Name Meanings, Histories Almost without exception citations appearing are from King James Bible, standard reference for genealogists. Words that no longer have any dictionary meaning may fall from use but names endure.
ABDALLA This is an Arabic variant of Abdullah meaning servant of God. Abd Allah (1846-99) hailed as Khalifa [caliph] succeeded the Mahdi during an uprising in The Sudan. See Frederick and Gordon for more background. Khalifa was defeated in Battle of Om-durman in ‘98 by British General Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener and killed next year as victors mopped up. Several hundred Canadian raftsmen aided Kitchener’s ponderous expedition up the Nile, first para military venture of Canada overseas. Canadian fighting troops did not deploy abroad until the South African War at turn of that century. Abdul-lah best known to Westerners fought Turks with Lawrence of Arabia in the Great War. Peter O’Toole portrayed T. E. Lawrence in a compelling motion picture expanded for its second distribution. Abdullah became emir and then king of Jordan until assassinated 1951. Current Jordanian monarch is Abdullah II. Abdalla Michael Fayad was b. Lebanon 1932, father of Lily, wife of our #5 son Matthew. Widowed, he took two sons and two daughters to Lebanon. All came back here where he eventually remarried and retired.
ADA We’re not quite sure where the name Ada came from. Perhaps a short form of Ger-manic names beginning Adal- such as Adalheid which became Adelaide. Or from Old English Eada, meaning prosperous, happy. Or the Latinate variant of Hebrew Adah, meaning adornment. Adah was the wife of Lamech, another Adah the wife of Esau. Ada also has been pressed into service as a pet form of Adele.
A sainted French abbess of the 17th century was Ada. In English-speaking coun-tries, Ada was popular 1875-1900 but rare since. Augusta Ada Byron (1815-52) coun-tess of Lovelace was daughter of English poet Lord Byron. Her mother was into mathe-matics and Ada is supposed to be the first ever computer programmer. In 1980 the U. S. department of defense called its computer language ADA after her.
Ada Evangeline was daughter of Judge Daniel and Margaret Ellen (Macdonell) MacNeil of Cape Breton, N. S. In 1802 Neil MacNeil had come from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to settle in Mabou on Cape Breton Island. A generation ago there already were already around 1,500 descendants. Ada’s dad was known as Hon-ourable Dan for having served several terms as Member for Inverness in the Provincial Legislative Assembly. Ada attended Mount St. Vincent College [later University], then Mount St. Bernard in Antigonish, N. S. She took secretarial courses at St. Patrick’s High School in Halifax, becoming one of the first legal secretaries in the province.
Married to Uncle Tom Wallace (1882-1949) Ada gave birth to 15 children, eight boys and seven girls, and reared this special and happy family mostly in a white, gabled house set back from Chebucto Road in northwest Halifax. In 1973 they celebrated her 90th birthday with 90 of her 96 descendants gathered for festivities. There was always a great grandchild just hanging out with her as I did as a wee nephew 66 years ago.
Ada and Tom were among founders of Rainbow Haven, a summer camp for under-privileged children. I worked with kids there 1946 and was given leave of absence from the Halifax Mail to do likewise the next summer. Ada died in her sleep 9 Jan. 1978. Tom was an optometrist with the slogan: If You Want To See Well, See Wallace. Admirers added: If You Want To See Better, See His Daughters.
ADELE She was the 7th century saint, daughter of Frankish king Dagobert II, who made the name popular in Europe of the early Middle Ages. It’s Germanic, adal meaning noble, and one ingredient of double-element names like Adelheid. William the Conqueror’s youngest daughter Adèle (c.1062-1137) married Stephen of Blois. Her name faded, not to return until a 19th century female role in the Johann Strauss enduring opera Die Fleder-maus. In the 1930s Adele appeared again, this time in pages of novels by Dornford Yates. Adela is the latinate form, Adeline a French diminutive.
Lillian Adele Grace was a tragic, close cousin of my mother Rita and about a year younger. Her father Tom Grace had a fatal heart attack, sprawling across her crib when she was a year old. This was in Halifax on the eve of the 20th century. Adele spent her childhood in the home of my Carew grandparents Frank and Lavinia while her widowed mother was getting established. Adele was reunited in late teens with her mother, my Great Aunt Belle née O’Neill, working widow then ex war nurse who remarried. Wealthy Quaker Ed C. Champion had been a widower with three children, Belle making home for all in Pennsylvania cities including Easton, among others. Ed was “in steel”. Adele killed herself alone in another room fooling with a hand gun she found there. No one could imagine suicide by such an attractive young woman in her late teens. My mother, long a single parent, spoke often of Aunt Belle, and also of Adele with whom she had been close. I, the youngest, was a mere boy content with the buzz of elders talking.
AGATHA This is a latinized version of the Greek name Agathe from the feminine of agothos meaning good. A 3rd century Sicilian virgin had a widespread cult. She rejected the Roman governor’s advances and so was viciously tortured. The name Agathe is found frequently in Christian inscriptions of the Roman Empire. Judging from several surnames that spun off, it was well used in medieval times but declined thereafter. It did revive at the end of the 19th century.
Agatha Christie (1891-1975) that tireless scribbler of detective yarns spread the name, but to our branch of the family Mary Agatha “Minnie” (Hart) Gifford is recalled. My Dad’s first cousin, she brought him up to date 1967 Ottawa on ancestral Wallaces and Harts of Ontario. I vaguely remember clear-eyed, strong-jawed little Minnie on
her visit. Fortunately Dad wrote it all down and shared what he’d learned with a few other privileged Maritime Wallaces, including me.
AGNES From the adjective (h)agnos pure, chaste came the Greek name (h)agne, then Latin Agnes, French Agnes both accented differently, and finally an English Agnes. There were further developments: in addition to losing the -h- in Greek, early in Roman times the -g- was silenced in speech and often in writing. So, pronouncing the -g- is a fairly modern restoration.
Agnes was the name of a young Roman virgin; martyred 304 when 13, the year after the Dalmation, Emperor Diocletian, began persecutions of Christians. Her cult was widespread nor was it long before her name became associated with Latin agnus for “lamb” leading to her being shown in art accompanied by one. Margaret Visser has de-voted a remarkable book to the church of Sant Agnese fuori del Mura, St. Agnes Outside the Walls. The Middle Ages had other saints and prominent holy women of the name.
The initial dropping of the -h- in Greek, and the -g- off and on in later tongues, mean variants of Agnes as first names and surnames are considerable, just a couple being Anne and Annis. Aigneis is Irish.
In the 17th century, names of non-scriptural saints began to be avoided. Revived in the 19th, Agnes’ loyal following dwindled to Scottish parents who, by the 20th were even reversing it to Senga! Will it gain new life for being the birth name of Mother Teresa (1910-97)? Pet forms vary from Aggie to Nesta (Welsh) and Agneta (mostly Scandinav-ian). The Portuguese form Inez is familiar among English. However, Anice and Anis[e] may occasionally evoke Greek Anysia, another Christian martyr whose name means fulfilment, completion.
Agnes Campbell Macphail was the only woman elected to Canada’s House of Commons 6 Dec. 1921 in the first federal election giving women the vote. Twice in the ‘40s she sat in the Ontario legislature. As the first woman a part of a Canadian delega-tion to the League of Nations she insisted on going to the disarmament committee. A recognizable feminist of her time, she d. 1954 just before her appointment as senator could be announced.
Two of Cousin Frank Wallace’s sisters bear Agnes, Nora Agnes (Wallace) Allin b. 1930 and Helen “Honey” (Sister Francis Agnes) Wallace b. 1928. They hearken back to Aunt Dot, Theresa Agnes Mae (Granville) Wallace (1896-1927) Uncle Joe’s first wife. All three were born in Halifax. And there’s Mary Agnes (Small) Dool b. 1957 London, Ont. My wife’s beautiful niece once worked in a kibbutz, is with her own family in B. C.
ALANNAH Although some consider it a recent coinage, priority in origin must go to Anglo-Irish term of endearment alannah (Gaelic a leanbh, O Child). Alternate spellings Alana and Alanna match in frequency. The speculations go on: was the name influenced by such Hebrew-origin names as Hannah and Susannah? Anyway in Hawaiian, alanna means light and airy.
Some experts plump for the recent coinage Alana, a latinate feminine form of Alan, the latter of ancient Celtic origin but uncertain derivation. It can mean noble or a Celtic deity brother of Bran. The Welsh had Alawn, harmony. At least in Scotland Alana is from Alan. As feminine form of Alan, it spreads slowly in modern times. For that matter Alana isn’t a common name. See also Allen/Allin.
However Irish and other Scots think Alan is from Aillen, diminutive of ailill, “spirit, elf”. This has been jumbled with Breton Alain, supposedly formed from ail, a word meaning rock. Bretons accompanying the conquering Normans brought it to Eng-land. Alan Fergeant, count of Brittany, was rewarded with estates in various English parts. Alun of Dyfed is a character several times mentioned in passing in the Welsh tale Mabinogi. It is both a river and a regional name in Wales and sometimes spelled Alyn. An Alan was one who belonged to a Scythian tribe, or was a Welsh-Breton saint, or a bishop of Quimper. Alan-a-Dale is involved with Robin Hood. Early Breton stem Alamn- suggests it came from Germanic tribal Ale-mann “all men” as in French allemand for a German.
So put your money on Ronan Coghlan from Irish Christian Names: vocative case a leanbh “O Child”. In the 1970s black American parents were starting to favour Alana. Alannah Theresa Carew Wallace b. 1992 Vancouver is our oldest daughter Marita’s win-some child who promises all good qualities revealed above. A feisty T-baller, “Lana throws a mean baseball”, reports her proud mother.
ALEXANDER A pile of boulders rimming a hilltop in the arid Middle East. The Local replies to raised eyebrow: ”Eskander”, for they have very long memories over there as we peacekeepers know. But we’re talking 2,300 years and more! Alexander III the Great (356-323 B.C.) after tidying things up in Macedonia and Greece crossed into Asia with 40,000 men to further his murdered father’s plan of freeing Ionian Greek cities. But he went on to conquer Persia, invade Central Asia, penetrate northeast India, and took Gaza and Egypt where I intermittently publicized our UN peacekeepers in the cooler months of 1966-67. A scatter of names remains to remind us: Eskander (Arabic) Iskander (Ethi-opian) Sikander (Hindi).
Archeologists just found an alabaster road leading to a temple combining cultures of Greece and locals in southern Tajikistan across the Pyandzh River from Afghanistan. That’s more interesting than the pile of humble soldier rocks atop a hill that I first men-tioned. However the dig in the former Soviet republic remains uncompleted for lack of money.
Alexander, aged 33, died after 11 days of fever 323 B.C. in Babylon, lord of most of the known ancient world but with yet more goals unattained. The New England Jour-nal of Medicine carried an article mid-1998 saying it was typhoid fever. Researchers from the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and historians combined for this latest theory. Alcohol or arsenic or blood poisoning, an inflamed pancreas, and malaria have been prior speculations. He boozed it up with the troops to help keep them on side.
The Encyclopedia of Military Biography is full of superlatives for his strategy and tactics as well as grasp of irregular warfare on mountain and plain. He led men through more than two decades of almost continuous campaigning with inspiring suc-cesses to become “one of the Great Captains” of world history. But the City of Alex-andria was arguably his greatest legacy.
Saint Aleksandr
In the great Viking expansions, which saw Norse longboats invading parts of Scotland, Ireland, England and France, they were also penetrating deep down rivers of Russia. In 862 Ruric the Swede founded Novgorod as a principality and so a Norse dynasty grew in northwest Russia among subjugated Slavs. Those Swedes were the Rhos, “rowers”; the area they occupied, the land of the rowers, ergo, Russia. Novgorod lies on the Volkhov River north of Lake Ilmen and southeast of St. Petersburg, yester-year’s Leningrad.
Alexander means defender of men in Greek and perhaps in this sense it applies to Alexander Nevsky (1220-63) Russian grand duke. He defeated the Swedes on the Neva River in 1240 but acted the opposite with other invaders. He co-operated with Tatars to save his people from certain ruin. Eventually he was recognized a national hero and canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. No less than Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed the score for the movie Alexander Nevsky that debuted 1938. Watch for it on TV History Channel. His menacing music was organized in suites later for concert play underscoring the dread anticipation of battle; heavily-armoured Teutonic knights breaking through the ice of Lake Piepus in 1245; and a Slavic triumph, all described in large, bold sound. Ignore a script geared to 10-year-olds.
Certainly there was no lack of early Saints Alexander, one being crucified. A soldier of the name tried to save the life of a condemned saint 313 by exchanging clothes. Both were tortured and burned to death. Alexander (c.244-340) Patriarch of Constan-tinople opposed Arianism but was ordered by the emperor to find a church post for Arius. It was said Alexander prayed Lord it’s either Arius or me so Arius obligingly died the day before he was to be officially received.
Alexander I (1777-1825) was czar when Napoleon led his army to Moscow only to have it hacked up by harrying defenders and finished off by the Russian winter. Add the Russian diminutive Sasha for the name Alexandr.
Sandy Monarchs
Queen Margaret, consort of Malcolm III who reigned 1058-93 introduced the fore-name to Scotland. One of her sons ruled as Alexander I. Alexander III (1241-86) in Battle of Largs 1263 defeated an army led by King Haakon IV of Norway who retreated to the Orkneys and died. Viking expansion was shrinking as Celts recovered the Hebrides and Isle of Man. The MacAlexander family linked up chiefly with Macdonalds and MacAlis-ters. The prefix Mac dropped off by the end of the 17th century. Along with three Scottish kings the name grew so popular that the pet version Sandy became a generic label for any Scot. Proper Scottish forms are Alasdair, Alistair.
All those blondes make obvious that old Scandinavian strain in outer islands of Scotland and in big patches of its mainland. Scots Gaelic [pronounced gallic there] differs from Irish Gaelic [pronounced gaylic] because of Norse. This despite Irish being unwill-ing hosts to “Black” [Norwegian] and “White” [Danish] invaders almost a thousand years ago, many of whom came to stay. In fact, the Irish name Doyle comes from dubhghall meaning a dark foreigner assumed to be Norseman. Alexander had no less than 14 syno-nyms on birth records in Ulster early last century and in Irish Gaelic it’s most frequently Alastar.
Nova Scotia came into being 1621, James I granting from a much larger territory than today to Sir William Alexander of Menstrie, 1st earl of Stirling (c. 1567-1640). This plus cession of New France released a flood of Scots that formed glue for colony and nation. [See Ross]. At school in Nova Scotia we dutifully howled endless verses to the tune of Darling Clementine, beginning:
At tha co-ort of James of England
Lived a no-o-ble Scottish knight
Named Sir Will-yum Alexa-ander
Who had fa-awtt in many a fight.
As well as saints and martyrs, no less than eight popes have borne the name in one of its many forms. Alexander Macmillan (1818-96) with brother Daniel started up a bookstore 1843 Cambridge, England, ending with one of the world’s largest publishing houses. My Macmillan Encyclopedia was valued for its Old Country perspective. Sir Alec Guiness (1914-2000) was a younger member of Great Britain’s golden age of actors and performed seven decades. He played Richard III under canvas 1953 to help open Ontario’s Stratford Festival.
The first person to make it overland across North America to the Pacific was Alexander Mackenzie, explorer and partner in the North West Company of fur traders. He d. 1820. Three fur trading posts of Western Canada were called either Alexandria or Alexander.
Lt. Alexander Roberts Dunn b. 1833 York, Upper Canada, 11th Hussar subaltern took part in the charge of the Light Brigade 1854 in Crimea’s Balaclava. Unhorsed, he emptied his pistol at Russian foes and saved two comrades with his sword. Only 195 light cavalrymen were present for roll call that night, most of them maimed. He was the first Canadian to win the British Empire’s highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross and in 1864 youngest to make colonel in the British army. Dunn d. 1868 Abyssinia while commanding troops there. Canadian peacekeepers 2001 found and repaired his scavenged gravesite in arid Eritrea. A move got underway to bring his remains back to Canada for Oct. 25, the 150th anniversary of the fateful Crimean charge.
Alexander Graham Bell’s experimental hydrofoil developed at Baddeck, N. S., reached a world speed record of 122 kilometres an hour on Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lakes 9 Sept. 1919. The Canadian Navy experimented with hydrofoils in the Cold War.
Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge, earl of Athlone, was the royal family’s second governor general for Canada 1940-46. Earl Alexander of Tunis, Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander (1891-1969) was our much-liked last British governor-general 1946-52. Canadians had served under him in the Second World War’s Italian campaign. Asked by a news reporter in Canada how to pre-pare for public life he replied forthwith, “Have a pee every chance you get.”
Alexandre in 1966 was one of the top three names for boys in francophone Que-bec. Alexandria in mid-Glengarry County, Ont., is a diocesan seat with a cathedral named St. Finnan. The town honours Right Reverend Alexander Macdonnell, first Roman Cath-olic bishop of Upper Canada. William John Alexander (1855-1944) wrote school texts and anthologies. He was educated at universities of Toronto, Johns Hopkins and Berlin.
William Alexander Stanislaus Rothery b. 1948 Vancouver, Ottawa husband of our #3 daughter Caroline; and Edward Alexander Paul Szakowski b. 1953 Ottawa, son-in-law of Cousin Bernie Granville, prove Nevsky is not forgotten in the New World.
ALEXIS A name for boy or girl, Alexis is a variant of Latin spellings of Greek Alexios. That in turn is short for some compound personal names derived from Greek alexein, to defend. St. Alexius of Edessa was a 5th century worthy the Orthodox Church called a “man of God”. More secular and more contemporary was Alexis Smith, actress.
Some parents think it a short form of Alexandra and you’ll find more girls called Alexis these days than boys. Shannon Alexis Rothery b. 1976 is Bill Rothery’s daughter from previous marriage. He’s husband of our #3 daughter Caroline.
ALFRED Like Edward, Alfred is among very few Old English names to spread widely on the European continent. As Aelfraed meaning elf counsel this name was quite common in England before 1066. There was a revival there during the 19th century of names belong-ing to historical people pre Norman Conquest. Still, as a surname it remains rare except when found in numerous Norman and Latin versions of Alfred the Great’s name that have come down to us, e.g. Al[l]ured.
King Alfred of Wessex 871-99 prevented Danes from taking over all of England and his name endures. His was the final kingdom Norsemen had to overcome and he was for a time reduced to guerrilla warfare. Arthur Bryant noted that Alfred through pay-offs managed to buy time to get a militia system going and an army of semi professionals in the field. Averse to towns Saxons may have been, but Alfred founded some 25 fortified places, burhs, to support the war effort, and built a navy of longboats bigger than the invader’s to guard his coastlines.
After two generations of strife West Saxons held a ruined country of wrecked farms, destroyed churches and monasteries, a people sunk in ignorance and squalor. Dog-ged in defence Alfred was determined in recovery, setting about educating his subjects using almost half his revenue. The next generation was unique in western Europe for its literate lay nobility. Alfred worked with his craftsmen and also on his Latin, translating to the vernacular texts which he chose himself. Old English literature was fostered and a code of law emerged. For all these as much as his military results he is known as The Great, only English monarch so recognized.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92) Great Britain’s poet laureate and the rhymer of the Victorian Age, put additional cultured gloss on this name. Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-96) Swedish inventor of dynamite and smokeless gunpowder who also found a mix to transport explosive liquid nitroglycerin safely left a huge bequest to found annual No-bel prizes in five categories, a six being added later.
French army captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was framed 1894 as selling secrets to Germany. He was exiled to an infamous French prison colony on tiny Devil’s Island in the Caribbean. Author Emile Zola wrote J’Accuse 1898 defending him. How-ever, Dreyfus was cleared 1906 after a 12-year controversy reeking of anti-Semitism.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) gained fame for thriller movies. Polish-born Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) was of a scale with the tiny Leica he favoured as one of four original photojournalists for Life magazine. That was Eisie’s picture of a sailor kiss-ing a nurse in Times Square, New York, on V. J. Day. He made 86 covers and 2,500 picture stories because as soon as this little man had an idle moment he’d hang around editors harrumphing and scowling until they sent him off again.
Alfred Bessette (1845-1937) was our humble and pious lay Brother Andre who built the famous shrine to St-Joseph on Mont-Royal where supplicants received cures. Alfred is the Prescott County village in Ontario named for the princely son of King George III. The population is nearly 100 per cent francophone bordering as it does on La Belle Province. [Quebec teachers in federal government French languages classes grinned in gleeful malice as I dead-panned that Alfred was the seat of franco-ontarien culture.]
Alfred Wellington Purdy (1918-2000) six-foot-three came off a farm near Trenton, Ont. He wrote 33 books of poetry plus prose. Poet Dennis Lee said: “He broke with the old colonial mode of poetry and recast our imagination, so that it seems perfectly rooted in the place we occupy. No one else in English-Canadian poetry had really done that.”
Alfred Carl Fuller, a Nova Scotian who became the Fuller Brush Man throughout much of the Continent, symbolized a legion of door to door salesmen at a time when wives still stayed home to rear families. He died 4 Dec. 1973 age 88. In Halifax a slight Belgian-Canadian was my wife’s outstanding Fuller Brush Man. He even took pains to carve-code toothbrushes so that our stair-step family wouldn’t mix ‘em up.
In the end, who wants to be called Alfie? Not Lt.-Col Alfred John Hallisey USAF ret’d, b. 1930, Cousin Anne’s husband in Halifax goes by Jack.
ALLEGRA This is the jaunty first name of #2 daughter of Cecily, in turn our #5 daughter and 9th child, and husband John Harder in Ottawa. It precedes others given her that pay deference to those of Eastern and Western Canada who have gone before. Allegra Patricia Carew Wallace Harder was b. 22 April 2002 in Ottawa Hospital. Alegria is a Spanish word for happiness, joy. Allegra is the feminine Italian form for gay and jaunty. Both came from the Latin root alacrem whose adjective alecer means lively, brisk, quick, eager, active and cheerful. Some of these qualities infant Allegra demonstrated vigorously while still in Cecily’s womb! When she emerged a week late she was 8 lb. 14 oz. The great poet John Milton (1608-74) was first to use allegro in English to mean someone lively and gay. From 1721 it has been also the musical tempo calling for a rendition brisk and lively. That a woman named Allegra Kent became a ballerina is hardly surprising.
ALICE The Old German monickers Adalheidis [Adalhaidis] and Adalhestas, of noble kind/sort, became modern Adelaide. Alice evolved from Old French versions Alis, Aalis, Adalis. The earliest example is a 7thcentury inscription in France. In Britain of the 12th century lived Alis, Alys, Adeliz, Alicia and so on. Alice was heroine in one of England’s most appealing medieval lyrics. Don’t forget Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and her crony, and Carpenter’s wanton wife. However, saintly Alices included one at Canterbury and another on the Continent as well as other women of notable devotion to God.
There are more than a dozen variants and the pet form Alison can also be the sur-name “son of Alice/Alan”. So the name certainly was common in the Middle Ages but waned appreciably from the 18th century. Lord Lytton’s novel Alice (1838) began its revival, and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1872) hoisted it near the top. His child friend Alice Liddell, daughter of the dean of Christ Church, Oxford, gave him inspiration for the character. However one Alice Steb-bins Wells of Los Angeles claimed 1910 to be first female cop in the world.
Inspiring many women is Alice Munro b. 1931 Wingham, Ont., novelist, world class short story writer who was 1999 U.S. National Book Critics Circle fiction award winner for her collection The Love of a Good Woman.
By the 1930s this name was out of fashion, replaced by Alison. Latinized Alicia in the 1970s was chosen more than Alice. There’s a claim that Alice comes actually from Greek Alethia, truthful one, which may not be the truth at all. Alice “Aunt Allie” (Hart) O’Connor (1839-1927) was a sister-in-law of my Great Grandfather John Wallace of Oshawa, Ont. Did that make her a noble sort as her name indicated? At any rate our O’Connor relations were worthy people.
When a putt stops short of the hole nowadays, golfers of both sexes admonish: “Hit the ball, Alice!” Best-ever golfer, and course designer Jack Nicklaus calls a steep bunker Aunt Alice since this imaginary golfing lady lacks the strength to hit out of one. Father/son English golf professionals of international stature bear the surname Alliss, late père having been a pro in Berlin: son Peter, retired European tourer, provides BBC and ABC networks with humorous, pithy colour commentary.
ALLEN/ALLIN The latter is an occasional modern spelling variant of Alan. Gaelic scho-lars have confused matters forever by linking it up with two sources. In Scotland and Ire-land it is deemed to be from the Gaelic name Aillen, from alill “spirit”. And at times O hAillin has been anglicized Allen in Offaly and Tipperary counties of Ireland. The Breton name Alain, believed the diminutive of a word meaning rock, was brought to England with the 1066 Conquest by Alan, count of Brittany. Another Breton, Blessed Alan de la Roche d. 1475, really got rosary devotion going. At any rate Al[l]ain, Alan became common in those considerable packets of English territory a grateful William lavished upon his Breton followers. It ranked eighth in Lincolnshire in the 12th century, equal to Simon and more frequent than Henry. For discussion of early Alans see also Alannah.
Alan is the normal British form, Alun in Wales, Allan in Scotland and North Ame-rica, and Allen in the USA. Allin is rare. Ethen Allen was captured 1775 making a rash move on Montreal instead of waiting for the Army of the Continental Congress to catch up. He was in English prison three years. Further discussion of Alan occurs under Alan-nah [which see]. Notwithstanding, the popularity of Alan in the Middle Ages is shown by its variety of surnames. American astronaut Alan Shepard had a six iron head fixed to a tool for scooping lunar soil and swacked a couple of golf balls out there on the moon during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. The balls are still up there but the club is displayed at the U. S. Golf Association headquarters. Back on earth, a 1975 count in Ireland showed that parents there were making good use of Alan as a first name. The form Allin is the surname of my Cousin Agnes Wallace’s former husband.
Allen is generally a surname in England but just as often a given name in North America. Worth remembering is Sir John Campbell Allen (1817-78) so strongly opposed to Confederation that he joined Hon. Albert J. Smith in voyaging to England in 1865 to present New Brunswick’s objections, in vain. He bit the bullet and served as chief justice of N. B. 1875-96.
On a crasser level, Allen Funt d. 1999 aged 84, creator and host of TV’s Candid Camera, a program on the go since ‘48. And, wouldn’t you know, son Peter stepped into daddy’s shoes as host. Woody Allen b. Allin Konigsburg 1935 Brooklyn, N. Y., won Academy Awards for movies Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters. Scandal erupted in the courts about a child custody issue with #2 wife Mia Farrow over an adopted daughter he wound up marrying anyway.
Gerry Allen Forget b. 1969 Ottawa is #2 brother of Debbie, wife of our #3 son Christopher.
ALLISON This was the Norman-French pet form of Alice that you might consult as well. Alison, which came to mean of sacred memory, was very popular in the Middle Ages [see Chaucer c.1386] the Normans having brought it over, but this name nearly wore out by the 15th century. Recognized as a sept of the MacAlisters or the MacDonalds are some Allisons but the source of their name is disputed. Most say it came out of Son of Alice, or Ellis, the latter a synonym of Elias. Perhaps the ancestor of the family was a son of Alexander MacAlister of Loup who went to Lanarkshire during hostilities against the English and changed his name to Allison. Allison did survive in Scotland, also as Ellison. There is English documentation 1296 of Patrick Alissone and in 1490 Peter Aleson. As a forename it was revived among the English in the 20th century. Alison has also been alleged to be the Irish Gaelic Allsun “Little truthful one” presumably by later absorption.
Allison is the preferred spelling in North America with parentage usually but not always of Scottish origin. Alison has begot a litter of pet forms in Alie, Allie, Ali, Ally, Lissie and Lissy; so we have Ali McGraw and Ally Sheedy, actresses.
Allison “Allie” Walzak b.1986 London, Ont., is my wife’s grandniece, #2 of four daughters of Cecilia Ann Small that was. The family headed west in 1998 because pater Tim transferred his professorial skills from University of Western Ontario to University of Victoria.
ANASTASIA This is the feminine of Greek Anastasios from anastasis “resurrection”. Popular in Eastern Europe the name honours a 4th century martyr at Sirmium in Dalmatia. Anastasia Nikolayevna (1901-?18) youngest daughter of Csar Nicholas II, last of the Russian caesars, is generally believed to have been murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries with the rest of her immediate family. Nevertheless, since 1920 several women have come forth claiming to be Anastasia. 20th Century Fox put out Academy Award winning Anastasia 1966 about a contender in 1920 Germany starring Ingrid Bergman (1915-82). As we speak, a $65 million animated movie Anastasia, three stars if you don’t know any history, is going the rounds from Fox.
With the Red Soviet grip enduring for three quarters of the 20th century in Russia and penniless former aristocrat refugees in Paris, London, New York and wherever, what earthly benefit would accrue to a successful claimant besides recognition of an identity? But a sense of identity perhaps never has been so important as it is today.
In 1991 a mass grave near Yekaterinburg in the Urals was dug up and through gene tests the remains of Csar Nicholas Romanov, Csarina Alexandra and three of their daugh-ters were confirmed. The bodies of the two youngest, their son Czarevich Alexei and their daughter Grand Duchess Maria, had been disposed of by acid and flame it is believed, and Alexander Avdonin who had found the mass grave, claimed he knew where the other remains are. A report out of Russia 21 Oct. 1998, said their bones have been discovered along with jewels. The imperial couple and three older daughters then were been placed in a vault of Saints Peter & Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg. To complicate matters, a team from Stanford University in 2004 disputed those British DNA tests, putting Russians controlling the samples under suspicion.
The royal family along with hundreds of Christians murdered by Bolsheviks were canonized 14 Aug. 2000 by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanovs more for “meekness, patience and humility” after stepping down 1917 and facing execution the following year than for how Czar Nicholas had ruled.
One Anastasia candidate died on the eve of reliable DNA testing but this was not over yet. A severed finger and vials of congealed fat were said held by Russian church authorities. After 90 years of speculation DNA confirmed that the remains of Nicholas II’s entire family have been accounted for according to Russian investigators 16 July 2008. The survivor myth thus was finally laid to rest.
The name is infrequently but steadily used in the West: Anastase [French] Anastagio [Italian] Anastasio [Spanish] Anastasi [Basque]. The pet forms Stacy and Stacey have really taken off of late in our informal North American culture. Anastasia Marie Szakowski b. 1986 Ottawa is my cousin Bernard Granville’s granddaughter, her mother his younger daughter Frania.
ANDERSEN Anders is Swedish and, infrequently, a Scottish form of Andrew but the surname Anderson is used more often as a first name than Anders. In the Lowlands of Scotland Anderson is supposed to mean Servant of St. Andrew rather than Son of An-drew and this is especially so in the Aberdeen region. The Gaelic equivalent is Mac An-drea, son of Andrew; but Gilleandrais, which becomes Gillanders, means St. Andrew’s servant. Back in misty time a noted archer was Iain beag MacAndrea.
The Clan Ross, whose once powerful earls of Ross our Munros served, is called Clann Andreas in Gaelic and incorporates both Anderson and Andrew families along with Gillanders. However, MacAndrew is additionally a sept in Clan Macintosh as part of Clan Chattan, “the cat” confederacy, since 1500, while another sept wears tartan of MacDonnel of Glengarry, not Anderson check. Andersons and Highland MacAndrews are considered a clan in combination, their Gaelic name duly recorded as Mac Ghille An-dreas. Anderson is one of the more numerous “English” names in Ireland, mainly in northeast Ulster.
It was the Swede Anders Celsius (1701-44) who in 1772 gave us our temperature scale. This astronomer built Sweden’s first observatory and identified an aurora borealis effect on compasses.
Andersons over here traded for fur, explored and wrote down their experiences. David Anderson (1814-85) was roving Church of England bishop of sprawling Rupert’s Land 1849-64. James Thomas Milton Anderson (1878-1946), educator, was premier of Saskatchewan 1929-34 as the Prairies turned into a dust bowl. Admiral Sir David Murray Anderson, son of a British general, was governor of Newfoundland 1933-36 during which the constitution was suspended and he took over in 1934 a commission government that replaced the legislature. That dominion had gone broke. He died 1936 while governor of New South Wales, Down Under.
Baywatch then V. I. P. actress and former Playboy model Ms. Pamela (Anderson) Lee b. 1 July 1967 Ladysmith, B. C., is a dyed-blonde Barbie doll who claimed she’s hav-ing her world-famous surgically enhanced bosom reduced. She’s also award-winning advocate of ending fur in fashion. The former Mrs. Tommy Lee is engaged to rap-rock-star Kid Rock. She’s elated and apparently not yet deflated.
R. H. Anderson (1821-79) and Robert Anderson (1805-71) were Confederate and Union generals respectively in the American civil war. American Carl David Anderson (1905-91) discovered positron 1932, first known particle of antimatter. He and Austrian V. F. Hess won the 1936 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Randolph Andersen b. 1945, my niece Gillian Hanington’s first husband and father of 31-year-old daughter Kirsten, is a Hoosier of Nordic stock now in Washington, D.C., grey beard and all. He was affability itself to Canadian naval connections through marriage despite ‘60s street smarts and peace preoccupations. All this stuff about clans would not hassle Randy.
ANDREW Andraeus, latinized from the Greek and meaning manly was a fitting name for Christ’s first disciple. He was a follower of John the Baptist who sent him on to Jesus. Andrew brought along his brother Peter. Fishers from Bethesda in Galilee [remember their enormous catch?] Christ made them fishers of men. Andrew’s “Acts” were going the rounds as early as mid-2nd century but we must rely on later rewrites. Tradition had Andrew teaching in Asia Minor, Macedonia and South Russia but martyred in Patras, Acaia, about 70 A.D. He was crucified on an X-shape cross, his symbol.
As patron saint of Scotland [and Russia] his cross became the Celtic country’s flag and is also incorporated in the flag of Nova Scotia. On the Union Jack of the United Kingdom, St. Andrew’s cross is combined with those of Saints George and Patrick. The feast day is Nov. 30. Another St. Andrew was an archbishop in Crete and in Jerusalem c.650-732. The Eastern Church still sings many of the hymns he composed. Three An-drews have been kings of Hungary and another, king of Naples. A recent martyr is Andrew Kim, first Korean priest, caught up in persecutions there 1839-67.
As a given name Andrew is popular and widespread in Scotland and the surname in Cornwall and Devon. St. Andrew’s bones were brought to Scotland by St. Regulus, it is said, and placed in St. Andrew’s University, second oldest university in the British Isles. A discussion of the name in relation to the clans is found under Anderson. Mac Aindriu is a patronymic adopted by some Barretts in Ireland. Andrew[e] for FitzAn-drew appeared often in Irish medieval records and now makes a synonym in Dublin county.
Columns standing in Rockeries Park, Rockcliffe Village, Ont., recall a public lib-rary opened 1906 on Ottawa’s Metcalfe St., half of whose cost was donated by tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919). This Scots-American amassed a fortune in steel, sold his corporation to J. P. Morgan 1901 for $400 million and then spent most of it endowing educational institutions and libraries on both sides of the Atlantic. His was first of great U. S. foundations for scholarly and charitable causes. “There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the free public library, this republic of letters where neither rank, office nor wealth receives the slightest consider-ation,” declared he. That Ottawa downtown building was replaced early in the ‘70s and needs in turn to be replaced to meet population expansion.
Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923) b. Kingston, New Brunswick, was the only “colonial” ever to be prime minister of England 1922-23 and, yessiree; he’d had a hitch as colonial secretary ‘15-16. “If I am a great man, then all great men are frauds,” said he.
Andrew Charles Mynarski (1916-44) tried to rescue in vain a trapped rear gunner in a hit and burning Lancaster bomber on the night of 12 June 1944 over Cambrai. His own clothing and parachute caught fire. French on the ground saw his flaming descent and found him. He d. from burns while the rear gunner miraculously escaped death in the plane crash. Winnipeg native Andy Mynarski was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross, prime recognition of the British Commonwealth for valour.
We have David Andrew Smith b. 1953 Ottawa, our #2 daughter Catherine’s second spouse, and Andrew Craig Hanington b.1971 Halifax to my nephew Mark. André Fayad of Ottawa is brother-in-law of our #5 son Matthew.
ANGELA “Church” Latin and “New Testament” Greek are designations one might ex-pect from certain university circles. I well recall stumbling in Grade XI through orations of my Protestant teacher’s “Kickeroo” in so-called Oxford Latin. I abandoned that Ox-ford academic jabber in senior matricultion year. Oxonian treatment of classical Latin was so vitiosa! Adventurer and linguist Sir Richard Burton spoke “Roman” Latin when exam-ined at Oxford and failed it. His biographer Fawn M. Brodie wrote that Oxford Latin was a remnant of an old distinction between Protestants and Catholics…The true Roman Latin pronunciation would eventually be adopted in all British schools….” For more discussion about Latin in England see Of Tongues item early in this Catalogue.
Angelos meant messenger and angelus angel; thus we get the “specialized mean-ing” messenger of God, i.e., an angel. Christians [Roman Catholics more than others], Jews and Muslims – all People of The Book – believe in guardian angels. Scripture men-tions by name four of the seven archangels. St. Dionysius the Aeropagite in the 5th century codified the hierarchy of angels as, in descending order, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. If you have further questions, read his book. The Jews haven’t a fixed classification but Islam traditionally includes two angels per person, the one on the right recording good deeds whereas the poor bugger on the left has to keep abreast of all transgressions. This notion has spread.
Zoroastrian concepts of angels influenced Gnostic and Manichaeistic theologies. For literature on angels, read Paradise Lost by John Milton (1606-74) and The Divine Comedy by Aligheri Dante (1265-1321) the latter having established Tuscan as the literary language of Italy. There are numerous translations of these must-reads.
Reaney & Wilson record Warinus Angelus from 1193 and Ralph Angel from 1221 saying they are a nickname from Old French angele and Latin angelus, messenger, angel. St. Angela of Foligno, Italy (1248-1309) was a great mystic. St. Angela Merici b. 1470 began the Ursulines, first teaching order of the Church 1535. She was chosen their superior for the last years of her life, which turned out to be five. Nicknaming mentioned a bit earlier came from someone playing that part in a religious play in the Middle Ages only to have the name Angel[l] stick; or to flatter the virtuous and be sarcastic about an-other obviously less so. Also in those low-literacy days it was an invaluable sign name: “Meet me at the Sign of the Angel” Inn, etc. In Britain, Angell is by far the commoner surname, although one Thos. Angell emigrated to Boston in 1631 only to have Angels. But, hey, in Basque it’s Gotson! French say Angele, the Irish, Aingeal. Nor should we forget Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli elected Pope John XXIII 1958 when 77. This caretaker pontiff proved a breath of fresh air before dying 1963 of stomach cancer.
Angela is a coinage from the 18th century and, by the 19th, Angelina was preferred. But Angela was back in front in the 20th. We have Angela Turner b. 1980 London, Ont., the wife’s grandniece and #1 daughter of Joan Margaret (Small) Turner, niece. We two enjoyed the sonorous name Angelina Kropolnicki, brother-in-law Doug French’s tiny first wife, earlier in Winnipeg and of late with daughter Leanne in London, Ont.
ANGELINA, see Angela
ANNA/ANN[E] Ann is English for Hebrew Hannah meaning He [God] has favoured me [with a child] all of which has been shortened to the word grace. Apocryphal texts say Anne was the long-childless wife of Joachim to whom an angel announced she would mother a daughter to be honoured by the world. So Anne gave birth to the Virgin Mary and thus is the grandmother of Jesus Christ. She is invoked by women in childbirth, is patron of housewives, and patron saint of Quebec, her shrine of Ste-Anne de Beaupre being one of the most visited in the New World.
There was Anna, mother of Tobias; Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel, and Anna, aged prophetess who hailed the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. In subse-quent history we have Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves, wives of Henry VIII, and Queen Anne (1664-1714). Henry called the latter a Flanders mare and when she agreed to annul-ment, he gave her property and she retired to quiet country living.
Annie Oakley (1860-1926) was a western sharpshooter who toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s show. Perforated passes and tickets began to be called Annie Oakleys for their holes. Little Orphan Annie was a comic strip originating 75 years ago in the New York Daily News that spread and continued half-a-century. The Broadway musical An-nie calved off in 1977 and a movie in ‘82. Cartoon Annie had zeroes for eyes. Annie is middle name of widow Pearl Hook who 1999 married widower John French, my wife’s brother in Edmonton. Pearl Annie is a widow again: John d. in the fall of 2004.
For more than a century Université Ste-Anne, Church Point, Nova Scotia has been a bastion of Acadian culture. See also Evangeline. The former college now with about 350 students, gave Prime Minister Jean Chrétien an honourary doctorate May ’02. Award-winning Anne Claire Poirier b. St-Hyacinthe 1932 pioneered strong films about Canadian women and feminists.
At the close of the 20th century few were around who ever saw Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) prima Russian ballerina [only a crackling, speckled, black & white Russian film for me mid 1940s]. She toured Canada and USA before I was born. Since she used Studebaker courtesy cars over here Pavlowa [sic] visited Dixon’s, an Ottawa dealer, boasted a Citizen ad 1921.
Anna Leonowens (1834-1914) writer b. Wales, d. Montreal was governess 1862 at the court of King Mongkut [Rama IV] of Siam. A stage play Anna and the King of Siam was followed by a movie musical The King and I, and coming to a theatre near you soon is another movie Anna and the King. She founded Victoria School of Design, which became Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. [My #2 sister Rosemary finished a deg-ree there.] Anna Freud (1895-1982) helped her daddy Sigmund and then founded Ham-stead Child Therapy Course and Clinic 1947 London, England. Anna Fisher was first mom in orbit, a mission specialist during a Discovery flight 1984 deploying satellites including Canada’s Anik D-2 [Telesat H] and retrieving a couple of others.
First recorded marriage in the colony of New France was that of Etienne Jonquet and Anne Hebert 23 Nov. 1617. Anne Langton immigrated to Peterborough parts 1837, a spinster who ran her pioneer household and taught neighbour children. She wrote A Gen-tlewoman in Upper Canada, was musician and miniaturist. Anne stuck it out in the bush and died 1893 at 89. She comes to life on today’s stage in The Bush-Ladies, Life in the Backwoods of Upper Canada. Anna Jamieson, art historian, visited for eight months in 1836, journeying and canoeing Upper Canada wilderness and leaving accounts from which the new stage show also draws.
As a first name Ann had been unrecorded until 1200s in England but became one of the more frequently used by the 16th century. In the Middle Ages many Annes were in fact Agnes because its -g- wasn’t sounded and at times not even spelled correctly. The usual 19th-century spelling was Ann but the French style Anne drew ahead in the 20th. Anne Frank died age 14 March 1945 at Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp. While her family was hiding in Amsterdam this Dutch-Jewish girl had kept a touching diary.
Anne Heggtveit b. 1939 Ottawa was first Canuck ever to win a gold in alpine skiing 1960 at Squaw Valley’s Olympics in California. She raked in two world golds there as well, best female skier on the planet.
Pleasing contralto Morna Anne Murray b. 1945 from the coal-mining town of Springhill, N. S., became first Canadian recording artist to achieve a gold record for her hit single Snowbird 1970. Canadian broadcasters had just been forced to up Canadian con-tent so her song took off. No flash in the pan, her single You Needed Me reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in New York City ‘78 and Bluebird was a hit in ’90, among others. She still tours. With the mines closed, left at Springhill are a federal prison, a miner’s museum, the Anne Murray Cultural Centre, and high unemployment.
The Catalogue of Kin reflects a 1960s trend when Anne was much in use as mid-dle name. We only have a couple of first namers and a couple of Ann Maries [one is fran-cophone, the other anglophone], and 10 or so as middle names. Miss Anna Browne (c.1860-1940) from Ireland was the maiden aunt in St. John’s, Newfoundland, who raised my wife’s orphaned dad Doug and three older siblings by taking in piecework sewing. God favoured her with that bunch when both her sister Caroline and husband Patrick French died 1898 St. John’s of influenza.
Madame Mary Anne Carew (1849-1932) of Sacred Heart nuns was oldest daugh-ter of Founding Father Stephen Patrick. The year after I came to Halifax, 1933, my Aunt Kathleen Ann (McKenna) Carew (1897-1995) gave birth to Anne Kathleen whose first years were spent in the lower flat at 125 Cambridge Street. A couple more middle namers are Catherine Anne [we usually say the whole mouthful] (Wallace) Smith, #2 daughter, Ottawa; and Debbie Ann (Forget) Wallace, former daughter-in-law out West. Mrs. Anne Marie Dvorcek, daughter of my wife’s niece Honey Small that was, b. London, Ont., and living in Vancouver, married Patrick 14 May 1999 out there.
ARTHUR More recent speculation about mostly legendary king/general Artorius is that he was a leftover Roman cavalryman rather than some Romanized Brit fighting off Anglo Saxon invaders circa 5/6th centuries. A cavalry type of the Roman occupation was more likely Gaul than Roman native, perhaps even from some Germano-Gallic tribe. But then, near the end of Roman occupation of Britain, the widespread army of the Empire as a whole was fully one-quarter British fighting men.
Sundry Scots localities claim him as do Welsh and English parts since such horse-men were capable of operating afar if you read a map of possible Arthurian battle sites. However, archaeologists revealed “the find of a lifetime” in the drystone ruins of Tintagel Castle high on windswept Cornwall’s coast. A 1930s dig resumed there in ‘98 uncovered a flat stone 35.5 x 51 centimetres bearing the Latin inscription ARTOGNOV which estab-lishes at least that the name was in use during our hero’s time. Another recent and com-pelling claim based on revisited old Welsh writings is that two early Arthurs have been rolled into one. This happens all too frequently in scraps that make up History.
A Welsh author first linked Arthur to Tintagel in the 12th century. Legend also has it that Tintagel’s military base was the birthplace of Arthur. One version has Merlin the magician disguising Arthur’s natural father so that he could enter Tintagel to conceive a duke’s young wife. Another says Merlin found Arthur washed ashore into a cave be-low Tintagel. The dig reveals that this headquarters, regal or at least high-ranking, con-tinued to maintain contact with the Roman Empire after their garrisons pulled out of England 410.
The origin of the name Arthur is just as disputatious. Is it from Celtic artos meaning bear and cognate with Greek Arcturus “bear-guardian” star in the constellation Bootes? Or Welsh Arth-wr “noble one”? An inscriber adds his Bearman was “father of a descendant of Col”. This means that he married a woman whose genealogy included Coel Hen, Old King Cole of nursery school song. More about him under St. Coel Hen. Or does the name emerge from the Irish word art for stone? The first Arthur mentioned in previous records is Irish; a prince killed 596 according to 8th century St. Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba, although in latinized form Artorius, a Roman clan name. And there’s Arn-thor, “Thor the eagle” out of Old Norse. As Artor, Artur, it appears frequently in the Domesday Book. The MacArthur clan originated as a branch of the Campbells, Mac Artair being one of Robert Bruce’s companions-in-arms. In Ireland Arthur is a pre-Norman family of note in Limerick from the 12th century.
Reaney & Wilson note 12/13th century versions but by the 14th this name group was out of fashion. Arthur as given name was resurrected in the 18th century to reach a peak in the 19th. By the way, that -th- spelling is a 16th century development.
Captain [later admiral] Arthur Phillip (1738-1814) was a Londoner in the Royal Navy who fought Portuguese and French. He then transported prisoners to New South Wales 1786. Two years later he started the first permanent settlement on the continent of Australia at Sydney for convicts. Sir George Arthur (1784-1854) 1st Baronet of Up-per Canada, was a severe lieutenant governor until merger of the two Canadas 1841 into one province. Nevertheless this twice-wounded old soldier had a second career governing British colonies little and big in the Caribbean, British North America, Down Under, and in India.
Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King late 1800s had a bearing on popularity of the name Arthur, as did Victorian Era interest in Arthurian legends. Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) Duke of Wellington and victor over Napoleon at Waterloo certainly had given the name a boost. [My Grandfather Wallace’s grandfather fought under Wellington in the Peninsular Wars.] The village of Arthur, Ont., about 40 klicks nor’west of Guelph, Ont., was named for the duke.
Arthur Raymond of Douglas Aircraft was principal designer of the enduring twin-engine workhorse DC-3 still found around the world. The low-wing monoplane was known as Dakota in Commonwealth countries. Durable as his airplane, Raymond d. 22 March 1999 two days short of 100.
Canadian Arthur D. Ganong developed the five-cent chocolate bar 1910 because it was convenient for fishing trips, little realizing a bar would be rated among the ten best happenings ever for kids. He was president of his candy company half a century ending 1957. Ganongs were Huguenot French settlers in the USA then United Empire Loyalists who started making candy 1873 in the New Brunswick border town St. Stephen. They are the only 19th century family in Canada still original owners. Their chocolates are my wife’s favourites.
Arthur William Patrick Albert, third and favorite son of Queen Victoria as His Royal Highness The Duke of Connaught was governor general of Canada 1911-16. As a youth he’d spent a year with 1st Battalion The Rifle Brigade in Montreal in time for an 1870 Fenian raid.
An English immigrant who joined the North West Mounted Police, Arthur Her-bert Richardson (1873-1932), went into Lord Strathcona’s Horse for Canada’s first com-bat venture abroad, the South African War at the cusp of the 19/20th centuries. Sergeant Richardson led almost two-score Strathconas probing ahead of a British formation when they were ambushed by Boers and made off. He galloped back to rescue a wounded cor-poral trapped under a dead horse and for this narrow escape won the Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest award for valour. He disliked accolades, sailed off 1908 to Liver-pool, England, and disappeared from the public eye. Further, he was buried in an un-marked grave.
My father and at least two uncles fought in the Great War under Sir Arthur William Currie (1875-1933) who rose rapidly to lieutenant general and first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps in battlefields of France and Belgium. Uncle Frank Carew was killed in battle; my Dad wounded in No Man’s Land and injured later in the Royal Flying Corps. Uncle Frank Wallace was a quartermaster sergeant in the trenches and pictures in his battalion history show him ever gaunter because of skimpy rations.
Sir Arthur Currie’s words of 27 March 1918 to the Canadian Corps:
“Looking back with pride on the unbroken record of your glorious achievements, asking you to realize that today the fate of the British Empire hangs in the balance, I place my trust in the Canadian Corps, knowing that where Canadians are engaged, there can be no giving way. Under the orders of your devoted officers in the coming battle, you will advance, or fall where you stand, facing the enemy.
“To those who fall, I say: “You will not die, but step into mortality. Your mothers will not lament your fate, but will be proud to have borne such sons. Your names will be revered for ever by your grateful country, and God will take you unto Himself.
“Canadians, in this fateful hour, I command you and I trust you to fight as you have never fought, with all your strength, with all your determination, with all your tranquil courage. On many a hard-fought field of battle, you have overcome this enemy, and with God’s help you shall achieve victory once more.”
[After Russia’s collapse 1917 Germany’s armies from the eastern front had massed on the western front, destroying the British 5th Army. Canada, it has long been said, won its place among world leaders on those battlefields of Europe.]
Once a Tory backroom boy, Pat MacAdam in 1998 resurrected the buzz that U.S. president Chester Arthur was born in Dunham Flats, Lower Canada, in 1829 and not North Fairfield, Vermont, 1830. That’s downright unconstitutional! His Ireland-born daddy had lived in a “blur” of places. Arthur according to MacAdam was a machine politician.
Jack Arthur b. 1889, a top musician became a theatrical director and producer re-lied upon to put on big grandstand shows at the Canadian National Exhibition, then North America’s biggest, in Toronto. In the war he’d put on the Canadian Army Show for which he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. My wife and I took in a C. N. E. sample of Mister Showbusiness at work 1953. Julia Arthur was the stage name of successful Canadian touring actress Ida Lewis (1869-1950).
Clan MacArthur of Scotland has obscure origins but not as descendants of King Arthur. One of early Campbell families of Argyll is most likely culprit. Although The MacArthur supported Bruce; James I (1406-37) executed Chief Iain and seized most clan lands. John MacArthur late18th century became a founding father of Australia.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) had to be fired by peppery U.S. President Harry Truman for being far too big for his boots and the general was politely stone-walled by the political system. “Old soldiers never die: they just fade away,” he declared at a political convention and they took him at his word. Truman’s words were: “I fired MacArthur because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals.”
Boston born Arthur Feidler (1894-1979) was maestro of the Boston Pops for 50 seasons. Its musicians were part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Feidler’s Pops recordings exceeded 50 million sales and he continues the best-selling classical conductor of all time.
British statesman Arthur Balfour (1848-1930) and U.S. broadcaster Art Linklater possibly helped the name but really, since the 1920s, Arthur has dwindled to minor rank. An exception is English-born Arthur Hailey, Royal Air Force war veteran who became a Canadian. He wrote several successful novels with strong aviation themes.
Female forms Artina, Artlette, Artis and Artrice were favoured 1970s by black American families prone to embellishing usual versions of font fare. Arab names flooded many homes due to the Black Muslim movement and in the cusp of 2009/10 North American blacks favour made up names or coy spellings of the regulars.
We have retired Navy commander Arthur Hatheway McDonald b. 1922 Saint John, N.B., my #2 sister Rosemary’s former husband. Junior or Mac, seldom Art, was a salt horse who had more than his fair share of commands at sea before the Navy put his incisive mind to work in intelligence & security. While staff officer (strategy) Mac had wandered the old corridors of Naval Headquarters in typical New Brunswick attire of rumpled tweed sports jacket, slacks and tartan tie, greeting peers all done up in Saville Row suits. One of his quaint sounding early appointments as a brass hat was The Queen’s Harbour Master at Her Majesty’s Canadian Dockyard, Halifax, N. S. Their lawyer son Robin’s middle name is Arthur. More about Mac and Rosie in Kin Tale XLIV. Douglas Arthur Small, b. 1946 London, Ont., is #2 son of my wife’s older sister Kay whose husband and wartime sailor was much admired Frederick Arthur Small b. 1923 Halifax, d. 2000 London.
AUGUSTA The Roman word augustus meaning great/magnificent was made into a title by Roman emperors from Octavian onwards. Augusta was used for their womenfolk, and by early Christian women judging from inscriptions. This is also what Roman occupiers called London. A Latin diminutive was borne by St. Augustine of Hippo, bishop and Doctor of the Church, d. 430. The first archbishop of Canterbury was a 6th century Augustine.
The mother of George III came from Germany thus adorned so her name was well used in 18/19thcentury England. Despite Renaissance German princes and Hanoverians coming to England it remains a rare surname there. Byron addressed several poems to his sister Augusta, and French Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was sculptor of The Kiss. Aug-uste Escoffier (1846-1935) started his kitchen career age 13, cooked for Kaiser Wilhelm II, trained those of the Hamburg-American Line and first-class chefs of the Titanic, then ran kitchens of the Paris Ritz, London’s Savoy and Carleton hotels. Peach melba was among nearly 10,000 recipes that he created.
Lady Isabella Augusta (Persse) Gregory (1852-1932) and poet W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) founded Irish theatre, putting it in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre 1904. She translated Irish mythology into lay English books 1902-04 and also translated Moliere. Bertie Woo-ster, upper class character of humour writer Sir P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse (1881-1975) had incomparable valet Jeeves but also a battleaxe aunt brandishing the name Au-gusta. Chilean General Augusto Pinochet b. 1915 led the military junta that overthrew Marxist President Salvador Allende 1973. To the glee of many, the 85-year-old’s fighting off human rights charges laid in Europe. Contrasting, we have Ruth Augusta (Wallace) Graham b. 1921 Halifax, warm and fun member of the admirable big family of late Uncle Tom and Aunt Ada.
BARBARA Every year without fail on Dec. 4, grizzled gunners gather to dine in honour of, yes, their patron saint, Barbara. Artillerymen all over the world celebrate under her name, whether in the austere comfort of barracks or during “hard lyers” in the field. It’s the same with weapons people afloat and ashore and ground-to-air defenders of air bases.
I am reminded of the first centuries of the last millennium. Soldiers were paid off then and there immediately after a deciding battle. Many banded together to rob and pil-lage the country in which they were thus stranded, usually France. These free companies, usually led by a petty noble’s younger son, were available for legitimate hire, of course, as unruly then as so-called militias today inside regions reduced by war to near anarchy. Or such wanderers looted and burned on their own. All would importune clergy coming into their grasp for prayers of forgiveness; the more elevated the prelate the better. French clerics under their thumb tried to persuade them to move on to Italy for its better pick-ings. Anything to get them out of France.
The name itself bears scrutiny. Nowadays we might comment on a writing we don’t understand with: “This is all Greek to me!” In ancient times the shoe was on the other foot. Greeks back then appeared to have a bad ear for foreign chatter. It sounded like “bar-bar” to them, or so they said. Hence the label barbarian. Barbara is a foreign, i. e, barbarian woman. The name passed on to us via Latin.
What began, it is suspected, purely as a pious fiction in the Greek Church began to take on a life of its own in the Christian West. Ah! Those vivid medievals. The story:
Barbara was the beauteous and virginal daughter of one Dioscorus who secluded her in a tower away from all suitors. Behind his back the little heathen embraced Christianity. On his return from travel he became so wroth he reported her to the Roman authorities. She was condemned; the father accorded the privilege of beheading her with his sword. As Dioscorus lopped her, the heavens lit up and he was struck down, rendered to cinders. This virgin martyrdom supposedly occurred somewhere between c.250 and c.313. But the stories about her differ muchly. There were other Barbaras who renounced power and prestige for lives of prayer.
The Barbara cult did become hugely popular in medieval France. Joining the many interests invoking her as patron were gunners, because of her dad exploding. That is why these somewhat corroded professional combatants continue to quaff toasts and fork in fancier forage on her Day. It helps esprit de corps, this restorative break from all those boredoms of soldiering. Two World Wars have brought Halifax two destructive explo-sions, which at the very least should have inspired erecting a Barbara statue there.
Her impact in England can be measured by the proliferation of surnames of today that early flowed from her name. Barbary, which we tend to equate with Mediterranean pirates, was actually the Middle Ages vernacular as well for Barbara. There are surviving diminutives such as Barbarel[l], Barbe, Barbet[t] and Barbot[te]. The 1086 Domesday Book had a Bernardus Barb of Hampshire but some of those old Barbara variants likely were rooted in Old French barbe for beard. We have Oscar-winning soprano Barbra Strei-sand b. 1942 New York City, aquiline nose unbobbed but briefly showing beauteous boobs in Yentl 1983, which she wrote and produced probably at a loss.
Barbara Ann Scott b. 1928 Ottawa won figure skating gold at St. Moritz 1948 along with numerous Canadian and North American plus European and World champion-ships. She was Canada’s athlete of the year in ’45, 47, and ’48. I met this really nice individual at the Halifax Press Club but we failed to discourage her from flaring her eyes wide every time a camera came near.
Barbara Ann French b. 1954 St. John’s, Newfoundland, is my wife’s niece, only daughter of her oldest, deceased brother Pat. Barbara Johnston b. 1956 London, Ont., wed John Patrick Small my wife’s nephew there. Neither is likely ever to have to track down, let alone sign, a magazine rounds log.
BARNABY This is a by-name of Barnabas, which is the Greek form of an Aramaic name. Apostles gave it to forenamed Joses or Joseph, a Cypriot Levite and uncle of St. Mark. Its meaning is son of prophecy [exhortation?] or consolation. Barnaby was ranked an Apostle himself; and sponsored Saul, the former prosecutor of Christians. He had enough influence in the early Church at Jerusalem to be sent to investigate the Church at Antioch. From there he went to Tarsus and hooked up with Paul the former Saul for a missionary trip to his native Cyprus and to Asia Minor. They fell out with each other over Mark, uncle and nephew returning to Cyprus. By tradition Barnaby is considered founder of the Cypriot Church. I became more aware of this while peace-keeping on this troubled eastern Mediterranean island for five months of 1966-67.
Much is vague about Barnaby after his return to Cyprus. He never rejoined Paul and I wonder if he paid a penalty in early ecclesiastical politics by quarrelling with this ascendant and supposed champion of non-Jewish postulants. Was he founder and first bishop of Milan? Was he martyred at Salamis on Cyprus AD 61? Did he write an epis-tle of 21 chapters as Tertullian and other Christian writers said? Probably, argument goes, they came from a 2nd century Gentile of the Alexandrine Judaistic mould. Bar-naby’s name is on apocryphal Acts and a Gospel and deemed a heavy hitter in the Eastern Church.
On the Old Style calendar his feast day of June 11 was reckoned the longest day of the year, hence its title Long Barnabas. Further, Centurea solstitialus flowered at the time of Long Barnabas and so became known as Barnaby Thistle
The English form Barnaby is found on the records as far back as the 14th century and flourished in the 19th as the Charles Dickens character Barnaby Rudge. Barney, used for short, is actually Old English for barley or barn island. Barney Clark, 61-year-old re-tired dentist from Seattle had a 112-day new lease on life. He was the first to get an arti-ficial heart, 1982 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Surgeon William de Vries and team had Barney open seven hours. In New Brunswick, Barnaby River is a community near Newcastle named for the Indian chief who camped his people at the river mouth. The area came to be settled by Irish immigrants. My Aunt Corinne Wallace originated in the Newcastle region with the Irish surname Lawlor. You must see Francis Lawlor Wallace for meaning of the name.
Barnaby John Wallace is our #4 son. Big and long-muscled in adolescence, he ex-celled at Canadian football and English rugger [captain of each high school team] and was a member of the junior Ontario rugger team beating British Columbia favourites for the national title at 1981 Canada Games. He played on tour in England and returned there as an individual player. Barnaby worked and traveled widely in Canada, then the world for a student placement organization. Then it was Proctor & Gamble in Brussels and Coca Cola in Vienna. In the summer of ‘98, he went to its Atlanta, Georgia, head office as a director. He’d become a father 8 Dec. ‘97 in Vienna, coaching wife during her delivery of Clara Marguerite and of Gavin Daniel 6 July ‘99 Atlanta. While they were going through a painful divorce Barnaby set up a business providing marketing smarts to inventors he knew. More about him is in Kin Tales XX, XXVII, XLVIII.
BART Apart from being a name in its own right, Bart can be short for Bartholomew, Barton or Bartley. Bartholomew stems from Bar Talmai, a name from Hebrew and Ara-maic, which translates son of one abounding in furrows which means a ploughman or far-mer. Biblical scholars say Apostle Bartholomew’s first name was Nathaniel. He is men-tioned in the Gospels and in Acts of the Apostles. He was believed skinned alive in Ar-menia. Bartolomeu Dias d. 1500 was the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. It opened the route to India but this Portuguese navigator called it Cabo Tor-mentoso, a cape of storms. From Bartholomew come the English surnames Bartle and Bartlett, among numerous other diminutives. Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of 300 million Orthodox Christians, paid his first visit to Canada part of May and June 1998. His interest in environmental issues earned him the nickname Green Patriarch.
Barton and Bartley are from Old English, bere tun meaning barley settlement and bart-leah meaning Bart’s meadow. Bartley can also be a late form of Barclay, a Scottish family that came originally from Berkeley, Glos. In Middle English barton meant a de-mesne farm kept for the use of the lord of the manor, the grange for storing his crop. Barton today in the south of England means farmyard. Barley was a widespread crop in England so the place name crops up just about everywhere. Ale joined by beer were staple drinks, Englishmen of medieval times breaking fast normally with bread and ale.
An Irish version of Bartley is Beartlaidh. In Scotland the Bartholomew family is part of Clan MacFarlane; Barclays form a clan of their own. Skilful French Rear-Admiral Jean Bart[h] in 1694 recaptured an Anglo-Dutch convoy made up of captured French vessels loaded with grain. They had been intended originally to help offset a famine in France. He was enobled.
Bart Cassin b. London, Ont., 1960 of Toronto stock is married to Bernadette Small that was of London, my wife’s niece. He’s a quality renovator who stands out in a Small family of very handy men when not off fishing with his two boys Daniel, age14 in 2000 and Luke, 12. Their Caroline is 10.
BASIL Bazileus was Greek for king, basileios for royal. Then came Latin Basilius, French Basile and English Basil or Bassilly. Saint Basil the Great (c.330-79) was bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia, a Doctor of the Church and one of four Fathers of the Greek Church recognized for organizing monastic life in the east. His father, also St. Basil, died 370. He composed the Longer and the Shorter rules followed by Basilian monks, fought simony, and established Nicene orthodoxy over Arian heresy in the Byzantine East.
Basil I the Macedonian (812-86) was an Armenian, actually. This Byzantine emperor expanded his frontiers in successful warring and also cleared the eastern Medi-terranean of Muslim pirates. Basil II the Bulgar Butcher 958-1025 was great, great grand-son of Basil I. Under this successful general and capable emperor Byzantium waxed greatest.
Crusaders brought the name back to England mostly at first as a woman’s given name. Since St. Basil the Great wasn’t all that popular in England and early martyr Basils in the east remained obscure, masculine Basil was only occasional. A variety of surnames have a bay sound as in Bazl, Bazel, Bazely, and Bazeley.
The aromatic herb basil early on was thought antidote to venom from the basilisk snake, which was purely mythical anyway it turns out.
A basilica was a Roman administrative building that Christians converted into places of worship. It is now a category of church with certain rights and privileges, for example, St. Mary’s Basilica in Halifax, the francophone Notre Dame basilica here in Lower Town and St. Patrick’s in the Glebe.
There’ve been three Russian rulers with the equivalent name Vassily. Mystery Man of Europe was Basil Zaharoff (1849-1936) who managed to hide all record of him-self as youth and young man. As Merchant of Death he sold arms to both warring sides, reputedly emerging as one of the world’s richest men.
At an unexalted level in Nova Scotia we had a rule of thumb: Basil was pro-nounced bahzil, Bazil was sounded like bayzle; Basley and all its tribe were Bayzlee. In the Catalogue we have Haligonian Basil St. John Carew (1901-80) my caring Uncle Buz-zy, his priest son of identical name, and Basil Walsh (1927-96) of St. John’s, my wife’s late brother-in-law whose widow Elizabeth died within two years of him.
BATES Bate is long a pet form of the forename Bartholomew as is Bat[t]. A Bate turned up 1275 and again in ’86 on Wakefield Manor records in Yorkshire. Old Norse bati translated as dweller by the fat pasture but it and an Old English version really have more to do with profit, gain and husbandry. If preceded by de or of in the 13th century though, that good pasture sense is back.
Bates means son of Bate and is a frequent surname in the English Midlands. In Ireland documents since the mid-17th century, Bates now is numerous in Dublin and the north of Ulster. Usually it’s the Bartholomew diminutive. My cousin Owen Granville has a Bates ancestor b. 1790 Clonmel, County Tipperary. Ellen became housewife 1816 in Halifax and thus co-Founder Immigrant. Owen thinks there’s a 50-50 chance Bates derives from the toponymic surname Bath[e], de Baa. His ultimate source is poor Father Woulfe early in the last century. The reverend lacked reference materials available today and so jumped to conclusions. Woulfe is a name among earliest Anglo-Norman families in Ireland, rare in that it didn’t buy into the Hibernian sept system.
Poets, artists and novelists known to both sides of the Pond were Bates by name. English naturalist Henry Walter Bates went with A. R. Wallace to the upper Amazon River 1848-59, bringing out 8,000 new zoological specimens. A Confederate rose from private to major general, twice was governor of Tennessee and then U. S. senator.
Patricia (Martin) Bates is fine arts professor in Victoria. Maxwell Bates (1906-80) was also Canadian. My grade school playmates were Alphonse “Snotty” Bates and occasionally his older brother Gerard. They lived in an upper flat on Beech Street in Halifax’s west end. Bespectacled Foncy had a 24-hour runny nose. The father of this Newfoundland family had died in his armchair long before I happened by. For years we met in their furnace room as part of the Howie Wing Club, a radio show for boys. Gerard told my cousin Owen Granville that they were related. When young men both of these Bates entered the priesthood.
BAZINET This is the maiden name of Lucie, our first daughter-in-law. By tradition, it is borne also by her son, Eli Edgar Bazinet “Elly” Wallace of Ste-Cécile de Masham, Qué. The name is associated with water and warfare. Old French bacinet is a diminutive of bacin “basin”. That can mean either a river basin or a vessel to contain fluid. From 1290 onwards it also meant cloth material checkered with ordinary wool thread in the warp but cotton thread in the weft. [Evolving from cottage to factory production, waterpower was surely a factor.] A bascinet is also a helmet. The French version was small and round anchoring chain mail draped over the head. A more elaborate helmet was fitted over all this. The English equivalent was made of steel rather than iron and evolved into a helmet proper. Either the Normans brought the bascinet to England in the Conquest where it evolved further, or roving Englishmen saw it on French Crusaders and improved on it.
According to Bazinet family research in progress, the first record in France of their surname is in 1649, farm labourer Antoine Bassinet dit TourBlanche, a place name in the Dordogne area. A river of that name can’t be found on today’s maps but if the reference is to a river basin there are just too many to indicate all. The first Bassinet to reach New France appears Quebec City 1669, obviously an immigrant following the normal route inland for his name turns up in Montreal 1674. Then there’s a gap.
Our first proto franco Ontarian is Joachin Bazinet [note spelling] a 19th century tailor first in Bourget and then in Clarence Creek. Both are villages close by Ottawa. His son Odilon Bazinet (1890-1934) came to the capital as a youth for work. A bureaucrat he fell prey to a periodic federal government cutback. He opened a grocery shop on St. Pat-rick St. at Rose, just east of King Edward Ave.
Odilon wed Nellie Lacroix of Lowertown whose mother there was of Irish stock. They had seven children of whom Edgar (1919-83) was #2 son and eventual father of Lucie. Odilon reacted sternly when his kids hollered “Whoa, Nellie!” a frequent wag-goner’s shout of the time. He died early at 44. Grandma Nellie had to work nights clean-ing offices and the boys dropped out of school to work. Edgar, 16, started in a govern-ment mailroom. His storekeeping knowhow must have helped him wind up in the fruit and vegetable section of the federal department of agriculture. Soon he was oldest brother because his older sibling died at 44 just like his dad.
Edgar married Marie Poirier of Lowertown, Lucie their middle daughter. Our #2 son Stephen visited Clarence Creek relatives with Lucie. She loved the rambling farm house with its summer kitchen, stuffed owl perched in a corner. One of the great aunts still lived in the 1990s but Edgar had died of cancer on the verge of retiring from public service. Steve and Edgar had a warm relationship even before Steve wed Lucie. Edgar took special pains preparing his house with Steve’s help for the marriage reception.
He had moved to the ‘burbs and bought his first Buick before Lowertown re-development destroyed his mother’s home and, Lucie and others say, the entire Basse Ville culture. It is, with a mixture of bitterness, pride and ironic humour, that people recall their roots in this once-vigorous, franco-Ontarien community. Of that massive renewal project begun 1968, Ottawa Councillor Richard Cannings said early in ‘96: “It was probably the blackest chapter in urban planning.”
Eight hundred families of Notre Dame parish alone were displaced. On the French exodus from Lowertown, Gord Holder wrote in the Ottawa Citizen 15 Feb. ‘96: “The area was home to many of the people who built Ottawa, including Jewish immigrants and Irish and French Catholics, but it’s hurting now….” [My hometown of Halifax is still smarting after a well-intentioned, perhaps ill-advised sweeping away of the black community of Africville from beside the city’s north end garbage dump around that time.]
BELLE This pet name can be the short form of Isabel[le], or as far back as Late Latin bellus for handsome. Transmitted through Italian to this French version, Belle means a beauty. Remember the Belle o’ th’ Ball? This was the byname of my Great Aunt Sarah Isabelle née O’Neill (c.1875-1952) my grandma Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew’s younger sister also was called Sarbelle. For details, see Sarah, Isabel and Grace and, for her daughter, see Adele and Lillian. Belle was also the byname of my wife’s tart centenarian, Great Aunt Isabel (Grant) Wadden (1895-1995) who had nursed in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, returning a widow to St. John’s, Nfld.
BENEDICT/BENNET[T] Bennet[t] comes from the medieval English vernacular of Benedict, which first appeared as Old French Beneit from Church Latin benedictus for blessed. Benoit is the modern French version. Not until the 1970s did Benedict show signs of rivalling Bennett as a first name. Roman Catholics like it today even as they had when it was a common first name in the 12th century.
St. Benedict (c.480-c.550) created the Benedictine Rule which governs much Christian monastic life. Author Coleman McCarthy, novice in the order then profes-sional golfer then editorial writer for the Washington Post and golf columnist for love of the game, wrote that Benedictines have managed all these centuries with far fewer rules than golf. St. Benedict c. 529 founded the great monastery at Monte Cassino that is still the centre of this famous order. Still – despite allies in the Second World War trying to dislodge German fanatics using it for defence during their slow retreat up the boot of Italy. I saw a blanket artillery bombardment on newsreels of the time. The tragedy was that they still had to winkle out the Germans by hand-to-hand fighting afterwards, more questionable destruction brought about by exigencies of war. It wasn’t the first time that this monastery was demolished and rebuilt.
Bennetts in Kilkenny and environs have been a prominent Anglo-French family from the 14th century on. In Oriel it’s MacBennett. Some Bunions of Ballybunion have taken up the surname Bennett.
Charles Fox Bennett (1793-1883) was a Newfoundland politician so against Con-federation that he went round the Rock in his own vessel warning the people. It worked. He was prime minister 1870-74. Sir John R. Bennett (1866-1941) had a couple of four-year stints as the colonial secretary of Newfoundland in the teens and twenties of the 20th century.
R[ichard] B[edford] Bennett (1870-1947) was a brilliant lawyer who secured im-portant amendments for Canada in the Statute of Westminster 1931. He was prime minister of Canada 1930-35 as the Great Depression deepened and was attacked for not reacting soon enough. He retired 1939 to an estate in Surrey, England, and was made Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary and Hopewell 1941. There was some pressure in 1998 to have his remains brought over here but many still remember R. B. Bennett and the Dirty Thirties. The locals overseas said they were certainly willing to have him remain in the Surrey village churchyard.
W[illiam] A[ndrew] C[ecil} Bennett b. 1900 of United Empire Loyalist stock in New Brunswick fought in the Royal Flying Corps in the Great War and then developed a chain of hardware stores in British Columbia. In 1952 he led the first Social Credit ad-ministration there. With Wacky Bennett at one end and Joey Smallwood at the other, Canada didn’t seem as stuffy: although people grinned they also shook their heads.
Bennett Lake on the B.C./Yukon boundary figured after 1896 in the Klondyke gold rush with a tented city on its shore. The lake had been named 1883 after a New Yorker. Only a log church remains.
Although a cluster of surnames, Bennet[t] hasn’t died out as a given name. Ben-nett Cerf was the high-profile publisher whose Random House dictionary was invariably first to incorporate new words in a language open to increasing technology and fad expres-sions. It’s the married name of my cousin Mona b. 1913 whose husband Frank, retired civil engineer, d. Halifax fall 2002. Mona’s brother, Robert Benedict “Bobby” Wallace died an infant in 1925.
BERNADETTE A name chosen mainly in Britain and Ireland by Roman Catholics, it honours St. Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes (1844-79) French peasant girl who in 1858 had 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin and unearthed a spring on the spot. Lourdes became the famous healing shrine visited by thousands annually seeking cures for body and soul. Bernadette became a Sister of Charity, resuming her baptismal names Marie-Bernarde. She was canonized 1933. Her feast days are Feb. 18 and April 16.
Bernadette, frequently written Bernardette, is the feminine diminutive of Old Ger-man Berinhard meaning brave as a bear. It came to England with the Normans. Her name was taken up increasingly after she was sainted and again in early 1940s when a movie on her life came out [which I had to attend at my Mummy’s expense in a monster turnout of grade-schoolers of the Catholic diocese to make some point. Ticket in hand I think I was turned away from a crammed theatre.] By the early 1980s even R. C.s were overlooking the name. [Were they by any chance originally from Halifax?]
Our oldest daughter Marita had no other font name so chose it at Confirmation and that’s how she became M. B. Wallace. Her niece back in Ottawa is Jessie Lee Ber-nadette Wallace. My wife’s niece in London, Ont., is Bernadette Helen (Small) Cassin b. 1960.
BERNARD The name evolved from Old German Berin-hard, brave as a bear in loose translation. It became Beornheard “brave warrior” among Saxons in England, later modi-fied to Bernard. In Scotland it settled into Bernet and then into Clan Burnett whose foun-der Alexander Burnett served King Robert the Bruce (1306-29) and was made baron. The Burnetts likely descended from Burnards, prominent family of Anglo Saxon times. They proceeded to Scotland with Matilda of Huntingdon settling at Fairnington in the Borders, Bruce rewarding them with the Forest of Drum and a barony. [Trim, twinkle-eyed Petty Officer Burnett taught Sea Cadet Wallace the only true way to make a pipe with a boat-swain’s call.]
Normans also brought this Frankish name to England even while Saint Bernard of Menthon or Montjoux (c.996-1081) was setting up Alpine hostels. His St. Bernard breed of rescue dogs had to be revitalized by an infusion of Newfoundland breed of late. He’s patron of alpinists and mountain climbers generally.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c.1090-1153) showed how valuable a man still can be by refusing higher office. He remained abbot at Clairvaux but founded scores of monasteries and wielded enormous religious influence in France and ultimately all of western Europe. His writings earned him the honorific Mellifluous Doctor and he’s sometimes called se-cond founder of the Cistercian Order. Feast, Aug. 20. No mean scribbler either was Ber-nard of Cluny, or of Morlaix, the 12thcentury monk of English parents. He composed the 3,000-hexameter De Contemptu mundi, Contempt for the World, on which later authors based major works. Another ink-stained critic is enduring Irish author/ playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) a name always recited in full. In Ireland Barnard is synonym of Bernard and the latter in turn for Barnane in west Cork. Bernard Montgomery (1887-1976) became a field marshal and led British and Canadian 21st Army Group across Europe in the Second World War after turning things around in a North African desert campaign. Monty was master of the set-piece battle. South African Christiaan Barnard b. 1922 performed the world’s first heart transplant 1967 on an accident victim but that woman d. in 18 days. The second one survived 563 days.
