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Title: The Quest for a Lost Race
Author: Thomas E. Pickett
Release Date: December 11, 2014 [EBook #47627]
Language: English
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[Illustration: THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D., LL. D.
Member of The Filson Club]
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATION No. 22
THE QUEST FOR A
LOST RACE
Presenting the Theory of
PAUL B. DU CHAILLU
An Eminent Ethnologist and Explorer, that the English-speaking
People of To-day are Descended from the Scandinavians rather
than the Teutons--from the Normans rather than the Germans
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M.D., LL.D.
MEMBER OF THE FILSON CLUB
READ BEFORE THE CLUB OCTOBER 1, 1906
Illustrated
[Illustration: Acorn]
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY
PRINTERS TO THE FILSON CLUB
1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907
BY
THE FILSON CLUB
All Rights Reserved
FILSON CLUB PUBLICATIONS
NUMBER TWENTY-TWO
The Quest for a
Lost Race
[Illustration: Tree Branch]
_Alphabetical Series of Norse, Norman, and
Anglo-Norman, or Non-Saxon,
Surnames_
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D., LL. D.
MEMBER OF THE FILSON CLUB
PREFACE
The native Kentuckian has a deep and abiding affection for the "Old
Commonwealth" which gave him birth. It is as passionate a sentiment,
too--and some might add, as irrational--as the love of a Frenchman for
his native France. But it is an innocent idolatry in both, and both
are entitled to the indulgent consideration of alien critics whose
racial instincts are less susceptible and whose emotional nature is
under better control. Here and there, a captious martinet who has
been wrestling, mayhap, with a refractory recruit from Kentucky, will
tell you that the average Kentuckian is scarcely more "educable" than
his own horse; that he is stubborn, irascible, and balky; far from
"bridle-wise," and visibly impatient under disciplinary restraint. In
their best military form Kentuckians have been said to lack "conduct"
and "steadiness"--even the men that touched shoulders in the charge at
King's Mountain and those, too, that broke the solid Saxon line at the
Battle of the Thames.
Whether this be true or not--in whole or in part--we do not now
stop to enquire. Suffice it to say that the Kentuckian has been a
participant in many wars, and has given a good account of himself in
all. In ordinary circumstances, too, he is invincibly loyal to his
native State; and when it happened that, in the spring of 1906, there
came to Kentuckians in exile, an order or command from the hospitable
Governor of Kentucky to return at once to the State, they responded
with the alacrity of distant retainers to a signal from the hereditary
Chieftain of the Clan. "Now," said they, "the lid will be put on and
the latch-string left out."
When the reflux current set in it was simply prodigious--quite as
formidable to the unaccustomed eye as the fieldward rushing of
a host; and it was in the immediate presence of that portentous
ethnic phenomenon that the paper upon the "Lost Race" was first
published;--appearing in a local journal of ability and repute, and
serving in some measure as a contribution to the entertainment of the
guests that were now crowding every avenue of approach.
It is not strange that the generous Kentuckians, then only upon
hospitable thoughts intent, should imagine for one happy _quart
d'heure_ that the "Lost Race" of the morning paper was already knocking
at their doors. But they little imagined--these good Kentuckians--that
their hospitable suspicion had really a basis of historic truth.
The handsome book now launched from the Louisville press is merely
that ephemeral contribution to a morning paper,[1] presented in a
revised and expanded form, with such illustrations as could come only
from the liberal disposition and cultivated taste of Colonel R. T.
Durrett, the President of The Filson Club. The title which the writer
has given the book is recommended, in part, by the example of a great
writer of romance, who held that the _name_ of the book should give
no indication of the _nature of the tale_. If the indulgent reader
should be unconvinced by the "argument" that is implied in almost every
paragraph, it is hoped that he will at least derive some entertainment
from the copious flow of reminiscential and discursive talk. The book
is addressed chiefly to those persons who may have the patience to read
it and the intelligence to perceive that nothing it contains is written
with a too serious intent.
[1] The _Morning Ledger_ (Maysville, Kentucky), June 20, 1906.
The writer makes grateful acknowledgments to the many friends who have
encouraged him with approval and advice in the preparation of the work.
For the correction of his errors and the continuance of his labors he
looks with confident expectation to the SCHOLARS OF THE STATE.
INTRODUCTION
While the Home-Coming Kentuckians were enjoying their meeting, in
Louisville, in the month of June, 1906, Doctor Thomas E. Pickett
published a newspaper article which he had written for the Home-Coming
Week, the object of which was to present the theory of Paul B. Du
Chaillu as to the descent of the English-speaking people from the
Scandinavians instead of the Teutons; and to show that the descendants
of these Scandinavians were still existing in different countries, and
especially in Kentucky. The author sent me a copy of his article, and
after reading it I deemed it an ethnological paper worthy of a more
certain and enduring preservation than a daily newspaper could promise,
and concluded that it would be suitable for one of the publications of
The Filson Club. I wrote to the author about it, and suggested that if
he could enlarge it enough to make one of the annual publications of
the Club, of the usual number of pages, and have it ready in time, it
might be issued for the Club publication of 1907. The author did as I
suggested, and the book to which this is intended as an introduction is
number twentytwo of The Filson Club publications, entitled "The Quest
for a Lost Race," by Thomas E. Pickett, M. D., LL. D., member of The
Filson Club.
Many persons of the English-speaking race of to-day believe that the
English originated in England. The race doubtless was formed there,
but it came of different peoples, principally foreign, who only
consolidated upon English soil. Half a dozen or more alien races
combined with one native to make the English as we now know them,
and many years of contention and change were required to weld the
discordant elements into a homogeneous whole.
The original inhabitants of England, found there by Julius Cæsar
fifty-five years before the Christian era and then first made known
to history, were Celts, who were a part of the great Aryan branch of
the Caucasian race. Their numbers have been estimated at 760,000, and
they were divided into thirty-eight different tribes with a chief or
sovereign for each tribe. They were neither barbarians nor savages in
the strict sense of these terms. They were civilized enough to make
clothes of the skins of the wild animals they killed for food; to
work in metals, to make money of copper and weapons of iron, to have
a form of government, to build cabins in which to live, to cultivate
the soil for food, and to construct war chariots with long scythes
at the sides to mow down the enemy as trained horses whirled the
chariots through their ranks. They had military organizations, with
large armies commanded by such generals as Cassivelaunus, Cunobelin,
Galgacus, Vortigern, and Caractacus, and once one of their queens named
Boadicea led 230,000 soldiers against the Romans. The bravery with
which Caractacus commanded his troops, and the eloquence with which he
defended himself and his country before the Emperor Claudius when taken
before him in irons to grace a Roman triumph, compelled that prejudiced
sovereign to order the prisoner's chains thrown off and him and his
family to be set at liberty. There were enough brave men and true like
Caractacus among these Celts, whose country was being invaded and
desolated, to have secured to the race a better fate than befell them.
After being slaughtered and driven into exile into Brittany and the
mountains of Wales by Roman, Saxon, and Dane for eight hundred years,
the few of them that were left alive were not well enough remembered
even to have their name attached to their own country.
The Celt was entirely ignored and a name combined of those of two
of the conquerors given to their country. Who will now say that
Anglo-Saxon is a more appropriate name for historic England than the
original Albion, or Britannia, or Norman-French, or Celt? Anglo-Saxon,
compounded of Anglen and Saxon, the names of two tribes of Low Dutch
Teutons, can but suggest the piracy, the robbery, the murder and
the treachery with which these tribes dealt with the Celts; while
Norman-French reminds us of the courage, the endurance, and the
refinement which were infused into the English by the Norman Conquest.
Celt is a name which ought to have been respected for its antiquity of
many centuries since it left its ancient Bactria and found its way to
England without a known stain upon its national escutcheon. These Celts
were once a mighty people occupying France, Spain, and other countries
besides England, but their descendants are now scattered among other
nations, without a country or a name of their own.
There may be doubts whether the Angles, the Jutes, the Saxons, and
the Danes--all of whom shared in partial conquests of England and in
the establishment of the English race--were Scandinavians or Teutons,
Normans or Germans. They all belonged to the great Aryan branch of the
Caucasian race, and whatever differences or similarities originally
existed between them must have changed in the thousands of years since
they emigrated from their first home. There can be no doubt, however,
about the nationality of William the Conqueror. He was Scandinavian
by descent from a long line of noble Scandinavian ancestors. The home
of his ancestors was in Norway, far to the north of the home of the
Teutons in Germany. In this bleak land of Arctic cold and sterility, on
the western coast of Norway, where innumerable islands form a kind of
sea-wall along the shore, his ancestor, Rognvald, who was a great earl
holding close relations with King Harold of Norway, had his home and
his landlocked harbor, in which ships were built for the vikings who
sailed from that port to the shores of all countries which they could
conquer or plunder. Here, his son Gongu Hrolf, better known as Rollo
or Rolf, was born and received his training as a viking. On his return
from one of his viking raids to the East he committed some depredations
at home, for which King Harold banished him. He then fitted out a ship
and manned it with a crew of his own choice and sailed for the British
Channel islands. When he reached the river Seine he went up it as far
as Paris, and, according to the fashion of the times, laid waste the
country as he went. King Charles of France offered to buy him off by
conveying to him the country since known as Normandy and giving him his
daughter in marriage, on condition that he would become a Christian and
commit no more depredations in the King's domain. Rollo accepted the
King's offer and at once ceased to be a viking, and began to build
up, enlarge and strengthen the domain which had been given him with
the title of Duke. In the course of time his dukedom of Normandy, with
the start Rollo had given it and its continuance under his successors,
became one of the most powerful and enlightened countries of the period.
At the death of Rollo his dukedom was inherited by his son, William,
and after passing through four generations of his descendants who
were dukes of Normandy it descended to a second William, known as
the Conqueror. Duke William, therefore, could trace his Scandinavian
descent through his paternal ancestors back to Rognvald, the great earl
of Norway, and even further back through the earls Eystein Glumra,
Ivar Uppland, and possibly other noblemen of hard names to write or
pronounce or remember. It is possible that some of his ancestors were
with Lief the Scandinavian when he made his discovery of America,
nearly five hundred years before the discovery of Columbus.
In 1066, Duke William took advantage of a promise, solemnized by an
oath, which Harold had made before he was King of England, to assist
him to the throne of England, but which he had not kept. Hence William
invaded England with a great army, and at the battle of Hastings slew
King Harold and gained a complete victory over his forces. Duke William
was soon after crowned King of England, and at once began that wise
policy which in a few years enabled him to lay firmly the foundation of
the great English nation. His conquest, though not complete at first,
was more so than had been that of the Romans, or the Angles and Jutes,
or the Saxons or the Danes. At the time of the Conquest of William
there were hostile Celts, Romans, Angles, Jutes, and Danes in every
part of his kingdom. It was not his policy to destroy any more of them
than he deemed necessary, but to make as many of them citizens loyal to
him as possible; hence his numerous army and the still more numerous
hosts that were constantly coming from Normandy to England in time
became reconciled to the people and the people to them, until all were
consolidated into one homogeneous nation. English history may be said
to have begun with the Conquest of William, for all previous history
in the island was but little more than the record of kings and nobles
and pretenders contending against kings, nobles, and pretenders, and
sections and factions and individuals seeking their own aggrandizement.
The Conquest of William began with the idea of all England under one
sovereign, and he and his successors clung to this view until it was
accomplished. England never went backward from William's Conquest as
it did from others, but kept right on in the course of empire until it
became one of the greatest countries in the world, and this conquest
was made by Scandinavians, who, if they did not make Scandinavians of
the conquered, so Scandinavianized them that it would be difficult to
distinguish them from Scandinavians.
The evolution of the English race from so many discordant national
elements reminds one of the act of the witches of Macbeth, casting
into the boiling cauldron so many strange things to draw from the
dark future a fact so important as the fate of a king. Who would have
thought that from the mingling of the Celts and the Romans and the
Angles and the Jutes and the Saxons and the Danes and the Normans and
the French in the great national cauldron that such a race as the
English would be evolved? But it is not certain that such a race would
have been produced if William the Scandinavian and his French had been
left out. He came at a time when a revolution was needed in manners and
language as well as in politics, and imparted that refinement which
the French had gotten from the Romans and other nations. The French
language so imparted soon began to infuse its softening influence
into the jargon of the conglomeration of tongues in vogue, and the
French manners to refine the clownish habits which had come down from
original Celt, Saxon, and Dane. The Saxons and Danes had inhabited
England for the four hundred years which followed the same period
occupied by the Romans, without materially changing the manners or the
language of the English, but it was not as long as either of these
periods after the Conquest before the Englishman acted and spoke like
a gentleman and belonged to a country which commanded the respect as
well as fear of all other nations. The Scandinavian's fondness for war
soon infused itself into the English and made them invincible upon both
land and sea, and now with a land which so envelopes the earth that
they boast the sun always shines on some part of it, they may look
back some hundreds of years to the origin of their greatness and find
no one thing which contributed more to the glory of England than the
Norman-French Conquest.
But the reader had better learn the views of Paul B. Du Chaillu, an
accomplished ethnologist and explorer, about the descent of the English
from the Scandinavians instead of the Teutons as set forth in Doctor
Pickett's book than from me in an introduction to it. Doctor Pickett
explains the Du Chaillu theory, and gives examples of similar tastes
and habits between English and Scandinavians which are striking. He
also gives a long list of names borne by Scandinavians in England
and Normandy eight hundred years ago which are the same as names
borne by Kentuckians to-day. In this introduction, I have rather
confined myself to such historic matters as are involved, without
alluding to the ethnological facts so well presented in the text by
the author. The work is beautifully and copiously illustrated with
halftone likenesses of the author and Du Chaillu and by a number of
distinguished Kentuckians of Scandinavian descent. There was both good
taste and skill in placing among the illustrations the likenesses of
Theodore O'Hara, John T. Pickett, Thomas T. Hawkins, and William L.
Crittenden, who joined the filibustering expeditions of Lopez to Cuba.
These distinguished citizens, like the Scandinavian vikings whom they
imitated, lost nothing of their character by raiding upon a neighbor's
lands, and are among the best examples of the theory of the descent of
the English-speaking people from Scandinavians rather than Teutons. To
be an admirer of this work it is not necessary to be a believer in the
theory of Du Chaillu, that the English are descended from Scandinavians
instead of Teutons. The truth is, all the northern nations connected
with England were kinsmen descended from the same stock--Celts, Romans,
Angles, Jutes, Saxons, and Danes all being of the Aryan branch of the
great Caucasian race. They are so much alike in some particulars that
fixed opinions about differences or likenesses between them are more or
less untenable. There is one thing, however, in the book about which
there can be no two opinions, and that is the value and importance
of the list of names copied from records eight hundred years old, in
England and Normandy. As many of them are the same as names now borne
by living families in Kentucky, they can hardly fail to be of help to
those in search of family genealogy. Doctor Pickett has presented in
this work the theory of Du Chaillu in charming words and with excellent
taste, as the theory of Du Chaillu and not as his own, and such has
been my effort with regard to myself in this introduction. It is simply
the resumption of a "Quest."
R. T. DURRETT,
_President of The Filson Club_.
ILLUSTRATIONS
OPPOSITE PAGE
Thomas E. Pickett, M. D., LL. D. _Frontispiece_
Paul B. Du Chaillu 4
King William the Conqueror 8
"The Map that Tells the Story" 12
George Rogers Clark 16
Daniel Boone 24
Isaac Shelby 32
Joseph Hamilton Daveiss 36
Henry Clay 40
Joseph Desha 48
Abraham Lincoln (bas relief) 56
"Our Beautiful Scandinavian" 64
Jefferson Davis 72
John C. Breckinridge 80
William Preston 88
Basil W. Duke 96
The Marshall Home at "Buck Pond" 104
Richard M. Johnson 112
J. Stoddard Johnston 120
Northumbria 128
Theodore O'Hara 136
John T. Pickett 144
Thomas T. Hawkins 152
William L. Crittenden 160
William Nelson 168
Humphrey Marshall 176
John J. Crittenden 184
Henry Watterson 192
Bennett H. Young 200
Reuben T. Durrett 208
CONTENTS
I
PAGE
THE "SCANDINAVIAN EXPLORER," DU CHAILLU, VISITS KENTUCKY--A
CORDIAL RECEPTION 1
II
BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT NEWCASTLE, 1889--A
SENSATIONAL PAPER--INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY OF MODERN
NORTHUMBRIA--A NOTABLE GROUP OF SAVANTS 10
III
REVELATIONS OF ANCIENT RECORDS BEARING UPON THE ORIGIN
OF THE ENGLISH RACE 20
IV
CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS OF THE EARLY NORMANS--TRANSMISSION
OF RACIAL QUALITIES--MID-CENTURY KENTUCKIANS 27
V
DOCTOR CRAIK'S VIEWS--ENGLISH MORE SCANDINAVIAN
THAN GERMAN--GEORGE P. MARSH--EDITORIAL COMMENT
ON THE "SENSATIONAL PAPER" 34
VI
SCANDINAVIANS AND KENTUCKIANS--CHARACTERISTIC
TRAITS IN COMMON--THEIR PASSION FOR THE "HORSE"--DONCASTER
RACES--"CABULLUS" IN NORMANDY--CRUSADING
"CAVALIERS"--THE "MAN-ON-HORSEBACK"--HIS
"EFFIGIES" ON ENGLISH SEALS--THE PRODUCTION
OF CAVALIERS--THE GRASSES 42
VII
A FRENCH SAVANT ON ENGLISH TYPES--WEISMANN'S
"THEORY"--"SNORRO STURLESON" QUOTED BY LORD
LYTTON--THE "HOMICIDAL HUMOR" NOT INVENTED BY
KENTUCKIANS, BUT POSSIBLY INHERITED--ANDREW D.
WHITE QUOTED 51
VIII
JOHN FISKE--ETHNIC DIFFERENTIATION--THE HINDOO AND
THE KENTUCKIAN--ARYAN BROTHERS--A BROAD HISTORIC
"HIGHWAY" FROM THE BALTIC SEA TO THE BLUEGRASS--STREAMS
OF SCANDINAVIAN MIGRATION--"THE
VIRGINIAN STATES"--ANGLO-NORMAN "LAWLESSNESS"--DEGENERATE
CASTES OR BREEDS--"POLITICAL
ASSASSINATION" AS PRACTICED BY NORMAN AND SAXON--"THE
HOMICIDAL HUMOR NOT AN INVENTION OF KENTUCKY"
(SHALER); NOT INVENTED, BUT DERIVED--ANDREW
D. WHITE ON THE AMERICAN MURDER RECORD 58
IX
PECULIAR NORMAN TRAITS--CRAFT--PROFANITY--A "SWEARING"
RACE--HISTORIC OATHS--KENTUCKIANS FULL OF
STRANGE OATHS 63
X
WILLIAM, THE NORMAN; NAPOLEON, THE CORSICAN; GREAT
ADMINISTRATORS--THE CONDITIONS OF ENGLISH
CIVILIZATION--AMERICAN STATESMEN 76
XI
EARLY VIRGINIAN HISTORY--RESEARCHES OF DOCTOR ALEXANDER
BROWN--KENTUCKY A DIRECT PRODUCT OF
ELIZABETHAN CIVILIZATION--THE "VIKINGS OF THE
WEST"--PROFESSOR BARRETT WENDELL'S VIEWS 83
XII
THE NORMAN AS A COLONIZER--AS A DEVASTATOR--REVIVAL
OF NORTHUMBRIA BY MODERN INDUSTRIALISM--THE
POWER OF SCANDINAVIAN ENERGY IN PUSHING THE
VICTORIES OF PEACE--ENGLISH UNITY ESTABLISHED
ON SALISBURY PLAIN--THE SCANDINAVIAN IN LITERATURE--SHAKESPEARE
AND HIS HISTORICAL PLAYS--PSYCHOLOGICAL
CONTRASTS OF MODERN SCANDINAVIAN
RACES--SHAKESPEARE'S FAVORITE AUTHOR--EVOLUTION
OF THE "MELANCHOLY DANE"--ADVICE FROM A THOUGHTFUL
FRENCHMAN: "LET US NOT DISOWN THE FORTUNE
AND CONDITION OF OUR ANCESTORS" 90
XIII
A BODY OF ANGLO-NORMAN NAMES IN KENTUCKY--CONCURRENT
TESTIMONY OF MANY COINCIDING FACTS--THE
RACE "LOST," BUT NOT THE NAMES--ETHNICAL TRANSMUTATIONS--THE
NORMANS EVERYWHERE AT HOME--DISRAELI
ON DESCENT--HIS THEORY OF TRANSMUTED
TRAITS--HÆCKEL--THE JUNGLE OF BOHUN--BERWICK
AND GASTON PHOEBUS--"ISAAC LE BON"--BISMARCK--NAPOLEON--MID-CENTURY
"CLAIMS OF RACE"--KENTUCKY
A SOVEREIGN COMMONWEALTH--SHELBY AND
PERRY 101
XIV
THE GOTHIC MIGRATION--SCANDINAVIAN PIRATES--THEIR
FOOT-PRINTS ON ENGLISH SOIL--NORMANS HOTLY
RECEIVED BY THEIR KINDRED, THE DANES--OLD GOTHIC
WARS--"THE YENGHEES AND THE DIXEES"--WESTWARD
MARCH OF THE TEUTON AND THE GOTH--GENESIS
OF THE SCANDINAVIAN--CRADLE OF THE RACE--ROLF
GANGER A POTENTIAL FORCE--RECONSTRUCTION OF THE
MODERN WORLD--WILLIAM OF NORMANDY 108
XV
STRAGGLERS IN THE GOTHIC MIGRATION--JUTES, ANGLES,
SAXONS--THE TWO GREAT RACES; TEUTONS AND SCANDINAVIANS--"MIXED
RACES" PLANTED ON THE SOUTHERN
SHORES OF THE NORTH SEA 114
XVI
AUTHENTIC LISTS OF OLD NORMAN NAMES--DESCENDANTS
OF ILLUSTRIOUS FAMILIES--THE NORMAN CAPACITY FOR
LEADERSHIP NOT "LOST"--ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF
NAMES (FROM "THE NORMAN PEOPLE"); ENGLISH
NAMES ORIGINALLY NORMAN--FAMILIAR AS HOUSEHOLD
WORDS IN KENTUCKY--A LEGAL MAXIM--ELEMENTS OF
THE ENGLISH RACE--PREPONDERANCE OF SCANDINAVIAN
BLOOD--STEVENSON AND DISRAELI--LORD LYTTON--MALTEBRUN--SCANDINAVIAN
CHARACTERISTICS--PHYSIQUE--SOCIAL
TRAITS--PASSION FOR "STRONG
LIQUOR"--HOSPITALITY 117
XVII
CAPTAIN SHALER QUOTED--MEASUREMENTS OF AMERICAN
SOLDIERS BY THE MATHEMATICIAN GOULD--SUPERIOR
PHYSICAL VIGOR OF THE "REBEL EXILES"--GENERAL
HUMPHREY MARSHALL--HIS AIDE CAPTAIN GUERRANT--GENERAL
WILLIAM NELSON--"THE ORPHAN BRIGADE"--HEREDITARY
SURNAMES AS MEMORIALS OF RACE--EVERY
STEP OF NORMAN MIGRATION NOTED BY THE
HISTORIC EYE--MONTALEMBERT--"MONKS OF THE WEST"--THE
RUDE SAXON TRANSFIGURED BY THE ELOQUENCE
OF THE GIFTED WRITER--A FIELD FOR THE PHILOLOGIST 123
XVIII
THE ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF NAMES--ANGLO-NORMAN
SURNAMES--NAMES OF OBVIOUS SCANDINAVIAN DERIVATION--THE
ORIGINAL DISCUSSION OF THE GENERAL
QUESTION--AN EXCERPT FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT--THE
"ELIZABETHAN" A PRODUCT OF A BALANCED RACE--THE
MARCH OF THE GOTH RESUMED--THE VIRGINIAN
HUNTER--THE YANKEE SKIPPER--A MAN OF OAK AND
BRONZE 126
XIX
NORMAN CRAFT--MR. FREEMAN QUOTED--POPULAR ATTRIBUTION
OF THE QUALITY--ITS VALUE IN MEDIÆVAL
DAYS--ITS PREVALENCE TO-DAY 131
XX
NAMES AND NOTES--KENTUCKIAN AND NORMAN--CHARACTERISTICS
IN COMMON--NORMAN TRAITS AND SAXON
NAMES--ESTIMATE OF THE KENTUCKIAN FROM AN
ENGLISH SOURCE 133
XXI
SHADOWS IN "ARCADY"--BRIEF PREFACE TO THE ALPHABETICAL
LIST 136
APPENDIX
ALPHABETICAL SERIES OF NORSE, NORMAN, AND ANGLO-NORMAN,
OR NON-SAXON, SURNAMES 141
THE QUEST FOR A LOST RACE
BY
THOMAS E. PICKETT, M. D.
I
Upon the northern border of Mr. James Lane Allen's "Arcady" there
rises with picturesque distinctness against a range of green hills the
pleasant old Kentucky town of Maysville, which, unlike the typical
town of the South, is neither "sleepy" nor "quaint," but in a notable
degree animated, bustling, ambitious, advancing, and up-to-date. It
must be confessed, however, that here and there, in certain secluded
localities, it is architecturally antique. Constructed almost wholly
of brick, and planted solidly upon the lower slopes of the wooded
hills, the site is indescribably charming, and, looked at from a
distant elevation in front or from the elevated plateau of the
environing hills, presents a pleasing completeness and finish in the
_coup d'oeil_. At one glance the eye takes in the compact little
city, set gem-like in the crescentic sweep of the river that flows
placidly past the willow-fringed shore and the walled and graded front.
The scene is likewise suggestive, since it marks the northern limit
of the "phosphatic limestone" formation which assures the permanent
productiveness of the overlying soil--a natural fertilizer which
by gradual disintegration perpetually renews the soil exhausted by
prolonged or injudicious cultivation.
The town is of Virginian origin. At one time, indeed, it was a
Virginian town. The rich country to the south of it was peopled chiefly
by tobacco planters from "Piedmont" Virginia, slaveholding Virginians
of a superior class.
In the infancy of this early Virginian settlement it was vigilantly
guarded by the famous Occidental hunters, Kenton and Boone; the former
a commissioner of roads for the primitive Virginian county, then
ill-cultivated and forest clad: the latter, a leading "trustee" of the
embryonic Eighteenth Century town. As we pass through the streets near
the center of the place to-day we note the handsome proportions of a
public edifice which has come down to us from the early mid-century
days--an imposing "colonial" structure with a lofty, well-proportioned
cupola and a nobly columned front. It is that significant symbol of
Southern civilization--the Courthouse. To the artistic and antiquarian
eye the building is the glory of the old "Virginian" town, since it
appeals at once to civic pride and superior critical taste.
It was here--in the capacious auditorium of the Courthouse, and in the
closing quarter of the last century--that a large and enthusiastic
gathering of really typical Kentuckians, familiar from childhood with
tales of wild adventure, greeted with rapturous applause the renowned
hunter and explorer, Paul Du Chaillu, a native of Paris, France. A
common taste for woodcraft had brought the alien elements in touch.
The Frenchman was a swell hunter of big game, and had come hither to
repeat his graphic recital of experiences in the equatorial haunts of
that formidable anthropoid--the Gorilla. Du Chaillu's discovery of the
gorilla and the Obonga dwarfs was so astounding to modern civilization
that strenuous efforts were made to discredit it, notably by Gray and
Barth. But later explorations amply vindicated the Frenchman's claims.
He had a like experience later. The adventurous explorer had come to
Kentucky in prompt response to an invitation from a local club, a
social and literary organization which owed its popularity and success
chiefly to the circumstance that the genial members, though sometimes
intemperately "social," were never obtrusively "literary." The social
feature was particularly pleasing to the accomplished Frenchman, who
was a man of the world in every sense, and who dropped easily into
congenial relations with gentlemen who had an hereditary and highly
cultivated taste for _le sport_ in all its phases. Take them when or
where you might, the spirit of _camaraderie_ was in them strong. They
told a good story in racy English and with excellent taste. They had
studied with discrimination the composition of a Bourbon "cocktail."
They had a distinctly connoisseurish appreciation of the flavor,
fragrance, and tints of an Havana cigar. They had a traditional
preference for Bourbon in their domestic and social drinking, but they
always kept ample supplies of imported wines for their guests.
The genial Frenchman was very indulgent to the generous tipple of his
hosts. He drank their Bourbon without apparent distaste; he praised
their imported Mumm and Clicquot. He did better still; he drank the
imported champagne with appreciation--a high compliment from such a
source.
[Illustration: PAUL B. DUCHAILLU.]
Clearly enough the harmony between the guest and his environment was
complete. These courteous and loquacious Kentuckians were not only
brilliant and audacious _raconteurs_, but with their varied experiences
as sportsmen had a variety of marvelous stories to tell. When their
stock of pioneer exploits fell short, they would listen with polite
interest to their guest's weird stories of the African jungle, and
cleverly cap them with reminiscences of a miraculous outing on Reelfoot
Lake or Kinniconick. They were themselves experts with the rifle and
the long bow, and were loaded to the muzzle with authentic traditions
of the rod and gun.
The jungle stories were all right, but the African hunter was never
allowed to forget that he was in the land of the hunter Boone. The
very ground upon which they commemoratively wassailed had been
consecrated by the footsteps of the great explorer of the West. The
beastly "anthropoids" that confronted _him_ were armed with tomahawks
and guns. A salient point of difference indeed. The clever and daring
Frenchman listened with smiling interest to their characteristic spurts
of "brag," and was silently remarking, no doubt, its curious affinity
to the gasconade of France. He seemed to feel perfectly at home. And
who of us that were present can ever forget the impression of that
dark, resolute face, the illumining smile, the gleaming teeth, and the
kindly, humorous glance of the piercing eye? His experiences at the
clubroom only partially prepared him for the peculiar impressiveness of
the audience that greeted him at the stately old Courthouse. There were
the same men, to be sure, handsome, graceful, courteous, smiling, and
soft of speech; but the women!--with their lovely faces, their handsome
dresses, their enchanting manners, their distinction, ease and charm!
The Frenchman was never more of a philosopher than when he gazed upon
this scene.
He told his tale of the jungle simply, but with a vividness that was
realistic and startling to a degree. The fascination of the audience
was complete. He not only described that strange encounter in the
African forest, but he re-enacted the part, a representation which gave
a curiously thrilling quality to the tale not appreciable when told in
print, admirably as it is told in the author's famous book.
When the voice of the speaker ceased, as it did all too soon, the
silent, fascinated audience, aroused from its strange African dream,
broke into round after round of hearty, appreciative applause. For
several moments the lecturer stood in a grave, thoughtful attitude,
gazing intently upon the moving throng, not as though idly observing
the dispersion of a village gathering, but as some philosophic tourist
from another sphere, studying the aspect, the attitude, characteristic
manner and physiognomical traits of an alien race. He asked but one
question. Turning eagerly to the gentleman who accompanied him, he
inquired with an expression of intense interest, as his glance fell
upon a graceful Kentuckienne near the center of the throng--a lovely
blonde with exquisite complexion, hair and eyes--"Who is our beautiful
Scandinavian?"[2] The answer seemed to please him, and he walked
thoughtfully toward the door, an object of respectful attention from
the slow-moving throng, lingering as if it longed to stay. Though of
small stature, he would have attracted attention anywhere. His figure
was compact, lithe, elastic, and perfectly erect, his cranial outline
(typically French) denoted intellectual strength and physical vigor,
his facial contour was bold, regular, and pleasing--a singularly virile
countenance softened and dignified by the discipline of thought.
The crowd of which he is now the central figure is composed largely
of men wholly different from Du Chaillu in air, stature, carriage,
countenance, complexion, and racial type. Yet Nature seldom evolves
from any source a solider bit of man than this gallant Frenchman from
the heart of France.
[2] OUR BEAUTIFUL SCANDINAVIAN.--It may interest the general public
to know that "The Beautiful Scandinavian" of the French traveler was
Mrs. Elizabeth Wall, wife of that popular gentleman, Judge Garrett
S. Wall. Her maiden name was BUCKNER--Elizabeth Buckner--a native
of Kentucky and daughter of a famous Southern house. That she was
a very beautiful woman, her portrait (taken years after marriage)
amply attests; and until her ill-health came, her beauty retained,
in almost ideal perfection, its characteristic grace and charm. The
Beautiful Scandinavian, from whose portrait in oil a halftone likeness
is presented in this book, now takes her place in history and moves
down its interminable lines with an escort that recalls the "bands of
gallant gentlemen" attendant upon FAIR INEZ when she "went into the
West."
The distinguished guest took his departure on the following day, not
with a cold adieu, but with an airy _au revoir_--as of one who, charmed
with his welcome, was meditating an early return. But was he pleased?
Apparently he _was_, and if not, he had the Frenchman's happy art of
_seeming to be_. If here simply for observation, he certainly found
no degeneracy, but rather, we should say, certain pleasing lines of
variation in the Occidental evolution of the race. It seems impossible
that he should not have had a pleasant impression of his hosts--these
genial sons of "Arcady," forever piping their minty elixirs with
oaten straws, whose drinks even when "straightest" were not stronger
than their steady heads--so hospitable to strangers, so chivalrous to
women, so courteous to men, so gracious in manner, so happy in speech,
so loyal to kin, so proud of their Commonwealth, their ancestral
traditions, and their indomitable race. They drank naught from the
skulls of their enemies, but they were adepts in filling their own.
Their potations were pottle deep, and the intervals between were not
needlessly prolonged. And yet they rose refreshed from their heady
cups, ordered their stud a drench, and sighed for work.
[Illustration: KING WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.]
The adventurous Frenchman was no glutton in debauch, but in a modest
symposium could always hold his own, and doubtless imagined in this
festal reunion of Bourbon and Champagne that he had re-discovered the
_Nouvelle France_ of the royal days when Louis le Grand was King.[3]
[3] M. Paul Du Chaillu's visit to Maysville (which is here described)
took place in February, 1876. His arrival was handsomely noticed in the
local papers--in the _Eagle_, edited by Mr. Thomas Marshall Green, the
author of "The Spanish Conspiracy"; the _Ledger_, edited by Mr. Thomas
A. Davis, who still presides over its columns with all the old-time
ability; and the _Bulletin_, edited by Mr. Clarence L. Stanton, a son
of Judge R. H. Stanton, and a gallant officer in the Confederate Navy
during the Civil War. All these gentlemen were present at the lecture,
and the distinguished traveler was introduced to the audience by
Colonel Thomas M. Green. The lecture was followed by an entertainment
at the Limestone Club, which was pleasantly noticed by Captain Stanton
in his paper of the following day. The Committee of Reception and
Entertainment was composed of Major Thomas H. Mannen, Judge Garrett
S. Wall, Colonel Francis P. Owens, and Doctor Thomas E. Pickett (the
President of the Club).
II
In the early autumn of 1889, the writer of this paper had the good
fortune to be present at the Newcastle meeting of the British
Association. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, standing at the very gateway of
Scotland and looking out from the Tyne upon the great North Sea, is a
famous old city in English history, that lay directly in the path of
conquest and migration and was literally cradled in war, alternately
rocked by Scandinavian or Dane, Saxon or Norman, Englishman or Scot.
To-day it is big, prosperous, and progressive; even in the midst of
peace perpetually sounding the note of preparation for war. True to its
oldest and best traditions it is staunchly loyal to the Crown, proudly
proclaiming its fealty on every coast, from the mouths of mighty guns
cast in its own Cyclopean shops. From the days of the Scandinavian
sea-rover through centuries of ruthless conflict she has stood out
stoutly against the enemies of England, just as to-day her long
sea-front of solid wall resists the encroachments of the Northern sea.
Here the shipbuilder is ceaselessly busy, constructing in his immense
yards the great modern ship with its heart of fire and frame of
steel. In any large yards the whole scheme of construction in all
its branches may be seen at a glance, from the laying of the keel to
the launching of the ship. The best work in modern engineering can be
seen on the Tyne; and this is not surprising when we remember that
upon the banks of this river the Locomotive was born, giving to this
aggressive contemporary people a command of the earth as complete as
their immemorial mastery of the sea. So enormous is the demand for fuel
in the shipyards of the North-east Coast that it will take but a few
centuries of work in these busy shops to exhaust the supply. The old
proverb has lost its point. The most careless or unobservant tourist
may see the steam-drawn trains "carrying their coals" to Newcastle,
_now_, at all hours.
Nor does the Northern farmer sit with idle hands. All industries
rest upon him. The farms are small, but the joint product is large.
Thousands of farm laborers in Northumberland have each their "three
acres and a cow." The Northern cattle-market in Newcastle would have
filled the Highland caterans with delight. The weekly supply of cattle
exceeds two thousand; the number of sheep is not less than twenty
thousand. This was nearly twenty years ago. What must it be now? But
even thus, how it speaks for the varied gifts and exhaustless vigor
and vitality of this old Northumbrian race! Their rage for "river
improvement" carries a lesson for men of their blood elsewhere. Between
1860 and 1889 the material dredged from the bed of the river Tyne
amounted to more than _eighty millions_ of tons. "Now,"--it was said
at the Newcastle meeting--"there are more vessels entering and leaving
this port _than any other in the world_." Among the outgoing vessels
at that time was a gallant Norwegian barque which bore the name of
"Longfellow." A few years before--a score, perhaps--the writer had seen
upon a famous track in Kentucky a racer of great note who bore the
same illustrious name--almost a contemporaneous compliment from widely
separate branches of the same race. But what more enduring than the
singer's own verse?--
"Once as I told in glee
Tales of the stormy sea."
A fit place of meeting--this old gateway of the North--for a select
body of England's brilliant, busy, clear-headed and practical savants,
and especially for that marvelously fruitful mid-century "section"
which here first received supreme scientific recognition, having been
organized at the Newcastle meeting by the British Association in 1863.
[Illustration: "THE MAP THAT TELLS THE STORY."]
Though the youngest of the sections, its proceedings are singularly
fascinating and the attendance always large. The meeting was held in
the reading-room of the Free Library. Upon a long, low platform
to the left of the entrance there sat facing the audience, a group,
not of "scientists," but of really scientific men, their names as
familiar to the English reading world as household words. The central
figure of the group, Sir William Turner of Edinburgh, was the chairman
of the section--a man of striking personality, who read a paper on
Weismann and his theories which was listened to with closest attention,
the novelty of the doctrines eliciting many expressions of doubt or
dissent, though presented by the author of the paper with singular
lucidity, fairness, and force. Sir William graced his position
well, not merely by reason of intellectual gifts, but by virtue of
a personal dignity which admirably comported with his commanding
presence. He was a large, handsome man, with a robust frame, an
erect carriage, and a notably aggressive air. Seated near him, and
firmly supporting his somewhat heavy presence, were a number of men
with world-renowned names--Francis Galton, famous for his studies in
heredity and the publication of an epochal work; Sir Henry Acland,
a learned anthropologist and medical scholar--a thinker of deep and
varied scientific resource; Boyd Dawkins, the pioneer "Cave Hunter"
and writer upon prehistoric archæology; John Evans, an able, learned,
and industrious writer upon archæological themes; Doctor Bruce, the
eminent historian of the Roman Wall; General Pitt Rivers, equally
famous as soldier and savant, a quiet, dark-faced gentleman of easy,
pleasant manners, dressed in the plainest fashion and judiciously
expending an income of £30,000 a year. His large benefactions for
scientific purposes made him truly a Prince of Science, gracious,
munificent, and wise. The most striking and conspicuous figure in
this solid English line was George Romanes, then in his prime and
in apparently perfect health, tall, erect, dark-haired, with pale,
handsome features and scholarly, high-bred air--a most impressive
personification of intellectual pride and strength. As he sat in
the midst of that animated group, cold, proud, silent but keenly
observant, he vividly recalled the figure of the famous Kentuckian
who once presided over the United States Senate, calmly noting the
portents of impending war. In both, one easily discerned the same high
qualities of intellect, resolution, and reserved force. By the side of
the stately Romanes there sat the learned and vivacious Canon Isaac
Taylor, slender, gray-haired, keen-eyed, alert, humorous, and full
of tact--one of those clerical scholars and gentlemen who have done
so much for English literature and have been a characteristic charm
of English social life--men most admirably depicted by the novelist
Bulwer in his better moods. Canon Taylor was the most animated
figure in this noble English group. Near him sat two foreigners,
each in curiously striking contrast with the other; one of these, a
tall, ruddy, broad-shouldered blonde, with a strong, lithe, well-knit
frame, an eager, alert expression, and a somewhat restless air,
was the celebrated Scandinavian explorer Fridjof Nansen, then just
twenty-six years of age, but already made world-famous by his recent
explorations in the polar seas. At the left of the young Scandinavian,
and presenting a remarkable contrast to that impressive figure, there
sat a somewhat older man of small stature, of compact, vigorous frame,
of clear, dark complexion, keen, clear, thoughtful eyes, and features
typically French. The reader recognizes the description at once. It
is our old friend, Du Chaillu, who has come to the northern coast of
England, and standing in the very pathway of old Scandinavian invasions
and confronting some of England's best thinkers upon their own ground,
has calmly looked out upon the "grim--troubled" sea of England's Saxon
King and boldly proclaimed his theory of the direct Scandinavian origin
of the English race.
It was the sensational paper of the day, and even the most phlegmatic
English scholar was stirred by this defiant bugle-blast from a
philosophic French explorer who was not only disturbing the settled
convictions of English thinkers, but still worse was running counter
to cherished prejudices of the English race. That historic hyphenation
of racial appellatives--"Anglo-Saxon"--was a sacred immemorial
conjunction of names representing a fusion of racial elements not
to be shaken asunder by a blast upon the ram's horn of a wandering
Gaul. The assault was not altogether "Pickwickian"; but the Frenchman
was a stout antagonist, and found an incidental confirmation of his
theory in the occasional flash of Berserker rage which followed his
masterly game of parry and thrust. Nor was he ill-equipped for his
controversial work. From certain antiquities which he had found
during his recent explorations in the North he inferred the existence
of commercial relations between the Northmen of that period and the
peoples of the Mediterranean Sea, Rome and Greece being at that time
in direct communication with these seafaring peoples of the North. The
tribes of Germania, on the contrary, were "a shipless people," and
according to the Roman writers were still in an uncivilized state.
He said there were settlements in Britain by the Northmen during the
Roman occupation; that England was always called by the Northmen
one of their Northern lands; that the language of the North and of
England were similar in the early times; that the early Northern Kings
claimed part of England as their own; that the Northmen were bold
and enterprising navigators, pushing their explorations wherever a
ship could survive the perils of the sea. On the contrary, neither the
Saxons nor the Franks were a seafaring people, either at the time of
Charlemagne or at any earlier period.
[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.]
It was this Scandinavian element which had infused a spirit of
enterprise into the _English race that they had never lost_, and which
had made it in all its branches, wherever they had sailed their fleets
or pushed their invading columns, the invincible masters of earth
and sea. Its resistless movement across the American continent, he
declared, was the most dramatic spectacle in history.
This, in brief, was the Frenchman's startling theory; first broached
in England on the borders of that rude North Sea which the Vikings had
swept in early days, and upon the banks of the peaceful Tyne, where
many a Scandinavian rover had moored his little barque. The discussion
of M. Du Chaillu's paper took a wide range, all the distinguished
ethnologists present--Dawkins, Taylor, Turner, Evans, Galton, and
others--participating in this rattling ethnological debate. Du Chaillu,
who had very much the attitude of a French _suspect_ in a German camp,
maintained throughout his Gallic _aplomb_, listening with admirable
composure and with apparent interest, though his dark skin visibly
reddened at times under the critical lash, however courteously applied.
