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lent to us recently by the owner of the Ingleby Estate, we found 

 that at that date (nearly a century later than the entries relating 

 to Eipley, alias Midnight) the house was still standing on a site 

 yet easily recognisable in a position upon which the sun would 

 not shine in mid-winter. Tbe nickname of Midnight appears to 

 have stuck pretty close for the time, and almost to have 

 superseded the original name, for in 1692 we have the entry of 

 the burial of Thomas Midnight. But we have no evidence that 

 the nickname survived in any degree to after generations, though 

 the Eipleys came down to quite recent times. There was, 

 apparently, at least one other Thomas Eipley living in the 

 Parish at the same time, and this made the employment of the 

 distinctive place-name of great utility. It is by no means 

 uncommon even now, in the neighbouring dales and in other 

 country districts in the North of England, especially in cases where 

 men with the same christian and surname live near each other, to 

 distinguish them by applying to each the name of his respective 

 dwelling-place. We remember a similar case where there were 

 two neighbouring hamlets named Middle Eow and Far Eow. 

 The common surname was seldom mentioned, and we knew the 

 owners of it as Middle Tommy and Far Tommy. We have here 

 interesting survivals of what was once a common practice, or 

 what a petrologist would term a " recurrence of phase." If in 

 such cases as these there is confusion between two or three 

 persons in a district bearing the same christian and surname, 

 what must the confusion have been before surnames became 

 general ? It was necessary to distinguish between the many 

 bearing the name of Eobert or William or Henry. They could 

 distinguish so far by writing, as they often did " Eobert, the son 

 of Eobert," and still further, by writing " Eobert, the son of 

 Eobert, the son of William, but carried further this mode of 

 nomenclature became clumsy. And therefore, in addition to the 

 patronymic surnames such as Eobertson, Williamson and 

 Harrison, it became customary to make use of the place-name. 

 Thus, we get in the records of our Parish such names as Adam 

 de (that is "of") Ingleby, William de Stokesley, Nicholas de 

 Ayton. Later on, the de was dropped in most cases, and the 

 name became William Stokesley, etc. Eipley itself is a name 

 of the same kind, and amongst others in our Kegister will be 

 found the following: — Aldus, Appleby, Appleton, Barton, 

 Barwick, Bertley, Blenkarne, Bousfield, Bowes, Bradley, 

 Braithwaite, Bushby, Carington, Castle, Charleton, Chilton, 

 Clifton, Consett, Cornforth, Craven, Cowtas, Croston, Dale, 

 Denton, Dinsdell, Dinsley, Dousland, Douthwaite, Duffield, 



