DISCOVERY 



this article. What appears to be an occupative sur- 

 name may have been originally a nickname given for 

 reasons now unknown, and mediaeval sobriquets were 

 no doubt often ironical, so that Makepeace may have 

 been cantankerous, Drinkwater a wine-bibber, Snow- 

 ball a swarthy man, and Fairweather a grouser. As 

 the N.E.D. has not yet got beyond V, no comparison 

 is possible for the rather numerous compound names 

 in \V. For these Stratmann and Bradley's Middle 

 English Dictionary' may be consulted. This contains, 

 for instance, no record of wainwright, though, judging 

 from its frequent occurrence as a surname, it must have 

 been current English by c. 1300 at the latest. In fact 

 it is well attested as a surname from about that date. 



The following are some of the most striking examples 

 <if occupative names taken from Miss Pilkington's lists : 



N.E.D. Record. Surname Record. 



.ile-brewer £.1.510 Cristin le alebrewerc (City Letter- 

 books, 1307-27). 

 anchor-smith 1662 Benedict ankersmith (Norwich Records, 



1355) 

 bell-founder 1530 Michael the bellfounder (Close Rolls, 



1318-23). 

 blacksmith ' 1483 William blakesmyth (Patent Rolls, 



1266-72). 

 boatman >5i3 Gervase the boteman (Patent Rolls, 



1313-17). 



candle-maker :6ii Theophilus the kandilmaker (Patent 

 Rolls, 1 31 7-21). 



cellarman 1658 Walter le celeresman (Coram Rege Rolls, 



1297). 



chanvoman 1.596 Alice charwoman (Nottingham Re- 

 cords, 1379). 



cheesemonger c. 1510 Baldwin le chesemangere (Pipe Rolls, 

 1185-6). 



coxswain 1463 John cokeswayne (Patent Rolls, 1327- 



30). 



cornmonger c. 1515 Peter lecormangere (Pipe Rolls. 11 76-7)- 



cowkeeper 1680 David le cowkeeper (Vale Royal Abbey, 



1330). 

 (errj-man 1464 Richard le feriman (Lane. Assize Rolls, 



1246-7). 

 fisherman 1526 Silvester the fisherman (Close Rolls, 



1327-30). 

 fishmonger 1464 LawTence le fysshmongere (Close Rolls. 



1307-13). 

 foxhunter 1692 William le foxhunte (Patent Rolls, 



1258-66). 

 goldbeater 1415 Robert le goldbeter (Hundred Rolls, 



1273). 

 horse-merchant 1 71 1 Theobald the horsemerchant (Close 



Rolls, 1272-9). 

 hunt (s) man 1567 Walter hunteman (Hundred Rolls, 



1273). 

 knifesmith 1738 Adam knjrfesmith (Lane. Assize Rolls, 



1285). 

 shearsmith 1623-4 Geoffrey sheresmyth (Freemen o£ York, 



1391). 

 stone-hewer 1579-80 John the stoneheware (Gloucester 



Records, c. 1230). 

 ' This may refer to the smith's com'plexion (cf. the name 

 Brownsmith) . 



In addition to the above selection may be mentioned 

 a large number of compounds of -man (inkman, mail- 

 man, Icatherman, oysterman, etc)., -monger (but- 

 termonger, feathcrmongcr, flaxmonger, horsemonger, 

 etc.), -uriglit (glasswright, basketwright, kitwright, 

 tilewright, etc.), mostly recorded as surnames srtme 

 centuries earlier than the N.E.D. There are also some 

 archaic titles of interest to the historian and the anti- 

 quary. The N.E.D. defines the obsolete borsholder 

 (rjcorded 1536) as " the chief oL a tithing or frank- 

 pledge ; afterwards a parish officer identical in func- 

 tions with the Petty Constable." Thomas le bore- 

 wesaldre is in the Charter Rolls for 1257-1300. Frank- 

 pledge is found in Anglo-French form in Britton (1292). 

 The first English record is 1495, and the sense of " one 

 of the mutually responsible members of a tithing " is 

 not found by the N.E.D. till 1502. But Robert le 

 francpledge occurs in 1237 in Archbishop Gray's 

 Register. Even hayward, the parish official respon- 

 sible for fences, etc., recorded by the N.E.D. from the 

 Ancren Riwle (early thirteenth century), is taken a 

 little further back by Miss Pilkington, who has found 

 Ricardus heiward in the Pipe Rolls for 1165-6. Occa- 

 sionally a name of this type points to the earlier 

 existence of a simplex, e.g. the name of Robert le 

 mittenmaker in Norwich Records, 1288, shows that 

 mitten must be considerably older than the N.E.D. 

 record, c. 1386. 



Surnames taken from names of commodities are not 

 necessarily of occupative origin, but there are strong 

 reasons for believing that this is often the case, e.g. 

 that Hogsflesh was the nickname of a pork-butcher, 

 Horsnail of a farrier, Whitbread of a baker, etc. E.x- 

 amples of compounds of this kind are — 



Surname Record. 

 Josce barlibred (Pipe Rolls, 1 184-5). 

 Stephen blangmong (Hundred Rolls, 



1273). 

 Robert buktreyde {ibid.). 



Robert chesandbred (Patent Rolls, 



1330-4)- 

 Thomas cotfich (Hundred Rolls, 1273). 

 Richard hardfyssh (Feudal Aids, 1401-2). 



John hunypot (Patent Rolls. 1313-17). 

 William horsnail (Close Rolls, 1234-7). 

 Adam rybred (Charter Rolls. 1300-26). 

 Robert smalware (Pipe Rolls, 1 184-5). 



The most picturesque type of compound surname is 

 that formed from a verb accompanied by a noun or an 

 adverb, e.g. Shake-spear, Go-lighfly. Here the com- 

 parison with dictionary dates can only be made occa- 

 sionally, as few of these compounds appear to have 

 got recorded as common nouns, though they swarm in 

 the Middle Ages as surnames, not only in England, but 



