By the Rev. JF. C. Plenderleath. 311 



Descents, compiled from the Visitations of 1 620, two examples of 

 aliases amongst families possessed of some property in the county, 

 the Richmonds alias Webbs of Draycot, and the Weares alias 

 Brownes of Poulton. To neither of these families is more than one 

 crest or other heraldic bearing attributed, thoug'h the second name 

 is no doubt that of a heiress who has at some time married into 

 the family. In Spain at the present time these two names are in 

 such cases borne tog-ether with the copula between them, e.g., " Mar- 

 tinos y Campos/^ We can however go beyond two surnames in 

 Cherhill, for a few years ago there was a woman in the village whom 

 some of her neighbours called by one name, others by a second, and 

 others again by a third ! In this case, her deceased husband's 

 grandfather had been illegitimate, and the family had borne in- 

 differently the name of their father or of their mother. And she 

 herself, on the decease of her husband without issue, had partly 

 reverted to the use of her maiden name, in accordance with a wide- 

 spread impression (which in Scotland at least has I believe some 

 legal ground), that although by marriage a woman obtains a right 

 to a new name, she does not lose her right to that which she pre- 

 viously bore. The case of this woman was I remember capped, 

 when I mentioned it in my paper at Swindon, by the Vicar of 

 Hilmarton,who said thathe remembered one Christopher Rivers of that 

 parish having married a woman of the name of Ann Heath, but 

 that she had thenceforth always borne the name, not of Ann Rivers, 

 but of Ann Christopher ! He confirmed also my statement of the 

 retention of the maiden name by women after marriage, of which 

 he gave examples from his own experience. 



But the fact is that the variations of surnames are absolutely 

 hopeless. I myself remember having pointed out to me an itinerant 

 trader of some sort who was popularly called Billy Berkshire, because 

 his home was situate in that county; and it is of course from 

 soubriquets that a very large number of our surnames arise. And 

 Bigland quotes from Camden the pedigree of one William Belward, 

 Lord of Malpas, whose sons were respectively known as David le 

 Clerk and Richard de Belward ; their sons as William de Malpasse, 

 Philip Gogh, David Golborne, Thomas de Gotgrave, William de 



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