Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/312

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. NOV., MH&

the rame Henry Hensman appears to have been quoted apart from its context, and in which the deceased is described as "of Bozeat, but formerly of this parish," may or may not indicate that he had a second Christian name. At all events, it is mani- fest that, whatever the relationship other- wise, the subject of this entry was not identical with the " Henry Hensman, gentle- man farmer," thus recorded as having been interred at Pytchley on Sept. 10, 1765, although the Bozeat and Odell Hensmans were also yeomen farmers.

Bozeat was the matrimonial Mecca of the family, for between 1757 and 1798 no fewer than eight of its members were married in this quasi-Wellingborough suburb, fifone of whom was baptized there.

Pytchley 's registers go no further back than ^1 695, but there were numerous Hens- man entries in those of Odell before that date.

Reverting to the pedigree printed ante, p. 24, it is noticeable that the first name in it is " Henchman, alias Cros- borough," no other names or connubial details being vouchsafed. Seeing that the signatory to the earlier of the portions into which the record is divided may have been, and probably was, the descendant of John Crosborough through a brother of Edward Henxman, the original grantee that is, through Richard Henchman of Welling- borough the question naturally arises : Who, if not the Hensmans, were the lineal descendants of Edward Henxman, since the Henchmans, on their own showing, were "all" or nearly all extinct? Without having seen the Wellingborough registers, one may hazard the guess that they would be found to contain divers Hensman and Henchman entries at any time since 1590. (One Edward Hensman was Mayor of Northampton in 1599, and the present writer has been unable to discover that "Henxman" has persisted in the family from the time of Edward of that name.)

Without prejudice, therefore, to the issue raised by DR. HITCHMAN at 3 S. iii. 150, incompletely stated as it was, and having regard to the circumstance that the house- holds on the borders of Northants and Beds were so intimately associated as to be barely distinguishable, it may be said that the crux of the question rests with the Wellingborough-Bozeat-Odell connexions.

The matter, however, is largely wrapped up with that of the origin of the word as a common noun. Its earliest use in England was seemingly in 1378-9, when a compromise

was effected between two of the later forms in an entry reading : " Hans Wynsele,. henxsman Regis " (Wardrobe Accounts,. 2 Hen. IV. 43/2, Q.R.). An Act of 1463 " to restrain excess in apparel " makes an. exception in favour of "Hensmen, Heroldes," &c. Certain excerpts from the Wardrobe Accounts of the fifteenth century published in the columns of ' N. & Q.' in the past show that "henxman" was also in the field. To 1532 belongs an item : " The same daye paied to the yoman of the henxman for ther lodging " (Privy Purse Expenses, Hen. VIII. p. 209). With respect to this and kindred items, Bardsley, in his painstaking ' Dic- tionary of English and Welsh Surnames,' remarks that " throughout these entries the hinxman was ' a page of honour.' " It was not until late in the seventeenth century that " henchman," though frequently used in the sixteenth, secured a virtual monopoly cf the word as a* common name ; but what can have happened to explain the change which has come over the term as implying a political camp-follower or lackey not unduly charged with scruples would be an irrelevant topic of discussion here.

It is not impossible that Henxman (or one of its variants) may have obtained as a proper name prior to 1485. But enough has been adduced to form a guide to those with a penchant for research in detei mining whether the descendants of Henxman,. otherwise Hensman, who were living at Bozeat, near Wellingborough, were in any way related to the descendants of Hench- man, otherwise Crosborough, who were living at Wellingborough, near Bozeat.

AUGUSTINE SJMCOE.

WAR SLANG : REGIMENTAL NICKNAMES.

(12 S. iv. 271.)

QUITE a large number of new words have come into common use during the War, and also a considerable number of corrup- tions which may easily be traced to mis- pronunciation or' to having been indis- tinctly heard, whilst phrases half-English and half from some other language are brought to England by the soldiers. I have collected the following, which I think should be placed on permanent record in the pages of ' N. & Q.' ; and I give as far as I can their meaning or what they stand for in the army :