Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, Personal -- English
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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