Hewitt Bernard (1825-93) was private secretary to Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Bernard had been secretary for the Quebec conference on Con-
federation and in 1866 to delegates in London. His sister, Susan Agnes Bernard, became John A.’s second wife. Joseph Alphonsus Bernard (1881-1962) of Acadian French stock served as lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island 1945-50. Canadien rookie Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, 19, scored his first NHL career goal 16 Dec. 1950 in Montreal tying the New York Rangers one all. He played for New York 1966-68 and is in both the hockey and Canadian Sports hall of fame.
Bernard Lovell b. 1913 Gloucestershire, England, became known planet wide as 1951-81 founding director Jodrell Bank radio telescope. The name revived 1920s and ‘30s in the USA as well as in Britain, favoured by black American as well as Irish parents. Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) U.S. economist, financier and statesman, surely had some effect because my lettered cousin Bernard Granville b. 1926 became an economist. He’s retired in Ottawa from Statistics Canada, né Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
BERNICE On this side of the Pond it’s Bernice more than Berenice [once pronounced beren-icki but now bern-eece]. ‘Tis well traveled. Berenike appears to have come out of the royal house of Macedon, possibly their dialect for Greek Pherenike “victory bringer”. The widow of one of Alexander the Great’s officers brought it into Egypt’s royal house by marrying Ptolemy I. A Bernice was oldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I who ruled AD 38-45. An early Christian woman is so named in Acts 25:13,23; 26:30 and it is found among early Christian inscriptions of Rome. The first Christian bearer or at least an early one was a saint martyred at Antioch 302 along with her mother and sister.
It was introduced into Britain after the Reformation but remained scarce until just over a century ago. As well as Bernice and Berenice, Beronice and Veronice are found nowadays. Veronique is the French. Pet names include Barrie, Berry, Bunny and Nixie. Edith Bernice née Wallace is Cousin Frank’s #1 daughter, her mother being Elva Bernice “Eve” (Clancy) Wallace, another Bluenoser in the nation’s capital.
BERTRAND Once upon a time ravens symbolized wisdom in Germanic myths [even as they do in our Indian legends]. The god Odin’s regular companions were the ravens Hug-in and Munin. Bertram may come from Old German beraht-hraben for bright raven but Bertrand is more likely a French form of the Old German name. Reaney & Wilson list 11 surnames in the U.K. ultimately deriving from raven. If it’s from behaht-rant for bright shield, this may also lead to Bertrand. Nobody knows for sure, which makes the matter of names a finicky business; except of course for the blithe old broads who slap together those abortions found on the baby shelves of bookstores, gushy guesswork.
Back in the 7th century Saint Bertrand evangelized in France and Flanders. The Normans introduced the name to England resulting in surnames like Bartram. As a first name it strongly revived 1860s after near extinction in the previous century. Bertram was always used more but Bertrand Russell (1872-1972) eccentric English mathematician, phi-losopher and latterly activist gave that form lots of exposure.
A little Cowansville girl who helped her grandfather put stamps on electoral mail became widow of a Quebec premier, mother of a Quebec cabinet minister, and went on to become parliamentary secretary to three federal Conservative cabinet ministers. She was Gabrielle Bertrand (1923-1999). As a surname Bertrand is obviously a prominent franco-phone name in the Ottawa area: for three Bertrams in the region’s phone book there are almost six columns of Bertrands. Brian Bertrand was our #3 daughter Caroline’s first husband. He bore, in his younger days, a resemblance to that famous ancient Greco-Roman statue The Dying Gaul.
BETH Not until 1989 did I even suspect my childhood family numbered seven individuals, not six. It began with a note on a family tree prepared by hitherto unknown third cousin Pat Byrne: “oldest child died in infancy”. The late Father Pat was serving a succession of parishes in small-town Ontario as heart attack recovery had him pinch-hitting at various altars. His family project tended to lurch along since he lived out of a suitcase. We dined him after a couple of years when he may have indicated it had been a girl. I doubted him but the thought wouldn’t go away. So in 1999 I wrote my oldest sister Margot Hanington in Victoria early autumn. Yes, I did have a little sister but barely for a day.
Three girls then a boy were born 1920s Saint John, N. B. About two years after me, Mummy gave birth to a blue baby. On the first night in hospital she woke wanting immediately to see her baby girl. Staff was soothing her when our family doctor came into her room: ”He was checking on our little sister. She died the following day, and I saw Father weep over this,” wrote my oldest sister. “They had not prepared a name for her but Mother referred to her as Beth after we all read Little Women.”
American author Louisa May Alcott introduced that novel 1868, most popular children’s book (until J[oanne K[athleen] Rowling’s series of six Harry Potter books sold many millions of copies with a seventh book promised – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.) Beth was one of four sisters who were central characters in Louisa Alcott’s book. I read it and other of her titles but remember next to nothing without prodding. My wife Caroline recalls Beth as quiet and dutiful, family peacemaker. Our #1 daughter Marita read Little Women at least eight times and likely isn’t the only one who has.
I at age 70 was somewhat shocked. I was never told or failed to pick it out of the lulling drone of adult conversation. No little sister for me to pray for through long years and now all I can offer is this humble tomb of words.
Beth is a short form of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. Hebrew transla-tion: God is my oath [?] So does Elisheba but –beth may have some association with the Sabbath. Beth spread widely from America because of Little Women. It did appear early in the Mother Country as a surname of Wales and of England. Beth out of Abethel came from Welsh ap Ithel, son of lord-bountiful. In Middle English Itheal meant someone lazy. Reaney & Wilson conclude Bethel[l] “must be” diminutives of Beth for Elisabeth. They found Betha de Bureswelles 1176-79 in Clerkenwell, and Amicia & Walter Bethel on record in Oxfordshire 1279. The late Irish names expert MacLysaght said Mac Beth/ Beath are from Mac Beatha to do with life. As a Scots name in Ulster it is confused with MacVeagh and MacEvoy.
Earliest origin of MacBeths and like families is with O’Neills of Ireland whose descendants became heritable physicians on the islands of Islay and Mull and what Irish call shanachies and Scotmen sennachies to MacLeans. They were great collectors of manuscripts and Dean of Lismore said Be[a]tons and Macbheaths wrote many of the manuscripts in Advocates Library.
MacBethad Mac Finlay was Celtic king of Scotland 1040-57. Originally it was a personal name meaning lively one. Among others, English forms Be[a]ton and MacBeth emerged. Will Shakespeare slandered real-life MacBeth who actually killed Duncan I on the battlefield 1040. Anthropologist/historian MacDonald points out “he was merely establishing his claim to the throne in the only way he knew.” Nevertheless, Mormairs of Moray vied for generations with the Duncan line for kingship and failed. The family has its own tartan and remains plugged into clans Macbean, MacDonald and MacLean.
Beth Daniel, five-foot-eleven South Carolinian who joined the U.S. Ladies Profes-sional Golf Association tour 1979 eventually played her way into the World Golf and LPGA halls of fame. In ‘96 her peers voted her swing the best on tour. In her mid-40s, five-foot-eleven Beth in the twilight of her career gunned down her 33rd victory, the Canadian women’s open.
BETTY See Elizabeth.
BLAKE comes from two distinct Old English words that contradict each other in the handed down version. Blaec means black but blac means white, pale. Both soon were
nicknames. Blaec was applied to someone with remarkably dark hair and complexion, the other to someone very fair. Then they were rendered into Blake.
Blake became quite a common English surname in the south central and west countries. Robert Blake (1599-1657) was one of three Parliamentary “generals at sea” in the English civil war who fought Dutchman with the English Channel fleet and then Spa-niards in the Mediterranean. He’s considered a father of the British Royal Navy. William Blake (1757-1827) was English poet, painter and engraver.
One of the Tribes of Galway town in Ireland [a French family was another of these leading merchants] was de [more properly] le Blaca, an epithet name replacing the original Caddell. Descended from Richard Caddell, sheriff of Connacht 1303, Blakes were long great landowners in County Galway. The Kildare branch is perpetuated by no less than three townlands called Blakestown.
Edward Blake was Ontario premier 1871-72. An authority on the British North America Act, he led federal Liberals 1880-87. He had doubts that Canada would hold together so went to Ireland. In 1892 he took up his seat in the British House of Com-mons as an Irish nationalist and sat until 1907. A son and a nephew made good names for themselves in Canada.
Sir Henry Blake was governor of Newfoundland 1887-89. His British colonial service from 1884 gave him governorships of the Bahamas, Jamaica, Hong Kong, and Ceylon now Sri Lanka. Some Old Colony blood courses in the veins of Blake Kenwell Small b. 1990 in London, Ont. He’s my wife’s grand nephew, #2 son of Tom Small.
BOSCO Saint John Bosco (1815-88) was an Italian priest who got kids off the streets of Turin. His knack with them went back to his youth. He had learned circus tricks and then gathered his chums for shows at which he’d also repeat the gist of the sermon he’d heard in church. Bosco left home at 13 and worked with farmer, tailor, baker, shoemaker and carpenter while putting himself through college and seminary. He found places for boys to meet, play and pray and, when neighbours complained, he rented an old barn.
This oratory was the first of many. For this work and for foreign missions he founded the order of St. Francis of Sales 1841 and later set up the Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix for similar work with girls. The Salesians and the Daughters expanded. Bosco wrote many booklets, the boys helping to print and distribute them. He is patron of edi-tors, canonized 1934. He is also patron saint of Catholic education and soon patron of magicians. His feast is Jan. 31. My wife’s youngest brother Harry French, teacher near retirement in Dominica, West Indies, had Brother Bosco as his religious name.
BRADLEY The name of many places, because Old English brad leah meant the broad wood or the broad clearing. There is record of William de Bradelai in Lincolnshire 1170. Bradley is seldom English in Ireland where it can stand for O’Brallaghan. As a first name it is more common in the USA and only borne intermittently in the British Isles since the 1850s.
In the high drama of the closing years of the Second World War the so-called soldier’s soldier, U.S. General Omar Nelson Bradley (1893-1981) commanded 12th Army Group in the allied push onto Germany. It was the largest force ever commanded by an American, having more than 1.3 million men.
If you’re into the Charles Dickens revival, Our Mutual Friend 1865 has Bradley Headstone’s, uh, love for Lissie Hexam. James Bradley, Down East, was first husband of my niece Kathy née McDonald. Their son Dylan Bradley is in TV productions there.
BRIAN This name flows from Old Welsh and Old Irish. Its element bre meaning hill implies the bearer is high or noble. An Irish warrior monarch of the southernmost pro-vince of Munster took a small but battle-hardened army out against Norse occupiers, Mael Sechnaill (Malachy II) surrendering to him the high kingship 1002. There were so many strings attached to support of this Munster monarch that Malachy withdrew his forces from the camp of Brian Boroimhe (926-1014) on eve of battle against Scandinavi-ans. Brian Boru won the decisive battle of Clontarf but was murdered in his tent on the field immediately afterwards. Ostensibly the battle was to oust Vikings for once and for all, but large Irish factions fought on both sides. The Ui Neill ascended the throne again; to pick up all the pieces at least one historian has written, and died Ard Ri Erenn, high king of Ireland 1022. Still, that murder looks far too convenient and a priest was reported the perpetrator. Another story, however, has Viking chieftain Broder coming upon Brian praying in his tent after battle and killing him. An impatient lot: Boru was aged 88.
The name is a perennial favorite in Ireland, naturally. Even Vikings took it home; it is found in Old Norse as Brjan. British refugees from the Anglo Saxon invasions took it south into the Cherbourg Peninsula. In William’s invasion of England 1066 Bretons brought it back. Yorkshire-born Brian Lacey was turned over to authorities in the reign of Protestant Elizabeth I by his own brother for aiding a priest. He was hanged at Tyburn 1582. Brian had an extremely popular run 1925-70 in all English-speaking countries. A dozen variations are surnames, and American daughters have worn Briann, Brianna and even Brien.
Brian Moore (1921-99) twice won the governor general’s award for fiction. The Luck of Ginger Coffey and Black Robe were made into movies. Belfast-born, he was ten years in Canada before heading for California as a Canadian citizen. In all he wrote a score of novels. Brian Orser b. 1961 Belleville, Ont., was Canada’s male figure skating champ seven years of the 1980s. Silver medallist at Sarajevo and Calgary winter Olympics, his world gold 1987 was first for a Canadian man in 24 years. He turned pro in ’88. Bryan Guy Adams of Kingston, Ont., England, Israel, Austria and Vancouver by age 15, chalked up a couple of dozen hit singles and 55 million records sold worldwide as singer, song-writer and guitarist. He has put out 12 albums in his 20-year career, won Juno, Grammy awards, and was appointed to the Order of Canada 1990.
Computer consultant chief Brian Keane in Boston said late 2000 of Halifax: “It’s the most educated part of North America, and they speak English.” About a quarter of adults there have college degrees. He expects by end of the next year to increase to 500 offshore programmers and staff on payroll there.
What effect at the font is Martin “Lyin’ Brian” Mulroney having, a Quebec-Irish-man b.1939 who came and went spectacularly from our prime ministership? He had good ideas in the late 1980s the public wasn’t ready to accommodate because they didn’t quite trust him. “He was identified with a low brand of reward politics which alienated even friends,” remarked venerable politician Duff Robin of Manitoba. So cronyism and other concerns left his Conservative Party shredded at polls. Tory Brian Peckford b. 27 Aug. 1942 Whitbourne, Nfld., took over provincial premiership 1979 and was returned in ’82 and ’85. Brian Tobin b. 21 Oct. 1954 Stephenville, Nfld., radio announcer turned scrap-py minister of fisheries and oceans in the first Chretien cabinet, returned to the Rock as Liberal premier and began his second mandate February 1999. He returned in the fall of 2000 to the federal industry portfolio – another candidate in waiting for post of PM?
We have a flourishing wordsmith in the Ottawa area with his own stable of writers in J. Brian Hanington b. 1951 England, my nephew. He even found the literary stamina to write an entire, worthy book about popery Down East. My cousin Ron Wallace as Halifax mayor found Brian did “outstanding” scribing for him and remembers him as a gifted writer. More of a high techy sportin’ gent is my Cousin Frank’s son, Brian Ed-ward Wallace b. 1954 Halifax but thriving from base in Carp, Ont. Brian McDonagh (1947-96) of London, Ont., was first husband of my wife’s niece Honey (Small) Sell.
BRINDLE A marmalade cat we attempted to register at the animal hospital as Brindle-shit Brown. He was the gentleman among three cats we had at once for part of the ‘70s. He had masculine charm and an actual grin to wheedle whatever he wanted in the kitchen from my wife. Three RCMP officers living next door in the upstairs flat made him and our others so welcome that neighbourly relations were strained forever when Les Cornell, cat-hating landlord, came back from wintering in Florida.
Brin was not averse to the odd run ashore at night but came back injured from one foray and rapidly got worse. He may have been hit by a car on busy Bank St. While we were waiting in line for his mercy death, Brinnie had a convulsion and threw up. But not over me. He spent almost his final strength in painfully wriggling clear, a gent to the very end. One of the workers noticed and moved us to the head of the line, the sooner to end his suffering and ours, and possibly to reward his considerateness.
A brind in Old English was a place cleared by fire; while brindle comes from ar-chaic brinded, ?from Middle English brend-en which also became brand as in a burning brand. Of a tawny or brownish colour, marked with bars of a different hue; generally, streaked, spotted; brindled. “The brinded cat”- Shakespeare.
BROWN[E] Father James McGivern S.J., who knows and writes about these things, reckons that Brown[e] is the commonest by far of surnames derived from nicknames. A person back in time was called Brown more for his swarthiness than for having brown or dark red hair. Brun with Bruno its modern form was a popular Old English forename. This was before Scottish records have Patric and Ricardus Brun witnessing a document.
With our Irish focus we look to the Old French source more than Old English, because of the Anglo-Norman families who conquered Ireland but became absorbed. De Brun, le Brun may be how they arrived but intermarriage with the leading family of Lynches and later with O’Flahertys and O’Malleys spread the name Brown around Ire-land’s map. Brownes became one of the merchant “tribes” of Galway. Brownes of Kil-larney came in the 16th century and held much land despite Penal Laws.
Prof. Basil Cottle, medievalist, grumbles that the -e either shows a climb up the social ladder or at least a weak adjective after a lost definite article. It’s the family name of the marquesses of Sligo [from where our Founder Immigrant Thomas Wallace hailed] and a brace of barons. The name was among Puritans of the Mayflower 382 years ago.
William Brown (c. 1738-89) was a printer in the USA and Barbados before open-ing the first ever print shop in Quebec City. He put out and later edited the bilingual Quebec Gazette. Thomas Storrow Brown (1803-88) journalist, took part in the 1837-38 Rebellion, losing an eye in Montreal rioting. He escaped to the USA, worked as a repor-ter in Florida until 1844 when it had cooled down enough to come back home.
George Brown (1818-80) founded the Globe in Toronto, fought eastern and wes-tern sectionalism, urging a coalition of Liberals and Conservatives in support of Confede-ration. George William Brown (1860-1919) was a member of the Northwest Territories legislative assembly for more than a decade, then lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan 1910-15. Other Canadian Browns have written history, literary criticism, poetry, and curated art. Sir George McLaren Brown (1865-1939) was a railway baron.
More of a pioneer was John George “Kootenai” Brown (1839-1916). He sold his army commission in India, rode mail and despatches for the U.S. Army between forts out west, in 1868 saved his own life by outwitting Chief Sitting Bull, and married into Métis. He was chief scout of Rocky Mountain rangers in the Northwest Rebellion, then packer and guide for the Northwest Mounted Police. He eased up by becoming game warden, then acting superintendent of Kootenay/Walkerton Lakes Park. His second wife was the Cree Isabella who survived him.
Private Harry Brown (1898-1917) and his company in 10th Battalion Quebec Regiment are cut off in battle in France. All signal lines were cut so, fatally wounded, he manages to deliver a message for help across No Man’s Land. He is posthumously awarded the British Commonwealth’s highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross.
J. J. Brown (1775-1828) was a U.S. general in the War of 1812. William Brown (1777-1857) went from master mariner 1814 to admiral of the Argentine navy in the war against Brazil [1826-27]. Nor can we ignore John Brown, abolitionist, who took Harper’s Ferry, Virginia; was hung 1859, and lay “a-mouldering in the grave”. [Our Canadian naval task group had an internal flap in the 1960s off Fort Sumpter at the mouth of Charleston, South Carolina, when our band swung into a Dixieland version of John Brown’s Body.] Admiral Wilson Brown fought in the battle of the Coral Sea in World War II; and G. S. Brown (1918-78) was a general who led the U.S.Air Force and then chaired America’s joint chiefs of staff.
Browns by the dozens helped develop Canada, true, but Canadians fighting in the Great War won our place at the international table. Arthur Roy Brown, pilot in Royal Naval Air Service and new Royal Air Force, on 21 April 1918 shot down the German Red Baron, Manfred von Richthoven who had downed 80 allied aircraft. Australian ground troops figure they shot the Red Baron down so that debate has continued politely bet-ween these two Commonwealth partners lo these 88 years. They argue that Richthoven was in hot pursuit just above a fold in the ground and that machine gun sergeant Cedric Popkin [sp?]got him from its ridge off the baron’s right. Capt. Brown’s score was 12 enemy aircraft and he won the Distinguished Service Cross and Bar. Canucks, horsemen and hunters back home, dominated allied aerial efforts. [My Dad, wounded out of the in-fantry, persevered to become a pilot lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. He had hardly a glorious war: others busted their noses on the cockpit compass in heavy landings; Dad broke his skull; which much affected him, and us, throughout his long life.]
Postwar aviation pioneers in a converted biplane bomber took off from St. John’s, Nfld., 14 June 1919 landing 16 hours later in a County Galway bog in Ireland. My wife inherited from her grandmother, Auntie Kate, one of the postage stamps carried by John William Alcock and Arthur Brown on this first non-stop transatlantic flight. Her brother Doug, a stamp expert, gave us enough for it in the 1950s so we could buy our rock maple dining room set. Today that Alcock & Brown stamp could furnish many rooms.
My wife’s name Caroline honours her grandmother, Caroline (Browne) French whom with husband Patrick and oldest son William died 1898 St. John’s of influenza. [My wife’s oldest sister Kay suspects tuberculosis, rampant in the Old Colony]. Orphans were Julie, Edith, Phillip and the youngest, Douglas Joseph, in due time my wife’s dad. Caroline’s courageous spinster sister Anna Browne took charge and raised them. However, see Kin Tale XLVIII.
BROWNRIGG This surname merely means brown ridge, the rigg being a Scandinavian ending. The element brown has identical roots in Old English and Old French. New-foundland Brownriggs may be of Norman-Irish stock or maybe not. Read on.
In compliance with a long-standing Old Colony habit, not always a good one, my wife was reared for her first decade by her maternal, Brownrigg, grandparents. This is a vestige of the ancient Irish custom of fosterage. To them, being labeled grandparents sounded too old so they insisted on “Uncle Har” and “Auntie Kate”. While visiting her actual parents and siblings in 1939, my Caroline flatly refused to go back with her grand-parents.
Uncle Har (1873-1944) was a St. John’s publican, then a cabinet minister in the Newfoundland Commission Government which formed 1934. Auntie Kate (1877-1956) was a Grant whose people were from Cape Broyle, Nfld. Grants came over with settlers from Ireland to the Cape in the 1780s. Her husband Henry Joseph Brownrigg, son of Garrett and Helen, was born in Boston, Mass., but grew up in Newfoundland. There was much backing and forthing between the Atlantic Provinces and the New England states: we formed a cheap labour pool for New England industry.
Uncle Tom Brownrigg was also a publican in St. John’s and in Florida before starting a chain of fish ‘n’ chip shops in Newfoundland’s capital. His wife, as Eleanor Hayes, qualified as a registered nurse at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, N. S., and
served in Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell’s Mission at St. Anthony’s on the northern tip o’ the Rock. When she married Tom she immediately became a loyal Brownrigg and French. My wife remembers visits to their elaborate summer home on Topsail Pond. We ex-change Christmas greetings with this nonagenarian whose interest in our family remains unflagging although she has never laid eyes on any of us but Niece Caroline.
It was the same with Sister Mary John Brownrigg of the Sisters of Charity in Saint John, N.B., another aunt who died 1976 in her 70s. My wife’s godfather was Uncle Frank Brownrigg (1918-74) who raised eight in Corner Brook, Nfld. My wife as a scrub nurse in the operating room of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s, attended Dr. Garrett M. Brownrigg (1907-91) chest surgeon and a leading medical figure in colony and province. Gary was her mother’s cousin and, like her mother’s Aunt Lillian Brownrigg, uncharacteristically tiny.
William de Brownrig was recorded in 1332, a William de Brownrige 1510 and a Margaret Brownrig 1684. The brown ridge they share as a place name is Brownrigg in Cumbria. Dr. R. B. McDowell, formerly associate professor of modern history at Trinity in Dublin alludes to the canal system between the city and the Shannon River as an extra-vagant 18thcentury feat reflecting the economic promise of the period. My wife’s young-est brother, Rev. Bro. Harry French, found a plaque crediting a Brownrigg as engineer of the project.
BRUCE A Bruce Wallace or Wallace Bruce is a Scottish thing. Look in a phone book. My late cousin when in his 80s painted in Mexico in retirement and came back to Halifax. He was Bruce Howard James Wallace of the optometrist family there. For a while he ran his own shop in New Brunswick. In 1952 while calling at Peruvian ports I met Wallace Bruce in Lima whose English was accented with Spanish and whose swarthy features nevertheless were dusted with freckles. This handsome Indo-Alban-Iberian took much pride in his Scottish roots.
Wallace was the great Scottish patriot whose barbarous execution by the English galvanized Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) into liberating and reigning over the Scots to get the nation out of such bloody English hands. So the names go tandem as do Graham and Wallace and rarer combinations with Wallace, all pregnant with Scottish history.
Bruce was a Norman name, perhaps Briouze in Orme or le Brus in Calvados [but not Brix in Manche for lack of enough ruins for scholars to retrieve enough from its an-cient rubble]. Professor Basil Cottle says the first element of the name may mean muddy, Old French from Gaulish, and the second either “heath” from Gaulish or “maple” from OF. Cottle by the way is a Welshman and reader in medieval studies. The Bruce clan history says they were Normans from Cherbourg peninsula. Sir Robert de Bruis [or Brus] accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066 and died 1094. His son Robert de Brus (1078-1141) hung out with David I of Scotland. Robert the Bruce, 2nd Earl of Carrick and 7th Lord of Annandale, is our guy. He took a dim view of Wallace being hung, drawn and quartered, let alone the barbecuing of some bits cut out while Wallace was forced to watch, still painfully alive. So Bruce seized the Scottish throne in 1306 as King Robert I, was forced into exile by Edward I of England, but slowly recovered when Ed-ward II came on scene. Bruce decisively beat the bigger English army at Bannockburn in ‘14. The English finally recognized Scottish independence in ‘28 and Bruce, worn out by such long years of struggle, died next year.
Bruce’s brother Edward was briefly king of Ireland 1316 but his army laid waste the country en route to the crown and turned Irish against him. Brother Robert had dealt the hand but tossed in his cards just in time. Bruce became a numerous family name in Ulster, albeit from the early 18th century, and before that was found in County Cork.
The name Bruce has been a given name in Scotland and among Scots abroad but since the 1930s has widened its appeal, in Australia especially. The clan has plenty of smaller branches, one being Bruce of Kinnaird. The explorer James Bruce (1730-94) of that line was the explorer nicknamed the Abyssinian. Author of Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, he died in a fall at home after hurrying to help a lady into her carriage. In all there are six recognized tartans. The surname is family name of earls of Elgin and of three other peers. William Bruce (1630-1710) was an architect considered father of British Palladianism winning a baronetcy and royal appointment during which he restored Holy-rood Palace.
Another James Bruce (1811-63) 8th Earl of Elgin was the understanding governor general of British North America 1847-54 who created the right climate for responsible government and laid down lines for later governors general of Canada to follow. Lots of places, especially in Ontario, are named either Bruce or Elgin in his memory. Kung Fu expert Bruce Lee d. 20 July 1973 aged 32. He starred in martial arts movies Enter the Dragon and The Chinese Connection. Bruce lives on in the Internet to much speculation about his early death. William Bruce Graham b. 1913 is Bruce Wallace’s brother-in-law, husband of Ruthie. Widower Bruce Graham had a family but only one of two sons survives. More about Bruce Wallace in Kin Tale XXII.
BURROWS Here’s another name with an embarrassment of origins. This is an Old English locality name meaning of [i.e., at] the forts or manors. Or it can mean a bower house or someone working there. The OE root beorg begets dweller by the hill, the OE root burg means fort. Oh well, if there’s a hill there may well have been a fort on it de-fended by the original Brits, the Romans or, later, some Anglo Saxons. As dweller at the bower house, Burrowes or Burris[s] was little known in Ireland before the 17th century but now is numerous in Ulster. It was wrongly translated into Irish Brugha but that Gaelic name really is meant for Burgess.
An Indian Army brigadier, G. R. S. Burrows (1827-1917) was ambushed and routed by Ayub Khan 1880 Afghanistan, losing 40 per cent of his 2,500 men. No more field commands for that old chap. Theodore Arthur Burroughs (1857-1929) was a son of Ottawa pioneers who eventually had Manitoba’s largest lumber mills. He was a member of the provincial legislature, then of Parliament, and died in office as lieutenant governor of Manitoba. Sir Harold Martin Burrough (1888-1977) was a British admiral fighting in 1942-43 off North Africa and Tunisia.
Burrows is the middle name of Monsignor Jim Granville (1904-91) brother of Uncle Ed. It was the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, a New Brunswicker. The Granville family historian, my Cousin Owen, wrote 1993: “There were other Burrows around Halifax. In fact there was a family in Bedford ” [then a satellite village] “which Daddy said was somehow related to us. As the father of that family ran a little store in [nearby] Shadyside and sold us cigarettes before telling Daddy about it, we were not too happy with the relationship. A boy in that family we called Bottle Ass.”
BURT Birt and Burt are old-time nicknames with their -r- s in the right place. The loose modern translation is bright and handsome. It’s hard to tell how bright was beefcakey, orgy-loving Burt Lancaster (1913-94) screen idol to many women but he did win an Academy Award as an evangelist in the film Elmer Gantry 1960. The “physically tough, emotionally sensitive” actor’s name was actually an abbreviation of Burton, which in old England meant a fortified settlement. Burt is chiefly a southwest England surname, posi-tioning it precisely for populating Newfoundland in earlier times. As well as being a variant of Bright from Old English beorht, Burt can mean Bird, another nickname from Old English bridd. Thomas Burt or Burd was recorded 1229 Herefordshire and Roger Burt 1285 St. Thomas. James Birt 1505-6 Warwickshire was coughing up money for the Crown but Reaney & Wilson don’t report precisely why [don’t we all have to cough it up?] In Ireland Burt sometimes is a synonym of the English name Brett in Munster.
George Graham Burt b. 1903 Humber Bay, Ont., went to work in the Great De-pression for General Motors, early becoming involved with the United Autoworkers Union in Oshawa. Then as Canadian director he helped membership expand to 70,000 from a few hundreds. This labour leader went on to national and international involve-ments. Sir Richard Burton (1821-90) explorer, linguist and diplomat translated oriental erotica and Arabian Nights in 16 volumes. Burton Cummings b. 1947 Winnipeg song-writer and keyboardist was lead singer with Guess Who, first Canadian group to make a top single in the USA. American Woman/No SugarTonight stayed up there three weeks in ‘70 and their Woman album made Top 10. Burton launched his 32nd solo album in ‘96.
Burt is found mainly in the USA as just another way of spelling Bert. Cool pianist/composer Burt Bacharach b. 1928 Missouri is son of Bert Bacharach. Some of his songs are Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Close to You, What the World Needs Now Is Love. At least a couple of dozen Burt surnames are in the Ottawa area phone book. Selby Burt b. 1949 Old Perlican, Nfld., is husband of Catty, Catherine Louise Walsh that was. She’s my wife’s niece, oldest daughter of Caroline’s young sister Elizabeth, d. 1998.
CANNINGS Lucas de Canninges is first of name on record 1200 in England, Philip de Caning 1280. In Somerset, Cannington, meaning a farm by a rim of hills, was rooted in Celtic plus Old English that evolved into a surname as did Cannings, a locality in Wilt-shire. In Nova Scotia, Apple Tree Landing became Habitants Corner then Canning ca. 1830 after George Canning (1770-1827) who was briefly prime minister of Great Britain after five years as foreign secretary. The village lies northwest of Wolfville. Cannington in the Durham region west of Lindsay, Ont., also honours his name. Cannings is the surname of a former spouse in Halifax of Kathie McDonald, my niece in Ottawa.
CAREW This is a rare name whether last or first. Family tradition said our Carews were Huguenot linen weavers of France who took to Protestant England during Elizabethan times. Our ancestors fared well enough there to be able to buy a sinecure in Ireland. In the 19th century a Carew rent collector there in hard times rode off on his rounds. Since only his horse returned, his immediate family decided it would be prudent to emigrate. One son is believed to have gone to India, and Stephen Patrick Carew headed for British North America. When things didn’t work out with Carews already established in New-foundland this young man headed for Halifax. A thoroughly Irish skill is care of horses so he did that initially. Then he took up ships’ chandlering, victualling and re-equipping a goodly number of Old Colony fishing vessels calling at Halifax. He d. 1887, “not old”.
There are exciting glimpses of Old World Carews who won’t quite fade away nor will they harden completely into view. Unlike our founding ancestor Stephen Patrick’s preference, Carew was still pronounced carey by the Establishment and therefore thus by many bearers. Quite early on in the Old Country this led to Car[e]y emerging as a separ-ate, sometimes illustrious name. Factor in too that Carey is the anglicization of seven Irish family names from Gaelic. Then there was Saint Caron whose name is believed to come from the Welsh verb caru, to love. Welsh parents since the 1960s have taken up first name Carys, also from caru.
The name Carey is also an Old Country surname from somewhere probably mean-ing pleasant stream and also from placenames in Devon and Somerset recalling an old Celtic river name. [Despite occupation by Romans, conquests by Anglo Saxons and Normans, many old Brittonic names of sacred waterways and lakes have endured millen-nia.] Carey with -e- is said also to come from Old Welsh Caerau “dwellers at the castles”. The first thing that Anglo-Norman marcher lords did on invading Wales was to raise strongholds in pass and valley, leaving mountains for the moment to native Cymri.
Actor Cary Grant (1904-89) gave the name quite a boost although born Archie Leach. The spelling Carey nowadays is a girl’s name mainly influenced by Carrie.
The late Irish names expert Edward MacLysaght says the surname Carron with-out the Mac is Norman de Carrun from de Carron and was later altered to Carew, “often pronounced Carey by the people bearing it”. The family has long been much involved with Tipperary although formerly prominent in such other counties as Cork, Carlow and Mayo. He figured the best known Carew was Sir [later Baron] George (1555-1629), pro-duct of Devon Carews, who became president of Munster province “and implacable enemy of the Irish”. Yet Carew had thousands of Irishmen under him to quell more thou-sands in revolt. See my Carews in History section of a typed manuscript for more bits on him and his cousin Sir Peter in Ireland as well as Richard Carew, Cornish country gentle-man, poet, translator, politician, high sheriff and antiquarian. He spoke and read French and Italian; had Spanish and German, and in 1594 translated from Italian five cantos of the romantic epic Gerusalemme liberata. His Survey of Cornwall came out 1602.
An excellent work edited by Moody & Martin [details on them in Sources] plus others yield additional Carews that stand out. The Cambro-Norman knight Raymond le Gros [the Fat] Carew, a.k.a. fitzWilliam, landed Strongbow’s advance guard of less than a hundred on a Wexford headland where they immediately dug in. This was about May 1170. A seemingly overwhelming force of Norse and Gael defenders out of Waterford these invaders quickly routed by stampeding cattle into opposing ranks. While mopping up they took 70 local leaders captive on the battlefield, broke their limbs and heaved them off cliffs. When Strongbow and the main body of invaders crossed over, Raymond le Gros linked up and it was this Carew who breached the walls of Waterford. Later, out-side Dublin while negotiations were still underway, young le Gros with Milo de Cogan and their followers suddenly burst into the city, cut down defenders, and soon were masters of all.
Elsewhere, impetuosity of a Le Gros seized Hospitaller knight Baldwin Carew as a Crusading host bore down on a Jerusalem in the hands of Saladin. Carew and his Hospi-taller marshal charged light forces harassing their flank and soon the entire Christian force was thundering to the gallop. Saladin’s secretary, watching from a hill nearby, gasped at the dash and splendour of this onrushing weight of arms. Saracen ranks broke and fled the battlefield of Arsuf 1191. Yet the Third Crusade 1189-92 proved indecisive.
Welsh Carews are long established, remnants of Carew Castle still in the hands of a branch. See my Carew MS. Anglo-Norman Gerald de Windsor either built its ancestor or had it as dowry from his wife Nest at close of the 11th century. She was daughter of Rhys ap Tewdr, sister of Gruffyd ap Rhys and mistress of Henry I (1069-1135), young-est son of The Conqueror. Their son took up the name Carew.
The Devon adventurer mentioned earlier, Sir Peter Carew (1514-1575) cousin to Sir George fought wars at home and on the Continent while serving Henry VIII. He was knighted in ‘45 but opposed marriage of Mary Tudor to Philip II of Spain in ‘54. This example of West Country gentry talked the Irish Council of ‘68 into backing at least half his claims to territories as a descendant of Robert FitzStephen. For this ploy historians call him the genealogical buccaneer. After the successful 12th century Norman invasion of Ireland, Henry II of England had given FitzStephen much of MacCarthy’s “kingdom of Cork”. Sir Peter died on the Emerald Isle and was given full military honours as describ-ed in my Carew MS.
Baron George and other Devon Carews descended from a family originally called de Carru, perhaps for a place name in France? After the Protestant Reformation that family became embroiled in power struggles between Huguenot and French crown. Sir Walter Raleigh was a cousin and had a son with the forename Carew. Sir Walter is believed to have spent something like eight years across Channel fighting alongside fellow Protestants of France. Huguenots flourished in all segments of French society; counted key aristocrats among them, and for a while held something close to 100 fortified towns throughout France.
Carew soldiering on the Continent may go back to Italian city-state of Florence well before Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). He sought conscription of locals rather than contracting expensive, showy mercenaries of yore. Englishman Sir Nicholas de Hawkwood in the latter 1300s had hired out his “white company” of 1,500 condottiere to Florence, all of them mounted on white horses and each knight attended by about a dozen pages, grooms, etc. Hawkwood’s Florentine pension exceeded 3,000 gold ducats and his statue endures in that city. However, nobody who mattered in Florence later took Ma-chiavelli seriously enough: an effort to field an army on his model was half-hearted and so failed. For more background on early Continental soldiering, see Barbara and Henry.
Because of earlier and very extensive Anglo-Norman possessions on the Conti-nent, it’s hard to get a handle on precisely how “French” or “English” early Carews really were. Somewhere in Hawkwood’s costly and inappropriate array of routiers must have ridden a Carew or two. Regardless, our particular ancestors have been Irish for centuries. Some Irish Carews are “Geraldines” according to family researcher Robert Keating of Kentucky. His ancestors and Carews were related to those Fitzgeralds who dominated medieval Ireland. Geraldines claim as ancestors the Gherardini, Etruscan/Roman family prominent before rise of the Florentine republic in Italy. Their republican fortunes waxed and waned thus individuals passed into England, France, Wales, Ireland, the Canaries and Cracow. Although some branches went extinct Florentine Gherardinis and Irish Gerald-ines recorded each other’s visits up to the late 1500s.
Yet MacLysaght took note of numerous ordinary Carew householders 1666 where County Tipperary is now, and that Carews are still found there. Sculptor John Edward Carew (1785-1868) was of Waterford. Some Irish magistrates mid-19th century were required to be army officers in more sensitive areas. A Colonel Carew as one resident magistrate dispensed with dismounted artillery on hand in Clonmel for the 1869 election. This caused quite a flap in the British army hierarchy because of his “interfering with the interior arrangement of troops”.
When our Carew family broke up in Ireland you’ll recall that one brother of our Founder Immigrant headed for India. I’ve a Victorian-era song sheet devoted to The Mad Carew, lovelorn subaltern in India. Was this young man totally imaginary or by chance was Mad Carew old Stephen Patrick’s departed brother?
A Rod Carew b. Panama 1945 learned to throw a baseball with his right hand and hit left handed. He dominated the American League, retiring 1980s with lifetime 328 batting average.
Carew was my mother’s maiden name and, as custom decreed, this became my second one. I never knew it a custom. Too late for our #1 son Duncan I found this honour goes to a firstborn or only son. Instead of our Duncan Gerard he might have been Howard III French Wallace. This might have triggered yet more schoolyard fights for Duncan who seemed to be having more than his fair quota as it was. In charming little coincidences our oldest and youngest daughters Marita and Cecily remember such a rare name by adding Carew for their respective daughters Alannah and Allegra. In Halifax Carews continue to flourish after five generations and it is claimed a Stephen Patrick has lived in every one.
CARL Karl was a name often found in the Frankish leadership. Carl is the old fashioned German spelling variant of Charles. This name appears not only in Old German but also in Old Norse and Old Danish and in Middle English where, due to adverse events, it was devalued. Charles came from a German word meaning free man, comparable with Old English ceorl, a man. In Middle English it meant different things at different times. Carl was Common Man, a countryman, husbandman, free peasant. By 1300 however it meant a bondman, villain, “a fellow of low birth or rude manners, a churl”.
Carl has become increasingly popular in the English-speaking world and particu-larly so in Wales. There was the esteemed U.S. poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), and Carl Sagan (1934-96) astrophysicist known for popular planetary books and even the novel Contact 1985. He was producer/host of the 1980 TV series Cosmos. Now there’s retired naval commander Lawrence Carl Dawe b. 1947 Vancouver, raising his family on Texada Island, B. C. His wife Felicity is my niece.
CARLETON He was a rare [back then] regular army officer. He had fought overseas in the First World War, gunner to colonel, met a beautiful Belgian woman and persuaded her to wait for him. He went to university after the war and rejoined the Canadian Army. He went over and won her in spite of a count seeking her hand. They raised a bilingual fami-ly between the wars long before this was the thing to do in Canada. I knew this peppery but kind little man because he was always dropping by our wartime Halifax flat to see how my oldest sister Margot was doing while her man was on convoy duty at sea. He was a second cousin once removed of our late Dan Hanington. He brought ‘round soldier sons and I was charmed to hear how House of Parliament sounded with a French accent in English conversation. Other good impressions are difficult to articulate although I resol-ved my kids would enjoy French-Canadian language and culture if ever a chance came.
Carleton is as English as Hanington, coming from Old English carlatun, settlement of [free] peasants. Many localities of England are so called. In Ireland Carleton is nor-mally a variant of O’Carolan because today the English originating name resides more in medieval records.
It’s the family name of the viscounts of Dorchester. Lt.-Gen. Thomas Carleton (1735-1817) first governor of New Brunswick had a mountain and a county there named for him. His uncle was Sir Guy Carleton (1724-1808) 1st Baron Dorchester, governor-in-chief British North America 1782-83, 1786-96 [or was that “91-96?]. Sir Guy’s first bat-tle on Lake Champlain off Valcour Island’s Crown Point was a British naval victory 11 Oct. 1776. General Benedict Arnold’s U. S. fleet suffered heavy losses. Win a battle, lose a war. This Carleton, who governed the Canadas from Quebec City nigh a decade after 1768, had much named for him including Carleton County, from which our university takes its name. The deal he got for Quebec and its Roman Catholics ensured they would not be ripe for revolution when 13 American colonies erupted in’76.
CAROL Several reasons account for the showing of Carol as a girl’s name earlier in the 20th century. It’s a boy’s name too but as more parents gave it to daughters others slac-kened off sons. Carol can be the pet form of Caroline from Latin feminine Carola mean-ing strong and womanly. The boy’s name in such forms as Carol, Carrol and Carroll originated in the variety of European versions of Charles. As well the very common Irish Cearbhaill is anglicized to Carroll or Charles. However, the surname Carroll deserves separate treatment when it does appear on the family tree. Carol for girls is gaining in popularity in Ireland. It was chosen as a guy’s first name mostly in the U.S. until Carol for girls really took off there too. Carole is a regular among francophone females.
Enough U. S. parents equated the girl name with Christmas caroling, end of 19th century to midway 20th, so that it was picked up throughout the Commonwealth in a decade. Earliest English carols are known from the 15th century, oldest in print the Boar’s Head 1521 by – get ready – Wynkyn de Worde. It concerned the Winter Solstice. Carols are simple in thought and expression, a verse plus refrain. The modern notion of carols is joyful hymning for Christmas: many old carols really are adaptations of pagan songs pop-ular of yore. What’s more, in the Middle Ages the word carol applied to a variety of songs; e. g. Old French carole meant a song of joy and our barn dances echo medieval singing & dancing karoles.
CAROLINE It made its debut in English as early as 1652 from a French form out of Ital-ian or Latin Carolina, feminine diminutive of Carolus, i.e., Charles. Somehow Caroline was accorded the meaning little, womanly one.
The reign of the Holy Roman Empire Charlemagne is referred to as caroline. He made his scribes bust up their solid lines of lettering into words to make stuff easier to read. Caroline miniscule letters were developed chiefly at the Abbey of St. Martin of Tours at his behest. Caroline also pertains to the reigns of Charles I and II of England and to discoveries made for them such as the Carolinas, colonies that became states of the USA. [Our #1 son Duncan and wife Tina work and golf in North Carolina.]
Saint Charles Borromeo (1538-84), Italian prelate and reformer, is saint of refer-ence for the R. C. font name. However, making the woman’s name fashionable in England was Queen Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline (1683-1737), wife of Hanoverian George II. German-born English astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848) collaborated with her brother Sir William. By telescope 1783 she identified three nebulae and eight comets. The name kept in vogue there 18/19th centuries and picked up again 1950s. Caroline’s a growth given name in Ireland.
Bearing in mind that a ship is a she, Caroline figures in Canadian history. A 46-ton American side-wheeler was used by William Lyon Mackenzie’s rebels 1837 to oc-cupy Navy Island in the Niagara River where they set up a provisional government. Loyal volunteers snuck out, cut ‘er loose and fired her. The Caroline went aground close by the Falls [not over them which is a popular exaggeration] and lit up the night until consumed. It all caused a big Canada-U.S. diplomatic flap, and Mackenzie did time.
Carolyn is an altered form of Caroline borne by Carolyn Waldo for one, first Canadian woman to get two golds in summer Olympics. It was 1998 at the 24th Olym-piad, Seoul, South Korea, for synchronized swimming. B. 1964 she almost drowned at three, took seven years to overcome her fear of water. She’s been announcing sports for CJOH-TV Ottawa. My wife loved her swimming but not her voice.
In my wife it remembers the name of her Dad’s mother. Caroline (Browne) French died with her husband Patrick and oldest son William 1898 of influenza [or endemic TB?] in St. John’s, Nfld. There is our #3 daughter Caroline Rothery, then her #1 daughter Carrie Wallace, plus my wife’s niece and grand niece, so obviously my missus is quite a hit. She was no less so early 1952 when my messmates sang from The Chattano-oga Choochoo to love-smitten me: “Nuthin’ would be finah / Than to be in Carolina / In the mor-or-or-ning!”
CARRIE This is one of many pet forms of Caroline and was the customary way my wife was addressed by her parents and siblings. Occasionally, Carrie is also a nickname for other girl names beginning with Car-.
Carry was the style in the 19th century. Although born in Kentucky as Carrie Amelia Moore, six-foot, 175 pound Carry Nation (1846-1911) preached against liquor, foreign foods, corsets, tobacco, fraternal orders and short skirts in America. Her first husband, Dr. Charles Gloyd, she married 1867 but he had a drinking problem. She aban-doned the Women’s Christian Temperance Union as too passive and set about destroying bars wielding her hatchet. She raised money with souvenir hatchets even from jail and on a swing through Canada’s thirsty Maritime Provinces, sold right out.
The version Carrie resumed in the 20th century and emerged as a name in its own right and strongly so by the ‘70s. A perfect example is warm hearted, statuesque grand-daughter Carrie Marie Sylvia Wallace b. 1977 Ottawa to our #3 daughter Caroline.
CASHIN If certain politically flavoured groups over the past several generations had known that cashin or cashen from Irish meant crooked surely they’d have guffawed. Some people would delight in linking words like crooked and politician, especially so in Newfoundland where cracked and seamed stone walls of the Colonial Building in St. John’s were said due to uproar of debate that had gone on within. MacLysaght said Cashin comes from Mac Caisin, sometimes with O instead of Mac in Munster province. He thought the name also could come from cas for pleasant rather than cas for bent. Mac Cashins are a medical family of note in Upper Ossory. Variants range from Cashen to Cassion. Cashin also has roots on the Isle of Man where Mac was absorbed.
Sir Michael Patrick Cashin (1864-1926) was prime minister of Newfoundland in 1919. He was born in Cape Broyle, was a fish merchant there and represented Ferryland in the colonial legislature more than a quarter-century. Cape Broyle on the eastern shore of the Avalon Peninsula is a small and narrow bay whose entrance has an angry reef making white water [water a-broil = Cape Broyle]. It was first settled 1618 and begun anew and permanently in the 1780s. The population in 1976 was still a modest 711.
Sir Michael’s son Peter (1890-1977) was also a politician as well as a soldier and businessman. In Saturday Night magazine, March ’99, Wayne Johnston brought alive a 1966 Come Home Year party at his Uncle Harold’s house on Petty Harbour Road outside St. John’s:
“There hung on the wall, facing you in the front room as you entered, a black-and-white portrait of Peter Cashin, the closest thing to a leader the factious anti-Confederates had had. ‘Cashin was one of the greatest public speakers who ever lived,’ my father said. ‘When it came to making speeches, he put Joey Smallwood to shame.’ He held forth…in ruefully aggrieved, reverential tones about Cashin. My father described how, just before making a speech, Cashin would roll up his shirtsleeves and smash his fist on the table or desk in front of him.
‘This was easy to believe, looking at his portrait, which appeared to have been taken by a photographer whose neck Cashin was intent on breaking. The stocky, bull-headed major, a hero of World War I, stared out of the photograph as if daring you to say the word ‘Confederation’…
“‘I can tell you this much,’ my father said. ‘If Newfoundland had stayed a coun-try, and if Cashin had become prime minister … ‘.”
A grandson of Sir Michael born in the capital 1937 is lawyer Richard Joseph Ca-shin, political too, although more known to us Upalongs as longtime head of the fishers union. With the tragic, because so predictable, collapse of the Newfoundland fishery we don’t catch as much of this earnest and believable man on national television.
My wife is related to this Old Colony dynasty through pioneering Grants of Cape Broyle, Thomas marrying Mary Cashin there in the 1860s. Caroline’s maternal grand-mother Kate was their daughter. Latterly she preferred to be called Auntie Kate.
But what happened to the first Cape Broyle colonizers of 1618? Caroline reckons it a fishing community even then, and just about all of the men could have been lost at sea in some great storm. If so, starvation and disease might have been the fate of those left ashore. Another sorry event for just one of 1,300 or so tiny settlements precariously clinging to this big, harsh Rock at Confederation 1949, stretching right back to that first, failed Norse settlement of a thousand years ago. Undeterred, enduring Newfoundlanders 1997 celebrated the 500th anniversary of the island’s discovery again, this time by John Cabot. The good wife was duly registered there & then as a C.F.A. [come from away].
CATHERINE Saint Catherine in 4th century Alexandria was one of 14 Holy Helpers. [Does that mean they cooked and washed for leading clergy?] Christians were being per-secuted so Catherine gave Emperor Maxentius a piece of her mind. Oops! One more virgin martyr for the torture wheel. An angel shattered the apparatus before she was broken but later they beheaded her anyway. Medieval stories were oft-times fantastic, so much so that her feast day, Nov. 25, was taken off the Church calendar 1969.
Memorials endure. One is a circular church window, sometimes with radiating spokes, much used in Middle Ages construction. Suchlike, or at least a radiating circle within a glass pane, survive in window architecture today. They are Catherine Wheels. So are pinwheel fireworks. Her principal shrine is remote Mount Sinai monastery of the Eastern Church deep in moon-country desert of Sinai Peninsula. [I couldn’t make it down there during winter of 1966-67 while covering Canadian peacekeepers at the north end of the peninsula, although my predecessor did.] It was returning Crusaders who brought the name to Western Europe.
St. Catherine of Siena (1347-80) 3rd order of Dominicans from early childhood had mystic visions and “practised austerities”. She wrote persuasive letters from that famous Tuscan cultural centre to the great of the day, and is credited with persuading Pope Greg-ory XI to end “Babylonian Captivity” by returning the papacy to Rome 1376. In 1939 she was made patron of Italy and proclaimed Doctor of the Church in ‘70. Rudolph Bell called his 1969 biography of her Holy Anorexia, a medieval virtue now modern day evil.
St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) was another Italian mystic so ostentatiously devoted to the sick even I will spare you details. Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) was first wife of Henry VIII who ruled England 1509-47. Without papal approval he divorced her since Clement VII had refused to annul the marriage. Henry broke with Rome, com-mencing the English Reformation.
Catherine Tekakwitha (1656-80) a. k. a. Kateri was a Mohawk chief’s unwanted daughter scarred with smallpox and bad eyesight who sought refuge in a missionary settle-ment in Canada. [I witnessed an appealing young Indian woman pining away in our white world here even though her own people back home had been abusive.] St. Catherine La-boure (1806-76) of France was canonized 1947.
Catherine comes from Greek katharos for pure but that didn’t appear to restrain Empress Catherine I of Russia (1684-1727) insuring her survival by numerous intimacies with certain of her guards officers.
Catherine Aurelie Caouette b. 1833 St-Hyacinth, Qué., founded the first contem-plative community in Canada, Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, taking her religious name from the Siena saint. Catharine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada 1836 and Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush 1852 have been mined for a new stage presen-tation, The Bush-Ladies: Life in the Backwoods of Upper Canada. Their books, which all of a sudden are back on store shelves, are Can Lit. These sisters describe pioneer living around Belleville and Peterborough. Catharine was a botanist. They came out in 1832 with their husbands, half-pay British army officers, produced nine and six children res-pectively. Catharine died 1899 at 97, her sister gone by ’85 age 81. Ottawa author and respected newshen Charlotte Gray has put out a Penguin book on them called Sisters in the Wilderness.
In 1996 Catherine was one of the top three names for girls in francophone Québec. Bearing the Scots version Catriona [sounded catreena] was title and character of a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson 1893. It’s also popular in Ireland. Catriona Le May Doan b. 1970 Saskatoon, heptathlete turned ‘98 Olympic long-track speed skater and gold medal-ist. She continued harvesting golds and broke her own record in the 500 metres and then Olympic gold 2002. She was Canada’s female athlete of the year 1998 and 2001. Apart from Olympic gold, Le May Doan dominated in her ‘02 season so The Toronto Star made her Canada’s outstanding athlete of the year. Smooth swinging Catriona Matthew of Scotland competes on the main U.S. ladies’ professional golf tour and appears in Canada. She has won in the USA twice, in Australia and in the heather back home.
Catherine Anne (Wallace) Smith b. 1959 Halifax is our #2 daughter. She carved a career for herself in advertising, founding her own firm. She decided to switch careers, swotted the required high school subjects and went on to University of Ottawa, gradu-ating magna cum laude 1998 with a degree in occupational therapy. More about her in Kin Tale XIX. Catherine (Grant) Brownrigg (1877-56) at St. John’s who wanted to be called Aunty Kate because it sounded younger was maternal grandmother who reared my wife for her first 10 years. Catherine (Maguire) O’Neill (1783-1864) was wife of Richard O’Neill who started our Nova Scotia branch. See also Katherine.
CECILIA/CECILY You just have to try a tad harder to accept this one although many obviously have. Young Roman girl of noble birth takes vow of chastity but parents ar-range her marriage to pagan noble youth Valerian. She keeps her virginity and not only converts him but also his brother Tiberius and buddy Maximus, only to see them all martyred. She’s unscathed after a day and a night of being burnt in her bath. Then a soldier takes three swipes at her with his sword, failing to cut off her head. She takes three days to die. All this is going on in either 2nd or 3rd century Rome.
Legend also says she was proficient in music. Virgin martyr Cecilia was selected patron saint of sacred music and of musicians. Musical societies over centuries use her name. St. Cecilia Church in Rome has her remains, transferred from catacombs where they were discovered 817. When her tomb was opened 1599 her body was incorrupt.
She’s the subject of one of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published from 1387 onwards. Several Odes for St. Cecilia’s Day were composed by Henry Purcell (c.1659-95); a song came from John Dryden (1631-1700) and an Ode written by Alex-ander Pope (1688-1744). St. Cecilia obviously fills an inspirational need; feast Nov. 22.
Another martyred St. Cecilia, African-born, was starved to death in the infamous reign of Diocletian in the cusp of 2/3rd centuries. Her feast day is Feb. 11.
Cecilia comes from Latin Caecilia, feminine form of the Roman family name Cae-cilius. That name in turn derives from the byname Caecus “blind”. The girl name became more common than the guy name because of the music thingy. Irish form Sile meant Eng-lish Sheila with Sisile a later form. Cecily is medieval vernacular English, Cicely another spelling. Cecily has been in light but regular use since the 1840s, a bit more so during the 1920s. The Cecil family, made powerful in Tudor times, is Welsh in origin. The surname in Old Welsh was Seissylt for the Latin Sextilius from sextus, sixth.
Cecilia (Small) Walzak is the London, Ont., born daughter of my wife’s oldest sister Kate. She and her four girls moved to Victoria 1998 because husband Tim had transferred to the faculty of University of Victoria. Cecily Pasquale (Wallace) Harder is our #4 daughter and 9th child. We could have called her Nona, feminine of Latin ordinal nonus, ninth. It was a given name in Victorian times for a 9th child if a girl and, in days of big families, sometimes for a 9th daughter! Few families now have either choice. Our Cecily regardless was inaugural Ottawa Youth of the Year 1983. More about her in Kin Tales XXIII, XXXI.
CHARLES is a name you never hear in our extended family. Only bearers were Charles Lionel Hanington who all his 77 years answered to Daniel, and his father of earlier New Brunswick Charles Lionel Haningtons. Since Charles has been such an important name at various points in history it does merit investigation.
The old Germanic word karl meant free man. We move on to Old English ceorl which qualifies that free man as being of the lowest rank. On the Continent, Frankish leadership took up Karl converting it to Charles via Old French. Charles Martell (688-741) led Frankish foot soldiers who defeated Muslim invaders at Battle of Tours AD 732 at Poitiers, France. Saracen leader Abd-er-Rahman was killed in action. Historian Edward Gibbon said if Christians had lost that fight Oxford would show minarets instead of spires. Martel was grandfather of, in Latin, Carolus Magnus or Charles I the Great (c.742-814). We know him better as Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor from 800. He made Charles a popular name. It spread through royal lines from France to Naples, Hungary, Germany and Spain. Meanwhile a brother of King Lothaire, Charles duke of Lower Lorraine was last of the Carolingian dynasty, dying c. 991 in a Capetian prison. Naturally, the name accompanied Normans to England. There it fused with churl which was demoted in Middle English to either a tenant in pure villeinage, serf, bondman or just a countryman, peasant. Charl was absorbed by Charles. We still have the sur-name Charlton, place of the churls, in 15 old counties of England, especially in North-umberland. Even as a blend, Charles didn’t really become all that popular. It’s used as an English name in Ireland for Corless, earlier Mac Coirleasa then Mac Cathail and now Mac Carluis; and the forename Cathal is equated at times with Charles along with Calvagh, Cormac, Cahir, Carroll, Sorley and Turlough. In Hiberno-English Charles often has two syllables.
Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87) who grew up in France named her son Charles James (1556-1625). He mounted the Scottish throne as James VI and in 1603 succeeded Elizabeth I of England as James I. His son, beheaded, and grandson, restored, reigned as kings Charles. Edward Windsor, duke of Wessex and seventh in line for today’s throne, hosted a TV program 1998 in which he showed off royal castles and fed us history:
“After Charles I was executed in London, his body was taken back to Windsor. They laid his body out on this particular table, and sewed his head back onto the body before they buried it in St. George’s Chapel.”
It had been a cold day for his execution and King Charles didn’t want to shiver in case his enemies thought him trembling with fear. So they found him a shirt which on display to a contemporary British press looks suspiciously like a woman’s nightie. The House of Stuart was toppled after Battle of the Boyne 1690 although Jacobites were out in 1715 and ‘45 and “Bonnie Prince Charlie” romanticized. We must credit overthrown Stuarts for popularity anew of the name. Charles as emperors or kings and dukes by the dozen have led nations of Europe. His Royal Highness Charles Philip Arthur George b. 1948 Buckingham Palace is Prince of Wales. We sailors of the Queen referred to him and his dad as HRH and it, Buck House. Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-91) was a famous politician of Ireland and never forget Rev. Charles Denis Mary Joseph Anthony O Conor, claimant to the Irish throne.
Charles Francis Topham DeVere, earl of Burford, age 34, ran from a wing of the British House of Lords and leaped onto the Woolsack, the seat of woolstuff used by Speakers since the 14th century. He blustered: “No Queen, no sovereignty, no free-dom. Stand up for Queen and country!” Black Rod marched him off. It was during third and final reading 1999 of a bill abolishing an 800-year-old right of hereditary nobles to sit and vote in the upper chamber of Mother Parliament. The vote: 221 to 81 for abolition.
There is a dormitory town just north of Quebec City in one of the older parts of New France. Charlesbourg is part of a seigniory granted Jesuits 1626. It honours patron Saint Charles Borromeo, 16th century Milan archbishop and reformer, who also represents in Heaven those named Caroline. St-Charles Garnier (1606-49) killed by Iroquois is one of eight Canadian Jesuit martyrs celebrated Oct. 19.
Charles-Michel d’Irumberry de Salaberry (1778-1829) and his 1,600 French-Canadian Voltiguers [light militia], by blowing hunting horns in covering woods to exaggerate their numbers, bluffed General Wade Hampton and 4,200 Americans into turning back at Chateauguay, 56 kilometres short of Montreal 26 Oct. 1813. Canada’s first governor was Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. He died 1819 of hydrophobia less than a year after coming out to the colony. Bitten by a rabid fox in Sorel [Que.] he died while visiting Richmond, Ont. Two disbanded regiments had just settled there, nam-ing their community after him. Irish peer Charles Stanley Monck was our new nation’s first governor general 1867-68, after governing British North America from 1861. He d. ‘94 in Ireland, a viscount.
Sir Charles Tupper (1821-1915) baronet of the United Kingdom was premier of Nova Scotia and Canada’s sixth prime minister. His #2 son Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper practised law in Nova Scotia and British Columbia and held ministerial posts federally, one of the “nest of traitors” in Bowell’s government. Grandson Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt (1908-79) was awarded a Victoria Cross for valour while lieutenant colonel in Canada’s ill-fated Dieppe Raid 1942.
[Tupper is engraved in my mind. In ?2nd grade I busted a window of rival Sir Charles Tupper school then totally forgot I had. Only when Sisters of St. Thomas Aqui-nas school, after a solid week of daily interrogation, produced Tupper student Billy Mac-Rae as circumstantial witness did memory crawl back. Not before I’d made fists at cur-rent fat foe Billy, a damning gesture! All looked down their noses at a Little Liar Struck Dumb With The Truth! Sigmund Freud’s theory on memory repression has been but-tressed by latter research so when I’d told myself: “Forget it, Howie,” I did.]
Sir Charles G[eorge] D[ouglas] Roberts (1860-1943) New Brunswick-born poet, author and editor, is a Great of Canadian literature and a close cousin of my late brother-in-law Dan Hanington’s father. He was their lively guest in Trinidad. N. B.’s poet Bliss Carmen was yet another cousin. [As a kid I caught a good glimpse of Sir Charles speak-ing at a dinner of the Canadian Authors Association in the Waegwoltic Club Halifax. He was tallish, spare, flinty, grey bearded and tweedy in the manner of George Bernard Shaw. Alas, I barely heard his voice though the glass door, let alone what he was saying. Dour he may have looked, firm in bearing, but while a U. S. magazine editor Sir Charles greatly encouraged our own writers. A poet who best summoned the essential spirit of regional landscapes [says a reference] he stimulated Carmen and inland Canadian poets. Haligonian Charles Ritchie (1906-95) worked for External Affairs 1934-71. His dairies, witty and astute, then came out followed by childhood memories in ’87
The long and narrow Charles Island in Hudson Strait looked afar like a mountain on the mainland so explorer Henry Hudson in 1610 named it Mount Charles for Prince, later Charles I of England. Fort Charles, built fall 1688 on Rupert River, Northwest Ter-ritories, had such a successful winter trading with natives for fur that this led to forming of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Zachariah Gillan (1636-82) with Medart des Groseilliers had voyaged there in the ketch Nonsuch.
[I was in the aircraft carrier Bonaventure operating in Hudson Strait several de-cades ago. We were on a Cold War SLAMEX [Submarine Launched Atomic Missile Exercise] involving much of our Atlantic fleet, a Halifax-based Royal Navy A class submarine, with a U.S. Navy oiler lent to keep us all in petrol, oil and lubricants. Like stolen moments we had one calm, warm and sunny afternoon just inside the Bay. So peaceful. Outside waited accustomed slate-slabbed skies and ravening breakers against a scowling Nouveau Québec/Labrador coastline.]
There’s nothing much poetic about Death Wish movie star Charles Bronson b. Bunchinsky 1920 Ehrenfield, Pennsylvania of Lithuanian stock. He appeared in Vincent Price’s 1953 classic House of Wax as Charles Buchinsky although earlier known as Buch-inski. By 1954 he’d given up and changed his name to Bronson. I mention him in salute to all those 19/20th Century immigrants from Mittel Europe who came over and tried their darndest to fit in. The U. S. Postal Service is honouring late cartoonist Charles Schultz by releasing a stamp of Great War aviator Snoopy in his Sopwith Camel.
To end on a sweet as opposed to martial note we take satisfaction in Charles Edouard Dutoit b. 7 Oct. 1936, Swiss violinist/conductor of Montreal Symphony Orchestra since ‘78 and chief conductor of Orchestre National de Paris since ‘90.
CHARLOTTE This French feminine diminutive of the name Charles has been chosen in England since the 17th century. It was most popular in 18/19th centuries, partly because of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) George II’s wife, and partly due to Princess Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline who wed Prince Frederick of Wurttemberg 1797, heir to that German kingdom. Two Ottawa streets are thought to remember her, Charlotte St., and Wurtem-burg [sic] a name that survived anti-German feelings of two world wars. Queen Charlotte Islands off B. C. were named 1787 for an exploration ship that in turn was called after the consort (1744-1818) of George III. So were a community there and the sound now called a strait.
Another stimulus for Charlotte was novelist Charlotte Bronte (1816-55). Pet forms include Lotty, Totty, Chatty and Charlie. Charlotte was coined in imitation of Italian Carlotta, feminine diminutive of Carlo i. e. Charles from an old-fashioned German spelling of Carl for Karl. A carl was rather like a churl of Old England, a free man. Char-lot is the form in Ireland, the Irish Gaelic being Searlait, a feminine version of Charles.
Dr. Charlotte (Whitehead) Ross (1843-1916) qualified in Philadelphia, there being no Canadian medical school open to women. In 1881 she went from being the first wom-an doctor in Montreal to being the only white woman in frontier settlement Whitemouth, Man. Her husband David operated a sawmill there. She was the only doctor for a radius of 160 kilometres or more. Charlotte cleaned cabins of sick women on her calls, loved to bake when home and somehow managed to have eight children while studying for and practising medicine. When she died in Winnipeg flowers came from all over the nation.
Honorary Dr. Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton (1896-1975) b. Renfrew, Ont., social worker then federal bureaucrat was selected Ottawa’s mayor 1951, first woman heading a major Canadian city. She was elected four times until ousted 1964. Feisty Dr. Whitton begrudged all those millions of dollars necessary for road upkeep: her terms were known for ruinous potholes in the streets. Short, pugnacious, she never lacked a telling retort for her male peers – even from the grave.
Large for the times, our family of nine good-looking, healthy children showed promise of becoming reasonably civilized. They struck kindly chords within our friends and acquaintances. Among several honorary aunties and uncles was Charlotte Lovat, childless wife of my older Halifax newspaper buddy Bill. He was a Saint Johner, she from The Miramichi in New Brunswick. In Ottawa three decades ago she’d have us all over for Boxing Day. While we four adults chatted, our nine kids ran off steam in their big basement joined by Soissons, their standard poodle who thought he was people. Then we’d tuck into an enormous Down East high tea she prepared single-handed.
Charlotte Emily Dawe b. 1990 in Halifax, later of Ottawa and now of B. C., is my appealing grandniece, daughter of Felicity (Hanington) Dawe and retired commander Larry. More about mother and daughter in Kin Tale VII.
CHRISTOPHER As you all know, Saint Christopher was fired a quarter-century ago. No longer does he take the load of a legend upon his shoulders because authorities aren’t even sure now that he ever existed. Originally Christopher symbolized a reverent decla-ration of personal witness but then the emphasis changed to Kristophoros, a Greek name meaning bearer of Christ. Early Christians were very conscious of bearing Christ, but in their hearts rather than on their shoulders. Christopher was a 3rd century Christian, Bap-tized by St. Babylas of Antioch. He was martyred in Asia Minor. The Eastern Church celebrated this Syrian’s festival May 9; the Western Church used to on July 25.
Legend says he was a giant working as a ferryman in another country. One day he carried a child across the stream who grew almost unbearably heavy: the giant was carry-ing the Christ Child who was holding the weight of the world in His hands. Embellish-ments say he was Offero, originally from Canaan, and that Christ leaned down at the end and splashed water on him to Baptize him Christopher. St. Christopher became protec-tor of travellers and was appealed to in time of plague. Today we can still mourn the loss of yet another gr-r-reat medieval yarn that either doesn’t quite stand up to close scrutiny or for which we lack sufficient evidence to be absolutely sure. There’s another St. Chris-topher, of Milan, Dominican priest and noted preacher known as Apostle of Liguria for his evangelical success there. He d. Taggia 1484.
This name wasn’t used in the British Isles until the 15th century although widely used throughout Europe and possessions. In Ireland Criostoir for Christopher has been in continual use in County Waterford since the 13th century. The 1659 “census” records it one of the principal names of Co. Waterford’s barony of Decies. There are Christie families in Scotland’s Fife and Stirlingshire areas with documentation from the 15th cen-tury. Clansmen are followers of the Farquharsons. Christie is thought there a diminutive of a forename such as Christian or Christopher. Krzysztof is Polish.
English architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723} is best known for St. Paul’s Cathedral that I toured in London decades ago. In all he designed two score public edi-faces in the English capital. However Windsor authorities held up construction of his town hall fearing there weren’t enough pillars to support its ceiling. Wren added four more to his original two. Much later those additions were found not to touch the ceiling at all although they looked fine from floor level. His hall stands unaltered to this day.
During the 1970s Christopher became one of the most heavily used given names in the UK. Was it thanks to elderly Montreal smoothie, Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer b. 1927 Toronto, long on international stage and screen e. g. Captain von Trapp 1965. Plummer cut his teeth professionally in Ottawa theatre groups beginning ‘48 with Ottawa Stage Society later Canadian Repertory Theatre. He’s veteran of 80-plus movie appear-ances. Yet Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson made him blush talking of his “versa-tility, elegance and powerful male beauty” when presenting a performing arts award. A new emphasis on Christopher superceded a needed saint’s dismissal by the Vatican? A clue is those “motorists’ trinkets” that dangle from rear-view mirrors [when they aren’t fluffy dice].
A[lan] A[lexander] Milne (1882-1956) wrote children’s stories for his son Chris-topher Robin, which by the 1940s were classics. Sir Christopher Cockerill d. 1999 age 88. He began his hovercraft work by putting a cat-food tin inside one for coffee and reversing a vacuum cleaner to make his device hover on a cushion of air. He had every-thing worked out by 1955: British authorities OK’d it for civilian use in ‘59. A proto-type first crossed the English Channel that June. Christopher Reeve (1952-2004) starred in the popcorn movie hit Superman until his 1995 horseback riding accident. He was an advocate for the disabled through his Paralysis Foundation in Springfield, New Jersey; made up to 10 appearances each year and gave inspirational talks every month.
Major-General Chris Vokes ranked high among Canada’s operational commanders in the Second World War. In the hard slog of Italy he took the 1st Canadian Division into the nigh impregnable medieval seaport of Ortona 21 Dec. 1943 for a week of house by house fighting during which 1,372 Canadian soldiers were killed in action. This was near-ly a quarter of all Canadian dead in the entire Mediterranean theatre. Vokes went on to command Canada’s 4th Armoured Div. British General [later Marshal] Bernard Mont-gomery thought him “a good, plain cook” when it came to tactics. Hard-driving Vokes himself said command “is often not what you do but the way you do it.” A battle he lost was holding onto a mobile brothel he authorized for sake of the hygiene of his troops.
Chris Haney, a photo editor, and sports writer Scott Abbott of St. Catharines, Ont., brought out a currrent events board game Trivial Pursuit 15 Dec. 1979. Soon stink-ing rich, they had The Devil’s Pulpit golf course built in southern Ontario just for star-ters. English born Christopher Newton came to Canada 1961 and in ‘91 marked 20 years as artistic director of the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. His real strength has been development and training of actors and directors and in 2000 he received a governor general performing arts award.
We have Christopher Kevin Wallace, our #3 son, and Corrie Christopher, his only son. They are the third and fourth Wallace generations in newspaper work, not as writers and editors but in door-to-door circulation blitzes. Christopher John Carew is my youn-ger cousin in Halifax. More about our Chris in Kin Tales XXXVIII and XLV.
CLANCY Mac Fhlannchaidh anglicized from Irish becomes Clancy with the original meaning, descendant of the ruddy ?warrior. Celtic scholars regard the chaidh ending as unknown. Fhlannchaidh is an ancient Hibernian personal name and Clancy itself occas-ionally is a first name, mainly USA. Before Brehon Law, old Celtic law of Ireland, was totally abolished, the head of MacClancys was entitled chief and is recorded thus in the 16th century. Two prominent septs of name exist in Ireland, the Thomond family fur-nished hereditary brehons [ancient judges] to powerful O’Briens. Clancys are located in Counties Clare and Leitrim by that Irish name authority, the late Edward MacLysaght.
Francis Michael “King” Clancy (1903-86) was an Ottawa boy in the Senators of 1921. King went to Toronto Maple Leafs 1930 for the unprecedented sum of $35,000 as well as two players. He coached and managed in the National Hockey League six decades. Clancys are in rural Nova Scotia too, such as Hunt’s Point, Queens County, although El-va Bernice “Eve” (Clancy) Wallace is long in Ottawa. She’s wife of my Cousin Frank. Eve was a tall, striking brunette in the uniform of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps late in the Second World War and her daughters are no less so in civvies.
CLAPPEN Old English clop meaning lump, hillock, hill, begat the Old English nickname le Clop for someone bulky, heavily built or, in other words, lumpy. But there are place names carrying hilly descriptions first mentioned, for instance Clapham, Clapton and Clopton. [Some of the names changed to clap- from clop- in the 13th century.] Literacy really was low in those days so Clappen looks to be a decayed Clapham, a homestead on a hillock. Clapton indicates a bigger spread up a proper hill.
Reaney & Wilson in 1997 shot down the notion that Old English Clappa is the source for Clappen by saying there is no post-Conquest use of it. So don’t even ask what it meant. Eileen Harrington that was, of Killaloe, Ont., was the Widow Clappen before marrying my wife’s #2 brother, Douglas Joseph French Jr.
CLARA/CLARE Clara is a Latin name although “post classical” from the feminine of the adjective clarus meaning both clear and famous. So, in today’s English-speaking regions, Clara is actually a relatinization of English Clare. This was a vernacular form during the Middle Ages and enduring since. In Ireland, Clare means bright and honours St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253). County Clare in Munster derives either from clar as in plain or from Norman-Irish aristocrats de Clare.
Our #4 son Barnaby’s former wife Uta gave birth to Clara Marguerite Wallace 10:30 a.m. local time, 8 Dec. 1997 in Vienna after five and a half hours of labour. Birth-weight was 3.3 kilos and her height 50 cm. The name Clara honours relations on both sides but don’t forget touring Clara Josephine (Wieck) Schuman (1819-96) an outstanding pianist and interpreter of husband Robert’s and his pupil Johannes Brahm’s works. St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) co-founded the Franciscan nuns, starting monasteries in Italy, Germany and France. She was canonized as soon as 1255.
Clare has especial poignancy for us. We are a stair-step family but there’s a step missing. Early in the Cold War they built the Distant Early Warning Line over the roof of the continent to detect aircraft coming over the polar area to attack Canadian and U. S. cities. Then the Mid Canada Line went up in the sub Arctic to check if such “bogeys or bandits” were still oncoming. The Pinetree radar stations formed a third defence line along the remoter parts of the provinces so fighter aircraft or missiles could be vectored onto intruders identified as hostile.
The air force fell way behind in getting construction materials onto Mid-Canada sites by helicopter owing to adverse operating conditions of the High North. HS-50, a Navy anti-submarine squadron, flew up to help out in the northern Quebec and Labrador area. We busted numerous chopper blades humping loads, replacements coming out of our always-lean anti-submarine budget. I remember a bag of cement costed out at $100 by the time it reached Great Whale River at Hudson Bay. That was roughly two weeks’ wages for an average Joe in Canada’s industrial south back then.
While I was covering the Navy’s unique operations up there from Knob Lake base near Schefferville, Nouveau Quebec, my wife back in Ottawa lost Mary Clare, a fetus barely three months old. Neighbours rallied ‘round and took over cooking, washing and care of little Marita, Duncan and Stephen. They gave Caroline generous backup when she returned from hospital but couldn’t get over how many items the poor woman insisted on ironing. I wasn’t able to get home for an entire week and even then our multi-engine pro-peller aircraft was stacked up in fog over Ottawa airport for as long as it had taken our “Freedom Flight” to claw the 800-odd miles south. Compassionate leave? Not a chance. After all I had volunteered to go North, hadn’t I?
We were blessed with more children, six more in fact, but always there was this gap. Reminders came at Christmas of all times because the Navy those days on the East Coast was very big on mammoth Christmas parties for local orphans and for its own. We were asked to submit ages and sexes of ours so Santa‘s gift would be appropriate. Al-ways I was asked, “Have you forgotten someone?” or “What happened to # 4?” to which I penned “miscarriage” and resubmitted. This was simpler for everyone than “spontan-eous abortion” or “fetal death”. Mary Clare still visits us in memory as she did earlier amidst happy/sad turmoil of a big family in the growing. We wonder when we think of her how she would have turned out.
