THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



MULTOHTJM MANIBTTS GRANDE LEYATUR ONUS." Ovid. 



miwxvd JJfanottt of % Jartsjj of §b|o# s 

 Cannings, Co. Milts. 



By the Venerable Archdeacon Macdonald. 

 Manorial History. 

 gHE Parish of Cannings Episcopi, or Bishop's Cannings, is, 

 in point of extent, the largest in the Hundred of Potterne 

 and Cannings, containing upwards of 11,000 acres. 



It was anciently part of a larger district called Cannings, which 

 included both this parish and that of All-Cannings. 1 



As to the meaning of the name " Cannings." there have been 

 several conjectures. The most rational explanation appears to be 

 that which is given by the late eminent Anglo-Saxon scholar, Mr. 

 J. M. Kemble. 



In his "Saxons in England," Yol. i. p. 456, Mr. Kemble has 

 collected a list of nearly 1400 names of English parishes ending 

 in ing; either simply as 'Reading, "Barking, dialling, &c. : or in 

 composition, as Buckm^-ham, Wallw^-ford, Shen^-ton, &c. Of 

 these names so ending in ing, the greatest part were merely the 

 patronymics, or family names, of emigrants in very remote times 

 from the Continent, either from Northern Germany or Scandinavia. 

 As they settled and spread themselves in this country, they natu- 

 rally gave to the estates which they obtained, their own family name, 

 either simply or in composition. 



1 This name is printed A Zie-Cannings [i.e. White] in the Taxation of Pope 

 Nicholas, taken a.d. 1291. Al, beginning the name of a parish, is often derived 

 from Saxon 7Eld, old. 



VOL. VI. NO. XVII. K 



