Chapter I

). It is impossible to fix an approximate date for the definite adoption of surnames of this class. It occurred earlier in towns than in the country, and by the middle of the fourteenth century we often find in the names of London citizens a contradiction between the surname and the trade-name; e.g. Walter Ussher, tanner, John Botoner, girdler, Roger Carpenter, pepperer, Richard le Hunte, chaundeler, occur 1336-52.

The number of surnames belonging to this group is immense, for every medieval trade and craft was highly specialized and its privileges were jealously guarded. The general public, which now, like Issachar, crouches between the trusts and the trades unions, was in the middle ages similarly victimized by the guilds of merchants and craftsmen.

Then, as now, it grumblingly recognized that, "Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose," and went on enduring. [Footnote: If a student of philology were allowed to touch on such high matters as legislation, I would moralize on the word kiddle, meaning an illegal kind of weir used for fish-poaching, whence perhaps the surname Kiddell. From investigations made with a view to discovering the origin of the word, I came to the conclusion that all the legislative powers in England spent three centuries in passing enactments against these devices, with the inevitable consequence that they became ever more numerous.]

SOCIAL GRADES

By dealing with a few essential points at the outset we shall clear the ground for considering the various groups of surnames connected with trade, craft, profession or office. To begin with, it is certain that such names as Pope, Cayzer, King, Earl, Bishop are nicknames, very often conferred on performers in religious plays or acquired in connection with popular festivals and processions--

"Names also have been taken of civil honours, dignities and estate, as King, Duke, Prince, Lord, Baron, Knight, Valvasor or Vavasor, Squire, Castellon, partly for that their ancestours were such, served such, acted such parts; or were Kings of the Bean, Christmas-Lords, etc." (Camden).

We find corresponding names in other languages, and some of the French names, usually preceded by the definite article, have passed into English, e.g. Lempriere, a Huguenot name, and Levêque, whence our Levick, Vick, Veck (