Losing an embryo baby was becoming rarer compared at least to when my wife and I were growing up. The black Christmas bows seen of late remind us of the funeral bows of old hanging from entries to grieving homes back in our respective neighbour-hoods. We decided that Mary Clare Wallace was a name to retire. We had no wish to follow a 19th century custom of passing it on to the next arrival of appropriate sex. We took pains to tell our children of what might have been so that our little fetus gained some identity. She gave us a special feeling for all those who have lost a child so I have been at pains to record as many as I can find in our Catalogue. It salutes the dead as well as the living wherever possible. My mother lost a child, an infant death, after having four of us; a problem I only learned of late. See Beth.
The Mary part was for Mary Ellen (Brownrigg) French of St. John’s who would have been maternal grandmother; Clare was for St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital where my wife learned to be a nurse. Saint Clare founded Franciscan nuns called the Poor Clares in the 13th century. She was a Clara but it became Clare in English that century. Claire was preferred in the 1960s although hardly at all in Ireland. Clare is back.
St. Claire in Calvados and in Manche are place names recalling a 3rd century bish-op of Nantes and a 7th century Norman saint. Families from those parts thrust north as far as the Orkneys in the form Sinclair. In Ireland Clear and Clare are surnames from de Cleir to do with some geographic feature and found in two other counties besides Clare.
COLETTE This, also spelt with double l, is a feminine diminutive from France for Col[l]e, a name in the Middle Ages short for Nicholas. The 1920s gave the name a boost thanks to award-winning French novelist Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954). Two more or less contemporary French poets and novelists had surnames close in spelling. Colette is a middle name of Québecoise Sophie Gauvin, artistic young woman taken a while back into the bosom of our family.
COLLEEN In Ireland colleen is no name. It comes from cailin, Irish Gaelic word for girl, maiden or even, gasp, wench. Perhaps it was nostalgia among many of Irish descent in America and Australia that turned it into a name. It emerged in the 1920s and peaked in USA early 1960s. Sometimes it’s chosen as the feminine of Colin.
Colleen Jones in Halifax with cheery big grin provides overnight sports scores and weather on CBC Newsworld weekday mornings. She skips a national curling team that triumphed four years in a row as well as victorious two other times. Silent screen star with stage name Colleen Moore (1901-88) may have started the Colleen trend. Her real name was Kathleen Morrison. A 12-year-old girl from Vancouver won a Gemini 2000 for best actress in the title role A Feeling Called Glory first broadcast over VTV, a CTV station. Colleen Rennison had her first professional gig age five and has appeared in eight movies and two made for the tube. Among our distant relatives the name Colleen can be found occasionally.
COMERFORD Passable water in a dip of land or a vale is what this name appears to mean. There’s a place named Comerford in Staffordshire, west Midlands, England. Two books of English surnames show no Comerfords but an Irish names expert said they went to Ireland as early as 1210 and stayed. Therefore any Comerford found now in England is likely of Irish stock. The hibernicized name is Comartun.
Comerfords were part of a deliberate English build-up of settlers, especially in Kilkenny. They joined the deep Anglo-Norman penetration of the south and east of Ireland and later expanded into the flatter and fertile areas of Waterford and South Tip-perary. They fared well and the lead family was baronial and palatine, meaning the barony of Danganmore held a huge lordship answering only to the monarch and tasked with defending this border on the Gaelic world. At first a fairly small part of Ireland came under English law and culture. In the 14th century English lands formed a broad beach-head of sorts which became known as the Pale. Its extent varied over centuries but in the reign of Henry VIII the Pale extended north from Dublin as far as Dundalk and went in-land about 32 kilometres from the east coast. Radiating from it were such outlying dis-tricts as Kilkenny called either marches or borderlands and well defended.
The conquerors regarded those living Inside the Pale to be civilized, cultured and with stable institutions. Outside the Pale was anarchy, poverty, ancient Irish laws and cus-toms; “not at all like us” to borrow an oft-applied English observation. The concept of a Pale was certainly not new to the English. Their last remaining possession in France was the port of Calais and its hinterland known as the Pale lasted to 1558. We knew the Pale in Russia as areas where Jews were required to live from 1792, areas annexed from Poland then and later.
Those early English penetrations of Ireland followed the long-established Norman pattern in England and in Wales, earthworks and palisades followed quickly by perman-ent stone castles. Towns were occupied and walled, and a Danish fortress in Waterford harbour was cleared out 1170 by Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, and garrisoned.
Great events conspired to make Ireland the victim of half measures in ensuing centuries. In 1348-49 the Black Plague struck shrinking the English colony to Town and Pale. The Hundred Years War and the War of the Roses preoccupied English monarchs. Henry Tudor’s descendant Henry VIII declared himself king of Ireland and began his surrender-and-grant strategem to bring Irish-Gaelic and assimulated Anglo-Norman lords to heel. Elizabeth launched four little wars, James VI of Scotland and I of England planted his Lowland Scots, and Oliver Cromwell’s harsh quellings and carvings of long ago remain vivid, all festering in today’s running sore of the north. Sharp memories hinder peace.
Notwithstanding, modern author Sean O Foalain looked at Kilkenny and environs and saw towns with bustling trades, good farm building and husbandry, a people more sturdy and matter of fact than elsewhere on the Isle even if stubborn and vindictive at times. They do hold a grudge, a characteristic to him of the original Anglo Normans.
Comerfords, like most of the “Old English” [those living in Ireland before Tudor times] held onto their Roman Catholic faith despite the Protestant Reformation. Between 1590 and 1640 Comerfords produced 16 Jesuit priests and, in roughly the same period, three bishops. Thomas Comerford of Ballymacka had been attainted 1572 for resisting Elizabethan encroachments. In the century following, 14 Comerfords held commissions in the army of James II. With the victory of William of Orange many were outlawed, some going to France and Spain. Best known exile was Joseph Comerford, baron of Danganmore, who became marquis d’Anglure.
More revealing is the application written 1776 for a pension after 34 years of service to the French king by grenadier Captain Alexandre de Comerford [sic] of Dillon’s regiment. He outlined his campaigns and then detailed each of the four generations of Comerfords who had served the French crown from Wild Geese down to his son, also an officer in Dillon’s unit.
Now, so far as a little girl could tell, sent to play in the corner while adults had their card game, Comerfords of St. John’s, Newfoundland, resembled O Faolain’s Kil-kenny people. Will Comerford’s wife was formerly Lillian Brownrigg, small and delicate younger sister of Uncle Har, my wife’s grandfather. Will and Lillian had a daughter more robust than her little mother thanks perhaps to Comerford genes. Their Ellen married Dunstan McCormack but not before becoming my wife’s Godmother 1928. Nell had to adopt her own two, one being Libby. [Ottawa smoke shop Comerfords came over around Irish Famine time, occasionally visit relations still settled around Quebec City and have a Newfoundland connection.]
CORINNE This is how the French adapted Corinna from Latin. Some actually think James Fenimore Cooper coined it for his Last of the Mohicans 1826. Kore, Greek for maiden, was the daughter of Greek goddess Demeter and euphemistic name for goddess of the underworld Persephone. Being a Kore can therefore be a dim prospect or quite the contrary. A 5th century Greek poetess once vanquished the greatest Greek lyricist Pin-dar in public competition. Latin poet Ovid (43 BC-18AD) wrote a Corinna tons of love poetry to titillation of university freshmen.
Today Corinne and Coralie have largely eclipsed Cora. Corinne reached the Eng-lish-speaking world in the 1860s. Aunt Corinne (Lawlor) Wallace (1898-1977) was a solid New Brunswicker who was kind to me when I was a youngster in Halifax. She’d gather me in for an impromptu and excellent breakfast at their home on my long and still fasting way to our own flat after Mass and Communion. The cousins, including Frank now here in Ottawa, always were good company. They included Aunt Corinne’s pert #3 daughter Corinne. She now has a dozen grandchildren and in January 2002 saw two of them in Vancouver and two in Calgary while visiting son John and daughter Sarah.
CORRIE Although corrie in its sundry spellings today refers to a hillside hollow where deer or domestic animals shelter from the wind, the old meaning came from Gaelic coire [pronounced ko’re], a cauldron. Now this particular vessel was large in pagan Celtic religious services. Strabo described prisoners of war of the Celts having their throats slit over such a basin. Other sacrificial victims were drowned thus: “…a man is put head first into a full tub, so that he is suffocated”. Or a cauldron found at Giant’s Springs, Duch-coo in central Europe, holding 2,000 pieces of mostly jewelry. Magic cauldrons were essential to Irish mythology. One held food that could never be entirely consumed. An-other produced gold and silver. In Wales the prototype of the Holy Grail stories was the quest for a cauldron. Then there was Cauldron of Rebirth, war weapon. A slain warrior was cast into it to emerge alive but unable to speak [possibly an improvement]. Caul-drons surviving from those old times are of richly decorated bronze, copper or silver, the best known example being that world-famous find, the 1st century B. C. Gundrestrup Cauldron.
The Scottish Gaelic coire is a dweller by a hollow or a bubbling pool. The Anglo Saxon equivalent means the chosen. Kori was an Old Norse personal name. As an Irish surname Corry could indicate an ancestor named Godfrey. Corey caught on since the 1960s as a first name of various spellings but especially in black American families. Cor-rie Christopher Wallace b. 1983 Ottawa is the blond, blue-eyed son of our #3 son Chris, a blond with blue eyes who married blue-eyed blond Debbie Forget. They make their home in British Columbia.
CRAIG As a first name it took off in the USA in the 1940s, went forth and multiplied in English-speaking countries. It comes from Gaelic creag and Welsh craig for rock, a com-mon enough Scottish surname and no doubt nickname as well. Craig is a name bestowed on children whose families may have nothing to do with Scotland. It is the family sur-name of viscounts Craigavon. Craigie is a place name in various parts of Scotland. Cragg is the spelling farther south. Craig is plentiful in northern Ireland counties Antrim, Derry and Tyrone.
Sir James Henry Craig (1748-1812) a British lieutenant general was governor-in-chief of the colony of Canada 1807-11. A veteran of the battles for Bunker Hill, Ticon-deroga and the advance on Saratoga in the American Revolution, Craig just wasn’t sym-pathetic to representative government, nor for that matter to French Canadians. The legislative assembly was more than a little put off with him and francophones thought it a reign of terror. He did allow afterwards that he had been, ahem, unwise in his choice of advisors. A Scots-Irish statesman, 1st Viscount James Craig Craigavon, in 1921 became prime minister of the new government of Northern Ireland. He was made viscount 1927.
Craig Russell (1948-90) was the Canadian female impersonator in Toronto seen occasionally on national television [Mae West, sex symbol of the ‘Thirties, was his best]. He d. of Aids aged 42. He starred in the quirky little movie Outrageous, which turned out to be more than merely a stage for his own antics. It left my wife and me in tears; a thoughtful audience applauding. Harrumph, time now to hail sparkling Andrew Craig Hanington b. 1971 Halifax, later of Hawaii, son of my school teacher nephew Mark.
CULVER This term of endearment from Old English culfre meaning dove eventually settled in as a surname as many nicknames have. On early records in England was a Geoffrey Kulver 1215-19, a Thomas Colvere 1334, and William Culvere LLB [legum baccalaureus] 1423 in Kent. Culverhouse is a surname taken from the word meaning dovecote. Culverwell is another, meaning a spring or stream where doves gathered. A place in Devon is called Culverswell meaning the same. Culver’s root, a variety of figwort, is a cathartic. Culver City is a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Its movie industry began 1915 and the place is big on electronics and aerospace stuff.
Culver is the married name of my beautiful cousin Eleanor née Wallace on Thet-
is Island, British Columbia. Dennis and Eleanor of course are lovey-dovey. They and their nine children ranging from two to 12 years crammed into a diesel hotel-pattern minibus July 1963 to drive across Canada to visit their numerous uncles, aunts and cousins in Nova Scotia. The children were Nonie, Margot, Susan, Dan, Bruce, twins Sheila and Joan, Hugh and Ronald youngest of all. Eight-year-old cousin Scott Murray from Pictou headed to Vancouver with the Culvers; “just in case the kids get lonely,” Eleanor told the Halifax Mail-Star. Son Daniel George (1952-93) was the first Canadian mountaineer to climb the world’s two highest, Mt. Everest and K2, but was killed during descent of the latter. A provincial marine park on Jedediah Island that his estate helped to buy bears his name. My oldest sister Margot wrote me: “[The] park in his name is on an island between Thetis and the mainland. I am told she [Eleanor] has not recovered” [from his death]. Margot continued: “[Cousin] Ruth told me that her big brother Dan who was this nephew’s godfather died the day he was lost.”
DAFYDD/DAYV Dafydd, along with Dewi and Dai, are Welsh for David, which see. Dafydd was favoured in the Middle Ages, then came back to us late 19th century. That appears to coincide with an upwelling of Welsh language and culture. Daffyd Daniel Rhys-Jones, b. July 13, 1976 and educated in Wales, was my niece Gillian Hanington’s second husband.
David James French, b. 1953 Summerside. P. E. I., to my brother-in-law Doug in an earlier marriage, resorted to the nom de plume Dayv James-French because his early, hard-earned publishers’ cheques were going out to another writer David French. The late author-critic George Woodcock of international reputation reviewed Dayv’s Victims of Gravity book of short stories. From his British Columbia lair Woodcock announced 1990 “a potential master has appeared among us”.
DANIEL The Hebrew Daniyel’s story is told in the Old Testament Book of Daniel. An Israelite slave of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar, he parlayed his shtick with dreams into a position of favour until he saw doom in the “writing on the wall” and blurted it out at Belshazzer’s feast. The king’s son’s supporters cast him into a lion’s den, but God rescued him just as he had earlier from a fiery furnace. Daniel had refused to worship a golden calf the first time and was caught praying to his own God the second time. His name means God is my judge. Or is it God has judged? Michael is another rare Hebrew name having a complete sentence for its meaning.
St. Daniel the Stylite (c.409-93) devoted 33 years to worship of God while living atop a series of pillars near Constantinople after travelling with his abbot to Antioch and seeing St. Simeon the Elder on one. He attracted crowds to his sermons delivered from on high. On his death he was buried at the foot of his pillar. The name Daniel was used also in the Middle Ages. Daniel is popular among the Irish and was employed to anglicize native Donal while Irish forms of Daniel are Dainéal and Dainial. Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) brought about Catholic Emancipation there and so sparked use of the name.
St-Antoine Daniel (c.1600-48) was one of the Jesuit missionaries martyred with Jean de Brébeuf by Iroquois attacking Huronia. Previously Father Daniel had saved souls in Cape Breton and Quebec areas. Canonized 1930, his Society feast day is March 16 and, for the rest of us, Sept. 26. There were the author of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) and American frontiersman, Scots-Irish Pennsylvanian Daniel Boone (1735-1820) who blazed a trail through the Appalachians to Kentucky and the West. Nor need we overlook recent popular Jewish-American and Arab-American entertainers of radio, screen and tube, respectively Danny Kaye and Danny Thomas.
Daniel Igali, 26, of Surrey, B. C., in 2000 won for Canada a first-ever Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling at the Sydney summer games. B. sixth of 21 children in the village of Eniwari, Nigeria, he came with that west African country’s wrestling team to the Commonwealth Games in Victoria six years ago and stayed. Igali defeated Russian Arsen Gitinov in the 69 kilogram final at Sydney.
We took pride in retired Rear-Admiral Charles Lionel Hanington (1921-99) all his life called Daniel, war-decorated husband of my oldest sister Margot. See Kin Tale XIV. My Cousin Daniel Philip Wallace (1910-93) was a Rhodes scholar, champion oarsman, boxer, and senior federal bureaucrat. Gavin Daniel Wallace, son of #4 son Barnaby and former wife Uta, honours the memory of Dan Hanington. Daniel John Carew b. 1981 Down East, is my cousin Steve’s #3 son; and Daniel Cassin b. 1986 London, Ont., my wife’s grand nephew and #1 son of Bernadette (Small) Cassin.
DARCY The hero of Jane Austin’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice had this handle. Another bearer is Baron Thomas Darcy (1467-1537) English soldier, statesman and rebel. The name is Norman baronial d’Arcy from a family originating either in Arcy-Ste-Resti-tue or Arcy-sur-Cure of France that came to Ireland in the 14th century. Darcy is also rooted in Irish Gaelic Dorchaidhe meaning dark man.
The English baron served in military expeditions for both Henry VII and VIII but disapproved of the latter’s divorce from Katherine of Aragon and therefore intrigued with agents of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. In the rebellion in the north of England that became known as the Pilgrimage of Grace 1536, Darcy yielded Pontefract Castle to the rebels but then became one of their leaders. Initially he was pardoned but later was con-victed of treason and had his head lopped off.
Thomas D’Arcy McGee (1825-68) Irish-born Canadian politician was assassin-ated in the nation’s capital by a Fenian. This is one of only two political assassinations of Canadian history. Surely nobody really wants to shoot Darcy Small b. 1985 London, Ont., my wife’s grand nephew and adolescent son of John Patrick Small of that city.
DARLENE The surname Darling comes from the Old English for little dear. Darlene, Darla and Darleen are thought modern adaptations of darling as given names for girls. Darlene was being chosen by 1937 and is a North American and Australian name. It peaked in the USA by 1950 but faded completely by 1980. Black and white Americans chose it about evenly, the name ending -lene an accepted modern coinage. Combinations such as Darla Ann, Darla Sue also appeared. Darlene is the middle name of Mary (Yuke) Wallace, second wife of Brian, my cousin Frank’s younger son based in Carp. Ont.
DARRELL A family from Airelle in Calvados, France, became Norman barons in England with the surname d’Airelle. Darel and Dairel[l] are surnames recorded in the 12th century but Darrell as a given name emerged in England near the end of the 19th. Daryl Zanuck was a Hollywood film magnate and later Darryl Strawberry was an outstanding batter for New York Yankees sidelined by colon cancer and drug abuse. David Philip Darrell Hanington b. 1937 Trinidad & Tobago is half brother to late Dan and Peter Hanington. Dan was my oldest sister Margot’s husband. Somewhere in their family tree is a Darrell Peters (1885-1958). See more about David Hanington under the name David.
DAVEY is a surname endearment for David [see] that’s most common in England. One Davie spelling was inherited from France via conquering Normans nigh two millennia ago.. As well Davie is the most common spelling in Scotland. Davies meaning son of David is very common in Wales because of St. David also known as St. Dewi, patron saint of the Welsh. Two prominent Daveys in Canada last century include Frank from Vancouver, poet, critic, editor, and a professor of literature, the other Senator Keith Davey from Toronto. He worked in provincial then federal corridors of power Liberal leaders as king maker. A wry book of his was The Rainmaker (1986) a couple of years after John Turner’s rout at the polls. Davey is the surname of Melissa [see] b. 1988 Kamloops, B.C. This slight blonde is companion in Calgary to our third son Christopher.
DAVID The young David (c.1010-970 B. C.) slew giant Goliath on a field of challenge with his shepherd’s slingshot. He married King Saul’s daughter Michal. Her brother Jonathan, King Saul’s eldest son, was devoted to this young hero who first appeared on the scene as court musician, loving David “as his own soul”. As second king of Israel David made Jews the most powerful nation between Nile and Euphrates rivers. Second Samuel outlines his decline from when he sent Uriah the Hittite into thick of battle so as to grab onto his Bathsheba whom David had already made pregnant. An angel was dis-patched to have a word with him. Recent biographer Jonathan Kirsch describes David, “the original alpha male, the kind of man whose virile ambition always drives him to the head of the pack.” Bathsheba manipulated David, almost 70, into having her son Solomon succeed him. Those are just highlights: read the Book!
David may mean the lullaby word darling or it can mean friend. The New Testa-ment fulfilled the word of Old Testament prophets that the Messiah would be from the House of David. David is also attested in the Koran.
The name saturates Wales because of quite another David, Saint Dewydd d. ca. 588. Dewi Sant, first abbot of Menevia, was missionary and founder of 12 monasteries of strict rule. On his March 1 feast day his countrymen give voice in eisteddfods at home and abroad. Such call their homeland Gwlad y Gan, land of song.
David I (1084-1153) was considered a wise king of the Scots but David II, son of Robert the Bruce, was inglorious. The name caught on, nevertheless, and Clann Dhai, Davidsons, form part of Clan Chatten, the cat confederacy. As a given name David re-mains high on lists of most-used names in English-speaking areas.
David Thompson (1770-1857) in surveying for the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Fur Co., logged 55,000 miles out West and before he was finished mapped roughly a third of North America. His locations, largely spare-time activity, were found later to be correct to within a mile. Native and Métis companions thought he could see into the future.
Aaron Hart David was head medic of the Montreal Rifle Brigade during the 1837 Rebellion. Later he was dean of Bishop’s College and active in the Jewish community. Laurent Olivier David (1840-1926) was a lawyer but foremost a newspaperman, founding several before winning a seat in the Quebec legislature 1886. He was made senator 1903. The writing award Prix David honours him.
Major David Vivian Currie VC (1912-86) was the only unit officer of the South Alberta Reconnaissance Regiment unscathed in action at St-Lambert-sur-Dives August 1944 in Normandy, France, in the Second World War. He took and held that village in the face of repeated counter attacks of Nazi troops trying to escape the Falaise Gap. He was later given a Victoria Cross, British Commonwealth premier valour award. While blocking their escape route he and his unit knocked out seven tanks, a dozen 88-mm guns and 40 German armoured vehicles, Currie himself working a 17-pounder anti-tank gun and firing a rifle at enemy snipers. RCAF Flight Lt. David Ernest Hornell VC (1910-44) had depth charged a German submarine off the Shetland Islands 24 June 1944 sinking the U-boat but his twin-engine amphibian crippled by its gunfire. He had to land on rough seas, organiz-ing his crew to take turns in a lone dinghy. Rescued next day he was blind, exhausted and soon dead. In war’s aftermath, David Ben Gurion (1886-1973) was one tough visionary who became Israel’s first prime minister 1948 then returned to his kibbutz in latter years.
Father David Bauer (1924-88) brother of Boston Bruin Bobby Bauer was among Oshawa Memorial Cup champs 1943 then heeded a vocation with Basilian Fathers in-stead of the N. H. L. He coached Toronto’s St. Michael’s College to a 1961 Memorial Cup and formed a national team for the C. A. H. A. which won an Olympic bronze 1968 in France. In Cold War Atlantic manoeuvring a Soviet warship signalled a Canadian dest-royer, “Give our regards to Father Bauer.”
In September 2000 David Van Horne called his last Montreal Expos base-ball game after 30 years. Dave and sidekick Duke Snider broadcast 1979-86 when Expos were in pennant races. Charles Gordon in the Ottawa Citizen remarked of Van Horne re-duced to Internet broadcasts: “the fingernails still growing after the life is gone”. David Adams Richards won the $25,000 Giller Prize in 2000 for his novel Mercy Among the Children. Living in Toronto and hailing from The Miramichi in New Brunswick, his non-fiction book Lines on the Water took the governor general’s award in ’98.
We have David James French b. 1953 Summerside, P. E. I.; [nom de plume Dayv James-French] whose emerging writing talent was justifiably praised by late author/ critic George Woodcock. He’s #2 son of brother-in-law Doug. In the RCMP is David John Walsh b. 1960 in St. John’s, my wife’s nephew. Cdr. Denny Lee, RCN Ret’d, late widower of my cousin Betty Wallace, had David for middle name. David Andrew Smith, b. 1963 Ottawa, graphics design, is second husband of our #2 daughter Catherine Anne.
Dave Hanington
The father of my late brother-in-law Dan, Charles Lionel Hanington (1877-1937), was a widower of New Brunswick stock who married again in Trinidad. David Philip Darrell, son of this second marriage, was born 27 days after his father died. His mother took ill and had to stay indefinitely in hospital. David, a skinny freckled blond kid near 13 joined Dan and Margot [my oldest sister] in Halifax. Mummy in retirement was also staying with them and often I turned up to sleep on the top bunk in David’s room.
The father had been editor of Trinidad Guardian and a good many years later I found was still held in great regard at that Lord Beaverbrook paper. I was a cub reporter 1947-49 for the Halifax Mail and then a naval public affairs officer. David already had the genes and picked up enough of my yarning about the news “game” to start his career in journalism, he told me much later. By that time he’d graduated to television documen-taries. Idi Amin, military ruler of Uganda 1971-79 dearly wanted his telejournalist ass. As it was, Bishop Hannington had been slain there 1885, perhaps eaten. Dave worked in Canada, USA and Britain, travelling over much of the world, always the slim smoothie. In Ottawa on CTV assignment to feature jazz guitarist Roddy Ellias, he rounded me up for the shoot and a sandwich lunch. Roddy, in his 50s, has taught at St. Francis Xavier University in N. S. and Concordia U. in Montreal.
Dave eventually retired to be a gentleman farmer in England, and a grandfather – both roles quite frankly I had some difficulty envisioning. It was on his spread that a big Hanington family reunion took place one recent summer. When Margot died mid-2008 David came from England to give the eulogy at her funeral service in Victoria, B. C.
DAVEY
DAWE This and Daw are among many diminutives of David but Wilson & Reaney say they also can share in Old and Middle English jackdaw meaning foolish fellow. Yet through the David connection, Daw[e]s are linked to “the greatest of all kings of Israel” said one source, two kings of Scotland [#2 not so hot], and to the patron saint of Wales. Daw[e] is mainly a surname of southwest England, Dawkins in the midlands and Dawson “very northern”, Professor Basil Cottle tells us. Although Day was the usual English version of Irish O Deaghaidh, later O Dea, now Daw is an occasional synonym.
Eli Dawe (1843-1930) was involved in fishing and mining in Newfoundland and served there as minister of agriculture and mines 1903. He was appointed to the legis-lative council 1922. Ours is retired naval commander Larry Dawe, b. 1947 Vancouver, husband of my niece Felicity née Hanington who’s an admiral’s daughter. They are rearing two children on Texada Island in B. C.; having completed a house I am told is of strong nautical flavour.
DEBBIE/DEBORAH Since the 1950s Debbie has been a name on its own, its profile much enhanced by actress Debbie Reynolds. Previously and now on occasion it is a pet form of Deborah. Debbie Ann Forget wed our #3 son Christopher 29 May 1981.
Deborah is Hebrew for a bee, the equivalent name in Greek being Melissa. For some of the ancients Deborah meant an outstanding woman for the bee symbolized wisdom, female virtues, hard work, as with Rebecca’s faithful nurse. A famed prophetess helped free Israel from the Canaanites; another source said she “led”. It takes a woman to wangle 40 years of peace. See the Ode and her story in Judges IV and V. The trium-phant Song of Deborah is one of the oldest literary compositions of the Hebrew Bible dating possibly to 12 centuries before Christ. Deborah’s appeal to the tribes of Israel and her death are recorded in another early Jewish work under pen name Pseudo-Philo. The work was wrongly attributed to Philo (c.20 B.C.-50 AD) because the piece, composed originally in Hebrew and coming from Palestine, wound up tucked into his stuff.
The busy bee concept appealed to late 16th century Puritans who accordingly made much of Deborah as a name. Throughout the USA of the 1950s it was among most favoured. Deborah Elizabeth (Johnson) Hanington b. 1953 Lachine, Qué., is my nephew Brian’s devoted and peace-loving wife in Ottawa and lives up to her name.
DENHAM comes from Old English meaning dweller at the farm in the valley. There are localities of that name in Buckinghamshire. The place name near Uxbridge is valley dweller but one near Quaintain is either the hill of the family/folk of Dunn, or simply hill of the hill people. The other surviving surname Denholm[e] was for someone residing on or near flat land on bog, marsh or swamp, or someone living on a piece of land partly surrounded by streams. Early of record are Richard de Deneham 1176 Bucks, John de Deneholme 1332 Lancs, and John Denham 1446/47 Surrey.
Courtier Sir John Denham (1615-69) was poet and playwright. Born in Dublin he was of the Ascendancy. Sir John introduced the topographical poem by describing the scenery around his home near Windsor and adding moral reflection. The heroic couplet became the versifying standard of the time. Louis Untermeyer thought Denham “a minor 17th century poet” perhaps because he thought Denham had been entombed too close to Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1342-1400) in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer’s works [best remem-bered are Canterbury Tales] made Southern English dialect the literary language of the entire country. Florentine Alighiere Dante (1265-1321) had done much the same with Tuscan for Italian literature.
Dixon Denham (1786-1828) explored Darkest Africa, so called earlier in the 20th century since few explorers had penetrated its jungle gloom. Educated with a business career in mind, instead he joined the British army 1811 and fought in the Spanish/Portu-guese Peninsula campaign and in The Netherlands. In 1826 he prepared a Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa.
Michael Denham b. 1973 Conestogo [not -ga] Ont., wed Shannon Rothery [daughter of our son-in-law Bill from a previous marriage] 1998 Ottawa. They divorced.
DENIS/DENISE Ladies first. French Denise come from Latin Dionysia and that from a lame Greek god. But a St. Denise was a Christian martyr AD 202 Alexandria. Two more women martyrs of the name were victims of somewhat later persecutions.
The French form was borrowed for English usage 1920s becoming markedly pop-ular 1950-65. An earlier Latin version was common in early Christian inscriptions. Den-ise is in effect a reborrowing from France and the variety of spellings indicates pronounce-ment change to den-eece in England from den-eeze.
Among early saints was St-Denis, bishop of Paris c. 272. He converted Gauls but had his head chopped off, kind of a Celtic compliment actually. His body and two other martyrs were fished from the River Seine and entombed. The chapel built over them ex-panded to famed Benedictine abbey of St-Denis. His name spread as patron saint of France and Normans took it up.
A fellow golfer at Hylands G.C. told me, correctly, that Dennis is the modern spelling as well of several surnames identifying Danish raiders and occupiers of eastern England almost a millennium ago, the root le Danei from Old French. Dennis in Ireland’s Dublin and County Cork resulted from a semi-translation of Mac Donnchadha but Den-nison in Ulster is less infrequent. Dennis also stands for rare O Donnghusa. A Denny family came from England in the 16th century to prominence in Co. Derry.
The Greek masculine form Dionysios “lame god” belonged to the son of Zeus and Semele. His thing was vegetation but later he became known as god of wine. It is con-cluded that his Bacchus image originated with an orgiastic cult imported either from Per-sia or some other Asian place and superimposed on this older deity of Greece.
The first Christian of the name was the Aeropagite, Athenian senator converted by St. Paul [Acts 17:34]. St. Dionysius was a 3rd century bishop of Alexandria who escaped jail by persecutors with help of Egyptians and operated his see in the Libyan desert until it was over. He d. Alexandria 265. Father Joseph/Jacques Denis (1657-1736) was first Canadian-born to enter the Recollet Order, ordained 1682 Paris. In all he ad-ministered to the Gaspé, Newfoundland, Quebec City and fortress Louisbourg, N. S.
Kyla Denise Hanington, b. 1973 Sicamous, B. C. and later of Hawaii, is my ne-phew Mark’s middle daughter. She’s married to astronomer Stephen Holland and when working in Denmark in 1999 they had Anja Elizabeth. Dennis Culver m. my gorgeous Wallace cousin Eleanor and they raised nine children in Vancouver. Dennis d. of late in his mid 90s although near the end could not recognize his wife. Retired naval commander Denis David Lee was widower of my late and admired cousin Betty née Wallace (1924-58). Denny remarried, to one of the few but fabulous secretaries who ran just about everything in naval headquarters, Ottawa; but he d. 1977. I hoisted a few with him on occasion. When we turned up for a nightcap in wee hours some decades ago at Chaudiere Golf Club in full mess regalia, they wouldn’t let admit us. Likely suspected we’d have to fight our way out again, our fancy rigs igniting a boozy brawl they didn’t need.
DONALD/DONNA Her name comes from the Italian honorific donna for lady. And sometimes it’s meant to be feminine of Donald. Another masculine form is Dominic meaning Lord. There were three sainted Dominicas, one c. 302 who survived various grisly attempts to put her to death. She was allowed a moment for prayer before behead-ing and died in an instant of peace while kneeling. One of three saints of name, Spaniard Dominic Guzman (1170-1221) founded the Dominican preaching order 1216. His feast is Aug. 8. My wife’s youngest brother Harry teaches on Dominica, an island of the West Indies.
Donna as a given name isn’t found before the 1920s. Americans of Italian descent favoured it for daughters, a nice, ladylike term for immigrants struggling for a better life in the New World but mindful of their culture in the Old. Italian Americans also began fav-ouring Madonna, my lady. Pop star Madonna Ciccone b. 1958 likely has made her nun teachers squirm. Bill Madonna out of Augusta, Georgia, runs a chain of golf schools. He’s among the top 100 golf teachers in the USA and imparts sweet-swinging techniques of late Canadian tourer George Knudson, Canada’s best pro of the 20th century. Donna Jean Small b. 1991 London, Ont., is my wife’s grandniece, #1 daughter of nephew Doug-las Arthur Small, and more than my lady, a princess.
Donald is compelling, coming as it does from the early Irish Gaelic Dombnall, from Old Celtic dubno, world, plus val, rule. Five high kings and three saints of Ireland were bearers of the more modern version Donal from which -o- acute accent has dropped. St. Donald of Forfar [Ogilvie in Forfarshire, Scotland] on the death of his wife in the 8th century formed a religious group with his nine daughters. Later they entered a monastery at Abernethy. Why Donald ended in -d- was English mispronouncing and some associa-tion with Norse Ronald. We can’t possibly ignore Clan Donald, which lorded it over 700 family names while darned near medieval kings of the Scottish Isles.
Donald Sutherland b. 1935 Saint John, N. B., is an international film star noted for character roles. Son Kiefer is a leading actor even as his dad drifts onto the stage. “Tall, earnest and diffident” Donald is that rare phenom; a Canadian liked in his own country. In 2000 he picked up a governor general performing arts award.
Don Dool b. 1959 Western Ontario and water conservationist in British Columbia is husband of my wife’s niece, Mary Small that was. Retired naval commander Arthur Hatheway McDonald b.1922 Saint John, N. B., is my #2 sister Rosemary’s ex in Halifax, student of Scottish pipe & dance. A rustic air camouflaged an incisive mind that quickly retrieved essentials. Mac was given command of several ships in our small Navy in spite of his various and usually colourful escapades. Bottom line: he could handle ships and he could handle men.
DOROTHY This is a “post classical” Greek name from doron for gift plus theos for god. The reverse of Theodora. A masculine version, Dorotheus, adorned several early Christian saints, the feminine version by two, one of whom was martyred c.303. A legend involves Dorothy of Cappadocia [Turkey] whose parents were already martyred under Emperor Diocletian (245-313) of Rome. She’d refused marriage to Fabritius and was on her way to execution when a sneering lawyer asked her to send him apples and roses from the garden of Paradise. An angel delivered this young man three of each. Pat-roness of brides and gardeners her feast is Feb. 6. Dorothy of Montau (c. 1336-99) was patron saint of Prussia and Silesia, now parts of Germany and Poland.
Although the name Dorotheus didn’t survive, Dorothy came to the British Isles at the end of the 15th century and had a couple of hundred years of high popularity. By the 1980s, though, it was rare.
Dora was a 1700s abbreviation, Doll and Dolly not yet on scene. Dorothea was either a 19th century latinization or a reborrowing. Movie star Dorothy Lamour poured into a sarong was b. 1914 Dorothy Kaumeyer. Dorothy Dix wrote a genteel advice col-umn. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) of New Yorker magazine should have written Dorothy Dix about this predicament – By the time you swear you’re his,
Shivering and sighing,
And he vows his passion is
Infinite, undying –
Lady, make a note of this:
One of you is lying.
[Exit line on her gravestone: “Excuse my dust.”]
Dorothy Madeline (Wallace) MacAuley (1916-88) was Uncle Joe’s #1 daughter. His praiseworthy first wife Dot Granville wasn’t a Dorothy. Her grandfather Pup nick-named her Dot when she was a child; her actual names Theresa Agnes Mae. She d. 1927 Halifax of tuberculosis. Joe’s second marriage was unhappy recorded my cousin J[oseph] Owen Granville. Dorothy (Billers) French (1924-97) Toronto-born wife of my wife’s #3 brother John, died while both from Edmonton were visiting daughter Maureen in Victoria.
DOUGLAS We appear to have half a dozen called Douglas, mostly of Irish stock. On the Old Sod they’d never choose Lowland Scottish names because of certain undesirables transported to Ireland very early in the 1600s by James I of England [VI of Scotland], and because of the Scots-Irish grip on the Northern Ireland economy since. Carews of my childhood drew frequently from an impressively deep well of disparaging remarks about Lowlanders, some with the ring of truth in them. The point is, choosing a name tabooed once upon a time surely fits our New World where old hurts have space and time to heal. Some ethnics seem to manage it better than others do: rough and ready Scots-Irish made terrific frontiersmen in North America.
Gaelic dubhghlas means black water, dark stream, and of the Douglas it was said: “Men have seen the stream, but what eye ever beheld its source.” It’s one of the most powerful names of Scotland and north England as well. From their border stronghold Douglas men early on were reivers [rustlers, pillagers] improving their standard of living usually by plundering Sassenachs. They were out for Wallace and out for Robert the Bruce. Good Sir James Douglas was killed fighting Moors in Spain 1330, a fatal diversion to this Crusade while carrying the heart of King Robert I for burial in the Holy Land.
The 4th and 5th earls of Douglas fought with French against English in 1420s France. The Tyneman, Archibald Douglas (c. 1369-1424) the 4th earl, as duke of Touraine led the Franco-Scottish right wing and was killed in action. Nevertheless, Douglas is the family name of nine British peerages. Douglas began being used as a first name in the 16th century, initially for women.
Sir Howard Douglas (1776-1861) 3rd Bart, British general and colonial adminis-trator, was governor and commander-in-chief of New Brunswick colony 1823-34. He prevented a U.S. invasion from Maine 1828. Sir Howard secured a charter at Fredericton for what became University of New Brunswick. The baronet was its first chancellor. Douglastown, N. B., is named after him. On the other hand, Douglastown in Gaspe is supposedly named for Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Douglas whose force relieved Quebec City when revolutionary Americans besieged it 1776.
Known as the Father of British Columbia is Sir James Douglas (1803-97) who started 1821 as a clerk in the fur-trading North West Company. He governed Vancouver Island, then the whole of B. C. Douglas Channel is named for him. The towering firs of B. C. are named for botanist David Douglas (1799-1834). He is believed also to be the first white to climb a mountain in the Rockies, the Cascades, and Blue Mountains of Oregon, and first up two major Hawaiian peaks.
James Douglas (1839-1920) was a Presbyterian minister and metallurgist in Que-bec, USA and Mexico who established a chair in colonial and Canadian history at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont. He served as chancellor 1915-18 and endowed the university library. Sir Arthur George Douglas (1860-1936) became dominion archivist 1904 and left his own volumes of history as well as collaborating in numerous others.
Other worthy Douglas men in Canadian history should be headed by wee Tommy Douglas, late Thomas Clement Douglas, for the record, boxer, printer, Baptist minister, CCF premier of Saskatchewan 1944-61, holder of Commons seats, and first national leader of the New Democratic Party. He set up government Medicare in his province, first in North America, then made sure it went national. Tommy died 1986 and is he lately spinning in his grave?
Douglas peaked overseas in the 1950s, Americans looking perhaps to their General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) but the name, just like old soldiers, has faded since the ‘70s.
This one was a Canadian Armed Forces garrison brat b. 1961 Baden-Sollingen, Germany, a spa doubling as a NATO air base during the Cold War. He was recruited himself as a “somewhat reluctant spokesman for his generation” because Douglas Coup-land’s first book 1991 was entitled Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. It encompassed a generation b. late 1950s and throughout the ‘60s, one resigned to a bleaker future than Baby Boomers. Although Coupland didn’t coin the term Generation X perhaps he best articulated it.
We have Douglas Joseph French Sr. and Jr., late father and lively older brother of my wife; Douglas Arthur and Douglas Joseph Small, her nephew and grand nephew in London, Ont. Another nephew, Douglas Garrett Walsh in St. John’s, son of the late Basil Douglas Walsh, goes by Garry. Doug French Senior and Junior share Kin Tale VI where-as old D. J. owns XVII.
DUNCAN From the Gaelic, Scots or Irish, Donnchad means brown warrior or brown chief, noble. So many old nicknames seem obsessed with either ruddy or dark complex-ions. First Peoples of Ireland appear on the one hand red of hair, freckled or rosy-faced, big, rawboned arrivals presumed from northerly Continental parts: these out-numbered grizzly, swarthy, smaller Mediterraneans on the other. Credit for who arrived in Ireland first has gone to one or other depending on what you read. Both types journeyed much of this last millennium from out of the Emerald Isle ultimately to the four corners of the world.
St. Duncan, 7th century Scot, was abbot of Iona, an important Celtic Church con-centration on a former druidic island off Scotland taken over by an O’Neill and where monarchs are buried. Tenth-century Irish St. Duncan was prior of Clonmacnoise, a monastery whose eloquent ruins in Ireland suggest a town. Until Norse and Norman, a monastery’s cluster made do as tribal seat in a country still pastoral.
Two 11th century kings of Scots were named Duncan, one of whom (1034-40) was supposedly murdered by his cousin Macbeth. The other was murdered 1094. For many school children the tragedy by Will Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the only version they know. Surnames such as Donkin, Dunkin, Donecan show heavy usage of the Middle Ages, particularly in north Britain and Scotland. It peaked among Scots 19th century and, in 1958, was ranked 33rd among surnames there.
Here’s how Donnchad became Duncan. The final -n- just crept in because of con-fusion with Gaelic ceann, “head” and because of Latin Duncanus. In modern Irish it’s Donncha. We called our #1 son Dunky especially when he was younger.
Clans Duncan and Robertson have common ancestry in ancient earls of Atholl. Donnachadh Reamhar, Stout or Fat Duncan [depending on, I suppose, if you were friend or foe] led clansmen at Bannockburn where 10,000 Scots under Robert the Bruce in 1314 routed 23,000 Englishmen under Edward II. [Remember the build-up to that last glorious scene in the motion picture Braveheart?] The win prevented England reducing Scotland to province from nation.
An Adam Duncan became Admiral Viscount Duncan 1800 under George IV of England after destroying the Dutch as a naval power 1797 off Camperdown. In 1780 he had defeated the Spanish off Cape Vincent [not to be confused with a later sea victory off that cape]. The Duncan family badge is a warship under full sail, proper.
Duncans in Canadian history are cerebral for the most part, a writer, teachers, lay missionary, professor, novelist. Duncan, B. C., is named for an Ontario farmer who homesteaded there. James Stewart Duncan b. 1893 was a successful Massey-Harris man in Canada and overseas. He was a linguist, Great War gunner and, in the Second World War, committed to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He was a notch below deputy minister level, had honorary membership in the Air Council with honorary rank of air commodore. France and Norway decorated him.
[His credentials bring to mind all those dollar-a-year men sent to Ottawa 1939-45 to help the war effort, their salaries paid by corporations lending them. Imperial Oil put my Uncle Steve Carew’s salary quietly aside for him while he was on active service. They wanted this inventive, sturdy worker back: now he had the down payment for a house.]
Our #1 son is Duncan Gerard b. 1955 Ottawa, average height, dark and grisly. He can wear two at least black belts in Oriental martial arts. Zen Buddhism [?]makes him ignore my asking more details for family archives. He came out of Algonquin College in Ottawa a biochemical technician, working his way as male nursing aide at National De-fence Medical Centre and Royal Ottawa Hospital. Duncan devoted the next 15 years of his life in Hamilton and Toronto to female hormone research and was published. He’s now in North Carolina in research for American industry safeguards. Wife Tina started there as an orthopedics operating room nurse in a nearby university hospital but now runs a clinic. Their golf approaches excellence. More about Duncan is in Kin Tales VIII and XL.
I chose the names Duncan Gerard because ignorant then of a custom for first-born sons. His moniker should have been Howard III French Wallace. Just as well not: young Duncan already had more than his fair share of schoolyard scrapping as it was!
DYLAN Close to a thousand contemporary relatives likely exist in our extended families. This Catalogue of Kin covers hardly half – by and large only those whom at least one of our immediate family has met. It will be nice to add more as they are encountered, and to catch up with the remaining eight of #1 son Duncan’s recently acquired nine in-law bro-thers and sisters. A deliberate exception to my policy of exclusion is Dylan Stephen Da-vid Bradley b. December 1972 Halifax, grandson of my #2 sister Rosemary McDonald who helped rear him while his mother, Kathie, completed her education. My sister Rosie mentioned him for years, it seems, in every letter she wrote me. He took physics in uni-versity but immersed himself since in various aspects of TV production.
The name recalls a Welsh oceanic deity, perhaps. All the waves of Britain and Ire-land wept for him when he died, it was said. In the early Welsh classic, The Mabinogi, Dylan was born miraculously of Arianrhod and became a minor sea god. For those less romantic, Dylan descends from a Celtic root word meaning sea and is related to the Welsh word dylif for flood. Reaney & Wilson record a Geoffrey Dilun of 1203 Shropshire. That borders the Welsh marches. They note others dated a bit later involved with Hereford and Warwick shires and spelled de Dilun and Dylon respectively. They think the name might come from Old German dillo with the diminutive -on tacked on, a dweller of some kind. Dillon, historically prominent in Ireland, is a Hiberno-Norman family with branches in Counties Meath, Westmeath and Roscommon.
Traditionally Dylan has come to mean son of the waves, but Trefor Davies looks to the Welsh word dylanwod, “influence”. The Welsh Dylan Thomas (1914-53) of bardic sweep who died a drunk, may have stimulated the name in England as well as Wales but over here the smart money is on protest-then-religious singer Bob Dylan b. 1941, of “Blowin’ in the Wind”. He was a Zimmerman but changed his surname to honour poet Dylan who died in the midst of an American tour.
B. 8 August 2000 to Hollywood star Michael Douglas and Welsh actress Cath-erine Zeta-Jones near Beverly Hill, Calif., was seven pound, seven ounce Dylan. Ms. Zeta-Jones admires Dylan Thomas and, like that poet, was b. in Swansea, Wales. Doug-las predictably favours folk-rocker Bob Dylan.
France of late has relaxed its ban on non-French names so parents there in 1999 began moving toward Celtic names such as Dylan, apparently ignorant of a possible Frankish origin.
EDGAR This is a royal Anglo-Saxon name, one of very few that survived the Norman Conquest. It came into our extended family with Lowertown francophone Edgar Bazinet (1919-83). He was a federal public servant with a family of attractive young women in a pretty suburban home. And the obligatory Buick. Tragically, Edgar wasted away of can-cer a year short of retirement to a hard-earned government pension.
Our #2 son Stephen was dating Edgar’s middle daughter Lucie through French high schools and they wed here 1975 while university students. Steve and Edgar got along famously: both told me how much they admired the other. The son of Steve and Lucie is Eli Edgar Bazinet Wallace b. at home 1981 Gloucester, Ont., who perpetuates his name.
It came from Old English ead for prosperity, riches, plus gar for spear. Royal names include English King/Saint Edgar the Peaceful (c. 943-75); Aeggar, King of Scots 1189; and Edgar Atheling, meaning royal prince (c. 1060-c. 1125) already chosen to suc-ceed Harold. However invading Normans had other ideas.
St. Edgar the Peaceful was an outstanding Saxon king. Enthroned 958 when only 16 he took control of rebellious Northumbrians, repulsed Scottish thrusts and organized a maritime defence against the Danes. In his reign about 30 monasteries came into being, some on royal property given or sold.
Danelaw/Danegeld
Edgar worked out a successful accommodation with Danes occupying a goodly chunk of his realm by allowing them their own laws. The term Danelaw initially signified their body of law but soon came to mean their area of occupation “up the Thames and then up the Lea…to its source, then straight to Bedford and then up the Ouse to Watling Street” [an old Roman road]. Many Danish laws and customs survived past the Norman Conquest from a deal Alfred the Great had cut with Guthrum 886. Edgar also found time to rejuvenate monasteries and reform currency to encourage trade. He designed a system for warship manning and mounted a coastal patrol organization to defend his people from other Danes a-viking i. e. raiding.
Danegeld was the medieval land tax raised at first to buy off Danish raiders but later collected to defend against them. It was first levied 868, then by Alfred 871 and thereafter on occasion until Aethelred (978-1016) made it a regular tax. By the 12th cen-tury it had been converted to the feudal exaction of tallage. Like the story of income tax and of GST in Canada this century: a tax once imposed, remains.
King Edgar of the Scots was vassal to William Rufus of England but this Edgar lost the Hebrides to Norwegians 1098. Will Shakespeare has Edgar a son of King Lear. Another’s a hero of Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermore.
Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was a French painter and sculptor re-membered for the way he rendered human figures in motion. He focused on ballerinas, powder room and racetrack. Indebted to Japanese prints and photography, he exhibited frequently with Impressionists even though little influenced by them. American poet and author Edgar Allan Poe still has a following in Europe so the 150th anniversary of his death was observed widely 7 Oct. 1999. He d. only 40 years old. Since 1949 three red roses and the remainder of a bottle of cognac have been left on his grave each Oct. 7. The original Poe toaster apparently died but another black-clad stranger carries on, who is also a New York Giants football fan.
Sir J. D. Edgar was speaker of our House 1896. The name is quietly used now compared to the last quarter of the 19th century. The modern French spelling is Edgard, but Edgar Bazinet’s parents of French and Irish roots apparently eschewed the -d.
EDITH Another of the few royal Anglo-Saxon names that prevailed after the Norman Conquest is Edith. It comes from Old English components ead for prosperity, riches, and -gyth for strife. Saintly Edgitha [Edith} of Wessex 929 wed Saxon King Otto of Ger-many. She was daughter of English King Edward the Elder and sister of reigning King Aethelstan. This is at a time when both England and Germany still were known both as Sakslandia and shared a nigh-identical tongue. Edgar the Peacemaker had an illegitimate daughter named Edith. Her mother took her to the convent at Wilton in Wiltshire where she was thought to be a saint of great humility in her short life (961-84). What else could dependent nuns say.
The name was in regular use through the centuries but became fashionable as the 1800s unfolded. From 1870s to the 1930s it was in or near the top ten girl names. British nurse Edith Cavell was shot by German firing squad 11 Oct. 1915 in Brussels, Belgium, for helping prisoners of war escape. Her execution ignited British public opin-ion. Dame Edith Evans (1888-1976) was a British stage actress, and Edith Piaf (1910-63) the waif of wistful French songs. Her funeral drew 40,000 mourners. Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) was an eccentric poet and wit, member of reputedly the most literary family of the 20th century. Edith Eleanor McLean, 2 lb. 7 oz. was first premature baby put into an incubator 1888 New York. This little preemie survived.
Edith Stein (1891-1942) Orthodox Jew born Germany on Yom Kippur was a scholar in philosophy before she became a Carmelite nun 1922 as Teresia Benedicta. After Kristalnacht 1938 she and convert sister Rosa took refuge in Holland. Roman Cath-olic bishops of the occupied Netherlands in 1942 protested persecution of Jews and in retaliation Nazis rounded up Catholic converts from Judaism and sent them to Ausch-witz death camp. Beatified 1987 she was canonized by Pope John Paul II 1998. This Polish pope has approved the process for sainthood of at least five Holocaust figures to unease of some Jewish leaders who maintain their two greatest scourges of the 20th cen-tury to be anti-Semitism and assimilation. Before the common era the pervasive culture of Classical Greece had gravely threatened Judaism it should be remembered.
We have Edith Bernice née Wallace b. 1959 Halifax, my cousin Frank’s oldest daughter; and my “Aunt” Edie Grono, a Fraser link with the Munros of St. Margaret’s Bay, N. S. An earlier Munro had married a Fraser who had a stable at the head of the bay and another in Glen Margaret. Frasers, Munros and a Grono [the latter a Welsh name] of the area were already tied together in work and friendship.
Aunt Edie was a penniless widow whose only son Zola died young of influenza. She became housekeeper to widower Will Tapp, an auctioneer from the Old Colony who had a fine home and two attractive daughters just up the St. Margaret’s Bay Road from Armdale, Halifax suburb. The girls’ late mother had been a Fraser. Edie was, in spite of everything, a sparkling, jolly sort of woman of high colour given to hairnets. Was hair died brown & grey a wig? An endearing pigeon complete with clucks and coos. On sum-mer visits to us in Glen Margaret at Jalna – family women were hooked on Whiteoaks serial novelist Mazo de la Roche a. k. a. Irish-extracted Maisie Roche (1879-1961) – Edie gave our wheezy pump organ its best workouts. Her programs included pieces she’d composed herself since Victorian ladies were required to parade social accomplishments. The two daughters continued good friends with all of us long after Edie and Will died. God doubtless is more considerate of Edie in Heaven than Will Tapp was of her on earth.
EDWARD The patron saint of England, before Crusaders brought back St. George, was Edward the Confessor, king of the English 1042-66. He was son of AEthelred the Un-ready and Norman wife Emma. She later married Danish king Canute. Edward’s half-brother Harthacanute brought him over from the Normandy court in 1042 to succeed him-self as English king. Able but not energetic, Edward had trouble exerting his authority over the great earls especially Godwin, and favoured Normans. William, duke of Nor-mandy, was led to believe he was to be Edward’s heir. However, shortly before death Edward named Harold son of Godwin; opening England to Norman invasion even though the English monarch had been hoping to avert a war between rival claimants William and Harold III of Norway.
Edward’s interest in his realm had lessened over years of confrontations so he escaped into his religion and rebuilding Westminster Abbey. His piety earned him the Confessor label. The Saxon line of kings died with him but a body of laws he had com-piled from predecessors is supposed to be the source of our common law.
In all, he brought so much credit to his name that it became one of the most popu-lar of all in Old English, eight subsequent English kings bearing it. Edward, canonized in the 12th century, was venerated throughout Europe as the very model of a Christian king so that his name passed into other languages. The Scots made it Eideard. In Old English it had been built up from ead for prosperity, riches, plus weard for guard to make up pro-perty guardian. Before the Conquest three Anglo Saxon kings bore it.
Edward I (1239-1307) known as Longshanks and Hammer of Scots also fought the Welsh, went on Crusade then battled in France. He had Sir William Wallace hung, drawn and quartered on a cooked-up charge of treason. Wallace certainly had put north England to fire & sword but as a Scot, not English subject. Some American military anal-ysts argue Longshanks may be the best general of British history. Edward is also the family name of barons Kensington.
Edward III, written c.1594 in one long sentence without punctuation was con-firmed 1998 as work of William Shakespeare when he was around 30 years old. It came just before Romeo & Juliet while the Bard was marking time while a plague shut London theatres. The play concerns early campaigns of the Hundred Years’ War and was sup-pressed by authority as too critical of Scots. [Many of the latter had fought for French against English.] This officially now his 39th play had its world debut, with adequate punctuation, in my Halifax during first the weekend of October ‘98.
Back in 1809 there’d been a grisly show for Haligonians and mariners alike. Edward Jordan was hung, tarred, chained and hoisted on a gibbet for all to see at the entrance to the harbour. He’d been convicted in colony [and nation’s] first piracy trial. [Only one caught in 60 years?] Earlier, His Royal Highness Edward, Duke of Kent, fortified Halifax in the final decade of the 18th century to rival the Rock of Gibraltar and Quebec Citadel where he had previously served. He devised a mechanical, visual tele-graph and used his new toy to conduct floggings and executions in his garrisons at a remove. Legislators of the Island of St. John voted 29 Nov. 1798 to change their name to Prince Edward Island in his honour. Some Canadians today refer to it as Spud Island.
Edward Edwards (c.1756-1813) set up as a stationer Montreal 1781 and became postmaster about five years later. He revived the Montreal Gazette 1795 in spite of a rival of that name. Edwards bested his namesake rival but went under to Canadian Ga-zette whose James Brown took over. Emerging 1808 was a different Montreal Gazette.
[I was a cub reporter in Halifax late 1940s when Montreal had three English dailies. The Herald was under financed and long senile, expiring 1957 after 146 years. The nationally distributed Family Herald for rural readers although under the same own-ers was quite another matter. The Montreal Star ceased publication 1979 after 110 years. Its slick weekly rotogravure became Weekend, for some years the glossy insert section in numerous daily papers across Canada. The morning Gazette as sole survivor was part of Southam chain under the umbrella of Hollinger group. Conrad Black, Baron Black of Cross Harbour, bought his old Sherbrooke Record back late ‘99, only other English language daily in Quebec than the Gazette since the Chronicle-Telegraph of Quebec City stopped coming out every day. Lord Black under a financial cloud licks his wounds while legions of lawyers do battle. Wily as ever, he’d squirrelled away wherewithal for all out legal warfare, suing left and right. A day before going to court Baron Black resigned al-though court and boardroom hostilities increased to where he and others were charged with fraud in the States for skimming more than US$80 million from Hollinger Inter-national and for excessive corporate perks. Canadian Press/Broadcast News chose him biggest business newsmaker of both 2003 and ’04, a likely distinction in ’05.
New York newspaperman Ed Sullivan (1901-74) so liked the campus humour of Toronto’s comic duo [Johnny] Wayne (1918-90) & [Frank] Shuster (1916-2002) that he presented them 67 times on his 23-year CBS network TV variety show which all told displayed more than 10,000 performers.
Harold Edwards (1892-1952) transferred from Royal Canadian Navy to Royal Naval Air Service 1916. He taught flying in postwar Russia, in 1920 returning to Canada to join the Canadian [later Royal] Canadian Air Force. He was air officer commander-in-chief of RCAF overseas 1941-43, retiring as air marshal ’44.
What a contrast was Bob Edwards (1864-1922) perhaps Canada’s Mark Twain. He brought out the Eye Opener “no one can refuse taking one”, an irregular satirical week-ly originating in High River and Calgary among other likely refuges from bill collectors. He twitted small-town authority and church lay organizers when not attacking land swindlers and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Edwards lost only one libel case in 20 years. Readership extended far beyond his potential circulation area.
It’s Ed Peterson of Boise, Idaho, we must thank for inventing the Bac-A-Larm emitting beeps as a heavy vehicle backs up. He d. 1999 age 78. Dr. Edward Asselbergs, head of food processing, Food Research Institute, developed a kind of instant food 1962 in his Ottawa laboratory. Another Prairie man, golfer Edward Schreyer was former New Democratic Party premier of Manitoba, served as Canada’s governor general 1979-84 then spent several years as high commissioner to Australia. But not before our #4 son Barnaby as a militia ranker of the Governor General’s Foot Guards chatted up his pretty daughters on the grounds of Rideau Hall.
A Wallace, French, Granville, Szakowski and Hart each answers to Edward; a Wallace cousin once removed and a Carew stow it in the middle. It has no feminine form but look up Edwina under Edwin.
EDWIN An Anglo-Saxon name revived in England during the 19th century. Edwin had its biggest workout 1850-75 and since then has been regular but not frequent. The personal name was derived from Old English; ead for prosperity, riches, -wine for friend. Who wouldn’t like a prosperous friend?
An 11th century Northumbrian king was converted to Christianity by Saint Pau-linus but then was killed in battle against pagans. So St. Edwin (c. 585-633) is venerated as a martyr. Edinburgh is named after him. The surname is sometimes spelled Edwing but Edwyn as font name may result from confusion with Edwy, quite something else [prosperity, riches, and war]. Versions of Edwin are found in England’s 11 and 13th centuries.
Edwing is dismissed by Prof. Cottle: “the -g is illiterate”. Although Edward has no formal feminine equivalent, Edwina must do for both. It’s 19thcentury latinate femi-nine coinage. Edwina Ashley, widow of assassinated Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was named for Edward VII (1841-1910) who had wanted her called Edwardina. [On no good authority Edwardine is listed in one baby book.]
American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) learned about galaxies, and clas-sified nebulae. More important, he interpreted their red shift to be expansion of our uni-verse, which has been called the biggest find of the 20th century. The Hubble Space Tele-scope, refit in orbit, honours him. Frederick Edwin Small b. 1945 St. John’s, Nfld., #1 son of my wife’s oldest sister Kay, is a chartered accountant in Edmonton. His father Fred was a wartime Canadian Navy sailor in St. John’s when baby Fred came alongside.
EILEEN This name likely meant Helen or Evelyn, coming from Irish Eibhlin or Aibhlin. Normally, -bh- is pronounced -v- in Gaelic but is sometimes silent so the situation as outlined is not so ambiguous after all. Welsh for Helen is Elen. Ellin sometimes gets lumped in too. These Gaelic names derived from Norman French Aveline. That in turn came from the medieval German name Ava. Maybe. [A big clue to all this may be that those tough Anglo-Norman marcher lords from Wales occupied Ireland, only to be ab-sorbed to a degree, as were their Norse ancestors. Sure, why shouldn’t the Irish be after taking on their names?]
At any rate Eileen was exported with other Irish names 1870s and by 1925 Eileen was in the top ten for girls. It remained popular in England until 1950s and was fashion-able to an appreciable degree in North America and Down Under with their large Irish demographics. The Scots equivalent Aileen has been pretty special and not confined to Scotland. The modern book My Sister Eileen by Ruth McKenney, a play from it and two movie versions helped spread the name. American dramatic soprano Eileen Farrell b. 1920 might have had some effect on carriage trade.
Eileen Vollick was Canada’s first woman to get a pilot’s licence, March 1928. Ei-leen Collins b. 1956 New York attended Syracuse and Stanford universities before going to NASA to be an astronaut 1991. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle. We have Eileen as wife #2 of brother-in-law Doug French. She was b. 1924, product of influential Harringtons of the Upper Ottawa Valley, then widow of Dr. Clappen. Eileen is retired from the nursing faculty, University of Ottawa.
ELEANOR Although traditionally linked with Helen of Troy and all that, Patrick Hanks who does names for Oxford University Press favours a Germanic origin. My cousin Eleanor Rita (Wallace) Culver, Uncle Tom and Aunt Ada’s fourth and widowed daughter, early in 2007 was one of three survivors of their 15 children. Ruth and Ron are the other two. Those who think Eleanor originally comes from Greek point to the word eleos meaning pity, mercy. They argue back in time from French Eleanore and Italian Elea-nora. Others say the root is Latin, from lenire, ”to soothe”, but ultimately from lenis meaning soft. The case for Latin sources is weaker. Hank, however, points convincingly to an Old French respelling of Old Provençal Alienor. This came from Germanic ali meaning other, foreign. Don’t forget Folk Wandering when lots of German tribes were constantly on the move. Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204) came from southwest France to marry Henry II. Her descendant was Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. When her remains were transported to London from Herdelie where she had died, “Eleanor crosses” marked the stages of her funeral cortege from Nottinghamshire. Those at Geddington, Northampton and Waltham survive partly restored. Eleanor of Provence d. 1291 had been queen consort of Henry III of England and a woman of influence out of all pro-portion from her exile in a nunnery
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) distant cousin, wife then widow of United States president F. D. R., was a revered humanitarian. “No one can make you feel inferior with-out your consent,” said she.
At 1.8 metres tall, a native of Saint John, N. B., was nicknamed ‘T’ Elen during her 32-year career doing and supervising carvings in Canada’s Parliament buildings. That ended 1993 and she leaves us a History of Canada frieze, 12 stained glass windows in the Commons, Canada Remembers memorial in the Centre Block, works in area churches and, on the speaker’s chair of the territorial government at Yellowknife, carvings and a mosaic. In 1999 Ms. Eleanor Milne was 74.
Other Eleanors catalogued are my wife’s nonagenarian aunt, widow of St. John’s shop and tavern owner Tom Brownrigg; and Caroline’s late godmother Nell (Comerford) McCormack, homemaker, niece of “Uncle Har” Brownrigg [he was actually my wife’s grandfather on her mother’s side]. Cousin Eleanor and late Dennis Culver, both east coasters raised a big family on the west coast, last together on Thetis Island, B. C.
ELI This was a high priest of Shiloh temple which sheltered the Ark of God. He was last of the judges over Israel before kings. Deeply religious, he failed to keep a good grip on sons Hophni and Phinehas. Scandal came to the priestly office. In 1116 BC Eli had his sons die in battle, saw Israel defeated and the Philistines make off with the Ark. That was the cruel finale to 40 turbulent years in office and he died aged about 98. This fulfilled an earlier prophecy on the collapse of his House.
These were tough times for Israel but Eli did tutor Samuel, earliest after Moses of the great Hebrew prophets. He succeeded Eli, the Ark was recovered; but now Samuel’s two sons proved unworthy so the people asked instead for a king. Samuel appointed Saul but anointed David instead. The name Eli often gets confused with the prophet Eli-jah, and with a version of what Jesus cried out from the cross [“Eli, Eli, lama sabac-
thani” rather than “Eloi…”].
Eli means high or height. Puritans and Dissenters 17 to 19th centuries took to it but Eli has been rare since the 1930s. American Eli Whitney (1765-1825) invented a ma-chine that separated seed from cotton, revolutionizing the clothing industry. In addition to the cotton gin he later as arms maker introduced the concept of interchangeable parts in firearms. Eli Wallach age 84 still does character roles in movies although preferring the stage. “Movies are a young man’s game. I just did Keeping the Faith with Edward Nor-ton. I said to him, “You’re 29 years old. I have shoes older.’ On the stage he said, “the blood leaves your head if you forget a line.’’ He was in Ottawa for the first time during August 2000 to have his jeweller role shot for A Taste of Jupiter.
Regarded a cool person by various relatives is senior grandson Eli Edgar Bazinet Wallace b. 1981 Gloucester, Ont., only son of our #2 son Steve. Eli earned early stature as a baseball player. He incorporates in his various names appropriate portions of Heb-rew, Old English, Old French and a northern Brythonic tongue now lost.
ELISE This is a French short form of Elizabeth, which see. The name entered English circles late 19th century, often appearing sans accent. It is the second name of Sophie Elise Hanington Belton b. 2000 Burnaby, B. C. Her parents are Burnaby native Owen and Fiona, my peripatetic nephew Mark Hanington’s striking daughter who started life in Halifax 30 years ago; was long in Hawaii. The young family lives in the Vancouver area.
ELIZABETH Elizabeth I (1533-1603); Elizabeth, Queen Mom (1900-2002), and Eliza-beth II b. 1926, each has had effect on English affairs. However, our constitutional monarchy is so watered down now that when we talk of a second Elizabethan Age we’re being gushy. If you’d like to refresh yourselves about Good Queen Bess, look through my Carew manuscript.
The name is from Hebrew Elisheba possibly meaning oath of God or God is satisfaction [or] perfection. Among Old Testament bearers was the wife of Aaron [Exodus 6:23]. A New Testament Elisheba was the mother of John the Baptist [Luke 1:60]. Especially popular in Europe was Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-31). On her husband’s death she and her three children were cast into the streets. She is patron of bakers and beggars, feast day Nov. 17. A niece of this princess was a saintly queen of Portugal. Another Elizabeth was Russian czarina (1741-62). Founder of the first sister-hood in the USA 1808 was St. Elizabeth Seton (1774-1821). She performed charitable work as Protestant then Catholic.
It’s likely Elizabeth I of England was named after both great grandmother and grandmother for this name was having a good run late in the Middle Ages. Look at the pet names: Bess and Bessie, Beth and Betty, Eliza and Elsie, Lisbeth and Lisa, and so on. The Iberian form Isabel was used interchangeably until the 15th century. Elspeth is still strong in Scotland. Betty Grable, also known as Frances Dean (1916-1973) was an actress/dancer in the USA. At the height of her fame, Betty’s beautiful legs were insured for $1 million, large dough for those days. She was a favourite of American troops in World War II, top box office draw 1943 and top woman film attraction seven other years.
Popularity of Elizabeth has been in decline. After our Queen’s recent Annus Horribilis, sympathizers may be turning to it again in admiration of her steadfast adher-ence to duty. Her Queen Mum, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon that was, b. 4 Aug.1900 became on 16 June 1998 the oldest royal in British history. She died 30 March 2002, still gracing the name Elizabeth.
The Quaker Elizabeth Gurney Fry in England began reform of shocking conditions under which women were held at Newgate jail early in the 19th century. She died 1845. Elizabeth Fry Societies emerged, their volunteers looking out for imprisoned women in Canada first in 1940 for jails in British Columbia. Kingston’s Society of 1949 was first in Eastern Canada. It worked on prisoner rehabilitation by such means as part time work and recreational programs and, when otherwise unavailable, qualified legal and medical ad-vice. Today societies headquarters is in the nation’s capital.
Nurse Elizabeth Carew (1852-1906) was #3 daughter in Halifax of First Immigrant Stephen Patrick Carew. Elizabeth moved to the USA for further nursing experience. She was killed accidentally by a horse while getting off a New York City streetcar. This was discovered recently in an old Halifax newspaper clipping found and sent by Anne Carew Hallisey. Contemporary Carews had been under the impression that an early motor truck had fatally struck her.
Elizabeth Theresa “Betty” Wallace (1924-58) was cheery and resourceful police and magistrate court newshen for the Halifax Mail when I was hired 1947 as cub reporter. She was also pretty, married naval officer Denis Lee, but died far too soon of a condition made fatal by pregnancy. Elizabeth Mary “Biz” (French) Walsh (1930-98) St. John’s, Newfoundland, was barely a widow, # 4 [youngest] sister of my wife. For a flashback see Kin Tale XLI.
There must be half a dozen others in the Catalogue having Elizabeth for middle name besides my Grandma Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew. Around dawn of the 20th century, New Englander Bessie Biddington became the second Mrs. Wallace and cruel stepmoth-er. She’d made a good impression on Widower Wallace and family while she was working at the parish glebe house in Truro, N. S. This evaporated in the Wallace home on Lyman Hill according to Dad, to Uncle Joe, and to what his kid sister Greta (Wallace) Granville told her son Bernard.
ELLEN With its ten other variations in spelling, Ellen is the earlier English way of saying Helen, a Greek feminine name meaning the bright one. The mother of Roman Emperor Constantine was a Helen; traditionally daughter of British King Cole who died c. 303. For more about father and daughter see Coel Hen and Helen in the Celtic Saints section. The H- for Helen was tacked on or dropped off in former times as with Esther and Hes-ter. Ellen and Helen were chosen about evenly from 16/17th centuries, Ellen moving ahead in the 19th but Helen getting into the top 10 names for girls in the 20th.
Alice Ellen Terry (1847-1928) was a prominent English actress who teamed up with actor/theatre manager Henry Irving for 24 years. She’s more remembered today for her correspondence with Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. American Ellen Burs-tyn, Oscar and Tony winner 1975, plays the mother in five-star The Exorcist revived in 2000 with scarier stuff from the cutting room floor added. Ellen, 67 in 2000, made her Broadway debut in ‘57 also does an Italian-American mama on television’s That’s Life.
Ellen (Cook) Fairclough was alderman and controller in Hamilton Ont., before winning a federal seat 1950 for PCs when 45 years old. She was sole woman member of the House 1950-53 and became Canada’s first female cabinet minister 1957. She dressed conspicuously and accepted with humour whistles of some honourable members.
Ellen (Bates) Grandfield b. 1790 Clonmel, County Tipperary married 1816 Halifax an Irishman fresh off the boat. Housewife Ellen bore him five children and d. 1848. They are Immigrant Founders of my cousins, the Nova Scotian Granvilles.
Great Aunt Ellen Carew (1854-1938) ran her own coeducational school in Halifax at a time when a good Catholic education there at a decent price was hard to come by. Miss Carew got much better than passing marks from her community. Mummy went there before advancing to the Convent of the Sacred Heart. My wife’s mother and her mother had Ellen for middle names. Brian Wallace, younger son of Cousin Frank, was wed briefly to Ellen Finlan of Ottawa, kid sister of Father Ross, pastor of Holy Cross.
ELVA This renders phonetically the Irish Gaelic name Ailbhe stemming from the Old Irish word albho, white. In the medieval period, Alva was a boy’s name but the revived Elva is for girls. Since nothing is as simple as the English conquerors tried to make it, Ailbhe has also been made into Olive.
To muddle you further, in Welsh or Irish Elwyn one can glimpse the word [g]wyn, white, fair, blessed, holy. But that’s a boy’s name; and we won’t even discuss Elvey, Elvin and Elwin. Elva has also been traced to Old English Aelf-a, elfin, good, but how reliably it’s hard to say. Elvina may come from Old English Aelfwine, elfin friend.
Elva Bernice Clancy that was, Bluenose-born 1926, is, my cousin Frank Wallace’s wife in Ottawa, with byname Eve. When Frank was dating Eve, she was a tall, graceful and striking member of the Canadian Womens Army Corps first established 1941. By 1946 more than 21,000 volunteers had donned that uniform, a wartime total of near 50,000 women in uniform if you count in the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Women’s Division and the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service.
EMILY I love the name Emily because of warm-hearted Emily O’Connor that was. She was a little on the plump side, married to sturdy Vince MacDonald, dean of Dalhousie University law school. He’s the guy Dad talked out of getting serious about Rita Carew by bad-mouthing her to Vince and then nabbing her for himself. As an early grade school-er I chummed around with Vince’s oldest son David who soon vaulted to the top Cana-dian news and opinion periodicals and for years roving editor/special correspondent for Readers Digest Canada. One Digest piece was a charming nostalgia bit about the succession of owners of his childhood house in Halifax. I knew it well.
It was the 1930s and Emily was forever sitting me at their table for a meal or a special dessert just after I’d come from a hefty meal at Grandma’s a few blocks away. Well, I did my boyish best not to offend. To me Emily’s voice was velvet contralto. She fussed over me at the frequent children’s parties she mounted so I felt important and necessary. Emily died when Dave and his younger brother were still kids. Stepmother Hilda was perfectly acceptable but just not Emily. Dave’s dad was good to me before and after we moved away from Grandma’s in 1939, kindly including me with his boys on special occasions. Decades later we chatted long on a train, he by then a provincial sup-reme court judge. I was treated to a rundown on how he’d handle a case, and its lawyers.
Emily is the medieval rendition of Latin Aemilia, feminine of that old Roman fa-mily name Aemilius. That likely came from aemulus meaning rival. Gothic Amala means industrious and a couple of sources say it also evolved into Emily. Emilys were martyrs early in the 1st millennium and from early in the next comes this charming story.
St. Emiliana (f. 1246) saw a four-year-old playing in her room she thought was an angel so she asked if that was all he had to do. “What would you have me do?” he asked. Speak of God she replied. “In speaking of God”, he replied, “one can only speak in praise, and it is not well to praise one’s self.” Whereupon he vanished. Other Emilys founded religious orders. Mother Emilie Tavernier-Gamelin founded Sisters of Provi-dence of St-Vincent de Paul early in the 19th century in Montreal. She was a wealthy widow whose two children had died. At her beatification late 2001 were her nuns from a branch established 1861 Kingston, Ont. Her order has 1,200 members in Canada and eight other countries working with immigrants, women and children and others in need.
Emily was uncommon in the Middle Ages but did have a 19th century blooming. Its widely known bearer is Emily Bronte (1818-48) English novelist and poet. Lyric poet Emily Dickinson (1830-86) largely withdrew from society in Massachusetts at 23 to write secretly. Her daddy was Calvanistic. In the USA Emily has led all girls names since 1995.
Dr. Emily Howard Stowe d. 30 April 1903 was the first Canadian woman licensed 1880 to practise medicine in Canada even though she’d been doing just that in Toronto from 1867 as a graduate of New York Medical College for Women. Canadian painter Emily Carr (1871-1945) studied in San Francisco, London and Paris then devoted herself to bold aboriginal themes of the West Coast. National Gallery director Pierre Theberge thought Emily Carr one of the three finest painters in Canadian history. “You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone,” she mused, “yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going and coming.” From Big Money Baltimore emerged authoritative Emily (Price) Post (1873-1960) author, columnist and broadcaster about manners and etiquette.
Ms. Emily Murphy, first female magistrate in the British Empire, was one of the Famous Five who won a landmark decision 1929 that Canadian women were persons in the law and could sit in the senate. That challenge had gone all the way to the Privy Council in England. The others were Nellie McClung, Henrietta (Muir) Edwards, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, Alberta friends of hers. None of this five was appointed to the Upper House. Cairine Wilson was the first in 1933. Ms. Murphy held views unac-ceptable today on race and eugenics yet her journalism caused marijuana to be banned 1923. On unveiling their monument in Calgary 18 Oct. 1999 Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, once a refugee from Hong Kong, declared:
“I know firmly, that Emily Murphy would have been thrilled today to see that there was not only a woman senator, and a number of them, dozens of them, but a Chinese woman senator and a Chinese governor general.” The crowd cheered.
A similar monument, these women at tea, was opened to appropriate pomp and crowd on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill exactly a year later.
My wife’s Emmy Walzak, grandniece b.1990 London, Ont., moved west 1998 be-cause her father Tim had transferred to the faculty of the University of Victoria. I have Charlotte Emily Dawe b. 1990 Halifax helped entertain wife and me at tea years ago in Ottawa. My grandniece lives now on Texada Island or Sooke, B. C., mirror of her mom.
EMMA This came out of France, having been brought there by Franks, a Germanic tribe. Originally it formed part of a compound names such as Ermintrude, Erm[en] or Irm[en] standing for entire. Emma, b. to Adelaide, later Holy Roman empress, became queen to King Lothaire of France near the end of the 1st Millennium. She was oriented to Saxony so endured rumours first of adultery then of murder amidst royal intrigues of her day.
Another Emma, also nobility, was widowed in the following century while her husband was returning from pilgrimage to Rome. Already devastated by the murder of her two sons in an uprising, she gave away all her possessions and embraced religion, founding several monasteries including one at Gurk in what became Austria.
