Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/379

 ii s.v. APRIL 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Louth. The Birmingham Tower in Dublin Castle perpetuates their memory, and de- scendants still survive to bear their name both in Ireland and on the Continent. I may also point out that the name, as Dr. Freeman observed, was as pure Saxon as could well be imagined, clearly meaning the ham, or settlement, of the ing, or tribe, of Berm. Jerningham, on the other hand, is a purely personal name, and one which, so far as I am able to judge, could never have been confused with Jennens or Jennings, meaning the son of John.

As for Jennens having "founded Bir- mingham," it may suffice to remark that the first Jennens settled in Birmingham in the reign of Elizabeth, and that his son became wealthy by marriage with the daughter of a rich ironmaster. The founda- tion in the Middle Ages of a large and beautiful church, and of a well-endowed priory ; the building and endowment, at their own cost, of a new church by the people of Deritend, which is a part of Birmingham, although in a different parish ; and the possession of two weekly markets and two annual fairs, are sufficient proof that the advent of the Jennens family was not the cause of the foundation of Birmingham. If further proof is needed, it will be found in the fact that in the reign of Henry VIII. Leland found Birmingham a busy manufacturing town, with " many Smithes, and many Lorimers that make bits, and a great many Naylors " ; while fifty years later Camden describes the place as " swarming with inhabitants, and echoing with the noise of Anvils," and speaks of the upper part as rising " with abundance of handsome buildings." In Tudor times Bir- mingham is also incidentally referred to as " one of the fayrest and most proffi table townes to the kinge's highness in all the Shyre." HOWARD S. PEARSON.

The Canute story is " taken out of the pedigree of the Jerninghams by a judicious gentleman," which Weever (' Funeral Monu- ments,' printed 1631) quoted with this warn- ing : "if you will believe thus much that folio we th." Now we know this is all nonsense, although it used to be printed in Burke's ' Peerage.' Jerningham as a family surname really was a personal name, trans- formed into what looks like a place-name. I cannot find any place so called. Hubert de Gernagan's name is thus written in the ' Liber N"iger,' 1 166 : " de " must be an error for "fitz," as there are other examples of this when the name was an unfamiliar one.

Jernegan is not Danish, but an ancient Breton personal name, and occurs in York- shire, being used by the descendants of one of those who were brought over by Count Alan from Brittany.

Spelt Gernagan, it was used alternately with Hugh for six generations by the lords of Tanfield, though the last was called Gernagot. (See Gale's ' Regist. Honoris de Richmond.') A very early instance I have noted in a Brittany charter is spelt Jarnogon.

A. S. ELLIS.

Westminster.

COLKITTO AND GALASP (11 S. V. 104, 195).

When we are told that Scott " ought at least to have remembered" that Archibald Marquis of Argyll, had the nickname " Gillespick Gruamach." we are no doubt intended to infer that he had forgotten the fact. The matter is easily settled by a reference to ' A Legend of Montrose,' chap, vii., which contains this passage :

" That statesman, indeed, though possessed of considerable abilities, and great power, had failings which rendered him unpopular among the Highland Chiefs. The devotion which he professed was of a morose and fanatical character ; his ambition appeared to be insatiable, and inferior chiefs complained of his want of bounty and liberality. Add to this that, although a High- lander and of a family distinguished for valour before and since, Gillespie Grumach, ' ill-favoured ' (which, from an obliquity in his eyes, was the personal distinction he bore in the Highlands, where titles of rank are unknown), was suspected of being a better man in the cabinet than in the field."

Scott was not likely to have forgotten that he had written this estimate when he introduced young Colkitto in the next chapter of the novel, and discussed him in reference to Milton's sonnet in chap. xv. Apparently, moreover, it never occurred to him that the Marquis might possibly be Milton's "Galasp," although the poet was more likely to hear of him than of Colkitto in terms that might have suggested the name. Chambers and Prof. Masson may be right in saying that the latter was some- times known by an ancestral designation and it is not for a Lowlander to dogmatize on the point but there is the very barest likelihood that Milton ever heard of this genealogical usage or that he knew more of Macdonald than the name by which, accord- ing to Chambers, " he has been generally known in history." On the other hand, he knew George Gillespie as one of the " new forcers of conscience " at the West- minster Assembly, and being, as it now appears, in need of a rime to " gasp," *"*

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