Canon Taylor, who evidently was in full sympathy with Du Chaillu's
startling views, gave a happy turn to the little imbroglio by a
cleverly parodied quotation from Tennyson's Welcome to the Sea-King's
Daughter from over the Sea--
"For Saxon or Dane or Norman,
Teuton or Celt--or whatever we--
Saxon or Norse--it is nothing to me,
We are all of us _one in our welcome of thee_,"
the closing line being given with a politely sympathetic inclination of
the head toward the gentleman from France, and with a gracious smile
more expressive than his words--the smile interpreting to his hearers
the startling disclaimer: "It is nothing to me." The clever ecclesiast
read a very learned paper at the same meeting on a similar theme, and
the two gentlemen who sat near him, Du Chaillu and Nansen, were ideal
representatives of two of his four ethnological types, the Auvergnat
type of Central France and the long-headed Scandinavian of the North.
Indeed, as a matter for courteous rational discussion the question of
"Saxon or Norse" had the profoundest interest for the amiable savant,
who seemed to possess in perfection that fine philosophical quality of
intellect which the French have happily termed _justesse d'esprit_--a
quality of mind in which even the ablest disputant may sometimes be
deficient.
But, nothing disconcerted by criticism or compliment, M. Du Chaillu
remarked, with cold dignity, as he rose in final response: "Opinions,
gentlemen, may differ in England from opinions in France, but the
truth on both sides of the Channel is the same"--a sentiment to which
all present responded with that fine sympathy and with that perfect
courtesy "wherein--to derogate from none--the true heroic English
gentleman hath no peer."
III
"Every schoolboy" (to quote Macaulay) is familiar with the salient
facts in the history of the Normans; their origin in Scandinavia;
the seizure of a fertile province in France (wrung from a _fainéant_
heir of Charlemagne); their extraordinary evolution as the great
ethnic force of the period; their absolute mastery of sea and land
on every shore, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, and notably
their Conquest of England, their perfect fusion with the conquered
peoples, and the resulting evolution of the English race. All this
is commonplace to every historical reader. But recent investigators,
going deeper, have inquired if the laws, institutions, language, and
material constructions which mark the pathway of Norman conquest are
simply the memorials of an extinct race? Is the Norman still living,
still powerful, progressive, and prolific? Or is it an exhausted racial
force, pithless, impotent, and effete, with no recognizable evidence
of its ancient prepotency in racial struggles for existence in the
conflicts of the past? Or, in a word, is it, as Mr. Freeman affirms,
a Lost Race? The answer to these questions depends largely upon the
answer to other queries, to wit: Was the conquest and sequential
settlement of England merely a military invasion? or was it a vast
popular migration such as America has witnessed in later times? or was
it not in point of fact both--an invasion and a migration, the one
following the other?
England was not conquered in a day. The battle of Hastings was
decisive, but not conclusive. There was a long and bloody struggle
before the invading force. Nearly _four_ years (the duration of our
"Civil War") of close, desperate fighting must be encountered before
the work of subjugation could be declared complete. Every gap in the
ranks of the invader must be filled by the importation of forces from
abroad. There was a perpetual draft upon the Continental populations,
and a ceaseless "rushing of troops to the front," precisely as in
the protracted "War between the States." All Europe had become the
recruiting ground of the Conqueror. He was peopling England even in the
midst of war; and when the period of "reconstruction" came the stream
of migration continued to flow. England was the bourn from which no
_immigrant_ returned; and under the military or reconstructive methods
of the Conqueror, every _invader_ was permanently planted upon the soil.
Apparently, these considerations furnish a conclusive answer to certain
critical objections which shall be cited as we proceed. The facts upon
which our conclusions rest are found, chiefly, in the official records
of England and in the authentic annals of the Anglo-Norman races.
Here, then, we must infer the existence of an immense multitude of
Norman immigrants mingling and eventually fusing with the subjugated
race. What has been the result of this intimate commingling of
ethnic elements upon English soil? Is it possible that so daring and
successful a gamester as the Norman was lost in the shuffle when an
auspicious destiny was directing the game? The writer of this paper
thinks that he found in the great Library of the British Museum
evidence that the Norman people are still a power upon this planet; to
be as carefully counted with in the struggles of the future as in the
conflicts of the past.
Recent investigation has disclosed the fact that contemporary records
in England and Normandy--records of two different countries of seven
hundred years' standing, relating to different branches of the same
race--are so minutely detailed as to enable the philosophic enquirer
"to trace the identity of families and even individuals, in two
countries." And this has been done by placing the Great Rolls of the
Norman Exchequer in juxtaposition with similar English records of
the Twelfth Century. This comparative juxtaposition of contemporary
official records of kindred races geographically separate has been
made the basis of an alphabetical series of English or Anglo-Norman
surnames, which is remarkably full, though necessarily incomplete since
the compiler, a very able English scholar, was not in position to
enumerate all the families then extant; but it contains five times as
many names as the famous Battle Abbey Roll, and conclusively shows that
the ancestry of the intellectual aristocracy of England was Norman.
The Anglo-Saxon and the Dane were shown to be in a hopeless minority.
The enquiry which resulted in the compilation of the alphabetical list
was restricted entirely to surnames of a purely Norman origin still
existing in England. A third or more of this English population is
Norman, directly descended from the Norman migration that preceded,
accompanied, or followed the Conquest.
Can evidence be more conclusive that the Norman was neither
extinguished nor absorbed by the sluggish Saxon who accepted his yoke?
Mr. Thomas Hardy, in his powerful fiction, "Tess," plainly accepts
the conclusiveness of these views. His heroine, though of humble
origin, clearly owed her involuntary seductiveness and fatal charm to
the transmitted potency of her Norman blood, and it is said that in
certain secluded parts of England may be found to-day rural or village
populations of the same class gathered about some old Norman castle,
donjon, or keep; their Norman descent distinctly visible in their
inherited personal traits; a certain characteristic combination of
intellect, courage, beauty, and social charm distinguishing them at
a glance from the dull, heavy, long-bodied, short-legged, unshapely
Saxon of a neighboring town or shire. The same restless blood or the
same spirit of adventure which brought the Scandinavian to Normandy and
the Norman to English soil, in time drove him to the great settlements
beyond the Atlantic Sea--settlements known by the English of to-day as
"The States." Their brethren in Ireland followed in great numbers at
a later day, and, wherever in recent wars the American flag has been
unfurled, "the fighting race" has stood beneath its folds--always in
force and always at the front, each with the line of battle beneath his
feet and the fire of battle in his eye.
"We fight wheriver a gintleman should,"
Says Murphy, and Kelly, and Shea;
"We fight wheriver the fighting is good;
And here's to the good, straight fighting blood!"
Says Murphy, and Kelly, and Shea.
[Illustration: DANIEL BOONE.]
Thither, too, came the indomitable Scot, precisely as he came in the
Colonial and Revolutionary days. "The Lowland race," says Mackintosh,
"Briton and NORMAN and Saxon and Dane, gave the world a new man--the
Sea Rover, the Border Soldier, the Pioneer.... The folk speech, from
Northumberland to the Clyde and the Forth, is Northern English or
Lowland Scotch; and the future man of Bannockburn and KING'S MOUNTAIN
is beginning to appear. He is the man with the blood of the Sea Rover
mixed with the blood of the Borderer, and the soldier, the scholar
and thinker, the statesman and lawyer, the trader and farmer." He is
the man that crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains as a pioneer. He is
the man that sat in the conventions that organized the State, and
stood in an unbroken line in all the pioneer battles of his race.
The earliest migration of the Anglo-Norman folk was to the Colony of
Virginia, as many of the old Virginian surnames, Bacon, Baskerville,
Boys (Bois), Cabell, Clay, etc., clearly attest; and the State of
Kentucky deriving a large population of English descent from Virginia,
we should naturally find a strong infusion of Anglo-Norman blood in the
people of this State--an inference fully sustained by the transcript of
Anglo-Norman surnames which the writer made from the list that he found
in the great Library in London.
The late Professor Shaler is frequently quoted to the effect that
ethnological research discloses the existence in Kentucky of the
largest body of nearly pure English folk to be found on the face of
the globe--that has been separated for two hundred years from the
parent English stock. But the facts do not warrant the assumption that
the Kentuckian is of purely "Anglo-Saxon" derivation. In _him_, at
least, the blood of the Norman is not wholly lost. He _is_, however, as
Professor Shaler says, an "Elizabethan" Englishman.
We print elsewhere a list of names familiar to Kentuckians, which
clearly points to the same general conclusion. With more leisure and
space this list might be greatly extended.
IV
But what are the characteristic traits of the Norman as we find
him in his early habitat in France? We are told by a contemporary
observer--Geoffrey Malaterra--that the typical or "composite" Norman
of his day was prodigiously astute, a passionate lover of litigation,
an eloquent speaker, skilled in diplomacy, sagacious in council,
convincing in debate; a son of the Church, but not too deferential to
prelates nor too precise in the observance of ecclesiastical forms; a
bold and tireless litigant, but not over-scrupulous in his methods of
procedure and not always strictly judicial in his construction of the
law. "If he was born a soldier," said Edward Freeman, "he was also a
born lawyer." In spite of this pronounced legal _penchant_ he was swift
(if not restrained) to disregard and override the law; in the phrase
of the old chronicler, the _gens_ was _effrenatissima_--recklessly
wild, unbridled and dangerous, _nisi jugo justitiæ prematur_; daring,
resolute, destructive in mutiny or revolt; seditious, piratical or
even revolutionary, unless the reins of government were in strong and
competent hands.
We had a notable mid-century exemplification of this "unbridled"
quality of temper in the introductory _razzia_ of Lopez at Cardenas.
When the Kentuckians, whose unerring rifles had crumpled up the
Spanish cavalry and successfully covered the slow retreat of Lopez
to the sea, were followed by the pursuing warship _Pizarro_ into the
harbor of Key West, nothing daunted they coolly seized the United
States fort, took possession of its batteries, and deliberately
trained its guns upon the Spanish man-of-war. _Gens effrenatissima_,
indeed. The fighting habits of the Liberators were notoriously loose
(especially under tropical suns); but what is to be particularly noted
in this instance is, that the reins of power in our highly civilized
government were unpardonably lax. It is possible, however, that the
reckless and "unbridled" conduct of the Kentuckians was due, in part,
to the circumstance that the chaplain of the Expedition had been killed.
The subsequent official investigation showed to the entire satisfaction
of our Anglo-Norman lawyers that practically everything had been done
under "the forms of law."
The word _effrenatus_ was almost overworked by Cicero. It perfectly
described the Catilines of old Rome and the banded ruffians that
wrought their will. But in his very lawlessness the Norman of Malaterra
never forgot the _law_. He scrupulously observed its "forms." Even
the Conquest of England was "justified" by a pronunciamento of
legal assumptions subtly and elaborately drawn. The Norman was a
shrewd and successful trafficker, and this tradition of commercial
skill and thrift is current in Normandy to-day. When he settled on
English soil or sailed in English ships he did not lose his inherited
commercial instincts. He made England the trading nation that she
is. An eminent Kentuckian, who bore the distinctive marks of Norman
blood, once said to a group of keenly attentive listeners, "The
meanest of all aristocracies is a commercial aristocracy." A like
disparaging conception of a powerful adversary was implied in the
remark attributed to Napoleon, that "the English were a nation of
shop-keepers"--_un peuple marchand_. It was this same race of innocuous
Anglo-Norman traffickers that crushed Napoleon's iron columns at
Waterloo, and forever closed his conquering career. But the Norman, who
was a soldier, a lawyer, a diplomatist, orator, hunter, horseman and
trader, was also a successful cultivator of the soil, and the Norman
agriculturist of to-day who reminds the tourist in his physical traits,
hair, eyes, and complexion, and even in the intonations of his voice,
of an English farmer of the Anglo-Norman type, bears a more striking
resemblance to his English kinsman indeed than to his dark-visaged
compatriot, the _vigneron_ of Southern France. We must add, to complete
the portraiture left us by Malaterra, that the Norman was a passionate
lover of horses, of the breed immortalized by the genius of Bonheur;
a bold equestrian, skilled in the use of arms; at home upon the sea,
and literally reared in the lap of war. And he was also a brilliant
orator, passionately fond of eloquent speech. From his early boyhood,
says the chronicler, he assiduously cultivated his natural aptitude for
that persuasive art, that power of ready and effective utterance which,
though often profane, made him dominant in the councils of war and of
peace; in the cabinets of diplomacy, and even in the chamber of the
King. _Gens astutissima_ beyond all doubt.
To return to our beginning--what think you was in the mind of Paul
Du Chaillu as he stood that memorable evening before an audience
of mid-century Kentuckians?--this philosophic thinker who had been
for years a critical observer of "the most dramatic spectacle in
history"--the sweeping, ceaseless, transcontinental march of the
Anglo-Norman race--what did he think of the environing conditions as he
stood in that old Courthouse which had resounded with the eloquence of
Anglo-Norman orators; which had echoed and re-echoed generation after
generation to the "Oyez!" "Oyez!" of Anglo-Norman sheriffs? and which
was still standing, an impressive memorial of days when the ground upon
which it was built was the camping-ground of the dominant figure in
this Westward march--the Anglo-Norman leader Boone or "Bohun"--a name
which in its very sound or utterance (_mugitus boum_) was in "dark and
bloody" times a challenge to mortal combat--a deep bellowing defiance
of "battle to the death"?
What were his thoughts as he looked with wondering eyes upon that
charming Southern matron with her fair, delicate features and high-bred
air? Was the vision a vivid reminder of blue-eyed "Scandinavian"
maidens with faces as white as their native snows and locks with the
softened shimmer of the midnight sun? One must acknowledge that the
very exquisiteness of form and tint made this a rare type, even in
Kentucky, but there were many interesting variations of it to be seen
at our great mid-century "Fairs"--from the rich "auburn" of Marie
Stuart to the "carroty" tresses of the Virgin Queen--framing lovely
faces and crowning tall, willowy figures of queenly mold. But probably
the prevailing tint of hair was that ascribed by the wizard romancer to
the Lady Rowena--with her dash of Scandinavian blood--something between
flaxen and brown; all in clear and brilliant contrast with a type that
glowed with the superb brunette finish of Southern and Central France.
Had Du Chaillu been with us in earlier days we could have shown him
likewise figures of a striking masculine type--tall, soldierly figures
that might have graced the "Viking age"--men who, after the fashion of
early Norman days, would have been equally at home in camp or court.
One of these gallant gentlemen, whom many of us remember, was in some
respects a striking counterpart of a Scandinavian sailor that figures
in a late romance, "Wolf Larsen"; like him even in the soubriquet
prefixed to his Scandinavian name; of gigantic stature and strength;
big-brained, passionate, strong-willed, energetic, proud, combative and
sagacious, with a deep instinctive love of the sea. But his chronic
irascibility of temper, often manifest on trifling provocation in
unbridled bursts of Berserker rage, sadly marred the brilliancy of his
military career, and engendered deep and implacable enmities which
brought his career as a soldier to a speedy and tragical close.
[Illustration: GOVERNOR ISAAC SHELBY.]
In other respects he radically differed from Norsemen of the Wolf
Larsen type. In his relations with his family and friends he was
delicate, generous, and kind; the tenderest of sons, the kindest
brother, the most devoted and loyal of friends: a lover of literature,
music, and the finer pleasures of social life. Strangest of all, he was
reverent and devout. He respected the forms of the Church, and every
night, even in the rude environment of the camp, he knelt beside his
soldier's couch and repeated the Lord's Prayer. But the soubriquet
fastened upon him both by resentful enemies and admiring friends
recalls his fictitious counterpart--Wolf Larsen. Whenever the name of
the Federal commander came up for discussion during our great Civil
War--whether in Confederate camp or by Kentucky firesides, or by the
campfires of his own loyal division--he was invariably known, by reason
of his huge figure, his big bovine head, his flaming black eyes,
his fierce, tumultuous energies, his headlong courage and gigantic
strength, by the soubriquet "Bull"--BULL NELSON--a sea-trained soldier
with a bellowing soubriquet prefixed to an honored racial name--a
mid-century Kentuckian, who in mediæval battle might have swung the
battle-axe of Front-de-Boeuf.
There were many others--Kentuckians of an ideal Anglo-Norman type--who
would have brought to M. Du Chaillu the strongest confirmation of his
philosophic views had he visited us during the cyclonic "sixties," or
in that halcyon interlude "before the war."
V
Returning now to the discussion of the masterly paper read by M. Du
Chaillu at the British Association,[4] we may consider certain aspects
of the question more in detail; conceding at the same time full credit
to the ability of the disputants who dissented from the views expressed
by the foreign savant. M. Du Chaillu was peculiarly fortunate in his
critics. If his theory should survive the searching and trenchant
criticisms of such men, his scholarship would command respect even if
they should decline to accept his conclusions in full.
[4] British Association for the Advancement of Science, Newcastle
Meeting, 1889.
A loyal Briton does not lightly abandon what he conceives to be
established or traditional views. This trait does not imply defect of
philosophic insight or want of wide research. It denotes simply the
influence of prepossession, opinionated habit, and conscious power.
Nor is this influence unusual. Scholars differ even as "doctors"
disagree. Dr. George Craik, whose name is familiar to every scholar
of the English race, was liberal enough to concede, a quarter of a
century before the advent of Du Chaillu as a Scandinavian protagonist,
that the English language might have more of a Scandinavian than of a
purely Germanic character; or, in other words, "more nearly resembled
the Danish or Swedish than the modern German." The invading bands, he
adds, by whom the dialect was originally brought over into Britain in
the Fifth and Sixth centuries, were in all probability drawn in great
part from the Scandinavian countries. At a still later date, too, this
English population was directly and largely recruited from Denmark and
the regions around the Baltic. Eastern and Northern England, from the
middle of the Ninth Century, "was as much Danish as English." In the
Eleventh Century the sovereign was a Dane.
M. Du Chaillu's theory rests upon other and perhaps stronger grounds,
but these concessions from a thoughtful scholar at least will carry
weight. The continuous existence of Scandinavian influence in England
is suggestive of the circumstance that the Danish conquest of England
preceded the Norman conquest by "exactly half a century." An Englishman
(Odericus Vitalis), writing almost contemporaneously with the Norman
conquest, describes his countrymen as having been found by the
Normans "a rustic and almost illiterate people" (_agrestes et pene
illiteratos_). And yet, says Dr. Craik, the dawn of the revival of
letters in England may properly be dated from a point about fifty years
antecedent to the Norman conquest. To what, then, must be ascribed
this scholastic renascence? Very clearly to the intimate relations
established between England and Normandy by Edward the Confessor. But
there is no trace of the new literature (that of the Arabic school
which was prevalent in Europe) having found its way to England "before
the Norman conquest swept into the benighted old kingdom, carrying
the torch of learning in its train." The name of Lanfranc alone gives
splendor to that civilization which his genius created for the English
race. He not only lighted the torch of learning, but he strengthened
the reins of power. He restrained the lawless impetuosity of William
the Conqueror; he imposed iron conditions upon the accession of William
Rufus; he checked the atrocities, and finally broke the power, of Odo
of Bayeux. His work was well done, and its effects are visible to this
day. He was the real power behind the throne. It is not easy, says
an eminent English writer, to trace through the length of centuries
"the measureless and invisible benefits which the life of one scholar
bequeaths to the world." But such was the life, the work, the bequest
of this Norman scholar, who died honored and beloved even by the
rude, sullen, and implacable race which had been subjugated by the
Norman kings. But Dr. Craik, with all his liberality and learning, is
not disposed to accept the theory of a great migration or settlement
preceding, or accompanying or following, the Norman conquest in the
Eleventh Century. To be sure, this theory was not elaborately or
effectively presented until of late years; but Dr. Craik, writing as
far back as the opening of our "War between the States," seems to
contradict this theory by anticipation--"In point of fact, the Normans
never transferred themselves in a body, or generally, to England.
It was never thus taken possession of by the Normans. It was never
colonized by these foreigners, or occupied by them in any other than
a military sense. It received a foreign government, but not at all a
new population." Yet even Dr. Craik seems to appreciate the lesson
of "names." He thinks it remarkable, for instance, that though we
find a good many names of natives of Gaul in connection with the last
age of Roman literature, scarcely a British name has been preserved.
Even in Juvenal's days the pleaders of Britain were trained by the
eloquent scholars of Gaul. The significance of a name in determining
family origin is a common assumption of our familiar speech. "That is
a _Virginian_ name," we say; and if we find many Virginian names in a
given locality we naturally infer that the town, or the county, or the
locality, large or small, was originally settled by Virginians. In one
of our old Bluegrass counties two of these settlements were made in
pioneer times, about two miles apart. One is known as "Jersey Ridge,"
the other as "Tuckahoe." If in both localities we find an English
stock with Anglo-Norman names we should naturally assume a common
derivation from the Anglo-Norman branch of the great British race.
[Illustration: JOSEPH HAMILTON DAVEISS.]
But that accomplished philologist, Dr. Craik, seems to be quite in
sympathy with the views of Du Chaillu touching the ancestral relations
of the Scandinavian to the English race; and Dr. Craik's eminent
American compeer, Mr. George P. Marsh, is not hopelessly wedded
to fixed conclusions, and has by no means overlooked the obvious
Scandinavian affinities of the English tongue. "Almost every sound,"
says the latter, "which is characteristic of English orthoëpy, is
met with in one or other of the Scandinavian languages, and almost
all their peculiarities, except those of intonation, _are found in
English_; while between our articulation and that of the German
dialects the most nearly related to the _Anglo-Saxon_ there are many
irreconcilable discrepancies." If to determine the relative proportions
of linguistic and ethnic elements in dialect and race were "a hopeless
and unprofitable task," this would seem to invalidate all general
conclusions in the matter.
A few days after the very lively discussion of M. Du Chaillu's epochal
paper in the Free Library of Newcastle, there appeared in a great
newspaper a contemporary estimate of his views, which was received by
its multitudinous constituency with profound interest and respect. It
was the rolling voice of "the Thunderer"--the famous London _Times_.
In all crises in the national life, the influence of this journal is
felt. It is not a mere priestly oracle, silent except at times, but a
divinity that never ceases to speak; clothed with strangely beneficent
powers, and in the exercise of legitimate influence as resistless as
the fabled might of the Scandinavian Thor. It _forms_ opinion;--it
_fixes_ opinion;--it _reflects_ opinion;--it gives effect to the
popular will. It has been felicitously characterized as the "vast
shadow of the public mind."
On the 21st of September, 1889, the _Times_, after a full report of
the ethnological discussion in Section H, had this to say by way
of editorial comment: "Perhaps the great sensation of the Section
was M. Du Chaillu's paper, intended to prove that we are _all
Scandinavians_.... This paper, combined with that of Canon Taylor, and
the discussion that followed both, seemed to show that the time is ripe
for a perfectly new investigation of the whole question of the origin
and migration of the races which inhabit Europe and Asia; and, that, on
lines in which language will play only a subordinate part."
Thus much for the startling theory discussed by the Anthropological
Section at Newcastle.
In a subsequent correspondence, which appeared in the London _Times_,
M. Du Chaillu challenged archæologists to point out remains in any
other part of Europe so like those of the early Anglo-Saxons in England
as the relics he figures from Scandinavia in England. It is not always
easy to indicate with precision the cradle of an ancient race; and even
if such remains were found on the coasts of Holland and North Germany,
the discovery would not seriously affect the conclusions that seem to
have been reached as to ancestral relations of the Scandinavian and the
Norman to the English race in England and the United States. One might
abandon altogether the main line of M. Du Chaillu's argument, (1) his
careful analysis of the Sagas and other ancient documents and (2) his
comparison of the antiquities upon which the challenge rests, and yet
there would remain something more than a strong presumption that the
animating principle of the English race, in its leading branches, is
the Scandinavian blood. It would seem to be quite in conformity with
the law of nature that the daring, crafty, and indomitable race which
still shapes the political destinies of men, which is historically
traceable in its schemes of conquest and subjugation for a thousand
years, and which is precisely traceable upon geographical lines in its
movements of colonization or war, should have derived its enterprising
characteristics from the only race which has demonstrably transmitted
its conquering and colonizing traits within historic times: to wit,
the Scandinavian pirates that were conceived upon stormy waters,
spawned upon an icy coast, and swept, apparently in a career of
predestined conquest, from the waters of the Baltic to the ends of the
earth. The nations shrank from the Rover in fear. The Frenchman, at
least, learned to dread his power, and the Saxon submitted with sullen
acquiescence to his rule. He sowed the seed of conquest with his blood,
and upon whatever shore he drove his keel he planted himself fiercely
upon the soil to stay. Is it to be supposed for an instant that this
puissant racial force was dissipated and lost? Not so. The light, the
fire, the sweep, the coruscating energies, the resistless currents, the
driving forces are still there. The power is not "off"!
[Illustration: HONORABLE HENRY CLAY.]
Nevertheless, it may be--to use the phrase of the London _Times_--that
"the time for a new investigation of the whole question is now ripe."
VI
Those were stirring days in the old Northumbrian city by the sea. And
to the utmost border of that ancient kingdom the busy populations
were alive with expectation and hope. Little cared they for the Sea
Rover now. He no longer enjoyed, as once, the freedom of the city and
the sea. They were really as indifferent to the vexed question as the
philosophic Canon Taylor humorously affected to be. The loquacious
savants might settle matters to suit themselves; but there was another
question, probably of equal importance, for popular consideration; and
a question of far greater moment too, to a man with blood in his veins;
a question which touched at once the pocket and the heart; to wit, the
last of the classic races at Doncaster, the St. Leger and the great
Yorkshire Stakes. Will the Duke of Portland's "Donovan"--a Southern
horse of great beauty, speed, and "luck"--win in the coming contest
with "Chitabob," the pride and hope of the North? There was anxiety
in every face. The touts had come from their work at Doncaster, and
Chitabob was reported to be lame; his old enemy (rheumatism) had seized
his foreleg; he was not equal to a canter: could do only three hours'
walk in the paddock near the ring. In spite of the conditions and the
resulting consternation of Chitabob's friends, his nervy young owner
insists that "matters are not so bad as they seem, and the _horse will
run_." Meantime, the betting is against him--two to one on Donovan;
in rapid sequence six--seven--ten against Chitabob. The situation was
highly sensational; the state of excitement in Doncaster was intense;
even Chitabob's friend, "Guyon" (a noted sportsman), had surrendered
hope. The owner, young Mr. Perkins, was alone undismayed; and the men
of the stalls were as game as the horse. "He can win on three legs,"
they declared. "I do not think so," said Guyon, "and though common
sense prompts me to go for Donovan, I am full of hope and sympathy for
Chitabob. The splendid fellow has always carried my money, and I will
back him to-day. He is too grand a horse to let him run loose, but it
is very clear to my mind that Donovan will win." The loyal sportsman
proved to be an infallible prophet--_Chitabob lost_.
As one looks intently upon such a scene as this, Doncaster disappears
and Kentucky rises on the eye. The story of Chitabob recalls the
traditions of Grey Eagle, that superb and exquisite idol of the
mid-century Kentuckian's heart; his brilliant and exciting contest
with Wagner; his gallant start, his matchless stride, the vast crowd,
the wild applause;--"the strained tendon," the slackened speed, the
failing strength--the lost race. But the defeated racer was always
(like Clay or Breckinridge) the idol of the State;--_the Champion of
Kentucky_--as Chitabob was the Champion of the North.
Imported "Yorkshire" was, likewise, a famous horse in the history of
the Southern turf, and his blood still mingles with that of our finest
strains. We note in Kentucky a noble reproduction of the old lines,
both in man and horse; it was entirely fit that such a Virginian as
Commodore Morgan should bestow such a gift as "Yorkshire" upon such
a Kentuckian as Henry Clay. It was a gift for a king, and there were
marks of royal lineage in both man and horse; lines that were souvenirs
of a royal race. Traditions tell us, and the casual traveler notes
abundant proof of the fact, that the "typical Kentuckian" is indebted
for many of his traits to the old Northumbrian blood. Even the familiar
speech of the Yorkshireman recalls much that is characteristic in
the dialect of Kentucky; as "mad," for angry or vexed; "thick," for
friendly or intimate; "thumping," for big; "rattling good," for very
good; "plump," for quite or entirely, as "shot plump through"; "whole
lot," for a large number; "what's up?" for what's the matter? etc.
Were not these words and phrases conveyed by racial migration from the
North of England to Virginia and from Virginia to Kentucky in days
lang syne? Have you never heard among the old horsemen of the Bluegrass
the odd expression, "The colt will be two years old next 'grass'"?
"It is curious," says Mr. Marsh, "that the same expression is used in
_Scandinavia_." In Denmark and Sweden, he adds, as well as in England,
the gentlemen of the chase and turf reckon the age of their animals by
"springs"--the season of verdure being the ordinary "birth season" of
the horse; and a colt, therefore, is said to be so many years old next
"grass."
The same writer informs us that the names of the two brothers, Hengist
and Horsa--both names of the genus _horse_--are words in one or another
form common to all the Scandinavian dialects. A Danish colonel told
Mr. Marsh that in a company in his regiment there were two privates
bearing these names, who were as inseparable in their association as
the Hengist and Horsa of old. An ardent theorist, like a jealous lover,
may find confirmation strong in trifles light as air. It is a far cry
from old Scandinavia to old Kentucky, but what brain is broad enough,
what spirit is subtle enough, to comprehend the variety and infinitude
of delicate, airy, intangible influences by which the busy hands of
destiny have brought them together? Not the least of these agencies
were affinities, customs, explorations, battles, contests, migrations,
and the "wingy mysteries" of kindred names or words.
Edward Lee Childe, in his admirable life of his kinsman, General
Robert Lee (Paris, France, 1874), says that in 1192 we find a Lionel
Lee at the head of a company of gentlemen accompanying Richard
of the Lion-Heart in his third Crusade. In the original the word
here translated "gentlemen" is _gentilshommes_. A word of somewhat
different connotation from its English equivalent, but sufficiently
alike in meaning to justify the assumption that England is indebted to
Normandy for the word, and, essentially, for what the word connotes or
implies--_the chief or leader of a family or gens_. The followers of
Lionel Lee were, therefore, a military élite. The original conception
of the word still lingers among the Anglo-Norman races. That the word
in its later English form has taken on a finer sense is illustrated
by the famous speech of the Great Nicholas to Sir Hamilton Seymour.
The diplomacy of the Czar neither asked nor conceded conventional
guarantees. "Before all things," he said, "I am an English gentleman"
(_un gentilhomme Anglais_). The word "cavalierism," used by M. Taine,
reminds us that England, long before the Conquest, was indebted to
Normandy for the "Cavalier"; that the "man-on-horseback" was the
Cavalier; that the Cavalier and gentilhomme were conspicuous in the
ranks of the Conqueror, and, not to be too precise, may be said to
have come down the centuries together. In a certain conventional
sense it is proper, no doubt, to say that the Cavalier in England was
a gentleman; and, always, in Normandy _un gentilhomme_. But it was
only in later days, as in the splendid epoch of the Stuarts, that the
qualities of the gentleman, fusing with the character of the Cavalier,
gave a peculiar dignity, elevation, and distinction to the natural and
recognized leaders of the English race. But the bonniest cavalier,
undisciplined by social culture, had precisely those defects of his
qualities which the term "cavalierism" was invented by Sir Walter
Scott to express. The qualities depicted in Esmond by Thackeray were
not conspicuous in Scott's portraiture of "Claverhouse" or "Montrose."
Gentilhomme, Cavalier, and Gentleman were descriptive terms evolved
under similar historic conditions, and derived from the same linguistic
source. An Anglo-Norman Kentuckian who figured conspicuously in the
late War between the States humorously adjusted all differences as
to the proper designation in that day, by addressing his friends in
familiar conversation as "Gentle-homines," a felicitous appellative not
only for Kentuckians, but for friendly Indians as well. The _effigies_
of the "man-on-horseback" (a familiar phrase in English ears) was
officially introduced to the English public by an English king, who in
everything save birth and blood was typically Norman himself. It is
indelibly stamped upon the Great Seal of England, and not upon one seal
alone. The most casual inspection of the famous Guildhall collection
will show, stamped upon Seal after Seal through a long succession of
Anglo-Norman kings, the same equestrian figure which, obviously of
Norman origin, had appeared in England before the Conquest; and which
centuries later was designed by an Anglo-Norman engraver upon the Great
Seal of the American Confederate States. The artist was Wyon (engraver
to the Queen), and the original of the symbolic figure was that
immortal Cavalier, GEORGE WASHINGTON--a man of Anglo-Norman blood.
It may be said that Kentucky offered physical conditions that were
exceptional, for the production of "Cavaliers."
[Illustration: GOVERNOR JOSEPH DESHA.]
A scientific explorer found upon the icy coast of the Straits of
Magellan a growth of English grass--fresh, green, flourishing, and as
full of fight for existence as the stock or race from which it took its
name. It was like the grass described in the Hudibrastic skit of the
bluegrass Colonel:
"Where bluegrass grew the winter through--
And where it blooms in summer, too."
It was a species of _Poa_, closely akin in its characteristics to _Poa
Pratensis_, the famous Bluegrass of Kentucky--a cosmopolitan grass;
at home everywhere, but always seeking congenial skies; rooting itself
firmly and clinging tenaciously; standing in with the rich soils and
the strong races; unseating old sod; standing off all casual intruders;
driving out all competing grasses; casting its own lines in pleasant
places; dividing honors with _Zea Mays_, the stateliest of all grasses,
and yielding to no competition save here and there to the cryptic,
mossy growth that at last covers with oblivion the homes and the tombs
of men. Even the grasping, aggressive _Poa_ yields to the power of
_moss_; and mossback monstrosities may be found even among the vigorous
offshoots of the Anglo-Norman race. Yet, was it not an extraordinary
incident of the evolution of our Western world that in the genesis
of the Commonwealth of Kentucky two such factors or agencies as the
_Race_ and the _Grass_--inseparably linked--should be predestined each
to a special function in the common work? "Either," said a sagacious
observer from New England, "no other land ever lent itself so easily
to civilization as the Bluegrass region, or it was _exceptionally
fortunate in its inhabitants_." The alternative suggests that if
this miracle of evolution be attributable to _either_ of the causes
named--_civilizableness of the land or adaptableness of race_--then
there can be but one conclusion should the result be ascribed to the
operation of _both_. This speculative suggestion as to the genetic or
determining element in the evolution of the Bluegrass State came from
the pen of that gifted and genial writer, Charles Dudley Warner, many
years ago. He was then visiting Kentucky, and reporting in a series of
papers his observations, as a visitor, for an influential publication
in the East. Please note this unconscious implication as to _grass_
and _race_ from a philosophic tourist of the olden times. "Grass" or
"Race"--but what Race?
VII
The continuous application of three acute and powerful minds along
the same line of thought, in the first half of the last century--an
unconscious or undesigned collaboration (so to speak) of Lamarck, St.
Beuve, and Hippolyte Taine--evolved a marvelous instrument of critical
and philosophic research; furnishing for every capable thinker a
method adapted to the investigation of all subjects, great and small;
neglecting no phase, shrinking from no interpretation, rejecting
no authentic fact, and having in perfection the magical quality of
adjustment to conditions described in the Arabian tale. In his English
notes, for example, M. Taine, if too frank, is singularly felicitous
and discriminative in his physical descriptions of certain Anglican
types of race--presenting, first, the beastly, repulsive traits of the
_MALE_; the lowering, dog-like physiognomy, the huge jowl; the dull red
eyes; the gluttonous chops; the swinish snout, the congested facial
tissues; the gross, unwieldy figure, the bloated features and the
protuberant accumulations of abdominal fat--thus graphically depicting,
by way of philosophical illustration, an anthropoid incarnation of
animal appetite. The picture is not flattering, but it certainly
embodies some familiar traits, of which it is entirely pardonable
to make a philosophic use. Next he introduces the Boadicean or
Brobdingnagian _FEMALE_--"broad, stiff, and destitute of ideas"--with
heavy features, lifeless, fishy eyes, coarse, congested complexion,
a clumsy figure, large feet, unshapely hands, and an utter lack of
style and taste--notably in the bizarre combinations of color in her
dress. Moreover, he says, two out of every three have their feet
shod with stout masculine boots, and as to their long, projecting
teeth--huge white teeth--it is impossible to train oneself to endure
them. "Is this," he inquires philosophically, "a cause or an effect of
the carnivorous regime?" Plainly enough the cause--the remote cause
at least--the determining cause, is what is designated by M. Taine
elsewhere as "the hereditary conformation of race." These fat, huge,
fierce, vicious, dull, ill-shaped creatures are distinctly of a Saxon
strain. In Cedric's day they were the Gurths who herded the swine, and
the "gigantic jades" who in the very teeth of Mother Church persisted
in a merciless disciplinary "flogging of their slaves." Suggestions of
racial derivation are seldom questioned in ordinary life. Every English
thinker recognizes the fact. The biographer of an eminent English
lawyer says that he combined, in the most pleasing fashion, fineness of
physical texture with courage, high character, and the perfection of
personal charm. The same writer thinks it necessary to explain that
on the maternal side the gifted lawyer "came of gentle blood." Apart
from personal characteristics, the very name of the maternal _gens_
bore witness to her Norman descent--a name that has been familiar
in Kentucky from the foundation of the State. According to the same
biographer the conditions on the paternal side were quite different.
An uncle, of the ruder strain, declared, in view of prospective
Revolutionary tribunals, that _his_ veins were "uncontaminated with
one drop of gentility." He stood among the intellectual aristocracy of
England just the same.
But, if the philosophic Taine is severe in his characterization of
the "carnivorous types" of the English race, he makes ample amends
in his descriptions of others. Not every Englishman is like the
landlord in Barnaby Rudge--"half ox, half bull." "On the contrary,"
says this admirable Frenchman, "when the person is a cultured and
intelligent gentleman, the phlegmatic temperament imparts to the
English personality a perfectly noble air. I have several of them in
my memory, with pale complexion, clear blue eyes, regular features,
constituting one of the finest types of the human species. There is no
excess of cavalierism, of glittering gallantry after the style of the
French gentleman; one is conscious of a mind wholly self-contained, a
brain which can not lose its balance. They elevate this quality of
their temperament into a virtue; according to them the chief merit
of a man is always to have a clear and cool head. They are right;
nothing is more desirable in misfortune and in danger. This is one of
their national traits." Taine's historic ideal of this type is William
Pitt. The awkwardness and erubescent bashfulness, so often observed
in English social life, "is wholly physical," says M. Taine, "and
a peculiarity of _Teutonic_ nations." It is certainly not the fine
repose that is supposed to mark the caste of Never Care. _Another_
type admired by this clever Frenchman is thus described: "The blond
maiden with downcast eyes, purer than one of Raffaelle's Madonnas, a
sort of Eve, incapable of falling, whose voice is music, adorable in
candour, gentleness, and goodness, and before whom one is tempted to
lower the eyes out of respect. Since Virginia, Imogen, and the other
women of Shakespeare or his great contemporaries--from these to Esther
and to the Agnes of Dickens--English literature has placed them in the
foreground; they are the perfect flower of the land."
The Section of the Association at Newcastle which listened to the paper
of M. Du Chaillu with an air of courteous self-restraint, listened
also, and apparently in a like mood, to Sir William Turner in the
reading of his very able paper on the pathological aspect of the
doctrine of "Heredity," as recently expounded in the revolutionary
hypothesis of Professor Weismann, a famous German pundit in pathology.
It was the first appearance of the so-called Weismann "theory" before
the scientific public of England. Professor Weismann rejects the
view that the characteristics acquired by parents through their own
experiences or environment can be transmitted to their offspring. It
is only those characteristics that have pre-existed in the germ of
reproduction: that is, the congenital peculiarities alone; those which
distinguish the race and breed that can be transmitted, according
to the teachings of Professor Weismann. A German philosopher, for
example, may transmit a superfluous toe or a prognathic jaw, but not
his portentously developed brain. Sir William Turner did not accept
in full the German's "theory." Under the exclusive operation of a law
which transmits only from congenital variations, how is it conceivable
that the development of species can be brought about? On the other
hand, does not the law of the survival of the fittest operate to
correct the tendency to transmit defects of structure and organization?
Thus, affirmed our sturdy Anglo-Saxon savant, the hereditary tendency,
properly understood, is in perfect harmony with the theory of natural
selection. It is needless to say that the Section and the speaker
were quite at one upon these perplexing points. The conclusions of
Darwin upon "Descent" were as little open to assault as their own
conviction as to the origin of the Anglo-Saxon race. At all events, an
Englishman's established opinions would not tumble at the first blast
of a ram's horn from Germany or France.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
(Bas relief by a French Artist.)]
The discussion of the physical peculiarities of our ancestors never
loses its interest among the thinkers of the various branches of the
English race. How trippingly upon the tongue of the Anglo-Saxon child
come the familiar lines of the English poet, a bard of the Georgian
period:
"Deep-blooming, strong,
And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came."
a pleasing description of peculiarities which holds good of the
Northern races to this day. But by a process of ethnic differentiation
the separate or divergent races, with changed _milieu_ and lapse of
time, took on some structural change; the Scandinavian, for example
(and possibly the Kentuckian), coming to the front with cranial
dimensions exceptionally large and mental capacities to correspond.
Laing's curious note to Snorro Sturleson (quoted by Lytton) says that
in the Antiquarian Museum of Copenhagen the handles of almost all the
swords of the early ages, in these collections, "indicate a size of
hand very much smaller than the hands of modern people of any class
or race." The Norman is said to have retained this peculiarity of
physical structure longer than the Scandinavian from whom he sprang.
It was probably the result of social conditions which soon ceased to
exist. "Here and there," says an eminent English writer, "amongst
plain countryfolk settled from time immemorial in the counties peopled
with the Anglo-Dane (Scandinavian), may be found the 'Scythian hand
and foot,' the high features, and the reddish auburn hair." "But
amongst the far more mixed breed," he adds, "of the larger landed
proprietors (comprehended in the peerage), the Saxon attributes of race
are strikingly conspicuous, and amongst them the large hand and foot
common to all of the Germanic tribes." (Lord Lytton.) Virginia and the
Virginian States were peopled chiefly from the former class. If any
inquirer wishes to prosecute this inquiry under favorable conditions,
he may find a contemporary transmission of racial peculiarities in
the vast Scandinavian population in our Northern belt or tier of
States--men of the old blood, in a broad, congenial field, with
boundless energy and big brains.
VIII
One of the most interesting results of a very prolonged process of
ethnic differentiation is mentioned by John Fiske, in comparing two
remote branches of the so-called "Aryan" race--the short, fat, pursy
Hindoo, and the wiry, long-limbed Kentuckian. It is not incredible
that these were simply original marks of race--"Scythian," in the one
instance; Scandinavian in the other. It is a far cry, too, from old
Benares to the Bluegrass; but it is possible that if missionaries from
Kentucky could remain in Hindustan long enough there might be a gradual
reversion of the Occidental variety to the ancient or original type.
