Chapter II: Puritan Eccentricities (1)

"And we have known Williams and Richards, names not found in sacred
story, but familiar to our country, prove as gracious saints as any
Safe-deliverance, Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith, or such like, which
have been rather descriptions than names."--THOMAS ADAMS, _Meditations
upon the Creed_, 1629.

"In giving names to children, it was their opinion that _heathenish
names_ should be avoided, as not so fit for Christians; and also the
names of God, and Christ, and angels, and the peculiar offices of the
Mediator,"--NEAL, _History of the Puritans_, vol. 1, ch. v. 1565.

I. INTRODUCTORY.

There are still many people who are sceptical about the stories told against the Puritans in the matter of name-giving. Of these some are Nonconformists, who do not like the slights thus cast upon their spiritual ancestry; unaware that while this curious phase was at its climax, Puritanism was yet within the pale of the Church of England. Others, having searched through the lists of the Protector's Parliaments, Commissioners, and army officers, and having found but a handful of odd baptismal names, declare, without hesitation, that these stories are wicked calumnies. Mr. Peacock, whose book on the "Army Lists of Roundheads and Cavaliers" is well worth study, says, in one of the numbers of _Notes and Queries_--

"I know modern writers have repeated the same thing over and over
again; but I do not remember any trustworthy evidence of the
Commonwealth time, or that of Charles II., that would lead us to
believe that strange christian names were more common in those days
than now. What passages have we on this subject in the works of the
Restoration playwrights?"

This is an old mistake. If Mr. Peacock had looked at our registers from 1580 to 1640, instead of from 1640 to 1680, he would never have written the above. There is the most distinct evidence that during the latter portion of Elizabeth's reign, the whole of James's reign, and great part of Charles's reign, in a district roughly comprising England south of the Trent, and having, say, Banbury for its centre, there prevailed, amongst a certain class of English religionists, a practice of baptizing children by scriptural phrases, pious ejaculations, or godly admonitions. It was a practice instituted of deliberate purpose, as conducive to vital religion, and as intending to separate the truly godly and renewed portion of the community from the world at large. The Reformation epoch had seen the English middle and lower classes generally adopting the proper names of Scripture. Thus, the sterner Puritan had found a list of Bible names that he would gladly have monopolized, shared in by half the English population. That a father should style his child Nehemiah, or Abacuck, or Tabitha, or Dorcas, he discovered with dismay, did not prove that that particular parent was under any deep conviction of sin. This began to trouble the minds and consciences of the elect. Fresh limits must be created. As Richard and Roger had given way to Nathaniel and Zerrubabel, so Nathaniel and Zerrubabel must now give way to _Learn-wisdom_ and _Hate-evil_. Who inaugurated the movement, with what success, and how it slowly waned, this chapter will show.

There can be no doubt that it is entirely owing to Praise-God Barebone, and the Parliament that went by his name,[30] the impression got abroad in after days that the Commonwealth period was the heyday of these eccentricities, and that these remarkable names were merely adopted after conversion, and were not entered in the vestry-books as baptismal names at all.

The existence of these names could not escape the attention of Lord Macaulay and Sir Walter Scott. The Whig historian has referred to Tribulation Wholesome and Zeal-of-the-land Busy almost as frequently as to that fourth-form boy for whose average (!) abilities to the very end of his literary life he entertained such a profound respect. Two quotations will suffice. In his "Comic Dramatists of the Restoration" he says, speaking of the Commonwealth--

"To know whether a man was really godly was impossible. But it was
easy to know whether he had a plain dress, lank hair, no starch in his
linen, no gay furniture in his house; whether he talked through his
nose, and showed the whites of his eyes; whether he named his children
_Assurance_, _Tribulation_, and _Maher-shalal-hash-baz_."

Again, in his Essay on Croker's "Boswell's Life of Johnson," he declares--

"Johnson could easily see that a Roundhead who named all his children
after Solomon's singers, and talked in the House of Commons about
seeking the Lord, might be an unprincipled villain, whose religious
mummeries only aggravated his fault."

In "Woodstock," Scott has such characters as _Zerrubabel_ Robins and _Merciful_ Strickalthrow, both soldiers of Oliver Cromwell; while the zealot ranter is one _Nehemiah_ Holdenough. Mr. Peacock most certainly has grounds for complaint here, but not as to facts, only dates.

II. ORIGINATED BY THE PRESBYTERIAN CLERGY.

In Strype's "Life of Whitgift" (i. 255) we find the following statement:--

"I find yet again another company of these fault-finders with the Book
of Common Prayer, in another diocese, namely, that of Chichester,
whose names and livings were these: William Hopkinson, vicar of
Salehurst; Samuel Norden, parson of Hamsey; Antony Hobson, vicar of
Leominster; Thomas Underdown, parson of St. Mary's in Lewes; John
Bingham, preacher of Hodeleigh; Thomas Heley, preacher of Warbleton;
John German, vicar of Burienam; and Richard Whiteaker, vicar of
Ambreley."

I follow up the history of but two of these ministers, Hopkinson of Salehurst, and Heley of Warbleton. Suspended by the commissary, they were summoned to Canterbury, December 6, 1583, and subscribed. Both being married men, with young families, we may note their action in regard to name-giving. The following are to be found in the register at Salehurst:

"Maye 3, 1579, was baptized Persis (Rom. xvi. 12), the daughter of
William Hopkinson, minister heare.

"June 18, 1587, was baptized Stedfast, the sonne of Mr. William Bell,
minister.

"Nov. 3, 1588, was baptized Renewed, the doughter of William
Hopkinson, minister.

"Feb. 28, 1591, was baptized Safe-on-Highe, the sonne of Will{m}.
Hopkinson, minister of the Lord's Worde there.[31]

"Oct. 29, 1596. Constant, filia Thomae Lorde, baptisata fuit.

"March, 1621. Rejoyce, filia Thomae Lorde, baptisata fuit die 10, et
sepulta die 23.

"November, 1646. Bethshua, doughter of Mr. John Lorde, minister of
Salehurst, bapt. 22 die."

These entries are of the utmost importance; they begin at the very date when the new custom arose, and are patronized by three ministers in succession--possibly four, if Thomas Lorde was also a clergyman.

Heley's case is yet more curious. He had been prescribing grace-names for his flock shortly before the birth of his first child. He thus practises upon his own offspring:

"Nov. 7, 1585. Muche-merceye, the sonne of Thomas Hellye, minyster.

"March 26, 1587. Increased, the dather of Thomas Helly, minister.

"Maye 5, 1588. Sin-denie, the dather of Thomas Helly, minister.

"Maye 25, 1589. Fear-not, the sonne of Thomas Helly, minister."

