Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/120

This page needs to be proofread.

114


NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. Amu., im.


.great achievement on his part ; and the atory must have formed part of a tradition pretending to trace some or all of the domestic animals to .Hades, whence they were brought by fraud or force by the benefactor of the human race."

A cheap edition of the ' Mabinogion ' is

Eublished by Messrs. Dent in " Everyman's ibrary."

The name Dunmow is derived by Canon Isaac Taylor (' Words and Places ') from the Celtic dun, a hill fortress, and the Gadhelic magh, a plain or field. He suggests that the earlier form of the name was Dunomagus.

WM. SELF WEEKS. Westwood, Clitheroe.

ANTHONY TODD, SECRETARY OF THE G.P'.O. (12 S. iv. 11). Concerning the ante- cedents of this gentleman I am unable to speak, but he resided in Walthamstow, had property there, his child was born and married there, her children were baptized in the parish church, and he himself was laid to rest in the churchyard in 1798. In his official capacity as secretary to the Post- master-General he wrote the letter to .Benjamin Franklin on Jan. 31, 1774, dis- missing him from his position of Deputy Postmaster-General for America. He was ,a frequent attendant at the Walthamstow Vestry Meetings, and proposed the en- closure of the Common Fields ; but, this proving unpopular, the matter was dropped, though the thanks of the Vestry were voted to him for his trouble on Nov. 11, 1765. I possess his marriage settlement, a lengthy document whereby he receives as portion with his intended wife 2,000?., with a con- tingent settlement of a further 3,OOOJ. From this document I can construct the following short pedigree of his wife :

Andrews=rMary


-Jonathan

(d. before

1740).


. Anne=f=Christoph er | Robinson.

Anne=p Anthony Todd.


William

(d. before

1740).


Eleanor=^Rt. Hon. James Maitland. This deed describes Anthony Todd as of the General Post Office, London, and Christopher Robinson as of the same place, Esq. It -also mentions John Robinson, Esq., of Appleby in Westmorland.

The entry of his daughter's marriage in the Walthamstow Parish Register reads : " The Rt. Hon. James Maitland, Esq. (commonly called Lord Viscount Maitland), and Eleanor Todd were married in the dwelling house of Anthony Todd, Esq., special licence, 15 Aug., 1782."


Other Todd entries occur in the Parish Register between 1688 and 1828, but I am unable to connect them with Anthony. 3ne recording the marriage of Thomas Bywater, parish of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, and Eleanor Todd, Feb. 8, 1764, is interesting because of the occurrence of

he name Eleanor ; and as his only child

Dore this name, it is possible that the entry may record a second marriage of his mother, or perhaps that of a sister.

STEPHEN J. BARNS.

SUGAR : ITS INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND .12 S. iii. 472; iv. 31, 61). Mrs. Margaret Paston, writing from Norfolk in 1449 to her lusband in London, asks him " to don bye for me 1 lb. of almands and 1 Ib. of sugyr." See ' The Paston Letters,' edited by James Gairdner, Letter 67, vol. i. p. 83 (Arch. Constable & Co., 1900). T. F. D.

'THE ART or BOOK-KEEPING' (12 S. iv. 17). This, consisting of thirty four-line verses, and with a slight variation from the opening lines as given in the query, is in ' Humorous Poems of the Century' (Walter Scott, 1889) ascribed to Laman Blanchard, with date 1830, and a reference to its earlier appearance in ' Poetical Works of Laman Blanchard,' 1876. W. B. H.


See 9 S. iv. 317.


JOHN T. PAGE.


TONKS SURNAME (12 S. iii. 476). This is an abbreviated form of Tonkins, which is an offspring of Anthony. See ' Family Names and their Stories,' by S. Baring-Gould, pp. 54, 325. ST. SWITHIN.

The surname Tonks is derived from the Gaelic word don, signifying brown. The s is Welsh, and indicates descent, being synonymous with " de," " son," " Mac," &c. Its variants are Dunk, Dunks, and Tunks.

M. BREND.

Barber in his ' British Family Names ' (London, 1894) gives this surname as a diminutive of Antonius ; and Bardsley in his ' Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames' (Frowde, 1901) says it comes from the " son of Anthony," from the nick- name Tony, and with the diminutive suffix Tonkin, Kin's becomes Kinks, and corrupted to Ton-ks, as Perks from Perkins, Dawks from Dawkins, Tomkinson to Tomkins, &c. It is not a common name " up North," but there are two such in the London Directory, eight in Liverpool, and five in Manchester. ARCHIBALD SPARKE. [MR. N. W. HILL also refers to Bardsley.]