If Mr. Fiske's deductions be correct, as possibly they are, the Aryan
brothers have wandered far apart, and perhaps it is hardly safe, in
studying the genetic conditions of development in the Bluegrass, to
stray beyond the broad, well-traveled highway that reaches from the
Baltic Sea through Normandy and the British Isles to the shores of the
Old Dominion, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, the "Hills of Breathitt,"
and the Bluegrass lowlands of Kentucky. The streams of population from
the Scandinavian seas are still flowing, and in all likelihood the
Scandinavians of the Virginian States (the old settled populations
of the States of the South and West) will ultimately fuse with the
Scandinavian populations of the North and establish in the heart of the
continent the empire of the world. The great Scandinavian settlements
of the Northwest are now almost equal in numbers to the Anglo-Norman
populations that from the days of the Virgin Queen have been gathering
and growing in Old Virginia and in the Virginian sisterhood of States.
Coleridge once said that England's insular position had made her a
mother of nations. It would seem that like conditions--an environing
wilderness and an estranging sea--have helped to make Virginia a
"mother of States." The lawless elements that poured into Kentucky
were not segregated by social or other necessities, and, cast out by
time or poverty, permanently isolated in one rude locality. This was
at one time a popular theory among the savants. But there was always
a tendency to _lawlessness_ wherever the Anglo-Norman went. If any
"convict" blood muddied the turbulent, brawling stream of migration,
it was not from the _race_, but from the chance intermingling of a
degenerate _caste_ or _breed_, and whether you find that degenerate
admixture in the rugged highlands or in the lovely champaign country
at their feet, the convict blood is still there. In the highlands or
the lowlands, in the mountains or the Bluegrass, generation after
generation is weighted with the curse. The family, the clan, the
community never loses the criminal taint. But the great, strong,
daring, gifted _race_ sweeps on untouched by the vile marks of
degeneracy that would put a proud, ambitious caste to shame.
The trade of political assassination was plied with great activity
in the good old Norman times, but apparently there was nothing that
was beastly, or basely criminal, in the work; on the contrary, it
seems to have been palliated almost invariably by the conditions of a
traditional feud, and, where sentiment or authority was very exacting,
the offense was sometimes justified under "the forms of law." This
was not murder in any ordinary or vulgar sense. It was merely an
indispensable _modus vivendi_ in times that imperiled men's bodies as
well as tried their souls; one of those protective devices conceived by
the savagery of mediæval statecraft in a transition period of Christian
civilization. Even at this day it is difficult for a competent and
experienced Anglo-Norman jury to detect decisive evidence of crime
when looking through the subtile meshes of a technical defense.
William himself had a strong disinclination to take life under the
forms of law; and, possibly, had his loyal guardians yielded to a
like weakness in the early days of his succession, the solid fabric
of English or Anglo-Norman civilization would now be as unsubstantial
as a castle in Spain. But they did not share the weakness of their
ward, and promptly settled the right of succession by assassinating
all troublesome pretenders to the throne. The only sin of blood upon
William's soul--"the blackest act of his life"--was the execution
of a judicial sentence against Waltheof upon the hill of St. Giles.
The only inexplicable crime of Waltheof's life was his murder of the
brothers Carl, staunch comrades who had stood by his side at York. The
judicial murder was wrought by the orders of a _Norman king_. It was
apparently premeditated, and done with the utmost deliberation and
under established forms of law. The Carl brothers were the victims of
an ancient feud. Their grandsire had slain the father of Waltheof, and
the grandsons of the murderer were slain to avenge this ancient deed of
blood. They were the victims of a transmitted _hate_: of a vindictive
passion that had lost its heat. But the murderer perished at last,
under the forms of law which he had denied to the innocent victims of
a feud. He could slay with impunity on his own account, but he was not
allowed to conspire even in thought against the king. He, too, suffered
the penalty long years after the offense. Waltheof was the last of the
_Saxon earls_.
Not long ago that eminent publicist, Mr. Andrew D. White, delivered
an address on the subject of "High Crime in the United States." The
following excerpt will be read with interest:
"Simply as a matter of fact the United States is, among all civilized
nations of the world, the country in which the crime of murder is most
frequently committed and least frequently punished. Deaths by violence
are increasing rapidly. Our record is now larger than that of any other
country in the world. The number of homicides that are punished by
lynching exceeds the number punished by due process of law.
"There is too much overwrought sentimentality in favor of the criminal.
The young ward toughs look up with admiration to local politicians who
have spent a part of their lives in State prison. Germs of maudlin
sentimentality are widespread. On every hand we hear slimy, mushy-gushy
expressions of sympathy; the criminal called 'plucky,' 'nervy,'
'fighting against fearful odds for his life.'
"It may be said that society must fall back on the law of
self-preservation. It should cut through and make war, in my opinion,
for its life. Life imprisonment is not possible, because there is no
life imprisonment.
"_In the next year nine thousand people will be murdered._ As I stand
here to-day, I tell you that nine thousand are doomed to death with
all the cruelty of the criminal heart, and with no regard for home and
families, and two thirds will be due to the maudlin sentiment sometimes
called mercy. I have no sympathy for the criminal. My sympathy is
for those who will be murdered, for their families, and for their
children."
IX
The Normans were a brilliant and enterprising race; but what before
all things (says Freeman) "distinguished them from other nations,
was their _craft_." This was manifest in everything, at all times,
and everywhere--in statesmanship, in war, in traffic, and in the
trivial interactions of social and domestic life. Craft was no more
characteristic of a Norman king in the past than of a Norman trader in
modern times. It is as distinctly racial as the commercial "cuteness"
or cleverness universally attributed to the American people of to-day.
Lord Wolseley may have noted this trait when he said of our people,
"They are a race of English-speaking Frenchmen." He may have observed,
too, even during the War between the States, that Americans were at
times exceedingly _profane in their speech_, just as in the olden
time it was said that the Normans were "peculiarly fond of oaths."
Camden tells us that when Carolus Stultus made over Normandy to
Rollo, the rude ingrate refused to kiss the king's foot. When urged
to do so he viciously exclaimed, "_Ne se, by God!_" "Whence"--adds
the chronicler--"the Normans were familiarly known as _Bigodi_ or
_Bigods_." At every other word, he says, they swore by God. For a like
reason, at a later day, the English were known throughout Europe as
the English "Goddams." All of us know how terribly the army swore
in Flanders. The profane tendencies of the race seemed to have been
stimulated by war. "Then, the SOLDIER," says Shakespeare, "full of
strange oaths." Was it not one of our innocent Bluegrass girls who
declared that up to the close of her "teens" she believed the familiar
phrase "damned Yankee" to be a _single_ word? But it was the Conqueror
of England and the founder of the Anglo-Norman race that swore the
greatest oath of all. When the merry burghers of Alençon were hurling
insults from their walls upon the burly son of Arletta and upon her
sire--the tanner of Falaise--the infuriated Norman swore an oath which
lights up the page of history like the flare of a conflagration--"By
the splendor of God!" he exclaimed as he swept to his wild revenge. The
profanest Kentuckian in his palmiest days never rose in his profanity
to such a plane as this. He preferred the direct and trenchant speech
of that Virgin Queen who helped to shape the destiny of our common
race. "Do as I say," she said to a recalcitrant prelate, "or by God
I will _unfrock_ you!" Even her stately ministers were not safe from
the fire of her Anglo-Norman wrath. In the royal council-chamber she
sometimes fell to cursing like a very drab. In certain Virginian
circles profane swearing seemed to have been proscribed except in a
softened or attenuated form, such as "Jeems' River," as an ejaculatory
substitute for a very blasphemous phrase. Thomas Jefferson did not
regard profane "expletives" as a very rational or philosophic mode of
speech; but George Washington, though puritanically truthful, would
sometimes infuse into an imprecation the spirit and effectiveness of
a prayer. We have all heard of Stonewall Jackson's "teamster" and the
moving quality of his profane speech; but Jubal Early never allowed
the words to be taken out of his mouth in this way. He did his own
swearing, and, presumably, did it well. Swearing or fighting by proxy
was not his forte. Judged by military results, Jackson's was probably
the better method. As a tactical incentive upon the firing line nothing
could be more effective than one of Early's oaths; but for general
strategic purposes, nothing could surpass the effectiveness of the
deadly imprecations that lurked in Stonewall Jackson's prayer. This
was a Cromwellian modification of the Anglo-Norman oath. In the good
old Commonwealth of Kentucky there seems to have been a relapse into
the simpler forms of profanity--Anglo-Norman and Early English. The
historian Collins tells us that one of the pioneer Governors having
refused to notice the "challenge" of a truculent upstart, the fellow
threatened to "post him a coward." "Post and be damned," said the old
soldier, "you will only post yourself a damned liar!" The retort was
profane, but it was in punctilious accord with the spirit and habits
of the time. Better still, it was more effective than a "gut-shot" at
short range. As a rule, the Kentuckian had an instinctive aversion for
puritanic oaths. That consecrated phrase, "Jeems' River," had a brief
career in this State. The last person to use it, probably, was an
elderly, smooth, genial, charming gentleman at the bar who was for many
years the judge of a local court in the good old County of Fleming. He
was in many respects a marked exception to the common rule.[5] It might
have been different had he left the Old Dominion at an earlier date.
What brandy is for heroes, strong oaths were for the pioneer. Not mere
dicer's oaths; nor the mauldin imprecations of a sot, nor the rounding
touches of a raconteur; but good, honest, English oaths, such an oath
as that which settled the insistent Corporal Trim--the generous and
daring oath that our Uncle Toby swore when the young Lieutenant lay
sick of a fever. "'He shall not die, by God,' cried my Uncle Toby." And
the accusing spirit that "flew to Heaven's chancery with the oath"
had the grace to blush when he gave it in. God bless our Uncle Toby;
he was the Uncle Toby of us all, and is as fresh in our remembrance
as the good old uncles who told his story and praised his virtues and
swore his oaths by the family fireside in the auld lang syne. Tradition
throws a strong light on one of these old Kentuckians who denounced
with suggestive picturesqueness of phrase a ruthless master who had
sold and separated a family of hereditary slaves:--"He is the damnedest
scoundrel between hell and Guinea!" the old gentleman exclaimed, giving
in effect a touch of lurid or local color to his imprecatory speech.
But when one of his own negroes--a broken, helpless creature--was
accused of marketing for his own benefit the products of the farm, he
gently answered, "Ah, well, I am not sure that, after all, the old
slave is not _taking his own_!" As one recalls that kindly speech,
with its reminiscent touch of Uncle Toby, he recalls, likewise, the
sentiment of a famous line from a foreign source tenderly adapted to a
modern taste--
"_Mais où sont les nègres d'antan?_"
Where are those dusky bondsmen of the past? They mingle their dust with
the dust of them they served: and resting in old country graveyards, in
the peace of immemorial graves, they await the Morning Light and the
Master's Call.
[5] In an admirable letter written in pioneer times to Bolling Stith,
in Kentucky, by his Virginian mother, she says: "I hear you have become
a notorious rattle and never open your mouth without an oath." To
correct this vicious tendency she recommends the example of the "great
and good General Washington." Excellent advice. The General's oaths
were not so frequent as Bolling's. They were louder, deeper, "heartier."
The English traveler, Fordham, says that the Virginians of that day
were "addicted to oaths."
[Illustration: "OUR BEAUTIFUL SCANDINAVIAN."]
Among the most popular of the well-trained African servitors of the
mid-century days in the Bluegrass was our versatile drudge, Ben Briler,
one of the most active and useful functionaries of that old-time tavern
life.
"Ben Briler swept the poker-room--
And gathered up the 'chips';
Was 'mixer,' bootblack, cook, and groom,
And salted down the 'tips.'"
Evil days came to Ben's master, and Ben was sold--becoming the
joint chattel of the young swells of the poker-room. But the joint
chattel proved to be too versatile for his vocation, and one of the
stockholders denounced him as "a damned kinky-headed _corporation_,"
_and kicked him downstairs_. As Governor Desha, in a recent message
to the Legislature, had effectively arraigned those "dangerous
corporations which embodied the interests of powerful men," the prompt
action of the stockholder at the old tavern brought great relief to
the public mind. It showed that corporations could be _reached_--that,
contrary to the general impression, they had "bodies that could be
kicked and souls that could be damned."
The advent of the abolition "emissary," the emancipated negro, and the
"burnt cork" minstrel was practically contemporaneous in Kentucky.
In the gentle mid-century days a company of strolling minstrels had
announced an entertainment at the old county seat of Mason--the town
where Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe (a frequent guest of Mrs. Marshall
Key) first witnessed a "sale" of negro slaves. On the evening announced
for the entertainment, the Courthouse was packed from floor to dome.
Among the conspicuous figures toward the front was Colonel Robert B., a
fine old Kentuckian of antique Norman type--tall, ruddy, high-featured,
light haired; hearty, convivial, and profane--a boon companion and _bon
vivant_. He sat expectantly but at ease, a bandaged arm resting upon
the seat in front. He was cordially greeted by kinsmen and friends
in every part of the house. The curtain rose and the minstrels filed
upon the stage, looking for all the world like a lot of "free nigger"
swells. Their very appearance was an offense, and provoked at once
a collision with the young Mohawks of the town. The violoncello was
shivered into splinters, and the flutes, fiddles, and castanets went
singing through the air. No trace of harmony was left. There was a
universal dash for windows and doors; none stood upon the order of his
going. All went at once--all except "Colonel Bob," who sat unmoved,
fixed to his seat as if fascinated by the moving scene in front. The
spectators were amazed. "Hell's fire, Bob!" exclaimed an anxious
friend, "don't you know there is a _fight_ going on down there?"
The Colonel looked incredulous. "I wish I may be damned," he said,
"if I didn't think it was _part of the play_!" There was universal
condemnation of these minstrel folk by persons who did not see the
show; but the Colonel, who was a "stayer," insisted that "the niggers
made a good fight."
Unquestionably there is a certain lack of modernity, or at least of
civilized amenity, in such a manifestation as this: but there was a
spontaneous and elemental vivacity in their unpremeditated assault
upon the counterfeit African bucks which betrayed the rude fantastic
humor of their Norman blood, and imparted a pleasant tang to the crude
flavor of early plantation life. Mr. Barrett Wendell finds in the still
earlier life of the West conditions described as existing in the times
of the Plantagenet kings; and Mr. Owen Wister seems inclined to adopt
his startling views. Apparently, then, we must count with inherited
conditions and characteristics even in the politics of the times. The
modern world is probably not ideally moral, but it is sensitively
fastidious and scrupulously observant of "good form." It would wreck
a railway, perhaps, or deplete a bloated insurance exchequer, but it
would not launch an ungentlemanly imprecation or utter a trivial or
unproductive oath. It even discountenances the _oath in court_--
a solemn asseveration or attestation before a judge. It utterly
discredits--socially and otherwise--the blas-_phe_-mous ejaculation or
the vulgar "cuss-word," or the light conversational "swear" familiar
in the dialect of the "back shop," the groggery, and the street. The
variety of oath known as a "swear," considered psychologically, is
not a very serious offense. In a philosophical aspect, indeed, it is
in some sense a temperamental necessity, dependent on physiological
conditions, and is essentially the result of a defensive or protective
instinct. Where not merely idle, wanton, and unmeaning, it is a
psychological _regulator nervorum_. It is the unpremeditated product
of a prompt cerebral reaction. It gives the centers of speech a chance
to rally when thrown into disorder by a sudden attack. There is no
time for the picking and arranging of words, and, except in persons of
lymphatic temperament, no capacity for the leisurely elaborations of
speech. One is confronted, not with a problem, or theory or condition,
but with an _emergency_ that must be decisively met. Silence perhaps
is golden, but there is a certain steel-like quality in trenchant
speech. Profane, "rapid-fire" ejaculation is not only a deeply
implanted instinct, but by frequent indulgence becomes an invincible
habit--a habit so odious and offensive as to make even a Chesterfield
swear. As a racial instinct it survives transplantation to any clime,
and religious training of every sort. Even the disciplinary methods
of Calvinism fail to eradicate it. But an "inherited drill" may at
times soften, or modify, or mask the _mode_ of _manifestation_, as is
cleverly illustrated in the familiar lines--
"The Blue Light Elder knows 'em well--
Says he--'There's Banks, we'll give him--well!
That's Stonewall Jackson's way.'"
A Kentuckian casually encountering a distinguished New Englander at
the buffet of an exclusive Eastern club, exclaimed: "Does a _Puritan_
drink?" "I would not give a damn," was the decisive answer, "for a
Puritan that could not drink, pray, and fight." It is probably no
secret that in our amphibious Scandinavian, General William Nelson,
the swearing instinct was abnormally developed. He did not swear "like
a sailor," to be sure; nor "like a trooper" of the olden time; since
neither soldier nor sailor of the ordinary type was ever gifted with
his extraordinary abundance and facility of profane expression. It is
but just to say, however, that at times he struggled manfully against
the habitual inclination. "Christ give me patience!" he cried when
his favorite aide, Colonel Samuel Owens (a joker of the Norman type),
inadvertently "sat down" upon his military hat. The utterance was a
sincere and reverent appeal for Divine help. He instinctively shrank
from the coming torrent of profane ejaculation, and with a prayerful
effort was bracing himself against the flood.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS]
"There is some soul of goodness in things evil"; but in this instance
one does not lessen the force of the evil by modifying or "softening"
the form of the oath. The essence remains unchanged. When Pecksniff
slams the door in a rage, he simply "swears" what Hood describes as
a "wooden damn." The devout Moslem will not tread upon a scrap of
paper in his path, "Lest," he says, "the name of God be written upon
it"; but the impetuous Anglo-Norman recklessly flings the name of
God into the contaminated environment of his daily life. And he has
done so, history attests, since the day he sprang full-armed upon the
planetary sphere--the most portentous apparition of mediæval days.
"Long ago," says Canon Bardsley, "under the offensive title of _Jean
Gotdam_, we [the English] had become known as a people given to strange
and unpleasant oaths." The very name--_Jean Gotdam_--vouches for its
antiquity, as well as for the fearless sincerity of him who swore.
There came into one of our Bluegrass communities just after the war a
clever Confederate adventurer, who speedily established very pleasant
social relations by exploiting his military record. A venerable
Kentuckian, who had come through the war with his Confederate
principles and Virginian prejudices intact, was asked by a friend how
he liked their Virginian visitor--the ci-devant "aide to General Lee."
"I don't _like_ him, sir," he said with vicious emphasis, "he is not
what he professes to be; I never in my life heard a Virginian gentleman
say 'God _dern_!' He either swore or he _didn't_ swear." He had no
indulgence for a marked card nor for an emasculated oath. He would not
substitute a sickly, modernized variant for a venerated traditional
form. By "Gad" or by "gosh" or by "gobbs" was good enough for a
reforming purist; for himself he preferred to say, with the irascible
Robert of Normandy, "Ne se, by God!" It is not the form, after all, but
the sentiment or suggestion, that lies behind the "swear."
It is discouraging to the spirit of philosophic optimism to note the
slinking figure of the iconoclast now running amuck in every field.
The instinct and habit of reverence is almost gone, and the solidest
traditional reputations are no longer safe. We no longer say with
Wallenstein--
"There is a consecrating power in Time,
And what is gray with years to man is godlike."
Even the fine historic character of WASHINGTON is "at a discount" in
the modern world--partly on account of his alleged indulgence in
profane speech, but chiefly because of his recognized incapacity to
tell a lie. He had not only lost (we are told by one biographer) the
useful--the indispensable--instinct of "prevarication," but (as we are
told by another) "when deeply angered, he would _swear a hearty English
oath_." One may survive in the Darwinian struggle without the capacity
to _swear_, but scarcely without the capacity to deceive. There seems
to be no salvation in this life except for the successful liar; but for
the man of many oaths there appears to be no salvation either in this
life or the next. Happily, the material prosperity of Virginia was but
little affected by the ethics of the Washingtonian Code. Her commercial
instincts had been powerfully quickened in her early years by an
admonitory imprecation from a royal, or official, source. When the
Commissioners of Virginia were pleading the interests of "learning and
religion" before the Attorney-General of Charles II (an Anglo-Norman
lawyer, no doubt), he promptly responded with a hearty English
oath--"Damn your souls! _Grow tobacco!_" There is no need for such an
adjuration to the planters of the fine old Anglo-Norman Commonwealth
of Kentucky. The tobacco will be planted, whatever may become of their
souls.
X
An English scholar of sound judgment and exceptionally sound views
has recently said that the Emperor Napoleon was the greatest
administrator of all time. His greatest work, perhaps, is the system
of administrative centralization which, through a century of the
severest tests that political madness could apply, has maintained the
conditions of social order even in the midst of war and under every
form of organized misrule, and secured almost unparalleled prosperity
for the municipalities and provinces of France. But it must not be
forgotten that William the Norman solved a like problem with apparently
even greater success, and under antagonizing conditions which only a
statesman of original genius could successfully confront. Not for one
century, only, of marvelous effectiveness in civic administration, but
for eight hundred years of advancing and expanding _civilization_,
the conceptions evolved by the Norman's brain have been doing
their beneficent work; and great as was the genius of the Corsican
adventurer, it is not incredible that even he, the master of Europe,
did not disdain the lesson which had been taught the nations by that
magnificent Son of France. The Corsican was a close student of military
history, and secretly meditated a descent upon modern England in
imitation of the earlier Conqueror's work. It is not likely that he
would overlook the methods of reorganization that followed the war,
with its machinery of sheriffs, judges, justiciaries, etc.--executive
officers directly responsible to the king--bringing the throne in
direct touch with the people, and drawing every subject, at least in
every central shire, in direct personal allegiance to the throne. The
_Marquessess_, or wardens of the Marches, were able and ambitious
warriors whose sole concern was with dangers from _without_. But even
Napoleon could not foresee, in this guarded initiatory recognition of
the landowner, the ultimate evolution of a territorial democracy that
was to affect the political and social destinies of the English race.
Monarchs of a later date--Henry the Eighth and his masterful daughter
Elizabeth--saw in the people the sole source of _power_; and the loyal
Englishman even of this generation will proudly tell you that in his
country the sole fountain of _honor_ is the _king_. There were at
least two American statesmen who were illustrious disciples of the
Norman's political school. They were men of Norman blood, who wrought
in American statecraft with the Norman's constructive brain--and
there was still another of the same imperial strain who, with a
philosophic conception of all that was of value in the principles
of Anglo-Norman administration and a just appreciation by actual
experience of government as a practical art, never failed throughout a
long, brilliant, and successful career to teach the doctrine that the
_People Themselves_ were the sole fountain of honor and the exclusive
source of power--a principle in the philosophy of government and in
political administration equally patent to William the Conqueror,
when he anxiously sought a declaration of "personal" allegiance _from
the subjects_ in that great gathering of potential "sovereigns"
upon Salisbury Plain. In the long succession of administrators that
followed the Norman king, there was none that seems to have grasped
so completely and applied so skillfully his principles and methods of
political administration as a daughter of the Tudor race. She may not
have loved the people in any modern sense; but she knew their power,
she recognized their rights; she studied their interests, and her
jeweled finger was always upon their pulse. The best of all treatment,
she thought, was to anticipate with soothing remedies the rude
distempers of the times. She considered rather the Constitution of the
Subject than the Constitution of the State; since, collectively, one
embraced the other.
Mr. Barrett Wendell, in his admirable work, "A Literary History
of America," discourses with great brilliancy and charm upon the
Elizabethan influences that governed in a large measure the development
of the Puritan and the Virginian race. The reader of the present paper
will note with curious interest the bearing of the following quotations
from this work upon the theories which the present writer has
discussed. "Broadly speaking," he says, "all our Northern colonies were
developed from those planted in Massachusetts; and all our Southern
from that planted in Virginia." The statement is "socially" true, he
says, to an extraordinary degree. The Elizabethan type of character
"displayed a marked power of _assimilating_ whatever came within its
influence." This trait, akin to that which centuries before had made
the conquered English slowly but surely _assimilate their Norman
conquerors_, the Yankees of our own day have not quite lost. Our native
type still "absorbs" the foreign. The children of immigrants insensibly
become native. The irresistible power of a _common language_ and of the
_common ideals_ which underlie it still dominates. This tendency, he
adds, declared itself from the earliest settlements of Jamestown and
Plymouth. "North and South alike may be regarded as regions finally
settled by Elizabethan Englishmen." The dominant traits of the English
race of that time were "spontaneity, enthusiasm, and versatility." But
the Elizabethan English of _Virginia_, he says, were notably different
in this: they were men of a less "austere" type of character than their
compatriots of the North; of more adventurous "instincts," and were
"men of action" as the New Englanders were "men of God." The peculiar
power of assimilation and the "pristine alertness of mind" were the
same in both. The economic superiority of the North was manifest; the
political ability of the South seemed generally superior. Pleasantly
putting aside the traditional claims of exclusive "cavalier" descent,
Mr. Wendell says: "At least up to the Civil War the personal temper of
the better classes in the South remained more like that of the better
classes in Seventeenth Century England than anything else in the modern
world." He frankly concedes that the most eminent statesmen of Colonial
and Revolutionary days were Virginians. Recalling what has been said
in regard to the constitutional sluggishness of the Anglo-Saxon, his
mental inertness, his settled or stereotyped habits of thought, and
his absolute lack of racial initiative _until the Norman came_, we
read the following passage from Mr. Wendell with curious interest:
"Such literature as the English world has left us bespeaks a public
whose spontaneous alertness of mind, whose instant perception of every
subtle variety of phrase and allusion, was more akin to that of our
_contemporary French_ than to anything which we are now accustomed to
consider native to insular England." This transformation Mr. Wendell
attributes to "the spontaneous, enthusiastic versatility of the
English temperament," in the spacious Elizabethan days. What has
produced or determined this extraordinary differentiation of race? What
are the original, genetic factors behind this varied manifestation
of power in that old, Elizabethan stock? With the advent of the
Seventeenth Century; with the turbulence, and trouble, and austerity
of Cromwellian days; with migrations following Cromwellian war; with
the evolution of a transatlantic type of the English race, there came
an end to those spacious and splendid days--to the creative, prolific
epoch of the Virgin Queen.
[Illustration: HONORABLE JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE.]
The most trivial fact that connects the name of Shakespeare with
Virginia is of interest to the Virginian and his multitudinous clans.
Captain Newport, Vice-Admiral of Virginia, commanded the ship _Sea
Adventure_, which was wrecked on the Devil's Islands. Sir George
Somers, sitting on the poop and misled by a flaming apparition on the
masts, unconsciously guided the vessel in a fatal course. William
Strachey, "Secretary in Virginia," wrote the account of the "Tempest"
published in Purchas. Thus was the "king's ship" boarded and burned by
the spirit Ariel at the command of his master Prospero, and wrecked on
those "Bermoothes" which are "still vext" by that rude, tempestuous
sea. It is of interest, too, to note that the special Supervisors
and Directors of this Elizabethan colony were William Shakespeare's
friends--the Earl of Southampton; the Earl of Pembroke; the Earl
of Montgomery; Viscount Lisle (brother of Sir Philip Sidney); Lord
Howard of Walden; Lord Sheffield; and Lord Carew of Clopton, who sold
Shakespeare, in 1597, the house in which he lived till 1616--all of
them Elizabethan cavaliers derived from Anglo-Norman stock. There is
another Elizabethan name of still greater interest to all people of the
Anglo-Virginian race--Sir Edwin Sandys, the author of the political
charters upon which the free institutions of Virginia rest; and not
only Virginia, but the United States. Educated at Geneva and the son of
an English Archbishop, he was thoroughly seasoned with the doctrines of
the Genevan school; and aimed not only to found the American Republic
on Genevan lines by the creation of a "free state" on the Atlantic
coast, but to make ample provision _in the charter itself_ for the
ultimate "expansion" of the young republic toward the Pacific Ocean.
This statement may not, even yet, be universally accepted; but it is
incontestably true.
XI
In the spring of 1885, a pamphlet was published by a citizen of
Kentucky directing attention to the effect of certain racial influences
in molding the institutions of this State. It was entitled "The Genesis
of a Pioneer Commonwealth." The suggestions offered by the writer as
to the sources of our organic life were subsequently illustrated and
confirmed by an eminent Virginian scholar, Dr. Alexander Brown, in
his "Genesis of the United States," published in 1890--a marvel of
masterly investigation; a work which throws a flood of light upon the
broad expanse of early American history, and is especially remarkable
for the critical elaboration, lucidity, and acuteness with which the
author has arranged the results of his extensive scheme of historic
research. In this work he has noted and traced, from English records
contemporary with the first settlement of Virginia, the beginnings of
that great duel between conflicting civilizations which closed with
the destruction of Spain's naval power at Manila and Santiago. And
every scholar who seeks a precise comprehension of the _origines_ of
the late war should closely follow the course of investigation pursued
by Dr. Brown. Every accessible detail of the desperate and protracted
Anglo-Spanish conflict--including the exploits of Elizabeth's captains
and the destruction of the Great Armada--come out under this historic
searchlight as distinctly and vividly as material objects under
the light of day. To citizens of Kentucky who have a critical and
philosophic interest in the historic evolution of the Commonwealth, it
will be peculiarly attractive in the circumstance that it connects,
and in a special sense includes, the Genesis of Kentucky with that
of the United States. He suggests in a most interesting way that
this Commonwealth is not only a lineal product of the Elizabethan
civilization which he has sought to trace, but that--cartographically
at least--_it formed an integral part of the first Republic established
in the New World_. In an explanatory communication addressed some
years ago to the present writer, Dr. Brown says: "The bounds of the
charters which contained the _popular charter rights_ which were the
germ of this republic extended between thirty-four degrees (34°) and
forty degrees (40°) north latitude, and from ocean to ocean. Kentucky,
therefore, was embraced within the first Republic in America."
The sagacious statesmen of Spain were not slow to detect the
menacing significance of this Virginian settlement, small as it was;
and the conflict then initiated did not cease until the navies of
Spain went down under the guns of Dewey and Schley. The persistent
machinations of Spanish _intrigants_ to obtain control of Kentucky
in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century were part of the same
prolonged contest for supremacy upon American soil. Every resource
of diplomacy, intrigue, and corruption--or, in modern phrase, of
_craft_ and _graft_--was exhausted by Spain to wrest the germinant
Commonwealth from the parent stem. On the other hand, no scheme was
more popular with the bold and enterprising Kentuckians--the Vikings
of the West--than to wrest the control of the Mississippi River
from the desperate grasp of Spain. Even the splendid and seducing
allurement of a Spanish alliance was powerless against the transmitted
instincts of a Scandinavian or Anglo-Norman stock. But the racial
inclination for territorial expansion Kentucky never lost. There was
a later manifestation of this spirit or instinct in the annexation of
California; an appropriation by force, to be sure, but under recognized
"legal forms"; and, still later, it was manifested in disastrous
expeditions to the Cuban coast, in which the reckless survivors barely
escaped, like the man of Uz, with the skin of their teeth--thanks to
a swift steamship and to an indulgent interpretation of the violated
law. In the near future, perhaps, we shall have an annexation of
the Island under forms which will fully justify the act; annexation
on the old lines. As far as race could make them so, the daring
adventurers who poured to foreign war from the vast network of streams
and streamlets that flowed seaward from the mountains and lowlands
of Kentucky were _Vikings_, with all the fighting characteristics of
that ancient breed.[6] Not _Vi_-Kings, nor "kings" of any sort, but
simply the Vik-ings or "Creek-men" who followed their expatriated Jarls
wherever a dragon-prow would float; to the land of the Saxon under
his greatest king; to the heart of Ireland, where the natives were
already "absorbing" the alien Norse; to the ancient Kingdom of Gaul;
to Scotland and to the islands of the Atlantic Ridge; and above all
to Iceland, the land of mist and snow and fire; to the incomparable
mistress of the Northern seas. Through the beautiful Mediterranean,
too, they sailed; and gathering to the support of the decadent
despotisms of the East, became famous in history and romance as the
_Varangian_ Guard which held at bay the Saracen and the Hun. They were
"rebels" when they fled from the consolidating despotism of Harold
Fairhair. They have been rulers or rebels ever since.
[6] That acute and philosophic observer, Goldwin Smith, says in his
description of the "Night-hawk" Kentuckians (1812): "In all his
proceedings he showed a _lawless vigor_ which might prove the wild
stock of civilized virtue." _Gens effrenatissima!_
But the story of their greatest exploits you read in the histories
of the English race. We have analyzed the claims which Mr. Barrett
Wendell has made for the Elizabethan settler upon the Atlantic Coast;
and it is instructive to note that another gifted son of New England,
Mr. John Fiske, has reached conclusions which he at least would
acknowledge give confirmation to the present views, as strong as proof
of Holy Writ. "The descendants of these Northmen," he says, "formed a
very large proportion of the population of the East Anglian counties,
and consequently of the men who founded New England. The East Anglian
counties have been conspicuous for resistance to tyranny and for
freedom of thought." By parity of reasoning, we may easily prove that
the kindred Norman was the founder of civilization in England, and, in
direct sequence and by filiation of race, of civilization in the Colony
of Virginia; and, by a gradual evolution, in the States of the South
and West.
* * * * *
Far back in the history of our race there stands, luminous and large,
in his _milieu_ of mediæval mist, a mounted conqueror with sword and
torch--the immediate offspring of Scandinavian Jarls--the remote
progenitor of the Virginian "Cavalier." It is the founder of that
Anglo-Norman civilization of which we form a part, and which, in many
ways, still responds to the impulse of that imperial brain.
William the Norman presented in vivid epitome the characteristic
traits of his race, with other traits or variations of these traits
that made him almost an abnormal figure even in the history of those
times. He has been commonly depicted as physically a giant among his
fellows; but Lord Lytton (a good authority) discredits these legends of
gigantic stature; it is seldom we find, he declares, the association
of great size and commanding intellect in great men; it is really a
violation of the natural law, though possibly the great Norman may
have been, like Abraham Lincoln, an exception to the general rule. His
physical forces were certainly subjected to severe tests. His personal
leadership in the wintry marches through the North of England were,
practically, paralleled in later days by the wintry marches of our
Scandinavian general, George Rogers Clark, in the vast territories of
the North and West. The prodigious fortitude and endurance manifested
in these campaigns proved beyond all question the staying capacity
of the Scandinavian blood. The royal Norman had all the tastes of
a forest-born man; not a mere taste for the sports of the field as
known to the English gentlemen of a later period, but a wild, almost
demoniac passion for the atrocities of the chase as practised by the
early Norman kings. A love of royal sport does not discredit a modern
ruler of men; but scarcely such sport as this. The "wild king," says
an old English chronicler, "loves wild beasts as if he were a wild
beast himself and the father of wild beasts." Churches and manors were
swept away to create forests and dens and retreats for the creatures
he loved to slay. He ruled, conquered, hunted, ravaged, "harried,"
and subjugated from Brittany to Scotland; and yet, says the same old
chronicler in his "Flowers of History," "he was such a lover of peace
that a girl laden with gold might traverse the whole of England without
harm."
[Illustration: HONORABLE WILLIAM PRESTON.]
This may or may not be a "flower of history"; but if true, it is a
startling historic fact.
XII
As the Conqueror stood among the sovereigns of that day, so stood
the Normans among the contemporary races. They were of peculiar
type, these men--both sovereign and subject--and were cast in a like
mold. They had body, sap, color, concentrated vigor, and inbred
Thracian fire. They had a sort of racial distinction which in its
merely personal aspects was never lost. Mingling with all races,
they yet stood in a sense separate and apart from all. They were
as the _Haut Brion_ among the wines of the Bordelais. But, unlike
their native vine, they bore transplantation to any land, and drew
perpetual vigor from every soil. Strange as it may seem, there is a
confessed incapacity for colonization in the Frenchman of to-day,
and stranger still is the remedy for this defect which some of their
leading thinkers have proposed, to wit, that the Frenchman should
transmogrify himself _into an Anglo-Saxon_. Certainly a grotesque
transformation, if effected in the manner proposed by those pessimistic
prophets Demolins and Lemaître. France (they say) must have colonial
expansion! The Anglo-Saxon is the only successful expansionist; we must
_Anglo-Saxonize_ France! They forget that the Anglo-Saxon himself is
indebted for his success as a colonist and trader to the Scandinavian
Frenchmen who colonized England under William the Conqueror, and
that it was not until the Norman's demoniac spirit of "enterprise"
took possession of the Anglo-Saxon thegns and ceorls that they even
felt the impulse to "go down to the sea in ships." Later, too, they
should remember, there was an _industrial_ colonization of England
by the Frenchmen who were relentlessly expatriated in the days of
the dragonades. What France then lost has never been fully regained.
When she lost the Norman element in its early Scandinavian form, her
capacity for colonial expansion was seriously impaired. When she
colonized England by an indiscriminate exclusion of the Huguenots
from her own soil, her capacity for normal evolution was lost. The
recanting or subjugated element that remained is probably represented
by the prescriptive "free-thinking" anti-clerical element of to-day.
The profane spirit of the English "Bigod" had been imported into the
religion of France, and "bigotry" may discredit the claims of the
noblest faith. The extreme reactionary result in this instance is an
intolerant _unbelief_, passing at times into a ferocious contempt for
country, constitutions, and creeds.
The storms of Norman conquest seemed scarce to touch the depths
of Anglo-Saxon life. No marked change in the methods of local
administration accompanied the change of kings. The rude strength of
the old manorial system was proof against radical change. Far less
complex than the centralized administration of modern France, it was
even better calculated to accommodate itself to the changes wrought
by the hand of war. Built low and strong, it stood four-square to
every shock and blast. It was only the high towers that toppled in the
sweep of the storm. When it passed, the village-group, the manorial
life, and the rude strong sons of the soil were still there. Andrews,
an authority upon early Anglo-Saxon life, gives us a picture of the
"yeoman" which leaves much to be desired in the way of picturesqueness
and charm. Upon the testimony of priests and leeches he is depicted
as a swinish, servile sort of creature--gross, stupid, sensual,
superstitious, cruel, and even "beastly"; with no conception whatever
of "freedom," and only the most bestial conceptions of life. The
routine of husbandry after the Conquest knew no change. A Norman
baron unseats the Saxon thegn, but the villein and ceorl take up the
labors of the old manorial life; the new lord receives the customary
dues, and protection against lawlessness is extended to bond and free.
This servile Saxon class were the descendants of a soldier race which
many years before the advent of the conquering Norman had rudely
dispossessed the ancient inhabitants of the soil, and were themselves
first to "harry," no doubt (for _harry_ is an old Saxon word imported
from the North), the _whole_ of that turbulent realm which William
harried only in part. But the Norman harried well. It may be said
that Northumbria never rallied from the devastation until the magical
agencies of modern industrialism came to repair the ravage that he
had wrought. But elsewhere the "Conquest" worked no such change. The
Norman simply gave completeness, variety, elevation, splendor, and
finish to the Saxon's rude but solid work. The transformation wrought
through the genius of the soldier-statesman was not the plodding
reconstruction of a shattered kingdom upon ancient lines, but the
orderly evolution of a new and splendid civilization within conditions
"visualized" by the Conqueror's creative brain. The primordial and
paramount condition of this work was the permanent establishment of
English _unity_ at the gathering of the people upon Salisbury Plain.
When the people rallied in loyal allegiance to the throne, the old
conceptions of "feudalism" ceased to exist--vanishing centuries before
Cervantes smiled Spain's "chivalry" away. In our own Websterian phrase,
England was henceforth "one and indivisible." The fusion of warring
elements was now as complete as if welded together by the hammer of
Thor. The consequences of that initial step are told in the history of
the English race--consequences which this imperial statesman alone had
the genius to forecast. To no mere man does the line of the Nineteenth
Century poet so well apply--
"He dipt into the future far as human eye could see."
This Norman adventurer who had now practically established all his
pretensions--legitimate and illegitimate--was destined to establish,
also, a line of Anglo-Norman princes who showed in varied ways that
transmitted blood would tell. Shakespeare, in his splendid series
of historical plays, has painted in vivid colors and fine dramatic
sequence the manifestation of this Anglo-Norman influence through a
succession of closely connected reigns--weaving into brilliant and
picturesque history the fireside traditions which fascinated his
youthful mind. The story that he tells is unique, not only in the
literature of the race, but in the literature of man. "The only history
that I know," said an English statesman discussing the annals of his
race, "is the history that Shakespeare wrote." No formal historic
writer has presented so faithfully or effectively the characteristic
traits and temper of that time. It is a philosophic study, resting
chiefly upon a traditional basis, and cast in a powerful dramatic form.
And who so fit as Shakespeare to depict the features of a royal race?
This strong portrayal of their salient or their subtler qualities,
in statecraft or in war, is something quite beyond the reach of a
mere historian's art. Through all this dramatic movement we note
the wild tricks of an hereditary blood; the troublous or turbulent
play of passions flowing from an alien source. It is in this record
alone we find that magical touch, that moving speech, that strange,
pathetic eloquence which flows from royal lips inspired to utterance
by the sorrows of an Anglo-Norman brain. Doubtless it is Shakespeare's
noblest work. It is certainly a product of the same imperial spirit
that breathes in the aspirations, the utterances, and the acts of the
"melancholy Dane."
Recent researches among the Scandinavian population of the Northern
States seem to show marked psychological distinctions in the several
branches of the Scandinavian stock, denoting original differences
in the mental make-up and manifestations of the Norwegian, the
Swede, and the Dane; brainy races all, but the psychological
manifestations of their daily life differing in each. The Swede and
his Norwegian brother have a strong, instinctive inclination for the
ruder activities of their social environment--building, boating,
agriculture, railway construction, commercial operations, etc.; the
Dane, on the contrary, manifesting an equally marked predilection for
life in its contemplative or æsthetic aspects--for philosophy, the
_belleslettres_, the fine arts, and the higher lines of scholastic
research. His physiognomy is differentiated, so to speak, by "the
pale cast of thought." Is it not possible that this deep intra-racial
distinction was recognized by the creator of the "melancholy Dane"?
But "Hamlet" was not altogether a product of Shakesperean imagination.
The original lines of the character seem to have been found in the
personality of a contemporary thinker, himself, like Hamlet, an
obstinate questioner of invisible things. In those eager Elizabethan
times when Drake and Raleigh were "discovering" other worlds and
Shakespeare imagining new, there lived near the ancient city of
Bordeaux a modest country gentleman--a grand seigneur of peculiar
distinction--who on his father's side was of direct English descent.
He bore a patrician title; he was lord of a rich domain, and enjoyed
social and civic distinctions of the highest sort. His scholarship was
ample and unique; his social pretensions were not in excess of his
rank; and he bore his weight of learning "lightly like a flower." Rank,
riches, scholarship, distinction--all these he had, and _more_; he had
the prodigious gift of _common sense_, with a sort of cynical humor
flashing through an habitual mood of philosophic thought that gave to
his writing--and notably to his book of observations and reflections--a
peculiar archaic charm. One could not pay a higher tribute to
his literary power than to add, that his writings had a powerful
fascination for Shakespeare himself. These philosophic essays supplied
the great dramatist with many subtle and striking thoughts, and the
very personality of the modest country gentleman made a profound
impression upon Shakespeare's mind; so marked an impression indeed
that according to the affirmation or suggestion of an ingenious modern
scholar, the great English writer--himself of Anglo-Norman blood--found
in this Anglo-French philosopher the original of that incomparable
dramatic figure--the "melancholy DANE." If this theory be correct,
it simply adds to the evidence of a certain bizarre weirdness in the
working of that old Scandinavian blood. Be this as it may, if the
mind of Shakespeare could be touched and inspired by the philosophic
reflexions of a provincial thinker in France (a Frenchman with a strong
suspicion of Anglo-Norman blood), there are doubtless others (some with
the same ethnic affinities) that may profitably be reached in the same
way; and lest the Anglo-Normans of our Bluegrass "Arcady" should take
themselves too seriously, as even the wisest may do, in the momentous
matter of "family," "rank," "blood," and "race," it would be well at
parting to introduce for their consideration the antiquated opinions
of the same ingenious Frenchman, who, wise as he was, did not always
perhaps take matters _seriously enough_. In this instance no doubt his
views will carry weight.
