. I need not quote the Venuses of our
directories. Emanuel is of an opposite character,
and should be considered blasphemy. We have
have not adopted Christ yet, as Dr. Doran re-
minded us they have done in Germany, but my
copy of the London Directory shows at least one
German, bearing the baptismal name of Christ,
at present dwelling in the metropolis. Puritan
eccentricity is a trifle to this.

IV. Losses.
{a) The Destruction of Pet Forms.

But let us now notice some of the more disastrous
effects of the great Hebrew invasion. The most
important were the partial destruction of the nick
forms, and the suppression of diminutives. The
English pet names disappeared, never more to

THE HEBREW INVASION. 77

return. Desinences in " cock," " kin," '' elot," '' ot,"
" et," " in," and " on," are no more found in cur-
rent literature, nor in the clerk's register. Why
should this be so } An important reason strikes
us at once. The ecclesiastic names on which the
enclytics had grown had become unpopular well-
nigh throughout England. It was an English, not
a Puritan prejudice. With the suppression of the
names proper went the desinences attached to
them. The tree being felled, the parasite decayed.
Another reason was this : the names introduced
from the Scriptures did not seem to compound
comfortably with these terminatives. The Hebrew
name would first have to be turned into a nick
form before the diminutive was appended. The
English peasantry had added "/«," "<?^," ''kin,' and
^'cock " only to the nickname, never to the baptismal
form. It was Wat-kin, not Walterkin; Bat-kin,
not Bartholomewkin ; Wilcock, not Williamcock ;
Colin, not Nicholas-in ; Philpot, not Philipot. But
the popular feeling for a century was against
turning the new Scripture names into curt nick
forms. As it would have been an absurdity
to have appended diminutives to sesquipedalian
names, national wit, rather than deliberate plan,
prevented it. If it was irreverent, too, to curtail
Scripture names, it was equally irreverent to give

78 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURK.

them the diminutive dress. To prove the absolute
truth of my statement, I have only to remind the
reader that, saving " Nat-kin," not one single Bible
name introduced by the Reformation and the
English Bible has become conjoined with a dimi-
nutive.*

The immediate consequence was this ; the dimi-
nutive forms became obsolete. Emmott lingered
on till the end of the seventeenth century; nay,
got into the eighteenth :

** Emmit, d. of Edward and Ann Buck, died 24 April, 1726, aged
6 years. " — Hawling, Gloucester.

But it was only where it was not known as a
form of Emma, and possibly both might exist in
the same household. I have already furnished
instances of Hamlet. Here is another :

"The Rev. Hamlet Marshall, D.D., died in the Close, Lincoln,
in 1652. With him dwelt his nephew, Hamlet Joyce. He bequeaths
legacies in his will to Hamlet Pickerin and Hamlet Duncalf, and
his executor was his son, Hamlet Marshall."— iVb^^j- and Queries^
February 14, 1880.

It lasted till the eighteenth century. But nobody
knew by that time that it was a pet name of
Hamon, or Hamond ; nay, few knew that the

* Even Nathaniel may have been a pre- Reformation name, for
Grumio says, ** Call forth Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip,
Walter, Sugarsop, and the rest ; let their heads be sleekly combed "
("Taming of the Shrew," Act iv. sc. i.), where he is manifestly
using the old names.

THE HEBREW INVASION, 79

surname of Hammond had ever been a baptismal
name at all :

** 1620, Jan. 3. Buried Hamlet Rigby, Mr. Askew's man." — St.
Peter, Comhill.

"1620. Petition of Hamond Franklin."— •* Cal. S. P. Dom.,"
1619-1623.

It is curious to notice that Mr. Hovenden, in his
"Canterbury Register," published 1878, for the
Harleian Society, has the following entries : —

** 1627, Aprill 3. Christened Ham 'on, the sonn of Richard
Struggle.

" 1634. Jan. 18. Christened Damaris, daughter of Mr. Ham'on
Leucknor."

Turning to the index, the editor has styled them
Hamilton Struggle and Hamilton Leucknor.
Ham'on, of course, is Hammon, or Hammond.
I may add that some ecclesiastic, a critic of my
book on '' English Surnames,'' in the Guardian,
rebuked me for supposing that Em mot could be
from Emma, and calmly put it down as a form
of Aymot ! What can prove the effect of the
Reformation on old English names as do such
incidents as these }

An English monarch styled his favourite Peter
Gaveston as " Piers," a form that was sufficiently
familiar to readers of history ; but when an anti-
quary, some few years ago, found this same
Gaveston described as " Perot," it became a diffi-
culty to not a few. The Perrots or Parratts of

8o CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

our London Directory might have told them of
the old-fashioned diminutive that had been
knocked on the head with a Hebrew Bible.

Collet, from Nicholas, used as a feminine name,
died out also. The last instance I know of is —

** 1629, Jan. 15. Married Thomas Woollard and Collatt Mar-
grave. "—St. Peter, Comhill.

Colin, the other pet form, having got into our
pastoral poetry, lingered longer, and may be said
to be still alive :

** 1728. Married Colin Foster and Beulah Digby." — Somerset
House Chapel.

The last Wilmot I have discovered is a certain
Wilmote Adams, a defendant in a Chancery suit
at the end of Elizabeth's reign (" Chancery Suits :
Elizabeth"), and the last Philpot is dated 1575 :

" I575> Aug. 26. Christened Philpott, a chylde that was laide
at Mr Alderman Osbeme's gatt." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

All the others perished by the time James I.
was king. Guy, or Wyatt, succumbed entirely,
and the same may be said of the rest. Did we
require further confirmation of this, I need only in-
quire : Would any Yorkshireman now, as he reads
over shop-fronts in towns like Leeds or Bradford,
or in the secluded villages of Wensleydale or Swale-
dale, the surnames of Tillot and Tillotson, Em-
mett and Emmotson, Ibbott, Ibbet, Ibbs, and

THE HEBREW INVASIO^T. 8i

Ibbotson, know that, twenty years before the in-
troduction of our English Bible, these were not
merely the familiar pet names of Matilda, Emma,
and Isabella, but that as a trio they stood abso-
lutely first in the scale of frequency ? Nay, they
comprised more than forty-five per cent, of the
female population.

The last registered Ibbot or Issot I have seen
is in the Chancery suits at the close of Queen
Bess's reign, wherein Ibote Babyngton and Izott
Barne figure in some legal squabbles (" Chancery
Suits : Elizabeth," vol. ii.). As for Sissot, or
Drewet, or Doucet, or Fawcett, or Hewet, or
Philcock, or Jeffcock, or Batkin, or Phippin, or
Lambin, or Perrin, they have passed away — their
place knoweth them no more. What a remark-
able revolution is this, and so speedy !

Failing our registers, the question may arise
whether or not in familiar converse the old pet
forms were still used. Our ballads and plays
preserve many of the nick forms, but scarcely a
pet form is to be seen later than 1590. In 1550
Nicholas Udall wrote " Ralph Roister Doister,"
in the very commencement of which Matthew
Merrygreek "says or sings " —

** Sometime Lewis Loiterer biddeth me come near :
• Somewhiles IVatkin Waster maketh us good cheer. "

82 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAIV NOMENCLATURE.

Amongst the dramatis personce are Dobinet
Doughty, Sim Suresby, Madge Mumblecrust, Tibet
Talkapace, and Annot AHface. A few years later
came "Gammer Gurton's Needle." Both Diccon
and Hodge figure in it : two rustics of the most
bucolic type. Hodge, after relating how Gib the
cat had licked the milk-pan clean, adds —

** Gog's souls, Diccon, Gib our cat had eat the bacon too."

Immediately after this, again, in 1568 was
printed "Like will to Like." The chief charac-
ters are Tom Tosspot, Haftkin Hangman, Pierce
Pickpurse, and Nichol Newfangle. Wat Wag-
halter is also introduced. But here may be said
to end this homely and contemporary class of
play-names. Tis true, in Beaumont and Fletcher's
" Beggar's Bush," Higgen {Higgvi) is one of the
*' three knavish beggars," but the scene is laid
in Flanders.

Judging by our songs and comedies, the dimi-
nutive forms went down with terrible rapidity,
and were practically obsolete before Elizabeth's
death. But this result was more the work of the
Reformation at large than Puritanism.

(b) The Decrease of Nick Forms.

This was not all. The nick forms saw them-
selves reduced to straits. The new godly names,

THE HEBREW INVASION. 83

I have said, were not to be turned into irreverent
cant terms. From the earliest day of the Re-
formation every man who gave his child a Bible
name stuck to it unaltered. Ebenezer at baptism
was Ebenezer among the turnips, Ebenezer with
the milk-pail, and Ebenezer in courtship; while
Deborah, who did not become Deb till Charles I.'s
reign, would Ebenezer him till the last day she
had done scolding him, and put " Ebenezer '' care-
fully on his grave, to prove how happily they had
lived together !

As for the zealot who gradually forged his way
to the front, he gave his brother and sister in
the Lord the full benefit of his or her title,
whether it was five syllables or seven. There can
be no doubt that these Hebrew names did not
readily adapt themselves to ordinary converse with
the world. Melchisedek and Ebedmelech were
all right elbowing their way into the conventicle,
but Melchisedek dispensing half-pounds of butter
over the counter, or Ebedmelech carrying milk-
pails from door to door, gave people a kind of
shock. These grand assumptions suggested
knavery. One feels certain that our great-grand-
mothers had a suspicion of tallow in the butter,
and Jupiter Pluvius in the pail.

Nor did these excavated names harmonize with

84 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

the surnames to which they were yoked. Adoniram
was quaint enough without Byfield, but both (as
Butler, in " Hudibras," knew) suggested something
sHghtly ludicrous. Byron took a mean advan-
tage of this when he attacked poor Cottle, the
bookseller and would-be writer :

** O Amos Cottle ! Phoebus ! what a name
To fill the speaking trump of future fame !
O Amos Cottle ! for a moment think
What meagre profits spring from pen and ink."

Amos is odd, but Amos united to Cottle makes
a smile irresistible.

Who does not agree with Wilkes, who, when
speaking to Johnson of Dryden's would-be rival,
the city poet, says —

"Elkanah Settle sounds so queer, who can expect much from
that name ? We should have no hesitation to give it for John Dry-
den, in preference to Elkanah Settle, from the names only, without
knowing their different merits " ?

And Sterne, as the elder Disraeli reminds us, in
one of his multitudinous digressions from the life of
*' Tristram Shandy," makes the progenitor of that
young gentleman turn absolutely melancholy, as he
conjures up a vision of all the men who

* ' might have done exceeding well in the world, had not their
characters and spirits been totally depressed, and Nicodemas'd into
nothing."

Even Oliver Goldsmith cannot resist styling the
knavish seller of green spectacles by a conjunction

THE HEBREW INVASION, 85

of Hebrew and English titles as Ephraim Jenkin-
son ; and his servant, who acts the part of a Job
Trotter (another Old Testament worthy, again) to
his master, is, of course, Abraham !

But, oddly as such combinations strike upon the
modern tympanum, what must not the effect have
been in a day when a nickname was popular
according as it was curt ? How would men rub
their eyes in sheer amazement, when such con-
junctions as Ebedmelech Gastrell, or Epaphroditus
Haughton, or Onesiphorus Dixey, were introduced
to their notice, pronounced with all sesquipedalian
fulness, following upon the very heels of a long
epoch of traditional one-syllabled Ralphs, Hodges,
Hicks, Wats, Phips, Bates, and Balls (Baldwin).
Conceive the amazement at such registrations as
these :

'*I599, Sep. 23. Christened Aholiab, sonne of Michaell Nicol-
son, cordwainer. " — St. Peter, Cornhill.

*' 15^9* June I. Christened Ezekiell, sonne of Robert Pownall."
— Cant. Cath.

" 1582, April I. Christened Melchisadeck, sonne of Melchiza-
deck Bennet, poulter." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

'* 1590, Dec. 20. Christened Abacucke, sonne of John Tailer."
—Ditto.

''1595, Nov. Christened Zabulon, sonne of John Griffin." —
Stepney.

*' 1603, Sep. 15. Buried Melchesideck King." — Cant. Cath.

*' 1645, July 1 9* Buried Edward, sonne of Mephibosheth
Robins."— St. Peter, Cornhill.

*' 1660, Nov. 5. Buried Jehostiaphat {sic) Star." — Cant. Cath.

86 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURK,

** 1611, Oct. 21. Baptized Zipporah, d. of Richard Beere, of
Wapping. " — Stepney.

The " Chancery Suits " of Elizabeth contain a
large batch of such names ; and I have already
enumerated a list of ''Pilgrim Fathers" of James's
reign, whose baptisms would be recorded in the
previous century.

But compare this with the fact that the leading
men in England at this very time were recognized
only by the curtest of abbreviated names. In that
very quaint poem of Heywood's, " The Hierarchic
of Blessed Angels," the author actually makes it
the ground of an affected remonstrance :

** Mai'lowe, renowned for his rare art and wit,
Could ne'er attain beyond the name of Kit^
Although his Hero and Leande7' did
Merit addition rather. Famous Kid
Was called but Tom . Tom Watson, though he wrote
Able to make Apollo's self to dote
Upon his muse, for all that he could strive,
Yet never could to his full name arrive.
Tom Nash, in his time of no small esteem,
Could not a second syllable redeem.

Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose enchanting quill
Commanded mirth or passion, was but Will :
And famous Jonson, though his learned pen
Be dipped in Castaly, is still but Ben. "

However, in the end, he attributes the familiarity
to the right cause :

** I, for my part,
Think others what they please, accept that heart

THE HEBREW INVASIO^F. Sj

That courts my love in most familiar phrase ;
And that it takes not from my pains or praise,
If any one to me so bluntly come :
I hold he loves me best that calls me Tomy

It is Sir Christopher, the curate, who, in " The
Ordinary," rebels against " Kit : "

** Andrew. What may I call your name, most reverend sir?

Bagshot. His name's Sir Kit.

Christopher. My name is not so short :
'Tis a trisyllable, an't please your worship ;
But vulgar tongues have made bold to profane it
With the short sound of that unhallowed idol
They call a kit. Boy, learn more reverence ! "

Bagshot. Yes, to my betters. "

We need not wonder, therefore, that the come-
dists took their fun out of the new custom, espe-
cially in relation to their length and pronunciation
in full. In Cowley's ** Cutter of Colman Street,"
Cutter turns Puritan, and thus addresses the
colonel's widow, Tabitha :

** Sister Barebottle, I must not be called Cutter any more : that
is a name of Cavalier's darkness ; the Devil was a Cutter from the
beginning : my name is now Abednego : I had a vision which
whispered to me through a key-hole, * Go, call thyself Abednego.' "

In his epilogue to this same comedy, Cutter is
supposed to address the audience as a " congrega-
tion of the elect," the playhouse is a conventicle,
and he is a "pious cushion-thumper." Gazing about
the theatre, he says — through his nose, no doubt —

** But yet I wonder much not to espy a
Brother in all this court called Zephaniah. "

88 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIA TURE.
This IS a better rhyme even than Butler's

*' Their dispensations had been stifled
But for our Adoniram Byfield."

In Brome's '' Covent Garden Weeded," the arrival
at the vintner's door is thus described :

** Rooksbill. Sure you mistake him, sir.

Vintner. You are welcome, gentlemen : Will, Harry, Zachary!

Gabriel. Zachary is a good name.

Vintner. Where are you? Shew up into the Phoenix." — Act. ii.

SC. 2.

The contrast between Will or Harry, the nick
forms, and Zachary,* the full name, is intentionally
drawn, and Gabriel instantly rails at it.

In "Bartholomew Fair," half the laughter that
convulsed Charles II., his courtiers, and courtezans,
was at the mention of Ezekiel, the cut-purse, or
Zeal-of-tke-landj the baker, who saw visions ; while
the veriest noodle in the pit saw the point of
Squire Cokes' perpetually addressing his body-man
Humphrey in some such style as this :

** O, Numps ! are you here, Numps ? Look where I am, Numps,
and Mistress Grace, too I Nay, do not look so angrily, Numps :
my sister is here and all, I do not come without her."

How the audience would laugh and cheer at a
sally that was simply manufactured of a repetition
of the good old-fashioned name for Humphrey ;
and thus a passage that reads as very dull fun

* Zachary was the then form of Zachariah, as Jeremy of Jere-
miah. Neither is a nickname.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 89

indeed to the ears of the nineteenth century,
would seem to be brimful of sarcastic allusion to
the popular audience of the seventeenth, especially
when spoken by such lips as Wintersels.

The same effect was attempted and attained in
the "Alchemist." Subtle addresses the deacon:

** What's your name?

Ananias, My name is Ananias.

Subtle. Out, the varlet

That cozened the Apostles ! Hence away !
Flee, mischief ! had your holy consistory
No name to send me, of another sound,
Than wicked Ananias ? Send your elders
Hither, to make atonement for you, quickly,
And give me satisfaction : or out goes
The fire . . .

If they stay threescore minutes ; the aqueity,
Terreity, and sulphureity
Shall run together again, and all be annulled.
Thou wicked Ananias ! "

Exit Ananias, and no wonder. Of course, the pit
would roar at the expense of Ananias. But Abel,
the tobacco-man, who immediately appears in his
place, is addressed familiarly as " Nab : "

** Face. Abel, thou art made.

Abel. Sir, I do thank his worship.

Face. Six o' thy legs more will not do it. Nab.
He has brought you a pipe of tobacco, doctor.

Abel. Yes, sir ; I have another thing I would impart

Face. Out with it. Nab.

Abel. Sir, there is lodged hard by me

A rich young widow. "

To some readers there will be little point in

90 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

this. They will say " Abel," as an Old Testament
name, should neither have been given to an un-
puritanic character, nor ought it to have been
turned into a nickname. This would never have
occurred to the audience. Abel, or Nab, had
been one of the most popular of English names
for at least three centuries before the Reformation.
Hence it was never used by the Puritans, and was,
as a matter of course, the undisturbed property of
their enemies. Three centuries of bad company
had ruined Nab's morals. The zealot would none
of it*

But from all this it will be seen that a much
better fight was made in behalf of the old nick
forms than of the diminutives. By a timely rally,
Tom, Jack, Dick, and Harry were carried, against
all hindrances, into the Restoration period, and
from that time they were safe. Wat, Phip, Hodge,
Bat or Bate, and Cole lost their position, but so
had the fuller Philip, Roger, Bartholomew, and
Nicholas. But the opponents of Puritanism carried
the war into the enemy's camp in revenge for this,
and Priscilla, Deborah, Jeremiah, and Nathaniel,
although they were rather of the Reformation than
Puritanic introductions, were turned by the time

* The story of Cain and Abel would be popularized in the
** mysteries."- Abelot was a favourite early pet form {vide " English
Surnames," index ; also p. 82).

THE HEBREW INVASION, - 91

of Charles I. into the familiar nick forms of Pris,
Deb, Jerry, and Nat. The licentious Richard
Brome, in " The New Academy," even attempts a
curtailment of Nehemiah :

** Lady N'estlecock. Negh, Negh !
Nehemiah. Hark ! my mother comes.
Lady N. Where are you, childe ? Negh !
Nehemiah. I hear her neighing after me. "

Act iv. sc. I. (1658).

It was never tried out of doors, however, and
the experiment was not repeated. Brome was
still more scant in reverence to Damaris. In
"Covent Garden Weeded" Madge begins "the
dismal story : "

** This gentlewoman whose name is Damaris

Nich. Damyris, stay : her nickname then is Dammy : so we

may call her when we grow familiar ; and to begin that familiarity —

Dammy, here's to you. {Drinks,)''''

After this she is Dammy in the mouth of
Nicholas throughout the play. This, too, was a
failure. Indeed, it demonstrates a remarkable
reverence for their Bible on the part of the English
race, that every attempt to turn one of its names
into a nick form (saving in some three or four
instances) has ignominiously failed. We mean, of
course, since the Reformation.

The Restoration was a great restoration of nick
forms. Such names as had survived were again
for a while in full favour, and the reader has only

92 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

to turn to the often coarse ballads and songs con-
tained in such collections as Tom d'Urfey's " Pills
to Purge Melancholy" to see how Nan, Sis, Sib,
Kate, and Doll had been brought back to popular
favour. It was but a spurt, however, in the main.
As the lascivious reaction from the Puritanic
strait-lacedness in some degree spent itself, so did
the newly restored fashion, and when the eighteenth
century brought in a fresh innovation, viz. the classic
forms, such as Beatrix, Maria, Laetitia, Carolina,
Louisa, Amelia, Georgina, Dorothea, Prudentia,
Honora — an innovation that for forty years ran like
an epidemic through every class of society, and
was sarcastically alluded to by Goldsmith in Miss
Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs, and the
sisters Olivia and Sophia — the old nick forms once
more bade adieu to English society, and now
enjoy but a partial favour. But Bill, Tom, Dick,
and Harry still hold on like grim death. Long
may they continue to do so !

(r.) The Decay of Saint and Festival Names,

There were some serious losses in hagiology.
Names that had figured in the calendar for
centuries fared badly ; Simon, Peter, Nicholas,
Bartholomew, Philip, and Matthew, from being
first favourites, lapsed into comparative oblivion.

THE HEBREW INVASION'. 93

Some virgins and martyrs of extra-Biblical repute,
like Agnes, Ursula, Catharine, Cecilia, or Blaze,
crept into the registers of Charles's reign, but they
had then become but shadows of their former selves.
*Sis' is often found in D'Urfey's ballads, but it
only proves the songs themselves were old ones, or
at any rate the choruses, for Cecilia was practically
obsolete :

" 1574, Oct. 8. Buried Cisly Weanewright, ye carter's wife." —
St. Peter, Comhill.

"1578, June I. Buried Cissellye, wife of Gilles Lambe." — St.
Dionis Backchurch.

" 1547, Dec. 26. Married Thomas Bodnam and Urcylaye
Watsworth. "—Ditto.

*' 1654, Sep. 20. Buried Ursley, d. of John Fife." — St. Peter,
Cornhill.

It was now that Awdry gave way :

"1576, Sept. 7. Buryed Awdry, the widow of — Seward." —
St. Peter, Comhill.

*' 1 6 10, May 27. Baptized Awdrey, d. of John Cooke, butcher."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

St. Blaze,* the patron saint of wool-combers and
the nom-de-pliime of Gil Bias, has only a church
or two to recall his memory to us now. But he
lived into Charles's reign :

" Blaze Winter was master of Stodmarsh Hospital, when it was
surrendered to Queen Elizabeth, 1575." — Hasted's " History of
Kent."

* "Jan, 1537. Item : payed to Blaze for brawdering a payre of
sieves for my lady's grace, xx*.'* — " Privy Purse Expenses, Princess
Mary." '

94 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

*' 1550, May 23. Baptized Blaze, daughter of — Goodwinne."
—St. Peter, Comhill.

**I555> Jiilie 21. Wedding of Blase Sawlter and Collis
Smith."— Ditto.

** 1662, May 6. Blase Whyte, one of ye minor cannons, to
Mrs. Susanna Wright, widow." — Cant. Cath.

This is the last instance I have seen. Hillary
shared the same fate :

** 1547, Jan. 30. Married Hillarye Finch and Jane Whyte." —
St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1557, June 27. Wedding of Hillary Wapolle and Jane
Garret."— St. Peter, Comhill.

** 1593, Jan. 20. Christening of Hillary, sonne of Plillary Turner,
draper." — Ditto.

Bride is rarely found in England now :

** 1556, May 22. Baptized Bryde, daughter of — Stoakes.
** 1553, Nov. 27. Baptized Bryde, daughter of — Faunt." — St.
Peter, Cornhill.

Benedict, which for three hundred years had
been known as Bennet, as several London churches
can testify, became well-nigh extinct ; but the
feminine Benedicta, with Bennet for its shortened
form, suddenly arose on its ashes, and flourished
for a time :

" 15 17, Jan. 28. Wedding of William Stiche and Bennet Bennet,
widow. — St. Peter, Cornhill.

** 1653, Sep. 29. Married Richard Moone to Benedicta Rolfe."
—Cant. Cath.

** 1575, Jan. 25. Baptized Bennett, son of John Langdon." — St.
Columb Major.

These feminines are sometimes bothering. Look,
for instance, at this :

THE HEBREW INVASION. 95

*'i596, Feb. 6. Wedding of William Bromley and Mathew
Barnet, maiden, of this parish." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

*'i655, Sep. 24. Married Thomas Budd, miller, and Mathew
Larkin, spinster." — Ditto.

The true spelling should have been Mathea, which,
previous to the Reformation, had been given to
girls born on St. Matthew's Day.* The nick form
Mat changed sexes. In " Englishmen for my
]\Ioney '' Walgrave says —

**Nay, stare not, look you here : no monster I,
But even plain Ned, and here stands Mat my wife."

Appoline, all of whose teeth were extracted at
her martyrdom with pincers, was a favourite saint
for appeal against toothache. In the Homily
" Against the Perils of Idolatry," it is said —

** All diseases have their special saints, as gods, the curers of them :
the toothache, St. Appoline." f

Scarcely any name for girls was more common
than this for a time ; up to the Commonwealth
period it contrived to exist. Take St. Peter, Corn-
hill, alone :

** 1593* J^-n. 13. Christened Apeline, d. of John Moris, cloth-
worker.

* Philip is found just as frequently for girls as boys :

** 1588, March 15. Baptized Phillip, daughter of John Younge.

" 1587, Feb. 7. Baptized Phillip, daughter of James Laurence." —
St. Columb Major.

t In the Oxford edition, 1859, is a foot-note: ** Appoline was
the usual name in England, as Appoline in France, for Apollonia, a
martyr at Alexandria, who, among other tortures, had all her teeth
beaten out."

96 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURK,

"1609, M^^. II. Christened Apoline, d. of Will'". Burton,
marchant.

** 1617, June 29. Buried Appelyna, d. of Thomas Church."

Names from the great Church festivals fared as
badly as those from the hagiology. The high day
of the ecclesiastical calendar is Easter. We have
more relics of this festival than any other. Pasche
Oland or Pascoe Kerne figure in the Chancery
suits of Elizabeth. Long before this the Hundred
Rolls had given us a Huge fil. Pasche, and a con-
temporary record contained an Anto7iy PascJieson.
The different forms lingered till the Common-
wealth :

"1553, M*=^ 23. Baptized Pascal], son of John Davye."— St.
Dionis Backchurch.

** 1651, M^. 18. Married Thomas Strato and Paskey Prideaux."
—St. Peter's, Cornhill.

"1747, May 4. Baptized Rebekah, d. of Pasko and Sarah
Crocker." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1582, June 14. Baptized Pascow, son-in-law of Pascowe John."
— St. Columb Major.

Pascha Turner, widow, was sister of Henry Parr,
Bishop of Worcester.

The more EngHsh "Easter" had a longer sur-
vival, but this arose from its having become con-
founded with Esther. To this mistake it owes
the fact that it lived till the commencement of the
present century :

"April, 1595. Christened Easter, daughter of Thomas Coxe, of
Wapping." — Stepney.

THE HEBREW INVASION'. ^>f

**May 27, 1764. Buried Easter Lewis, aged 56 years." — Lidney,
Glouc.

*' July 27, 1654. Married Thomas Burton, marriner, and Easter
Taylor."— St. Peter, Cornhill.

Epiphany, or Theophania (shortened to Tiffany),
was popular with both sexes, but the ladies got the
chief hold of it.

** Megge Merry wedyr, and Sabyn Sprynge,
Tiffany T\\'ynkeler, fayle for no thynge,"

says one of our old mysteries. This form suc-
cumbed at the Reformation. Tyffanie Seamor
appears as defendant about 1590, however ("Chan-
cery Suits : Eliz."), and in Cornwall the name
reached the seventeenth century :

" 1594, Nov. 7. Baptized Typhenie, daughter of Sampson Bray.
** 1600, June 21. Baptized Tiffeny, daughter of Harry Hake."—
St. Columb Major.

The following is from Banbury register :

** 1586, Jan. 9. Baptized Epiphane, ye sonne of Ambrose
Bentley." *

Epiphany Howarth records his name also about
1 590 (" Chancery Suits : Eliz."), and a few years
later he is once more met with in a State paper
(C. S. P. 1623-25) :

*' 1623, June. Account of monies paid by Epiphan Haworth, of
Herefordshire, recusant, since Nov. 11, 161 1, £,ii 100."

* Mr. Beesley, in his ** History of Banbury " (p. 456), curiously
enough speaks of this Epiphany as a Puritan example. I need not
say that a Banbury zealot would have as soon gone to the block as
impose siich a title on his child.

H

98 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

This Epiphan is valuable as showing the transition
state between Epiphania and Ephin, the latter
being the form that ousted all others :

" 1563, March 14. Christening of Ephin King, d. of — King.

" 1564, June 30. Christening of Effam, d. of John Adlington.

*' 1620, March 30. Frauncis, sonne of Alexander Brounescome,
and Effym, his wife, brought a bead at Mr. Vo well's house.

"1635, Jan. 28. Buried Epham Vowell, widow." — St. Peter,
Comhill.

But Ephin was not a long liver, and by the time
of the Restoration had wholly succumbed. The
last entry I have seen is in the Westminster Abbey
register :

" 1692, Jan. 25. Buried Eppifania Cakewood, an almsman's wife."

Pentecost was more sparely used. In the '' Rotuli
Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londonensi " occur
both Pentecost de London (1221) and Pentecost
Servicus, and a servitor of Henry III. bore the only
name of "Pentecost " (" Inquis., 13 Edw. I./' No. 13).
This name was all but obsolete soon after the
Reformation set in, but it lingered on till the end
of the seventeenth century.

"1577, May 25. Baptized Pentecost, daughter of Robert Rose-
gan." — St. Columb Major.

" 1610, May 27. Baptized Pentecost, d. of William Tremain."
—Ditto.

"August 7, 1696. Pentecost, daughter of Mr. Ezekel and Pente-
cost Hall, merchant, born and baptized." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

Noel shared the same fate. The Hundred Rolls
furnish a Noel de Aubianis, while the "Materials

THE HEBREW INVASION, 99

for a History of Henry VH." (p. 503) mentions a
Nowell Harper :

" i486, July 16. General pardon to Nowell Harper, late of
Boyleston, co. Derby, gent."

