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 names_ 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. 1, 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 Nonconformists, 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 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 modern writers have repeated the same thing over and over again; but I do not remember any trustworthy evidence of the Commonwealth time, or that of Charles II., that would lead us to believe 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, Banbury for its centre, there prevailed, amongst a 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 conducive to vital religion, and as intending to separate the truly godly and renewed portion of the community from the world at large. The Reformation epoch had seen the English middle and 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 population. That a father should style his child Nehemiah, 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 consciences 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,[30] the impression got abroad in after days that the Commonwealth period was the heyday of these eccentricities, and that these remarkable names were merely adopted after conversion, and were not entered in the vestry-books as baptismal names at all.

The existence of these names could not escape the attention of Lord Macaulay and Sir Walter Scott. The Whig historian has referred to Tribulation 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 Commonwealth--

"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-baz_."

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 _Zerrubabel_ Robins and _Merciful_ Strickalthrow, both soldiers of Oliver Cromwell; while the zealot ranter is one _Nehemiah_ Holdenough. Mr. Peacock most certainly has grounds for complaint here, but not as to facts, only dates.

II. ORIGINATED BY THE PRESBYTERIAN CLERGY.

In Strype's "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 Hopkinson, 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 ministers, Hopkinson of Salehurst, and Heley of Warbleton. 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{m}. Hopkinson, minister of the Lord's Worde there.[31]

"Oct. 29, 1596. Constant, filia Thomæ Lorde, baptisata fuit.

"March, 1621. Rejoyce, filia Thomæ Lorde, baptisata fuit 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 clergyman.

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 Helly, 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 justification 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.[32]

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.

"1591, Sep. 5. Baptized Thankful, sonne of John Frewen."--Northiam, Sussex.

_Accepted_[33] 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 separate wills, dated 1602 and 1604 (folio 25, Montagu, "Prerog. Ct. of Cant.," and folio 25, Harte, ditto), will be found references to "More-fruite and Faint-not, children of Dudley Fenner, minister of the Word of God" at Marden, 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."

"1585, June 6. Baptized Faint-not, fil. 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.

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, Reformation, 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:

"1604, Dec. 21. Baptized Hope-full, daughter of William Wheatlye."

Take a run from Banbury into Leicestershire. A stern Puritan was Antony Grey, "parson and patron" of Burbach; and he continued "a constant and faithfull 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 tombstone tells us. He had twelve children, and their baptismal entries are worth recording:

"1593, April 29. Grace, daughter of Mr. Anthonie Grey.

"1594, 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.[34]

"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 1. Theophilus, son of ditto.

"1609, March 14. Priscilla, daughter of ditto (died).

"1613, Sept. 19. Nathaniel, son of ditto.

"1615, 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 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 disaffected, 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 ineffaceable impressions. 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 was a hundred years, and the province was from Kent to Hereford, making a small arc northwards, so as to take in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. The practice, so far as the bolder examples is concerned, was a _deliberate 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, 1619, 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 Babington, son and heir of John Babington, was a contemporary of the first Original Bellamy (Nicholl's "Gen. et Top.," viii.).

Another instance occurs later on:

"1635, May 21. These under-written names are to be transported to St. Christopher's, imbarqued in the _Matthew_ of London, Richard Goodladd, master, per warrant from ye Earle of Carlisle:

"Originall Lowis, 28 yeres," 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 bewildered misreading on the compiler's part of Sense, and Sense is an English dress of the foreign 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, June 13. Married Matthew Draper and Sence Blackwell.

"1570-1, 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 1614 is clear:

"Sanchia, from Sancta, that is, Holy."--"Remaines," p. 88.

The name became obsolete by the close of the seventeenth century, and, being a saintly title, was sufficiently odious to the Presbyterians to be carefully rejected by them in the sixteenth century. Men who refused the Apostles their saintly title were not likely to stamp the same for life on weak flesh.[35]

Nor can _Emanuel_, or _Angel_, be brought as charges against the Puritans. Both flatly contradicted Cartwright's canon; yet both, and especially the former, have been attributed to the zealots. No 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 _Emanuel_, 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 regarding _Angel_. 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 11. Baptized Angel, d. of Sir Nicholas Butler, K{nt}."--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.

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 ("Hist. All-Hallows," p. 62). In the vestry-books of Staplehurst, Kent, are registered:

"1 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. 81.

"1550, Nov. 5. Buried Creature, daughter of Agnes Mathews, syngle woman, the seconde childe.

"1579, July 19. Married John Haffynden and Creature Cheseman, 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 birth_, 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:

"Nemo in utero matris clausus baptizari debet, sed si infans caput emiserit, et periculum mortis immineat, baptizetur in capite, nec 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 fuit in ædibus Mri Humfrey filia ejus quæ nominata fuit Creatura Christi."--St. Peter in the East, Oxford.

"1563, 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 believed that "insomuch as infants, and children dying in their infancy, shall undoubtedly be saved thereby (_i.e._ baptism), _and else not_," 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.

IV. INSTANCES.

(_a._) _Latin Names._

The elder Disraeli reminded us, in his "Curiosities of Literature," that in the fifteenth and sixteenth 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[36] and Melancthon--are only known to the world at large by their adopted titles.

The Reformation had not become an accomplished fact before this custom began to prevail in England, only it was transferred from the study to the font, and from scholars to babies. Renovata, 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-sæculi,' 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 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 instances with the honours of martyrdom, they preferred 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 Christian "Quod-vult-deus." Grainger, in his "History of England" (iii. 360, fifth edition), says--

"In Montfaucon's 'Diarium Italicum' (p. 270), is a sepulchral inscription of the year 396, upon Quod-vult-deus, a Christian, to which is a note: 'Hoc ævo non pauci erant qui piis sententiolis nomina propria concinnarent, _v.g._ Quod-vult-deus, Deogratias, Habet-deum, Adeodatus.'"

Closland, or Crosland, the grandfather, was evidently a Puritan, with a horror of the Latin Vulgate, 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 Redeemed, and Renata than Renewed. The English equivalents soon ruled supreme, but for a generation 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 Renatus Palmer, who prays to be appointed surveyor in the port of Dartmouth."--C. S. P.

"1659, Nov. 11. 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. Rediviva lingered into the eighteenth century:

"1735, ----. Buried Rediviva Mathews."--Banbury.

Desiderata and Desiderius were being used at the close of Elizabeth's reign, and survived the restoration of Charles II.:

"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,[37] 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 Stoddart, 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.[38] I place a few in order:

"1594, Aug. 3. Baptized Relictus Dunstane, a childe found in this parisshe."--St. Dunstan.