Under rectorial pressure the villagers followed suit; and for half a century Warbleton was, in the names of its parishioners, a complete exegesis of justification by faith without the deeds of the law. _Sorry-for-sin_ Coupard was a peripatetic exhortation to repentance, and _No-merit_ Vynall was a standing denunciation of works. No register in England is better worth a pilgrimage to-day than Warbleton.[32]

Still confining our attention to Sussex and Kent, we come to Berwick:

"1594, Dec. 22. Baptized Continent, daughter of Hugh Walker, vicar.

"1602, Dec. 12. Baptized Christophilus, son of Hugh Walker."--Berwick,
Sussex.

I think the father ought to be whipped most incontinently in the open market who would inflict such a name on an infant daughter. They did not think so then. The point, however, is that the father was incumbent of the parish.

A more historic instance may be given. John Frewen, Puritan rector of Northiam, Sussex, from 1583 to 1628, and author of "Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion," had two sons, at least, baptized in his church. The dates tally exactly with the new custom:

"1588, May 26. Baptized Accepted, sonne of John Frewen.

"1591, Sep. 5. Baptized Thankful, sonne of John Frewen."--Northiam,
Sussex.

_Accepted_[33] died Archbishop of York, being prebend designate of Canterbury so early as 1620:

"1620, Sep. 8. Grant in reversion to Accepted Frewen of a prebend in
Canterbury Cathedral."--"C. S. P. Dom."

One more instance before we pass on. In two separate wills, dated 1602 and 1604 (folio 25, Montagu, "Prerog. Ct. of Cant.," and folio 25, Harte, ditto), will be found references to "More-fruite and Faint-not, children of Dudley Fenner, minister of the Word of God" at Marden, in Kent.

Now, this Dudley Fenner was a thoroughly worthy man, but a fanatic of most intolerant type. In 1583 we find him at Cranbrook, in Kent. An account of his sayings and doings was forwarded, says Strype, to Lord Burghley, who himself marked the following passage:--

"Ye shall pray also that God would strike through the sides of all
such as go about to take away from the ministers of the Gospel the
liberty which is granted them by the Word of God."

But a curious note occurs alongside this passage in Lord Burghley's hand:

"Names given in baptism by Dudley Fenner: Joy-againe, From-above,
More-fruit, Dust."--Whitgift, i. p. 247.

Two of these names were given to his own children, as Cranbrook register shows to this day:

"1583, Dec. 22. Baptized More-fruit, son of Mr. Dudley Fenner."

"1585, June 6. Baptized Faint-not, fil. Mr. Dudley Fenner, concional
digniss."

Soon after this Dudley Fenner again got into trouble through his sturdy spirit of nonconformity. After an imprisonment of twelve months, he fled to Middleborough, in Holland, and died there about 1589.

The above incident from Strype is interesting, for here manifestly is the source whence Camden derived his information upon the subject. In his quaint "Remaines," published thirty years later (1614), after alluding to the Latin names then in vogue, he adds:

"As little will be thought of the new names, Free-Gift, Reformation,
Earth, Dust, Ashes, Delivery, More-fruit, Tribulation,
The-Lord-is-near, More-triale, Discipline, Joy-againe, From-above,
which have lately been given by some to their children, with no evill
meaning, but upon some singular and precise conceite."

Very likely Lord Burghley gave Fenner's selection to the great antiquary.

Coming into London, the following case occurs. John Press was incumbent of St. Matthew, Friday Street, from 1573 to 1612:

"1584. Baptized Purifie, son of Mr. John Presse, parson."

John Bunyan's great character name of _Hopeful_ is to be seen in Banbury Church register. But such an eccentricity is to be expected in the parish over which Wheatley presided, the head-quarters, too, of extravagant Puritanism. We all remember drunken Barnaby:

"To Banbury came I, O prophane one!
Where I saw a Puritane one,
Hanging of his cat on Monday
For killing of a mouse on Sunday."

But the point I want to emphasize is that this _Hopeful_ was Wheatley's own daughter:

"1604, Dec. 21. Baptized Hope-full, daughter of William Wheatlye."

Take a run from Banbury into Leicestershire. A stern Puritan was Antony Grey, "parson and patron" of Burbach; and he continued "a constant and faithfull preacher of the Gospell of Jesus Christ, even to his extreame old age, and for some yeares after he was Earle of Kent," as his tombstone tells us. He had twelve children, and their baptismal entries are worth recording:

"1593, April 29. Grace, daughter of Mr. Anthonie Grey.

"1594, Nov. 28. Henry, son of ditto.

"1596, Nov. 16. Magdalen, daughter of ditto.

"1598, May 8. Christian, daughter of ditto.

"1600, Feb. 2. Faith-my-joy, daughter of ditto.[34]

"1603, April 3. John, son of ditto.

"1604, Feb. 23. Patience, daughter of Myster Anthonie Grey, preacher.

"1606, Oct. 5. Jobe, son of ditto.

"1608, May 1. Theophilus, son of ditto.

"1609, March 14. Priscilla, daughter of ditto (died).

"1613, Sept. 19. Nathaniel, son of ditto.

"1615, May 7. Presela, daughter of ditto."

Why old Antony was persuaded of the devil to christen his second child by the ungodly agnomen of Henry, we are not informed. It must have given him many a twinge of conscience afterwards.

Had the Puritan clergy confined these vagaries to their own nurseries, it would not have mattered much. But there can be no doubt they used their influence to bias the minds of godparents and witnesses in the same direction. We have only to pitch upon a minister who came under the archbishop's or Lord Treasurer's notice as disaffected, seek out the church over which he presided, scan the register of baptisms during the years of his incumbency, and a batch of extravagant names will at once be unearthed. In the villages of Sussex and Kent, where the personal influence of the recalcitrant clergy seems to have been greatest, the parochial records teem with them.

Thus was the final stage of fanaticism reached, the year 1580 being as nearly as possible the exact date of its development. Thus were English people being prepared for the influx of a large batch of names which had never been seen before, nor will be again. The purely Biblical names, those that commemorated Bible worthies, swept over the whole country, and left ineffaceable impressions. The second stage of Puritan excess, names that savour of eccentricity and fanaticism combined, scarcely reached England north of Trent, and, for lack of volume, have left but the faintest traces. They lasted long enough to cover what may be fairly called an epoch, and extended just far enough to embrace a province. The epoch was a hundred years, and the province was from Kent to Hereford, making a small arc northwards, so as to take in Bedfordshire, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire. The practice, so far as the bolder examples is concerned, was a _deliberate scheme_ on the part of the Presbyterian clergy. On this point the evidence is in all respects conclusive.