*' 1545, Dec. 20. Baptized Nowell, son of William ]\Iayhowe." —
St. Columb Major.

"1580, March i. Baptized James, son of Nowell Mathew." —
Ditto.

"1627. Petition of Nowell Warner."— « C. S. P. Domestic,"
1627-8.

Noel still struggled gamely, and died hard, seeing
the eighteenth century well in :

" 1706, April 23. Noell Whiteing, son of Noell and Ann White-
\\\g^ linendraper, baptized." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

Again the Reformation, apart from Puritanism,
had much to do with the decay of these names.

{d) The Last of some Old Favoicritcs,

There were some old English favourites that the
Reformation and the English Bible did not imme-
diately crush. Thousands of men were youths
when the Hebrew invasion set in, and lived unto
James's reign. Their names crop up, of course, in
the burial registers. Others were inclined to be
tenacious over family favourites. We must be
content, in the records of Elizabeth's and even
James's reign, to find some old friends standing
side by side with the new. The majority of them
were extra-Biblical, and therefore did not meet

100 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

with the same opposition as those that savoured of
the old ecclesiasticism. Nevertheless, this new
fashion was telling on them, and of most we may
say, " Their places know them no more/'

Looking from now back to then, we see this the
more clearly. We turn to the " Calendar of State
Papers," and we find a grant, dated November 5,
1607, to Fulk Reade to travel four years. Shortly
afterwards (July 1 5, 1609), we come across a warrant
to John Carse, of the benefit of the recusancy of
Drew Lovett, of the county of Middlesex. Casting
our eye backwards we speedily reach a grant or
warrant in 1603, wherein Gavin* Harvey is men-
tioned. In 1604 comes Ingram Fyser. One after
another these names occur within the space of five
years — names then, although it was well in James's
reign, known of all men, and borne reputably by
many. But who will say that Drew, or Fulk, or
Gavin, or Ingram are alive now ? How they were to
be elbowed out of existence these very same records
tell us ; for within the same half-decade we may
see warrants or grants relating to Matathias Mason

♦ Gawain, Gawen, or Gavin lingered till last century in Cumber-
land and the Furness district. The surname of Gunson in the same
parts shows that " Gun " was a popular fomi. Hence, in the Hun-
dred Rolls, Matilda fil. Gunne or Eustace Gunnson. The London
Directory forms are Gowan, Gowen, and Gowing :

**I593> Nov. 7. Buried Sarra Bone, wife of Gawen Bone." —
St. Dionis Backchurch.

THE HEBREW INVASION. loi

{April 7, 1610) or Gcrsome Holmes (January 23,
1608). Jethro Forstall obtains licence, November
12, 1604, to dwell in one of the alms-rooms of
Canterbury Cathedral ; while Melchizedcc Brad-
wood receives sole privilege, February 18, 1608, of
printing Jewel's " Defence of the Apology of the
English Church." The enemy was already within
the bastion, and the call for surrender was about
to be made.

Take another specimen a few years earlier.
In the Chancery suits at the close of Elizabeth's
reign, we find a plaintiff named Goddard Freeman,
another styled Anketill Brasbridge, a defendant
bearing the good old title of Frideswide Heysham,
while a fourth endeavours to secure his title to
some property under the signature of Avery
Howlatt. Hamlett Holcrofte and Hammett Hyde
are to be met with (but we have spoken of them),
and such other personages as EUice Heye, Morricc
Cowles, and Gervase Hatfield. Within a few
pages' limit we come across Dogory Garry, Digory
Greenfield, Digory Harrit, and Degory HoUman.
These names of Goddard, Anketill, Frideswide,
Avery, Hamlet, Ellice, Morrice, Gervase, and
Digory were on everybody's lips when Henry VHI.
was king. Who can say that they exist now t
Only Maurice and Gervase enjoy a precarious

1 02 CURIOSITIES . OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURE.

existence. A breath of popular disregard would
blow them out. Avery held out, but in vain :

** Avery Terrill, cooke at ye Falcon, Lotlibury, 1650." — "Tokens
of Seventeenth Century." .

But what else do we see in these same registers }
We are confronted with pages bearing such names
as Esaye Freeman (Isaiah), or Elizar Audly (Eliezer),
or Seth Awcocke, or Urias Babington, or Ezekias
Brent, — and this not forty years after the Refor-
mation. These men must have been baptized in
the very throes of the great contest.

Another " Calendar of State Papers," bearing
dates between 1590 and 1605, contains ^^e names
of Colet Carey (1580) and Amice Carteret (1599),
alongside of whom stands Aquila Wyke (1603).
Here once more we are reminded of two pretty
baptismal names that have gone the way of the
others. It makes one quite sad to think of these
national losses. Amice, previous to the Reforma-
tion, was a household favourite, and Colet a perfect
pet. Won't somebody come to the rescue t Why
on earth should the fact that the Bible has been
translated out of Latin into English strip us of
these treasures }

Turn once more to our church registers. Few
will recognize Thurstan as a baptismal name :

** 1544, May 1 1. Married Thryston Hogkyn and Letyce Knight."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

THE HEBREW INVASION, 103

*' I573» Nov. 15. Wedding of Thrustone Bufford and Annes
Agnes] Dyckson." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

Drew and Fulk are again found :

** 1583, April 16. Buried Drew Hewat, sonne of Nicholas
Hewat.

** 1583, March 8. Buried Foulke Phillip, sonne of Thomas
Phillip, grocer," — St. Peter, Cornhill.

Take the following, dropped upon hap-hazard as
I turn the pages of St. Dionis Backchurch :

** 1540, Oct. 25. Buried Jacomyn Swallowe.
** 1543, Aug. 3. Buried Awdrye Hykman.

*' I543> Ju"s 12. Married Bonyface Meorys and Jackamyn
Kelderly.

** 1546, Nov. 23. Christened Grizill, daughter of — Deyne.

** 1557, Nov. 8. Buried Austin Clarke.

** 1567, April 22. Married Richard Staper and Dennis Hewyt.

** 1573, Sep. 25. Married John Carrington and Gyllian Lovelake.

** 1574, Oct. 23. Buried Joyce, d. of John Bray.

** 1594, Nov. I. Married Gavvyn Browne and Sibbell Halfhed."

So they run. How quaint and pretty they
sound to modern ears ! Amongst the above I
have mentioned some girl-names. The change is
strongly marked here. It was Elizabeth's reign
saw the end of Joan. Jane Grey set the fashion-
able Jane going; Joan was relegated to the
milkmaid, and very soon even the kitchen wench
w^ould none of it. Joan is obsolete; Jane is showing
signs of dissolution.*

* A good instance of the position in society of Jane and Joan is
seen in Rowley's **A Woman never Vexed," where, in the dra??iatis
persona:^ Jane is daughter to the London Alderman, and Joan
servant-wench to the Widow. The play was written about 1630.

104 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

It was Elizabeth's reign saw the end of Jill, or
Gill, which had been the pet name of Juliana for
three centuries :

** 1586, Feb. 5. Christening of Gillian Jones, daughter of
Thomas Jones, grocer." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

** 1573, Sep. 25. Married John Carrington, CheajDe, and Gillian
Lovelake." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

In one of our earlier mysteries Noah's wife had
refused to enter the ark. To Noah she had said —

** Sir, for Jak nor for Gille
Wille I tume my face,
Tille I have on this hille
Spun a space."

It lingered on till the close of James's reign. In
1 619 we find in " Satyricall Epigrams " —

" Wille squabbled in a tavern very sore.
Because one brought a gill of wine — no more :
* Fill me a quart,' quoth he, * I'm called Will ;
The proverb is, each Jiuke shall have his Gill.'' "

But Jill had become a term for a common street
jade, like Parnel and Nan. All these disappeared
at this period, and must have sunk into disuse,
Bible or no Bible. A nanny-house, or simple
** nanny," was well known to the loose and dissolute
of either sex at the close of the sixteenth century.
Hence, in the ballad " The Two Angrie Women of
Abington," Nan Lawson is a wanton ; while, in
** Slippery Will," the hero's inclination for Nan is
anything but complimentary :

71JE HEBREW INVASION, 105

** I-ong have I lived a bachelor's life,
And had no mind to marry ;
But now I faine would have a wife,
Either Doll, Kate, Sis, or IVIary.
These four did love me very well,

I had my choice of Mary ;
But one did all the rest excell.
And that was pretty Nanny.
** Sweet Nan did love me deare indeed," etc.

Respectable people, still liking the name, changed
it to Nancy, and in that form it still lives.

Parnel, the once favourite Petronilla, fell under
the same blight as Peter, and shared his fate ;
but her character also ruined her. In the regis-
ters of St. Peter, Cornhill, we find the following
entries : —

" 1539, May 20. Christened Petronilla, ignoti cognominis."

** 1594, Sep. 15. Christening of Parnell Griphin, d. of John

Griphin, felt-maker."

** 1586, April 17. Christening of Parnell Averell, d. of William

Averell, merchant tailor."

Two other examples may be furnished : —

** 1553, Nov. 15. Petemoll, daughter of William Agar, bap-
tized."— St. Columb Major.

*' 1590, April. Pernell, d. of Antony Barton, of Poplar." —
Stepney, London.

The Restoration did not restore Parnel, and the
name is gone.

Sibyl had a tremendous run in her day, and
narrowly escaped a second epoch of favour in the
second Charles's reign. Tib and Sib w^ere always

io6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

placed side by side. Burton, speaking of "love
melancholy/' says —

*' One grows too fat, another too lean : modest Matilda, pretty
pleasing Peg, sweet singing Susan, mincing merry Moll, dainty
dancing Doll, neat Nancy, jolly Joan, nimble Nell, kissing Kate,
bouncing Bess with black eyes, fair Phillis with fine white hands,
fiddling Frank, tall Tib, slender Sib, will quickly lose their grace,
grow fulsome, stale, sad, heavy, dull, sour, and all at last out of
fashion."

The " Psalm of Mercie," too, has it :

** * So, so,' quoth my sister Bab,

And * Kill 'um,' quoth Margerie ;
* Spare none,' cry's old Tib ; * No quarter,' says Sib,
* And, hey, for our monachie.' "

In " Cocke Lorelle^s Bote," one of the personages
introduced is —

** Sibby Sole, my Ike wyfe of Islynton."

**Sibb Smith, near Westgate, Canterbury, 1650. *' Half-penny
Tokens of Seventeenth Century."

** 1590, Aug. 30. Christening of Cibell Overton, d. of Lawrence
Overton, bowyer."

Three names practically disappeared in this same
century — Olive, Jacomyn or Jacolin, and Grissel :

" 1581, Feb. 17. Baptized Olyff, daughter of Degorie Stubbs."
— St. Columb Major.

"1550, Dec. II. Christning of Grysell, daughter of — Plum-
mer." — St. Peter, Comhill.

** 1598, March 15. Buried Jacolyn Backley, widow." — St. Dionis
Backchurch.

Olive was a great favourite in the west of Eng-
land, and was restored by a caprice of fashion as
Olivia in the eighteenth century. It was the pro-

THE HEBREW INVASION. 107

perty of both sexes, and is often found in the dress
of ^^Olliph," "Olyffe,'' and "Olif." From being:
a household pet, Dorothy, as Doll, almost dis-
appeared for a while. Doll and Dolly came back
in the eighteenth century, under the patronage of
the royal and stately Dorothea. What a run it
again had ! Dolly is one of the few instances of
a really double existence. It was the rage from
1450 to 1570; it was overwhelmed with favour
from 1750 to 1820. Dr. Syntax in his travels
meets with three Dollys. Napoleon is besought in
the rhymes of the day to

** quit his folly.
Settle in England, and marry Dolly."

Once more Dolly, saving for Dora, has made
her bow and exit. I suppose she may turn up
again about 1990, and all the little girls will be
wearing Dolly Vardens.

Barbara^ with its pet Bab, is now of rarest use.
DowsCy the pretty Douce of earlier days, is defunct,,
and with it the fuller Dowsabel :

**I565, Sep. 9. Buried Dowse, wife of John Thomas." — St.
Dionis Backchurch.

Joyce fought hard, but it was useless :

** 1563, Sep. 8. Buried Joyce, wife of Thomas Armstrong." —
St. Dionis Backchurch.

" 1575, April 5. Baptized Joyes, daughter of John Lyttacott." —
St. Columb Major.

loS CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

** 1652, Aug. 18. Married Joseph Sumner and Joyce Stallow-
hace."— St. Peter, Cornhill.

Lettice disappeared, to come back as Laetitia in
the eighteenth century :

** 1587, June 19. Married Richard Evannes and Lettis Warren."
—St. Peter, Cornhill.

Ameryy or Emery, the property of either sex,
lost place :

** 15S4, April 9. Buried Amery Martin, widow, of Wilsdon." —
St. Peter, CornhilL

" 1668. Emerre Bradley, baker, Hartford.*'—" Tokens of Seven-
teenth Century."

Avice shared the same fate :

** Avis Kingston and Amary Clerke, widow, applied for arrears
of i^ay due to their husbands, May 13, 1656." — C. S. P.

" 1590-1, Jan. Christened Avis, d. of Philip Cliff."— Stepney.

*'i6cx>, Feb. 6. Baptized Avice, daughter of Thomas Bennett."
— St. Columb Major.

** 1623, August 5. Christened Thomas, the sonne of James
Jennets, and Avice his wife." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

Thomasine requires a brief notice. Coming into
use as a fancy name about 1450, it seems to have
met with no opposition, and for a century and a
half was a decided success. It became familiar to
every district in England, north or south, and is
found in the registers of out-of-the-way villages
in Derbyshire, as plentifully as in those of the
metropolitan churches :

** 1538, Nov. 30. Married Edward Bashe and Thomeson Agar."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 109

** 15S2, Nov. I. Baptized Tamson, daughter of Richard Hodge.""
— St. Columb Major.

"1622, Jan. 19. Christened Thomas, the sonne of Heneiy
Thomson, haberdasher, and of Thomazine his wife." — St. Peter,
Comhill.

" 1620, Jan. 21. Baptized Johanna, fil. Tamsin Smith, adulterina."
— Minster.

** 1640, Jan. 31. Buried Thomasing, filia William Sympson." —
Wirksworth, Derbyshire.

In Other registers such forms as Thomasena,

Thomesin, Thomazin, Tomasin, and Thomasin

occur. In Cowley's " Chronicle," too, the name

is found :

** Then Jone and Jane and Audria,
And then a pretty Thomasine,
And then another Katharine,
And then a long et coetera. "

V. The General Confusion.

But what a state of confusion does all this
reveal ! By the time of the Commonwealth, there
was the choice of three methods of selection open
to the English householder in this matter of names.
He might copy the zealot faction, and select his
names from the Scriptures or the category of
Christian graces ; he might rally by the old
English gentleman, who at this time was generally
a Cavalier, and Dick, Tom, Harry, or Dolly, his
children ; or he might be careless about the whole
matter, and mix the two, according to his caprice

no CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

or fancy. That Royalist had no bad conception of
the state of society in 1648, when he turned off
verses such as these :

** And Greenwich shall be for tenements free
For saints to possess Pell-Mell,
And where all the sport is at Hampton Court
Shall be for ourselves to dwell.
Chorus, * 'Tis blessed,* quoth Bathsheba,

And Clemence, * We're all agreed.*
* *Tis right,' quoth Gertrude, 'And fit,* says sweet Jude,
And Thomasine, *Yea, indeed.*

*'What though the king proclaims
Our meetings no more shall be ;
In private we may hold forth the right way.
And be, as we should be, free.
Chorus, ' O very well said,* quoth Con ;

* And so will I do,* says Franck ;

And Mercy cries, * Aye,* and Mat, * Really,'

* And I'm o' that mind,* quoth Thank."

As we shall show in our next chapter, " Thank "
was no imaginary name, coined to meet the exi-
gencies of rhyme. Thanks, however, to the good
sense of the nation, an effort was made in behalf
of such old favourites as John, William, Richard,
Robert, and Thomas. So early as 1643, Thomas
Adams, Puritan as he was, had delivered himself
in a London pulpit to the effect that "he knew
* Williams ' and * Richards ' who, though they bore
names not found in sacred story, but familiar to
the country, were as gracious saints " as any who

THE HEBREW INVASION, iii

bore names found in it (" Meditations upon the
Creed "). The Cavalier, we know, had deHberately
stuck by the old names. A political skit, already
referred to, after running through a list of all the
new-fangled names introduced by the fanatics, con-
cludes :

** They're just like the Gadaren's swine,

Which the devils did drive and bewitch :
An herd set on evill
Will run to the de-vill

And his dam when their tailes do itch.

* Then let *em run on ! '
Says Ned, Tom, and John.

* Ay, let 'um be hanged ! ' quoth Mun :

'They're mine,' quoth old Nick,

* And take 'um,* says Dick,

* And welcome ! * quoth worshipful Dun.

* And God blesse King Charles ! * quoth George,

* And save him,' says Simon and Sill ;

* Aye, aye,' quoth old Cole and each loyall soul,

* And Amen, and Amen ! ' cries Will."

Another ballad, lively and free as the other, pub-
lished in 1648, and styled "The Anarchic, or the
Blest Reformation," after railing at the confusion
of things in general, and names in particular,
concludes with the customary jolly old English
flourish :

** * A health to King Charles ! ' says Tom ;
* Up with it,' says Ralph like a man ;

* God bless him,' says Moll, * And raise him,' says Doll,

* And send him his owne,* says Nan."

The Restoration practically ended the conflict,

112 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

but it was a truce ; for both sides, so far as nomen-
clature is concerned, retained trophies of victory,
and, on the whole, the Hebrew was the gainer. At
the start he had little to lose, and he has filled the
land with titles that had lain in abeyance for four
thousand years. The old English yeoman has lost
many of his most honoured cognomens, but he can
still, at least, boast one thing. The two names
that were foremost before the middle of the
twelfth century stand at this moment in the same
position. Out of every hundred children baptized
in England, thirteen are entered in the register as
John or William. The Cavalier, too, can boast that
** Charles,"* although there were not more of that
name throughout the length and breadth of Eng-
land at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign than
could be counted on the fingers of one hand, now

^ There seems to have been some difficulty in forming the femi-
nines of Charles, all of which are modern. Charlotte was known in
England before the queen of George III. made it popular, through
the brave Charlet la Tremouille, Lady Derby ; but it w^as rarely
used :

"1670, Oct. 26. Sir Sam\ Morland to Carola Harsnet." —
Westminster Abbey.

** 1703. Charlotte Eliza, d. of Mr. John Harmand, a French
minister. " — Hammersmith.

**9 Will. III. June 29. Caroletta Hasting, defendant." — Decree
Rolls, MSS. Record Office.

Carolina, Englished into Caroline, became for a while the favourite,
but Charlotte ran away with the honours after the beloved princess
of that name died.

THE HEBREW INVASION. 113

occupies the sixth place among male baptismal
names.

Several names, now predominant, were for
various reasons lifted above the contest. George
holds the fourth position among boys; Mary and
Elizabeth, the first and second among girls. George
dates all his popularity from the last century, and
Maiy was in danger of becoming obsolete at the
close of Elizabeth's reign, so hateful had it become
to Englishmen, whether Churchmen or Presby-
terians. It was at this time Philip, too, lost a
place it can never recover. But the fates came
to the rescue of Mary, when the Prince of Orange
landed at Torbay, and sate with James's daughter
on England's throne. It has been first favourite
ever since. As for Elizabeth, a chapter might be
written upon it. Just known, and no more, at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, it was speedily
popularized in the " daughter of the Reformation.'*
The Puritans, in spite of persecution and other
provocations, were ever true to **Good Queen
Bess." The name, too, was scriptural, and had
not been mixed up with centuries of Romish
superstition. Elizabeth ruled supreme, and was
contorted and twisted into every conceivable shape
that ingenuity could devise. It narrowly escaped
the diminutive desinence, for Ezot and Ezota occur

I

114 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

to my knowledge four times in records between
1500 and 1530. But Bess and Bessie took up
the running, and, a century later, Bett and Betty.
It will surprise almost all my readers, I suspect,
to know that the " Lady Bettys " of the early part
of last century were never, or rarely ever, chris-
tened Elizabeth. Queen Anne's reign, even Wil-
liam and Mary's reign, saw the fashionable rage
for Latinized forms, already referred to, setting in.
Elizabeth was turned into Bethia and Betha :

" 1707, Jan. 2. Married Will™. Simonds and Bethia Ligboiirne."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1721. Married Charles Bawden to Bethia Thornton." — Somer-
set House Chapel.

** 1748. Married Adam AUyn to Bethia Lee." *— Ditto.

The familiar form of this was Betty :

** Betty Trevor, wife of the Hon. John Trevor, eldest d. of Sir
Thomas Frankland, of Thirkleby, in the county of York, Baronet,
ob. Dec. 28, 1742, oetat. 25." — ** Suss. Arch. Coll.," xvii. 148.

* Bethia still lingers in certain families, but its origin has mani-
festly been forgotten. In Notes and Queries, February 23, 1861, Mr.
W. A. Leighton deems the name an incorrect version of the scrip-
tural Bithiah (i Chron. iv. 18) ; while " G.," writing March 9, 1861,
evidently agrees with this conclusion, for after saying that his
aunt, a sister, and two cousins bear it, he adds, " They spell it
Bethia and Bathia, instead of Bithiah, which is the accurate form " !
Miss Yonge also is at fault : " The old name of Bethia, to be found
in various English families, probably came from an ancestral Beth
on either Welsh, Scots, or Irish sides." She makes it Keltic.

The latest instance of Bethia I have seen is the following, on a
mural tablet in Kirkthorpe Church, York : —

"Bethia Atkins, ob. Ap. i6th, 1851, aged 74."

THE HEBREW INVASION. 115

Bess was forgotten, and it was not till the
present century that, Betty having become the
property of the lower orders, who had soon learnt
to copy their betters, the higher classes fell back
once more on the Bessie of Reformation days.

Meanwhile other freaks of fancy had a turn.
Bessie and Betty were dropped into a mill, and
ground out as Betsy. This, after a while, was
relegated to the peasantry and artisans north of
Trent. Then Tetty and Tetsy had an innings.
Dr. Johnson always called his wife Tetty. Writing
March 28, 1753, he says —

" I kept this day as the anniversary of my Tetty's death, with
prayer and tears in the morning."

Eliza arose before Elizabeth died ; was popular
in the seventeenth, much resorted to in the
eighteenth, and is still familiar in the nineteenth
century. Thomas Nash, in " Summer's Last Will
and Testament," has the audacity to speak of the
queen as —

** that Eliza, England's beauteous queen,
On whom all seasons prosperously attend. "

Dr. Johnson, in an epigram anent Colley Gibber
and George II., says —

" Augustus still survives in Maro's strain,
And Spenser's verse prolongs Eliza's reign."

But by the lexicographer's day, the poorer

ii6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

classes had ceased to recognize that Eliza and
Betty were parts of one single name. They took
up each on her own account, as a separate name,
and thus Betty and Eliza were commonly met
with in the same household. This is still fre-
quently seen. The Spectator, the other day,
furnished a list of our commonest font names,
wherein Elizabeth is placed fourth, with 4610
representatives in every 100,000 of the popula-
tion. Looking lower down, we find "Eliza" ranked
in the twenty-first place with 1507. This is
scarcely fair. The two ought to be added to-
gether ; at least, it perpetuates a misconception.

( 117 )

CHAPTER II.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES.

**And we have known Williams and Richards, names not found
in sacred story, but familiar to our country, prove as gracious saints
as any Safe-deliverance, Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith, or such like,
which have been rather descriptions than names." — Thomas Adams,
Meditations upon the Creed, 1629.

' ' In giving names to children, it was their opinion that heathenish
nafjtes should be avoided, as not so fit for Christians ; and also the
names of God, and Christ, and angels, and the peculiar offices of the
Mediator," — Neal, History of the Puritans, vol. I, ch. v. 1565.

I. Introductory.

There are still many people who are sceptical
about the stories told against the Puritans in the
matter of name-giving. Of these some are Non-
conformists, who do not like the slights thus cast
upon their spiritual ancestry ; unaware that while
this curious phase was at its climax, Puritanism was
yet within the pale of the Church 'of England.
Others, having searched through the lists of the
Protector's Parliaments, Commissioners, and army
officers, and having found but a handful of odd

Ii8 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

baptismal names, declare, without hesitation, that
these stories are wicked calumnies. Mr. Peacock,
whose book on the "Army Lists of Roundheads
and Cavaliers " is well worth study, says, in one of
the numbers of Notes and Queries —

** I know modem writers have repeated the same thing over and
over again ; but I do not remember any tmstworthy evidence of the
Commonwealth time, or that of Charles II., that would lead us to
l^elieve that strange christian names were more common in those
days than now. What passages have we on this subject in the
works of the Restoration playwrights ? "

This is an old mistake. If Mr. Peacock had
looked at our registers from 1580 to 1640, instead
of from 1640 to 1680, he would never have written
the above. There is the most distinct evidence
that during the latter portion of Elizabeth's reign,
the whole of James's reign, and great part of
Charles's reign, in a district roughly comprising
England south of the Trent, and having, say, Ban-
bury for its centre, there prevailed, amongst al
certain class of English religionists, a practice of!
baptizing children by scriptural phrases, pious'
ejaculations, or godly admonitions. It was a
practice instituted of deliberate purpose, as con-
ducive to vital religion, and as intending to sepa-
rate the truly godly and renewed portion of the
community from the world at large. The Re-
formation epoch had seen the English middle and

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 119

lower classes generally adopting the proper names
of Scripture. Thus, the sterner Puritan had found
a list of Bible names that he would gladly have
monopolized, shared in by half the English popu-
lation. That a father should style his child Nehe-
miah, or Abacuck, or Tabitha, or Dorcas, he
discovered with dismay, did not prove that that
particular parent was under any deep conviction of
sin. This began to trouble the minds and con-
sciences of the elect Fresh limits must be created.
As Richard and Roger had given way to Nathaniel
and Zerrubabel, so Nathaniel and Zerrubabel must
now give way to Learn-wisdom and Hate-evil. Who
inaugurated the movement, with what success, and
how it slowly waned, this chapter will show.

There can be no doubt that it is entirely owing
to Praise-God Barebone, and the Parliament that
went by his name,* the impression got abroad in
after days that the Commonwealth period was the
heyday of these eccentricities, and that these re-
markable names were merely adopted after con-
version, and were not entered in the vestry-books
as baptismal names at all.

The existence of these names could not escape

* " But the ridicule which falls on this mode of naming children
belongs not to these times only, for the practice was in use long
before. "^-Harris, "Life of Oliver Cromwell," p. 342.

120 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

the attention of Lord Macaulay and Sir Walter
Scott. The Whig historian has referred to Tribula-
tion Wholesome and Zeal-of-the-land Busy almost
as frequently as to that fourth-form boy for whose
average (!) abilities to the very end of his literary
life he entertained such a profound respect. Two
quotations will suffice. In his " Comic Dramatists
of the Restoration '' he says, speaking of the Com-
monwealth—

** To know whether a man was really godly was impossible. But
it was easy to know whether he had a plain dress, lank hair, no
starch in his linen, no gay furniture in his house ; whether he talked
through his nose, and showed the whites of his eyes ; whether
he named his children Assurance, Tribulation, and Maher-shalal-
hash-bazy

Again, in his Essay on Croker's "Boswell's Life
of Johnson," he declares —

** Johnson could easily see that a Roundhead who named all
his children after Solomon's singers, and talked in the House of
/ Commons about seeking the Lord, might be an unprincipled villain,
whose religious mummeries only aggravated his fault. "

In " Woodstock," Scott has such characters as Zer-
riihabel Robins and Merciful Strickalthrow, both
soldiers of Oliver Cromwell ; while the zealot ranter
is one Neherniah Holdenough. Mr. Peacock most
certainly has grounds for complaint here, but not
as to facts, only dates.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 121

II. Originated by the Presbyterian
Clergy.

In Strypes " Life of Whitgift " (i. 255) we find
the following statement : —

" I find yet again another company of these fault-finders with the
Book of Common Prayer, in another diocese, namely, that of
Chichester, whose names and livings were these : William Hopkin-
son, vicar of Salehurst ; Samuel Norden, parson of Hamsey ;
Antony Hobson, vicar of Leominster ; Thomas Underdown, parson
of St. Mary's in Lewes ; John Bingham, preacher of Hodeleigh ;
Thomas Heley, preacher of Warbleton ; John German, vicar of
Burienam ; and Richard Whiteaker, vicar of Ambreley. "

I follow up the history of but two of these minis-
ters, Hopkinson of Salehurst, and Heley of Warble-
ton. Suspended by the commissary, they were
summoned to Canterbury, December 6, 1583, and
subscribed. Both being married men, with young
families, we may note their action in regard to
name-giving. The following are to be found in
the register at Salehurst :

" Maye 3, 1579, was baptized Persis (Rom. xvi. 12), the daughter
of William Hopkinson, minister heare.

"June 18, 1587, was baptized Stedfast, the sonne of Mr. William
Bell, minister.

" Nov. 3, 1588, was baptized Renewed, the doughter of William
Hopkinson, minister.

" Feb. 28, 1591, was baptized Safe-on-Highe, the sonne of Will™.
Hopkinson, minister of the Lord's Worde there.*

"Oct. 29, 1596. Constant, filia Thomae Lorde, baptisata fuit.

* This child was buried a few days later. From the name given
the father seems to have expected the event.

122 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

** March, 1621. Rejoyce, filia Thomce Lorde, baptisata fiiit die
10, et sepulta die 23.

"November, 1646. Bethshua, doughter of Mr. John Lorde,
minister of Salehurst, bapt. 22 die."

These entries are of the utmost importance ; they
begin at the very date when the new custom arose,
and are patronized by three ministers in succession
— possibly four, if Thomas Lorde was also a clergy-
man.

Heley's case is yet more curious. He had been
prescribing grace-names for his flock shortly before
the birth of his first child. He thus practises upon
his own offspring :

"Nov. 7, 1585. Muche-merceye, the sonne of Thomas Hellye,
minyster.

"March 26, 1587. Increased, the dather of Thomas Ilelly,
minister.