Normans may have brought the name to England but its medieval impact was owed already to the Norman mother of Edward the Confessor (c.1002-66). France of late has relaxed laws restricting non-French names so that Emma re-imported from England is rising fast in popularity.
Sarah Emma Edmonds as a 20-year-old farm girl from near Moncton, N. B., managed to pass herself off a man to join the Union army in the American Civil War. She survived First Battle of Bull Run, was regimental nurse, then spy behind enemy lines. Edmonds contracted malaria and deserted before Army doctors could discover her a woman. In 1885 Congress finally granted her honourable discharge to pension. She d. 1898 Texas. Emma Nutt in 1878 Boston was first-ever female telephone operator. Cal-lers were complaining that male operators were rude.
In Canada Marie Louise Cecile Emma Lajeunesse b. 1847 Chambly near Montreal became an international soprano. She took the stage name Emma Albani perhaps because good folk of Albany, New York, rather than those in Quebec, helped finance her vocal studies. She made her debut 1869 Messina, Sicily, after a finishing year in Paris then was long associated with Covent Garden. When she arrived back in Quebec 10,000 admirers were out to greet her. By 1911 she had made three Canadian tours. Emma was Queen-Empress Victoria’s favorite singer and, when the monarch was laid to rest 1901with her late husband Prince Albert, was there to sing. Emma was appointed dame commander of the British empire and d. age 83 never forgetting she was French-Canadian. English cine-ma star Emma Thompson b. 1959 who’s done every thing from song & dance to Shakes-peare leads Academy Award winners with five nominations and two Oscars.
Emma Robinson, aged 27 in 1999, coped with a thyroid cancer operation that March 10, then teamed with Theresa Luke, 32, of Forest Grove, B. C., for a gold medal in 2,000-metre shell racing at 13th PanAm games, Winnipeg. They went on to a world title Aug. 28 at St. Catharines, Ont. This meant Emma, 3rd year med student at University of Toronto, pulled with new partner Luke to her third world cup victory. The pair won all 11 races they entered in ‘99 including St. Catharines.
Emma Rebekah Rothery b. 2 July 1999 to our son-in-law Bill’s son Paul [from a previous marriage] and Heather Napier that was, in Tennessee. Now Bill has grandson Spencer and a granddaughter in Spencer’s baby sister Emma. Fred and Kay Small of London, Ont., celebrated their second great grandchild June ‘98 with arrival of Emma Rose to Tim and Shelley (Schneckenberger) McDonagh.
ERICH This is the German version of Old Norse Ei-rik-r, ruler of all, or always ruler, or ever powerful, ever ruler. Eric the Red was a 10th century Norse chieftain who began colonization of Greenland and whose son Leif went on to discover northeastern parts of what we call America. Each of their settlements ultimately failed.
In the case of Newfoundland’s northernmost tip, it has been argued that Leif would not have been forced out of L’Anse aux Meadows by wave after wave of hostile natives a thousand years ago had Norsemen been equipped with firearms, which became general much later. Instead they should have tried harder to cultivate the natives!
[I met Norwegian explorers Helge Ingstad and wife Anne Stine visiting Halifax naval barracks around 40 years ago. They were scrounging for whatever aid was avail-able in Halifax for authenticating this first archeologically proven settlement so far of Vikings in North America. He’s 100 now, she d. at age 98.]
John Cabot didn’t turn up on our East Coast for another five centuries. New-foundlanders celebrated that just about all summer of 1997 and into ‘98 even though his first landing was more likely in the Maritimes than on the Rock. Early in 2000, undaunt-ed Newfs started observing their very own 1,000th Viking anniversary.
They had earlier celebration 22 Sept. ‘98 at that Nordic dig. A replicated Norse vessel classified as a knarr and named Snorri with 10-member crew arrived after retracing the old Viking route from Greenland. Snorri’d been the first Norse baby born at L’Anse. The knarr was open, propelled by oars and single squares’l. The 87-day voyage was a second attempt due to rudder problems in the ice-populated open waters of Davis Strait the summer prior. Crewmen lived on beans ‘n’ rice, augmented by whatever fish they could catch. Native peoples provided caribou and whale meat at various stops along their 2,400-kilometre voyage. Brisk sea air sharpens an appetite.
Scandinavian settlers had already brought the name Erik to the British Isles well before the Norman Conquest where it evolved into Eric. And did you know that Eric is an old, poetic name for Ireland? Poetry aside, Historical Oxford Dictionary describes the word eric dating to 1586 from Irish eiric meaning a bloodfine or pecuniary compensation for the crime of murdering an Irishman. A great early Viking joke in Ireland had been to hack open a local’s ribcage with his battleaxe, reach in and tug out the lungs. However, paganism among Scandinavians began to wane at the end of the 1st millennium, Jarl Erik Haakonson replacing his stem-dwelling image of Thor with a cross AD 1000
Many Erics have been kings of Sweden. Eric IX led a Christian Crusade to Fin-land around 1157; leaving English Bishop Henry of Uppsala, Sweden’s ancient capital, to lead missionaries among the Finns. A Swedish-Danish prince killed King Eric at Mass 1160. People began calling him Eric the Saint although he was never formally canonized and as early as c.1290 he was called patron of Sweden with his feast May 18.
Other English-speaking countries didn’t much pick up on the name until halfway through the19th century when it began to appear in popular books. Now there are authors named Eric. However, Eric Partridge (1894-1979) compiler of Name the Child remarked in his entry for Eric: “By ‘Johns’ and ‘Toms’ and ‘Dons’ it is often, as I discovered at school, despised as pretty-pretty….” A popular pet form of Eric is Rick.
Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957) observed Tinseltown with no illusions: “If you live in France, for instance, and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or directed one outstanding film, 50 years ago, and nothing ever since, you are still recognized as an artist and honoured accordingly. In Hollywood – in Hollywood you’re as good as your last picture.” This film director played quite a revealing Max von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard 1950.
By 1925 Eric had become extremely popular in England. Eric Ambler b.1909 Lewisham south of London, England, turned out thrillers 1936 on. Take in the older Titanic movie, A Night to Remember 1958 for sake of his fine script. The modern Scan-dinavian Erik is also a regular in the UK. In the USA Eric was high in popularity 1975 but a commentator reminds us that it is sometimes used there as short for Frederick. Canadian academic, businessman and holder of portfolios in Quebec and Ottawa Liberal cabinets was Eric William Kierans b. 1914 Montreal. In federal cabinet it was decision time whether or not to invoke Canada’s War Measures Act to quell anticipated insurrec-tion in Quebec during the F. L. Q. crisis 1970. Kierans was asked his views first and supported the move, something memoirs reveal he later regretted.
Erich Jürissen, Oberhausen native b. 16 May 1938 but retired in the Swiss Alps after selling for Italian metalworks and Volkswagen, is former father-in-law of Barnaby, our #4 son. His surname appears Nordic but that trail is cold.
ERIN This is just one of several poetic names of yore for Ireland and comes from Gaelic eirinn meaning western island. After the great Irish Diaspora of mid-19th century, Erin caught on as a first name in the USA especially, but not back in Ireland.
“Dear Erin, how sweetly thy green bosom rises” pens John Curran in Cushla-ma-Chree, darling of my heart….[I promise not to go on.]
Erin, for Ireland, Ontario village northeast of Guelph was surveyed in 1819 immediately after Albion and Caledon were named for England and Scotland. Sure, they’re big potato growers over there, and raise stock.
For those who like to know these things, Eirinn is the dative case of Eire. Variants include Eireann, Erina, Erinn and Eryn. We have Jessica Erin Riddell b.1978 Halifax, twin of Ryan Patrick. Their mother Janet Munro (McDonald) Riddell is my admirable niece.
ETHAN This Old Testament name comes from Hebrew etan meaning strength, firmness, long lived. Three obscure figures bore it. First was Ethan the Ezrahite, believed son of Zerah. He was a wise man but Solomon was wiser [1 Kings 4:31]. The other two were Temple singers.
From those distant figures we descend millennia to Ethan Allen (1738-89) who led Green Mountain Boys of Vermont in the American Revolution. Ethan Frome, a love tra-gedy in rural New England written by Edith Wharton, was a novelette published 1911 and dramatized 1936. My Encyclopedia Americana 1967 declares it “one of the best-known and highly regarded short novels yet contributed to American literature”. It tells you how often that Grolier publication updated its galleys.
A minor celebrity in the Fred Small extended family is the first great grandchild of my wife’s older sister Kay. Ethan Connor McDonagh b. 10 Feb. 1995 London, Ont., blue-eyed, sturdy and, from the looks of him, etan already.
EUAN This is a Scottish first name from Gaelic Eoghan. That traditional Gaelic name comes from uir, yew, and is supposed to mean barn of yew. In Irish legend Euan was one of the two sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages d. 405 [the other was Conall] who formed Cenel nEoghain, the northern clan of the O’Neills. County Tyrone formed later is named for him, Tir Eoghan. Twelve hundred years after Euan a descendant, kingly Hugh O’ Neill, earl of Tyrone, abandoned his title and fled to the Continent at the beginning of the 17th century. The sword of fate was hanging by a thread over him after his at-first successful revolt against the English crown. The O’Neill was prevented from linking up with Spanish allies who unhelpfully landed in the south of Ireland while his own forces were in the north. Tyrone was accompanied to unannounced exile by many of the old Celtic leadership in what the Irish refer to as The Flight of the Earls.
Owen and occasionally Eugene are made English equivalents of Euan even though that name itself already is an anglicization. Evan as a Scottish name as opposed to Welsh is a variant of Euan.
The surname Evans, normally Welsh, can be the anglicized version of rare O hEimhin of Ormond in Ireland and comes from a word meaning swift. William Evans (1786-1867) brought valuable big-farm know how from Ireland, 1844 founding Canadian Agricultural Journal. Its French edition 1848 was first of its kind in this country. Evans pioneered better farming methods and became secretary of the agricultural board of Lower Canada. James Evans (1801-46) was a Methodist missionary who published an Ojibwa grammar and invented a Cree syllabic alphabet still used. His Cree syllabic hymnal was the first book to be printed in the Canadian northwest. Rev. Evans also organized trans-lators for a Cree Bible.
The surname Ewing is plentiful in Ireland, although perhaps closer to Greek eu-genes, wellborn, than to Eoghan. Euan Hanington b.1971 England is #3 son of David, half brother of Dan. Dan is my oldest sister Margot’s late spouse.
EUGENE Eugenes was Greek for well born, noble. Eugenios was a name taken from the word. Eugene as we know it came from an Old French form. Early saints bore an earlier version, one a 5th century bishop of Carthage, another a 7th century bishop of Toledo. Four Eugenes have been pope.
Sometimes Eugene represents Irish Eoghan but so have anglicizations Euan and Owen, as had been the case with St. Eugene. He was enslaved in Britain and Brittany with two other boys but they were released and sent back to Ireland. After 15 years as a monk there he helped former fellow slave Tigernach found Clones monastery c. 546. Eventually he was first bishop c. 581 of Ardstraw.
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod (1782-1861) started Oblates known world wide but best in Canada for work with natives.
Gene is usual in North America. Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953), Nobel and Pulitzer prize winner, was America’s greatest playwright. Eugene “Gene” Roddenberry (1921-91) was the commercial airline pilot and free lance writer who gave us Star Trek TV net-work series and allied movies plus enduring Trekkies. Senator Eugene McCarthy b. 1916 ran for president late in the1960s, challenging the Vietnam policies of the Johnson administration.
Eugenia is the feminine form of Greek Eugenios or Latin Eugenius. Eugénie recalls Eugenia Maria de Montijo de Gusman (1826-1920) wife of Napoleon III. The name turns up in English-speaking circles with or without the acute accent over the second -e-.
Kenneth Eugene Walsh b. 1964 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, is #5 son of my wife’s widowed #4 sister, Elizabeth who d. there 1998 on her 68th birthday.
EVANGELINE In 1755 some 14,000 Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia and dumped on other British North American colonies that really didn’t want them. These were French peasant farmers who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the English crown. Some of them were behind Indian raids on British communities. Acadians were proving a thorn in the side of English development of Nova Scotia. Most of their con-fiscated properties were then “implanted” with New Englanders. Even today in Halifax, erstwhile bastion of British North America, Yankee twangs of an occasional planter des-cendant sound to some a dissonant tone over the airwaves. Bluenosers, though, are un-phased.
Callous upheaval of peoples is ofttimes a byproduct of war. About a millennium ago a king of Scots found his shores too readily overrun with Norwegian and Dane. He had all the pro-Norse coastal inhabitants uprooted and he restocked vulnerable regions with trusted Lowland planters. Perhaps this is how our Munros, who originated in Ire-land it was long said, became established near the head of Cromarty Firth and gradually spread.
The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his narrative poem Evangeline 1848. Evangeline Bellefontaine is his fictional heroine in the tragic Expulsion of the Acadians. A statue of this poesy heart-wringer has been erected in Grand Pré, hub of wrenching deportations from central New Scotland. The 1605 Habitation of earliest French settlers was replicated 1939 at Annapolis [formerly Port] Royal. So the doings of old explorers, old conflicts, fuel tourism in a have-not province. The French fortress Louisburg flourishes again for tourists to Cape Breton, which says something for Nova Scotian restorations. In 2004 around 100,000 of Acadian origin are expected to return to Nova Scotia for a celebration. This is under the auspices of an Acadian World Congress which held huge celebrations in Moncton, N.B., some years ago and in Louisiana 1999. See also Ann[e].
It was Longfellow’s poem that introduced the name Evangeline to the English-speaking world. French Evangeline comes from Latin Evangelina [now rare] from Greek Evangelion, good news. So an evangelist is a bringer of good tidings. The Latin version appears on a 4th century Christian inscription. In his Pilgrim’s Progress of 1684 John Bunyan has Evangelist a male.
The book-length poem Evangeline was the first-ever publication of an Acadian tale and became a cultural beacon for those straggling back to hardscrabble lives elsewhere in the Maritimes, or Cajuns sticking to swampy exile in Louisiana. By the 1860s Evan-geline was readily chosen by parents such as these. The starting up of universities and newspapers [one called l’Evangeline] began an Acadian renaissance. [This Acadian paper was long the only French-language one east of Quebec but ceased publication [for the last time?] 1982. L’Acadie Nouvelle is New Brunswick’s current French language daily.] Nevertheless, 150 years later the name Evangeline sells chocolates, soda pop, automo-biles, and adorns a trust company, a shopping mall and even a daycare centre Down East. The National Library of Canada exhibits a variety of renderings of this imaginary heroine and a 1929 Hollywood tearjerker so moved its Mexican actress she paid and modelled for a statue of Evangeline near Lafayette, Louisiana. Acadians have resisted a theme park.
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe put an Evangeline in Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852 for Eva is actually Evangeline St-Clare. Black Americans took up the woman’s name initi-ally; in England Evangeline is quiet but regular. It is the second name of late Aunt Ada Wallace, Cape Breton wife of my Uncle Tom who gave him 15 children. Jasmine George Evangeline Wallace-Harder certainly was bearer of good tidings, born as she was to our youngest daughter Cecily Christmas Eve 1998. Ada was a marvelous woman, someone whom Jasmine can grow to admire through this Catalogue and her many descendants.
EVE Hayya is a Hebrew word meaning living, or animal. After Adam had named all the animals [Genesis 2:19, 20] he called his wife Havva [Gen.3:20] a variant of hayya and in-tended to mean the mother of all living. Chava is another spelling. Prof. Basil Cottle, erudite old mischief-maker, thinks “Her name may have meant either ‘lively’ or ‘serpent’ in Hebrew.”
Two Irish forms of Eve are Aoiffe and Evaleen. Reaney & Wilson found the given name Eva Hy of 1206 in a work dealing with Danelaw, and again 1211 in two separate parts of England. Surnamed Gregory, Eve of 1297 is linked to Cambridgeshire. Cousin Frank Wallace’s wife, another Nova Scotian in Ottawa, has Eve as byname.
Evolutionary Biology
Scientific researchers now propose Eve, mother of humanity, “might be anywhere up to twice as old” as a previous estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 years. Proceedings of the Royal Society published two studies finding that the yardstick mitochondrial DNA errs on the short side. It was thought to pass virtually unchanged mother to daughter. However Adam Eyre-Walker of the University of Sussex and a team under Erika Hagel-berg of Cambridge University both found the father’s mitochondrial DNA also enters the egg and mixes with mum’s.
Lilith
Eve was not Adam’s first wife, according to Jewish folklore. Lilith was, but she refused to “recognize his authority over her” to explain matters discretely. Talmudists tell of her taking to the air from Paradise to become a nocturnal, vampire-like kind of infant killer. Our word lullaby is supposedly a fragment of the exhortation Lilla, abi [Avaunt thee, Lilith] inscribed along with the names of Adam and Eve on four coins to be placed in the bedroom of a Jewish woman.
Lilith Fair was a successful all-woman concert tour brought together six years ago by Sarah McLachlan, Vancouver. Rev. Jerry Falwell’s National Liberty Journal alluded to the demonic legend in its June 1999 issue, warning parents of concert-going kids not to let them go. The Lilith character was taken up by Independent Jewish Women’s Maga-zine as a strong woman who insisted on equality. The final Lilith Fair 1 Sept. ‘99 Ed-monton, show 139, drew 15,000 fans. Down-Easter Sarah wanted to start a family with husband, drummer Ashwin Sood. Any chance she’ll call her first girl Lilith? Reply, “Zero”. Behind Lilith about whom lusty legends abound is the likely origin, Assyrian storm demon Lilitu.
FAYAD This is an Arabic name meaning generous. Lily Fayad b. 1964 in Ottawa and who lived a while in ancestral Lebanon does validate her name with thoughtful deeds and gifts. She is an attractive promoter of the federal post office’s commercial products in the business community, yet has a semi-lethal golf swing. None of that customer golf for Lily. She was back in Lebanon in the fall of 1998 to spend a year with the Canadian team developing a full-service postal system for that Levantine country. Matthew joined her early 1999 right after they shared university break here.
She and our #5 son Matthew had wed in a glittering ceremony 13 Sept. ‘97 in Ottawa’s St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, followed by lavish reception and dinner in the Chateau Laurier. The belly dancer arranged for the occasion had taught Matt’s sisters and his niece Jessie, so our girls and teacher were able to make an impression. Stephen, #2 son, toasted the assembly in Arabic, “like a Saudi” said a brother of Lily.
FELICITY In its various renditions this name has attracted many because it implies luck. We must go back to the dictator Lucius Cornelius (38-78 B. C.) who earned the byname Felix because he was a bloody, lucky general. Unluckily, the slave Felicitas was martyred in 203 along with her mistress Perpetua and companions. March 7 is feast day of mis-tress and slave. Felix and Felicitas were found among Roman inscriptions from the 4th century onwards. In all, the Church commemorates 40,000 martyrs.
Popes bore the name as did an Apostle to East Anglians. The 14th century alle-gorical poem by Piers Plowman has Felice for a character, and the English word felicity was made normal feminine of the name in 17th century Britain. Felecia joined it in the 18th and overtook it 19th but Felicity dominated the 20th.
Spellings Phelicia and Philicia tip us that Felicia and Phyllis got mixed up. Felicia still appears in the USA along with Luckie and Lucky. Felicity Huffman b. 9 Dec. 1962 Colorado plays Diana Whitaker on TV’s Sports Night. This befits an outdoorsy, animal loving Sagittarius. Felix the movie cartoon cat just about killed the name for guys. Felise is one of three French forms today; Felicia is Italian, while Spanish has Felicidad and Feli-ciana, all luckily sounding so musical.
Felicity Margot (Hanington) Dawe b. 1956 Halifax, author, editor there; speech writer for federal minister Perrin Beatty Ottawa; helped her retired naval commander Larry to finish a nautical-looking home on Texada Island, B. C. After her scary bout of cancer the family shifted to Sooke outside Victoria, better located for education of child-ren Charlotte and Mathew.
FERON This family of Lovely Catholic Boys and Girls only had to hop their back fence to reach St. Thomas Aquinas grade school in Halifax. Customarily, every school-morning breakfast in our home was a bitching session for my three older sisters: Mary Feron was raised unfavourably and often. As a loyal kid brother I’d light out after her at school re-cess, totally unaware that our girls had already kissed and made up. So my first year or so at St. Thomas’s was, um, interesting.
The late Edward MacLysaght wrote that Fearon is the proper anglicization of O Fearain, a sept of Cenel nEoghain in the area of Armagh, and whose possible root is from fear for man. Later he noted a sept of Oriel in what is now County Monaghan. Cenel etc. was the northern O’Neill clan. Feron is also a name from Old French ferron, feron, for an ironworker – perhaps a blacksmith, farrier or metalworker. Normans needed plenty because they fielded heavy cavalry and so brought ferrous workers along for conquests of England, Wales and Ireland. Reaney & Wilson found a Walter le ferrun c. 1179 in N. Moore’s two-volume The History of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London 1918 .
Mary Monica Janet Feron b 1925 Montreal and educated Halifax married my cousin Neil Wallace. She was a vivid brunette who bore him ten children [one died young]. They lived in various industrial towns of Nova Scotia, New Glasgow the most, because he was an engineer. He died 1983 aged 60. My physiotherapist here of several summers ago remembered how good Mary had been to her mother back in New Glasgow.
FIONA The latinate treatment of Irish Gaelic Fionn meaning fair, white, attracted a brace of early Scottish authors. The first to employ this form was controversial James Mac-pherson (1736-96) who translated ancient Gaelic writing that became the rave but was later accused of making up most of the Ossianic poems himself. That stance has modi-fied somewhat. Fiona MacLeod was the pen name of William Sharp (1855-1905), a prolific romance novelist. A switch from women novelists using men’s pen names then.
Fionn is an element in such an old Gaelic name as Fionnghuala, Fenella. Although authors Macpherson and Sharp got the name into print, it took until the 1930s for it to become general throughout Scotland, then England. By 1950 it was very popular with Scots but took 20 more years for an English peak. Canada and Australia now use it but it’s little known to the USA except for Hawaii, according to The Dictionary of First Names. France of late has eased a ban on unFrench names so parents there in 1999 moved towards Celtic names such as Fiona.
Fiona Leigh Hanington b. 1970 Halifax is my nephew Mark’s oldest daughter and at one time was just possibly the Hawaiian Fiona of that dictionary. Anyway this beauty married Canadian Owen Belton and, in this mobile age, they have started a family in the Vancouver area.
Some people actually feel trapped on tropical islands, paradise or nay, and so in the British Empire one was deemed “acceptable, if possessing means” to shove off at will from a Crown Colony to which for the moment one happened to be tethered.
FLORENCE Florence Wallace who died age three in the last quarter of the 19th century was likely Dad’s oldest sister, one he never laid eyes on because likely he hadn’t been born yet. She lies in some Toronto grave, dead before the family moved to Truro, N. S. If born later, we are unable to confirm her resting-place. That’s because my #2 sister Rosemary McDonald and then husband Mac found no trace of several of this Wallace family who are supposed to be buried in old, weathered, non-denominational Truro ceme-tery. Rosie and Mac kindly drove to Truro to scatter Dad’s ashes at my suggestion so that at least he’d lie close by a beloved mother and sisters long dead. Actual record of their burials had long disappeared. At least poor old Dad lies in a flowered field of peace, battles o’er.
Chances are that Florence was named for Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) re-former of nursing and heroine to sick and wounded in the Crimean War 1853-56. Miss Nightingale got her first name by being born in Florence, Italy, to a family of some in-fluence in the British Establishment. Florence [Flores] LaDue, “greatest woman trick and fancy roper” and member of the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame Fort Worth, Texas, helped husband Guy Weadick get the Calgary Stampede off and running. She d. 1951.
The name itself means blooming, from the Latin names Florentius for boys and Florentia for girls. Early Christian inscriptions show both but on the threshold of the modern age Florence was given to both sexes. A male saint had been martyred in the 3rd and a woman in the 4th century. Another was a 6th century Spanish abbess Florentina after whom some daughters are called. Important to historians is Florence of Worcester d. 1118 the monk who carried on the work of the Irish chronicler Marianus Scotus on early history of the British Isles. This Florence brought matters from the Creation up to the year before his death. Other monks took it to 1141 and one manuscript reached 1295. All such efforts were of great value to later researchers of Chronicon ex Chronicus.
In 1605 Camden noted Florence as a male name. It went out of fashion in England and survived more in Ireland than in Scotland. Thanks to our famous nurse, Florence by 1875 was not only one of the top names for girls in Britain but also in the USA. Since the 1930s it has been modest in appearance. Its use in Ireland was coloured by being made the English equivalent to Irish Finghin. For the male name, Flurry has appeared.
Florence is a mining community in Cape Breton County, N. S., west of Sydney Mines. Coal was commercially extracted there from 1905. Originally the place was called Little Pond but was renamed for the wife of the county’s member of Parliament.
FORGET No lapse of memory this. Forget is a French word having to do with a forge, out of Old French and Latin; whereas forgetting something is rooted in a brew of Old English and Old Norse. The French blacksmith himself was le forgeron but forget is linked somehow to the smithy, to an ironworks. Reaney & Wilson unearthed Ralph del forge from 1279 coroners’ rolls for Yorkshire, making him out to be worker at a forge, perhaps blacksmith.
Two Forgets figure in Canadian history. Amedee Emmanuel Forget (1847-1923) was lieutenant governor of the Northwest Territories 1898-1905 and the first one for Saskatchewan 1905-10. He was made senator in Ottawa dying the year after. As a career federal bureaucrat he had done much work out west on native matters, rising to Indian commissioner of Manitoba and N. W. T. Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget (1861-1919) was president of the Montreal Stock Exchange 1908. He founded the Banque Internatio-nale du Canada two years later, which disappeared in a merger. He also started up Cana-da Cement Co. He served as a member of Parliament 1904-17.
Forget is the maiden name of Debbie b. 1961 Thessalon, Ont., wife of our #3 son Christopher out west and mother there of Corrie. She‘s oldest daughter of Roger Forget, and former Carol Bryans b. 1940 in Sault Ste-Marie, Ont. Her parents split up some years ago, the mother returning to relations in the Soo.
Debbie’s dad was a bank branch manager in Ottawa and somehow managed to do this in a variety of Ontario towns handy to golfing, hunting and fishing. When quality time was needed on visits to Debbie, Roger had her caddie for him as he sampled another course. Long an A class player, Roger retired in the vacation community of Bracebridge, Ont., where of course he served on a golf club’s board of directors.
FOSTER A nurture name, big time. Foster mother once applied to a breast feeder of another child along with her own. There are foster parents, foster children, and old Irish fosterage giving a promising child better opportunity in a more influential house.
Enough Fosters were found in the Nottinghamshire region to indicate their name came from a woodland background. Middle English forester was a forest guardian. For this, one 13th century freeman after meeting some conditions was allowed branches blown down by storms, a Yule log for his fire, and his pigs to roam the wood. That should have aced it but Old French fustrier went to forster then foster for quite another meaning as a shearer, a cutler or a scissors maker. Tree pruner? The English name is found often in the “political entity of Northern Ireland”.
Sir George Eulas Foster (1847-1931) taught in New Brunswick schools, then was professor at U. N. B. Member of Parliament 1882-96, minister of marine and fisheries, he then took on the finance portfolio in Macdonald and later cabinets. When trade & com-merce minister he was responsible for founding both National Research Council and Dominion Bureau of Statistics [where my economist cousin Bernie Granville eventually slaved]. He was made senator 1921 and appointed an imperial privy councillor. Sen. Foster became involved with the League of Nations just after the Great War as assembly vice-president, and for years was president of Canada’s League Society. Another New Brunswicker, Walter Edward Foster (1874-1947) was Liberal premier 1917-23 and Senate Speaker ‘36-40. Foster, Quebec summer resort area in Brome Co., was named for Judge S. W. Foster of Knowlton who donated the village site.
Major General Harry Foster, himself son of a career soldier, finished his own Ca-nadian Army career as top general of eastern army command where he’d been popular with the Navy. On the eve of his appointment c. 1950 to the Imperial War Graves Commission, he was dined in style at historic Admiralty House, Halifax, and presented with a silvered spade for his new role as “Digger O’Dell, Your Friendly Undertaker”.
In 1939 Foster ranked 38th among U. S. surnames. British variations include Forster and Forester, nicknames Forrie and Foss. Stuart Foster b.1984 Ottawa is my cousin Bernie Granville’s grandson.
FRANCIS Giovanni di Bernardone was the birthname of St. Francis of Assisi (c.1182-1226) one of Christianity’s greatest, humblest saints. His father did business with France so had his son learn the lingo. He learned so well, says one yarn, that he was nicknamed Francesco: Latin Franciscus meant Frenchman. Patron of Catholic action, animals and the environment, his feast day is Oct. 4. At Ottawa Humane Society’s shelter on this day in 1999 Franciscan Brother Ken Davies blessed pets of 70 owners and shelter animals in an appealing annual event.
Earlier Franciscus and Old French Franc [from Germanic or Norse root] meant free born. A franc piece supposedly derives from the legend Francorum rex, king of Franks, minted on their first coins. In the 14th century these were gold, 60 grams of it. The first silver franc was struck 1575. It became a monetary unit of the decimal system 1795. In latter days the Swiss franc long had most value until a Eurodollar became the new standard outside the USA.
Another high-powered saint was Francis Xavier (1506-52) Spanish nobleman who hooked up with St. Ignatius Loyola and five others to form the Society of Jesus. St. F.X. served as missionary for Portuguese in India and Japan, succumbing to fever heading for a China mission. He’s the patron of foreign missions, feast day Dec. 3. St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) a Counter Reformation leader and bishop of Geneva was declared Doctor of the Church 1877. A famous penman, he is patron of writers.
In England Francis was a surname for Frenchmen but after 1220 was chosen as a first name to honour Assisi. Anglo-Norman Francis was often converted to Proinseis in the Irish-speaking area near Galway town. When the Italian Renaissance hit England the given name advanced among aristocrats. In France it became a royal name with François I, 1515. Emperors, kings and princes have borne it. Two Elizabethan worthies are circum-navigator Sir Francis Drake (1545-96) and essayist/statesman/philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Drake explored Canada’s West Coast 1579 vainly seeking the western end of the Northwest Passage. His findings were long covered up for reasons of state. First humans aloft, apart from Himself and Herself, two millennia ago were François Pilatre de Rosier and François Laurent, marquis d’Arlandes 21 Nov. 1783. They flew 100 metres high for 25 minutes covering nine kilometres.
In 1905 aged 11 Frank Epperson forgot a container of soda water powder on the back porch, stir stick and all. He found a stick of frozen soda water which by 1923 he was selling as Epsicles in seven fruit flavours. Of the millions of popsicles sold annually, orange is favourite.
A pudgy little Fascist army officer, General Francisco Franco (1892-1975) flew in 20,000 colonial armed forces from Morocco, North Africa, July 1936, thanks to a German military airlift, some of his soldiers clinging precariously to the wings as I saw in news-reels of the time. His arrival tipped the scale so that rebels, so-called nationalists, over-threw Spain’s 2nd democratic republic, harshly and with unprecedented loss of life. Canadians as volunteers had gone over in a thinly ranked Mackenzie/Papineau Battalion to fight Fascisti as part of the International Brigade. Periodically MacPaps ask Canada for veterans’ benefits; however, Prime Minister Mackenzie King had contrived a Foreign Enlistment Act forbidding Canadians from going. Spain’s civil war 1936-39 gave three great powers opportunity to test new air weapons, Germany and Italy for the monarch-ists with Soviet Russian forces opposing them. Deliberate, indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilians began here 1937 by Axis airplanes over the Basque city of Guernica. Franco came to be called El Caudillo, the leader. He headed Spain until death, not before naming in ‘69 today’s King Juan Carlos to succeed him. A memorial to Canadians who had fought in Spain was raised by private subscription and unveiled in Ottawa late 2001 with perhaps a dozen veterans still alive and well enough to attend.
A variety of popular music came from Frank Zappa (1940-93) U.S. singer/song-writer/musician. In more than 50 albums his style varied from rock through rhythm & blues to jazz out to avante-garde, serious stuff. Frank, straight man for comic duo Wayne & Shuster, d. Toronto ‘02 aged 85. Johnnie d. 1990. Sixty-seven times they appeared on Ed Sullivan’s TV variety show networked out of New York.
France-born François Montmorency de Laval (1623-1708) as first bishop of Que-bec 1674 is founder of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada, organizing the parochial system of New France. He argued bitterly with authorities over their exploitation of natives, especially sale of alcohol to them. The seminary he founded at Quebec became Laval University 1852. He was beatified 1980.
The Great War medals of Canada’s medical corps Captain Francis Scrimger VC were given CCanada’s new war museum 17 Oct. 2005 by descendents from Shawville, Que. The Montreal doctor saved thousands of Canadian soldiers in trenches when Germans launched a chlorine gas attack in the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium. He knew the greenish yellow cloud advancing on his battalion was water soluble so he told troops to pee into handkerchiefs then cover their mouths. For days his valorous efforts with casualties earned him the first Victoria Cross awarded a medical officer.
Catalogued in these pages are five relations with Francis for first name, five more with it in the middle, and a Frances, Frania and Fran representing women. Let us remem-ber above all Private Francis James Carew (1895-1917) killed in action at Passchendaele, which is what Canadians call 3rd Battle of Ypres, Belgium, in the First World War. Uncle Frank was battalion runner taking messages to headquarters and back with fresh orders through storm and slaughter by artillery, machine gun, grenade and rifle. Kin Tale IX tells about his father’s death in the Halifax Explosion right after hearing that his son had been a fatality overseas. Of veterans in the Great War like my twice-wounded Dad, are down to a handful. All told some 65,000,000 men bore arms in what was called back then The War to End All Wars. See my manuscript R. I. P. for Howard Vincent Wallace for more details.
Uncle Frank was 22; firstborn son of my Grandfather Carew who himself was killed in the 1917 not long after learning his lad had been felled in action overseas. Two vessels collided in the harbour narrows, an ammunition ship blowing up. A third of Halifax was flattened in the biggest ever man-made blast until the atom bomb. See my manuscript on Carews for oldest sister Margot’s account of how alert Aunt Sylvia in Halifax reacted a scant moment before the explosion came and averted another tragedy.
My cousin Bernie Granville, retired economist from Statistics Canada, told me Halifax took until the ‘60s to recover from accommodation shortage brought about by the ‘17 explosion. A Second World War’s overcrowding, defence priorities for building materials, Bedford Magazine’s scary blasts in ’45, then a Cold War all made it worse.
FRASER We have a connection to New World Frasers on my distaff side as my oldest sister, Margot Hanington, clarified for me late 1995. Our great grandmother Rebecca (Munro) O’Neill had a sister Janet Munro who married Robert Fraser. He owned livery stables in Glen Margaret and at Head of the Bay, both in St. Margaret’s Bay, N. S. Edie (Fraser) Grono was Grandma (O’Neill) Carew’s first cousin and a dear family friend. Halifax area auctioneer Will Tapp, originally from Newfoundland, was widower of an-other Fraser cousin. “Aunt” Edith became Will’s unpaid housekeeper, she a penniless widow whose only son Zola died young. Will’s daughters, Phyllis and Wilma Tapp, continued as family friends. Edie was full of song, played up a storm on our pump organ in the Glen including sweet [as opposed to martial] airs that she had composed.
Another connection still in St. Margaret’s was ?Lou Fraser [always “Grandpa” to us] also related to Edie. His daughter Jean had married Foster Chittick of Balcom & Chit-tick drugstore chain. On summer vacations 1930s we often played with their daughter Jeanawee. Our shoreline of St. Margaret’s Bay was stinking mudflats and saw-tooth marsh grass so that Grandpa Fraser’s boathouse with its wharf out to deep water bec-koned. A changing room with wicker furniture and reading materials made up an entire second storey. Jeanawee’s grandpa was deaf as a post and, my #3 sister Isabel believed, could not read lips. But by and large we were tolerated. At 15 Jeanawee displayed ex-quisite breasts during a costume shift offstage in one of our rankly amateurish theatricals.
Will Tapp’s home stood a kilometer or so uphill on the first stage of St. Mar-garet’s Bay Road, which started in Armdale, satellite village of Halifax. Will’s elegantly appointed living room occupied an entire wall with views of trees, hills and dales. I re-visited several times c. 1946 after Will, Edie and both Tapp girls had left. I was dating Antonia Findlay that summer; her Scots father and Spanish mother rented the house.
It was with a certain clannish pride that I heard and watched Fraser pipers of Canada, the 78th Foot, Fraser Highlanders reincarnated, successfully defend their North American title about a decade ago. My wife had talked me into taking in Highland Games at Maxville, Ont. These Frasers recall 1,800 raised 1737 for General Wolfe’s Canada campaign. Nimble Highlanders were mountain troops and their kilts raised a reckless fascination in some women. Frasers [no doubt ubiquitous Macdonalds among them] learned about a path up the cliffside to the Plains of Abraham and the password to say at the top. Montcalm awoke to a British army arrayed close by his citadel at Quebec ready for a European style set-to.
Simon Fraser (1729-1777) was at the fall of Louisburg 1757 and with Wolfe at Quebec in ’59. Many Frasers took their discharge in Lower Canada to make a new life, just as our ancestor Thomas Wallace did over in Upper Canada after a later war. But not Simon. In the American Revolution he was brevet brigadier killed by a sniper at Saratoga.
Scotland’s Fraser clan had its beginnings in France. The name long was wrongly derived from fraise, French for strawberry. So slugger Darryl Strawberry of major league baseball is not a descendant. He admitted in court in November 2000 that he’s an addict and victim of colon cancer. The earliest forms recorded are Norman names de Frisselle and de Frezel[ierre] indicating a place somewhere. In a glint of Scots humour, straw-berries adorn the clan badge anyway. Their first recorded appearance in Scotland is 1160, Simon, Udard and Gilbert on scene. Ralph de Freseliere was one of Richard Plantagen-et’s knights. In the 1280s William Fraser was bishop of St. Andrews. Sir Simon Fraser of Tweedale joined the army of Patriot Wallace and, in 1306, he too was hung, drawn and quartered.
Frasers had their fare share of feuding with other clans. In 1544 they squared off with Macdonalds on the shore of Lochlochy for Blar-na-leine, Battle of the Shirts [they fought unhampered by clothing]. The fight ended with only five Frasers and eight Mac-donalds left alive. Fighting while naked was a Celtic tradition, perishing cold for losers.
Frasers were out in ‘45. The Old Fox, Lord Lovat, was beheaded although it was his son who had commanded next year at Battle of Culloden Moor. The title was at-tainted and only revived 1837 under Thomas Fraser of Streichen and Lovat. From him descended Lord Lovat who led doughty British [including Commonwealth] Commandos of the Second World War. This is the family name not only of the barons Lovat but also of Saltoun and Strathalmond. The spelling Frazer also is found, more so in Northern Ireland where Frasers and Frazers are numerous, derived sometimes from Frizell.
Frasers by the score have helped Canada grow, beginning with two who retired from 78th Highlanders and after the fall of New France acquired some seigniories through 1760s &‘70s. Several Frasers were fur traders. Simon (1776-1862) thrust west of the Rockies to build new trading posts. In 1808 he carried out a grueling exploration of most of the 1,300-kilometre river that now bears his surname. All the while he thought he was descending the Columbia! Later Frasers helped keep our country going. Two were lieu-tenant governors of Nova Scotia; a third was premier then lieutenant governor of New Brunswick. Frasers were clergy, educators, journalists; one even painted Rocky Moun-tain scenery for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
This was inscribed in the Old Burying Ground, Halifax: “Sacred to the memory of John Fraser … who fell a victim to the cholera, after an illness of six hours, on the 12th day of September, 1834 in the 40th year of his age.”
Lt. George Fraser Kerr (1894-1929) of Deseronto, Ont., 3rd Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, left hospital bed to rejoin his unit’s attack on Canal du Nord and Bourlon Wood six wweeks before armistice in the Great War. Although wounded several times during three years in the trenches, the company commander went far ahead of his men, rushed a strong point single handedly, capturing four machine guns and 31 prisoners. His descendants presented his Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s premier deco-ration and his other gallantry medals to the Canadian War Museum Ottawa 12 Oct. 2000.
Sir Charles Frederick Fraser (1850-1925) blind himself for 50 years ran School for the Blind, Halifax. [I nervously conducted a large group of these students on board an old destroyer alongside in the dockyard, an eye out for a host of things that sightless could trip over, bump into, or fall from. We hosts proved vigilant; no one strayed off our nar-row pathways, so at least no one got hurt. Whatever did they manage to learn?]
At least since the ‘30s Fraser as first name has been in vogue especially among those of Scots heritage. Occasionally I encountered Alexander Beaufort Fraser Fraser-Harris of Halifax who went by Fraser and wore kilt on some social occasions. He was a brilliantined royal naval aviator of the Second World War, hankie up sleeve and all, who made a career in the Canadian Navy, retiring as captain or commodore to go windjammering in the Caribbean. I resolved never, ever to find out if this old fop might be kin.
FREDERICK Twice an import to England is this German name. Old German frid, mean-ing peace, combined with ric for ruler was taken up by the Normans and brought to Eng-land around dawn of the 2nd millennium.
Frederick I (c. 1123-90) called Barbarosa in Italian because of his red beard, was a German emperor who went on second and third Crusades. These sandwiched his six military expeditions into Italy. The name Frederick went rare in England until reintro-duced by people hanging about the Elector of Hanover when he came over to be George I in 1714. He continued Continental warring and never bothered to learn English. Hence a need to devise cabinet government.
Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-86) gave the name prominence but hardly as “peaceful ruler”. He was a cultured sort, despite the draconian discipline throughout his little army, for some of his agreeable chamber compositions [he was a flautist] can still be heard today. Reflecting this bent was a small orchestra, which accompanied him on cam-paigning rather than a braying brass band. His army prided itself on keeping step without need of a band anyway, since much marching and counter-marching was such an essential part of military tactics of the day. As good Protestants his army en route would all join a hymn started by some ranker. Yet his trusty cavalry was tasked to run down a steady trickle of deserters, generally foreign mercenaries because Der Alte Fritz, one of the great captains of history, kept as many as possible of his Prussians home to till the soil, feed his war machine, or people his conquests. Soldiers too disabled to make a living could petition the emperor for licence to beg; the populace encouraged to be generous.
St. Frederick, a priest, was elected bishop of Utrecht c. 825. He made an enemy of Empress Judith for chiding her about immorality. He was assassinated by knife 838 at Maastricht, Flanders. Another Frederick from a poor family in Bavaria became a lay brother with Augustinian Hermits, doing carpentry and menial chores. He d. 30 Nov. 1329 but the word is not before he performed miracles.
Fredericton was built by United Empire Loyalists 60 navigable miles up the Saint John River at St. Anne’s Point, name of a short-lived French settlement. The community honoured #2 son of George III, bishop of Osnaburg then, and later entitled duke of York and Albany. Incorporated as a city 1848, Fredericton is still small and charming as capital of New Brunswick, province of my birth.
Frederick Charles Denison sailed from Quebec 1884 for Egypt with 386 voyag-eurs to help Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener’s cumbersome relief expedition mount the Nile River to Chinese Gordon besieged in Khartoum, Sudan. Relief arrived too late but this was a first war effort abroad by Canadians though these boatmen and rafters hardly were combat troops.
Late in the 19th century the name Frederick had another boost in popularity because Prince Albert, German consort of Queen Victoria, stimulated a fashion for German names. Englishmen here half-a-century later or more echoed the sound of power by Hanoverian lisp. For such, the pet name of Frederick is Fweddy. Frederick Arthur Lord Stanley, donor of ice hockey’s premier cup, was governor general of Canada 1888-93. Frederick Temple Blackwood (1826-1902) Italian-born Viscount Clandeboye and Earl of Dufferin also had this vice-regal post in Canada 1872-78. He d. Ireland 1902.
Mount Forest, Ont.’s Lieutenant Frederick William Campbell (1867-1915) of First Canadian Division’s 1st Battalion almost single-handed held back counter-attacking Germans by machine gun in June 1915’s Battle of Givenchy. He d. of wounds after four days [one of 400 Canadian casualties] and posthumously was bestowed the Victoria Cross, highest award for valour of British Empire & Commonwealth. A move is afoot to raise $275,000 to keep in Canada the VC won by Fred Topham, former hard-rock miner from Northern Ontario turned valorous medic in 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion with a Brit para division drop during crossing of the Rhine river 24 March 1945. Toppy after the Second World War was briefly a Toronto cop then hydro worker who died 1974.
Frederick Banting and J. J. R. Macleod of the University of Toronto shared 1923’s Nobel Prize for Medicine with their discovery of insulin, a hormone that would save lives of diabetics by the million.
Our Freds are forthright. Frederick Arthur Small b. 1923 Halifax was the Second World War Canadian sailor who wed my wife’s oldest sister Kay while serving in St. John’s, Nfld. He’d been an army brat mainly in Halifax and Quebec City while his dad was garrison sergeant major. Fred’s postwar training was as a joiner and he made a career in maintenance and repair of separate schools of London, Ont., becoming foreman. Son Frederick Edwin b. 1945 St. John’s became a chartered accountant in Edmonton and off -hours a talented woodworker. My cousin John Frederick Granville b. 1931 Halifax and reared a while in Bedford, N. S., is a retired high school teacher of Belleville, Ont., who winters in Bradenton, Florida, where older brother Owen is a year-rounder.
FRENCH The Norseman who established himself as the first duke of Normandy in 911 took de Freign as his family name. There is a variety of spellings but, as Normans pene-trated England, Wales and then Ireland, the name itself underwent changes. Like all Norsemen, Normans were shrewd traders. The name ffrench was prominent among 14 merchant families of Galway in the 13th century although first settled in County Wexford. These founders were known as the Tribes of Galway by the 17th century or earlier, as Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, Fant, French, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris and Skerret.
In Middle English manuscripts, capital F- was often hand written ff- , much like -y- was enscripted in place of -i- for sake of looks. The earlier double -f- showed no cross stroke on the second -f- and one story said the modern capital F- evolved out of a habit of scribes shortening the downstroke in the second -f-. At any rate, Professor Basil Cottle, an authority on surnames, fusses that there is nothing superior to be implied about the modern “typographical absurdity” of this practice, calling it “ridiculous”. As a good Welshman though, he does remind us of names such as ffoulke[s] common to North Wales. Welsh double-f yields the English -f- sound whereas Welsh single-f is pronounced -v-. Our British-born top general Charles Foulks who retired 1960 was not a double effer.
The Frenches of Ireland endured. Sir John Denton Pinkstone French (1852-1925), British field marshall who was first commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force was criticized for indecision in France; resigned 1915. He was created 1st Earl of Ypres (Ieper) and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1918-21, a troublesome time. French is also the surname of barons de Freyne of Frenchpark, County Roscommon. Some Irish Frenches aver it means ash tree as does frain in Old French.
In England French came down from Old and Middle English, identifying an early immigrant as do surnames Fleming, German, etc. More of this at the end.
My wife, the former Sub-Lieutenant (NS) Caroline Mary Theresa French, Royal Canadian Navy, had to resign her commission upon marriage 1952. She was among earliest nursing sisters to join Canada’s Navy after Newfoundland entered Confederation 1949. She served in RCN Hospitals Halifax and Cornwallis, N. S., a 4th generation New-foundlander of Irish stock.
Her youngest brother, Rev. Bro. Harry French, in 1998 recalled his late father saying the family had originated in Sligo. [That’s where my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Wallace came from.] Displayed on a wall at the French home in St. John’s had been the heraldic shield of County Sligo. For Newfoundland access, the route Sligo-Harbour Grace was favoured according to Harry who thought Harbour Grace once had been capital of the English area of the Old Colony [although French from the 1500s I noted].
Sligo was generally a feeder port confined to coastwise sail, according to my own delvings. A skipper decided to take the usual, or a more northern, route to North America depending on what the wind was up to on his finally struggling clear of the Irish coast. Don’t forget prevailing North Atlantic weather is west-to-east so a captain of sail had to probe for a route of least resistance. Stiff weather could mean an east-west crossing of three months or more whereas return passage to the UK might only take three weeks and a bit. Even our steel-and-steam warships late 20th century could experience headwinds and seas big enough to delay us a day or so and even maul us on the way home, “uphill all the way”.
In July 1996 he visited Sligo in search of relatives. The one family of Frenches he found there, no relation, said a County Roscommon family had produced late 19th century poet and song writer Percy French associated with Irish nationalism. Harry promptly appropriated Poet Percy for his own family tree.
Another County Roscommon native figured in Canada’s history. Sir George Ar-thur French (1841-1921) helped set up Canada’s regular force artillery and commanded A Battery and the School of Gunnery in Kingston, Ont. He organized and, as its first com-missioner, led the North West Mounted Police. However Sir Arthur returned 1876 to the far-flung British Army retiring a major general 1902 after important postings abroad.
Thirty years or so ago, father-in-law Douglas Joseph French told me during one of my O.H.M.S. [On Her Majesty’s Service] visits to Newfoundland, that the family had come from Waterford, southeast Ireland. Harry was given to understand on his Irish visit that Waterford was more for sailings to the Maritimes and New England than to New-foundland. My research shows Waterford was one of a number of both feeder and origin-ating ports at height of Irish 19thcentury immigration. It seems that some now established in America were content to identify an immigrant ancestor with this port of departure rather than some famine-emptied hamlet of the interior. Liverpool, England, with its big-ger and more plentiful vessels continued throughout to be the major departure point for North America, South Africa and Down Under.
There were other origins of the name French. In medieval and modern times France provided most immigrants to the British Isles. Iron and glass workers brought new technology into southern England in the 16th century followed by skilled Huguenot refugees then and thereafter. Smaller numbers of landed gentry came after the French Revolution; some never returned to a republican France. Many Huguenots went to the American South. Latest standout French in the New World is Miss America 2000, b. 1975 Heather Renée French, Maysville, Kentucky. This student at Cincinnati U. already was Miss Kentucky and y’all hear is first ever Miss America from her state.
GABRIEL The Archangel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary that she would bear Jesus [Luke 1:2] in the greatest of his appearances to us on earth. The Old Testament records he twice appeared to Daniel [Dan. 8:16; 9:21] and the New Testament says he appeared to Zacha-rias [Luke 1:19, 26, 27]. In Christian tradition he will be the divine herald trumpeting the Last Judgement [1 Thes. 4:16]. Gabriel revealed the Koran to Mohammed as angel of truth. He and the other archangels are celebrated in the Christian calendar Sept. 29. The Hebrew name translates variously – man of God, God is a strong man, hero of God, God gives him strength, and God is my strength.
As a baby’s name Gabriel is more of a Continental occurrence although common among French Canadians. It continues in occasional English use. Gabe is the familiar American pet form, Gaby [gah-bee] among francophones. Gabrielle Roy [Tin Flute 1945 and most other of her novels were translated into English] d. age 74 Quebec City 13 July 1983. This Manitoba-born teacher turned author won the governor general’s fiction award three times and was first woman elected to the Royal Society of Canada.
The Nobel literature laureate of 1982 for “magic realism”, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has homes in his native Columbia and in Mexico. This 73-year-old was secluded during 2000 in Los Angles, California, under treatment for lymphatic cancer that kick-started him into completing the first of three volumes of autobiography and two books of short stories. His first novel was Leaf 1955 and One Hundred Years of Solitude 1967 brought him international fame. I went through it non-stop and when I finished the last page, turned back to the first and started all over again.
Gabriel Carbone b. 1979 London, Ont., is my wife’s grand nephew, only son of Caroline Eliza-beth (Small) Carbone. They dined with us a decade ago during an educational visit to the national capital.
GARRETT Garrett reflects a medieval vernacular pronunciation of Gerald, one of the “usual Christian names” in Camden’s compilation of 1605. It is much used in Ireland as the anglicization of Gearoid, Gaelic for Gerald. Garrett as a surname came from Gerald, spear ruler, and Gerard, spear brave. A golfer at my club is Jarrett, his first name a relation’s surname. These Germanic names had been gathered in by Normans and brought to England. There is no lack of sources. It’s from Old English Garhard, spear brave or firm spear, or Teutonic, mighty with spear. Compared to Old English great warrior and others, Garrett in Welsh means gentle. In modern Ireland it is plentiful in northeast Ulster and has even been used as a synonym of Fitzgerald.
Garrett is a frequent name in generations of Newfoundland Brownriggs. Dr. Gar-rett Mary Brownrigg (1907-91) was a prominent medical man on the Rock, a chest surgeon. He was first cousin of my wife’s mom. [It was fairly common in preceding Irish and Scots generations to give a name like Mary to a boy. A prominent Ottawa business and community leader when we first came here was Shirley Ogilvy.] As a scrub nurse in the operating room of St. Clare’s Mercy Hospital in St. John’s my wife attended this highly respected doctor’s always-meticulous operations late 1940s. A tiny, neat man, he wore shirt and tie even on the hottest summer day. My wife’s mother lost a younger brother, “Garrie” for Garrett, torpedoed 1942 in the North Atlantic when engineer of a U. S. Marine Corps vessel. Gary Turner b. 1951 London, Ont., area is former husband of Joan née Small, my wife’s niece. Douglas Garrett French b. 1950 St. John’s, Newfoundland, is #2 son of my wife’s oldest brother, late Patrick.
GARRISON Warjan in Old High German meant to defend. Warjan went to Old North-ern French warison which begat Old French guerison that in Middle English became garison. In 1494 that meant a fortress. By 1535 it referred initially to a troop of horse, later to a body of soldiery stationed somewhere in defence. There still are garrisons, as Fred Small knew. His father was sergeant major of the Halifax garrison where Fred was born 1923 and then of the Quebec City one where Fred learned to speak French. Military children in the past were given Garrison as surname for lack of any other. Ross Garrison b. 1940s Western Ontario was husband of Honey (Small) Sell, Fred’s #1 daughter. Fred wed my wife’s oldest sister Kay when he was a wartime sailor based in St. John’s, Nfld. They made their postwar home in London, Ont.
GAVIN Celtic in origin, Gavin is the Scots version of English Gawayne, French Gauvain. At present the Gavin form is widely popular throughout the English-speaking world. The Welsh version Gwalchmai we as children knew better as Sir Gawain of legendary King Arthur’s court, this knight being a son of Arthur’s sister and Loth of Orkney. Gawain is believed to have ruled Galloway, potent amalgam of Celt and Norse in high-lands rising in extreme southwest Scotland. He led an embassy to the Romans and ac-companied King Arthur to England, being killed in action soon after their landing. Gavan or Gavin in Ireland stand for O Gabhain, O Gaibhin conjecturally from gabhadh meaning want. These sects are in north Connacht and south Munster but mainly now in Mayo.
Handfuls of surnames evoking Sir Gawain survive today in English; other forms existed in Brittany where it was common, and there was a sample in central France of yore. It may well mean Hawk of the Plain although Geoffrey of Monmouth latinized it Walganus hinting at an original Gwalchgwyn alternative, which seasoned Catalogue of Kin readers will of course immediately recognize as White Falcon.
Major [later Lieutenant] General James M. Gavin commanded 82nd U.S. airborne division in the European theatre for part of the Second World War and lived to write a book Airborne Warfare. Pioneer paratroop general Matthew B. Ridgeway described Ga-vin as one of the finest battle leaders and most brilliant thinkers of the U.S. Army.
Our Gavin Daniel Wallace was born to #4 son Barnaby, coach, and Uta (Jürissen) Wallace who did all the pushing 6 July 1999 Atlanta, Georgia, USA. A 22-inch brother weighing 9 lb., 1 oz., for Clara. She looks like her mother and The Gavinator a bit like Grandfather Erich Jürissen. One reason for choosing the name Gavin is because it’s easy to pronounce in various languages.
GEORGE The Standard of St. George composed by world-renowned British Royal Marines Colonel Kenneth Alford is a march of dignity and resolve befitting, say, a naval landing party tasked with restoring order in some port. One among many comrades in arms, tightly ranked, strutting a 30-inch pace, 120 to the minute as drums beat a measure, brass shouts a chorus. An array of oncoming discipline dashing cold water on hotheads a-shore. [I was never at a sharp end of aid to civil power in my military career. The only parade I recall commanding was when Midshipman I led several-score university naval cadets to and from Sunday church service in Town of Lunenburg, N. S. The fife & drum [skin ‘n’ whistle] band provided was from my old Nelson Sea Cadet Corps in Halifax where I’d also been a snotty. We were encamped in what we called Hormone Bay, Ma-hone actually, because the aircraft carrier Magnificent had struck a rock off Port Mouton locally pronounced m’toon. Every rum runner knew of it but not the Navy and so poor Maggie was high ‘n’ dry in dock with a bloody great ‘ole in her ‘ull. UNTDs on board were put under canvas ashore to continue training. Hey, it didn’t rain on my parade!]
Little is known of St. George who died a martyr in Nicomedia 23 April AD 303. Both Eastern and Western churches venerate him although legends have obscured his real
history. The Western Church trimmed away some tales. Gibbon’s identifying him with George of Cappadocia has been declared false. In the first Crusade he appeared in a vision at the siege of Antioch 1098. Saracens were defeated and the city fell to Christians. An Italian medieval play and traditional art has him slayer of a dragon. This led to much really bad Church art. George of Antioch (c. 1100-50) was a Greek admiral in Norman-Sicilian service.
St. George was made England’s patron saint in the 14th century by Edward III. [His predecessor as patron had been the pro-Norman English king, Edward the Confessor (c.1003-66) canonized 1161.] The Red Cross knight of Edmund Spencer’s Faerie Queen 1596 is St. George symbolizing the Church of England. His upright cross is red on white background, and is part of the Union Jack. Pope John XXIII took George’s April 23 feast day off the Calendar of Saints for lack of factual data. Greeks remained committed. The meaning of the name itself is hardly exalted: Latin Georgius from Greek for land worker, farmer.
George William (1595-1640) was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. His brother-in-law, King Augustus Adolphus dragged him into the Thirty Years War where George proved ineffective. George Frideric Handel 14 Sept. 1741 put down a pen after composing his Messiah oratorio in 23 days flat. When it debuted in Dublin the following year, King George II stood up during the Hallelujah/Alleluia Chorus. Six Georges in all have been kings of England [my wife and I subjects of KG V and KG VI]. Because of Hanoverian monarchs of Great Britain 1714 onwards, George has been one of the more popular names for Englishmen. Perhaps not the first one; Georg Ludwig, elector of Hanover had clapped his wife into jail for infidelity 1694 and showed up in London as England’s new monarch 1714 with a couple of mistresses in train. He never learned the language either. In Ireland medieval references to this name included Georgetown in County Waterford but it was rare before the 17th century and now is mainly in Ulster where both it and Georgeson arrived via Scotland.
Just a few years after George I ascended the throne, Rev. George Henry establish-ed Canada’s first Presbyterian Church at Quebec City 1717. George Washington (1732-99) was first U.S. president, George Gershwin (1898-1937) enduring American composer. CBC Radio Two had special programs of the latter’s radio chats and music Sept. 26, exactly 100 years after his date of birth.
Grits, we know, are members of the Liberal Party in Canada. George Brown of the Toronto Globe coined the term Clear Grit 13 Dec. 1849 when he wrote that Upper Canada Reformers were “all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through”. Early in the 1870s Brown and progressives combined with Lower Canada reformers to establish the Liberal Party.
George Williams (1821-1905) founded the Young Men’s Christian Association. He spoke his last words at the World YMCA Jubilee 1905: “…if you wish to have a happy, useful life, give your hearts to God while you are young.” He was then carried off to his room to die. Canada’s first YMCA was started 1851 Montreal by George Williams whose university now is a component of Concordia University. George Boole (1815-64) English mathematician helped establish modern symbolic logic and his kind of algebra is called Boolean. Its 0 and 1 are essential to digital computers.
Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974) pulled a lot of Russian battles out of the fire in the Second World War and was a marshal by 1943. He led the defence of Moscow, the final attack on Berlin and headed Soviet occupational forces in Germany. Premier Josef Stalin kept putting this very able leader on ice and in 1951 dismissed him from defence and government positions on grounds he was giving the military priority over the Communist Party.
Gen. Georges-Phileas Vanier, Great War veteran and diplomat was first franco-phone governor general of Canada 1959-67. That year he died, worn out in service to his country. The Vaniers were always endearing and on occasion, teary. I served briefly un-der son “Jock” when he was a Royal Canadian Navy lieutenant. He resigned a promising career to launch l’Arche residences for those developmentally challenged.
Rugged George Chuvalo b. 1937 Toronto was Canada’s heavyweight boxing champion 1958-61, ‘64-69. He kept on his feet in bouts with George Foreman, Floyd Patterson, Joe Frasier and Mohammed Ali. George hasn’t allowed deaths of two sons to heroin and his wife and another son to suicide to floor him either. He gives speeches to school kids. Former vaudevillian George Burns d.1996 aged 100, an average talent who persevered admirably after wife/ partner Gracie Allen d.1964. Actor George C. Scott (1926-99) a Virginian four years a leatherneck, refused his Academy Oscar and his Emmy.
Two towns and a 586-kilometre river flowing north of the treeline and a little bay on the Atlantic are Eastern Canadian places honouring King George III (1738-1820). [His mental episodes suggest the hereditary disease porphyria.] The bay had been St. Louis Bay until renamed 1781. On the coast of Antigonish County, its eastern side begins Can-so Strait, which divides mainland Nova Scotia from Cape Breton. Since it’s frequently called St. George Bay, the “St.” surely is an echo of its prior name.
George was the pre-Vatican II religious name of Rev. Bro. Edward French. He’s a younger brother of my wife and who lives now in Vancouver. George Munro (1798-1869) was a successful son of Founder Immigrant John of two centuries ago on my mother’s side of the family. George Carson Murray (1906-62), publisher and editor of admired weekly Pictou Advocate, was husband of my late cousin Nonie Wallace. Their son Sean was still its editor 2001. George Fayad is a brother-in-law in Ottawa of our #5 son Matthew.
GEORGINA The feminine form of George is a favorite in Scotland and is having a long tenure in England because of six King Georges since early in the 18th century. It has little appeal outside the Commonwealth; the USA prefers forms like Georgia. Georgia O’Kee-fe (1887-1986) was a Wisconsin artist who had sense to die in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Attraction for Georgina and George in Scotland was due to anti-Jacobites making a state-ment at the baptismal font. The Stuarts did leave something to be desired as believers in absolute monarchy. Due to St. George, Georgina and other variants continue popular among Greeks.
Georgina Fane Pope (1862-1938) of Charlottetown led three other volunteer nurses 1899 to the South African War where she served two tours and was decorated 1903 by Queen Victoria with the Royal Red Cross for conspicuous service in the field, first Canadian so honoured. She became first matron of the Canadian Army Medical Corps in ‘08. In the Great War she served in Canada’s military hospitals in the UK and France until invalided home to retirement.
Georgina Mary Wallace and younger sister Nora Kathleen died of typhoid 1901 Truro, N. S., through contaminated milk brought to their home by an infected dairy far-mer. My Dad, their little brother, heard them call to each other as they died in the night. They were around 14 and 12 years old, he perhaps eight.
GERARD Gerard, spear brave, was a Germanic name brought across the English Channel by Normans. As surnames were phasing in during the Middle Ages Gerard sometimes got mixed up with Gerald, spear ruler. In Ireland Gerrard is an English forename used as surname, standing sometimes for Garrett. Gerard as a font name became more common in the High Middle Ages, remaining in use until the 17th century. Now it survives mainly among Roman Catholics mindful of many saints so named. Its pet forms Gerry and Jerry occasionally have become independent.
Possibly the first saint of name was martyred in Italy with three companions while on pilgrimage from England to the Holy Land 7th century but we’re not absolutely sure. Born in Cologne, Germany, St. Gerard (935-94) was 31 years bishop of Toul. He made it a centre of learning by bringing in both Irish and Greek monks. The Italian monk Gerard (c.1040-1120) founded the order of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jeru-salem. He was visiting the Holy City when appointed superior of a hospice for pilgrims and that’s what got him starting up a famous order. It survives today only as a fancy way of recognizing high-profile people for their good works. Gerard of Cremona trans-lated into Latin a large body of works from Greek and Arabic at Toledo, Spain, much of that material becoming known in Western Europe for the first time. A simpler St. Gerard Majella, Italian, d. 1755 of tuberculosis when 29. His last request; a note to be tacked on his door: “Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills.”
France fussed over two high-profile, 18/19th century painters each named Gerard. Look back to John Gerard (1545-1612) English botanist and barber/surgeon. He catalogu-ed plants in his garden, first such publication in England. He’s best known for Herball, 1597, pulled from other works and folklore with his own observations added. Back to France for Gerard Depardieu b. 1948 Chateauroux. He dropped out of school when only 12. After acting classes at Theatre Nationale Populaire he starred in films like The Man in the Iron Mask. His first big impact on North American audiences was in a fairly recent celluloid version of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Irishman Samuel Gerrard (1767-1857) went into business c.1787 in Montreal. From 1825 on he unraveled much of the tangle of finances of the North West Company. The papers he left are invaluable to serious students of the fur trade in Canada.
Our first son Duncan Gerard b. 1955 Ottawa has immersed himself in martial arts as befits a man with warrior and weaponry in his names.
GIBBON[S] hearkens back to two unrelated Norman-Irish families and represents those who later dropped the prefix Fitz. [Authority: Edward MacLysaght in names books late last century and Professor Basil Cottle whose work discusses various spellings and that Gibbons plural once meant son of – .] Fitz or not, certain Gibbons of name have been interesting on both sides of the Atlantic.
Earl John FitzGibbon (1749-1802) so opposed Irish reforms that people rose in rebellion. His name was hated thereafter. In Canada James Gibbon (1780-1863) of Ire-land distinguished himself as a British regimental officer under Brock against American invaders of Upper Canada during the War of 1812. He led loyal forces 1837 that dealt with rebels at Montgomery’s Tavern. Gibbon later served as clerk of the House of As-sembly and then retired to honours in England. Edward Gibbon (1737-94) as a sickly child devoured books then over years in Switzerland produced the multi-volume opus Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in a fine blend of factual and pulpit style. Our late family eye doctor in Ottawa issued cards with some nameless paragraph to read back to him. Among them was an extract obviously Gibbon.
Back in the reign of Charles II sculptor and wood carver Grinling Gibbons adorned great houses of the peerage with statuary and elaborate decoration. Roman Catholic noteworthy Gibbons included a cardinal and a bishop almost a century ago in the USA. Banker and abolitionist James Sloan Gibbons had his New York home sacked because decorated in honour of Abraham Lincoln. In Canada, Sir George Christie Gibbons (1848-1918) was a lawyer honoured for treaty work on international waterways. John Murray Gibbon (1875-1952) involved his employer Canadian Pacific Railway in cultural activities and was founder president of the Canadian Authors Association.
Our family looks back to Honora (Gibbons) Wallace, enduring wife of soldiering Thomas Wallace from Sligo. She bore him a son in Ireland, John Gibbons Wallace, and also immigrated to Canada when her veteran campaigner Thomas took his discharge here from an Ulster regiment to settle in the Oshawa area after the 1812-15 war. And in good time she buried Tom. Her first name comes from Latin Honoria which came to Ireland with Anglo Normans later called Norman Irish. From their John came Thomas Patrick who moved his family to the Maritimes, Howard Senior who started his family in New Brunswick and Howard Junior who moved his family to Ottawa, the nation’s capital.
GILLIAN Bear with us, it’s complicated. Giliana was a common British medieval al-ternative to Juliana. That name is Latin feminine of Julianus, which in turn comes from Julius, Roman clan name. Julius meant youthful, downy-bearded one, which without missing a beat became youthful, downy-haired one for Juliana.
Name compiler Camden in 1605 notes that Gillian already was legally distinct from Juliana. However the older name prevailed from the 18th century until the 1930s when Gillian out blossomed it. Here’s Professor Cottle with one of his gems: “Gillian is rarely male. Juliana whence a Gill ‘flirt’ and to ‘jilt”’. Another Jack ‘n’ Jill joke? The rare male exception may be one pretty well confined to Scotland; Gaelic Gillean, servant of Saint John, with the G- pronounced as with give. As a surname MacGillian comes from Irish Mac Gileain, and although of doubtful origin can be found in Counties Tyrone and Derry. MacLaines and MacLeans both come from Gilliathain-na-Tuaigh, Gillean of the Battle-Axe, a 13th century descendant from the ancient kings of Dalriada. So an old battleaxe must have been a guy not a gal.
Somewhere in this muddle is a 4th century saint. At another extreme, Gillian Anderson b. 1965 Chicago who grew up in London studied drama on both sides of the Pond and, by this time an award-winner, was cast as Special Agent Dana Scully in Fox television’s X-files. Canada’s continuing legal headache is Ms. Gillian Guess, 45 in 2000, who had an affair in Vancouver with Peter Gill accused of murder while she was serving on the jury that acquitted him.
Gillian Rae Hanington now Korpi of Seattle, Washington, is my niece who in 1946 came forth a joyous sunbeam within our extended family of Wallaces, Haningtons and McDonalds, all happily crowded together in a wartime flat in Halifax.
GLEN Paul Edward Glen Carew (1907-10) was born in Glen Margaret, St. Margaret’s Bay, Halifax County. If you’re coming from the city, this is the second “glen” along that shore: first comes Glen Haven. Farmer-fishermen of Scots and Dutch [deutsch] descent live in amity and intermarry along the bayboard. The year-round Munros on their Point, Frasers and Gronos all combined commercial and social activities, and made welcome summering relations like Wallaces and Carews. Generation after generation.
Glen appears first as a given name in the 19th century but remained rare until the 1920s when Glenn appeared. Both have prospered since. The surname means someone who dwells in a valley. The Scots Gaelic is Gleann, Irish Glaleanna, Old Welsh Glyn. The usual feminine form is Glenna. As a given name abroad it recalls Celtic places of the British Isles. The word glen forms part of the name of handfuls of places scattered from British Columbia to the Rock, indicating just how widespread are Scots in Canada.
James Allison Glen (1877-1950) was a Scots solicitor who hung his shingle in Manitoba. He was twice a Liberal in the House of Commons, a second time as Speaker, then minister of mines and resources 1945-48. From that year to his death Glen was Canadian chairman of an International Joint Commission we don’t hear about until big environmental trouble comes to the Great Lakes.
From the late 1930s Canadian actor Glenn Ford was good box office [his real first name, Gwyllyn]. American Glenn Miller (1904-44) made big band jazz that large combos strive to imitate half-a-century since. Canadian Glenn Gould (1931-82) is acclaimed around the globe as a classical pianist who reinterpreted Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg and Hindemith dramatically well, an eccentric musical genius who was fun. Fortunately he left the concert stage in 1964 to become a high tech studio nut. And so on 25 Sept. 1988, which would have been his 66th birthday, CBC Radio Two was able to devote a daytime program to him of five solid hours of his own recordings, and we were again treated to much musical tribute for his 67th.
Former astronaut and then U.S. Senator John Glenn at the age of 77 was among those launched 29 Oct. 1998 on a hugely-publicized NASA shuttle mission. Canadian researchers are trying to find out exactly why bone loss occurs in space. Canadian high-tech hero Glenn Ballwin, chief exec of Onvia.com Inc., Seattle and Vancouver, has advice for Canadian entrepreneurs: “Dream big, deliver 110 per cent and always be raising money. Keep your sense of humour and never, never quit.”
Look at these place names: Glencoe of Highland treachery; Glendale, Los Angeles suburb; Vale of Glendalough, Irish Republic; Glenelg, South Australian resort town; and Glenrothes, a “new town” in Fife. All very appealing, but how fulfilling it would be to revisit Glen Margaret, go to the Mahar family’s chapel if still there, find the old wrought iron key, and tiptoe into its tiny dustiness to offer a prayer for wee Paul Edward Glen Carew. And kneel there barefoot as of yore.
GLORIA Why wasn’t the Latin word for glory fashioned into a woman’s name back in ancient Rome? Patrick Hanks, diligent chronicler of names for Oxford University Press, claims it didn’t happen until George Bernard Shaw worked a Gloria into his 1898 play
You Never Can Tell. Shaw is a durable playwright and reputedly the best music critic ever but that this spindly, acerbic Irishman did what no man had ever done before is hard to swallow! Two early martyrs, one in Greece and the other in Turkey had the ancient form Gloriosa, according to Yvette Elderbroom who concurs Gloria is 19th century. The Shaw play wasn’t out a year when Gloria Swanson was born. She became a celluloid star, retired, then made a second career in television before dying 1983.
Author Gloria Steinem b. 1936 became founding editor 1972 of Ms., American feminist magazine [our final frontier?]. At 66 she married 3 Sept. 2000 in Oklahoma airline pilot David Bale b. 61 years before in South Africa. She remains Ms. Gloria Steinem and once opined that “women’s total instinct for gambling is satisfied by marriage”.
My nephew Mark Hanington observes everybody loves him in Hawaii whereas they didn’t seem to when he was teaching in the boonies at Sicamous, B. C. In Hawaii he has wed Crane dynast Gloria (Etzbach) Garvey then Hanington who originated 12 Oct. ‘49 Evanston, Illinois.
GORDON The Gordons are a famous Lowland/Highland clan. A regiment raised 1794 became Gordon Highlanders. Regiments have personalities and these were Gay Gordons meaning ebullient long before the word gay was misappropriated. They fought in Egypt-ian, South African and both world wars. After battling long to remain on the British Army’s primary order of battle they sadly laid up colours. I was golfing one day in the Ottawa summer of 1996 with a Scot who had attended that emotional ceremony in ’94 as guest of his serving brother. They amalgamated with Queen’s Own Highlanders.
Suggestions about origin of the Gordon name involve places. Gor-dun meaning hill fort was a Celtic defence work either in Berwick or Kincardine areas or both. Gourdon of Saome et Loire is another candidate with its Latin-over-Gaulish roots. Gurden may even be something lewd about suggestively shaped gourds. Gordon is plentiful in Ulster and has been made stand for Magournahan, Irish Mag Mhuirneachain.
Aberdonian Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchies (1636-99) was a general serving Rus-sia in two of its wars, and picked up the additional rank of rear admiral as principal advi-sor to Peter I. An expert on ballistics and fortifications, this particular Gordon was most prominent of many Scots mercenaries of the period serving that empire. He’d previously fought in Sweden’s army, as did multitudes of kilties including Munros.
A Quebecer was Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond (1771-1854) British commander in Upper Canada 1808-11 and raring for battle in the War of 1812. He was knighted in ‘15 and made commander in chief of the Canadas. He d. London, England, in his 82nd year, a full general. John Gordon, 7th earl of Aberdeen and 1st marquess, was Canada’s governor general 1893-98.
We do know Chinese Gordon of Britain inspired Gordon as given name. Gen. Charles George Gordon (1833-85) was besieged in Khartoum by religious militants of a Mahdi, redeemer. An elaborate relief expedition was mounted with 400 French-Canadian boatmen/rafters sent off to help get a ponderous effort up the Nile cataracts. Sir Garnet Wolseley in command had remembered their capabilities from his Canadian campaigning. At least one cheeky Canadian sapper officer helped build and run the expedition’s rail-way. Rudyard Kipling meanwhile had versified about “fuzzy-wuzzies breakin’ a British square”. Wolseley’s relief was too slow: Gordon was cut down by fundamentalists. That French-Canadian contingent of 400 to the Nile was Canada’s first paramilitary ven-ture abroad, wrongly touted of late on TV as combat troops. Infantry and mounted units soon went as volunteers to the South African [Boer] War, 1899-1902.
Of late the Sudan had a small-scale civil war on the boil 20 years, Muslims of the north vs. Animists and Christians of the black south…and famine. In recent years my wife’s youngest brother, Harry French, taught at an ostensibly secular private school in Port Sudan until April 1998, but no more.
Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon (1829-1912) 1st Baron Stanmore, while lieutenant governor of New Brunswick preached Maritime union, although emphatically not Cana-dian federation. The British colonial office found it necessary to change Sir Arthur’s mind for him concerning national union. He did go on to govern five other spots of Empire. Gordons were Presbyterian clergymen. Rev. Daniel Miner Gordon (1845-1925) was moderator of the church in Canada 1886. From 1902 to ‘17 he was vice chairman of Queen’s University.
Others were financiers. Banker Donald Gordon without a shred of railway exper-tise was asked to take over Canadian National Railways as president. When he hopped aboard 1950 almost at once he faced a nation-wide strike. Soon he was reorganizing fi-nances of a system choked with unprofitable spur lines fought for by politicians, and featherbedding unions. In those days we had a private and a public rail system, a private and a public airline. Both public transporters lost taxpayers lots of dollars.
Gordon as first name had its biggest period 1920-40 in England, and is favoured in Scotland and Canada still. As a surname it ranked 52nd in Scotland of 1958. It is family name for dukes of Richmond and of marquesses of Aberdeen and of Huntley. The 7th Earl of Aberdeen was governor general of Canada 1893-98, and then lord lieutenant of Ireland. He was named marquess 1916. Gordon Winter d. in July 2003 aged 90, the man who worked out Newfoundland’s terms of confederation with Canada and later served as the new province’s lieutenant governor.
Remember the mustachioed old guy and his missus advertising sit-up beds on TV? Gordie Tapp brought a hayseed comic persona to Canadian servicemen all over the world. He was our military’s tireless Bob Hope. Gordie helped start TV’s Hee-Haw 1969 and devoted more than 13 years to CBC radio & TV programs including Main Street Jambor-ee and Country Hoedown. Grinning ear to ear, he publicly thanked me “for furthering the worldly education of Miss Canada” during a tour of Canadian entertainers to Cyprus. Our Fort Garry Horse squadron was presenting a turnabout show for these visiting entertainers in which I persuaded its cast to sing their favourite vulgar ditty. Tapp was appointed to the Order of Ontario 1999.
