ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF A FEW Remarkable Surnames.

Lewkenor.—Sir Lewis, Master of the Ceremonies; from one of the Hundreds of Lincolnshire, called anciently Levechenora[267].

Kempe.—The same as Champion. The Danish word[268].

Misenor.—From Mesonero, an Inn-keeper; Spanish.

Muncaster.—The old name of Newcastle upon Tyne; quasi Monk-Caster. The present name was perhaps taken on its being rebuilt.

Mease.—From Meze, a messuage[269].

Hugesson.—Cardinal Hugezun came over as the Pope's Legate, temp. Henry II.[270]

Dempster.—The Judges of the Isle of Man were called Deemsters[271].

Eldred.—There was an Archbishop of York of the name of Aldred, temp. William the Conqueror. Perhaps contracted from Alured, the Latin of Alfred.

Brettell.—There is a Seignory in Normandy of the name of Bretteville. So we have corrupted the name of Frescheville into Fretwell.

Belassis.—Something of this name may be seen in Brady's History, p. 196.

Larpent.—From the French, L'Arpent; Arpent signifying an acre. We drop the apostrophe.

Duppa.—De Uphaugh and, by apostrophe, D'Uphaugh, according to Anthony Wood.

Firmin.—From St. Fermin in France.

Paliser.—An official name of such person or persons who had the care of the pales of a forest[272].

Ord.—Signifies a Promontory in the Highland; and, I presume, is Erse[273].

Bownas and Bonas.—Corrupted from Buchan-Ness, the seat of the Earl of Errol[274].

Ridgeway.—A local term for the way of the ford, or passage over a stream. Ryd and Rith signifying a ford[275].

Fitzherbert.—It is written Filius-Herberti in very old deeds[276]. The Finches were called Finch-Herbert formerly; which led Daniel Earl of Winchelsea to think he was related to the Fitzherberts. Thus Leland: "The Finches that be now, say, that theire propre name is Hereberte; and that with mariage of the Finche-Heyre, they tooke the Finche's name, and were called Finche-Herebert, joining booth names[277]."

Herbert of Kent married the heiress of Finch, and took that name as a prefix, which they soon corrupted into Fitz-herbert. But the Fitzherberts were a family before the Finches were fledged; and in old deeds the name is given Filius Herberti.

Champernoun.—Devonshire: a corruption of Campernulph, or De Campo Arnulphi; called, says Camden, Champernoun[278].

Smelt.—Ralph Luvel (or Lovel) an ancestor of the Percivals, was, in the time of King Stephen, called also Simelt, for which no reason is given[279].

Names of Men, of Places, and Things, have changed, and by seeming corruption have come right again.

Thus, for Men.

TollemacheTalmashTollemache

LegardeLedgiardLegarde

LytteltonLittletonLyttelton

FauconbergFalconbridgeFauconberg[280]

CholmondeleyCholmleyCholmondeley

Osbaldiston.OsbertonOsbaldiston.

I take this to be a local name, from Osbaldiston in Lancashire, q. Osbald his Town. There is in Yorkshire Osbaldwick, pronounced Osberwick. It should be Oswald, a Bishop of York and Martyr, in both cases.

We have the name Bernardiston, from a place of the name in Suffolk[281].

Robertsbridge, in Sussex, appears to be a corruption of Rothersbridge, as it was long called, and with plausibility; for it is situated on the river Rother: but the former is the truth, as I have been informed that in old Latin deeds it is styled Pons Roberti.

There are some terms which, by a double corruption, have got home again; as Crevisses, in Derbyshire; where Crevise, the word for a Cray-fish, is a corruption: but it gets home by it; for the French word from whence cray-fish was first formed, is ecrevisse. This too is the radical word; for the lobster is but a species of it, and called l'ecrevisse de mer, or sea-cray-fish; what is now called the sea-cray-fish, is properly the lobster. This difference consists in the want of claws.