"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[39] Billinge."--St. Dionis, Backchurch.

"1706. Beata Meetkirke, born Nov. 2, 1705; died Sep. 10, 1706."--Rushden, Hereford.

(_b._) _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 in the New Testament, 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 Elizabeth's reign, there issued a cluster of interludes of this same moral type and cast; only all breathed of the new religion, and more or less assaulted the dogmas of Rome.

These moralities were popular, and were frequently rendered in public, until the Elizabethan drama was well established. All were allegorical, and required personal representatives of the abstract graces, and doctrines of which they treated. The _dramatis personæ_ 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:

"1549, July 1. Baptized Patience, d. of Will{m}. 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--

"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, Jan. 29. Baptized Grace, daughter of John Russell."--St. Columb Major.

"1588, Aug. 1. Married Thomas Wood and Faythe 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, Cornhill.

"1571, ----. Baptized Charity, daughter of Thomas Blomefield."--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 century 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:[40]

"1639, Sep. 7. Baptized Faith, Hope, and Charity, daughters of George Lamb, and Alice his wife."--Hillingdon.

"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 unbaptized."--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 distinctly 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. 68).

"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 birthright."--"History of Town and Port of Rye," p. 237.

"1662, May 7. Baptized Love, d. of Mr. Richard Appletree."--Banbury.

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 £100 0 0."--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. Instances 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 Waymarke."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

"1716, 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 sixteenth, 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 reported guilty of embezzling late king's goods."--"Cal. St. P. Dom."

Truth, Constancy, Honour, and Temperance were frequently personified at the font. Temperance had the shortest life; but, if short, it was merry. There is scarcely a register, from Gretna Green to St. Michael's, without it:

"1615, Feb. 25. Baptized Temperance, d. of -- Osberne."--Hawnes, Bedford.

"1610, Aug. 14. Baptized Temperance, d. of John Goodyer."--Banbury.

"1611, Nov. --. Baptized Temperance, d. of Robert Carpinter."--Stepney.

"1619, July 22. Married Gyles Rolles to Temperance Blinco."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

Constance,[41] 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 0 0, forfeited by Connistant Cant, of Lynn Regis, for embarking wool to Guernsey not entered in the Custom House."--Ditto.

"1671, 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 1681. Thus the weaker vessels were not allowed to monopolize the graces. How familiar some of these abstract names had become, the Cavalier 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:

"1595, 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{m}. Gough, aged 42 years."--Harnhill, Glouc.

"1786, Oct. 6. Died Althea, wife of Thomas Heberden, prebendary."--Exeter Cath.[42]

Honour, of course, became Honora, in the eighteenth 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 Radcliffe."--Stepney.

"1667, Oct. 9. Christened Mary, d. of Sir John and Lady Honour Huxley."--Hammersmith.

"1722, 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 "Illust.," iii. 37). Possibly, as Speaker, he had had better opportunity to observe that these were the four cardinal parliamentary 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 (Bowditch). It is not, however, to be confounded with Sill, that is, Sybil, in the old Cavalier chorus:

"'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:

"1741, Dec. 9. Married Robert Thyer to Silence Leigh."--St. Ann, Manchester.

The mother of Silence Leigh, who was a widow when she married, was Silence Beswicke ("Memorials of St. Ann, Manchester," p. 55).[43] 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. 1715, aged 32 years."--Hewelsfield, Glouc.

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" (1 Tim. ii. 11).

The Epistle to the Romans was a never-failing well-spring to the earnest Puritan, and one passage 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;[44] 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.

"1596, 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.

"The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., born Feb. 5, 1673; died 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. 1. Buried Diligence Constant."

Obedience had a good run, and began very early:

"1573, Sep. 20. Bapt. Obedience, dather of Thomas Garding.

"1586, Aug. 28. Bapt. Obedyence, dather of Richard Ellis."--Warbleton.

"1697, 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, Glouc.

"1709, May 6. Buried Vertue Page."--Finchley.

Confidence and Victory were evidently favourites:

"1587, Jan. 8. Baptized Confydence, d. of Roger Elliard."--Warbleton.

"1770, Nov. 17, died Confidence, wife of John Thomas, aged 61 years."--Bulley, 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.

_Perseverance_ 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 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 _Mayflower_, 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 Aysherst."--Warbleton.

"1588, June 30. Baptized Repentance Water."--Cranbrook.

"1597, Aug. 4. Baptized Repentance, daughter of Robert Benham, of Lymhouse."--Stepney.

"1612, March 26. Baptized Repentance Wrathe."--Elham, Kent.

"1688, Dec. 23. Bapt. Repentance, son of Thomas and Mercy Tompson."--St. James, Piccadilly.

In the "Sussex Archæological Collections" (xvii. 148) is found recorded the case of Repentance Hastings, deputy portreeve of Seaford, who in 1643 was convicted of hiding some wreckage:

"Repentance Hastings, 1 load, 1 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.[45]

_Humiliation_ was a big word, and that alone must have been in its favour:

"1629, Jan. 24. Married Humiliation Hinde and Elizabeth Phillips by banes."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

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, 1631-2. Humiliation _père_, 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."

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.

"1688, May 5. Buried Humility, wife of Humphey Paget."--Peckleton, Leic.

Had it not been for Charles Dickens, Humble would not have appeared objectionable:

"1666-1667, Jan. 29. Petition of Dame Frances, wife of Humble Ward, Lord Ward, Baron, of Birmingham."[46]--C. S. P.

All Saints, Leicester, records another saintly grace:

"Here lieth the body of Abstinence Pougher, Esq., who died Sept. 5, 1741, 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:

"1579, July 24. Baptized Godlye, d. of Richard Fauterell."--Warbleton.

"1611, May 1. 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.

"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, 1661. 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 ministered, 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:"

"1589, 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 Socknash in this county, Esq., and eldest son of Richard Luxford, of Billinghurst."--Wartling Church.

Faithful[47] 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, _n._). 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 religious apathy of the early eighteenth century was against them. They seem to have made their way slowly westward. Certainly their latest representatives are to be found in the more retired villages of Gloucestershire and Devonshire. A few like Mercy, Faith, Hope, Charity, Grace, and 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 exclamations 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:

"1654. Wroth Rogers to be placed on the Commission of Scandalous Ministers."--Scobell's "Acts and Ord. Parl.," 1658.

"1680, Dec. 22. Buried Anger Bull, packer."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

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.