" Maye 5, 1588. Sin-denie, the dather of Thomas Helly, minister.

"Maye 25, 1589. Fear-not, the sonne of Thomas Helly,
minister. "

Under rectorial pressure the villagers followed suit ;
and for half a century Warbleton was, in the names
of its parishioners, a complete exegesis of justifica-
tion by faith without the deeds of the law. Sorry-
for-sin Coupard was a peripatetic exhortation to
repentance, and No-merit Vynall was a standing
denunciation of works. No register in England is
better worth a pilgrimage to-day than Warbleton.*

* From 1585 to 1600, that is, in fifteen years, Warbleton register
records more than a hundred examples of eccentric Puritanism.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 123

Still confining our attention to Sussex and Kent,
we come to Berwick :

" 1594, Dec. 22. Baptized Continent, daughter of Hugh Walker,
vicar.

" 1602, Dec. 12. Baptized Christophilus, son of Hugh Walker."
— Berwick, Sussex.

I think the father ought to be whipped most
incontinently in the open market who would inflict
such a name on an infant daughter. They did not
think so then. The point, however, is that the
father was incumbent of the parish.

A more historic instance may be given. John
Frewen, Puritan rector of Northiam, Sussex, from
1583 to 1628, and author of "Grounds and Principles
of the Christian Religion," had two sons, at least,
baptized in his church. The dates tally exactly
with the new custom :

** 1588, May 26. Baptized Accepted, sonne of John Frewen.
**I59I, Sep. 5. Baptized Thankful, sonne of John Frewen." —
Northiam, Sussex.

Accepted^ died Archbishop of York, being prebend
designate of Canterbury so early as 1620 :

** 1620, Sep. 8. Grant in reversion to Accepted Frewen of a
prebend in Canterbury Cathedral."— ** C. S. P. Dom."

One more instance before we pass on. In two

* This name crept into Yorkshire after Accepted Frewen became
archbishop. "Thornton Church is a little episcopal chapel-of-
ease, rich in Nonconformist monuments, as of Accepted Lister, and
his friend Dr. Hale. "—Mrs. Gaskell's "Charlotte Bronte," p. 37.

124 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

separate wills, dated 1602 and 1604 (folio 25, Mon-
tagu, "Prerog. Ct. of Cant," and folio 25, Harte,
ditto), will be found references to " More-fruite and
F'aint-not, children of Dudley Fenner, minister of
the Word of God " at Harden, in Kent.

Now, this Dudley Fenner was a thoroughly
worthy man, but a fanatic of most intolerant type.
In 1583 we find him at Cranbrook, in Kent. An
account of his sayings and doings was forwarded,
says Strype, to Lord Burghley, who himself marked
the following passage : —

''Ye shall pray also that God would strike through the sides of
all such as go about to take away from the ministers of the Gospel
the liberty which is granted them by the Word of God. "

But a curious note occurs alongside this passage in
Lord Burghley *s hand :

** Names given in baptism by Dudley Fenner : Joy-againe, From-
above, More-fruit, Dust." — Whitgift, i. p. 247.

Two of these names were given to his own
children, as Cranbrook register shows to this day :

" 1583, Dec. 22. Baptized More-fruit, son of Mr. Dudley Fenner."
" 1 5^5? J^^i^^ ^- Baptized Faint-not, iil. Mr. Dudley Fenner,
concional digniss."

Soon after this Dudley Fenner again got into
trouble through his sturdy spirit of nonconformity.
After an imprisonment of twelve months, he fled
to Middleborough, in Holland, and died there
about 1589.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 125

The above incident from Strype is interesting,
for here manifestly is the source whence Camden
derived his information upon the subject. In his
quaint "Remaines," published thirty years later
(1614), after alluding to the Latin names then in
vogue, he adds :

*' As little will be thought of the new names, Free-Gift, Reforma-
tion, Earth, Dust, Ashes, Delivery, More-fruit, Tribulation, The-
Lord-is-near, More-triale, Discipline, Joy-againe, From-above, which
have lately been given by some to their children, with no evill
meaning, but upon some singular and precise conceite."

Very likely Lord Burghley gave Fenner's selection
to the great antiquary.

Coming into London, the following case occurs.
John Press was incumbent of St. Matthew, Friday
Street, from 1573 to 1612 :

*' 1584. Baptized Purifie, son of Mr. John Presse, parson."

John Bunyan's great character name of Hopeful
is to be seen in Banbury Church register. But
such an eccentricity is to be expected in the parish
over which Wheatley presided, the head-quarters,
too, of extravagant Puritanism. We all remember
drunken Barnaby :

"To Banbury came I, O prophane one !
Where I saw a Puritane one,
Hanging of his cat on Monday
For killing of a mouse on Sunday."

But the point I want to emphasize is that this

Hopeful was Wheatley's own daughter :

**i6o4, Dec. 21. Baptized Hope-full, daughter of William
Wheatlye."

126 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Take a run from Banbury into Leicestershire.
A stern Puritan was Antony Grey, "parson and
patron " of Burbach ; and he continued " a con-
stant and faithful! preacher of the Gospell of Jesus
Christ, even to his extreame old age, and for some
yeares after he was Earle of Kent," as his tomb-
stone tells us. He had twelve children, and their
baptismal entries are worth recording :

** 1593, April 29. Grace, daughter of Mr. Anthonie Grey.
**I594, Nov. 28. Henry, son of ditto.
"1596, Nov. 16. Magdalen, daughter of ditto.
** 1598, May 8. Christian, daughter of ditto.
** 1600, Feb. 2. Faith-my-joy, daughter of ditto.*
** 1603, April 3. John, son of ditto.

** 1604, Feb. 23. Patience, daughter of Myster Anthonie Grey,
preacher.

** 1606, Oct. 5. Jobe, son of ditto.

*' 1608, May I. Theophilus, son of ditto.

** 1609, March 14. Priscilla, daughter of ditto (died).

"1613, Sept. 19. Nathaniel, son of ditto.

" 161 5, May 7. Presela, daughter of ditto.

Why old Antony was persuaded of the devil to
christen his second child by the ungodly agnomen
of Henry, we are not informed. It must have
given him many a twinge of conscience afterwards.
Had the Puritan clergy confined these vagaries
to their own nurseries, it would not have mattered

* Faith-my-joy vi^as buried June 12, 1602. While the name was
Puritan in the sense that it would never have been given but for the
zealots, it was merely a translation of the Purefoy motto, " Pure Foi
ma Joi." Antony turned it into a spiritual allusion.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 127

much. But there can be no doubt they used
their influence to bias the minds of godparents
and witnesses in the same direction. We have
only to pitch upon a minister who came under the
archbishop's or Lord Treasurer's notice as disaf-
fected, seek out the church over which he presided,
scan the register of baptisms during the years of
his incumbency, and a batch of extravagant names
will at once be unearthed. In the villages of
Sussex and Kent, where the personal influence
of the recalcitrant clergy seems to have been
greatest, the parochial records teem with them.

Thus was the final stage of fanaticism reached,
the year 1580 being as nearly as possible the
exact date of its development. Thus were English
people being prepared for the influx of a large
batch of names which had never been seen before,
nor will be again. The purely Biblical names,
those that commemorated Bible worthies, swept
over the whole country, and left ineff*aceable im-
pressions. The second stage of Puritan excess,
names that savour of eccentricity and fanaticism
combined, scarcely reached England north of
Trent, and, for lack of volume, have left but the
faintest traces. They lasted long enough to cover
what may be fairly called an epoch, and extended
just far enough to embrace a province. The epoch

128 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

was a hundred years, and the province was from
Kent to Hereford, making a small arc northwards,
so as to take in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Buck-
inghamshire, and Oxfordshire. The practice, so
far as the bolder examples is concerned, was a
delibej^ate scheme on the part of the Presbyterian
clergy. On this point the evidence is in all respects
conclusive.

III. Curious Names not Puritan.

Several names found in the registers at this time,
though commonly ascribed to the zealots, must be
placed under a different category. For instance,
original sin and the Ninth Article would seem to
be commemorated in such a name as Original.
We may reject Camden's theory :

* ' Originall may seem to be deducted from the Greek origines, that
is, borne in good time,"

inasmuch as he does not appear to have believed
in it himself. The name, as a matter of fact, was
given in the early part of the sixteenth century,
in certain families of position, to the eldest son
and heir, denoting that in him was carried on the
original stock. The Bellamys of Lambcote Grange,
Stainton, are a case in point. The eldest son for
three generations bore the name ; viz. Original
Bellamy, buried at Stainton, September 12, 161 9,

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 129

aged 80 ; Original, his son and heir, the record of
whose death I cannot find ; and Original, his son
and heir, who was baptized December 29, 1606.
The first of these must have been born in 1539,
far too early a date for the name to be fathered
upon the Puritans. Original was in use in the
family of Babington, of Rampton. Original Bab-
ington, son and heir of John Babington, was a con-
temporary of the first Original Bellamy (NichoU's
" Gen. et Top.,'' viii.).

Another instance occurs later on :

** 1635, M^y 21. These under-written names are to be trans-*
ported to St. Christopher's, imbarqued in the Matthew of London,
Richard Goodladd, master, per warrant from ye Earle of Carlisle :

** Originall Lowis, 28yeres," etc. — Hotten's ** Emigrants," p. 81.

Sense, a common name in Elizabeth and James's
reigns, looks closely connected with some of the
abstract virtues, such as Prudence and Temperance.
The learned compiler of the " Calendar of State
Papers (1637-38) seems to have been much bothered
with the name :

" 1638, April 23. Petition of Seuce Whitley, widow of
Thomas Whitley, citizen, and grocer."

The suggestion from the editorial pen is that this
Seuce (as he prints it) is a bewildered spelling of
Susey, from Susan ! The fact is, Seuce is a be-
wildered misreading on the compiler's part of
Sense, and Sense is an English dress of the foreign

K

130 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Senchia, or Sancho, still familiar to us in Sancho
Panza. Several of the following entries will prove
that Sense was too early an inmate of our registers
to be a Puritan agnomen :

" 1564, Oct. 15. Baptized Saints, d. of Francis Muschamp.

"1565, Nov. 25. Buried Sence, d. of ditto.

*' 1559* Jii^e 13. Married Matthew Draper and Sence Blackwell.

** 1 570-1, Jan. 15. Baptized Sence, d. of John Bowyer." —
Camberwell Church.

"1651. Zanchy Harvyn, Grocer's Arms, Abbey Milton."—
'* Tokens of Seventeenth Century."

*' 1661, June. Petition of Mrs. Zanchy Mark."— C. S. P.

That it was familiar to Camden in 16 14 is clear :

" Sanchia, from Sancta, that is. Holy. — "Remaines," p. 88.

The name became obsolete by the close of th(
seventeenth century, and, being a saintly title, wa*
sufficiently odious to the Presbyterians to be care
fully rejected by them in the sixteenth century
Men who refused the Apostles their saintly titl(
were not likely to stamp the same for life on weal
flesh.*

Nor can Emanuel^ or Angel, be brought a
charges against the Puritans. Both flatly contra
dieted Cartwright's canon ; yet both, and especiall;
the former, have been attributed to the zealots. N«

* **0n Jan. 28, 17 James I., William Foster . . . together wit
Sir Henry Burton, Susan Mowne, and James Bynde, and Sancti
or Sence his wife, joined in conveying to Robert Raunce and Edwai
Thurland ... a house and land in Carshalton on trust to sell."-
** Bray's Surrey," ii. 513.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 131

names could have been more offensive to them
than these. Even Adams, in his " Meditations
upon the Creed," while attacking his friends on
their eccentricity in preferring "Safe-deliverance"
to '' Richard," takes care to rebuke those on the
other side, who would introduce E^namiel, or even
Gabriel or Michael, into their nurseries :

* ' Some call their sons Emanuel : this is too bold. The name is
proper to Christ, therefore not to be communicated to any creature."

Emanuel was imported from the Continent about
1500 :

" 1545, March 19. Baptized Humphrey, son of Emanuell
Roger." — St. Columb Major.

The same conclusion must be drawn regardinsr
Afigel. Adams continues :

" Yea, it seems to me not fit for Christian humility to call a man
Gabriel or Michael, giving the names of angels to the sons of
mortality."

If the Puritans objected, as they did to a man,
to the use of Gabriel and Michael as angelic
names, the generic term itself would be still more
objectionable :

" 1645, Nov. 13. Buried Miss Angela Boyce." — Cant. Cath.

" 1682, April II. Baptized Angel, d. of Sir Nicholas Butler,
K°*."— St. Helen, Bishopgate.

** Weymouth, March 20, 1635. Embarked for New England:
Angell Holland, aged 21 years." — Hotten's " Emigrants," p. 285.

In this case we may presume the son, and not the
father, had turned Puritan.

132 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE,

A curious custom, which terminated soon after
Protestantism was established in England, gave
rise to several names which read oddly enough
to modern eyes. These were titles like Vitalis
or Creature — names applicable to either sex. Mr.
Maskell, without furnishing instances, says Creature
occurs in the registers of All-Hallows, Barking
0' Hist. All-Hallows," p. 62). In the vestry-books
of Staplehurst, Kent, are registered :

**i Edward VI. Apryle xxvii., there were borne ii. childre of
Alex'nder Beeryl: the one christened at home, and so deceased,
called Creature; the other christened at church, called John." — Burns,
" History of Parish Registers," p. 8i.

"1550, Nov. 5. Buried Creature, daughter of Agnes Mathews,
syngle woman, the seconde childe.

" I579> July 19* Married John Haffynden and Creature Chese-
man, yong folke." — Staplehurst, Kent.

One instance of Vitalis may be given :

"Vitalis, son of Richard Engaine, and Sara his wife, released his
manor of Dagworth in 1217 to Margery de Cressi." — Blomefield's
" Norfolk, »' vi. 382, 383.

These are not Puritan names. The dates are
against the theory. They belong to a pre-
Reformation practice, being names given to quick
children before birthy in cases when it was feared,
from the condition of the mother, they might
not be delivered alive. Being christened before
the sex could be known, it was necessary to affix
a neutral name, and Vitalis or Creature answered
the purpose. The old Romish rubric ran thus :

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 133

" Nemo in uteromatris clausus baptizari debet, sed si infans caput
emiserit, et periculum mortis immineat, baptizetur in capite, nee
postea si vivus evaserit, erit iterum baptizandus. At si aliud
membrum emiserit, quod vitalem indicet motum in illo, si periculum
pendeat baptizetur, " etc.

Vitalis Engaine and Creature Cheeseman, in
the above instances, both lived, but, by the law
just quoted, retained the names given to them,
and underwent no second baptism. If the sex
of the yet breathing child was discovered, but
death certain, the name of baptism ran thus :

** 1563, July 17. Baptizata fiiit in gedibus Mri Humfrey filia ejus
quae nominata fuit Creatura Christi." — St. Peter in the East,
Oxford.

**I5^3> July 17- Creatura Christi, filia Laurentii Humfredi
sepulta."— Ditto.

An English form occurs earlier :

" 1561, June 30. The Chylde-of-God, filius Ric. Stacey. "—Ditto.

Without entering into controversy, I will only
say that if the clergy, up to the time of the
alteration in our Article on Baptism, truly be-
lieved that ''insomuch as infants, and children
dying in their infancy, shall undoubtedly be saved
thereby (i.e. baptism), and else notl' it was natural
that such a delicate ceremonial as I have hinted
at should have suggested itself to their minds.
After the Reformation, the practice as to unborn
children fell into desuetude, and the names with it.

134 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

IV. Instances.

{a) Latin Names,

The elder Disraeli reminded us, in his *' Curiosi-
ties of Literature," that in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries it was common for our more
learned pundits to re-style themselves in their own
studies by Greek and Latin names. Some of
these — as, for instance, Erasmus * and Melancthon
— are only known to the world at large by their
adopted titles.

The Reformation had not become an accom-
plished fact before this custom began to prevail
in England, only it was transferred from the study
to the font, and from scholars to babies. Reno-
vata, Renatus, Donatus, and Beata began to grow
common. Camden, writing in 1614, speaks of
still stranger names —

** If that any among us have named their children Remedium,
Amoris, * Imago-saeculi,' or with such-like names, I know some will
think it more than a vanity." — ** Remaines," p. 44.

While, however, the Presbyterian clergy did not

* Erasmus became a popular baptismal name, and still exists :

** 1 541, Jan. 3. Baptized Erasmus, sonne of John Lynsey." — St.
Peter, Cornhill.

"1593, Sep. 16. Baptized Erasmus, sonne of John Record, mer-
chaunt tailor." — Ditto.

" 161 1, July, 18. Buried Erasmus Finche, captaine, of Dover
Castle."— Cant. Cath.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 135

object to some of these Latin sobriquets, as being
identical with the names of early believers of
the Primitive Church, stamped in not a few in-
stances with the honours of martyrdom, they pre-
ferred to translate them into English. Many of
my examples of eccentricity will be found to
be nothing more than literal translations of names
that had been in common vogue among Christians
twelve and thirteen hundred years before. To
the majority of the Puritan clergy, to change the
Latin dress for an English equivalent would be
as natural and imperative as the adoption of
Tyndale's or the Genevan Bible in the place of
the Latin Vulgate.

A curious, though somewhat later, proof of this
statement is met with in a will from the Probate
Court of Peterborough. The testator was one
Theodore Closland, senior fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, The date is June 24, 1665 •

"Item: to What-God-will Crosland, forty shillings, and tenn
shillings to his wife. And to his sonne What-God-will, six pound,
thirteen shillings, fourpence."

This is a manifest translation of the early Chris-
tian " Quod-vult-deus." Grainger, in his " History
of England " (iii. 360, fifth edition), says —

**In Montfaucon's 'Diarium Italiciim ' (p. 270), is a sepulchral
inscription of the year 396, upon Quod-vult-deus, a Christian, to
which is a note : * Hoc sevo non pauci erant qui piis sententiolis
nomina propria concinnarent, v.g. Quod-vult-deus, Deogratias,
Habet-deum, Adeodatus.' "

136 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Closland, or Crosland, the grandfather, was evi-
dently a Puritan, with a horror of the Latin Vul-
gate, Latin Pope, and Latin everything. Hence
the translation.

Nevertheless, the Puritans seem to have favoured
Latin names at first. It was a break between the
familiar sound of the old and the oddity of the
new. Redemptus was less grotesque than Re-
deemed, and Renata than Renewed. The English
equivalents soon ruled supreme, but for a genera-
tion or two, and in some cases for a century, the
Latin names went side by side with them.

Take Renatus, for instance :

** 1616, Sep. 29. Baptized Renatus, son of Renatus Byllett,
gent." — St. Columb Major.

" 1637-8, Jan. 12. Order of Council to Renatus Edwards, girdler,
to shut up his shop in Lombard Street, because he is not a goldsmith.

" 1690, April 10. Petition of Eenatus Palmer, who prays to be
appointed surveyor in the port of Dartmouth. " — C. S. P.

" 1659, Nov. II. Baptized Renovata, the daughter of John
Durance." — Cant. Cath.

It was Renatus Harris who built the organ in
All-Hallows, Barking, in 1675 ("Hist. All- Hallows,
Barking," Maskell). Renatus and Rediviva occur
in St. Matthew, Friday Street, circa 1590. Redi-
viva lingered into the eighteenth century :

" i735j • Buried Rediviva Mathews." — Banbury.

Desiderata and Desiderius were being used at the

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 137

close of Elizabeths reign, and survived the re-
storation of Charles 11. :

" 1671, May 26. Baptized Desiderius Dionys, a poor child found
in Lyme Street." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

Donatus and Deodatus, also, were Latin names on
English soil before the seventeenth century came in :

" 1616, Jan. 29. Baptized Donate, vel Deonata, daughter of
Martyn Donnacombe." — ^St. Columb Major.

Desire and Given,* the equivalents, both crossed
the Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers.

Love was popular. Side by side with it went
Amor, George Fox, in his "Journal,'* writing in
1670, says —

*' When I was come to Enfield, I went first to visit Amor Stod-
dart, who lay very weak and almost speechless. Within a few days
Amor died." — Ed. 1836, ii. 129.

In Ripon Cathedral may be seen :

" Amor Oxley, died Nov. 23, 1773, aged 74."

The name still exists in Yorkshire, but no other
county, I imagine.

Other instances could be mentioned.! I place a
few in order :

*' 1594, Aug. 3. Baptized Relictus Dunstane, a childe found in
this parisshe." — St. Dunstan.

* "April 6, 1879, at St. Peter's Thanet, entered into rest, Mary
Given Clarke, aged 71 years." — Church Times, April 10, 1879.

t The following is curious, although it does not properly belong
to this class :

" 1629, July II. Baptized Subpena, a man childe found at the
Subpena office in Chancery Lane." — St. Dunstan.

138 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

** 1613, Nov. 7. Baptized Beata, d. of Mr. John Briggs,
minister. " — Witherley, Leic.

" 1653, Sep. 29. Married Richard Moone to Benedicta Rolfe."
—Cant. Cath.

** 1661, May 25. Married Edward Clayton and Melior * Bil
linge." — St. Dionis, Backchurch.

**i7o6. Beata Meetkirke, born Nov. 2, 1705; died Sep. 10,
1706."— Rushden, Hereford.

(p) Grace Names,
In furnishing instances, we naturally begin with
those grace names, in all cases culled from the
registers of the period, which belong to what we
may style the first stage. They were, one by one,
but taken from the lists found m the New Testa-
ment, and were probably suggested at the outset
by the moralities or interludes. The morality went
between the old miracle-play, or mystery, and the
regular drama. In "Every Man," written in the
reign of Henry VIII., it is made a vehicle for
retaining the love of the people for the old ways,
the old worship, and the old superstitions. From
the time of Edward VI. to the middle of Eliza-
beth's reign, there issued a cluster of interludes of
this same moral type and cast ; only all breathed

* Melior was a favourite: —

*' 1675, April 15. Baptized Melior, d. of Thomas and Melior
Richardson. " — Westminster Abbey.

" 1664-5, Feb. 22. William Skutt seeks renewal of a wine
licence, which he holds in behalf of his mother-in-law, Melior Allen,
of Sarum, at ;^io ayear."— " C. S. P. Dom."

"1552, July II. Baptized Mellior, d. of John James." — St.
Columb Major.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 139

of the new religion, and more or less assaulted the
dogmas of Rome.

These moralities were popular, and were fre-
quently rendered in public, until the Elizabethan
drama was well established. All were allegorical,
and required personal representatives of the ab-
stract graces, and doctrines of which they treated.
The dramatis persoiice in " Hickscorner " are
Freewill, Perseverance, Pity, Contemplation, and
Imagination, and in "The Interlude of Youth,"
Humility, Pride, Charity, and Lechery.

It is just possible, therefore, that several of these
grace names were originated under the shadow of the
pre-Reformation Church. The following are early,
considering they are found in Cornwall, the county
most likely to be the last to take up a new custom :

*' I549» July I. Baptized Patience, d. of Will™. Haygar." —
" 1553, May 29. Baptized Honour, d. of Robert Sexton." — St.
Columb Major.

However this may be, we only find the cardinal
virtues at the beginning of the movement — those
which are popular in some places to this day, and
still maintain a firm hold in America, borne thither
by the Puritan emigrants.

The three Graces, and Grace itself, took root
almost immediately as favourites. Shakespeare
seems to have been aware of it, for Hermione says —

I40 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIA TURE.

** My last good deed was to entreat his stay :
What was my first ? It has an elder sister,
Or I mistake you — O would her name were Grace ! "

** Winter's Tale," Act i. sc. 2.

" 1565, March 19. Christening of Grace, daughter of — Hilles."
—St. Peter, CornhilL

*' 1574? J^^« 29. Baptized Grace, daughter of John Russell." —
St. Columb Major.

"1588, Aug. I. Married Thomas Wood and Fay the Wilson."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

" 1565, . Baptized Faith, daughter of Thomas and Agnes

Blomefield."— Rushall, Norfolk.

** 1567, Aprill 17. Christening of Charity, daughter of Randoll
Burchenshaw." — St. Peter, Comhill.

*' 1571, . Baptized Charity, daughter of Thomas Blome-
field. "—Rushall, Norfolk.

"1598, Nov. 19. Baptized Hope, d. of John Mainwaringe." —
Cant. Cath.

** 1636, Nov. 25. Buried Hope, d. of Thomas Alford, aged 23."
— Drayton, Leicester.

The registers of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
tury teem with these ; sometimes boys received
them. The Rev. Hope Sherhard was a minister in
Providence Isle in 1632 ("Cal. S. P. Colonial,'* 1632).
We may note that the still common custom of
christening trine-born children by these names
dates from the period of their rise : *

" 1639, Sep. 7. Baptized Faith, Hope, and Charity, daughters
of George Lamb, and Alice his wife." — Hillingdon.

* " 1661, Sep. 6. Baptized Faith Dionis, Charity Dionis, Grace
Dionis, three foundlings." — St. Dionis, Backchurch.

The Manchester Evening Mail, March 22, 1878, says, "At
Stanton, near Ipswich, three girls, having been born at one birth,
were baptized Faith, Hope, and Charity.''

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 141

'* 1666, Feb. 22. — Finch, wife of — Finch, being delivered of
three children, two of them were baptized, one called Faith, and
the other Hope ; and the third was intended to be called Charity,
but died imbaptized. " — Cranford. Vide Lyson's *' Middlesex,"
p. 30.

Mr. Lower says (" Essays on English Surnames,"
ii. 159)—

" At Charlton, Kent, three female children produced at one birth
received the names of Faith, Hope, and Charity. "

Thomas Adams, in his sermon on the "Three
Divine Sisters," says —

* ' They shall not want prosperity,
That keep faith, hope, and charity."

Perhaps some of these parents remembered this.

Faith and Charity are both mentioned as dis-
tinctly Puritan sobriquets in the " Psalm of Mercie,"
a political poem :

" * A match,' quoth my sister Joyce,
* Contented,' quoth Rachel, too :
Quoth Abigaile, * Yea,' and Faith, * Verily,'
And Charity, * Let it be so. ' "

Love, as the synonym of Charity, was also a
favourite. Love Atkinson went out to Virginia
with the early refugees (Hotten, "Emigrants," p. 6%).

** 1631-2, Jan. 31. Buried Love, daughter of William Ballard."
— Berwick, Sussex.

" 1740, April 30. Buried Love Arundell." — Racton, Sussex.

"1749, May 31. Love Luckett admitted a freeman by birth-
right."— " History of Town and Port of Rye," p. 237.

" 1662, May 7. Baptized Love, d. of Mr. Richard Appletree." —
Banbury.

142 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Besides Love and Charity, other variations were
Humanity and Clemency :

" 1637, March 8. Bond of William Shaw, junior, and Thomas
Snelling, citizens and turners, to Humanity Mayo, of St. Martin-
in-the- Fields, in ;^ioo o o."— C. S. P.

** 1625, Aug. 27. Buried Clemency Chawncey." — St. Dionis
Backchurch.

Clemency was pretty, and deserved to live ; but
Mercy seems to have monopolized the honours,
and, by the aid of John Bunyan's heroine in the
" Pilgrim's Progress," still has her admirers. In-
stances are needless, but I furnish one or two for
form's sake. They shall be late ones :

*' 1702, Sep. 28. Married Matthias Wallraven and Mercy Way-
marke." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1 716, May 25. Married Thomas Day and Mercy Parsons, of
Staplehurst."— Cant. Cath.

But there were plenty of virtues left. Prudence
had such a run, that she became Pru in the six-
teenth, and Prudentia in the seventeenth century :

** 1574, June 30. Buried Prudence, d. of John Mayhew.
" 1612, Aug. 2. Married Robert Browne and Prudence Coxe."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

Justice is hard to separate from the legal title ; but
here is an instance :

" 1660, July 16. Richard Bickley and Justice Willington re-
ported guilty of embezzling late king's goods." — *'Cal. St. P. Dom."

Truth, Constancy, Honour, and Temperance were
frequently personified at the font. Temperance

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 143

had the shortest life ; but, \{ short, it was merry.
There is scarcely a register, from Gretna Green to
St. Michael's, without it :

** 161 5, Feb. 25. Baptized Temperance, d. of — Osbeme.'' —
Hawnes, Bedford.

" 1610, Aug. 14. Baptized Temperance, d. of John Goodyer." —
Banbury.

" 161 1, Nov. — . Baptized Temperance, d. of Robert Carpinter."
— Stepney.

*' 1619, July 22. Married Gyles Rolles to Temperance Blinco."
— St. Peter, Comhill.

Constance,* Constancy, and Constant were common,
it will be seen, to both sexes :

"1593, Sep. 29. Buried Constancy, servant with Mr. Coussin."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

" 1629, Dec. Petition of Captain Constance Ferrar, for losses at
Cape Breton."— "C. S. P. Colonial."

*' 1665, May 25. Communication from Constance Pley to the
Commissioners in relation to the arrival of a convoy." — C. S. P.

" 1665, May 31. Grant to Edward Halshall of ;^225 o o, for-
feited by Connistant Cant, of Lynn Regis, for embarking wool to
Guernsey not entered in the Custom House." — Ditto.

** 167 1, Sep. 2. Buried Constant Sylvester, Esquire." — Brampton,
Hunts.

Patience, too, was male as well as female. Sir
Patience Warde was Lord Mayor of London in
1 68 1. Thus the weaker vessels were not allowed
to monopolize the graces. How familiar some of
these abstract names had become, the Cavalier

* Constance had been an old English favourite, its nick and pet
forms being Cust, or Custance, or Cussot {^ide " English Surnames,"
p. 67, 2nd edition). The Puritan dropped these, but adopted
*' Constant" and "Constancy." The more worldly, in the mean
time, curtailed it to " Con."

144 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

shall tell us in his parody of the sanctimonious
Roundheads' style :

** 'Ay, marry,' quoth Agatha,

And Temperance, eke, also :
Quoth Hannah, * It's just,' and Mary, * It must,*
*And shall be,' quoth Grace, * I trow.' "

Several "Truths " occur in the "Chancery Suits'"
of Elizabeth, and the Greek Alathea arose with it :

** 1 595 J June 27. Faith and Truth, gemini, — John Johnson,
bapt."— Wath, Ripon.

Alathea lasted till the eighteenth century was well-
nigh out :

** 1701, Dec. 4. Francis Milles to Alathea Wilton."— West.
Abbey.

" 1720, Sep. 18. Buried Alydea, wife of Will™. Gough, aged 42
years." — Harnhill, Glouc.

