Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

'Walter le Cornur.' Thus we see that so early as this our forefathers discerned in the death of a subject a matter that concerned not merely the well-being of the crown, but that of which the crown as the true parent of a nation's interests was to take cognizance. More directly opposed to the Norman 'Judge' and ' Justice,' and in the end displaced by them, were our Saxon 'Demer' and 'Dempster' (the older forms being ' le Demere' and 'le Demester'), they who pronounced the doom. An old English Psalter thus translates Psalm cxlviii. II:

Kinges of earth, and alle folk living,

Princes and all deniers of land.

An antique poem, too, has it in its other form in the following couplet:

Ayoth was then demester

Of Israel foure score yeer.

We still employ the term ' doom ' for judgment. Chaucer speaks familiarly of one of the Canterbury company as a 'Serjeant of the Lawe.' It is, in the majority of cases, to the term ' sergeant ' as used in this capacity we owe our much-varied 'Sargants,' 'Sargeants,' 'Sargeaunts,' 'Sargents,' 'Sergents,' 'Sergeants,' ' Sarjants,' and 'Sarjeants.' The same poet says of him:

Justice he was full often in assize,

By patent and by pleine commission.

'Alured le Pledur,' or 'Henry le Pleidour,' and' Peter le Escuzer,' all obsolete as surnames, need little or no explanation. Speaking of assizes, we are reminded of our 'Sisers' and 'Sizers,' representatives of the ok!

SURNAMES OF OFFICE.

'Assizer' — he who was commissioned to hold the court. Piers Plowman frequently mentions him:-

To marien this mayde

Were many men assembled,

As of knyghts, and of clerkes,

And other commune people,

As sisours, and somenours,

Sherreves, and baillifs.

We are here reminded of 'Hugh le Somenur,' or 'Henry le Sumenour,' now spelt 'Sumner,' the sheriff'smessenger, he by whom the delinquent was brought up to the court. He was the modern apparitor in fact. In the 'Coventry Mysteries ' it is said

Sim Somnor, in haste wend thou thi way,

Byd Joseph, and his wyff by name,

At the coorte to apper this day,

Him to purge of her defame.

A 'Godwin Bedellus' occurs so early as Domes-day record, and as 'Roger le Bedel,' or 'Martin le Bedel,' the name is by no means rare somewhat later on. He was, whether in the forest or any other court, the servitor, he who executed processes or attended to proclamations. The modern forms of the name comprise, among others, 'Beadell,' 'Beadle,' 'Beaddall,' and 'Biddle.' Such names as 'Richard le Gayeler' or 'Ada le Gaoler,' are very commonly met with in our mediaeval rolls. The term itself is of Norman origin, reminding us that, however menial the duty, the Saxon could not be entrusted with such an office as this. We cannot, however, speak of the gaoler and his confreres without referring to a curious sobriquet of this period, a sobriquet to which we owe in the