Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)
Last | Contents | Nexttier,'1 while still better-known terms are brought to our notice by entries like 'John le Banckere,' 'Roger le Bencher,' 'Thomas le Brokur,' or 'Simon le Brokour.'Holinshed, in the form of ' brogger,' has the latter to denote one who negotiated for coin. As 'Broggers,'too, we met them in the York Pageant. There, probably, they would transact much of the business carried on between ourselves and the Dutch in the shipping off of fleeces, or the introduction of the cloth again from the Flemish manufacturers.2The pawnbroker of modern days, dealing in petty articles of ware, was evidently an unknown personage at the date we are considering. The first distinctive notice of him I can light upon is in the 'Statutes of the Realm' of the Stuart period. It will be there found that (chapter xxi.) James I., speaking of the change from the old broker into the more modern pawnbroker, refers to the former as one who went 'betweene Merchant Englishe and Merchant Strangers, and Tradesmen in the contrivinge, makinge and concluding Bargaines and Contractes to be made betweene them concerning their wares and merchandises,'and then adds that he 'never of any ancient tyme used to buy and sell garments, household stuffe, or to take pawner
1 Mr. Halliwell gives ' chevisance,' an agreement, and 'chevish,'to bargain. Mr. Way commenting on ' chevystyn,' quotes Fabyan as saying — 'I will assaye to have hys Erldom in morgage, for welle I knowe he must chevyche for money to perfourme that journey.' Mr. Wright's Glossary to Piers Plowman has ' chevysaunce, an agreement for borrowing money.' The word often occurs in mediaevalwriters, and no wonder at least one surname arose as a consequence.
2 An act of Richard II. speaks of officers and ministers made by brocage, and of their broggers, and of them that have taken the said brocage, ' pour brogage, et de for broggers, et de,' etc.
SURNAMES OF OCCUPATION (TOWN).
and bills of sale of garments and apparele, and all things that come to hand for money, laide out and lent upon usury, or to keepe open shoppes, and to make open shewes, and open trade, as now of late yeeres hathe and is used by a number of citizens, etc.'
APPENDIX TO CHAPTERS IV. AND V.
IT will perchance help to familiarize the reader with the manner in which the occupative names contained in the two preceding chapters arose, if I transcribe several lists of tradesmen which have come across my notice while engaged in the work of collecting surnames for my index. The first is found in most of the Yorkshire County Histories, and is a record of the order of the Pageant for the City of York in 1415. The second is the order of the Procession of the Craftsmen and Companies of Norwich from the Common Hall in 1533. This list will be found in Bromefield's 'Norfolk,' vol. ii. p. 148. The third is the order of the Chester Play, inaugurated 1339, and discontinued 1574. This list will be found in Ormerod's 'Cheshire,' vol. i. p. 300. These records possess an intrinsic value, apart from other matters, as proving to the reader the leading position which these several cities held as centres of industry in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The last list I would furnish is that met with in the quaint poem entitled 'Cocke Lorelle's Bote,' published about
