408
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. v. MAY 19, 1900.
surpass and very few that equal the volumes before
us in careful editorship. They are models of the
way that work of this kind should be done. A list
of the Lancashire registers which begin before the
year 1700 is given, which will be found most useful.
It is compiled from the Parish Register Returns
issued by the Government in 1833. The full number
of these is 106, and among them fifty-eight are of
the sixteenth century, and five commence in the
year 1538-9, when Thomas Cromwell, the Vicar-
General of Henry VIII. , ordered records of this
kind to be kept. We think the Lancastrians must
have been more careful of their parochial records
than the people of many other counties. Sixteenth-
century registers are very far from common in
many parts of England, and those dating from what
we may call " the beginning of things " well-nigh
unknown.
We perhaps need not dwell on the fact that neither of these volumes furnishes evidence in favour of the superstition that after the Reformation strange names taken from the Old Testament became fashionable. Here they are undoubtedly rarer than in many name-lists of the present day. Sarai, however, does not seem to have been very uncommon in the neighbourhood of Burnley. Dauratie, too, occurs. It is probably meant for Dorothy ; but those who are fond of speculative etymology may, if they so please, regard it as a distorted form of Durante, and quote it as evidence of the cult of Dante being prevalent in Lancashire in the reign of James I. This would not be a more absurd play of the imagination than much of the wild guessing which goes on almost without reproof. We get a glimpse of the great Civil War in 1644. Five soldiers were buried who had been slain at Haggate at the end of June or beginning of July. There is nothing to show for which cause they shed their blood. It may be not amiss to give their names ; some one may possibly be able to identify them. They were Robert Eckroyde, Nicholas Starkie, James Gabbott, Peter Hitchin, and Ber- nard Smithe. An index of nicknames is supplied, some of which are puzzling. Why, we would ask, was John Jackson, who died in 1624, called " twoe pence," and Isabel Whittaker, who departed some twenty years later, known as ' ' Blackwiddqw " ?
In the Bury register there are entries, in many varieties of spelling, relating to a family bearing the surname of Shipobotham. It has, apparently, nothing, at least directly, to do with a seafaring life. There is a place bearing the same name in the parish. In 1615 a certain James Holte, who is described as " famous," was buried. The editors correctly, no doubt regard this to mean infamous, and refer to the 'H.E.D.'in confirmation thereof. "Famous" was, it appears, used sometimes in an evil sense from the days of Wyclif to those of Cobbett.
The Registers of Eglingham, in the County of North- umberland, 1662-1812. Transcribed by Miss K. A. Martin. Indexed and edited by Herbert M. Wood. (Durham and Northumberland Parish Register Society.)
THIS is a most satisfactory issue of one of our Northern parish registers. It has been faithfully transcribed, and the editorial work and indexing have been well done. We trust the other Northern registers will fall into equally careful and efficient hands. Eglingham is a large parish divided into sixteen townships. Previous to the changes of the
sixteenth century there were four chapels dependent
on the mother church. One alone has survived,
which has been restored again in recent times to
purposes of devotion. At another of them burials
occasionally take place in the graveyard.
As well as the registers themselves, the banns books, which exist from 1754, have been carefully examined, and the entries of those whose banns were called at Eglingham, but who were married elsewhere, have been given. This is a useful addition, as it gives an additional key to family relationships.
It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that Border names abound. We find Ainsleys, Carrs, Elliots, Greys, Ogles, and Reids in abundance ; but many of the great historical families do not seem to have been represented at Eglingham. A branch of the race now known as Gladstone seems to have been settled here, for we find Gleadstanes in many varieties of spelling. Gatehouse, which we believe to be a purely North-Country name, is found only once. Concerning the meaning of a few, such as Sott, Toollip, and Cilia, we cannot make a reason- able guess. Provisionally, we may assume them to be corruptions of something formerly intelligible. Of the strange Biblical names which it used to be the fashion to regard as typical of the seventeenth century we have found very few examples, but have come on several others rarely found elsewhere. Effala, Ellinger, Helender, Sewan, Ussa, and Jotte are examples.
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K. E. (" Chess Poem "). You will find the story in ' The Wit and Humour of the Persians,' by M. N. Kuka (Bombay, 1894), p. 14, and also in the more accessible ' Modern Chess Primer,' published by Messrs. Routledge, pp. 305, 306, where the ending is called ' Dilaram's Mate.' Two castles are sacri- ficed.
A. P. (" Blight"). All that is known concerning the various significations and uses of the word will be found in the * Historical English Dictionary.'
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