Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/423

ii s. iv. NOV. is, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 417 a French physician in the service of Mussur Rajah," who relates the incident "as described by a lady, one of the rescued party." A picture of the scene occupies the principal part of the title-page of the song.

(11 S. iv. 349).—Bardsley gives the origin correctly. The old spelling was Noreis or Norreis, which simply means "a Norwegian" or a "Norse-man": one who came from Norway. These forms are Anglo-French. Continental French employs oi for A.-F. ei, and so has the form Norrois.

The name is very old; it occurs, meaning "Norman" or "Normans," in Wace and Gaimar.

The name Norris appears to be of French origin and to mean Northerner or Norwegian. It appears as early as the twelfth century in Geoffry Gaimar's 'Estorie des Engles,' where it is used to designate the Norsemen:

and again:—

See 'Monumenta Historica Britannica' (1848), p. 827.

The barons who were hostile to King John were known as "Norenses" or North-countrymen, despite the fact that they resided in various parts of the country. It was probably as common in the forms Le Noreis, Norres, Noreys, &c., meaning from the North, as were Le Surrey and Le Southern (the latter still retained in the forms Sothern and Sotheran), meaning from the South. It is probable, though, that it has been confounded with La Noryce, La Nourrice, which we still have in the English names Nurrish and Nourse.

(1) "The man from the North"; (2) official, "the nurse." M.E. Norice. Earliest date, 1273, "Noreis"; and see under "Nurse" (Bardsley's 'Surnames').

Noris.—French, a personal name. Norice in 'Roll of Battell Abbey'; Le Norreis in 'Rot. Obl. et Fin.' (Barber's 'British Family Names').

(11 S. iv. 327).—With reference to the collection of Shropshire pedigrees now in the possession of, some account of the compiler may perhaps find a place in 'N. & Q.' There is no mention of him in ' D.N.B.'

William Hardwicke was born on 12 January, 1772, in an old house (once the property of the Ouseley family) at Allscote, in the parish of Worfield, near Bridgnorth. He was educated at a school kept by Mr. Isaac Dixon at Great Barr, in the county of Stafford; and soon after leaving school was articled to Mr. John Smith, a Wolverhampton solicitor. After being himself admitted a solicitor, Mr. Hardwicke practised for many years at Bridgnorth in partnership with Mr. Thomas Devey; and, after Mr. Devey's death, was appointed Registrar of the Court of the Royal Peculiar of Bridgnorth, which then had exempt jurisdiction in the Diocese of Hereford for the registration of wills. This appointment gave him great opportunities for indulging his taste for genealogical research; and he is said to have spent all his leisure in pursuit of this taste. Being well known and popular, he was allowed to have free access to deeds and family papers belonging to his friends; but though he made large collections of MSS., and established a reputation as a correct genealogist and a learned antiquary, he does not appear to have printed anything beyond occasional contributions to The Gentleman's Magazine. The results of his work in the muniment rooms and among the parish registers of South Shropshire have never been published.

Mr. Hardwicke was married on 11 July, 1803, at the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, to Charlotte, the only daughter of John Beamond of Aldress, in the parish of Chirbury, by whom he had a numerous family. He died at Barmouth on 12 February, 1843, and was buried in the churchyard of Llanaber.

(11 S. iv. 170, 213).—Has Bagster really any connexion with Baxter and its derivation, as given by ? Does it not come from Bag with ster affixed, and mean "one who bags," or "fills bags"; possibly also "one who makes bags"? In the former sense it occurs in Sir Walter Scott's 'St. Ronan's Well,' chap, x., in the scene between Mowbray and his agent Meiklewham. Meiklewham says to Mowbray, "If you are so certain of being—the bagster so very certain, I mean, of