INDUSTRIAL FAMILY NAMES. 809 



our ancestors had much intercourse with the Normans, and, in the 

 eleventh and twelfth centuries, French was daily spoken by the 

 better class in the British Isles. Our Bakers may be readily traced 

 back to their floury -handed ancestors, but the Baxters must be 

 followed for generations before we find that they were of the same 

 family, being the descendants of the Bagsters, who were the off- 

 spring of the Bagesters, who acknowledged that they were the 

 children of the Bakesters, who were feminine bakers. Of the 

 bread-making tribe were also the Breaders and the Whitbreads, 

 the latter perhaps once priding themselves on the color of their 

 stock in trade, while nearly related to them were the Mills, the 

 Millers, and the Mealers. The large and respectable family of the 

 Boulangers came from the French bakers who carried on their 

 trade in England during the ages when family names were grow- 

 ing, while Mr. Lowe suggests that the Bollingers and the Bulli- 

 ners are of the same origin. 



Few points in Great Britain are more than a hundred miles 

 from the sea, and in all ages fish has formed one of the staple 

 articles of British diet. Catching the fish was therefore an im- 

 portant industry, and Fish, Fisher, and Fisherman doubtless had 

 their origin in the occupation of the men who first assumed these 

 names, of which fact there is abundant record. It is quite pos- 

 sible also, as Max Muller suggests, that men may have made a 

 specialty of taking or of selling a particular kind of fish, and thus 

 Salmon from Robert le Salmoner, Hering from John le Heringer, 

 and Trouter from Roger le Trowter, may have arisen without 

 violence to the laws of philology. Bardsley, in his book on Eng- 

 lish names, derives Possoner from le Poissonier, another relic of 

 the French occupation of England. The selling of fruit was, in 

 the three centuries after the Norman conquest, a special occupa- 

 tion, and mention of John le Fruiterer occurs in the Golden Roll, 

 the conclusion being drawn by philologists that Fruter, Frooter, 

 and several similar names thus had their origin. Cheese was fur- 

 nished by Roger le Cheseman in the twelfth century, whence our 

 Cheesemans and Chesmans, while condiments of various kinds 

 came from a special store where nothing else was kept and the 

 owner known as le Spicier, no doubt the ancestor of some of our 

 Spicers. Fowls were sold by the poulterer, from which word, it 

 is believed, Polter is derived; while Grocer, as a family name, 

 needs no explanation beyond the statement that in mediseval Eng- 

 land his assortment of goods, while not so extensive, was quite as 

 varied as at present. 



The preparation of food for immediate consumption gave rise 

 to another occupation and other names. The Cooks we still have 

 with us, also the Cokes, the latter being the more common spell- 

 ing of the word in the thirteenth century. From these, by natural 