** 1786, Oct. 6. Died Althea, wife of Thomas Heberden, pre-
bendary."—Exeter Cath.*

* Sophia did not come into England for a century after this.
But, while speaking of Greek names, the most popular was Phila-
delphia :

*' 1639, May 3. Buried the Lady Philadelphia Carr." — Hilling-
don, Middlesex.

"1720, Aug. 6. Married William Adams and Philadelphia
Saffery."— Cant. Cath.

*' 1776, Jan. 5. Buried Philadelphia, wife of John Read." —
Blockley, Glouc.

Whether Penn styled the city he founded after the Church men-
tioned in the Apocalypse, or after a friend or kinswoman, or because,
interpreted, it was a Quaker sentiment, I cannot say. But Phila-
delphia, in James I. 's reign, had become such a favourite that I have
before me over a hundred instances, after no very careful research.
None was needed ; it appears in every register, and lingered on into
the present century.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 145

Honour, of course, became Honora, in the eigh-
teenth century, and has retained that form :

** 1583, Aug. 24. Baptized Honor, daughter of Thomas Teage."
— St. Columb Major.

*' 1614, July 4. Baptized Honour, d. of John Baylye, of Rad-
cliffe. " — Stepney.

" 1667, Oct. 9. Christened Mary, d. of Sir John and Lady
Honour Huxley." — Hammersmith.

*'i722, Oct. 4. Christened Martha, d. of John and Honoria
Hart." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

Sir Thomas Carew, Speaker of the Commons in
James's and Charles's reign, had a wife Temperance,
and four daughters. Patience, Temperance, Silence,
and Prudence (Lodge's " lUust," iii. 37). Possibly,
as Speaker, he had had better opportunity to
observe that these were the four cardinal parlia-
mentary virtues, especially Silence. This last was
somewhat popular, and seems to have got curtailed
to '' Sill," as Prudence to " Pru," and Constance to
'' Con." In the Calendar of " State Papers " (June
21, 1666), a man named Taylor, writing to another
named Williamson, wishes " his brother Sill would
come and reap the sweets of Harwich." Writing
again, five days later, he asks " after his brother,
Silence Taylor."

This was one of the names that crossed the
Atlantic and became a fixture in America (Bow-
ditch). It is not, however, to be confounded with
Sill, that is, Sybil, in the old Cavalier chorus :

L

146 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

** * And God blesse King Charles,' quoth George,
* And save him,' says Simon and Sill."

Silence is one of the few Puritan names that
found its way into the north of England :

*' 1 74 1, Dec. 9. Married Robert Thyer to Silence Leigh." — St.
Ann, Manchester.

The mother of Silence Leigh, who Avas a widow
when she married, was Silence Beswicke (" Memo-
rials of St. Ann, Manchester," p. 55).* The name
is found again in the register of Youlgreave Church,
Derbyshire {Notes and Queries, Feb. 17, 1877).
Curiously enough, we find Camden omitting Silence
as a female name of his day, but inserting Tace.
In his list of feminine baptismal names, compiled
in 1614 ('' Remaines," p. 89), he has

** Tace — Be silent — a fit name to admonish that sex of silence."

Here, then, is another instance of a Latin name
translated into English. I have lighted on a case
proving the antiquary's veracity :

**Here lieth the body of Tacey, the wife of George Can, of
Brockwear, who departed this life 22 day of Feb., An. Dom. 171 5,
aged 32 years." — Hewelsfield, Glouc.

* *' 1658. Mr. Charles Beswicke, minister of the parish ch. of
Stockport, and Sylance Symonds, d. of Mr. Robert Symonds, of
Daubever, co. Derby, published March 28, April 4 and ii, 1658."
— Banns, Parish Church, Stockport.

This Silence was either mother or grandmother to Silence Thyer,
but I am not sure which is the relationship. If grandmother, then
there must have been three generations of *' Silences."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 147

Tace must have lasted a century, therefore. Silence
may be set down to some old Puritan stickler for
the admonition of Saint Paul : " Let the woman
learn in silence, with all subjection" (i Tim. ii. 11).
The Epistle to the Romans was a never-failing
well-spring to the earnest Puritan, and one pas-
sage was much applied to his present condition :

** Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also we have access by
faith unto this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also :
knowing that tribulation worketh patience ; and patience, experience ;
and experience, hope : and hope maketh not ashamed." — v. 1-5.

There is scarcely a word in this passage that is
not inscribed on our registers between 1575 and
1595. Faith, Grace, and Hope have already been
mentioned ; * Camden testified to the existence of
Tribulation in 1614; Rejoice was very familiar;
Patience, of course, was common :

*' 1592, July 7. Buried Patience Birche.' — Cant. Cath.

' ' 1 596, Oct. 3. Baptized Pacience, daughter of Martin Tome. "
— St. Columb Major.

"1599, April 23. Baptized Patience, d. of John Harmer." —
Warbleton.

Even Experience is found — a strange title for an
infant.

* " I myself have known some persons in London, and other
parts of this kingdom, who have been christened by the names of
Faith, Hope, Charity, Mercy, Grace, Obedience, Endure, Rejoice,
etc." — Brome's "Travels in England," p. 279.

148 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

**The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., bom Feb. 5, 1673 5 ^i^^
of an apoplexy, Nov. 9, 1758."

So ran the epitaph of a missionary (vide Pulpit,
Dec. 6, 1827) to the Vineyard Island. It had
been handed on to him, no doubt, from some
grandfather or grandmother of Elizabeth's closing
days.

A late instance of Diligence occurs in St. Peter,
Cornhill :

" 1724, Nov. I. Buried Diligence Constant."

Obedience had a good run, and began very early :

"1573? Sep. 20. Bapt. Obedience, dather of Thomas Carding.

** 1586, Aug. 28. Bapt. Obedyence, dather of Richard Ellis." —
Warbleton.

*'i697, April 30. Bapt. Robert, son of James and Obedience
Clark."— St. James, Picadilly.

Obedience Robins is the name of a testator in
1709 (Wills : Archdeaconry of London), while the
following epitaph speaks for itself :

** Obedience Newitt, wife of Thomas Newitt, died in 1617,
aged 32.

** Her name and nature did accord.
Obedient was she to her Lord. " — Burwash, Sussex.

"Add to your faith, virtue," says the Apostle.
As a name this grace was late in the field :

** 1687, May 25. Married Virtue Radford and Susannah
Wright."— West. Abbey.

"1704, Oct. 20. Buried Virtue, wife of John Higgison." —
Marshfield, Clouc.

** 1709, May 6. Buried Vertue Page." — Finchley.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 149

Confidence and Victory were evidently favourites :

** 15S7, Jan. 8. Baptized Confydence, d. of Roger Elliard." —
Warbleton.

" 1770, Nov. 17, died Confidence, wife of John Thomas,
aged 61 years." — BuUey, Glouc.

" 1587, Feb. 8. Buryed Vyctorye Buttres."— Elham, Kent.

" 1618, Dec. 9. Buryed Victorye Lussendine." — Ditto.

** 1696, May 17. Bapt. Victory, d. of Joseph Gibbs."— St.
Dionis Backchurch.

Persevermice went out with the emigrants to
New England, but I do not find any instance in
the home registers. Felicity appeared in one of
our law courts last year, so it cannot be said to
be extinct ; but there is a touch of irony in the
first of the following examples : —

"1604-5, March 15. Baptized Felicity, d. of John Barnes,
vagarant. " — Stepney.

" 1590, July 5. Baptized Felycyte Harris." — Cranbrook.

Comfort has a pleasant atmosphere about it, and
many a parent was tempted to the use of it. It
lingered longer than many of its rivals. Comfort
Farren's epitaph may be seen on the floor of
Tewkesbury Abbey :

"Comfort, wife of Abraham Farren, gent., of this Corporation,
died August 24, 1720."

Again, in Dymock Church we find :

*' Comfort^ wife to William Davis, died 14 June, 1775, aged
78 years.

*' Comfort^ their daughter, died 9 Feb., 1760, aged 24 years."

Nearly 150 years before this, however, Comfort

150 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Starr was a name not unknown to the more
heated zealots of the Puritan party. He was a
native of Ashford, in Kent, and after various
restless shiftings as a minister, Carlisle being his
head-quarters for a time, went to New Plymouth in
the May flower y in 1620. There he became fellow
of Harvard College, but returned to England
eventually, and died at Lewes in his eighty-seventh
year. •

Perhaps the most interesting and popular of
the grace names was "Repentance." In a "new
interlude " of the Reformation, entitled the " Life
and Repentance of Marie Magdalene," and
published in 1567, one of the chief characters was
" Repentance." At the same time Repentance came
into font use, and, odd as it may sound, bade
fair to become a permanently recognized name
in England :

" 1583, Dec. 8. Married William Arnolde and Repentance
Pownoll."— Cant. Cath.

** 1587, Oct. 22. Baptized Repentance, dather of George Ay-
sherst. " — Warbleton.

** 1588, June 30. Baptized Repentance Water." — Cranbrook.

" I597> Aug. 4. Baptized Repentance, daughter of Robert
Benham, of Lymhouse." — Stepney.

** 16 1 2, March 26. Baptized Repentance Wrathe." — Elham,
Kent.

** 1688, Dec. 23. Bapt. Repentance, son of Thomas and Mercy
Tompson." — St. James, Piccadilly.

In the " Sussex Archaeological Collections " (xvii.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 151

148) is found recorded the case of Repentance
Hastings, deputy portreeve of Seaford, who in 1643
was convicted of hiding some wreckage :

** Repentance Hastings, i load, I cask, 2 pieces of royals."

Evidently his repentance began too early in life
to be lasting; but infant piety could not be
expected to resist the hardening influence of such
a name as this.*

Humiliation was a big word, and that alone
must have been in its favour :

*' 1629, Jan. 24. iVlarried Humiliation Hinde and Elizabeth
Phillips by banes."— St. Peter, Comhill.

Humiliation, being proud of his name, determined
to retain it in the family — for he had one — but as
he had began to worship at St. Dionis Backchurch,
the entries of baptism lie there, the spelling of his
surname being slightly altered :

** 1630, Nov. 18. Baptized Humiliation, son of Humiliation
Hyne."

This son died March 11, 163 1-2. Humiliation
pere^ however, did not sorrow without hope, for in
a few years he again brings a son to the parson :

"1637-8, Jan. 21. Baptized Humiliation, son of Humiliation
Hinde."

* Repentance lingered longer than I thought. In the churchyard
of Mappowder, Dorset, is a tombstone to the memory of " Repent-
ance, wife of," etc. She died within the last twenty years. There
is no doubt that these names found their latest home in Devon and
Dorset. The names in Mr. Blackmore's novels corroborate this.

152 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

Humility is preferable to Humiliation. Humility
Cooper was one of a freight of passengers in the
Mayflower, who, in 1620, sought a home in the
West. A few years afterwards Humility Hobbs
followed him (Hotten, " Emigrants/' p. 426) :

** 1596, March 13. Baptized Humilitye, sonne of Wylliam Jones."
— Warbleton.

**i688, May 5. Buried Humility, wife of Humphey Paget. " —
Peckleton, Leic.

Had it not been for Charles Dickens, Humble

would not have appeared objectionable :

" 1 666-1 667, Jan. 29. Petition of Dame Frances, wife of Humble
Ward, Lord Ward, Baron, of Birmingham." *— C. S. P.

All Saints, Leicester, records another saintly
grace :

" Here lieth the body of Abstinence Pougher, Esq., who died
Sept. 5, 1 74 1, aged 62 years."

In some cases we find the infant represented, not
by a grace-name, but as in a state of grace. Every
register contains one or two Godlies :

**I579, July 24. Baptized Godlye, d. of Richard Fauterell." —
Warbleton.

** 161 1, May I. Baptized Godly, d. of Henry Gray, and Joane
his wife. Joane Standmer and Godly Gotherd, sureties." — South
Bersted, Sussex.

** 1619, Nov. Baptized Godly, d. of Thomas Edwardes, of Poplar."
— Stepney.

* This is another case of a Puritan name that got into high
society. Accepted Frewen died an archbishop ; Humble Ward
became first Baron Ward. His daughter Theodosia married Sir
Thomas Brereton, Bart.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 153

" 1632, Oct. 30. Married John Wafforde to Godly Spicer." — Cant.
Cath.

Gracious is as objectionable as Godly. Gracious
Owen was President of St. John's College, Oxford,
during the decade 1650-1660.

" Oct. 24, 166 1. Examination of Gracious Franklin : Joshua
Jones, minister at the Red Lion, Fleet Street, told him that he heard
there were 3000 men about the city maintained by Presbyterian
ministers." — C. S. P.

Lively, we may presume, referred to spiritual
manifestations. A curious combination of font
name and patronymic is obtained in Lively
Moody, D.D., of St. John's College, Cambridge,
1682 (Wood's " Fasti Oxonienses "). Exactly one
hundred years later the name is met with again :

" 1782, July 3. Lively Clarke of this town, sadler, aged 60."
— Berkeley, Gloucester.

At Warbleton, where the Puritan Heley minis-
tered, it seems to have been found wearisome to be
continually christening children by the names of
Repent and Repentance, so a variation was made
in the form of " Sorry-for-sin : "

" 15S9J Jan 25. Baptized Sory-for-sine, the dather of John
Coupard."

The following is curious :

"Thomas Luxford, of Windmill Hill, died Feb. 24, 1739, aged
72 years. He was grandson of Thomas Luxford, of Windmill Hill,
by Changed Collins, his wife, daughter of Thomas Collins, of Sock
nash in this county, Esq., and eldest son of Richard Luxford, of
Billinghurst." — Wartling Church.

154 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,
Faithful* may close this list :

** 1640, Oct. 18. Baptized Benjamin, son of Faithful Bishop." —
St. Columb Major.

Faithful Rouse settled in New England in 1644
(Bowditch). The following despatch mentions
another :

** 1666, July 18. Major Beversham and Lieut. Faithful Fortescue
are sent from Ireland to raise men." — C. S. P.

Bunyan evidently liked it, and gave the name to
the martyr of Vanity Fair :

" Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive ;
For though they killed thee, thou art yet alive."

Speaking from a nomenclatural point of view, the
name did not survive, for the last instance I have
met with is that of Faithful Meakin, curate of
Mobberley, Cheshire, in 1729 (Earwaker, ** East
Cheshire," p. 99, ;/.). It had had a run of more than
a century, however.

The reader will have observed that the majority
of these names have become obsolete. The reli-
gious apathy of the early eighteenth century was
against them. They seem to have made their
way slowly westward. Certainly their latest repre-
sentatives are to be found in the more retired
villages of Gloucestershire and Devonshire. A
few like Mercy, Faith, Hope, Charity, Grace, and

* " Faithful Teate was minister at Sudbury, Suffolk, at the time
Richard Sibbes, who was born close by, was growing up." — Sibbes'
Works, T. xxvi. Nichol, 1862.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. i55

Prudence, still survive, and will probably for ever
command a certain amount of patronage; but
they are much more popular in our religious story-
books than the church registers. The absence of
the rest is no great loss, I imagine.

(c) Exhortatory Names,

. The zealots of Elizabeth's later days began to
weary of names that merely made household words
of the apostolic virtues. Many of these sobriquets
had become popular among the unthinking and
careless. They began to stamp their offspring
with exhortatory sentences, pious ejaculations,
brief professions of godly sorrow for sin, or ex-
clamations of praise for mercies received. I am
bound to confess, however, that the prevailing tone
of these names is rather contradictory of the
picture of gloomy sourness drawn by the facile
pens of Macaulay and Walter Scott. 'Tis true,
Anger and Wrath existed :

**i654. Wroth Rogers to be placed on the Commission of
Scandalous Ministers." — Scobell's ** Acts and Ord. Pari.," 1658.

*' 1680, Dec. 22. Buried Anger Bull, packer." — St. Dionis Back-
church.

I dare say he was familiarly termed Angry Bull,
like " Savage Bear,'' a gentleman of Kent who was
living at the same time, mentioned elsewhere in
these pages. Nevertheless, in the exhortatory names
there is a general air of cheerful assurance.

156 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

The most celebrated name of this class is Praise-
God Barebone. I cannot find his baptismal entry.
A collection of verses was compiled by one Fear-
God Barbon, of Daventry (Harleian M.S. 7332).
This cannot have been his father, as we have
evidence that the leatherseller was born about
1596, and, allowing his parent to be anything over
twenty, the date would be too early for exhortatory
names like Fear-God. We may presume, there-
fore, he was a brother. Two other brothers are
said to have been entitled respectively, "Jesus-
Christ-came-into-the-world-to-save Barebone," and
** If -Christ- had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-
damned Barebone." I say " entitled," for I doubt
whether either received such a long string of words
in baptism. Brook, in his " History of the Puri-
tans," implies they were ; Hume says that both
were adopted names, and adds, in regard to the
latter, that his acquaintance were so wearied with
its length, that they styled him by the last word as
** Damned Barebone." The editor of Notes and
Queries (March 15, 1862) says that, "as his morals
were not of the best," this abbreviated form " ap-
peared to suit him better than his entire baptismal
prefix." Whether the title was given at the font or
adopted, there is no doubt that he was familiarly
known as Dr. Damned Barebone. This was more
curt than courteous.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 157

Of Praise-God's history little items have leaked
out. He began life as a leatherseller in Fleet
Street, and owned a house under the sign of
the " Lock and Key," in the parish of St. Dun-
stan-in-the-West He was admitted a freeman of
the Leathersellers' Company, January 20, 1623.
He was a Fifth Monarchy man, if a tract printed in
1654, entitled "A Declaration of several of the
Churches of Christ, and Godly People, in and
about the City of London," etc., which mentions
"the Church which walks with Mr. Barebone,"
refers to him. This, however, may be Fear-God
Barebone. Praise-God was imprisoned after the
Restoration, but after a while released, and died, at
the age of eighty or above, in obscurity. His life,
which was not without its excitements, was spent
in London, and possibly his baptismal entry will
be found there.

A word or two about his surname. The elder
Disraeli says (" Curiosities of Literature ") —

*' There are unfortunate names, which are very injurious to the
cause in which they are engaged ; for instance, the long Parliament
in Cromwell's time, called by derision the Rump, was headed by
one Barebones, a leatherseller."

Isaac Disraeli has here perpetuated a mistake.
Barebone's Parliament was the Parliament of Bare-
bone, not Barebones. Peck, in his "Desiderata
Curiosa," speaking of a member of the family who

158 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

died in 1646, styles him Mr. Barborne ; while
Echard writes the name Barbon, when referring to
Dr. Barbon, one of the chief rebuilders of the city
of London after the Fire. Between Barebones and
Barbon is a wide gap, and Barbon's Parliament
suggests nothing ludicrous whatsoever. Yet (if we
set aside the baptismal name) what an amount of
ridicule has been cast over this same Parliament on
account of a surname which in reality has been
made to meet the occasion. No historian has
heaped more sarcasm on the " Rump " than Hume,
but he never styles the leatherseller as anything
but " Barebone.'*

But while Praise-God has obtained exceptional
notoriety, not so Faint-not, and yet there was a
day when Faint-not bade fair to take its place as
a regular and recognized name. I should wear}''
the reader did I furnish a full list of instances.
Here are a few :

** 1585, March 6. Baptized Faynt-not, d. of James Browne." —
Warbleton.

«« 1590, Jan. 17. Baptized Faynt-not Wood." — Cranbrook.

** 1631, . Thomas Perse married Faint-not Kennarde." —

Chiddingly.

** 1642, Aug. 2. Married John Pierce and Faint-not Polhill,
widow." — Burwash, Sussex.

This Faint-not Polhill was mother of Edward

Polhill, a somewhat celebrated writer of his day.

She married her first husband December 11, 161 6.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 159

*' 1678, Feb. 12. Buried Faint-not Blatcher, a poor old
widdow. " — Warbleton.

The rents of certain houses which provided an
exhibition for the boys of Lev/es Grammar School
were paid in 1692 as usual. One item is set down
as follows :

*' Faint-not Batch elor's house, per annum, £6 o o."— "Hist,
and Ant. Lewes," i. 311.

Fai?tt-7iot occurs in Maresfield Church (" Suss.
Arch. Coll.," xiv. 151). We have already referred
to Faint-not, the daughter of '* Dudley Fenner,
minister of the Word of God " at Harden, Kent.

Fear-not was also in use. The Rector of Warble-
ton baptized one of his own children by the name ;
some of his parishioners copied him :

** 1594, Nov. 10. Baptized Fear-not, sonne of Richard Maye.
" 1589, Oct. 19. Baptized Fear-not, sonne of Will™. Browne."

Decidedly cheerful were such names as Hope-
still or Hopeful. Both occur in Banbury Church.
Hopeful Wheatley has already been mentioned.

** 161 1, June 16. Baptized Hope-still, d. to Edward Peedle.
** 1697, I^^c. 30. Buried Hope-still Faxon, a olde mayde."

Whether or no her matrimonial expectations were
still high to the end, we are not told.

One of the earliest Pilgrim Fathers was Hope-
still Foster (Hotten, p. 6S), He went out to New
England about 1620. His name became a common

i6o CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

one out there. Two bearers of the name at home
lived so long that it reached the Georges :

** Near this place is interred the body of John Warden, of Butler's
Green in this parish, Esq., who died April 30, 1730, aged 79
years; and also of Hope-stilly his wife, who died July 22, 1749,
aged 92." — Cuckfield Church, Sussex.

"Dec. I, 1714. Administration of goods of Michael Watkins,
granted to Hope-still Watkins, his widow." — C. S. P.

In the list of incumbents of Lydney, Gloucester-
shire, will be found the name of Help-on-high Foxe,
who was presented to the living by the Dean and
Chapter of Hereford in 1660. For some reason or
other, possibly to curtail the length, he styled him-
self in general as Hope-well, and this was retained
on his tomb :

" Hie in Cristo quiescit Hope-wel Foxe, in artibus magister,
hujus ecclesioe vicarius vigilantissimus qui obiit 2 die Aprilis, 1662."
— Bigland's '* Monuments of Gloucester."

How quickly such names were caught up by
parishioners from their clergy may again be seen in
the case of Hope-well Voicings, of Tetbury, who
left a rentcharge oi £1 for the charity schools at
Cirencester in 1720. Probably he was christened
by the vicar himself at Lydney.

We have already mentioned Rejoice Lord, of
Salehurst. The name had a tremendous run :

" 1647, June 22. Buried Rejoice, daughter of John Harvey.
" 1679, Oct. 18. Baptized Rejoice, daughter of Nicholas Wratten."
— Warbleton.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. i6i

Rejoice reached the eighteenth century :

"1713, Sep. 29. Married John Pimm, of St. Dunstan's, Cant.,
to Rejoice Epps, of the precincts of this church. " — Cant. Cath.

Magnify and Give-thanks frequently occur in
Warbleton register :

** 1595, Dec. 7. Buried Gy^-e-thanks Bentham, a child.

''1593, M^^ II. Baptized Give -thanks, the dather of Thomas
Elliard.

" 1591, Feb. 6. Baptized Magnyfy, sonne of William. Freeland.

" 1587, Sep. 17. Baptized Magnyfye, sonne of Thomas Beard.

" 1587, April 2. Baptized Give-thankes, sonne of Thomas Cun-
sted."

It is from the same register we obtain examples
of an exhortatory name known to have existed
at this time, viz. " Be-thankful." A dozen cases
might be cited :

"1586, Feb. 6. Baptized Be-thankfull, the dather of Abell
Tyerston.

" 1601, Nov. 8. Baptized Be-thankfull, d. of James Gyles.

" 161 7, Nov. 27. Married Thomas Flatt and Be-thankefull Baker.

" 1662, May 9. Buried Be-thankeful Giles."

Thus Miss Giles bore her full name for over sixty
years : and, I dare say, was very proud of it.*
Besides Be-thankful, there was " Be-strong : "

" 1592, Nov. 26. Baptized Be-strong Philpott." — Cranbrook.

Many of the exhortatory names related to the

* Antony a Wood says Robert Abbott, minister at Cranbrook,
Kent, published a quarto sermon in 1626, entitled " Be-thankful
London and her Sisters." When we remember that Warbleton in
1626 had at least a dozen Be-Thankfuls among its inhabitants, and
that Cranbrook was within walking distance, we see where the title
of this discourse was got.

M

l62 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

fallen nature of man. One great favourite at
Warbleton was "Sin-deny." It was coined first
by Heley, the Puritan rector, in 1588, for one of
his own daughters. Afterwards the entries are
numerous. Two occur in one week :

'' 1592, April 23. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of Richard Tebb.
" ,» 29. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of William Durant.

" 1594, March 9. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of Edward Guttered."

This name seems to have been monopolized by the
girls. One instance only to the contrary can I find :

" 1588, Feb. 9. Baptized Sin-dynye, sonne of Andrew Champneye."

Still keeping to the same register, we find of this
class :

" 1669, Jan. 21. Buried Refrayne Benny, a widdow.
" 1586, May 15. Baptized Refrayne, dather of John Celeb.
" 1586, April 24. Baptized Repent, sonne of William Durant.
" 1587, July 16. Baptized Retume, sonne of Rychard Farret.
" 1587, Aug. 6. Baptized Obey, sonne of Rychard Larkford.
" 1587, Dec. 24. Baptized Depend, sonne of Edward Guttered.
" 1588, Ap. 7. Baptized Feare-God, sonne of John Couper.
" 1608, Aug. 14. Baptized Repent Champney, a basterd.
" 1595, Maye 18. Baptized Refrayne, d. of John Wykes.**

Many registers contain " Repent." Cranbrook
has an early one :

** 1586, Jan. I. Baptized Repent Boorman."

Abuse-not is quaint :

" 1592, Sep. 17. Baptized Abuse-not, d. of Rychard Ellis.
" 1592, Dec. 3. Baptized Abus-not, d. of John Collier."— Warble-
ton.

The last retained her name :

*' 1603, Maye 20. Buried Abuse-not CoUyer."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 163

Here, again, are two curious entries :

'' 1636, March 19. Baptized Be-steadfast, sonne of Thomas EUiard
** 1589, Nov. 9. Baptized Learn-wysdome, d. of Rychard Ellis."

These also are extracts from the Warbleton

registers. None of them, however, can be more

strongly exhortatory than this :

" 1660, April 15. Baptized Hate-evill, d. of Antony Greenhill." —
Banbury.

Doubtless she was related to William Greenhill,

born 1581, the great Puritan commentator on

Ezekiel. This cannot be the earliest instance of

the name, for one Hate-evill Nutter was a settler

in New England twenty years before her baptism

(Bowditch). I suspect its origin can be traced

to the following : —

"1580, June 25. Baptized Hatill (Hate-ill), Sonne of Will". Wood.
" 1608, Nov. 17. Baptized Hatill, sonne to Antony Robinson.'* —
M iddleton- Cheney.

As Middleton-Cheney is a mere outlying parish
from Banbury, I think we may see whence Hate-
evil Greenhiirs name was derived.

Returning once more to Warbleton, Lament is
so common there, as in other places, that it would
be absurd to suppose the mother had died in child-
birth in every instance. A glance at the register
of deaths disproves the idea. The fact is Lament
was used, like Repent, as a serious call to godly
sorrow for sin :

*' 1594, July 22. Baptized Lament, d. of Antony Foxe.

i64 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

" 1598, May 14. Baptized Lament, d. of John Fauterell.
" 1600, M^^ 29. Baptized Lament, d. of Anne Willard."

But we must not linger too much at Warbleton.

Live-well commanded much attention. Neither
sex could claim the monopoly of it, as my ex-
amples prove. At the beginning of Charles II/s
reign, a warrant was abroad for the capture of one
Live-well Chapman, a seditious printer. In such a
charge it is possible he fulfilled the pious injunction
of his god-parent :

" 1662-3, March 9. Warrant to apprehend Live-well Chapman,*
with all his printing instruments and materials." — C. S. P.

He is mentioned again :

" 1663, Nov. 24. Warrant to Sir Edward Broughton to receive
Live-well Chapman, and keep him close prisoner for seditious
practices."— C. S. P.

This is no unique case. Live-well Sherwood, an
alderman of Norwich, was put on a commission
for sequestering papists in 1643 (Scobell's "Orders
of Pari.,'' p. 38).

Again the name occurs :

" 1702, Oct. 15. Thomas Halsey, of Shadwell, widower, to Live-
well Prisienden, of Stepney." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

Love-God is found twice, at least, for letters of

* Live-well Chapman was a Fifth Monarchy man. There is still
extant a pamphlet headed "j A Declaration of several of the Churches
of Christ, and Godly People, in and about the City of London, con-
cerning the Kingly Interest of Christ, and the Present Sufferings of
His Cause, and Saints in England. Printed for Live-well Chapman,
1654."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 165

administration in the case of one Love-God
Gregory were granted in 1654. Also is found :

" 1596, March 6. Baptized Love-God, daughter of Hugh Walker,
vicar." — Berwick, Sussex.

Do-good is exhortatory enough, but it rather
smacks of works ; hence, possibly, the reason why
I have only seen it once. A list of the trained
bands under Lord Zouch, Lord Warden of Has-
tings, 1 619, includes —

" Musketts^ James Knight, Doo-good Fuller, Thomas Pilcher." —
•" Arch. Soc. Coll." (Sussex), xiv. 102.

Fare-well seems a shade more worldly than Live-
well, but was common enough :

" iS^Pj July 16, Baptized Fare-well, son of Thomas Hamlen,
gent." — St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London.

" 1723, Sep. 5. Buried Mr. Fare-well Perry, rector of St. Peter's."
— Marlborough.

A writer in Notes and Queries ^ September 9, 1865
(Mr. Lloyd of Thurstonville), says —

•' A man named Sykes, resident in this locality, had four sons
N\hom he named respectively Love-well, Do-well, Die-well, and
Fare-well. Sad to say. Fare-well Sykes met an untimely end by
drowning, and was buried this week (eleventh Sunday after Trinity)
in Lockwood churchyard. The brothers Live-well, Do-well, and
Die-well were the chief mourners on the occasion."