Canadian folk-singer Gordon Lightfoot b. 1938 won 16 Junos, was made a Juno Hall of Famer and earned four Grammy nominations. This choirboy from Orillia, Ont., is still touring. He wrote The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, sunk in a Great Lakes storm. The ballad reached the top of Billboard charts 1976. Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe, he of the busy elbow, made his 1,000th point with an assist 1960 while a Detroit Red Wing when they beat Toronto Maples Leafs at home. A year later he was first to play 1,000 NHL games, this time on home ice. He got his 1,000th big leagues goal 1977 as a New England Whaler against Birmingham Bulls in the old World Hockey Association. Gordon Granville Foster b. 1987 Ottawa is my cousin Bernie Granville’s grandson.
GRACE Old English graes meant grass and pasture which gave rise to the occupation grazier who put cattle out to pasture in green grass after a winter of hay. In the Ottawa Valley, that’s grassin’, eh? Grace the name had its immediate forebears inscribed on Eng-lish documents as early as 1108 although the actual spelling Grace first appears on the record rather appropriately with an Adam Grace on 1302 subsidy rolls of Suffolk. As a Norman baronial family Graces have been important to Irish history since the first le Gros arrived c. 1200. Today they’re on the map in Kilkenny.
Grace and like spellings flow from a single name for a woman thought come from Old German grisja for grey. Modern German Griselda likely indicates that early root. Old French gris for grey did make it into Middle English. Somewhat a fly in the ointment was Gratia, a latinization by scribes, thus modern French Gratia and its spelling varia-tions are heirs of that Latin misappropriation. This too entered Middle English as both grace and gras meaning a pleasing quality. John Gracemauvais in 1247 Bedfordshire was singled out as ungracious. Puritans of the 17th century deemed Gratia a worthy given name.
Grace has also been extricated from Gaelic greusaich or griasaich which originally meant a decorator or an embroiderer then became shoemaker. Grace as first name or sur-name long has been popular in Scotland and the north of England, with a little help from Gaelic? Old French gras, fat, was turned into the words crass and gross while one Nic-holas le Gras 1295 inspired the placename Great Graces in Little Baddow. But read about Raymond le Gros, baronial ancestor of the Graces of Ireland and one of three outstanding figures of the Norman invasion, found also under Carew and Raymond in this Catalogue.
Saint Grata was daughter of St. Lupo and Adelaide, duke and duchess of former Gallic town and province of Bergamo in Lombardy, Italy, in the 1st millennium. She con-verted them to Christianity and on their death led the republic, building three churches and a hospital for the poor whom she also administered. Cornwall had a St. Grace who was wealthy co-patron of a new church with St. Probus, providing material for its tower. The church got to be named after him.
Grace was dragooned in Ireland as an English version of Grainne [pronounced gronya]. The Irish Gaelic name may go back to a pagan grain goddess. Also Irish legend tells of Grainne, daughter of King Cormac, who eloped with Diarmait although the hero Finn, his uncle, was already in love with her. Finn long tracked the young couple, ulti-mately being the cause of Diarmait’s death and of Grainne taking her own life.
From my Carew manuscripts you may recall Grainne Ui Mhaille, haughty, dark-featured, grey-eyed Grace O’Malley, captain of pirate galleys out of 16th century Mayo, and provoker of much Irish unrest. MacLysaght has her name Grania Ny Maille. The story went round that she was smuggled over for a private audience, just girls, with an-other famous female survivor and leader, Elizabeth I. The O’Malley family slogan was Powerful by Land and Sea. Her husband killed in battle, Grace took such vengeance that her island home was renamed Hen’s Castle.
Grace Darling was a lighthouse daughter whose heroism in an 1838 rescue of storm-tossed sailors brought much public acclaim. Grace Kelly (1928-82) was the Irish-American film actress who became by marriage Princess Grace of Monaco 49 years ago. She was fatally injured in a car crash 1982. Prince Rainier III died in April 2005 aged 81, Europe’s longest serving monarch. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper USN (1906-92) designed the first commercial electronic computer UNIVAC and COBOL language that was root of our Y2K millennium problems. Grace Hartman, d. 18 Dec. 1993 aged 75, was first woman to lead a major Canadian union as national president, Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Our Graces
While I was climbing the long staircase to our upper flat in Halifax almost 60 years ago I could hear a fine soprano rendition of None but the Lonely Heart adapted from P. I. Tchaikovsky; one I recognized wasn’t in our record collection. Grace Cragg was holding forth in our living room like a professional, singing over the symphonic fragment on the player. She swung her considerable presence on me and a kid was overcome.
Growing up in a family of women I was bound to meet someone like Grace per-forming impromptu and flawlessly for us. She was related, as was practically every Ro-man Catholic family to some degree in that city. Born 6 March 1899 she was daughter of Francis Joseph Cragg and Rose Patton that was. This snappy-eyed brunette of fine fig-ure was one of the first women to graduate from medical school, Dalhousie University. That she did in 1922 and Dr. Cragg eventually had charge of a Massachusetts State mental hospital in Medford that I believe is handy Boston.
And she was fun. Once we all piled out of our home in Halloween costumery to hit a restaurant. Grace shared our booth and quietly heckled a man sitting in the next one over. He endured it all without a smile. A girl classmate circumspectly told me after that my buns had filled a skirt nicely and a Young Modern woman’s fedora successfully hid my boy’s haircut.
We kids welcomed these Cragg events and for Mummy she was a welcome inter-lude to rearing three girls and a boy in uncertain times. Grace smoked and liked a drink but remained a spinster most of her life. However an interest in gardening, gladioli espe-cially, brought her to professional Pasquale Charles Vasaturo of Norwood, Mass. They wed 1962 and retired to Bradenton, Florida [where Cousin Owen Granville lives]. She was widowed, died 1980 in her early 80s and was buried back home in Mount Olivet cemetery after service at St. Mary’s Basilica. The late Pat Crosby who lived up Edward Street from us in Halifax was a fond nephew furnishing some of these details. His widow in Ottawa is Ann Miller that was and, yes, both are our distant kin.
Aunt Grace could be overwhelming. As a young man I happened along while she was holding forth about inadequacies of men. “Yes,” I agreed, “John Steinbeck has writ-ten that American men know more about the internal combustion engine than they do about a woman’s clitoris.” For once, just once, she was speechless.
The arrival of the surname Grace in our extended family meant double tragedy. My Great Aunt Belle was Sarah Isabelle O’Neill that was; younger sister of Grandma Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew who died Halifax 1939 aged 75. Belle married Haligonian Tom Grace; a commercial traveler connected somehow to the Grace Steamships line people. She wasn’t too happy about his working absences but bore him a daughter, Lillian Adele Grace a year later. By Year Two, Belle had resolved to put a better face on things. Tom got home from a business trip and went upstairs to freshen up. He peeked in on Adele and fell dead across her crib from heart failure. Our widow was thwarted in revealing to her spouse a new and better Belle. And now, she must prepare herself for the working world. For a fuller picture, see also descriptions of Sarah, Lillian and Adele in that order.
GRAHAM Granta’s homestead is the meaning of the locality of Grantham in Lincoln-shire long ago. The place name evolved to Graham, a famous name or was it notorious. Grahams were either Anglo-Saxon in origin or from Flanders, descendants of the counts of Hesdin. The name had been taken to Scotland by Sir William de Graham who accompan-ied David I, 1124-53, returning from England. He founded Gallant Grahams, the clan that produced the earls of Montrose but, more important to us, Sir William’s great, great, great, great grandson was William Wallace’s Richt Hand. Sir John, as he was known, was killed at the Battle of Falkirk 1298.
There’s a persistent legend that the occupying Romans’ Antonine wall bordering Highland and Lowland Scotland early in the 2nd millennium was raided repeatedly by a chieftain, Gramus, hence in local parlance that section became known as Graeme’s Dyke. Potted histories of clans largely limit themselves to what little is on record so don’t delve into why Grahams were sallying out of the Highlands further north. They didn’t al-though they held lands close by. The clan is associated more with the Scottish-English border to the south. Such Grahams were incessant raiders into England when they weren’t rustling their own neighbours. After well deserved exile, some managed to steal back home under the name Maharg.
Among Great Captains of the British Isles was James Graham (1612-50), 5th Earl and 1st Marquis of Montrose. In 1644-45 he defeated seven Covenant armies and recon-quered Scotland for Charles I briefly in the Great Civil War. In 1650 he suffered William Wallace’s excruciating fate. Thanks largely to the efforts of the 3rd Duke of Montrose; a Highland dress prohibition imposed after defeat at Culloden Moor was repealed 1782.
All these deeds from an Anglo Saxon first name meaning snarler, grumbler? As well, Grantham may mean gravelly homestead in Old English. Graham as a first name was used in Scotland, the rest of Britain finally following suit by the 1950s. It traveled well with Scottish emigrants, being more prominent Down Under than anywhere else abroad. We can boast a splendid example in Graham Ford Towers (1897-1975) of Montreal banking stock who in 1934 began 10 years as first governor of the Bank of Canada. This was one of those perceptive albeit slow measures taken by the soon-gone Bennett government to combat the deepening Great Depression.
Howard Douglas Graham b. 1898 of Canadian parents fought in the trenches and served as a senior non-commissioned officer at Canadian Corps headquarters in France and Germany in the Great War. Afterwards he became a lawyer in Trenton, Ont., and mayor in 1934. Meanwhile Graham was a militia officer in the Hasty Pees, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment of Eastern Ontario. Fast forward to Italy in the Second World War. He commands the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade and Guy Simonds, former commander and now his divisional boss, is breathing down his neck, again. This was a typical wartime scene, a regular Canadian officer disparaging a reservist. British General Montgomery is in turn Simonds’ boss and won’t let him fire Brigadier Graham. A Si-monds riposte, putting Graham up for the Distinguished Service Order. Later in Europe Simonds gets back at Monty who was abstemious and always trying to rein in the notori-ous thirst of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Gen. Simonds had the P. M. served tea at the front, in cup and saucer that held whisky after whisky. To the cheers of Canadian troops Churchill peed on Germany’s vaunted Siegfried Line. By the way, Graham winds up lieutenant general, chief of general staff 1955-58, Canada’s top soldier. He retired 1960, last active Canadian general with First World War ribbons.
Much earlier in what is now the Atlantic Provinces, Lord George Graham (c.1713-47) was young captain of HMS Nottingham and governor of Newfoundland 1740. Hugh Graham (1758-1829) was one of early Presbyterian ministers into Nova Scotia, serving Cornwallis and Stewiacke. Wallace Graham (1848-1917) rose to chief justice of the pro-vince 1915.
Newspaper barons, or one at least, operated in the heartland. Sir Hugh Graham (1848-1938) was proprietor and editor in Montreal of reputable journals. George Perry Graham (1859-1943) owned and edited Brockville Recorder. Later he held portfolios in Laurier and Mackenzie King governments. He was sworn imperial privy councillor 1925 and senator a year after.
The surname was regularly seen in England and in Ireland of 1890 for many Gra-hams had been exiled to the Emerald Isle after unforgivable Border ructions. Numerous in Ulster, it was employed as the English form of Irish surnames O Goirmleadhaigh in Ul-ster and O Gormghaile in Connacht although these are more usually rendered Gormely and Grehan. Graham ranked 32nd in Scotland 1958. The Ottawa area phonebook has five columns of Grahams and growing, and nary a Maharg. William Bruce Graham b. 1913, not as one might expect a Haligonian although husband of my cousin Ruthie Wallace that was Down East. He’d raised an earlier family.
GRANT From a remnant of a nickname from another place and time comes Grant, or Grand. It’s the Old French word frequently for someone tall, but made in at least one instance to indicate the elder or senior Grant of two. It also has been traced to Granta’s homestead, a place name in a few parts of England.
Anglo-Norman Grants are certainly known as settlers of northeast Scotland and identified as such in 13th century documentation. However some Grants claim to go back to the first king of Scots, 9th century Kenneth the Hardy mac Alpin. Grants are also found in several areas of England and, as Anglo Normans, went over to Ireland. The name is infrequent only in Connacht. Records of the Middle Ages show le Graunte in Co. Kilkenny. It was firmly established in Munster province before close of the 16th century; and is found in most other parts, Ulster occasionally using Grant for Mag Raighne in the north. In such a case Reginald might be more apt.
James Grant (1720-1806) was a British general at Battle of Culloden Moor and in the American Revolution, also campaigning in the West Indies, capturing St. Lucia. He was, however, never comfortable with the style of soldiering required in America. Union General Ulysses Grant (1822-85) proved a first class Civil War general who learned by his mistakes, but as U. S. president was naive about venal mercantile/political hangers on.
The name ranked 44th as a surname over in Scotland 1958, having dropped eight places in a hundred years. Grant is the family name of the barons de Longueuil and the barons Strathspey.
Grants nigh a century apart gave distinguished naval service to colony and nation:
• In the Seven Years War Alexander Grant (1734-1813) skippered a sloop on Lake Champlain. He’d turned up an officer in a Highland regiment despite a British mer-chant marine and naval background. He advanced to commodore of the western lakes with headquarters at Detroit. He was in the first executive and legislative councils of Upper Canada and in 1805 became “administrator” until a new lieutenant governor could come in to replace one who had died.
• H[arold] T[aylor] W[ood] Grant (1899-65) as British cruiser captain successfully battled a superior German force in the Bay of Biscay in the Second World War. He rose to vice admiral as chief of the naval staff 1947-51 making him Canada’s top sailor during Cold War expansion. On retirement he headed up the Royal Canadian Naval Benevolent Fund which still functions.
[I offered quarterdeck division for his inspection when he visited the aircraft carrier Magnificent at Halifax 50 years ago. On this and subsequent encounters I saw a very correct man of average build with sharp eyes bordering on haughty. Not a laughter wrinkle to be found. His dad was MacCallum Grant who owned a Halifax insurance firm and served successive terms 1916-25 as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia.]
There were Grants, usually related, along the fur trade links. William Grant (1741-1805) involved himself in levels of Lower Canada government. Others were pro-minent educators. James Alexander Grant (1831-1920) was doctor to a succession of governors general, sat in the legislative assembly and for a total of three terms in the House of Commons. After, in 1872, he headed the Canadian Medical Association.
Grants were among a group of permanent settlers from Ireland who came to Cape Broyle, Newfoundland, in the 1780s. The first colony had fizzled out. That changed. In the period 1804-84 the population on the Rock increased tenfold to 200,000. Catherine Ellen Mary Grant b. 1877 St. John’s of Cape Broyle stock, was fourth of 11 children. She and Henry Brownrigg raised a family of seven but in 1929, before all had flown the coop, took on my wife, their infant grandchild. She lived with them throughout her first decade. “Auntie Kate” d. a widow 1956, her elaborate house sold to become a home for handicapped. On 25 Nov. 1995 Isabel Grant, widow of Ron Wadden, made it to celebra-tion of her 100th birthday in St. Patrick’s Nursing Home there. Great Aunt Belle, younger sister of Kate and once a nurse, was described as “very aware”. She d. ‘96. Only child Mary is wife of fellow American Bill Russell living near New York.
GRANVILLE Although sometimes spelt Granfield, Grandfield, Grantfield or Grandville, that English-looking field is off the mark altogether wrote Professor Basil Cottle, Welsh-born authority on names of the British Isles and their stock. Penguin published his 2nd edition, Dictionary of Surnames 1978. He recorded Granville as a location meaning the equivalent of a “big place” in Manche, France. In my Melding Hearts I pointed to Gran-ville, a port on the western coast of the Cherbourg Peninsula. My diligent Cousin Owen Granville found the above variations while digging into Halifax and Mormon records, on recent Irish pilgrimages, and the Internet. He lets me borrow bits of his family lore, some of which you will also find under Kin Tales near the end of this Catalogue.
Oxford’s A Dictionary of English Surnames, 3rd Edition by Dr. P.H. Reaney re-vised by R. M. Wilson 1997, has entries for none of the versions. From my two histories of Wales, zip. Micheil MacDonald’s exhaustive The Clans of Scotland reprinted 1995 is silent as to suchlike septs and so are three other collections of the kind. Nor has the late Edward MacLysaght’s More Irish Families paperback 1997 incorporating Supplement to Irish Families. However, in The Surnames of Ireland 6th Edition reprinted 1999 he dis-closed that Granfield, Granville and uncommon Grandfield are from Norman de Granville. He confirmed there that Granfield is “fairly numerous in Kerry, where it has been since late 16th century” but very rare elsewhere in Ireland.
Yet Granville is a Norman baronial name that entered the English aristocracy. Lord Granville of Eye, oldest member of the House of Lords, turned up in the tearoom of the Lords to celebrate his 100th birthday 1998 and died two days later. He was a veteran of the Australian contingent at Gallipoli in the badly-led Dardenelles shore campaign of the Great War. Afloat, British warships were to be sunk in Dardenelles Straits to seal up the Black Sea. Results were half-hearted, sailors too sentimental about their old ships.
Patrick Hanks, names expert published by Oxford University Press, writes 1955 that the name descends from “any of several places in Normandy” called grand ville in Old French and meaning “large settlement”. Dunkling and Gosling, Names Society of-ficers and authors of two first-name dictionaries, call Granville a common French place name, which became an English surname. Its use as a boy’s name is intermittent to regu-lar in the Old Country and North America, wrote they. [Granville Mosher was reeve of Glen Margaret, Halifax County, when I was a kid.] A baby book originating in the U. S. lists Granville as Old French “from the great estate or town” and another international paperback of baby names enters Granvil as Old French for large town. Neither of the latter two books appears rigorously researched, although all authorities mentioned earlier are reliable and cited often.
In my Melding Hearts manuscript about Granvilles & Wallaces I proposed that the Granville name came to Ireland borne by long-established wine smugglers out of France. Cousin Owen is coming along in this. Ascendancy Irish had notorious thirsts for a harsh claret from vineyards of France that just had to be available, peace or war.
The Irish immigrant founder of the Halifax Granvilles, Michael Grantfield (1792-1869) was buried in Halifax under the name Granville. A Wallace brother and sister wed a Granville sister and brother there early 20th century, in separate weddings. My Aunt Greta (Wallace) Granville endured a rough early childhood in Truro, N. S., was nurtured in adolescence at Mum Granville’s boarding house Halifax, worked with older brother Frank at Wallace Advertising; then married Dr. Ed Granville. Greta d. 1992 a widow aged 96 but Dot (Granville) Wallace, Joe’s wife, departed the world back in 1927 of TB.
Two Granvilles are listed in the National Capital area phonebook for 1999-2000, one of them my cousin Bernard, retired public servant and active granddad [more about him in Kin Tale XXXIV]. No Grandfields or Grantfields were listed.
GREGORY Plainsong came out of the Middle Ages. Today it is questionable that Pope Gregory I, the Great (540-604) son of Gordianus and Silvia should have all credit for com-piling liturgical books during his papacy. Plainsong is unharmonized chant which 19th century Benedictine monks of Solesmes tried to restore. We aren’t entirely sure of its medieval rhythm.
As a novice Gregorian choir member several decades ago I can attest that plain chant is about as far as you can get from heart pulse or drumbeat. It is otherworldly on purpose. Yes, chanting of Spanish monks has become a widespread fad of late but pro-ducers dubbing in drum riffs on later disks! Tsk! Chant was supposed to counter Church music become rococo, strident, and entirely too competitive. Moderns latch onto Gregor-ian to escape our worldly clamour. Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine of Canterbury with nearly 40 monks from St. Andrews to Anglians and Saxons 1,500 years ago: plain-song today out of England may elevate the soul if not the eyelids.
A Sicilian Gregory spent four years studying in Byzantine monasteries located in Palestine. Made deacon in Jerusalem and later bishop of Girgenti, he authored in Greek a commentary on Ecclesiastes and died c. 603. Two other great saints are Gregorys. G. Nazianzen, Doctor of the Church, and G. Nyassa, Father of the Fathers, both learnéd bulwarks of the Eastern Church. French Gregory of Tours (c.538-94) is a saint known best for his Historia Francorum, the world from creation to the 6th century. This was a valuable survey of early European events. Gregory the Great introduced to Roman Ca-tholic countries a reformed calendar 1582. It took until 1752 for Protestant-dominated Great Britain to adopt it for homeland and colonies by which time the previous Julian calendar was out by 11 days.
In all there’ve been 16 popes named Gregory. The name itself emerged via Latin Gregorius from the post-classical Greek Gregorios, rooted in the word gregorein mean-ing watchful, vigilant. Early Christians took to the name mindful of its injunction “be so-ber, be vigilant” [1 Peter 5:8].
Renowned Gregor Mendel, Moravian monk, figured out mid-1800s how traits are passed to the next generation of plants. He worked on rabbits at first but his bishop ob-jected so he focussed on the humble garden pea. He ranks among gifted amateurs who made serious advances in the field of genetics but lacked academic qualifications, only because he seized up during exams.
Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (c. 1871-1916) semi-literate Russian monk of the mystic Flagellants sect exercised alarming influence on the czarina through his claim of a miraculous cure for heir apparent Alexis’ hemophilia. Already he could stop the czare-vich’s bleeding episodes by hypnosis. Rasputin proved hard to put down. First he was poisoned and then repeatedly shot by Russian nobles banded against him by their concern for the emperor.
Dr. Gregory Godwin Pincus, endocrinologist, developed the birth control pill Envoid 1960 in his lab at Worcester, Mass. Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood founder and heiress Katherine McCormick backed him. Eminent gynecologist and devout Catholic John Rock effectively brought the pill to market. The doctor expected the Church would accept the oral contraceptive because it used hormones to suppress ovulation. Pope Paul VI’s Humae Vitae denied Roman Catholics access. Within three years, 2.3 million women were taking it. Forty years after, 100 million women around the world take his blend of progesterone and estrogen hormones. Before Newfoundland entered Confederation 1949, Quebec boasted Canada’s highest birth rate. La pilule plummeted that rate to worrisome low levels.
Early Quebecers surnamed Gregory weren’t exactly shining examples:
• William was the first chief justice 1764 but lasted two years or less because this Irish-man had no French. As it was he had done time for debt in England before coming to
Canada and soon was back in debtor’s jail over there after leaving his Montreal law practice. A ray of hope: a supreme court judge surfaced South Carolina 1775 of iden-tical name.
• John was a merchant in Montreal drawn into deadly war between big fur-trading companies. He switched companies; d. Montreal 1817 to all appearances well to do and respectable.
Gregory is the middle name of our #2 son Stephen b. 1956 Ottawa, and of Neil Paul Gregory Wallace (1923-83) my Uncle Tom’s #6 son.
GRETA Dear to Germans is this pet form of Margaret although it does turn up in other languages. The Swedes regard Greta as an import in spite of Greta Lovisa Gustaffson (1905-90). From Hollywood-manufactured obscurity and TV movie reruns we know her as Greta Garbo. She starred in 26 films over 17 years but in 1941, aged 36, she walked away from Hollywood movie lots. Ven she vanted to be alone her name changed to Har-riet Brown etc.
Greta the name debuted in English-speaking countries 1880s with Miss Garbo providing a tonic for the 1930s. Variants include Gretchen and Gretel. In Halifax we sounded it Greetah. It belongs to Greta Marie Granville b. 1923 Elmsdale, N S., shor-tened to Gret pronounced greet. Greta was the byname of her mother, Isabella Mar-guerita Wallace that was, only girl of her family to reach adulthood who d.1992 Halifax at 96, last of her generation. Gret as usual was at her side.
GRONO Grono is another spelling of Gronow; an anglicized version of Welsh first name Goronwy descended intact from Old Welsh. Goronwy ap Heilyn [ap meaning son of] enters Welsh history 13th century at a time of increasing pressure from Edward I, strong-est of medieval kings of England. Goronwy was the most faithful of the servants of the house of Aberffraw in Gwynedd and held his land on military tenure. In the Mabinogi, Welsh classic, Lord Goronwy of Penllyn became lover of Blodeuedd and murdered her husband Lleu Llaw Gyffes. The victim was restored to life and brought death to his wife’s lover.
Edith (Fraser) Grono was my maternal grandmother’s cousin; penniless widow turned housekeeper for auctioneer Will Tapp Halifax roughly a third of the way through the 20th century. His late wife had been a Fraser. Despite everything, Edie was warm and merry kin to us all. Will was a Newfoundlander.
GUY Isn’t it remarkable that such a wee name has such a large family. It began as a part of Germanic compound names brought by the Franks into what became France. Old Ger-man Wido for some reason stayed that way in Latin or occasionally Guido. Wido meant wood, forest with possibly an adjective meaning wide, which makes some sense. Old French Gui on the other hand may have been the occupational name for a guide.
The poor man of Anderlecht was how 11th century St. Guy was known because he was born of poor parents near Brussels, was austere, and worked with the poor. He made a pilgrimage on foot to Rome and Jerusalem that took seven years, dying c. 1012. There were miracles at his grave so a shrine was erected. St. Guy of Pomposa was abbot at two Italian monasteries because one only couldn’t hold the numbers of disciples who flocked to this noted spiritual advisor. Died 1046.
Normans latched onto the W- forms in a big way, and brought them to England in the Conquest. The G- forms were imported from around the region of Paris. Norman form Why is seen in the surviving surnames W[h]yatt; however, Why and its close kin-dred eventually grew much scarcer than Guy & Co. There is also the Norman dialect Wye which more likely meant at the heathen temple. Weedon means at the heathen temple on the hill [dedicated to the god Odin]. Hmm: one of my Roman Catholic grade-school mates in Halifax had that surname.
The earliest written form I know of is from Domesday Book 1086, the entry Wilhelmus filius Widonis, Guidonis. It is interesting to watch the progression of the name through the next two centuries. Surname Wildo, first names Why and Guido, surnames Wi, Wy, Gy and, finally, Richard Guy of 1384 London. The only occupational name for a guide on record was John le Gy in 1327 Essex.
Guy of Lusignan was Latin king of Jerusalem 486-92 as a result of Crusading. Saladin captured him in battle but later released him to fight another day at Acre. Intrigue forced Guy away from the holy kingdom’s to the throne of Cyprus. Lesser Armenia was tacked on to that realm but only to the benefit of his descendants.
Guy of Warwick was likely a much earlier historical figure, even if popularized in a 14th century romance. In it he won the daughter of the earl of Warwick and saved Eng-land from the Danes by killing the giant Colbrand but which event came first I should not guess for he renounced the world to be a hermit. The rhymes remained popular through 17/18th centuries. The province of Ulster in northern Ireland noted the name Guy from early in the 17th century.
Guy de Chauliac (c.1300-68) was medical man to three popes starting with Cle-ment IV. Guy’s Chirurgia magna 1363 was the manual for doctors for the next three centuries. Of opposing intent was Guido “Guy” Fawkes of failed gunpowder plot by R. C. extremists to blow up James I and English houses of parliament the night of 5 Nov. 1605. He and eight others were hung, drawn and quartered and heads displayed on spikes of London Bridge. Parliament made a law decreeing Nov. 5 a day of public thanksgiving celebrated ever since, that night in England [and Newfoundland] taken up with juvenile revelries. “Remember, remember the fifth of November!”
A Guy started the first British settlement in what now is Canada. Bristol, Eng-land, official John Guy sailed 1610 with 39 chartered settlers. They built homes and a fort at Cupers Cove [now Cupids] on the west shore of Newfoundland’s Conception Bay. Their Sea Forest Plantation was a decade ahead of Pilgrims celebrating their first Thanks-giving at Plymouth. Governor Guy went back to Bristol for good 1613/14 and became mayor. His colony remained an entity just 18 years but descendants of original settlers hung in there even though money and support from the Mother Country were no more. The first example of the ability of a Newfoundlander to survive somehow, lies with the Butlers of Cupers Cove 1610 and Butlers still there today. The same continuity from the 17th century is also evident from the artifacts at a Ferrylands dig, 72 kilometres south of St. John’s. Cupids folk and the City of Bristol raised a monument in the Cove 1910 for the 300th anniversary of Canada’s first settlement. A dig began 1995 uncovering Guy’s plantation and at the same time unearthing signs of continuous habitation. A coin from the time of Charles I (1600-49) has been found. Fur trading, agriculture, lumbering and mineral exploration all were tried: actually it was the fishery that kept them going.
Gen. Sir Guy Carleton (1724-1808) 1st Baron Dorchester governed Quebec and then British North America on and off in the last quarter of the 18th century. See Car-leton. Guysborough, N. S., begun by Loyalists, recalls his name. The site, on a good harbour in Chedabucto Bay, once had been important to the French for fish and trade.
Gaetan Alberto “Guy” Lombardo (1902-1977) and his Royal Canadians were North America’s most popular dance band for half a century, for several decades from 1929 playing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve over Canadian and U.S. radio then TV networks. He started in London, Ont., after a hitch in The Royal Canadian Regiment’s 1st Battalion there. Over a span of 50 years, 300 million records of “the sweetest music this side of heaven” were sold.
Guy Lafleur b. 1951 Thurso, Que. is playing Old Timer hockey nowadays but was electrifying as play-making centre for Montréal Canadiens. He announced his retirement 1984 after making 518 goals during 14 years with the Habitants. Guy La-Pointe was a Hab defenceman 1970s. An expansion team gathered in Guy-the-flower past his bloom, but colour was not lacking: he drove to his first practice in a Rolls Royce. Ray Guy b. 1931 Arnold’s Cove in Placentia Bay, Nfld., is author and journalist wryly mining conflict between Newfie towner and bayman. He also writes of outharbourmen. Guy Roger Forget b. 1968 Ottawa is #1 brother-in-law of our #3 son, Christopher.
HALEY Some of the vagaries of spelling have been curbed by bureaucracy e.g. frozen by means of departments of vital statistics. Now we wonder where documentation will
end. The Carew Bible records the name of my immigrant Irish great grandmother as Mar-garet Healy. My maiden Aunt Sylvia Carew as late as the 1960s wrote her grandmother’s name down as Haley. Haligonians pronounced Healy with a hay whereas in St. John’s it’s a hee. See also Healy.
Hayley in Old England meant hay meadow or dweller at the hay clearing. Hailey is a place name in Oxfordshire. It was a surname but the Brit actress Hayley Mills b. 1946 to Sir John Mills and the former Mary Hayley Bell helped 1960s parents make it a first name. So Hayley in its various spellings made Top 50, high up at that.
A couple of American baby books not all that scholarly have other sources for Haley. One says Old Norse hero or heroine, the other points to Irish Gaelic Ealadhach, ingenious, scientific. Another meaning rooted in Anglo Saxon yields holy, healthy. Believable MacLysaght said Irish O Haly is a variant of Healy common once in County Cork while Halys of Co. Limerick claim to be Hanley. Haley, he opines, comes from a place in England. O Hall[e]y is from O hAilche in Counties Waterford and Tipperary although some of the latter are actually Mulhalls, and there’s a small Co. Clare sept, O hAille that resulted in Ballyally near Ennis.
[Edmond or Edmund Halley (1656-1742) was the English astronomer and mathe-matician for whom that returning Great Comet of 1682 is named. It was seen for three months around then in our hemisphere. Halley pronounced his name hall-y as in Massey Hall: I won’t be around 2061to remind you: it only passes by earth roughly every 76 years. I stayed indoors 1985-86 as it was seen only faintly to either side of the sun: re-flected city light meant too many klicks to travel by night for just a dim view. Beyond a certain age, many seniors avoid night driving anyway. About 15 km long, 8 km wide and high it was reported spectacular by those viewing from the Southern Hemisphere.]
HALLISEY Although this may imply a sacred grove given over to dreadful druidic sac-rifices, the meaning more likely is mundane. A holy i.e. church-owned meadow: church holdings in the British Isles had continued to accumulate until Henry VIII. The long -o- of holy shortened when in the first syllable of three. Northern English forms keep, but not always, the -a- of Old English. The late Edward MacLysaght puts present-day O Halliseys, O hAilgheasa from ailgheas for eagerness, on the border of Counties Cork and Kerry in Ireland.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt.-Col. Jack Hallisey is spouse of my younger cousin Anne Carew that was. They live in his second retirement on Beech Street in Halifax, a block over from 98 and 125 [old numbering] Cambridge St. houses where Anne was reared. Halifax recalls a Western Yorkshire town in England meaning a holy or church-owned field of flax. Over time the -l- in flax dropped away. [A few good belts of Navy rum brings it back.]
Jack Hallisey might serve as a reminder of the special affinity of our Maritime Provinces with New England states. In wars with the French, New Englanders came up and captured fortress Louisburg, which dominated the western Atlantic area from Cape Breton. On expulsion of Acadians they were encouraged to come and implant properties Acadians had been forced off. See entry Evangeline for more details.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865), Nova Scotia jurist, poked fun at Yan-kee and Bluenose in his Sam Slick series and books, and with due regard to dialect. Mari-time audiences are prepared for the occasional New England twang among local broad-casters. Many a Down Easter has fought America’s wars in U.S. uniform. For several decades I read of surviving relatives in the States from local obituaries, since Maritimers long have formed a labour pool for nor’eastern U. S. enterprises. Americans have come to our many small but quality universities and we were proud that students of Dalhousie U. in Halifax were not required to write entrance examinations to Harvard in what we called the Boston States.
For decades the people of Nova Scotia have sent a giant evergreen to Boston. Its lighting up officially signals the start of Christmas festivities in Bean Town. Why? Well, within hours of the 1917 Halifax Explosion Massachusetts organized a relief train full of doctors, nurses, medical supplies, food, blankets and tents to our port city one-third levelled. This remained the largest man-made detonation until the atomic bomb, however unintended our earlier blast had been. A Massachusetts relief committee for years there-after supplied Halifax funds, supplies and even special restoration workers.
My oldest sister Margot told me Halliseys were a Nova Scotian family. Jack’s father went to New Jersey to work and Jack was b. there in Englewood. One of his summer jobs in student days was as dining-car waiter on the long, rickety Canadian National Railway trains taking tens of thousands of postwar European immigrants from Port of Halifax to waiting inland farm and factory. After six years of destructive war and many privations, Displaced Persons couldn’t get enough of our white bread. Jack and fellow waiters saved many steps at outset of every meal by placing a quarter-loaf by each table setting.
Jack became an astrophysicist. He flew helicopter rescue missions out of Thai-land during the Vietnam War. A graduate from United States Military Academy at West Point, Jack taught physics at the U. S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. He serv-ed in Ottawa, where we occasionally golfed together late 1960s. Jack and Ann dropped by regularly and entertained all 11 of us at their house where he gave us a look at stars through his telescope. My sons remember him well for his affable involvement with them. He returned to the U. S. for research at Eglin A. F. Base, Florida, and finally to Washington’s Pentagon headquarters on technical staff of the secretary of defense. That meant final development of the on-again off-again B-1 bomber; so it was with especial in-terest much later that I watched one bank steeply over Hylands golf club by our airport, aircrew of this powerful warplane obviously golfers checking out our 36-hole layout.
HAMMOND A popular name among Norman conquerors of England was Old German Haimo, meaning home. In an Old French version was an excrescent -d- but this may have been a form of Haimund, meaning home protector. Various versions of Hammond are recorded in 12/14th -century England. Hammond existed in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion where it occasionally does for Hamill and even more rarely for Co. Down’s MacCammon[d] from Mac Amoinn.
New Zealand soprano Joan Hammond made her opera debut Vienna 1929 and was made dame of the British Empire in ‘74. Hammond is a personal and place name promin-ent in both northern and southern American states. A dozen years ago I belonged to an Eastern Ontario golf course converted from the Léonard family’s pig farm and named for nearby Hammond village. [W. F. Empey, first postmaster, just liked the look of the name.] Donnie Hammond was playing the prime American tour: however our small golf membership couldn’t afford his appearance fee.
Maclean Quickfall “Mac” Hammond (1917-41) only 24 widowed Dorothy Made-line Wallace (1916-1988), daughter and first child of Uncle Joe Wallace. Mac fell to can-cer while running a magazine sales group Dorothy had joined, based either in Southern Ontario or northern U. S. Wed late 1940, they were childless. Despite his resounding Scots and English names, Mac was Jewish and then converted to Catholicism.
The Granville family of Halifax helped Dorothy get on her feet after her subse-quent marriage to John MacAulay from Prince Edward Island failed. He left her with three children to support, one being deaf. Dorothy soon headed for the USA, taught in deaf and in public schools, eventually settling down in Rochester, N.Y., where her heart failed when 72.
HANNA An exalted Hebrew woman, a mundane bit of Anglo Saxon geography, or a rare Scottish O name form eclectic roots of Hanna. And a mother deeply missed.
The mother of the great prophet Samuel [1 Sam. 1:2] bore a name meaning “He [God] has favoured me [with a child]. Puritans of 16/17th centuries had a strong affinity for the message. Hebrew Khannah translates also as graceful one or Hannah as grace, prayer. Her song echoes in the Magnificat of Blessed Virgin Mary beginning “My soul doth magnify the Lord….” It is sung during certain Roman Catholic Masses and at Anglican evening prayer.
In Old English Hannah could mean either an Anglo-Saxon man [named] Cock who owns Cock’s Island in Lincolnshire or otherwise an island full of [wild] cocks. [Remem-ber that traditional Cockney greeting, “Wotcher, Cock?”] Hannah is a plentiful nor’east Ulster surname, perhaps from Cromwell’s pitiless period in Ireland. In Scots Gaelic it’s O hAnnaidh. See also Ann[e] for Hannah was once a common form of Anne in Ireland. To Hannah also is attributed the quality of sympathy. Hannah for American girls has been in the top 10 there for five years.
In days of sail Hannah Shell disguised herself as British Royal Marine James Gray, was wounded in action and given a pension. About a score of women managed to pass themselves off as men in the Royal Navy over a couple of centuries. Names expert Father James S. McGivern S. J. notes that O’Hanna is sometimes found in Cape Breton, N. S. Hanna the Alberta community was named for a railway bigwig. German-born Han-nah Arendt (1906-75) was a major political thinker at various American universities.
Hanna Kenwell b. 1991 London, Ont., to Thomas Small, my wife’s nephew, is youngest and only girl of three appealing youngsters. Najla Hanna was maiden name of the deceased Lebanese mother of Lily (Fayad) Wallace, #5 son Matthew’s wife.
HANINGTON The first name Hann was a diminutive of John, being taken from Johann. Therefore Hanington is John’s estate or settlement, one infers from Prof. Basil Cottle’s Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, 2nd edition 1978.
The late Dr. P. H. Reaney notes three early bearers in Oxford Dictionary of Eng-lish Surnames, revised 3rd ed. 1997 by Prof. R.M. Wilson. The Swedish scholar G. Teng-vik’s Old English Bynames, Uppsala 1938, notes Alfuuin de Hamingetuna, also spelled de Haningatuna, and de Hanningetuna 1086. If Hamingetuna makes you think there’s some-thing fishy, patience
There’s John de Haninton’ 1176 entered on The Great Roll of the Pipes for year 26 of Henry III, editor H.L. Cannon, Yale Hist. Pub 1918. He was in Hampshire. The third is Cristofyre Hanyngton 1461, Paston Letters and Papers of the 15th Century, 2 vols., editor N. Davis, Oxford 1971. Wilson & Reaney, never ones to waste space, finish their entry with “From Hannington (Ha, Nth, W)”, [meaning I trust Hampshire, North-amptonshire and Wiltshire].
James Hannington (1847-85) was an Anglican bishop killed with all his followers on their approach to the native kingdom of Buganda. King Mwango decided the directi-on from whence they had come an ill omen. The bishop, who had convalesced in England 1883 from an earlier African mission, was starting anew, this time in eastern equatorial Africa. Generations later the military dictator Idi Amin had his soldiers out looking around Uganda for the bishop’s remote descendant, David Hanington, whose television coverage of Amin’s affairs had become of ill omen.
The colony and later province of New Brunswick involved Haningtons of quite another mission. [These New Worlders had dropped an -n- from the surname, condem-ning generations to be misidentified as Harringtons, more so in days when practically everything was handwritten.]
Prof. Stewart MacNutt wrote in his history of pre-Confederation N. B.: “David Hanington of Westmoreland was the son of a London fishmonger who had been one of the pioneers of settlement on the Bay of Shediac…bitterly opposed to ‘the compact’ that represented the older, well established families….” Acadians were returning from years of expulsion and, together with businessmen like Hanington, gave new impetus to the fishery.
United Empire Loyalists and Late [post revolution] Loyalists numbered some-thing over 40,000, about a third settling in the western reaches of Nova Scotia [to form New Brunswick 1784. That was when King George III okayed such partitioning.] Loyalists staging through Halifax from their tents on Halifax Commons had slanged this colony “Nova Scarcity” and were glad to move on. What is not generally realized is that immigrants from the British Isles during the first half of the 19th century outweighed any Loyalist contribution to New Brunswick.
Col. the Hon. Daniel Hanington was Speaker of both houses then president of the legislative council 1883 almost until his death. New Brunswick abolished its upper house of the legislative assembly 1898. The colonel’s son, Daniel Lionel Hanington (1835-1909) was member, then cabinet minister and, for nine months over 1882-83, prime mini-ster in the Province of New Brunswick. Then he carried on as opposition leader. In 1892 he became puisne judge [not boss, just one of the guys] of N B.’s supreme court. This, my home province, was one of the four original colonies of 1867 to confederate.
Rear-Admiral Charles Lionel always called “Daniel Lionel” Hanington as an RCN Volunteer Reserve sub lieutenant married my oldest sister Margot in Halifax 1943. B. London, England 10 July 1921 he was soon in Trinidad where Lord Beaverbrook sent his father to be editor of The Guardian, daily newspaper in Port of Spain. [The paper treated me royally on a warship call several decades ago. They recalled Dan’s father C[harles] Lionel with undiminished respect.] Dan attended Rothesay Collegiate in New Brunswick before the Second World War followed by younger brother Peter who became a wartime sailor and afterwards, a Rhodes Scholar. He d. still a young man of brain tumor.
Dan as midshipman survived sinking of armed merchant cruiser Rajputana 13 April 1941 later winning the Distinguished Service Cross 1942 for his part in sinking U-588, a German submarine. When it was giving them the slip he plotted painstakingly over many, many hours precisely where it had gone. He died of cancer Victoria, B. C., 6 Jan. 1999 and was buried in one of a few empty plots remaining in an historic naval dockyard.
Their half brother David was b.1937 Trinidad & Tobago several weeks after his father had died. His mother sickened later so Dan and Margot in Halifax gathered Dave in. Eventually he embarked on careers in journalism and public affairs television in Canada, USA and England. He managed to avoid Idi Amin in Africa and eventually retired to be a gentleman farmer in Norfolk over there. That’s where the ‘96 Hanington reunion was held. Once again there’s a hannington, John’s farm, even if the owner of today has David for first name.
HARDER English roots of the name Harder are meagre but authentic. My German source is less bulletproof, being a junk mail family history. Professional genealogists have fits about such potted histories although the general public just goes on taking a chance with these blurbs but seldom with their more costly books. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames shows a John and a William Harder in 1220 Lancashire. The Oxford Historical Dictionary tells us Harder comes from Old English heardian, to make hard. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400) used it in the sense of hardening metals. In Middle English to harder meant hardening dough with heat as in hardtack, ship’s biscuit. So an English Harder is a metal worker of some kind, or a baker.
When Anglos Saxons and their sort invaded Britain they brought only 5,000 words of a Germanic dialect with them. Today, vocabulary is at half a million words and OED Historical has pages to do with hard and its compounds. To the first element hard, add certain endings and you get brave, bold, tough, daring. Add others and you get a hare, coarse fabric, plants and shrubs. The name Hardy came out of Old French hardir, to har-den, and that from West German harijan, to make hard.
Time now to look at the German scene. Harder from Middle High German hart can mean a community-owned piece of woodland or pasture. Harder is a dweller there or nearby, and he can also be its forester. [Our Bill Rothery studied to be one here.] Harder in some cases is a sheep or cattle herder for the community: off in Ireland would you be-lieve is the Herdeman family of Herdemanstown in County Meath, dating to 1356.
The name Hard[t] for town and village is so widespread in Germany that Harder is a name for someone who used to live someplace else. Example: Konrad genannt [known as] Harder formerly of Sachsenheim but now of Moglingen near Ludwigsburg. Other old names include Walther dictus [called] Harder recorded in Regensdorf 1325, and another a knight in Boeblingen city, 1252.
An Ernst Hardt b.1876 wrote Tristan the Jester. Authors in a variety of European tongues have tackled a Tristan theme. The latter is central to a circle of Celtic myths.
The first New World Harder supposedly is Johan who came ashore in Philadel-phia, Pennsylvania 1754. Harder crops up frequently in pockets of Mennonite farmers throughout Western Canada. All of their churches are derived from a 16th-century Ana-baptist movement subjected to bloody persecution in Europe. Some speak Literary [High] German in their liturgy. Throughout the world are close to 10,000 Harder house-holds of which 12 are listed in the Ottawa area 1999-2000 phone-book. John Michael Harder b. 1962 a Lieskovsky in Blairmore, Alta., is schoolteacher husband of Cecily, our #4 daughter and #9 child, and father of baby Jasmine.
HARRINGTON This is a place name in Cumberland, Northants and Lincolnshire made into a surname and used in the 19th century on occasion as a first name. In England the meaning was the place or farm of the family or folk of an Anglo Saxon called He Goat. That’s what Prof. Basil Cottle wrote. That is bang on for the place in Cumberland, but the Northants locality shares the same origin as Hetherington for being a place of heath dwellers. Another in Lincolnshire, grumbled Cottle, has an inexplicable initial component in the name. Reaney & Wilson show the Lincolnshire names as William de Harinton’ 1202 and Richard de Harington 1274.
In Ireland the unfortunate penchant of Englishers for arbitrary and insensitive ang-licizing of “foreign” names, now thankfully waned, has Harrington representing three Irish names. And, in the barony of Kinalmeaky a census of sorts 1659 turned up Un-gerdell and Hungerdell from O hLongerdail as forms of Harrington quite common in County Cork. It used to be anglicized O’Hingerdell. In Connaught as well as Kerry O hArrachtain also winds up Harrington when it isn’t Harroughten. Complicated? It’s hard to regard first Goidelic then Brythonic as “foreign” languages to begin with; but there we are, old trout.
Gordon Sidney Harrington (1883-1943) made colonel in the Canadian Expedition-ary Force fighting in the trenches of the Great War then became deputy minister Canadi-an military forces overseas. He was elected Conservative for Cape Breton 1925-37 in the Nova Scotia legislature, the Empire’s first freely elected parliament, by the way. He was a minister of government, premier 1930-33, and then opposition leader. Four years later he stepped down from leading the province’s Conservative Party.
In the Upper Ottawa Valley leads the redoubtable Harrington sept. The merest reflection of them all is Eileen (Harrington) French of Killaloe, the Widow Clappen who years ago accepted the hand of my wife’s older brother Douglas Joseph French: on the golf course together for better or for worse, in Florida and in Ottawa.
HART Some of you have been informed that this is what English hunters’ call a fully antlered stag past five years, particularly the red deer. Late Father Tom Bryne, compiler of family histories and 3rd cousin in small-town Ontario, came up with another meaning. Hart is the early royal Irish name Airdt [from O hAirt] and those Harts claim direct des-cent from Heremon, a son of Milesius, king of the Gauls. Later Father Byrne was made aware of a Hart family concerning us who took refuge in Ireland because of religious per-secution in England. So goodbye to a coat of arms “gules’, lion passant gardant or, in base a human heart argent”.
Father Tom requested feedback from various descendants but his 1989 heart at-tack and full plate of priestly chores at St. Mary’s Church, Lindsay, Ont., mean that only his computer knew. In the old province of Connacht and to the north in County Sligo O’Hart shows on the map drawn up by the late Edward MacLysaght in his book More Irish Families. Our New World Founder Immigrant Thomas Wallace also hailed from Sligo.
Hart goes a long way back: Middle English hert, Old English heort, hearot; Old Teutonic herut related possibly to Greek for horn as in horned animal. Psalm XLII.1 “As the hart panteth after the water brookes”. At the sign of the Red Hart [Inn] was a useful direction in earlier, less literate times, opines an American baby-name book.
Middle English hert was pronounced as the English pronounced clerk i.e. clark. West Midlands and southwest dialects should yield Hurt or Hort maintained Prof. Cottle, reader of medieval studies, who rejects hart as a sign because of its earlier forms. He will say that Irish O Hart means descendant of Arthur. Some Harts discussed by MacLy-saght originated in Meath and were pushed westwards by Anglo-Norman pressure, others he said came on the northern Irish scene during the plantation of Ulster.
Harts in British North America achieved some firsts. Aaron Hart (1724-1800) raised a battalion in New York to fight French. Montreal capitulated 1760 so Hart settled in Trois Rivieres, entered the fur trade and acquired enough real estate to be one of our largest landowners. His son Ezekiel (1770-1843), twice elected to the legislature, balked at an oath still worded “on the true faith of a Christian”. He left politics altogether after a third nomination and same old oath. In 1832 Jews were given full political and civil rights under law 26 years before Mother Parliament got around to it. Aaron’s grandson, Eze-kiel’s son Adolphus Mordecai Hart (1816-79) practised law in Trois Rivieres and defen-ded many Patriotes of the 1837 Rebellion.
Irishman John Hart (1879-1957) went to Victoria and rose to president of an in-vestment and brokerage firm. He sat in B. C.’s legislature and served as finance minister 1917-24. He resumed political life in the Dirty Thirties repairing government’s damaged credit. He became Liberal leader 1941, formed a coalition with Conservatives, and became premier/finance minister. He was the first Roman Catholic premier of B. C. Hart Mas-sey, manufacturer and philanthropist, left University of Toronto’s Hart House as his legacy to Canadian culture. It was built 1911-19 for benefit of students and faculty.
What matters more to us is that three Hart brothers of our Oshawa relations served in the War Between the States on the Union, Northern, side. An incredible total for scanty populations of that time, some 50,000 British colonials from north of the border fought in the civil war, many as replacements for Americans unwilling to fight, roughly 40,000 fighting for the North and 10,000 for the South. Teen-aged Edward (c.1844-61) died in action in first Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, July 21, a Confederate victory and the Civil War’s first real battle. Younger [!] brother Patrick fell at Antietam, Maryland, Sept. 17, 1862. The North lost 12,000, the South 13,000 but here began the ultimate triumph of the North. The Union put a million and a half into uniform, Confe-derates just over a million. Total deaths were more than 600,000, disease killing far more than bullets.
Thomas Hart, youngest of the three, evaded death while career sailor in the Union Navy. He d. 1884. Higher estimates of Canadians fighting in the War Between the States rise to 53, 532 for the Northern cause, up to 20,000 fighting for the Rebs. A sample of the handiwork of bachelor Thomas is a piece of “scrimshaw”, in Tom’s case whale’s teeth carved into the name of his ship. This is in the museum of the Oshawa Historical Soci-ety. Scrimshaw was leisure-time carving done on the lower deck in the days of windjam-mers and early steamers. Cross Border Warriors by Fred Gaffen is a Civil War reference book.
Harts and Wallaces joined together when John Wallace (1825/7-74) married Mary Hart (1836/7-1909). He was an Irish-born Catholic they’d call Mick in those days, en-tered in the 1861 census as a boot maker in Oshawa village and a decade later as shoe-maker, according to 3rd cousin Father Tom Byrne. [Boot to shoe: sounds like they put in sidewalks.] However, my Dad his grandchild wrote that John was superintendent in Oshawa of McLaughlin Carriage Works, later McLaughlin Buick and then General Mo-tors of Canada. His widow Mary moved from a staff house and received regular cheques [from the auto firm Dad implied] in addition to properties’ income.
U. S. admiral Thomas Charles “Tommy” Hart commanded their Asiatic fleet in 1939. He escaped after the Philippines fell, co-operated with British, and Dutch naval
forces reeling from lighting Japanese onslaughts. He was briefly commander naval forces Far East until handing over to a Netherlander. Hart had to go back to Washington.
[I have this frustrating half-recollection of meeting a possible relative 1949 as I began my fulltime naval career as a backdoor, reserve midshipman. Commander Hart was in the heritage Admiralty House wardroom in Halifax, square of set and jaw, brawny with strong features, curly hair and eyes a-twinkle under heavy black eyebrows. He’d been staring at me, obviously asked who I was, smiled, came over and briefly introduced him-self. I was totally awkward about chatting it up with any brass when I’d been hollered at incessantly and sometimes deservedly by just about every rank in the training establish-ment. And snubbed even by midshipmen fresh out of naval college! Cdr. Hart must have been a reservist down for a fortnight’s annual training for I saw him no more. Did he tell somebody when back home? “I saw a Wallace, untypically shy, Down East!”]
HATHEWAY The maternal surname in accordance with custom was made middle name of Arthur McDonald who was my #2 sister’s husband nigh on 50 years. Hatheway is a prominent New Brunswick surname. Reaney & Wilson found a Hadeuui in England of 1066. The name has two roots, the Old English name meaning war-warrior whose letter-ing I can’t reproduce but is rare anyway, and Old German Hathuwic, Hadewic, for dwel-ler by the heath way. That name was taken up in England too. Poet/playwright Will Shakespeare wed Anne Hathaway 28 Nov. 1582 at Stratford-on-Avon.
Looks as if Ebenezer Hatheway was a war-warrior. This Loyalist made his es-cape from the “loathsome” Sinsbury Mines revolutionary prison, fighting off eight times his number in a war of whaleboats on Long Island Sound. He got to New Brunswick and became active politically. A Charles Hatheway of Charlotte County in N. B. was dep-rived of his position as justice of the peace when found most avaricious and partisan of the lot. When New Brunswick came into existence in the 18th century, politics were frankly based on particular interest commented an historian.
George Luther Hatheway (1813-72) large-bodied lumberman of York County held various executive offices, became anti-Confederate but deserted that party 1866. He was provincial premier for only a year when he died of blood poisoning. Hatheways were prickly individuals; thorns in the side of friend or foe noted their historian. As a modern example, my sister was less than enamoured of her mother-in-law who alleged that our mother while in Saint John had had an affair with our family doctor.
HAYES The name Norman de la Haye, la Heise is on record in Ireland’s County Wex-ford since 1182 but has changed since to Hayes in most places. Hayes more often repre-sents O’Hea, descendant of Hugh. Hayes is very numerous in Munster, normally as an anglicization of O hAodha. It ranked 52nd in 1890 among surnames of the Emerald Isle.
Across the Irish Sea, Hain were the weaker plural of Hay, as oxen are plural of ox, but Hayes proved stronger and prevailed in England. They come from Old English and mean, you guessed it, hay or brushwood. Hugh de la Heise 1197 Oxfordshire, had his surname from Old French heis, also brushwood. Hay as well got to mean a hedged place and in Middle English signified woods enclosed for hunting. Hay singular is in place-names of Herefordshire and Westmoreland. Hain and Hayes often figure in localities of Devon. A New English Dictionary Oxford 1888-1933, had the quote “He was a strong man and hey”, derived from Old English heah, high, tall.
Two men named Hays figure in Canadian history. One was a railway baron who went down in the Titanic 1912; Moses Judah Hays, son of a Jewish pioneer of Mon-treal, got its first water system going 1832 and then became police chief.
In 1987 James Martin Hayes, 43-year-old Haligonian, became archbishop of Halifax diocese. My nephew Brian Hanington was his director of communications and author of an easy-reading history of the Church in Halifax and RCs in Nova Scotia entitled Every Popish Person.
Hayes ancestors of Newfoundlanders hailed from Auld Sod and Old Country alike. In her 90s is my wife’s Aunt Eleanor (Hayes) Brownrigg, widow in St. John’s. She took nurse’s training in Nova Scotia then worked for respected Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell’s Mission on the northern tip of the Rock before she married Tom half-a-century ago. So how on earth did they ever manage to meet?
HEALY Thanks to Cousin Ann (Carew) Hallisey of Halifax, an historical error is patched up here. The maiden name of the wife of our Carew Founder Immigrant is far more likely Healy than Haley. The Carew Bible in Ann’s hands shows Healy. Haley is what my late Aunt Sylvia Carew wrote in her family recollections for Cousin Steve. Our wide circle of relatives and friends in Halifax pronounced Healy haylee whereas in St. John’s it’s heelee. Only recourse to church or government records might resolve which spelling is which, if such old entries can be trusted entirely.
Margaret Healy and Stephen Patrick Carew, both recent Irish immigrants, married in Halifax 1848. They had a string of four daughters and then a string of five sons, one dying while infant. Stephen Patrick died “not old” 1877, she a struggling widow 15 years.
[Errata: Those with my Carew typed manuscript of 1993 are asked to enter Healy in brackets after Haley on top of Page 2 Ancestors Arrive. While you are at it, line 3 of the hand-written When I Was a Carew should read 1933 not 1934. My apologies.]
Penguin Surnames reports Healy the product of two Irish septs falling together, making it 48th commonest surname of the Auld Sod 1890; and O’Healey & Co. still in the top hundred today according to Casselman. The late Edward MacLysaght expands on Penguin by pointing to Tralee and Killarney regions of County Kerry where Healy stands for Kerrisk or Kerrish, in Gaelic Mac Fhiarais meaning son of Ferris. In Co. Clare the English version became Kierse.
Prof. Cottle points to ealad-hach, making O’Healy mean a descendant of a claim-ant, or tentatively, ingenious. Healys are connected with O’Carrolls in Ireland yet have a family crest similar to an earlier Howard’s. Author Fr. James S. McGivern described it in heraldic language: On a chapeau, gules, turned up ermine, a lion statant, gardent or gorged with a ducal coronet.
Reaney & Wilson found various spellings of Haley 13-to-15th century England either from a Hailey locality in Oxford or a meaning dweller at the hay clearing. Healy and kindred spellings, they indicate, are surnames taken from various English place names.
A Boston portrait artist in the 19th century was Healy; and Timothy Michael Healy (1855-1931) first governor-general of the Irish Free State had to resign 1927. Toronto-based Jeff Healey b. 1966 is a rock guitarist, singer and composer.
I fondly recall Margaret Healy, county editor of the Halifax Mail, carded by Nova Scotia Boxing Commission as Killer Healy, welterweight. [They were being gallant about her weight class.] She looked out for me in my ailments, making sure I was paid while six weeks flat a back, and my adolescent gaffes at the paper. Face-to-face she remained gruff. She and a blond wreck of a girlfriend were faithful front row fans of brawly wrestling matches that I covered now and then for the paper. They sat in cool detachment by body language but, my, their eyes glittered as those big sweaty men threw each other around.
HEAPY Maureen Anne Heapy b. 1940s in ?Situate, Massachusetts, USA, is spouse of Cousin Stephen Lewis Carew, Halifax. They have several offspring in this Nova Scotia capital. He left the Oblates on medical grounds, she too a former religious.
Nary a Heapy can be found in our Ottawa area phone book 1999-2000 nor its two predecessors but there are three Heapheys which is the more frequent spelling now. Reaney & Wilson found a Robert de Hepay 1332 on subsidy rolls for Lancashire. They noted Oliver Hepy of Wiltshire 1527 had a will at probate registry, Canterbury. Heapey is still a Lancashire surname. Irish Heafy or Heaphy originated from O hEamhthaigh, a principal name of County Waterford in the 1659 so-called census and is still found there. Heavy from O Eamhaigh is cognate with Heaphy and concentrated most in Athlone.
Since 1552 the English word heapy describes a container filled past the brim up to a cone. We kids loved brown sugar nice and heapy on a bowl of porridge if we could get away with it. Heapy can also mean things lying in heaps. Heapy arrived in Modern English ultimately from Old English heap which came from Old Teutonic haupo-z, Ox-ford’s Historical Dictionary says.
Steve and Maureen dropped by out of the blue 1976 with their first-born. Steve had hung out with us in Ottawa while his ulcers were successfully warring with his vocation years before. Uncle Steve sent me a nice note of thanks. Their Stephen Patrick makes the fifth generation of Stephen Carews since the Founder Immigrant himself.
HEATHER The bright and hardy Calluna vulgaris is called heather and sometimes ling. It spells disaster for touring Yankee golfers wild off the tee on many Scottish links. It has been used otherwise for brooms, as a component in the tanning process and, while still tender, for fodder.
Reaney & Wilson found a John and a Henry le Hether, 1327 for the former and 1332 for the latter on subsidy rolls of Worcester and Surrey respectively. Atte hethe around that time meant dweller on the heath. The Middle English word was hadder or hather but spelling altered in the 18th century since plain folk confused it with heath. As a surname Heath has been in Dublin ever since 1589.
As a name for girls Heather was widespread in Canada and USA late 1970s. Dic-tionaries of first names say this shrub is [?also] called erica in Latin leading to Erica even though this name is normally seen as a feminine of Eric. Heather Anne Wallace b. 1960 Halifax is #2 daughter of my cousin Frank who brought his family to Ottawa 1967. Hea-ther Potter was 1st wife of Timothy McDonagh, son of Honey (Small) Sell; Tim’s second being Shelley Scheckenberger. Heather (Napier) Rothery is Paul’s Tennessee wife, moth-er of three and daughter-in-law of Bill Rothery, our #3 daughter Caroline’s spouse.
HELEN/HELENA Fascinating stories surround the name[s]. It translates from Greek as ray, sunbeam. The god Zeus took the form of a swan and impregnated Leda. That was merely one of his amatory disguises. The result was Helen soon most beautiful of Greek women. She chose King Menelaus for her husband but Trojan prince Paris carried her off to Troy. That started the Trojan War. After Paris was dead she married his brother Dei-phobus. Troy fell and she returned to Sparta with Menelaus. On his death she was driven from the country and murdered at Rhodes by its queen.
Old King Cole, merry old soul of nursery song, was a British chieftain at Camulo-dunam in southeast England where Romans soon put a colonia for their retired soldiers. “Camp of Cole” evolved to Colchester. See St. Coel Hen in the Celtic Saints section for better insights. His daughter Helena became the mother of Constantine, later emperor. Another source counters that this particular Helena was more likely a daughter of an innkeeper of Bithynia, by now a Roman province just south of the Black Sea. We know the area as Afghanistan. The Church in 1991 still thought Helena that British princess.
St. Helena as wife of Constantius Chlorus and mother of Constantine the Great converted to Christianity 313. She made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; having churches of Holy Sepulchre and of Nativity built on Golgotha there. Tradition also has it that she found the True Cross 14 Sept. 320 while another source says 327. Constantius Chlorus gave up Helena, fought inevitable rebels in Britain and Gaul, became one of two emperors but died 306 at York. His and St. Helena’s son Constantine struggled to prevail, and did. Helena d. Rome c. 328.
The name is used for Swedish and Danish girls, a legend behind this concerning St. Helen of Skovde. Just back from pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Helen was put to death by her family who’d blamed her for her son-in-law’s untimely death. Turns out he was whacked by his own servants. Her relics are held at Zealand near Copenhagen.
Helen (Smith) Grant (1853-1943) from Nova Scotia spent years on the high seas, raised a family and took over as skipper when her husband relapsed critically ill. She took charge of the 17 crew and navigated the vessel round the Cape of Good Hope, across the Atlantic Ocean safely to Montreal. She took time meanwhile to nurse her husband, care for two young sons and keep her share of watches. They settled in Victoria, British Columbia 1886. She lived to 91 years, a heroine largely forgotten since. Helen Hayes (1900-93) First Lady of American Theatre appeared on Broadway and won two movie Oscars 40 years apart, one for best actress in The Sin of Medelon Claudet 1931, another for best supporting actress in Airport. Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965) cosmetician devel-oped beauty aids by the hundreds and was first beautician out with medicated products for skin care. She had done medical studies in Switzerland. Helen Gurney Brown b. 1917 devoted 31 years as writer then editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, retiring in ‘96. The Hearst periodical had been about to fold when she turned it around. Her prior book was best-selling Sex and the Single Girl.
Helen Wills-Moody (1905-98) Little Miss Poker Face was top female tennis player 1927-33 and ’35. In all she won 31 majors including eight Wimbledon singles 1920s and ‘30s. “Hurricane Helen” Kelesi b. 1969 was Canada’s female athlete 1990. She had to hang up her tennis racquet to undergo three operations on a brain tumour diag-nosed in ‘95. She coaches with Tennis Canada and gives motivational talks for a brain tumour foundation in Canada.
One of my favorite cousins is Helen “Honey” Wallace b.1928 Halifax and, after travels as teaching Sister Francis Agnes, is back there again supposedly retired. Helen (Coughlin) French b. 1930s St. John’s, Newfoundland, is widow of Pat, my wife’s oldest brother. Helena (Biddington) Wallace b. 1850s in the Boston States married my Dad’s uncle Edward and remained childless. She was sister to Bessie, my Dad’s stepmother.
HENRY In the time of the Franks on the Continent haim was home and ric was power, ruler. As Henri the name came to England with the Normans, becoming one of the more popular conqueror names. English versions were Herry or Harry lasting right to Tudor times. Pet forms were Henn or Hann, diminutives Henkin, Hankin, Heriot and Hal. Spelling became influenced by French Henri, Latin Henricus. The nickname Hank is spoken, seldom written as a formal name. Henry the surname is found from Cornwall to Shetlands with spin-offs Han-, Hen-, Harr-, Herr-, but not Hal-. Surname Harry is scar-cer than Harris[on].
Henry II (1133-89) of England warred in Wales, won territories from Scots. In 117l he caught up with his Norman-Welsh marcher lords who had invaded Ireland and, backed up by his substantial army, appropriated that country for his crown. There, Henry can stand for three Irish names, two involving Mac Einri and the other O hIn-neirghe. Until Henry VIII (1491-1547) English kings were content merely to lord it over Ireland. The second Tudor proclaimed himself king of Ireland 1542. His father Henry Tudor by the way had allowed Charles VIII of France to have Brittany rather than resuming that financially festering Hundred Years War. His son, however, proved a heavy spender on flamboyant Continental campaigns that accomplished little.
Long before then, Henry V (1387-1422) had been poised to accomplish much. He warred for 21 of his 35 years, pulling off Battle of Agincourt 25 October 1415 where his British expedition of 8,000 defeated a French army of 30,000 largely thanks to concen-trated fire of his 1,000 Welsh longbowmen.
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s Day.
[Henry V, Act 14, Scene III]
England had thus arrived as a major European power. Unfortunately Henry V died just as he’d united French and English thrones: it rather fell apart even if England dominated most of France for the bulk of that century. Shakespeare used Harry as the familiar. Good King Hal was Henry VIII, navy builder and dissolver of monasteries. By coincidence, in light of his religious shift, the name Henry means, ahem, home rule.
Henry is a sturdy perennial, having been a British royal name 11 through 16th centuries, in all eight monarchs. It was a much-favoured first name until the 1920s but faded quickly. Actors were very long regarded among lowest of the low: John Henry Brodribb (1838-1905) as Sir Henry Irving 1895 was the very first Brit actor knighted. Many have borne the name including English explorer Henry Hudson whose crew mu-tinied on his fourth voyage to seek a Northwest Passage. They cast him adrift in a boat with his son and the sick 22 June 1611 in James Bay at foot of Hudson Bay. No trace has been found and only three of his mutineers made it back home.
There were also holy Henrys including an emperor. Henry II (974-1024), Bava-rian born, succeeded his father in this duchy before becoming emperor 1002. He warred until the German Empire was united, using the Church for his political ends but rewarding it enough so that the pope crowned him 1014. Later legend had him in a virgin marriage with Cunegund and therefore childless. Known to be aesthetic he was canonized 1146 with a July 13 feast day. Danish-born St. Henry d. 1127 after living as a hermit on Co-quet Island, England. He’d been asked by fellow countrymen to return to Denmark but stayed put. People came to marvel at his prophecies, examples of telekinesis and Hen-ry’s reading of what lay in their hearts. The patron of Finland was English. Lalli, a con-vert, killed a Swedish soldier for which Bishop Henry excommunicated him. Lalli dis-patched him with an axe 1156. Miracles occurred at Henry’s tomb and fisherfolk asked his intercession in storms.
In development of Canada or flavouring of it, Alexander Henry, elder and younger, traded for fur and wrote of their travels and adventures of 18/19th centuries. Actually they were uncle and nephew. Anthony Henry (1734-1800) had been regimental piper before the ramparts of French fortress Louisbourg. He started up Nova Scotia Gazette & Weekly Advertiser [later amended to Chronicle] 1769, first Canadian newspaper free of inhibiting government patronage.
John Henry (c.1776-182?) left an American army captaincy for Montreal 1806, an Irishman claiming he “preferred a monarchial government”. He was hired to spy out New England and, when this didn’t result in a cushy British job, betrayed his findings to the Americans for $50,000. Their publication was a factor in outbreak of the War of 1812. Safe in France he got swindled by a phony French count. In 1820 he was last heard of as a paid informer on Caroline of Brunwick. Her dissolute husband had abandoned her and she took a lover in Italy. At King George IV’s coronation at Westminster abbey, her claim to be his rightful queen consort was ignored and she was forcibly kept out of the proceedings.
H[enry] L[ouis] Mencken (1880-1956) was an infant terrible of American letters, taking swipes at politicos and literati. Harry Crane who d. 1999 aged 85 co-created Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners. Its original TV run was 20 Sept. 1952 to 22 June ’57. Henry Ford (1862-1947) pioneered mass production of autos but it took his son Henry (1917-87) to revive Ford Motor Company 1945-79 by bringing in talented outsiders. An international jury of 133 automotive journalists voted Ford Model T the Car of the Cen-tury and Henry Ford, Entrepreneur of the 20th century. That Ford model was the first American car for the masses and many chugged and ahoogah’d along winding Nova Scotia tar & gravel or dusty dirt roads of my childhood.
Henri Cartier-Bresson b. 1908 studied art, than took delightful street candids with his 35-mm Leica taped black to disguise his intention to steal a perfect moment from chance encounters with varied subjects. In 1973 he put away his camera for serious painting. Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) was another quick-eyed Frenchman. He used a camera from age seven. A lifetime of his humorous insights remained unknown beyond his extended family until the sunset of his life when he became all the rage.
William Alexander Henry (1816-88) was a Father of Confederation. At the Lon-don Conference of 1866 he and another wrote the first draft of the British North America Act. In 1867, Henry resumed his Halifax law practice. Eight years later he was made a judge of the supreme court of Canada. Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, marquess of Landsdowne, was governor general of Canada 1883-88. He organized sending off our Nile Expedition of French-Canadian boatmen and rafters. See Gordon.
Harry Houdini (1874-1926) gave a fatal lecture to Montreal students 1926 when sucker-punched in the stomach before able to brace himself. Small details of this story vary. His ruptured appendix, invaded with peritonitis and gangrene, caused him to die in Detroit Oct. 31, a day set aside annually since for magicians. George Stewart Henry left the dairy business for Ontario politics, held various portfolios, and was premier 1930-33.
Sgt. Henry Asbjorn Larsen (1899-1964) brought stubby little RCMP patrol vessel St. Roch alongside in Halifax 11 Oct. 1942 after making the first west-to-east crossing of Canada’s Arctic on a secret wartime mission. The 104-foot, 197-ton wooden schooner had to spend two winters in heavier than usual ice en route. Her Northwest Passage 1944, aided by a more powerful engine and more northerly route through the Arctic Archipelago, took only 86 days to cover 7,295 miles to reach Vancouver. Norwegian explorer Raold Amundsen was actually the first to fight through from east to west 1903-06 before going on to be first to the South Pole 1911.
Many mariners and expeditions had foundered in earlier centuries trying to find a far-north shortcut to spices and treasures of the Orient. Some get mention under certain Catalogue names. See Arctic under History Bits Index. I was introduced to now Super-intendent Larson in Admiralty House, Halifax, over 50 years ago, not long after his cir-cumnavigation of North America, a first by any vessel, as was his doing it in both direc-tions. Rounding the continent was accomplished by returning to Halifax from Vancouver via the Panama Canal. She sailed on a final voyage 1954 to Vancouver. The St. Roch was given to that city and is preserved there.
A burst of northern activity involving Cold War continental defence and bringing new Alaskan oil to market increased threats to Canadian sovereignty 1960 through ‘80s. U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers penetrated far north from each coast, claiming “in effect” a successful passage. HMCS Labrador was commissioned a Canadian naval icebreaker and spent three summers in the High Arctic, actually finding a route safe for summer commer-cial shipping and, of course, sailing around North America in her voyaging. It took quite a while for Canadian media to realize exactly what was at stake up there. Canada and the USA reached a workable compromise by 1988 and the Labrador was transferred to our coast guard, which promptly burned out her main engines!
RCMP St. Roch II left Vancouver Canada Day 2000 to retrace the voyage of the original vessel over the roof of Canada west to east and to circumnavigate the continent. The rediscovery voyage by the four-man, 20-metre catamaran is raising money to fight dry rot in the old RCMP schooner back there but first and foremost reminded Canadians and Americans of the exploits of St. Roch I on this, the 125th anniversary of Mounties. Global warming and rapid melt of the Canadian Arctic have resurrected the Northwest Passage prospect and Canada’s sovereignty over it. Our national motto deserves amendment to read “from sea to sea to sea”.
A Henry proving essential to my personal life was my wife’s late grandfather, “Uncle Har”. Henry Joseph Brownrigg Sr. (1873-1944) was St. John’s publican turned cabinet minister and commissioner in Newfoundland’s commission government. Har’s older daughter, Mrs. Mary Ellen French in that capital became my mother-in-law effec-tive 14 June 1952.
For her six children’s books in the Harry Potter series English author J. K. Row-ling is estimated a billionaire. She’ll tackle her seventh as early as the end of 2005. This one may end the saga of the boy wizard and Rowling considers using a pen name for stuff other than Harry that she’ll write.
HIGGINS Higgins is the anglicized O hUigin from an Old Irish word much like Viking. O’Higgins is a sept of the southern Ui Neills that trekked to Connacht. Ambrosio O’Hig-gins from Ballinary, County Sligo, became late 18th century viceroy of Peru. There are many Higgins in North Wales. Higgins can also mean [son] of Richard where Higg is the voiced form of Hick. The latter is an early pet form of Richard; Dick came along later.
David William Higgins (1834-1917) left Halifax for the 1878 gold rush to Fraser River, B. C. He settled in Victoria and started the Morning Chronicle. Later this paper merged with British Colonist to be The Colonist. A Conservative, he was Speaker in the B. C. legislature 1890-98. William John Higgins (1880-1943) was a lawyer in St. John’s who joined that legislature. He served as Speaker 1918-19, opposition leader 1924-24, minister of justice and attorney general 1924-28. He died while justice of Newfound-land’s supreme court.
Laura (Munro) Higgins mightn’t have known about either. She didn’t have a hap-py or smooth marriage within a black community like Africville from what grown-up gossip I overheard. She was part-time maid in my maternal grandmother’s house Halifax in the 1930s. She had claimed her right to the job because she was “kin”. When in 1834 slavery was abolished in all British territories, those who had toiled for Munros of St. Margaret’s Bay followed a general practice of adopting their former master’s surname. Thus Laura Munro that was, a black woman descendant of Munro slaves, fully expected to be hired by Widow Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew because Grandma’s mother had been Rebecca (Munro) O’ Neill. We’re clannish in Nova Scotia after all.
Her relationship with Mr. Higgins in no way interfered with the quiet devotion accorded Grandma Carew, single mom Rita Wallace, and each of us four children of whom I was youngest. Hanging out with Laura in Grandma’s kitchen, soaking in her beautiful calm, the heavy presence, those enormous white eyeballs, the unexpectedly white palms, all were indelible to a youngster ages 3 to10. Unsupervised, she had trouble with whitey food [couldn’t read recipes] but that was OK by me. Her heart was ever true. When Grandma died 1939 we Wallaces, mother and four children, could no longer afford Laura.
For a very long time, Nova Scotia had Canada’s largest population of blacks, many of them living in a crescent of settlements around Halifax and Dartmouth and in pockets elsewhere. Most of them were descendants of slaves staged through the West Indies, others had to “follow the swingin’ gourd” navigating north by stars to escape slavery in the USA. It wasn’t abolished there until late 1860s. Now it’s Haitians in Montreal, and it seems that British West Indies are to-tally emptyin’, Mon, in-to Tor-ron-to! That dull city had need of their spice.
HONEY is produced coast to coast and even North of 60. Two world wars certainly boosted apiculture to help offset shortages of cane sugar. Cereal makers and big bakeries also help achieve this mega-million dollar domestic and export industry. Honey is hygro-scopic in that it helps keep baked goods moist longer. The world’s leading producers of honey are Argentina, Australia, Canada and the USA. That means that bees in Canada convert floral nectar into 80 million pounds annually. Canada has 11,000 bee-keepers and about 600,000 colonies of honeybees.
From the earliest times honey was our major sweetener until cane sugar became commercially viable and readily transportable. History of Canadian honey is scarce but large apiaries were operating in the provinces of Canada East and West before Con-federation.
Something like three-score important Canadian crops depend on bees for pollin-ation. It takes a whole colony of bees to pollinate an acre of fruit trees. Sweet clover of the Prairies means 200 or more kilograms of honey per colony, the keeper harvesting the surplus half. This particular version is light and most appealing to a Canadian palate. Hive workers make a beeline for dandelions since these are first available in spring. Then there are goldenrod, milkweed, aster, basswood and other wild flowers yielding darker honey with more flavour. Commercial varieties also come from canola, alfalfa, blue-berries, sunflowers and fruit, each with unique taste. It is apparent that busy as a bee is a truism for they’ll fly 80, 000 klicks and suck two million flowers to realize 454 g [one pound] of honey.
