Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

Privy Council.' 1 It is just possible also that 'Clerk-wright,' set down in the former record, may be but a misspelling or misreading for 'Clockwright.' The two first-mentioned names remind us that if not of clocks, as now understood, yet the manufacture of dials did make a transient mark upon our English nomenclature. I say transient, for I find no trace of either being handed down even to the second generation by those who took these sobriquets. The ' horologe' seems to have become a pretty familiar term in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, for we find Wicklyffe translating 2 Kings xx. II, 'Isaye the profete clepide ynwardly the Lord, and browgte agen bacward by x degrees the schadewe bi lynes, bi whiche it hadde gone down thanne in the orologie of Achaz.' The transition from clocks to bells is not a great one, as both have to do with the marking of time. I will here therefore refer to the old bell-founder, and then pass on. The 'Promptorium Parvulorum' gives us 'Bellezeter' as the then usual term for the trade, and from the occurrence of such entries as 'Robert le Belzetere' or 'William le Belzetere' we cannot doubt but that it was so. Of course a corruption of so awkward a word was inevitable, and Stow, by informing us that 'Billiter Lane' was formerly nothing more nor less than 'Belzetars Lane, has prevented dispute from arising regarding the origin of our ' Billiters.' 2 If, however, further proof

1 'ImprimisThomae Clokmaker for makyng of the sail when it was broken, viiis.' 1428 (Pro. Ord. Privy Council).

2 Stowe and Strype, however, while aware of the corruption, were both ignorant of its meaning. Speaking of the woolmongers, the former says, 'Whether some of these woodmongers were called 'Billiters' from dealing in billets I leave to conjecture. In the register of wills, London, mention is made of one William Burford, billeytere.'(ii. p. s26. The Woodmongers were sellers of fuel. 'Robert Wudemonger' is found in the H. R.

SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (TOWN).

were necessary, we could bring forward 'Esmon Belleyeter' from the Privy Council Ordinances.' Stripped of its uncouth orthography, we are here shown the process by which the changed pronunciation gradually came into use.

We must say a word or two about former coinage, and weights and measures, for all are more or less carefully memorialized in our directories of to-day. The two chief names, however, by which the early scale was represented, ' le Aunserer' and ' le Balancer,' are, I am sorry to say, either wholly, or all but wholly, extinct. Such entries as 'Rauf le Balancer' 2 or 'John Balauncer' or 'Thomas le Aunseremaker' were perfectly familiar with our forefathers. The ' balance' was of the simplest character, a scale poised by the hand. The manufacture of such is mentioned by the author of 'Cocke Lorelle's Bote,' when he includes--

Arowe-heders, maltemen, and cornemongers,

Balancers, tynne-casters, and skryveners.

By its repeated occurrence in our present Authorized Version this word is sure of preservation from obsoletism. The 'auncel' or 'auncer' was strictly

1 I may quote a statement recorded of Congham Manor. 'In 349 Thomas de Baldeswell presented to the church aforesaid, as chief lord of this fee; in 367, Adam Humphrey, of Refham, and in 385, but soon after, in 388, Adam Pyk; and in 1400, Edmund Belytter, alias Belzeter, who with his parceners,'&c. (Hist. Norf., viii. 383.) The said Edmund is also met with elsewhere as 'Belleyeter' and 'Belyetter.'

2 Another 'Ralph Balancer' was sheriff of London in 316. DD2