It seems almost impossible that the father should
have restored three of the Puritan names acci-
dentally. Probably he had seen or heard of these
names in some Yorkshire church register. One of
these names, Farewell, is still used in the county,

i66 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

as the directories show. I see Fare-well Wardley,
in Sheffield, in the West Riding Directory for 1867.
This closes the exhortatory class. It is both
numerous and interesting, and some of its instances
grew very familiar, and looked as if they might
find a permanent place in our registers. The
eighteenth century saw them all succumb, however.

{d) Accidents of Birth,

Evidently it was a Puritan notion that a quiver-
ful of children was a matter for thanksgiving.
There is a pleasant ring in some of the names
selected by religious gossips at this time, or
witnesses, as I should rather term them. Free-gift
was one such, and was on the point of becoming
an accepted English name, when the Restoration
stepped in, and it had to follow the way of the
others. It began with the Presbyterian clerg>%
judging by the date of its rise : *

** 1616, . Buried Mary, wifife of Free-gift Mabbe."— Chid-

dingly, Sussex.

** 1621, . Baptized John, son of Free-gift Bishopp." — Ditto.

" 1 59 1, Jan. 14. Baptized Fre-gift, Sonne of Abraham Bay ley.' ^
— ^Warbleton.

The w411 of Free-gift Stacey was proved in 1656

* These two were twins :

** 1589, Oct. 12. Baptized Fre-gyft and Fear-not, ye children of
John Lulham." — Warbleton.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 167

in London ; while a subsidy obtained by an un-
popular tax on fires, hearths, and stoves in 1670,
rates a resident in Chichester thus :

"Free-gift Collins, two hearths."—" Suss. Arch. Coll.," xxiv.81.

The last instance I have seen is :

**Dec. 4, 1700. The petition of Free-gift Pilkington, wife of
Richard Pilkington, late port-master of Ipswich, county Suffolk."
— C. S. P.

Good-gift was rarer :

** 1618, March 28. Bapt. John, sonne of Goodgift Gynninges." —
Warbleton.

One of the earliest Puritan eccentricities was
Frotn-above, mentioned by Camden as existing
in 1614 :

"1582, March 10. Baptized From-above Plendley." — Cranbrook.

A subsidy collected within the rape of Lewes in
1 62 1 records :

"From-above Hendle, gent, in landes, 30 40." — "Suss. Arch.
Coll.," Ix. 71.

Many of these names suggest thanksgiving for an
" addition to the family." More-fricit is one such :

" 1587, June 6. Baptized More-fruite Stone, of Steven." —
Berwick, Sussex.

"1592, Oct. I. Baptized More-fruite Starre."* — Cranbrook.

" 1599, Nov. 4. Baptized More-fruite, d. of Richard Bamet." —
Warbleton.

" 1608, Aug. 28. Baptized More-frute, d. of Ry chard Curtes." —
Ditto.

* This, no doubt, will be a relative of the well-known Puritan,
Comfort Starr, bom in the adjacent hamlet of Ashford.

i68 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

We have already referred to More-fruit Fenner,
christened about the same time.

The great command to Adam and Eve was,
''Multiply, and replenish the earth." Some suc-
cessor of Thomas Heley thought it no harm to
emphasize this at the font :

" 1677, May 14. Buried Replenish, ye wife of Robert French."

But *' Increase" or " Increased " was the repre-
sentative of this class of thanksgiving names, in
palpable allusion to Psa. cxv. 14 :

"The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your
children. "

I could easily furnish the reader with half a
hundred instances. It is probable Thomas Heley
was the inventor of it. The earliest example I
can find is that of his own child :

*' 1587, March 26. Baptized Increased, dather of Thomas Helley,
minister.

" i637> Sep. 15. Buried Increase, wife of Robard Barden.

" 1589, Apr. 13. Baptized Increased, d. of John Gynninges." —
Warbleton.

One or two instances from other quarters may

be noted :

" 1660, June. Petition of Increased Collins, for restoration to
the keepership of Mote's Bulwark, Dover." — C. S. P.

Dr. Increase Mather, of the Liverpool family of
that name, will be a familiar figure to every student
of Puritan history. In 1685 he returned from
America to thank King James for the Toleration

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 169

Act Through him it became a popular name in
New England, although Increase Nowell, who
obtained a charter of appropriation of Massa-
chusetts Bay, March 4, 1628, and emigrated from
London, may have helped in the matter (Neal's
"New England," p. 124).

The perils of childbirth are marked in the
thanksgiving name of Deliverance. So early as
1627 the will of Deliverance Wilton was proved
in London. Camden, too, writing in 16 14, says
'' Delivery " was known to him ; while Adams,
whose Puritan proclivities I have previously hinted
at, preaching in London in 1626, asserts that Safe-
deliverance existed to his knowledge ('' Meditations
upon the Creed"). Deliverance crossed the At-
lantic with the Pilgrim Fathers (Bowditch), and I
see one instance, at least, in Hotten's " Emigrants : "

" 1670, Feb. 18. Buried Deliverance Addison." — Christ Church,
l^arbados.

*' Deliverance Hobbs and Deliverance Dane were both examined
in the great trial for witchcraft at Salem, June 2, 1692." — Neal,
"New England," pp. 533, 506.

The last instance, probably, at home is —

"i757j J^ri* 7- Buried Deliverance Branan." — Donnybrook,
Dublin [Notes and Queries).

This ■- Deliverance " must have been especially
common. One more instance : in the will of
Anne Allport, sen., of Cannock, Stafford, dated

I70 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

March 25, 1637, mention is made of "my son-
in-law Deliverance Fennyhouse" (vide Notes and
Queries, Dec. 8, 1 860, W. A. Leighton).
Much-mercy is characteristic :

** 1598, May 22. Baptized Much-mercie Harmer, a child." —
Warbleton.

This is but one more proof of Heley's influence,
for he had baptized one of his own sons " Much-
mercy" in 1585.

Perhaps a sense of undeserved mercies caused
the following :

" 1589, Sep. 28. Baptized No-merit, dather of Stephen Vynall."
— Warbleton.

That babes are cherubs, if not seraphs, every
mother knows; but it is not often the fact is
recorded in our church registers. Peculiar thank-
fulness must have been felt here :

*'0n Dec. 11, 1865, aged seventy-eight years, died Cherubin
Diball." — Notes and Queries^ 4th Series, ii. 130.

And two hundred years previously, i.e. 1678,
Seraphim Marketman is referred to in the last
testament of John Kirk. But was it gratitude,
after all } We have all heard of the wretched
father who would persist in having the twins his
wife presented to him christened by the names
of Cherubin and Seraphim, on the ground that
*^they continually do cry.'* Perhaps Cherubin
Diball and Seraphim Marketman made noise
enough for two !

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 171

But if the father of the twins was not as thankful
for his privilege as he ought to have been, others
Avere. Thanks and Thankfid were not unknown
to our forefathers. One of the earliest instances
I can find is the marriage lines of Thankful Hep-
den :

"1646, July 16. Thankfull Hepden and Fraimces Bruer."— St.
Dionis Backchurch.

In Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa" (p. 537) we read :

*'Dec. M.D.CLVI. Mr. Thankful Frewen's corps carried
through London, to be interred in Sussex."

ThankfuFs father was John Frewen, Rector of
Northiam, the eminent Puritan already referred to.
Accepted, the elder son's name, belongs to this
same class. Thankficl seems to have become a
favourite \\\ that part of the country, and to have
lingered for a considerable time. In the " History
of the Town and Port of Rye " we find (p. 466) :

* ' Christmas, 1 723. Assessment for repairs of highways : Mr.
Thankful Bishop paid 7*^ 6^1"

Again, so late as 1 749 we find the death of another
Thankful Frewen recorded, who had been Rector
of Northiam for sixteen years, christened, no
doubt, in memory of his predecessor of a century
gone by.* Thankful Owen was brother to

* A tablet in Northiam Church says —

**In memory of Thankfull Frewen, Esq., patron of, and a
generous benefactor to, this Church : who was many years purse-

172 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Gracious Owen, president of St. John's, Oxford,
1650-1660.

One more instance will suffice. The will of
Thanks Tilden was proved in 1698. No wonder
the name was sufficiently familiar to be embodied
in one of the political skits of the Commonwealth
period :

*' * O, very well said,' quoth Con ;

* And so will I do,' says Frank ;

And Mercy cries *Aye,' and Mat, * Really,'

* And I'm o' that mind,' quoth Thanks

Possibly the sentence "unfeignedly thankful"
suggested the other word also ; any way, it existed :

"1586, April I. BajDtized Unfeigned, sonne of Roger Elliard."
— Warbleton.

The estate of Unfeigned Panckhurst was adminis-
tered upon in 1656.

From every side we see traces of the popularity
of Thankful. During the restoration of Hawkhurst
Church, a small tombstone was discovered below
the floor, with an inscription to the "memory of
Elizabeth, daughter of Thankful Bishop, of Hawk-
hurst, gent, who died January 2, 1680" ("Arch.

bearer and afterwards secretary to Lord Keeper Coventry, in the

reign of Charles the First."

A flat stone in the chancel commemorates the second Thankful :
**Hic situs est vir reverendus Thankfull Frewen hujus ecclesice

per quinquaginta sex annos rector sanctissimus & doctissimus . . .

obiit 2^** Septembris, 1749, anno cetatis Si"^*'."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 173

Cant.," iv. 1 08). In the churchwarden's book of
the same place occurs this curious item :

*' 1675. Received by Thankfull Thorpe, churchwarden in the
year 1675, ^^ Richard Sharpe of Bennenden, the siimme of one
pound for shouting of a hare." — "Arch. Cant.," v. 75.

Several names seem to breathe assurance and

trust in imminent peril. Perhaps both mother

and child were in danger. Preserved is distinctly
of this class :

*'Here lieth the body of Preserved, the daughter of Thomas
Preserved Emms, who departed this life in the i8th year of her age,
on the 17th of November, mdccxii." — St. Nicholas, Yarmouth.

** 1588, Aug. I. Baptized Preserved, sonne of Thomas Holman.

*'i594, Nov. 17. Baptized Preserved, sonne of Roger Caffe."
— Warble ton.

Preserved Fish, whose name appeared for many-
years in the New York Directory, did not get his
name this way. A friend of his informs me that,
about eighty-five years ago, a vessel was wrecked
on the New Jersey coast, and when washed ashore,
a little child was discovered secured in one of the
berths, the only living thing left. The finder
named the boy *' Preserved Fish," and he bore it
through a long and honoured life to the grave,
having made for himself a good position in society.
Beloved would naturally suggest itself to grateful
parents :

" 1672, July 10. Buried Anne, wife of Beeloved King." —
Warbleton.

174 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

This name is also found in St. Matthew, Friday
Street, London.

Joy-in-Sorroiv is the story of Rachel and Benoni
over again :

"1595* Oi^ the last daye of August the daughter of Edward
Godman was baptized and named Joye-in-Sorrow." — Isfield,
Sussex.

' Lame7ttatio7i tells its own tale, unless taken from
the title of one of the Old Testament books :

** Plaintiff, Lamentation Chapman : Bill to stay proceedings on a
bond relating to a tenement and lands in the parish of Borden,
Kent." — " Proc. in Chancery, Eliz.," i. 149.

We have already mentioned Safc-on-high Hop-
kinson, christened at Salehurst in 1591, and Help-
on-high Foxe, incumbent of Lydney, Gloucester,
in 1661. The former died a few days after bap-
'tism, and the event seems to have been antici- '
pated in the name selected.

The termination on-high was popular. Stand-
fast-on-high Stringer dwelt at Crowhurst, in Sussex,
about the year 1635, as wuU be proved shortly, and
Aid-on-high is twice met with :

" 1646, June 6. Letters of administration taken out in the estate
of Margery Maddock, of Ross, Hereford, by Aid-on-high Maddock,
her husband."

" 1596, July 19. Stephen Vynall had a sonne baptized, and was
named Aid-on-hye." — Isfield, Sussex.*

* We have already seen that Stephen Vynall had a daughter
baptized No-merit at Warbleton, September 28, 1589. Heley's
influence followed him to Isfield, as this entry proves.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 175

The three following are precatory, and we may
infer that the life of either mother or child was
endangered :

*' 1618, . ^Married Restore Weekes to' Constant Semar." —

Chiddingly.

" 1613, . Baptized Have-mercie, d. of Thomas Stone." —

Berwick, Sussex.

A monument at Cobham, Surrey, commemorates
the third :

*' Hereunder lies interred the body of Aminadab Cooper, citizen
and merchaunt taylor of London, who left behind him God-helpe,
their only sonne. Hee departed this life the 23*^ June, 1618."

Still less hopeful of augury was the following :

" 1697, Ji-i^y ^- Weakly Ekins, citizen and grocer, London." —
"Liquisit. of Lunacy," Rec. Office MS S.

What about him t His friends brought him
forward as a case for the Commissioners of Lunacy
to take in hand, on the ground that he was weak
of intellect, and unfit to manage his business. It
might be asked whether such a name was not likely
to drive him to the state specified in the petition.

While on the subject of birth, we may notice
that the Presbyterian clergy were determined to
visit the sins of the parents on the children in cases
of illegitimacy. A few instances must suffice :

*'I589, Aug. 3. Baptized Helpless Henley, a bastard. "—Ber-
wick, Sussex.

"160S, Aug. 14. Baptized Repent Champney, a bastard." —
Warblelon.

176 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

*' 15995 May 13. Baptized Repentance, d. of Martha Henley, a
bastard. " — Warbleton.

*'i6oo, M^^ 26. Baptized Lament, d. of Anne Willard, a
bastard." — Ditto.

*'i6oo, April 13. Baptized Repentance Gilbert, a bastard." —
Cranbrook.

** 159^5 J^"' 27. BajDtized Forsaken, filius meretricis Agnetis
Walton. " — Sedgefield.

**i6o9, Dec. 17. Baptized Flie-fomication, the bace son of
Catren Andrewes. " — Waldron.

This is more kindly, but an exceptional case :

*' 1609, Nov. 25. Baptized Fortune, daughter of Dennis Judie,
and in sin begoten." — Middleton-Cheney.

(e)j General,

There is a batch of names which was especially-
common, and which hardly appears to be of Puritan
origin ; I mean names presaging good fortune.
Doubtless, however, they were at first used, in a
purely spiritual sense, of the soul's prosperity ; and
afterwards, by more worldly minds, were referred
to the good things of this life.

Fortime became a great favourite :

" 1607, Oct. 4. Baptized Fortune Gardyner." — St. Giles,
Camberwell.

** 1642, . Baptized Fortune, daughter of Thomas Patchett."

— Ludlow, Shropshire.

" 1652-3, M^'^ 10. Married Mr. John Barrington and Mrs.
Fortune Smith." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

**I723, April 8. Buried Fortune Symons, aged 11 1 years." —
Hammersmith.

If Fortune meant fulness of years, it was attained
in this last example.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 177

Wealthy is equally curious :

" 1665 [no date]. Petition of Wealthy, lawful wife of Henry
Halley, and one of the Duke of York's guards." — C. S. P.

"1714, April 25. Buried Wealthy Whathing." — Donnybrook,
Dublin.*

"1704, Aug. 18, died Riches Browne, gent., aged 62." — Seaming,
Norfolk.

The father of this Riches was also Riches, and was
married to the daughter of John Nabs ! (^vide
Blomefield, vi. 5).

Several names may be set in higgledy-piggledy
fashion, for they belong to no class, and are siii
generis.

Pleasant \ is found several times :

" 1681, Nov. 8. Christened Pleasant, daughter of Robert Tarl-
ton." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

"1725, Dec. 18. William Whiteing, of Chislett, to Pleasant
Burt, of Reculver."— Cant. Cath.

" 1728, Nov. 3. Buried Pleasant Smith, late wife of Mr. John
Smith. " — St. Dionis Backchurch.

The following, no doubt, had a political as well
as spiritual allusion. It occurs several times in the
New York Directory of the present year :

*' 1689, March 4. Petition of Freeman Howes, controller of
Chichester port."—" C. S. P. Treasury."

** 1 69 1, Sep. 21. Petition of Freeman Collins." — Ditto.

* **I723.— Welthiana Bryan."— Nicholl's "Coll. Top. et Gen.,"
iii. 250.

t Pleasant lasted for some time :

** 1757, Jan. II. Married Thomas Dunn and Pleasant Dadd." —
Cant. Cath.

178 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,
"1661. Petition of Freeman Sonds."— *'C. S. P. Domestic."*

What a freak of fancy is commemorated in the
following :

" 1698, June 23. Examination of Isaac Cooper, Thomas Abra-
ham, and Centurian Lucas." — C. S. P.

** 1660, June. Petition of Handmaid, wife of Aaron Johnson."
— C.S. P.

*' 1 66 1, August 29. Baptized Miracle, son of George Lessa." —
New Buckenham.

"1728. Married John Foster to Beulah Digby." — Somerset
House Chapel.

The Trinity in Unity were not held in proper
reverence ; for Trinity Langley fought in the army
of Cromwell, while Unity Thornton (St. James,
Piccadilly, 1680) and Unity Awdley ("Top. et. Gen.,"
viii. 201) appear a little later :

** 1694, Jan. 8. James Commelin to Mrs. Unitie Awdrey." —
Market Lavington.

"1668, Feb. 15. Baptized Unity, son of John Brooks." — Ban-
bury.

Providence Hillershand died August 14, 1749,

aged y2 (Bicknor, Gloucester). Providence was

a he,

** 1752, Nov. 5. Buried Selah, d. of Ric. and Diana Collins."
— Dyrham, Gloucestershire.

** 1586, April 10. Baptize^ My-sake Hallam." — Cranbrook.

Biblical localities were much resorted to :

* A dozen Freemans may be seen within the limits of half that
number of pages in the Finchley registers. Here is one :
"1603, Feb. 26. Baptized Freeman, filius Freeman Page. "

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 179

*' 1 6 16, Nov. 26. Baptized Bethsaida, d. of Humphrey Tre-
nouth." — St. Columb Major.

" 17CX), June 6. Buried Canaan, wife of John Hatton, 55 years."
— Forthampton, Gloucestershire.

*'i7o6, April 27. Married Eden Hardy to Esther Pantall." —
St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1695, Dec. 15. Baptized Richard, son of Richard and Nazareth
Rudde."— St. James, Piccadilly.

Nazareth Godden's will was administrated upon in
1662. Battalion Shotbolt was defendant in a suit
in the eleventh year of Queen Anne (Decree Rolls,
Record Office). The following is odd :

"1683, Oct. II. Buried Mr. Inward Anslot.^^ — Cant. Cath.

V. A Scoffing World.

While these strange pranks were being played,
the world was not asleep. Calamy seems to have
discovered a source of melancholy satisfaction in
the fact that the quaint names of his brethren
were subjected to the raillery of a wicked world.
One of the ejected ministers was Sabbath Clark,
minister of Tarvin, Cheshire. Of him he writes :

"He had been constant minister of the parish for nigh upon
sixty years. He carried Puritanism in his very name, by which his
good father intended he should bear the memorial of God's Holy
Day. This was a course that some in those times affected, baptizing
their children Reformation, Discipline, etc. , as the affections of their
parents stood engaged. For this they have sufficiently suffered from
Profane Wits, and this worthy person did so in particular. Yet his
name was not a greater offence to such persons than his holy life. "

Probably Calamy was referring to the "profane

i8o CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE, .

Wit " Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Chester, who, in a
visitation held at Warrington about the year
1643, is said to have acted as follows : —

"A minister, called Sabbaith Gierke, the Doctor re-baptized,
took's marke, and call'd him Saturday."

That this was a deliberate insult, and not a
pleasantry, Calamy, of course, would stoutly main-
tain. Hence the above sample of holy ire.

Many of the names in the list I have recorded
must have met with the good-humoured raillery
of the every-day folk the strangely stigmatized
bearer might meet. I suppose in good time,
however, the owner, and the people he was
accustomed to mix with, got used to it. It is
true they must have resorted, not unfrequently,
to curter forms, much after the fashion of the
now almost forgotten nick forms of the Plan-
tagenet days. Fight -the -good -fight -of- faith is
a very large mouthful, if you come to try it,
and I dare say Mr. White or Brown, whoever he
might be, did not so strongly urge as he ought
to have done the gross impropriety of his friends
recognizing him by the simple style of *^ Faith "
or ''Fight." Fancy at a dinner, in a day that
had not invented the convenient practice of calling
a man by his surname, having to address a friend
across the table, " Please, Fight-the-good-fight-of-

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, i8i

faith, pass the pepper ! " The thing was impos-
sible. Even Help-on-high was found cumber-
some, and, as we have seen, the Rector of Lydney
curtailed it.

A curious instance of waggery anent this matter
of length will be found in the register of St.
Helen, Bishopgate. The entry is dated 1611,
just the time when the dramatists were making
fun of this Puritanic innovation, and when the
custom was most popular :

"Sept. I, 161 1. Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, being borne the last of
August in the lane going to Sir John Spencer's back-gate, and there
laide in a heape of seacole asshes, was baptized the ffirst day of Sep-
tember following, and dyed the next day after."

This is confirmed by the burial records :

" Sept. 2, 161 1. Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, as is mentioned in the
register of christenings."

The reference, of course, is to Job ii. 8:

" And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal ; and he
sat down among the ash^s."

This was somewhat grim fun, though. Probably
Job-raki-oiit-of-the-asshes^ during his brief life,
would be styled by the curter title of " Ashes."
It is somewhat curious to notice that Camden,
writing three years later, says Ashes existed. Per-
haps this was the instance.

A similar instance of waggery is found in the

i82 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

parish. church of Old Swinford, where the following
entry occurs : —

** 1676, Jan. 18. Baptized Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-
Dallery-Galleiy- Cesar, sonn of Dancell Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-
Dallery-Gallery-Cesar Williams."

Allowing the father to be thirty years of age, the
paternal christening would take place in 1646,
which would be a likely time in the political
history of England for a mimical hit at Puritan
eccentricity.

{a) The Playwrights,

There is a capital scene in " The Ordinary "
(1634), where Andrew Credulous, after trolling
out a verse of nonsensical rhyme against the
Puritan names, says to his friends Hearsay and
Slicer, in allusion to these new long and uncouth
names :

" Andrew the Great Turk ?
I would I were a peppercorn, if that
It sounds not well. Doe'st not?

Slicer. Yes, very well.

Credulous. I'll make it else great Andrew Mahomet,
Imperious Andrew Mahomet Credulous.
Tell me which name sounds best.

Hearsay. That's as you speak 'em.

Credulous. Oatmealman Andrew ! Andrew Oatmealman !

Hearsay. Ottoman, sir, you mean.

Credulous. Yes, Ottoman."

" Oatmealman Andrew ! Andrew Oatmealman ! "

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 183

seems to have suggested to Thomson that un-
fortunate line :

"O Sophonisba, Sophonisba O,"

so unkindly parodied into —

** O Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson O."

From this quotation it will be seen that it is not
to the church register alone we must turn, to dis-
cover the manner in which these new names were
being received by the public. Calamy might wax
wroth over the " profane wits " of the day, but one
of the severest blows administered to the men
he has undertaken to defend, came from his own
side ; for Thomas Adams, Rector of St. Benet,
Paul's Wharf, must unquestionably be placed,
even by Calamy's own testimony, among the
Puritan clergy of his day. His name does not
appear in the list of silenced clergy, and his works
are dedicated to pronounced friends of the Non-
comformist cause. In his "Meditations upon the
Creed " (vol. iii. p. 213, edit. 1872), first published in
1629, he says —

" Some call their sons Emanuel : this is too bold. The name is
proper to Christ, therefore not to be communicated to any creature.
It is no less than presumption to give a subject's son the style of his
prince. Yea, it seems to me not fit for Christian humility to call a
man Gabriel or Michael^ giving the names of angels to the sons of
mortality.

*' On the other side, it is a petulant absurdity to give them ridicu-
lous names, the very rehearsing whereof causeth laughter. There

i84 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIA TURE,

be certain affectate names which mistaken zeal chooseth for honour,
but the event discovers a proud singularity. It was the speech of a
famous prophet, Non sum melior patribus meis — * I am no better
than my fathers ; ' but such a man will be sapientior patribus suis —
* Wiser than his fathers. ' As if they would tie the goodness of the
person to the signification of the name. But still a man is what he
is, not what he is called ; he were the same, with or without that
title or that name. And we have known Williams and Richards^
names not found in sacred story, but familiar to our country, prove
as gracious saints as any Safe -deliverance , Fight-the-good-fight-of - faith ^
or such like, which have been rather descriptions than names. "

I have quoted portions of this before. I have
now given it in full, for it is trenchant, and full of
common sense. Coming from the quarter it did,
we cannot doubt it had its effect in throwing the
practice into disfavour among the better orders.
But there had been a continued battery going on
from a foe by whose side Adams would have rather
faced death than fight. Years before he wrote his
own sentiments, the Puritan nomenclature had been
roughly handled on the stage, and by such ruthless
pens as Ben Jonson, Cowley, and Beaumont and
Fletcher. A year before little Job-rakt-out-of-the-
asshes was laid to rest, the sharp and unsparing
sarcasm of " The Alchemist " and " Bartholomew
Fair " had been levelled at these doings. The first
of these two dramas Ben Jonson saw acted in 1610.
By that time the custom was a generation old, and
men who bore the godly but uncouth sobriquets
were walking the streets, keeping shops, driving

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 185

bargains, known, if not avoided, of all men. In
1 610 Increase Brown, your apprentice, might be
demanding an advance upon his wages, Help-on-
high Jones might be imploring your patronage,
while Search-the-Scriptures Robinson might be
diligently studying his ledger to see how he could
swell his total against you for tobacco and groceries.
In 16 10 society would be really awake to the fact
that such things existed, and proceed to discuss
this serio-comic matter in a comico-serious manner.
The time was exactly ripe for the playwright, and
it was the fate of the Presbyterians that the play-
wright was " rare Ben."

In ''The Alchemist " appears Ananias^ a deacon,
who is thus questioned by Subtle :

** What are you, sir ?

Ananias. Please you, a servant of the exiled brethren,
That deal with widows' and with orphans' goods,
And make a just account unto the saints :
A deacon.

Subtle. O, you are sent from Master Wholesome,
Your teacher ?

Ananias. From Tribulation Wholesome,
Our very zealous pastor. "

After accusing Ananias of being related to the
" varlet that cozened the Apostles," Subtle meets
Tribulation himself, the Amsterdam pastor, whom
he treats with scant courtesy :

'* Nor shall you need to libel 'gainst the prelates,
And shorten so your ears against the hearing

i86 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Of the next wire-drawn grace. Nor of necessity-
Rail against plays, to please the alderman
Whose daily custard you devour ; nor lie
With zealous rage till you are hoarse. Not one
Of these so singular arts. Nor call yourselves
By name of Tribulation^ Persecution,
Restraint, Long-patience, and such like, affected
By the whole family or wood of you.
Only for glory, and to catch the ear
Of your disciple."

To which hard thrust Tribulation meekly makes
response :

** Truly, sir, they are
Ways that the godly brethren have invented
For propagation of the glorious cause. "

Every word of this harangue of Subtle's would
tell upon a sympathetic audience. So popular was
the play itself, that a common street song was
made out of it, the first verse of which we find
Credulous singing in " The Ordinary : "

** My name's not Tribulation,
Nor holy Ananias ;
I was baptized in fashion.
Our vicar did hold bias. " *

Act iv. sc. I.

This comedy appeared twenty years after '* The
Alchemist," and yet the song was still popular.
Many a lad with a Puritan name must have had
these rhymes flung into his teeth. Tribulation, by
the way, is one of the names given \n Camden's
list, written four years later than Ben Jonson's

* That is, he held him crosswise in his arms.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 187

play. This name, which has been the object of an
antiquary's, a playwright's, a ballad-monger's and
an historian's ridicule (for Macaulay had his fling
at it), curiously enough I have not found in the
registers. But its equivalent, Lamentation, occurs,
as w^e have seen, in the ''Chancery Suits" (1590-
1600), in the case of La7nentatio7i Chapman, Re-
straint is met by Abstinence Pougher, and Perse-
cution by 7>/^/ Travis (C. S. P. 1619, June 7).

Still more severe, again, is this same dramatist
in "Bartholomew Fair," which was performed in
London, October, 1614, by the retinue of Lady
Elizabeth, James's daughter. Pouring ridicule
upon the butt of the day, whose name of "Puritan"
was by-and-by to be anagrammatized into '' a
turnip," from the cropped roundness of his head,
this drama became the play-goers' favourite. It
was suppressed during the Commonwealth, and
one of the first to be revived at the Restoration.*
The king is said to have given special orders for
its performance. Whether his grandfather liked it
as much may be doubted, for it once or twice
touches on doctrinal points, and James thought he
had a special gift for theology.

Zeal-of-the-land Busy is a Banbury man, which

* " And here was * Bartholomew Fayre ' acted to-day, which had
not been these forty years, it being so satyricall against Puritanism,
they durst not till now." — Pepys, Sept 7, 1661.

i88 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

town was then even more celebrated for Puritans
than cakes. Caster^ in " The Ordinary," says —

** I'll send some forty thousand unto Paul's :
Build a cathedral next in Banbury :
Give organs to each parish in the kingdom."

Zeal-of-the-land is thus inquired of by Winwife :

" What call you the reverend elder you told me of, your Banbury
man?

Littlewit. Rabbi Busy, sir : he is more than an elder, he is a
prophet, sir.

Quarlous. O, I know him ! a baker, is he not ?

Littleivit. He was a baker, sir, but he does dream now, and
see visions : he has given over his trade.

Quarlous, I remember that, too : out of a scruple that he took,
in spiced conscience, those cakes he made were served to bridales,
maypoles, morrices, and such profane feasts and meetings. His
christian name is Zeal-of-the-land ?

Littlewit. Yes, sir ; Zeal-of-the-land Busy.

Winwife. How ! what a name's there !

Littleunt. O, they all have such names, sir : he was witness for
Win here — they will not be called godfathers — and named her Win-
the-fight : you thought her name had been Winnifred, did you not ?

