Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/163

 ¥• <?. ^^^/(,, you I- J' ^' ^"^^^^ ^ Clr^yihr^'C{ Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 127 108. Derivation of the Name Heavitree. — On p. 83 of the A^^mMx_ to Z). &> C. N. & Q., vol. ix., part iii., mention is made of a burial ground for delinquents executed " at that fearefull, spacious and strong Tree," namely, the gallows beyond Heavitree ; and on p. 89 is a reference to a man who ** (for his delinquency) ended his life at the heavy Tree." To the first entry is appended a footnote from Risdon's Survey of Devon, which begins, " Heavytree, which (after some) took name of the execution of male- factors." This fantastic derivation of the name Heavitree has had a long vogue, and appears in print every now and then ; it is high time it was refuted. The gallows was erected some way outside the village in the year 1532, but the name Heavitree had existed for centuries before that ; it appears in the Domesday Survey as Hevetruua and Hevetrove, so the absurdity of deriving it from a circumstance 400 years later is at once apparent. In Polwhele's History of Devon, published in 1797, in the account of the district of Heavitree and Wonford we find, " There is a rivulet called the Wone or Avon at West Wonford, whence the village takes its name (vol. ii., p. 21). At a comparatively recent date Worthy says " The word water, and ' Tre' the British word for a town or settlement." {Suburbs of Exeter, p. 7.) This suggestion seems reasonable ; in confirmation I may add that I have often heard the name as " Avetree"; Ave in two syllables, rhyming with navvy, but the a rather broader. " Tre " at the beginning of a name is very familiar in Cornwall and Wales, as in Trevena and Tredegar ; it implies a settlement of a few houses, hardly a town as Worthy says. In Devon it seems "tre" was placed at the end of the name, as Plymtree, Langtree, and Ottery, which last, in the earliest charter is referred to as Autree, and in Carew's Scroll of Arms it is given as Sainte Marye Awtrey (58, 77, 608), Awtry (84, 135), Awtree (416, 427, 592, 607), Autree (605), and Otrey (255). In the Domesday Survey it is Otrei and Otri. Avon, Aune and Awe are all forms of the same word for water, cf. Aveton (Auton) Giffard. So it appears that
 * Heavitree ' Is most probably derived from ' Ave ' or ' Avon,'