Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

is 'one into his toun.' In the story of the Prodigal Son, too, it is similarly employed — 'And he wente and drough him to one of the cyteseynes of that cuntre, and he sente him into his toun to feed swyn.' Let me quote Chaucer also to the same effect

Whan I out of the door came,

I fast about me beheld,

Then saw I but a large field,

As farre as ever I might see,

Without toune, house, or tree.

It is thus a name I have already mentioned, 'de la Townshende,' the parent of our 'Townsends,' 'Townshends,' and 'Townends,' has arisen. Another entry, that of 'Robert Withouten-town,' has, as we might have expected, left no issue. Such names as 'Adam de la Bury,' or 'Walter atte Bure,' or 'John atte Bur-ende' (the latter now extinct, I fear), open out to us a still larger mass of existing nomenclature. The manorial residence is still in many parts of England, with the country folk, the 'bury.' To this or 'borough' we owe our 'Burys,' 'Boroughs,' 'Borrows,' 'Buroughs,'

Burkes,' 'Broughs,' 'Burghs,' and even 'Bugges,'sothat, though Hood has inquired

If a party had a voice,

What mortal would be a Bugg by choice?

still the possessors of that not exactly euphonious cognomen can reflect with pride upon not merely a long pedigree, but lofty relationships. Another form of the same word, familiar, too, to early registers, was

de la Bere,' and to this we owe our 'Berrys,' 'Berri-mans,' 'Beers,' and 'Beares.' It is wonderful how the strict meaning of 'shelter' is preserved in all the

LOCAL SURNAMES.

terms founded upon its root ' beorgan,' to hide. Is it a repository to guard the ashes of the dead ? — it is a barrow, the act of sepulture itself being the burial. Is it a refuge for the coneys ? — it is a burrow, or beare, as in 'Coneybeare.' 1 Is it a raised mound for the security of man ? — it is a bury, borough, brough, or burgh. How altered now the meaning of these two words ' borough ' and ' town.' Once but the abiding-place of a scattered family or two, they are now the centres of teeming populations. Of these, while some are still extending their tether, others have passed the middle age of their strength and vigour, and from the accidents of physical and industrial life are but surely succumbing to that dotage which, as in man so in man's works, seems to be but premonitory of their final decay. How true is it that the fashion of this world passeth away. Even now this ever restless spirit of change is going on. We ourselves can scarce tell the spot upon which we were born. We need not wait for death to find that our place very soon knoweth us no more, and when we talk of treading in the footprints of the generations

The coney, or rabbit, has made a mark upon our local nomenclature. An old form of the word was 'coning' or 'conig.' Thus Piers Plowman says:

'The while he caccheth conynges,

He coveiteth naught youre caroyne,

But feedeth hym all with venyson.'

Relics of this are found in such an entry as 'Nicolas Conyng' or 'Peter Conyng,' though now met with as 'Coney.'More local registrations, such as 'Thomas de Conyton,' 'John de Conington,' 'John de Conyngsby,'or 'Walter de Cunnyngby,'are still familiarised to us in 'Conington' and 'Coningsby.' The North English form was 'Cuning,' whence the 'de Cunnyngby' above instanced and our modern 'Cunninghams.'