Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

and this brought the name into all but absolute disuse. As a term for a wanton flirt or inconstant girl, it was familiarly used till the eighteenth century. It would seem as if the poet I have just quoted were referring to this characteristic when he writes:

All shall be well, Jacke shall have Gill;

Nay, nay, Gill is wedded to Wyll;'

or where in another place he says:

How may I have thee, Gill, when I wish for thee?

Wish not for me Jack, but when thou mayest have Mme.

The diminutive' Gilot' or 'Juliet' is used in the same way. In an old metrical sermon it is said

Robin will Gilot
Leden to the nale,

And sitten there togedres,
And tellen their tale.

This at once reminds us of the origin of our ' jilt,'which is nothing more than a relic of the name for inconstancy the sobriquet had obtained. In our 'Gills,'

Gilsons,' and many of our 'Gillots,' a further remembrance is likely to remain for all timerSuch names

1 Jack and Jill seem ever to have been associated.

Will squabbled in a tavern very sore,

Because one brought a gill of wine no more;

Fill me a quart, quoth he, I'm called Will,

The proverbe is, each Jack shall have his Gill.

Satyricall Epigrams, 1619.

2 One can scarce forbear a smile to find in the 'Townley Mysteries'Noah's wife, being pressed by her husband to enter the ark, replying

Sir, for Jak nor for Gille
Wille I turne my face

Tille I have on this hille

Spun a space upon my rok (distaff).

3 We must not forget a once familiar corruption of the diminutive 'Juliet' into 'Juet.' Such entries as 'Juetta fil. William' (T.), 'Richard fil. Juetta' (T.), 'William Juet' (A.), or 'Christopher Jewit-

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

as these, however, offer no kind of comparison with that of 'Margaret.' This is the only rival that 'Gillian' had to fear, and had the misfortunes of Margaret of Anjou occurred two, or even one century earlier, it would easily have taken precedence, so far as our surnames are concerned. Apart from its being found in several royal lines, it had the advantage of undoubted prettiness both in sound and sense. Every one, too, knew its meaning, for 'margarite' and 'pearl ' then, and until the seventeenth century even, were interchangeable terms. Every early writer so uses it. 'Casting pearls before swine' is with Wickliffe ' margaritas.' I The pet names too were pretty, important in a day when the full name was rarely if ever used.' The Norman-French 'Margot' seems to have been quite as familiar as 'Marjorie.' Thus the homely 'magpie' was at first styled the ' maggoty'

son' (Z.) are very common in the rolls of the xiiith and xivth centuries. This, in the North, was pronounced ' Jowet,' hence such entries as 'Roger fil. Jowettae' (T.), 'Jowet Barton'(W. II), and our surname 'Jowett.'' Jewitt' also exists. One of this name was a jockey in the Derby of 1874.

1 So, also, in another place the same translator says: 'The kyngdom of hevenes is lyk to a marchaunt that seekith gode margarites, but whanne he hath founde one precious margarite, he wente and solde allethingis that he hadde and boughte it.' — Matt. xiii. 45, 46. Foxe too, in his 'Book of Martyrs,' quotes Isidorus to the effect that John the Apostle ' turned certain pieces of wood into gold, and stones by the seaside into margarites.' — Vol. i. p. 28, edit. 1844.

2 'Barbara,' as another Greek virgin-martyr, may be set beside Margaret. 'Barbe' was the French form. As we shall see by-and-by, our 'Simbarbes' and 'Simbarbs' hail from St. Barbe in Normandy. (Jordan de St. Barbe, M., Thomas Seyntbarbe, B.) The Hundred Rolls register three pet forms as surnames. 'Bertol Babbe,' 'John Barbot,' and 'Nicholas Barbelot.' The latter belongs to the class in dot of which 'Robelot' ' Hewelot' and 'Hamelot' are instances.