[Illustration: GENERAL BASIL W. DUKE.]
Thus much by way of preface and apology (if there be need of either)
in closing an excursive dissertation upon the ethnological theories of
Monsieur Paul Du Chaillu, accompanied with some interesting reflections
from the pen of another Frenchman who, though not "modern" in the same
sense, seems to have been in some of his conceptions quite judicious
and even elevated in his views. This quaint, genial, and sagacious
philosopher--the author of a famous book of "Essays"--was the Seigneur
de la Montaigne, Count of Perigord and sometime Mayor of Bordeaux,
whose greatest title to fame is this--that he was the favorite author
of William Shakespeare, the foremost writer of all time. Possibly
Montaigne by contribution of thought was an unconscious collaborator
in the construction of "Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark," a drama which
illustrates in brilliant, powerful, and fantastic fashion the varied
intellectual and emotive capacities of the Scandinavian blood. In that
royal Anglo-Norman, "Prince Hal" of England, the English dramatist
depicts the _man of action_; in Hamlet, the brooding Prince of Denmark,
he presents the _man of thought_. They were the favorite children of
Shakespeare's prolific brain.
"'Tis a scurvy custom and of very ill-consequence," says the ingenious
Chevalier Montaigne, "that we have in our kingdom of France to call
every one by the name of his manor or seigneury, and the thing in
the world that does the most prejudice and confounds families and
descents.... We need look no further for example than our own royal
family, where every partage creates a new sir-name, whilst in the
meantime the original of the family is totally lost. There is so great
liberty taken in these mutations that I have not in my time seen any
one advanced by fortune to any extraordinary condition who has not
presently had genealogical titles added to him new and unknown to his
father.
"How many gentlemen have we in France who by their own talk are of
royal extraction? More I think than who will confess they are not.
"Was it not a pleasant passage of a friend of mine? There were a great
many gentlemen assembled together; about the dispute of one lord of
the manor with another, which other had in truth some pretty eminence
of titles and alliances, above the ordinary scheme of gentry. Upon the
debate of this priority of place, every one standing up for himself,
to make himself equal to him; one, one extraction, another another;
one the near resemblance of name; another of arms; another an old
worm-eaten patent, and the least of them great-grandchild to some
foreign king. When they came to sit down to dinner, my friend, instead
of taking his place amongst them, retiring with most profound congees,
entreated the company to excuse him for having lived with them hitherto
at the saucy rate of a companion; but being now better informed of
their quality, he would begin to pay them the respect due to their
birth and grandeur; and that it would ill become him to sit down among
so many princes; and ended the farce with a thousand reproaches.
"_Let us in God's name_," continues the illustrious writer, "_satisfy
ourselves with what our fathers were contented and with what we are; we
are great enough if we understand rightly how to maintain it; let us
not disown the fortune and condition of our ancestors, and lay aside
those ridiculous pretences that can never be wanting to any one that
has the impudence to alledge them_."
XIII
The alphabetical series of Norman or Anglo-Norman names here given was
selected by an English scholar from an English official directory and
published, anonymously, in the latter half of the last century, to
illustrate a theory of the genesis of the English race. The present
selection represents only in part the series or lists originally
published, embracing several thousand names. To this selection the
writer has added Norman or Scandinavian names from other sources,
together with "notes" that serve to confirm in detail the general
theory of inherited racial traits. The list which he first published
has been greatly enlarged and many additions made from the original
English series.[7]
[7] The Norman People.
Mr. Freeman says that the Normans "lost themselves" among the people
whom they conquered. Very clearly, however, the "names" were not lost.
The original Norman may be said to have had, in a high degree, that
_personnalité absorbante_ which, according to Littré, is characteristic
of every great man. It is not remarkable, therefore, that after every
Norman invasion the resulting ethnical transmutation was complete. The
new element became at once the vitalizing power of the "absorptive"
or subjugated race. This gift of racial transformation was so great
that the Scandinavians, seizing a Gallic province, became French or
Norman; subjugating England, they became English; overflowing Ireland,
they fused at once with the native race; actually becoming "_Irisher_
than the Irish" themselves--_Hibernis ipsis Hiberniores_. The Duke of
Argyle once said in the English House of Lords that three of the Irish
leaders of that day (one of them John Redmond, the present Irish King)
were genealogically superior men--men of illustrious descent--leaders
of royal or noble Norman blood; confirming the declaration made by
the author of the "Peerage" that it is not lands but ancestors that
make a nobility. The career of the Norman as a conquering or migratory
race has been a perpetual masquerade; in England taking the form of
an Irishman and controlling the Parliament; in the same guise leading
the armies of England and France; in America, demoniacally possessed,
becoming the personal director of a lynching, the boss of a strike, or
the leader of a lawless expeditionary force. But everywhere he _leads_!
The name of the race disappears, but the original, indestructible,
irresistible, invisible and protean force is still _there_. If we
reject the existence and operation of this subtle and pervasive
influence in the ancestral strains of Kentucky, the evolution of the
typical Kentuckian can not easily be explained. The race is "lost," not
because the visiting Norman is absorbed by his host, but because the
visitor appropriates all that his host may have, even his personality
and all that it implies. The Englishman, or the Irishman, or the
Scotchman, disappear, and a transmogrified Norman takes his place.
It is not English, nor Irish, nor French absorptiveness, but Norman
appropriativeness, that has done the work. Precisely thus, to compare
great things with small: the English Whigs once went in swimming,
and the Norman Tories "stole their clothes." But the Norman's act of
appropriation usually goes deeper than the skin. He is not content with
a petty theft of "clothes." With an almost satanic subtlety and finesse
he appropriates the very soul. It becomes, indeed, his very own. That
incomparable illusionist, Benjamin Disraeli, was a past-master in
these Norman arts, and in perfect sympathy with those Anglo-Norman
Tories who followed his fortunes in victory or defeat. But Norman or
Saxon were equally indifferent to him. It was glory enough for Semitic
ambition to build success upon the needs of both; and yet, in doing
it, this man of alien blood and ancient race repeated the miracle of
Lanfranc--the scholar and statesman who, in the old Norman days, had
not only cooled the hot blood of the Normanized Scandinavian and
conciliated the respect of the proud, implacable Saxon, but, linking
their interests in inseparable association, had brightened with a
prospect of imperial splendor the destinies of the common race. So,
too, the Semitic statesman charmed the rudest elements with his Orphean
song. His brilliant successor, Salisbury, added to parts and learning
the technical information of a savant. Disraeli had something better.
He had that deep, philosophic insight which seems to be bred into the
elect of an ancient stock. It is a mystical gift.
"He saw things, now, as though they _were_,
And things _To Be_ in things that are."
This (if we may believe Haeckel) was the "inspiration" of the Jewish
Law-giver.
[Illustration: THE MARSHALL HOME AT "BUCK POND."
(Near Versailles, Kentucky.)
Built in 1783 by Colonel Thomas Marshall, father of Chief Justice
Marshall.]
How little escaped the thoughtful eyes of our Semitic statesman, as he
surveyed from his coign of vantage the shifting currents of our modern
world! In depicting Monsignore Berwick, a descendant of an old Scottish
family that for generations had mingled Italian blood with its own, the
writer looks quite beyond the native environment, and sees only the
old Northern blood in the _flaxen hair_ and _light blue eyes_ of the
young Italian priest. Describing a nineteenth century function at the
beautiful English home of Hugo Bohun, he sees at once in Mr. Gaston
Phoebus--the most gifted and attractive of the swells whom fashion has
herded in this social jungle of Bohun--not a modern Englishman,
but a _Gascon noble of the Sixteenth Century_, clothed with all the
attractions of a contemporary courtier of France--the France of Louis
le Grand. In "Gaston Phoebus"--says the philosophic statesman--"Nature,
as is sometimes her wont, had chosen to reproduce exactly the original
type." When the subtle Semitic thinker introduced an American "Colonel"
at the swell function of Hugo Bohun, why should he take him from the
_South_, and give him a _Norman_ name? Had nature reproduced in Colonel
Campian the antique Norman type?
It is a notorious fact, says Herbert Spencer, that the Celtic type
disappears altogether in the United States.
Doubtless some vague conception of a potential undercurrent of
ancestral blood must have been passing through the mind of that fine
old gentleman, Mr. Isaac Shelby of Fayette, when dispensing his
stores of bachelor wisdom to his young friends just "after the war."
He would say, "Depend on it, young gentlemen, there is no cross like
a _Virginian_ cross." The differentiating quality was there. It was
observed, but not accurately depicted perhaps, by Disraeli, by Barrett
Wendell, and by _Isaac le Bon_. What was it? If a racial quality, what
_race_? Two of these acute observers were of Scandinavian stock. The
other did not need to say, even to the proudest statesman at Potsdam
or St. James, "_Your_ race is of but yesterday compared with my own."
One of Disraeli's favorite themes was race. Indeed, a statesman could
not be ignorant of the subject in his day. The claims of race were
sweeping over diplomatic arrangements and dynastic rights. Bismarck
was unifying the German people by removing ancient landmarks, by
"appropriating" autonomous territories, and by appropriating or
absorbing a large population of the Scandinavian race; and the third
(and last) Napoleon undertook to unify the Latin races by placing an
Austrian prince upon the Mexican throne. But the Napoleonic prince
pushed his reconstructive theories of race to a destructive conclusion
when, in freeing Italy, he furnished a formidable partner to the
Triple Alliance, that ultimately destroyed France. The sentiment of
race, properly directed, has its uses. But the director must not be a
despot or a despot's agent. The feeling must be popular in origin and
expression--voluntary, spontaneous, normal, autonomous. There was never
a better illustration of its power than in the prolonged struggle of
Kentucky for existence as an American State. There was never a better
illustration of popular capacity in statecraft and of enterprise in
war than in the early years of the last century (1800-12). They--the
people--discharged the functions of an independent State. Kentucky was
in fact a little _nation_. Raising and equipping armies, receiving
diplomatic emissaries or agents, defending her frontiers, guarding the
Atlantic border, protecting the territories of the Northwest, and in
conjunction with the "sea-power" of Commodore Perry actually conducting
war upon foreign soil. The very guns on Perry's ships were "sighted"
by riflemen from Kentucky; and when the day came to try conclusions
with the bold Englishman on his own soil, one of the most efficient
aides upon Shelby's staff was Perry himself. Is there nothing in this
record to appeal to a sentiment of national pride in the Kentuckian's
heart? And does it not inspire a disposition to revive and invigorate
those pristine instincts of our common race? Probably the recent
manifestation of "home-coming" sentiment was denotive of some such
stirring of racial impulse and emotion long dormant in the soul.
XIV
When following the long dim path of Gothic migration we found but
little that seemed to be in vivid relation with the ethnology of our
own race; and it was not until we were afloat upon the Scandinavian
seas, with Rolf Ganger looking out upon the kingdoms of the earth, that
we began to feel ourselves (to speak in paradox) firmly planted upon
historic ground. Here the conditions of the old parable are reversed.
The genius of civilization is offering the kingdoms of the earth to the
Devil himself. With the old pirate of the Norwegian coast begins the
great movement that frees, elevates, and modernizes man.[8] Henceforth
all is plain sailing for the historical inquirer. The reader may
take down his map and trace the foot-prints of the Norse freebooters
wherever they dropped a Scandinavian name upon our ancestral soil.
These ancient "place names" are found everywhere north of the Avon,
and may easily be traced along the eastern coast of England, from
the Tyne to the Thames; or, proceeding westward and northward, far
beyond the line of the Cheviot Hills;--far beyond the waters of the
Tweed. The Scandinavian has resolved to stay wherever he has been
planted by the fortunes of war. When his Norman kinsman seized the
counties of Southern England, the practical result of the invasion
was to _reinforce_ the Anglo-Saxon whom he came to rob. The Norman
invader was warmly received by those English Normans--the Danes--in his
"wintry marches" to the north. From the dragon teeth thus sown sprang
the Kentuckian of to-day, two thirds "dragon" and one third "bull."
The "half horse, half alligator" was an Anglo-Norman assimilation of a
later date.
[8] When Otto, the _Saxon_, a remote kinsman of our race, became a
Roman Emperor, he became the CONSERVATOR of Rome and all her works.
When William the Norman became King of England and the leader of Gothic
races, it was his chosen mission to undo, in part, the work which
Rome had done. As a soldier and statesman, the Norman leader had been
trained in the "school" of the Saxon King. Read Mr. Freeman's "Western
Europe in the Eighth Century." It is an impressive introduction to that
"realm of shadows" which forms the background of the Norman Conquest.
It was the genetic period of modern civilization. The geographic
outlines of great modern States were just beginning to appear.
It is conceivable that by reason of exhausted material resources--coal,
iron, etc.--our present splendid civilization, in the course of a
few thousand years, will disappear; leaving here and there, perhaps,
in some happy isle of the Pacific seas, a prosperous and cultivated
population descended from some surviving element of the present
American stock. Peering painfully through the mists of tradition, they
have vague glimpses of ancestral races fighting for supremacy in a
vast continental war--the Yenghees in the North and the Dixees in the
South--remote ancestral races in internecine conflict.
It was thus with the Teutonic and Scandinavian races of to-day. In
far-off Central Asia, beyond the Caspian Sea and beyond the definite
historic boundaries of the past, they see great races in perpetual
movement of migration or war; multitudinous peoples; two distinct
groups or divisions; but all of one race. As they emerge into the
twilight of history--into the savage gloaming betwixt the dog and
the wolf--the observer recognizes two races, the Teutones and the
Gothones, or Goths. The vast migratory columns of the former take
possession of Central Europe. The other column,--the kindred Gothones
or Goths,--making its exit from Central Asia, sweeps along the valley
of the Vistula, follows the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, and
moving to the mouths of the Elbe and the Rhine directs its columns
of colonization into Denmark and the Danish Islands, and to the vast
Scandinavian peninsula of the north. As the northern column loitered
along the shores of the Baltic they gathered great quantities of amber
from the sea, which with early instincts of commercial thrift they sold
to the Teutones on the south, by whom, with early mechanic aptitude, it
was wrought into many exquisite and profitable shapes for the markets
of the world. "Made in Germany" is an antique trademark in the history
of men, and there is a pleasant, if trivial, significance in the
circumstance that the first historic article of traffic between these
primitive races--the founders of modern civilization--was the substance
which first manifested the property of "electricity" to the eyes of
man.
But in pursuing this inquiry we are less concerned in ascertaining
the exact relations of the ancestral kinsmen than in studying the
ethnic material (in this instance the Scandinavian) which was molded
or modified by the geographical _milieu_. What was the moral geography
of the race? Why should the Norseman differ from his kindred Teuton in
the South? There may have been original differences in the psychology
of race which made one, for example, an explorer and trader, and the
other an unrivaled artisan and exploiter. But there is something to
be considered in the plastic influence of the physical and social
conditions. It is no melodramatic assumption, for example, to declare
that no slave could live in the free air of Scandinavia. Not because
the air is "free," but because the soil is thin. The slave could not
subsist himself, much less pay tribute to a lord. If slavery or serfage
was impossible, a nobility was equally so. Where subsistence was scant,
accumulation was at least slow. Wealth could not exist as a basis of
privilege, and class legislation upon primogeniture gave support to
this natural law. The "five" and "fifty" acre holdings could not be
consolidated into big estates. The rocky ridges, the high levels, the
nipping airs, the thin, worn soil, the short seasons, and the fleeting
harvests were conditions fatal to the growth of feudalism. Retainers
were superfluous where slaves could not make their keep. Fish from the
sea, a little pasturage in the glens--that was all. No smiling abundant
harvests; no patient laborious thralls, no baronial _bas_ or boss; none
of those iron Teutonic laws that not only shaped the conditions of
society but wrought changes in the very soul of man. The Scandinavians
were not Germans or Saxons or Angles or Celts. This rocky Scandinavian
peninsula was cradling the masters of the world. They were literally
driven by their wild, arid nurse to follow the furrows of the sea and
recast the corrupted civilizations of the earth. Between the sheltering
group of islands that fringe the western front of Norway and curtain
the main shore, there is a broad passage of the sea where a navy of
dragon-prows might float secure from observation or attack. Near the
center of this insular barrier, Rolf Ganger--the greatest force of that
hyperborean world--had constructed a system of dry-docks, from which,
in the idle hours of summer and autumn, he launched those portentous
fleets of dragons and serpents that sailed upon every sea and ravaged
the most distant shores. From one point of view, it was a nest of
Scandinavian free-booters; from another, it was the naval station of
a great sea-faring race--a race that, having failed as traders in
amber and timber and fish, were now about to try their luck in ravage
and loot upon the gravelly loams of the Cheviot Hills and deep in the
sunny heart of France.
[Illustration: COLONEL RICHARD M. JOHNSON.]
William the Conqueror was fifth in descent from this great Captain of
the northern seas--the potential reconstructor of the modern world.
XV
When the great Gothic column of migration, sweeping past the Caspian
and crossing the Asian frontier, followed the river valleys and the
shores of the Baltic Sea, making a reconnoissance in force that reached
as far as the waters of the northern sea, it pushed its exploring
columns through every part of Scandinavia, peopling every shore it
passed, and leaving every promontory and peninsula in every nook and
hook and cranny and on every continental headland, every island inlet,
and in every peaceful arm of the Danish seas strewn with the wrecks
of the migrant column, battered by the hardships of a long, unbroken
march. Only the strong survived. The weak and unenterprising, as the
head of the resistless column bent toward the northern sea, shrank
from the toils and terrors of a march in a northern clime. Upon these
geographical points of "refuge" the racial weaklings had been gathering
for years. Nothing stayed the mighty Goth. The Norman could turn the
sharpest corners in the Danish world. Once planted in the footsteps
of a pioneer, even a phlegmatic Teuton might pursue his way. But the
exhausted weakling dropped in his tracks, and crawled to the shelter
of some inviting _angulus_ or nook. Here they were--the drift in the
eddy of an archipelagic sea. Jutes from Jutland (in Denmark); _Saxons_
from the shores to the south; Angles, from the Anglen in Sleswick--in
all a seething colluvian of ethnic stragglers swarming for an ultimate
raid upon British soil. The great Teutonic nation was seemingly planted
on the best lands of _Central Europe_; the great Scandinavian people
lay far to the north; the Jutes, the Angles, the Saxons, the Frisians,
_lay between_;--the Angli, who gave their name to England, lying
at the point (_Angulus_) where the coast of the Baltic first bends
sharply toward the north. Are these the peoples that gave substance and
strength and splendor to the English race? The men who fall out in a
forced march (said a great Virginian captain) are not the men to stand
up in a long fight.
Toward the close of the Eighth Century the Scandinavians of the North
began their work of devastation upon English soil. For at least three
centuries the Anglo-Saxons held the Rover's name in dread. Contemporary
English abounds with Scandinavian words and forms; numerous traces of
Scandinavian occupancy are found on English soil to-day. The men of the
Heptarchy were in the main bred upon English soil. At least they were
not a broken race of stragglers when they came. They were a vigorous,
fighting breed. But if Bismarck were looking for "mixed races" in his
carefully calculated career of annexation (no "dreaming" here), he
certainly found what he sought at the point where the column of Goths
that had marched from Central Asia, turning its head to the German
Ocean, took courage from the bracing prospect and--gathering their
veterans into one compact, invulnerable mass--debouched boldly toward
the vast, inhospitable regions of the North. The Angles and Saxons
were cradled among the mixed or mongrel peoples that had been dropped
by the great migrant races in the southeastern corner of the northern
sea--a population, says Marsh, of "very mixed and diversified blood."
These furnished the original "comelings" upon British soil, but it
is scarcely credible that the outcome of this mongrel stock was the
_Anglo-Saxon Race_,--which in the great Triple Alliance of Norman and
Saxon and Dane has for centuries maintained an unbroken front and kept
the world in awe.
XVI
The learned author of "British Family Names," speaking of certain
lists of ancient Norman names alleged to be authentic, says: "Of
this great array of time-honored names, few are now borne by direct
representatives. They exist among the old gentry rather than in the
peerage. In the majority of cases, the later descendants of illustrious
families have sunk into poverty and obscurity, unconscious of their
origin." They have not "vanished from the world" (as Mr. Freeman says),
but are daily coming to the front in circumstances requiring capacity
for leadership in affairs. "Even now," says the observant author of
an anonymous treatise,[9] "agricultural laborers and coal miners can
not combine for objects which demand the exercise of practical ability
without finding themselves led by those who, though in humble stations,
bear names of undoubted Norman origin," citing, by way of example,
Joseph Arch (_De Arques_, Normandy). These quotations will fitly
introduce to the reader the long and suggestive alphabetical series of
Norman names which the compiler has made the basis of extended critical
remark.
[9] The Norman People.
In examining this series, one naturally inquires: How do we know
that the thousands of names, taken from an old English Directory,
are Norman? Simply by the circumstance that the same names occur in
the records of Normandy in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries--the
references in most cases being to the great Rolls of the Exchequer,
1180-1200. Comparative reference to the English records at an early
date--Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth centuries--raises a strong
presumption that names appearing on the Norman Rolls _before the
Conquest_, and on English records _after the Conquest_, were derived
from Normandy, and that names now accounted _English_ were originally
_Norman_ names. A similar correspondence between the names in the
records of a Virginian court house and those of official records in
Kentucky, to the mind of a contemporary genealogist, would carry
decisive weight. It is the weight of concurrent testimony of high
character from authentic sources. _Identitas colligitur ex multitudine
signorum._ Even one surname in like circumstances is a significant
record of individual descent. What shall be said of thousands
historically traced--the continuous record of a single race? Thirty
years ago it was estimated by an English scholar that the English
race proper comprised thirty millions of people--a great composite
nation; the Saxon, Dane, and Norman--a trinity of races all derived
from the same ancient stock (the Gothic) and each forming about one
third of a homogeneous race. The Saxon came immediately from the
southeastern shores and islands of the North Sea, and is of Gothic
descent; the Dane from Denmark or the Danish Isles, and is of pure
Scandinavian stock; the Norman from Normandy, remotely Gothic, is
of direct descent from the Scandinavian race. If this statement be
correct the conclusion seems to be inevitable, _not_ that "we are
Scandinavians"--as the London _Times_ says--but that we are all deeply
_Scandinavianized_ and that there is a preponderance of Scandinavian
blood in the English race. If there has been a thorough intermixture
of the three racial elements during the past eight hundred years, we
may assume that every Kentuckian of Anglo-Virginian stock represents a
practically definite ethnical product: Saxon, one third; Scandinavian,
two thirds--for all controversial purposes a sufficiently conclusive
result. The long-commingled blood of this composite race is, in effect,
an adamantine cement, and the racial plexus, fusion, or combination is
one and inseparable in every sense. If it were possible to _remove_
either of these constituent elements--the _Scandinavian_ or Saxon--the
Kentuckian in his present admirable form would disappear and nothing
but a restoration of the racial balance by a reconstitution of the
original parts would restore him to the position of primacy assigned
him by Mr. Bart Kennedy in his recent contribution to the London
_Mail_. How true, then, in a deep ethnological sense, the familiar
legend of our Commonwealth--"United we stand, divided we fall."
Be this as it may, it is desirable to have it understood that so
long as the Saxon holds his _own_ (and no more) in the constitution
of our common race, there can arise no possible "unpleasantness"
between the parts of which it is composed. In that duplex anthropoidal
abnormity to which its creator has given a significant binominal
appellation--_Jekyll_ and _Hyde_--some _regulative_ element seems to
be lacking. Is it an element of race? The author does not say as much
in express terms, but apparently he suggests it in his selection of
names. Have we not a _Norman_ in Mr. Jekyll? And a _Saxon_ in Mr. Hyde?
That we have not a normal Englishman is quite clear. Is the dominant
Scandinavian element _short_? or has some demoniac "Berserker" blood
slipped into the cross?
Subtle and descriminative writers (such as Stevenson and Disraeli) do
not express themselves after a careless fashion, as a rule. They mean
something, even in the selection of a name.
[Illustration: COLONEL J. STODDARD JOHNSTON.]
There is something, too, no doubt, that appeals to the popular
imagination merely in a _Norman_ name, and Lord Lytton has cleverly
exploited this predilection in many fascinating volumes of historical
romance; tales of love and chivalry that in our soft mid-century
days had rivaled, and for a time eclipsed, the magical creations
of Scott. The later school of Scandinavian writers has not won the
Kentuckian from his early love of English and Scottish romance.
His conception of the actual Scandinavian--the Scandinavian in the
flesh--the Scandinavian of to-day, is still undefined and vague.
Until Du Chaillu came he had given the matter but little thought.
And, yet, fifty years before--in the busy, brooding twenties--another
Frenchman, wandering among the Scandinavians of Gothia, describes
their predominant characteristics thus: "Fair hair, blue eyes, a
middle stature, light and slim; a physiognomy indicating frankness,
gentleness, and a certain sentimental elevation of mind, especially
among the fair sex. The people in the other provinces partake of these
different physical and moral qualities."
How completely this description by a Frenchman in Scandinavia verifies
the casual observation of another Frenchman in Kentucky! Their
hospitality, M. Du Chaillu informed us in his charming lecture, was
almost without bounds, and at times to a Kentuckian would have been
embarrassing in the extreme, as when those snowy-handed hostesses
bathed the traveler's feet and tucked him away in bed. But Monsieur
seems to have suffered no embarrassment on this account.
Among the population of the Northern provinces of Scandinavia there are
men of almost gigantic stature, with dark hair, deep-set eyes, a look
somewhat fierce, but full of expression and vivacity. Their muscles are
large, firm, and distinct, the bones prominent, the features regular
and clear cut. A cheerful temper and "an enterprising disposition" are
qualities common to the whole population. A stranger is welcome in
all circles. Even in the polar circles the hospitality loses none of
its warmth. Probably it is in dispensing their hospitality that their
passion for "strong liquor" is most marked. This liquor they drink
out of horns; and that is why, said Du Chaillu, convincingly, that we
say in Kentucky, "Will you take a horn?" But the Kentuckian seems to
derive this peculiarity from every side. "Fill the largest horns," said
the Saxon, Cedric, when his slaves were arranging the banquet for his
Norman guests.
XVII
The impression we derive from the foregoing description of the
Scandinavian physique among the more northern tribes recalls Professor
Shaler's conclusions from a careful study of the measurement of
fifty thousand troops from Kentucky, made by the astronomer Gould
(a distinguished mathematician), who after the war took service in
the Argentine Republic. "The results," he says, "are surprising.
Their average height was nearly an inch greater than that of the New
England troops; they exceed them equally in girth of chest, and the
circumference of head is also very much larger. In size they come
up to the level of the _picked regiments of the Northern armies_ of
Europe."[10] Yet these results were obtained from what was a levy _en
masse_. It did not include "the rebel exiles" who were the "first
running from the press," or, as is often said, "the flower of the
State," and being in the main of a more exuberant habit of body would
doubtless have given still better results. It is questionable if
all Scandinavia could furnish two such _heads_ as William Nelson's
and Humphrey Marshall's. _Ceteris paribus_, said Leidy, "size is a
measure of power"--referring to _size of head_. When General Marshall
was warned that his great size would attract the attention of
_sharpshooters_, he answered, "I have provided for that. I have a _fat
staff_. There be _six_ Richmonds in the field!" His aide and secretary
was a Norman of wholly different type; of a slight figure, but of an
activity, courage, vivacity, and endurance wholly unsurpassed. Captain
Shaler (himself a capable soldier, with a strong dash of New England
blood) singles out for special commendation the soldiers and officers
of Morgan's command. He especially notes their high social quality,
their physical vigor and activity, their endurance under severe tests,
and their peculiar aptitude and penchant for the business of war. He
waxes vigorously poetic in describing the martial qualities of the
"Orphan Brigade."
[10] KENTUCKY. By N. S. Shaler (Harvard College), 1885.
* * * * *
Hereditary surnames are said to be memorials of race that can never be
obliterated. If thousands of men, swept along in some great historic
migratory movement which is followed and described by critical
observers through country after country, through century after century,
never "breaking ranks" except to plant and build, leaving the same
names upon the official records of every dukedom, or kingdom, or
commonwealth through which they pass; when their names, their features,
their instincts, their mental habits, their daily speech, their terms
of law, the language and routine of their courts, are impressed with
the same ethnic stamp; when the same mental, physical, and moral
characteristics are manifest generation after generation; when myriads
of minute resemblances confirm the conclusions of the larger view,
why lose one's self in the haunting mystery of apparent discrepancies
in detail? Let us give full credit to each member of the triune
ethnical Trust--which is charged with all the responsibilities of this
magnificent modern world. If you wish to know how much can be said to
thrill with delight that old SAXON element of your blood, read what the
Count de Montalembert (another Frenchman) has said in his "Monks of the
West." The enormous difficulties encountered by the Church in that old
chaotic day approximately measure the shortcomings of the race. That
the crude, repulsive Saxon should have been fashioned into the noble
figure which Montalembert describes, speaks well for the essential
worth of the _Saxon_; but what a tribute to the miraculous power of the
_Monk_!
In the original prolusion and in the present preface the writer has
simply tried to prepare the way for investigators of greater gifts.
Here the PHILOLOGIST is in his proper field. In pursuing this work, he
becomes the genealogist of a race. Names of localities, names of men,
are subject--like all other words--to every variety of phonetic change,
and, it may be said, are in a perpetual state of flux. But there is a
soul that survives all changes. It is for the scholar to catch it on
the wing and fix a fleeting syllable for all time.
XVIII
The student who is interested in this subject may find some help in the
following series of NAMES (to which frequent reference has been made),
compiled by an anonymous English scholar whose learning and ability
have been recognized in the critical reviews. It was to one of these
reviews that the present writer was indebted for suggestions that at
once quickened his interest in M. Du Chaillu and his researches, and
induced him in the republication of the English writer's list (taken
from a London Directory) to add to the selections a few names of
obvious Scandinavian derivation--Danish, Swedish, and Old Norse. Any
fixed rule of selection, in a discussion like this, it is difficult to
apply. Readers who comprehend how easily errors creep into an ordinary
record of "family" pedigrees will make due allowance for errors that
may be found in this modestly illustrative Anglo-Norman list, in which
there is but little attempt to trace lineal family descent. With a
body of names so pregnant with significance as this, the credentials
of any branch of the Anglo-Norman race in any part of the earth will
be recognized as good. The difficulties of the problem are apparent
to all. Its interest and importance it is impossible to exaggerate or
deny. If more simply stated, probably it were more easily understood,
but, failing in simplicity of statement, very frequent _repetitions_
may be excused.
The origin of the general discussion ought to encourage every scholar.
According to the pleasing conception of the great Scottish romancer,
the originator of this controversy was a Saxon slave who understood
the art of deducing philosophic conclusions from unconsidered trifles.
While herding his master's swine in the West Riding of Yorkshire, he
spoke to a fellow thrall who stalked about in the full enjoyment of
Saxon freedom with a brazen collar about his neck:
"And _swine_ is good English," said the jester. "But how call you the
sow when she is flayed, drawn and quartered, and hung up by the heels
like a traitor?"
"Pork," said Gurth.
"And _pork_, I think, is good Norman French. When alive and in charge
of a Saxon slave, she goes by a _Saxon_ name. She is a _Norman_ when
dressed for the table in the castle hall. What dost thou think of
_that_, friend Gurth?"
"It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, _however it got into thy
fool's pate_."
This is elementary, but it was an inspiration to one of the greatest
writers of France. The nimble wits of the Scottish wizard are not at
the service of all the Wambas of the Saxon race.
* * * * *
"The Norman has vanished from the world," says Mr. Freeman, "but he has
indeed left a name behind him"; and not only the "name," but wherever
found he still exhibits "the indomitable vigor of the Scandinavian
with the buoyant vivacity of the Gaul." It must be remembered, in
discussing so large and complicated a subject as this, that philosophic
scholarship is seldom narrow, absolute, final, or exclusive in its
views. It would be folly to affirm, says the anonymous English writer
who anticipated in certain aspects the theories of Du Chaillu, that
the possession of Norman and Danish blood "always implies energy
and intellect; and Saxon descent, the reverse." We have too much
evidence to the contrary. It is not individual instances that are now
under consideration; it is the comparative qualities of _race_. We
can only safely affirm, in a rational and considerate discussion of
the question, that our people are not Saxons nor Scandinavians, nor
Normans, but broadly speaking, are a great branch of the English race
which happily mingles the highest qualities of the THREE; the stolid
conservatism of the first, the daring enterprise of the second, the
"buoyant vivacity," the "spontaneity, enthusiasm, and versatility" of
the third. When these racial elements were fairly balanced, as in the
time of Elizabeth, the evolution of the Englishman was complete. It
was then that, surcharged with complex currents of racial vitality,
the adventurous "Elizabethan" sought our shore. The Virginian hunter
followed or formed a trail in every wilderness, and the Yankee skipper
trafficked on every coast. The march begun in Central Asia was resumed
upon the American Continent, and "the most dramatic spectacle in
history" was gradually unfolded before the eyes of men.
[Illustration: NORTHUMBRIA.]
We should find many Anglo-Norman or Scandinavian names upon the company
rolls of that vast host. Many of these names we have already heard,
and, beside the bold Norman, others walk unseen--men of blended races
cast in the same heroic mold. It is the mark of a "true Kentuckian"
that, like the amiable and sagacious Isaac le Bon, he appreciates a
good "cross," and to the end of time he will carry the cross which was
originally stamped upon his English ancestor in the ancient nursery of
the race. He has no quarrel, therefore, with his Anglo-Saxon blood.
"Nature," as Mr. Disraeli says: "natural selection," as others say,
seems to delight in working with a purpose and upon a plan; and, when
impelled to frame a creature that could do the work which apparently
the Anglo-Norman was called to do, she seems to have found her model in
the man of ancient ROME: she made him _strong_--a man of oak and bronze.
_Illi tobur et æs_ TRIPLEX. Some of the elements may be crude, but
_all_ must be strong. A Roman trireme might safely carry a Vergilian
body and an Horatian soul; but only a vessel framed with the toughest
constituents at Nature's command could carry for century after century,
in every land, upon every sea, in the "teeth of clenched antagonisms,"
and upon fixed predestinated lines, the fortunes of the English or
"Anglo-Norman" race.
In point of fact, DESTINY itself seems to have directed the process of
evolution when the germ-plasm of those picked races--the Norman, the
Saxon, and the Dane--was united to create the English or Anglo-Norman
race, the Norman element by virtue of peculiar traits being dominant
in the "cross." The Kentuckian is no degenerate product of this
magnificent ancestral "blend," and one of the objects of the "Names"
and the accompanying "Notes" is to show that in every characteristic
respect he has bred true to the ancient blood. If the storm of Norman
conquest scarcely touched the solid elements of that old manorial life,
so the continuous intermingling, through many centuries, of the blood
of three remotely kindred races has served to fix and transmit the
characteristic traits which are stamped upon the Kentuckian of to-day.
XIX
Perhaps no critic has thrown more light upon mediæval history than Mr.
Freeman, who in his discriminating analysis of the Norman character
declares the supreme, the directive, the dominant quality to be
_craft_: a special power of intellect which seems to have been created
or evolved by the necessities of those times--intellect fused with
instinct and directed by a conscienceless common sense. Mr. Freeman
detected its manifestations in all the Norman's great affairs. In
legal proceedings, in court intrigues, in ecclesiastical relations;
in diplomatic affairs, in local or in provincial administration, and,
most notable of all, in the _conduct of war_. It was in _war-craft_
that the Saxon fell short. If success in battle had come with a sturdy
frame, a stout heart, and a short sword, the Saxon would seldom have
failed in war. But he was not strong (Mr. Freeman says) in "the wiles
of war." From the very outset the Scandinavian has won battles by sheer
weight of brain, and nature certainly "turned loose a thinker" when she
projected a Scandinavian freebooter upon the soil of France.
This attribution of craft, and all that it implies, to the Norman,
does not rest solely upon the deductions of a studious historian. The
conception did not originate in the closet of a scholar; it seems to
have come first from the "great common people"; from the field, from
the market, the fireside, and the street. It is proverbial in the
speech of France.
"C'est un Normand, c'est un fin Normand, c'est un Normand, adroit.
"Réponse normande, réponse ambiguë. Que cela peut être vrai est peut
être faux; la réponse est un peu normande."
These popular conceptions of the Norman character did not necessarily
imply disparagement or reprobation. On the contrary, in that wild
mediæval struggle for existence, astuteness and duplicity were the
winning cards. In the councils of the forest the popular favorite,
Renard, was at the front. Even the imperious Isangrim was handicapped
by lack of wit: a deprivation not unlike that of the clawless cat in
Hades.
This sinister and sagacious quality of the Norman intellect seems to
have had full play through all the varied experiences of the race; but
its most enduring effects were visible in the great triune nationality
evolved upon English soil. It quickened the sluggish wits of the Saxon;
it tempered the rudeness and ferocity of the Dane, and became a shaping
factor in the civilization of the world.
XX
The "Names" which follow, and the occasional "Notes" that accompany
them, are intended to illustrate the theory of descent which has
been advocated in this discussion. To find a large body of people in
Kentucky derived from English sources and bearing Norman surnames is
in itself a circumstance of peculiar interest and of almost conclusive
weight. But to find noted in connection with an hereditary surname
certain characteristics that are common to two races and apparently
derived along certain historic lines from the same ethnical source,
materially strengthens the argument in favor of the assumed origin
of the later or remoter race; and if, therefore, we conclude that
the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are derived from that old
Norman strain, we ought to be able to indicate without difficulty
characteristic and conspicuous points of resemblance between the
original and the derivative stock. Taking in hand the exact and vivid
characterization of the old Norman by the contemporary chronicler,
Malaterra, we ask ourselves, "Are the Kentuckians also marked by the
characteristics here described?" Are they persuasive orators, able
lawyers, brilliant fighters, ready and practical thinkers; astute and
successful negotiators? Have they scholarly tastes? Social gifts and
accomplishments? A passion for travel, exploration, adventure, field
sports, and fine horses? "I like him very much," said the English swell
St. Aldegonde, speaking of Colonel Campian, the Southern colonel. "He
knows all about horses and tobacco."[11]
[11] DON'T FORGET TO REST YOUR HORSES. The observant traveler in
Norway notes at the foot of every steep hill a sign-post with the
inscription--"Don't forget to rest your horses." Possibly this
Scandinavian consideration for the horse runs with the blood. The
Kentuckian, however, has learned to "rest his horses" before he has
learned to read.
A little information of this kind ought to be found in our "Notes"
by way of giving confirmation to the inference suggested by the
"Names." There is something in the name, but not everything. We have a
notable--a brilliant--example in the current history of a Kentuckian
who is a Norman in almost everything except the name, and he belongs to
a family that is characteristically Norman in many respects; and yet
it has borne with great distinction for generations a fine old Saxon
name. Not a few of our leading families are in the same category. The
impartial agencies of evolution have given them their due proportion of
Norman or Scandinavian blood, the name being a secondary consideration
with the evolutionary Fates.
For Saxon or Norman, or--"whatever we"--
Celtæ, Saxones, or Norseman or Gaul,
There's no better stuff for a family tree,
Wherever the seed of the races may fall.
Note the broad and generous philosophy in these lines; and, some might
add, the imaginative touch which almost gives the quatrain a poetic
value. The Kentuckian, at least, has but little reason to criticise the
stuff of which he is made, particularly since he stands easily _first
among the modern races of men_. This is an estimate from an impartial
source--a writer for the English press.[12] Is it not a fit conclusion
to our ethnological tale?
[12] Mr. Bart Kennedy, London _Mail_.
XXI
There came at last a shadow over our memory of the bright Arcadian
days. "The beautiful Scandinavian" was fatally stricken in her
prime by an insidious malady which gradually sapped her strength
but scarcely touched the saint-like beauty which was the glory and
charm of her youth. The Great Traveler, who construed at a glance the
ethnical significance of those embodied charms, has long ago passed
to his eternal rest. In her children she seems to live again. Her
sons--handsome young Scandinavians of the higher type--are winning
success and distinction in the great industrial movements of the
times; and her beautiful daughter, vividly reproducing the attractions
of the mother, is a passionate lover of travel, and but recently has
demonstrated the Scandinavian quality of her blood in the midst of a
terrific nine days' storm that swept the seas near the coast of Japan.
[Illustration: COLONEL THEODORE O'HARA.]
With this parting glance at the impressive figures which appeared in
the early pages of this paper, the "explanatory preface" comes to a
close; and the reader--the patient reader--is at last introduced to
a rare lexicon of Names--names which carry on their light wings the
histories of States and men. Here the humblest scholar may read without
effort, in almost continuous narrative, the marvelous story of three
kindred stocks transmuted by the fires of internecine conflict into
one invincible race, which after centuries of almost unbroken struggle
in peace and in war may almost be said to have made the earth its own.
What part it has played in the genesis of our own Commonwealth, each
student of this "lexicon" must judge for himself, remembering that the
decision of this question must rest upon a clear judicial faculty at
last. Many "names" might be added, but here mere numbers do not count.
"To the quick eye of genius"--says Max Müller--"one case is like a
thousand"; and it may be that the scholarly enquirer will find in the
brilliant Du Chaillu an illustration of this maxim of the great German
scholar.
APPENDIX
ALPHABETICAL SERIES
OF
NORSE, NORMAN, AND ANGLO-NORMAN,
OR NON-SAXON, SURNAMES.
Derived from
English Official Records
and from other Authentic
Sources.
[The learned Canon of Carlisle assures us that not only has Normandy
supplied us with many of our family names, but it enjoys the
distinction of having been the first to establish an hereditary
surname. Few stop to consider that a surname thus conceived is not
merely an heraldic vanity or device to give social dignity and
distinction to those who bear it, but is in reality a scientific
advance in the working nomenclature of a race. If to "name" is but
to classify, the addition or introduction of the surname simply adds
completeness and precision to the racial classification. Here, then,
we have in the following list a large body of surnames coming almost
directly from the land in which surnames are said to have originated.
If a name, therefore, be merely that by which a thing is known, it
would seem that a people who have borne these names continuously (as is
historically attested) for _eight hundred years_ have in all likelihood
inherited the characteristic traits, as well as the distinctive
surnames, of the antique Norman race. In Kentucky, the original tone
and vigor of the Norman people are unimpaired. Changes there have been;
changes there will be; but, whatever changes may occur, there remains
this one unalterable characteristic of the Norman race, that "the more
you change it, the more it is the same."]
_Abbett_, a form of Abbott.
_Abbey_, for l'Abbe.
_Abbott_, or Abbot, Abbas (1180, Normandy), Abbot, Abbet, Thirteenth
Century.
_Abel_, Aubeale, Normandy, Twelfth Century; Sir John Abel of Kent,
1313.
_Aberdeen_, Aberdern, Abadam, from Abadon. Normandy, 1180.
_Achard_, 1238, Berks.
_Ackin_, from Dakin.
_Acland_, or de Vantort, from Vantort in Mayenne; the baronets Acland.
_Acton_, or Barnell. From this family, Lord Acton.
_Adderley_, from Adderley Salop.
_Addington_, de Abernon, Normandy, 1112; one branch in Somerset.