III. CURIOUS NAMES NOT PURITAN.

Several names found in the registers at this time, though commonly ascribed to the zealots, must be placed under a different category. For instance, original sin and the Ninth Article would seem to be commemorated in such a name as Original. We may reject Camden's theory:

"Originall may seem to be deducted from the Greek _origines_, that is,
borne in good time,"

inasmuch as he does not appear to have believed in it himself. The name, as a matter of fact, was given in the early part of the sixteenth century, in certain families of position, to the eldest son and heir, denoting that in him was carried on the original stock. The Bellamys of Lambcote Grange, Stainton, are a case in point. The eldest son for three generations bore the name; viz. _Original_ Bellamy, buried at Stainton, September 12, 1619, aged 80; _Original_, his son and heir, the record of whose death I cannot find; and _Original_, his son and heir, who was baptized December 29, 1606. The first of these must have been born in 1539, far too early a date for the name to be fathered upon the Puritans. _Original_ was in use in the family of Babington, of Rampton. Original Babington, son and heir of John Babington, was a contemporary of the first Original Bellamy (Nicholl's "Gen. et Top.," viii.).

Another instance occurs later on:

"1635, May 21. These under-written names are to be transported to St.
Christopher's, imbarqued in the _Matthew_ of London, Richard Goodladd,
master, per warrant from ye Earle of Carlisle:

"Originall Lowis, 28 yeres," etc.--Hotten's "Emigrants," p. 81.

_Sense_, a common name in Elizabeth and James's reigns, looks closely connected with some of the abstract virtues, such as Prudence and Temperance. The learned compiler of the "Calendar of State Papers" (1637-38) seems to have been much bothered with the name:

"1638, April 23. Petition of Seuce Whitley, widow of Thomas Whitley,
citizen, and grocer."

The suggestion from the editorial pen is that this Seuce (as he prints it) is a bewildered spelling of Susey, from Susan! The fact is, Seuce is a bewildered misreading on the compiler's part of Sense, and Sense is an English dress of the foreign Senchia, or Sancho, still familiar to us in Sancho Panza. Several of the following entries will prove that Sense was too early an inmate of our registers to be a Puritan agnomen:

"1564, Oct. 15. Baptized Saints, d. of Francis Muschamp.

"1565, Nov. 25. Buried Sence, d. of ditto.

"1559, June 13. Married Matthew Draper and Sence Blackwell.

"1570-1, Jan. 15. Baptized Sence, d. of John Bowyer."--Camberwell
Church.

"1651. Zanchy Harvyn, Grocer's Arms, Abbey Milton."--"Tokens of
Seventeenth Century."

"1661, June. Petition of Mrs. Zanchy Mark."--C. S. P.

That it was familiar to Camden in 1614 is clear:

"Sanchia, from Sancta, that is, Holy."--"Remaines," p. 88.

The name became obsolete by the close of the seventeenth century, and, being a saintly title, was sufficiently odious to the Presbyterians to be carefully rejected by them in the sixteenth century. Men who refused the Apostles their saintly title were not likely to stamp the same for life on weak flesh.[35]

Nor can _Emanuel_, or _Angel_, be brought as charges against the Puritans. Both flatly contradicted Cartwright's canon; yet both, and especially the former, have been attributed to the zealots. No names could have been more offensive to them than these. Even Adams, in his "Meditations upon the Creed," while attacking his friends on their eccentricity in preferring "Safe-deliverance" to "Richard," takes care to rebuke those on the other side, who would introduce _Emanuel_, or even _Gabriel_ or _Michael_, into their nurseries:

"Some call their sons _Emanuel_: this is too bold. The name is proper
to Christ, therefore not to be communicated to any creature."

_Emanuel_ was imported from the Continent about 1500:

"1545, March 19. Baptized Humphrey, son of Emanuell Roger."--St.
Columb Major.

The same conclusion must be drawn regarding _Angel_. Adams continues:

"Yea, it seems to me not fit for Christian humility to call a man
_Gabriel_ or _Michael_, giving the names of angels to the sons of
mortality."

If the Puritans objected, as they did to a man, to the use of Gabriel and Michael as angelic names, the generic term itself would be still more objectionable:

"1645, Nov. 13. Buried Miss Angela Boyce."--Cant. Cath.

"1682, April 11. Baptized Angel, d. of Sir Nicholas Butler,
K{nt}."--St. Helen, Bishopgate.

"Weymouth, March 20, 1635. Embarked for New England: Angell Holland,
aged 21 years."--Hotten's "Emigrants," p. 285.

In this case we may presume the son, and not the father, had turned Puritan.

A curious custom, which terminated soon after Protestantism was established in England, gave rise to several names which read oddly enough to modern eyes. These were titles like Vitalis or Creature--names applicable to either sex. Mr. Maskell, without furnishing instances, says Creature occurs in the registers of All-Hallows, Barking ("Hist. All-Hallows," p. 62). In the vestry-books of Staplehurst, Kent, are registered:

"1 Edward VI. Apryle xxvii., there were borne ii. childre of Alex'nder
Beeryl: the one christened at home, and so deceased, called Creature;
the other christened at church, called John."--Burns, "History of
Parish Registers," p. 81.

"1550, Nov. 5. Buried Creature, daughter of Agnes Mathews, syngle
woman, the seconde childe.

"1579, July 19. Married John Haffynden and Creature Cheseman, yong
folke."--Staplehurst, Kent.

One instance of _Vitalis_ may be given:

"Vitalis, son of Richard Engaine, and Sara his wife, released his
manor of Dagworth in 1217 to Margery de Cressi."--Blomefield's
"Norfolk," vi. 382, 383.

These are not Puritan names. The dates are against the theory. They belong to a pre-Reformation practice, being names given to _quick children before birth_, in cases when it was feared, from the condition of the mother, they might not be delivered alive. Being christened before the sex could be known, it was necessary to affix a neutral name, and Vitalis or Creature answered the purpose. The old Romish rubric ran thus:

"Nemo in utero matris clausus baptizari debet, sed si infans caput
emiserit, et periculum mortis immineat, baptizetur in capite, nec
postea si vivus evaserit, erit iterum baptizandus. At si aliud membrum
emiserit, quod vitalem indicet motum in illo, si periculum pendeat
baptizetur," etc.

Vitalis Engaine and Creature Cheeseman, in the above instances, both lived, but, by the law just quoted, retained the names given to them, and underwent no second baptism. If the sex of the yet breathing child was discovered, but death certain, the name of baptism ran thus:

"1563, July 17. Baptizata fuit in aedibus Mri Humfrey filia ejus quae
nominata fuit Creatura Christi."--St. Peter in the East, Oxford.

"1563, July 17. Creatura Christi, filia Laurentii Humfredi
sepulta."--Ditto.

An English form occurs earlier:

"1561, June 30. The Chylde-of-God, filius Ric. Stacey."--Ditto.

Without entering into controversy, I will only say that if the clergy, up to the time of the alteration in our Article on Baptism, truly believed that "insomuch as infants, and children dying in their infancy, shall undoubtedly be saved thereby (_i.e._ baptism), _and else not_," it was natural that such a delicate ceremonial as I have hinted at should have suggested itself to their minds. After the Reformation, the practice as to unborn children fell into desuetude, and the names with it.

IV. INSTANCES.

(_a._) _Latin Names._

The elder Disraeli reminded us, in his "Curiosities of Literature," that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was common for our more learned pundits to re-style themselves in their own studies by Greek and Latin names. Some of these--as, for instance, Erasmus[36] and Melancthon--are only known to the world at large by their adopted titles.

