Note 134 — Chapter II · LOCAL SURNAMES.

In two different rolls we come across such cognomens as ‘Osbert Diabolus’ and ‘Roger le Diable.’ These are very likely but relics of early jesting upon the local forms mentioned in the text. A ‘Thomas de Devyle’ occurs in the Parliamentary Rolls, while in the Writs of the same we find a ‘John de Evylle.’ The former instance, again, may be but a sarcastic reduplication of the prefix. Dean Milman, quoting the author of Anglia Judaica, tells the following story, which shows how early this name had been so played upon:—‘A certain Jew travelling towards Shrewsbury in company with Richard Peche, Archdeacon of Malpas, in Cheshire, and a reverend dean whose name was “Deville,” was told amongst other things, by the former, that his “jurisdiction was so large as to reach from a place called Ill Street all along till they came to Malpas, and took in a wide circumference of country.” To which the infidel, being more witty than wise, immediately replied: “Say you so, sir? God grant me then a good deliverance! For it seems I am riding in a country where Sin (Péché) is the archdeacon, and the Devil himself the dean; where the entrance into the archdeaconry is in Ill Street, and the going from it Bad Steps (Malpas).”’ (History of Jews, vol. iii. p. 232.)