Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

found in the old registers. In the 'Placitorum' of the thirteenth century, for instance, we light upon a 'Christiana atte Chircheyate,' and a 'John atte Foldyate; ' while in the Hundred Rolls of the same period we find a 'Walter atte Lideyate,' now familiarlyknown to us as 'Lidgate.' Our 'Hatchs,' once en-rolled as ' de la Hache,' like our before-mentioned 'Hatchers' and 'Hatchmans,' represented the simple bar that ran athwart the woodland pathway. We still call the upper-deck with its crossbars the hatches, and a weir is yet with the country folk a hatch. Chaucer speaks of

Lurking in hernes and in lanes blinde.

Any nook or corner of land was with our forefathers a ' hearne,' and as ' en le Herne' or 'atte Hurne' the surname is frequently found in the thirteenth century.' 'De la Corner' is, of course, but a synonymous term. A passage betwixt two houses, or a narrow defile between two hillsides, was a 'gore,' akin, we may safely say, to ' gorge.' Our 'Gores,' as descendants of the old 'de la Gore,' are thus explained. 'De la Gore-way,' which once existed, is now, I believe, obsolete. One of the most fertile roots of nomenclature was the simple roadside 'cross ' or 'crouch,' the latter old English form still lingering in our ' crutched ' or ' crouched Friars.' Langland describes a pilgrim as having ' many a crouche on his cloke;' i.e. many a mark of the cross embroidered thereon. A dweller by one of these wayside crucifixes would easily get

1 I believe this word is not yet extinct in our North-country vocabulary. A Yorkshire inventory of goods, of 1540 or thereabouts, concludes by stating what moneys had been discovered in corners and out of the way places in the house: 'In hernes, xiiis. iiiid.; item, x sylver spones, xxiiis. (Richmondshire Wills, p. 41.)

LOCAL SURNAMES.

the sobriquet therefrom, and thus we find ' atte Crouch' to be of early occurrence. Our 'Crouch-mans' and ' Crouchers' I have already mentioned. A 'Richard Crocheman' is found in the Hundred Rolls, and a 'William Croucheman ' in another entry of the same period. As for the simpler 'Cross,' once written ' atte Cross,' it is to be met with everywhere. 'Crosier ' and 'Crozier' I shall, in my next chapter, show to be official rather than local; so we may pass them by for the present. The more Saxon 'Rood' or 'Rudd' is not without its representatives. 'Margery atte Rudde' is found in the 'Placitorum,' and our 'Rudders ' and 'Ruddimans,' I doubt not, stand for the more directly personal form. Talking of crosses, we may mention, in passing, our 'Bellhouses,'not unfrequently found as 'atte Belhus' or ' de la Belhuse.' The founder of this name dwelt in the small domicile attached to the monastic pile, and, no doubt, had for his care the striking of the innumerablecalls to the supply of either the bodily or spiritual wants of those within. Our 'Bellows,' I believe, are but a modification of this. The last syllable has undergone a similar change in several other instances.Thus the form 'del Hellus' was but 'Hill-house,' 'Woodus' is but the old 'de la Wodehouse,' ' Stannus' but 'Stanehouse' or 'Stonehouse,' 'Malthus' but Malthouse,' and 'Bacchus' is found originally as ' delBakehouse.1 The old 'Atte Grene,' a name familiar

1 Thus, also, is it with 'Duffus.' We find it in the Hundred Rolls set down in the same form as ' de Duffus' or 'del Duffus,' the more literal dress being met with in the London city archives in the name of 'Thomas Dufhous.' (Vide Riley's Memorials of London, p. 555.) ' Dove-house' is the root.