The Reformation had not become an accomplished fact before this custom began to prevail in England, only it was transferred from the study to the font, and from scholars to babies. Renovata, Renatus, Donatus, and Beata began to grow common. Camden, writing in 1614, speaks of still stranger names--

"If that any among us have named their children Remedium, Amoris,
'Imago-saeculi,' or with such-like names, I know some will think it
more than a vanity."--"Remaines," p. 44.

While, however, the Presbyterian clergy did not object to some of these Latin sobriquets, as being identical with the names of early believers of the Primitive Church, stamped in not a few instances with the honours of martyrdom, they preferred to translate them into English. Many of my examples of eccentricity will be found to be nothing more than literal translations of names that had been in common vogue among Christians twelve and thirteen hundred years before. To the majority of the Puritan clergy, to change the Latin dress for an English equivalent would be as natural and imperative as the adoption of Tyndale's or the Genevan Bible in the place of the Latin Vulgate.

A curious, though somewhat later, proof of this statement is met with in a will from the Probate Court of Peterborough. The testator was one Theodore Closland, senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. The date is June 24, 1665:

"Item: to What-God-will Crosland, forty shillings, and tenn shillings
to his wife. And to his sonne What-God-will, six pound, thirteen
shillings, fourpence."

This is a manifest translation of the early Christian "Quod-vult-deus." Grainger, in his "History of England" (iii. 360, fifth edition), says--

"In Montfaucon's 'Diarium Italicum' (p. 270), is a sepulchral
inscription of the year 396, upon Quod-vult-deus, a Christian, to
which is a note: 'Hoc aevo non pauci erant qui piis sententiolis nomina
propria concinnarent, _v.g._ Quod-vult-deus, Deogratias, Habet-deum,
Adeodatus.'"

Closland, or Crosland, the grandfather, was evidently a Puritan, with a horror of the Latin Vulgate, Latin Pope, and Latin everything. Hence the translation.

Nevertheless, the Puritans seem to have favoured Latin names at first. It was a break between the familiar sound of the old and the oddity of the new. Redemptus was less grotesque than Redeemed, and Renata than Renewed. The English equivalents soon ruled supreme, but for a generation or two, and in some cases for a century, the Latin names went side by side with them.

Take Renatus, for instance:

"1616, Sep. 29. Baptized Renatus, son of Renatus Byllett, gent."--St.
Columb Major.

"1637-8, Jan. 12. Order of Council to Renatus Edwards, girdler, to
shut up his shop in Lombard Street, because he is not a goldsmith.

"1690, April 10. Petition of Renatus Palmer, who prays to be appointed
surveyor in the port of Dartmouth."--C. S. P.

"1659, Nov. 11. Baptized Renovata, the daughter of John
Durance."--Cant. Cath.

It was Renatus Harris who built the organ in All-Hallows, Barking, in 1675 ("Hist. All-Hallows, Barking," Maskell). Renatus and Rediviva occur in St. Matthew, Friday Street, circa 1590. Rediviva lingered into the eighteenth century:

"1735, ----. Buried Rediviva Mathews."--Banbury.

Desiderata and Desiderius were being used at the close of Elizabeth's reign, and survived the restoration of Charles II.:

"1671, May 26. Baptized Desiderius Dionys, a poor child found in Lyme
Street."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

Donatus and Deodatus, also, were Latin names on English soil before the seventeenth century came in:

"1616, Jan. 29. Baptized Donate, vel Deonata, daughter of Martyn
Donnacombe."--St. Columb Major.

Desire and Given,[37] the equivalents, both crossed the Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers.

_Love_ was popular. Side by side with it went _Amor_. George Fox, in his "Journal," writing in 1670, says--

"When I was come to Enfield, I went first to visit Amor Stoddart, who
lay very weak and almost speechless. Within a few days Amor
died."--Ed. 1836, ii. 129.

In Ripon Cathedral may be seen:

"Amor Oxley, died Nov. 23, 1773, aged 74."

The name still exists in Yorkshire, but no other county, I imagine.

Other instances could be mentioned.[38] I place a few in order:

"1594, Aug. 3. Baptized Relictus Dunstane, a childe found in this
parisshe."--St. Dunstan.

"1613, Nov. 7. Baptized Beata, d. of Mr. John Briggs,
minister."--Witherley, Leic.

"1653, Sep. 29. Married Richard Moone to Benedicta Rolfe."--Cant.
Cath.

"1661, May 25. Married Edward Clayton and Melior[39] Billinge."--St.
Dionis, Backchurch.

"1706. Beata Meetkirke, born Nov. 2, 1705; died Sep. 10,
1706."--Rushden, Hereford.

(_b._) _Grace Names._

In furnishing instances, we naturally begin with those grace names, in all cases culled from the registers of the period, which belong to what we may style the first stage. They were, one by one, but taken from the lists found in the New Testament, and were probably suggested at the outset by the moralities or interludes. The morality went between the old miracle-play, or mystery, and the regular drama. In "Every Man," written in the reign of Henry VIII., it is made a vehicle for retaining the love of the people for the old ways, the old worship, and the old superstitions. From the time of Edward VI. to the middle of Elizabeth's reign, there issued a cluster of interludes of this same moral type and cast; only all breathed of the new religion, and more or less assaulted the dogmas of Rome.

These moralities were popular, and were frequently rendered in public, until the Elizabethan drama was well established. All were allegorical, and required personal representatives of the abstract graces, and doctrines of which they treated. The _dramatis personae_ in "Hickscorner" are Freewill, Perseverance, Pity, Contemplation, and Imagination, and in "The Interlude of Youth," Humility, Pride, Charity, and Lechery.

It is just possible, therefore, that several of these grace names were originated under the shadow of the pre-Reformation Church. The following are early, considering they are found in Cornwall, the county most likely to be the last to take up a new custom:

"1549, July 1. Baptized Patience, d. of Will{m}. Haygar."--

"1553, May 29. Baptized Honour, d. of Robert Sexton."--St. Columb
Major.

However this may be, we only find the cardinal virtues at the beginning of the movement--those which are popular in some places to this day, and still maintain a firm hold in America, borne thither by the Puritan emigrants.

The three Graces, and Grace itself, took root almost immediately as favourites. Shakespeare seems to have been aware of it, for Hermione says--

"My last good deed was to entreat his stay:
What was my first? It has an elder sister,
Or I mistake you--O would her name were Grace!"
"Winter's Tale," Act i. sc. 2.

"1565, March 19. Christening of Grace, daughter of -- Hilles."--St.
Peter, Cornhill.

"1574, Jan. 29. Baptized Grace, daughter of John Russell."--St. Columb
Major.

"1588, Aug. 1. Married Thomas Wood and Faythe Wilson."--St. Dionis
Backchurch.

