Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/199

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S. I. MAP. 5, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Ohawserus, at twenty years of age (or under), being promoted to a position in a royal household usually reserved for those of noole birth? However, I am quite willing to relieve that feudalism had so far decayed that this may be accounted for accordingly. But how shall one explain the persistent patron- age and favour extended by one member after another of the ruling family down to the fourth day after King Henry IV.'s accession to the throne, when the latter, amid the press of affairs, doubled Chaucer's income patron- age and favour much of which had antedated his literary achievements?

PROF. SKEAT distinctly writes : "The earliest relative with whom we can certainly connect the poet is his grandfather Robert, who is first mentioned with Mary his wife in 1307, when they sold ten acres of land in Edmonton to Ralph le Clerk for 100s." How then, may I ask, can MR. RYE strictly justify his glib statement that " four generations of London kinsmen before him bore the trade name Le Chaucer from the year 1226"? Either the learned Professor or MR. RYE must be overcautious here, and I have little doubt as to which is the more careful of these. But perhaps I have acquired a right to claim the strict pound of literary flesh from the gentle- man who possesses this extra-exact know- ledge about Chaucer's thirteenth - century ancestors, and may therefore ask him to satisfy so important a demand as there must now be for this valuable information, which has evidently escaped the latest and best editor of the father of English poetry. May- be, however, MR. RYE'S researches have re- sulted in fresh discoveries. If so, so much the better. Perhaps, at the same time, he will permit us to hear what he himself considers to have been the origin of the names Chawurth, De Chaucre, De Chaussur, and De Chaurse.

Never for a moment did I suppose that because among the Chaurse living in 1277 there happened to be a Galfridus he was necessarily related to Geoffrey Chaucer. Nor, again, did I wildly theorize that because the tinctures in the Chaucer shield and those in the Chaurse shield are similar the families were therefore akin. But certain other circumstances previously referred to being taken into account, this detail of the tinctures seemed to be not unworthy of notice, especially in days when armigeri were limited in number at least, in England. I have not been a believer in Thomas Chaucer having been the poet's son ; but, nevertheless, I know of no one who would go so far as to assert that he was no relation at all to him..

Yet what proof is there as to their relation- ship? It surely rests upon circumstantial evidence alone. Yet MR. RYE ventures to style him Chaucer's son.

It is apparent that MR. RYE has yet to learn that, in the days of Chaucer's grand- parents, placing the article "Le" before a name did not of necessity transform the name into a trade name any more than placing "De" before it necessarily transformed it into that of an aristocrat. Thus there were gentlefolk of the names Le Prince, Le Breton, Le Poer, Le Bigod, Le Despenser, Le Vaillant, Le Normand, and 1'Estrange; while "Jean de Champagne" was a mere carpenter, and " Jean de Meaux " a weaver. And if one's family had hailed from Cahors, one might have been styled Le Chaursin, De Chaurs, Der Kauertscher, with all their varieties, without ever having had to do with selling hose or slippers, or the necessity of con- tinuously misspelling the word " Chaucier."* ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

PLACE-NAMES TEMP. EDWARD I. AND RICHARD II. (9 th S. i. 107). It is not diffi- cult to identify most of these names with the aid of Domesday, Kirby's ' Inquest,' * The Knights' Fees,' and the 'Nomina Villarum.' Thus it may be regarded as certain that Sixendale is Thixendale, that Hunkelby is Uncleby, and that Fymmer is Timber, all in the East Riding of Yorkshire ; also that Redenes is Reedness, and that Stretton is Stirton, both in the West Riding ; that Aqua Usise is the River Ouse ; that Lanrecost is Lanercost, in Cumberland. Doubtless Gere- ford is Garforth, and Depidale is Deepdale, both in the West Riding ; while Hesei is now Hessay, in the North Riding; and Panes Thorpe is Pensthorpe, a lost village in Hol- derness. Probably Nerkeldale is Kildale, in the North Riding; and Bonthamis Bentham, in the West Riding; while Galmon may be Ganton, in the East Riding, which is called Gamelton in Domesday. Moriscum is perhaps Great Moorsholme, in the North Riding ; and Copacik may be Kippax, and Stakelden Shackleton, both in the West Riding. Button is difficult to identify, as there are seventy-

trade of " Le Chaucier," which in the nature of things ought to have been extremely common, does not seem to have been so in fourteenth - century France. Among several thousands of names and designations of tradesfolk dealing in "chaussons," " souliers," &c., in Paris and Flanders for the royal bouses of France and Artois; I have been unable to discover a single "Le Chaucier." How will MR. RYE account for the' scarcity? It wquld be inter- esting to learn.
 * It is noteworthy, perhaps, that this so-called