Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

open to tillage, without thought of definite or statute measure. Indeed, it is quite possible the term was at first strictly applied thus, for a contemporaneous poem has the following couplet:

The foules up, and song on bough,

And acremen yede to the plough.

If this be the case the surname is but synonymous with 'Plowman' and 'Tillman,' already referred to.

A curious name is found in the writs of this period, and one well worthy of mention, that of 'Adam le Imper.' An ' imp,' I need scarcely remind the reader, was originally a ' scion' or ' offshoot,' whether of plants or animals, the former seemingly most common, to judge from instances. That nothing more than this was intended by it we may prove by Arch-bishop Trench's quotation from Bacon, where he speaks of ' those most virtuous and goodly young imps, the Duke of Suffolk and his brother.' 1 Chaucer says that of

feble trees their comen wretched imps

and 'Piers Plowman ' uses the word still more explicitly

I was some tyme a frere

And the conventes gardyner

For to graffen impes,

he says. This latter quotation explains the surname. 'Imper,' doubtless, simply differed from 'Gardiner' or ' Gardner' in that he was more particularly engaged in the grafting of young shoots.

1 He shall be called . . . a lamb of Christ's fold, a sheep of his pasture, a branch of his vine, a member of his Church, an imp of his kingdom.' — BishopBale.

SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (COUNTRY).

From the consideration of the last we may fitly turn to the subject of fruits. There can be no doubt that in early days, so far at least as the south, and more particularly the south-west of England was concerned, the vine was very generally cultivated by the peasantry, and the wine made therefrom, however poor it might be, used by them. So early as Domes-day Survey a 'Walter Vinitor' lived in Surrey, and a century or two later such names as 'Symon le Vynur,'or 'William le Viner,' or 'Roger le Vynour,' the ancestry of our 'Viners,' show that the vine-dresser's occupation was not yet extinet. We have long left the production of this beverage, however, to the sunnier champaign lands of the Continent, and are con-tent by paying a higher price to get a richer and fuller juice. Our 'Dressers' may either belong to this or the curriers' fraternity. An old poem, which I have already had occasion to quote, says

In tyme of harvest merry it is enough,

Pears and apples hangeth on bough,

The hayward bloweth merry his horn,

In every felde ripe is corne,

The grapes hongen on the vyne,

Swete is trewe love and fyne.

We have here the mention of pears and apples. The cultivation of these by our 'Orcharders,'or ' de la Orchards,' or ' de la Apelyards,' was a familiar occupation, and ' le Cyderer,'1 and ' le Perriman,' or ' Pear-man,' and ' le Perrer,' testify readily as to the use to which they were put. The home-made drinks of these early days were almost all sweet. Such decoc-

1 'Peachman' must be set here. 'Daniel Peachman' occurs in Bromefield's Norfolk (Index).