"1565, ----. Baptized Faith, daughter of Thomas and Agnes
Blomefield."--Rushall, Norfolk.

"1567, Aprill 17. Christening of Charity, daughter of Randoll
Burchenshaw."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

"1571, ----. Baptized Charity, daughter of Thomas
Blomefield."--Rushall, Norfolk.

"1598, Nov. 19. Baptized Hope, d. of John Mainwaringe."--Cant. Cath.

"1636, Nov. 25. Buried Hope, d. of Thomas Alford, aged 23."--Drayton,
Leicester.

The registers of the sixteenth and seventeenth century teem with these; sometimes boys received them. The Rev. Hope Sherhard was a minister in Providence Isle in 1632 ("Cal. S. P. Colonial," 1632).

We may note that the still common custom of christening trine-born children by these names dates from the period of their rise:[40]

"1639, Sep. 7. Baptized Faith, Hope, and Charity, daughters of George
Lamb, and Alice his wife."--Hillingdon.

"1666, Feb. 22. -- Finch, wife of -- Finch, being delivered of three
children, two of them were baptized, one called Faith, and the other
Hope; and the third was intended to be called Charity, but died
unbaptized."--Cranford. _Vide_ Lyson's "Middlesex," p. 30.

Mr. Lower says ("Essays on English Surnames," ii. 159)--

"At Charlton, Kent, three female children produced at one birth
received the names of Faith, Hope, and Charity."

Thomas Adams, in his sermon on the "Three Divine Sisters," says--

"They shall not want prosperity,
That keep faith, hope, and charity."

Perhaps some of these parents remembered this.

Faith and Charity are both mentioned as distinctly Puritan sobriquets in the "Psalm of Mercie," a political poem:

"'A match,' quoth my sister Joyce,
'Contented,' quoth Rachel, too:
Quoth Abigaile, 'Yea,' and Faith, 'Verily,'
And Charity, 'Let it be so.'"

_Love_, as the synonym of Charity, was also a favourite. Love Atkinson went out to Virginia with the early refugees (Hotten, "Emigrants," p. 68).

"1631-2, Jan. 31. Buried Love, daughter of William Ballard."--Berwick,
Sussex.

"1740, April 30. Buried Love Arundell."--Racton, Sussex.

"1749, May 31. Love Luckett admitted a freeman by
birthright."--"History of Town and Port of Rye," p. 237.

"1662, May 7. Baptized Love, d. of Mr. Richard Appletree."--Banbury.

Besides Love and Charity, other variations were Humanity and Clemency:

"1637, March 8. Bond of William Shaw, junior, and Thomas Snelling,
citizens and turners, to Humanity Mayo, of St. Martin-in-the-Fields,
in L100 0 0."--C. S. P.

"1625, Aug. 27. Buried Clemency Chawncey."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

Clemency was pretty, and deserved to live; but Mercy seems to have monopolized the honours, and, by the aid of John Bunyan's heroine in the "Pilgrim's Progress," still has her admirers. Instances are needless, but I furnish one or two for form's sake. They shall be late ones:

"1702, Sep. 28. Married Matthias Wallraven and Mercy Waymarke."--St.
Dionis Backchurch.

"1716, May 25. Married Thomas Day and Mercy Parsons, of
Staplehurst."--Cant. Cath.

But there were plenty of virtues left. Prudence had such a run, that she became Pru in the sixteenth, and Prudentia in the seventeenth century:

"1574, June 30. Buried Prudence, d. of John Mayhew.

"1612, Aug. 2. Married Robert Browne and Prudence Coxe."--St. Dionis
Backchurch.

Justice is hard to separate from the legal title; but here is an instance:

"1660, July 16. Richard Bickley and Justice Willington reported guilty
of embezzling late king's goods."--"Cal. St. P. Dom."

Truth, Constancy, Honour, and Temperance were frequently personified at the font. Temperance had the shortest life; but, if short, it was merry. There is scarcely a register, from Gretna Green to St. Michael's, without it:

"1615, Feb. 25. Baptized Temperance, d. of -- Osberne."--Hawnes,
Bedford.

"1610, Aug. 14. Baptized Temperance, d. of John Goodyer."--Banbury.

"1611, Nov. --. Baptized Temperance, d. of Robert
Carpinter."--Stepney.

"1619, July 22. Married Gyles Rolles to Temperance Blinco."--St.
Peter, Cornhill.

Constance,[41] Constancy, and Constant were common, it will be seen, to both sexes:

"1593, Sep. 29. Buried Constancy, servant with Mr. Coussin."--St.
Dionis Backchurch.

"1629, Dec. Petition of Captain Constance Ferrar, for losses at Cape
Breton."--"C. S. P. Colonial."

"1665, May 25. Communication from Constance Pley to the Commissioners
in relation to the arrival of a convoy."--C. S. P.

"1665, May 31. Grant to Edward Halshall of L225 0 0, forfeited by
Connistant Cant, of Lynn Regis, for embarking wool to Guernsey not
entered in the Custom House."--Ditto.

"1671, Sep. 2. Buried Constant Sylvester, Esquire."--Brampton, Hunts.

Patience, too, was male as well as female. Sir Patience Warde was Lord Mayor of London in 1681. Thus the weaker vessels were not allowed to monopolize the graces. How familiar some of these abstract names had become, the Cavalier shall tell us in his parody of the sanctimonious Roundheads' style:

"'Ay, marry,' quoth Agatha,
And Temperance, eke, also:
Quoth Hannah, 'It's just,' and Mary, 'It must,'
'And shall be,' quoth Grace, 'I trow.'"

Several "Truths" occur in the "Chancery Suits" of Elizabeth, and the Greek Alathea arose with it:

"1595, June 27. Faith and Truth, gemini, -- John Johnson,
bapt."--Wath, Ripon.

Alathea lasted till the eighteenth century was well-nigh out:

"1701, Dec. 4. Francis Milles to Alathea Wilton."--West. Abbey.

"1720, Sep. 18. Buried Alydea, wife of Will{m}. Gough, aged 42
years."--Harnhill, Glouc.

"1786, Oct. 6. Died Althea, wife of Thomas Heberden,
prebendary."--Exeter Cath.[42]

Honour, of course, became Honora, in the eighteenth century, and has retained that form:

"1583, Aug. 24. Baptized Honor, daughter of Thomas Teage."--St. Columb
Major.

"1614, July 4. Baptized Honour, d. of John Baylye, of
Radcliffe."--Stepney.

"1667, Oct. 9. Christened Mary, d. of Sir John and Lady Honour
Huxley."--Hammersmith.

"1722, Oct. 4. Christened Martha, d. of John and Honoria Hart."--St.
Dionis Backchurch.

