Chapter VII

), the vigorous survival of which into the surname period is a mystery. Watson is the son of Wat, i.e. Walter, from the Old N.E. Fr. Vautier (Gautier), regularly pronounced and written Water at one time--

". . . My name is Walter Whitmore. How now! Why start'st thou? What! doth death affright?

Suffolk. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. A cunning man did calculate my birth, And told me that by water I should die."

(2 Henry VI, iv.1)

Hence the name Waters, which has not usually any connection with water; while Waterman, though sometimes occupative, is also formed from Walter, like Hickman from Hick (