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, therefore, 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 Puritans," 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 "appeared 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.

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. Dunstan-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 Barebone, not Barebones. Peck, in his "Desiderata Curiosa," speaking of a member of the family who 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 weary 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, 1616.

"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 Lewes Grammar School were paid in 1692 as usual. One item is set down as follows:

"Faint-not Batchelor's house, per annum, £6 0 0."--"Hist. and Ant. Lewes," i. 311.

_Faint-not_ 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 Marden, Kent.

Fear-not was also in use. The Rector of Warbleton 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{m}. Browne."

Decidedly cheerful were such names as Hope-still or Hopeful. Both occur in Banbury Church. Hopeful Wheatley has already been mentioned.

"1611, June 16. Baptized Hope-still, d. to Edward Peedle.

"1697, Dec. 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. 68). He went out to New England about 1620. His name became a common 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-still_, his wife, who died July 22, 1749, aged 92."--Cuckfield Church, Sussex.

"Dec. 1, 1714. Administration of goods of Michael Watkins, granted to Hope-still Watkins, his widow."--C. S. P.

In the list of incumbents of Lydney, Gloucestershire, 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 himself in general as Hope-well, and this was retained on his tomb:

"Hic in Cristo quiescit Hope-wel Foxe, in artibus magister, hujus ecclesiæ 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 of £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.

_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 Gyve-thanks Bentham, a child.

"1593, M{ch}. 11. 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 Cunsted."

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.

"1617, 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.[48]

Besides Be-thankful, there was "Be-strong:"

"1592, Nov. 26. Baptized Be-strong Philpott."--Cranbrook.

Many of the exhortatory names related to the 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 Outtered."

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 Returne, sonne of Rychard Farret.

"1587, Aug. 6. Baptized Obey, sonne of Rychard Larkford.

"1587, Dec. 24. Baptized Depend, sonne of Edward Outtered.

"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. 1. 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."--Warbleton.

The last retained her name:

"1603, Maye 20. Buried Abuse-not Collyer."

Here, again, are two curious entries:

"1636, March 19. Baptized Be-steadfast, sonne of Thomas Elliard.

"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{m}. Wood.

"1608, Nov. 17. Baptized Hatill, sonne to Antony Robinson."--Middleton-Cheney.

As Middleton-Cheney is a mere outlying parish from Banbury, I think we may see whence Hate-evil Greenhill's 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 childbirth 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.

"1598, May 14. Baptized Lament, d. of John Fauterell.

"1600, M{ch} 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 examples 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,[49] 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 Parl.," 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 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 Hastings, 1619, 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:

"1589, 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 whom 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 accidentally. 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, 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 quiverful 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 clergy, judging by the date of its rise:[50]

"1616, ----. Buried Mary, wiffe of Free-gift Mabbe."--Chiddingly, Sussex.

"1621, ----. Baptized John, son of Free-gift Bishopp."--Ditto.

"1591, Jan. 14. Baptized Fre-gift, sonne of Abraham Bayley."--Warbleton.

The will of Free-gift Stacey was proved in 1656 in London; while a subsidy obtained by an unpopular 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 _From-above_, mentioned by Camden as existing in 1614:

"1582, March 10. Baptized From-above Hendley."--Cranbrook.

A subsidy collected within the rape of Lewes in 1621 records:

"From-above Hendle, gent, in landes, 30 4 0."--"Suss. Arch. Coll.," lx. 71.

Many of these names suggest thanksgiving for an "addition to the family." _More-fruit_ is one such:

"1587, June 6. Baptized More-fruite Stone, of Steven."--Berwick, Sussex.

"1592, Oct. 1. Baptized More-fruite Starre."[51]--Cranbrook.

"1599, Nov. 4. Baptized More-fruite, d. of Richard Barnet."--Warbleton.

"1608, Aug. 28. Baptized More-frute, d. of Rychard Curtes."--Ditto.

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 successor 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 representative 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.

"1637, 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 Act. Through him it became a popular name in New England, although Increase Nowell, who obtained a charter of appropriation of Massachusetts 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 1614, 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 Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers (Bowditch), and I see one instance, at least, in Hotten's "Emigrants:"

"1670, Feb. 18. Buried Deliverance Addison."--Christ Church, Barbados.

"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--

"1757, Jan. 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 March 25, 1637, mention is made of "my son-in-law Deliverance Fennyhouse" (_vide_ _Notes and Queries_, Dec. 8, 1860, 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 thankfulness must have been felt here:

"On 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!

But if the father of the twins was not as thankful for his privilege as he ought to have been, others were. _Thanks_ and _Thankful_ were not unknown to our forefathers. One of the earliest instances I can find is the marriage lines of Thankful Hepden:

"1646, July 16. Thankfull Hepden and Fraunces 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."

Thankful's father was John Frewen, Rector of Northiam, the eminent Puritan already referred to. _Accepted_, the elder son's name, belongs to this same class. _Thankful_ seems to have become a favourite in 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, 1723. Assessment for repairs of highways: Mr. Thankful Bishop paid 7{s} 6{d}."

Again, so late as 1749 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.[52] Thankful Owen was brother to 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 _Thank_."

Possibly the sentence "unfeignedly thankful" suggested the other word also; any way, it existed:

"1586, April 1. Baptized Unfeigned, sonne of Roger Elliard."--Warbleton.

The estate of Unfeigned Panckhurst was administered 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 Hawkhurst, gent., who died January 2, 1680" ("Arch. Cant.," iv. 108). In the churchwarden's book of the same place occurs this curious item:

"1675. Received by Thankfull Thorpe, churchwarden in the year 1675, of Richard Sharpe of Bennenden, the summe 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 18th year of her age, on the 17th of November, MDCCXII."--St. Nicholas, Yarmouth.

"1588, Aug. 1. Baptized Preserved, sonne of Thomas Holman.

"1594, Nov. 17. Baptized Preserved, sonne of Roger Caffe."--Warbleton.

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.

This name is also found in St. Matthew, Friday Street, London.

_Joy-in-Sorrow_ is the story of Rachel and Benoni over again:

"1595. On the last daye of August the daughter of Edward Godman was baptized and named Joye-in-Sorrow."--Isfield, Sussex.

_Lamentation_ 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 _Safe-on-high_ Hopkinson, christened at Salehurst in 1591, and _Help-on-high_ Foxe, incumbent of Lydney, Gloucester, in 1661. The former died a few days after baptism, and the event seems to have been anticipated 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 will 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.[53]

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{d} June, 1618."