Sir Thomas Carew, Speaker of the Commons in James's and Charles's reign, had a wife Temperance, and four daughters, Patience, Temperance, Silence, and Prudence (Lodge's "Illust.," iii. 37). Possibly, as Speaker, he had had better opportunity to observe that these were the four cardinal parliamentary virtues, especially Silence. This last was somewhat popular, and seems to have got curtailed to "Sill," as Prudence to "Pru," and Constance to "Con." In the Calendar of "State Papers" (June 21, 1666), a man named Taylor, writing to another named Williamson, wishes "his brother Sill would come and reap the sweets of Harwich." Writing again, five days later, he asks "after his brother, Silence Taylor."

This was one of the names that crossed the Atlantic and became a fixture in America (Bowditch). It is not, however, to be confounded with Sill, that is, Sybil, in the old Cavalier chorus:

"'And God blesse King Charles,' quoth George,
'And save him,' says Simon and Sill."

Silence is one of the few Puritan names that found its way into the north of England:

"1741, Dec. 9. Married Robert Thyer to Silence Leigh."--St. Ann,
Manchester.

The mother of Silence Leigh, who was a widow when she married, was Silence Beswicke ("Memorials of St. Ann, Manchester," p. 55).[43] The name is found again in the register of Youlgreave Church, Derbyshire (_Notes and Queries_, Feb. 17, 1877). Curiously enough, we find Camden omitting Silence as a female name of his day, but inserting Tace. In his list of feminine baptismal names, compiled in 1614 ("Remaines," p. 89), he has

"Tace--Be silent--a fit name to admonish that sex of silence."

Here, then, is another instance of a Latin name translated into English. I have lighted on a case proving the antiquary's veracity:

"Here lieth the body of Tacey, the wife of George Can, of Brockwear,
who departed this life 22 day of Feb., An. Dom. 1715, aged 32
years."--Hewelsfield, Glouc.

Tace must have lasted a century, therefore. Silence may be set down to some old Puritan stickler for the admonition of Saint Paul: "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection" (1 Tim. ii. 11).

The Epistle to the Romans was a never-failing well-spring to the earnest Puritan, and one passage was much applied to his present condition:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith unto this
grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And
not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that
tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and
experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed."--v. 1-5.

There is scarcely a word in this passage that is not inscribed on our registers between 1575 and 1595. Faith, Grace, and Hope have already been mentioned;[44] Camden testified to the existence of Tribulation in 1614; Rejoice was very familiar; Patience, of course, was common:

"1592, July 7. Buried Patience Birche."--Cant. Cath.

"1596, Oct. 3. Baptized Pacience, daughter of Martin Tome."--St.
Columb Major.

"1599, April 23. Baptized Patience, d. of John Harmer."--Warbleton.

Even _Experience_ is found--a strange title for an infant.

"The Rev. Experience Mayhew, A.M., born Feb. 5, 1673; died of an
apoplexy, Nov. 9, 1758."

So ran the epitaph of a missionary (_vide_ _Pulpit_, Dec. 6, 1827) to the Vineyard Island. It had been handed on to him, no doubt, from some grandfather or grandmother of Elizabeth's closing days.

A late instance of _Diligence_ occurs in St. Peter, Cornhill:

"1724, Nov. 1. Buried Diligence Constant."

Obedience had a good run, and began very early:

"1573, Sep. 20. Bapt. Obedience, dather of Thomas Garding.

"1586, Aug. 28. Bapt. Obedyence, dather of Richard Ellis."--Warbleton.

"1697, April 30. Bapt. Robert, son of James and Obedience Clark."--St.
James, Picadilly.

Obedience Robins is the name of a testator in 1709 (Wills: Archdeaconry of London), while the following epitaph speaks for itself:

"Obedience Newitt, wife of Thomas Newitt, died in 1617, aged 32.

"Her name and nature did accord,
Obedient was she to her Lord."--Burwash, Sussex.

"Add to your faith, virtue," says the Apostle. As a name this grace was late in the field:

"1687, May 25. Married Virtue Radford and Susannah Wright."--West.
Abbey.

"1704, Oct. 20. Buried Virtue, wife of John Higgison."--Marshfield,
Glouc.

"1709, May 6. Buried Vertue Page."--Finchley.

Confidence and Victory were evidently favourites:

"1587, Jan. 8. Baptized Confydence, d. of Roger Elliard."--Warbleton.

"1770, Nov. 17, died Confidence, wife of John Thomas, aged 61
years."--Bulley, Glouc.

"1587, Feb. 8. Buryed Vyctorye Buttres."--Elham, Kent.

"1618, Dec. 9. Buryed Victorye Lussendine."--Ditto.

"1696, May 17. Bapt. Victory, d. of Joseph Gibbs."--St. Dionis
Backchurch.

_Perseverance_ went out with the emigrants to New England, but I do not find any instance in the home registers. _Felicity_ appeared in one of our law courts last year, so it cannot be said to be extinct; but there is a touch of irony in the first of the following examples:--

"1604-5, March 15. Baptized Felicity, d. of John Barnes,
vagarant."--Stepney.

"1590, July 5. Baptized Felycyte Harris."--Cranbrook.

_Comfort_ has a pleasant atmosphere about it, and many a parent was tempted to the use of it. It lingered longer than many of its rivals. Comfort Farren's epitaph may be seen on the floor of Tewkesbury Abbey:

"Comfort, wife of Abraham Farren, gent., of this Corporation, died
August 24, 1720."

Again, in Dymock Church we find:

"_Comfort_, wife to William Davis, died 14 June, 1775, aged 78 years.

"_Comfort_, their daughter, died 9 Feb., 1760, aged 24 years."

Nearly 150 years before this, however, Comfort Starr was a name not unknown to the more heated zealots of the Puritan party. He was a native of Ashford, in Kent, and after various restless shiftings as a minister, Carlisle being his head-quarters for a time, went to New Plymouth in the _Mayflower_, in 1620. There he became fellow of Harvard College, but returned to England eventually, and died at Lewes in his eighty-seventh year.

Perhaps the most interesting and popular of the grace names was "Repentance." In a "new interlude" of the Reformation, entitled the "Life and Repentance of Marie Magdalene," and published in 1567, one of the chief characters was "Repentance." At the same time Repentance came into font use, and, odd as it may sound, bade fair to become a permanently recognized name in England:

"1583, Dec. 8. Married William Arnolde and Repentance Pownoll."--Cant.
Cath.

"1587, Oct. 22. Baptized Repentance, dather of George
Aysherst."--Warbleton.

"1588, June 30. Baptized Repentance Water."--Cranbrook.

"1597, Aug. 4. Baptized Repentance, daughter of Robert Benham, of
Lymhouse."--Stepney.

"1612, March 26. Baptized Repentance Wrathe."--Elham, Kent.

"1688, Dec. 23. Bapt. Repentance, son of Thomas and Mercy
Tompson."--St. James, Piccadilly.

In the "Sussex Archaeological Collections" (xvii. 148) is found recorded the case of Repentance Hastings, deputy portreeve of Seaford, who in 1643 was convicted of hiding some wreckage:

"Repentance Hastings, 1 load, 1 cask, 2 pieces of royals."

