Note 13 — Chapter II

The etymology on which Mr. Howel W. Lloyd, the recent able advocate for the Shropshire site, and others, rely, (Earwaker's Local Gatherings relating to Lancashire, vol. i., 1876, and the summary, by Mr. Askew Roberts, in his "Contributions to Oswestry History,") is as follows:—Referring to Mr. Lloyd's paper, Mr. Roberts states his position thus:—"Mesbury (now Maesbury, called in Domesday Meresbury), a hamlet in the parish of Oswestry, is now called 'Llysfeisir or Llys feisydd.'" He adds—"Thus a basis is supplied for a correct inference as to the order of nomenclature. 1. The Welsh Te-fesen, corrupted by the Saxons into Mesafelth or Maserfelth, and then into Maserfield, the name of the district in which is Oswestry, as Winwick is in Makerfield. 2. The monastery founded on the spot in honour of St. Oswald, called Album Monasterium, Candida Ecclesia Y Fonachlog Wen (by the Welsh according to Davies), and Blancmonster and Blancminster by the Normans, all meaning the same thing, viz.:—White Monastery, applied latterly also to the town, which grew up around the monastery. 3. Mesbury, corrupted into Maesbury, when the town in Trefesen, to which a Fitzalan granted a charter, grew into a borough; and 4, Oswaldestree or Oswestry, from the 'tre' or district, or else possibly from the traditional tree, on which the king's arm was recorded to have been hung. A further basis is supplied for reconciling the statement of Nennius, that the battle was fought at Codoy, with that of the Saxon historian that it was fought at Maserfield. For just as Winwick is in Mackerfield, so may Codoy have been in the larger locality of Maserfield; and Nennius, as a British historian, representing, as his editors believe him to do, a much earlier author, gives, as might naturally be expected, the precise situation of the spot, the territorial appellation only for which reached the foreign and more distant chroniclers. From all this it is certain that Oswestry had its Maserfield as Winwick its Mackerfield, the former, however, more nearly reflecting the ancient British name, as well as character of the place, but both alike designating a district rather than a town, that being the ancient meaning of the word 'tre.' Maserfelth is, therefore, Oak-field, a translation of the original British name of Trefesen (compare English 'mast,') and the arms connected St. Oswald with the Oak."