English Surnames: Their Sources and SignificationsBardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
History
English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations
Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell
Names, English; Names, Personal -- English
With him we may ally our not unfamiliar ‘Castlemans,’ ‘Castelans,’ and
‘Chatelains,’ representatives of the old ‘John le Chastilioun,’ or
‘Joscelin le Castelan,’ or ‘Ralph le Chatelaine.’ The poet whom I have
just quoted says elsewhere:—
Now am I king, now chastelaine.
Doubtless this latter was but a synonym of the constable, and his duties
as governor but the same. Of decidedly lower position, but not
dissimilar in character, we have also ‘Wybert le Portere,’ or
‘Portarius,’ as he is Latinized in our rolls. An old book of etiquette
says:—
When thou comes to a lordis gate
The porter thou shalle fynde therate.
He at the postern would as carefully look against hostile, as our former
‘Peter le Ussher,’ or ‘Alan le Usser,’ within would against informal
approach.[192] The Saxon form, however, was evidently not wanting, for
we have still ‘Doorward’ and ‘Doorman’ (‘Geoffrey le Doreward,’ A.,
‘Nicholas le Doreman,’ O.) in our directories, not to mention their
corrupted, ‘Durwards,’ immortalized by Walter Scott, and ‘Dormans’ and
‘Domans.’ The term ‘doorward’ is found in many of our early writers.
Thus in an old metrical account of the bringing of Christ before
Caiaphas, it is said of John when he returned to fetch in Peter:—
He bid the dureward
Let in his fere.
Our ‘Chamberlaynes’ and ‘Chambers,’[193] (‘Simon le Chamberlain,’ M.,
‘Henry le Chaumberleyne,’ B., ‘William de la Chaumbre,’ B.) had access
to their lord’s inner privacy, and from their intimacy with his monetary
affairs occupied a position at times similar to that of our more
collegiate bursar. We have only to look at mediæval costume, its
grandeur, its colours, and its varied array, to understand how necessary
there should be a special officer to superintend his lord’s wardrobe.
Our ‘Wardrops’ are but the former ‘de la Wardrobe,’ or ‘de la
Garderoba,’ while ‘le Wardrober,’ or ‘le Garderober,’ has bequeathed us
our ‘Wardropers.’ Thus the ‘Book of Curtasye’ says:—
The usshere shalle bydde the wardropere
Make redy for alle, night before they fere.
Equally important as an attendant was the ‘Barbour.’ He especially was
on familiar terms with his master—when was he not? I need scarcely say
that among his other duties that of acting as surgeon in the household
was none of the lightest. Still his tonsorial capacity was his first
one. No one then thought of shaving himself, least of all the baron.
Even so late as the sixteenth century a writer defending the use of the
beard against Andrew Boorde employs this argument:—
But, syre, I praye you, if you tell can,
Declare to me, when God made man
(I meane by our forefather Adam),
Whether that he had a berde then;
And if he had, who did hym shave,
Since that a barber he could not have.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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