Don’t feed honey to infants of less than a year. It might have bacteria spores bringing on infant botulism by multiplying and releasing toxins in the intestinal tract. These spores don’t harm older kids and adults.
In the Ottawa Valley the bee season starts late April and ends with the first killing frost in October. Golfers are sensitive to that because then they see worker bees crawling dazedly over close-mowed areas of a course. A player knows for sure that he’ll soon be putting away his sticks. One Manotick bee-keeping family places hives in 15 carefully selected localities from Kemptville to North Gower. Their 400 colonies produce for mar-ket 18,000 kg [40,000 lb.] from 20 million bees. Our cool, wet summer meant darker, zesty honey, enough to provide 20,000 commercial units.
There are mounting threats to the Canadian industry. Migrating inexorably north-wards are killer bees, and following them a widespread U. S. mite fatal to bees. Canada is especially vulnerable because for long it imported bees from south of the border every spring to start hives afresh rather than taking extraordinary measures required to over-winter queens. And agricultural pesticides are having their effect. Should our industry crash, Honey as a term of endearment will merely emphasize our shortcomings.
Samuel Lewis Honey (1894-1918) was lieutenant in 78th Battalion, Canadian Ex-peditionary Force, as the Great War rushed towards armistice. In action at Bourlon Wood 27 Sept. 1918 he was the only officer left, took command of his company and reorganized his men. Well ahead, he rushed a machine gun nest by himself, captured its guns and 10 prisoners. Then he mustered defence, repelled four counter attacks and led a raid gaining three more machine guns. Two days later he was leading his men onto an-other German position, dying of his wounds the day after.
Our Honeys: Helen [Sister Francis Agnes] Wallace b.1927 Halifax, is my sweet cousin, Uncle Frank’s #1 daughter, semi-retired back again in Halifax. Catherine Mary (Small) Sell b. 1947 London, Ont., is my wife’s first niece, #1 daughter of her oldest sister Kay. Honey lives in Courtenay, B. C., married to fellow Salvationist Frederick Sell since October 1998.
HOOK Golfers, boxers, fishers, shepherds, sailing ships and sailors know about hooks and every case is different. The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles car-ries a column or more about noun, verb and compounds. The word came down from Old English hoc. At last half a dozen former counties of England so identify such geographical features, thus Hook the name is derived more from places than anything else. Of course someone with a bent back or nose, or someone with a hook as an artificial hand might be nicknamed Hook only to have this harden into a surname. Captain Hook of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island serial-then-book early 1830s comes to mind. Americans Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams starred in the movie Hook 1991.
I was a hookie about 60 years ago i. e. a leading [seaman] Sea Cadet. The rank badge was a British Admiralty-pattern foul anchor – in naval slang either hook or killick. And a hooker, among other things, was a fine-looking vessel under sail.
Two centuries ago Theodore Edward Hook was turning out farce and melodrama in London. Before him Robert Hooke of Hooke’s Law 1660 was physicist, instrument maker and geometry professor in London. After the Great Fire he designed several build-ings including the College of Physicians.
Marriage of widow Pearl Annie Marie Hook, Reg. N, 74, Edmonton, to widower John Kevin French 7 May 1999 was announced as he turned 74. He’s my wife’s #3 bro-ther. Representing John’s siblings at their wedding was Rev. Bro. Edward French, a kid brother living in Vancouver. John d. at home in bed 20/21 October 2004 Edmonton. Widow Pearl the following year moved to Tennessee to be near some more kin.
HOWARD To be a Howard of England, a Macdonald of Scotland, or an O’Neill of Ire-land is very special. Historians actually say this kind of thing occasionally. I had a rare but rewarding moment in journalism more than 50 years ago simply because my name is Howard Wallace.
Trans-Atlantic flying still involved noisy, uncomfortable, piston-engine airplanes: no wonder people continued to make time for six or so days at sea in luxury ocean liners. Obligingly for the Port of Halifax, the U.S. eastern seaboard shut down for a couple of weeks or more every winter while its longshoremen and freight handlers struck. Big steamers were diverted to Halifax and here I was, a teenage cub reporter, trying to muster enough chutzpa to interview legions of the great and famous that were arriving among us backwater Bluenosers before they rushed on by train or plane to the big lights.
I tracked a tiny Scottish peer to his cabin where he was preparing for dinner. His piercing eyes twinkled under a balding pink pate, white eyebrows, trim moustache under sharp nose. He wore a tartan bathrobe. I introduced myself through partly open cabin door. “Laddie” he said, “You’re the best of England and the best of Scotland. When I have English VIPs to Edinburgh I show them Wallace’s memorial….” Minutes of inspir-ing talk followed. A fine wee man on a statesman’s trip to USA. I was still too green at reporting to put his fluent insights into something that perhaps might grab my waterfront readership. Today I can’t even remember his name although I would likely have followed him into battle given the right circumstances.
Norfolk is the premier and oldest dukedom of England. It began with Sir William Howard 1308 as chief justice for Edwards I and II. His grandson Sir John was an admiral, Captain of Edward’s navy in the north. The admiral’s descendant was created 1st Duke of Norfolk and earl marshal of England 1483. The 3rd Duke was attainted by Henry VIII, whose fifth wife was Catherine Howard (c.1520-42). He had her beheaded for treason after hearing about alleged pre-marital affairs. In Hampton Court Palace for centuries visitors and staff have claimed they hear her screaming for mercy and have seen her running through a 15-metre gallery where she had pounded on his door. Two women are known to have fainted, feeling as if they’d been kicked. At long last the University of Herefordshire is investigating.
Under Queen Elizabeth I, 2nd Baron Charles Howard of Effingham (1536-1624) was Lord High Admiral of English naval forces defeating the Spanish Armada 1588. He commanded the sack of Cadiz later and was made 1st Earl of Nottingham. Staunchly Protestant he belonged to a family largely Roman Catholic. Pope John Paul II mid-‘90s declared Sir Philip Howard (1557-95) a martyr. Elizabeth I had him fined 10,000 pounds and put in the Tower of London in ‘85 where eventually he d. of dysentery. About 40 Roman Catholics of England and Wales were martyred during her reign according to Ed-ward Windsor, earl of Wessex and viscount Severn.
Not all were warriors. Henry Howard (1517-47) earl of Surrey pioneered blank verse in his 1557 translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. He was executed not for his blank verse but on a charge of treason lodged by enemies at Court. John Howard (1726-90) was an English prison reformer whose work continues in the John Howard Society. A Sir Eben-ezer Howard (1850-1920) specialized in the theory of town planning.
Today Howard is the family name of the earls of Carlisle, Effingham, and Suffolk & Berkshire. The first Howards were hardly aristocrats but they did have responsibil-ities and somehow Norse, Germanic and early French versions all got jumbled into the name Howard. That and Howerd, Heward, Hewart, Huard, Huart begin the Reaney & Wilson dictionary entry of surnames found in sundry English documents onwards from 1086’s Domesday Book. And I’ve been called Howierd but not all that often!
The occupational surname Hayward dates to 1273 according to another source. He was the guy responsible for the Church’s grain fields so he had to keep an eye on stray cattle, perhaps less so for herds of ewe and hogs that presumably already had herdsmen. Howeherde 1348 Derbyshire was a rare contribution to modern Howard. Hayward easily slid on the tongue to Haward then Howard but not completely because Hayward did become a settled form. Yvette Elderbroom says an Old French root yields worker with a hoe.
The font name evolved from ”son of Heward” via Hereward, Harward, Haword or Heward finally to Howard. The latter was common in centuries 12 to 14 and became one of the first surnames. Most Howards today descend from the font name. Some Howards of Ireland and Canada have other origins. In County Clare, Howard succeeded O’Hure, which earlier stood for O hlomhair. The Huguenot Huard driven from France became Howard in Ireland. MacLysaght’s Irish Surnames has Howard out of Hogart. Compli-cated? Try to fathom Reaney & Wilson’s terse entries, which at times obscure more than they reveal.
Arthur L. “Gatling Gun” Howard was Union veteran of the U. S. civil war who demonstrated and sold this forerunner to the machine gun after its invention 1862. The principle was revived to deliver a storm of bullets in Vietnam from the air, and as close-range anti-aircraft armament aboard warships. Howard joined Gen. Middleton’s forces quelling our Northwest Rebellion, deploying two of the new weapons at Batoche. He put up a cartridge factory near Lachute, Que. While serving in the Canadian contingent during the Boer War he and his party of scouts were ambushed 1901 and he was killed. Howard Carter (1873-1939) made Egyptology’s fab find 1922, the 14th century BC intact tomb of King Tutankhamen. Howard Walter Florey (1898-1968) Baron Florey of Adelaide was an Australian pathologist. He shared a 1945 Nobel Prize with Sir Alexander Fleming and Ernst B. Chain for their work on the wonder drug penicillin.
The City of Toronto’s first surveyor was John George Howard (1803-90). He willed his estate, now High Park, to the city. Wilbert Harvard Howard (1890-1966) left teaching to be a Quebec lawyer. While a horse artillery officer, he was wounded at Battle of the Somme. After the Great War he became a successful corporate lawyer. For the Second World War he served on the wartime prices and trade board.
Howarth W. “Howie” Morenz (1902-37) a. k. a. the Comet or Stratford Streak devoted 12 of his 14 seasons to Montreal Canadiens as speedy centre and was three-time Hart trophy winner as most valuable player. His leg was broken in four places during a game and he died overnight of a blood clot aged 34. He was in the first group entered in hockey’s Hall of Fame and was rated the finest player throughout the first half of the 20th century. Howie Meeker b. 1925, 1946-47 N. H. L rookie of the year, was a Toronto Maple Leaf eight years at merely five-foot-eight, 170 pounds. He helped win four Stanley Cups. After he hung up his jersey, Howie coached the Leafs in the ‘50s. Later he went to Newfoundland as coach to upgrade our new province’s hockey; then operated schools on Vancouver Island as well as authoring instructional books like Howie Meeker’s Hockey Basics. He appeared on national television as fluent analyst of early Canada-Russia contests but travel fatigue over four decades made Howie forsake broadcasting. At 75 he was still teaching fundamental hockey skills he still finds lacking in Canadian youth today. Howard Alper, age 59, chemist and vice-rector at University of Ottawa, was named 2000’s top Canadian researcher. He got a gold medal plus $345,000 over a five-year span for leading additional research in polymers and plastics.
My father was Howard Vincent Wallace; I’m Howard Carew Wallace. My late octogenarian cousin Bruce from Uncle Tom’s big family had Howard for his middle name in honour of Dad. I last heard from Bruce when he was wielding an artist’s palette in Mexico. Afterwards he went back to Halifax. All three of us figure in Kin Tales appear-ing near the end of this book.
HUGH In a Norse myth, god Thor was on a mission to Utgard, land of the giants. Thi-alfi was one of two brothers attending him on the journey. During a break in their pro-gress Thialfi ran some races with a lad named Hugi who not only reached the finishing line first every time, but doubled back to run abreast of his straining competitor. Thor’s ser-vant was actually racing against Thought in disguise, swifter than any creature.
A Germanic tribe, Franks brought with them into what became France a word hug meaning heart, mind, spirit, but normally forming a part of compounds. The Old German name Hugi converted to Old French Hugues, Hue. St. Hugh of Rouen was bishop there 722 and later of two other French dioceses, then abbot of two monasteries. Soon he re-verted to simple monk at Jumieges, dying there 730. Medieval aristocracies of France took up the name but Latin Hugo was preferred for documentation. Hugh Capet [mean-ing wearer of a cope since he was a secular abbot] became king 987 at Rheims with not much more than Ile de France for his realm at first. While still living, he had son Robert crowned and anointed, which became a pre-emptive tradition of the Capetian dynasty. St. Hugh of Grenoble (1032-1132) was made bishop there 1080 sweeping away at si-mony and usury, restoring clerical discipline and celibacy [he is said to have known by sight only one woman] and rebuilding diocesan funds. He tried to escape all the pressure by becoming Benedictine but was ordered back again and again. Only two years after death he was canonized. His nephew of name became abbot of Bonneville 1169 and a known clairvoyant. He was instrument of peace between Pope Alexander III and Em-peror Frederick I at Venice 1177. D. 1194, feast April 1.
Normans also appropriated the name and once they’d gone over and conquered England it caught on there in a big way. Credit is due St. Hugh of Avalon (1140-1200) prior of Witham who took over a Lincoln see vacant 18 years and squared it off, building its cathedral. He was canonized 1220. In addition to formal Hugo, vernaculars Hewe and Howe emerged, today among 15 surnames that spun off and still survive.
Tenth-century Hugh, self-styled king of Burgandy kept no less than three mis-tresses in Rome, the populace ironically referring to them as Venus, Juno and Semele. When the mob rose he fled precipitously; leaving wife, mistresses and hapless stepson Pope John XI. The latter was deposed, imprisoned and likely murdered. Abbot Hugh of Cluny (1024-1109) made an immense contribution to reform of 11th century monasteries, 1,450 houses listed in late Middle Ages as monastic dependencies of this great Burgun-dian religious centre. This reforming saint had brought nearly all of them under control. In England, although St. Hugh of Avalon further helped spread this font name, so regret-tably did an anti-Semitic tale of a Hugh, child “martyr” also at Lincoln.
MacHugh is a form of Mac Aodha plenteous in north Connacht and west Ulster. County Galway had two distinct septs of name, one a branch in Connemara of O’Flah-ertys. Hughes is widespread in Ireland except for Munster province.
Hugo of documents sometimes is resurrected in English-speaking families today. It remains Hugo in all Germanic languages and Spanish, and is Ugo in Italian. Hughes, son of Hugh, is one of North Wales more prevalent surnames. The form ap Hugh renders down to Pugh for other Welsh. In England and Wales combined, Hughes ranked 19th in 1853. It was 34th in Ireland 1890 and also because Hughes and MacHugh are accepted as appropriate for MacKay. In 1982 late Edward MacLysaght reckoned there were 13,500 Hughes in the population but that “a considerable portion” stood for former Gaelic names. It stands for Eghann in Argyleshire and, in the north and west of Scotland, for Huisdean, Uisdeann. Not to forget Aoidh. Five Hugh versions stand in an array of 700 family names under Clandonald.
The derivatives, diminutives and double diminutives – 90 or more – are too daun-ting for a hunt ‘n’ peck chronicler. Let a sample or so suffice. Hewet[t] retains the Old French suffix but also can mean hewi[t] which is Old English for a cutting, a cleared place [y’know, hewed]. Hewetson winds up a longer way of writing Hughes; both mean son of Hugh. Hewitt is family name of viscounts Lifford.
A Royal Navy Hughes was Sir Richard (c.1729-1812) who was lieutenant gover-nor of Nova Scotia 1778-81. As admiral of the blue he came back to Halifax to be com-mander in chief of the port 1789-92. Admiral of the blue commanded the rear of a sailing fleet in the days of wooden ships and iron men. The centre was the responsibility of admiral of the white, and admiral of the red had the vanguard. Sir Richard made full ad-miral 1794. R. N. captain and explorer Hugh Clapperton (1788-1827) lost his hand res-cuing a lad during an ice crossing in Canada. He d. in Africa but not before a rich widow fell for his tall good looks and followed him around Sokoto on horseback, swathed in scar-let and gold, serenading him with musicians. Another Scot was poet Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978). And so was financier Hugh Allan (1810-82) who built a prestigious steam-ship line for it carried royal mail from English ports to Montreal and other Eastern Canad-ian ports.
Scots-Canadian novelist John Hugh McLennan (1907-1990) b. Glace Bay, N. S., was a Rhodes Scholar who wound up teaching at McGill University in Montreal. As author he won the governor general’s literary award five times. In Barometer Rising 1941 McLennan recreates Halifax’s devastating 1917 explosion which flattened a third of the city. It killed her father, and thus changed my mother’s life: she had intended to be a lawyer. What a barrister she would have been!
Hughes brothers of Upper Canada may have been outshone but not eclipsed by sibling Sir Sam, colourful and controversial minister of militia and defence early in the Great War. He insisted Canadian soldiers use the Ross, a heavy sporting rifle that over-heated quickly and jammed. There was quite a scary and costly scramble to convert to sturdy British Lee Enfields, which continued mainstay of British and Commonwealth soldiers in Second World War and Korean conflicts. In the Great War, Dad’s rifle shot low and left but, since he was a scout well forward of the main trench lines, he couldn’t badger his battalion armourer often enough to have it adjusted.
[As sea cadet and naval midshipman in training 1941-49 I drilled endlessly with Lee Enfields, taking part in only one skirmish, firing blanks. In 1939-40 we had to make do with wooden rifles in army cadets: war production hadn’t caught up. Sea Cadets were limited to firing .22 calibre, a policy that endures today for Canada’s entire cadet move-ment. I bought a war-surplus English “long” Lee Enfield 1967 in Ottawa; trimmed its furniture down drastically for casual hunting, and plinked off the odd clip of .303 rounds. Shot no game, won no trophies, all brought to a halt by a bad back.]
Sam’s brother John Hughes in the First World War served as militia major general in command of a vast mobilization camp at Valcartier, Que. Brother William, former in-spector of Canadian penitentiaries, raised a battalion of infantry and wound up leading a whole Canadian brigade of infanteers 1916-17. An educator in the family was James, chief inspector of Toronto schools, author of numerous textbooks and treatises on teaching.
Hugh does exist but is rare in our families: yet it fits so nicely with Wallace that sometimes I am addressed as Hugh.
INGRID The fertility god of Old Norse peoples was Ing, added to which was [forget the accents] frior meaning fair, beautiful which reached English speaking countries from Scandinavia in the 20th century as the feminine name Ingrid. Immensely successful Ingrid Berman (1915-82) spread the name far and wide thanks to the movie screen. B.C. born Ingrid Mertens came into our grandson Eli Wallace’s life hereabouts around 2006. Her mother Bernadette is a Fleming from Belgium who immigrated to the West Coast in the 1970s. Like her father she’s a skilled photographer. She bore her daughter 18 April 1977 in Victoria. Her tall, beautiful Ingrid bore baby Tessa early 2010, mother there to help. Tessa’s our first great-grandchild.
IRENE In his esteemed Theogany, ancient Greek poet Hesiod, contemporary of Homer, describes the three Horae, of whom Eirene personified peace. In contrast to this minor Greek goddess are other Irenes, martyrs to early persecutions of Christians. One who was patron of Lecce in Calabria, Italy, broke idols that her father King Lucinius had given her for worship, legend goes. When he found out he tied her to the feet of a wild horse. She remained unharmed but the animal bit off His Majesty’s hand causing death. Her prayers brought him back so he with his wife became Christian along with their 3,000 subjects. However, Irene’s evangelistic zeal in the 1st century got her beheaded.
A later Byzantine empress of the same name was merely exiled for what she did. Irene (c. 750-803) was regent then joint ruler with her son Constantine VI. When he was toppled 797 she had him blinded and took the throne herself. Irene, it has to be said, was devoted to the Orthodox Church. She tried to suppress a widespread iconoclastic move-ment and restore images. Deposed 802, she d. in exile. A latter day noblewoman was Irene (1866-1953) grandchild of Queen Victoria and later widow of a Prussian prince. Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) daughter of the famous Pierre and Marie, won the 1933 Nobel science award jointly with husband Frederic for their radioactivity research.
Sturdy Sub-Lieutenant Bessie Irene Williams, Royal Canadian Navy, born c. 1926 Tack’s Beach, Placentia Bay, Nfld., tried to get fellow sturdy Newfoundland nursing officer Caroline French and me together 1951 Halifax. Angela Irene Turner b. 1980 in rural Western Ontario is my wife’s grandniece, eldest of little Joan Margaret Small that was and not so wee Gary separated in London, Ont.
ISABEL/ISABELLE Isabella (1296-1358) daughter of Philip IV of France became queen consort of Edward II of England but suffered abuse. Helped by Roger de Mortimer she had Edward overthrown, then murdered. With British understatement, Oxford names ex-pert Patrick Hanks observed: “…this did little to diminish the popularity of [her] name.”
Isabel regardless of its various spellings today was the Spanish/Portuguese version of Elizabeth, the Old Spanish rendition having been Ysabel meaning concentrated to God. Queen Isabella I of Spain was patroness of Cristoforo Columbo who rediscovered Ame-rica 1492 half a millennium after its first Norse settlement. On reaching the British Isles Isabel was used interchangeably with Elizabeth until Tudor times. Spanish Armada 1588, eh. Isabella latinate form of Isabel renewed its popularity with the English by the 18th century, and again is rare.
Isabel of Bavaria (1371-1435) was several times regent for her demented spouse Charles VI of France. Another Isabel (1846-1921) as regent abolished slavery in Brazil causing the empire to collapse. When her father returned to this situation, somehow he managed to be civil to her for both soon shared exile in Paris.
Isabel was chosen most during modern times in the period 1875-1900, with an upward spike 1950s. Isobel is also common. Aunt Greta (Wallace) Granville (1896-1992) christened Isabella Marguerita was only two years old when her mother Polly died. Her son Owen wrote, “stepmother was very rough on Howard [my Dad] and her.” She also had their older brother Joe put in reform school. Rescued at 12 by her brothers, Aunt Greta was the only girl of that family to reach womanhood. Stepmother Bessie (Biddington) Wallace likely had her hands full. Dad, who was around eight at the time, blamed her all his long life for how she’d nursed his adolescent sisters Georgina and Nora Kathleen dying of typhoid. Something about dry crackers. Greta lived to 96 in a Halifax suburb, last of her generation.
Pet forms of Isabel are many and endearing, Bel[le], Ib[bie] Isa, Sib, Tib[by]. Belle was Isabel (Grant) Wadden b. 25 Nov. 1895 St. John’s, Nfld., widow of Ronald Wadden. This former nurse lived to a hundred, clear of mind and tart of tongue to the end. Belle was also Sarah Isabelle née O’Neill, Widow Grace then Widow Champion, our great aunt my sister Isabel’s name honours. Isabel Roxanne Wallace b. 1926 Saint John, N. B., went back to Halifax finally after spending much of her working life in the area around Boston, Mass., and retirement in Virginia Beach, USA. She’s youngest of my three sisters.
JACK Precious information goes lost in our relentless oversimplification of everything. A perfect example is the name Jack. We know this to be a pet form of John but already it is widely recognized as a name all its own. In time we’ll forget it ever stood for John even as we’ve forgotten it also stood for other names from other days and countries. Take Jake for example. It isn’t merely a pet form of Jacob. James is involved and Jack is also a va-riant from Middle English, which lost popularity as a surname because of earlier identi-fication with a privy. We say outhouse or that little whitewashed building by the barn.
I knew a Jakes, the only one I’ve so far encountered. Little Louis Jakes, Weekend rotogravure’s chief photographer was hollering to me from a jammed photojournalist truck passing by in downtown Chicago during a history-making royal visit there 1959.
“Hi, Howie! How many kids ya got?”
He asked that every time he saw me. Now 20 thousand or more Chicagoans lining the street waited for a lone Canadian naval officer all decked out in white to reply:
“Five, Looey, five.”
One root of Jack looks more Flemish than French if you go all the way back. Je-han for John had the Flemish diminutive -kin tacked on. Next it became Jankin, then Jackin then Jack. This process began in 13th century England although Yvette Elderbroom cites a reference to the change written in a 15th century extract from the history of St. Au-gustine’s Monastery at Canterbury.
That Jack is a pet form also of James is because of French equivalent Jacques, once so widespread it signified the French peasant. Jack in Ireland from Jacques appeared in early records of County Kilkenny, and Jackstown there may be an outcome. Jack is plentiful in Counties Donegal and Tyrone, and in Belfast. Jackson is an English surname familiar in Ulster province since mid-17th century. Jack also had a strong vogue in Eng-land as synonym for man and boy. Nor should we ignore Jolly Jack Tar: “John aboard, Jack ashore” sums up a sailor who stays out of trouble in his ship but gets into it when on shore leave. A dozen at least surnames survive from medieval times that involve Jack. Jake is found as early as 1195, Jacce in 1218. English diminutives Jackett, Jacklin and Jakins correspond to French Jaquet, Jacquelin and Jacquin.
In Canada William Brydone Jack (1819-86) taught at King’s College, Fredericton, N. B., which became University of New Brunswick 1851. Professor Jack was its presi-dent 1861-85. Jack Warner (1916-95) b. London, Ont., became a Hollywood movie exe-cutive, co-founder of Warner Bros.
John Maurice Wallace (1920-94) my Uncle Tom’s #5 son was known to all either as Jack or Jackie. A decorated Second World War bomber pilot who stayed on in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Jack had a second career as Southern Ontario realtor. Alfred John Hallisey b. 1930 Englewood, New Jersey of Nova Scotia stock is twice retired, once from being a half-colonel USAF, later from an aviation firm in Halifax. Husband of my cousin Anne Carew that was, he also goes by Jack.
JAMES Hebrew Ya’aqob is better known to us as Old Testament Jacob. That translated to Iakobos in Greek and eventually to Late Latin Iacomus, altered form of Iacobus. Des-cending from that is English version James, which is how we refer to New Testament dis-ciples of Christ – James the Greater, son of Zebedee, and James the Less, son of Alphae-us. James the Greater and his older brother John were dubbed Sons of Thunder by Christ possibly because they’d asked Him if they shouldn’t request Heaven cast fire on Samari-tans [Luke 9:54-56]. James was martyred AD 42 in Jerusalem. Patron saint of Spain, his shrine there attracted many great medieval pilgrimages. James the Less was among apos-tles who saw Jesus after resurrection and is called “brother of the Lord” [Galatians 1:19]. A 2nd century historian wrote Pharisees flung him off the pinnacle of the Temple of Jeru-salem and then stoned him to death.
Old Testament Jacob, don’t forget, was father of numerous sons, eight [the num-ber varies] giving their names to tribes of Israel. The root of his Hebrew name is akev for heel, because at birth he was gripping a heel of his twin brother Esau. Later he tricked Esau into yielding his “birthright”, that is his right to inheritance, “for a mess of pottage”, in other words, a bowl of lentil soup. Jacob went further by tricking his blind and dying father Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau. The meaning of Jacob was transformed by this incident into “supplanter”. Modern biblical historians do not believe this wily cha-racter was real. Darn! Another fabulous yarn that is subject to doubt. Regardless, Jacob is the top name for boys of the USA the past two years.
James has two origins in Ireland. It’s an English surname of comparatively recent immigrants mainly to nor’east Ulster. It abbreviates MacJames and Fitzjames, initially font names from important septs or more often from Norman-Irish families. James is fairly abundant in Counties Carlow and Wicklow. Jameson is a mid-18th century Scottish import.
James is a royal name, a favorite in Scottish House of Stuart 15th century onwards. And do not forget that rare committee triumph, those inspiring words of King James Ver-sion of the Bible appearing 1611 under patronage of James 1 of England [VI of Scotland]. Most biblical references in this Catalogue are keyed to this King James Authorized Ver-sion for English Protestants because that is what name researchers almost uniformly cite. Armagh’s Archbishop James Ussher, primate of all Ireland, pored over Bible and histories of Middle East and Mediterranean to publish 1654 that the Cosmos was created 4004 BC. His conclusion made the 1701 edition of the Authorized Bible and has been a source of strife ever since.
The label Jacobites covered those wishing that Stuarts retake England’s throne from the House of Orange. Because of James II, soldier and skillful admiral deposed 1688; this name also was associated with Roman Catholicism. Battle of the Boyne in Ireland 1 July 1690 had William III victorious over James; an event still celebrated today even though fighting went on another year under Irishman Patrick Sarsfield (c.1645-93) earl of Lucan. Jacobites were out again 1715 and ‘45, Bonnie Prince Charlie crushed at Battle of Culloden Moor ’46, and Highlanders subjected to cruel reprisals by Cumberland the Butcher, William Augustus (1721-65). The duke had Scots wounded and prisoners slaughtered and then loosed his soldiers ravaging into the glens. The Butcher had witness-ed exploits of the Irish Brigade on the Continent a little before as they helped win Battle of Fontenoy for the French.
Diego [i.e. James] Velasquez (1599-1660) was a celebrated Spanish painter. Cap-tain James Cook (1728-79) twice sailed the world during explorations, first European to reach Hawaii and first to Australia’s east coast. James Boswell (1740-95) was Scots bio-grapher of that early poet, critic and lexicographer, Samuel Johnson. [This learned doctor paid his formal calls of a Thursday, his clean shirt day.]
James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, led a fatal charge of the Light Bri-gade 25 Oct. 1854 nearby Balaclava in the Crimean War. The formation included a regi-ment he had raised. At roll call that night only 195 were counted present of 673 light cavalrymen starting out. British Hussar Lt. Alexander Roberts Dunn (1833-68) of York, Upper Canada, was unhorsed, emptied his revolver at Russians and saved several fellows with his sword. He was the first Canadian ever to win Britain’s highest decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross. The balaclava knitted headpiece and woollen cardigan date from that war.
Once deplored because so explicit, Irish expatriate James Joyce (1882-1941) is our last big James unless we count celluloid heroes Cagney and Stewart or an eternal series in-volving a Commander Bond. Jim Henson (1936-90) was a puppeteer who invented Muppets 1954, blending marionettes and puppets that dominated Sesame Street on TV internationally and on film.
The surname is very popular in South Wales, and bordering along England. As a last name James stood 35th in both countries 1883. James is the family name of barons Northebourne. In USA 1939 James was 40th. Jameson, Jami[e]son are common in Scot-land and north England; sometimes sounded much like jimmyson. James is Jaime or Di-ego in Spanish, Giacomo in Italian, Seamus in Irish, Seumas in Scotland although Hamish is heard. The abbreviation Jas. appears on commercial signage.
Nobel laureate James Dewey Watson b. 1928 Chicago codiscovered the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid early in the ‘50s. The celebrated microbiologist offended some at a seminar October 2000 at University of California’s Berkeley. He mused about sunlight’s effect on hormones then went politically incorrect about skin colour and clothing habits of women. Quick, publish your paper, Doctor.
On the vast Canadian scene, the name James has been borne by noteworthy ex-plorers, educators, a civil service mandarin and photojournalist father & sons. James Bay was discovered by Henry Hudson, and that’s exactly where his mutineers cast him adrift. Thomas James, Bristol navigator, took part in one, maybe two Hudson Bay explorations and rediscovered that bay to the south 1631, wintering there. It was named in his honour. James Ross Strait, a passage 80 kilometres wide, goes between Boothia Peninsula and King William Island. Ross Strait recalls Sir James Clark Ross (1800-62) arctic navigator.
Nathaniel Chamney James (1860-1945) was first president so-titled, 1904-14, of the University of Western Ontario in London. After that he carried on until 1929 as head of foreign languages. Charles Cannif James (1863-1916) teacher and professor served as deputy minister of agriculture for Ontario 1891-1912. “Frank” Cyril James b. 1903 was principal of McGill University. That Montreal institution [granddaughter Marie Pierre Wallace goes there] is named after James McGill (1744-1813) Glasgow University drop out who prospered from fur trade both at its sharp end and in Montreal. He left most of his money and land to found McGill.
James Naismith (1861-1939) b. Almonte, Ont., nailed two peach baskets on op-posite ends of the YMCA College gym at Springfield, Mass., 1 Dec. 1891. He had his students lob a soccer ball into them in accordance with 13 rules. Thus basketball was born, an indoor athletic activity between football and baseball seasons. Basketball was made an Olympic sport 1936.
Piper James Cleland Richardson played members of his 16th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, onto a heavily defended German position in one Somme battle 1916. [On opening day, July 1, the British lost a history-making 57,500 wounded, killed or mis-sing in action. The Newfoundland Regiment within hours suffered 710 casualties, public-ly mourned every July 1.]. Back at the stalled attack on Regina trench gallant Private Richardson just 20 asked the company sergeant major, “Wull I gie them wund?” [wind], For 10 minutes he strode up and down, fully exposed, coolly skirling his pipes. The Canadian Scottish rallied and rushed the trench. He assisted a wounded comrade and helped secure prisoners before remembering his pipes were still on the battlefield. He went back for them and was killed. This Scottish-born British Columbian was awarded posthumously the Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth & Empire’s highest deco-ration for valour. Ninety-four Canadians, depending on who you count, were so recog-nized from 1854 on, a third of them after death in action. See Victoria Crosses item found later in this Catalogue in which his pipes were found for display in the B. C. legislature.
Our late friend Bill Lovat met an American veteran watching pipers on Parliament Hill during the regular changing of the guard ceremonial postwar. They reminded that tourist of a vivid scene on D-Day 6 June 1944. He and comrades were pinned down by enemy fire on the beach. They watched agape as a piper-led platoon marched unflinching over the sand, parade-ground style, and off to its battle task, utterly unscathed. The Great Highland War Pipe indeed.
Bill James (1865-1948) was the first professional press photographer in Toronto, managing to keep up a torrid pace 40 years. Sons Norm and Bill shot for the Star, which had biggest circulation of three Hogtown dailies.
Jims so far have marched 141 years in our various families from colonial times to the uneasy nationhood of today, James Thomas Carew (1859-1912) leading our long pa-rade. He was #3 son of our Founder Immigrant. My mother recalled her Uncle Jim, over-dressed bachelor, walking 20 or so miles from Halifax in mid-summer to join family vaca-tioners in Glen Margaret, N. S.
Pup Granville (1864-1952) and monsignor son (1904-91) both were called James. See Kin Tales XXVI, XXXII and XXXV for more about Pup. So is James Francis Hanington b. 1983 Halifax, younger son of my nephew Brian in Ottawa. Others have James as their middle name. Our #1 and 2 sons at blissful pre-school play nicknamed each other Jim and coped surprisingly well at play.
The pet name Jamie may still be a North British boy’s name but North American mothers have appropriated it for their baby girls.
JANE More popular than Joan or Jean, Jane is rooted in Old French Jehanne, feminine of Johann. The surname Jane, claims Prof. Cottle, comes from Old French variation Jan.
Jane of Bagno in Tuscany d. 1105 in a convent at this health spa whereupon all church bells around rang without human hand and a later plague was halted through her in-tercession. Jane Shore was mistress of King Edward IV (1442-83), then of Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, then of Lord Hastings. Richard III accused her of sorcery 1483 and clapped her in the Tower of London. She was forced to do public penance as a har-lot. Plays and ballads came out sympathetic to her.
Jane Seymour d.1537 was Henry VIII’s third wife who died 12 days after giving birth to Prince later King Edward VI. She’s the only one of Henry’s six wives buried with him. Lady Jane Grey (1537-54) was a tragic pawn of power politics. At 15 she was made queen of England against her will, deposed in nine days, imprisoned and be-headed. Widow Jane de Lestonnac (1556-1640) niece of French essayist Michel Eyquem, seigneur de Montaigne, established 30 houses for educating girls to counter Calvinism. Deposed as superior general she spent the rest of her life in seclusion but a year before her death was vindicated, and canonized 1949. Another widow, Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641) with spiritual advisor Francis de Sales founded the Order of Visitation de-signed so delicate women could join yet live and work outside a cloister.
The more popular name had been Joan but now the sentimental favorite became Jane. It continued one of the top girl names during 18/19th centuries, fed no doubt by author Jane Austen (1775-1815) and novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 1847. Slang-word jane has long meant a girl in the USA or a pound note in England.
The surname Jane without the -s- is only common in Cornwall. Sure enough, Rea-ney & Wilson found record there 1297 of Simon Ianese, early exception to rule. Fred T. Jane launched his indispensable annual of the world’s Fighting Ships 1897 in the UK.
Majestic Jane Russell b. 1921 was Hollywood 1940s movie star of whom millio-naire recluse backer Howard Hughes advertised: “How would you like to tussle with Rus-sell?” Taste in Tinseltown, protected by a strict Hays Code from the 1930s, soured. Jane Fonda b. 1937 to late American actor Henry Fonda picked up Oscars for Klute ‘71 and Coming Home ‘78. The Jane Fonda Workout on TV was launched 28 Oct. ’81 with her “lissome in striped leotard, hoop earrings and leg warmers.” She was known for stri-dent Vietnam issues, and of late as power wife of Cable News Network/Time/Warner mogul Ted Turner, owner of Atlanta Braves. Both had been married twice before acquir-ing each other ‘91. Her latest cause is Christian fundamentalism and hubby is not happy. But then, he’s also known as The Mouth of the South for his unwelcome comments.
Jane (Carter) Urquhart b. 1949 Geraldton, Ont., uses a Great Lake as backdrop for words as sharp and as clear as icicles in novels where passion and heartache course unbid-den beneath the ice. Her enthralling work is acclaimed internationally as well as at home; so her honours pile like snowdrifts that do not melt away.
Far less worldly than most janes is Sister Mary Jane Carew b. 1941 Dartmouth, N. S., co-ordinator of religious education for parochial schools of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, USA. She’s the only daughter of my late Uncle Steve and was entertained by my sibling Isabel in their Boston days. She popped by to see my family one evening in Ottawa a few decades ago, and sang us songs accompanying herself with a guitar we hastily borrowed from my nephew Brian Hanington a few kilometres away.
JANET Originally Janet was a diminutive of Jane in the Middle Ages but it died out except for Scotland. Revived at 19th century’s close, Janet really caught on throughout the English-speaking world. Its Gaelic form Seonaid, along with Sine, are Scots revivals now being exported, usually spelled abroad, however, as Shiona and Sheena.
Reaney & Wilson trace roots of the surnames Janet and Jennett to 13 and 14th century documents, the earliest being Willelmus filius Jonet on 1297 Yorkshire subsidy rolls. They say English surnames Janot, Jonet and Jonot are diminutives of Jan and Jon from Johan. Jennett came from Jehan. See John. Six-foot Janet McTeer, 38, is a Brit stage actress in London, veteran of Broadway where she got a Tony for A Doll’s House, and of films made on both sides of the Big Ditch. Movie actress Janet Leigh d. 3 Oct. ’04 aged 77. Her most memorable scene was in the late Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho while she was being repeatedly and fatally stabbed in a motel shower to shrieking music and a flurry of close-up camera angles and then her blood sluicing down the drain.
Great Aunt Janet (Munro) Fraser was our 19th century ancestor who first linked us with New World Frasers of St. Margaret’s Bay, Halifax County, N. S. Honouring her great, great aunt is Janet Munro (McDonald) Riddell Reg. N., b.1947 Halifax, my niece.
My wife’s grand niece Janet Turner at 12 a Grade 8 pupil in St. Mary’s, London, Ont., was favourite performer of 228 competing 1997 in a Canadian Open Country Sing-ing contest Simcoe, Ont. She continues to hone her talent by victories in regional, provin-cial and national competitions. It all began in a ‘96 karaoke contest.
JARVIS The remains of Gervasius and Protasius were found in Milan 386. St. Ambrose had ordered a search for them and he declared them martyrs. A cult flourished and, in the case of Gervasius, became widespread. Gervase became the English rendition and Jarvis emerged supposedly as its phonetic version. Jervis was seen less often and pronounced the same. The name’s meaning is somewhat obscure but if lead element ger is Old Ger-man it probably has something to do with a spear.
Reaney & Wilson say Yorkshire surnames usually stem from Jervaulx, the rest from the personal name. Here’s the track: Gervaus 1200, Jervax 1400, Gerveis 1530, Gervis 1577 and Jarvis 1713. They do add that pronouncing Jervis as if it were Jarvis is obsolete. It appears in Irish records from early 14th century as Gervais from an Old French given name, and closely identified with County Cork since the middle of the 17th.
Roman Catholics use the name regularly, phonetic forms of it frequently in the 19th century. French Gervais and its feminine Gervaise are found also. Jervis and Jer-vois[e] descend from Yorkshire family de Gervaux from place name Jervaulx in the north. That’s the Old French interpretation of Old English Uredale. Ure is Celtic perhaps for strong river. Jervis is the family name of Viscounts Vincent.
Here are cases of Jervis pronounced Jarvis:
• Sir John Jervis (1735-1823) Earl of St. Vincent. “Old Jarvie” attained British rank of admiral of the fleet. He was 1st lord of the admiralty 1801-03 before taking over the Channel fleet. He’d served in Canada at Quebec, had conquests in French West In-dies and commanded in the Mediterranean. He very firmly put down sailor mutinies at Spithead and the Nore April-August1797 yet proved deeply concerned about welfare of his men.
• Jervis Inlet on coast of mainland British Columbia is more than 80 kilometres long and averages three something wide. British explorer Commander [later post captain] George Vancouver 1792 named it for then Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis. The Jarvis name figures prominently in Upper Canada/Province of Ontario but there’s a Mari-timer to talk about later as well.
• The lightly armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay (Captain Fogarty Fegen) steamed into the guns of the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in November 1940. Her loss bought time for her convoy to scatter and escape a similar fate from the surface raider. It was an early act of valour in the teeter-totter, 1939-45 Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.
Stephen Jarvis (1756-1840) was a fighting Loyalist in the American Revolution. After he was gentleman usher of the black rod in Upper Canada’s legislative assembly. In the War of 1812 he was adjutant of militia. Stephen’s son George also served 1812-14 and sat afterwards in assembly. He finished active life as county court judge of Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry. Another son, William Botsford, was a sheriff and commanded a militia regiment 1837-38.
Samuel Peters Jarvis also served 1812, later raising and commanding Queen’s Rangers against 1837 Rebels. His militia regiment only existed 8 Dec. 1837-20 July ‘38. This unit is not be confused with an earlier Loyalist regiment or with a British unit identically named over here for 1812. Samuel was an Upper Canadian lawyer in peacetime who finished his career as chief superintendent of Indian affairs.
William Jarvis (1756-18170) served in a resurrection of sorts of that Loyalist outfit now called The Queen’s Rangers (1st American Regiment) under Lieutenant-Colonel J. G. Simcoe. When Simcoe went to govern Upper Canada he took along Jarvis as his AdC. Jarvis made half colonel then became provincial secretary. He has a village southwest of Hamilton named for him.
Harold Augustus Jarvis (1864-1924) officered in ocean liners before swallowing the anchor to take singing at Academy of Music, London, England. He toured Canada, USA, and Great Britain as tenor and settled down in Detroit where for 34 years he soloed at First Presbyterian Church.
Well-connected Edward Aemilius Jarvis (1860-1940) was a banker then had his own investment firm 1892-1924. He became president Sovereign Bank of Canada 1902. He did rich guy stuff well: commodore Royal Canadian Yacht Club [where I was dined many decades later], master of Toronto and North York Hunt, winner of Canada’s Cup for yachting 1896, 1901.
Maritimer of note was Edward James Jarvis (1788-1852). Born Saint John he studied law in England and was duly admitted to N. B.’s bar. He didn’t assume his appointment as a judge of provincial supreme court, heading off instead to a judgeship in Malta. He was back 1827 as chief justice of Prince Edward Island instead. A book The Jarvis Fam-ily came out of Hartford, Conn. 1879.
Margaret Mary “Sid” (Wallace) Jarvis (1908-2003) b. Antigonish, N. S., was Uncle Tom’s eldest daughter. This remarkably well preserved widow was narrator on video-tape of family memories – there were 15 children in all – in connection with a Halifax reunion of nigh hundreds, summer 1996.
JASMINE This is an ornamental, climbing shrub. Its white-bloomed version signifies extreme amiability; the yellow, grace and elegance; but the madagascar variety means separation according to our former florists, #3 son Chris and ex-wife Debbie. A tea of the name is made from dried blossom. The flower’s strong pleasing scent is good in aromatherapy. At least one casino in Las Vegas wafts it into gambling areas. Farmers long have planted these strongly fragrant shrubs by their outhouses.
Our # 5 daughter Cecily’s Jasmine George Evangeline Wallace-Harder b. 24 Dec. 1998 in Ottawa is grandchild # 12 of 15 depending on how you count. Brown-haired Jasmine was already 12 pounds of coo and cuddle at just four weeks, and doubled her birth weight months ahead of time. She normally displays extreme amiability except perhaps in situations like Kin Tale XXXIII.
JEFFREY North Americans prefer Jeffrey but the Brits hang onto Geoffrey even though their grip is loosening. It was a boy’s name among Normans, earlier originating among Franks and Lombards. I did a project 1976 with a government printer first-named Geof-frey who preferred it pronounced Joffrey rather than Jeffrey.
Geoffrey is Old French for as many as three names. The second element of it is peace as in Wilfrid but the first part may be a regional handle as with Hitler’s gauleiters. It also could be traveller, or pledge, as in Gilbert. The root name might well have been Gaufried or Gautfried although early on matched up with Gottfried later Godfrey. Then again, some of the early forms suggest Waldfried from walden, governor. Reaney & Wil-son list 15 differently spelled extant versions beginning J-; only three start with G-.
The counts of Anjou had Geoffreys regularly, one being Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count, etc., 1113-51. They gave rise to the royal House of Plantagenet. Versions of Jeffrey have existed in Ireland since the latter part of the 17th century; Jeffrey now as-sociated with County Cork. Geoffrey of Monmouth d. 1155 was a respected Welsh chronicler and Geoffrey Chaucer (c1340-1400) celebrated medieval author of The Can-terbury Tales. His Wife of Bath character still evokes scholarly comment. Chaucer, Shakespeare each elevated the language of his day.
MacShaffrey from Mac Seafraidh is used for Jeffreys and the like in Ireland and appeared 1659 as MacGeoffrey among County Longford’s principal families. There’s Jeffreystown in Co. Westmeath, listed as Ballyhaffray in a 1569 Fiant.
Lieutenant-General Geoffrey Walsh d. 1999 in his 90th year. He commanded Canada’s first brigade of troops committed to NATO Europe in the Cold War, was the army’s last chief of the general staff 1960s, and first vice-chief of defence staff. As the 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade was being prepared for its NATO return to Europe, a memo went the rounds of Army Headquarters in Ottawa. It warned that a carton of cigarettes and a pair of nylon stockings would no longer have the desired effect on girls over there as it had during the many privations of the Second World War.
Long before on this side of the water Jeffrey Amherst (1717-97) in summer cam-paigning captured Fort Carillon in Ticonderoga, New York State 1759, and five days later Fort St-Frederic at Crown Point forcing French to retreat to Montreal.
Albert Oscar Jeffery (1857-1928) practised law in London, Ont., and led Middle-sex’s Bar Association. Like his founding father before him he became president of Lon-don Life Insurance. His impressive stamp collection went to the University of Western Ontario. Charles William Jefferys (1869-1951) drew illustrations for leading newspapers of Canada and USA and for other publications. He studied and taught art and is hung in luxury hotels, galleries and the Royal Ontario Museum; but his major work was A Picture Gallery of Canadian History in three volumes with 600 illustrations.
There’s not a Geoffrey surname to be found in my 10-volume Encyclopedia Cana-diana or 1999 Canadian Encyclopedia although Louis Philippe Geoffrion (1875-1942) can’t be totally ignored. This Montreal lawyer became private secretary to Quebec’s premier, then clerk of the legislature until he died, and a civil servant almost 40 years. France and Canada honoured Geoffrion for compiling how French was spoken in this country.
Jeff Basoz, founder of Amazon.com, was Time magazine’s choice for person of 1999 even though his pioneer bookstore on the web lost millions. Time called this 35-year-old “king of cybercommerce” because he helped launch point ‘n’ click shopping.
Author Jeffrey Brian Hanington, multi-talented nephew b.1951 England, regularly feeds a family here by non-fiction work including film scripts for federal bureaucrats and military. In three decades of writing for National Defence I found the odd public servant unbearably nit-picky and obfuscating, uniformed seniors sesquipedalian when not taut with tautology, puffed with pleonasms. Stiff Sentences is what Brian calls his company of writers. He is also a hireable John the Baptist, out to pare governmentese.
JESSICA/JESSIE Jessica is the name of the daughter of Shylock in Shakespeare’s Mer-chant of Venice 1596, a play now deemed racist. Either the Bard made Jessica up or took it from a Bible translation of that period. Was he thinking of Jesca [Gen. 11:29]? This possible niece of Abraham was made Iscah in the later King James Authorized Version. It means He beholds.
A celebrated actress of stage and screen throughout a long life was Jessica Tandy (1909-94) b. London, England. She earned a law degree in ‘74. Jessica Paré of Montreal, 19-year-old beauty in 2000, grew up in a family acquainted with theatre so chose acting over modelling. She was ingenue in Denys Arcand’s satirical movie Stardom. We present Jessica Erin Riddell b. 1978 Halifax twin of Ryan Patrick. Their mother is my niece Janet Munro (McDonald) Riddell.
Jessie now stands by itself although it has been pet form of three names. Scots can mean either Jean or Janet when they use Jessie. It is also short for Jessica. In the USA Jessie can be female of Jesse.
He was the father of King David [1 Sam. 16]. Medieval Jesse Windows have him as root of a family tree having as its fruit David and other Old Testament figures, Baby Jesus in his Mother’s arms occupying the highest branch. Christ was hailed as being of the House of David. The Book of Isaiah speaks of a shoot coming from “the stump of Jesse”. The Hebrew Yishay i. e. Jesse, means gift, wealthy one, Jehovah exists, He be-holds, depending on name book consulted.
Jesse was popular among Puritans and not exclusive since to Jewish bearers. Black Americans especially favour it. Small wonder after Alabama’s Jesse Owens (1913-1980) won four gold medals in track & field at 1936 Olympic Games, Berlin, to chagrin of hosts extolling an Aryan Master Race. Miss Jessye Norman b. 1945 Atlanta, Georgia, black American operatic/concert soprano who went to England; made her opera debut 1969 Berlin as Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhauser. This diva appears in other great halls, our national capital and on TV where she can and does sing everything.
Another possible root of Jesse is the medieval maker of jesses for hawks suggest Reaney & Wilson 1997. Jess is short for Jessica and Jessie as well as Jesse. In Scots Gaelic it is Sesi or Teasag, the latter now a name in its own right. Jessie Lee Bernadette Wallace b. 1981 Ottawa is our #4 daughter Caroline’s gifted younger daughter.
JOACHIN The king of Judah defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and carried into Babylonian exile [2 Kings 24] was Johoiachin. From the Hebrew it translates: established by God. His father was Jehoiakim, which has confused the issue so we have today names Joachim and Joachin usually meaning the king. The names remain popular because medieval tradi-tion said he was father of the Virgin Mary. Anne is supposed to be her mother and both parents are venerated as saints.
A proto franco-ontarien of our daughter-in-law Lucie’s family is 19thcentury Joachin Bazinet. He set up shop as a tailor first in Bourget and then in Clarence Creek, two villages just east of the national capital.
Here are a few fragments from the historical index to the Old Testament contained in the Douay-Rheims New Testament 1899 edition. The Douay was first published in 1582:
In the year of the World 3473 Joachim high priest of Judea
In the year of the World 3405 Joachim, or Jechonias, King of Judea, son of the former Jechonias, or Joachez, reigned but three months, and was carried into Babylon, and with him Ezechial The Prophet and others.
In the year of [succeeding King] Sedecias, when King Jechonias the Younger was prisoner in Babylon, Jerusalem was taken, the temple destroyed, and the people carried captive into Babylon 4 Kings 25; 2 Par.36
JOAN more often in the form Joanna ornaments pages of history. The New Testament has Joanna ancestor of St. Joseph and another Joanna with women who found the tomb of Jesus empty.
Joanna or Joan (1165-98) queen of Sicily was daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Widowed and remarried to the Count of Toulouse she died in child-birth and was interred at Rouen veiled at her request as a nun! English-born Joan of Asa d. circa 1190 but her marriage had brought forth four children, one of them St. Dominic. Legend had her thinking she was carrying a dog in her womb when pregnant with him, hence the Dominican symbol along with their Latin label Domini canes, watchdogs of the Lord. Two Joannas were medieval queens of Naples and each lived amidst incessant in-trigue. Joanna the Mad (1479-1555) was queen or co-ruler of Castille and Leon, which also meant power struggles.
Joan, Fair Maid of Kent (1328-85) was an English noblewoman and widow who married the Black Prince. In 1378 she involved herself in the halt of proceedings against the Lollard anticleric John Wyclif, although apparently not a convert to this Englishman, forerunner of Protestants. The English Wyclif Bible was a landmark.
Joan of Arc (c. 1412-31) Maid of Orleans was the spark that lit a fire under dau-phin and French in the Hundred Years War. She saw him crowned King Charles VII. On trumped up heresy charges she was burnt at the stake after manoeuvring by enemies of France, namely Burgundy and England in alliance. Meanwhile her king turned a blind eye. Unschooled militarily, Joan was brave, motivated and tireless, deserving fine marks for leadership. Fully rehabilitated by the Church 25 years after death, she was canonized 1920. [Fisheries patrol vessels of the French navy for the Grand Banks observed annual Jeanne d’Arc day if alongside in Halifax by dressing ship overall with flags and pennants, and socializing. Wine carried in bulk tanks helped their ships achieve trim. Alas, I was on the wagon for Lent when I boarded one 1948 so my trim was unaffected.]
After the French Revolution Joan Elizabeth Bichier des Ages (1773-1838) helped revive religion in France, founding Congregation of Sisters of St. Andrew or Daughters of the Cross and herself concentrating on educating the poor.
A fable current in the period 13 to 17th centuries was revived early in the 20th by a sly Greek author. The Orthodox Church was so mortified by all the uproar it excommu-nicated him. Here it is, minus leers. Late in the first millennium a woman loved a monk and ran off with him to Athens disguised as a man. He died but not before she became a scholar and then, still in disguise, headed for Rome. She became cardinal and finally Pope John VIII (855-58) although really Joan. Here’s another legend. Joan was given choice of eternal punishment or utter disgrace on earth. She chose the latter and died on the street in childbirth during a papal procession. It took a Calvinist, David Blondel, to shoot these legends down by his books 1647 and ‘57, helped by author Johann Dollinger 1863. Then came that Greek “scamp of a book”.
But hold on. Peter Stanford, English Catholic and former Catholic Herald editor, after serious research concludes there was a Pope Joan; frequently chronicled and further-more her son may have become bishop of Ostia near Rome. In The Legend of Pope Joan author Stanford said she was born in Mainz, Germany, but of British parents more ac-customed to equality of sexes because of their Celtic Church. Further, exactly what and when made a now-wary Church begin to require new popes be given a short-arm inspec-tion? Today’s pressures for R. C. priestesses certainly won’t let this story die out.
Joans figured in early development of Canada. Jeanne Manse (1606-73) founded the city of Montreal 1641 with Maisonneuve and next year there Hotel Dieu hospital where she dedicated the rest of her life to the sick. Goddaughter Jeanne le Ber (1662-1714) motivated from early childhood entered Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal.
Our Joans definitely lack colour by contrast with medieval bearers. Joan Fontaine b.1917 was an Oscar-winning sister of Olivia de Havilland. Big Fontaine films were Re-becca 1940; Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion ’41 and The Constant Nymph ’43. My cousin Joan Ann Wallace b. 1919 Halifax as Uncle Tom’s 5th daughter was a beauteous brunette. She wrote me a series of encouraging letters mid ‘70s while I was struggling in depression. Joan Margaret (Small) Turner b. 1949 in London, Ont., is #2 daughter of my wife’s oldest sister Kay. Her second husband Gary is much like Bill Rothery. Joan ex-changed e-mails with us before separating from Gary. Her first visit to Ottawa was as member of a London separate schools band. She was so tiny we couldn’t see her behind her music stand.
JOHANN/JOHANNA An early Carew and a later McKenna woman bore variations of Johannes meaning John but they bore them very lightly. Hebrew Johanan translates Je-hovah has favoured, and was normally latinized as Johannes in early documents. Femi-nine of that is Johanna. Joanna was among women who came with oil and spice to em-balm Jesus after death and duly acquainted apostles with his resurrection. So far as popularity is concerned Johanna and its varieties fared well in English orbit during the 19th century but Joan climbed past so fast it flamed out. New Testament Joanna only caught on at the beginning of the 20th. Joanne is popular in French Canada, Jo Anne now among anglophones as well.
Johanna Carew (1851-73) was #2 daughter of our Founder Immigrant but she was called Joan. Johann Stella (McKenna) Carew (1906-95) from Pictou, N. S., was one of two sisters who married two Carew brothers, Uncles Steve and Basil. The McKennas or perhaps the daughter herself may have found her names unwieldy for she always went by Nan. In another coincidence involving both families, ancestors of both were weavers. McKennas left Ireland during a periodic slump in the textile industry. Carews came out from France via lives in England and Ireland. They were Huguenots involved with weav-ing at least in France and England. In family tradition they came to Ireland on a sinecure.
While Grandma Carew sank deeper into death late summer 1939, Aunt Nan cared for me in her home across the harbour in Dartmouth, N. S., giving a wandering 10-year-old pretty well all the slack rein he could ask for. Secretly I would have much rather been at deathbed and funeral but had no vote whatsoever.
JOHN For several centuries the name John has been tops in Christian countries but un-mistakable signs of abatement came in the 1950s. A term for men’s public toilets and for prostitutes’ clients is john, strong indicators that some magic has worn off. But what a pedigree, stretching as it does from early Biblical times to the Vatican of today.
John is English style, from Latin Io[h]annes, New testament Greek Ioannes, Heb-rew contraction Johanan meaning Jehovah has been gracious, coming from full-throated Yeho-khanan. Several Old Testament men bear the name, one as far back as King David’s reign. Three luminaries of the New Testament are John the Baptist, Christ’s advance man; John the Apostle, fisher brother of James; and John the Evangelist although the 4th Gos-pel may have been written, a case is made, half-a-century later by a Christian Jew nifty with Greek. The influence of his Gospel on Christianity has been great being an early and articulate statement of Christ as God and man. [I’d rather say he’s a mystic.] Num-erous saints such as controversial John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and mystic St. John of the Cross (1542-91) both made Doctors of the Church, have borne this name. And how about good old Guiseppe Roncalli (1881-1963) who fooled us all by being such a live wire, 23rd pope of name if you don’t count that anti-pope way back.
There were eight Byzantine emperors and numerous European monarchs; includ-ing John of England (1199-1216) nicknamed John Lackland who provoked Magna Carta. The name had been brought to England in the 11th century by Normans although there’d been rare occurrences in the Old English period. At the start of the 14th John was passing William in popularity to begin a long reign. Various forms were emerging such as Johan, Jehan, Jean, Jon and Jan. Flemish immigrants brought Hann and Jen and their diminu-tives, so surnames now ranged from Johnson through Jones, Jenkins, Jackson, Hancock and Hanson.
Many Irish Johnsons particularly in Ulster came from Scotland. Johnson, how-ever, there and in Louth is often English for MacShane from Mac Seain and thus a branch of the O’Neills.
John Cabot out of Bristol, England, landed on North American soil 25 June 1497. Actually we’re unclear whether the Matthew made it to Labrador, to the Rock or to Nova Scotia on behalf of Henry Tudor. Documents with his signature have finally surfaced to establish Giovanni Caboto had been a Venetian citizen if not native there, variously arti-san, fur merchant, slaver, realtor, and restorer of expensive homes. Caboto, deep in debt, had to flee his Venetian creditors. He died 1498 aged 48 or 49 on his second voyage to this continent. Only one of that five-ship expedition made it back and only as far as Ireland: he wasn’t aboard.
John Bunyan (1628-88) was Puritan minister/preacher who fought for parliamen-tary forces in the English Civil War. With restoration he was jailed 1661 for 12 years as a non-conformist. Among his books towers The Pilgrim’s Progress 1678.
First man to leave earth was Jean Pilatre de Rozier 1783 Versailles, France. He lit straw to heat and thus expanded air into his tethered balloon. He ascended 25 metres, but was killed trying to cross over the English Channel a year later. Frenchwoman Jeanne La-brosse was first of her sex in the world to make a parachute jump 12 Oct. 1799. She was fiancée of balloonist André-Jacques Garnerin who’d made the world’s first such descent, about 900 metres, from a balloon over Parc Monçeau two years before.
We were given immensely talented German author/philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832), composers Johan Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Johannes Brahms (1833-97), Austrian waltz kings Johann Strauss Sr. & Jr., Finn Johan Julius Christian [a.k.a. Jean pronounced Jan] Sibelius (1865-1957) and, on modern stage and movie set, John Barrymore then John Gielgud. Strauss II confessed eventually that he had never danced “in my life!” Johnny Cash, 68-year-old American songster of the underdog put out another album in 2000. That Lucky Old Sun inside it reminded The Ottawa Citizen reviewer of Cash’s youth on a Depression cotton farm.
Quebec born John Harvey as a British lieutenant colonel was a senior staff officer in Canada in the War of 1812 and as major general took command of the Irish Constabul-ary 1828. Back in Canada in ‘37 he served successively as lieutenant governor of Prince Edward Island, of New Brunswick and of Newfoundland. He d. ‘52 in his 74th year.
For arm-chairing there’s peerless Cold War spy novelist John Le Carré, pen name of David Cornwell b. 1931 Poole, Dorset, England, who served British intelligence during the Second World War. He’s aimed recent clever writing at other absorbing situations.
Patron saint of Quebec is St-Jean Baptiste and communities in Manitoba and Quebec honour his name. See also St. John. Among our first Canadian martyrs is Jean de Brébeuf tortured and killed 1648 by Iroquois attacking Huronia. In 1643 this Jesuit com-posed the first Canadian Christmas carol, in Huron. The Huron Carol begins:
‘Twas in the moon of wintertime,
When all the birds had fled,
That mighty Gitchi-Manitou sent angel choirs instead….
I don’t suppose the world will soon forget John Paul II b. 1920 Karol Wojtyla at Wadowice, Poland, pope since 1978 and first non-Italian since mid 16th-century Adrian VI, or Hadrian, sole English pontiff previously known as Nicolas Breakspear. U. S. as-tronaut and Senator John Glenn b. 1921 hasn’t been forgotten either by his electorate or NASA which sent him back into space when 77.
Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (1821-93) McGill law school dean was Canada’s third P.M., a compromise candidate who proved astute. He wrote, “I hate politics…I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses, and everything that I know of that is apparently the necessary incident of politics – except doing public work to the best of my ability.”
John Campbell Gordon, earl of Aberdeen, was governor general of Canada 1893-98. He caused quite a flap by refusing to rubber stamp patronage appointments made by Sir Charles Tupper following the latter’s defeat in the general election of ’96. Another was John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, marquess of Lorne. While G. G. 1878-83 he founded the Royal Academy of Arts now National Gallery and the Royal Society of Canada. His wife Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s 4th daughter, lent her name to the fusilier militia regiment in Halifax in which served our Carews of at least two generations. Sir John Young, baronet then baron, was G. G. 1869-72. He started up the Governor General’s Foot Guard. Our #4 son Barnaby received infantry training in this militia unit as weekend warrior and summer student. With Reserves from Grenadier Guards, Mon-treal, some Foot Guards also perform ceremonial drill on Parliament Hill and at Rideau Hall during the tourist season.
We can’t ignore John Sparrow Thompson b. 1845 Halifax, former Bluenose cabi-net minister then premier who became first Roman Catholic, first native-born Canadian and first premier to become prime minister. He died of a heart attack aged 49 while lun-ching with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. This was barely an hour after being sworn into the British privy council. He had converted from Methodism after courting Annie Affleck, getting by her Roman Catholic parents by claiming he was merely teaching her French and shorthand. Married 1870, they actually wrote shorthand to each other daily when apart.
John “Jock” MacGregor (1899-1952) Scots immigrant to Canada’s West, as rank-er and officer in the Great War was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal, Military Cross, Victoria Cross and then a Bar to his Military Cross in actions at Vimy Ridge and beyond. In the Second World War Jock commanded 2nd Battalion, Canadian Scottish Regiment, training soldiers to fight in Europe and attaining rank of lieutenant colonel. It had begun with him a trapper in northern B. C. who, in 1915 snowshoed for days to the railway, rode a box car to Prince Rupert to enlist only to be turned down. Better groomed Jock presented himself to recruiters in Vancouver and was accepted. John Weir Foote of Madoc, Ont. (1904-88) was a Presbyterian minister turned chaplain to the Royal Hamil-ton Light Infantry for the Second World War. He wasn’t allowed on the commando style assault on Dieppe August 1942 with 5,000 Canadians but Padre X went anyway, eight hours on the beach under fire dragging casualties to shelter and administering to the dying while lying prone beside them. It was a bloodbath for Canadians, bulk of the 6,000 rai-ders. Emplaced German guns and wheel-to-wheel field artillery mowed many down. Chaplain Foote carried wounded to landing craft preparing for retreat, one documentary remarking: “He intends to save more than their souls.” He went back ashore to accom-pany the surrendered to prisoner of war camps until their release in ‘45. He’s our only chaplain to be awarded a Victoria Cross, the British Commonwealth’s highest decoration for valour.
Black American ballplayers had their own organization because they’d been shut out of whites-only major leagues. Possibly first to crack the barrier was Negro League star Jackie Robinson who signed on with the Montreal Royals 1945. Spectators made him feel at home in this farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Johnny Wayne, b. 1918 Toronto in college there teamed up with Frank Shuster b. ‘16 for what became a four-decade professional career of comic duo capers on TV and in movies. They performed on the TV network Ed Sullivan Show 67 times. Johnny d. 1990, Frank 2002.
Jean Vanier b. 1928, brilliant son of Governor-General Georges-Phileas and Paul-ine Vanier, we knew in the Canadian Navy of mid-20th century as Jock, which is what a Scots governess had called him. Under this slim, keen naval lieutenant in HMCS Magni-ficent I monitored fleet exams for promotions to rank of leading seaman. I joined his cur-rent affairs sessions in this aircraft carrier but quit a quasi-religious discussion group. Jock forsook a promising naval career to join priest Thomas Philippe in starting l’Arche, [the ark] 1964 at Troisly, France, a home for men mentally and physically disadvantaged. Today there are more than 120 l’Arche communities in 30 countries around the world in-cluding 26 in Canada. His widowed mother devoted the rest of her life to his work. Vic-toria Matthews, Anglican bishop of Edmonton, declared, “Jean Vanier is the epitome of privilege and power who has chosen to be powerless, and to speak on behalf of the pow-erless.” Age 77 in 2005, Jock is first layman and sixth individual given the Knights of Columbus Gaudium et Spes [joy & hope} award, highest made by the world’s largest R. C. fraternal organization. My only quibble about this admirable and very likable young leader was that he licked his fingers at breakfast in the Maggie.
The retired head of the Canadian Forces and former ambassador to the USA, Gen. John de Chastelain supervising disarmament of Irish factions in Ulster, was named Scots-man of the year. An accomplished piper, the former chief of the defence staff and Cana-dian ambassador in Washington was honoured 6 Apr. 2002 by an umbrella group repre-senting Quebec’s Scottish organizations.
We have nine first-namers ranging from John Munro (1769-1840) N. S. Founder Father, to John Michael Harder b. Lieskovsky 1962 Blairmore, Alta., married to our 9th and youngest child Cecily. There are almost as many second namers. Its varia-tions, and feminine forms, whether in front, middle or end, occur in more than a score of names scattered throughout our Catalogue. Meanwhile a cave lost many centuries has just been found again west of Jerusalem and linked to John the Baptist and followers. It’s close by his place of birth. This rediscovery could have a big impact on Christian history and even help resurrect John the name.
JOHNS[T]ON[E] The -h- is a relic of Hebrew via Latin. The John part goes back to the meaning Yahweh has favoured. New Testament-wise, Prof. Basil Cottle gives the edge to John the Baptist over John the Evangelist for the name’s frequency at the font. Not even the worst English monarch detracted from its popularity; after all, king, barons and Mag-na Carta of 1215 were most likely more than a tad remote from the populace. Reaney & Wilson took note of a deed dated 1287 in Surrey involving John Jonessone.
Without a –t- Johnson means John’s son. Johnsons of Ireland, especially in Ul-ster, are Scots in origin and also the English equivalent of Irish MacShane from Mac Seaine, an O’Neill branch.
Sir William Johnson (1715-74) a native of County Meath really went native to line up America’s Six Nations as allies, learning their language and adopting many Indian customs. Two of this Irishman’s three common-law wives were native, Molly a sister of Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, his interpreter. Sir William was made major general and baronet. British general Sir Henry Johnson (1748-1835) fought revolting Americans and then Irish, his chief battle there at New Ross 1798. Sir John Johnson, several years older, was a Loyalist leader who fled to Canada then launched raids into New York State. R. M. Johnson in the War of 1812 raised an American regiment of mounted rifles, was wounded while leading the winning charge at Battle of the Thames near London, Ont. Some credit him with killing famous Shawnee chief Tecumseh there.
Johnstons with a -t- come from John’s Toun, his dwelling place, a parish in Dum-friesshire from which developed the great Border clan. Others took their name from Jonystoun, East Lothian, or from St. John’s-toun, Perth.
George Johnstone was a scrappy British naval officer in the latter 1700s who had plenty of action when not annoying his superiors and fellow Parliamentarians. J.E. “Gamecock” Johnston was a Confederate general as was Albert S. who’d been command-er in chief of the Texas army and then that republic’s secretary of war. He was killed on the first day of Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, 1862. Jefferson Davis thought his death the turning point of the War Between the States.
The spelling Johnson is pretty well universal today but Johns (also meaning son of John) is frequent in the southwest of England and in South Wales. We have a few score thereabouts. The -t- forms are also common in northern England as well as Scotland in these days of regular spelling. Rough, tough Border families were these. Despite his spelling, President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-73) was Texan, true, but one from that older border’s stock.
Johnson was 10th in England and Wales 1853 but in USA 1939, secondmost. Johnston with the -t- rated 10th in 1958 Scotland, 33rd in 1890 Ireland and 47th in 1939 USA. The Ottawa area phone book for 1998-99 had seven columns of Johnsons and almost as many Johnstons. Deborah Elizabeth (Johnson) Hanington b. 1953 Lachine, Qué., is my nephew Brian’s wife here. Barbara (Johnston) Small b. 1956 in London, Ont., is spouse of my wife’s nephew there, John Patrick Small.
JONATHAN This is a name symbolic of steadfast loyalty and friendship. In the Old Testament Jonathan [1 Sam. 31; 2 Sam. 1:19-26] was the son of Saul, first king of the Jews. He and David buddied up even though Saul disapproved because he was jealous of David. Jonathan carried on a successful war against Philistines, a people believed to be of the same stock as those of the Greek archipelago. However, he and two brothers and his father Saul were slain during Battle of Mount Gilboa, 1033 BCE [before Common Era]. David’s dirge for Jonathan is among the very best in Hebrew poetry, an elegy entitled The Song of the Bow. David also showed kindness to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. Recent centuries had authors extolling David and Jonathan as symbols of true friendship. Anoth-er Jonathan, either uncle or nephew of David advised him on translations of 1st Chronicles into Aramaic.
Y-honathan means Yahweh has given, or more succinctly, Jehovah’s gift. Nathan and Nathaniel carry the same meaning.
Jonathan the Maccabee was appointed High Priest by Alexander Balas who was a candidate for the Syrian throne 142-143 BCE. Jonathan ben Nuzziel flourished about 30 BCE as a learned and able Hebrew scholar, after having been one of the first 30 pupils of revered Hillel, Jewish teacher, lawyer and Biblical scholar.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was Dublin-born Ascendancy Irish clergyman, journalist and author of Gulliver’s Travels 1726, then a satirical masterpiece later effacing into a lasting story for children. His observations on the actual conditions of the Irish populace were penetrating while he was a government secretary.
In the American Revolution the British besieging Boston coined Brother Jonathan for any American or the country itself although this term originally applied only to Jona-than Turnbull, Connecticut governor. As can be surmised, the name had become very popular in 17th century Britain although rare before then. That enthusiasm for Jonathan carried over to the American colonies. The name was rediscovered 1940s and was still going strong in the ‘80s.
Jonathan Winters b. 1925 is actor, comedian, variety show host, and a voice part in the Hanna Barbera cartoon series The Flintstones. Jonathan is frequently on the tube e. g. The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters; as son of Mearth in Mork & Mindy; Hee Haw; It’s a Mad, Mad World; and two-time Emmy winning Davis Rules. His title role in The Sheldon Kennedy Story won Jonathan Scarfe a Gemini 2000 for best actor.
Jonathan Levi Wallace Michell b. 1985 Prince George, B. C., is our #1 daughter Marita’s adoptive son in Burnaby, B. C. Jon generally summers in Pr. Geo. environs with Jos. Michell, adoptive father divorced from Marita. Jos continues active in aborig-inal matters so Jonathan does projects part-time.
JOSEPH Remember Joseph, he of the coat of divers colours whose jealous brothers sold him into slavery? He becomes the Egyptian Pharoah’s chief steward and baits those brothers a bit when they come looking for supplies because of famine back home. All ends well in this Old Testament treat.
In the New Testament Joseph is husband of the Virgin Mary and supports the Holy Family as a builder. A devout Jew of the line of David, he is said to have died before Christ actually began his ministry. Feast March 19. The last we read of him is when 12-year-old Jesus is found in the Temple [Luke 2.42-50]. Husbands and fathers can certainly identify with a man persevering day by day in duty to his family. Don’t forget that humble Joseph, protector of the working man, is also patron saint of Canada. An old prayer to him bears repeating:
Hail St. Joseph, Patron of Canada, protector and guardian of our beloved homeland: Keep under your solemn patronage, in this hour of crisis, the unity, the faith and integrity of your children, the Canadian people, from sea to sea. Amen.
Joseph’s cult spread more in the East, in the wake of a widely read 5 to 7th cen-tury History of Joseph the Carpenter. Counter-Reformationists Ignatius of Loyola and Theresa of Avila are credited with re-energizing southern Europe and the New World to this sainted and very practical foster parent. The Hebrew Yosef means He [God] shall add [another son], Joseph having been 12th son of Jacob.
A Joseph of Arimathea, Jewish counsellor, took Jesus down from the cross and provided shroud and tomb. Medieval legend has Philip the Apostle sending this man to spread Christianity in Britain; bringing the Holy Grail and raising the first British church, of wattle, at Glastonbury. Many Josephs of medieval England were Jews.
Joseph Brant (c.1742-1807) a. k. a. Thayendanegea was Mohawk leader and principal chief of the Six Nations allied with British in the American Revolution. Like Tecumseh later he was trying to unite Iroquois and western Indians to block American expansion westward. Admired as a soldier, the British commissioned him captain 1780. A cultured man with a grand house at Burlington Bay, he translated parts of the Bible into Mohawk. Brantford, Ont., is named after him.
Henry Joseph (1775-1832) and his son did some pioneering in Lower Canada. It was his Uncle Aaron Hart who suggested he try life here. Henry, an English merchant, settled in Quebec and specialized in moving freight via inland waterways. He established trade relations with Great Britain and one of his ships, the Eweretta [sp?], was registered 1801 or earlier. He has been called a founder of Canada’s mercantile marine. The son, Ja-cob Henry Joseph, served on the governing side in the 1837 Papineau Rebellion and help-ed build the first railway in Canada. He was also a partner in the first trans-Atlantic cable line.
The folksong Mufferaw Joe is about a real person. Montreal-born Joe Montfer-rand (1802-64) grew into an Ottawa Valley strongman who could take on 20 anglo lum-berjacks. P[hineas] T[aylor] Barnum billed him strongest in the world just as he did later with Quebecer Louis Cyr. Joe retired back in Montreal, tavern & restaurant owner.
Joseph Hooker (1814-79) Union general in the American Civil War unknowingly gave us another term for members of the oldest profession. They followed his troops as they have followed others all through time but this time were called Hooker’s Girls and the label stuck. But see Hook.
Ukraine-born Josef Teodour Konrad Korzeniowski (1857-1924) went to sea and mastered English and his environment so well that he wrote lasting novels of the sea as internationally respected Joseph Conrad. Another famous author is Joseph Heller who d. 12 Dec. 1999 age 76. He wrote the war satire Catch-22; made into a movie, and more important, a title that has entered the language meaning an inescapable bind. Barrel-chested master mariner Joseph Elzéar Bernier (1852- 1934) hailed from sailing generations out of the lower St. Lawrence River as far back as 1656. He captained the steam & sail-driven wooden-hulled Arctic on annual voyages 1904-11 to the High North, in the pro-cess confirming Canada’s claim to our Arctic Archipelago. An Atlantic convoy skipper in the Great War, Captain Bernier returned to the Arctic until retirement 1925. Once the youngest deep-sea captain in Canadian history at 17, his eventual knowledge of far northern navigation was second to none. Pope Pius XI knighted him in ’33 and he delighted in the accompanying fancy rig.
He liked to call himself a Father of Confederation did Joseph Roberts Smallwood who was premier of Newfoundland the first 23 years it was a Canadian province. An RCN Reserve air officer in St. John’s said to me of Joey: “He’ll always catch sight of you first. And, by the time you’re side by side, he knows how’s he c’n manoeuvre you!” Joey d. 1991 aged 90.
Newfoundland writer Ray Guy remembered long afterwards: “when Joey Small-wood walked up Parliament Hill to sign the Terms of Union, some reporter asked him how he felt at this historic moment.
“’I feel,” says Joey, ‘just what some future prime minister of Canada will feel when he walks up Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C., on a similar mission’.”
Joseph in Irish is Iosep, in Scots Gaelic, Seasaidh. Joseph came into more general use in the 17th century but declined in Britain from the start of the 20th. Irish parents re-main loyal. Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) Adolf Hitler’s suffocating little propaganda mi-nister of the Third Reich may have somewhat dampened enthusiasm at the font.
As far as popularity in our families is concerned, Joseph is second only to John.
