Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/638

 6i8 APPENDIX C James inter- hanged or onfused. ames suggest- g a classical or blical origin. orruptions and intractions. Alan, lord of Galloway, was b. about 1200. Other latinized forms of women's names occurring in Cal. Inq. p. m. are Agatha, Bona, Cassandra, Cutburga, Desiderata, Edelina, Fina, Gonnora, and Senicla. Damaris Ledgard (ancestress of H. J. Ellis, who has kindly helped the Editor with this paper) was wife of Joseph Ellis in 1720. With reference to names which are often regarded as interchangeable, Margery and Margaret, though identical in origin (Margareta by French changes having produced Margerie), were not always treated as the same, and had different Latin equivalents, viz. Margeria and Margareta; in the following passage from Close Roll (1243) 27 Hen. Ill, part ii, the words "Pro Margeria Comitissa Kancie. Rex inspexit tenorem car- tarum continencium donaciones factas conjunctim H. de Burgo quondam Comiti Kancie et Margarete uxori ejus," show the two names to be used indifferently. Elizabeth and Isabel, too, were not really looked on as the same, though often confused until the eighteenth century, for Elizabeth de Prestwold and Isabel Wrenne were nuns of Sempringham in 1366, and the names of the three daughters of Michael atte Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who died in 141 5, were Katherine, Elizabeth and Isabel, and on the Patent Roll (18 Oct. 1420) is an entry, "The mandate cannot take effect because the wife of Nicholas had the name of Elizabeth and not of Isabel": the last Lord Maulayalso had two sisters named Isabel and Elizabeth. John Everard, who died in 1524, left a widow called "Elizabella," a curious compound of two names. Another form of, or name confounded with, Isabel, is Sibel or Sibyl: e.g. the wife of William [Lord] Grandson is found called by both names. On the other hand, the seal (1484) of the wife of Fernando II, King of Castile, widely known as Isabella, is inscribed " Helisabet," Isabel being always Elisabetha in Spanish Latin. It may be mentioned that in this connexion Sibyl has, the Editor believes, no more relation to the Roman prophetess than the name Ellis {lat. Elias, fr. Helie), though often written Elias in English works, has to the Hebrew prophet, or than the rather rare front name Manasses has to do with one of the twelve tribes (Manasses Marmion witnessed charters temp. Hen. I), or the surnames Homer (the name of a village in Salop) and Pindar (he who pens or folds) with the Greek poets, while Venus, which occurs as a surname among the country people of the present day in Sussex, and in Dickens's Mutual Friend^ is related not to Love hxt,teste J. H. Round, represents Venoix ("de Venuz" in the Testa), as the Norman Marechaux de Venoix held lands in Hampshire from the time of the Conquest. The English Bacchus is no god of wine, but equals the humbler Backhouse or Bakehouse. Aeneas McDonnell cannot claim Virgilian ancestry, but is in truth nothing more than Angus McDonnell. Among contractions or corruptions may be mentioned Bellas (*) from Ap Ellis, Bevan from Ap Evan, Pritchard from Ap Richard, Price or Preece from Ap Rhys, Prodgers from Ap Roger, Pugh from Ap Hugh, and Binyon from Ap Einyon, with many others. Nor are such Welsh names, (^) Strangely enough this name is also a corruption of Bellhouse.