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Archiver > ADVANCED-RESEARCH > 2010-08 > 1282671099


From: "Kith-n-Kin" <>
Subject: Re: [ADVANRES] Beginning of Surnames
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:31:43 -0700
References: <28B6057B60534A4EB9CEB5A08E4E801C@Ralphs> <201008170124.o7H1O7mk053414@strider.rgmhome.net> <A7CBE9E24CC2492292C25D7B08748B97@Ralphs> <4C6C5A24.8030202@earthlink.net><693B68C02A6F49B1936B5416F1491EA0@Ralphs>
In-Reply-To: <693B68C02A6F49B1936B5416F1491EA0@Ralphs>


Ralph

I enjoyed reading your manuscript and am glad you posted it on the website
so others can find it easily.

If I get to Kew Gardens this January (hey, what else do you do in London in
January???), I'll see if I can find some of those indenture/apprentice rolls
of the 13th century.

Pat

-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Ralph Taylor
Sent: Monday, August 23, 2010 5:22 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [ADVANRES] Beginning of Surnames

Thank you to all who responded, both on-list and off. Your contributions
have been very helpful.

I have refined the theory posited previously and narrowed the primary focus
to England. This allowed more detailed examination of surname use evidence
in available sources. (If we can gain an accurate picture of one country's
historical practices, it may, perhaps, be repeated for other countries more
easily.) Further, I read English better than French or German.

If you want to see it, it's published at
http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~taylorydna/surname-theory.shtml
.

The evidence is indirect, but the key event for commoners' surnames does
seem to be the Black Death of 1348/1349. Other changes had weakened
feudalism, but "villeiny"* (laborers bound to land & lord) was still
prevalent in the early 1300s. Pre-Plague peasants were more repressed than
at any time since the Norman Conquest. Post-plague, the 1349 Ordinance of
Laborers, 1351 Stature of Laborers and their several successor laws
demonstrate the rapid and lasting collapse of the "bound labor" (villein*)
system and replacement by a "hired labor" system, with workers empowered to
go where they will and negotiate with power.

Summary -- Surname practice in England followed this progression:
1. Surnames had begun in the Norman nobility by the 1086 Domesday Book and
become more common among them by the 1215 Magna Carta.
2. Surnames were not used by commoners before the Plague of 1348/1349.
3. The Plague of 1348/1349 -- a catastrophe of epic proportions -- was an
immense upset to the pre-existing order and a threat to all social order,
requiring new means of dealing with a freer population. Surnames for
everyone, including commoners, was one of those means.
4. There was at least some use of surnames by commoners by 1367.
The Poll Tax of 1377 implies the ability to identify every person, in order
to record who's paid and who's not.
5. Surnames were a well-established practice for everyone including
commoners by 1400.

-rt_/)

* "Villein" (pronounced vee-LANE) is the Norman word for serf and "villeiny"
for the system. Only by other usage did these become "villain" and
"villainy", but the change shows the official attitude toward these
unfortunates. (The first known use of "villain" is in the 14th century,
precisely the period villeins gained freedom.)


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