_Adrian_, Hadrin (Normandy), Adrien (England).
_Agate_, a form of Haggett or Hacket.
_Agne_, Battle Abbey Roll.
_Agnew_, or Aigneaux, near Bayeux, England, Twelfth Century; Scotland,
baronets Agnew.
_Ains_, from Aignes, near Angoulême.
_Airey_, Castle of Airey, Normandy; Airy--celebrated astronomer.
_Albert_, Walter and Peter Albert (Normandy, 1180).
_Albin_, or Albon, St. Auben (Robson).
_Alden_, Normandy, 1195.
_Aldworth_, or De la Mare.
_Aleman_ (Allman).
_Alfee_, for Alis or Ellis.
_Alison_, Barnard de Alençon (Sir Archibald Alison).
_Allan_, for Alan.
_Allanson_, Alison.
_Allebone._
_Alley_, from Ailly, near Falaise, a form of Hallett or Allet.
_Alleyne._
_Allison._
_Allman._
_Alpe_, for Heppe or Helps.
_Alpey_, Averay.
_Alvers_, or Alves.
_Amand._
_Amber_, from Ambrières.
_Ambler_, from Ampliers, or Aumliers, near Arras. England; Virginia.
_Amblie_, Hamley.
_Ambrose._
_Amery_, from Hamars, near Caen.
_Ames_, from Hiesmes, Normandy.
_Amherst_, or Henhurst.
_Amias_, Ames.
_Ammon_, Amond, Amand.
_Amory_, Darmer.
_Amos_, Ames.
_Amphlett._
_Amy._
_Ancell._ "Ansel," a famous colored "trainer" in Kentucky.
_Anders_, from Andres, near Boulogne.
_Andersen_ or Anderson (Scand.)
_Anderson-Pelham_, or De Lisle from the Castle of Lisle (Normandy).
Sire Edmund Anderson, Chief Justice, temp. Elizabeth.
_Andersons_ of Kentucky, a distinguished family. Connected by blood
with George Rogers Clark. Major Robert Anderson, of "Sumter" fame, was
of this family.
_Andrew_, from St. Andre, Evreux.
_Andrews._ Geoffrey Andreas, 1180 (Normandy). Landaff W. Andrews, a
bold, able, and popular Whig leader (Ky.), conspicuous in Congress
(1842), and characterized by John Quincy Adams, who admired his
courage and ability, as "a Nimrod Wildfire from Kentucky." (Vide
Diary.) When he objected to one of Adams' resolutions (in which he
was sustained by the Speaker) he looked, says Adams, "as savage as a
famished wolf"; as Circuit Judge in Kentucky, during the Civil War,
he rendered certain decisions that were distasteful to the Federal
authorities. "That brother of yours," said General Palmer to Mrs.
Thomas Steele, of Louisville, "is a bold judge."
_Angell_, from De l'Angle, from Les Angles, near Evreux.
_Anger_, from Angers, Anjou; also Angier.
_Angle_, Angell.
_Angwin_, for Angevin.
_Ankers_, for Anceres, vide Dancer.
_Anley_, or Andley, near Rouen.
_Annable_, or Annabell, from Anneboutt (Cotentin).
_Anne_, or Anns, from L'Agne, near Argenton (Normandy).
_Annesley._
_Ansell._
_Anstruther_, or Malberbe.
_Anthony_, St. Antoine, near Bolbec.
_Anvers_, or Danvers.
_Anvill_, or Hanwell, from Andeville, near Valognes.
_Arch_, or De Arques, from the Castle of Arques, near Dieppe. Joseph
Arch, a famous English "labor leader."
_Archdeacon_, Archidiaconus, Normandy, 1180; England, 1086.
_Archer_, Arcuarius (general of bowmen), Sagittarius (Normandy), 1195.
_Archer_, or De Bois, armorially identified with De Bosco; Boys.
_Arden_, or Ardern; a Norman family; came to England in 1066.
_Argles_, Hargle (Hargis), Normandy, 1198.
_Aris_, a form of Heriz or Harris.
_Arle_, or Airel.
_Arliss._
_Armes._
_Armit._
_Arnald_, Arnold.
_Arnes._
_Arnold_, Ernaldus or Ernaut, Normandy, 1180; in England, 1272.
_Arrah_, Arrow.
_Arundel_, Hirendale, Normandy, 1198.
_Ascouga_, Askew.
_Ashburnham_, or De Criol.
_Ashley_, De Esseleia, Normandy, 1198.
_Ashley_, Cooper, or De Columbers, from Colombières, near Bayeux.
_Askew_, for Ascuo.
_Aspray_, from Esperraye, Normandy.
_Astor_, Willielmus Titz--Estus or Estor, Normandy, 1180, 1198;
England, 1272.
_Aubrey_, the Norman origin of this name established.
_Aure_, with an aspirate. (Hoare.) Johne de Aur was summoned in 1268
to march against the Welsh.
_Auriol_, L'Oriel.
_Austin_, William Argustinus, Normandy, Twelfth Century.
_Aveling_, Aveline, Evelyn.
_Avens_, from Avernes, Normandy, 1180.
_Averance_, from Avranches, Normandy, 1130.
_Averell_, Avril, Normandy, 1198.
_Avery_, Every.
_Avery._ Traced to Aubrey, a Norman form of Albericus.
_Awdry_, from Audrien, or Aldry, near Caen.
_Ayers_, Ayres, Ayre.
_Aylard_, Allard.
_Ayre_, Eyre.
_Ayrton._
[Illustration: COLONEL JOHN T. PICKETT.]
_Babington_, Normandy, 1180; England, Thirteenth Century. Bernard de
Babington. Little Babington, Northumberland.
_Babot_, Babo, Normandy, 1195.
_Bachelor_, Normandy, 1195.
_Back_, Sir George Back, Arctic explorer. Vide Beck.
_Bacon._ (Roger and Francis Bacon members of this family.) Bacen or
Bacco, Eleventh Century in Maine, Northman family.
_Bagehot_, for Bagot.
_Bagot._ A baronial family (Normandy); came to England at the
Conquest. Henry Bagod, ancestor of house of Stafford.
_Bailey_, Baillie, from the Norman office of Le Bailli. The Baillies
of Scotland a branch of De Quincys.
_Baine_, Bayne.
_Baird._ Ralph Baiart in Normandy before the Conquest. Godfrey Baiard
in 1165 held a barony in Northumberland. From this line descended
George Washington, the great American General.
_Baker_, Normandy, 1086; England, 1086.
_Baldwin_, Normandy, William Baldwinus, 1180; Robert, 1183; England,
1116.
_Ballance_, for Valence, Normandy, 1210.
_Bally_, for Baly.
_Bamfyld_, from Baionville, near Caen, 1093. In Thirteenth Century
held lands of the Honour of Wallingford.
_Banard_, for Bainard, Banyard.
_Bancroft_, from Boncraft, near Warrington, Cheshire. See Butler.
_Band_, from Calvus or Le Band, England, 1083.
_Bangs_, for Banks.
_Banks_, from Banc, near Honfleur; England, 1130. The eminent savant,
Sir Joseph Banks, a descendant.
_Banner_, 1180, Normandy, Le Baneor.
_Bannester_, from Banastre, now Beneter, near Estampes.
_Banyard._ Vide Beaumont.
_Barbot_, Normandy, 1188.
_Barbour_, from St. Barbe sur Gaillon, Normandy, where was situated
the celebrated Abbey St. Barbara. (Vide British Family Surnames
(Barber) London.) Barbour, a hamlet in Dumbartonshire. St. Barbe is on
the Roll of Battle Abbey. William de St. Barbara, Bishop of Durham,
1143 A. D. Le Barbier, Court of Husting, London, 1258. John Barbour,
a churchman and Archdeacon of Aberdeen (1357): traveled in France
(temp. Edward III): employed in a high capacity in civil affairs:
historian, poet, and Auditor of the Exchequer. James Barbour, born
in Orange County, Virginia, U. S. Senator (1815-1825): Secretary of
War: Minister to the Court of St. James. Philip Pendleton Barbour,
brother of James Barbour, Associate Justice of the United States
Supreme Court. John S. Barbour (Virginia), member of Congress
(1823-1833). James Barbour (Kentucky), Assistant State Auditor (under
Helm): President Lexington and Danville R. R.: Cashier Branch Bank of
Kentucky. Doctor Lewis Green Barbour of Louisville, late of Central
University, is a finished scholar.
_Bardo_, for Bardolph.
_Bardolph_, England, 1165. Held lands in Normandy (Honour of Montfort).
_Barefoot_, Barfot, Normandy, 1180; England soon after.
_Barker._ Bercarius, Normandy, 1180. Le Bercher (England).
_Barker._ Norman French La Bercher. English surnames Barcarius and Le
Barkere. William le Barcur.
_Barnes_, a form of Berners from Bernieres, near Falaise; England,
1086.
_Barnett._ Barnet (Barney), Bernai, Normandy.
_Barnewall_, from the Norman family De Barneval, England, 1086
(Domesday).
_Barney_, armorially identified with Berney.
_Barold_, Vide Barrell.
_Baron_, from Baron, near Caen, England, 1165.
_Barough_, armorially identified with Barrow.
_Barr_, from La Barre in the Cotentin. Tiger de Barra (Normandy, 1180).
_Barr._ La Barr, Normandy; Norman-French, De la Barre.
_Barrable_, for Barbal, Normandy, 1180.
_Barre_, armorially identified with Barry.
_Barrell_, Richard Barel, Normandy, 1180. See Battle Abbey Roll.
_Barrett._ (Domesday) Baret.
_Barrett._ John Buret, 1195. Walter de la Burette, Devon, 1272.
_Barrington_, or De Barenton, from Barenton, near Candebec, Normandy.
_Barrow_, Barou was near Falaise, Normandy. England, Barene, 1560.
_Barry_, armorially identified with Barr.
_Bartellot_ (or Bertelot), Normandy, 1180; England, 1272.
_Bartleet_, a form of Bartelot.
_Bartrum_, armorially identified with Bartram.
_Barwell_, from Berville, near Pont Andemar, 1165; England, 1086.
_Baskerville_, from Bacquerville, near Rouen. In 1109 Robert de
Baskerville, on his return from Palestine, granted lands to Gloucester
Abbey. The Baskervilles were early seated in Virginia.
_Baskett._ Walter Pesket, Normandy, 1180.
_Bass._ Richard le Bas, 1180. John Basse, England, 1272.
_Bassett_, from Bathet or Baset. Duke of the Normans of the Loire,
895. From this stock are descended the Doyleys (D'Ouilly), Lisores,
and Downnays. Osmond Basset accompanied the Conqueror, 1066. There
were Bassets in Devon, Essex, and Wales.
_Bassit_, from Biszeilles, near Lithe.
_Bastable._ Wastable, Normandy, 1180. Barnstaple (Lower).
_Bastard._ Robert Bastard, a baron in Devon, 1080, son of William the
Conqueror. Also Baistard, Bestard.
_Baswell_, for Boswell.
_Batcheller._ Vide Bachelor.
_Bateley_, from Batilly, near Alençon, Normandy.
_Batell_, armorially identified with Battayle.
_Bateman_, from Baudemont in the Norman Vexin. Roger de Battemound,
Northumberland, Thirteenth Century.
_Bath._ Ramier, afterwards De Bada.
_Bathurst._ Bateste, Bathurts. Thirteenth Century, Cranbrook, Kent.
_Batten._ Batin (Flemish?), 1272, England.
_Battle._ Batell.
_Batty_, from La Bathie, Maine, Ralph Baty, Thirteenth Century, Devon.
_Baugh_, or De Baa, from Bahais, near Contances.
_Bavin_, or Bavant, from Bavant, near Caen.
_Bax_, or Backs.
_Bayes_, for Boyes.
_Bayley._ Vide Baillie.
_Bayne._
_Baynes_, from Baynes, near Bayeux.
_Bazin_, Normandy, 1180; England, Fourteenth Century.
_Beach_, armorially identified with Beche or De la Beche. From Bac in
Normandy, frequently written Bech and Beche in England.
_Beacham_, for Beauchamp.
_Beadel._ Normandy, 1180. Bucks, England, 1086. Bishop.
_Beadle_, for Beaddell.
_Beadon_, from Bidon in Burgundy. Held a fee from the Honour of
Wallingford.
_Beale_, or Le Bele, a form of Bell.
_Beamand._
_Beamis_, formerly Beaumis, Beaumeys, or Beaumetz, from Beaumetz, near
Abbeville. Dujardin Beaumetz was a famous medical savant of Paris,
France, in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century.
_Beamish_, for Beamis.
_Beamont_, armorially identified with Beaumont of Yorkshire.
_Beamand_, the same.
_Bean_, for Bene.
_Beard_, armorially identified with Bard, a form of Baird.
_Beards_, for Beard.
_Bearfield_, for De Berville, from Berville, near Caen. William de
Bareville, Normandy, 1180; Robert de B., England, 1272.
_Bease_, for Bisse.
_Beaten_, for Beaton.
_Beaton_, or Bethune. From the Carlovingian Counts of Artois. The Duke
of Sully (Sully's "Memoirs") was of this family.
_Beauchamp_, from Beauchamp in the Cotentin. The same race as the
Meurdracs, the Montagues and the Grenvilles. A familiar old-time
name in Kentucky that has always appealed to lovers and writers of
romance--notably to Charles Fenno Hoffman and William Gilmore Simms.
"This illustrious name," says Lower, "is found in many countries
of Europe; in Scotland, as Campbell; in England, as Fairfield; in
Germany, as Schönau; and in Italy as Campobello." It was introduced
into England at the Norman Conquest by Hugh de Belchamp, or Beauchamp,
or de Bello Campo. Beauchamp is pronounced _Beecham_ in England.
_Beaufoy_, from Beaufay, near Alençon, Normandy, 1180. John de
Beaufoy, England, 1320.
_Beaumont_, or Bayard. Two lines in England. One of the Beaumonts held
the Castle of St. Luzanne for two years against William the Conqueror.
_Beaver_, for Bever.
_Beavill_, or Beville, from Beaville, near Caen, England, 1086
(Domesday).
_Beavis_, armorially identified with Beaufiz, England, 1316.
_Becket_, or Beckett. In 1180, Malger Bechet, Rouen, John and William
Beket or Bekeit, 1198. _Ibid._ Thomas Beket's father was of Caen.
Ralph de Beket, England, 1272; hence Thomas, the famous Archbishop of
Canterbury.
_Becks_, for Beck. Vide Beach.
_Beckwith_, adopted in lieu of the original Norman name of Malbisse
(Lower).
_Bedding_, or Bedin. Normandy, 1196; England, 1272.
_Bedell_, from the Suffolk gens (Thirteenth Century).
_Beech_, a form of Beach.
_Beecham_, a form of Beauchamp.
_Beecher_, armorially identified with Beach, of which it is a
corruption.
_Beeden._ Vide Beadon.
_Beek_, armorially identified with Beck or Bec.
_Beeman_, for Beaman.
_Beeman_, for Beaumont (Lower).
_Beerill_, for Barrell.
_Beeson_, for Beisin, Normandy.
_Beeton_, for Beaton.
_Beever_, for Beevor.
_Beevor._ Berenger de Belver, or Bevor.
_Belcher._ Vide Belshes, England, 1272.
_Bell_, from Le Bel, a common surname in Normandy.
_Bellaers_, for Beller, from Bellieres, near Alençon. Normandy, 1180.
Ralph Beler, 1325.
_Bellairs._ Vide Bellaers.
_Bellamy_, or Bellameys, from Belmeys or Beaumitz. Vide Beamiss.
_Bellany_, from Bellannay, Normandy.
_Bellard._ Beald heard (strong). An ancient baptismal name, Balard
(The Hundred Rolls).
_Bellas_, a form of Bellowes.
_Bellchamber_, for Bellencombre Castle, near Dieppe. England, 1272.
_Bellet._ Belet, surname in Normandy, 1180; England, 1165. The Bellets
were hereditary butlers to the King.
_Bellew_, from Belleau or Bella Aqua, Normandy, 1180. The Lords Bellew
of Ireland are of this family.
_Belling._ A northern clan, noble and ancient.
_Bellis_, armorially identified with Bellew of Cheshire.
_Bellowes_, armorially identified with Bellew.
_Bellville_, Belleville, or Bellavilla, near Dieppe, Normandy.
_Belshes_, a corruption of Bellassidge.
_Belward_, a form of Belwar, Belver, or Belvoir. See Beevor.
_Bemes_, for Beamis.
_Bence._ Robert and William Bence, Normandy, 1180; England, 1272.
_Bene._ Hubert de Bene, Normandy, 1180; England, 1298.
_Benivell_, for Beneville, from Beneville, near Havre, Normandy, 1180;
William de Bendeville, England, Twelfth Century.
_Benn_, for Bene.
_Bennet_, or Beneyt, Normandy, 1180.
_Bennett._ Beneyt, or Benedictus, a Norman family. Bennets, Earls of
Arlington and Tankerville.
_Berey_, for Barrey or Barry.
_Beringer_, Normandy, 1195.
_Berks_, for Perks or Parks.
_Bernard._ Common name in Normandy, 1180; England, 1200.
_Bernes_, from Bernes, near Beauvais, 1167; England, 1272.
_Berney_, from Berney, Norfolk; Bernai, near Lisieux.
_Bernwell_, or Barnwall, 1086 (Domesday).
_Berrell_, for Barrell.
_Berrett_, for Barrett.
_Berry_, armorially identified with Barry.
_Bertie_, a form of Bertin which occurs in Battle Abbey Roll,
Normandy, 1195; 1433, William Bertyn, one of the Kentish gentry.
_Bertin._ Vide Bertie.
_Bertram._ An illustrious Norman name. Vide Milford.
_Berwell._ Vide Barwell.
_Best._ An abbreviation of Bessett.
_Bever_, or Beever, armorially identified with Belvoir or Bovor of
Leicestershire.
_Beverel._ Richard de Beverel, Normandy, 1180.
_Bevington._ Vide Bovington.
_Beville._ Vide Beavill.
_Bevir_, for Bever.
_Bevis_, Beavis.
_Bevis_, armorially identified with Beaufais, or Beauvais. Beauvays,
Yorkshire, 1313.
_Bew_, for Bews.
_Bewett_, armorially identified with Bluett, also Blewitt.
_Bewley_, for Beaulieu.
_Bews_, for Bayeux, Bayouse, Beyouse, Bews.
_Bewsay_, for Bussey, or De Busci.
_Bewshea_, for Bewsay.
_Bick_, a form of Bec.
_Biddle_, for Bidell. Vide Beadle.
_Bidon_, for Bidun. Vide Beadon.
_Biggers._ Durand le Bigre, Normandy, 1180. Ranulph de Bigarz, 1198.
_Bigot._ Richard le Bigot, Normandy, 1180; Vide Wiggett.
_Biles_, a form of Byles.
_Bill_, a form of Boyle, armorially identified with Byle or Byles.
_Billes._ Vide Bill.
_Billett._ Bellet.
_Bing._ Byng, Binge.
_Bingham_, or De Buisle, from Builly, near Neuchatel (often supposed
to be of Saxon origin). John de Bingham, named from his "lordship,"
Bingham, in Bucks. One of the family named the heiress of Turberville.
_Birbeck_, from Brabant. Henry de Birbecka, 1134.
_Birmingham_, or Paynel. Vide Paynel.
_Biron._ Vide Byron.
_Birt._ Vide Burt.
_Bishop._ Radulphus Episcopus, Normandy, 1180; Sir John Bischopp,
England, 1315.
_Bisse_, armorially identified with Bissett.
_Bissell_, armorially identified with Bissett. Ralph and Henry Biset,
Normandy, 1180. Sir John Byset, England, 1300.
_Black._ Odo and Robert Niger occur in Normandy, 1180. Robertus Niger
held lands in Kent, 1086 (Domesday).
_Blackett._ An abbreviation of Blanchett.
_Blackstone_, or Le Breton. Blackstone, Devon, was held 1286 by Alured
le Breton. In Thirteenth Century William Blackstone held lands at
Stones of the Honour of Wallingford.
_Blagrave_, or Le Breton. Alicia de Blackgrave, Thirteenth Century.
The name Le Breton indicates a Breton origin.
_Blake._ Admiral Robert, the great naval commander of Cromwell, was of
Somerset, in which county Walter Blache occurs, 1273.
_Blakey._ The French pronunciation of Blaket. Vide Bleckett.
_Blanch._ William Blanc and Robert and John Blanche occur in Normandy,
1180. Henry Blanche, Oxford, 1272.
_Blanchard._ Ralph and William Blanchart were of Normandy, 1180.
Gilbert and William Blanchard had estates in Lincoln. This fine old
Norman family is readily traceable from Normandy to England, and
from England to America. Colonel Robert Blanchard, with his tall,
handsome figure and jocund face, would have thrown no discredit on his
racial descent in any country, community, or social circle. His son,
William Lytle Blanchard, an accomplished gentleman, was an officer
in the Confederate service. Before the opening of the Civil War he
had been an associate of Halliday (and other Anglo-Normans) in the
establishment of the great overland route. William Lytle Blanchard was
a first cousin of General William Haynes Lytle, of Cincinnati. The
Blanchards are connected with the Rowans, Bollings, Lytles, Fosters,
Stoths, and other distinguished families.
_Blancherville_, from the forest of B., Normandy. The family had
branches in Ireland.
_Blanchet._ Robert and Ralph Blanchet.
_Blanquet_, or Blanket, Normandy, 1180. In England Blanchet or Blaket.
_Blashfield._ Anglicised form of Blancheville.
_Blaxton_, for Blackstone.
_Blay_, for Bleay.
_Bleakey_, for Blakey.
_Bleay._ De Ble, Normandy, 1180. De Blee, Stafford, 1180.
_Blennerhasset_, or De Tillial, from Tilliol, near Rouen. Richard de
Tilliol, lord of Blennerhasset, Cumberland, temp. Henry I. The younger
branches bore the name of Blennerhasset. A name to which the "Burr
Expedition" gave a peculiar interest in Kentucky.
_Blessett_, for Blissett.
_Blews_, a form of Blew or Blue. Etard de Blew occurs in Kent, 1199,
and Robert de Bloi in Essex. The name is a form of Bloi, Bloin, or
Blohin of Bretagne, often written Blue. Vide Bligh and Blue.
_Bley_, for Bleay.
_Bligh_, for De Bloin, from Bretagne. Vide Darnley.
_Blindell_, for Blundell.
_Blizard_, Blizart. Perhaps from Blesum, Blois, meaning a native of
Blois. The name is evidently foreign. Blizzard, Blizard, Blezard,
Blizart, Blissett. Even the best authorities have differed as to the
origin of this name. One English writer says: "Perhaps it is from
Blesum, Blois, meaning a native of Blois" (Blizzard, which is Norman,
is an analogous form). Another and later English authority says:
"Blizard, Blezard, from the Danish Blichert, a strong sword player." A
correspondent of the New York Tribune, July 19, 1891, says: "The old
English word blizzard, which describes so picturesquely the English
snow-blast, is spoken of as an 'Americanism.' Even such philologists
and lexicographers as Murray treat the word as a recent 'Americanism.'
So far from its being American in origin, it was not till within
the last thirty years (according to Bartlett and other American
philologists) that the word was ever heard in the Eastern States,
and in the Western a 'blizzard' meant a knock-down blow--not from a
snow-blast, but in an argument."
[Illustration: COLONEL THOMAS T. HAWKINS.]
In reality, Blizzard is an old English surname, and is doubtless of
Norman origin. In April, 1889, the writer of this note conversed with
a Federal soldier, whose full name was Stephen Decatur Blizzard. He
was of Anglo-Virginian stock; he was a soldier in the Civil War, and
his name may still be found on the National Pension Rolls of that
date. His postal address in 1889 was "Quincy, Lewis County, Kentucky."
Possibly the "snow-blast" took its name from some windy Anglo-Norman
disputant, who wielded the sword of the spirit and dealt in apostolic
blows and knocks.
The word "blizzard" does not appear in Worcester's dictionary, edition
1860. It is evidently of Scandinavian origin (Danish or Norman).
_Blockey._ The French pronunciation of Bloquet or Ploquet. Vide Denman.
_Blomefield._ Vide Bloomfield. Blomfield, bishop of London.
_Bloomfield_, armorially identified with Blomville from the lordship
so named near Caen and Toques. Thomas de Blumville had custody of the
estates of Earl Bigod in Suffolk.
_Blossett._ The Blossetts of Normandy were barons of Beneval and
Vidames.
_Blount._ Le Blund, or Blundus, Normandy, 1180. Frequent notices of
the name, Twelfth Century, in Essex.
_Blovice_, for Blois, or Blesum, France. Thomas Blois, living at
Norton, Suffolk, 1470, was ancestor of the baronets Blois.
_Blow_, for Blue or Bloy. Vide Bligh.
_Blue_, Blew or Blews. Etard de Bleu occurs in Kent, 1179. The name
was a form of Bloi (France). The original Norman form was Le Bleu.
During the Civil War there came before one of our Kentucky courts
a case in which there was a very interesting introduction of names
that have been long traditionally associated--Black and Blue; the
former the name of a great criminal lawyer (Jeremiah S. Black), and
the latter the name of his client, Blew or Blue, the perpetrator
of an atrocious crime. The case showed that the criminal was sadly
"off" on color. He had killed an entire family of blacks; but was
finally acquitted by the ingenuity and perseverance of his great
"Scandinavian" lawyer.
_Black_, Blake, Bleek, Bleikr (Norse). Admiral Blake was Warden of the
Cinque Ports, 1651. Victor Blue, an officer in the American service,
won great distinction during the Spanish-American War.
_Bluett._ In 1084, Bluet, Normandy; Buqueville le Blouette, the family
seat. Bluet, long a name of eminence in the West of England.
_Blundafield_, for Blindville. Vide Blomfield.
_Blundell._ Vide Blunden.
_Blunt._ Le Blount, Normandy, 1180. Hence baronets Blunt.
_Bly_, for Bloi. Vide Bligh.
_Boag_, for Bogne.
_Boase_, for Bowes. (Vide Lower.)
_Boat_, from Buat. The Castle of Buat, near Falaise. Sexus de Bue,
Surry, 1180. Vide Bowett.
_Boax_, for Boase.
_Bobart_, N. Popart, Normandy, 1180.
_Bockerfield_, from Bocherville or Bucheville, Normandy.
_Bockett._ Originally Bouquet, Normandy, 1198.
_Bodel_, for Budell.
_Bodelly_, for Botelly, or Batelly. Vide Battey.
_Bodger._ Boschier, Normandy, 1180. Le Boghier, England, 1272.
_Body._ Norse. Diminutive of Bodvarr (wary in battle). Bodi, Bodin,
Bot. French Bodé, Norman-French Bot. (1195.)
_Boffay_, from Beaufay, near Alençon, Normandy. Boffei, Normandy,
1195. Sometimes Bophay.
_Boggis._ William de Bogis, 1180, Normandy.
_Boggs._ Vide Boggis.
_Bogne_, for Boges or Boggis.
_Bois_, from Normandy, several families, viz.: (1) De Bois Armand,
hereditary servants of the Counts of Breteuil, sires of Poilly.
Flourished in Leicester.
(2) De Bois-Guillauman, of the bailifry of Caux, seated in Essex, 1086.
(3) DeBois. Herbert, baron of Halberton, Devon; Hugo de Bosco, 1083,
England.
(4) De Bois. Robert or Roard, Bucks, 1086.
(5) De Bois. Barony Brecknock, 1088, named after him Trebois.
_Bole_, or Boels.
_Boles_, a form of Boels. Vide Boyle.
_Boleyn._ Queen Anna Boleyn was great-granddaughter of Sir Geoffrey
Boleyn, Lord Mayor of London, temp. Henry VI. The family had formerly
been of great consequence. There were two branches of it in England.
William de Bolein held one fee in York and one in Lincoln. In the
preceding generation Easton and Simon de Bologne, brothers of Pharamus
de B., are mentioned in a charter of the latter. The familiar
pronunciation is "Bullen."
_Bolland._ Richard de la Boillante, Normandy, 1198.
_Bollen_, armorially identified with Boleyn.
_Bolleng_, for Boulogne, or Boleyne.
_Bollowe_, for Bellewe or Bellew.
_Bolster_, for Bolster or Balistar. Vide Alabaster or Arbalister
(Norman), a general of crossbowmen.
_Bolt_, from Bolt, or Bout, near Bayeux. Tascelinus de Boalt,
Normandy, 1180. Reginald and Richard Bolt, Oxford, 1272. "Ben Bolt" at
all times and everywhere. Composed by an American; cosmopolitanized by
an Englishman. An "Anglo-Norman" song.
_Bolten-Nelson._ From the Boltons of Suffolk descend the Earls Nelson,
who obtained their title as the nearest heirs in blood of the renowned
Nelson.
_Bompas_, from Bonpas near Perpignan; a Visigoth family.
_Bonamy._ Radulphus de Bono-Amico, Burgundy, 1180. Robert and William
Bon Ami, 1198.
_Bone_, armorially identified with Bohun of Midhurst, or De Falgeres.
Vide Foulger.
_Bonell_, or Bunel, Lords of Tissey, near Caen (Des Bois).
_Boner._ Bartholomew Bonaire.
_Bonest_, from Banaste, or Banastre. Vide Bannister.
_Boney_, for Bonney.
_Bonfield_, for Bonville, from the Castle of Bouneville, Bondeville,
Normandy.
_Bonham._ Humphrey and William Bonhomme, Cambridge, 1272.
_Bonhote_, or Bounot, a form of Bonnett, with which it is armorially
identified.
_Bonner._ Norman-French. Bounaire (courteous).
_Bonnett._ Roger Bonitus, Sussex, 1075. Family seat near Alençon. The
name occurs in Battle Abbey Roll.
_Bonney._ Nicholas and Richard Bonie occur in Normandy, 1189. Agnes
and Alicia Bonye, Oxfordshire, 1092.
_Bonnivelle_, for Bonville. Vide Bonfield.
_Bonom_, for Bonham.
_Bonus_, armorially identified with Bonest.
_Boodle_, for Budell. Not familiar as a "surname" in Kentucky.
_Boog_, for Bogue.
_Booker._ Walter Bochier, Normandy, 1180. The name in England is
armorially identified with Borcher. In Kentucky, the Bookers are an
old and prominent family. A Mayor of Louisville was (maternally) of
the Booker blood.
_Boole_, or Boyle. Buelles or Buels occurs in Normandy, 1195.
_Boolen_, for Bullen, or Boleyn.
_Bools._ Vide Boule.
_Boon_, or Boone, armorially identified with Bohun. The Norman family
of that name descended from Humphrey de Bohun, who accompanied
the Conqueror and was ancestor of the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford,
Constables of England.
_Booser_, for Bowser.
_Boosey._ Alexander de la Buzeia, Normandy, 1180. Ralph Buse, England,
1194. "Boozy" in Kentucky.
_Boot._ The fief of Hugo Boot is mentioned in Normandy. "Perhaps a
trader's name"--says Lower.
_Boothby._ A younger branch of the Barons de Tateshall, 1086
(Domesday).
_Borne._ Walter le Borne, Normandy, 1180.
_Borough_, or De Burgh, otherwise Tusard, which is the original Norman
name.
_Borrell_, armorially identified with Burrell.
_Borrow_, armorially identified with Borough and Burgh.
_Bose_, for Boss.
_Boshell_, for Bushell.
_Bosher_, a form of Bourchier (Lower).
_Bosquet._ Vide Bockett.
_Boss._ Bos or Bose occurs in Normandy, 1180; in Bucks, 1194. The
original "boss," in the modern sense (overseer, manager), was
doubtless a burly, bull-necked Norman. It is noteworthy that "Boodle"
is from the same source.
_Bossey._ Vide Boosey.
_Bossey._ Bussey.
_Bostel_, for Postel. Ralph Postel, Normandy, 1180.
_Bostfield_, for Bosville.
_Bosville._ Bosville, near Candebec, Normandy.
_Boswell_, armorially identified with Bosville. Probably in England
from the time of the Conquest. The family emigrated from England to
Scotland in the reign of David I. The change from "ville" to "well" as
a termination is also seen in the alteration of Rooseville to Roswell,
LaVille to Larwill, etc.
_Boterill._ Geoffry Boterel occurs in a Beaton charter, 1081.
_Botevyle_, from Bouteville, near Carenton, Normandy. The name occurs
in Battle Abbey Roll. Butterfield probably a form of this old surname.
_Bott._ William Bott occurs in Normandy, 1195. Walter Bott in
Oxfordshire, 1189. The writer has seen the names William and Elizabeth
Bott in old Warwickshire records, and in an old prayer-book, temp.
George III (Virginian families); the name may, also, be seen to-day
(Botts, not Bott) upon tombs in old graveyards in Eastern Kentucky.
The literal suffix "s" to such names as Bott, Hay, etc., is said to be
an Americanism.
_Bottin._ William Bottin, Normandy, 1180. Thomas Buting or Boting.
_Botting_, for Bottin.
_Bottle._ Roger Botel, Normandy, 1195.
_Bottrell_, or Botterel, or De Botereaux, from Bottereaux, near
Evreux. England, Twelfth Century.
_Bouche_, from Buces, now Bucels, near Caen. De Bueis, Normandy, 1180.
De Buche, Surrey, 1199. Roger Buche, Norfolk.
_Bouchett_, a form of Bockett.
_Bouffler_, from Bouflers, near Abbeville. James Beaufleur (or
Beauflour), collector Port of India, 1322.
_Boughey_, armorially identified with Bowett. The Baronets Boughey are
maternally descended from Fletcher.
_Boughton_, or Boveton, for Boventon. Vide Boynton. Baronets de
Boveton were of county Warwick, Fourteenth Century.
_Boulder_, from Baudre, near St. Lo in the Cotentin. Walter Bulder,
York, 1272.
_Boully._ Vide Bulley.
_Boult_, armorially identified with Bolt.
_Boun_ (or "Boum"), armorially identified with Bohun of Midhurst. Vide
Boone.
_Bound._ The same as Bowne (Lower).
_Boundy_, from Bondy, near St. Denis, Isle of France.
_Bour_, armorially identified with Boun or Bohun. Vide Boone.
_Bourchier_, a form of Bousser, or Boursieres, Burgundy. John De
Busser was a justice in Essex and Hertford, 1317.
_Bourdon._ Geoffrey Bordon and others in Normandy 1180. Reginald and
Roger Bordon in Gloucester, 1199.
_Bourke_, for Burke or Burgh. The Earls of Mayo are of this name.
_Bourlet_, or Borlet. Vide Barlett.
_Bourner_ or Barner, a form of Berner or Berners.
_Bousfield_, from Bousville or Bouville, near Ravilly, Normandy.
Walter Andrew, Serlo de Buesvilla, or Buevilla, Normandy, 1180. In
1244 William de Boevill did homage for his lands in the bailifry of
Newcastle-under-Lyme.
_Bousher_, armorially identified with Bourchier.
_Boutcher_, for Boucher.
_Boutell._ Vide Bulteel and Bottle.
_Boutroy._ John and Roger Boteri, Normandy, 1180. William Buteri, or
Butery in England.
_Bouts._ Vide Boot.
_Bouvier._ Hugo Bovier and John Bovier of Normandy, 1180-95. Vide
Bowyer.
_Bovay_, for Beauvais.
_Boville._ A baronial family from Booville or Bueville, Normandy,
Suffolk, 1086 (Domesday). The family was widely spread through
England; Chief-Justice Boville came of this stock.
_Bovington_, or Boventon. Vide Boynton.
_Bowack_, or Boag.
_Bowcher_, for Bourchier.
_Bowden_, from Bodin (Lower). Petrus Bodin, Normandy, Eleventh Century.
_Bowdler_ (from Hope Bowdler and other places, Salop). A form of De
Bollers, or Bodlers, of Flanders. Vide Buller.
_Bowen._ Bouvignes (Bely).
_Bowes_, from Boves, Normandy. John de Bowes or Boves, Normandy, 1180.
Hugh de Boves commanded in Poitou for King John (Roger of Wendover,
1287).
_Bowett._ Alexander Bonet occurs in Normandy, 1180. Bowet, England,
1321.
_Bowker._ Vide Booker. The names are armorially related.
_Bowles_, or Buelles. Vide Boyle. Hence, W. Lisle Bowles, the poet.
_Bowley_, for Beaulieu (Lower). Simon de Bello Loco, Normandy, 1180.
Alexander de Bello Loco, Bedfordshire, 1255.
_Bown_, armorially identified with Bohun of Midhurst. Vide Boon.
_Bowne._ Vide Bown.
_Bowran_, or Bowering, for Beaurain, near Cambrai, Flanders. Wybert de
Beaurain, Normandy, 1180. "Hence, the able writer, Sir John Bowring."
_Bowry._ Vide Bury.
_Bowser_, armorially identified with Bourchier.
_Bowtell_, for Boutel. U. S., Boutelle.
_Bowton_, for Boughton.
_Bowyer._ Norman-French, Bouvier. This name, as appears by the arms,
was originally Bouvier (Robson). Hugo Bouvier, Normandy, 1180. Le
Boyer, Kent, 1250.
_Bowyn_, armorially identified with Bohun. Vide Boon.
_Boyall_, a form of Boyle (Lower).
_Boyce_, a form of Bois.
_Boyd._ A branch of the Beeton family of Dinant. Vide Stuart. Descent
from a brother of Walter, the first High Steward of Scotland.
_Boydell._ Helto Fitzhugh, grandson of Osborne Fitz-Tezzo, Baron of
Dodelston, had issue Hugh Boydell, ancestor of this family.
_Boyes_, for Bois.
_Boyle_, from Boile, otherwise Boelles, or Builles, now La Buille,
near Rouen. William de Boel, or Boêles, and Gilbert occur in Normandy,
1180. William de Buels was descended from Helias de Buel, temp.
John. His son William settled in Hertford; hence Ludoric Buel Boyle,
ancestor of the Earls of Cork, Orrery, Shannon and other great houses.
One of the most notable members of the Boyle family (U. S. A.) was
Chief-Justice John Boyle, of Kentucky; a very able, eminent, and
fearless judge.
_Boyle_, of Scotland, from Boyville, of Normandy, otherwise Boeville
(vide Bousfield). Common name in Normandy, Twelfth Century. William de
Boeville (Bocville), Suffolk, 1086.
_Boyles_, for Boyle or Buelleis.
_Boynell_, armorially identified with Boyville.
_Boynton_, or De Brus, abbreviated from Boventon. Vide Bruce. Robert
Fitz-Norman Bruis or Bruce of Boventon, York, 1129. A leading family
(De Boventon or Boynton) in Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.
_Boys_, or Boyse, for Bois (French). A Huguenot Bois in Holland would
become Holtz; in America, Wood. (Vide Bois.)
_Boyson._ William Buisson of Normandy, 1180; Roger Buzun, Norfolk,
1258.
_Bozzard_, or Bussard, Bascart, or Buschart, Normandy, 1198. Boscard,
1203.
_Brabant_, from the Netherlands. Arnold Braban (Brabant), of Hamford,
occurs 1297.
_Brabazon_, from Brabant. Thomas Brabençon, Normandy, 1198. John
Brabazon, Oxfordshire, 1247.
_Brace_, from Bracey.
_Bracebridge_, or De Ardern. The family of Arden or Ardern was Norman
and went to England in 1066. Ralph, son of William de Ardern, was Lord
of Bracebridge, Lincoln, Thirteenth Century. The Bracebridge family
bears the arms of Arden. John Bracebrigge was living 1305. Washington
Irving has made "Bracebridge Hall" famous wherever English is read.
The name at least will survive. It was the peculiar distinction of
the blood of Arden that it flowed in the veins of Shakespeare. His
mother was an Arden, and his magical "Forest of Arden" immortalizes
the name.
_Bracey_, from Brécy, near Caen. Henry de Brécy occurs in Normandy,
1180-95. Robert de Brécy, Cheshire. From a branch of this Cheshire
family descend the present Brasseys, among whom the most distinguished
was the eminent engineer, an honored servant of England during the
Victorian reign.
_Bracher._ Allen Bracheor, Normandy, 1180. Vide Brasier.
_Brack_, for Brac. Vide Brake.
_Bragge_, for Brac. Vide Brake. Evain de Brac, Normandy, 1180. Richard
de la Brache, England, 1199. Bragg entered Kentucky in 1862.
_Brain_, from Brain, Anjou; Yorkshire, 1199.
_Bran_, for Brand.
_Branch_, from St. Denis de Branche, Normandy; Suffolk, 1219.
_Brand._ Walter Brandus, Caen, 1165. William Brant, Norfolk, 1086.
Simon Brand, Hertfordshire, 1325. The Brands of Lexington, Kentucky, a
well-known family.
_Brandram._ William Brandram, Normandy, 1198.
_Branis_, for Brain.
_Brant._ Vide Brand.
_Brasier._ William Braisier paid a fine, Normandy, 1180. Soon after
"William de Neelfa was a fugitive for slaying him." The name occurs
also as Bracheor, and Broshear.
_Brasil_, from Bresles, near Beavois.
_Brass_, for Brace. Brass is one of Dickens' names.
_Brassey._ Vide Bracy.
_Bratt_, armorially identified with Brett.
_Braund._ Brand.
_Brawn_, for Braund.
_Bray_, from Bray near Evreux, Normandy. William de Bray occurs
1189-95. A branch of the family was seated in Devon in the Thirteenth
Century. Sir Reginald Bray, the eminent architect, temp. Henry VII.
_Brayne._ Vide Brain.
_Brazier._ Vide Brasier.
_Brazill_, for Brasill.
_Breache._ Vide Brache.
_Breckinridge._ Vide Cabell.
_Breckinridge_ is from Bracken-rigg, a loc n. Cumb. Robt. J.
Breckinridge, John C. Breckinridge, and W. C. P. Breckinridge were
descended on the maternal side from the Cabells--a famous Norman
family. Vide Cabell. The Breckinridge family is directly of Scottish
origin. The foregoing derivation rests upon the authority of the
English genealogist, Doctor Henry Barber. But no American family has
ever given more varied and striking illustrations of the power of
inherited Norman blood. Scarcely a characteristic trait is lacking.
[Illustration: COLONEL WILLIAM L. CRITTENDEN.]
_Brecks_, for Brake.
_Brees._ Vide Breese.
_Breese_, a form of Brice, being the Norman-French pronunciation.
_Breeze._ Vide Breese.
_Bren_, armorially identified with Brend.
_Brennard_, for Burnard.
_Brery_, or De Brereto, Breuery, near Vesoul, France.
_Breton_, from Bretagne. Baronial families in England (Devon, Bucks,
Lincoln, etc.).
_Bretell._ Normandy, 1126.
_Brett_, from Brette in Maine, or, possibly, short for Breton. Geoffry
le Bret was one of the Barons of Ireland.
_Brettell_, Lords of Gremonville, Normandy (Des Bois). Bretel, Kent,
1130. Bretel is near Alençon.
_Brettle_, for Bretel.
_Breun_, or Brewn, for Brun. Vide Brown.
_Brew_, one of the forms of Breux, Brews, or Braiose.
_Brewer_, (1) from Brovers, or Brueria, now Breviare, near Caen.
Seated in Devon at the Conquest. (2) From the English translation of
Braceator, or Braceor. Vide Brazier, Bracher.