Winwife. I did indeed.

Littlewit. He would have thought himself a stark reprobate if it
had."

All this would be caviare to the Cavalier, and it

is doubtful whether he did not enjoy it more than

his grandparents, who could but laugh at it as a

hit religious, rather than political. The allusion

to witnesses reminds us of Corporal Oath, w^ho in

"The Puritan," published in 1607 (Act ii. sc. 3),

rails at the zealots for the mild character of their

ejaculations. The expression " Oh ! " was the most

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 189

terrible expletive they permitted themselves to
indulge in, and some even shook their heads at a
brother who had thus far committed himself:

' ' Why ! has the devil possessed you, that you swear no better,
You half-christened c s, you un-godmothered varlets ? "

The terms godfather and godmother were rejected
by the disaffected clergy, and they would have the
answer made in the name of the sponsors, not
the child. Hence they styled them witnesses.

In "Women Pleased," a tragi-comedy, written,
as is generally concluded, by Fletcher alone about
the year 1616, we find the customary foe of may-
poles addressing the hobby :

" I renounce it,
And put the beast off thus, the beast polluted.
And now no more shall Ilope-on-high Bomby
Follow the painted pipes of worldly pleasures.
And with the wicked dance the Devil's measures :
Away, thou pampered jade of vanity ! "

Here, again, is no exaggeration of name, for we
have Help-on-high Foxe to face Hope-on-high
Bomby. The Rector of Lydney would be about
twenty-five when this play was written, and may
have suggested himself the sobriquet. The names
are all but identical.

From " Women . Pleased " and Fletcher to
" Cutter of Coleman Street " and Cowley is a wide
jump, but we must make it to complete our quo-
tations from the playwrights. Although brought

190 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

out after the Restoration, the fun about names was
not yet played out. The scene is laid in London
in 1658. This comedy was sorely resented by the
zealots, and led the author to defend himself in
his preface. He says that he has been accused of
** prophaneness : '*

"There is some imitation of Scripture phrases: God forbid !
There is no representation of the true face of Scripture, but only
of that vizard which these hypocrites draw upon it."

This must have been more trying to bear even
than Cutter himself. Under a thin disguise, Colonel
Fear-the-Lord Barebottle is none other than Praise-
God Barebone, of then most recent notoriety.
Cowley's allusion to him through the medium of
Jolly is not pleasant :

^"^ Jolly, My good neighbour, I thank him, Colonel Fear-the-Lord
Barebottle, a Saint and a Soap-boiler, brought it. But he's dead, and
boiling now himself, that's the best of 't ; there's a Cavalier's comfort. "

Cutter turns zealot, and wears a most puritanical
habit. To the colonel's widow, Mistress Tabitha
Barebottle, he says —

** Sister Barebottle, I must not be called Cutter any more: that
is a name of Cavalier's darkness ; the Devil was a Cutter from the
beginning : my name is now Abednego, I had a vision which
whispered to me through a keyhole, * Go, call thyself Abednego,^ " *

* That some changed their names for titles of more godly import
need not be doubted. William Jenkin says, " I deny not, but in
some cases it may be lawful! to change our names, or forbear to
mention them, either by tongue or pen : but then we should not

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 191

But Cutter— we beg his pardon, Abednego— was
but a sorry convert. Having lapsed into a worldly
mind again, he thus addresses Tabitha :

** Shall I, who am to ride the purple dromedary, go dressed like
Revelation Fats, the basket-maker ? — Give me the peruke, boy ! "

I fancy the reader will agree with me that Cowley
needed all the arguments he could urge in his
preface to meet the charge of irreverence.

{b.) The Sussex Jury,

One of the strongest indictments to be found
against this phase of Puritanic eccentricity is to
be found in Hume's well-known quotation from
Brome's "Travels into England" — a quotation which
has caused much angry contention. The book
quoted by the historian is entitled " Travels over
England, Scotland, and Wales, by James Brome,
M.A., Rector of Cheriton, in Kent." Writing soon
after the Restoration, Mr. Brome says (p. 279) —

"Before I leave this county (Sussex), I shall subjoin a copy of a
Jury returned here in the late rebellious troublesome times, given
me by the same worthy hand which the Huntingdon Jury was : and
by the christian names then in fashion we may still discover the
superstitious vanity of the Puritanical Precisians of that age. "

A second list in the British Museum Mr. Lower

be put upon such straits by the badnesse of our actions (as the most
are) which we are ashamed to own, but by the consideration of God's
glory, or the Churches good, or our own necessary preservation in
time of persecution." — " Exposition of Jude, " 1652, p. 7.

192 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

considers to be of a somewhat earlier date,
will set them side by side :

We

Accepted Trevor, of Norsham.

Redeemed Compton, of Battle.

Faint-not Hewit, of Heathfield.

Make-peace Heaton, of Hare.

God-reward Smart, of Fivehurst.

Stand -fast -on -high Stringer, of
Crowhurst.

Earth Adams, of Warbleton.

Called Lower, of the same.

Kill-sin Pimple, of Witham.

Return Spelman, of Watling.

Be faithful Joiner, of Britling.

Fly-debate Roberts, of the same.

Fight - the - good - fight - of - faith
White, of Emer.

More-fruit Fowler, of East Hod-
ley.

Hope-for Bending, of the same.

Graceful Harding, of Lewes.

Weep-not Billing, of the same.

Meek Brewer, of Okeham.

Approved Frewen, of Northiam.

Be-thankful Maynard, of Bright-
ling.

Be- courteous Cole, of Pevensey.

Safety-on-high Snat, of Uck-
field.

Search-the- Scriptures Moreton,
of Salehurst.

More-fruit Fowler, of East Hoth-
ley.

Free-gift Mabbs, of Chiddingly.

Increase Weeks, of Cuckfield.

Restore Weeks, of the same.

Kill-sin Pemble, of Westham.

Elected Mitchell, of Heathfield.

Faint-not Hurst, of the same.

Renewed Wisberry, of Hail-
sham.

Return Milward, of Hellingly.

Fly-debate Smart, of Waldron.

Fly- fornication Richardson, of
the same.

Seek-wisdom Wood, of the
same.

Much-mercy Cryer, of the same.

Fight - the - good - fight - of- faith
White, of Ewhurst.

Small -hope Biggs, of Rye.

Earth Adams, of Warbleton.

Repentance Avis, of Shoreham.

The-peace-of-God Knight, of
Burwash.

I dare say ninety-five per cent, of readers of
Hume's " History of England " have thought this

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 193

list of Sussex jurors a silly and extravagant hoax.
They are "either a forgery or a joke," says an
indignant writer in Notes and Queries. Hume
himself speaks of them as names adopted by con-
verts, evidently unaware that these sobriquets were
all but invariably affixed at the font. The truth
of the matter is this. The names are real enough ;
the panel is not necessarily so. They are a collec-
tion of names existing in several Sussex villages
at one and the same time. Everything vouches
for their authenticity. The list was printed by
Brome while the majority must be supposed still
to be living ; the villages in which they resided
are given, the very villages whose registers we now
turn to for Puritanic examples, with the certainty
of unearthing them ; above all, some of the names
can be "run down" even now. Accepted or
Approved Frewen, of NortJiiam, we have already
referred to. Ftre-gift Mabbs, of Chiddingly^ is met
by the following entry from Chiddingly Church :

*' 1616, . Buried Mary, wife of Free-gift Mabbs.*'

The will of Redeemed Compton, of Battle, was
proved in London in 1641. Restore Weeks, of
Cuckfield, is, no doubt, the individual who got
married not far away, in Chiddingly Church :

'* 1 61 8, . Restore Weeks espoused Constant Semer."

O

194 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

''Increase Weeks, of Cuckfield," may therefore
be accepted as proven, especially as I have shown
Increase to be a favourite Puritan name. These
two would be brothers, or perchance father and
son. As for the other names, the majority have
already figured in this chapter. Fly-fornication is
still found in Waldron register, though the sur-
name is a different one. Return, Faint-not, Much-
mercy, Be-thankful, Repentance, Safe-on-high,
Renewed, and More-fruit, all have had their
duplicates in the pages preceding. ^^ Fight-thc-
good'fight-of'faitk White, of Emer," is the only
unlikely sobriquet left to be dealt with. Thomas
Adams, in his "Meditations upon the Creed," in
a passage already quoted, testified to its existence
in 1629. The conclusion is irresistible : the names
are authentic, and the panel may have been.

(^.) Royalists with Ptiritan Naines.

It may be asked whether or not the world went
beyond scoffing. Was the stigma of a Puritan
name a hindrance to the worldly advancement oV
the bearer } It is pleasant, in contradiction of any
such theory, to quote the following : —

" 1663, Aug. Petition of Arise Evans to the King for an order
that he may receive ;f 20 in completion of the £']o given him by the
King.*'— C. S. P.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 195

In a second appeal made March, 1664 (C. S. P.),
Arise reminds Charles of many " noble acts" done
for him as a personal attendant during his exile.

" 1660, June. Petition of Handmaid, wife of Aaron Johnson,
<;abinet-maker, for the place for her husband of Warden in the
Tower, he being eminently loyal.

** 1660, June. Petition of Increased Collins, His Majesty's ser-
vant, for restoration to the keepership of Mote's Bulwark, near
Dover, appointed January, 1629, and dismissed in 1642, as not
trustworthy, imprisoned and sequestered, and in 1645 tried for his
life.

** 1660, Oct. Petition of Noah Bridges, and his son Japhet
Bridges, for office of clerk to the House of Commons." — C. S. P.

Thus it will be seen that, in the general rush for
places of preferment at the Restoration, there were
men and women bearing names of the most marked
Puritanism, who did not hesitate to forward their
appeals with the Williams and Richards of the
world at large. They manifestly did not suppose
their sobriquets would be any bar to preferment.
One of them, too, had been body-man to Charles
in his exile, and another had suffered in person
and estate as a devoted adherent of royalty. We
may hope and trust, therefore, that all this scoffing
was of a good-humoured character.

It was, doubtless, the prejudice against Puritan
eccentricity that introduced civil titles as font
names into England — a class specially condemned
by Cartwright and his friends. At any rate, they
are contemporary with the excesses of fanatic

196 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

nomenclature, and are found just in the districts
where the latter predominated. Squire must have
arisen before Elizabeth died :

" 1626, March 21. Petition of Squire Bence."— C. vS. P.

** 1662, Oct. 30. Baptized Jane, d. of Squire Brockhall." —
Hornby, York.

" 1722, July 28. Baptized Squire, son of John Pysing and
Bennet, his wife." — Cant. Cath.

Duke was the christian name of Captain Wyvill,
a fervent loyalist, and grandson of Sir Marma-
duke Wyvill, Bart., of Constable Burton, York-
shire :

" 1681, Feb. 12. Baptized Duke, son of Robert Fance, K"*."—
Cant. Cath.

Squire passed over the Atlantic, and is frequently
to be seen in the States ; so that if men may not
squire themselves at the end of their names in the
great republic, they may at the beginning.

Yorkshire and Lancashire are the great centres
for this class of names on English soil. Squire
is found on every page of the West Riding
Directory, such entries as Squire Jagger, Squire
Whitley, Squire Hind, Squire Hardy, or Squire
Chapman being of the commonest occurrence.
Duke is also a favourite, Duke Redmayne and
Duke Oldroyd meeting my eye after turning
but half a dozen pages. But the great rival of
Squire is Major. There is a kind of martial, if not

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 197

braggadocio, air about the very sound, which has
taken the ear of the Yorkshire folk. Close together
I light upon Major Pullen, farmer; Major Wold,
farmer ; Major Smith, sexton ; Major Marshall,
ironmonger. Other illustrations are Prince Jewitt,
Earl Moore, Marshall Stewart, and Admiral
Fletcher. This custom has led to awkwardnesses.
There was living at Burley, near Leeds, a short
time ago, a " Sir Robert Peel." In the same way
" Earl Grey " is found. Sir Isaac Newton was
living not long ago in the parish of Soho, London.
Robinson Cruso still survives, hale and hearty, at
King's Lynn, and Dean Swift is far from dead, as
the West Riding Directory proves.

It was an odd idea that suggested " Shorter."
I have five instances of it, two from the Westmin-
ster Abbey registers :

" 1689, March 3. Buried Shorter Norris."

'' 1690, July 9. Baptized Shorter, son of Robert and Ann
Tanner."

Junior is found so early as 1657 •

*' 1657, . Christened Junior, sonne of Robert Naze." — Canjt.

<Jath.

Little is similarly used. Little Midgley in the
West Riding Directory is scarcely a happy con-
junction. In the same town are to be seen John
Berry, side by side with *' Young John Berry," and
Allen Mawson, with Young Allen Mawson.

198 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

VI. Bunyan's Debt to the Puritans.

But if the Sussex jury was not visionary, except
for the panel, neither was that at Mansoul ! What
a text is this for the next biographer of Bunyan, if
he have the courage to enter upon it ! To suggest
that the great dreamer was not a reprobate in his
youth, and thus spoil the contrast between his con-
verted and unconverted life, was a perilous act on
Lord Macaulay's part. To insinuate that he had
a not altogether unpleasant time of it in the Bed-
ford gaol, that he could have his friends to visit
him, and, on the face of it, ink, paper, and quills to
set down his meditations, even this is enough to
set a section of political and religious society about
our ears. But to hint that his character names
were not wholly the offspring of his imagination, not
thought out in the isolation of his dreary captivity,
and not pictured in his brain, while his brain-pan
was lying upon a hard and comfortless pallet — this,
I know, not very long ago would have brought a
mob about me ! In the present day, I shall only
be smiled upon with contempt, and condemned to
a righteous ignominy by the superior judgment of
the worshippers of John Bunyan !

Nevertheless I ask, were the great mass of Bun-
yan's character names the creation of his own

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 199

brain, or were they suggested by the nomenclature
of his friends or neighbours in the days of his
youth ? It is the peculiarity of the names in the
*' Pilgrim's Progress " and " Siege of Mansoul," that
they suggest the incidents of which the bearers
are the heroes. But, in a large proportion of cases,
these names already existed. Born in 1628, Bun-
yan saw Puritan character names at their climax.
Living at Elstow, he was within the limits of the
district most addicted to the practice. He had
seen Christian and Hopeful, Christiana and Mercy,
of necessity long before he was " haled to prison "
at Bedford. The four fair damsels, Discretion,
Piety, Charity, and Prudence, may and must have
in part been his companions in his boyish rambles
years before he met them in the Valley of Humili-
ation ; and if afterwards, in the Siege of Mansoul,
he turned Charity into a man, he was only doing
what godfathers and godmothers had been doing
for thirty years previously. The name and sweet
character of Faithfid might be a personal reminis-
cence, good Father Honest a quondam host on one
of his preaching expeditions, and Standfast, '' that
right good pilgrim," an old Paedo-Baptist of his
acquaintance. The shepherds Watchful, Sincere,
and Experie7ice, if not Knowledge, were known of
all men, in less pastoral avocations. And as for

200 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCIATURE.

the men that were panelled in the trial of the
Diabolonians, we might set them side by side with
the Sussex jury, and certainly the contrast for
oddity would be in favour of the cricketing county.
Messrs. Belief, True-heart, Upright, Hate-bad,
Love-God, See-truth, Heavenly-mind, Thankful,
Good-work, Zeal-for-God, and Humble have all, or
well-nigh all, been quoted in this chapter, as regis-
tered by the church clerk a generation before Do-
right, the town-clerk of Mansoul, called them over
in court. "Do-right " himself is met by "Do-good,"
and the witness " Search-truth " by " Search-the-
Scriptures." Even "Giant Despair" may have
suffered convulsions in teething in the world of
fact, before his fits took him in the world of dreams ;
and his wife " Diffidence " will be found, I doubt
not, to have been at large before Bunyan " laid
him down in a den.'* Where names of evil repute
come — and they are many — we do not expect
to see their duplicates in the flesh. Graceless^
Love-licsty Live-loose, Hold-the-world, and Talkative
were not names for the Puritan, but their contraries
were. Grace meets the case of Grace-less, Love-
Itist may be set by ** Fly-fornication," and Live-
loose by " Live-well " or " Continent." Hold-tke-
world \s directly suggested by the favourite "Safe-
on-high ; " Talkative, by " Silence."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 201

That John Bunyan is under debt to the Puritans
for many of his characters must be unquestionable ;
and were he living now, or could we interview him
where he is, I do not doubt we could extract from
him, good honest man, the ready admission that in
the names of the personages that flit before us in his
unapproachable allegory, and which have charmed
the fancy of old and young for so many generations,
he was merely stereotyping the recollections of
childhood, and commemorating, so far as sobriquets
were concerned, the companionships of earlier years.

VII. The Influence of Puritanism on
American Nomenclature.

Baptismal nomenclature to-day in the United
States, especially in the old settlements, bears
stronger impressions of the Puritan epoch than the
English. Their ancestors were Puritans, who had
fled England for conscience' sake. Their life, too,
in the West was for generations primitive, almost
patriarchal, in its simplicity. There was no banter-
ing scorn of a wicked world to face ; there was no
deliberate effort made by any part of the com-
munity to restore the old names. To this day the
impress remains. Take up a story of backwood
life, such as American female writers affect so
much, and it will be inscribed "Faith Gartneys

202 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Girlhood," or " Prudence Palfrey." 'AH the children
that figure in these tales are ''Truth," or " Patience,"
or " Charity," or " Hope." The true descendants
of the early settlers are, to a man, woman, and
child, even now bearers of names either from the
abstract Christian graces or the narratives of Holy
Scripture. Of course, the constant tide of immi-
gration that has set in has been gradually tell-
ing against Puritan traditions. The grotesque in
name selection, too, has gone further in some of
the more retired and inaccessible districts of the
States than the eastern border, or in England
generally, where social restraints and the demands
of custom are still respected. If we are to believe
American authorities, there are localities where
humour has certainly become grim, and the solemn
rite of baptism somewhat burlesqued by a selection
of names which throw into the shade even Puritan
eccentricity.

Look at the names of some of the earliest
settlers of whom we have any authentic know-
ledge. We may mention the Mayflower first. In
1620 the emigrants by this vessel founded New
Plymouth. This led to the planting of other
colonies. Among the passengers were a girl named
Desire M inter, a direct translation of Desiderata,,
which had just become popular in England ;

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 203

William Brewster, the ruling elder ; his son Love
Brewster, who married, settled, and died there in
1650, leaving four children ; and a younger son,
Wrestli7ig Brewster. The daughters had evidently
been left in England till a comfortable home could
be found for them, for next year there arrived at
New Plymouth, in the Ann and Little James, Fear
Brewster and Patience Brewster. Patience very
soon married Thomas Prince, one of the first
governorsT* On this same memorable journey of
the Mayflower came also Remembery daughter of
Isaac AUerton, first assistant to the new governor ;
Resolved White, who married and left five children
in the colony ; and Hinnility Cooper, who by-and-
by returned to England.

A little later on, in the Ann and Little James,
again came Manasseh Faunce and Experience Mit-
chell. In a " List of Living '' in Virginia, made
February 16, 1623, is Peaceable Sherwood. In a
"muster" taken January 30, 1624, occur Revolt
Morcock and Amity Waine.

There is a conversation in " The Ordinary " — a
drama written in 1634 or 1635, by Cartwright, the
man whose " body was as handsome as his soul,"
as Langbaine has it — which may be quoted here»
Hearsay says —

** London air,
Methinks, begins to be too hot for us.

204 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Slicer. There is no longer tarrying here : let's swear
Fidelity to one another, and
So resolve for New England.

Hearsay, 'Tis but getting
A little pigeon-hole reformed ruff

Slicer. Forcing our beards into th' orthodox bent

Shape. Nosing a little treason 'gainst the king,
Bark something at the bishops, and we shall
Be easily received."

Act iv. sc. 5.

^ It IS interesting to remember that 1635, when this
was written, saw the high tide of Puritan emi-
gration. The list of passengers that have come
down to us prove it. After that date the names
cease to represent the sterner spirit of revolt
against episcopacy and the Star Chamber.

In the ship Francis, from Ipswich, April 30,
1634, came Just Houlding. In the Elizabeth^
landed April 17, 1635, Hope-still Foster and
Patience Foster. From the good barque JameSy
July 13, 1635, set foot on shore Remembrance
Tybbott. In the Hercnles sailed hither, in 1634,
Comfort Starre, " chirurgeon." In 1635 settled
Patient White. In a book of entry, dated April
12, 1632, is registered Perseverance Greene, as one
who is to be passed on to New England.

Such names as Constant Wood, Temperance
Hall, Charity Hickman, Fayth Clearke, or Grace
Newell, I simply record and pass on. That these
names were perpetuated is clear. The older States

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 205

teem with them now ; American story-books for
girls are full of them. Humility Cooper, of 1620,
is met by an entry of burial in St. Michaers,
Barbados :

*' 1678, May 16. Ilinnility Ilobbs, from ye almshous."

The churchwardens of St. James' Barbados, have
entered an account of lands, December 20, 1679^
wherein is set down

" Madam Joyc Sparks, 12 servants, 150 negroes."

Increase Mather is a familiar name to students
of American history. His father, Richard Mather,
was born at Liverpool in 1596. Richard left for
New England in 1635, with his four sons, Samuel,
Nathaniel, Eleazar, and Increase. Cotton Mather
was a grandson. About the same time, Charles
Chauncey (of a Hertfordshire family), late Vicar
of Ware, who had been imprisoned for refusing
to rail in his communion table, settled in New
England. Dying there in 1671, as president of
Harvard College, he bequeathed, through his
children, the following names to the land of
his adoption : — Isaac, Ichabod, Sarah, Barnabas,
Elnathan, and Nathaniel. Both the Mathers and
the Chaunceys, therefore, sent out a Nathaniel.
Adding these to the large number of Nathaniels
found in the lists of emigrants published by Mr.

2o6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Hotten, no wonder Nathaniel became for a time
the first name on American soil, and that " Nat "
should have got instituted into a pet name. Jona-
than was not to be compared to it for a moment.

But we have not done with the Chaunceys, One
of the most singular accidents that ever befell
nomenclature has befallen them. What has hap-
pened to Sidney in England, has happened to
Chauncey in America, only " more so." The
younger Chaunceys married and begot children.
A grandson of Isaac Chauncey died at Boston,
in 1787, aged eighty-three. He was a great
patriot, preacher, and philanthropist at a critical
time in his country's history. The name had
spread, too, and no wonder that it suggested itself
to the authoress of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " as a
character name. She, however, placed it in its
proper position as a surname. It may be that
Mrs. Stowe has given the use of this patronymic
as a baptismal name an impulse, but it had been
so used long before she herself was born. It was
a memorial of Charles Chauncey, of Boston. It
has now an average place throughout all the
eastern border and the older settlements. I take
up the New York Directory for 1878, and at
once light upon Chauncey Clark, Chauncey Peck,
and Chauncey Quintard ; while, to distinguish the

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 207

great Smith family, there are Chauncey Smith,
lawyer, Chauncey Smith, milk-dealer, Chauncey
Smith, meat-seller, and Chauncey Smith, junior,
likewise engaged in the meat market. Thus, it
is popular with all classes. In my London
Directory for 1870, there are six Sidney Smiths
and one Sydney Smith. Chauncey and Sidney
seem likely to run a race in the two countries,
but Chauncey has much the best of it at present.
^" Another circumstance contributed to the form-
ation of Americanisms in nomenclature. The
further the Puritan emigrants drew away from
the old familiar shores, the more predominant the
spirit of liberty grew. It was displayed, amongst
other ways, in the names given to children born
on board vessel.* It was an outlet for their pent-
up enthusiasm. Shakespeare puts into the mouth
of Pericles —

** We cannot but obey
The powers above us. Could I rage and roar
As doth the sea she lies on, yet the end
Must be as 'tis. My gentle babe, Marina (whom,
For she was born at sea, I've named so) here
I charge your charity withal, leaving her
The infant of your care."

Act iii. sc. 3.

* A child was baptized, January 10, 1880, in the parish church
of Stone, near Dartford, by the name of Sou'wester. He was
named after an uncle who was bom at sea in a south-westerly
gale, who received the same name (^Notes and Queries, February 7,
1880).

2o8 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

The Puritan did the same. Oceanus Hopkins was
born on the high seas in the Mayflower^ 1620; Pere-
grine White came into the world as the same vessel
touched at Cape Cod ; Sea-born Egginton, whose
birth '^ happened in his berth," as Hood would say,
is set down as owner of some land and a batch
of negroes later on (Hotten, p. 4S3); while the
marriage of Sea-mercy Adams with Mary Brett
is recorded, in 1686, in Philadelphia (Watson's
"Annals of Philadelphia," i. 503). Again, we find
the following : —

" 1626, Nov. 6. Grant of denization to Bonaventure Browne, born
beyond sea, but of English parents." — C. S. P.

No doubt his parents went over the Atlantic on
board the Bonaventnre, which was plying then
betwixt England and the colonies {vide list of
ships in Hotten's "Emigrants," pp. vii. and 35).

We have another instance in the " baptismes *'
of St. George's, Barbados :

** 1678, Oct. 13. Samuel, ye son of Bonaventure Jellfes. "

Allowing the father to be forty years old, his
parents would be crossing the water about the
time the good ship Bonaventure was plying.

Again, we find the following (Hotten, p. 245): —

** Muster of John Laydon :

** John Laydon, aged 44, in the Swan, 1 606.
"Anne Laydon, aged 30, in the Mary Mar^eif, 1608.
"Virginia Laydon (daughter), borne in Virginia."

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES. 209

All this, as will be readily conceived, has tended
to give a marked character to New England
nomenclature. The very names of the children
born to these religious refugees are one of the
most significant tokens to us in the nineteenth
century of the sense of liberty they felt in the
present, and of the oppression they had under-
gone in the past.

If we turn from these lists of passengers, found
in the archives of English ports, not to mention
"musters" already quoted, to records preserved
by our Transatlantic cousins, we readily trace
the effect of Puritanism on the first generation of
native-born Americans.

From Mr. Bowditch's interesting book on " Suf-
folk Surnames,'* published in the United States,
we find the following baptismal names to have
been in circulation there : Standfast, Life, Increase,
Supply, Donation, Deodat, Given, Free-grace, Ex-
perience, Temperance, Prudence, Mercy, Depend-
ance. Deliverance, Hope, Reliance, Hopestill, Fear-
ing, Welcome, Desire, Amity, Comfort, Rejoice,
Pardon, Remember, Wealthy, and Consider.
Nothing can be more interesting than the analysis
of this list. With two exceptions, every name
can be proved, from my own collection alone, to
have been introduced from the mother country.

2IO CURIOSITIES OF PURITAJST NOMENCLATURE.

In many instances, no doubt, Mr. Bov/ditch was
referring to the same individual ; in others to their
children. The mention of Wealthy reminds us
of Wealthy, Riches, and Fortune, already demon-
strated to be popular English names. Fortune went
out to New England in the person of Fortune
Taylor, who appears in a roll of Virginian im-
migrants, 1623. Settling down there as a name
of happy augury for the colonists* future, both
spiritual and material, she reappears, in the person
of Fortune the spinster, in the popular New
England story entitled " The Wide, Wide World."
Even ^^ Preserved,'' known in England in 1640, was
to be seen in the New York Directory in i860;
and Consider, which crossed the Atlantic two
hundred and fifty years ago, so grew and multi-
plied as to be represented at this moment in the
directory just mentioned, in the form of

"Consider Parish, merchant, Clinton, Brooklyn."

Mr. Bowditch adds " Searck-t he-Scriptures'' to
his list of names that crossed the Atlantic. This
tallies with Search-the-Scriptures Moreton, of Sale-
hurst, one of the supposed sham jury already
treated of. He quotes also Hate-evil Nutter from
a colonial record of 1649.* Here again we arc

* We have already recorded Hate-evil as existing in the Banbury
Church register.

PURITAN ECCENTRICITIES, 21 r

reminded of Bunyan's Diabolonian jury, one of
whom was Hate-bad. It is all but certain from
the date that Hate-evil went out from the old
country. The name might be perfectly familiar to
the great dreamer, therefore. Faint-not Wines, Mr.
Bowditch says, became a freeman in 1644, so that
the popularity of that great Puritan name was
not allowed to be limited by the English coast.
In this same year settled Faithful Rouse — one
more memorial of English nonconformity.

English Puritanism must stand the guilty cause
of much modern humour, not to say extravagance,
in American name-giving. Puns compounded of
baptismal name and surname are more popular
there than with us. Robert New has his sons
christened Nothing and Something. Price becomes
Sterling Price ; Carrol, Christmas Carrol ; Mixer,
Pepper Mixer ; Hopper, Opportunity Hopper ;
Ware, China Ware ; Peel, Lemon Peel ; Codd, Salt
Codd ; and Gentle, Always Gentle. It used to be
said of the English House of Commons that there
were in it two Lemons, with only one Peel, and the
Register-General not long since called attention in
one of his reports to the existence of Christmas Day.
We have, too. Cannon Ball, Dunn Brown, Friend
Bottle (London Directory), and River Jordan, not
to mention two brothers named Jolly Death and

212 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

Sudden Death, the former of whom figured in a
trial lately as witness. The Times of December 7,
1878, announced the death of Mr. Emperor Adrian,
a Local Government Board member. Nevertheless,
the practice prevails much more extensively across
the water, and the reason is not far to seek.

Mr. Bowditch seems to imagine, we notice,
America to be a modern girl's name. He says
administration upon the estate of America Sparrow
was granted in 1855, while in 1857 America C.
Tabb was sued at law. America and Americus
were in use in England four hundred years ago
(^ide ** English Surnames," 2nd edit, p. 29), and
two centuries ago w^e meet with

'* America Baguley, 1669, ^^is halfpeny,"

on a token. Amery was the ordinary English
dress.

( 213 )

EPILOGUE.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES: THEIR RISE AND
PROGRESS.

I. Royal Double Names.

""But two christian names are rare in England, and I only re-
member now his Majesty, who was named Charles James, as the
Prince his sonne Henry Frederic : and among private men, Thomas
Maria Wingfield and Sir Thomas Posthumus Hobby." — Camden.