Canada’s poet of blue-collar workers was my Toronto-born uncle, Joseph Syl-vester Wallace (1890-1975). He was carefully ignored in Canada although lionized in Communist Russia, its satellites and China. Pinko uncle and pinko père were somewhat of a trial to us Cold Warriors but their dossiers were shut as age overtook their youthful ire. Joe had been interned in Canada for a while in the Second World War but then Ger-many invaded Russia. More is revealed about Uncle Joe in Kin Tales IV, XXIV and XXIX.
Two other relatives called Joseph are dead, a third divorced. That would be our grandson Jonathan’s stepfather Joseph Michell, a Dakelh [Carrier] Indian leader in B. C.’s centre who reminds me of another Joseph, Chief Hinmaton Yalakit, Thunder Rolling over the Mountains (c.1840-1904). This American Nez Percé conducted a 1,300-mile, 100-day fighting withdrawal across four states after U. S. Gen. Oliver O. Howard threatened to force his Oregon tribe onto a reservation. “The earth is the mother of all people” said Chief Joseph “and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.”
For around a dozen in our tree Joseph is a middle name. My wife’s late dad and her older brother both are named Douglas Joseph French. My cousin J. Owen Granville b.1925 Halifax bypassed his first name Joseph. Uncle Joe Wallace was hardly his hero although Joe carved himself a niche in CanLit. Joseph was the saintly third name tacked onto infant Howard Carew Wallace b. 1929 Saint John, N.B., for sake of baptismal rites. Or does mine honour talented but sour Uncle Joe?
JÜRISSEN Step by step now. Jürissen means son of Juris. That sounds a bit like Yo-rick, and Hamlet was at the Danish court. In Act V, Scene 1, Line 201, Hamlet pauses at the grave of the court jester: “Alas poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.” Thanks to William Shakespeare (1564-1616) we’ve nailed the surname of #4 son Barnaby’s former father-in-law Erich Jürissen b. 1938 Oberhaus-en, Germany. Yorick is a respelling of Jorck, a Danish form of George. Saint George, legendary hero of the Eastern Church, patron of England since the 14th century, was also patron saint of Germany and Portugal.
Therefore Jürissen means son of George. The Crusaders appropriated the saint after seeing a vision of him while besieging Antioch in the 1st Crusade. [They carried on appropriating everything they could lay their hands on!] George comes from Greek Georgios derived from the word georgos. Getting to basics, the ge- element means earth, -ergein, to work. Ergo, a farmer. More can be found under the name entry for George.
Erich’s wife Hilla later shared their perspective. “The Jürissen name comes from Jurgsen, son of Jurg which equals George. When we were in Norway some years ago we saw different people with that name; similar are Persson, Nilsson. Erich’s ancestors must have come from Scandinavia, but we don’t know when, and the name has been German-ized. All women in Erich’s family are tall and blond.” That goes for his daughters Uta [our Barney’s ex-wife] and Katrin. Jürissens Senior are retired in southern Switzerland. Minusio overlooks Lake Maggiore and their holiday retreat is up the mountain via a narrow, hairpin track that scared my wife.
Both were born and raised in an area of Germany bordering on Belgium and The Netherlands. Some historic areas of Germany were united in 1946 to form the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This brought the coal and steel Ruhr Basin under one adminis-tration. It’s Germany’s most populous state, biggest manufacturing region, and one of the largest smokestack regions of the world.
[In earlier years of the Cold War Canada committed to NATO an infantry brigade in Germany and beefed it up to mechanized “mini-division”. It operated as part of the British Army of the Rhine to deter breakout of Iron Curtain forces onto the North German plain. Canadians garrisoned little Soest, one of Germany’s oldest cities and the major town of Westphalia in the Middle Ages. RCAF tactical nuclear strike squadrons were arrayed further south in Germany. On a duty visit we motored by an endless row of steel mills astride a coal seam. Product was conveyed out of a mine below direct to maws of furnaces. Apart from vapour rising, this region was much cleaner than our smokestack sectors and their highway system was superb. Obviously half the state’s land resources were devoted to agriculture. Some of the fields we saw had been cultivated for 1,000 years, we were told, and very hard to purchase. The trip south to the Canadian air division along the Autobahn with its sweeping scenery contrasted with demented car drivers in fast lanes and crawling goods trucks in slow. The German forests were marching over hills in ranks as tight, it seemed, as armies of the Napoleonic Wars. I compared my ascent and descent years earlier up copycat Autopista to Caracas, Venezuela.]
Erich was born and raised in the industrial city of Oberhausen near Essen, seat of the famous Krupp steel works, in the northern part of the Ruhr Basin. Oberhausen, char-tered 1874, is a port on the Rhine-Herne canal. The first German steam engine had been made 1814 in what is now a district of the city. Erich’s background led to his represen-ting a foundry in northern Italy and then Volkswagen.
Hilla comes from the village of Riesenbeck up around Munster. That city was founded c. 800 as a Carolingian episcopal see, its princely bishops ruling a large part of Westphalia. The city grew from the site of a 9th century monastery. Secularized from the 14th, Munster figured prominently in the Hanseatic League, trading chiefly with England and Russia. In 1534-35 Anabaptist experimental government was put under John of Lei-den. The treaty ending the Thirty Years War was drawn up here 1648. There was even a kingdom of Westphalia in Napoleonic times. Then, as a Prussian city, it was made capital of the province of Westphalia. Severely damaged by allied bombs in the Second World War and promptly rebuilt like all those Ruhr Basin centres of production; Munster preserved at least some medieval character in a cathedral from the 13th century and a Gothic city hall. For a charming legend about Hilla’s village, see Reinhildis.
KAITLIN The Irish for Catherine [which see] is Caitlin, perhaps from Greek katheros, pure one. Kaitlin is a less common way of presenting it. Ca[i]triona, which is sounded catreena, appeals mostly to those of Scots ancestry, in Welsh it’s Catrin. On the other hand, Katelyn and Katlyn can be elaborations of Kate, as well as respellings of Caitlin. Originally Irish Gaelic Caitlin was pronounced kat-leen but the English-speaking world prefers kate-lin. The bonus is that we got the new name Kathleen out of it.
So say names experts but Caitlin Aline Kelly has other ideas. She’s a New York writer who grew up in Toronto and Montreal in the 1960s and ‘70s. She wrote in the Ottawa Citizen’s Weekly 22 Oct. 2000 that “in Wales they pronounce it ‘Cawthlin’, in Ireland ‘Cawchleen’”. Her web site is caitlinkelly.com where she has acquired like “athletic writers” of name. Kaitlin Elizabeth Smith b. 1988 Ottawa, is daughter by a pre-vious marriage of Dave Smith, our #2 daughter Catherine Anne’s second husband. Little sister Natalie adores Kate.
Normally one expects a k- word in Greek to move to a hard c- in Gaelic as from Keltoi to Celt. But jock teams are called Celts as in selts! Must it be Katalogue of Cin?
KATHLEEN The Irish Gaelic Caitlin translated into Kathleen because of the way the Irish was pronounced. Caitlin has been anglicized to sound like kate-lin so we have two names instead of one. Cathleen is just a different spelling, not as common. Apart from its Irish stamp, the Old French form was Cateline, the Spanish form Catalina. Middle English Catlin is a likely relative.
A song very much favoured by Canadian and British Empire troops during the Boer War at turn of the 19/20th century began: “I’ll take you home again, Kathleen.” A good melody, very nostalgic became the signature song of the South African War. [Psst: Kathleen died before ever getting back to the Auld Sod.]
Ann Kathleen (McKenna) Carew (1897-1995) was Uncle Basil’s widow and in my Halifax childhood a dainty and unfailingly courteous aunt. She went by Kathleen but their daughter of the same sterling qualities is Anne Kathleen (Carew) Hallisey.
KATIE This is yet another of the pet forms of Catherine [which see] or Katherine. Kate echoes the French sound -t- for -th- and this was so in Merrie England. Shakespeare used the name Kate for the French king’s daughter who marries Henry V; and guess who’s in The Taming of the Shrew? Kate & Kath, Katie & Kathie – double endearments. Kate Nelligan b. 195l Patricia Colleen Nelligan London, Ont., made her acting debut ‘74 Lon-don, England. Her Canadian debut was at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre ‘88 in Michael Weller’s Spoils of War. By ‘99 she’d done roles in more than 15 movies.
Katie Wallace of Oshawa, Ont., was a Katherine and 19th century sister of my Grandfather Tam. She was bright, pretty and musically talented, a schoolmarm who d. of TB aged 42, unwed. Katie (Kenwell) Small is spouse of my wife’s nephew Tom in Lon-don, Ont. Katie-Ann is wife of Keith Reevie in Barrie, Ont., younger brother of Tina, spouse of our #1 son Duncan in North Carolina. Katie Walzak whose mother was a Small is my wife’s grandniece born in the same city. In 1998 she and her family moved to Victoria.
KATHERINE In line to be second U. S. -born woman saint is Katherine Drexel (1858-1955) once a Philadelphia socialite whose rich family already had a habit of good works. She took the cloth along with a vow of poverty when age 30 and founded mission Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament 1891. Using a $20 million inheritance left by her rich father [Francis Drexel, banker partner of J. P. Morgan] Katherine started up well over a hundred rural and inner-city schools and another 12 for American natives. Xavier University in New Orleans thus made history as the only black R. C. college in the country. She d. aged 96.
School marm Katherine Wallace of Oshawa, Ont., was my bright and musical great aunt who died in Oshawa, Ont., aged 43 of T. B. mid-19th century. Katherine Anne née McDonald is my niece, in Halifax trained in the law and then eight years active in human rights concerns in Ottawa. Katherine “Katie” Walzak, my wife’s great niece in Victoria won 2002 University of Victoria excellence scholarship while at St. Andrew’s regional high school. For history of the name itself see Catherine.
KATRIN There are several noteworthy C[K]atherines and Katies [which see], a goodly number of nations that use these names, and a generosity of ways in which to spell them. Katrin is a German version for the younger sister of our #4 son Barnaby’s ex-wife. B. 20 Sept. 1970 Emsdettin, Germany, she completed her studies in Switzerland ‘96 and went to work in Zurich for the internal audit group of that country’s Union Bank. “Katrin”, wrote her mother Hilla Jürissen from Minusio, southern Switzerland, “is named after Caterina da Siena [c.1347-80]…She was a poet – religious and mystical – her letters are important documents for the Italian language. Both names were chosen to fit with the family name…short with a long…Uta and Katrin have not got second names.”
This tall girl came along to Ottawa for the ‘94 wedding of Barnaby and Uta. En-tering the National Arts Centre for ceremony and festivities, tall Katrin fell hard, cutting a hand and breaking a small bone. She bore it so stoically that most of the wedding party was unaware of her accident. Our #1 son Duncan discretely applied First Aid and arrang-ed follow-up treatment next day. We learned her painful secret days after.
KATSINA Our #2 son Stephen and wife Lucie embarked early on their careers in foreign aid by heading for northern Nigeria to teach as members of Canadian University Services Overseas. They taught in Katsina, a city in Kaduna State in part of what once was Hausaland, a language region covering areas of Nigeria and Niger Republic.
In 1978 Marie-Pierre Katsina Wallace was born there. Her bright blue eyes, blond hair and fair complexion appeared in startling contrast to dark-eyed, brown-skinned na-tives. They couldn’t get their tongues around Marie-Pierre so called her the gracefully flowing name Mariama. At the market place she was passed from hand to hand so all the women could share the novelty of her fairness. It did much for her composure subse-quently as daughter of Canadian aid officials in the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho, and afterwards in Central America. Mary fell into the role of Spanish inter-preter during a school visit to Nicaragua for several weeks in the winter of ‘97 on North-South projects. Now she’s at McGill U. Her dad keeps telling me he’s proud of her.
A dozen years ago the population of Katsina near the Niger border was estimated at 165,000. When Steve and family were there he guessed Katsina at 120,000 – what awed him was all those cooking fires winking on at night. Hausa is the language of the largely Moslem, sub-Saharan region. Reversions to military rule of late see Nigeria in and out of the British Commonwealth doghouse. At the queen’s golden jubilee 2002 Com-monwealth membership stood at 54 members.
KAYLA The meaning depends on where you hail from. In the case of our family tree, this name comes from northern Semitic languages. Its Arabic root is Kalila meaning sweetheart, beloved. This is also rendered Kaylee in English. The Hebrew version is Kelula, short form Kayla here meaning crown. In Yiddish it’s for Celia perhaps heavenly. Arabic forms evoke storied Lebanon, homeland once of our latest grand daughter’s mater-nal line. Kayla Najla Wallace b. 2002 to our #5 son Matthew and Lily, her names a tor-rent of endearments. See also Abdallah, Najla, Fayad. Kayla is also an alteration of Kay-ley or Kaylah, recent coinages that have caught on in America. One is a variation of Kelly. The element Kay evokes King Arthur, the Round Table and seneschal Sir Kay. That particular Kay evolved in Wales from Latin Caius or Gauis meaning “rejoice”. An-other root is English Kay for someone living or staying near a boat landing. In Old French were Kay or quay surviving in Middle English key and quay. And there’s an old English or Saxon word caega meaning key in the early sense of a peg or for that matter a rounded hill. A place in Picardy Kais (Cais) wound up as de Kay, the name of Breton settlers in East Anglia. Some came over in the Norman Conquest. A powerful northern clan, Mac-Kays descend from the old Scottish Royal House of Mac Eth. In 1427 they mustered 4,000 for battle. In 1626 they raised an army of 3,000 for the Thirty Years War, a third from the MacKay clan. Their Gaelic name is Mac Aoidh, son of fire. MacKays of Argyle go back to the 13th century and are said of no connection to MacKays of the north. In Ulster, MacKay inhabitants originated among stoutly armed Scots/ Norse mercenaries called galloglasses, an English rendering of the original Gaelic.
KEITH Like Bruce, Douglas and Graham, this is another aristocratic Scottish surname become given name by the 19th century. It originated as a locale in Scotland’s East Loth-ian, likely from a Britonnic word meaning woods. Norman adventurer Hervey won the favour of David I. His family was granted a charter to the lands of Keth ca. 1150, a son made great marischal in ‘76. They took the surname Keith and also had Caithness pro-perty where they feuded with Clan Gunn. Sir Robert Keith had his grant 1294 from King John yet went over 1308 to Robert Bruce; commanding 500 horse successfully at Battle of Bannockburn in ’14. However at Neville’s Cross in ’46 Keith was killed as the Sassen-ach won. From Clan Keith’s principal family came a run of hereditary earls marischal of Scotland 1455-1715. The surname became well known too in 17th century Ulster. A son of the 9th earl, James Francis Edward Keith (1676-1758) joined the Spanish army and then as a Russian general under Czar Peter the Great warred with Turks and Swedes. After that he became a marshal in the Prussian army and governor of Berlin under the wily King of Prussia, Frederick the Great. This Keith was killed during the Battle of Hochkirk in the Seven Years War 1740-86. The one that concerns us more is younger brother of Tina Reevie that was, wife of our oldest son Duncan. Keith brought his family from still snow-bound Barrie in Ontario to North Carolina as scores celebrated Duncan’s 50th birthday 13 March 2005.
KELLY As a surname Kelly ranked second in Ireland in 1890, although less than one per cent had kept the prefix O. To a degree the O has been resumed since. MacKellys were a minor sept of eastern Connacht but with Mac dropped as well as O who can easily tell? There is no lack of Kellys on the Isle of Man and in Scotland, Galloway particularly, due to Irish immigration.
O’Kellys have been prominent through much of Ireland and its history. When O Conor was king of Connacht, O’Kelly was steward of the royal jewels. The list of au-thenticated Irish chiefs in 1956 numbered only 16 but an O’Kelly was there. They are found these days in counties Derry, Galway, Leix, Meath and Wicklow. Kelly has absorbed other similar sounding but uncommon surnames. Kilkelly is one, notably around Oughterard, O’Keally in Leix, and O’Kehilly.
Kelly ranked 42nd in Scotland in 1958 but some have to be locality names such as Kelly near Arbroath, Angus, and Pictish Gaelic Kellie in Fife, meaning woods. Father James McGivern cites a MacKelly family traced to the 12th century, the Mull branch of which changed name to Macdonald. Another MacKelly family flourished in 14th century Perthshire. Kelly is common in sou’west England in part due to celli, Cornish for wood, grove, and the place name Kelly in Devon.
The given name most likely comes from O Ceallaigh, descendant of Ceallach. That is a name of several interpretations such as bright-headed, or possibly strife or war. Most name books choose the warrior sense. Then too it might be from Gaelic ceall, geni-tive plural of cill meaning monastery or church. Monasteries certainly battled so it is very likely some had war and strife.
Kelly as a first name has been bestowed on boys and girls alike but the girls are getting more attention in the English-speaking world with Australia to the fore. In my working days in Halifax I remember Kelly Morton, Associated Press foreign editor in New York, a man who tried to slow down by taking over a Dartmouth weekly across the harbour. Edgar Kelley was the perennial, parchment-complexioned editor-in-chief of the Herald & Mail. He finally got round to telling me that he knew and admired Dad from before the Great War. There were lots more Kellys because early British garrisons had Irishmen delighted to begin a new life in the port once military obligations were over. It was Irish in the city, Scots in the towns of Nova Scotia.
James Butler Knitt Kelly (1832-1907) was Church of England archdeacon of Newfoundland 1864. Three years later he was consecrated coadjutor bishop. In spite of being a poor sailor he made his rounds of the Rock, dotted with something like 1,300 settlements, in mission ship Star, which ran aground, and also in the Lavrock. He was elevated to Anglican bishop of Newfoundland but, since there was no coadjutor replace-ment, he resigned and went back to England. He was elected primus of the Episcopal Church of Scotland.
Kelly Small b. 1971 Edmonton is my wife’s grand niece, the first daughter of Fred Small Jr. Mrs. Kay “Kitty” (Kelly) Wallace was wife of Jack, my Uncle Tom’s #5 son who died after her. Jack worked in real estate in various Southern Ontario cities following a career in the Canadian air force.
KENNETH This is an Anglicization of a couple of Gaelic names. Cinaed meant born of fire and Cainneach meant handsome. In Scotland today Gaelic Coinneach is more com-mon and somehow involves Mackenzies but no matter. The Welsh form is Cenydd and the Irish, Canice.
There is a definitely misty legend about an Irish Saint Canice born c. 515 at Glen-given. He was a missionary monk under St. Cadoc at Llancarfan, Wales. He was in Rome and back in Ireland to set up at least one monastery, at Aghboe, as well as going to Scot-land. He was a noted preacher. On one mission he was linked with famous Celtic saints Kieran, Columba, and Comgall involving St. Mobhi at Glasnevin.
Kenneth I the Hardy mac Alpin succeeded his father 834 as King of Galloway and other bits of what is now Scotland. He took over Dalriada composed of Irish invaders and Pictland, which was there first. Kenneth was first to unite these Gaelic kingdoms and by 846 was undoubted King of Scots. The Hardy and son Kenneth II (971-95) were bur-ied on the Isle of Iona, holy in early druid as well as later Celtic Christian times. Kenneth III (997-1005) also of the royal house of MacAlpine was killed in battle. The Grant clan claims its royal connections go back to these Kenneths.
Notable in modern times was Colonel Kenneth Alford [not his real name] musi-cian/composer of crack British Royal Marines. Royal Canadian Navy seaman bandsmen were trained at the Royal Marine School of Music in England. Alford eschewed flash-and-florid orchestrations of his U. S. Navy counterpart, Lieutenant-Commander John Philip Sousa, instead projecting martial airs of firm dignity and resolve befitting so disci-plined an arm of Empire. One of his enduring pieces is Colonel Bogey, theme of the film A Bridge on the River Kwai.
Kenneth Stuart was a Canadian general overseas as chief of staff at Canadian Mili-tary Headquarters, London, England, in the Second World War. He had to resign over Canada’s conscription crisis brought on after he underestimated what infantry casualties in Europe would be. The problem had become a political football.
Worse was the situation of Canadian Rear-Admiral Kenneth Lloyd Dyer (1915-2000) as the Cuban missile crisis loomed 1962. He held Canadian Atlantic command as we came closest to a Third World War before or since. I was on his staff. While the government in power hesitated, Admiral Dyer had his warships manned to war com-plement, ammunitioned fully, then sent off to sea to help U. S. Navy barrier patrols. He included boats of the Royal Navy submarine squadron based at Halifax. First Canadian contact of a Russian submarine came Oct. 17 about 500 kilometres off Canada. Dyer was hardly a rogue admiral: his lawful care was North American seaward defence.
A spare, flinty man was K[enneth C[olin] Irving (1899-1992) b. Buctouche, N. B. He made his entrepreneurial debut in wood products, pulp & paper before getting into oil refining, shipping, publishing and broadcasting. He paid the ordinary worker little and his managers lots; so soon had a grip on all of New Brunswick that counted. A Saint John transit strike late 1940s was being totally ignored by provincial media. Canadian Pacific Railway public relations man Ed Macpherson with tongue in cheek rushed into the Tele-graph Journal newsroom to alert them to a strike happening outside their very door. Tight lipped editors held embarrassment in check. Kenneth Thomson, age 80, of a pub-lishing family is Canada’s richest. His father, Lord Thomson of Fleet, started a news-paper chain with North Bay Nugget, hardrock Ontario daily.
Having little to blush about is Kenneth Eugene Walsh b. 1964 St. John’s, Nfld. He’s my wife’s nephew and #5 son of the late Elizabeth and Basil Walsh, Biz & Baz.
KENWELL If this name has descended from Old English it probably means a royal well. If it’s a mis-spelling of Kentwell then a place name in Suffolk is indicated. If just the element kent is valid the name could have something to do with somebody from Kent. There are other equally vague possibilities but ken well that the royal well may be best candidate of all. There’s only one Kenwell in the National Capital phone book.
Katie Kenwell b. 1966 London, Ont., married Thomas Joseph Small, my wife’s nephew. He’s #4 son of Caroline’s oldest sister Kay.
KEVIN The translation handsome at birth is a sure beacon to some parents but Kevin is a bit more complicated than that. First we have the Irish Gaelic byname Caoimhin which one wistful source claims to mean gentle, lovable. The Gaelic does represent a diminutive of caomh, comely, beloved. Another source says Kevin means kind. Add saintly, for blue-blood St. Kevin a.k.a. Coemgen erstwhile hermit in the Valley of the Two Lanes at Glendalough in Ireland. He was persuaded after seven solitary years to gather disciples at Disert-Coemgen to found a monastery. Later he returned to Glendalough. Many extrava-gant miracles are attributed to St. Kevin, supposedly aged 120 at his death c. 618. Was he also 7th century patron of Dublin? That city has more than one.
Also hard to believe is a claim that anglicized Kevin remained nigh exclusively Irish until the 1920s. It peaked in the rest of the English-speaking world perhaps by ‘65. Kevan with the -a- comes from a Scottish surname, and variant Keverne of the ‘50/60s might show influence of an Irish one. Late Edward MacLysaght talked of Kevanes of Sligo, from O’Ciabhaine, who have gone Kavanagh instead. There are plenty of blind alleys in Kevin research.
Kevin Kline b. 1947 St. Louis, Missouri, trod boards in Bard plays, acted in movies and TV. He won Tony awards in ’78 & ’81 and an ’88 Oscar as best supporting actor in A Fish Called Wanda.
We gladly gave the name to #3 son, Christopher Kevin Wallace b. 1957 Ottawa, florist and fly fisherman on the West Coast and lately booster of newspaper circulation in various Canadian cities. My wife’s #3 brother was John Kevin French b. 1925 St. John’s, Newfoundland, who d. 2004 Edmonton. His only son Kevin is in Toronto.
KIRSTEN The Norwegian/Danish form of Christine made itself useful in Scotland. The Norse for quite a while controlled all islands and hunks of the mainland early in the 2nd millennium. In other English-speaking countries it had a 1940-80 vogue and remains well established. The Swedish Kersten is rare. Kirstie, Scotland’s nickname for Kirsten and everybody else’s for Christine, has become an independent name.
Christine is the French form of Christiana but quite comfortable, thank you, dur-ing the 20th century in the English sphere. The modern run started in the ‘30s in the USA, quickly jumped to England but, after being extremely popular in the ‘50s and ‘60s, slumped in the ‘70s. A modern variant, Christiann, is pronounced, would you believe it, christie-ann. All of these grew from the stump Christian, from ecclesiastical Latin Chris-tianus, the root Greek christos, anointed. Christian and his wife Christiana are the main protagonists in John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress 1684. Christina was a 17th century Swedish queen. When it’s mealtime, Irish moms summon Cristiona or Cristin; Scots, Cairistiona.
Kirsten Andersen b. Dec. 1969 Ottawa and running an art gallery in Seattle, Wash-ington State, was first perky daughter of my niece Gillian Hanington when wed to Ran-dolph Andersen, Nordic-American. Kirsten and diesel engineer Kenny Montana out there married mid-August 2004.
KURT Long the abbreviation for Konrad it now performs also for Curtis. Conrad means bold counsel and stems from German kuon rad. Saint Conrad of Hildesheim was a 12th century follower of St. Francis. This was an occasional name in medieval Britain and so was regarded a re-import when it turned up in the 19th century.
Curtis was the nickname in the Middle Ages of someone courteous as in Old French curteis. However meaning shifted, the element curt meaning short when added to hose came to mean leggings. [Will the slang word “floods” become part of the language with both sexes in slacks?] Curt was another spelling for the surname Court signifying someone living or working in some manor, great house or castle.
For 20th century popular musician Kurt Cobain’s farewell lines, see Niall etc.
Curtis Arthur “Kurt” Dool b. 1988 Toronto or London, Ont., my wife’s cour-teous grand nephew is firstborn of Mary Agnes (Small) Dool, a stay-at-home mom after toiling in a big city ad shop. The family moved to Maple Ridge, B. C.
KYLA In spite of the fact that given name Kyle is for both boys and girls, in the USA feminine form Kyla has been coined and chosen now and then. It can also be a variant of Kylie. More about that later.
The Scots Gaelic word caol meaning narrow expanded to kyle, the name for a nar-row strait or channel, even in a river. Scotland has ‘em in spades. Johnstone’s Place-Names of Scotland proposes some link with Old King Cole. He was the merry old soul of rhyme; a powerful Brit king whose southern England base soon had a colonia for retired Roman soldiers. We know it as Colchester, camp of Cole. His daughter Elen is claimed to have been the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. See St. Coel Hen et al in Celtic Saints.
Kyle the surname expanded from Ayrshire into County Derry, Ireland, as the English name for Scots Mac Suile. This was during the plantation of Ulster in the reign of James I, who was also James VI of Scotland. The records for Ballycastle district of Co. Antrim tell of one family where members used both MacSuile and Kyle at the same time. Documents of 1663-69 show the Kyle name in Co. Derry and Kylle in Co. Tyrone. Hen-ry Kyle was in Killenawle parish, Co. Tipperary 1666. A branch of the family went to the USA and Samuel Kyle was in Pennsylvania 1738. His grandson (1854-1901) was a congregational minister then senator. Ireland produced two Bishop Kyles, one a mick, the other a prod, plus rugger player turned Doctor John Kyle.
Kylie is what the Australian aboriginals call their boomerang but the name Kylie is more likely a coinage for women made from Kyle and Kelly. Kylie Minogue b. 1968 is an actress helping its popularity Down Under. Kylie was exported successfully to the Mother Country and elsewhere in various spellings.
Kyla Denise (Hanington) Holland b. 1973 Victoria is my nephew Mark’s younger daughter and new mother. Although her family home long has been Hawaii, Kyla and then baby Anja Elizabeth were with her young astronomer husband Steve, a Canadian, in Denmark until about halfway through 2000. Now they are around South Bend, Indiana, where he took up an astronomy post at Notre Dame University.
LAUNI This pet name materialized just after the birth of Yolande Elizabeth McDonald 1956 Halifax, #3 child of my #2 sister Rosemary. A search of half-a-dozen name books has failed to find Launi although I chanced upon it once in a newspaper. I do recall her father, naval officer A. H. McDonald, booming his habitual greeting to infant and toddler “Yo-lonny-lonny-lonny!” The nickname was born: the spelling Launi possibly some-thing to do with gender recognition.
“I have been using Yolande for most of my adult life and the last 15 years or so it’s been shortened to Yo. Only my immediate family in Halifax call me Launi anymore, and I do answer to it.” That’s what Yo told me by e-mail 24 Sept. 2000.
Yolande for a name was inspired by francophone neighbour Yolande Connors; whose father Colonel Chabot had been on staff at Royal Military College, Kingston, Ont. Madame Chabot had tiny feet and it was his pleasure to buy her pretty shoes. McDon-alds, Connors and other naval couples were on Edgehill Road, Armdale, N. S., 40 or so years ago. This outer suburb likely was swallowed up by supercity Halifax. Lawyer/ computer whiz Launi or Yo was hi-tech executive in Toronto and lately web site designer in San Francisco, California, USA. Born to her 22 July 2000 was Maximus McDonald Delmar, followed by twins. Yolande Connors and husband Tom retired to a hobby farm close by Kingston, Ont., she a marathon runner in senior years then widow.
LAURA Laurus was a Late Latin male name meaning laurel, ancients fashioning sprigs of this evergreen into crowns signifying victors. Laurus the name is no more but its feminine equivalent survives.
The sainted abbess Laura of 9th century Spain was not crowned with laurel but lowered instead into a cauldron of molten lead after being beaten by Moslems. Italian Francesco Petrarch (1304-74) romanticized the name by addressing poems to Laura, an idealized love. He anticipated lyric poetry of the Renaissance. Even these credentials failed to have this name accepted in English-speaking countries for 500 years although it appears in many other tongues. Laura is therefore believed a belated 19th century import probably from Italy.
Loyalist Laura (Ingersoll) Secord (1775-1868) hurried from home early 23 Sept. 1813 for Beaver Dams to warn authorities of plans for an impending American attack. She’d overheard American officers billeted in her house speaking the night before of a sur-prise move on a British post. Laura had to run and walk 30 kilometres through American lines from her Queenston home near Niagara Falls on a day sunny, hot and humid, avoid-ing the beaten path. Indian allies swooped her up and made sure her warning reached Lt. James FitzGibbon. Her timely message allowed British to ambush those U. S. attackers instead.
American Laura Smith Haviland (1808-98) involved herself in the escape network northwards for slaves; tended wounded soldiers and refugees in the Civil War, and so has a Kansas community named in her honour. Laura Matilda Towne (1825-1901 founded postwar one of the earlier and more successful freedmen’s schools for former slaves. Laura Z[ametkin] Hobson (1900-86) wrote Gentlemen’s Agreement, best seller in 1947 about anti-Semitism.
Chilean Laura Vicuna (1891-1904) was chased, beaten and left dying in a street for resisting drunken sexual advances of Manuel Mora who’d been keeping her mother as mistress. As Laura was dying her mother asked her forgiveness and, poor though she was, managed to change her lifestyle. Laura Villela Sabia (1916-96) feminist broadcaster and columnist rallied 30 or more women’s groups to get a Royal Commission on the Sta-tus of Women in Canada and a national action committee on their status 1972.
Laura Beare was first woman graduate from Royal Military College, Kingston, Ont., 1984. Twenty of 23 women starting there in ‘80 made it to graduation in a popula-tion of more than 600 males. Laura ran a tailoring business in Ottawa since all but a few women left the military for other careers, although she hopes to work for the defence de-partment as a civilian. In the Canadian Armed Forces today one of every four recruits is female. In the Second World War close to 50,000 women all told served in Canada’s Navy, Army and Air Force.
Hulking five-foot-ten Miss Laura Davies b. 1963 Coventry, England, who can out drive some men on golf tours round the world, was raised from member to dame com-mander of the British Empire on the Queen’s New Year’s honours list 2000. American Laura Baugh swings a TV microphone now instead of golf sticks. Still a beauty at 48 she tried tour golf, married Senior tour’s Bobby Cole and had seven children while in and out of the game. For six years or so Laura has been a single mom.
We have three Lauras. Two are my wife’s grandnieces, the Misses McDonagh and Walzak growing up in London, Ont., although Miss Walzak and family moved 1998 to Victoria. The other was Mrs. Laura (Munro) Higgins of my early childhood, part-time black domestic help to Grandmother Lavinia Carew in Halifax seven decades ago. There’s more about her under Higgins.
LAVINIA Rebecca (Munro) O’Neill at 16 was disowned for marrying Duncan O’Neill, much older shoemaker in an outer part of greater Halifax where vast fields of boulders wore away footwear fast. The bone of contention was that he was a papist. Munros, after all, had been deeply involved in building the Anglican church in Hackett’s Cove, St. Margaret’s Bay, N. S. The couple moved to the city ostensibly attracted by its better business prospects. Duncan entered the Irish social whirl and Rebecca buried her nose in a book for the rest of her life. So when my maternal Grandma was born to them about mid-1860s she won the obscure and ancient name Lavinia.
Legend has Lavinia the daughter of King Latinus. When Aeneas arrives, a Trojan War refugee as it were, she becomes his last wife and thus mother of the Roman people. Livy and Virgil help this make good sense. Modern scholars say Lavinia and her daddy were invented to put the Roman stamp on places pre-Roman, for example the Latin town of Lavinium. So our moderns are attacking Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BC) who com-posed the Aenid, a national epic ranked one of the greatest long poems in world literature. The other big target has to be Titus Livius (59-17 BC). He made a romantic History of Rome his life’s work from its founding in 753 BC. Thirty-five of the 142 books are ex-tant along with fragments of others. Archaeologists digging in ruins of Caesar’s forum, however, have uncovered tombs indicating Rome began about 200 years before that fabu-lous she-wolf supposedly suckled twins Romulus and Remus. The dig resumes 2001.
Scholars say that early in Roman times Latium to the south was inhabited by its Latins, north of the Tiber River by Etruscans and several Italic tribes. In the 3rd century BC Rome subdued them all, critics today saying they invented King Latinus to account for the country of Latium. Lavinia turns up in early Christian inscriptions one reading Labinia, virgo dei, Rome, 409 AD. The Renaissance revived it along with other classical names. Another poet did his bit later: Scot James Thompson (1700-48) retold the Bible story substituting Paleman and Lavinia for Boaz and Ruth.
Lavinia Elizabeth (O’Neill) Carew died 1939, a devout widow in her own house in Halifax, aged 75. She’d lost young son Frank to a bloody battlefield of the First World War and her husband to the Halifax Explosion, both calamities occurring close together 1917. Grandma saw clearly oncoming of the Second World War and it broke her. The name lives with her grandchild, Rosemary Lavinia Wallace b. 1924 Saint John, N.B. Rosie had ample opportunity to study Lavinia. Mummy and we children lived 1933-39 at Grandma’s until her death. Rosemary has long been a Halifax grandmother herself.
LAWLOR In 1925, trenches of the Great War behind him and his Wallace Advertising a going concern, Uncle Frank Wallace, 44, married Corinne Lawlor, 26, who hailed originally from the Newcastle area of New Brunswick.
Mummy and Daddy worked for my Uncle Frank and then they started Wallace Advertising in Saint John, N. B. When mother and children fell back on Halifax 1933 we visited back and forth with Frank and Corinne and family. When we vacationed in Glen Margaret they were in Glen Haven on the same shore of St. Margaret’s Bay. Mummy got the Mahar family’s tiny chapel going for Sunday Mass and we’d meet there just as we did at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in the city.
Aunt Corinne was always kind to me. Sometimes she’d spy me out at church in Halifax and whisk me home for a sturdy breakfast. I remember a toboggan party with all you can eat baked beans there afterwards. Uncle Frank, whose head was normally in the clouds composing ads and letters, proved pretty good with the ladle. We canoed at their Glen Haven cottage. I occasionally hooked up with his slightly older son Frank in Mel-ville Cove on city outskirts 50 plus years ago.
In Mummy’s last years in Ottawa I realized that she must have had quite a crush on tall, handsome Frank while she worked at his ad shop. But what Halifax woman did not? She continued to have a place for him in her heart but not nearly as much space there for Corinne who got him. Rita married his kid brother Howard.
Rita would have been delighted to know that Lawlor is English for Irish O Leath-lobhair meaning descendant of a half-leper. My cuz bears it as his middle name although he won’t even half-believe what I felt duty-bound to tell him. His wife Eve, a Clancy, laughed uproariously. Among others, an authority for descendant of half-leper is Basil Cottle, Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, 2nd edition, 1978. Professor Cottle was semi-retired in 1980 as Reader in Medieval Studies, University of Bristol, and elected Fellow to the Society of Antiquaries the year prior. The late Dr. Edward MacLysaght, retiree from Ireland’s manuscripts commission, wrote several books on Irish families and softened the translation to a “half-sick person”. He plotted O’Lalor on the map of Ireland just about smack dab in the middle, saying its was one of the Seven Septs of Leix and still plentiful throughout Leinster province. O Lalor also, he added, was the name of two early kings of ancient Ulidia but that their family survives no more.
LAWRENCE In ancient Latium on the Italian peninsula a coastal town called Laurentum may have got its name from the Latin word laurus meaning a laurel or bay tree. The name more likely is pre-Roman also meaning laurel. Given name Laurence [the -u- spelling is commonest] comes from a French form of the Latin name Laurentius i.e. man from Lau-rentum.
The given name was highlighted by the martyrdom of one of the seven deacons of Rome, one responsible for Church property. Persecution of Christians was proceeding under Emperor Valerian. Civil authorities demanded Laurentius hand over treasures of the Church. So he gathered the poor and the sick before them and retorted: “These are the treasures of the Church.” Some versions say he distributed to the crowd all the church stuff he was supposed to collect for the emperor.
Legend says he was slow-roasted to death on a griddle in 258, he telling them when to turn him because his first side was cooked. Classical scholars think the roasting happened much later, in 304, to Vincent of Saragossa during Emperor Diocletian’s perse-cutions. That monarch was a Dalmatian (245-313). However executed, Laurentius was put in a catacomb along the Via Tiburtina. A cylindrical shaft was opened into his tomb to allow the faithful to place offerings or to lower strips of cloth to touch his cadaver. These then were believed relics of the martyr. His place forms part of the surviving Church of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura.
Our St. Lawrence River is named after him because discovered on his feast day. In England, the name also recalls St. Laurence of Canterbury d. 619. English Lawrence is fairly well known in Ireland since mid-17th century although a St. Lawrence family has been at Howth since 1177 and other St. Lawrences are in east Clare. St. Lawrence O’ Toole (1128-80) was taken hostage by raider King Dermot McMurrogh who turned him over to the bishop of Glendalough after a couple of years. He became a monk and event-ually archbishop of Dublin. When Anglo-Normans invaded he had the role of peacemaker and was canonized 1225. St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619) was adept with Bible and languages so as a Capuchin Franciscan was put to work converting Jews. Then he was off to Germany founding houses at Prague, Vienna and Gorizia. Canonized 1881 he was made Doctor of the Church 1959.
The name was common in the Middle Ages, especially from 12th century on. Eight surnames survive, Lawrence with the -w- most popular, especially so in the south of England. It’s the family name of baronials Oaksey and Trevethin. The medieval pet form Law[e] recorded in 13/14th century England gave rise to further surnames, one being Lawson. Larry is the prevailing pet name nowadays but Laurie for Scots and Larry/ Lantry for Irish are surnames as well. Lawrenson of the north is clear into Shetland. There was once a feminine form, Laurencia having been recorded 1201 in Essex, 1296 in Sussex.
In Nova Scotia under Charles Lawrence (1709-60) the town of Lunenburg was founded ‘53 and expulsion of Acadians ordered. The governor moved on, promoted to brigadier and commanding a brigade at the siege of Louisbourg. An Annapolis River com-munity has his name. Lawrenceville, a Quebec village 120 kilometres east of Montreal, took the name of an 1840s settler.
Of more widespread influence of late have been D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence (1885 -1930) twerp of sexually explicit novels; T[homas E[dward] Lawrence (1888-1935) a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia; and theatre and film actor Sir Lawrence Olivier (1907-89). From Maple Ridge, B. C., came Colorado Rockies outfielder Larry Walker, chosen 1997’s most valuable player in America’s National League, a Canadian first.
Retired Commander Lawrence Carl “Larry” Dawe b.1947 is West Coast husband of my niece Felicity née Hanington. They built a nautical looking abode on Texada Island in B. C. then shifted over to Sooke handier school for Charlotte, 13, and Mathew, 8. In 2008 she immersed in the classics at University of Victoria. And Mathew Larry was schooling at home. She’s pipe sergeant, Mat corporal drummer in the Sooke band.
LEANNE This is a modern, multi-purpose coinage. It can be a marriage of Lee and Anne, or an alternative spelling of Lianne which probably is out of French Eliane, Latin Aeliana for the early martyr. Aelianus was an old Roman family name. The Irish word for dar-ling, sweetheart, is Leannan, which also identified a fairy lover. County Clare had plenty of Leannans in the Middle Ages which sounds very interesting.
My brother-in-law Doug French has three children, all tinkering with their names a bit. Daughter Leanne b. 1949 Exeter, Ont., was baptized Linda Lee Ann.
LEE/LEIGH President Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-63) made Lee a bad name just as Confederate general Robert E, Lee (1807-70) had made it a good one. Os-wald in turn was gunned down in the parking lot of Dallas Police headquarters by strip club owner Jack Ruby. Understandably conspiracy theories surface periodically.
An independent study by C. V. Appleton established that all forms of the name could be used for both sexes. British actress Vivian Leigh (1913-67) got credit for en-couraging Leigh for girls. Gone With the Wind 1939, A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 won for her best actress Oscars. Janet Leigh, who d. 2004 aged 77, we remember being stab-bed in a shower during Hitchcock’s Psycho 1960. Actress Lee Remick also made a difference, namewise.
The dictionary waxes long about lee but meanings are bunched and best summed up by “the side away from the wind”. Sailor stuff. Earlier English forms crop up in po-etry and mean wood, clearing, meadow and the like or a dweller by such features. Thus Lee is a widespread place name. It‘s also dialect for the name Lew. Lee may be a later spelling but turns out to be most common of variations. The barons Newton have one as their family name. In 1853 Lee was to be found near the bottom of the top 50 in England and Wales.
The Irish Lees are quite another dimension. Irish Gaelic laoidheach, poetic, con-verted to Mac Laoidhigh of Leix, or Mac an Leagha, son of the physician. O’Lee repre-sents the O Laoidhigh sept [often O Laidhigh in Connacht] which included a family of hereditary physicians to O’Flahertys. The other sept is established in Counties Cork and Limerick. The statute of 1465 required every Irishman in the counties round about Dub-lin to adopt an English style surname. The result heralded what unlettered immigration officials of the USA would do centuries later to names of foreign masses going through Ellis Island.
Lee the name fared well in America. Charles Lee (1731-82) was very high profile at first. This Englishman married the daughter of a Seneca chief and so became Boiling Water and The Spirit That Never Sleeps. He fought the French at Montreal and served in the Russo-Turkish war. He made major general in the revolutionary army of the USA, No. 3 in the pecking order. His performance declined so much that in 1780 he was turfed. Henry Lee (1756-1818) known as Light Horse Harry led Lee’s Legion making in-dependent strikes in the Carolinas. He won one of the eight Congressional Medals struck for Revolutionary heroes. Robert E. Lee mentioned at the beginning was made general in chief of Confederate armies. Two more Lees were Confederate generals in the Civil War. Battleships admiral, Pacific Theatre, Second World War was Willis Augustus “Ching” Lee Jr. (1888-1945) ultimately commanding a fast battleship force covering fleet aircraft car-riers that had just emerged as biggest of naval punches.
We have Jessie Lee Wallace, our grand daughter; Bobby Lee Korpi, my niece Gillian’s husband; the late Cdr. Denny Lee, widower of my cousin Betty Wallace that was; Linda Lee Ann “Leanne” French, my wife’s niece; and Fiona Leigh, my nephew Mark Hanington’s #1 daughter. Married to Owen Belton she’s a mom in Vancouver.
LENORE The U.S. immigration officials, after mangling generations of foreign names, put out a service book entitled Foreign Versions of English Names. It reveals Lenore to be a form of Eleanor [which see] and used in such countries as Russia. Carole Lenore (Dahlstedt) Granville wasn’t born yesterday – 1935 in fact and of Nordic-Irish not Slavic ancestry – and knew her way around Washington’s corridors of power as a bureaucrat. She’s retired with husband Owen in Florida.
Lenora is short for Leonora, which in turn is short for Eleanora that happens to be the Italian form of Eleanor. The latter is an Old French re-spelling of the Old Proven-çal name Alienor. This isn’t necessarily a derivative of Helen as has been suggested, but is more likely Germanic because of its element ali meaning other, foreign. Lenorah is an-other form. Eleanors were wives of French and English kings and of U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But, hey, Lenora sometimes is fancy for Lena.
LEO, Coeur de Lion Richard I Coeur de Lion was warrior monarch of England, 1157-99, who fought the Third Crusade and en route home was kidnapped by a resentful ally who demanded an enormous ransom. He presented a romantic figure to his subjects, lion-heart his attribute for bravery in battle, and so they scraped up enough money although it took time.
During five months of peacekeeping in Cyprus and Egypt in the winter of 1966-67 I saw sturdy Crusader castles on the eastern Mediterranean island, getting to tour only one and that in the line of duty. 1st Battalion headquarters of the Royal Canadian Regi-ment occupied Coeur de Lion Hotel in the coastal city of Kyrenia with Crusader castle nearby. Up in the Kyrenian mountains we had Saddle observation post across a narrow steep valley to another Crusader castle, St. Hilarian. This was battalion headquarters of Turkish-Cypriot fighters. It looked familiar because Walt Disney had copied its outlines for his Snow White movie.
Three generations of kids have seen it by now but in ’64, when the Royal 22e Régiment was restoring calm to ethnic conflict, things were different. A ferret scout car was toiling up the hairpin dirt road to Saddle OP when a TurkCyp irregular fired a round at it. Immediately the Vandoo major in the armoured car stitched St. Hilarian with seams of machine gun fire. Silence reigned. Our relations a couple of years later were good enough with both Turkish and Greek factions that I had a standing invitation from the TurkCyp sector commander to tour St. Hilarian. He was a slim Sunni Moslem of average height not averse to a social drink, scotch. Alas, I never could find time to tour. That was in the winter of 1966-67 and by the fall of 2004 125,000 Canadians had served as peace-keepers/makers around the world and more than a hundred of them had lost their lives.
Leo came from a late Latin personal name meaning lion, borne by many early Christian saints [all those Leos to the lions!] and notably Pope Leo the Great (c. 390-461) and a dozen other pontiffs. Leon is from the oblique case. Leona is feminine. Early wo-men martyrs were known as Leonilla and Leontia and Mother Leonie was beatified for gathering Acadian woman into The Little Sisters of the Holy Family in the 19th century.
Byzantine emperors took the name. Leo III the Issurian (c.680-741) fought main-ly Arabs; Leo V the Armenian defeated Bulgars but was murdered 820 in his chapel. Leo VI the Wise (866-912) was a law reformer and wrote books on topics as different as reli-gious and military. Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1828-1910) was author of War & Peace and Anna Karenina.
In Ireland’s County Limerick, Leo is an old Anglo-Irish name from Latin leo the lion but a names enthusiast say it also came from the literary word lea for meadow out of Old English. In Limerick it came from French de l’eau, water, Latin de aqua.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, baseball manager Leo Durocher of the New York Giants thought all umpires needed “seein’ eye dawgs”. He also said, “Nice guys finish last,” and in 1951 won the pennant by stealing catcher’s signals to the opposing pitcher. Giants moved away to the sunny American West later in the ‘50s once air travel grew reliable enough to support a continental ballgame schedule.
Leo is a name favoured by Canadian Catholics in general and even more so by French Canadians. Corporal Leo Clarke 1892-1916) of Waterdown Ont., in 2nd Battalion, Eastern Ontario Regiment, single-handedly fought off 22 Germans counter-attacking his trench near Pozieres, Etretat, France, in the Great War. He died of wounds a month later and was posthumously awarded a Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s top decoration for valour.
Less inspiring are lines from a Companion in the Order of Canada. After five years in Mount Baldy’s Zen community where he was Jikan, the Silent One, Leonard Cohen penned these lines:
I’m wanted at the traffic jam.
They’re saving me a seat.
I’m what I am, and what I am,
Is back on Boogie Street.
Forgive an elderly man, but I’m actually trying to tell you of our own family hero!
A mother cat, instincts upset by cramped apartment living, dropped a kitten off a high-rise mid-1971, figuring she and her litter hadn’t enough range for survival. The runt was so light it survived what must have been at least a 10-storey fall. Our oldest daughter Marita brought it home. She and her mother devised a crib and fed the newborn with an eyedropper. For a reassuring heart beat, Mom put a towel-wrapped ticking clock in the box. It took Mom longer to get this kitten to last the night through than she did our nine kids who averaged merely three weeks.
Since the children were in French school we called our scrawny addition Léo [rhymes with kayo] for he was as brave as a lion. As he grew to an undersized marmalade cat he loved to climb and perch. As we passed through a doorway, little Léo atop the door would give us a friendly tap. There was a touch of Siamese in his love of heights, the hook at the tip of the tail, the nattering. As we trooped up and down basement stairs a paw darted from a switch hole in the partition and cuffed us in turn. His waiting forever for “prey” amused us as did the tremendous joie de vivre in such a puny.
Léo lacked parental conditioning so at first he barked. He got that from Tootsie, a toy-size dog next door. I saw poor little Tootsie in begging posture to persuade Léo to stop and play. But it was a hard-hearted cat that swept away, tail erect, to greater horizons and challenges. He was a scrapper. If I dropped a hand to the floor from my easy chair it was forthwith attacked with tiny tooth and nail. Nobody asked me at work to explain such claw and teeth marks. And Léo would return home with torn ear, claw- and bite-marks only to head off next morning with undiminished zest. Up the street a combination German police/collie was terrified of Léo who leaped onto its long face and clung with tooth and nail. On the other hand our youngest daughter Cecily remembers Léo snoozing on top of the clothes dryer, snuggled into Patrick, another of our three cats of that time of brindle colour, both of them snug as yin and yang.
Marita moved out on her own almost 10 klicks away and wheedled Léo from us. We were left in a neighbourhood now peppered with marmalade copies [not all was fight-ing after all] and inconsolable Tootsie. One day Marita let Léo onto her third-floor bal-cony and he disappeared.
Years after, a marmalade cat, unscarred and sleek, meowed at my feet in the drive-way and stamped his paws. Naturally, I picked him up and, on a hunch, cradled him like an infant. Most cats can’t stand that until they realize it leads to rubs of throat and belly. The cat accepted my caresses, I let him down, and he drifted away. I mentioned the in-cident to Marita and she insisted it must have been Léo. I reckon it was offspring with lots of Léo’s genes. Well, life was apparently being good to him, if Léo it was, all battle scars completely gone. At least we both could carry on, each perhaps feeling at last a bit better about the other. Parents at times feel like that.
LEVI “Now this time my husband will be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.” [Genesis 29:34] This was the ration-alizing of Jacob’s wife Leah who had good reason to think her man loved Rachel more. Levi is Hebrew for attached from a word meaning to adhere. Leah hoped Jacob would be more attached to her with the arrival of this third boy. “Pledged” is another accepted translation.
The Jewish priestly caste of Levites is descended from their Levi, forming one of the 12 tribes of Israel. In Palestine they weren’t given land but lived in scattered settle-ments, having grazing rights but needing to be partly supported by offerings. After the Babylonian exile, Levites were confined to descendants of Aaron. In the New Testament the apostle and evangelist Matthew is called Levi: was this so because he appeared to be Christ’s favorite apostle?
Levy is the first name Leofwig in Old English meaning beloved warrior. There are seven English spellings for the surnames, the rule of thumb being if the family is Jewish then the name stands for Levi, pledged. Levi has been chosen constantly since the 17th century and is the middle name of Grandson Jonathan Wallace Michell b. 1985 Prince George, B. C. He’s in our #1 daughter Marita’s family, summers in the Prince George in-terior with her aboriginal ex, Jos. Michell.
Levis are quality brand jeans of reinforced blue denim made by 125-year-old U. S. workware giant Levi Strauss & Co. The San Francisco-based company also owns Doc-kers casual wear. However, Strauss world market share has shrunk from half to fifth be-cause kids perceive them as dad’s jeans. It’s shifting a large portion of its manufacture to contract plants around the world, closing half its 22 North American factories. One in Brockville, Ont., went on the chopping block. Heck, we’re still talking multi-million dollar annual sales. But Philip Marineau who made Pepsi more hip with youth has joined Levi Strauss to examine the bottom line. So what’s the first cheeky campaign? The Great Levi Butt Search, a mail-in of photos of Levi-covered bums. [Scientific research shows that pear shapes are more fertile than apple.]
Strauss, an ex-Bavarian, was a sailmaker on the Pacific Coast who decided 1853 to turn out workpants in the quiet times from his stock of denim cloth. [British Common-wealth navies call them dungarees, from Hindi.] Levi also had in mind cowboys and min-ers camping under stars during cattle drives and gold rushes when he ensured copper riv-ets were situated in his boot-cut jeans so that they wouldn’t overheat as a man hunkered down before a fire.
LEWIS This has been the normal version of Louis in Britain since the Middle Ages. In Wales it is very popular because there it is, as well, short for Llewelyn. As a surname Lewis ranked 21st in both those countries in 1853. It’s the family name of the barons Merthyr. Because it can be of Scottish, English or Welsh origin, Lewis appears often throughout Ireland.
Throughout the 20th century U.S. parents have somewhat preferred Louis [which see] over Lewis although the latter stood 18th in 1939. They should look back to Meri-wether Lewis (1774-1809) who served in the U. S. Army out west and led the historic Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804-06 to the Pacific. He was then made governor of the newly-purchased and immense Louisiana Territory he’d been exploring. It just about doubled the size of the nation. Lew[is] Wallace (1827-1905) U. S. soldier, governor and diplomat wrote best-seller novel Ben Hur 1880. Didn’t Cecil B[lount] de Mille (1881-1959) do the Hollywood epic? Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) authored The City in History 1961 and assessed what technology and urbanization do to society.
Lewis Carroll [mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dawson] published Alice in Won-derland 1865. In his children’s works he provided pithy insights plus imagery useful to modern writers and speakers struggling to clarify complicated matters in our technical age. C[live] S[taples] Lewis (1898-1963) who taught at Oxford and Cambridge universities, wrote on spiritual themes but also Out of the Silent Planet 1938, chief among his science-fiction works. Future Fiction’s the only new kind of popular writing since the English novel emerged in the 18th century.
Lewis is the middle name of my cousin Steve Carew b. 1937 Dartmouth, N. S. He broke bread with us in Ottawa and we golfed now and then one summer long ago.
LILLIAN The Latin word lilium gave way to Spanish Liliosa as well to Italian Liliana and eventually to English Lil[l]ian. Liliosa however may have evolved to Scots Gaelic Lileas through links between our Celts and Celto-Iberians. It’s Lilias in Scots tongue too. Most pleasing of all to hear is Liliane, the French version pronounced leelee ‘ahn, understandably still very popular among French Canadians. Lily has long stood for purity in Christian imagery but Lillian’s origin seems very earthy: lilium translates from Latin either as lily of the fields or, trust me, a trench lined with sharp stakes.
In 9th century Cordoba, Liliosa and husband Felix managed to conceal their Chris-tianity from Moorish rulers but were found out, imprisoned and beheaded. There are dis-turbing reports of intolerance of Christians in 40 countries of the world including Saudi Arabia, outright violence of the Sudan for 20 years just over, and in The Spice Isles.
An English written diminutive first appeared in 1279 Bedfordshire as surname of Geoffrey Lilion, likely more trenchy than flowery. Lily and Lilian both were applied to Queen Elizabeth I. Her twilight 16th century, vulgar court demanded excesses of flattery.
Good Queen Bess was no airhead. “She read and wrote five or six languages in addition to her own and composed poems and prayers (an important literary form at the time) as well as artful letters and later speeches and state documents with a style whose rhythms can still transport us in this time of linguistic poverty.” Douglas Fetherling, writer-in-residence at University of New Brunswick wrote this in Ottawa Citizen’s Weekly 24 Sept. 2000 while reviewing two books on her works.
Lillian was the first name of my mother Rita’s close cousin Adele Grace, daughter of my Great Aunt Sarah Isabelle “Belle” (O’Neill) (Grace) Champion. Widowed in Hali-fax from Tom Grace on the eve of the 20th century with her one-year-old Adele, Great Aunt Belle got my Carew grandparents Frank and Lavinia to take her baby in while re-establishing herself. An endearing 1906 photo includes dark-haired, serious Adele with several early Carew children. She looks smaller, about a year younger than a Rita just shy of 10; will die accidentally around 18. Adele’s name lived long in family talk.
LILY Choosing flower names for a child is fairly recent except for Lily. Ancient Heb-rews called the lily Susanna although in modern Hebrew Susanna means rose. Christ said: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” [Matt. 6:28] That was Matthew the apostle and evangelist reporting from the Holyland. Now we have our #5 son Matthew exchanging vows in an Eastern Church here 1997 with Lily Fayad b. 1964 Ottawa but resident some years in ancestral Lebanon. It was a glittering ceremony and, arrayed in flowing white, Lily surely outshone Solomon’s palatial glories. Lily returned in ‘99 to Lebanon for almost 11 months, joining a Canadian team working up a full-service postal system for that Middle Eastern country, Matt joining her after his mid terms. They’re back, settled into a big house in Ottawa South. My wife and I and #4 daughter Cecily and family enjoyed Christmas dinner ’99 there. MacKenzie occupies them now.
The name Lily came to England via Old French from Latin lilium. And don’t forget medieval French fleur de lys. Briefly Lily was one of many terms of endearment for Elizabeth I, virgin queen. The lily long has represented purity in Christian art. Eng-lish surnames Lill[e]y come from Old English for flax field because much coarse linen was woven by Anglo Saxons. Other spellings can mean lily in some way or another. Lillicrop early became a nickname for someone white-haired as a lily, and endures as a surname today mostly in England’s West Country. The surname Lillywhite from Old English refers more to complexion, and is a word used sometimes to describe someone’s good in-tentions. English names Lilly, Lely are seldom encountered in Ireland although Mac Ail-ghile, MacLilly formerly anglicized MacAlily, is a branch of Fermanagh MacGuires.
Lily as a first name did not take hold seriously in the Old Country until the 1800s; peaking c. 1900. The reason may have been Edwardian beauty Lillie (Emilie Charlotte le Breton) Langtry (1853-1929). She became known as Jersey Lily from the title of her por-trait by Millais. Watts, Whistler, Miles and Pointer also painted her. She was born in the Channel Islands, only daughter of an Anglican dean, into a family of five brothers. Her first husband was bankrupt, drunken and abusive.
As an actress she moved in high society and appeared on stage in Ottawa in The Captain’s Divorce 1903. Eyebrows were raised when Lord Minto, governor general, visited backstage sans Lady Minto. The name LeBreton, also with roots in Jersey, sur-faces often in Ottawa’s history.
When Lillie became with child, two peers tossed a coin to decide who’d look after her, HRH the Prince of Wales later Edward VII taking on responsibility. The real father was her one true love who lacked means, Arthur Jones, illegitimate son of Lord Ranelagh. Mrs. Langtry was categorized often as a professional beauty.
Lily Pons (1906-76) was a skinny [!] French-American coloratura soprano who inspired New York’s Metropolitan Opera House to revive several operas just for her. André Kostelanetz, her husband, conducted elevator music and so gathered much wider an audience.
LINDA The suffix -linde or -linda meant serpent, the symbol of wisdom, which justifies the spate of Germanic names such as Ermelinde, Gotelinde, Heimlinde, Sieglinde. The element lind- in England was more concerned with the lime-tree [linden not citrus].
In 19thcentury English-speaking countries Linda was a pet form of Belinda, Ma-linda, Rosalinda and the like. American parents also turned to Spanish linda, feminine of lindo, pretty, which accelerated the appeal of the name in the USA and Canada. Linda was at the height of American fashion 1930s. It began to lag in Britain 1960s, the U. S. following in a few years. Two Canadian Lindas will be 50 years old in 2001. Linda Lundstrum the fashion designer was b. Red Lake, Ont., April 24 and author/journalist Linda McQuaig was b. Toronto Sept. 5.
Oxford names expert Patrick Hanks generally agrees with the foregoing but says German element lind meant weak, tender, soft. Linda Lee Ann French, my wife’s niece, somehow avoids all such nitpicking by calling herself Leanne. She visited us while a child and later acted as hostess when her dad Doug entertained us in Ottawa between marriages. She works in Winnipeg, looked younger than her middle years when we encountered her lunching with her dad and his second wife Eileen at our golf club one summer day 1997.
LIONEL Use of Latin leonellus, little or young lion, as a nickname in Middle English led to surnames such as Lyall which became a first name. It also came out of Old French Leon. Lyon and Leon were fairly usual first names in the Middle Ages, the latter used more by Jews.
The New Brunswick Haningtons often took Lionel as a second name 19/20th cen-turies. Charles Lionel Hanington, long wed to my oldest sister Margot, was a retired rear admiral on the West Coast who d. 6 Jan. 1999 aged 77. For more than half a century we, and everybody else, knew him as Daniel, a byname given him by his dad who was also C[harles] Lionel. Both versions appear in N. B. history. David Lionel Hanington, Dan’s younger half brother b. Tobago, is a former Canadian newspaperman, TV public affairs broadcaster here and England, and retired over there to gentleman farming.
LISA A further diminution of Elizabeth’s short form Eliza, influenced by French Lise and German Liese, was one of the most popular names of the English-speaking world early 1980s. Lisa was very scarce until the ‘50s because it had been confined to romance countries. Lisa del Giocondo was the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Recent scholarly speculation about The Smile is that she may have kept her lips shut to hide teeth decayed by social disease rampant in Florence around 1500. Whoa! Toothy grins only appeared late 1700s when Louise-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, artist in the French court, did a toothsome self-portrait. She began a trend for by this time France led in mouth care and porcelain teeth. See also Mona.
In 1980 wife Caroline unbeknownst to me went to the Humane Society to get me a cat to keep me company while she re-entered the work force full time. Our #2 daughter Catherine Anne and #4 son Barnaby went along. While he and the dogs dialogued, my wife was attracted to a little black cat that extended a dainty paw to her from a cage. That was how Lisa entered our lives for the next 12 years. Catherine Anne named her.
I’d drive Caroline to work and return for the 8 a. m. news during which the kitten quietly insinuated herself onto my lap. We’d snooze just a bit then go about our days. With Caroline brought home, we’d have tea, Lisa sitting precisely in between. During the TV news she’d scrupulously alternate laps, continuing so during evenings of my reading and Caroline’s knitting.
We were seen off to bed in turn. Sometimes in the night Lisa would hop up, purring, give me a kiss then plunk down to check in on everybody else. For each ado-lescent still living at home she presented a different facade. For our youngest abed, it meant two gleaming eyes in rafters and an invisible leap down darkness onto Cecily’s chest. If she settled in with parents she lay almost at my wife’s mouth, hair tickling. While a kitten she snuggled between my legs and when older by my feet. On the rare nights my wife had pain Lisa would sit all night, a paw just touching.
As we freshened up each morning she would keep us company in the bathroom. Her sole act of aggression was to swat my newspaper if I read too long. Yes, the serrated edge of the paper did mess up her fur but she felt I was too absorbed. Once our children
had left home for good she disdained them. #3 daughter Caroline wooed her abjectly to little avail. Her little world was us, the indoors, and an unvarying diet of dried cat food once she had grown up.
When she fell fatally ill I held her for eight hours as she sank and I wept. Daugh-ters Catherine and Caroline looked in on the two of us. Lisa had a coughing spell and, as I wiped her mouth, somehow gave me a fond look through crossed eyes and died. Cather-ine came by again and confirmed death – no breath on a mirror. The two daughters, Bill Rothery and grandchildren Carrie and Jessie attended while I buried her bundled in my wife’s fanciest clothes bag. Caroline Jr. planted Bleeding Hearts in her grave by our deck. An early, cruel lesson for children is the death of a beloved short-lived pet. It doesn’t get any easier when you’re old. Lisa had been full of quiet love and devotion, like my missus.
LOUIS Two German word fragments have begot three royal names, Clovis, Ludwig and Louis, that appear at first glance to be unrelated. The elements hlud and wig combined to mean something like famous warrior. If you look into roots of the word loud you may conclude the warrior got famous amidst din of battle. Thus emerges Clovis, Frankish king (481-511) who founded the Merovingian dynasty.
It also yielded up Louis I (778-840) Charlemagne’s son who doubled as French king and Holy Roman Emperor. Louis V the Sluggard was last Carolingian king, a 19-year-old much under sway of his mother, Queen Emma of France. Her policies were Sa-xon not French he eventually discovered so he expelled her and her advisers. While hun-ting he fell off his horse with much internal bleeding, death perhaps hastened by mother Emma’s poisons? There have been 17 kings of France named Louis including the Lost Dauphin who perished in prison during the French Revolution. Ludwigsleid, The Song of Ludwig, is the poem in Rhenish-Franconian extolling the victory of Louis III 881 at Sau-court over Normans. Saint-Louis IX (1214-70) reigned benignly and piously over France 42 years and with wife Margaret had 11 children. Much Gothic architecture advertised his tenure. The Sun King (1638-1715) and Louis Quatorze style setter, was an absolute monarch, “L’etat, c’est moi.” He reigned 72 years, the halfway point unparalleled in prestige and prosperity for France. Then she was bled by wars, keeping a million men under arms, and squandering human resources in persecuting Huguenots [Carews too].
St-Louis Mary Grignion (1673-1716) organized women into what became Daugh-ters of Divine Wisdom. His sermons were so emotional he made enemies in Poitiers where the bishop forbade him to preach. He conducted missions in Brittany to the end of his life and is noted especially for fostering devotion to Mary and rosary, forming several priests into proto Missionaries of the Company of Mary.
Fortress Louisbourg was commenced 1713 on Cape Breton Island. Six years later it was designated capital of the French colony of Ile Royale. Before long its bastions made it the strongest, and most costly at 5 million livres, fortification in North America, disregarding sleazy contracting. Its garrison was never all that strong so it was captured 1745 and again in ‘58.
Marquis de Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon de St-Veran (1712-59) distin-guished himself against British in Canada during the Seven Years War. In 1756 he won back Ontario for the French, next year he took Fort William Henry, and in 1758 repelled a much greater British force from Ticonderoga. That was the first European style battle of massed ranks and close-range musketry he could successfully deploy. Oct. 20 of the same year he was promoted lieutenant general and commander-in-chief of all French forces in Canada. He died less than a year later defending Quebec City from British Gen. James Wolfe, also mortally wounded.
References to the 1837 Rebellion in Lower Canada occur from time to time in this Catalogue because of names also borne by those prominent in its quelling. Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871) Montreal-born writer and Lower Canada assemblyman led this unsuccessful revolt. On Dec. 14 that year Sir John Colburne, Baron Seaton, arrived at St-Eustache, County of Deux-Montagnes, 31 km northwest of Montreal. Most of the occupying Patriotes had retreated but 400 rebels under Dr. Jean-Olivier Chenier and Amury Girod held onto church, presbytery, convent and neighbouring houses. Chenier and nearly 100 rebels were killed by a five-hour cannonade. Eighteen were taken prisoner and the village put to the torch. Rebellion stamped out everywhere, 58 Patriotes were deported 1839 to exile in Australia. Papineau d. early autumn in obscurity at his seig-neury near Montebello, Que., but resentment towards Anglos definitely endured. Fran-cophone friend Roly Roy told me of the pastor he had approached during a Cold War recruiting sweep for ground observers. These were volunteers who watched the skies for unfriendly aircraft where radar coverage was inadequate. The cure was outraged each and every day by those cannonball scars still obvious on his church, which had also been burnt back then. His pulpit would not advertise on behalf of a Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant, for sure.
Another rebel named Louis is Riel (1844-85) leader of insurrections by Métis. Riel became a federal parliamentarian who couldn’t take his seat because Ontario had a warrant for his arrest over shooting of Orangeman Thomas Scott back west. He was given five year’s amnesty to stay out of the country. In 1884 he was back in Saskat-chewan for another uprising. He was hung in Regina 16 Nov. ’85 for high treason. When the hangman appeared at the doorway to his cell in the Mounted Police barracks, Riel greeted him with: “Mr. Gibson, you want me? I am ready.” The trap door opens while he and attending priest are reciting Our Father. Current Métis lobbying has him martyr hero and our new Governor-General Clarkson spoke out for him in an Ottawa observance of his execution anniversary. His body lies in cathedral cemetery, St. Boniface, Man.
Quebecer Louis Cyr (1863-1912) was hired by circus owner P[hineas] T[aylor] Barnum for feats of strength. Once in 1890 he lifted 490 pounds with one finger, but his record effort occurred 1895 in Boston when Cyr raised a platform of 19 fat men, in all weighing 1,967 kilograms.
Louis Pasteur (1822-95) famously warred against germs from his Paris Institute, virulent and contagious diseases his foes. We drink pasteurized milk: Parisians stalled for almost a century and still won’t pasteurize certain cheeses for their palate’s sake. Pres-sure has mounted, however, through new European Union regulations.
Hludwig usually appeared in medieval documents as Latin Ludovicus, which sired Ludovic. Salvator von Toscana Ludwig, archduke of Austria (1847-1915) and son of the grand duke of Tuscany, evolved into a regal travel author. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) dramatically closed the classical period of serious music and launched the roman-tic. He’s one of the greatest European composers ever. To open the 1998 winter Olym-pics in Japan, superb choirs on all five continents synchronized in a mighty television rendering of Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony.
The name Louis is found in the English-speaking world, although in England itself Lewis [which see] has been the norm since medieval times. Louis Botha (1862-1919) was soldier, statesman and first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. This resourceful leader of fighters now found in his portfolio postwar reconciliation of Boers and Brits.
Louis [pronounce the -s] is more common in North America. Joe Louis [Barrow] (1914-81) became world heavyweight boxing champion 1937 when only three years a pro, taking the title from James J. Braddock by KO in the 8th round. Knocked out by Max Schmeling, the only one ever to defeat him, Louis put Schmeling away early in round one of a rematch. He decked him four times, breaking two vertebrae in the German’s back in the process. Schoolmate Dave Janigan in Halifax told me how his small-shop-owner Dad scraped scarce money together to go to New York for the ‘38 return bout. He was walking down an aisle looking for his seat: the fight was over before he could sit down to watch. Joe went to war a doughboy, U. S. Army private, Schmeling as a German para-trooper. Louis defended his title a record 25 times with 21 knockouts. Those who followed his ring career closely insist he’s the best heavyweight ever, bar none.
The Brown Bomber had a piston left jab but later confessed he’d always held something back from his right cross. Joe was a golf nut, which lost him the first Schmel-ing fight. He ignored his trainers, became dehydrated from always being out on the course and so lacked ring stamina. After retirement and before his wheelchair, Joe lost many a stiff wager for thinking he was a better golfer than he really was. Bad business ventures and the Internal Revenue Service rendered him so debt ridden that a whole series of bene-fit bouts had to be arranged, plus high-level intercessions with Internal Revenue Service.
Louis Glass installed his Nickel-in-a-Slot device at Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco 1889. Soon it was known as a jukebox, juke being a slang word then for bor-dello. Film industry pioneer Louis B. Mayer of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios formed 1920s in Hollywood, California, was from Saint John, N. B. A black musician who started by playing cornet in an orphan waif band in New Orleans pioneered virtuoso trumpet solos and had a gravelly voice universally mimicked. Louis Armstrong (1900-71) was known through records, film appearances and touring. He did regular gigs across the river in Standishall but we were required to sit and listen to this then very dumpy, ebul-lient little man ‘cause we weren’t allowed to dance. On the nature of jazz Satchmo exclaimed: “Man, if ya gotta ask, you’ll nebba know!”
Louis without the -s sound had a high profile in Canada because of admirable francophones like Louis Stephen St. Laurent (1882-1973), Canada’s 12th prime minister 1948-57. Uncle Looey was recently rated just below great among Canada’s PMs since Confederation. Cousin Dan Wallace, senior Ottawa bureaucrat, was taken into the PM’s office to advise him on publicity. Dan, I reckoned at the time, had to tell Uncle Louis he already had bad press and, sorry, it was too late to do anything about it. So no third term in ’58. Much-honoured Louis Applebaum b. 1918 Toronto was composer/musical direc-tor with our National Film Board and then had 43 seasons at Stratford Festival providing and directing scores for 75 productions. He also did several hundred scores for radio, TV and film.
Louis Redmond Wallace (1926-91) b. Halifax the 15th child of my Uncle Tom and Aunt Ada, was an occasional playmate in our Halifax childhood if I took the effort to walk miles to Glenora, their white shingled, vaguely gothic home overlooking Chebucto Road. He tried to recruit me later for the Knights of Columbus in Halifax. His middle name Redmond recalls Grandmother Polly Wallace’s maiden name. We mouthed Louis sans -s what with his dad perpetual president of Alliance francaise in Halifax. Louis had an unhappy adult life and needless death, which might have been my own fate, so I mourn him. Of Louis’ 14 older siblings, early 2007 three were living, Eleanor, Ruth and Ron.
LOUISE England imported this feminine of Louis from France three centuries ago. O Famous Warrior Maid is what the Germanic root name Hlutwig meant. A dozen noble women have borne Louise in royal houses of the British Isles. Carews have served in a Halifax reserve army regiment The Princess Louise Fusiliers, including my late Uncle Steve, 1930s militia officer then wartime major known as Rocky Carew. Their perpet-uated Louise was #4 daughter of Queen Victoria and princess wife of Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell (1845-1914) marquess of and later 9th duke of Argyll, governor general of Canada 1878-83.
By contrast, latinate Louisa evokes Louisa May Alcott (1832-88) American au-thor of the novel Little Women 1868. Our oldest daughter Marita read this warm ‘n’ fuzzy eight times before I gave up checking. One Alcott adolescent character was Beth, which I found out only this year was what our family women called a blue baby b. a couple of years after me and who d. in her first day of life.
Louise McKinney (1868-1931) was first women legislator in the British Com-monwealth when taking her seat 1917 in Alberta. She was one of the Famous Five whose appeal to England’s Privy Council won women in 1929 the right to sit in our senate be-cause, yes, they were persons. Francophone Louise (Bazinet) Brown b. 1951 Ottawa and now in Kitchener, Ont., is older sister of our daughter-in-law Lucie.
LUCIE A later embellishment made this a saint invoked by people who have trouble with their eyes. According to legend, Lucia at an early age in Sicily vowed herself to God. A rejected pagan suitor denounced her as Christian during persecutions under the Dalma-tian emperor of Rome, Diocletian (245-313). She was sentenced to prostitution in a bro-thel but could not be taken away. Even when fire was set around her she remained un-harmed. They were able finally to pierce her heart with a sword. She died perhaps AD 304 and her name was inserted in the 6th century Canon of the Mass. Professor Basil Cottle grumbles about “a silly later story of her having deoculated herself”– an event not uncovered in early Church records.
Cottle added that “Lucius [who had been] a less spectacular saint and pope, died 254.” Lucia was taken off the Church calendar 1969. Another Lucy, from Campania, was carried off by Teuton raider Aucejas who soon revered her piety. They and com-panions were beheaded 301 on arrival back in Rome. Lucy Filippini from Tuscany (1672-1732) began Maestre Pie, an organization vital in educating Italian women and whose schools spread round the world.
Lucie is French for Lucia, which was Latin feminine of the Roman clan name Lu-cius, and that from the word lux meaning light. That root often inspired early Christians to take the name for sake of its symbolism. Later, sight sufferers appealed to legendary Lucia, adding their own legend to hers, so badly was needed some intermediary in the Hereafter. That is why she is sometimes depicted holding an eye instead of the usual lamp.
The saintly name came to English use as Luce or Lucy and continued; names compiler Camden 1605 writing that it was “a name first given to them that were born when daylight first appeared.” Lucy Brewer made up like a man served as a United States Marine in the War of 1812. The name became rare but took hold of English parents late 1960s onwards, same as happened to Christopher when the Vatican doubted his sainthood. Norman-Irish de Lucy is thought extinct but make note of O’Lucey from O Luasaigh formerly MacClusaigh of County Cork. A Fermanagh Lucy family comes from Oxfordshire, England. American comedienne Lucille Ball (1911-89) b. Jamestown, N. Y., entertainer on radio, TV and film, is #7 in a Legends of Hollywood U. S. stamp series for 2001.
Marie Lucie Rolande (Bazinet) Wallace b. 1955 Ottawa has been #2 son Stephen’s wife since 1975. A childhood domestic accident left her with one eye.
Bones Race
The Mother of Us All was nicknamed Lucy and had a reign of 20 years from 1974 before being dethroned by a 41 million-year-old bipedal species that Maeve Leakey dis-covered and named Australopithicus anamensis. Paleoanthopologist Donald C. Johanson suspects Anamensis gave rise to Afarensis i. e. Lucy. Both have been classified as knuck-le walkers alive at least a million years after the evolutionary split from apes.
