Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/276

 270

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. H. SEPT. ao, wie.

SIB ROBERT PRICE, BART. I am anxious to identify Sir Robert Price, Bart., noted in ' Musgrave's Obituary ' as having died at Richmond, July 27, 1773. To what family of Price did he belong ? He is not mentioned in Burke's ' Ext inct" Baronetage ' of 1841. LEONARD C. PRICE.

HEXCHMAX, HIXCHMAX, OR HITCHMAX. (3 S. iii. 150.)

FIFTY years ago W. HITCHMAN, M.D., of Liverpool, asked :

" Are there any persons now living of the

name of Crosborougn ? Or was the original patronymic quite merged, ab initio, in that of Henchman, Hinchman, or Hitchman?"

A careful search of the indexes and of numerous volumes of ' X. & Q.,' to the columns of which the worthy doctor was a voluminous contributor in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, has failed to show that n answer was ever provoked by this question.

For the reason that the Hitchmans of Liverpool were until recently extant, and that the " Henchman " controversy, both in its personal and etymological aspects, covered a period of many years in ' N. & Q.,' the following data may be of interest as providing a quasi, if belated, reply to the foregoing query :

The " Henchman " nomenclature is not merely three- but six-fold, as the Hinxmans, Henxmans, Hensmans, Henchmans, Hinch- mans, and Hitchmans could all, if so dis- posed, trace their ancestry to the same source.

The Hinxmans appear to be confined to a family long resident in the vicinity of Salisbury. Edward Henxman was the ori- ginal grantee of the arms (April 24, 1549), but either as a proper or a common noun the word seems to have fallen into desuetude. The Henchmans are presumably extinct in the male line in England, although persons bearing this variant of the substantive have for a long time been resident in the colonies. The Hinchmans are probably to be accounted for by the fact that Clarendon, in his ' History of the Rebellion,' refers to the ecclesiastical rescuer of the harassed monarch as Dr. Hinchman, the present, writer having been unable to discover the whereabouts of any latter-day owners of the name. The Hitch- mans enjoy the distinction of being the only

branch of the family whose arms bear a motto, viz., " Pro amore Dei " ; but inas- much as no such motto was recorded with the original coat, it may be regretted that Dr. Hitchman to whom the information is to be ascribed, was not a little more ex- planatory on the point. The Hensmans are still largely to be found in Xorthamptonshire and the neighbouring counties.

Indeed, there is an impression in some quarters that the family have but a dual identity, TheNortfiampton Independent having contributed its quota to the persistence of the fiction. Under a reproduction of Lely's portrait of Bishop Henchman, who formed the subject of a sketch in the midland journal's issue for Aug. 6, 1910, were printed the words : " Dr. Humphrey Hensman, Bishop of London from 1663 to 1675"; and in the text there appeared : " Humphrey Henchman, D.D. (or Hensman as it is now spelt)." The average reader would naturally conclude from the above that Hensman was derived from Henchman, and that the present descendants of the bishop subscribed them- selves as Hensman.

While the surname of Hensman is said to have figured in the first testament of John Crosborough (the henxman, hensman, or henchman of Henry' VII., and progenitor of the multifariously named family in question), ' N. & Q.' affords evidence not only that " henxman " is etymologically an older term than " henchman," but that the latter is the derivative of " hensman." Thus the late PROF. SKEAT (7 S. ii. 246) explained the ch in " henchman " as having arisen " from turning a sharp s into sh, after n, so that hensman became henshman, also written henchman. . . .The process is precisely the same as in linchpin for linspin." Con- firmation of the professor's theory was furnished by SIR J. A. PICTON, who wrote (7 S. ii. 298) :

" A small link seems wanting to render PROF. SKEAT'S etymological chain complete, which I think I can supply. The surname of Hensman is not uncommon in these parts. We have, then, in regular order, hengst-man, hengs-man, hensman, henchman. Q.E.D."

If the Henxmans and Hinchmans are in truth non est, and the Hinxmans, Henchmans, and Hitchmans are to-day represented in Britain solely in the female line, everything points to the postulation that a few years hence the original patronymic of Crosborough will have become merged, not in that of the triad enumerated in the opening quotation, but in that of Hensman alone.

AUGUSTINE SIIVICOE.