Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/455

 s. vii. MAY 11, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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^archaisms, and was absolutely without knowledge of any such freaks of language ; yet I have often heard him say, in the Berkshire speech of his youth, " I'm sure I am right " [he was always cocksure"), " and I'll tell you forwhy." ALDENHAM.

Where this word is quoted in connexion with E. A. Freeman, ante, p. 185, it should have been printed as one word, not as two.

J. T. F.

Some of the older folk use this old term in their ordinary speech, and it is a pleasure to hear it. One will be telling the other gossips something which has been done or said by another, and she will say, " Forwhy ? I '11 tell you," and so on. In the " forwhy " comes the reason of many little things in .the everyday life of " folks."

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

ST. GEORGE : GEORGE AS A CHRISTIAN NAME (10 S. vii. 308). What is the earliest appearance of George as a Christian name in these islands ? Like W. C. B., I am anxious to know.

I see that Miss Yonge in her ' History of Christian Names ' says " Georgios always prevailed in the East, and came to Scotland in the grand Hungarian importation;" ; and she goes on to say that in the house of Drummond the " name of George has always been an heirloom."

But when I turn to Douglas's ' Peerage ' I do not find it in the early Drummond pedigree. It is in another family that, so far as I know, we meet it first.

George* tenth Earl of Dunbar and March, was born about 1340, and his father, Sir Patrick de Dunbar, died and was buried at Candia, on his way to the Holy Land, in 1356-7. Perhaps this was not Sir Patrick's first visit to the East.

I should like to know if the name appears earlier in Scotland, or even in England.

G. S. C. S.

The earliest instance I have noticed in the "City's records occurs in 1388. The reference is Letter-Book H, fo. ccxxvi b. Attention has been drawn to it in the Calendar of the Letter-Book just through the press.

R. R. SHARPE.

The Guildhall.

It seems to me that George was not an uncommon name before 1700, and that many distinguished men bore it. I will mention some of them : Cavendish, who entered the service and wrote the life of Cardinal Wolsey ; George Buchanan ; the

two Dukes of Buckingham ; the Duke of Clarence (' Richard III.,' I. i. 58-9),

And, for my name of George begins with G, It follows in his thought that I am he ; Sandys, the translator of Ovid's ' Meta- morphoses ' ; Puttenham, author of ' The Art of English Poesie ' ; Peele and Chap- man, the Elizabethan dramatists ; Herbert and Wither, poets ; George Fox, the first Quaker ; Sir George Mackenzie ; Sir George Etherege, the comedy writer ; George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, mentioned with great respect by Dryden and Pope in their poetry, and himself a poet ; Farquhar, the author of ' The Beaux' Stratagem ' ; and George Savilie, Marquis of Halifax.

E. YARD LEY.

Shakespeare makes Philip the Bastard say:

And if his name be George, I '11 call him Peter ; For new-made honour doth forget men's names : 'Tis too respective, arid too sociable, For your conversion.

' King John,' I. i. 186-9.

STAPLETON MARTIN. The Firs, Norton, Worcester.

It is certainly curious that, despite the fact that St. George was the patron saint of more-or-less Merry England, George is not before 1700 at all a common Christian name. One remembers, of course, George, Duke of Clarence, the unhappy brother of Ed- ward IV. ; George Villiers, father and son, Dukes of Buckingham ; and George, Prince of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne. I have always supposed that the name George came into favour owing to the accession of the House of Hanover. George Lewis (1660-1727), second Elector of Hanover, and, as George I., King of Great Britain and Ireland, was, like George, Prince of Denmark, grandson of George, Duke of Brunswick- Liineb ur g.

Another common Christian name of to-day, Arthur, seems to have been brought into fashion by the fact that Arthur Wellesley, Duke of u Wellington, was the victor of Waterloo/ He was, of course, godfather to his queen's third son, Arthur, Duke of Connaught. A. R. BAYLEY.

Surely W. C. B. is mistaken in stating that George is not at all a common Christian name prior to 1700.

In vol. xiv. of the Oxford Historical Society the Rev. A. Clarke has tabulated the Christian names occurring in the Register of the University from 1560 to 1621. Below are the twelve most common names in the list, with the number of times they occur ;