Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

Bette kutte

A bough outher tweye,

And bete Beton therewith.

Batty,' 'Bates,' 'Batson,' 'Batcock,' 'Badcock,' Batkins' 'Badkins' 'Betson' 'Bedson' and 'Betty' are relics of this. 'Bartle,' and the Norman-French Bartelot,' found in such entries as 'Bartel Frobisher,' 'John fil. Bertol,' 'Bartelot Govi,' or 'Edward Barttlette,' at once bespeak the origin of our 'Baffles ' and Bartletts.'' Nor was this all. Another favourite sobriquet for this same name was 'Toly' or 'Tholy,'hence such registrations as 'Tholy Oldcorn,' or 'Robert Toly,' or 'William fil. Tholy.' Our 'Tolleys' 'Tollys' and ' Tolsons' 2 are thus explained. None of these could have been the offspring of any old 'LadyeBetty,' as Mr. Lower seems to imagine, since that name, as I have shown, did not exist in England at this time, nor in fact can it be said to have been knowntill rendered fashionable by Elizabeth Woodville, the bride of Edward IV. What an influence a single individual may wield over our personal nomenclature may be thus seen, when we remember the enormous preponderance of this latter name during the two centuries that followed the reign of the imperious but ' good Queen Bess,' and the glorious scattering of the Spanish Armada. This, too, escaping the withering influences of the Puritan era, continued through all, and now holds the fourth place in English esteem.

'A well-known Durham family of the name of 'Burtetson' existed till the close of the eighteenth century in that county, and I am not sure that it does not still survive there. This, I doubt not, is but a corruption of ' Bartelotson' or 'Bartleson.' (Vide Surtees' History of Durham, vol. i. p. 106.)

2 John Toloson was Sheriff of London in 1237.

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

In the poem I have just quoted, Reason

Called Caton his knave

Curteis of speche,

And also Tomme Trewetonge.

Thus we see that 'Tom,' as the popular form of 'Thomas,' has been in vogue for many centuries. 'Thomas,' like some of the above names, received an increased impulse from the Crusades. But another circumstance also befriended it. In its numerous progeny may be read again the story of the feud that arose between the haughty Archbishop and Henry II., a feud that terminated so fatally for the former, and made the spot where he fell hallowed for centuries by the pilgrimages of shrine-worshippers. Piers, in Langland's poem, says,

I nolde fange a ferthyng

For seint Thomas shryne.

The surnames whose origin we must undoubtedly attribute, in the majority of cases, to the notoriety given to the sobriquet possessed by this murdered prelate are many. The patronymic is clearly marked in our ' Thomasons,' 'Thomsons,' and 'Thompsons.' The favoured Norman diminutive is equally assured of perpetuation in our 'Thomasetts,' 'Thomsetts,' and 'Thompsetts;' the Saxon being as fully popularised in our 'Thompkins,' 'Tompkins,' 'Tomkins,' and 'Tomkinsons.' The softer termination is also firmly settled in our 'Thomlins,' 'Tomlins,' and 'Tomlin-sons.'' More abbreviated patronymics are to be met

1 The romance form, 'Thomasine,' existed till recent days, and was at the zenith of its popularity in Elizabeth's reign. It is found in every