Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

Pougher,'1 'Increase Mather,'2 'Thankfull Frewen,' 'Accepted Frewen,'3'Live-well Sherwood,' ''Faythful Fortescue,'5 and 'Silence Leigh.' 6 The more extraordinary and rabid phases of this spirit have now passed away, but the general effect remains. It is from this date, I have said, must be noted the declension of such a familiar name as 'Humphrey,' or 'Ralph,' or 'Joscelyn,' and of the romance names generally. From this date we perceive the use of some of our present most familiar and till then wellnigh unknown baptismal names.

With the restoration of Charles II. much of the more rhapsodic features of this curious spirit died out, but it is more than probable it was fed elsewhere. The rigorous persecution of the Nonconformists which marked and blotted his reign, the persecuting spirit which drove hundreds to seek beyond the seas that asylum for religious liberty which was denied them at

died of an apoplexy, Nov. 9th, 1758.' He was a missionary to Vine-yard Island. (Vide ' Pulpit,' Dec. 6, 1827.)

'Here lieth the body of Abstinence Tougher, Esq., who died Sept. 5th, 1741, aged 62 years.' (All Saints, Leicester. Vide Nicholls''Leicester!)

2 Dr. Increase Mather was sent from New England to represent to James II. the gratitude of the Dissenters for a Toleration Act in 1685. (Vide Neales' 'Puritans,' vol. v. p. 31.)

Rev. Accepted Frewen (died 1664) was Archbishop of York, and son of a Puritan minister in Sussex. (Vide Walker's 'Sufferings of Clergy,' p. 38.) 'Thankfull' was his brother.

Mr. Livewell Sherwood, an alderman of Norwich, was put on a commission for sequestering Papists, in 1643. (Scobell's 'Orders of Parl.,' p. 38.)

Faythful Fortescue. ('Visitation of Yorkshire.')

'Robert Thyer and Silence Leigh, married Dec. 9, 1741.' (St. Ann's, Manchester.) She was evidently the daughter of some old stickler for St. Paul's doctrine — 'Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection' — or had he been himself a sufferer in his married life ?

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

home, could have none other effect than to make these settlers cling the more tenaciously to the new scheme of doctrine and practice, for which they had sacrificed so much. Thus the feeling which had led them at home to allow the Written Word to be the only source from which to select names for their children, or to make substitutions for their own, was not likely to be suppressed in the backwoods.' Their very life and its surroundings there but harmonized with the primitive histories of those whose names theyhad chosen. A kind of affinity seemed to be established between them. This spirit was fanned by the very paucity of population, and the difficulty of keeping up any connexion with the outer world. They were shut up within themselves, and thus the Bible became to them, not so much a record of the past as that through which ran the chronicle of the present. It was a living thread interwoven into their very lives. Their history was inscribed in its pages, their piety was fed by its doctrines. Its impress lay upon all, its influence pervaded all. All this has left its mark upon Anglo-American nomenclature — nay, to such a degree do these influences still exist, that, though derived from the same sources, the American system and our own can scarce be viewed otherwise than as separate and distinct. Rare, indeed, are the early romance and the Teutonic names in those tracts

Charles Chauncy died in New England, 1671. He went from Hertfordshire, where the family had been settled for centuries. His children were 'Isaac,' 'Ichabod,' 'Sarah,' 'Barnabas,' 'Elnathan,' 'Nathaniel,' and 'Israel.'(Clutterbuck's Her ford, vol. ii. 401. ) Elnathan and Nathaniel are the same, with syllables reversed, like 'Theodora' and 'Dorothea.'