CHANGE IN THE BY-NAMES AND SURNAMES OF THE COTSWOLDS, 1381 TO c1600 DAVID HARRY PARKIN A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of the West of England, Bristol, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education, University of the West of England, Bristol April 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my Director of Studies, Professor Richard Coates, for his guidance, support and patience, without which I am sure this thesis would not have materialised. Thanks also to my supervisor, Dr Michael Daller, for his help in statistical matters and advice in the early stages of my research, as well as to Dr Paul Cullen, for his supervision in the later stages of my study, and for sparking my interest in onomastics a number of years ago. I would also like to thank the AHRC and UWE for funding this research. I would like to offer special thanks to Mr Peter McClure, for sharing his considerable expertise throughout my course of study, and whose recommendations in the early stages were essential in focusing the research design. I am grateful for help and encouragement from Deborah Cole, Dr Simon Draper, Professor Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle and Dr Duncan Probert, as well as that from Professor Coates and Dr Cullen, who make up the FaNUK team at UWE. Thanks also go to all in the UWE Linguistics department, for their comments over the last three years. I owe many thanks to Dr Carolyn C Fenwick, not just for her transcription of all extant 14th-century poll tax returns, without which this thesis would not have been possible, but also for sharing her thoughts on the nature of the documents and the contribution of the scribes. Finally, thanks to all friends and family for their help and support, especially to the Parkins, Keeleys and my wife, Hannah. i ABSTRACT This thesis builds on previous studies of English by-name and surname history. Many have identified the regionally specific nature of name development in England (McKinley, 1990: 20; Hey, 2000: xi; Redmonds, 2004: xiv), yet most of our knowledge comes from national name surveys (see Reaney, 1967; McKinley, 1990), or research carried out at county level (see Redmonds, 1973; McKinley, 1975, 1977, 1981, 1988; Postles, 1995, 1998). While it has been recognised that our understanding of by-name and surname development ‘will need to be focused on particular parts of the country, looking at how groups of names were formed at different times in particular local communities’ (Hey, 2000: xi), there have been no studies of this kind. By carrying out a diachronic study focused primarily on the influence regional identity has had on surname development in the Cotswolds, a region with its own distinct cultural, economic and topographical history, it has been possible to reach a greater degree of accuracy on the causes of regionally specific name development than previously achieved. The names from a time when hereditary surnames had only recently been established, 1381, have been compared with those from a period of greater surname stability, c1600, showing that there had been considerable change in the names of the Cotswolds between these two periods. Often, this change can be related to the regional wool trade. Within the Cotswolds, changes in name distribution, name frequency, the names of migrants, dialect lexis in naming and the incidence of inherited surnames can all be linked with the change in focus from raw wool exportation to cloth production, as well as other historical factors. Through this research project, it is clear that there had been major changes in the names of the Cotswolds between 1381 and c1600, many of which have not been identified in previous research. This suggests that there are some aspects of English by-name and surname history that are not yet fully understood, such as the precise period when hereditary surnames became more common than non-hereditary by-names, and any regional variation. The national significance of these changes cannot be known without further regional studies for comparison, and it is hoped that such research will be carried out in response to the findings of this thesis. ii LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 2.1 — Poor Law Union distribution of the surname Luton in 1881. ................................... 22 Fig. 2.2 — County distribution of the surname Tordoff in 1881. ............................................... 23 Fig. 4.1 — Map of names with synonymous occupations in the 1381 Cotswold PT. ................ 73 Fig. 4.2 — Table of migration to the Cotswolds. Includes linguistically non-ambiguous toponymic names. ....................................................................................................................... 83 Fig. 4.3 — Table of migration to the Cotswolds in 1381. Includes linguistically non-ambiguous and ambiguous toponymic names. .............................................................................................. 84 Fig. 4.4 — Map of origins of non-ambiguous and ambiguous toponymic names from the 1381 Cotswold PT................................................................................................................................ 88 Fig. 4.5 — Tables of name type proportion in vills from the north-east Cotswolds (Kiftsgate hundred) and the south-west Cotswolds (Bisley and Longtree hundreds), formulated using the 1381 Cotswold PT....................................................................................................................... 94 Fig. 4.6 — Map of the distribution of the name Shepherd, and variants, in the 1381 Cotswold PT. ............................................................................................................................................. 108 Fig. 4.7 — Map of by-names or surnames ending -us in the 1381 Cotswold PT. .................... 112 Fig. 4.8 — Map of by-names or surnames ending -ar(r)(e) and -er(r)(e) in the 1381 Cotswold PT. ............................................................................................................................................. 112 Fig. 4.9 — Map of occupational by-names or surnames related to stone and slate in the 1381 Cotswold PT.............................................................................................................................. 114 Fig. 5.1 — County distribution of the surname Brownrigg in 1881. ........................................ 158 Fig. 5.2 — Map of origins of non-ambiguous and ambiguous toponymic names ending -by from the c1600 Cotswold PR, including the approximate routes of Dere Street, Ermine Street and the Fosse Way. ................................................................................................................................ 165 Fig. 5.3 — Proportional county distribution (number of names per 100,000) of the surname Osborne in 1881. ....................................................................................................................... 200 Fig. 5.4 — Tables of name type proportion in parishes from the north-east Cotswolds (Upper Kiftsgate hundred) and the south-west Cotswolds (Bisley and Longtree hundreds), formulated using the c1600 Cotswold PR. .................................................................................................. 213 Fig. 5.5 — County distribution of the surnames Fuller, Tucker and Walker in 1881. ............. 220 iii Fig. 5.6 — Proportional poor law union distribution (number of names per 100,000) of the surnames Fuller, Tucker and Walker in 1881. ........................................................................... 221 Fig. 6.1 — Tables of frequencies and Banwell numbers for names in the 1381 Cotswold PT and the c1600 Cotswold PR. ............................................................................................................ 241 Fig. 6.2 — Table of name type proportions from the 1381 Cotswold PT and the c1600 Cotswold PR. ............................................................................................................................................. 257 Fig. 6.3 — Tables of name type proportion from different parts of the Cotswolds in 1381 and c1600. ........................................................................................................................................ 264 Fig. 6.4 — Maps of the distribution of names ending -man and -mon in the Cotswolds in 1381 and c1600................................................................................................................................... 273 iv CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ i ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1.1 Surname Research ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Name Types ............................................................................................................... 3 1.1.3 Heredity .....................................................................................................................