Place Names 2
That many English place names dating from the Anglo-Saxon and Danish periods of settlement in England include personal names is well known. Thus the ‘ingas’ roots means a people as in Goring meaning Gara’s people (E.Ekwall, (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (fourth edition, Oxford, 1960, 201). The Danish ‘thorpe’ as in Grimesthorpe means Grim’s farm or hamlet, (Ekwall, 469 and 205). But the post-Conquest practice of adding prefixes and suffixes to otherwise common names such as Acton, Aston, Compton, Stoke, Sutton and Wooton contains references to specific new families coming from many parts of Europe.

It is not surprising that my analysis of over seven hundred such names using Ekwall’s dictionary shows that the most popular of such names are Norman. The Bassets are recalled in twelve places, Beauchamp in eight, Giffard in seven and Keynes in six. Vauxhall in South London echoes King John’s ruthless soldier, Falkes de Bréauté, as it means Falkes’ hall. But other parts of France are also represented. From Touraine there is Bessels Leigh (or Besselsleigh) in Berkshire. Henry III’s half brothers, the Lusignans of Poitou are remembered in five places under the name of Valence, the birthplace of one of them. This results in Benham Valence in Berkshire, Compton in Dorset, Moreton in Gloucestershire, Newton in Hampshire and Sutton in Kent. From Savoy came the Pugeys family found in Broughton Poggs (Oxfordshire) and Stoke Poges (Buckinghamshire). A family from Brittany is exhibited in Layer Breton Essex.

But not only French places are found. Switzerland is recalled by Stretton Grandison in Switzerland from whence came the illustrious Grandson family in the reign of Henry III. Denmark is found in Sock Dennis and Seavington Denis, Somerset, from the Dacus/Daneys family meaning The Dane as does Farnley Tyas, Yorkshire from Le Tyes or The German. Belgium can be said to be represented by the four Fleming suffixes in Cornwall, Devon and Yorkshire. These examples retain memories of non-toponymic surnames.

So an otherwise boring car journey can be enlivened by wondering about how these new people fitted into England. Newton Pagnell and Sutton Scotney service stations need never seem quite the same again.

David Cameron’s Swiss ancestry

In all the hype about the new Leader of HM Opposition, one minor fact seems to have gone unnoticed.

It is reported that Cameron is descended from William IV through the children born of his long relationship with Mrs Jordan. In the mid-thirteenth century following the arrival in England of Queen Eleanor of Provence’s uncles, the comital Savoy family, Otto de Grandson (Grandison) joined the Savoyards in the realm of Henry III. He was the son of Peter de Grandson and came from Grandson at the southern end of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland where his fine castle still stands. He became one of the closest friends and advisors of Edward I. (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2005), xxiii, 269-70. ) Whilst he returned home to Grandson and died there unmarried, his brother, William, married an English heiress and ended his days in England. Of his children, the most distinguished was John, Bishop of Exeter from 1327 until 1369 but two of his daughters are represented in the royal line. Katherine married William Montacute, first Earl of Salisbury and her daughter married Roger Mortimer, Earl of March. The eventual heiress of the Mortimers married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, the grandfather of Edward IV. (Complete Peerage, xi, 387-8 and viii, 445-53.) His granddaughter married the King of Scotland and the line continues through James I to his daughter, Elizabeth, the Winter Queen of Bohemia and her daughter, Sophia, Electress of Hanover and thence to the Hanoverian kings and William IV.

Another daughter of William de Grandson, Mabella, married John de Pateshulle and through her the line of descent passed to the Beauchamp and Beaufort families (Complete Peerage, ii, 49-50, x, 826-7.) to Henry VII, the first Tudor king. From here it too passed to the Scottish marriage where it follows the same line to Cameron.

It is also reported that Cameron’s wife is descended from Nell Gwynn. If this so, she would be a descendant of the Duke of St Albans, Nell’s son by Charles II. This too would involve a Grandson descent through James I and his son and grandson, Charles I and II.

Place Names 1
In his study of English place-names (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (fourth edition, Oxford, 1960), Eilert Ekwall lists 60 towns or villages in England which have a saint’s name. This does not take into account suffixes used to identify a number of settlements with the same name. But of these 60, 43 are in Cornwall. Wales like Cornwall is part of the Celtic world and there the ‘llan’ place name, which means church of, is ubiquitous. In France, a look at a gazetteer will show how widespread is the practice of naming places after saints. Does this mean that the Anglo-Saxon and Danish parts of England were inherently less religious than their neighbours?