On the Danish Element in the Population of Cleveland, Yorkshire Author(s): J. C. Atkinson Source: The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869-1870), Vol. 2, No. 3 (1870), pp. 351-366 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3014462 . Accessed: 17/06/2014 05:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1869-1870). http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.78.109.119 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:36:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Rev. J. C. ATKINSON-DanishElement in Cleveland. 351 it confidently,as that part of the codewhich regulated it had notas yet been issued. He doubted,however, the explanationthat had been givenof the meaningof cow-lands,and the allegedright of partiesto a share of tillage-landproportioned to the stockthey possessed. He was,oni the whole, disposed to think,with Mr. Camp- bell,that the Irish triberesembled the Indianvillage community; but he could not agreewith Mr. Campbellin regardingthe village systemas peculiarlyAryan. It was foiundamong purely Tatar races,e. g. amongthe hill-tribes round Munnipore, whom none would suspectof beingAryan, and in Russia,in districts,as, he believed, purelyTatar. He was not awareof any customor institutionthat could be claimedto be distinctivelyAryan. Caste certainlywas not,though Mr. Campbellsaid it was. Mr. Campbell,in his paper on the Ethnologyof India, read beforethis Society,had used the words caste and race as synonyms. If that was correct,caste could not be distinctivelyAryan, seeing there were various races of Tura- naiansand Semites. Casteand race were not, however, synonyms; and theliterature of India disclosed to us thegrowth of caste distinctions amonga peopleof one race withinthe periodof thegrowth of the literature. 'lherewere caste distinctionsin Peru,where the Incas were a caste; and no one claimedthe Peruviansas Aryan. For himself,he believedthat the linguistic classification of men in fami- lies as Aryans,Semites, and Turanianshad no properfoundation; it had servedits dayand fellto be abandoned. Mr. HYDE CLARKE remarkedthat the subjectrequired the appli- cationof the comparativeknowledge of similarinstitutions. Many such illustrationswouldI be obtainedfrom this island duringthe Anglo-Saxontime. The rath,as an enclosure,corresponded with the tonor town. Like institutionswill oftenbe foundunder like circumstances.There did not appear to be as yeta sufficientex- planationof the position of the olderaboriginal or serfpopulation in Ireland. The followingpaper was then read by the Assistant-Secre- tary:- XXIX. On the DANISH ELEMENT in the PopUlationof CLEVE- LAND, YORKSHIRE. By the Rev. J. C. ATKINSON. THE occurrencein a dialectof English of a verylarge number of words,of whichgarsel,fian, segg, scare on, cuvvin,cuvvin-scar, grim,kirk-grim, kelps, kenspack are types--wordswhich have not onlyno place but no representativein the English diction- ary,but yet which,allowing for nothing beyond a littlephonetic alteration,inevitable under the circumstances,still maintain their hereditaryplace in the Scandinavian dictionariesand word-books-the occurrenceof a host of such words is a fact whichcalls forthe attention,not merelyof the philologist,but This content downloaded from 195.78.109.119 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:36:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 352 Rev. J. C. ATKINSON-On theDanish Element also of all such as are interestedin tracingthe fluctuationsand mutations and successionsof the races or tribes or peoples who may (or must) in formerdays have occupied the land, or indeed any portionof it, whethermore or less definite. But in Clevelandwe not onlyfind garsel (hedge-sticks),repre- sented by S. G. gardsel, Sw. gdrdsle,Dan. gjerdsel, S. Jutl. gardsel; grim (a death's-head,as sculpturedon a grave-stone or monument),by 0. N. grasma,a masl, 0. Sw. grima; kirk- grim(a bar guest),by Sw. Dial. kyrke-grime,Dan. Dial. kirke- grim; cuvvin,cuvvin-scar (the periwinkle,and the flat surface of rockwhich is the habitat of that mollusk),by 0. N. kufungr, Norse, kuvung;Norse skjer, 0. N. sker, a rock risingto the level of the water-surface;and so on of other words to the numberof manyscores, but we also meetwith a verylarge pro- portionof personalnames which are not onlynot English in their origin,but most certainlyScandinavian. I take as typesof this class of names (and only a few out of