_Brewhouse_, for Brewis, or De Braiose, a baronial family, from
Braiose, near Argenton, Normandy. Branches in Ireland, Wales, Suffold,
Sussex, Norfolk, Hants "and elsewhere." The name is frequently written
Breose, Brewes, and is totally different from that of Bruce or Brus,
with which it has often been confounded.
_Brewn._ Vide Breun.
_Brian_, armorially identified with Bryan.
_Briant_, for Breaunt, Breant, or Breante, near Havre. Fulco de
Breante, or De Beent, England, temp. Henry VIII. (Roger Wendover.)
_Brice_, from St. Brice, near Avranches, Normandy. Robert de St.
Brice, Normandy, 1180.
_Brickdale_, from Briquedale, Normandy. The derivation of the name
from "Brickdele, Lancashire," is doubted, on the apparently sufficient
ground that there is no such place.
_Bride_, or St. Bride, or St. Bridget. Vide Bridgett.
_Bridge_, or De Ponte, Normandy, 1180; England about the same time.
Bridges, 1328, Middlesex.
_Bridgett_, for Brichet. Vide Briett.
_Brient_, for Brent or Briant.
_Brier._ Vide Bryer.
_Briett._ Occurs in Normandy, 1180. Ralph de Brecet, England, 1272.
_Briley_, from Broilly, near Valognes, Normandy. William de Broleio,
1180-95. Broily, Bedford, 1086. Bruilli, Lindores, Scotland, 1178.
_Brind_, armorially identified with Brend.
_Brine_, for Broyne, Brun, Browne.
_Brinson_, or De Briançon, Middlesex, 1189. Giles de Brianzon, 1324.
_Britain_, for Breton. (Lower.)
_Brittain_, for Britain.
_Brittan_, for Britain.
_Britten_, for Britain.
_Brixey_, from Brèze, Anjou; De Brexes, Lancashire, 1199.
_Brize_, for Brice.
_Broach_, for Brock.
_Brock_, from Broc, Anjou; Robert de Broc, England, 1189; also Nigel
and Ranulph de Broc.
_Brocke_, for Brock or Broc. (Lower.)
_Bronaker_, from Broncort, near Langres, France. Roger Bruncort,
Normandy, 1199. Probably same as Bruencort and Brucort. (1180-98,
Normandy.)
_Brond_, for Brand.
_Brontofl_, from Bernetot, near Yvetol. John de Bernetot held lands in
Normandy, temp. Philip Augustus. The name of Bernetôt in Normandy at
length changed to Bernadotte--the name of one of Napoleon's marshals.
Hence, the royal family of Sweden. Carew Isaac Taylor remarked
at Newcastle in 1889 that the royal families of Europe were of
Scandinavian origin. But for the Norman derivation of the Bernadottes,
here explained, the royal family of Sweden might have appeared to be
an exception.
_Brook_, for Broke. (Lower.) Brooks, for Brock; Brookes, for Broke.
(Lower.)
_Brosee._ Brúsi, Brozi (old Norse). Brosee, now pronounced Brozee.
William Brosee, the progenitor of the family in Kentucky, was a
soldier in the Russian campaign under Napoleon. Among the interesting
"documentary" proofs of this service (now in possession of the family)
is a portrait of the old campaigner in his French uniform.
_Broughton_, a branch of Vernon; "Broeton," Stafford, Thirteenth
Century. The arms concur with the descent from Vernon.
_Brown._ Vide Browne.
_Brown._ Gilbert le Brun, Normandy, 1180. The name Brunus or Le Brun
frequently occurs in Normandy, 1180-98. Many Normans were Brun, or
Browne; but, in England, all Brownes were not Norman. The line of
Hanno le Brun, Cheshire, temp. Henry II, is armorially connected
with an Irish line. William Brone witnessed the charter of Dunbrody,
1178; Nigel le Brun had a writ of military summons, 1309, and Fremond
Bruyn was one of the barons of Ireland, 1315-17. Richard de la Ferte
accompanied Robert of Normandy to Palestine in 1096. He had eight
sons, the youngest of whom, surnamed Le Brun, settled in Cumberland,
where he had baronial grants, temp. Henry I. The family of De la
Ferte, also called Le Brun, long flourished in Cumberland. The name Le
Brun gradually changed to Broyne, Brown, and Browne. Robert le Browne,
M. P. for Cumberland, 1317-1339, was grandfather of Robert, from whom
descended the Viscounts Montague, the Marquises of Sligo, and the
Barons Kilmaine.
_Brownett._ Robert Brunet, Normandy, 1209.
_Brownlow._ The Brownlows, Lords Lurgan, bear the arms of the De
Tankervilles, Chamberlains of Normandy. Vide Chamberlain.
_Bruce_, from the Castle of Brus, or Bruis, now Brix, near Cherbourg,
where are the ruins of an extensive fortress built by Adam de Brus in
the Eleventh Century. Hence the Kings of Scotland, the Earls of Elgin,
the Baronets Bruce.
_Brudenell_, or De Bretignolles, from Bretignolles near Alençon,
Normandy. William de Bretignolles, in 1263, had a writ of summons
to attend with his military array at Oxford. From this family
descended Sire Robert Brudenell, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
1520. The orthographic modifications of this Norman patronymic (from
Bretignolles to Bredenell, to Bredenhill, and Brudenel) are clearly
traceable upon the records.
_Bruen_, armorially identified with Bruin, with Brun, Le Brun, or
Browne, of Cheshire.
_Brunes_, for Brun, now Brown.
_Brunker_, armorially identified with Brounker.
_Brus._ Vide Bruce.
_Brush._ Richard Broche, Normandy, 1198.
_Brushett._ Chapon Broste, Normandy, 1198. William Bruast, England,
1199.
_Bryan_, or Briowne, from Brionne, Normandy. A branch of the Counts of
Brionne and the Earls of Clare and Hertford, descended from Gilbert,
Count of Brionne, son of Richard I of Normandy. Wido Brionne of the
Welsh line had a military court of summons, 1259. About this time
the name was changed to Bryan, and the Barons of Bryan inherited it.
William Jennings Bryan seems to have been, prenatally, a Kentuckian.
_Bryant_, for Briant.
_Bryson._ Vide Brison.
_Buckle_, or Buckell. Identified by the arms (a chevron) with
Bushnell. Hence the able writer Buckle.
_Budgell_, for Bushell.
_Budgett_, for Buckett.
_Buggins._ Bogin, Normandy, 1180. Bogun, Derby, 1270.
_Buist._ Roger Baiste, or Buiste, Normandy, 1198.
_Buley_, or Bewley, from Beaulieu.
_Bullard._ A form of Pullard or Pollard.
_Bullett._ Beringer Bulete, Normandy, 1180. Iorceline Bolet, 1207.
Normandy. In Kentucky, the Bullitts justify their Norman descent. They
have achieved distinction in many lines.
_Bullivant_, or Bonenfant. Normandy, temp. Henry V; Cambridge, 1253.
Bonenfant.
_Bullon_, or Bullen. A form of Boleyn. There is Bullen (or Boleyn)
blood in Kentucky.
_Bully_, for Builly. Vide Bingham.
_Bulwer._ Vide Wiggett.
_Bumpus_, from Boneboz, Normandy.
_Bunce_, for Bence.
_Bunker_, for Boncoeur. (Lower.)
_Bunn_, from Le Bon. (Lower.)
_Burchell._
_Burd_, for Burt.
_Burden_, a familiar name.
_Burden._ Vide Burdon. "Burdens' Grant" (Virginia).
_Burdett._ French Bourdet. Vide Battle Abbey Roll.
_Burdett._ From the Bordets, Lords of Cuilly, Normandy. Seated in
England at the Conquest. Baronets Burdett-Coutts.
_Burdon._ Bordon 1180, Normandy. Robert Bordon, Yorkshire, 1255.
_Burfield._ De Bereville, De Bareville, England, 1789. Sometimes
Berewell.
_Burges_, Burgess. Simon de Borgeis, Normandy, 1195. Ralph Burgensis,
1198.
_Burgess_ is an old way of spelling Burges.
_Burgoyne_, Burgon, Burgin. De Bourgoyne, probably Gothic, from
Burgundy. In 1083 Walter Burgundiensis, or Borgoin, held lands in
Devon.
_Burke._ Vide Burgh.
_Burley._ Roger de Burlie, Normandy, 1198. "White Burley," Kentucky.
_Burnett._ The Scottish form of Burnard. From Roger de Burnard. The
name became Burnet in 1409. Bishop Burnet of Salisbury, celebrated
writer, is of this gens.
_Burney_, a form of Berney. Vide Berney. The name of a well-known
family in Kentucky. James G. Birney was the first Free-Soil candidate
for the Presidency.
_Burr._ Robert, Roger, and Peter Burre occur in Normandy, 1180.
Gilbert le Bor, England, 1227. Aaron Burr was a conspicuous and
dramatic figure in the early history of Kentucky. Professor Shaler,
the eminent Harvard professor, writing of Aaron Burr's expeditionary
project, says that the Kentuckians "had inherited the spirit of the
Elizabethan English"; and that the mass of the Kentucky people were
always "filibusterish." There is not a decade in their history--he
adds--that we do not find some evidence of this motive, to wit, "a
natural hunger for adventure."
_Burrell_, or Borel. Normandy, 1180. Burrells, Burrill.
_Burrough._ (1) for Burgh; (2) for Burys, Burroughs, Burrowes.
_Burroughs._ Vide Burrough or Burgh.
_Burt._ William Berte, Mortanie, Normandy, 1203. John Berte, England,
1272.
_Burton_, or De Richmond. One of the family bore the feudal dignity of
Constable of Richmond. The founder was Viscount of Nantes, Bretagne.
The Baronets Burton.
_Bury_, from Bourry, near Gisors, Normandy. Armorially identified with
the family of Bury, Earls of Charleville.
_Busain_, from Buisson, in the Cotentin.
_Bushe._ Hugh de Bucis, Normandy, 1180.
_Bushwell_, for Boswell.
_Busse._ Armorially identified with Bushe.
_Butcher_, for Bourchier.
_Butler_, or De Glanville. This family derives its name from Theobold
Walter, the first butler of Ireland, to whom that dignity and vast
estates were granted by Henry II. The Butlers bore the arms of De
Glanville, a family of Glanville, near Caen.
_Butler._ A name of peculiar distinction in the heraldic genealogies.
The Butler or De Glanville family derives its name from Theobald
Balton, temp. Henry II. The name has lost none of its distinction in
the New World. The Butlers of Kentucky are thoroughly Anglo-Norman in
their fighting instincts. All the male members (5) of this branch were
officers in the Revolution; all their sons but one were in the War of
1812; nine Butlers of this branch were in the War with Mexico; and
in the Civil War every male descendant of Captain Pierce Butler (of
Kentucky) was in the Confederate Army (vide Historic Families).
_Butt_, for Bott. A name made conspicuous in recent times by Sir Isaac
Butt. Vide Butts, Boot.
_Butter._ Earls of Larnsborough, descended from Hugo Pincerna, who,
in 1086, was a baron in Bedford. Hereditary butlers of the Earls of
Leicester and Mellent. Several other families of distinction bore the
name Butler: (1) the Butlers of Cornwall and Kent; (2) the Butlers
of Essex; (3) the Butlers, Barons of Warrington, feudal butlers of
Chester; (4) the Butlers of Bramfield, and others.
_Butterfield_, for Botevyle.
_Buzar_, for Buzzard.
_Buzzard._ Hugo and William Buscart, Normandy, 1198. Henry Boscard,
Salop, 1199.
_Byars_, Byers, De Biars. (Lower.) In Kentucky, a familiar name. The
Byars family of Mason was connected with the famous Johnston family.
_Byles._ Armorially identified with Boyle. A distinguished judge bore
the name.
_Byng_, from Binge, Gerault, Normandy. Reginald Binge was one of the
gentry of Essex, 1433. No one is likely to forget the Byng, who was
shot _pour encourager les autres_.
_Byron_, or De Beuron, near Nantes, Normandy. Sir Richard Byron
married, temp. Henry IV, the daughter and heiress of Colwick of Notts;
and from him descended Lord Byron, the poet.
_Cabban_, or Cadban, from Cabanne or Chabannes in Perigord.
Bartholomew Caban of Berkes, living 1322.
_Cabbell._ Walter Cabel is on record as having witnessed a charter
in Wiltshire, in the Eleventh Century. This Walter Cabel came over
with the Conqueror. The Normans used the word _caballus_, instead of
_equus_, for horse. It was so used in Domesday Book, and it seems
certain, says Doctor Brown, that the family derived its surname from
that word. Hence, also, _caballero_. Doctor Brown gives at least
forty-six different ways of spelling the name. Geoffrey Cabell owned
land in Caux, Normandy, in 1180. The Cabells of Virginia are descended
from the Cabells of France, in Somersetshire. In 1726 we find Doctor
William Cabell in St. James Parish, Henrico, then deputy sheriff
to Captain John Redford, High Sheriff of Henrico (Shire-Reeve),
officially the first man in the county.
In June, 1785, "Polly" Cabel was married to John Breckinridge.
The records show that Mary H. Cabell and John Breckinridge had issue:
(1) Letitia Preston.
(2) Joseph Cabell.
(3) Mary H. (died in infancy).
(4) Robert H.
(5) Mary Ann.
(6) John.
(7) Robert Jefferson.
(8) William Lewis.
The political and social history of these families and their annexions
are quite familiar to the people of Kentucky and the South.
_Cadd_, or Cade. Arnulf Cades, Normandy, 1184. Eustace Cade,
Lincolnshire, 1189.
_Caffin._ A form of Caufyn, or Calvin. Cavin, or Calvin, occurs in
Normandy, 1180.
_Cain_, from Cahaignes, Normandy.
_Cain._ Sometimes of Hiberno-Celtic origin; generally, however, of
Caen, or De Cadomo, Devonshire, 1083.
_Caines_, from the lordship of Cahaignes.
_Caldecote._ A Norman family bearing an English surname.
_Cale._ A form of Kael. A Breton name. Vide Call.
_Calf._ An English form of the Norman name Calxus, or Le Chauve.
William Calf, Ireland, 1322.
_Call_, or De Kael, from Bretagne or Poiton. Walter Cael, envoy to
England, Thirteenth Century.
_Callis._ Callass, Cales, the usual forms of Calais in Sixteenth
Century.
_Calver._ An abbreviation of Calvert.
_Calvert_, from Calbert, or Cauburt, near Abbeville. The "b" being
changed into "v," as usual, 1318. Henry Calverd was Member of
Parliament for York. The Calverts of Maryland (Lords Baltimore). A
familiar name in Kentucky. Formerly (in mid-century days and earlier)
pronounced Colbert; now, we only hear Calvert.
_Cambray_, from the Lordship of Chambrai, Normandy. Sire de Cambrai
was at the Battle of Hastings, De Chambrai, Leicestershire, 1086.
Corrupted to Chambreys, or Chambreis.
_Camel_, from Campelles, or Campell, in Normandy. Geoffry Campelles,
Normandy, Twelfth Century.
_Cameron._ Scoto-Celtic. But there is one English family of the name
derived from Champroud, near Coutances. Ausger de Cambrun, Essex,
1157. Robert Cambron and John de Cambron, Scotland, 1200 and 1234.
Cambronne, of the Guard, of fragrant memory.
_Camfield_, or Camfyled, a corruption of Camville, from Camville, near
Coutances.
_Camidge._
_Camp_, from Campe, or Campes, Normandy. John de Campes, England, 1199.
_Campbell._ Vide Beauchamp. Norman-French, de Camville (de
Campo-Bello), vide British Surnames, Barber (London, 1903). As early
as 1812, Doctor John Poage Campbell, of Kentucky, in a series of
"Letters to a Gentleman at the Bar" (Colonel Joseph Hamilton Daveiss),
gave a striking illustration of the high quality of his scholarship in
his anticipation of Sir Benjamin Brodie and Professor Tyndall of our
day in the detection of the germinal ideas from which the Darwinian
theory of evolution is derived (vide Green's Historic Families). An
interesting illustration of the intellectual life of the pioneer
period in Kentucky.
_Campion._ William Campion, Normandy, 1184. Geoffry Campion, England,
1194. "Campian," American Colonel (Lothair).
_Campton._
_Candy_, from Cande, near Blois. Nicholas Candy, Normandy, 1195.
_Cane_, for Caen. (Vide Cain.) Cany. Richard Cane, Normandy 1180.
Walter Cane, England, 1272.
_Canfell_, for Camville.
[Illustration: GENERAL WILLIAM NELSON.]
_Cann_, from Cane, Normandy. Geoffry de Can, Normandy, 1195. Richard
de Canne, England, 1272. (Cone, from _bosne_: loc n. France.) In
Kentucky, _Conn_.
_Cannel_, from Chanel, now Chenean, near Lille.
_Cannon._ Radulfus Canonicus, or Le Chanoin, of Normandy. Robert
Canonicus, England, 1189.
_Cant._
_Cant_, for Gant.
_Cantis_, for Candish, or Cavendish. A Norman baronial family.
_Cantor_ (translated Singer). Gauridus Cantor, Normandy, 1180.
Christian le Chaunter, England, 1272.
_Cantrell._ William and Roger Cantarel of Normandy, 1188. Alberid
Chanterhill, England, 1199. Richard Chaunterel, 1272. Kentucky, U. S.
A., Cantrill, 1906. Judge Cantrill, Court of Appeals, Kentucky.
_Cantwell._ Cantelo. Chanteloup.
_Cape_, or Capes, from Cappes. Vide Cope.
_Capel._ A Breton family from La Chapelle, Nantes. Rainald de Capella,
Essex, 1066. (Domesday.) William de C., Suffolk, from whom the Lords
Capel, Earls of Essex. Capel, from La Chapelle, near Alençon. Seated
in the West of England. Capell, for Capel. Monsignore Capel figures
vividly in Lothair,
_Capern_, for Capron. Richard Cepron, Normandy, 1180. Robert Capron,
England, 1194. Mrs. Laura Lee Capron, of Baltimore, Md., was a
daughter of Richard Henry Lee, of Kentucky.
_Caplin_, Capelen, or Chaplain. William Capellanus, Normandy, 1180.
Richard C., England, 1190. John Chaplyn, Lincoln, 1443.
_Capun._ Vide Capern.
_Carabine_, for Corbin. Robert Corbin, Normandy, 1180. Geoffry Corbin,
England, 1194. Walter Corbin, England, 1127.
_Carbonell_, Normandy, 1180. Carbonel, Hereford, 1086. The family long
flourished in Hereford, Bucks, and Oxford.
_Carden._ An English local name. Also a form of Cordon, Cordun:
Normandy, 1180; Essex, 1086.
_Cardwell_, for Cardeville, or Cardunville, from Cardunville, near
Caen.
_Cares_, from Chars, Normandy.
_Carew._ A branch of Fitzgerald. Cary, Carey.
_Carle_, for Carel, or Carrell.
_Carles._ Vide Carless, or Charles, from St. Karles de Percy, in the
Cotentin. Charles family, in Thirteenth Century, seated in many parts
of England. Carlish, for Carless.
_Carne._ Geoffry le Caron, Normandy, 1180. Wischard de Charun,
England, 1272.
_Carnell_, from Carnelles, near Evreux. Geoffry de Carneilles,
Normandy, 1180. Armorially identified with Charnell. In England,
usually styled Charnel or Charnels. Carneal, a distinguished name in
Kentucky; Thomas D. Carneal, one of the founders of Covington, in that
State.
_Carpenter._ Bernard Carpentarius, Normandy, 1180. William
Carpentarius, father of Henry Biset, baron, temp. Henry II.
_Carr_, or Kerr, q. v.
_Carrell_, or Caril, from Caril, near Ligieux. James II, after the
loss of his throne, created a Baron Caryl.
_Carrey_, for Carey.
_Carrington_, for Carenton; from Carenton, in the Cotentin. Robert de
Carenton granted the mill of Stratton, Wilts, to Farley Abbey, 1125.
_Carritt_, or Caret, for Garet.
_Carrol._ In England, a form of Carrell. In Ireland it is Celtic.
_Carson._ Probably from Corson, Normandy. Carcun, Thirteenth Century,
Suffolk.
_Carter._ William Cartier of Normandy, 1195; 1203, William of
Warwick. Thirteenth Century Ralph C. Worcester. Colonel Carter, of
Cartersville, Va.
_Carterfield_, or Quaterville, Normandy, 1205.
_Cartwright._ Armorially identified with Cateryke, or Catherick. A
branch was seated in Notts; another in Cambridge, and the name there
changed from Cateryke to Cartwright. Of the former branch was the
celebrated reformer, and of the latter, Thomas Cartwright, the great
Puritan leader, under Elizabeth. Peter Cartwright, an able revivalist,
was equally famous in the States of the Southwest.
_Carvell._ Ranulph de Carville, 1180; Robert Carvel, 1195, Normandy.
England, 1199. Richard de Carville. The English derivation of this
patronymic has given a name to a popular American novel.
_Cary_, or Pipart. Waldin Pipart held Kari, 1086. (Domesday.) William
Pipart held Kari, whence the name of De Kari, or Cary. Hence, the
Earls of Monmouth and Viscounts Falkland.
_Case_, for Chace. Armorially related to Chancy, or Canci. Vide Chace.
_Casey_, or Cassy. When English, it is a branch of Canci, with which
it bears armorial relations. Robert de Canecio, 1180, Normandy;
Geoffry de Chancy, England, 1194. Chace, Chase, or Chousey, armorially
identified to Casey. In various forms appears in all parts of England;
also, Hiberno-Celtic.
_Cash_, for Cass.
_Cass._ A form of Case, or Chace.
_Cassell_, from Cassel, Flanders. Hugo de Cassel, London and
Middlesex, 1130. Vide Cecil.
_Casson_, for Gasson.
_Castang_, for Casteyn.
_Castell._ William Castel, Normandy, 1198. Alexander de Castro,
Castel, England, 1199.
_Castleman._ The castellan of a castle. Ancient name; distinguished in
Kentucky.
_Castro_, for Castell. Casto?
_Cate_, or Catt. William Catus, Normandy, 1180. Rudulphus Cattus,
1189. Alexander le Kat, England, 1272.
_Catherick._ Vide Cartwright.
_Catlin_, Catline, Castelline, from Castellan, bearing three castles
(armorial). De Casleltan, Normandy, 1180. Sire Reginald de Casleltan,
England, 1272. An eminent Chief Justice of England bore the name of
Cattine. Catling, for Catlin; also, Catlyn, Catlin, a famous American
painter--an illustrator of our aboriginal life.
_Cato_, from Catot, or Escatol, in Normandy. Hugh de Escatol, Salop,
1189.
_Caton._ Katune, Normandy, 1198. England, De Catton.
_Cattel_, or Chatel. Foreign origin--Du Chastel, or De Castello.
_Cattermole_, from Quatremealles or De Quatuor Molis (locality not
ascertained); also, Cattermoul, Cattermull.
_Cattle_, for Cattel.
_Cattlin_, for Catlin.
_Catton._ Vide Caton.
_Caudel_, for Caudle. Roger Caldel, or Caudel, Normandy, 1180.
Anistina and William Caudel (Mr. and Mrs. Caudle?), Cambridgeshire,
1272.
_Caulcott._ Vide Calcott.
_Caulfield_, Calvil, Calfhill, or Caville. Vide Cavell. Seated in
Normandy, 1180. In England, Gilbert de Calvel, Northumberland, and
Richard, of Kent, 1202. Sir Toby Caulfield, a renowned commander in
Ireland, descended from Bishop of Worcester, temp. Elizabeth. Hence,
collaterally, Earls of Charlemont.
_Cave._ John Cave, Adelina de Cava, Normandy, 1180. Sire Alexander de
Cave, commissioner of array and justiciary. Name of Norman origin.
From Cave, in Yorkshire.
_Cavendish._ The Gernons were a branch of the Barons of Montfichet
(or Montfiquet, or Montfiket), in Normandy; so named after
their Scandinavian ancestor. The Montfichets were hereditary
standard-bearers, or military chiefs of London. The younger
branches retained the name of Gernon. Alured Gernon, brother of
William de Montfichet, had estates in Essex and Middlesex, 1130.
Geoffry Gernon, of this line, was surnamed De Cavendish, from his
residence at Cavendish, Suffolk, 1302. He was grandfather of Sir John
Cavendish, Chief Justice to Richard II. Cavendish and Gernon bear
indiscriminately the same arms. The Dukes of Newcastle, Devonshire
and other great families bearing the name of Cavendish (pronounced
Candish), descended from the Gernons and Montfichet. The genealogists
differ on these points, but the old heralds seem to agree.
_Caville_, or Cavill, identified by its arms (a calf) with Calvel, or
Cauvel. Robert Cauvel, Normandy, 1198. William Cavell of Oxfordshire,
1292.
_Cawdery_, or Coudray, Cawdray. A branch of the Beaumonts, Viscounts
of Maine. (Vide Beaumont.)
_Cawley_, for Colley.
_Cawse_, Calz, or Caux, from Caux, near Abbeville. Hence the English
surname, Cox or Coxe.
_Cayley_, from Cailly, near Rouen.
_Cecil_, Cicelle, or Seyssel, from Kessel, or Cassel, east of Bruges,
Flanders. Its arms (escutcheon charged with the lion rampant of
Flanders) are still borne in Flanders by a family of the same name.
Walter de Alterens, descended from Robert Fitz-Hamon, living 1165, is
derived the noble house of Cecil. The great English statesman, Lord
Burleigh (William Cecil) was of this family.
_Ceeley_, or Seily, from Silly, Normandy.
_Chabot_, or Cabot. Robert Kabot, 1198. Roger Cabot, of England, 1272.
_Chace_, Chase, or Chausey. Armorially identified, also, with Chancy
or De Canci. The name appears in all parts of England as Chancey,
Chancy, etc.
_Chad_, for Cadd.
_Chaff_, from Chause. Vide Cafe.
_Chaffer_, Chaffen, from Chevricres, Normandy, 1195.
_Chaffey_, or Chaffy, a form of Chafe, or Chaff.
_Chaffin_, for Caffin. (Lower.)
_Chalie_, for Cayley.
_Challands_, for Chalas. Vide Challen.
_Challen._ A branch of the Counts of Chalons.
_Challenger_, or Challenge, from Chalenge, Normandy.
_Challoner._ Probably from Chalons.
_Chamberlain_, Robert, Herbert, William Henry Camerarius, or
Le Chamberlain, Normandy, 1180-98. England, 1194-1200. Henry,
Hugh, Ralph, Robert, Thomas, Walter, Richard Turbert Camerarius.
The principal family of these was descended from the Barons of
Tancarville, Chamberlains of Normandy; also, Chamberlaine, Chamberlin,
Chamberlayne.
_Chambers_, or De Camera. William de Camera, England, 1189, Oxford,
Essex, Sussex. The family appear early in York, Wilts and Norfolk.
Chambre, or Camera, was in Brabant, the family seeming to have come
thence at the Conquest. Governor John Chambers, of Kentucky, was one
of the aides of General Harrison at the battle of the Thames;--was
appointed Territorial Governor of Iowa by President Harrison.
_Champ._ Vide Camp.
_Champin_, for Campion, or Campian.
_Champney_, from De Champigne, Normandy.
_Chancellor_, Canceller, Chanslor. Chancillor, a Norman name. Ranulph
Cancellarius.
_Chaney_, for Cheyney.
_Channell._ Armorially identified with Charnell. An eminent judge bore
this name.
_Channon._ Vide Cannon.
_Chant._
_Chantry_, from Chaintre, near Macon.
_Chappel._ Vide Capel.
_Chappius._ Calvus, Normandy, 1195. England, Cabous, 1311.
_Charge_, from Gaurges, in the Cotentin.
_Charles._ Vide Carless.
_Charnell_, for Carnell.
_Charniter._
_Charter_, for Chartres.
_Charteris._ The Scottish form of Chartres.
_Chartres._ Ralph Carnotensis (De Chartres) held estates in Leicester,
1086. Ébrard de Carnot, 1148, Winchester.
_Chase._ Vide Chace.
_Chattell._ Vide Cattell.
_Chatwin_, for Chetwynd.
_Chaucer._ Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, married a daughter of Sir Paine
Roet, sister of John of Gaunt's wife, and was valectus, or esquire, to
Edward III. The family of Chaucer, Chaucier, Chaucers, or Chaseor, had
been seated in the eastern counties, and some members were in trade
in London. The name, Le Chaucier (Calcearius) may have arisen from
some sergeantry connected with the tenure of land. Probably a branch
of the family of Malesoures.
_Cheek._ William Cecus occurs in Normandy, 1198; and in Gloucester,
1189. Walter Chike of England, 1272.
_Cheiley_, or Ceiley, a form of Cilly. Vide Ceely.
_Cheney._ Vide Cheyney.
_Chenoweth._ The history of this name is of peculiar interest. John
Trevelesick, according to an old London record, married Elizabeth
Terrel. Their son, John, received from his father a tract of land upon
which he built a house, and called the place "Chenoweth," doubtless
from an oak grove or woods upon the land. The initial syllable of the
name is not uncommon in the genealogical nomenclature of Normandy; and
Cornwall is notably a land of Norman castles and druidical groves of
oak. The Trevelesick family, as was a custom of the period, took the
name of the _place_, and was henceforth known as "Chenoweth." This
change may have been partly induced by the circumstances that there
was a law which required the people to take names that were "easy" to
the English. There seems to have been an early etymological connection
between the familiar Virginian names "Chenoweth" and "Chinn." Vide
Chinn, Cheyne, Chêne, Chenoie, and the Scandinavian suffix _with_. In
a list of names from Domesday Book we note the following: Cheneuvard,
Chenuard, Cheuvin, Chenut. The Chenoweths of Kentucky are from
Berkeley County, Virginia, the progenitor of the family being a
"fighting pioneer."
_Cherey._ (1) De Ceresio. The early form, Cerisy. (2) Also from
Cheeri, William Cheeri of Normandy, 1180.
_Chesney_, from Quesnay, near Coutances; De Chesnete in England.
_Chevalier_ (_i. e._ Miles), Normandy, 1180. Reginald Miles, England,
1272.
_Chew._ William de Cayu, Normandy, 1180. Walter C. Kew, England.
_Cheyne._ Cheyney, Chinn, from Quesnay, near Coutances. Robert de
Chesneto, Bishop of Lincoln, 1147. The Lords Cheyny were of this
stock. Chinn is an old family name in Kentucky, and seems to be
genealogically connected with the Chenoweth gens. (Vide Chenoweth.)
The progenitor of the Chinn family in England and America was one
Thomas de Cheyne, of Norman-French descent. Rawleigh Chinn, gent.,
married Esther Ball, a connection of the Washington family, and came
to America about 1713 and settled in Lancaster County, Virginia. (See
the "Register" for 1907, page 63.)
_Chick_, or Chike, a form of Cheak (Robson). A prominent Kentucky
family (Boyle).
_Child_, the English form of Enfant. William and Roger le Enfant,
Normandy, 1180. William and John Child, England, 1180.
_Childers._ A corruption of Challen or Challers. Vide Smithson.
_Chinn._ Vide Cheyney, Cheyne.
_Chitty._ In 1272 was Cette. Roger Cette, Norfolk.
_Chivers_, or Cheevers, from La Chievre, or Capra, Normandy.
_Choicy_, a form of Chausy.
_Chollett._ Collett.
_Cholmelsey_, or Cholmondely. William de Belwar, or Belvar, or
Belvoir, married Mabilia, a daughter of Robert Fitzhugh. From this
William de Belwar descended the House of Cholmondely.
_Christian._ Thomas and William Christianus, Normandy, 1180. Walter
Christianus, England, 1199. Crestien, Cristian, Crestin, England, 1272.
_Christmas._ A translation of the Norman-French Noël.
_Chucks_, a form of Chokes, or Chioches, from Choquet, Flanders.
_Church._ Vide Search.
_Churchill_, or De Courcelle. The Churchills of Dorset, ancestors of
the great Duke of Marlborough, are traceable by the ordinary heralds'
pedigrees to the reign of Henry VII. The family of Wallace (Walensis)
was a branch of the Corcelles. From this family came the Great Duke.
One of the later Dukes of Marlborough published a charming account
of his visit to Kentucky, just after the war. He was entertained at
"Ashland" by Major Henry C. McDowell.
_Clare._ Two families. (1) De Clare of Browne. (2) The Norman House of
De Clere.
_Claret._ Walter Clarté, Normandy, 1180. John Clarrot, England, 1272.
_Clark._ George Rogers Clark.
_Clay_, from Claye, near Méaux. The name is borne by the Baronets
Clay. The Clays of Bourbon and the Clays of Fayette, says General
Cassius M. Clay, are descended from the same remote ancestor.
_Cliff_, or Clift, Clive.
_Cochrane_, Cochran. The family were resident in County Renfrew (says
Lower) for many centuries. Vide Peerage, Earl of Dundonal. Renfrew has
strong associations with John Knox, and according to Doctor MacIntosh,
the vigorous race he represented had a strong infusion of Norman or
Scandinavian blood. A recent legal decision connects the name of
Cochrane with one of the most important cases ever brought before a
Kentucky judge.
_Cockerell._
_Collins._
_Collins._ William de Colince or Colimes held lands at Chadlington
near Oxford. Coulimes was near Alençon. Hugh de Coulimes, 1165, held a
barony of four fees.
(1) The Collins family or families of Kentucky have been notably
distinguished. General Richard H. Collins was a lawyer of great
ability. His sons, also lawyers, were brilliant and cultivated men.
John A. Collins was a member of the Cincinnati bar, and a partner
of Senator Pugh. Charles and William were writers of ability and
distinction. Richard was a gallant Confederate soldier and the
artillerist of Shelby's command. Their father welcomed John Quincy
Adams to Kentucky when he made his famous speech in vindication of Mr.
Clay.
(2) Judge Lewis Collins was a native of Kentucky and derived from
pure Virginian stock. He was a man of the highest character. His
history of Kentucky, a valuable work, was officially recognized by
the Legislature of the State. His son, Doctor Richard H. Collins, a
man of marked and varied ability, continued his father's historic
labors; revised the volume first published, added another volume,
and increased the quantity of matter fourfold. No one has bestowed
higher commendation upon this work than Professor Shaler, himself an
historian of the State.
_Combs._
_Cooke._
_Corbett._
_Corbin._
_Corker._ De Corcres, Normandy, 1180-95.
[Illustration: HONORABLE HUMPHREY MARSHALL.]
_Costello_, from Mac Ostello, descendants of Hostilio de Angelo,
settled in Ireland, temp. Henry. In this instance the new settler took
the prefix _Mac_, not an uncommon occurrence in those days. The native
"Macs" and "O's" of Ireland were never at peace, and the Galwagians
repudiated both. When the Normans came they gave the Celts "_Fitz_,"
and characteristically enough the Celts, who were dissatisfied with
"O" and "Mac," have been having "Fitz" ever since. Lower says that
English settlers sometimes assume the prefix "Mac," apparently from a
desire of assimilation to the Celtic race. In Ireland "O" was held in
higher esteem than "Mac" In Scotland, it was just the reverse.
_Courtenay._
_Cowan._
_Cox_, or Coxe; Cocks, Le Coq; Coke; Cocus; also, De Caux.
_Creasy._
_Cripps._ Armorially identified with Crisp.
_Crittenden._ A fine old name from Kent. The Crittendens of Kentucky
have nobly illustrated the name. The founder of the family, John
Crittenden, was an officer in the Revolutionary War. He came to
Kentucky at the close of that struggle, and settled in Woodford,
the heart of this State. His sons, John, Thomas, and Robert, were
eminent at the bar, and Henry, who devoted his life to agriculture,
was equally conspicuous for talent. John J. Crittenden received
his elementary education at the local schools; afterwards attended
Washington Academy (now Washington-Lee University), and completed his
studies at William and Mary. The effect of his classical training
is shown in the clearness, finish, and felicity of his published
speeches; his peculiar power in forensic oratory must always be a
matter of tradition.
The name "Crittenden" is imperishably associated with that of
Kentucky. It is peculiarly a family of soldiers, lawyers, and
political leaders. One soldier of the name was immortalized by his
tragic fate--William Crittenden, the proto-martyr of _Cuba Libre_.
The history of the family is the history of the State.
_Crockett._
_Crook_, or Crooke.
_Crozier._
_Cummings_, or Cumming.
_Cunditt._
_Currier._ Richard Coriarius, Normandy, 1180, from Angerville, in the
Cotentin.
_Curtis._
_Cuss._ A form of Cust. One may be a "Cuss" in Kentucky; but quite as
often he is "Cust."
_Dade._
_Dailey._
_Dangerfield_, or D'Angerville.
_Daniel._
_D'Arcy._
_Darrell._
_Davie._
_Davies._
_Davis._ Mr. Burton N. Harrison, in his graphic "Century" narrative
of the Capture of Jefferson Davis, records the last "War" speech of
the Southern President. It was addressed to a column of cavalry,
under the command of General Duke, at Charlotte, N. C., the soldiers
waving their flags and hurrahing for "Jefferson Davis." The speech was
brief. He thanked them for their cordial greeting; complimented the
gallantry and efficiency of the Kentucky cavalrymen; and expressed his
determination not to despair of the Confederacy, but to remain with
the last organized band, "upholding the flag." This was all. He said
later to his faithful Secretary, "I can not feel like a beaten man."
In a private letter written by Secretary Harrison to his mother about
this time (unpublished), he says: "Thaddeus Stevens recently sent us
an offer to become one of Mr. Davis' counsel if it were agreeable
to us to have him serve." Mr. Harrison's letters to his family are
admirably written and full of interest.
It was the trained sagacity of an English statesman which in the midst
of universal doubt and misconception enabled him to comprehend at a
glance the difficulties encountered by Jefferson Davis in bringing
order out of the wild chaos of secession in the Southern States. "He
has created a Nation"--said Mr. Gladstone. Doubtless, posterity, in
full possession of the facts, will be disposed to let the judgment
stand. These facts have never been more ably and accurately stated
than in the eulogy by Colonel William C. P. Breckinridge upon that
able and daring pilot in this great extremity of the South. The
eulogist was competent to speak; he was early in the field; he was
close to the inner councils of the war; he saw and shared the
struggle in every phase; and at the close, he calmly accepted the
results. His clear and rapid summary will carry historic weight:
"When the world once understands how it was possible for the
government, inaugurated at Montgomery, without a battalion of
soldiers, or a ship of war, without arms or munitions of war, without
provisions and military stores; a government not possessing within
its borders a single factory at which a single weapon of war, or
a single part of a weapon of war, could be manufactured, without
credit or funds; a nation with her ports soon blockaded so as to be
deprived of access to the markets of the world; a republic composed
nominally of thirteen separate States, of which Kentucky, Tennessee
and Missouri were practically under the control of its enemy--how
such a nation could maintain such a war for a period of four years
against the United States of America, and bring into the field an
army more numerous than its entire adult white population, feed it,
clothe it, transport it, arm it, take care of it and keep it in such
condition that it won unprecedented victories, has been an unsolved
mystery. When it is added that during those years personal freedom was
maintained, order preserved, courts kept open and no rights usurped,
thinkers will conclude that he who was the head and life, the spirit
and chief must have been a very great man."
The London _Times_, in its obituary notice, said: "As he was the
first to perceive the true nature of the struggle, so was he the last
to admit that the battle was lost. He fought a losing battle with
unquestionable ability and unflinching courage. His achievements will
secure him an honorable place in his country's history."
In the last public address of Jefferson Davis, delivered in the
capitol of Mississippi to the Legislature in joint convention, he
said: "The people of the Confederate States did more in proportion
to their numbers and men than was ever achieved by any people in the
world's history. Fate decreed that they should be unsuccessful in the
effort to maintain their claim to resume the grants to the Federal
Government. Our people have accepted the decree; it, therefore,
behooves them, as they may, to promote the general welfare of the
Union; to show to the world that hereafter, as heretofore, the
patriotism of our people is not measured by the lines of latitude and
longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and
embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain. Let them leave to their
children and children's children the grand example of never swerving
from the path of duty, and preferring to return good for evil rather
than to cherish the unmanly feeling of revenge."
_Davison._
_Davy_, or Davey.
_Dawe._
_Dawkins_, or Dakin.
_Dawson._
_Day._
_Deacon._
_Dean._
_Dearing_, or Deering.
_DeLacy_, or Lacy.
_Delmar_. An abbreviation of De la Mare.
_Denis_, or Dennis.
_Denney_, or Denny.
_Denton._
_Derry_, for D'Arry or D'Airy.
_Desha._ (Fr. Deshayes.) A grandson of Governor Desha of Kentucky,
visiting many years ago the Valley of Wyoming, the ancestral
home-place of the Desha family, found a venerable scion of the pioneer
stock, who invariably spelt his name Deshay. Fields, woods, hedges,
etc., give surnames to families. In the following line from an old
French writer we find two family names, or at least words familiarly
used as such:--_On lui dressoit des sentiers au travers des hayes de
leurs bois_. The name Desha is accented on the second syllable, in
Kentucky, this doubtless being the original pronunciation as implied
by the ancestral orthography--"Deshay." Beyond the Seine in old Paris;
beyond the Latin Quarter and the Faubourg St. Germain, near the
fortifications, there stands--or did stand in the closing quarter of
the last century--a block of antique villas. One of these was known
as the _Villa Deshayes_. Captain Deshayes, of the French man-of-war
_Le Grand Joseph_, made a gallant fight against two British frigates
during the Colonial wars.
General Joseph Desha, after a brilliant military and political
career, became Governor of Kentucky in 1824. His administration (says
Collins, the old Whig historian) was strong and efficient. The message
of Governor Desha of Kentucky, November 7, 1825, says Professor W. G.
Sumner of Yale, "deserves attentive reading from any one who seeks to
trace the movement of decisive forces in American political history."
Judge Bledsoe (the father-in-law of Governor Desha) is reported to
have said that "Desha commenced his career with as sound a set of
politics as any man in Kentucky, but it was his misfortune never to
change them."
Even Desha's enemies concede that he made a brilliant and impressive
appearance upon the hustings. His handsome person and carriage
contributed much to this effect. He is described in that Hudibrastic
skit, "The Stumpiad" (1816):
"With chapeau-bras and good broad sword,
And fine as any English lord."
(Vide sketch and portrait of Desha in No. 18 of the Publications of
The Filson Club: Battle of the Thames.)
_Devereux._
_Devine._ William le Devin, Normandy, 1180-95.
_Dewey._
_Dickens_, or Digons. Digin or Diquon, an early "nurse-name"
of Richard. Digg, Diggery, Dickman, Digman, Digins, Diggins,
"Dickens"--name of the novelist. Also, Dickson, Dickenson.
"Dickins," used as a nickname of Satan, is a contraction of the
diminutive _Devilkins_.
_Dietrich._ (Scan.) Didrik. Didrich, Diderk, Diderisk. (From a list of
Frisian Personal and Family Names--Barber.)
_Dimmett_, for Diment.
_Dimmitt._
_Dixie._ Armorially identified with Dicey. From Diss, Norfolk, which
belonged to Richard de Lucy, Governor of Falaise. The Confederate
war-song, therefore, bears a Norman name.
_Dodson._ The son of Dode, Alwinus Dodesone, occurs in Domesday as a
tenant-in-chief. It is an open question whether it is Scandinavian or
Anglo-Saxon. Even Lower is doubtful. There is a large connection of
this name in Maryland and Kentucky. One branch is connected with the
Botelers of Virginia. A good English stock.
