450 A DISSERTATION ON THE 
those who first established that power, and trans- 
mitted it to them in the very title they bear, and 
by which they hold it. 
It will be very easy for us to find numbers of 
patronymic-names among the families around us ; 
a few of which we will notice before we test the 
names derived from residence in the same way. 
Some names keep up the early Anglo-Saxon forms 
in their primitive purity ; such as Cock, Cocking, 
or Cock the son; Field, Fielding, Hardy, Hard- 
ing: others, as Fleming, seem to be partly Anglo- 
Saxon, and partly names of strangers who have 
settled among us. The Fleemings of some districts 
appear to be of the Anglo-Saxon stock —from 
Fleaming—compounded of Fleam and ing. Fleam 
the son or fugitive. 
The Flemings of the Low Countries most likely 
owe their origin to their being exiles, and thence 
assumed the plural patronymic form of Fleminga 
or Flemings. For while the singular noun ex- 
pressed the descent of the individual, the plural 
‘“‘inga”’ denoted the whole family race, as in 
Beowulf the Scyldinga, Brosinga, &c. mean the 
families or races bearing such names. Besides the 
Anglo-Saxon patronymic found in Fleming, there 