Evidently his repentance began too early in life to be lasting; but infant piety could not be expected to resist the hardening influence of such a name as this.[45]

_Humiliation_ was a big word, and that alone must have been in its favour:

"1629, Jan. 24. Married Humiliation Hinde and Elizabeth Phillips by
banes."--St. Peter, Cornhill.

Humiliation, being proud of his name, determined to retain it in the family--for he had one--but as he had began to worship at St. Dionis Backchurch, the entries of baptism lie there, the spelling of his surname being slightly altered:

"1630, Nov. 18. Baptized Humiliation, son of Humiliation Hyne."

This son died March 11, 1631-2. Humiliation _pere_, however, did not sorrow without hope, for in a few years he again brings a son to the parson:

"1637-8, Jan. 21. Baptized Humiliation, son of Humiliation Hinde."

Humility is preferable to Humiliation. Humility Cooper was one of a freight of passengers in the _Mayflower_, who, in 1620, sought a home in the West. A few years afterwards Humility Hobbs followed him (Hotten, "Emigrants," p. 426):

"1596, March 13. Baptized Humilitye, sonne of Wylliam
Jones."--Warbleton.

"1688, May 5. Buried Humility, wife of Humphey Paget."--Peckleton,
Leic.

Had it not been for Charles Dickens, Humble would not have appeared objectionable:

"1666-1667, Jan. 29. Petition of Dame Frances, wife of Humble Ward,
Lord Ward, Baron, of Birmingham."[46]--C. S. P.

All Saints, Leicester, records another saintly grace:

"Here lieth the body of Abstinence Pougher, Esq., who died Sept. 5,
1741, aged 62 years."

In some cases we find the infant represented, not by a grace-name, but as in a state of grace. Every register contains one or two Godlies:

"1579, July 24. Baptized Godlye, d. of Richard Fauterell."--Warbleton.

"1611, May 1. Baptized Godly, d. of Henry Gray, and Joane his wife.
Joane Standmer and Godly Gotherd, sureties."--South Bersted, Sussex.

"1619, Nov. Baptized Godly, d. of Thomas Edwardes, of
Poplar."--Stepney.

"1632, Oct. 30. Married John Wafforde to Godly Spicer."--Cant. Cath.

Gracious is as objectionable as Godly. Gracious Owen was President of St. John's College, Oxford, during the decade 1650-1660.

"Oct. 24, 1661. Examination of Gracious Franklin: Joshua Jones,
minister at the Red Lion, Fleet Street, told him that he heard there
were 3000 men about the city maintained by Presbyterian
ministers."--C. S. P.

_Lively_, we may presume, referred to spiritual manifestations. A curious combination of font name and patronymic is obtained in Lively Moody, D.D., of St. John's College, Cambridge, 1682 (Wood's "Fasti Oxonienses"). Exactly one hundred years later the name is met with again:

"1782, July 3. Lively Clarke of this town, sadler, aged
60."--Berkeley, Gloucester.

At Warbleton, where the Puritan Heley ministered, it seems to have been found wearisome to be continually christening children by the names of Repent and Repentance, so a variation was made in the form of "Sorry-for-sin:"

"1589, Jan 25. Baptized Sory-for-sine, the dather of John Coupard."

The following is curious:

"Thomas Luxford, of Windmill Hill, died Feb. 24, 1739, aged 72 years.
He was grandson of Thomas Luxford, of Windmill Hill, by _Changed_
Collins, his wife, daughter of Thomas Collins, of Socknash in this
county, Esq., and eldest son of Richard Luxford, of
Billinghurst."--Wartling Church.

Faithful[47] may close this list:

"1640, Oct. 18. Baptized Benjamin, son of Faithful Bishop."--St.
Columb Major.

Faithful Rouse settled in New England in 1644 (Bowditch). The following despatch mentions another:

"1666, July 18. Major Beversham and Lieut. Faithful Fortescue are sent
from Ireland to raise men."--C. S. P.

Bunyan evidently liked it, and gave the name to the martyr of Vanity Fair:

"Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they killed thee, thou art yet alive."

Speaking from a nomenclatural point of view, the name did not survive, for the last instance I have met with is that of Faithful Meakin, curate of Mobberley, Cheshire, in 1729 (Earwaker, "East Cheshire," p. 99, _n._). It had had a run of more than a century, however.

The reader will have observed that the majority of these names have become obsolete. The religious apathy of the early eighteenth century was against them. They seem to have made their way slowly westward. Certainly their latest representatives are to be found in the more retired villages of Gloucestershire and Devonshire. A few like Mercy, Faith, Hope, Charity, Grace, and Prudence, still survive, and will probably for ever command a certain amount of patronage; but they are much more popular in our religious story-books than the church registers. The absence of the rest is no great loss, I imagine.

(_c._) _Exhortatory Names._

The zealots of Elizabeth's later days began to weary of names that merely made household words of the apostolic virtues. Many of these sobriquets had become popular among the unthinking and careless. They began to stamp their offspring with exhortatory sentences, pious ejaculations, brief professions of godly sorrow for sin, or exclamations of praise for mercies received. I am bound to confess, however, that the prevailing tone of these names is rather contradictory of the picture of gloomy sourness drawn by the facile pens of Macaulay and Walter Scott. 'Tis true, Anger and Wrath existed:

"1654. Wroth Rogers to be placed on the Commission of Scandalous
Ministers."--Scobell's "Acts and Ord. Parl.," 1658.

"1680, Dec. 22. Buried Anger Bull, packer."--St. Dionis Backchurch.

I dare say he was familiarly termed Angry Bull, like "Savage Bear," a gentleman of Kent who was living at the same time, mentioned elsewhere in these pages. Nevertheless, in the exhortatory names there is a general air of cheerful assurance.

The most celebrated name of this class is Praise-God Barebone. I cannot find his baptismal entry. A collection of verses was compiled by one Fear-God Barbon, of Daventry (Harleian M.S. 7332). This cannot have been his father, as we have evidence that the leatherseller was born about 1596, and, allowing his parent to be anything over twenty, the date would be too early for exhortatory names like Fear-God. We may presume, therefore, he was a brother. Two other brothers are said to have been entitled respectively, "Jesus-Christ-came-into-the-world-to-save Barebone," and "If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned Barebone." I say "entitled," for I doubt whether either received such a long string of words in baptism. Brook, in his "History of the Puritans," implies they were; Hume says that both were _adopted_ names, and adds, in regard to the latter, that his acquaintance were so wearied with its length, that they styled him by the last word as "Damned Barebone." The editor of _Notes and Queries_ (March 15, 1862) says that, "as his morals were not of the best," this abbreviated form "appeared to suit him better than his entire baptismal prefix." Whether the title was given at the font or adopted, there is no doubt that he was familiarly known as Dr. Damned Barebone. This was more curt than courteous.