If we take this sentence literally, the great an-
tiquary, who knew more of the families and pedi-
grees of the English aristocracy than any other
man of his day, could only recall to his mind four
cases of double Christian names. This was in
1614.

At the outset, therefore, there is significance in
this statement. Mr. Blunt, in his "Annotated
Prayer-Book," says of "N. or M.'' in the Cate-
chism—

**N. was anciently used as the initial of Nomen, and *Nomen
vel Nomina' was expressed by * N. vel NN.,' the double N being
iifterwards corrupted into M."

214 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

If this be a correct explanation, *' M." must refer
to cases where more than one child was brought to
the priest, N. standing for an occasion where only
one infant was presented. In a word, " N. or M/*
could not stand for " Thomas or Thomas Henry,'^
but for " Thomas or Thomas and Henry." If this
be unsatisfactory, then Mr. Blunt's explanation is
unsatisfactory.

Camden's sentence may be set side by side with
Lord Coke's decision. In his " First Institute "
(Coke upon Littleton) he says —

** And regularly it is requisite that the purchaser be named by the
name of baptism, and his surname, and that special heed be taken
to the name of baptism ; for that a man cannot have two names of
baptism, as he may have divers surnames."

Again, he adds —

**If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his
confirmation by the bishop, he is named John, he may purchase by
the name of his confinnation. , . . And this doth agi-ee with our
ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names
at divers times, but not divers christian names."

This is all very plain. Even in James I.'s days
thousands of our countrymen had no fixed sur-
names, and changed them according to caprice or
fancy. But the christian name was a fixture, saving
in the one case of confirmation. Lord Coke is
referring to an old rule laid down by Archbishop
Peckham, wherein any child whose baptismal name^
by accident or evil thought, had a bad significance

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 215

is advised, if not compelled, to change it for one
of more Christian import.

The chief point of interest, however, in this
decision of Lord Coke's, is the patent fact that
no thought of a double christian name is present
in his mind. Had it been otherwise, he would
never have worded it as he has done. Archbishop
Peckham's rule had evidently been infringed, and
Lord Coke upholds the infringement. A child
with such an orthodox name as Thomas (a name
with no immoral significance) might, he lays it
down, become John at confirmation. Even in such
a case as this, however, John is not to be added to
Thomas ; it must take its place, and Thomas cease
to be recognized.

Lord Coke, of course, w^as aware that Charles
L's queen was Henrietta Maria, the late . king
Charles James, and his son Henry Frederic. It
is possible, nay probable, that he was not igno-
rant of Thomas Maria Wingfield's existence, or
that of Thomas Posthumus Hobby. But that
these double baptismal names should ever become
an every-day custom, that the lower and middle
classes should ever adopt them, that even the
higher orders should ever go beyond the use of
'' Maria " and " Posthumus," seems never to have
suggested itself to his imagination.

2i6 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

There is no doubt the custom came from France
in the first instance. There, as in England, it was
confined to the royal and aristocratic circles. The
second son of Catharine de' Medici was baptized
Edward Alexander in 1551. Mary Stuart followed
the new fashion in the names of her son Charles
James. The higher nobility of England slowly
copied the practice, but within most carefully
prescribed limits.

One limitation was, the double name must be
one already patronized by royalty.

Henrietta Maria found her title repeated in
Henrietta Maria Stanley, daughter of the ill-fated
James, Earl of Derby, who for his determined
loyalty was beheaded at Bolton, in Lancashire, in
165 1. She was born on the 17th of November,
1630, and was buried in York Minster on the 13th
of January, 1685. Sir Peter Ball, attorney to the
queen of Charles I., baptized his seventeenth
child by the name of his royal mistress, Henrietta
Maria. He followed her fortunes after as before
the king*s execution (Polwhel's "Devon," p. 157).
These must both have been considered remark-
able cases in their day. The loyalty of the act
would be its sanction in the eyes of their
friends.

But while some copied the double name of the

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 217

queen (also the name of the queen's mother),
other nobles who had boys to christen mimicked
the royal nursery of James I. Henry Frederick,
Earl of Arundel, was born in 1608, and Henry
Frederick Thynne, brother of Lord Weymouth,
was created a baronet in 1641. No one need
doubt the origin of these double forms. Again
loyalty would be their answer against objections.

But side by side with these went ** Maria " (used
for either sex) and " Posthumus,'* or Posthuma — the
only two instances recalled by Camden as in use
among " private men." There seems good reason
to believe that, for two or three generations at least,
these were deemed, by some unwritten code, the
only permissible second names outside the royal
list.

The case of Wingfield is curious. Three gene-
rations, at least, bore a second name " Maria," all
males. The first was Edward Maria, of Kimbolton,
who received the female title in honour of, and from,
the Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VHL, his
godmother ; the second was Thomas Maria,
adduced by Camden ; and the third is referred to
in the following document :

** 1639, April. Bill of complaint relative to the sale of the manor
of Keyston, Hmits, by Edward Maria Wingfield." — C. S. P., 1639.

Maria had long been common in Italy, France,

2i8 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

and Spain, as a second name, and still is, whether
for a boy or girl, the child being thereby specially
committed to the protection of the Virgin. The
earliest instances in England, however, were directly
given in honour of two royal godmothers, who hap-
pened to be Mary in one case, and Henrietta Maria
in the other. Hence the seeming transference of
the foreign second name Maria to our own shores.
Thus introduced, Maria began to circulate in
society generally as an allowed second name :

**i6io, July lo. Baptized Charles Maria, sonne of Charles
Chute, Esquire." — St. Dunstan-in-the-West.

** 1640, . Died Gulielma Maria Posthuma Springett." —

Tablet, Ringiner, Lewes, Sussex.

This last was a bold procedure, three names
being an unheard-of event. But the sponsor might
reply that he was only placing together the two
recognized second names, Maria and Posthuma.
Later on, Maria is again found in the same family.
In the year 1672, William Penn, the Quaker,
married Gulielma Maria, daughter of Sir William
Springett.

Posthuma (as in the above instance), or Posthu-
mus, is still more remarkable. The idea of styling
a child by this name, thus connecting its birth
with the father's antecedent death, seems to have
touched a sympathetic chord, and the practice
began widely to prevail. The first example I

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 219

have ^^^i:i stands as a single name. Thus, in the
Canterbury Cathedral register, is recorded :

*'i572, Feb. 10. Christened Posthumus, the sonne of Robert
Pownoll."

The following is the father's entry of burial :

" 157 1, June 8. Buried Robert Pownoll."

This is the earliest instance I have seen. Veiy
soon it was deemed right to make it a second
name :

" 1632, Sept. 18. Baptized Henry Postumus, son of James
Gamble. " — Doncaster.

Sir Thomas Posthumus Hoby, Knight, lord of
the manor of Hackness, died in 1641. He be-
queathed the greater portion of his estates to
'' his dearly beloved and esteemed cozen John
Sydenham," of Brimpton, Somerset, who, being
baroneted in July, 1641, died in 1642, and was
succeeded by his son Sir John Posthumus Syden-
ham. Posthumus, possibly, in this case was com-
memorative of Sir Thomas, and not of Sir John,
William Ball, son of Sir Peter Ball, already men-
tioned, married Maria Posthuma Hussey. This
must have occurred before the Commonwealth, but
I have not the exact date.

The character of all these names is sufficient
proof of their rarity. All belong, with one excep-
tion, to the higher ranks of society. All were called

220 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

after the children in the royal nursery, or Maria or
Posthuma was the second component. Several
formed the double name with both. It seems cer-
tain that at first it was expected that, if people in
high life were to give encouragement to the new
fashion, they must do so within certain carefully
defined limits. As for any lower class, it was never
imagined that they would dream of aspiring to
such a daring innovation. The earliest instance of
this class, I find, still has Mary for its second com-
ponent, and commemorates two English queens :

*' 1667, Jan. 12. Baptized Elizabeth Mary, being of the age of
18 and upwards, daughter to John Allen, and Emm his wife, both
of them being pro-baptists. " — Cant. Cath.

Even to the close of the seventeenth century, if a
middle-class man gave his child a double name, it
must be to commemorate royalty :

** 1696, June 4. Baptized William Henry, son of Mr. Jacob
Janeway, and Francis his wife." — Cant. Cath.

William III. was christened William Henry.

Speaking of Mary's husband, we may add that
two of the most familiar conjunctions of the
present day among the middle and lower classes,
that of Anna Maria or Mary Ann, arose similarly.
In Italy and France the two went together a
hundred years earlier, in connection with the
Virgin and her mother. In England they are

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 221

only found since 1700, being used as commemora-
tive of the sisters Anne and Mary, both queens.
Like William Henry, the combination has been
popular ever since :

*' 1717, Feb. 15. Christened Anne- Mary, d. of James Hebert,
mercer.

' * 1 729, March 30. Christened Anna-Maria, d. of Thomas and
Mary Hoare, pewterer." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

The clerk of Finchley Church could not under-
stand this conjunction — not to add that his educa-
tion seems to have been slightly neglected :

*' 1 715, Feb 26. Baptized Anammeriah, d. of Thomas and
Eliz. Biby.

** 1716, W^\ 17. Baptized Anameriah, d. of Richard and Sarah
Bell."

These are the first double names to be found in
this register.

The Latin form represents the then prevailing
fashion. There was not a girl's name in use that
was not Latinized. Goldsmith took off the custom
in his "Vicar of Wakefield,'* in the names of
Sophia, Olivia, and Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia
Skeggs. The latter hit at the new rage for double
and treble baptismal names also ; for the day
came when two names were not enough. In
1738 George IIL was christened George William
Frederic. Gilly Williams, writing to George
Selwyn, December 12, 1764, says —

**Lord Downe's child is to be christened this evening. The

222 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

sponsors I know not, but his three names made me laugh not a
little — ^John Christopher Burton. I wish to God, when he arrives at
the years of puberty, he may marry Mary Josephina Antonietta
Bentley." — "Memoirs of George Selwyn," by Jesse, quoted by
Mr. Waters in " Parish Registers," p. 31.

I need scarcely add that three do not nearly
satisfy the craving of many people in the nine-
teenth century, nor did they everybody in the
eighteenth :

** 1 781, April 29. Bapt. Charles Caractacus Ostorius Maximilian
Gustavus Adolphus, son of Charles Stone, tailor." — Burbage,
Wilts.

In Beccles Church occurs the following :

" 1804, Oct. 14. Bapt. Zaphnaphpaaneah Isaiah Obededom
Nicodemus Francis Edward, son of Henry and Sarah Clarke."

Only Francis Edward could be got in the ordinary
place, so the rest had to be furnished in a note at
the foot of the page.

**0n Oct. 8th, 1876, in the revision of the parliamentary list at
Preston, a claimant appeared bearing the name of Thomas Hill
Joseph Napoleon Horatio Bonaparte Swindlehurst Nelson. The
vote was allowed, and the revising barrister ordered the full name
to be inserted on the register. " — Matuhester Evening News, October
II, 1876.

II. Conjoined Names.

Returning to the first half of the seventeenth
century, we find strong testimony of the rarity of
these double names, and a feeling that there was
something akin to illegality in their use, from our

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 223

registers, wherein an attempt was made to glue
two names together as one, without a hyphen or
a second capital letter. Take the following, all
registered within a generation or two of Camden's
remark :

" 1602, May 24. Baptized Fannasibilla, d. of Thomas Temple.'*
— Sibbesdon, Leicestershire.

Here is a palpable attempt to unite Francis
(Fanny) and Sybil.

" 1648, Jan. 25. Baptized Aberycusgentylis, son of Richard
Balthropp, gent." — Iver, Buckingham.

Here the father has been anxious to commemorate
the great Oxford professor, the father of inter-
national law, Dr. Abericus Gentilis. He has
avoided a breach of supposed national law by
writing the two names in one.

" 1 6 14, Aprill 16. Buried Jockaminshaw Butler, wife of James
Butler, potter, in Bishopsgate Street." — St. Peter, Cornhill.

The surname of "Shaw" has done service hundreds
of times since then as a second baptismal name.

** 1640, May 7. Baptized Johnamaria, ye son of Frances Ansloe,
and Clare his wife." — Cant. Cath.

Here again is the inevitable Maria, but so inwoven
with John, that Lord Coke's legal maxim could
not touch the case. It is the same in the following
example : —

** 1632, . Married John Pell to Ithamaria, d. of Henry

Reynolles, of London." — Lower, "Worthies of Sussex," p. 178.

224 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

One of the most strange samples of conjoined
names is this :

" 1595, April 3. Joane, wliome we maye call Yorkkooppe, be-
cause she was ye basterd daughter, as yt is comonlye reported, of
one John York and Anne Cooper." — Landbeach.

Here is a double conjunction ; John and Anne
forming Jo-ane, and York and Cooper, York-
kooppe. The first is neat, the second clumsy :
but, doubtless, the clerk Avho wielded the goose-
quill deemed both a masterpiece of ingenuity.
The following is interesting : —

** 1616, July 13, being Satterday, about half an hour before la
of the clocke in the forenoon, was bom the Lady Georgi-Anna,
daughter to the Right Hon. Lady Frances, Countess of Exeter ;
and the same Ladie Georgi-Anna was baptized 30th July, 1616,
being Tuesday, Queen Anne and the Earl of Worcester, Lord
Privie Seal, being witnesses : and the Lorde Bishop of London
administered the baptism." — Vide R. E. C. Waters, *' Parish
Registers." 187a

III. Hyphened Names.

It will be noticed that so far the two names
were both (saving in the case of Aberycusgentylis
and Jockaminshaw) from the recognized list of
baptismal names. About the reign of Anne the
idea of a patronymic for a second name seems
to have occurred. To meet the supposed legal
exigencies the two names were simply hyphened.
We will confine our instances to the register of
Canterbury Cathedral :

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 225

" 1 72 1, Jan. 20. Baptized Howe-Lee, son of Lee Warner,
Esquire, and Mary his wife.

'* 1728, July 4. Baptized Francis-Gunsby, son of Dr. William
Ayerst, prebendary of this church.

** 1746, Sep. 28. Baptized James-Smith, son of James Home,
and Mary his wife. "

I need not say that at first these children bore
the name in common parlance of Howe-Lee, or
Francis-Gunsby, or James-Smith. The two were
never separated, but treated as one name. To this
day traces of this eighteenth-century habit are
to be found. I know an old gentleman and his
wife, people of the old school, dwelling somewhat
out of the world, who address a child invariably
by all its baptismal titles. The effect is very
quaint. In all formal and legal processes the two
or three names have to be employed, and clergy-
men who only recite the first in the marriage
service, as I have heard some do, are in reality
guilt of misdemeanour.

How odd ^11 these contrivances to modern eyes !
We take up a directory, and every other regis-
tration we look on is made up of three names.
The poorer classes are even more particular than
the aristocracy upon the point. The lady-help,
describing her own- superior merit, says —

" Do not think that we resemble
Betsy Jane or Mary Ann,
Women bom in lowly cottage,
Bred for broom or frying-pan."

Q

226 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLA TURE.

And yet, in forty-nine church registers out of fifty,
throughout the length and breadth of England,
there will not be found a single instance of a double
christian name previous to the year 1700. Mr.
Maskell has failed to find any instance in the
register of All-Hallows, Barking, and the Harleian
Society's publication of the registers of St. Peter,
Cornhill, and St. Dionis Backchurch only confirms
the assertion I have made.

Many stories have arisen upon these double
names. A Mr. Gray, bearing the once familiar
Christian name of Anketil, wanted the certificate
of his baptism. The register was carefully searched
— in vain ; the neighbouring registers were as tho-
roughly scanned — in vain. Again the first register
was referred to, and upon a closer investigation he
was found entered as Ann Kettle Gray.

Not very long ago a child was brought to the
font for baptism. " What name } " asked the
parson. "John," was the reply. " Anything else ? "
*'John /ijonly," said the godparent, putting in an
"h" where it was not needed. "John Honly, I
baptize thee," etc., continued the clergyman, thus
thrown off his guard. The child was entered with
the double name.

In Gutch's " Geste of Robin Hode " (vol. i. p. 342)
there is a curious note anent Maid Marian, wherein

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 227

some French writers are rebuked for supposing-
Marian to be composed of Mary and Ann, and
the statement is made that it is from Mariamne,
the wife of Herod ! Marian or Marion, of course,
is the diminutive of Mary, the other pet form
being Mariot. Nevertheless the great common-
ness of the double christian name Mary Ann is
consequent on the idea that Marian is compounded
,of both.

In the registers of marriages at Halifax parish
church (December i, 1878) is the name of a

witness. Charity H . He — it was a he — is the

third child of his parents, two sisters. Faith and
Hope, having preceded him. His full baptismal
name is " And Charity," and in his own marriage
certificate his name is so written. In ordinary
affairs he is content with Charity alone {Notes and
Queries, August 16, 1879). This could not have
happened previous to Queen Anne's reign. Acts-
Apostles Pegden's will was administered upon in
1865. His four elder brothers bore the four Evan-
gelists' names. This, again, could not well have
occurred before the eighteenth century was in. In
Yorkshire directories one may see such entries as
John Berry, and immediately below, Young John
Berry. This represents a common pleasantry at
the font among the "tyke?," but is necessarily

228 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

modern. Nor could " Sir Isaac " or " Sir Robert,"
as praenomens to '' Newton " or '* Peel," have been
originated at any distant period.

IV. The Decay of Single Patronymics
IN Baptism.

The introduction of double baptismal names
produced a revolution as immediate as it was unin-
tentional. It put a stop to what bade fair to become ^
a universal adoption of patronymics as single bap-
tismal names. This practice took its rise about the
year 1580. It became customary in highly placed
families to christen the eldest son by the name of
the landed estate to which he was heir. Especially
was it common when the son succeeded to property
through his mother ; then the mother's surname
was his Christian name. With the introduction of
second baptismal names, this custom" ceased, and
the boy or girl, as the case might be, after a first
orthodox name of Robert or Cecilia, received as a
second the patronymic that before was given alone.
Instead of Neville Clarke the name would be
Charles Neville Clarke. From the year 1700, say,
this has been a growing custom, and half our present
list of treble names are thus formed.*

* The practice of hyphening names, as a condition of accepting
property, etc., is of recent origin. ' By this means not a double
baptismal, but a double patronymic, name is formed. But though

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 229

The custom of giving patronymic names was, for
a century at least, peculiar to England, and is still
rare on the Continent. Camden notices the insti-
tution of the practice :

*' Whereas in late yeares sirnames have beene given for christian
names among us, and no where else in Christendome : although
many dislike it, for that great inconvenience will ensue : neverthe-
lesse it seemeth to procede from hearty goodwill and affection of the
godfathers, to shew their love, or from a desire to continue and pro-
pagate their owne names to succeeding ages. And is in no wise
to bee disliked, but rather approoved in those which, matching with
heires generall of worshipfuU ancient families, have given those
names to their heires, with a mindefull and thankfuU regard of them,
as we have now Pickering, Wotton, Grevill, Vamey, Bassingbume,
Gawdy, Calthorpe, Parker, Pecsal, Brocas, Fitz-Raulfe, Chamber-
lanie, who are the heires of Pickering, etc." — " Remaines," 1614.

Fuller says —

" Reader, I am confident an instance can hardly be produced of a
surname made christian in England, save since the Reformation.
. . . Since it hath been common." — " Worthies," i. 159, 160.

For two hundred years this custom had the
widest popularity among the higher classes, and
from some of our registers there are traces that the
lower orders were about to adopt the practice. In
the case of female heiresses the effect is odd.
However, this was got over sometimes by giving
a feminine termination :

" 1660, Aug. 28. John Hendon, Knight, of Biddenden in Kent,
and Northamtonia Haward, of Tandridge in Surrey, married." —
Streatham, Surrey.

manifestly increasing, the number of such double surnames is not
yet a large one.

230 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,

" 1711, Jan. 3. Buried Jemiyna, d. of Mr. Edward Tyson, gent."
— St. Dionis Backchurch.

** 1699, March 7. Nathaniel Parkhurst and Althamia Smith, of
Kensington, married."

Althamia was daughter of Altham Smyth, bar-
rister, son of Sir Thomas Smyth, of Hill Hall,
Essex (Chester's "Westminster Abbey," p. 173).

But more often they were without the feminine
desinence :

" 1639, Oct. 18. Buried Essex, daughter of Lord Paget." —
Drayton (Lyson's " Middlesex," p. 42).

Will of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, 1680
(Doctors* Commons):

" Item : To my daughter Mallet^ when shee shall have attained
the like age of sixteen, the summe of foure thousand pounds."

The Countess of Rochester was Elizabeth, daughter
and heir of John Mallet, Esq., of Enmore, Somerset.

" 1699. Petition of Windebank Coote, widow, to the Lords of
the Treasury, showing that her husband Lambert Coote was a
favourite servant of King Charles II., and left her with a great
charge of children." — " C. Treas. P.," 1697-1702.

"Tamworth, daughter of Sir Roger Martin, of Long Melford,
married Thomas Rookwood (who was born Aug. 18, 1658)." —
*' Collect, et Top.," vol. ii. p. 145.

"1596, Nov. 21. Baptized Cartwright, daughter of Nicholas
Porter." — Aston-sub-Edge, Gloucester.

" 1634, April 18. Baptized Steward, daughter of Sir Thomas
Stanley, Knight." — Stepney, London.

** 1656, March 24. Douglas Sheffield, daughter of Sir John
Sheffield." — *' Lunacy Commissions and Inquisitions," Record Office.

"1709, Feb. 3. Tankerville Chamberlyne, spinster, daughter of
Edward C."— Ditto.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 231

. " 1 601, Feb. Biiryed Handforth, d. Thomas Davenport, a soldier
in Ireland." — Stockport Parish Church.

" 1610, July 24. Baptized Kenburrow, ye daughter of Dr.
Masters, one of the worshipfull prebendaries." — Cant. Cath.

" 1688, March 29. Baptized Tuft on, daughter of the Rev. Dr.
James Jefferys, one of the prebendary s of this church." — Cant.
Cath.'

Even down to the middle of last century the
custom was not uncommonly practised :

" 1763, Sep. 15. Thomas Steady, of Chartham, to Chesterton
Harnett, of the precincts of this church, spinster, by licence." —
Cant. Cath.

"1759, June 12. Honourable Chatwynd Trumbull, widow." —
*' Lunacy Commissions and Inquisitions."

As to the male heirs, we need not furnish illus-
trations ; they would require too much room :

" Sir Humphry Winch, Solicitor-General to Queen Elizabeth,
married Cicely Onslowe. His eldest son was Onslowe Winch." —
*' Collect, et Top.," vol. iii. p. 86.

"Woodrove Foljambe, born Jan. 25, 1648, son of Peter Fol-
jambe. His mother was Jane Woodrove, of Hope, Derbyshire." —
Ditto, p. %'6,

How common the practice was becoming among
the better-class families the Canterbury register
shall show :

" t6oi, April 16. Baptized Nevile, the sonne of Edwarde White-
grave.

" 1614, Nov. 28. Baptized Tunstall, sonn of Mr. William
iScott, the sonn-in-lawe to the worshipful Mr. Tunstall, prebendary
of this church.

" 1615, May 15. Baptized Dudly, sonn of Mr. Doctor Jacksonn.

" 1619, Dec. 16. Baptized Dudley, sonne of Sir John Wiles.

" 1624, July 26. Baptized Sydney, sonne of Sirre William
Barnes, K*."

232 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE,^

Dudley was, perhaps, the first surname that
obtained a place among ordinary baptismal names :

" 1614, Aug. 17. Christened Dudley, son of Thomas Styles.
" 1684, April 17. Christened Dudley, son of Francis and Sarah
Dylate." — St. Dionis Backchurch.

The introduction of surnames at the font per-
mitted private predilections full play. At Canter-
bury we naturally find :

*' 1727, Feb. 22. Buried Cranmer Herris, gent., in ye cloisters."
— Cant. Cath.

** 1626, Oct. Baptized Bradford, sonne of Christopher Wilson,
of Limehouse. " — Stepney.

Hanover Stirling was a scholar of Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin, in 1729. A Scotch Jacobite in
London showed some skill in the heat of the great
crisis of 171 5 :

**I7I5, June 10. Christened Margaret Jacobina, d. of Mr.
Archiball Johnson, merchant." — St. Dionis Backchurch.*

This will be sufficient. The custom is by no
means extinct ; but, through the introduction of
second baptismal names, the practice is now rare,
and all but entirely confined to boys. Two hun-
dred and fifty years ago, it was quite as popular
with the other sex.

Both Dudley and Sydney, mentioned above,
have been used so frequently that they have now

* *' At Faversham a tradesman in 1847 had a son baptized Church-
reform, and wished for another, to style him No-tithes, but wished
in vain." — P. S. in Notes and Queries^ February 3, i86b.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 233.

taken a place in our ordinary list of baptismal
names. So far as Sydney is concerned, the reason
is easily explained. The Smith family have been
so fond of commemorating the great Sydney, that
it has spread to other families. Chauncey and
Washington occupy the same position in the
United States.

V. The Influence of Foundling Names
UPON Double Baptismal Names.

One circumstance that contributed to the
adoption of two baptismal names was the christen-
ing of foundlings. Having no father or mother
to attest their parentage, being literally anony-
mous, there sprang up a custom, about the year
1500, of baptizing these children with a double
title; only the second. one was supposed to be the
surname, and not a baptismal name at all. This
second name was always a local name, betokening
the precise spot, street, or parish where the child
was found. Every old register has its numerous
instances. The foundlings of St. Lawrence Jewry
got the baptismal surname of Lawrence. At
All-Hallows, Barking, the entries run :

** A child, out of Priest's Alley, christened Thomas Barkin.
*' Christened a child out of Seething Lane, named Charles Parish..
"A child found in Mark Lane, and christened Mark Lane." —
Maskell, *' All-Hallows, Barking," p. 62.

.234 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

At St. Dunstan-in-the-West they are still more
diversified :

" 1597, M«^ I. Renold Falcon, a childe iDorne in Falcon
Court, bapt.

" 161 1, May II. Harbotles Harte, a poor childe found at Hart's
■dore in Fewter Lane, bapt.

** 1614, March 26. Moses Dunstan, a foundlinge in St. Dunstan's
hall, bapt.

** 1618, Jan. 18. Mary Porch, a foundeling, bapt.

" 1625, Aug. 7. Roger Middlesex was baptized.

*' 1627, May 19. Katherine Whitefryers was baptized."

'* 1610, Nov. Bapt. Elizabeth Christabell, d. of Alice Penny e,
begotten in fornacacion. " — Stepney, London.

** 1586, May 21. Christening of Peter Grace, sonne of Katherine
Davis, an harlot."— St. Peter, Comhill.

**I592, Aug. 2. Christening of Roger Peeter, so named of our
•church ; the mother a rogue, the childe was born the 22'^ July at
Mr. Lecroft's dore."— Ditto.

The baptismal register of St. Dionis Backchurch
teems with Dennis, or Dionys, as the name is
entered :

** 1623, Aug. 6. Joane Dennis, being laid at Mr. John Parke's
doore in Fanchurch Streete.

*' 1627, June 3. Denis the Bastard, who was laid in the parish.

'* 1691, Nov. 19. Ingram Dionis, a fondling taken up in Ingram's
Court."*

We see in these registers the origin of the phrase,
*' It can't be laid at my door." Doubtless it was
not always pleasant to have a little babe, however

* Sometimes, however, one was deemed enough, as, for instance,
•^* Charitye, daughter of the Lord knows who ! " This is from
Youlgreave, Derbyshire, but the correspondent of Notes and Queries
•does not give the date.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES. 235

helpless, discovered on the doorstep. The gossips
would have their " nods, and becks, and wreathed
smiles," if they said nothing upon the subject. It
was a common dodge to leave it on a well-known
man's premises :

" 1585, April 23. A man child was laid at Sir Edward Osboume
gate, and was named Dennis Philpot, and so brought to Christes
Ospitall."

The same practice prevails in America. A New
York correspondent wrote to me the other day as
follows : —

' ' One babe, who was found in the vestibule of the City Hall, in
this city (New York), was called John City Hall ; another, Thomas
Fulton, was found in Fulton Street in an ash-box ; and a third, a fine
boy of about four months, was left in the porch of Christ Church
Rectory in Brookl)m. He was baptized by the name of Parish
Church, by the Rev. Dr. Canfeild, the then rector."

The baptisms of " blackamoors '* gave a double
christian name, although the second was counted as
a surname :

" Baptized, 1695, M'^^. 27, John Wearmouth, a Tawny, taken
captive, aged 20." — Bishop Wearmouth (Bums).

" Baptized, 1602-3, March, Christian EthiojDia, borne a Black-
more. " — Stepney.

*' Baptized, 1603, July, Charity Lucanoa, a Blackamor from
Ratcliff."— Ditto.

'* 1744, Sep. 27. Rum John Pritchard, a Indian and Mahomitan,
baptized this day by self at Mr. Pritchard's. " — Fleet Registers
(Bums).

'* 1 717, . Baptized Charles Mustava, a black boy, servant to

the Honble. Lord Hartford."— Preshute, Wilts.

236 CURIOSITIES OF PURITAN NOMENCLATURE.

Our forefathers did not seem to perceive it,
but in all these cases double baptismal names
were given. It must, however, have had its unfelt
influence in leading up to the new custom, and
especially to patronymics as second names. We
are all now familiarized to these double and treble
names. The poorest and the most abject creatures
that bring a child to the font will have their string
of grand and high-sounding titles ; sometimes
such a mouthful, that the parson's wonder is excited
whence they accumulated them, till wonder is lost
in apprehension lest he should fail to deliver
himself of them correctly. The difficulty is in-
creased when the name is pronounced as the
fancy or education of the sponsor dictates. When
one of three names is " Hugginy," the minister
may be excused if he fails to understand all at
once that " Eugenie " is intended. Such an incident
occurred about six years ago, and the flustered
parson, on a second inquiry, was not helped by
the woman's rejoinder : " Yes, Hugginy ; the way
ladies does their 'air, you know."

We must confess we are not anxious to see the
new custom — for new it is in reality — spread ; but
we fear much it will do so. We have reached the
stage when three baptismal names are almost as
common as two ; and we cannot but foresee, if

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES, 237

this goes on, that, before the century is out, our
present vestry-books will be compelled to have
the space allotted to the font names enlarged.
As it is, the parson is often at his wits' end how to
set it down.

