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
In the poem from which I have but recently quoted we have the record of
‘gonnes,’ or ‘guns,’ as we should now term them. It would be quite
possible for our nomenclature to be represented by memorials of the
powder magazine, and I should be far from asserting that such is not the
case.[224] In the household of Edward III. there are enumerated, among
others, ‘Ingyners lvij; Artellers vj; Gonners vj.’ Here there is a clear
distinction between the ‘gun’ and the ‘engine;’ between missiles hurled
by powder and those by the catapult. Fifty years even earlier than this
Chaucer had used the following sentence:—‘They dradde no assaut of
gynne, gonne, nor skaffaut.’ In his ‘Romance,’ too, as I have just
shown, he places in juxtaposition ‘grete engines’ and ‘gonnes.’ Of one,
if not both of these, we have undoubted memorials in our nomenclature.
The Hundred Rolls furnish us with a ‘William le Engynur’ and a ‘Walter
le Ginnur;’ the Inquisitiones with a ‘Richard le Enginer,’ and the Writs
with a ‘William le Genour.’ The descendants of such as these are, of
course, our ‘Gunners,’ ‘Ginners,’ ‘Jenour,’ and ‘Jenners,’[225] the last
of which are now represented by one who is as renowned for recovering as
his ancestor in days gone by would be for destroying life. Our ‘Gunns’
and ‘Ginns’ also must be referred to the same source. In one of the
records just alluded to a ‘Warin Engaine’ is to be met with. If we elide
the first syllable, as in the previous instances, the modern form at
once appears.
But if in the deadly tournament the baron and his retainers found an
ample pastime, nevertheless the chase was of all diversions the most
popular. In this the prince and the peasant alike found recreation,
while with regard to the latter, as we shall see, it was also combined
with service. The woody wastelands, so extended in these earlier days of
a sparse population, afforded sport enough for the most ardent huntsman.
According to the extent of privilege or the divisions into which they
were separated, these tracts were styled by the various terms of
‘forest,’ ‘chase,’ ‘park,’ and ‘warren.’ To any one at all conversant
with old English law these several words will be familiar enough. To
keep the wilder beasts within their prescribed limits, to prevent them
injuring the tilled lands, and in general to guard the common interests
of lord and tenant, keepers were appointed. The names of these officers,
the chief of whom are entitled by appellations whose root is of a local
character, are well-nigh all found to this day in our directories.
Indeed there is no class of names more firmly imbedded there. In the
order of division I have just alluded to, we have ‘Forester,’ with its
corrupted ‘Forster’ and ‘Foster,’ relics of such registered folk as ‘Ivo
le Forester,’ ‘Henry le Forster,’ or ‘Walter le Foster;’ ‘Chaser,’ now
obsolete, I believe, but lingering on for a considerable period as the
offspring of ‘William’ or ‘Simon le Chasur;’ ‘Parker,’ or ‘Parkman,’ or
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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