By that time the present system may be said to have been pretty generally established in all the well-settled portions of the island. The statute of additions of the let Henry V., by requiring that the name and description of the party should be exactly set forth in any writ or indenture, would do something to consolidate the system; and when it was required that in all parishes a register should be kept of baptisms, marriages, and burials, which was one of the acts of the Reformers, there was a new check presented to any attempts at relaxation in the practice.
But even at the beginning of the 15th century there was much that was unsettled in the personal nomenclature of England, even in families to whom pertained portions of the soil. Thus in 1406 a person describes himself as Willidmus Pius Ada L'ninsolson, who in 1416 is Williehnia L'auneises; and more remarkably about the same time, a person who is described as Johannes films Willielmi flii Johannes de Ihinshelf appears soon after as Johannes Wilson. About the Fame time we had 1Villielnins Johnson Wilkinson, Willielmus Adamson Dfagotion, and Thomas Henson Mogot, showing the present system then in its rudi ments.
As the system at present existing made its way by degrees, and with much of casualty, so there seems to have been much also of accident in respect of the name of addition which marked the distinction of the aligns. There are some of the surnames in common use among us for the adoption of which it is difficult now to assign any satisfactory reason. This is partly to be attributed to the corruption which many names have undergone, and partly to the strange additions which we find in the place of surnames in early documents of undoubted authen ticity. One of these is Adam that God made, whose addition, if he lived at the period when his race first began to conform themselves to the system, would appear now in some form which would probably foil the sagacity of the most skilful inquirer. Sometimes there is a difficulty arising out of a wrong apprehension of the origin. Thus we have the names Spring, Summer, Winter; there is no Autumn. It is difficult to conceive how the names of the seasons should become the names of families; but in fact it is not so, Spring beings word denoting a :mall grove of trees, so that the name classes with Wood, Holt, and others concerning which there is no difficulty ; while Summer and Winter are Summoner and Vintner, names derived from occupations.
But the great mass of our surnames may be madly explained. We cannot enter here at large into the subject ; but it may be useful to those who are inclined to prosecute it, to may that nearly the whole of them may be referred to one of the five following classes: 1. Foreign names brought in by settlers from other countries, including the Scotch and Irish names. These designate a very large section of the whole population ; and there is a constant accession being made to them by the tide of population setting towards England. Very few of the names of this class introduced in the early periods remain : the great majority being of families who have become settled in England in the course of the last century and a half.
2. Names of locality.—These are divisible Into two great portions : those which are derived from places of generie names only, such as EN, Dale, Cliff, Slack, Combe, Grove, Shaw, Frith, and many others, meetly monosyllabic, which would originally appear as John de la hilt, &c ; and those which are derived from some specifie place, es Atherton, Burton, Denby, and thousand, of others, there being scarcely a town, village, or hamlet which has not given its name to some English family.
3. Names of occupation.—Of thin clams the number is very great. We have Bracer, Barber, Smith, Mason, in abort every trade and every other occupation in which men engage. Lost trades or trades which have changed their names are preserved in the names of families whose ancestor was engaged in them at the time when his family fell Into the system. Thus we have Fletcher, Giriller, Furbisher, String fellow, Lisle,', Walker, Parr/arr. Webster, Tarerner, and the like. We hare also Pallier, Lander, Foster, l'alfrenntan, Page, Woodruffe, Reeve, Heater, which were evidently at the beginning names of occupation. It is difficult to account fur such names as Bishop, Baron , Earl, Lent, Priest, King.
4. A large portion of our personal nomenclature is mado up of surnames which are formed upon those which we call Christian name..