50 
ON NAME AND EACE IN ENGLAND. 
By De. RICHARDSON, F.R.S. 
T HE object of this paper is to suggest a theory that there 
exists a relationship between the names of the native in- 
habitants of this island and the races to which they belong. I 
mean between the mmam.es and the race. If the theory be 
true, it opens up a subject of physiological and even of political 
importance. It tends to establish the view, which I, for my 
part, believe to be correct, that distinct races, however closely 
they may be united together, by residence in the same country 
and by intermarriage, retain their original quality of race ; 
that all change from admixture is but transitory in character ; 
and that there is no end to any race except by its extinction. 
Camden was the first to point out, in his “Remaines concern- 
ing Britain,” a fact which even in this day is known to very 
few persons — viz. that the use of surnames or family names did 
not begin until about the time of the Norman Conquest. This, 
as a general fact, is now admitted, but there are certain excep- 
tions of a rare character which indicate that the custom of 
adopting a surname existed a little before the Conquest. Thus 
Mr. Mark Antony Lower, in his learned work “ The Patrony- 
mica Britannica,” shows from a document in the Cottonian 
MSS., which must have existed earlier than 1066, that one 
Hwita Hatte, a keeper of bees in Haethfelda, had a daughter 
Tate Hatte, who was the mother of Wulsige the shooter, and 
that Lulle Hatte, the sister of Wulsige, was wife of one 
Hehstan in Wealadene. Other members of the same family 
are also named ; but so peculiar is the fact of such naming, that 
Mr. Ferguson maintains, says Mr. Lower, for the existing 
family of Hatt, that it is probably the oldest hereditary sur- 
name we have on record. The following quotation from the 
learned author of the “ Patronymica Britannica ” is definite : 
<C I see no reason for departing from the year 1000 as the 
proximate date for the assumption of family names. The 
practice commenced in Normandy, and gradually extended itself 
into England, Scotland, and Ireland.” 
