Part 15
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.
_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