Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/422

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th B. x. NOV. 22, 1902.


I do not think the latter's family is extinct. I do not see sufficient evidence of a Cambro- British origin for the Cecils. It seems pro- bable it was a fancy of Welsh bards. The most probable theory seems to be that of ' The Norman People,' a book of very great authority. The author thinks the Cecils were a branch of the Counts of Ciselle, or Seyssel, or Cassel, a place east of Bruges. A family of the name still exists in Flanders, and bears the same arms as Cecil. The in- escutcheons bearing the lion of Flanders (with tincture altered) suggest a connexion with the Counts of Flanders. ' The Norman People ' gives

Maurice de Ca8sel=j=

mar. 1 Aug., 1008.


Hugh de Alost.

Counts of Kessel.


J,


Robert de Keselle,

or Cicella, accompanied Fitz-hamon.


The first I know of with certainty is Sir James Sitsilt. who was killed at Wallingford 4 Stephen. He is so called in Holinshed in recording the suit of arms in 1333 between Sir Will. Fakenhamand Sir John Sitsilt, when Sir James was allowed by the king to have borne the Cecil arms at Wallingford.

The name is spelt Seyceld by Richard in 1528, Sicelt by Philip in 1551, Cyssell by David in 1541. T. W.

Aston Clinton.

ANSELM, ABBOT OF ST. EDMUND'S (9 th S. x. 328). This Anselm, Abbot of St. Saba (1), Rome, and nephew of St. Anselm, accepted the abbacy on the death of his predecessor, his appointment being confirmed in 1121. He accompanied the Archbishop of Canterbury to Rome two years later. A fair was granted to him for the monastery by Henry I., in 1135, to last six days (three days before the Feast of St. James, and on that feast and two days after). He was appointed Bishop of London in 1136, but another vacancy of two years occurred before his successor (Ordingus) was appointed to St. Edmund's abbatial throne. As Anselm's appointment to the see of London was not confirmed, he was restored to the abbacy after much diffi- culty, and he held it till 3 Non. January, 1148, when Ordingus was re-elected.

'ABBEYS AROUND LONDON.' Wimbledon.

This Anselm, nephew of Abp. Anselm, is perhaps better known as Abbot of St. Saba. He was the bearer of the pall sent by Pope Paschal II. to Ralph, Archbishop of Canter- bury, 1115. Presently he became Abbot of


St. Edmund's (Bury St. Edmunds) " the first mitred abbot of the house," says Dom Gas- quet where his grave in the cloister was long marked by a marble effigy.

C. S. WARD. Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

LIGHTOWLER SURNAME (9 th S. X. 326). The

family of Lightowlers took their name from a place on the Lancashire side of Blackstone Edge. In a charter dated 9 Edward I. (1280-1) William de Lihtolres granted to his son Roger land in Lihtolres, in Hundersfield (Rochdale). The name often occurs in deeds of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

In the fifteenth century Lightowlers estate was divided. A branch of the family lived at Windybank (not far from Lightowlers) from the early part of the sixteenth century down to 1628, soon after which the name became extinct in the district, but a branch was settled at Brindle, near Chorley, de- scendants of which are, I believe, still living. A farmhouse at the foot of Blackstone Edge is still known as Lightowlers.

HENEY FISHWICK.

Rochdale.

Near to Rochdale, in Lancashire, there is an old house called " Lightowlers," at which I spent some pleasant evenings five-and- twenty years ago. The name is derived from alder -trees. Halliwell gives, "Owler, the alder-tree. North." W. C. B.

I have made acquaintance with this name on a tombstone in York Cemetery, and not very long ago I read something that seemed to shed an unexpected light on the meaning of a word that had been a standing puzzle to me. When I saw in your pages that some- body else would be sorry to make a guess at it, I thought that I could help him ; but lo ! " the thing is gone from me," and I cannot tell whether a lightowler be a moth or a smuggler or neither, and the 'English Dialect Dictionary ' ignores the word altogether. Bardsley's 'Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames ' derives the surname from Light- owlers, an estate in the parish of Stock port.

ST. SWITHIN.

The surname Lightowler is quite common in Bradford and neighbourhood, especially in the Low Moor and Wyke district. In 1867 W. Morgan, of this town, issued for J. Light- owler a volume of verse, pp. 100, entitled ' A Poem ; Songs, Ballads, and Sonnets.'

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Bradford.

THE MAID OF ORLEANS (9 th S. x. 300). MR. HERBERT B. CLAYTON'S interesting com-