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
Your mariners shall synge arow,
Hey how, and rumbylow.
The ancestor of those who bear the name was doubtless a sailor at some
period of his career.[644]
(_d_) _Street-cries._—The calls of hawkers could not of course escape
the good-humoured raillery of our forefathers. We find ‘Robert
Freshfissh’ (X.) to have been a fishmonger, and ‘John Freshfisch’ is set
down in the Rolls of Parliament. About the same time ‘Margaret
Fressheharyng’ dwelt in the Metropolis. ‘Agnes Godefouele’ (A.) and
‘Basilia Godfowele’ (A.) were manifestly poultry-women, for even the
most respectable occupations were then, as I have already shown,
itinerant. But perhaps the most curious thing of all is to notice the
price-calls that have found themselves inscribed in our registers. The
larger sums will have a different origin, but I place them here for
convenience sake. The Writs of Parliament give us a ‘Robert Peny;’ the
‘Wills and Inventories’ (Surt. Soc.), a ‘Thomas Fourpeni;’ the Hundred
Rolls, a ‘John Fivepeni;’ the ‘Cal. Rot. Originalium,’ a ‘Thomas
Sexpenne;’ the ‘Yorkshire Wills and Inventories’ (Surt. Soc.), a ‘John
Ninepennies;’ and the Hundred Rolls, a ‘Fulco Twelpenes.’[645] ‘James
Fyppound’ (Fivepound) is mentioned in ‘Materials for History of Henry
VII.’ So early as 1342 we find ‘John Twenti-mark’ to have been Rector of
Risingham (Norfolk, 1, 64); while ‘William Hunderpound’ was Mayor of
Lynn Regis in 1417 (do. viii. 532). This latter may be a translation of
a Norman sobriquet, for ‘Grace Centlivre’ and ‘Joseph Centlivre’ are set
down in a Surrey register of the same date. (‘Hist. and Ant. Survey,’
Index.) In both cases, I doubt not, the nickname was acquired from the
peculiarity of the source whence the income was derived. ‘Centlivre’
existed in the eighteenth century at least, for it was Mrs. Centlivre
who wrote the ‘Platonic Lady,’ which was issued in 1707. ‘Thomas
Thousandpound,’ the last of this class, appears in the ‘Wardrobe
Accounts’ (Edward I.), and concludes a list as strange as the most
ardent ‘lover of the curious’ could desire.[646]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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