_Doggett._
_Doniphan._ Probably an early form of Donovan. By old writers
(says Lower) the name is written Dondubhan ("the brown-haired
chief")--changed to Doniphan by the familiar substitution of p for
b. The Doniphans of Kentucky were a strong race--lawyers, soldiers,
physicians, etc. General William Nelson's mother was a Doniphan.
Joseph Doniphan came to the Fort at Boonesborough in 1777. He is said
to have been the first school-teacher in Kentucky.
At the battle of Bracito, the Mexican leader of a large force
called upon Colonel Doniphan (a Kentuckian) to surrender, with the
alternative "no quarter."
"Surrender, or I will charge your lines!"
The answer came at once--"_Charge and be damned_!"
There was no surrender. The Mexicans lost.
Colonel Alexander Doniphan was a close maternal kinsman of General
William Nelson, of Kentucky, and like him in many respects.
_Dougles_, or Dougless.
_Dover_, from Douvres or Dovers, Normandy. A baronet family which
derived its name from a Scandinavian Dover at the conquest of
Normandy, 912. Dover, Kentucky, is doubtless in the same line of
descent.
_Dowell_, for Doel or Dol. Rivallon, Seneschal of Dol, ancestor of
the Counts of Dol; connections of the du Guesclins (of France) and
Stuarts (of Scotland). Passing into a Celtic environment, a Norman
Dol or Dowell would naturally assume the Celtic prefix, "Mac," as in
like circumstances English settlers have done. In Lord Stair's list of
_Macs_, he gives _Dowale_, _Douall_, _Dowell_. McDowell is the form
the name assumes in Virginia and Kentucky, one branch of the family
(McDowells) being known as the _McDoles_, a traditional pronunciation
of the name. The progenitor of the family, Colonel Samuel M. Dowell,
was a Colonial leader in Virginia, and conspicuous and influential
as a pioneer in Kentucky. He was President of the Convention that
organized the State.
The common derivation of "Dowell" is from _Dougall_, and was intended
in the Highlands to apply exclusively to the _Lowlander_; though quite
as applicable to the "man from below." (Vide Lower: _Dhu_, black;
_gall_, a stranger.)
_Downing._ Old English name familiar in Kentucky. A loc. n. Worc.
(Eng.)
_Drake._ There is no reason to doubt that the Drakes of Devon were
all originally of the same race. They bore a dragon (Draco), showing
that their name had been Draco. The father of Daniel Drake came to
Kentucky in the closing years of the Eighteenth Century, settling in
the rich bluegrass county of Mason. Along with a rifle and an axe,
he brought five books to the wilds of Kentucky, to wit, a Bible, a
hymn book, an arithmetic, a spelling book, and the "Famous History
of Montellion, a Romance of the Ages of Chivalry." "The Letters of
Lord Chesterfield,"--borrowed by the father of Daniel from a friend
in the neighboring Virginian colony--"fell in mighty close"--says
the son--"with the tastes of the whole family." Chesterfield and
Montellion:--ideal educators even in this "school of the woods," as it
was happily termed by its most distinguished graduate, Doctor Daniel
Drake.
Daniel Drake was not only a skillful physician and accomplished
scholar, but he was the founder of a famous medical school, and an
author whose productions, in the estimation of competent critics,
have given him and his country a splendid and enduring renown. His
elaborate and systematic treatise upon the Diseases of the Valley
of the Mississippi is a work which lays broad the foundations
of medico-geographical research in the Western Hemisphere, and
foreshadows in masterly fashion the rigorous methods of physical
science that are now universally in vogue. The author was an explorer
by right of birth. He was a true son of his pioneer father, and a
typical scion of an adventurous race. The daring navigator, Sir
Francis Drake, the son of a Devonshire yeoman, was a true kinsman
in spirit, and probably in blood. The same passion for exploration
which drove the one to circle the universal seas in an English keel
inspired the other to toil through the vast spaces of a continental
wilderness and explore the haunts of pestilence upon the shores of the
Mexican Gulf. It is doubtless as the author of that unique work--"The
Diseases of the Great Interior Valley"--that Daniel Drake will chiefly
be remembered, and certainly no one could desire a better title to
remembrance. The motto of his famous "Journal," E SYLVIS NUNCIUS, is
a succinct and happy characterization of the man. He was indeed an
ambassador from nature, and his credentials have passed unchallenged
to this day.
_Drewry._
_Duckworth._
_Dudley._
_Duer._
_Duncan_, or Dunkin.
_Duke._ Le Duc, Normandy, 1180-98. Radulphus Dux (or Duke), of Bucks,
England, 1199. The name keeps its old distinction in Kentucky. It will
long survive in social tradition and always hold a high place in the
history of the State.
AN ANGLO-NORMAN FAMILY. _Dr. Basil Duke_, born in Calvert County,
Maryland, 1766; died in Washington, Ky., 1828; married, 1794,
Charlotte Marshall, born, 1777, in Fauquier County, Virginia;
died in Washington, Kentucky, April 17, 1817. She was a sister of
Chief-Justice Marshall.
1. Thomas Marshall Duke, born 1795, died about 1870; married:
1. Bettie Taylor.
2. Nancy Ashby.
3. ---- McCormick.
2. Mary Wilson Duke, born February 7, 1797; married, May 7, 1818, Dr.
John F. Henry; died September, 1823.
3. James Keith Duke, born, Washington, Ky., 1799; died August 2, 1863;
married, February 5, 1822, Mary Buford.
4. Nathaniel Wilson Duke, born 1806; died at Paris, Ky., July, 1850;
married, October 4, 1833, Mary Currie. Parents of General Basil Duke.
5. John Marshall Duke, born, Washington, Ky., October 29, 1811, died
in Maysville, Ky., 1880; married Hannah Morton.
6. Lucy Ann Duke born Washington, Ky., January 11, 1814; died Rock
Island, Ill.; married, January 20, 1835, Charles Buford.
7. Charlotte Jane Duke, born Washington, Ky., January 20, 1817; died
February, 1886; married, January 14, 1840, Harrison Taylor, "War"
Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Kentucky.)
The Dukes of South Mason are descended from Alexander Duke of
Maryland, a tall, vigorous specimen of the Anglo-Norman breed who
lived to be nearly one hundred years of age. His son, Dr. Basil Duke,
was a brigade surgeon in the Confederate service.
[Illustration: HONORABLE JOHN J. CRITTENDEN.]
_Durrell_, from Durell. Armorially identified with Darrell, Durrant,
Durran, Durrock, and possibly Durrett. (Vide Durrett.) Note how slight
a change converts the Norman name Clarte into Claret. So, Druett into
Durrett.
_Durrett._ A surname traceable beyond the Conquest, and having all
the marks of a Norman surname. If not of literal record in our
various lists, it is evidence of defect in the list itself. It is a
familiar tradition in Colonel Paul Durrett's family that the original
form of the surname was _Duret_, and that the family was of French
extraction. Widely separated branches of the same stock have the same
tradition. Every village in Normandy--says Camden--has "surnamed" a
family in England. It is easy to perceive, therefore, that the number
of surnames thus derived, added to the number derived from other
sources, would oblige the compilers of genealogical dictionaries from
sheer exhaustion to _omit_ many names. There is a simple process of
linguistic mutation which explains the genesis of many words. It is
known as _transposition_. It may be a transposition of _letters_,
as in the simple name _Crisp_, transpose the terminal letters and
we have the familiar name _Crips_; or it may be a transposition
of _syllables_, of which we have a famous example in _Al-macks_,
_decelticized_ for Anglican uses by a simple transposition of the
syllables in the Celtic surname--_Mack-All_. So, Durand, Durant (vide
Battle Abbey Roll and D. B.), DeRuelle, Durelle, Druell, Durell,
Durel, Durell (Huguenot, London, 1697), Durrell; so, too, Drouet
(Nor. Fr.), Druet, Druett, Durrett. _Duré_ is a French surname easily
Normanized by the addition of the diminutive suffix _et_ or _ett_,
giving us Duré, Duret, or Durett; and when consonantally _braced_
(more Anglico) by doubling the "r," we have _Durrett_--a familiar
surname in Kentucky. _Dur_, the adjective, means _hard, durable,
enduring_; the noun _Dur_ is _door_; _ett_ is a Norman suffix;
giving the ancient surname _Durrett_ a characteristic Norman stamp,
structure, and _cachet_.
_Dye_, for Deye.
_Dyer._
_Eames._ Ames.
_Edmonds_, or Edmunds.
_Egerton._
_Eckert._
_Eliot._
_Ellis_, or Alis, from Alis near Pont de l'Arche. The sensational
duel between Major Thomas Marshall and Captain Charles Mitchell was
fought upon the place of Mr. Washington Ellis, near Maysville, Ky.
It has been well described by Dr. Anderson Nelson Ellis, his son, an
accomplished writer and physician.
_Ellison._
_Emet_, or Emmett, from Amiot, Normandy.
_English_, or Inglis; families of this name are all Norman. England is
another form of Anglicus.
_Eve_, or Ives.
_Everett_, from Evreux. (Normandy.)
_Fail_, for Faiel, Fales. William Faiel, Normandy, 1180. Reginald
Fale, England, 1272.
_Faint_ for Fant.
_Falconer_, or Falkner.
_Farish_, or Fariss or Ferris.
_Farley_, or Varley.
_Farrer_, armorially identified with Ferrers of Bere. Ferrers, Farrow,
the same. A large family, well and widely connected in Virginia and
Kentucky. Archdeacon Farrer is of the same gens. The name is variously
spelled Farrer, Farrow, Farra, Farrers.
_Faulconer_, for Falconer; also Faulkner.
_Fell_, _Fayle_, or Fail, Fales.
_Fickling._
_Field._ Richard de la Felda is mentioned in Normandy, temp. John
(Mem. Soc. Ant. Norm. V. 126). Burke (Landed Gentry) states under the
head De la Field that this family was originally seated in Alsace near
the Vosges Mountains. The author of "The Norman People" says the name
embraces both English and Norman families. Pierce's great two-volume
"Genealogy" (profusely illustrated) exhibits the prodigious growth in
America, including such names as Cyrus Field, Justice Field, Marshall
Field, and Judge Curtis Field. The Kentucky Fields were connected by
marriage with the Clays of Bourbon. Pierce's genealogy gives very
pleasing views of "Auvergne," the home of the Field-Clays. This
estate was inherited by Hon. Cassius M. Clay, Jr., of Bourbon. Henry
Field (Eng. 1611) came to Virginia in 1635. Lieutenant Henry Field,
Culpeper County, Virginia, married Ann Lightfoot, May, 1771. His will
made November 19, 1777. His daughter, Judith Field, married Francis
Taylor, of Maryland, in Louisville, Ky., February 14, 1774. Francis
Taylor studied law with Judge Sebastian in Louisville. Lucretia,
a daughter of Francis and Judith Taylor, married Captain James B.
Robinson. The Fields family of Tennessee (afterward of Kentucky) are
now in the North, the brothers James and Henry being conspicuous in
the management of important steel and iron trusts. Their sister, Mrs.
Charles D. Lanier, is a resident of New York City. Her husband (a son
of the famous Southern poet) is now at the head of "The Review of
Reviews."
_Fillpot_ or Philpot, from Philipot, diminutive of Philip.
_Finch._
_Finney._
_Fisher._
_Fisk_, or Fyska.
_Fitch_, or Fitz.
_Fitzgerald._
_Flanders_, or Flamders. Common in England after the Conquest.
_Fleet._
_Fleming._ The Flemings of Fleming are derived from the Flemings of
Virginia.
_Fleming._ The Flemings of "Wigton" came from Flanders in the train of
William the Conqueror. Sir Thomas Fleming came to Virginia in 1626.
Colonel John Fleming (another Wigtonshire Fleming) came from Virginia
to Kentucky in 1790. His grandson, John Donaldson Fleming, was also a
pioneer and served with marked efficiency as United States District
Attorney for Colorado.
_Fletcher._
_Flowers._
_Foakes_, or Fowkes.
_Foley._
_Folk._ Governor of Missouri. A political leader of distinction.
_Follett._
_Force_, de Forz.
_Foreman_, or Forman for Fairman. The Forman family of Kentucky (local
pronunciation _Fur_-man) forms one of the largest and most influential
connections in the State. They are Scandinavians of a high type.
_Forrest._
_Forrester._
_Forster_, or Foster. James Lane Allen was a Foster in the maternal
line.
_Fountain_, de Fonte.
_Fowke_, Gerard, a Kentuckian, directed the later Horsford
Excavations at Cambridge. He is a descendant of the "Elizabethan"
Fowke, a Virginian pioneer. His latest paper described his
explorations of the Lower Amur Valley. It was a cold trail, but the
story is one of singular interest.
_Fowkes_, or Fowke. See Foakes.
_Fowler._
_Fox_, or Reinard. The Norman name was translated in England after
the Conquest, being previously Rainer, Renard, etc. The celebrated
Fox family of England was derived from Le Fox, Normandy. Renard de
Douvres is familiarly known in Kentucky as "Fox of Dover." The Fox
family of Dover are descendants of a wealthy Virginian, Arthur Fox,
distinguished among the pioneer citizens of the State. Judge Fountain
Fox of Boyle and the Southern novelist, John Fox, were doubtless
derived from the same Anglo-Norman stock.
_Francis_, Governor of Missouri; Organizer of the World's Fair in
commemoration of the Louisiana Purchase.
_Frazee_, Fraser, Frazier, Fraize, a loc. n. in France. Fr. Fraiseur.
From _fraiser_, to fortify with stakes. Samuel Frazee, a revolutionary
soldier, came to Madison County, Ky., in 1792. Progenitor of a
large and prominent family in the State. Doctor Lewis J. Frazee, of
Louisville, was author of "A Medical Student, Europe," a mid-century
publication.
_Freyer_, or Frier. (Old Norse.) Armorially identified in Normandy
with Frere. Ansgot Frater, of Normandy, 1198. In England, 1326.
_Gaines._
_Gairdner_, or Gardner (C. Jardinier).
_Gambier._
_Gamble._
_Garland._
_Garrard_, for Gerard; Ralph and William Gerard, Normandy, 1180-95.
Twenty-six of the name in England, 1272.
_Garratt._ Roger and William Garrett, of Normandy, 1180.
_Garrett._
_Gaskin._
_Gaskins._
_Gates._
_Gault._
_Gay._ Ralph Gai, Normandy, 1180. Robert de Gay, a benefactor to
Osney, Oxford.
_Geary_, or Gery, Normandy, 1165. William de Gueri. Of this name are
the baronets Geary.
_Gentry_, Chantry. From Chaintre, near Macon.
_Gibbon_, or Gibbons.
_Gibbs._
_Gibson._
_Gilbert._
_Gill_, Gille or Giles.
_Gillman._
_Gilpin_, Galopin.
_Glen_, or Glenn.
_Goble_, for Gobel.
_Goddard._
_Godfrey._
_Goggin_, or Gogin, Normandy, 1195; England, 1272. William L. Goggin
was a mid-century Governor of Virginia. Lucien B. Goggin, his
brother, was a prominent citizen of Kentucky. This ancient surname is
distinctly traceable by record from Normandy to England; from England
to Virginia; from Virginia to Kentucky. And this is but one out of
_many names_, officially recorded in Normandy, that reappear, hundreds
of years afterward, in Kentucky.
_Goode._
_Gooding._
_Goodman._
_Gordon_, or Berwick (Anglo-Norman, also a Celtic clan name).
_Goring._
_Gosling._
_Gossett._
_Gowan._
_Graham_, in all the early records of England, means Grantham in
Lincoln. William de Graham, who settled in Scotland, came from
Grantham. Ralph, hereditary chamberlain of Normandy, had two
grandsons--(1) Rabel, ancestor of the Chamberlains of Normandy. (2)
William de Graham, ancestor of Montrose and Dundee.
_Grand_, Le Grant, Grand; Scottish Grants are Celtic.
_Graves._
_Gray_, Greey or Grey. From Gray, Normandy, near Caen.
_Grenfell._ Recalling the name of the gallant Englishman that rode
with Morgan.
_Gresham._
_Gunn._ William de Gons, Normandy, 1280. William Gun, England, 1272.
Dennis Gunn, Kentucky, 1870.
_Gurney_, from De Gournay.
_Gurdon_, from Gourdon, near Calais.
_Hailie_, for Hailly or D'Aily.
_Haines._ From Haisne, near Arras.
_Haley_, for Hailey.
_Haley_, for Hailey. Percy Haley is notably Anglo-Norman.
_Hall._
_Halliday_, or Holliday. Recalls the famous Overland Route.
_Halliday_, from Halyday, Normandy. A name historically associated in
America with the great Overland Route, as is also Blanchard (q.v.).
Benjamin Holliday, William Blanchard, and Judge Thomas A. Marshall
(President of the Central Pacific) were Kentuckians born within a
few miles of each other, near the northern border of the State. All
pioneers of Scandinavian blood.
_Halsey._
_Ham._ From the Castle of Ham, Normandy. William _du_ Ham, Normandy,
1180. William _de_ Ham, England, 1272.
_Hamer._ Heirmir, the name of a jarl. It was that stout fighter,
General Hamer, who sent Ulysses Grant to West Point.
_Hamilton._ A well-known family in Kentucky.
_Hamilton._ Gilbert de Hamelden had estates in Surrey, holding his
lands from the Honour of Huntingdon, and, therefore, from the Kings
of Scotland (1254). His elder son, Walter, was one of the Barons of
Scotland, and held the barony of Hamilton. The family dates from
Normandy, 1130. The most illustrious descendant of this noble Scottish
family was an American--Alexander Hamilton--who, according to that
very eminent authority, Prince Talleyrand, "was the greatest man
of his epoch," an epoch illustrated by such names as Napoleon and
Washington--his greatness consisting peculiarly in this, that he was
not only variously gifted--soldier, scholar, orator, administrator,
political philosopher and financier, but, like William of Normandy,
he was a creative or constructive statesman, and his mother, like
the Maiden of Falaise, was a daughter of France. In a brilliant
and powerful work descriptive of his life, he is fitly styled the
"Conqueror," and an American Senator, writing upon the same lines,
adopts practically the same views. The discussion in both instances
is conducted with perfect frankness and in perfect taste. In a speech
at the recent Home-Coming in Louisville, an eloquent Kentuckian made
felicitous reference to a similar instance in which (it was alleged)
destiny (or subterranean tradition) had assigned to a daughter of
the people the same illustrious rôle. Whatever the facts, there
is a philosophy that rises above conventions; precisely as if it
should say--"In the higher planes of life, the conceptions of social
evolution are sometimes predestinated and immaculate." Who knows? Thus
much at least may be conceded to the maiden of the wilderness, to the
daughter of the tropics, and to the Maiden of Falaise, that no three
women who have figured in profane history as the mothers of great
men have more profoundly affected the destinies of the English or
Anglo-Norman race.
_Hampden._
_Hampton._ Norman-French. De Hantona.
_Hancock._ Hancoc or Hencot--These names were gradually changed to
Hancock.
_Hanks._ According to Lower, an old Cheshire "nick"-name of Randolph.
The name Randolph has given rise to many "diminutives," as Rankin,
Randolph, Randy, Ranson, Hankin, Hankey, Hanks, resembling in this
respect the prolific "Peter" (q.v.). In the struggle for existence
the monosyllabic "Hanks" has survived to share the distinction of
the original surname. To have been borne by the mother of Lincoln is
quite enough to render it illustrious for all time. A contemporary
said of her that "she was a woman of superior natural endowments of
mind and of great amiability and kindness of heart. She was always
gentle, always kind, but far more energetic than her husband. She
was quick-witted, with a great relish for the humorous and a keen
appreciation of fun." Her husband generously described her occasional
"complaints" as "chirping"--a gracious felicity of speech. Whatever
the wit and charm of the woman, there was certainly humor, with
tenderness and imagination, in the man.
Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Ky., in February, 1809,
three and a half years after the marriage of his father and mother.
She died in October, 1818. She was buried near the present site
of Lincoln City, and lay for many years in an unmarked grave. A
"sculptured monument" now marks the spot. It is a beautiful shaft of
white marble and bears the impressive legend: "Beneath this shaft
lies in peace all that is mortal of NANCY LINCOLN, mother of Abraham
Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States."
_Hanson_, Hausen (Scand).
_Harben_ (Norman) or Harbin, de Harpin: Harbinson.
_Harcourt._ The Earls of Harcourt were descended from Bernard, "the
Dane," who was chief counselor and second in command to Rollo or
Rolf in his invasion of Neustria, 875, and received for his services
a chateau ("Harcourt") near Brionne in France. Robert de Harcourt
attended William the Conqueror to the Conquest of England. "Harcourt"
is notably a name of "high life."
_Harden_, or Hardin. Walter Hardin, a true Norman name.
_Hardin._ Ben Hardin, the great Kentucky lawyer, on one occasion when
traveling the circuit breakfasted with his kinsman, Major Barbour, a
prominent citizen of a pious community. Mrs. Barbour, who had little
taste for the profane writers, but read her Bible daily, was truly a
mother in Israel; and was as hospitable to sinners as to saints. The
problem before the venerable hostess was to make the conversation
interesting to the great lawyer. Roosevelt and the Kaiser were not
at the front in those days, and the conversation naturally flagged;
but the old lady soon found a satisfactory substitute for the great
modern rulers, and turned suddenly upon her imposing kinsman with the
query, "Benjamin, what do you think of SOLOMON?" Ben had evidently
studied the subject, for he answered instantly, "SOLOMON, madam, was a
magnificent damned scoundrel."
_Hardin_, Hardinge, D. B. Harding, Hardingus, Hardine. In old Norse,
Haddingjar. Harden for Ardern or Hardern. Ralph de Ardern was Lord of
Bracebridge. The family of Arden or Ardern (with aspirate, Harden) was
Norman and went to England in 1066. Bernard "the Dane" was Regent of
Normandy, 940.
_Harden_, for Hardern or Ardern; or _Arden_ with aspirate.
_Hardy._
_Harris_, for Heris, Normandy. Harsee, Normandy, 1198.
_Harris_, for Heriz. Ralph Heriz, Normandy, 1180-'95. Ivo de Heriz,
England, 1130.
_Harrison._ Philip and Gilbert Heriçon, Normandy, 1180. Henry Harsent,
England, 1272. In Virginia, a great name.
[Illustration: HONORABLE HENRY WATTERSON.]
(1) The famous French economist, Michel Chevalier, traveled in the
United States in 1835. He says in one of his _Lettres_ that he
remarked at the table of the hotel a man of about 60 years of age who
had the lively air and alert carriage of a youth. He was impressed
by the amenity of his manners and by a certain air of command which
peered even through his "linsey" habit. This, he learned, was the
distinguished American general, Harrison, victor in the Battle of
the Thames, one of the two very celebrated battles of the war, the
other being the Battle of Tippecanoe. If a "Norman" battle was ever
fought upon this continent, it was the Battle of the Thames. It might
have recalled to the Conqueror his own baptism of fire. On the eve
of battle the American commander changed his plans. Having learned
that Colonel James Johnson's cavalry had been drilled to _charge in
the woods_, he ordered a charge to be made by the mounted Kentuckians
upon the British line, which was drawn up in a wooded strip of ground
between the river and the swamp. Their artillery was planted in the
wagon road which bisected the center of the British line. The column
of Kentuckians flanking the artillery was launched upon the right
of the Saxon line with irresistible force. Reserving their fire and
reversing the movement, they charged the broken and disordered line
from the rear, pouring upon it a destructive fire. The victory was
complete. Colonel R. M. Johnson charged the Indians in their covert
on the left; and it was here, in a close hand-to-hand struggle, that
Tecumseh fell, bequeathing a lifelong controversy to his foes. It was
ultimately settled, however, in the popular mind by the traditional
couplet--
"Humpsy, Dumpsy,
Humpsy, Dumpsy,
Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh."
_Harrison._ Heriçon, Normandy, 1180.
_Harrop._ La Herupe.
_Harrow._
_Hart._
_Hart._ LeCerf, Ralph Cerfus, Normandy, 1180-1198. In England
translated into Herte, also Harte.
_Harvey_, Harvie, Hervey, Herveus, 1198, Normandy. Sire Hervey is
mentioned in Piers Plowman. The early pronunciation of Hervey was
_Harvey_. Now, generally pronounced as spelled.
_Hatcher._
_Haughton._
_Hawes._ Richard Hawes, Confederate Governor of Kentucky.
_Hawkins._ From the Manor of Hawkings, Kent, held by Walter Hawkins,
1326. Colonel Tom Hawkins of Kentucky, who fought with Lopez in Cuba,
was a typical Anglo-Norman.
_Hawley._
_Hay_, or de la Haye.
_Hay_, or de la Hey, Hay. Armorially identified with Hayes, from
Hayes, near Blois. Vide Desha or Deshayes.
_Hayles._
_Hayley._
_Hayne_, or Haynes.
_Hearn_, from Heron, near Rouen.
_Hedge._
_Helm._ Andrew de Helm, England, 1262. (Normandy, 1198.)
_Herd_, for Hert, Hart.
_Hert._
_Hewett_, or Hewitt. From Huest or Huet, near Evreux. Also, Hewettson.
_Hibberd._
_Hickey_, Hequet, Normandy.
_Hicks._
_Higgin_, Hequet, Normandy. Higginson.
_Hill._ The English form of De Morete. For Helle or de Heille, near
Beaurais. The family was spread throughout Kent and Surrey.
_Himes._
_Hitt._
_Hoare._ Aure from Auray, in Bretagne. _Aure_, with aspirate, becomes
_Hoare_.
_Hogg_, or De Hoge. From La Hogue in the Contentin.
_Hoghton_, Hocton.
_Hoide._
_Hoile_, or Hoyle. Norman Hoel, a familiar name in Kentucky.
_Holburd_, Halbert, Alberd, Albert.
_Holiday_, or Holliday. Ben Holliday, forerunner of the Stanfords and
Huntingtons.
_Holland_, de Hoilant, Normandy, 1180.
_Holles_, for Hollis. Robert de Holis, Normandy, 1198.
_Holmes_ (William der Holme).
_Holmes._ From Norse Holmer (an islet in a lake). D. B. de Holme, a
tenant in chief. William du Holme, 1180-95.
_Hood._ Norse Udi. Danish Hude. The popular hero, Robin, seems to
have been of Scandinavian descent. John Hood, of Kentucky, was
pre-eminently a "fighting general." Jesse James was the Robin Hood of
our day.
_Hooker._
_Hooper._
_Hord._ A Swedish name, borne by a general of Charles XII.
_Howel._
_Hudson._ Hudson of Maysville, an intimate friend of General Grant.
_Hughes._
_Hulbard._ For Hubert.
_Humfrey._
_Humphry._
_Humphrey._ Notably a Norman name. As theologians, lawyers, scholars,
the Humphreys of Kentucky have sustained the ancient distinction of
the name.
_Hunt_, Le Huant, Normandy, 1198.
_Hunter_ (Venator or Le Veneur).
_Hunter._ English form of Le Veneur.
_Huntley._
_Hurt._
_Hutchings_, or Hutchins, Houchin.
_Hyatt_ (Haytt).
_Ingall._ For Angall.
_Ingle._ For Angle.
_Inglis_, or Anglicus.
_Ingram._
_Innes_ (the Baronets Innes).
_Ireland_ (DeHibernis, Normandy, 1180).
_Jack._ For Jacques; William Jack, England, 172.
_Jackson._ A name of the family Lascelles.
_James._ St. James, Normandy.
_Janvier._ (January.) At least three branches in this country from a
common ancestor in France. The name is sometimes anglicized--notably
in Missouri and Kentucky.
_Jarvis_ (Gervasius, Normandy, 1180).
_Jeffreys_ (with various forms), Geoffrey, Geoffrey's son, Jefferson.
In the home-coming reception Mason and Jefferson hold the extremes of
the receiving line.
_Jennings_, from Genn or Canon, Chanum, Chanon, Chanoun, Jenun,
Jenning or Jennings, William Jennings Bryan. Vide Bryan.
_Jewell_, from Juel or Judæ de Mayenne.
_Jewett_, or Guet, Normandy, 1180.
_Johnson._ The Johnsons of Ayscough-Fee, County Lincoln, claim from
the house of FitzJohn of Normandy (Guillim's Display of Heraldry). A
distinguished name in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky.
_Johnston_ is Scandinavian. Probably the most conspicuous and
influential Scandinavian in the United States at this time bears that
name. He is a native of Scandinavia. The most notable American of that
race and name was the Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston.
There are two pictures of him that will live in the popular mind: (1)
As he stood, silent and absorbed, beside his camp fire on the night
before Shiloh; (2) As he led that dashing and successful charge on the
following day. A soldier worthy of his race.
_Julian._ From St. Julian, Normandy.
_Karr._
_Kays._
_Kerr._ Appears to be a branch of the Norman house of Espec. The name
is variously given as Kerr, Karr, Carr, Cairo, Carum. Lucien Carr was
author of a History of Missouri.
_Keats_, for Keate. Keats the poet had a brother who lived in
Louisville, Ky.
_Keats_, Keat, Keyt, Kate. In Collins' History, page 557, Vol. 2,
the reader notes the following reference to this name--"The most
celebrated female school in the West at the time was in Washington,
1807-12; that of Mrs. Louisa Caroline Warburton Fitzherbert Keats,
sister of Sir George Fitzherbert, of St. James Square, and wife of
Reverend Mr. Keats, a relation of the celebrated poet."--The Keats
family of Louisville (closely related to the poet) was conspicuous in
the early history of that city. They were connections of the famous
Speed family of Kentucky.
_Kehoe._ (French) Cahot; Cahut; Cayeux, p. n.
_Kenney_ (De Kani, 1198, Normandy).
_Kentain_, for Kintan or Quentin. Simon Kenton was always known among
the plain people as Kinton, though, in early Kentucky statutes,
the name is spelled _Canton_, no doubt as then pronounced, even by
"scollards." Kenton, a "place" name near the northeast coast of
England. Much of our old Kentucky stock is Northumbrian.
_Keith._
_Key._
_Keyes._
_Kimball_, for Kemble.
_King_ (Rex de LeRoy, Normandy, 1180).
_Kinsey_, for Kensey.
_Kirk_, or Quirk, de Querçu.
_Kissill._ For Cecil, which is also sometimes Sissell, Knight (Miles
or Knight, Normandy).
_Knott_, for Canot or Canute.
_Knott_ (Danish), Knouth. Norse Knöttr (a ball or knob, as a Knot on
oak).
_Kydd_, or Kidd.
_Kyle_, or Keyle.
_Lacy_, or Lacey. A baronial name from Lasey, between Vire and Aulnay.
Walter de Lacy was in the battle of Hastings, and Captain Walter Lacy
of Kentucky was a soldier in the Mexican War.
_Lamb_ (Robert, Agnus, and Ralph, Normandy, 1180).
_Lambton._ A Durham family from the Barons of Tarp and Normandy.
_Landor_, or Lander. From Landers, Burgundy. From this family Walter
Landor, the poet.
_Larken_, Larkin, Largan, Largant, Larcamp, Larkins, Normandy, 1180.
_Laurence_, Lorenz, Normandy, 1180; also Lawrence.
_Lawson_, from Loison, Normandy, 1180.
_Lee_, Leigh, De la Mare. Stephen Lee, the progenitor of the Kentucky
Lees, was born in Prince William County, Virginia, and died in Mason
County, Kentucky. His first wife--the widow Magruder--was the mother
of Priscilla Lee, who married William Botts of Virginia. His second
wife died without issue. His third wife was Mrs. Ann Dunn. Her son,
Henry, who rose to distinction in the history of Kentucky, was born
April 2, 1757. He married Mary Young.
The question is sometimes asked, "How were the descendants of Stephen
Lee related to the Lees of the Northern Neck?" Many years ago the
writer of this note saw in a collection of old papers made by that
able and conscientious antiquary, William D. Hixson,[13] a letter from
General Henry Lee of Virginia ("Light-Horse Harry") to General Henry
Lee of Kentucky, in which the latter was addressed as "Dear Cousin."
The letter was in relation to certain lands in Mason County then
owned by a daughter, Priscilla Lee; and was of peculiar interest as
confirming the familiar tradition of a connection by blood between the
two families of Lee. The name "Lee" is traced by English genealogists
to Scandinavia. (Vide sketch of the Lee family in the "Register," by
Lucy Coleman Lee.)
[13] W. D. Hixson, the "Old Mortality" of Mason, is now a resident of
Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.
_Lemon_, Lemmus, Normandy, 1180.
_Lenard_, or Leonard. For Leonard from St. Leonard near Fecamp,
Normandy.
_Lenney_, or Linney, from Launer, Normandy.
_Lewis_, DeLues or Luiz, Normandy, 1180.
_Liddell._ From Lydale, on Scottish border; seat of a Norman.
_Lile_, for Lisle.
_Lincoln._ Alured de Lincoln came from Normandy with the Conqueror;
held a great barony in Lincoln and Bedford. From a collateral branch,
it is said--and the branches were numerous--descended the greatest of
the "Rulers of Men," Abraham Lincoln.
_Lincoln._ The following appreciation of the character of Abraham
Lincoln is from Paul Bourget's Outre-Mer. The judgment of posterity
is probably anticipated in this discriminating characterization
by an able foreign writer: "That heroic struggle has left more
noble vestiges than the shameful abuse of electoral pensions: the
recollection in the first place of a common bravery, the proof that
American industrialism has not in the least diminished the energies
of the race; again, the legend of Lincoln, of one of those men who by
their example alone model after their mind the conscience of an entire
country. That personage, so American by the composite character of his
individuality, humorous and pathetic at the same time; that politician
experienced in all trickeries and nevertheless so capable of idealism
and mysticism; that half-educated man who had at times magnificent
simplicities of eloquence; that old wood-cutter, his face bitter with
disgust, yet luminous with hope, worn out with trials and still so
strong; that statesman so close to the people and nevertheless with
so broad a vision, remains the most modern of heroes, one whom the
United States can boldly place in opposition to a Napoleon, a Cavour,
a Bismarck. The South to-day recognizes his greatness as well as the
North. He had the luck to be exactly the workman that was needed for
the task which he undertook, and to die as soon as that task was
achieved. Such circumstances continued form great destinies."
"Abraham Lincoln" (says one of his admiring compatriots) "was an
incomparable leader of men. While McClellan and Grant could conduct
more or less successfully the operations of a hundred thousand men
in the field, it was Abraham Lincoln alone that could keep in hand
the vast and turbulent electorate of eighteen Northern States. It was
Lincoln's consummate generalship, happily for the South, that held
these radical and aggressive elements in check: '_Unus homo nobis
cunctando restituit rem._'"
_Lindsay_, or de Lines. Branch of a baronial Norman house; one of the
sovereign families that ruled in Norway till dispossessed by Harold
Harfager. The name "Lindsay" is from the Norman seigneury Limesay.
There are various branches with armorial identifications pointing to a
common origin. Chief Justice Lindsay, of Kentucky, stands in the front
rank of Anglo-Norman lawyers.
_Lisle._
_Littell_, or Little. Parvus or Le Petit, Normandy, 1180.
_Littleton_, or Lytleton.
_Lockett_, for Lockhart.
_Long._ Petrus de Longa, Normandy.
_Lovell._ Louvel, Normandy, 1180.
_Lucas._ From De Lukes or Luches.
_Luckett_, for Lockett.
_Luke._ From St. Luc, near Evreux, Normandy.
_Luttrell_, Ralph and Robert Lotrel, Normandy, 1180.
_Lyle_, for Lisle.
_Lyon._ From Lions, Normandy.
_Lyttleton._ From Vantort, Maine. Lord Chief Justice Lytleton was of
this house.
_Machin._ From LeMachun or LeMeschun.
_Mainwaring._ Mesnil, Larin, a well-known Norman family.
_Major._ Normandy, 1198.
_Maltby._ (Scandinavian.)
_Malby._ For Malbiæ, Normandy, 1180.
_Man_, or Mann.
_Manning._ From Maignon, Normandy, 1180.
_March._ From Marchie, Normandy.
_Markland._ An old Scandinavian name. It was given by Eric in his
voyage of exploration (year 1000) to the "wooded" coast of Cape
Breton, or Nova Scotia.
_Marsh._ DeMarisco, Normandy, 1180.
_Marshall._ There are 62 coats of arms of this name, generally
Normans, the principal of these being the Earls of Pembroke. Colonel
Thomas Marshall of Virginia, the father of the great Chief Justice,
lived near Washington, Mason County, Ky. He died in 1802. His grave in
the family burying-ground near the old home ("The Hill") has attracted
many visitors of late years, and the family homestead near Washington
was once visited by the Chief Justice himself. John Marshall was
probably the greatest American lawyer of Anglo-Norman descent; and
certainly, as Mr. Barrett Wendell says, "the most eminent Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States."
Judge Thomas A. Marshall, who recently passed away at Salt Lake City,
a grandson of old Colonel Thomas Marshall, was also a "pioneer." He
became the greatest mining lawyer in the West, and President of the
Central Pacific Railroad. Lytleton, Coke, Chitty, Denman, and other
great English lawyers were derived from that same learned, astute, and
litigious Norman race.
_Martin._ Ralph, John, William, Normandy, 1198; William Martin,
England, 1178.
_Mason._ William Le Mazon, Normandy, 1198; Hugh Le Maun, England,
1198. Mason County, named after the famous Virginian, George Mason, by
the Legislature of Virginia in 1788, and not (as recently proclaimed)
after a Governor of Michigan, who in all likelihood was not born when
the county was named.
_Massey._
_Massie._
_Massy._ A well-known Norman family, Macy, whence the name is derived,
was seated near Coutances and Avranches, Normandy.
_May._ From De Mai, Normandy, 1180; De May, England, 1272. Maysville,
Ky., named after John May.
[Illustration: COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG.]
_Mayhew_, for Mayo.
_Mead_, or Meade. The English form of De Prato, Normandy, 1180.
_Menzies_, or De Maners, or later in Scotland, Manners.
_Mercer_, Mercier; Normandy.
_Merrill._
_Miall_, Miel, Mihell, Mighell (the last a mediæval form of Michael).
Lower also derives Mitchell from Michael through the French form
Michel.
_Miles._
_Mill._
_Miller_, or Milner, in Normandy Molendinarius.
_Mills_, from Miles.
_Milton_, or Middleton. Armorially identified with the Norman family
De Camville, in the Cotentin. The poet Milton was of this stock.
_Minors_, or Minor. A distinguished family long settled in Virginia.
De Mineriis, Normandy, 1198; in England also, 1198.
_Mitchell_, for Michel.
_Mitchell._ Rudulphus Michael, Normandy, 1180-'95. William de St.
Michael, England, 1198. Michael, Michel, Michell.
_Montagu._ From Montaigu or Montacute, Normandy.
_Montgomery_, DeMonte. Gourmeril, Normandy, many branches.
_Moodie._
_Moody._
_Moore_ (de More).
_Morey._ English pronunciation of Moret.
_Morton_, for Moreton.
_Morton._ Ralph de Morteine.
_Mountjoy._ Pagonus de Montegaii, Normandy, 1097; the family was
seated in Notts and Derby. Early settlers in Virginia and Kentucky.
_Mowbray._ Baronial family, Castle of Molbrai.
_Mullins_, for Molines.
_Mundey_, for Munday.
_Murrell_, for Morrall.
_Nelson_, Nilson. Of Norman descent, who settled in Norfolk, was the
direct ancestor of Admiral Lord Nelson. Original form Neilson or
Neilsen.
_Neville_, De Nova Villa, Normandy, 1180. The families of Neville,
Beaugenay, and Baskeville are descended from a common ancestor. The
Nevilles are most numerous in Lincoln.
_Newton._ The most famous of this large family, Sir Isaac Newton, was
of Norman descent.
_Nicholas._ Richard Nicholas, Normandy, 1198; Nicholas, Nicolaus,
England, 1198. A distinguished name in Kentucky.
_Norman._ Ralph Normannus, Normandy, 1180; Henry Norman, England,
1272. This name has a social and official conspicuity in the State of
Kentucky; and in whatever position found it shows the characteristic
marks of the old blood.
_Norris_, William Norensis, Normandy, 1180; Thomas Norensis, England,
1198.
_Northcott_, or Northcote.
_Norton_, or Conyers. Elder branch of the family of Conyers, or
Cognieres, Normandy; named from the Barony of Norton, York, the chief
English seat of the family.
_Nye_, for Noye.
_O'Hara_, Hare, O'Hare, O'Hara (fleet-footed). Scions of the House of
Hare-court, or Harcourt, Counts of Normandy.
Theodore O'Hara was a Kentuckian by birth and training. He was a
gallant soldier in the Mexican War; second officer in the first Lopez
Expedition; a colonel in the Confederate service. He is best known
by those fine elegiac lines which seem to be following the military
cemeteries of the English-speaking race:
"On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread."
[See Ranck's Biography of O'Hara, and "Lopez's Expeditions," published
by The Filson Club, No. 21, this series.]
_Ormsby._
_Orr_ (Danish). A parish in Kirk and Brightshire.
_Orr._ Norse, Orri (heathcock tetras tetrix).
_Orth._
_Osborne._
_Owen_, from St. Owen, near Caen.
_Palmer._
_Patterson_, the son of Patricius (vide Lower).
_Paul._
_Payne._
_Paynter_ (de Peyntre). Thos. H. Paynter, United States Senator from
Kentucky.
_Pearce._
_Peed._
_Peel_, Pele, Norman, 1180. Peels of Yorkshire and Lancashire,
ancestors of Sir Robert Peel.
_Peers._
_Pelham._
_Percy._
_Perry_, or Perrie.
_Peters_ and _Peter_ (Pierre). Doctor Thomas Lounsbury, who combines
erudition most agreeably with common sense, says in a recent
paper that at particular periods there is manifested a feeling of
"hostility" to certain words. We have an illustration of this in the
history of the proper name _Peter_, which, as one of the philologists
tells us, "at one time was odious to English ears." For example,
we find in the statistical nomenclature of Wiltshire only sixteen
Peters to ninety-two Johns, and the ratio elsewhere in other shires
or districts is about the same. Yet we find many traces of Peter or
Pierre (the original French form) in other names, as Pears, Peers,
Pars, etc. Peter has been a prolific propagator of patronymics in
spite of its temporary eclipse; Peterson, Pearson, Peterman, Pierson,
etc. It does not seem to have recovered its early popularity, or to be
able to stand alone; but with desinences attached it takes and retains
its old position, as in Perkins, Peterkin, Perrins, Perrutts, etc. It
is a buoyant, resilient Norman vocable with the characteristic Norman
facility of assimilation. This one surname covers many others.
_Pettit._
_Peyton._
_Philpot._
_Picard_, Pykart, Pecor, Pecar.
_Pickett._ (Picot.)
_Pinckard._
_Pirtle._ Norman French. A diminutive of "Pert"; is common in the
arrondissement of Bayeux.
_Pitt._ Taine's ideal type of an Englishman was William Pitt, who is
thus described by that admirable observer: "Sometimes," in his rounds
of observation, he "detects the physiognomy of Pitt; the slight face,
impressive and imperious; the pale and ardent eyes; the look which
shines like the gleam of a sword. The man is of a finer mould, but his
will is only the more incisive and firmer; it is iron transformed into
steel." Contrast this portraiture of Pitt with his pictures of the
taurine type of Englishman.
That munificent English savant, General Pitt-Rivers, is of the same
Norman stock. He was a gallant soldier in the Crimean War.
_Plunkett._
_Poague._
_Pollitt._
_Porter._
_Potter._
_Potts._
_Poyntz_, or Ponz, a branch of Fitz-Poyntz, Ponz, tenant D. B.