Of Praise-God's history little items have leaked out. He began life as a leatherseller in Fleet Street, and owned a house under the sign of the "Lock and Key," in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West. He was admitted a freeman of the Leathersellers' Company, January 20, 1623. He was a Fifth Monarchy man, if a tract printed in 1654, entitled "A Declaration of several of the Churches of Christ, and Godly People, in and about the City of London," etc., which mentions "the Church which walks with Mr. Barebone," refers to him. This, however, may be Fear-God Barebone. Praise-God was imprisoned after the Restoration, but after a while released, and died, at the age of eighty or above, in obscurity. His life, which was not without its excitements, was spent in London, and possibly his baptismal entry will be found there.

A word or two about his surname. The elder Disraeli says ("Curiosities of Literature")--

"There are unfortunate names, which are very injurious to the cause in
which they are engaged; for instance, the long Parliament in
Cromwell's time, called by derision the Rump, was headed by one
Barebones, a leatherseller."

Isaac Disraeli has here perpetuated a mistake. Barebone's Parliament was the Parliament of Barebone, not Barebones. Peck, in his "Desiderata Curiosa," speaking of a member of the family who died in 1646, styles him Mr. Barborne; while Echard writes the name Barbon, when referring to Dr. Barbon, one of the chief rebuilders of the city of London after the Fire. Between Barebones and Barbon is a wide gap, and Barbon's Parliament suggests nothing ludicrous whatsoever. Yet (if we set aside the baptismal name) what an amount of ridicule has been cast over this same Parliament on account of a surname which in reality has been made to meet the occasion. No historian has heaped more sarcasm on the "Rump" than Hume, but he never styles the leatherseller as anything but "Barebone."

But while _Praise-God_ has obtained exceptional notoriety, not so _Faint-not_, and yet there was a day when Faint-not bade fair to take its place as a regular and recognized name. I should weary the reader did I furnish a full list of instances. Here are a few:

"1585, March 6. Baptized Faynt-not, d. of James Browne."--Warbleton.

"1590, Jan. 17. Baptized Faynt-not Wood."--Cranbrook.

"1631, ----. Thomas Perse married Faint-not Kennarde."--Chiddingly.

"1642, Aug. 2. Married John Pierce and Faint-not Polhill,
widow."--Burwash, Sussex.

This Faint-not Polhill was mother of Edward Polhill, a somewhat celebrated writer of his day. She married her first husband December 11, 1616.

"1678, Feb. 12. Buried Faint-not Blatcher, a poor old
widdow."--Warbleton.

The rents of certain houses which provided an exhibition for the boys of Lewes Grammar School were paid in 1692 as usual. One item is set down as follows:

"Faint-not Batchelor's house, per annum, L6 0 0."--"Hist. and Ant.
Lewes," i. 311.

_Faint-not_ occurs in Maresfield Church ("Suss. Arch. Coll.," xiv. 151). We have already referred to Faint-not, the daughter of "Dudley Fenner, minister of the Word of God" at Marden, Kent.

Fear-not was also in use. The Rector of Warbleton baptized one of his own children by the name; some of his parishioners copied him:

"1594, Nov. 10. Baptized Fear-not, sonne of Richard Maye.

"1589, Oct. 19. Baptized Fear-not, sonne of Will{m}. Browne."

Decidedly cheerful were such names as Hope-still or Hopeful. Both occur in Banbury Church. Hopeful Wheatley has already been mentioned.

"1611, June 16. Baptized Hope-still, d. to Edward Peedle.

"1697, Dec. 30. Buried Hope-still Faxon, a olde mayde."

Whether or no her matrimonial expectations were still high to the end, we are not told.

One of the earliest Pilgrim Fathers was Hope-still Foster (Hotten, p. 68). He went out to New England about 1620. His name became a common one out there. Two bearers of the name at home lived so long that it reached the Georges:

"Near this place is interred the body of John Warden, of Butler's
Green in this parish, Esq., who died April 30, 1730, aged 79 years;
and also of _Hope-still_, his wife, who died July 22, 1749, aged
92."--Cuckfield Church, Sussex.

"Dec. 1, 1714. Administration of goods of Michael Watkins, granted to
Hope-still Watkins, his widow."--C. S. P.

In the list of incumbents of Lydney, Gloucestershire, will be found the name of _Help-on-high_ Foxe, who was presented to the living by the Dean and Chapter of Hereford in 1660. For some reason or other, possibly to curtail the length, he styled himself in general as Hope-well, and this was retained on his tomb:

"Hic in Cristo quiescit Hope-wel Foxe, in artibus magister, hujus
ecclesiae vicarius vigilantissimus qui obiit 2 die Aprilis,
1662."--Bigland's "Monuments of Gloucester."

How quickly such names were caught up by parishioners from their clergy may again be seen in the case of Hope-well Voicings, of Tetbury, who left a rentcharge of L1 for the charity schools at Cirencester in 1720. Probably he was christened by the vicar himself at Lydney.

We have already mentioned Rejoice Lord, of Salehurst. The name had a tremendous run:

"1647, June 22. Buried Rejoice, daughter of John Harvey.

"1679, Oct. 18. Baptized Rejoice, daughter of Nicholas
Wratten."--Warbleton.

_Rejoice_ reached the eighteenth century:

"1713, Sep. 29. Married John Pimm, of St. Dunstan's, Cant., to
_Rejoice_ Epps, of the precincts of this church."--Cant. Cath.

_Magnify_ and _Give-thanks_ frequently occur in Warbleton register:

"1595, Dec. 7. Buried Gyve-thanks Bentham, a child.

"1593, M{ch}. 11. Baptized Give-thanks, the dather of Thomas Elliard.

"1591, Feb. 6. Baptized Magnyfy, sonne of William Freeland.

"1587, Sep. 17. Baptized Magnyfye, sonne of Thomas Beard.

"1587, April 2. Baptized Give-thankes, sonne of Thomas Cunsted."

It is from the same register we obtain examples of an exhortatory name known to have existed at this time, viz. "Be-thankful." A dozen cases might be cited:

"1586, Feb. 6. Baptized Be-thankfull, the dather of Abell Tyerston.

"1601, Nov. 8. Baptized Be-thankfull, d. of James Gyles.

"1617, Nov. 27. Married Thomas Flatt and Be-thankefull Baker.

"1662, May 9. Buried Be-thankeful Giles."

Thus Miss Giles bore her full name for over sixty years: and, I dare say, was very proud of it.[48]

Besides Be-thankful, there was "Be-strong:"

"1592, Nov. 26. Baptized Be-strong Philpott."--Cranbrook.

Many of the exhortatory names related to the fallen nature of man. One great favourite at Warbleton was "Sin-deny." It was coined first by Heley, the Puritan rector, in 1588, for one of his own daughters. Afterwards the entries are numerous. Two occur in one week:

"1592, April 23. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of Richard Tebb.

" " 29. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of William Durant.

"1594, March 9. Baptized Sin-denye, d. of Edward Outtered."