Westenhanger.—There is a Teutonic stem hanh which means to hang, with
the Anglo-Saxon later forms, Hôn, Hêng, from which we get our place
names of hanger, Ongar, etc. A hanger is a wood or copse hanging on the
side of a hill, and in Kent we find Betteshanger, Hangherst, and
Ackhanger, as well as Westenhanger, concerning which Leland in his
Itinerary writes of “Ostinhaungre ... of sum now corruptly called
Westenanger.” I find it spelled Ostrynghangre in 1274 and 1291,
Westynghangre in 1343, Westingangre in 1346, Ostrynhangre in 1376 and
1381, Estynghangre in 1383, Westynganger in 1385, Ostynhangre in 1409,
Ostrynghanger in 1468, Westinganger in 1472, Ostrynhanger in 1478,
Westynghanger in 1511, Westhanger in 1519, and Oystenhanger in 1541. The
changes of the first syllable illustrate the continuance of the Saxon
Wœst and the Norman Ouest until there is the reversion to the Saxon form
in our West.
Tenterden, again, has a long list of variants. Probably its Saxon name
indicated the place where the Theinwarden, or Thane’s Warden or
Guardian, looked after the rights and dues of various other dens where
his swine had pannage and his tenants tended them. It is not mentioned
in Domesday, as not of sufficient importance or taxability; but in 1190
I find it as Tentwarden, in 1252 as Thendwardenne and Tentwardenn, in
1255 as Tentwardene—this early and probably original form cropping up at
intervals for another three hundred years. But in 1259 we get nearer to
the extant form, as Tendyrdenn. In 1300 there is Tenterdenne, and in
1311 Tentredenne. From this point I take the spellings from the
Archbishop’s register of the institutions of its parish priests, and
here the earliest record is Tenterdenne in 1311. Thenceforward
Tent’denne and Tant’denn in 1322, Tentrdenn in 1327, Tenterdenne in
1333, Tentwardene in 1342, Tenterdenne in 1346, Tentwardyn in 1390,
Tynterden in 1394, Tent’den in 1404, Tenterden (for the first time
exactly in its present form) in 1407, Tendirden in 1436, Tentwarden at
various dates from 1464 to 1531, Tentreden in 1501 and 1525, Tenterden
in 1511, 1523, 1539, and 1546, “Tentwarden alias Tenterden” in 1541,
Tynterden in 1546, Tenterden in 1556, Tentwarden in 1560, Tenterden in
1571 and 1615, Tentarden in 1619, Tendarden in 1626, Tentarden in 1627
and 1636. Henceforth it is always Tenterden in the Lambeth Registers.
These variations are the more noticeable as all occurring in one office,
where one would have expected a settled and continuously adopted form,
whereas in such documents as wills the testator, or even the scrivener
who wrote the will, would have only the current or the personal idea as
to the right spelling of a name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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