Still less hopeful of augury was the following:

"1697, July 6. Weakly Ekins, citizen and grocer, London."--"Inquisit. of Lunacy," Rec. Office MSS.

What about him? 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:

"1589, Aug. 3. Baptized Helpless Henley, a bastard."--Berwick, Sussex.

"1608, Aug. 14. Baptized Repent Champney, a bastard."--Warbleton.

"1599, May 13. Baptized Repentance, d. of Martha Henley, a bastard."--Warbleton.

"1600, M{ch}. 26. Baptized Lament, d. of Anne Willard, a bastard."--Ditto.

"1600, April 13. Baptized Repentance Gilbert, a bastard."--Cranbrook.

"1598, Jan. 27. Baptized Forsaken, filius meretricis Agnetis Walton."--Sedgefield.

"1609, Dec. 17. Baptized Flie-fornication, 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._) _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.

_Fortune_ 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{ch}. 10. Married Mr. John Barrington and Mrs. Fortune Smith."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

"1723, April 8. Buried Fortune Symons, aged 111 years."--Hammersmith.

If Fortune meant fulness of years, it was attained in this last example.

_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.[54]

"1704, Aug. 18, died Riches Browne, gent., aged 62."--Scarning, 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 _sui generis_.

Pleasant[55] is found several times:

"1681, Nov. 8. Christened Pleasant, daughter of Robert Tarlton."--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."

"1691, Sep. 21. Petition of Freeman Collins."--Ditto.

"1661. Petition of Freeman Sonds."--"C. S. P. Domestic."[56]

What a freak of fancy is commemorated in the following:

"1698, June 23. Examination of Isaac Cooper, Thomas Abraham, and Centurian Lucas."--C. S. P.

"1660, June. Petition of Handmaid, wife of Aaron Johnson."--C. S. P.

"1661, 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."--Banbury.

_Providence_ Hillershand died August 14, 1749, aged 72 (Bicknor, Gloucester). Providence was a _he_.

"1752, Nov. 5. Buried Selah, d. of Ric. and Diana Collins."--Dyrham, Gloucestershire.

"1586, April 10. Baptized My-sake Hallam."--Cranbrook.

Biblical localities were much resorted to:

"1616, Nov. 26. Baptized Bethsaida, d. of Humphrey Trenouth."--St. Columb Major.

"1700, June 6. Buried Canaan, wife of John Hatton, 55 years."--Forthampton, Gloucestershire.

"1706, 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. 11. Buried Mr. _Inward_ Ansloe."--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 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 Clerke, 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 maintain. 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 Plantagenet 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-faith, pass the pepper!" The thing was impossible. Even Help-on-high was found cumbersome, 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. 1, 1611. 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 September following, and dyed the next day after."

This is confirmed by the burial records:

"Sept. 2, 1611. 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 ashes."

This was somewhat grim fun, though. Probably _Job-rakt-out-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. Perhaps this was the instance.

A similar instance of waggery is found in the parish church of Old Swinford, where the following entry occurs:--

"1676, Jan. 18. Baptized Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-Dallery-Gallery-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!" seems to have suggested to Thomson that unfortunate 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 discover 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 Noncomformist 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 ridiculous names, the very rehearsing whereof causeth laughter. There 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 bargains, known, if not avoided, of all men. In 1610 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 1610 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 playwright 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 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."[57] Act iv. sc. 1.

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 in Camden's list, written four years later than Ben Jonson's 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 we have seen, in the "Chancery Suits" (1590-1600), in the case of _Lamentation Chapman_. _Restraint_ is met by _Abstinence_ Pougher, and _Persecution_ by _Trial_ 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.[58] 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 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?

_Littlewit._ 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!

_Littlewit._ 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, who 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 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 maypoles addressing the hobby:

"I renounce it, And put the beast off thus, the beast polluted. And now no more shall _Hope-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 quotations from the playwrights. Although brought 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_.'"[59]

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 considers to be of a somewhat earlier date. We will set them side by side:

Accepted Trevor, of Norsham. | Approved Frewen, of Northiam. Redeemed Compton, of Battle. | Be-thankful Maynard, of Brightling. Faint-not Hewit, of Heathfield. | Be-courteous Cole, of Pevensey. Make-peace Heaton, of Hare. | Safety-on-high Snat, of Uckfield. God-reward Smart, of Fivehurst. | Search-the-Scriptures Moreton, Stand-fast-on-high Stringer, of | of Salehurst. Crowhurst. | More-fruit Fowler, of East Hothley. Earth Adams, of Warbleton. | Free-gift Mabbs, of Chiddingly. Called Lower, of the same. | Increase Weeks, of Cuckfield. Kill-sin Pimple, of Witham. | Restore Weeks, of the same. Return Spelman, of Watling. | Kill-sin Pemble, of Westham. Be faithful Joiner, of Britling. | Elected Mitchell, of Heathfield. Fly-debate Roberts, of the same. | Faint-not Hurst, of the same. Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith | Renewed Wisberry, of Hailsham. White, of Emer. | Return Milward, of Hellingly. More-fruit Fowler, of East Hodley. | Fly-debate Smart, of Waldron. Hope-for Bending, of the same. | Fly-fornication Richardson, of Graceful Harding, of Lewes. | the same. Weep-not Billing, of the same. | Seek-wisdom Wood, of the same. Meek Brewer, of Okeham. | 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 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 converts, 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 collection 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 _Northiam_, we have already referred to. _Free-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:

"1618, ----. Restore Weeks espoused Constant Semer."

"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 surname 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-the-good-fight-of-faith_ 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.

(_c._) _Royalists with Puritan Names._

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 of 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 £20 in completion of the £70 given him by the King."--C. S. P.

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, cabinet-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 servant, 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 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. S. 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 Marmaduke Wyvill, Bart., of Constable Burton, Yorkshire:

"1681, Feb. 12. Baptized Duke, son of Robert Fance, K{nt}."--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 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 Westminster 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."--Cant. Cath.

Little is similarly used. Little Midgley in the West Riding Directory is scarcely a happy conjunction. In the same town are to be seen John Berry, side by side with "Young John Berry," and Allen Mawson, with Young Allen Mawson.

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 converted 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 Bedford 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 Bunyan's character names the creation of his own 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, Bunyan 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 Humiliation; 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 _Faithful_ might be a personal reminiscence, good Father _Honest_ a quondam host on one of his preaching expeditions, and _Standfast_, "that right good pilgrim," an old Pædo-Baptist of his acquaintance. The shepherds _Watchful_, _Sincere_, and _Experience_, if not _Knowledge_, were known of all men, in less pastoral avocations. And as for 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 registered 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-lust_, _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-lust_ may be set by "Fly-fornication," and _Live-loose_ by "Live-well" or "Continent." _Hold-the-world_ is directly suggested by the favourite "Safe-on-high;" _Talkative_, by "Silence."