many) Milburn,Mew- burn, Osburn, Allison, Jordison,Towlson, Lockson, Colson, Birkell, Aiskell, Thirkell, Horne, Horden, Gill, Keld, Rigg, Ness, Lax, Scarth, Scar. Most of these existin the districtto this day, and all of them, with the restof the large class to whichthey belong, and of which theyare fairsamples, are met within continualiteration in all the older parochial registers to whichI have so farhad access. On passingfrom personal to local nomenclature,the impres- sion producedby such facts as those already adduced on the mind of any inquirerroused to observantattention cannot fail to be deepened. Not only do -by's,-thorpe's, -thwait's, -griff's, -dale's, -um's(all demonstrably0. Norse or 0. Danish datives plural), and a host of othersnot admittingof classification,be- sides the manifoldprefixes furnished by such personalnames as Kell or Ketel, Dane, Norman, Ugelbard, Leising, Orm, In- gialld,Bergulf, Grim, Grimkell,Baldr,-not only do such local names as are distinguishedby the presenceof one or moreof these characteristicsmeet us in preponderatingnumbers at everyglance we cast over the map, but we find,as a rule, ad- mittingof only a few exceptions,the geographicalor physical featuresof the countrydescribed or distinguishedby such terms as gill,foss, scar,finkel, dale, rigg,botton, head, brae, sike,houl, bank, nab, and the like; and this withoutdwelling on such wordsas garth,intak', houe, &c., whichare perhapsrather dia- lectic than classifiableas making an elementin local names. Facts such as these now stated are obviouslynot accidental, and, taken in mutual connexion and combination,they are surelysuch as are likelyto provokeinquiry and suggesta part, at least) of its methodand direction. This content downloaded from 195.78.109.119 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 05:36:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions in the Populationof Cleveland,Yorkshire. 353 For, to a studentof such matters,though but littlepractised, one of the most obvious facts connectedwith names, either local or personal (so obvious that it seems almost impertinent to do morethan simplystate it), is, thatnot a fewof themhave been subjected to the distortingand disintegratinginfluences of corruption. Take Marsey, Parsyble, Breckon, Hebron, Cowtus,Stanas, personalnames borneby manyfamilies within thepreseilt century, and all, save one,existing at the presentday in the formsgiven; or take Moorsholm,Coatham, Ugglebarnby, Aislaby (pronouncedHesselby by the coiuntrypeople, both in Yorkshireand Lincolnshire)as samplesof local names,and it seems verydifficult by mere inspectionto make any thing of them. In fact, two or threeof themare simplymisleading, if regardedonly in connexionwith theirform and sound,and one in particular,Moorsholm, is a couplingtogether of contradic- tions. Obviously,in the formerinstances, the inquirybecomes -What was Marsey's father's,grandfather's, or greatgrand- father'sname? what Hebron's,Breckon's, Parsyble's, Cowtus's, and Stanas's? And in nearly every instance the inquiry,if duly pushed, meets with its solution: Marseyis found to be Mercer; Hebron,in 1596, was Abram; Parsyble,in 1691, Persi- bell, and, two or three generationsbefore that, Persivalluss; Breckon, Braican or Braykall, sending us furtherback and afieldstill forits origin,while Cowtus and Stanas (foundwith eight or ten variationsof each) resolve themselvesultimately into Stonehouseand Colthurst. In fact I can specifybut one currentand specialCleveland name which,three centuries since, was as much corrupted(at least presumably)as at the present day. That name is Hartas, then Hiartus. But researchesof the same kind, touching such names as Moorsholm,iHesselby, Yarm, and the like, pushedback over a space of no more than 300 years, produce almost absolutely nothingin the way of light or explanatioin. Some strange illustrationsof change or corruptionin local names com- menced and completed within that space certainly do by chance occur, such as the conversionof a name that was written Armitthwatein 1623, Armthwaiteabout 1720, into Ainthorpe of 1820, and sounded, in 1870, Aintrup. This is in the parish of Danby. But Moorsholm,Yarm, Coatham, Ugglebarnby,&c. wereunaltered, except in being,in some in- stances,spelt rather more phonetically, 300 years ago. Moors- holm fluctuatedbetween Moreshame, Moorsham, Mooresome, Moresum,&c., and Coatham might be foundwritten Cotham; anldthis was all. Furtherinquiry, therefore, but in the same direction,not only became necessarybut was distinctlyindi-