Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

le Saillur' and 'Nicholas le Saler,' both to be found in the Hundred Rolls. It may be said to be a word of entirely modern growth. The expression then in familiar use was 'Shipman,' 'and 'Shipman' is the surname best represented in our nomenclature. It is by this name one of Chaucer's company at the Tabard is pictured forth-

A Shipman ther was woned far by West,

He knew wel alle the havens as they were,

Fro' Gotland to the Cape de Finisterre,

And every creke, in Bretagne, and in Spaine;

His barge ycliped was the 'Magdelaine.'

This, intended doubtless to set forth the wide extent of his adventure, would seem cramped enough for the seafarer of the nineteenth century. The word itself lingered on for some length of time, being found both in our Homilies and in the Authorized Version, but seems to have declined towards the end of the seventeenth century. 'Henry le Mariner's' name still lives among us, sometimes being found in the abbreviatedform of 'Marner,' and 'Shipper' or 'Skipper' is not as yet obsolete. The strictly speaking feminine 'Shipster' comes in the quaint old poem of 'Cocke Lorelle's Bote,' where mention is made among others of-

Gogle-eyed Tomson, shipster of Lyn.

'Cogger,' found in such an entry as 'Hamond le Cogger' or 'Henry le Cogger,' carries us back to the

1 Thus in Kaye's description of the siege of Rhodes it is said: 'Anone after that the Rhodians had knowledge of thees werkes a Ship-man wel experte in swymmyng, wente by nyghte and cutted the corder fro' the ancre.'

SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (TOWN).

old ' cogge' or fishing smack, a term very familiar on the east coast, and one not yet altogether obsolete. It seems to have been often used to carry the soldiery across the Channel to France and the Low Country border, or even further.' Our cockswain was, I doubt not, he who attended to the tiller of the boat. We still speak also of a cock-boat, written in the 'Promptorium Parvulorum' as 'cog bote,' and doubtless it was originally some smaller craft that waited upon and attended the other. Thus it is highly probable that 'le Cockere' may in some instances have been but equivalent to ' le Cogger.' 2 'Richard Ie Botsweyn,' 'Edward Botswine,' 'Peter Boatman,' 'Jacob Boatman,' or the more local 'Gerard de la Barge,' are all still familiar enough in an occupative sense, but surnominally have been long extinct, with the exception of the last.3

Coming to port, whether it were York, or Kingston, or Chester, or London, we find 'Adam le

1 In the Itinerarium of Richard I. we find it recorded that while the Christians were besieging Acre Saladin's army began to hem them in. 'In hoc itaque articulo positos visitavit eos Oriens exalto; nam ecce ! quinquagintas naves, quas vulgo coggas daunt, cum duodecim minibus armatorum, tanto gratias venerunt quanto nostris auxilium in angustia majore rependunt.' — p. 64. The Cog was evidently in common use as a transport. To judge from the following entries, it was, in some cases, at any rate, of considerable size: — ' Henrico Aubyn, magistro coge Sancti Marie, et 39 sociis suis nautis, 231. 12s. 6d.' 'Thomo de Standanore, magistro coge Sancti Thomae, et 39 sociis suis, 231. 125. 6d.' (Ed. I. Wardrobe.)

2 'Benjamin Cogman ' occurs in an old Norfolk register. Hence 'Cockman,' like 'Cocker,' may in some instance belong to this more seafaring occupation.

3 'John Shipgroom' occurs in the Rot. Orig. (G.); 'John Shypward' in Cal. Rot. Chartarum (D.); and ' Alexander Schipward' in Rolls of Parl. (H.).