USE AND ORIGIN OF SURNAMES. 29 
town. The principle then assumed in forming 
this class of surnames is the appropriation of the 
places or the towns where men lived to the pur- 
pose of distinguishing their persons: thus John 
Newton is John who lived in Newton, or John of 
Newton. The particle of before the name of the 
place was originally used ; but it was subsequently 
omitted by degrees for the sake of dispatch. 
The principle here assumed may be extended 
to all kinds of places and localities—to cities, 
towns, villages, parishes, townships, dwellings of 
some consideration, houses with portions of land 
annexed to them, &c.—the names of the localities 
being transferred to the persons who lived in 
‘them. From this source has been derived a 
very considerable number of surnames now in 
general use. Of these the following is a very 
brief selection—confined chiefly to this district— 
and it is sufficiently confirmative of the origin to 
which we have ascribed them: Manchester, Old- 
ham, Bury, Ashton, Hyde, Bolton, Bowden, 
Cheshire, Lancaster, Blackburn, Eccles, Mid- 
dleton, Preston, &c., &c. Instances, likewise, of 
the names of localities of a more general denomi- 
nation, which are used as surnames, are the fol- 
lowing: Hall, Parsonage, Hill, Forest, Lodge, 