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 bantering scorn of a wicked world to face; there was no deliberate effort made by any part of the community 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 Gartney's Girlhood," or "Prudence Palfrey." All 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 immigration that has set in has been gradually telling 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 knowledge. 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_ Minter, a direct translation of Desiderata, which had just become popular in England; William Brewster, the ruling elder; his son _Love_ Brewster, who married, settled, and died there in 1650, leaving four children; and a younger son, _Wrestling_ 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 governors. On this same memorable journey of the _Mayflower_ came also _Remember_, daughter of Isaac Allerton, first assistant to the new governor; _Resolved_ White, who married and left five children in the colony; and _Humility_ Cooper, who by-and-by returned to England.

A little later on, in the _Ann_ and _Little James_, again came Manasseh Faunce and _Experience_ Mitchell. 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. _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 emigration. 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 _James_, July 13, 1635, set foot on shore _Remembrance_ Tybbott. In the _Hercules_ 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 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. Michael's, Barbados:

"1678, May 16. _Humility_ Hobbs, from ye almshous."

The churchwardens of St. James' Barbados, have entered an account of lands, December 20, 1679, wherein is set down

"Madam _Joye_ 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. 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. Jonathan 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 happened 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 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 formation 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.[60] 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.

The Puritan did the same. _Oceanus_ Hopkins was born on the high seas in the _Mayflower_, 1620; _Peregrine_ 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. 453); while the marriage of _Sea-mercy_ Adams with Mary Brett is recorded, in 1686, in Philadelphia (Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," 1. 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 _Bonaventure_, 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_, 1606.

"Anne Laydon, aged 30, in the _Mary Margett_, 1608.

"Virginia Laydon (daughter), borne in Virginia."

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 undergone 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 "Suffolk 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, Experience, Temperance, Prudence, Mercy, Dependance, Deliverance, Hope, Reliance, Hopestill, Fearing, 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. In many instances, no doubt, Mr. Bowditch was referring to the same individual; in others to their children. The mention of _Wealthy_ reminds us of Wealthy, Riches, and Fortune, already demonstrated to be popular English names. _Fortune_ went out to New England in the person of Fortune Taylor, who appears in a roll of Virginian immigrants, 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 1860; and _Consider_, which crossed the Atlantic two hundred and fifty years ago, so grew and multiplied as to be represented at this moment in the directory just mentioned, in the form of

"Consider Parish, merchant, Clinton, Brooklyn."

Mr. Bowditch adds "_Search-the-Scriptures_" to his list of names that crossed the Atlantic. This tallies with Search-the-Scriptures Moreton, of Salehurst, one of the supposed sham jury already treated of. He quotes also _Hate-evil_ Nutter from a colonial record of 1649.[61] Here again we are 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 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 (_vide_ "English Surnames," 2nd edit., p. 29), and two centuries ago we meet with

"America Baguley, 1669, his halfpeny,"

on a token. _Amery_ was the ordinary English dress.

EPILOGUE.

DOUBLE CHRISTIAN NAMES: THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS.

I. ROYAL DOUBLE NAMES.

"But two christian names are rare in England, and I only remember 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 antiquary, who knew more of the families and pedigrees 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 Catechism--

"N. was anciently used as the initial of Nomen, and 'Nomen vel Nomina' was expressed by 'N. vel NN.,' the double N being afterwards corrupted into M."

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 confirmation.... And this doth agree 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 surnames, 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 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, was aware that Charles I.'s queen was Henrietta Maria, the late king Charles James, and his son Henry Frederic. It is possible, nay probable, that he was not ignorant 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.

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 1651. 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 remarkable 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 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 generations, 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 VIII., 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, Hunts, by Edward Maria Wingfield."--C. S. P., 1639.

Maria had long been common in Italy, France, 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 happened 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:

"1610, July 10. Baptized Charles Maria, sonne of Charles Chute, Esquire."--St. Dunstan-in-the-West.

"1640, ----. Died Gulielma Maria Posthuma Springett."--Tablet, Ringmer, 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 Posthumus, 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 have seen stands as a single name. Thus, in the Canterbury Cathedral register, is recorded:

"1572, Feb. 10. Christened Posthumus, the sonne of Robert Pownoll."

The following is the father's entry of burial:

"1571, June 8. Buried Robert Pownoll."

This is the earliest instance I have seen. Very 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 bequeathed 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 Sydenham. Posthumus, possibly, in this case was commemorative of Sir Thomas, and not of Sir John. William Ball, son of Sir Peter Ball, already mentioned, 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 exception, to the higher ranks of society. All were called after the children in the royal nursery, or Maria or Posthuma was the second component. Several formed the double name with both. It seems certain 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 component, 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 only found since 1700, being used as commemorative 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.

"1729, March 30. Christened Anna-Maria, d. of Thomas and Mary Hoare, pewterer."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

The clerk of Finchley Church could not understand this conjunction--not to add that his education seems to have been slightly neglected:

"1715, Feb. 26. Baptized Anammeriah, d. of Thomas and Eliz. Biby.

"1716, M{ch}. 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 III. 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 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 nineteenth century, nor did they everybody in the eighteenth:

"1781, 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.

"On 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."--_Manchester Evening News_, October 11, 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 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 international law, Dr. Abericus Gentilis. He has avoided a breach of supposed national law by writing the two names in one.

"1614, 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.

One of the most strange samples of conjoined names is this:

"1595, April 3. Joane, whome we maye call Yorkkooppe, because 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, Yorkkooppe. The first is neat, the second clumsy: but, doubtless, the clerk who wielded the goose-quill deemed both a masterpiece of ingenuity.

The following is interesting:--

"1616, July 13, being Satterday, about half an hour before 10 of the clocke in the forenoon, was born 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." 1870.

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:

"1721, 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 Horne, 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 clergymen who only recite the first in the marriage service, as I have heard some do, are in reality guilty of misdemeanour.

How odd all these contrivances to modern eyes! We take up a directory, and every other registration 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 born in lowly cottage, Bred for broom or frying-pan."

