248 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
or “lym,” Gaelic for a harbour; and “ton,” Anglo-Saxon; thus 
making the word to mean “the enclosed place at the port head.” 
We need not spend time in refuting such a derivation as this. 
Baxter, an old writer, derives the word Plym from Pilim, which 
he says signifies volvere, to roll.* 
I am inclined to think that the simplest explanation is the most 
probable, and that in the word Plym we have the name of a tribe 
or family, which, or some branch of which, made the spot we are 
now considering its home. We constantly find “ton” associ- 
ated with the names of clans, tribes, and families. In Durham 
and Shropshire the Maurings, or Myrgings, a Frankish clan, are 
commemorated in. Merrington; the Harlings at Harlington, in 
Bedfordshire; the Scyllings at Shilvington; the Helsings at 
Helsington; the Thurings at Torrington, in our own county, 
Thorington, in Suffolk, and Thorrington, in Essex; the Ardings 
at Ardington, in Berkshire ; the Irings at Errington, in Yorkshire ; 
the Allings at Allington and Alvington; and the Varini and 
Billings at Warrington, Werrington, and Billington.t 
If I am correct in my conjecture, we may assume that the family 
whose name is thus preserved was a small one, but still widely 
scattered. We have Plymstock, “the place surrounded with piles.” 
Another Plympton we have in what is now a farm near the coast, 
not far from the Bolt Head; and there are others in the county. 
We have Plymtree, near Collumpton ; and the list, taking in other 
counties, might be much extended. Many of the places are small, 
some only farms, and although it is impossible to trace any con- 
nection between them now, there must be a common origin for the 
name; and while I am unable at present to indicate any family 
or tribe with which they may be identified—the nearest approach 
being the Pealings, a tribe of Frisians who have left their name at 
Pallington{—I think the explanation I have suggested is worthy 
of consideration. 
Omitting of course all reference to Roman work, there was no 
such thing in England as military architecture until the Norman 
Conquest, but works of offence and defence of a military character 
* Baxter, ‘“Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum,” p. 196. 1719. 
t+ Taylor, ‘‘Names and Places,” 3rd ed., pp. 84, 85. 
{ “Arch. Journal,” vol. xxiv. p. 292. I have to express my acknowledg- 
ments for great assistance derived from the valuable papers of Mr. G. T. 
Clark in the ‘“‘ Archeological Journal,’ and elsewhere, from which I have 
largely quoted throughout this paper. 