Nicholas Printz held land in Gloucestershire, temp. K. John. Under
_Poyntz_, Lower says, Walter Julius Ponz, a tenant in chief at the
time of the Norman survey, was son of Walter Ponz, a noble Norman.
The surname Poyntz may be traced from Normandy through England and
Virginia to Kentucky.
Many years before the establishment in Kentucky of a club or society
with a roving commission for historic research, there dwelt in the
northern highlands of the Bluegrass region a sagacious and successful
cattle-breeder, who was a practical student of pedigrees and had
put the knowledge thus acquired to a profitable use. _All_ of his
theories would not have been accepted by Weismann; nor, on the other
hand, would all of Weismann's theories been accepted by _him_. The
conclusions which lay nearest his special vocation had been carefully
"applied" after his own fashion, and he was satisfied with the
results. Francis Galton, himself, had no better grounds for belief in
the laws of heredity.
He was a Kentuckian of the early type--not unlike the Kentuckians
and Virginians that the English traveler, Mr. Pym Fordham, describes
in a series of letters from the South and West. His mental gifts and
pleasing manners, to say nothing of his commanding stature, not only
made him conspicuous, but wherever he went assured him welcome and
the right of way. There was a look of quiet resourcefulness in the
man. His facial contour was striking. The features, seen in profile,
were large, strong, and regular, and their impressiveness was notably
enhanced by a broad, flowing beard with the same reddish tinge
that brightened his locks of long brown hair. His eye was steady,
soft, and penetrating--noting everything, overlooking nothing. His
complexion was peculiar--not "ruddy" or glowing from daily exposure,
at all seasons, in the open air, but of an almost bloodless hue; as
colorless, at least, and as clear as if untouched by sun, or wind, or
rain, in his active routine of life upon a Bluegrass ranch. It was the
life of a man whose time was largely given to observation and thought;
and as one might suppose, he had an ample field for the indulgence of
his studious tastes. His special line of work was the propagation of
"high-grade" cattle by crossing our native stock with fine imported
strains.
In our pastoral mid-century days the casual traveler passing along a
mountain road in the Red River region of Eastern Kentucky could not
have failed to observe, in the great forests that cast their dense
shadows as far as the headwaters of Buckhorn, large herds of native
cattle that browsed and "drowsed" in the shade of those deep Druidic
woods. If the traveler were a man of the English race, and as well
informed and observant as a traveler should be, he would say at once,
"These cattle are in no degree akin to the English blood-stock which
I have seen in the Bluegrass lowlands of the State. They are wholly
unlike; their 'lines' are wholly different,--size, shape, coloring,
deer-like delicacy of structure and peculiar curve of horn; nothing in
their construction is heavy or cumbrous except the deep, rich golden
udders of the kine. They remind one of no familiar English stock. They
are not Durhams nor Herefords, nor Devons. Are they not _Alderneys_?"
At all events, this was the native stock from which our practical
Bluegrass theorist obtained his "high-grade" cattle, by crossing it
judiciously with fine imported strains from the Channel Isles. The
results were all that could be desired. The half-grade cattle were
scarcely distinguishable from the imported stock, and if the milk was
not so "rich," the quantity was much larger. The same was true of
the _uncrossed_ mountain stock which was brought to Kentucky by the
"comelings" of the Eighteenth Century, and was never a "degenerate"
stock in any practical sense. The "deer-like" structure of the
mountain cow came partly from environment and partly from race. It was
one of the rough-hewn maxims of mountain husbandry--"The best milker
is a cow with a little foot,"--a foot that can thread the brushiest
"cove" or climb the airiest height to crop the nutrient herbage that
makes the nutritious milk. The succulent "pea-vine" made the milk;
the tissue-forming "mast" or acorn made the meat. The little-footed
heifer had the freedom of the range; and, by some subtle morphologic
law, the locomotive organ that was small, firm, and well-shaped seemed
to imply or determine the full symmetric development of _thorax_
and _brain_ and an easy, unobstructed operation of the functions
associated with both. The loyal mountaineer of the old stamp was
chauvinistic to the core. Though fifty years have passed, he still
grows eloquent when he recalls the "fighting bulls" and the flowing
pails of his boyhood days. A handsome, vivacious Highlander of this
class--a gentleman of marked Gallic aspect and scion of an early
pioneer stock--recently boasted to the writer, and almost in the
language of the Vergilian swain (_bis venit ud mulctram_), that old
"White-face" came regularly to the pail twice a day--yielding six
gallons in two milkings. These mountain kine were not large; but they
were gentle, spirited, clean-limbed, fine-haired, and carried in their
generous udders an abundance of wholesome milk. They bore indelible
marks of race. Had they been larger, they might have remained to this
day an untraveled stock. Their size favored easy transportation,
and the canny emigrant made note of the fact. As a consequence of
this demand from emigrants, no doubt, great numbers of cattle were
shipped from the Channel Islands to England in the early decades of
the Nineteenth Century--a circumstance which completely answers the
assumption that our mountain cattle were derived originally from an
English stock. For many years the name "Alderney" was applied without
discrimination to all cattle imported from the _Anglo-Norman islands_
of the English Channel--islands which England has held with an iron
grip since the Conqueror brought them under English rule. The thrifty
islanders--descendants of the old Norman stock and for years clinging
tenaciously to the old Norman dialect--are now true Anglo-Normans,
making daily proclamation of their loyalty to the English crown, and,
until a very recent period, always in Anglo-Norman French.
Only this then remains to be said. A thoughtful Bluegrass
cattle-breeder, bearing a distinctively Anglo-Norman name that
had come down from Normandy--through England and Virginia to
Kentucky[14]--and bearing in his own person characteristics and
distinctive marks of his Anglo-Norman descent--utterly indifferent
to "ethnological" theories and absolutely unconscious of his own
descent from the Anglo-Norman race, is convinced--not by "herd-books"
or historic pedigrees--but simply and solely by the evidence of his
own eyes, that a certain native stock of cattle in the mountains of
Kentucky were merely an _earlier importation than his own_ from the
Anglo-Norman islands of the English Channel. He had the courage to
put his theory to the touch of practical experimentation, and the
astonished "experts" at the great cattle-fairs of the country bore
generous testimony to the quality of his work.
[14] John Baldwin Poyntz. Norman name _Poyntz_ in alphabetical list.
If such conclusions are fairly deducible from an imperfect or
incomplete study of a race of CATTLE in the mountain region of
Kentucky, why should a logical mind discredit like conclusions resting
upon testimony that is singularly cumulative and convergent in regard
to a contemporaneous race of MEN that is historically traceable from
Normandy--through England and Virginia--to the same or a similar
physical environment in that same State of Kentucky? Could there be a
better example of cumulative verification?
_Preston._ General William Preston, "The Last of the Cavaliers."
_Pyle._
_Quantrell_, or Quantrall.
_Quarrier._
_Quay_, or Kay.
_Quincey._
_Raines._
_Rankin._
_Ransome._
_Raynes_, or Rains.
_Reine._
_Respess_, Respis, Res-bisse, Respeig, Respisch.
One of the seconds of Casto in the famous Metcalfe-Casto duel was
Colonel Thomas A. Respess, of Mason, a member of the Kentucky bar, and
associated for many years with the distinguished jurist and author
Judge Richard H. Stanton (Stanton and Respess). Colonel Respess is
an able and scholarly man, and retains, at a very advanced age, the
conversational brilliancy of his prime.
_Reynolds._
_Riaud_ (pronounced Ree-o). An old Virginian name, of French
derivation. In Norman records the name is _Riau_, not _Riaud_, the
terminal "d" in the latter form representing the "territorial"
particle in the original name; thus _Riau_ de Alençon; _Riau_
d'Alençon; _Riaud_. By syllabic transposition (as Mackall, Almack)
Riaud is now Orear--a well-known Kentucky name.
_Rich._ Riche was near Nancy, in Lorraine. John de Riches, Thirteenth
Century. Riche, Riches; Richeson.
_Riddell._
_Roff._
_Roper._
_Ross._
_Roswell._
_Rowan._ John Rowan, a jurist and scholar; lived at "Federal
Hill,"--_the Old Kentucky Home_.
_Rucker._
_Ruddell._
_Russell._
_Ryder._ Hreidarr (Norse).
_Ryder._ There was a Ryder in Mason County, who never _rode_, but was
a great walker.
_Sandford._ Scandinavian, Sandefiorde.
_Sargeant._ Normandy, 1180; England, 1198.
_Savage._
_Scott_, Governor of Kentucky.
_Schofield._
_Scudder._ Lower's orthography is "Skudder." On the very face it is
Scandinavian, from the Danish _Skyde_, implying swiftness of motion.
Scudder is a name that may with equal propriety be applied to a
Scandinavian rover scudding over a sea of ice, or a Calvinistical
divine scudding over a sea of thought. In either case he is a scudder.
_Search_ (for Church). Thomas de Cherches, Normandy, 1180.
_Searles._
_Sears._
_Shannon._
_Shreeve._
_Sidwell._
_Simms._
_Sinton_, Santon, Normandy, 1180.
[Illustration: COLONEL REUBEN T. DURRETT, LL. D.
President of The Filson Club.]
_Smith_, originally Faber. A worker in iron and a maker of arms--
the leading industry of that day. The name Smith is a translation of
Faber, and first appeared in the Thirteenth Century.
_Somers._
_Somerville._
_Speed._ Ivo de Spade, Normandy, 1180. John and Roger Sped, England,
1272. Attorney-General Speed; Captain Thomas Speed, soldier and
writer; representing a Kentucky family of distinction and ability.
_Spurr._
_Stanhope._
_Stanley._
_Starling._
_Steele._
_Stewart._
_Stokes._
_Stout._
_Strange._
_Stuart._
_Taber._
_Talbot_, or Talebote and Taulbee, and Tallboy, are supposed to have
the same derivation. From Talebois, or Taillebois, a name which goes
back to the forests of Normandy, Taillis and Bois, apparently an
equivalent for the English _Underwood_, from _Taillebois_, a cutter of
taillis (underbrush). William Preston Taulbee is a typically Norman
name.
Major William Taulbee was a soldier in the Mexican War and in the War
between the States. Nine of his descendants are now in the military
service of the United States, two of them graduates of West Point.
_Tanner._ Hugo de Tanur, Normandy, 1082.
_Taylor._ Hugo Taillor, Normandy 1180. A distinguished name in
Kentucky. Soldiers, lawyers, physicians and bankers represent the
various families of the State. General Zachary Taylor was a successful
soldier who became President of the United States; he was a wealthy
planter.
_Telford._
_Temple._
_Terrell._
_Terry._
_Thorne._
_Tibbetts._
_Todd._ A distinguished name in Kentucky--Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was of
this stock. Colonel Charles Todd was minister to Russia. A gallant
soldier in "1812."
_Tracy._
_Treble._
_Trepel._
_Tudor._ The Welsh form of Theodore--the "people's" warrior--a name
which does not seem to have lost its original significance. Tudor is
an old name in Kentucky.
_Turner._
_Turney._
_Tyler._
_Valingford_ (Norman French). The Conqueror passed through the town of
Wallingford "in his winter march to the North." In its English form,
an old name in Virginia and Kentucky and connected with the Ashbys,
Mooreheads, Andersons, and Cabells.
_Valler_, or Waller. From Valeres, Normandy. De Valier, Valers, Waler,
Walur, Waller. Sir William Waler, the Parliamentary General, was of
this family. Henry le Wallere is found in the old records. Henry
Waller, of Mason, was a lawyer of ability and distinction.
_Vick_, from the Fief of Vic, Normandy.
_Waddel._
_Wadsworth._ Records show that the name was spelled Wordisworth,
Wardysworth, and Wadysworth; Wadsworth being the original form. Hugh
de Wadsworth, Abbot of Roche, 1179, had a brother Henry. The family of
De Wadsworth bore the arms of De Tilly, a family that was Norman and
baronial.
_Walker._ Norse, Valka (a foreigner).
_Wall_ (de Valle). A prominent family in Kentucky. Judge G. S. Wall,
of Mason, was one of the State Commissioners to the World's Fair (St.
Louis).
_Wallan._
_Walton._ From near Evreux, Normandy.
_Warin_, or Waring. "Waring's Run," in Mason County, was named after
Thomas Waring.
_Waring_, or Warin. Thomas Waring, a pioneer of Virginia, was
the founder of "Waring's Station." His grandson, Edward Waring,
was the "honor" man of his class at Centre College in 1860. One
of his classmates (another young Norman) bore the same name in
French--Guerrant. The traditional pronunciation of Waring is _War_-ing.
_Warren._
_Warrick._
_Ward._ From Gar or Garde, near Corbell, Isle of France; John de
Warde, Norfolk, 1194. John Ward, Kirby Beadou, Fourteenth Century.
Captain James Ward, a con temporary of Boone, was High Sheriff of
Mason County for thirty years, and was practically "warden" of the
marches from Bracken to the Virginian line. He was a man of high
character and of unquestioned courage and capacity. His granddaughter,
Mrs. Mary Ward Holton, is now a resident of Indianapolis. The late
Judge Quincy Ward, of Harrison, and Quincy Ward, the famous sculptor,
were scions of the same distinguished stock.
_Washington._ The President of the last Constitutional Convention
in Kentucky was George Washington (a native of the State), who was
connected by blood with George Washington of Mt. Vernon, General
of the Continental armies, President of the United States, and
sole proprietor of the famous Mt. Vernon Mills, which produced a
brand of flour known as far south as the West Indies, and popular
wherever known. The proprietor had an Anglo-Norman eye for trade, and
nothing, it is said, interested him more than "the prices of flour
and the operations of his mill." He naturally became the leader of
a "commercial aristocracy" in Virginia. Miss Mary Johnson, in her
charming description of early colonial life in the Old Dominion, notes
the same commercial predilections in the Elizabethan pioneers. They
were merchants as well as planters.
_Watterson._ (Norman.) Walter, Walters, Waterson, Henry Watterson, a
journalist distinguished for Norman cleverness, buoyancy, spontaneity,
enthusiasm, versatility, and absorptiveness.
_Welles._
_Willett._
_Willis_, from Wellis, a fief in Normandy.
_Willis._
_Willock_ (Walloche).
_Wingfield_ (Norman).
_Winn._
_Winsor._
_Winter_, for Vinter.
_Wise_ and Wiseman (Normandy).
_Withers_, Normandy, 1180.
_Wolf._
_Woodward_, Woodard. Oudard, Oudart (French).
_Worrell._ William Werel, Normandy, 1180. H. Werle, English, 1272.
_Wyatt._ There are Kentucky families connected with the Wyatts of
Virginia.
_Wycliffe._ Seated at Wycliffe, Yorkshire, soon after the Conquest.
The Kentucky Wickliffes are of this race. "Cripps" is a well known
Norman name, and Beckham is a Scandinavian name, as Burnham, Dalham,
Gresham, etc.
_Wyon._ Ralph Wyon, Normandy, 1180, also Wyand.
_Wray_, for Ray.
_Wroe_, for Roe--a Kentucky name.
_Youett_, for Jewitt.
_Young_, William Juven or Juvenis, Jouvin, 1178.
_Zealey_, for Sealey.
_Zissell_, for Sissel. See Cecil.
SOME VIRGINIA NAMES SPELLED ONE WAY AND CALLED ANOTHER
A very able and scholarly Virginian, Mr. B. B. Green, of Warwick,
Virginia, has compiled a list from which we make the following
selections:
Armistead Um´sted.
Baird Beard.
Berkely Barkly.
Blount Blunt.
Boswell Bos´ell.
Burwell Bur´rel.
Carter Cear´ter.
Chamberlaine Chamberlin.
Chisman Cheese´man.
Deneufville Donevel.
Didwiddie Dinwooddy
Drewry Druit.
Enroughty Darby!
Fauquier Faw´keer.
{ Fountain.
Fontaine { Fontin.
Garvin Goin.
Gibson Gipson.
Gilliam Gillum.
Gloucester Glaw´ster.
Gower Gore.
Haaughton }
Hawthorne } Hor´ton.
Hobson Hop´son.
James Jeames.
Jenkins Jin´kins.
Jordan Jur´dn.
Kean Kane.
Ker, Kerr, Carr Keaar.
Kirby Kearby.
Langhorne Langon.
Lawrence Lar´ance.
Maury Mur´ry.
Michaux Mish´er.
Montford, Munford Mumford.
Morton Mo´ton.
Napier Napper.
Perrott Parrot.
Piggot (from Picot) Picket.
Randolph Randal.
Roper Rooper.
Sandys Sands.
Sayer Saw´yer.
{ Slaughter.
Sclater { Slater.
Semple Sarm´ple.
Sewell, Seawell Sow´el.
Sinclair Sinkler.
Sweeny Swin´ny.
Taliaferro Toliver.
Timberlake Timberley.
Warwick Warrick.
Woodward Wood´ard.
Woolfolk Wool´fork.
Wyatt Wait.
"In living form,"--says Mr. Green, "are now to be heard in the
Southwest, words and pronunciations which have remained unaltered at
least since the time of Simon de Montfort." "The Virginian"--says the
same writer--"has a good opinion of himself; is calm, well-balanced;
is self-reliant, and has the English quality of not being afraid to
take responsibility." In other words, his blood is Scandinavian or
Norman, cooled by the icy currents of Wessex. A correspondent of the
_Spectator_ (London) writes: "It is often asked what has become of
old English families. I have just gathered white water-lilies from
the fields of 'De Vere,' now known as _Diver_; one of my neighbors is
'Bohun' abbreviated into _Bone_; 'Roy,' a grand sample of the English
laborer, was recently carried into the old church-yard; for many years
I employed the tall and stately 'Plantagenet,' known on my labor books
as _Plant_; a shop in the neighboring town is kept by 'Thurcytel,' the
modern spelling being _Thirkettle_; 'Godwin,' the last of his race,
died at a grand old age a year ago; 'Mortimer' buys my barley; and
around me we have such names as Balding, Harrold, Rolf, Hacon, and
Mallett."
INDEX
PAGE
ACLAND, Sir Henry, Physician, 13
ALFRED, King. "The grim-troubled" sea, 15
ALLEN, James Lane. "Summer in Arcady," 1
ANGLO-NORMAN orators and sheriffs, 29
leader, Boone or Bohun, 2
migration to Virginia, 25
ANGLO-SAXON. System of political administration not complex, but
solid and enduring.--"Yeoman" as depicted by Andrews.--No conception
of freedom in the modern sense.--His decadence.--His progenitors a
soldier race.--Incapacity for progress until the Norman came, 92
their ancestors "harried" the race they dispossessed.--"Harry" an old
Saxon word.--William learned the word and all that it implied.--He
harried with unsparing ferocity, not the Saxon, but his own kindred,
the Northumbrian Danes.--The devastation was never repaired until an
industrial civilization revived and regulated the ancient energies
of the race.--Elsewhere in England the Norman built at once upon the
Saxon's rude but solid work, 93
APPARATUS CRITICUS. Evolution of, by three Franch brains, Lamarck,
Sainte-Beuve, Taine, 51
"ARCADY," sons of. Impression upon their guest, Du Chaillu, 8
their social traits and habits, 8
ARGYLE, the Duke of, on genealogical origin of prominent Irish
leaders, 102
"ASSIMILATIVE" power of Elizabethan Englishmen (Barrett Wendell), 79
BATTLE ABBEY ROLL, 23
BISMARCK. Unifying the German people by "absorbing" a Scandinavian
population, 106
BLOOD OF NORMAN in obscure English families, 24
in Ireland, 24
in Kentucky, 25
in Scotland, 24
in "the States," 24
in Virginia (earliest migration), 25
"BLUE GRASS"; or a Poa found at the Straits of Magellan, 48
"a cosmopolitan grass" with peculiar affinity for the soil of
Kentucky.--The "grass" and the "race."--Opinion expressed by
a New England tourist, 49
BOONE, the explorer.--Early "trustee" of Maysville, 2
name derived from Bohun, 2
"BOURBON." Famous Kentucky distillate, 4
BRECKINRIDGE, John C. Vice-President United States, 14
BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 1889.--Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 10
discusses paper on Scandinavian origin of English race, 10
BRITISH savants stiff in opinion, 34
BRUCE, Doctor. Historian of Roman Wall, 13
BUCKNER, a Southern family (foot-note), 7
Elizabeth, maiden name of the Beautiful Scandinavian, 7
CARDENAS, battle of, 27, 28
Kentuckians cover retreat to the sea.--Chaplain of expedition
killed.--Liberators seize United States fort, 28
CARLISLE, Canon of, quoted.--English surnames are largely exotic.
Normandy, he says, was the source of supply.--What was the effect of
the "Conquest"?--Anglo-Saxon "grammar" survived, but the stately old
_nomenclature of the race_ was hopelessly smashed.--If comparative
grammar can deduce the history of the Anglo-Saxon tongue from the
habitual speech of an English plough-boy, what historic significance
is to be attached to the flood of Norman surnames that were "absorbed"
by the Saxon race?--The native speech survived because the dialects
which fed it were still living and intact, 141
CAVALIER. An original product of Normandy.--"The man on horseback," 47
Guild-hall collection of seals.--Equestrian figure, 48
"CAVALIERISM." Origin of the word, 46, 47
CELT, Normanized, or Scandinavian Celt.--"The Fighting Race," 24
CHILDE, Edward Lee. "Life of Robert E. Lee" (Paris, France, 1874), 46
CLARK, George Rogers, a Scandinavian general.--His "wintry marches"
in the Northwest, 88
COLERIDGE on England's insular position.--Its effect, 59
"COMMERCIAL ARISTOCRACY," 29
COMPARISON of the two races, Norman and Saxon.--Origin of the
discussion, 127
COURTHOUSE (Maysville, Kentucky).--Description of.--Du Chaillu
received at, 2
CRAFT (says Mr. Freeman) is the dominant quality of the Norman
character, 131
popular recognition of the fact.--The winning cards, 132
CRAIK, Doctor George, an eminent British scholar, 34
Eastern and Northern England from middle of the Ninth Century as
much Danish as English, 35 says English "more Scandinavian
(Danish or Swedish) than the modern German," 34 Scandinavian
dialect imported by invading bands in Fifth and Sixth Centuries,
35 views on a Norman migration, 36
DANES (who were English Normans) fiercely opposed their kinsman, the
Norman invader, 109
every step obstinately contested in Northumbria, 109
Northumbria the birth-place of the Puritan and the Virginian (vide
Wendell and Fiske), 86
the Dane's (or English Norman's) passionate love of freedom, 111
DAVIS, Thomas A., 9
DAWKINS, Boyd. "Cave Hunter," 13
a warm debate (Newcastle), 18
DESHA, Governor. Reference to corporations, 68
DISRAELI repeats the miracle of Lanfranc, 103
Gaston Phoebus as a Gascon noble, 105
his philosophic insight, 104
Monsignore Berwick and his inherited traits, 104
nature's reproduction of type, 105, 129
temp. Louis le Grand, 105
the Southern "Colonel" with a Norman name, 105
DONCASTER RACES: Chitabob and Donovan--North against South.--Deep
popular interest.--Wagner and Grey Eagle in Kentucky.--Extremes
touch, 42, 43
DU CHAILLU, Paul. Explorer's visit to Maysville, Kentucky, 3
committee of reception (foot-note), 9
date of visit to Kentucky (1876), 9
description of hosts, 6
encounter with gorilla, 6
entertained by Limestone Club, 4
his re-discovery of La Nouvelle France, 9
interest in "the Beautiful Scandinavian," 7
lecture at Courthouse, 3
personal description of, 5-7
"take a horn"--Du Chaillu, 122
verifies the observations of Maltebrun, 121
vivid description of, 6
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR established intimate relations between England
and Normandy, 36
EFFRENATISSIMA. _Effrenatus_ use by Cicero, 28
ELIZABETH TUDOR and Henry the Eighth, 77-79
her recognition of the people, 78
"ELIZABETHAN" Englishmen, the Kentuckians are (Professor Shaler), 26
ENGLISH farmer of Anglo-Norman type.--Resemblance to Norman farmer of
present day, 29
ENGLISH FOLK. Professor Shaler quoted, 25
"largest body of nearly pure English" found in Kentucky, 25
ENGLISHMAN, the Elizabethan. When the elements balanced, his
evolution was complete, 128
EVANS, Sir John. Writer on archæology, 13
EXAMPLES of atavism or reversion. The Scottish blood (which was the
"dominant" in the Berwick cross) by a gradual process of selection
from continuous or intermittent variations comes at last to the
front; first manifested, no doubt, in the invigoration of the moral
quality, and finally in a physical "mutation"--a return to the
original or characteristic color of eyes and hair in the paternal
gens. The theory of transmission or inheritance of moral and
physical traits in Gaston Phoebus from the Gascon noble is not
materially different.--The problem of "three" bodies (really two)
in the genesis of the _Englishman_, though apparently more complex,
is essentially the same, the "dominant" factor in the process being
_Norman_ or _Norse_.--Whether the explanation be convincing or not,
beyond all question it shows that the Darwinian "scientist" lacks
the simplicity of the Disraelitish seer, 104
FACILE PRINCEPS--An English estimate generally accepted in
Kentucky, 135
FAMILY NAMES, BRITISH. Families bearing Norman names unconscious of
their origin, 117
names now accounted _English_ were originally _Norman_.--The proof of
this exists in two countries (England and Normandy) in practically
contemporary records, 118
one Norman name upon an English record after the Conquest might be
_suggestive_; five thousand names would be almost conclusive.--A
legal maxim quoted, 118
this basis of record proof for purposes of comparison unique, 118
FISKE, John. On "ethnic differentiation."--The Aryan brothers far
apart, 58
New England founded by East Anglian or Scandinavian Englishmen, 87
the East Anglian's hatred of tyranny and passion for freedom of
thought, 87
FREEMAN, Edward A., says Norman a "born soldier" and "a born
lawyer," 27
GALTON, SIR FRANCIS. Writer on Heredity, 13
GENS EFFRENATISSIMA (Malaterra), 27
GENTILHOMME, translated "gentleman."--England indebted to Normandy
for the word, 46
GOTHIC RACES. First seen in an historic twilight, 108
a great racial march or movement across Europe in parallel
columns, 110
a Scandinavian naval station, with dry docks, 112
"a wild and arid nurse," 111
description of the peninsular (Scandinavia) _milieu_, 111
difficulty of following the Gothic trail in their early Asian
home.--Modern illustrations of this Asian mystery.--Warring nations
of the same race.--Teuton and Goths.--Yenghees in the North, Dixees
in the South.--Divided and belligerent, but racially the same, 109
drift in the eddies of an archipelagic sea.--What became of it? 114
ethnic differentiation.--Why should the _Norseman_ differ from the
kindred _Teuton_ in the south? 111
from the Caspian Sea to the mouths of the Elbe and Rhine, 110
he ravages the shores of Northumbria and the rivers of France, 113
loitering along the shores of the Baltic.--Peopling Denmark, the
Danish Islands, and the Scandinavian Peninsula, 110
their Asian migrations veiled by the mists of time, 109
who were the original "comelings" on English soil? 116
William the Conqueror--fifth in descent from Rolf Ganger, the
freebooting admiral of the Northern Seas, 113
GREEN, Colonel Thomas M., author of "The Spanish Conspiracy," 9
GREEN, Thomas Marshall, an accomplished speaker, introduces M. Du
Chaillu to the audience, 9
HAMILTON--JEFFERSON--LINCOLN, 77
HAMLET. A psychological epitome of his race (Danish).--The historic
or legendary basis of the character.--The "original" of the character
in its intellectual aspects was afamous French scholar and
essayist.--His character and tastes.--His literary work.--The favorite
writer of Shakespeare, 96
advice to Kentuckians who take themselves "too seriously" from a
philosophic observer who sometimes, it is thought, did not take
things _seriously enough_.--Essentially a modern thinker, 97, 98
HARDY, THOMAS, the novelist, 23
his views in "Tess," a powerful work of fiction, 23
HENGIST AND HORSA, 45
INEZ. An allusion to Hood's poem, "O saw ye not Fair Inez?"
(foot-note), 7
ISAAC LE BON and a Virginian "cross."--The differentiating
quality, 105, 129
KENTON, Pioneer.--Commissioner of Roads for Mason County, 2
a famous hunter.--Name in State enactments spelled _Canton_, no doubt
as then pronounced, 2
KENTUCKIAN, the. Loves a "good cross," 129
Kentuckians and Normans; points of resemblance between the derivative
and the original stocks, 133
not a weak vessel, 130
transmission of characteristic traits, 130
KENTUCKY. Lawless elements.--Origin and distribution, 59
Anglo-Norman juries.--A technical defense, 60
political assassination.--Murder as an administrative art, 60
statecraft; enterprise in war.--"A little nation," 106
"KING'S MOUNTAIN," The Man of, 25
LAMARCK, the famous French savant; referred to in conjunction with
Taine and Sainte-Beuve, _naturaliste des esprits_.--"I began my
intellectual life," says Sainte-Beuve, "with Lamarck and the
physiologists," 51
LANFRANC, the scholar, 36
effects of his work still visible, 36
restrains William Rufus and Odo of Bayeux, 36
LAW. The Norman of Malaterra and "the forms of law," 28
LEE, LIONEL, accompanies Richard of the Lion-Heart in Third Crusade,
at the head of a company of _gentilhommes_, 46
LEXICON OF NAMES. A marvelous number and variety of facts. What theory
best explains these facts in their relations? A clear judicial faculty
required to recognize the force of the cumulative verification, 136
LIBRARY, FREE, Newcastle, 13
a group of savants, 13
Anthropological Section meets at, 13
personal description of, 13
LIMESTONE CLUB, entertainment by, 3
LIMESTONE, phosphatic; basis of Bluegrass region, 2
LONDON TIMES. A contemporary estimate of Du Chaillu's views. An organ
that forms, reflects, and fixes opinion.--Question of the origin and
migration of races.--"Time ripe for a new investigation," 39
letter from Du Chaillu to Times containing challenge to skeptical
archæologists, 39, 40
LONGFELLOW, the poet, 12
Kentucky racer, 12
Norwegian barque named, 12
LOPEZ at Cardenas, 27, 28
LOUIS NAPOLEON. Places an Austrian Prince on the Mexican throne to
unify the Latin race.--Its effect, 106
MACKINTOSH, DOCTOR JOHN. "The man of King's Mountain," 25
MALATERRA, Geoffrey. Describes the Norman in his original habitat, 27
MANNEN, Major Thomas H., 9
MARSHALL, General Humphrey. Notably large head, 123
his aide and secretary Captain Guerrant, 124
MARSH, George P., quoted.--Peculiarities of Scandinavian tongues
observed in English.--"Irreconcilable discrepancies," 45
MID-CENTURY FIGURES, 30
a masculine type, 32
MONTAIGNE, the French essayist.--A quaint story with a cogent
moral, 98-100
MONTALEMBERT. His "Monks of the West."--Estimate of the Saxon, 125
MORGAN, GENERAL JOHN. His command remarkable for military
qualities.--The opinion of Captain Shaler, 124
Commodore Morgan presents "Yorkshire" to Henry Clay, 44
NAMES, the lesson of, 37
additions to list, 126
notes, 133
Virginian names. Alphabetical series of, 101
NANSEN, Fridjof. Arctic Explorer, 15
NAPOLEON. The English _un peuple marchand_, 29
as an administrator, 6
NELSON, General William. Description of, 32
large head, 123
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, 10
Anthropological "Section" organized at (1863), 12
British Association meets at, 10
"carrying coals" to, 11
description of, 10
industrial progress, 10
northern cattle market, 11
Northumbrian vitality and vigor, 11
NEWPORT, Captain of _Sea Adventure_.--Vice-Admiral of Virginia, 81
NORMAN EXCHEQUER, Great Rolls of, 22
juxtaposition of with English records, 22
NORMANIZED KENTUCKIAN who has "assimilated" everything Norman but
the _name_, 134
NORMANS distinguished from all other nations by their _craft_
(E. A. Freeman), 63, 131
leaders in England, France, America, 102
the Norman in his ethnical transformation act, 103
this Norman _craft_ akin in many respects to the "cuteness" and
cleverness attributed to the American people, 63, 102
NORMAN SURNAMES, alphabetical series of. ("The Norman People"), 23
NORMAN RACE, 20
Conquest of England by, 21
desperate and prolonged struggle, 21
flow of migration _post bellum_, 21, 22
great historic march of the Norman people, 124
is it a "lost" race?, 20
memorials of, 20
The Continental recruiting ground, 21
NORTH AND SOUTH. Traits in common, 80
NORTHMEN in communication with peoples of the Mediterranean, 16
England one of their northern lands, 16
language of, similar to English of early times, 16
their settlements in Britain during Roman occupation, 16
they were bold and enterprising navigators at a time when neither
the Saxons nor Franks were "sea-faring" people, 17
NORTHUMBRIAN INDUSTRIES, 11
ODERICUS VITALIS (an English writer) on the illiteracy of his
countrymen at the time of the Conquest, 35
ORPHAN BRIGADE. Captain Shaler's estimate of, 124
OTTO the Saxon and William the Norman.--Conflicting missions, 108
the shadowy background of the Norman Conquest.--Formative period
of Western Europe (foot-note), 108
OWENS, COLONEL FRANCIS P., 9
"OYEZ!" of Anglo-Norman sheriffs, 30
PERRY, Commodore. Furnishes "sea power" in 1812.--Aide to Governor
Shelby.--Perry's sea-guns sighted by riflemen from Kentucky, 107
PHILOLOGIST, The. His proper field, 125
PIONEER COMMONWEALTH, "Genesis of a", 83
PIRATES, Scandinavian. Transmission of traits to English within
historic times, 41
PITT RIVERS, general, soldier, and savant, 14
PROFANITY. The Normans "fond of oaths."--Rollo and Carolus Stultus, 63
a regulator of the nerves, 71
Ben Briler damned.--Desha on corporations, 68
Colonel Robert Blanchard and the "burnt cork" minstrels. Description
of the entertainment.--"Hell's fire, Bob."--Conditions of life in
the early West recalling the times of the Plantagenet kings (Barrett
Wendell), 69, 70
"damned Yankee"--the two words fused by the fires of war, 64
early Kentuckians (like Shakespeare's soldier) "full of strange
oaths," 64
fireside swearing in the auld lang syne, 67
General William Nelson.--His strong swearing instincts, 72
"God dern" not a Virginian oath, 74
imprecation upon a seller of inherited slaves.--Parody on famous
line from Villon.--The dusky bondsmen of the past, 67
King William's oath at Alençon--Profanity of the Virgin Queen.--"A
very drab."--"The Virginians addicted to oaths"
(Fordham).--Attenuated oaths, 65
Pecksniff's "wooden damn," 73
Stonewall Jackson.--Jubal Early.--Governor Scott, of
Kentucky.--Uncle Toby's oath.--Bolling Stith.--George Washington
(foot-note), 66
"The Blue Light Elder."--"Does a Puritan swear?" 72
the devout Moslem.--Jean Gotdam (Bardsley), 73
the Master's Call, 68
the modern passion for "good form," 70
the oath in court.--The vulgar "cuss-word."--The conversational
"swear," 71
the slinking figure of the iconoclast, 74
Washington, when deeply angered, _swore_.--The Attorney-General of
Charles II "damns the souls" of the Virginian Commissioners to
stimulate their commercial instincts, 75
QUATRAIN. (A Tennysonian Parody), 18, 134
RACE between Wagner and Grey Eagle, 43
RACIAL TRANSFORMATION. In England; Ireland; France; the United
States, 102
RETROSPECT, a brief, 135
ROLF GANGER, the Scandinavian rover.--The world before him where to
choose.--Scandinavian place-names, 108
ROMANES, GEORGE. Interpreter of Darwin, 14
description of appearance, 14
ROME, the Man of Ancient, 129
ROWENA, LADY, 31
SAINTE-BEUVE, the French critic. Reference to, 51
SALISBURY PLAIN.--Political birth of the English people, 78
researches among Scandinavians of Northern States.--Psychological
distinctions, 95
SANDYS, Sir Edwin. Author of the earliest political charters, 82
SAXON, The. Came directly from the southeastern shores and islands of
the North Sea, and is remotely of Gothic descent: The _Dane_ from
Denmark and the Danish islands, and is directly of Scandinavian
descent; the Norman, remotely Gothic, is immediately
Scandinavian.--The conclusion inevitable, not that we are
_Scandinavians_, but that we are deeply _Scandinavianized_, and that
there is a _preponderance_ of _Scandinavian_ blood in the English
race, 119
a regulative element lacking in Stevenson's duplex monstrosity,
_Jekyll_ and _Hyde_.--Norman and Saxon, 120
Mr. Bart Kennedy in London _Mail_: Racially, the Kentuckian _facile
princeps_, 120
Stevenson and Disraeli as writers, 120
the Kentuckian of Virginian descent a practically definite ethnical
product, 119
SCANDINAVIA and Kentucky. Relations between the two, 45
cranial measurements of Scandinavians, 56
SCANDINAVIAN origin of English people, 15
animated debate in Anthropological Section, 17
description of scene, 18
outline of theory, 17
Scandinavians infused a spirit of enterprise into the English people
they have never lost, 17
"Scot, the indomitable."--The Lowland Race, 24
sensational paper on (British Association), 17
SCANDINAVIAN population of the Northern States.--Their energy and
brains, 57
possible fusion of with Scandinavians of the Virginian States to
form a Continental empire.--Description of Scandinavians by
Maltebrun, 57
SCHOLARSHIP, philosophic, seldom narrow and never offensive, 128
SCOTT, SIR WALTER. His romances popular in Kentucky, 121
"SCYTHIAN hand and foot." A Scandinavian peculiarity transmitted to
the Norman and the Anglo-Dane, 57
"SEA ADVENTURE" wrecked on Devil's Island.--Captain Newport, 81
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. "Cromwellian Days," 81
SHAKESPEARE and Virginia, 81
Shakespeare's English friends, 82
Shakespeare's portrayal of the Anglo-Norman kings, 94, 95
SHALER, Professor (Harvard). Conclusions drawn from Gould's
measurements, 123
on "English Folk" in Kentucky, 25
SNORRO STURLESON, Laing's note to; quoted by Lytton, 56
SPECTACLE. The most dramatic in history (Du Chaillu), 129
SPENCER, HERBERT. Disappearance of Celtic type in the United
States, 105
ST. ALDEGONDE, the English "Swell," 134
STANTON, Captain Clarence L., 9
TAINE, Hippolyte. Description of English types--"Male" and
"Female."--"Carnivorous regime" or "Conformation of race"?--Mentions
more attractive types.--The women described by Shakespeare and
Dickens, and the noble historic type represented by William Pitt, 51-53
"erubescent bashfulness" a racial peculiarity, 54
TAYLOR, Isaac Canon, description of, 14
Impromptu parody by, 18
TURNER, Sir William. Reads paper at British Association (Newcastle,
'89) on the Weismann Theory.--First public appearance of the theory
in English scientific circles, 13, 55
Sir William did not accept the theory in full.--The hereditary
tendency in harmony with the theory of natural selection, 55
TYPES OF BEAUTY in Kentucky, 31
UNITED STATES, genesis of. Beginnings of a great conflict, 83
Anglo-Spanish conflict closed by Dewey and Schley, 83
first Republic in New World (Dr. Alexander Brown), 84
VIKINGS of the West. Control of the Mississippi, 85
California appropriated by force "under legal forms," 85
Cuba. Disastrous attempts at annexation. Prospective annexation on
the old lines, 85
passion for territorial expansion, 85
Vikings: who were they?, 86
VIRGINIA. Mason County settled by planters from, 2
"Piedmont" Virginia, 2
Virginia and the Virginian States, 39
Virginia peopled by English countryfolk (Anglo-Danes), 57
WALL, Mrs. Elizabeth Wall (Portrait), 7
Judge Garrett S. Wall, 9
WARREN, CHARLES DUDLEY. Visit to Kentucky, 51
WASHINGTON, George, of Anglo-Norman blood. Effigies of cavalier on
Great Seal of Confederate States, 48
Jared Sparks derives the _family_ of Washington from William de
Hertburn, who came into possession of "Wessington" (Washington),
County Durham, prior to 1183. The _family_ soon after assumed the
_name_ of Washington. The de Hertburns, who took the name of the
place in Durham, were a Norman family. A Teutonic clan (says
Freeman) gave the name _Wascingas_ to a village in the North of
England. From this name of a mark, or village, came the name of a
_family_--WASHINGTON; Ferguson deriving the name of Washington from
_Wass_ (an Anglo-Saxon), a derivation which Lower (one of the best
authorities) says is clearly untenable. Ferguson derives the name
Gustavus Vasa (a Swede) from _huass_, keen, bold (old Norse). Not an
unworthy etymon (he says) for _two_ great names--Gustavus Vasa and
Washington. The first _de Washington_ (says the judicious Lower) was
much more likely _a Norman_ who came in with the Conquest, and took
the name which came with the estate.
WENDELL, PROFESSOR BARRETT (Harvard), on early life in the West, 70
dominant traits of the Elizabethan Englishman--Puritan and
Virginian, 79, 80
his "Literary History of America," 78
WHITE, ANDREW D. Excerpt from address on "High Crime in the United
States," 61
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. Administrative methods and machinery, 77
"A lover of peace"; Roger of Wendover quoted, 89
descendant of Scandinavian jarls, 87
effect upon France, 91
embodied the characteristic traits of his race, 87
_English Unity_ permanently established upon Salisbury Plain. The
foundations of feudalism destroyed.--England made "one and
indivisible," 93
physical characteristics.--Vigor and endurance tested in wintry
campaigns, 88
progenitor of Virginian "Cavalier," 87
sovereign and subject cast in same mould.--The Norman a race
separate and apart, yet mingling with all.--Capacity for
colonization.--Their sovereign the most successful colonizer in
French history.--A lost art in France.--How to repair the loss, 90
the Norman's Conquest of England transferred the capacity for
colonization to the English race, 91
the Norman's system of administration rested upon a Saxon basis, 92
the wild king's passion for war and the chase, 88
William's gift of political "visualization," 94
he established a principle (_unity_); he "created a nation"; he
founded a line of Anglo-Norman Princes.--Shakespeare's dramatic
characterization of the _Anglo-Norman Kings_.--The significance
of his work, 94, 95
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR and Waltheof.--A judicial murder by a Norman
king.--A secret assassination by a Saxon Earl, 61
"WOLF LARSEN." Character depicted by Jack London, 32
a physical counterpart in "Bull" Nelson, 32
WOLSELEY, Lord. "The Americans a race of English-speaking
Frenchmen," 63
WYON. Anglo-Norman Englishman of Norman origin.--Engraver to the
Queen.--Engraved seal of the Confederacy, 48
"YORKSHIRE" blood in Kentucky. Transmitted traits, 44
George P. Marsh quoted, 45
peculiarities of dialect, 44
"YORKSHIRE," Imported. Gift from Commodore Morgan to Henry Clay, 44
_Zen Mays_ and _Poa Pratensis_, 49
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Variations in spelling, hyphenation and accents are as in the original.
Page 67. "_Mais où sont les nègres a'antan?_" changed to d'antan.
Page 145. "_Baldwin_, Normandy, William Baldwinus, 1180; Robert, 1183;
England, 3116." 3116 changed to 1316.
Page 154. "_Boles_, a form of Boles." The 2nd Boles changed to Boels.
Italics are represented thus, _italic_.
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