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 thoroughly 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 _h_only," 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 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 commonness 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 1, 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 Evangelists' 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 "tykes," but is necessarily modern. Nor could "Sir Isaac" or "Sir Robert," as prænomens 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 unintentional. It put a stop to what bade fair to become a universal adoption of patronymics as single baptismal 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.[62]

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 institution 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: neverthelesse it seemeth to procede from hearty goodwill and affection of the godfathers, to shew their love, or from a desire to continue and propagate 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 worshipfull ancient families, have given those names to their heires, with a mindefull and thankfull regard of them, as we have now Pickering, Wotton, Grevill, Varney, Bassingburne, Gawdy, Calthorpe, Parker, Pecsal, Brocas, Fitz-Raulfe, Chamberlanie, 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.

"1711, Jan. 3. Buried Jermyna, 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, barrister, 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.

"1601, Feb. Buryed 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 Tufton, daughter of the Rev. Dr. James Jefferys, one of the prebendarys 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 illustrations; 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 Foljambe. His mother was Jane Woodrove, of Hope, Derbyshire."--Ditto, p. 88.

How common the practice was becoming among the better-class families the Canterbury register shall show:

"1601, April 16. Baptized Nevile, the sonne of Edwarde Whitegrave.

"1614, Nov. 28. Baptized Tunstall, sonn of Mr. William Scott, 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{t}."

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 permitted private predilections full play. At Canterbury 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 College, Dublin, in 1729. A Scotch Jacobite in London showed some skill in the heat of the great crisis of 1715:

"1715, June 10. Christened Margaret Jacobina, d. of Mr. Archiball Johnson, merchant."--St. Dionis Backchurch.[63]

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 hundred 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 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 christening of foundlings. Having no father or mother to attest their parentage, being literally anonymous, 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.

At St. Dunstan-in-the-West they are still more diversified:

"1597, M{ch}. 1. Renold Falcon, a childe borne in Falcon Court, bapt.

"1611, May 11. 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 Pennye, begotten in fornacacion."--Stepney, London.

"1586, May 21. Christening of Peter Grace, sonne of Katherine Davis, an harlot."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

"1592, Aug. 2. Christening of Roger Peeter, so named of our church; the mother a rogue, the childe was born the 22{d} 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."[64]

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 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 Osbourne 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 Brooklyn. 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{ch}. 27, John Wearmouth, a Tawny, taken captive, aged 20."--Bishop Wearmouth (Burns).

"Baptized, 1602-3, March, Christian Ethiopia, borne a Blackmore."--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 (Burns).

"1717, ----. Baptized Charles Mustava, a black boy, servant to The Honble. Lord Hartford."--Preshute, Wilts.

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 increased 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 "Eugénie" 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 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.

A

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

Amalasiontha, 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, 101, 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

Ashes, 63, 181

Assurance, 120

Atcock, 16

Atkin, 10

Atkinson, 13

Audria, 106

Austen, 43

Austin, 103

Avery, 101, 102

Avice, 108

Awdry, 93, 103

Axar, 55

Aymot, 79

Azariah, 53

Azarias, 57, 69

B

Bab, 106, 107

Badcock, 16

Baldwin, 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, 110

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, 112

Carolina, 92, 112

Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia, 92, 221

Caroline, 112

Cartwright, 230

Cassandra, 70

Catharine, 3, 36, 43, 93

Cecilia, 3, 6, 22, 28, 36, 43, 48, 51, 93, 228

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 Ostorius Maximilian Gustavus Adolphus, 222

Charles James, 215, 216

Charles Maria, 218

Charles Mustava, 235

Charles Neville, 228

Charles Parish, 233

Charlotte, 112

Chatwynd, 231

Chauncey, 206, 207, 233

Cherubin, 170

Chesterton, 231

China, 211

Christ, 76

Christian, 33, 126, 199

Christiana, 199

Christian Ethiopia, 235

Christmas, 211

Christopher, 28

Christophilus, 123

Church-reform, 232

Chylde-of-God, 133

Cibell, 106

Cissot, 22

Clarice, 6

Clemence, 110

Clemency, 142

Cloe, 48

Cock, 14

Col, 34

Cole, 34, 90, 111

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, 110, 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-Antony-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, 83, 90

Deccon, 20

Degory, 101

Deliverance, 169, 170, 209

Delivery, 169

Dennis, 103, 234

Dennis Philpot, 235

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, 111

Dickens, 13, 20

Dickenson, 13, 20

Dickin, 10, 20

Die-well, 165

Diffidence, 200

Diggon, 20

Digory, 101

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

Dogory, 101

Doll, 92, 105, 106, 107, 111

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, 102

Drewcock, 16

Drewet, 26, 81

Drocock, 16

Drusilla, 73

Dudley, 231, 232

Duke, 196

Dun, 111

Dunn, 211

Dust, 63, 124

E

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

Eli-lama-Sabachthani, 57

Eliot, 28

Elisha, 69

Elisot, 28

Eliza, 115, 116

Elizabeth, 113, 116

Elizabeth Christabell, 234

Elizabeth Mary, 220

Elizar, 102

Elkanah, 84

Ellice, 29, 101

Ellicot, 29

Elliot, 28

Ellis, 28, 29, 35

Ellisot, 29

Elnathan, 56, 205

Emanuel, 76, 130, 131, 183

Emery, 108

Emm, 5, 220

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

Epaphroditus, 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

Eugénie, 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

F

Faint-not, 124, 158, 159, 194, 211

Faith, 67, 140, 141, 147, 154, 201, 204, 227

Faithful, 154, 199, 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, 110

Free-gift, 166, 167, 193

Free-grace, 209

Free-man, 177, 178

Frideswide, 101

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, 111, 113

George William Frederic, 221

Georgi-Anna, 224

Georgina, 92

Gercyon, 69

Gershom, 39, 57, 69

Gersome, 101

Gertrude, 110

Gervase, 101

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, 101

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, 11

Hallet, 26

Hamelot, 27

Hameth, 53

Hamilton, 79

Hamlet, 8, 26, 27, 29, 78, 79, 101

Hammett, 101

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, 11, 82

Hanna, 35

Hannah, 47, 49, 144

Hanover, 232

Harbotles Harte, 234

Hariph, 53

Harriet, 26

Harriot, 26

Harry, 88, 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, 181, 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

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

I

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

Jehostiaphat, 85

Jenkin, 8, 11, 33

Jenkinson, 13

Jenks, 13

Jennin, 19

Jenning, 8, 19

Jeremiah, 63, 88, 90

Jeremy, 63, 69, 72, 88

Jermyna, 230

Jerry, 91

Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world-to-save, 156

Jethro, 101

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, 110, 111, 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, 11, 35, 37

