10 
Tolman—English Surnames. 
of cloth. These will help us to call back a time when home- 
spun cloth was manufactured in every part of England. The 
Spinners and spinsters spun the thread. The spinsters, as 
such, have not given us a surname. The Webbs, Websters, and 
Weavers wove the thread into cloth. The Fullers trod the 
cloth with the feet in cleansing it; hence a common name for a 
fuller was Walker. Walker may sometimes be a nickname; the 
mighty leader of the Normans was called Hrolf (Rollo) the 
Ganger (= walker). The Tuckers and Tuckermen were engaged 
in the manufacture of cloth (cp. the German Tuch)\ but whether 
they were weavers or fullers is uncertain; probably they were 
weavers. If the cloth was sold to merchants, it came into the 
hands of Drapers, Mercers, Chapmen, Merchants, Marchants, etc. 
Bailey, Baillie, was a bailiff:. The ancestor of the royal fam¬ 
ily of Stewart was the Lord High Steward of Scotland under 
Malcolm III. The origin of the surname was not forgotten 
even at the time of James VI. (afterwards James I. of England); 
at least he is described at his coronation as “Prince and Stew¬ 
art of Scotland. ” 
NICKNAMES. 
The first point to be made in considering this interesting 
class of names is that they were given by acquaintances, not 
selected by the ones whom they designated. It is plain that 
no man ever chose to be known to the world as Wild, Savage, 
Crook-shank(s) (Cruikshank is a less suggestive spelling), or 
Longfellow. Hog(g) may have taken his name from the pict¬ 
ure on the sign before his door; but undoubtedly in some cases 
he was dubbed with an opprobrious nickname. 
Ames is from an old word meaning uncle. Power(s) is a 
doublet of Poor. 
In considering the names that came from the complexion, we 
are surprised that redness of face seems to be unregistered in 
our common names. But Reed, Read, Reid, etc., are abundant 
evidence that ruddy complexions were not wanting in the Mid¬ 
dle Ages. 
None of the comments that I have seen upon this name Reed 
clearly states the fact that red is the word that has been irreg- 
