Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/425

 2" S. N 21., MAY 24. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

417

been removed is a cut sow-pig, and a castrated boar is a brawner. A female pig that has never been cut is an open sow. A. sow that has taken the boar is lined, and after her first pigs she be- comes a brood sow, and the pigs she brings forth at one birth is a litter or farrow of pigs. While young pigs are called porhers or porklings, and when more than a year old they are fit for being made into ham. HENBY STEPHENS.

VINCENT will find a great deal of curious inform- ation on cattle and the etymologies of their names by consulting several popular Dictionaries and agri- cultural works extant. In different districts of the country many of these accounts will, however, be found conflicting from the adopting of different rules, views, and practices, one place from another.

In Scotch pastoral districts, such as those with which I have been acquainted, a lamb when " lambed " in the early part of the year is so, till Candlemas of the following year. It is then a hog for a year, and at two years old is a gimmer, after- wards passing into the sheep or ewe till the end of its life. In the larger cattle, after a time of up- bringing, the calves become queys, which name is indiscriminate, whether to the male or female. Then there are of various ages the milk cow, the stirh (generally the rising bull), the stot, and the heifer. Of the last the cut and the splayed heifer as may be intended for fattening or labour, and so of several other distinctions.

That the appellations of cattle have also given rise to the names of men, is not more curious than what have been woven into nomenclature from trades, occupations, &c. Some persons glory in such as Mr. Sheep, and Mr. Hogg. I have not yet heard of a Mr. Ox, but a whole nation are not ashamed to be called John Bull. G. N.

HIGGINBOTTOM FAMILY.

(2 nd S. i. 268.)

" Can you, or any of your kind contributors, supply me with information respecting the Higgin- bottom family ? "

In answer, it appears the Higginbottoms ori- ginally came from Germany. Lower, in his Es- says on Family Nomenclature, says, the English name Higginbottom is a corruption of the Ger- man 'I Icken-baum an oak tree." The family crest is " a dexter and sinister arm shooting an arrow from a bow, all ppr."

My deceased father, John Higginbottom, gen- tleman, of Ashton-under-Lyne, informed me that pur family came fromllayfield, in Derbyshire, and its neighbourhood to reside in Ashton-umlcr- Lyne. From this intelligence I procured through the medium of a friend some particulars of the

family, extracted from the Hayfield Register from its commencement in 1666. It appeared at that early period, that the family were located there, as there is an agreement between Mellor and Hayfield on the one hand, and Glossop on tho other, signed by nine persons, one of the signatures being " Ralph Higginbottom."

In the register the spelling of the name in the same family is various : "Hickingbottom," " Heg- inbottom." and " Higginbottom," evidently all from one common stock.

The register extends from 1666 to' 1741, agree- ing with the time the families came to Ashton- under-Lyne and the neighbouring hamlet of Alt Hill. I find in the register similar Christian names to those retained at the present time in both families.

My friend informs me that " the register about the year 1666 is very much faded by age, very closely written in bad Latin, and old characters, and strangely abbreviated ; it would take some days to make out all that might be deciphered, to say nothing of much that is gone for ever." He also adds, " Higginbottom or Heginbottom seems to be the prevailing way of spelling the name ; they nppear to have been respectable yeomen, some two centuries ago, ancestors not to bs despised iu these mushroom days of gin shops and cotton lords." JOHN HIGGINBOTTOM, F.R.S.

Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

Nottingham,

TRADESMEN'S TOKEN3. (2 nd S. i. 336.)

I cannot give J. S. S. the present names of all the places he mentions ; one I can, Bvdsdell, which is certainly Botesdale, in Suffolk, of which it is the local pronunciation.

I subjoin a list of Norfolk corruptions from tradesmen's tokens :

Tradesmen's Names. Philip Robats. William Watts. William Kix. Hovlt*Hondred*. Matthew Richandl John Fotterill. / William Shildrack. John Dey. Francis Shawe. Thomas FcltweU, Edward Billings. Gyles Bredgman. Robart Bull. Edward Tilson. Michaell Hawk. Charles Clarke. Thos. Childcrhouse. Stephen Tueke. Joseph Wasey. John Cocky. John Burrill. Richard Crafford.

Towns.

Aby in Xofocke. Alisham. Brancastell. Clay e *In *Farthin g.

Dareham. Fackenham.

HaHl. 1 *'"

Licham.

Linn Regis.

Lyn

Tcr

Kin

Masluim."

Mounham.

Massinggam.

Thornum,

Worwalsham.

Wattleton.

Windham.

Grct Yearmouth.

Licham. Linn Regis. ^ Lyn Regis. I I en. f

King's Lync. )

Modern Spelling.

Aldehy.

Aylsham,

Brancaster. /Clay. \IIund.ofHolt.

East Doreham,

Fnkenham.

Hilgay.

Hoit.

Litcham.

Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn.

Marsham. Id. (query). Massingham. Thornham. North Walsham. Watlinaton. Wymondham. Great Yarmouth.

Perhaps the majority of these are sufficiently obvious, but they illustrate the local pronunci- ation at any rate.

A copious list of the names of places is given