Jordanson, 35

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, 11

Judas, 36

Judas-not-Iscariot, 74

Judd, 6, 11, 35

Jude, 110

Judith, 35, 48, 49

Judkin, 11, 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

L

Lætitia, 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, 63

Lamin, 20

Laming, 20

Lammin, 20

Lamming, 20

Lampin, 20

Lampkin, 10

Larkin, 6, 10

Lawrence, 233

Laycock, 15

Leah, 47, 66, 69

Learn-wisdom, 119

Learn-wysdome, 163

Lemon, 211

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, 200

Love-lust, 200

Love Venus, 70

Love-well, 165

Luccock, 15

M

Mab, 22

Mabbott, 22

Mabel, 22

Madge, 33, 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, 110

Matathias, 100

Mathea, 95

Matilda, 3, 21, 48, 81, 106

Matthew, 13, 36, 92

Maud, 12, 48

Maurice, 101

Maycock, 13, 16

Meacock, 13

Meakin, 12

Mehetabell, 66

Melchisedek, 56, 83, 85, 101

Melior, 138

Mephibosheth, 85

Mercy, 110, 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, 111

Mordecai, 57, 63

Mordecay, 69

More-fruite, 124, 167, 168, 194

Morrice, 101

Moses Dunstan, 234

Much-mercy, 122, 170, 194

Mun, 111

Mycock, 16

My-sake, 178

N

Nab, 89, 90

Nan, 92, 104, 105, 111

Nancy, 105, 106

Naphtali, 53

Nat, 91, 206

Nathaniel, 69, 78, 90, 119, 126, 205, 206

Natkin, 78

Nazareth, 179

Ned, 111

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, 111

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

P

Palcock, 16

Pardon, 209

Paris, 70

Parish Church, 235

Parkin, 34

Parnel, 104

Parratt, 79

Pascal, 36

Pasche, 96

Pascoe, 96

Pash, 11

Pashkin, 11

Pask, 11, 36

Paskin, 11

Patience, 120, 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, 37, 45, 51, 79, 92, 105

Peter Grace, 234

Petronilla, 105

Pharaoh, 52, 69, 72

Phebe, 48

Philadelphia, 144

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, 11

Pleasant, 177

Pol, 36

Pontius Pilate, 58

Posthuma, 217, 218

Posthumus, 45, 215, 217, 218, 219

Potkin, 11

Praise-God, 119, 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

Q

Quod-vult-Deus, 135

R

Rachel, 66, 67, 69, 141

Ralph, 20, 37, 85, 111

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

Returne, 162, 194

Revelation, 191

Revolt, 203

Richard, 3, 28, 37, 44, 46, 103, 110, 119, 131, 184, 195, 205

Richelot, 28

Riches, 177, 210

River, 211

Robelot, 28

Robert, 3, 28, 37, 44, 52, 110, 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

Rum John Pritchard, 235

Rutterkin, 10

S

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, 63

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, 200

Silkin, 11

Sill, 11, 111, 145, 146

Sim, 6, 33, 82

Simcock, 14, 15

Simkin, 11

Simon, 2, 3, 36, 43, 45, 92, 111

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, 211

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, 211

Steward, 230

Subpena, 137

Sudden, 212

Supply, 209

Susan, 48, 49, 106, 129

Susanna, 35

Susey, 129

Sybil, 11, 145

Sydney, 207, 231, 232, 233

Syssot, 22

T

Tabitha, 47, 119

Tace, 146, 147

Tacey, 147

Talitha-Cumi, 57

Talkative, 200

Tamar, 71, 72, 75, 76

Tamaris, 47

Tamsin, 109

Tamson, 108

Tamworth, 230

Tankerville, 230

Tebbutt, 26

Tellno, 54

Temperance, 129, 142, 143, 144, 145, 204, 209

Tetsy, 115

Tetty, 115

Thank, 109

Thankful, 123, 171, 172, 173, 200

Thanks, 171, 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 Swindlehurst Nelson, 222

Thomasin, 109

Thomasine, 108, 110

Thomas Maria, 215

Thomas Posthumus, 215, 219

Thomazin, 109

Thomesin, 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, 20

Tollitt, 29

Tolly, 5, 29

Tom, 8, 34, 82, 86, 87, 90, 92, 109, 111, 122

Tomasin, 109

Tomkin, 11, 34

Tonkin, 10

Trial, 187

Tribulation, 120, 147, 185, 186

Trinity, 178

True-heart, 200

Truth, 142, 144, 202

Tryphena, 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

V

Vashni, 53

Venus, 70, 71, 75, 76

Victory, 149

Virginia, 208

Virtue, 148

Vitalis, 132, 133

W

Walter, 3

Warin, 26

Warinot, 26

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, 11, 34

Will, 6, 86, 88, 111

Willan, 34

William, 3, 7, 26, 34, 44, 110, 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

Y

Young Allen, 197

Young John, 197, 227

Z

Zabulon, 85

Zachary, 46, 69, 88

Zanchy, 130

Zaphnaphpaaneah, 58

Zaphnaphpaaneah Isaiah Obededom Nicodemus Francis Edward, 222

Zeal-for-God, 200

Zeal-of-the-land, 88, 120, 187, 188

Zebulon, 69

Zephaniah, 52, 87

Zerrubabel, 40, 41, 119, 120

Zillah, 53

Zipporah, 66, 86

_Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 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 Rychard Gardyner working in the gardyne.

"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 occupation they temporarily followed.--"Privy Purse Expenses, Eliz. of York," p. 122.

[2] Any number of such instances might be recorded. Mr. W. C. Leighton, in _Notes and Queries_, February 23, 1861, 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 1556-1560, was brother to Sir John White, Knight, Lord Mayor in 1563.

[3] "I also give to the said Robert ... that land which Hobbekin de Bothum held of me."--Ext. deed of Sir Robert de Stokeport, Knight, 1189-1199: Earwaker's "East Cheshire," p. 334.

[4] 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.

[5] _Adekyn_ was the simple and only title of the harper to Prince Edward in 1306, who attended the _cour plenière_ held by King Edward at the feast of Whitsuntide at Westminster.--Chappell, "Popular Music of ye Olden Time," p. 29.

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

[7] Nevertheless the surname did exist in Yorkshire in Richard II.'s reign:

"Willelmus Malkynson, and Dionisia uxor ejus, iiii{d}."--W. D. S.

[8] 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).

