Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/247

 ii s. xi. MAR. 20, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

237

nothing retrospective in such a patent. Suppose, however, that instead of the patent being worded to John, Thomas, and William Smith, brothers, it runs to John Smith and the other descendants of his late father, Richard Smith. Does the mere change of wording make this a retrospective patent ? If it does so from MR. UDAL'S point of view, I need not push the argument further on these lines. If, instead, MB. UDAL finds himself able to admit that there is nothing so far retrospective in the operation of the patent, I feel entitled to claim that the substituting cousins for brothers, and estab- lishing identity by referring to their common grandparent, leaves the position unaltered ^as regards the introduction of a retrospective element.

An instance of the grandfather clause is ^iven in The Genealogist, N.S., xxiv. 281, among the grants and confirmations of arms in certain Stowe and heraldic manuscripts contributed by Mr. A. J. Jewers :

"Rande, William, of co. Northampton, and to the descendants of his grandfather, Nicholas Rande. Granted by R. Cooke, Clarenceux, 3 July, 1579. Or, ^a lion ramp, gu., charged with three ehevs. arg. Crest on a coronet or, a boar's head couped, fess- ways, arg. Harl. MS. 1359."

LEO C.

PHYSIOLOGICAL SURNAMES (11 S. xi. 147). The names given seem to imply that an example needs only to sound like something that a human being, male or female, may by nature either have, do, or be, and on this basis might be very largely supple- mented. Temple suggests Crown, Sole, Pate, Poll, Bridge, Drum, Shanks, Hock, Hough, Bosome, Waste. Laugher lets in Cryer, Sayer, Singer, Looker, Leeper, Panter, Napper, Nodder, Hopper, Whistler, Blower, Bower, Walker, even Ambler. Other ex- amples invite Winck, Grin, Sleepe, Wake, Rest, Dance, Kick, Tremble, Stride, Strutt, Shivers ; Byle, Joy, Pain, Love, Pride, Courage, Anger, Fear, Hope ; Touch, "Swallow, Grip, Crouch, Stoop, Speke, Fall ; Curl, Lock, Dimple. Assuming that Pallett is allowed as identical with Palate, any eccentricity of spelling would pass muster, such as Cartledge, Kneal, Knape, Mussell, and Grissell, even Beit. That the ancestor -of any of the families bearing these names derived his from the fact that he had a foot or calf or tooth or nail is highly improbable, but perhaps that is immaterial. Such sur- names as were originally nicknames may be expected to be due to abnormal, not normal features. Otherwise Moustache would be is common a nam^ as Beard, yet, as far as

I know, it is only found as the Christian name Algernon, which the Percy family hands on from generation to generation, in memory of William de Percy, surnamed Alsgernons, or William with the Moustaches, who twisted his into points, and perhaps waxed them.

A list of surnames which appear to be derived from sobriquets would be interest- ing. Many of these appertain to human physiology, such as Lightfoot, Golightly, Drinkwater, Sitdown, Gotobed, Strongith- arm, Doolittle, Bedhead, Whitehead, White- legge, &c. But if Digweed is, as I have been told, a corruption of Duguid, one must be prepared for a less prosaic origin of all the above than their present form presents.

A. T. M.

I notice that in the list at p. 147 is the name Laugher. In the dictionaries of surnames I find it is usually stated to be ' ' probably derived from laughter. ' ' Happen- ing to be a descendant of a Laugher family, I very much question this derivation. The family pronounced the name " lauer " as in " slaughter," and never " lafer " as in " laughter." In an old will the name " Layher alias Laugher " occurs, and it has even been spelt " Law." The family was originally of Worcestershire, where the surname is more commonly found in old documents than in any other part of the country, especially in and around the parish of Inkberrow. The parish registers of the sixteenth century usually spell the name as " Laugher " and " Lawgher."

It is probable that the name originated from a former hamlet called " Lawern Ellemonsynary," or Temple Lawern, just outside the city of Worcester, the site of which is now occupied by Laughern House. Nash's ' History of Worcestershire,' referring to this hamlet, states :

"About the year 1200, in the time of bishop Symonds, here lived William de Lawern, son of Milo de Lawern, to whom the prior and convent let Lawern for half a mark yearly, and for a quit- claim of scutage twelvepence yearly (vid. Reg. I. Dec. et cap. f. 13 a.)."

In Worcestershire Subsidy Boll for 1332-3 occurs " Watero de La warm" of Evesham, a town eight miles due south of Inkberrow. In course of time the nasal sound given to the ending of the name was dropped, and " Lawern " and " Laughern " became " Laugher."

There is, however, a family of Lough^r or Loughter, originally of Norfolk and Suffolk, which appears to be of different