Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

the 'Bridges.' So hot waxed the quarrel that the Senate was compelled to remind the disputants that it had power alike to stop up Canals and pull down Bridges if they became over troublesome. But to return: the number of these Norman names was great. The muster-roll of William's army comprised but an item of the foreign incomers. As the tide of after-immigration set in, there was no town, however insignificant, in Normandy, or in the Duchies of Anjouand Maine, which was not soon represented in the nomenclature of the land. From giving even a partial list of these I must refrain, however tempted, but see what the chapelries alone did for us. St. Denys gave us our 'Sidneys,' St. Clair, or Clare, our 'Sinclairs,'vilely corrupted at times into 'Sinkler; 'St. Paul, our 'Semples, 'Samples,' 'Sempills, ' 'Simpoles,' and sometimes 'Simples;' St. Lowe, or Lee, our 'Sallows; 'St. Amand, our 'Sandemans ' and 'Samands; 'St. Lis, our 'Senlis' and ' Senleys;' St. Saviour, our 'Sissivers;' St. Maur, our 'Seymours;' St. Barbe, our 'Symbarbes; 'St. Hillary, our 'Sillerys;' St. Pierre, our' Sempers' and 'Simpers;' St. Austin, our 'Sustins;' St. Omer, our 'Somers;' St. Leger, our

Sellingers; once more literally enrolled as 'Steleger,'and so on with our less corrupted 'St. Johns,' 'St. Georges,' and others. I do not say, however, that all these were later comers. Some of them must undoubtedly be set among the earlier comrades in arms of the Conqueror. Indeed it is impossible in every case to separate the warlike from the peaceful invasion. Looking back from this distant period, and with but scanty and imperfect memorials for guidance, it cannot but be so.

LOCAL SURNAMES.

With respect to another class of these Norman names, however, we are more certain. Their very formation seems to imply beyond a doubt that they had a settlement as surnames in their own arrondissements before their arrival on English soil. We may, therefore, with tolerable certainty set them down as later comers. The distinguishing marks of these are the prefixes 'de la,' or 'del,' or 'du ' attached to them. Thus from some local peculiarity with respect to their early homes would arise such names as 'Delamere,' ' Dupont,' 'Delisle,' 'Delarue,' 'Dubois,' 'Ducatel,' 'Defontaine,' 'Decroix,' or 'Deville ' or 'Deyville.' This latter is now found also in the somewhat unpleasant form of 'Devil.' They say the devil is the source of every evil. Whether this extends beyond the moral world may be open to doubt, but our Evils,' 'Evills,' and 'Eyvilles,' from the fact of their once being written with the prefix 'de,' seem to favour the suspicion of there being a somewhat dangerous relationship between them.' These names, though

1 In two different rolls we come across such cognomens as 'Osbert Diabolu's' and 'Roger le Diable.'These are very likely but relics of early jesting upon the local forms mentioned in the text. A 'Thomas de Devyle' occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls, while in the Writs of the same we find a 'John de Evylle.' The former instance, again, may be but a sarcastic reduplication of the prefix. Dean Milman, quoting the author of Anglia Judaica, tells the following story, which shows how early this name had been so played upon: — ' A certain Jew travelling towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche, Archdeacon of Malpas, in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was "Deville,' 'was told amongst other things, by the former, that his ' 'jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called Ill Street all along till they came to Malpas, and took in a wide circumference of country.' 'To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied: ' 'Say you so, sir ? God grant me then a good deliverance ! For it seems I am riding in a country where Sin (Peche) is the archdeacon, and the Devil himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in III Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas)."' (History of Jews, vol. iii. p. 232.)