Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/570

 472

NOTES AND QUERIES. 110 s. x. DEC. 12, im

it does not follow that this family became extinct in 1542, these estates passed to the coheirs of Sir Walter " Harneys." One of them, Margery, married William Strange of Monescourt in Gloucestershire ; their eldest son was named " Horneys," and their daughter Gertrude married Thomas Emer- son, whose descendants continued using " Harnoys " until as recently as 1837 (' Visit. Glou. 1623,' p. 155).

In Domesday Book, 1086, we have Erneis (once spelt Ernegis) de Burun and a Radulf de Burun Lord Byron's ancestor pro- bably his younger brother. They were then large landholders in the North of Eng- land. Both had a son named Hugh, pro- bably after their father ; and their mother was more than likely a daughter of the Erneis first mentioned. Erneis de Burun forfeited his barony by treason (Yorks. Archceol. Journal, iv. 240, 414). Radulf de Gousle and Erneis his brother gave the advowson of Sproatley in Holderness to Bridlington Priory not many years after. Ralph had previously given lands here to buy incense for the high altar in York Minster. Ralph gave two tofts here to the priory ; and Robert fitz Erneis was, it seems, his brother and heir. There are reasons for believing these were descendants of Erneis de Burun rather than of the Fitz- herneises.

The name occurs a few times in Yorkshire early in the reign of Henry III. We meet with two who bore it at that period at Ponte- fract Ernisius Langevinus and Ernis the Cook. Elias fil Amis, son of one or the other, was the eponymous ancestor of the owners of Kiddal, near Leeds.

It is rather curious that the father of Radulf Taisson and Erneis was Radulf the " Angevin," so perhaps we should look for still earlier examples of the name in Anjou. A. S. ELLIS.

A man whose name has been regularly written Ernisius was Precentor of Chichester in the early thirteenth century. As he was concerned in receiving a certain property at Ferles (Firle) from Mauricius de Sefford and Willelmus de Folevila, and making over the same to Geoffrey, Dean of Chichester and his successors for certain purposes specified in his charter of donation, the name occurs several times in Liber Y. folios Ixxxii-lxxxiv. This ancient book of charters and other evidences, which appears to have been compiled in the latter part of the same century, naturally leaves it a diffi- cult matter sometimes to make sure between

the letters n and u. However, after careful examination, I feel convinced that wherever the name occurs in the text of this volume- it is Ernisius. In one rubric it looks more like " Eruisius." A later hand in the margin has written " Hernes' precent."

In the Articles presented to Bishop Robert Rede at the Visitation of Chichester Cathedral in 1397 (Rede, Reg. fo. xxvi) there is a complaint that Sir Philip Mestede, Kt., detains annually 22s. forthcoming from lands in Charlokeston for the anniversary of Hervilius (or Hernilius ?), precentor. This must be the same as Ernisius, for there was no other precentor with a similar name. The n or u is quite uncertain here ; the I is as distinct in this MS. as the s is wherever the name occurs in the other.

In Liber Y. f o. cxv, there is another charter from this benefactor for the endowment of the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chichester Cathedral. Here the n and u are indeterminate. It is dated 1246. The compiler of the Index of this volume (about the sixteenth century) reads the name Ernisius.

I think that with this evidence we cannot reject Ernisius as a proper name, though at a later date the prefixing of an aspirate and the misreading (?) of s for I disguise and confuse the name considerably/)

If MB. NEVILL could come to Chichester and examine the books to which I have referred, he could bring his own judgment to bear on the question.

CECIL DEEDES.

Chichester.

I believe that on further inquiry MB. NEVILL will be convinced that the form Ernisius is correct, and that it is a different name from Herveius. I am writing away from my books, but if I may trust to my memory, I think it will be found that Ernisi or Ernisius was a very early owner of the manor of Wick, now Painswick, in Glouces- tershire. The word probably represents the A.-S. Earnsige, a name which will be found in Mr. Searle's ' Onomasticon Anglo- Saxonicum.' It should not, of course, be translated as Ernest.

W. F. PBIDEATJX.

HAWKINS FAMILY AND ABMS (10 S. x. 389). According to Lewis's ' Topographical Dictionary,' Marcham in Berkshire is a

Earish that lies two miles and^ a half, west y south, from Abingdon ; and it; would seem from the ' Index of Berkshire^Wills