INDEX.

Abacuck, 62, 85, 119

Abdiah, 56

Abdias, 45

Abednego, 53, 63, 87, 190, 191

Abel, 54, 89, 90

Abelot, 90

Abericusgentylis, 223, 224

Abigail, 66, 67, 68, 141

Abner, 53

Abraham, 35, 85

Abstinence, 152, 187

Abuse-not, 162

Accepted, 123, 152, 171, 193

Achsah, 55

Acts-Apostles, 58, 227

Adah, 53

Adam, 35

Adcock, 16, 35

Adecock, 15

Adkin, 10, 35

Admiral, 197

Adna, 53

Adoniram, 84, 88

Agatha, 144

Agnes, 43, 93

Aholiab, 45, 85

Aid-on-high, 174

Alathea, 144

Alianora, 23

Alice, 18

Aliot, 28

Alison, 18

Alpheus, 47

Altham, 230

Althamia, 230

Althea, 144

Always, 211
Alydea, 144
Amalasiontlia, 60
Amelia, 92
America, 212
Americus, 212
Amery, 108, 212
Amice, 102
Aminadab, 57
Amity, 203, 209
Amor, 137
Amos, 51, 84
Anammeriah, 221
Ananias, 69, 73, 89, 185.
And Charity, 227
Angel, 130, 131
Angela, 131
Anger, 155
Anketill, loi, 226
Anna, 23, 35, 48
Anna Maria, 220, 221
Anne, 23, 208
Anne-Mary, 221
Annette, 23
Annora, 23
Annot, 23, 25, 33, 82
Anot, 24
Antipas, 73, 74
Antony, 96
Aphora, 64
Aphra, 64
Aphrah, 63
Appoline, 95
Aquila, 53, 102
Araunah, 57
Arise, 194, 195
Asa, 53
Ashael, 53

240

INDEX,

Ashes, 63, 181
Assurance, 120
Atcock, 16
Atkin, 10
Atkinson, 13
Audria, 106
Austen, 43
Austin, 103
Avery, loi, 102
Avice, 108
Awdry, 93, 103
Axar, 55
Aymot, 79
Azariah, 53
Azarias, 57, 69

B

Bab, 106, 107

Bad cock, 16

Bakhvin, 3, 85

Baptist, 35

Barbara, 28, 107

Barbelot, 28

Barijirehah, 60

Barjonah, 57

Barnabas, 45, 205

Barrabas, 74

Bartholomew, 2, 3, 29, 34, 36,

44, 90, 92
Bartelot, 5, 29
Bartle, 5
Bartlett, 29
Barzillai, 53
Bat, 5, 6, 34, 90
Batcock, 5, 14, 16, 34
Bate, 5, 16, 85, 90
Bathsheba, 71, no
Bathshira, 71
Bathshua, 71
Batkin, 5, 16, 77, 81
Battalion, 179
Batty, 5
Bawcock, 16
Beata, 134, 137, 138
Beatrice, 17
Beatrix, 17, 92
Beelzebub, 75
Belief, 200

Beloved, 173
Ben, 86
Benaiah, 53
Benedict, 94
Benedicta, 94, 138
Bennet, 94
Benjamin, 65
Benoni, 65
Bess, 106, 114, 116
Bessie, 114, 115
Be-steadfast, 163
Be-strong, 161
Betha, 114

Be-thankful, 161, 194
Bethia, 114
Bethsaida, 179
Bethshua, 122
Beton, 17
Betsy, 115
Bett, 114

Betty, 114, 115, 116
Beulah, 178
Bezaleel, 45
Bill, 92
Blaze, 93, 94
Boaz, 69
Bob, 6, 8
Bodkin, 10
Bonaventure, 208
Bradford, 232
Bride, 94
Brownjohn, 8

C

Cain, 54

Caleb, 52, 55, 61, 69

Canaan, 179

Cannon, 211

Caroletta, II2

Carolina, 92, 112

Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia,

92, 221
Caroline, 1 12
Cartwright, 230
Cassandra, 70
Catharine, 3, 36, 43, 93
Cecilia, 3, 6, 22, 28, 36, 43, 48,

5i» 93, 228

INDEX.

241

Centurian, 178

Cess, 6

Cesselot, 28

Changed, 153

Charity, 67, 140, 141, 154, 199,

202, 204, 227, 234
Charity Lucanoa, 235
Charles, 112, 206
Charles Caractacus Ostoriiis

Maximilian Gustavus Adol-

phus, 222
Charles James, 215, 216
Charles Maria, 218
Charles Mustava, 235
Charles Neville, 228
Charles Parish, 233
Charlotte, 112
Chatvvynd, 231
Chauncey, 206, 207, 233
Chembin, 170
Chesterton, 231
China, 211
Christ, 76

Christian, ^iZ^ 126, 199
Christiana, 199
Christian Ethiopia, 235
Christmas, 21 1
Christopher, 28
Christophilus, 123
Church-reform, 232
Chylde-of-God, 133
Cibell, 106
Cissot, 22
Clarice, 6
Clemence, no
Clemency, 142
Cloe, 48
Cock, 14
Col, 34

Cole, 34, 90, III
Colet, 102
Colin, 19, 31, 80
Colinet, 30, 31
Coll, 6
Collet, 80
Collin, 19
Colling, 19
Collinge, 19
Comfort, 149, 167, 204, 209

Con, no, 143, 145
Confidence, 149
Consider, 209, 210
Constance, 143
Constancy, 142, 143
Constant, 121, 143, 193, 204
Continent, 123, 200
Cornelius, 69
Cotton, 205
Cranmer, 232
Creatura Christi, 133
Creature, 132, 133
Cressens, 57
Crestolot, 28
Cuss, 23
Cussot, 23, 143
Cust, 23, 143
Custance, 23, 143

D

Dalilah, 57

Damaris, 47, 48, 91

Dameris, 47, 48

Dammeris, 47

Dammy, 91

Dampris, 47

Damris, 47

Dancell - Dallphebo - Marke - An-
tony - Dallery- Gallery- Cesar,
182

Daniel, 35, 72

Dankin, 35

Dannet, 35

Darcas, 48

David, 6

Daw, 6

Dawkin, 10

Dawks, 13

Dean, 197

Deb, 83, 91

Deborah, 51, 66, Zt^, 90

Deccon, 20

Degory, loi

Deliverance, 169, 170, 209

Delivery, 169

Dennis, 103, 234

Dennis Philpot, 235

242

INDEX.

Deodat, 209

Deodatus, 137

Deonata, 137

Depend, 162

Dependance, 209

Desiderata, 137, 202

Desiderius, 137

Desire, 137, 202, 209

Diccon, 19, 82

Dicconson, 20

Dick, 8, 90, 92, 109, III

Dickens, 13, 20

Dickenson, 13, 20

Dickin, 10, 20

Die-well, 165

Diffidence, 200

Diggon, 20

Digory, loi

Diligence, 148

Dinah, 71, 72, 75, 76

Dionisia, 20, 23

Dionys, 234

Diot, 23

Discipline, 179

Discretion, 199

Dobbin, 19

Dobinet, 30, 33, 82

Do-good, 165, 200

Dogoiy, 1 01

Doll, 92, 105, 106, 107, III

Dolly, 107, 109

Donate, 137

Donation, 209

Donatus, 134, 137

Dora, 107

Dorcas, 47, 48, 61, 119

Do -right, 200

Dorothea, 92, 107

Dorothy, 43, 48, 107

Douce, 22, 107

Doucet, 81

Douglas, 230

Dowcett, 22;

Do-well, 165

Dowsabel, 107

Dowse, 107

Dowsett, 22

Drew, 26, 100, r02

Drewcock, 16

Drewet, 26, 8r
Drocock, 16
Drusilla, 73
Dudley, 231, 232
Duke, 196
Dun, III
Dunn, 211
Dust, 63, 124

Earl, 197

Easter, 36, 96

Ebbot, 22

Ebed-meleck, 69, 83, 85

Ebenezer, 83

Eden, 179

Edward Alexander, 216

Edward Maria, 217

Elcock, 16

Eleanor, 24

Eleanora, 24

Eleazar, 205

Elena, 18, 24

Eleph, 53

Eliakim, 57

Elias, 2, 28, 35

Elicot, 28

Elihu, 53

El i-lama- Sabachthani, 5 7

Eliot, 28

Elisha, 69

Elisot, 28

Eliza, 115, 116

Elizabeth, 113, 116

Elizabeth Christabell, 234

Elizabeth Mary, 220

Elizar, 102

Elkanah, 84

Ellice, 29, loi

EUicot, 29

Elliot, 28

Ellis, 28, 29, 35

Ellisot, 29

Elnathan, 56, 205

Emanuel, ^6, 130, 131, 183,

Emery, 108

Emm, 5, 220

INDEX.

243

Emma, 3, 21, 29, 48, 51, 78, 79,

81
Emmett, 21
Emmot, 5, 8, 21, 27, 29, 78,

79

Emmotson, 21
Emperor, 212
Enecha, 69
Enoch, 69
Enot, 24

Epaphroditiis, 69, 85
Epenetus, 57, 69
Ephin, 98
Ephraim, 69, 85
Epiphany, 36, 97

Er,53

Erasmus, 134

Erastus, 53, 57

Esaias, 69, 72

Esau, 69

Esaye, 102

Essex, 230

Esther, 49, 96

Eugenie, 236

Eunice, 53

Euodias, 56

Eve, 24, 35

Evett, 35

Evot, 24

Evott, 35

Experience, 147, 148, 199, 203,

209
Ezechell, 69
Ezeckiell, 45
Ezekias, 102
Ezekiel, 72, 85, 88
Ezekyell, 46
Ezot, 113
Ezota, 113

Faint-not, 124, 158, 159, 194,

211
Faith, 67, 140, 141, 147, 154,

201, 204, 227
Faithful, 154, I99» 211
Faith-my-joy, 126

Fannasibilla, 223

Fare-well, 165, 166

Fauconnet, 31

Fawcett, 81

Fear, 203

Fear-God, 156, 157, 162

Fearing, 209

Fear-not, 122, 159

Fear-the-Lord, 190

Feleaman, 69

Felicity, 149

Fick, 19

Ficken, 19

Figg, 19

Figgess, 19

Figgin, 19

Figgins, 19

Figgs, 19

Fight - the - good - fight- of- faith,

180, 184, 194
Flie-fornication, 176, 194, 200
Forsaken, 176
Fortune, 176, 210
Francis, 75
Francis-Gunsby, 225
Frank, 106, no
Free-gift, 166, 167, 193
Free -grace, 209
Free-man, 177, 178
Frideswide, 10 1
Friend, 211
From-above, 124, 167
Fulk, 100, 103
Fulke, 31

G

Gabriel, 131, 140, 183

Gamaliel, 57, 69

Gavin, 100

Gawain, 100

Gawen, 100

Gawin, 50, 100

Gawyn, 33, 103

Geoffrey, 44

George, 11, in, 113

George William Frederic, 221

Georgi-Anna, 224

244

INDEX.

Georgina, 92

Gercyon, 69

Gershom, 39, 57, 69

Gersome, loi

Gertrude, no

Gervase, 10 1

Gib, 25

Gibb, 6

Gibbet, 25

Gibbin, 19

Gibbing, 19

Gibbon, 19

Gilbert, 25

Gill, 22, 104

Gillian, 3, 22

Gillot, 22

Gillotyne, 32

Gilpin, 19

Given, 137, 209

Give-thanks, 161

Goddard, 10 1

Godgivu, 2

God -help, 175

Godly, 152, 153

Godric, 2

Goliath, 72

Good-gift, 167

Good-work, 200

Grace, 126, 140, 144, 147, 154,

200, 204
Graceless, 200
Gracious, 153, 172
Grigg, 6
Grissel, 106
Grizill, 103
Guion, 26
Guiot, 26
Guillotin, 32
Gulielma Maria, 218
Gulielma Maria Posthuma, 218
Guy, 3, 26, 51, 80
Gyllian, 103

H

Habakkuk, 56
Hadassah, 49
Hal, 26

Halkin, ii

Hallet, 26

Hamelot, 27

Hameth, 53

Hamilton, 79

Hamlet, 8, 26, 27, 29, 78, 79,

lOI

Hammett, loi

Hamnet, 26, 27, 29

Hamon, 26, 29, 78

Hamond, 26, 29, 78, 79

Hamonet, 27

Hamynet, 33

Han-cock, 10, 16

Handcock, 16

Handforth, 231

Handmaid, 178, 195

Hankin, 10, il, 82

Hanna, 35

Hannah, 47, 49, 144

Hanover, 232

Harbotles Harte, 234

Hariph, 53

Harriet, 26

Harriot, 26

Harry, %%^ 90, 92, 109

Hate-bad, 200, 211

Hate-evil, 119, 163, 210, 211

Hatill, 163

Have-mercie, 175

Hawkes, 13

Hawkin, 11

Hawkins, 13

Hawks, 13

Heacock, 16

Heavenly-mind, 200

Heber, 53

Helpless, 175

Help-on-high, 160, 174, 18 1,

189
Henrietta Maria, 215, 216, 218
Henry, 3, 26, 44, 126
Henry Frederick, 215, 217
Henry Postumus, 219
Hephzibah, 53
Hercules, 70
Hester, 35, 48
Hew, 26
Hewet, 26, 81

INDEX.

245

Hewlett, 28

Hick, 6, 85

Hickin, 35

Higg, 26

Higget, 35

Higgin, 19, 35, 82

Higgot, 26, 35

Hillary, 94

Hiscock, 16

Hitch-cock, 16

Hobb, 6

Hobelot, 28

Hodge, 82, 85, 90

Hold-the-world, 200

Honest, 199

Honora, 92, 145

Honour, 139, 142, 145

Hope, 140, 147, 154, 202, 209,

227
Hopeful, 125, 159, 199
Hope-on-high, 189
Hope-still, 159, 160, 204, 209
Hope-well, 160
Hopkin, 10
Hopkins, 13
Howe- Lee, 225
Hud, 6
Huelot, 28
Huggin, 19
Huggins, 18
Hugginy, 236
Hugh, 6, 18, 19, 26, 28
Hughelot, 28
Hugonet, 31, 32
Huguenin, 31
Huguenot, 32
Hugyn, 18
Humanity, 142
Humble, 152, 200
Humiliation, 151
Humility, 152, 203, 205
Humphrey, 88
Hutchin, 18
Hutchinson, 18
Hyppolitus, 70

Ibbetson, 22

Ibbett, 22

Ibbot, 22, 81

Ibbotson, 22

Ichabod, 65, 205

If-Christ-had-not-died for-thee-

thou-hadst-been-damned, 156
Immanuel, 42
Increase, 168, 169, 194, 205,

209
Increased, 122, 168, 195
Ingram, 100
Ingram Dionis, 234
Inward, 179

Isaac, 3, 26, 35, 203, 205, 206
Isabella, 3, 22, 48, 51, 81
Isaiah, 52
Issott, 81
Ithamaria, 223

J

Jabez, 40
Jachin, 53
Jack, 2, 6, 8, 26, 90
Jackcock, 8
Jackett, 26
Jacob, 35
Jacolin, 106
Jacomyn, 103, 106
Jacquinot, 31
Jaell, 46, 65
James, 36
James-Smith, 225
Jane, 48, 103, 106
Jannet, 31
Jannetin, 31
Janniting, 31
Jannotin, 31
Japhet, 195
Jeduthan, 53
Jeffcock, 14, 16, 81
Jeffkin, 10
Jehoiada, 53

R3

246

INDEX.

Jehostiaphat, 85

Jenkin, 8, 11, 33

Jenkinson, 13

Jenks, 13

Jennin, 19

Jenning, 8, 19

Jeremiah, 63, %%, 90

Jeremy, 62,, 69, 72, 88

Jermyna, 230

Jerry, 91

Jesus -Christ-came-in to-the-

world-to-save, 156
Jethro, loi
Jill, 2, 22, 104
Joab, 53
Joan, 103, 106
Joane Dennis, 234
Joane Yorkkoope, 224
Job, 69, 84, 126
Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, 181,

184
Joel, 51

Jockaminshaw, 223, 224
John, 2, 3, 7, 35, 36, no,

III, 112, 126, 197, 208, 215,

226
Johnamaria, 223
John Christopher Burton, 222
John City Hall, 235
Johncock, 16
John Posthumus, 219
John Wearmouth, 235
Jolly, 211
Jonadab, 69
Jonathan, 69, 206
Jordan, ii, 35. 37
Jordanson, 3^
Joseph, 35
Joshua, 69
Joskin, 35
Jowett, 22
Joy-againe, 124
Joyce, 67, 103, 107, 114
Joye, 205
Joy-in-sorrow, 174
Juckes, 13
Juckin, II
Judas, 36
Judas-not-Iscariot, 74

Judd, 6, II, 35
Jude, no
Judith, 35, 48, 49
Judkin, II, 35
Judson, 35
Jukes, 13
Julian, 22
Juliana, 104
Juliet, 22
Junior, 197
Just, 204
Justice, 142

K

Kate, 92, 105, 106
Katherine Whitefryers, 234
Kelita, 53
Kenburrow, 231
Kerenhappuch, 56
Keturah, 57
Keziah, 57
Kit, 86, 87
Knowledge, 199

Lsetitia, 92, 108
Lais, 70, 71
Lambert, 31
Lamberton, 20
Lambin, 20, 81
Lambinet, 31
Lambkin, 10
Lamblin, 20
Lament, 163, 164, 176
Lamentation, 174, 187
Lamentations, (i^t
Lamin, 20
Laming, 20
Lammin, 20
Lamming, 20
Lampin, 20
Lampkin, 10
Larkin, 6, 10
Lawrence, 233
Laycock, 15

INDEX.

247

Leah, 47, 66, 69

Learn-wisdom, 119

Learn- wysdome, 163

Lemon, 2H

Lemuel, 53

Lesot, 23

Lettice, 23, 48, 108

Life, 209

Lina, 24

Linot, 24

Little, 197

Littlejohn, 8

Live-loose, 200

Lively, 153

Live- well, 164, 200

Living, 170

Louisa, 92

Love, 137, 141, 203

Love- God, 164, 165, 2CX)

Love-lust, 200

Love Venus, 70

Love-well, 165

Luccock, 15

M

Mab, 22

Mabbott, 22

Mabel, 22

Madge, ZZ^ 82

Magdalen, 126

Magnify, 161

Magot, 23

Mahaliel, 57

Mahershalalhashbaz, 41, 58, 120

Major, 196

Makin, 12

Makinson, 12

Malachi, 52, 53, 69

Malkin, 9, 11, 12

Malkynson, 12

Mallet, 230

Manasseh, 40, 203

Margaret, 3, 22

Margaret Jacobina, 232

Margerie, 25, 106

Margett, 22

Margotin, 31

Margott, 23

Maria, 92, 215, 217, 220 223
Marian, 19, 227
Maria Posthuma, 219
Marion, 18, 24
Mariot, 24
Mariotin, 32
Marioton, 31
. Mark Lane, 233
Marshall, 197
Martha, 47
Mary, 12, 24, 105, 113, 218,

220
Mary Ann, 220, 227
Mary Given, 137
Mary Josephina Antonietta, 222
Mary Porch, 234
Mat, 95, no
Matathias, icx)
Mathea, 95

Matilda, 3, 21, 48, 81, 106
Matthew, 13, 36, 92
Maud, 12, 48
Maurice, loi
Maycock, 13, 16
Meacock, 13
Meakin, 12
Mehetabell, 66
Melchisedek, 56, %i, 85, loi
Melior, 138
Mephibosheth, 85
Mercy, no, 142, 154, 199, 209
Meshach, 53, 63
Michael, 131, 183
Michalaliel, 60
Micklejohn, 8
Milcom, 74
Miles, 44, 51
Miracle, 178
Mocock, 15
Mokock, 15
Moll, 106, III
Mordecai, 57, 63
Mordecay, 69

More-fruite, 124, 167, 168, 194
M or rice, loi
Moses Dunstan, 234
Much-mercy, 122, 170, 194
Mun, III

248

INDEX.

Mycock, 16
My-sake, 178

N

Nab, 89, 90

Nan, 92, 104, 105, III

Nancy, 105, 106

Naphtali, 53

Nat, 91, 206

Nathaniel, 69, *]Z, 90, 119, 126,

205, 206
Natkin, "]%
Nazareth, 179
Ned, III

Nehemiah, 119, 120
Nell, 106
Neptune, 70
Neriah, 53
Neville, 228, 231
Nichol, 82
Nicholas, 2, 3, 34, 36, 37, 43,

45, 80, 90, 91, 92
Nick, III
Noah, 35, 69, 195
Noel, 36, 98, 99
No-merit, 122, 170, 174
Northamtonia, 229
Nothing, 211
Nowell, 36, 99

O

Obadiah, 72
Obediah, 51, 61, 69
Obedience, 148
Obey, 162
Oceanus, 208
Olive, 106
Olivia, 92, 106, 221
Onesiphorus, 56, 57, 85
Onslowe, 231
Opportunity, 211
Original, 128, 129
Othniell, 69
Oziell, 69

Palcock, 16

Pardon, 209

Paris, 70

Parish Church, 235

Parkin, 34

Parnel, 104

Parratt, 79

Pascal, 36

Pasche, 96

Pascoe, 96

Pash, II

Pashkin, 11

Pask, II, 36

Paskin, 11

Patience, 126, 139, 143, 145, 147,

202, 203, 204
Patient, 204
Paul, 36
Payn, 26
Paynet, 26
Paynot, 26
Peaceable, 203
Peacock, 15, 34
Peg, 106
Pelatiah, 57
Peleg, 69

Pentecost, 36, 43, 98
Pepper, 211
Peregrine, 208
Perkin, 11, 34
Perks, 13
Perot, 79

Perrin, 18, 19, 34, 81
Perrinot, 31
Perrot, 34, 79
Perrotin, 31

Perseverance, 149, 187, 204
Persis, 48, 121
Peter, 2, 3, 18, 34, 36, Z1. 45»

51, 79, 92, 105
Peter Grace, 234
Petronilla, 105
Pharaoh, 52, 69, 72
Phebe, 48
Philadelphia, 144

INDEX,

249

Philcock, 81

Philemon, 45, 53, 69

Philip, 2, 3, 26, 36, 37, 51, 90,

92, 95, 113
Philiponet, 31
Phillis, 106
Philpot, 26, 77, 80
Phineas, 52
Phippin, 19, 81
Phip, 85, 90
Pidcock, 15
Pierce, 82
Pierre, 34
Piers, 79
Piety, 199
Pipkin, II
Pleasant, 177
Pol, 36

Pontius Pilate, 58
Posthuma, 217, 218
Posthumus, 45, 215, 217, 218,

219
Potkin, II

Praise-God, I19, 156, 157, 158
Presela, 126
Preserved, 173, 210
Prince, 197
Pris, 91

Priscilla, 47, 48, 90, 126
Properjohn, 8
Providence, 178
Pru, 142, 145
Prudence, 129, 142, 145, 155,

199, 202, 209
Prudentia, 92, 142
Purifie, 125
Purkiss, 13

Quod-vult-Deus, 135

R

Rachel, 66, 67, 69, 141 .
Ralph, 20, 37, 85, III
Ramoth-Gilead, 54

Raoul, 20

Raoulin, 20

Rawlings, 20

Rawlins, 20

Rawlinson, 20

Rebecca, 45, 51, 66

Redeemed, 136, 193

Redemptus, 136

Rediviva, 136

Reformation, 179

Refrayne, 162

Rejoice, 147, 160, 161, 209

Rejoyce, 122

Reliance, 209

Relictus, 137

Remember, 203, 209

Remembrance, 204

Renata, 136

Renatus, 134, 136

Renewed, 121, 136, 194

Renold Falcon, 234

Renovata, 134, 136

Repent, 153, 162, 175

Repentance, 45, 150, 151, 153,

176, 194
Replenish, 168
Resolved, 203
Restore, 175, 193
Restraint, 187
Retume, 162, 194
Revelation, 191
Revolt, 203
Richard, 3, 28, 37, 44, 46,

103, no, 119, 131, 184, 195,

205
Richelot, 28
Riches, 177, 210
River, 211
Robelot, 28
Robert, 3, 28, y], 44, 52, no,

211, 228
Robbin, 19
Robin, 19, 33
Robinet, 30
Robing, 19
Robinson, 197
Roger, 3, 37, 52, 90, 119
Roger Middlesex, 234
Roger Peeter, 234

250

INDEX.

Rum John Pritchard, 235
Rutterkin, 10

Sabbath, 179

Safe-deliverance, 131, 169

Safe-on-high, 121, 174, 194, 200

Salt, 211

Sampson, 35

Samuel, 205

Sancho, 130

Sander, 15

Sandercock, 15

Sapphira, 73

Sara, 35, 45, 66

Sarah, 51, 205

Saturday, 180

Sea-born, 208

Sea-mercy, 208

Search-the- Scriptures, 200, 210

Search-truth, 200

See-truth, 200

Sehon, 74

Selah, 57, 178

Senchia, 130

Sense, 129, 130

Seraphim, 170

Seth, 69, 102

Seuce, 129

Shadrach, 53, d^^

Shadrack, 57

Shallum, 53, 56

Shelah, 53

Shorter, 197

Sib, 92, 105, 106

Sibb, 106

Sibby, 106

Sibilla, 24

Sibot, 24

Sibyl, 105

Sidney, 207

Silcock, 16

Silence, 11, 145, 147, I47> 200

Silkin, II

Sill, II, III, I45> 146

Sim, 6, 33, 82

Simcock, 14, 15

Simkin, 11

Simon, 2, 3, 36, 43, 45, 92,

III
Simpkinson, 13
Sincere, 199
Sin-denie, 122
Sin-deny, 162
Sir Isaac, 197, 227
Sir Robert, 197, 227
Sirs, 54

Sis, 92, 93, 105
Sissot, 22, 81
Something, 21 1
Sophia, 92, 144, 221
Sorry-for-sin, 122, 153
Sou'wester, 207
Squire, 196
Standfast, 199, 209
Stand-fast-on-high, 174
Stedfast, 121
Stepkin, 10
Sterling, 21 1
Steward, 230
Subpena, 137
Sudden, 212
Supply, 209
Susan, 48, 49, 106, 129
Susanna, 35
Susey, 129
Sybil, II, 145
Sydney, 207, 231, 232, 233
Syssot, 22

Tabitha, 47, 1 19
Tace, 146, 147
Tacey, 147
Talitha-Cumi, 57
Talkative, 200
Tamar, 71, 72, 75»
Tamaris, 47
Tamsin, 109
Tamson, 108
Tamworth, 230
Tankerville, 230
Tebbutt, 26
Tellno, 54

INDEX.

251

Temperance, 129, 142, 143, 144,
145, 204, 209

Tetsy, 115

Tetty, 115

Thank, 109

Thankful, 123, 171, 172, 173,
200

Thanks, 1 71, 172

Theobald, 25, 36, 43

Theobalda, 43

Theophania, 97

Theophilus, 69, 126

Tholy, 5

Thomas, 2, 3, 26, 34, 36, 75,
108, 203, 215

Thomas Barkin, 233

Thomasena, 109

Thomaset, 26

Thomas Fulton, 235

Thomas Hill Joseph Napoleon
Horatio Bonaparte Swindle-
hurst Nelson, 222

Thorn asin, 109

Thomasine, 108, no

Thomas Maria, 215

Thomas Posthumus, 215, 219

Thomazin, 109

Tnomesin, 109

Thurstan, 102

Thurston, 50

Tib, 6, 25, 43, 104, 106

Tibbe, 25, 26

Tibbett, 25

Tibbin, 19

Tibbitt, 25

Tibet, 25, 33, 82

Tibbot, 25

Tibot, 25, 43

Tiffanie, 97

Tiffany, 36, 97

Tiffeny, 97

Tillett, 21

Tillot, 21

Tillotson, 21

Tim, 6

Timothy, 36
Tipkin, 11
Tippin, 19
Tipping, 19

Tippitt, 25

Tobel, 40

Toll, 29

Tollett, 29

Tollitt, 29

Tolly, 5, 29

Tom, 8, 34, %2, 86, Z^, 90, 92,

109, III, 122
Tomasin, 109
Tomkin, 1 1, 34
Tonkin, 10
Trial, 187

Tribulation, 1 20, 147, 185, 186
Trinity, 178
True-heart, 200
Truth, 142, 144, 202
Tiyphena, 48, 57
Tryphosa, 48, 57
Tufton, 231
Tunstall, 231
Tyffanie, 97
Tyllot, 21
Typhenie, 97

U

Unfeigned, 172
Unity, 178
Upright, 200
Urias, 102
Ursula, 43, 93

Vashni, 53

Venus, 70, 71, 75, 76
Victory, 149
Virginia, 208
Virtue, 148
Vitalis, 132, 133

W

Walter, 3
Warin, 26
Warinot, 26

252

INDEX,

Washington, 232

Wat, 82, 85, 90

Watchful, 199

Watkin, 9, 11, 77, 81

Watkins, 13

Watt, 6

Weakly, 175

Wealthy, 177, 209, 210

Welcome, 209

What-God-will, 135

Wilcock, 8, 16, 34, 77

Wilkin, 8, 9, II, 34

Will, 6, 86, 88, III

Willan, 34

William, 3, 7, 26, 34, 44, no,

112, 184, 195, 203
William Henry, 220
Willin, 34
Willing, 34
Willot, 8

Wilmot, 8, 26, 34, 80
Windebank, 230
Woodrove, 231
Wrath, 155
Wrestling, 203

Wyatt, 26, 80
Wyon, 26

Young Allen, 197
Young John, 197, 227

Zabulon, 8$
Zachary, 46, 69, 88
Zanchy, 130
Zaphnaphpaaneah, 58
Zaphnaphpaaneah Isaiah Obe-

dedom Nicodemus Francis

Edward, 222
Zcal-for-God, 200
Zcal-of-the-land, %%, 120, 187,

188
Zcbulon, 69
Zephaniah, 52, 87
Zerrubabel, 40, 41, II9, 120
Zillah, 53
Zipporah, 66, 86

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