Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

bowyer's or bower's craft, represent the earlier ' de la Bore' or 'atte Bore,' and have taken their origin from the old 'bower,' the rustics' abode. It is the same word whence has sprung our bucolic ' boor.' An old English term for a house or mansion was ' bold,' that which was built. The old 'De la Bolde,' therefore, will in many cases be the origination of our 'Bolds.' Our 'Halls' explain themselves, but the older form of 'Hale' (once 'atte Hale' or 'de la Hale') is not so easily traceable. 'De la Sale,' sometimes also found as 'de la Saule,' was the Norman synonym of the same.

Soon they sembled in sale,

Both kynge and cardinale,

says an old writer. 'Sale' and 'Saul' are still extant. Names still more curious than these are those taken, not from the residence itself, but from particular rooms in such residence. They are doubtless the result of the feudal system, which, with its formal list of house officers and attendants, required the presenceof at least one in each separate chamber. Hence the Norman-introduced parlour, that is, the speaking or reception room, gave us 'Henry del Parlour,' or 'Richard ate Parlour;' the kitchen, 'Geoffrey atte Kitchen,' or 'Richard del Kechen;' or the pantry 'John de la Panetrie,' or 'Henry de la Panetrie.' But I shall have occasion to speak more fully of this by-and-by, so I will say no more here.

There is a pretty word which has been restored from an undeserved oblivion within the last few years by Mr. Tennyson, in his 'Brook,' as an idyll perhaps the distinctly finest thing of its kind in the English language. The word referred to is 'thorpe,' a village,

LOCAL SURNAMES.

pronounced 'throp' or 'trop' by our forefathers. Thus in the 'Clerkes Tale' we are told

Nought far fro this palace honorable,

There stood a thorpe of sight delitable,

In which the poor folk of that village

Hadden their bestes and their harborage;

while in the 'Assembly of Fowls' mention is prettily made of

The tame ruddocke and the coward kite,

The cock, that horiloge is of thorpes lite.

This diversity is well exemplified in our nomenclature. Thus the term in its simple form is found in such entries as 'Adam de Thorpe,' or 'Simon de Throp,' or 'Ralph de Trop,' all of which are to be met with in the one same register; while compounded with other words, we are all familiar with such surnames as ' Gawthorpe,' 'Winthrop,' 'Hartrop,' 'Denthorp,' 'Buckthorp,' 'Fridaythorp,' 'Conythorp,' 'Calthrop,' or ' Westropp.' Our 'Thrupps,'too, we must not forget as but another corrupted form of the same root.

There are two words whose sense has become so enlarged and whose importance among English local terms has become so great that we cannot but give them a place by themselves. They are those of 'town ' and 'borough.' Such registered names as 'William de la Towne' or 'Ralph de la Tune,' now found as 'Town ' and 'Tune,' represent the former in its primeval sense. The term is still used in Scot-land, as it was used here some generations ago, to denote a farm and all its surrounding enclosures. In Wicklyffe's Bible, where we read 'and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandize,' it