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 such grand-looking entries as ‘William le Charreter,’ or ‘John le
Caretter,’ or ‘Andrew le Chareter,’[280] we should now scarce recognise
the humble ‘Carter,’ but so is he commonly set down in the thirteenth
century, our ‘cart’ itself being nothing more than the old Norman-French
‘charette,’ so familiarized to us by our present Bible version as
‘chariot.’ This in the edition of 1611 even was spelt after the old
fashion as ‘charet.’ Our ‘Charters’ are evidently but relics of the
fuller form, a ‘John le Charter’ appearing in the Parliamentary
Writs.[281] ‘Char,’ the root of ‘charet,’ still remains with us as
‘car.’ In ‘Cursor Mundi’ it is said—
Nay, sir, but ye must to him fare,
He hath sent after thee his chare.
Gower, too, has the word—
With that she looked and was war,
Doun fro’ the sky ther cam a char,
The which dragons aboute drew.
This was used by people of rank as a fashionable vehicle for purposes of
pleasure; oftentimes, too, by ladies.[282] Corresponding with the other,
the driver of such was ‘John le Charer’ or ‘Richard le Charrer,’ the
present existing forms in our directories being ‘Charman’ and
‘Carman.’[283] ‘Cartman,’ I need not add, is also found as well as
‘Carter.’ All these terms, however, are from the Norman vocabulary. The
Saxon word in general use was ‘wagon’ or ‘wain,’ the conductor of which
now dwells in our midst as ‘Wagoner’ or ‘Wagner,’ and ‘Wainman’ or
‘Wenman.’ ‘Charles Wain’ or the ‘Churls Wain’ is the name that
constellation still bears, and which has clung to it, in spite of the
Norman, since the day, a thousand years and more, that the Saxon so
likened it. As in the case of so many other double words representative
of our twofold language, these two separate terms have come now to
denote their own specialty of vehicle, and it is even possible that so
early as the day in which ‘le Wainwright’ and ‘le Cartwright’ took their
rise this distinction had already begun to exist. It is thus our English
language has become so rich, this sheep-and-mutton redundancy of which
Walter Scott in his ‘Ivanhoe’ has so well reminded us. ‘Richard le
Drivere’ or ‘John le Drivere’ of course must be placed here, not to
mention an ‘Alice le Driveress,’ who figures in the Hundred Rolls.
Of such consequence was it that the horse-gear should be carefully put
together that it occupied the full attention of several different
artisans. Such names as ‘Benedict le Sporier,’ or ‘Alan le Lorymer,’ or
‘Nicholas le Lorimer,’ are found in every considerable roll of the
period, and they still exist. The one of course looked to the rowel, the
other to the bit. ‘John le Sadeler’ needs little explanation, his
posterity being still alive to speak in his behalf. The old
Norman-introduced word for a saddle was ‘sell,’ and that it lingered on
for a considerable period is shown by Spenser’s use of it, where he
says—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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