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

"1 Henry VIII. To Fygge the taborer, 6{d}."--Churchwarden's Books of Kingston-on-Thames, Brand's "Pop. Ant.," i. 147.

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

[10] 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.

[11] Cornwall would naturally be last to be touched by the Reformation. 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.

[12] This connection of Scripture name with present circumstance ran out its full period. In the diary of Samuel Jeake, a well-known Puritan of Rye, occurs this reference to his son, born August 13, 1688: "At 49 minutes past 11 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 me _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 godfather, 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.

[13] 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.

[14] In the Lancashire "Church Surveys," 1649-1655, being the first volume of the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society's publications, edited by Colonel Fishwick, occur Thurston Brown, Thurston Brere, Thurston Brich, on one single page of the index.

[15] To tell a lie is to tell a _lee_ in Lancashire.

[16] 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); Barijirehah in that of J. Allen, 1651, and Michalaliel among the Pilgrim Fathers (Hotten).

[17] Colonel Cunningham, in his annotations of the "Alchemist," says, speaking of the New Englanders bearing the Puritan prejudices 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.

[18] The following entry is a curiosity:

"1756, May 24. Buried Love Venus Rivers."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

[19] 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. 1.), where he is manifestly using the old names.

[20] Zachary was the then form of Zachariah, as Jeremy of Jeremiah. Neither is a nickname.

[21] 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).

[22] "Jan, 1537. Item: payed to Blaze for brawdering a payre of sleves for my lady's grace, xx{s}."--"Privy Purse Expenses, Princess Mary."

[23] 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.

[24] 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."

[25] 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 such a title on his child.

[26] Gawain, Gawen, or Gavin lingered till last century in Cumberland and the Furrness district. The surname of Gunson in the same parts shows that "Gun" was a popular form. Hence, in the Hundred Rolls, Matilda fil. Gunne or Eustace Gunnson. The London Directory forms are Gowan, Gowen, and Gowing:

"1593, Nov. 7. Buried Sarra Bone, wife of Gawen Bone."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

[27] A good instance of the position in society of Jane and Joan is seen in Rowley's "A Woman never Vexed," where, in the _dramatis personæ_, _Jane_ is daughter to the London Alderman, and _Joan_ servant-wench to the Widow. The play was written about 1630.

[28] There seems to have been some difficulty in forming the feminines 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 Trémouille, Lady Derby; but it was rarely used:

"1670, Oct. 26. Sir Sam{l}. 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.

[29] Bethia still lingers in certain families, but its origin has manifestly been forgotten. In _Notes and Queries_, February 23, 1861, Mr. W. A. Leighton deems the name an incorrect version of the scriptural Bithiah (1 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. 16th, 1851, aged 74."

[30] "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.

[31] This child was buried a few days later. From the name given the father seems to have expected the event.

[32] From 1585 to 1600, that is, in fifteen years, Warbleton register records more than a hundred examples of eccentric Puritanism.

[33] 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 Brontë," p. 37.

[34] Faith-my-joy was 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.

[35] "On Jan. 28, 17 James I., William Foster ... together with Sir Henry Burton, Susan Mowne, and James Bynde, and Sanctia or Sence his wife, joined in conveying to Robert Raunce and Edward Thurland ... a house and land in Carshalton on trust to sell."--"Bray's Surrey," ii. 513.

[36] Erasmus became a popular baptismal name, and still exists:

"1541, Jan. 3. Baptized Erasmus, sonne of John Lynsey."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

"1593, Sep. 16. Baptized Erasmus, sonne of John Record, merchaunt tailor."--Ditto.

"1611, July 18. Buried Erasmus Finche, captaine, of Dover Castle."--Cant. Cath.

[37] "April 6, 1879, at St. Peter's Thanet, entered into rest, Mary Given Clarke, aged 71 years."--_Church Times_, April 10, 1879.

[38] The following is curious, although it does not properly belong to this class:

"1629, July 11. Baptized Subpena, a man childe found at the Subpena office in Chancery Lane."--St. Dunstan.

[39] _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 £10 a year."--"C. S. P. Dom."

"1552, July 11. Baptized Mellior, d. of John James."--St. Columb Major.

[40] "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."

[41] Constance had been an old English favourite, its nick and pet forms being Cust, or Custance, or Cussot (_vide_ "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."

[42] Sophia did not come into England for a century after this. But, while speaking of Greek names, the most popular was Philadelphia:

"1639, May 3. Buried the Lady Philadelphia Carr."--Hillingdon, 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 mentioned in the Apocalypse, or after a friend or kinswoman, or because, interpreted, it was a Quaker sentiment, I cannot say. But Philadelphia, 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.

[43] "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 11, 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."

[44] "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.

[45] Repentance lingered longer than I thought. In the churchyard of Mappowder, Dorset, is a tombstone to the memory of "Repentance, 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.

[46] 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.

[47] "Faithful Teate was minister at Sudbury, Suffolk, at the time Richard Sibbes, who was born close by, was growing up."--Sibbes' Works, 1. xxvi. Nichol, 1862.

[48] Antony à 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.

[49] Live-well Chapman was a Fifth Monarchy man. There is still extant a pamphlet headed "A Declaration of several of the Churches of Christ, and Godly People, in and about the City of London, concerning the Kingly Interest of Christ, and the Present Sufferings of His Cause, and Saints in England. Printed for Live-well Chapman, 1654."

[50] These two were twins:

"1589, Oct. 12. Baptized Fre-gyft and Fear-not, ye children of John Lulham."--Warbleton.

[51] This, no doubt, will be a relative of the well-known Puritan, Comfort Starr, born in the adjacent hamlet of Ashford.

[52] 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-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 ecclesiæ per quinquaginta sex annos rector sanctissimus & doctissimus ... obiit 2{do} Septembris, 1749, anno ætatis 81{mo}."

[53] 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.

[54] "1723.--Welthiana Bryan."--Nicholl's "Coll. Top. et Gen.," iii. 250.

[55] Pleasant lasted for some time:

"1757, Jan. 11. Married Thomas Dunn and Pleasant Dadd."--Cant. Cath.

[56] 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."

[57] That is, he held him crosswise in his arms.

[58] "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.

[59] 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 lawfull to change our names, or forbear to mention them, either by tongue or pen: but then we should not 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.

[60] 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 born at sea in a south-westerly gale, who received the same name (_Notes and Queries_, February 7, 1880).

[61] We have already recorded Hate-evil as existing in the Banbury Church register.

[62] 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 manifestly increasing, the number of such double surnames is not yet a large one.

[63] "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, 1866.

[64] 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.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.