A LIST

OF

SIXTY OF THE MOST COMMON SURNAMES

IN

ENGLAND AND WALES,

SHOWING AGAINST EACH SURNAME THE NUMBER OF BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES OF PERSONS BEARING IT, REGISTERED IN ONE YEAR; VIZ. BETWEEN JULY 1, 1837, AND JUNE 30, 1838, BOTH INCLUSIVE.*

HIS document, which has been kindly forwarded to me by W. H. W. Titheridge, Esq., is a curious piece of statistics, and may afford gratification to those who have done me the honour

to peruse these volumes. An analysis

of it might not be unworthy of attention, but as it only reached me on the eve of publication, I must content myself with a few general observations.

First, it will be seen that our old friends the Smiths maintain their character for numerousness, no less than 5588 having been added by birth in a single year, while only 4044 have died, leaving a clear gain of 1544! The Joneses present us with 5353 new specimens of their race, the Browns with 2366, and the Robinsons with 1455. The two latter, it may be remarked, have lost somewhat of their popularity,

* Extracted from the Indexes in the General Register Office.

being totally eclipsed by the Taylors (2647) and the Williamses (3490). The Davieses (2252) and the Thomases (2236) nearly equal the Browns, while they clearly exceed the Robinsons. This, however, is mainly owing to the Welsh, whose paucity of surnames gives the preponderance in all the cases alluded to except the Taylors, who are now fairly entitled to stand third, if not second, in the list of strictly English family

names.

2. Of the 60 names shown in this document to be the most numerous, 59 are of indigenous growth. The only foreign one is that of Marshall, and it is highly curious that it occupies the lowest place on the list, having yielded but 598 new individuals within the year.

3. Not one local surname of the first class occurs among the sixty; of the second, Green, Hall, Hill, and Wood, with Lee, Moore, and Shaw, fully sustain their numerosity.

4. The surnames derived from Christian or personal names, are, of course, in an overwhelming majority. The limited number of surnames in Wales, above alluded to, contributes largely to this result.

5. Of names derived from employments (whether official or manual), Baker, Clark, Cooper, Turner, Walker, Ward, and Wright, occupy (next to Smith and Taylor) the highest place. Of Kings, 883 arrived in these realms, while 789 were deposed by the grim monarch, before whom

and moral qualities are exceedingly numerous, only three -Browne, Mitchell, and White-claim a place among

The Roll of Battel Abbey.

INTRODUCTION.

HAVE already mentioned this celebrated document, and I cannot better introduce it to the reader than by a quotation from Noble's curious and valuable "Dissertation on the various Changes in the Families of England since the Conquest," prefixed to his History of the College of Arms :'

"Those who had fought under the ducal banners [at Hastings] took every possible means to have their names well known and remembered by future ages, not only because they and their descendants would by it be enabled to plead for favours from the reigning family, and an assuring to themselves the estates they had gained, but also from the pride inherent in human nature as founders of families in a country they had won by their prowess. For these reasons the name of every person of any consideration was written upon a Roll, and hung up in the Abbey of Battel.*

* William ordered the erection of a monastery on the very spot where he had gained that decisive victory which gave him the crown of England, from which circumstance it was called Battel Abbey.