Later in ‘94 a bone find in Ethiopia dating 5.2 to 5.8 million years ago was named Ardipithecus ramidus kaddaba. That one has many chimp-like features but its precise position on the human family tree remained to be sorted out. A ‘95 Kenyan find was published May ‘98 in the British journal Nature announcing a two-legged ancestor aged between 4.07 to 4.12 million years. Hold on! Millennium Man perhaps six million years old was discovered 25 Oct. 2000 in the Kenyan part of the Great Rift Valley. He walked upright, climbed but did not swing from trees and had teeth like ours for a diet of fruit, veggies and “opportunistic meat-eating”. About the size of a modern chimpanzee it looks like a big cat got him and dragged him up a tree to eat, his bones dropping into the pond below. The catch of our day! But wait: a skull unearthed in Chad may push our first ancestor back a million years. He’s been labelled Toumai meaning hope of life for those born just before the Sahel dry season with the scientific name Sahelanthropus tchadensis. This is arguably “the most important discovery in living memory” asserts Henry Gee, paleontology editor of Nature. Well, the discovery is among more important finds of the past several decades. New Chad fragments in 2005 confirm that the ancestral primate of chimpanzee size and brain had a face and teeth more like humans. Humans and chimpanzees diverged a tad more than seven millions years ago. A leg or hip bone must be found next in the Djurab Desert – 2,400 kilometres west of Kenya’s famous Rift Valley finds – to confirm tantalizing clues that Toumai and his like there walked upright.
And there’s Luiza, skull of a woman found 1975 in central Brazil only recently determined to be 11,500 years old, thus our earliest known American. At last, an indi-cation of other than land-bridge peopling of this hemisphere because Luiza’s features resemble those of Australian Aborigines, implying migration by sea! She was a nomad, eating natural vegetation and occasionally meat, dead by age 20 through mishap.
LUKE Luke and Luck were Middle East vernacular for Lucas, Latin equivalent to Greek Loukas, man from Lucania. Wasn’t that a district of ancient Italy colonized by Greeks before 300 BC? These gleanings hardly make Luke the perennial it is. The 3rd Gospel of the New Testament was written in idiomatic Greek sometime in the latter part of the 1st century. Not until the century following was an author named. He was that Lucas or Luke whose name pops up here and there in Acts and Epistles. This evangelist was a Gentile converted by St. Paul, and a “beloved” physician. We know little else. Tradition says he painted a portrait of Jesus and Mother, and became a martyr. He is patron of doctors and artists; his feast Oct. 18.
The name also may have Celtic origins from the charming Tuscan town of Lucca in Italy, Celtic for a marshy place. The coastal area was malarial of old, long delaying de-velopment. Luick, now Liege in Belgium, could mean the people’s place in Gaulish. In similar vein to Lucca, Lucania could mean marsh. If Greek, perhaps the meaning is white; if Latin, maybe light. These two might have had appeal to early Christians looking for in-spiring names for the font.
Luke may have swallowed up Levick, short for Old English pet name Leofeca, dear, or from Old French for bishop. Leofeca was the pet name of the great epic poet Lawman’s father Leovenath ca. 1200 Worcestershire, England, Prof. Cottle the medie-valist tells us. Lucas was recorded in Ireland in the 14th century and well established by the 17th in County Waterford before Cromwell tipped the pot. On the Emerald Isle Lucas might indicate Scots-Irish families formerly known as MacLucas. Luke came later, is rarer, and can even be Lucid, a derivative of Lucas gaelicized Luiséid.
Lucas van Leyden (c.1494-1533) was a northern Renaissance artist. His actual surname was Hugensz or Jacobsz but he’s better known for his triptych The Last Judgement [Leiden].
Luke Allen Cassin b. 1988 London, Ont., is my wife’s grand nephew and #2 son of Bernadette Helen Small that was. Remember that Celtic affinity for water expressed in the name Luke: this young Luke is a fisherman.
LYNN Notions on where Lynn came from are three. In Celtic, Lynn means lake, pool. There’s a place in Norfolk, England, which now is called King’s Lynn and it’s on the Wash. Old English hlinn points either to a waterfall or the pool beneath it. O’Lynn, from O Fhloinn and latterly O Loinn, is a northern form of O’Flynn and name of a sect handy Lough Neagh, County Antrim.
Lynn can also be short for Linda. That name comes from Line, French. And Line can emerge from anglicized names of girls ending in -line such as Sa-weet Ad-o-li-i-ne. The suffix Lyn[n] has had a good workout since the 1950s or earlier as in Carolyn. Lynn by itself is more than a little fashionable. Lynn Fontaine (c.1887-1983) teamed with vaude-ville veteran and husband Alfred Lunt to perform sophisticated comedy on stage, in films and on TV. Loretta Lynn b. 1935 was a hit country singer 1960-71 whose autobiography Coal Miner’s Daughter was made into a movie 1980.
After the Sherriton gold mine shut down 1951, plant and dwellings were sledded some 260 kilometres north in Manitoba to Lynn Lake to start anew. Lynn Canal con-nects Skagway with Juneau and during the Alaska gold rush of 1896 was a major route to gold fields. Lynn Margaret née Wallace b. 1964 Halifax, #3 daughter of my Cousin Frank, who’s in the Ottawa area, like all his daughters is worth her weight in gold.
Mac Attack
Many Celtic surnames are based on the given name of an ancestor, in Scots Gaelic preceded by Mac or written M’ and Mc while in parts like Arran they pronounce Mac as Ac. Some claim that Mc evolved from M’. In Irish Gaelic Mac becomes Mag before a vowel. In Welsh the prefix is Mab or Map shortened usually to Ab or Ap. Whittling down over time changed Mab Evan to Ab Evan shrunk next to Bevan. Similarly Price was once Map then Ap Rhys, Powell was Ap Howell and before then Map Howell. Squeezing of Manx names perhaps was due to centuries of Norse rule on the Isle of Man. Manx sur-name Cubbin came out of Scots Gaelic McGibbon.
Norman-Irish Fitz is a prefix that performs the same function as “son of” whereas Irish O before a name once meant grandson. Today we prefer “descendant of…” So many Celts have been christened Donald, Bryan or John that it’s unlikely that Macdon-alds, O’Briens or Joneses encountered away from home turf will be close kin. Remember this when someone’s trying to peddle you a coat of arms. Finally, those claiming Mc means someone Irish and Mac a Scot, or that Mc means Papist and Mac Protestant are as ignorant as those who assert that yellow stripes in a tartan indicates that this clan had been cowardly in battle! P.S. Irish say Gay-lick, Scots, Gal-ick for their languages.
MacAULAY Gunni Olafson was a Norse chieftain given the boot by the earl of Orkney, but made welcome in the Hebrides by chief of MacLeod. Gunni was given land on the is-land of Lewis, which in 1266 had been surrendered by Norway. One of his former pro-perties on the mainland in Ross & Cromarty is called Ullapool, Norse for homestead of Olaf. Old Norse Olafr meant relic of the gods. So the MacAulays of Lewis claim Olaf the Black their ancestor. Olafson translated into Scots Gaelic mac Amhlaibh and was anglicized to MacAulay. The Ullapool area still has MacAulays who have allied them-selves with MacKenzie chief and clan. MacAulays on the island of Oig continue their allegiance to MacLeod but feuded for centuries with Morrisons of Lewis.
Almost simultaneously in the south, MacAulays of Ardincaple, Dunbartonshire, were related to earls of Lennox as early as 1285. The surname came from the Old Irish personal name Amhalghaidh, for Aulay and the Lennoxes stem from kings of Munster in Ireland. In 1536 it appeared that the Ardincaple chief claimed to be “head of the whole name of MacAulay”. An additional source has the founding father Sir Aulay MacAulay, recorded 1587 as Lennox earl’s vassal and kinsman. A friendly assessment was that Mac-Aulays were “not numerous but of good account”.
Undoing of mainland MacAulays came from hooking up with MacGregors, who were outlawed 1604. The Earl of Argyle, Chief of Clan Campbell, was accused of “lying at wait for the Laird of Ardincapill upon set purpose to have him slane”. By mid-century the MacAulay clan lacked cohesion and by the end its lands were being sold off piece-meal. Lairds were amassing debt setting up house in London where James VI of Scotland had become James I of England. Once a MacAulay possession is Faslane, the base for Britain’s nuclear submarine force.
In Ireland, a MacAulay was among many chiefs recorded in the 16th century. To-day the name can be found in Ulster’s County Fermanagh bordering Co. Cavan west, and in Leinster’s Co. Westmeath. MacAuley/Awley are from two septs, Mac Amhalghaidh of Offaly and Westmeath and the more numerous Mac Amhlaoibh, a MacGuire branch. As Mag Amhlaoibh it yields Gawley.
Thomas Babington, 1st baron MacAulay (1800-59) essayist and historian is best known for his Lays of Ancient Rome and A History of England thought Whiggish. He has roots in the Lewis clan. His father Zachary MacAulay was a leader in the movement to abolish slavery after a taste of managing Jamaican plantations and governorship of Sierra Leone. Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) was an English novelist and essayist good at social satire.
Sir James Buchanan Macaulay (1793-1859) an officer of Glengarry Fencibles fought in three battles of the War of 1812. In the period 1822-56 he was an Upper Cana-da lawyer and judge, soon pulled from retirement to be court of error and appeal judge. John Vernon MacAulay b. 1917 Prince Edward Island, in 1942 married a widow and our cousin, Dorothy Madeline (Wallace) Hammond (1916-88). He had three children by her but deserted his family, assessed therefore a MacAulay of less than good account.
McCORMACK Cormac MacArt is supposed to have ruled Ireland barely into the historic period. During his reign 254-77 the Fianna was led by Fionn MacCumhail [Finn McCool]. This royal guard of Fenians numbered 25 battalions [!] but Cormac’s son dis-banded them. Cormac was the most famous of three Cormacs in Irish tradition. The name has continued popular from earliest time and means something like chariot lad. The surnames Cormack and Cormick are anglicizations of Irish Mac Cormaic. The name is found all over Ireland. The normal Ulster spelling is MacCormick. MacCormack also comes wrongly from O Cormacain of Counties Thomond, Roscommon, Down and now mostly Galway. Blame a 16th century clerical error. Scottish MacCormacks are a sept of Clan Buchanan-MacCormick of MacLaine, which originated with Anselan O’Kyan, scion of an Ulster king, who helped Scots in Argyle fight off invading Danes around 1016.
John McCormack (1884-1945) was the Irish-American touring tenor who, it was reported, couldn’t stand having another Irishman in the same room. Nell (Brownrigg) McCormack, who died an octogenarian in 1990s St. John’s, Nfd., was my wife’s god-mother. Eleanor was also niece of Har Brownrigg my wife’s grandfather.
McCULLOUGH In a variety of spellings, MacCulloughs numbered about 5,000 in Ire-land a score of years ago, more than 80 per cent of them in Ulster. Some of them descend from Irish Gaelic Mac Con[or Cu]ladh, son of the hound of Ulster. The MacCollas, rec-kons one distinguished expert, were galloglasses. From the Irish word galloglach these were heavily armed Scots and Hebridean Norse hired as mercenaries and given land to set up their families. Others are the seed of MacCulloughs of Argyle and afterwards Gallo-way in Scotland, who planted Ulster, establishing themselves first in Donegal. Their name in Scots Gaelic translates son of the boar. Scottish families of MacCulloch are at-tached to clans MacDonald, MacDougall, Munro and Ross. That’s a spread in Scotland from the northeast, Ross and Cromerty, to the extreme southwest, Galloway. Neigh-bours there of the Agnews, Kennedys, Hays and MacDowalls, McCullochs occupy the map near Stranraer.
Whether son of boar or hound these Scots and Ulstermen made their mark on our new nation a-forming. Thomas McCulloch (1776-1843) was called to the Secession Church in Scotland and in 1803 headed with family for an unpaid Prince Edward Island mission. He stopped short in Pictou, N. S., founding Pictou Academy. He was principal when it merged with Dalhousie College and president of Dal for his final five years. Dal d., soon to be resurrected. The reverend advocated access for all to higher education and the professions rather than members only of the Church of England establishment. Far to the south, Ben McCulloch (1811-62) was a Texas frontiersman who became a Confeder-ate general. In the American war between the states he was killed during the battle of Pea Ridge 1862 by a sharpshooter.
Charles Robert McCullough (1865-1947) was an Upper Canadian educator who founded the Canadian Club 1892 and was first president of its Hamilton group until 1910. He also was captain later lieutenant colonel of the 91st Regiment of Canadian Highlanders. Clement George McCullagh (19055-52) with brokerage earnings and a little help bought the Toronto Globe and in 1936 the Mail & Empire. He was president of resulting Globe & Mail and three years later acquired the late Toronto Telegram. The Globe & Mail joined the Thomson chain 1980. The Old Grey Lady tries to be a national daily while catering to Toronto’s concentration of corporate headquarters.
Patricia “Patsy” (McCullough) Wallace b. 1925 Halifax attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart with my sisters. She’s the wife of Cousin Ron, boxer, wartime naval
officer, optometrist, former Liberal member of the N. S. Legislative Assembly and, until recently, long-time mayor of Halifax. Patsy had six children who stand amidst scores and perhaps hundreds by now of Wallace kin we haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting.
McDONALD/Macdonald The Macdonalds for most intents and purposes were a kingdom unto themselves in Scotland’s Western Isles and on portions of the mainland. They claimed descent from Ireland’s semi-mythical Conn of the Hundred Battles fl. AD 125 but more likely come from Angus, brother to founder king Fergus mac Erc of Dalriada, Argyll. around 503. The dynasty Cinel Aonghais intermarried with the Pictish royal house. About 700 family surnames are associated with Clan Donald, largest of Hielan’ clans, according to Jesuit priest James McGivern of Toronto, student of outstanding families. Lords of the Isles later by conquest became earls of Ross for a time. Munros served these new earls as they had their predecessors. The name Macdonald was from Mac Domhnall, son of world mighty, and for long their war galleys throve on piracy and strife. They tried vainly to form an independent kingdom, even enlisting the English to help. After that failure they were never quite the same again.
After the Highland defeat at Culloden Moor, Nael Stephen Macdonald took ser-vice in France. His son Jacques Etienne Joseph Alexandre (1765-1840) was made duke of Taranto and marshal of the French empire. He served in the Irish Brigade, Dillon’s Regi-ment, survived the French Revolution still a soldier, campaigned in Holland and Italy and invaded Russia only to be relegated to the siege of Riga. In one battle of the Russian cam-paign, however, Macdonald acted like his ancient Celtic forbears, advancing his corps so recklessly far as to have it smashed into stragglers. Napoleon remarked his duke “could not be trusted within the sound of bagpipes”.
John MacDonald of Glenaladale brought colonists to Prince Edward Island 1771. At start of the 1800s a dissolved regiment of fencibles that had been raised by clan chief Alexander MacDonell immigrated to Glengarry County in Ontario, joining clansmen al-ready there. They formed the Glengarry Fencibles for the 1812 War.
Midway through the 19th century Macdonald was second only to Smith in Scot-land, taking the next 100 years to drop to third place. A MacLeod raised in a Cape Bre-ton today teeming with Macdonalds snickered to me in Ottawa about the legendary pro-creational powers of that clan, a nudge-nudge that originated long ago in the Western Isles of Scotland. Macdonalds were in 75th place in the halved population of Ireland 1890. Tom Robson in The Ottawa Citizen 16 Oct. 1998 noted that there are 15 million Mac-donalds worldwide, the surname not the restaurant qualified he, whereas the entire population of Scotland is merely 5 million. Say, maybe that MacLeod from Cape Breton was right.
From the 1880s Macdonald emerged from time to time as a first name. Conven-tions govern the use of MacD, McD, Macd but, as you have already noticed, such rules are not universally applied.
In the colonies-to-nation process scores of Macdonalds and some Macdonells contributed hugely. Sir John A[lexander] Macdonald (1815-91) was the nation’s first prime minister, pitcher of gin disguised as waterjug on the lectern as he sought re-election. Also a father of Confederation was Andrew Archibald Macdonald (1829-1912) a Prince Edward Island merchant and ship owner. When the Island joined the Dominion in 1873 he was appointed provincial postmaster general and ‘84-89 lieutenant governor. Two years later he went to the Canadian senate.
Many Macdonalds fought for Canada. Alexander Macdonell, Upper Canada’s first R. C. bishop had in the Scottish Highlands raised the Glengarry Fencibles 1794, first Catholic regiment since the Protestant Reformation. He helped raise a like regiment of name for the War of 1812 and went with his Fencibles into action in Canada.
Sir Donald Alexander Macdonald (1845-1920) was an Old Cornwall Upper Cana-dian, career soldier who figured in Fenian Raids of 1866, Red River Expedition of ’70 and Northwest Rebellion of ’85. As quartermaster of Canadian militia 1904-18 he had the thankless task of equipping mushrooming forces for the Great War while coping with Sir Sam Hughes’ arbitrariness. He made major general 1912.
Other Macdonalds were lieutenant governors, premiers and chief justices of vari-ous provinces. The final chairman of Newfoundland’s commission government 1946-49 was Sir Gordon Macdonald who, on confederation of Old Colony/ former Dominion with Canada, went back across the pond to become 1st Baron Gwaenysgor. He’d started as a Welsh coal miner, aged 13. A credit union pioneer in Nova Scotia was Angus Bernard MacDonald (1893-1952), other Macdonalds had been fur traders, merchants, builders and can boast of a painter and poet in their new land.
Angus L[ewis] Macdonald (1890-1954) was so long Liberal premier of Nova Sco-tia that the kingfisher symbol of Louisiana governor Huey Long was pinned on poor An-gus L. by Herald & Mail cartoonist Bob Chambers. Angus, a Celtic-style orator, inter-rupted leadership of Bluenosers to be wartime minister of national defence for naval services, the Royal Canadian Navy expanding manyfold to 90,000 sailors and wrens, 300 offensively armed ships, making it the third largest allied navy. Vice-Admiral H. T. W. Grant, a Haligonian, said, “We demobilized with indecent haste.”
As a cub reporter in Halifax after the war I formed part of expectant Bluenose au-diences rapt as always by sonorous words rolling out of Angus L., back among us again as premier. He bound us in spells and dreams as befitted a have-not province. Angus L. had recommended me for naval college. He’d also promised Mummy that if she ever needed a job to come see him. Clannish Nova Scotians kept a kindly eye out for single moms of good family. Then too he had dated her when they were young. Blithely ignoring any insult it had meant for Angus L., the city of Halifax adopted the kingfisher as its symbol, a thoughtless tourism gimmick. I wasn’t helpful while taking a largely Liberal gathering on a harbour cruise by announcing as we passed underneath Halifax-Dartmouth bridge: “This is named after Angus L. Macdonald, the Liberal Huey Long of Nova Scotia.” Huey had been a tad unsavory. Lackeys hastened to chafe the hands of his widow aboard our harbour craft.
In the 1780s Loyalists had settled several regiments, mostly Scots, on New Brun-swick’s St. Croix and St. John rivers. Other settlers came direct from Scotland to Lower Miramichi and fisherfolk to Restigouche River and estuary. From 1764 Acadians return-ing from exile swamped the latter community, wrote academic Watson Kirkconnell. A New Brunswick McDonald, who was wed to #2 sister Rosemary almost 50 years until their break-up, was Arthur Hatheway McDonald formerly of Saint John, retired naval commander, merchant then realtor in Halifax. Mac and Rosie are in Kin Tale XLIV. Janet, their oldest, trained as a psychiatric nurse, her two sisters and a brother took law.
McDONAGH However spelled – Mac or McDonagh, McDonogh, McDonaugh – it’s today’s surname from Irish Gaelic Mac Donnchadha meaning Duncan [which see]. The Scots Gaelic is Dhonnchaidh and both mean brown warrior. Although the majority of Celts in the British Isles were fair-haired and ruddy-cheeked as befits a later wave of immigrants, one school of thought maintains the original agriculturists were Mediterran-eans, dark-haired and swarthy. So, for brown warrior read swarthy warrior: our own children are both fair and dark and the oldest son appropriately named Duncan.
Duncan has been a royal name in Scotland and is still a clan name. In Ireland families of MacDonaghs are a branch of MacDermots and found in the old province of Connacht in the rugged west. There is a sept in County Sligo’s interior with a branch in Thomond, the modern Co. Clare. In Co. Galway another family of the name is separate, possibly an offshoot of O’Flahertys of rough Connemara. Co. Cork MacDonaghs were a branch of MacCarthys and many of them it appears resumed that name. This elaborates on correspondence earlier 1990s from a MacDonagh to the late Edward MacLysaght, au-thor of books on Irish families.
Time, perhaps, for an overdue review of early Irish and Scots history. The Irish called themselves Feni. The Welsh who spoke Brythonic, called them Gwyddel which streamlined to Gael. The Latin tag c. 400 was Scotus, meaning raider, for the Irish were launching strikes deep into the Hebrides and along the western seaboard of the mainland even before the last Roman legion went home. Raiding evolved to settling. Sons of the King of Dalriada in north Ireland ran their boats up on the shore of Argyle. Their pro-vince of Dalriada there became a kingdom in its own right. Eventually pretty well the whole country was more or less united although there was a King of Scots before there was a King of Scotland. The price paid was centuries of savage conflict involving Scot, Pict, Brit and Angle in tangles of alliances and betrayals, Christian vs. Pagan, Celts and Germanics. Norse, then Norman entered into this panorama of blood, iron and burning homes. This review may help explain why names in both Goidelic camps are so similar. McCullochs as described earlier are another example. However, in those old kingdoms their history is mere glimpses through flame and dark. Tragedies of a millennium before our own just ending and thousands of kilometres away make much seem remote.
However, in the War of 1812 Thomas MacDonough (1783-1825) was a U. S. naval officer who won decisively on Lake Champlain. American gunnery generally was better than that of the Royal Navy so that they eventually dominated on the Great Lakes and even sometimes on Blue Water. The victory of HMS Shannon over USS Chesapeake, witnessed from ashore by crowds of Boston’s carriage folk, was a dramatic exception. Some of that battle’s dead are buried in Halifax. For more detail, see Wallace.
Fighting political wars at federal level today is Alexa McDonough, b. 1944 Ottawa to Lloyd Shaw, member of parliament for the old Co-operative Commonwealth Federa-tion. After her family returned to Nova Scotia, Alexa grew into politics and became leader in ‘80 of that province’s modest New Democratic Party. That made her perhaps the first woman in Canada to head a provincial party. Alexa represented the federal riding of Hali-fax ‘93-94 and was elected national leader at Ottawa in ’95.
In London, fair Western Ontario city, Anne Marie and Laura McDonagh b. 1971 as twins were first offspring of Catherine Mary “Honey” (Small) Sell. The twins have been long in Vancouver, Laura a hairdresser. Ann Marie m. Patrick Dvorcek 14 May 1999. Their mother Honey now is in Campbell River, B. C. Their older brother Tim b. 1968 is living outside London. He’s father of Ethan O’ Connor McDonagh b. 1995, first great grand-child of Kay and Fred Small. We saw Tim and Ethan at Kay’s. She’s my wife’s oldest sister.
McKENNA In Irish Gaelic it means son of Cionaodh. A weaker candidate is Irish Cian, pronounced KEEan and from Gaelic word ancient. These were a branch of Ui Neills mainly in today’s County Monaghan as lords of Truagh [now Trough]. The MacKenna was listed in 16th-century sources as one of many chiefs in Eire. That was before the English finally overturned all Brehon Laws. These ancient Irish laws, dated in writing only from the 8th century, dealt with clan structure and responsibilities as well as pro-perty matters and criminal acts.
A handful of 19th-century MacKennas were devoted pensters. Theobald was a political moderate promoting parliamentary reform and Catholic Emancipation around the time of Wolfe Tone; two Stephens were novelists; a third a journalist who fought for the Greeks and translated some of their ancient drama. Jesuit Father Lambert MacKenna edited books in the Irish language on bardic poetry and history. Meanwhile John [later
Juan] MacKenna from Tyrone took engineering studies in Spain and was useful to vice-roy Ambrosio O’Higgins in the defence of Peru. He d. after a duel in Buenos Aires.
In 1890 the surname ranked 88th in Ireland and by 1956 the number of “chiefs” only 16, MacKenna not among them. As MacKenna and Kennagh the name is “fairly numerous” now in Leinster and Munster. In Clare and Kenny the emphasis on the last syllable yields synonyms Kennaw, Ginna and Gna
McKenna and Mackinney are surnames in Scotland, the earliest known being William M’Kinnay 1544. Both names mean the son of Cionaodh so we’re no further ahead until we find what that old personal name meant.
Weaving, whether cottage or factory, has had its ups and downs in Ireland. It was during one of these slumps in 19th century northern Ireland that a McKenna came out to Pictou, N. S., where Scots had immigrated previously. In the 1930s two McKenna sisters from Pictou married two Carew brothers in Halifax whose 16th-century ancestors had been Huguenot weavers in France. Joined were Basil and Kathleen, Steve and Nan, all devout Roman Catholics. See also Carew.
In fact most Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants to Canada were Ulster Protestants. The Halifax phone book and the Armed Forces were full of ‘em when I was a newspaper-man and Navy type mid-century there. But even in deathly throes of Famine diaspora 150 years ago, Catholics when possible headed to the USA. Priests and religious were more available there who spoke English if not Gaelic. Others took a chance on cheaper fares of coffin ships coming here, then used Canada as stepping stone to the States.
McKenna thespians include celebrated Siobhan. Terence McKenna and brother do documentaries for the CBC. In recent years they caused a mighty uproar by downplay-ing Great War aerial exploits of Canada’s Billy Bishop VC.
In the province of my birth, Frank Joseph McKenna led Liberals to a stunning electoral victory 1987 in New Brunswick, sweeping all 58 seats. This was only the second rout in Canadian provincial history. After a third election landslide in ’95 the stocky workaholic retired ’97 after 10 years as promised. Early in 2004 he made himself available for a federal seat.
MacKENZIE The welcome birth of another grandson I September 2000 hoisted this name for the first time up into our family tree. MacKenzie Touma Wallace was firstborn of Lily and our #5 son Matthew in Ottawa just 14 minutes after midnight. His middle name and perhaps his looks are Arabian. Touma means Thomas. One day Mac will learn that the –z- in his forename was substituted for the medieval letter yogh pronounced as a y-glide. It’s important he know since his name properly was pronounced Mackingie until the 18th century when it was further anglicized by sounding that –z-. The lord advocate around then, Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, was referred to as “Bluidy Mackingie”. In Old Gaelic the name had been Mac Cainnigh meaning son of Cainnich and modern Gaelic spells it Coinneach. Coinneach has the sense fair or bright, rendered son of the fair. Incorrectly, Kenneth was assigned its equivalent English name.
Two acknowledged authorities on clans of Scotland differ on origins of Macken-zie. The late Robert Bain wrote that they claim descent from Colin, progenitor of the earls of Ross. Micheil MacDonald avers the probable ancestor was Gilleon of the Aird. See Gillian. Donald Whyte thinks it probable that Celtic Mackenzies were descendants of “Gilleoin” of Aird while saying at the same time that the earliest known Kenneth was closely related to the earls of Ross. In 1267 Gilleon was living in the western stronghold of Eilean Donan, a photogenic castle on Loch Duich in Kintail. Mathesons and MacRaes, both of whom see, were subordinates. The first important Mackenzie according to Mac-Donald was Alexander 7th Chief of Kintail. James I of Scots summoned him to his court 1427 and he endured there 60 years. In 1508 Kintail was raised to a barony. By the way, Scottish name authors found Makbeth Makkyneth 1264 and Nevin M’Kenze 1473 to be earliest on record.
Mackenzies defeated formidable Macdonalds 1491 in Blair-na-park, styled Bat-tle of the Shirts because they fought disrobed. Our tentative Fraser forbears and other Macdonalds fought a valiant, like-named battle 1544. See Fraser. Highlanders of yore wore one garment, their plaid [sounded played] sufficing as shirt, kilt and coat in one. They cast it off to wield a great two-handed sword unencumbered. Normally such were slung on their backs.
John MacKenzie took his people out with James IV to Battle of Flodden 1513. He lived to tell the tale even if his monarch and most of the Scottish nobility didn’t. Un-der James V the clan fought the Sassenach at Pinkie Cleugh 1547. Colin, 11th chief, fought in Queen Mary’s army at Langside.
It wasn’t long before MacKenzie and vassals controlled much of what in recent years was Ross & Cromerty County in the north. Kenneth was created 1st Lord MacKenzie of Kintail 1609. Soon they had MacLeod’s Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides.
Lord MacKenzie’s son was created earl of Seaforth 1623. The 3rd earl was a committed Cavalier so victor Cromwell deprived him of his estates. William, 5th Earl, supported Prince James Edward, the Old Pretender 1715, so was attainted. His grandson raised Seaforth Highlanders 1778 for the British Army and took his regiment to India.
John Prebble, Winnipeg scribe of Scottish history, said the English “drained the High-lands” for 27 regiments of the line and 19 battalions of fencibles over five decades following Scottish defeat in Battle of Culloden Moor in ‘46. Some of Culloden’s sur-vivors fought under Simon Fraser dying with General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abra-ham before walls of Quebec. Mackenzies and Munros were among clans providing a fine martial array of fighting men for their new Sassenach masters. In the Napoleonic Wars as the 19th century unfolded, Highlanders provided the equivalent of seven or eight infantry divisions. Who was left to mope in gutted glens?
Clan MacKenzie today includes earldom of Cromarty and baronetcies. Some of Europe’s best mountain scenery is theirs. Clan motto: Luceo non uro, I shine not burn. Seaforth Highlanders of Canada display battle honours from both world wars. Canada’s only Victoria Cross winner still alive age 90 in 2004 is Ernest Alva “Smokey” Smith b. 1914, a Seaforth private awarded the highest British Commonwealth decoration. He spoiled two German tank counterattacks at the Savio River bridgehead in Italy 21-22 Oct. 1944. His respected Vancouver militia regiment wears Mackenzie tartan.
Canada’s major north-flowing river is named after Nor’wester fur trader and ex-plorer Alexander MacKenzie (1764-1820) who negotiated its entire length 1789. At 4,241 kilometres it is second only to the Mississippi as North America’s longest river. This journey and another all the way to the Pacific were accomplished with minimum fuss, good relations maintained with aboriginals, and never a shot fired in anger.
Two vital political figures of Canadian history are linked. William Lyon Macken-zie (1795-1861) came over from Scotland. As a Toronto journalist outraged by Upper Canada’s Family Compact he staged a failed revolt 1837. Grandson William Lyon Mac-kenzie King (1874-1950) was Canada’s wily Liberal prime minister almost 22 years in all. He deked a developing nation through dire periods. Come to think of it, our second P. M. 1873-78 had been newly minted Liberal Alexander Mackenzie (1822-92). For a while he held seats in both Ontario and federal houses at one time until the law was changed. He was veteran of the legislative assembly, Province of Canada. Knighthood was offered him several times in retirement but he always refused.
Ada Mackenzie (1891-1973) was frequently Ontario or Canadian amateur ladies golf champion and voted Canada’s athlete of the year 1933. She founded our country’s first golf club for women in’25 at Thornhill, Ont.
A sports and recreational officer of the Canadian Army served numerous peace-keeping missions in Gaza, Cyprus, Vietnam, Central America and high-profile peace-making in former Yugoslavia, rising to major general. Lewis W. MacKenzie b. 1940 Truro, N. S., retired in ‘93 to write about peace processes that still are ineptly handled by the UN. He ran unsuccessfully as a Progressive Conservative candidate in Parry Sound/ Muskoka during the ’97 federal election [whereupon carpers of the closet kind rejoiced throughout Foreign Affairs]. To me, former peacekeeper both in Cyprus and Egypt and dismayed defence watcher, Lewis MacKenzie continues to make sense.
MacLEAN For several of my 27 years as a regular force officer in the Royal Canadian Navy both Roman Catholic and Protestant chaplains of the fleet were Macleans from Nova Scotia. One was MacL., the other Macl. The R. C. was the golfer, a bluff Cape Bretoner, the other a slim Presbyterian from Oxford, N. S.
The clan in Scotland had roots in the old kingdom of Dalriada, expanding beach-head of Irish who eventually converted Pictland into Scotland. The clan name evolved from Gilleain-na-Tuaighe, Gillean of the Battle Axe. This warrior hero likely descended through a Celtic abbot of Lismore from a branch of the old royal house. Macleans linked up with MacDonald Lord of the Isles possibly through a MacRuari connection. Hector Maclean of Duart had to provide in 1488 a galley of 22 oars to serve the Lords for sake of lands given him in Mull.
Gillemoir Macily as chief swore fealty to England’s Edward I but his grandson Gillecullum was with victorious Bruce at Bannockburn 1314. His two sons started Maclean families at Duart and Lochbuie. [Wallaces long wore Maclean of Duart tartan, neither family today remembering why.] In 1496 Duart holdings were made a barony. A branch of the family married into Macdonalds helped in their struggles with Stewart mon-archs. Some Macdonalds and Macleans feuded after James IV overthrew Lords of the Isles and Macleans were trying to fill the power vacuum. However, wily Campbells of Argyle applied pressure. One tactic was buying up The MacLean’s debts then having courts give over much of his land. Small wonder Macleans fought for Royalist general Montrose in the civil war against leading Campbell Covenanters. But The MacLean was out in 1715 and ‘45 for the Jacobite cause and with Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden Moor in ‘46. Sir Fitzroy Hew MacLean of Dunconnel, soldier, diplomat and author was created baronet 1944 and retired to Stracher House, Argyll.
In Ireland are MacClean and MacLean branches of a galloglass family of Scottish origin, Mac Giolla Eain, an old form of Eoin or Sean meaning John. A galloglach was a
heavily armed mercenary for hire long ago like McCulloughs, coming usually from Scots/ Norse stocks in the Hebrides. Through New World magic, MacL[l]eans, Mac D[d]onalds and Campbells live harmoniously in Nova Scotia.
But the Maclean who concerns us is the nice Jewish boy with resounding name who headed a magazine sales group inland. Maclean Quickfall “Mac” Hammond (1917-41) became R. C. When a mere 24, his cancer widowed one of his workers, Dorothy Wallace, Uncle Joe’s first child. Her second husband, a MacAulay of Prince Edward Island, abandoned her and his three children by her.
MacNEIL Although they held some of the Scottish mainland, MacNeils were basically island folk, ruling Barra in the Outer Hebrides from midway through the 11th century. They claimed a Niall their founder there and, as their ultimate ancestor long before him, Niall of the Nine Hostages, high king of Ireland at Tara ca. AD 400. See Niall [pronounc-ed Nile in English, Neal in Irish] and also O’Neill.
Aileach was a beehive-shaped dry-stone castle/fort on the northern Irish Coast where Aeod Athaeuch ruled before 1033. Niall of the Hostages had sent two sons north and Athaeuch was of their line. His own sons possibly that very century went into the Western Isles and married into the old royal line of Dalriada. Linkage may have been through the MacRuari clan, marriage to an heiress of old Norse/Celtic sea-going kings. See also MacLean. Genealogies of MacNeils of Barra weren’t exactly carved in stone that early. Barras claim clan leadership prematurely perhaps, for a collateral line on Gigha was cock of the walk as late as 1530. Gigha waned when avaricious Campbells expanded into the Outer Hebrides. [Early in 2002 Gigha’s 110 native sons and daughters held an all night ceilidh to celebrate that finally they’re the ones in charge of the 9.5-kilometre-long island off Scotland’s southwest coast.]
In Ireland MacNeils reappeared from the Isles in galloglach form – heavily armed mercenary soldiers. They’ve been in counties Antrim and Derry since the 14th century. A branch settled in Mayo. McCulloughs and Macleans were galloglasses.
MacNeils of the Hebrides supported Robert the Bruce and held Gigha as vassals of MacDonald. Barra supported MacLean of Duart therefore MacNeils fought each other. Those on Gigha were outright pirates and sometimes Barra MacNeils likewise im-proved their standard of living during summers of the 1570s. Barra gradually regained clan leadership.
They were out for exiled King James at Killiecrankie and for his son the Old Pre-tender in 1715. The 19th clan chief took them out in ‘45 for Bonnie Prince Charlie. His son and heir, General Roderick MacNeil, died before Quebec City with Gen. Wolfe 1759, one of many thousands of 18/19th century Scots killed in action on behalf of Sassenach kings. Better them than us perfidious Albion had decided.
The direct line ended with another Gen. Roderick MacNeil dying 1863. Back in ‘38 he’d been forced to sell Barra. It took a full 100 years but in 1938 clannish Robert Lister MacNeil (1889-1970) managed to buy back clan castle and a bit of Barra.
“In 1802 Neil MacNeil, the founder in Canada of the family of Ada MacNeil [my aunt]…came to Pictou [N. S.] from Barra and in the next year moved to Hillsboro in Cape Breton.” That was my late cousin Dan writing 1983. “Our mother was number 181 in the Neil MacNeil family story. Neil [1923-83, her #6 son] was number 562. By 1966 there were 1,374 persons listed as descendants of Neil MacNeil and his wife.” He wasn’t the only Barra MacNeil to immigrate. Watch TV out of Cape Breton and what you see are blonde Macdonalds and darker MacNeils. And a Neil McNeil from there was R. C. archbishop of Toronto 1912-34 and the same earlier in Vancouver.
Neils Harbour, N. S., faces the Atlantic from northern Cape Breton. Newfound-landers settled it in the 19th century and it continues a fishing village with an occasional artist situated amongst them. It’s named for pioneer settler Neil McLennan.
Aunt Ada was daughter of a judge who became a member of Nova Scotia’s legis-lative assembly. She married Uncle Tom Wallace and bore 15 eye-catching children. The last was Louis a couple or so years older in a Halifax we occasionally shared. I bumped into him an adult two decades ago in Halifax. Then he was long away and dead by ‘91.
I almost forgot: Gaelic MacNeill means son of Neil, champion.
McLACHLAN/ McLAUGHLIN – See my Great Grandfather John Wallace under Ancestors and Sarah later in this section.
Epitaph for a Scot
His life and death, five letters do express:
ABC he knew not, and died of XS.
[The Novascotian, 2 Nov.1825]
MADELINE In the time of Christ in a village on a shore of the Sea of Galilee stood a tower that set it apart. Mary Magdelene i.e. from Magdala was so called to distinguish her from other Marys. It was she “Christ healed of evil spirits and infirmities.” [Luke 8:12] The village had its boosters for its name meant elevated, magnificent. There was marked 12th century devotion to Mary Magdelene, which increased the following century when her relics were found. Magdalen became formally a Christian name. Madeleine/
Madeline were introduced to the British Isles from France in the Middle Ages with the -g- sound already lost. [In another example Agnes came to be pronounced Annis and Anyes leading eventually to new names. In time the original had its -g- sound restored and now there were three.] Pronunciation of Magdalen was further trimmed to the sound maudlin. Tearful pictures of the saint established the word maudlin for a teary person. Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities retain this old pronuncia-tion yet the former is spelled Magdelen, the latter Magdeline. A question then arose, should the ending of the name be pronounced -lin, -lane or -line. Keats and Tennyson rhymed it with thine.
Earlier, a daughter of King Francis I of France in 1537 became Queen Madeleine, wife of James V of Scotland. However she died that very year. Professor Basil Cottle, observant as usual, comments that sometimes the name comes “from a Magdalen hospital for fallen women (named in the unscriptural belief that she was such)”. Two interesting 17th century Marie Madeleines were important to New France. One was instrumental in getting a hospital going in Quebec City for Indians and the other founded Ursulines there.
Another was a heroine of New France. Madeleine Jarret de Vercheres (1678-1747) gets a score of habitants into her fortified home when Iroquois raid 1692, warns other families by cannon fire. Her father, militia colonel Francois, is away from his seigneury, in Montreal 32 kilometres northeast. The 14-year-old keeps marauding In-dians at bay a day and a night relying on just two militiamen, her two younger brothers and an 80-year-old man to keep up a convincing rate of fire. When relief arrives in a week, Madame declares, “I surrender my arms to you” and collapses.
A Second World War Canadian frigate was taken out of mothballs for the Cold War and modernized. HMCS Cap de la Madeleine was named for a city adjacent to Trois Rivières in Québec. That in turn took its name from a 17th century abbot and religious centre southwest of Paris in France.
Dorothy Madeline (Wallace) (Hammond) MacAuley (1916-88) was my Uncle Joe’s daughter, the Widow Hammond. She was abandoned by her second husband, father of her three children.
MAE It means May as in the month of. Maia was the Roman goddess of fertility often linked to a more ancient goddess only worshipped by women, Bona Dea, whose May festival banned men outright. Girls night out, eh. Our month was probably named for Maia.
Mae West of early Hollywood was a fertility goddess of sorts in the 1930s, mak-ing the name popular for a few decades. She was full of comments like “When I’m good I’m very good but when I’m bad I’m better.” Her prominent bosom caused an inflatable life preserver of the Second World War to be called a Mae West jacket.
Mae is also short for Maeve. That came from Meadbh, ancient Irish name for in-toxicating, she who makes drunk. Maeve, queen of Connacht, raids Ulster for Cuchu-lainn’s [pronounced koo-hull-in’s] coveted breeder bull in the Irish epic Tain Bo Cuailnge [pronounced toyn baw kooling-ul] rendered in English as The Cattle Raid of Cooley. She is recollected more or less in Queen Mab, fairies’ midwife in Romeo and Juliet, who con-jures up dreams appropriate to various sleepers – another of Will Shakespeare’s delightful embellishments.
May in Middle English meant either a youth or a girl. It’s also short for Maheu and Mayhew, which in turn are short for Matthew. The Old French version was gener-ally reserved for those born or baptized in blossom time. Although Reaney & Wilson have found several kinds of May in medieval documentation, surnames from the months remain rare.
Theresa Agnes Mae “Dot” (Granville) Wallace (1896-1927), Uncle Joe’s bubbly first wife from Halifax, died of T. B.; so life wasn’t ever the same for Joe. He had a bad second marriage then shared sour-old-bachelor digs with Dad in Toronto 1940s/50s after his brothers had taken Dad out of mental hospital in Saint John, N.B.
MAGUIRE These were aristocrats 14 to 17th centuries in the north of Ireland. The name is from Irish Gaelic Mag Uidhir, son of the dun [i. e. pale]-coloured. They were kin of kingly O’Neills and princely O Connells in Ulster and from the 15th century produced a succession of learned bishops. And in their stronghold on Lough Erne they were Barons of Enniskillen. Hugh MacGuire commanded cavalry at Battle of the Yellow Ford, major and uncommon defeat of the English in that period. Hugh was soon slain in Battle of Carrigrohane near Cork 1600. Descendant Conor bungled a plot to take Dublin Castle and was executed in the Tower of London.
Maguires suffered from confiscations and implantations authorized by Stuarts, Cromwell and William of Orange. In the Flight of the Earls 1607 in which most of the old Celtic aristocracy in Ireland sailed to the Continent with The O’Neill, Cuconnaught Ma-guire, the brother succeeding Hugh got hold of their ship. He was a Maguire of Ferman-agh, the leading sept. Its members distinguished themselves in Irish history. The French court recognized their aristocratic lineage. At home, Thomas Maguire d. 1889 was the first R. C. made a fellow of Trinity College while professor of moral philosophy.
Maguire and its other spellings ranked 39th of Ireland’s surnames 1890, even though famine and emigration had halved the population. McGuire and MacGuire hail generally from Connacht but Dorset recorded a MccGwire!
Our Founder Immigrant Richard O’Neill (1784-1862) was historically speaking already favorably disposed to the name when he married Catherine Maguire (1783-1864). They raised their Bluenosers in the fishing village of Portuguese Cove in an outermost reach of Halifax harbour. My maternal grandmother Lavinia Carew began life an O’Neill. [Grandfather Wallace’s grandfather enlisted in a British regiment based at Enniskillen.]
MARGARET In the 19th century, Charlotte Yonge, respected English novelist, declared Margaret “the national Scottish female name”. In the 1980s one in 20 Scotswomen was still getting this name. Parents there and elsewhere in English-speaking countries now seek other names, although Margaret had a fabulous run abroad from the 17th century almost to end of the 20th. It placed second to Mary in England and was high on the list in America.
The Greek word margaron, pearl, became the name Margaretes, then Latin Mar-garita. The name is also claimed to have roots in Persian from murwari also meaning pearl. It transferred to Old French as Marguerite and prevailed in the Middle Ages. The first Saint Margaret was a martyr at Antioch in Pisidia during Dalmatian Diocletian’s per-secutions late in his 284-305 reign over the Roman Empire. Governor Olybrius desired this Christian daughter of a pagan. She rejected the governor and was tortured and killed. Much fanciful legend surrounds this young woman who is patron of women, nurses and peasants with her feast July 20.
St. Margaret of Scotland (c.1045-93) was daughter of Edmund Ironside of England and wife of King Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland. She did all she could to romanize the Celtic Church, to introduce influential Norman families to court and country, and also did good works. In her wee chapel Scottish Margarets of today take turns providing altar flowers daily.
Margaret, Maid of Norway (1282-90) is one of many cases in which Scots mo-narchs came to the throne so young that the nation was endangered either by its own powerful magnates or by outsiders. In olden days the crown had passed, it appears, to a relative best capable of campaigning in the field. The child Margaret became Queen of Scots 1286 in succession to her grandfather, Alexander III. Her father was Eric II of Nor-way who betrothed her to Edward II of England. The Maid died aboard ship en route to England and Edward’s father, Edward I, forthwith declared himself Scotland’s overlord. Enter Sir William Wallace as Braveheart, ta-da!
Margaret of Anjou (1430-82) and Margaret Tudor (1489-1541) were wives res-pectively of King Henry VI of England and King James IV of Scotland. Margaret con-tinues a royal name in several countries. Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700) is im-portant to Canada, founding the first uncloistered community for women in Montreal. Feast Jan. 12. The Congregation of Notre Dame is known for its educational work. Mar-guerite d’Youville (1701-71) born near Montreal is founder of Grey Nuns. Beatified 1959 her feast is Oct. 16.
At an early time margaret was dialect for the ox-eye daisy. Marguerite was a name recruited to identify the Paris daisy as well as the ox-eye, and arrived from France just in time for the vogue of naming girls for flowers. But it is a mistake to link margery and margaret to the herb majoram.
Margaret Mitchell (1900-49) of Atlanta, Georgia, wrote best seller Gone with the Wind ‘35, won a Pulitzer for it ’37 and a movie appeared ’39. A speeding car killed her.
Margaret Sanger who founded Planned Parenthood and wealthy friend Katherine Mc-Cormick helped make The Pill a reality by supporting work of scientists who devised it. See Gregory. Maggie Smith b. 1964 was an English actress on Broadway and Over ‘ome along with several seasons at the festival in Stratford, Ont. She won an Academy Award ‘69 for her film role The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and a British Academy Award 1986 for A Room With a View. Margaret Hilda (Roberts) Thatcher b. 1925 first was a research chem-ist, switched to tax law then became the Conservative politician who abolished free milk in English schools. She was Europe’s first woman prime minister ‘79, sent forces to eject Argentinian invaders of the Falkland Islands ‘83 and thereby the only Brit P. M. of the 20th century to win a third term. The Iron Lady resigned in ‘90 over tax policy and extent of economic integration with the European Community.
Margaretsville, 14 kilometres north of Middleton, N. S., was originally Reagh’s Cove. It was a busy port on the Bay of Fundy until the railway came. Now it’s a fishing village and summer resort. The cove was renamed for the wife of Nova Scotia Chief Jus-tice Sir Brenton Halliburton, 1833-60.
Margaret Eleanor Atwood is poet and novelist, b. 1939 Ottawa. On her fourth short listing, she won the English book world’s top award in 2000. With her The Blind Assassin and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient in ’92, they are the only Canadians ever to win Bookers, vied for by Commonwealthers and Irish annually for 32 years. “No-body dies of sex,” said she. “It’s a lack of love we die from.” Margaret (Sinclair) Trudeau then Kemper was among 50 women of the last half-century featured in September 2000 issue of U. S. magazine Vanity Fair. Its “It” parade listed rarities known for sex appeal, charisma and other qualities.
Margaret Stella (Granville) Foster b. 1953 Montreal, she of the big warm mezzo- soprano voice, is Cousin Bernie’s older. She’s married in Manotick, Ont., teaches in Ottawa. Margaret (Healy) Carew d. 1892 was spouse of a Founder Immigrant. Several women in the families have this name but don’t answer to it. Others have variations of it. In Irish Gaelic it’s Mairead [pronounced My-raid in Munster] and in Scots Gaelic Mair-ghread, Peigi for short. We couldn’t persuade our #3 daughter Caroline Margaret b 1960 to accept Peigi so as not to be confused with her mother.
MARGARITA The Latin Margarita in its Greek origin means pearl. Let words of my mother, Margarita Isabel “Rita” (Carew) Wallace (1897-1985), explain her spelling.
“In our family the name Margarita goes back to 1751 when Gottleib Seidler, a widower, married Margarita Leipster, a widow, in Halifax, N. S. Gottleib was the father-in-law of our first immigrant ancestor, John Munro. “The writer [of A Bit About the Munros] thinks she was named for this Margarita Leipster Seidler, who is said to have been a beautiful woman, according to my mother, Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew.”
Rita married Howard Vincent Wallace whose only surviving sister was named, by coincidence, Isabella Marguerita (1896-1992) but who went by short form Greta. Rita’s oldest daughter was christened Margot Rita, co-author of their Munro booklet.
There were plenty appropriate German pet names to choose for Margarita Seidler – Margarethe, Margarite, Gretal, Grethel, Grete and Gretchen. Margarita is also the Spanish rendering.
MARGOT The French pet form of Margaret is pronounced Margo. Germans and East-ern Europeans sound the -t and this has had some effect in the USA where the name continues popular. The spelling Margo is also encountered all too frequently. Ottawa’s Margo Green, ranked No. 3 in Canada, won her first international title 5 Nov. 2000 in Brazil, winning the Pan Am squash crown.
Other countries where Margot is well in evidence are Scotland and Australia. It has been rare in England since the 1960s through no fault of Dame Margot Fonteyn b. 1919 Margaret Hookham. She danced ‘34-59 with Sadler’s Wells company, from 1940 as prima ballerina, and with the Royal Ballet in such classical ballets as Giselle, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. She appeared in other leading companies of Europe and the USA, often partnered with Russian Rudolf Nureyev. She d. in ‘91. Margot Kidder b. 1948 Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, was a TV and movie actress with the role of Lois Lane in four Superman films. A ‘90 car crash partly crippled her. Margaux Hemingway, model/ actress granddaughter of author Ernest and making her mark in Tinseltown d. 1996 of a drug overdose. Her sister Mariel is an actress.
Margot Rita (Wallace) Hanington b. 1923 Saint John, N. B., d. 2008 Victoria, B.C. was my oldest sister. Felicity Margot (Hanington) Dawe b. ‘56 Halifax is her younger daughter whose family lives in British Columbia.
MARGUERITA/ MARGUERITE The latter certainly is the French version of a Greek name for a girl; the former appears a coinage. See Margaret for more background. Mar-guerite since 19th century England also labels a large, cultivated daisy.
Marguerite Sedilot, a mere 11-year-old, wed Jean Aubuchon 19 Sept. 1654 at Trois-Rivières, Qué. With lifespans so short in those days, they tended to marry early. This is the first wedding on record in Canada. On 31 Oct. 1982 the name gained much significance when sainthood was conferred upon Marguerite Bourgeois. The first Canad-ian woman so recognized, this missionary nun from France eventually ran seven girls schools in 17th century New France as well as caring for the sick.
In total contrast was a Paris dancer stage-named Mata Hari. The French called her Marguerita Zelle (1816-1917 and thrust her before a firing squad in the First World War as a spy. She was Dutch, her actual name Margaretha Geertruida Zelle who fell for a series of handsome army officers who came to see her exotic dancing. Much romancing, little spying were revealed in her dossier made public 1999. Actress Marguerite Chapman appeared in 18 movies and d. early September this same year aged 81.
Isabella Marguerita (Wallace) Granville (1896-1992 was last of her long-lived generation. I heard my aunt called nothing but Greta, a normal pet name for all Margaret variations. My uncle Joe Wallace’s #2 daughter who died 1917 an infant was Marguerite Ruth Wallace.
MARIAMA See Marie.
MARIE French Marie came from Latin Maria. Normans brought Marie to England where it was used to identify the Virgin Mother more than Mary. However, the King James Bible of 1611 became the Authorized Version and made Mary the standard spelling.
Marie Antoinette (1755-93) was made a scapegoat for France’s troubles. She re-duced the royal household and cut many privileged posts; so offended nobles spread mali-cious stories about her. So after revolution broke out, she is alleged to have remarked of the Paris mob: “If they have no bread, let them eat cake”. Her latest biographer, Lady Antonia Fraser: “that lethal phrase had been known for at least a century previously, when it was ascribed to the Spanish princess Marie Therese, bride of Louis XIV.” Marie Antoinette was guillotined 16 Oct. ’93. Marja Sklodowska b. Warsaw we know better as Marie Curie (1867-1934) in Paris, twice enNobelled 1903 and ‘11 for work in radioactiv-ity. Her work killed her eventually and portraits silently hinting of her decline haunt us.
Intense Greek-American Maria Callas (1923-77) sang at world-renowned La Scala opera house mid 20th century and revived colloratura roles e. g. Madama Butterfly. She had a relationship with Greek shipping magnate Ari[stotle] Onassis who lavishly con-verted wartime Canadian frigate HMCS Stormont into luxury yacht Christina O where they could relax. For 20 years VIPs like Sir Winston Churchill and Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy lolled on whale scrotum barstools or could have champagne soaks in marble and gold bathrooms. Egypt’s deposed playboy King Farouk called the 100-metre yacht “the last word in opulence”. Maria, b. New York, d. Paris 1977 aged 53. Onassis had left her to marry Jackie K. Greece’s cultural ministry bought much of the diva’s correspond-ence, personal effects, even underwear and hairpieces, auctioned off late in 2000.
Quite a contrast to the Stormont’s 1942-45 convoy protection slog across the North Atlantic, perilous runs up to Murmansk atop Russia, and a role in the epic Nor-mandy invasion. One voyage of 63 days involved Gibraltar to Murmansk, back to Halifax, and out on the Atlantic again to hunt submarines, longest voyage of any frigate that war. The Greek government got Christina O as death taxes 1975 only to let her lan-guish in Piraeus. Renamed Argo she had stints as presidential yacht or on Greek naval training. Yannis Papanicolaou bought and had her sumptuously refitted to re-emerge in ‘99 as tour ship Christina O catering to deep-pocket passengers.
“In Canada they are always looking for the next young thing who can’t act and can’t sing her way out of a paper bag,” snorted the agent of opera diva Maria Pellegrini as they left Ottawa for Italy in the fall of 2000. Good looker Maria enjoyed a long inter-national career but rarely performed of late in big Canadian productions. Nevertheless Pellegrini received the first Italian Canadian National Award in absentia for her contri-bution to friendship between these two countries.
Marie is a component in religious names of some outstanding Quebec nuns and a teaching brother there.
Mother Marie of the Incarnation, widow Marie (Guyard) Martin (1599-1672), led the first missionary nuns to Canada, she becoming founding superior of the first Ursuline convent in Quebec City. She learned several Indian tongues but her dictionaries are lost. Of many biographies of her, one was written by her son Claude, an infant when his father died who grew up to become a Benedictine. Mother Marie-Anne, Marie Esther Sureau/ Blondin (1809-90) only became literate when 20 but mindful of rural children started the teaching order Sisters of Ste-Anne at Vaudreuil 1850 as their first superior. Because of conflict with her order’s chaplain she stepped down and spent the final 34 years of her life teaching sewing, laundering and such essential chores to her novices. She is expected to be beautified soon, one step away from sainthood. Mother Marie Rose, Eulalie Du-rocher (1811-49) was short-lived founding mother superior of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary at Longueuil near Montreal 1844. Founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Hospital General of Montreal (Grey Nuns) was Mother Marie-Marguerite d’You-ville, first Canadian to be beatified, 3 May 1959. She was canonized by Pope John Paul 9 Dec. ‘90. Brother Marie-Victorin, Konrad Kirouac (1885-1944) was botany professor at University of Montreal and founded Montreal Botanical Gardens. He also formed a Que-bec scientific association.
Midway through the 19th century Marie began again to be chosen by English par-ents. Marie Stopes (1880-1958) was an Englishwoman who wrote marriage books hoping women would no longer be treated merely as mattresses, and opened birth control clinics. Marie Dressler (1869-1934) from Cobourg, Ont., starred in the world’s first feature film with Charlie Chaplain, a celluloid version of her stage show Tillie’s Punctured Romance. By 1970 Marie was more in fashion than Mary.
It so happens that our significant Maries are of French-Canadian origin. Marie (Poirier) Bazinet b. 1922 Ottawa is mother of Lucie, wife of our #2 son Stephen. Lucie includes Marie among her names. Marie-Pierre Katsina Wallace b. 1978 in Nigeria is the daughter of Steve and Lucie and prefers to be called Mary. Her blonde hair and bright blue eyes caused a sensation in northern Nigeria a score of years ago: when Lucie (Bazi-net) Wallace brought her baby to market the infant was passed from hand to hand among the women who marveled at her fairness. Pronouncing Marie-Pierre proved a tongue- tripper for Hausa speakers so they called her Mariama. This compromise sounded so musical and charming that we grandparents hoped in vain that the pet name would endure. “Mary” whose middle name Katsina is for where she was born is a student at McGill University. This emerging young woman looks the image of Quebec figure skater Josée Chouinard.
MARION In our calendar of kin, Mary and its many variants outnumber all other girl names. One of them, Marion, is a pet form of Marie from medieval France introduced during that period to Britain. It has been completely anglicized in pronunciation and sur-names are Marian, Marion and Marriott, the latter from the east Midlands. When men are called Marion it comes usually from the surname.
As well as descending from Old French Marion, Little Mary, the name can also be the result of combining Mary and Ann. This yields the meanings bitter and graceful. Springing to mind is the revolutionary Marianne, enduring symbol of the French Repub-lic. The Brits also started blending those two names late in the 18th century.
What may be my very first southern U. S. aunt was Marion Hart (Wallace) Ash-ton b. 1902 who grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia. John Wallace (1870-1919) her father was newspaper editor and public official there and great uncle of mine originating in Oshawa, Ont. The mother was Olive Dunlap that was (1875-1967) long a widow. Daughter Mrs. Ashton, widow of a riding master, kept in touch with Dad or other Canadian relatives mid-20th century or so.
MARITA Before Vatican II ended 1965, children of Roman Catholics were required to possess a saintly name at baptism. At times this could entail a battle of wits ‘twixt parent and priest. We won with Marita, a Spanish flavoured diminutive of Mary, for our firstborn. It was her sole font name 1953 and has continued gratifyingly rare. Marita felt short-changed with merely one given name and so appropriated Bernadette, her choice at further sacramental rituals. The second name has appeared on enough documentation over decades to have well and truly stuck. Kin Tale XVIII reveals little Marita.
Marita Koch, 1997 women’s world record holder for the 400 metre run equalled the men’s world record 1924 of 47.6 seconds achieved by Eric [Chariots of Fire] Liddell. The Saturday Night magazine article saw a pattern: girls are as good now as menfolk were only a generation back.
Although possessing a “Christian” name is no longer compulsory for R. C. off-spring today, parents are shown lists of saintly names and encouraged to pick one for their child during preparations for christening. Thus a namesake youngster, or adult con-vert, continues to have someone in Heaven to put in a good word, convey one’s gratitude, or merely lend an ear.
MARK The name has three [maybe more] origins – New Testament, ancient Rome and boundary marks in England and France. Mark is English for Latin personal name Marcus. That name originated with Roman god Mars. The mar- element means gleam, reminding us why our ruddy fourth planet is named after this god of war.
Marcus Antonius (c.83-31) fought Gauls under Julius Caesar then got tangled up with Cleopatra, “floatin’ on d’ Nile on a barge wid d’ cats wavin’ d’ fans” is how late Duke Ellington described Half the Fun from his big-band Cleopatra Suite. Marcus Annius Verus (121-80), whose name expanded to Marcus Aelius Aurelius Antoninus, pretty well ran things before formally becoming sole Roman emperor AD 169. He fought Brits among others and died fighting on the Danube. A Stoic, he is known as philosopher em-peror for his Meditations, but he persecuted Christians even while taking some of the brutality out of forum events.
Most modern Marks honour our traditional author of the 2nd Gospel although these days we’d credit St. Peter as co-author because of all the help he gave Mark. At any rate Mark is the first Christian bearer of note with this name. A cousin of Barnabas, Mark went with him and Paul on their first mission and wound up somehow offending Paul. Barnabas and Paul fell out over Mark. Obviously back in his good books, Mark assisted Paul in Rome and interpreted for Peter who referred to him affectionately as “my son Mark”. Mark is believed to have founded the Church in Alexandria and was involved in Venice where he is patron. His Gospel AD 65-70 was possibly first out rather than second. Bible scholars think he provided Matthew and Luke with a like source for theirs. He succeeded Sylvester as pope 336 but died only eight months in office.
Another St. Mark was bishop of Arethusa in Lebanon. When Julian the Apostate became emperor 361 he wanted those who had destroyed heathen temples to replace them. Mark had done one in and fled rather than rebuild. He had to come back when members of his flock were arrested. He was dragged through the streets and tortured then let go. The governor put in a good word for him so Julian pardoned him. He died c. 365.
Mark, particularly the surname, can come from dwelling near some boundary mar-ker. Somerset has a mark leading to folk named Mark[e] and there’s a place Marck in Pas de Calais and old marches in Wales, Austria and elsewhere. My wife and I attended a simple, moving, burial of Dave Smith’s Grandpa Mark’s ashes autumn 1997 in Ottawa.
Marks means son of Mark and is a surname of Devon and Cornwall. Do not for-get aging King Mark of Cornwall. Tristram sailed to Ireland to fetch Isolde for his uncle; by magic fell for her himself. This ancient Celtic tragedy became an Arthurian legend, inspired torrents of poetry and an opera by Richard Wagner 1857-59, still performed. King Mark’s name contains the Celtic element march meaning horse.
The name wasn’t chosen much in the Middle Ages despite several early and medi-eval saints; not even after Italian Marco Polo (1254-1324) had journeyed all the way east to the court of Kublai Khan and lived to write about it. Markes was found in 17th century County Leix and elsewhere in Ireland while the later Mark is almost entirely of nor’east Ulster. It’s also an abbreviation of O’Markey from O Marcaich from marcach for rider.
The New Brunswick-built sailing vessel Marco Polo reached Liverpool, England, 26 Dec. 1852 from Australia in a mere 140 days, a voyage that usually required 240 days. Known then as the fastest ship in the world, she grounded 1883 off Cavendish, P. E. I., in a gale and was wrecked.
The name came into more general use in the 17th century lasting until early 19th. Mark Twain was pen name of Samuel B. Clemens (1835-1910) who wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain is called when two leather strips on a hand lead & line heaved from a vessel show that there are two fathoms of water [3.66 m] to bottom. Markdale, Ont., Grey County village, gets its name from Mark Armstrong, early settler. The place was peopled mid-19th century. Rudolph Marcus b. 1923 Montreal was later an American; a chemist awarded the ‘92 Nobel Prize.
Mark suddenly became highly fashionable mid 20th century. Mark Kent’s ‘74 arrival St. John’s, Nfld., meant he was first to run 6,529 kilometres [4,057 miles] all the way from Victoria. It took Mark 102 days ending Oct. 17. A decade later Cdr. Marc Garneau was first Canadian in space, spending eight useful days aboard space shuttle Challenger. He’s to get a third astronaut mission. Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury did a world record 50-metre backstroke in 25.06 seconds at ‘86 Commonwealth Games and also a 100-metre gold there. He powered Canada to a silver medal relay finish at Seoul Olympics ‘88. He won another Commonwealth gold ‘90 and silver in World Aquatics the next year. At Barcelona Olympics ‘92 it was gold.
My nephew C. Mark Hanington b. 1948 Ottawa taught in Hawaii after doing the same at Sicamous in B. C.’s interior. He’s firstborn son of my oldest sister Margot. Mark was ecstatic grandfather for the first time in ’99 and promptly visited Anja Eliza-beth Holland newborn in Denmark. His cousin in England is Mark Alexander Hanington b. 1984, one of his uncle Dave’s several sons.
MARTIN The Plains of Abraham on the heights near Quebec City were made famous by the British victory of 1759. See Fraser. Their name recalls Abraham “L’Ecossais” Martin (c.1587-1664). He came 1619 in the Company of One Hundred Associates [or Company of New France]. Great pressure had been exerted to keep New France a forest wilderness the better to harvest its furs, but One Hundred was a determined start at clearing trees to plant crops.
When the British took the post 1629 Martin was one of few settlers of the old French colony to stay. It was soon back in French hands and Martin, ship’s pilot then and by ‘47 royal pilot, acquired farmlands on these heights. Abraham’s wife was former-ly Marguerite Langlois. On 24 Oct. 1621 their infant Eustache Martin was baptized, ad-vertised today as first French child born in North America. His dad was called The Scot although some claim him one of Ireland’s Wild Geese flown to the Continent. What then does this make Eustache? Ownership is long gone from Martin’s successors but Abra-ham’s old property and some more continue as Plains of Abraham, now federal parkland.
We must go back to Augustinian priest Martin Luther (1483-1546) who nailed 95 theses on the power of indulgences to the door of Wittenburg Castle Church 1517 as the first act of a Protestant Reformation. This goaded the Roman Catholic Church into Coun-ter Reformation. Fast-forward to Baptist Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68) a black U. S. civil rights martyr. King’s statue was among ten 20th century martyrs unveiled in ‘98 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. Both Kings are among the top 100 per-sonages of that millennium.
Explorer Sir Martin Frobisher discovered 1576 the arctic bay named for him on whose shore sits Iqualuit, tiny capital of huge Nunavut territory formed 1999. I deploy-ed there in ‘70 with a new CF-5 fighter aircraft squadron for its first, br-r-r-r, Canadian Arctic winter trials. I walked about a kilometre from lodgings to hangar in wind-chill –60 C. This required I eat before starting off and again immediately on arrival to replenish countless calories carried off by icy wind.
Martin is frequent in England, Scotland and Ireland. One family numbers among 14 Tribes of Galway from the Anglo-Norman invasion. It also can be short for Gilmartin and in Tyrone for MacMartin. MacMairtin is a branch of O’Neills, and O’Martin, O Martain, was part of Westmeath’s 16th century life.
Argentine hero General José de San Martin, libertador, d. 150 years ago, a leader of South American colonies’ independence from Spain. See Simon for another. A parade was held 17 August 2000 in Buenos Aires to mark San Martin’s death.
Only recently did we learn that Major Martin, warplane crash victim buried in Spain was really the body of Glyndwr Michael planted with false papers to trick Axis powers into believing that Allies would be invading Sardinia 1943, not Sicily. Quite a different cup of tea was Martin Michael Charles Charteris (1913-99) Lord Charteris of Amisfield. He joined a proper school, university, regiment, had a good war and entered Princess Elizabeth’s household 1949, retiring ‘77 as HM’s private secretary to become permanent lord-in-waiting. Lud Mawtin told The Spectator that the duchess of York was “vulgah, vulgah, vulgah”.
Joseph Martin (1852-1923) sat in four widely separated legislative bodies – Manitoba and British Columbia, Canadian and British Commons. He also held some portfolios. High profile Martins are Paul père et fils both federal cabinet ministers. Father was a leadership contender when Rt. Hon. Louis St. Laurent stepped down. His public utterances were ?deliberately wooly, despite bilingualism and a fine education, his social legislation admirable. He d. 1992 aged 89, last survivor of Mackenzie King’s era. Son Paul, b. 1938 Windsor, Ont., former president of Canada Steamships, was first elected to the Commons 1988. Holding the financial portfolio, Paul Jr. appears to be leader long in waiting for the slippery guy from Shawinigan to fall, although few former finance guys ever do make it to the top.
Other Martins were provincial premiers and chief justices. In education, Felix Martin founded College Ste-Marie in Quebec 1848. He was its first rector but went back to France 1862. Chester B. Martin (1882-1958) was first Rhodes Scholar from this side of the Pond, history professor, University of Manitoba; department head, U. of Toronto.
Clare Brett Martin (c.1874-1923) became Canada’s first woman lawyer when called to Ontario’s bar 1897. Marie Louise Lucienne Juliette Martin (1875-1948) was that rarity, an opera soprano who could act. As Madame Edvina this Canadian hit best houses of Europe and America, toured Canada and USA. Frederick Wellington Martin (1880-1935) wangled leave of absence while Salvation Army major to realize an impos-sible dream. He managed to find the right people with the right money so the vehicular tunnel between Windsor and Detroit could be built 1928-30. In contrast, German phi-losopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was an early existentialist [who resisted that label] also known to criticize technological society. Bearded Martinus J. G. Veltman and Gerardus ‘t Hoft won the 1999 Nobel physics prize for work on sub-atomic particles.
In entertainment circles Martin Scorsese b. 1942 is known for movies exposing grittier aspects of American culture, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull being good examples. Actor Martin Sheen in The West Wing is among a growing number of Tinseltowners tak-ing to the tube. Czech Martina Navratilova b. 1956 is all-time women’s record holder in tennis including six Wimbledon singles and, with various doubles partners, 10 U. S. opens, eight Australian, seven French and six Wimbledons.
Largest Canadian swallow is the blackish-purple martin Progne subis although female underparts have white and greyish marks. These are sociable birds whose colo-nies, usually man made, benefit humans because they eat so many insects including mos-quitos. Martintown, Glengarry County community about 32 kilometres northeast of Cornwall, Ont., was begun by Loyalists. The name may well be from early inhabitants named McMartin.
Paul Martin Walsh b. 1963 St. John’s, Nfld., is my wife’s nephew, #4 son of her late sister Elizabeth French that was. My wife, mother of five sons, rates Paul’s two young boys “the nicest you can find”.
But they aren’t saints. First-known saint of name is Martin of Tours c.316-97 a Hungarian who formed the first monastic community in Gaul, and was made bishop of Tours 391. He’s one of the patron saints of France. A story tells of his cutting his cloak in half to protect a beggar from bitter cold. That night he had a vision of Christ wearing his half-cloak. St. Martin of Tours is generally portrayed holding such a garment.
Another St. Martin (1579-1639) is patron of interracial justice. Born in Lima, Peru, to a Spanish father and African mother he became a Dominican lay brother, started an orphanage and foundling hospital, distributed his convent’s food for the poor and looked out for African slaves brought to this South American country. [I visited a couple of Peru’s Pacific Ocean ports and capital Lima early 1952 with two Canadian Navy fri-gates when a sub-lieutenant.]
MARY Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) grumbled about “excessive adulation” of Mary as he raised Vatican windows to let a little fresh air into Holy Mother the Church. Mary has been the most popular name of all for Lovely Catholic Girls and naturally tops our family tree. That includes a general trend that began 1950s of choosing Mary for a middle name instead.
The English, who quite early on had a sense of form, thought the name Mary far too holy for ordinary purposes just as we of English cultures refrain from naming our boys Jesus. However, Mary began to be used in the 12th century and by the 16th was chosen above all others. This enthusiasm was matched by other Christian countries. Seven Canadian communities of note from British Columbia [1] to Newfoundland/ Labrador [3] have Mary in their names.
The mystery brigantine Mary Celeste, originally the Amazon out of Nova Scotia, was found by a British ship seaworthy but abandoned between Azores and coast of Portugal 5 Dec. 1872. Obviously the crew had left hurriedly but without struggle. Her chronometer, official papers and boat were gone. The Mary Celeste had been en route to Genoa, Italy, from New York under the U. S. flag and with a cargo of alcohol. The 198-ton vessel was put back in service but ended her life in ‘85 stranded on the south coast of Cuba. Maritime nations still wonder what happened 131 years ago to her crew.
Pet forms of the name Mary proliferated and evolved. Mal and Mally grew into Moll and Molly, and even Polly as my paternal grandmother was known. May, Minnie and Mamie were others that became independent names: two at least are discussed in this Catalogue of Kin.
In the Old Testament, Naomi took refuge in Bethlehem from famine in Moab where her husband and two sons had perished. “Call me not Naomi [the pleasant] call me mmara [the bitter] for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” [Ruth 1:20] Mara[h] was Hebrew for bitter resin myrrh used for incense and perfume. Jewish 1st cen-tury historian Flavius Josephus in his Latin accounting had Mariamne as King Herod’s wife. This led some to take this to be the Virgin Mother’s actual name. In any case there were quite a few New Testament Mariamnes.
Hebrew consonants were written, not the vowels, so M-r-y-m in different Bible translations emerged Miriam, Mary, Marianne, Mariam and Miryam. As well as the bit-terness of Naomi, another traditional meaning is rebellion, rebelliousness. Mary is Greek and Maria, Latin.
The first Miriam we know was the resourceful older sister of infant Moses. He was hidden in bulrushes because Egypt’s pharaoh had decreed all baby boys be killed. Miriam was close by as Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe and found the babe. Miriam approached her and offered to find a Hebrew wet nurse. Miriam had chutzpa to bring the princess her own mother. [Exodus 2:4, 7].
Marie de l’Incarnation (1599-1672) was the first missionary nun in New France, founded Ursulines in Quebec City and conducted school to which both French and Indian kids were equally welcome. Thirty-two years she devoted to the natives. She was beati-fied 1980 [and is also mentioned in this Catalogue under Madeline].
In medieval England the name’s only serious rivals were Margaret and Ann. Latin Maria was in England sounded ma-rye-ah from an Aramaic rendition of Hebrew Miriam. We get our Mary from Middle English speakers adapting French Marie which in turn came from Latin. We must not overlook Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587), all woman and a golf nut; so inept, alas, at intrigue that cousin Elizabeth I beheaded her. Biographer Jane Dunn wondered of late if she was a manic-depressive. Mary’s final flourish: she was wearing red underpants when executed. Speaking of undergarments, Mary Phelps Jacob, New York socialite, didn’t like her whalebone corset showing at the plunging neckline of her sheer evening gown. She tied two handkerchiefs together with pink ribbon and patented her “backless brassiere” 1913. She tired of producing it commercially herself, selling her patent to a corset company for $1,500. That outfitter made $15 millions from the bra over 30 years.
As a former mick and sailor I recall that scholar Saint Jerome associated Maria with Latin phrase stella maris meaning drop of the sea. This was later blown into star of the sea, so we have Stellas starring in Cousin Bernie Granville’s family. Maria Goretti Circle in Vanier, Ont., recalls an 11 year-old girl (1890-1902) in Italy, stabbed repeatedly while keeping Alexander Serenelli off. He reformed and she was canonized 1950 in the presence of her murderer. Sister Marie Clementine Anuarite Nengapeta was a civil war victim in Zaire who while dying forgave the rebel soldier who was killing her. John Paul II on a visit to central Africa 1985 beatified her.
Mary Teresa Sullivan (1902-73) became the first woman alderman in Canada 15 Oct. 1936, when she was sworn onto Halifax City Council. A legend of the Herald & Mail was that a headline Sullivan Licks Cox had to be torn out of page make-up at the very last moment when a proofreader finally grabbed full attention of harried editors.
Of all our Marys, we really should salute Mary Ellen (Brownrigg) French (1897-1969) of St. John’s, Newfoundland. We imagine her standing in pluperfect impassivity over a pot boiling on the stove. She is waiting for her husband, alarm clock cradled in his outfielder’s hands, to holler ”Now, Mary!” so she can serve him a breakfast egg done precisely the way he wants it. Both, God bless them, are long gone, Mary in 1969 and Douglas Joseph in ‘76.
MATTHEW Although numbered first of the Four Gospels, Matthew generally is deem-ed written after Mark’s from which it borrowed. The Gospel According to St. Matthew tried to convince Jews that Jesus was the Messiah foreseen by the Old Testament. We are indebted to Matthew for preserving His Sermon on the Mount. Matthew had become one of the 12 Apostles after being a tax collector. Tradition says he preached in Judaea, Ethiopia and Persia and was martyred in one of them. His Hebrew name was Mat-tithyah, gift of Jehovah. King James Authorized Version has -ew ending this Evangelist’s name; with an -ias ending to signify the 13th Apostle replacing Judas Iscariot. Matthias too was martyred.
Normans brought Mathieu and Mahieu to England where they became very popu-lar. In Domesday Book 1086, Mathiu Sen Macy is recorded as a tenant. His was the usual French form of the time. They led to surnames such as Mayhew, Mayhow, Mayew and Mayo[w]. Macey can also come from a place in La Manche, or Massy from the Seine-Inferieure as well as from Matthew. Mat spawned Maton, Matkin and Matterson, indi-cating how prevalent was his name centuries 12 to14. Meanwhile Mathieu de Beauvais was taken prisoner and executed c. 1198 by Saracens for not renouncing Christ. Was this French martyr a pilgrim to the Holyland or Crusader?
The Matheson clan, son of Mathy, only managed to nail down its second chief as earliest of record. Gilleon of Aird (fl. first half, 12th century) is thought from of a branch of the old royal house of Lorn. Mathesons and Mackenzies both claim descent from this dynast. As in all primitive societies, history was oral and in early clan culture of daunting detail. Much is lost to us from turbulence of those times. Cormac Mac Mha-thain 1263-64 was helping fend off Norse invaders of the Scottish west coast and Isles. Norwegian King Haakon IV’s saga mentions “the dispeace that the Earls of Ross and Kiarnak Maka-mael’s son [Cormac] and other Scots had made in the Hebrides.” That’s where redact-eurs of clan history stop. In fact the entry continued as reported by the late Sir Iain Moncreiffe of That Ilk, 11th Baronet, Albany Herald of Arms: “…when they went out to Skye and burned a town and churches, and slew very many men and women. And…the Scots had taken the little children and laid them on their spear points, and shook their spears until they brought the children down to their hands; and so threw them away, dead.”
Kiarnak was not the first chief. Much earlier a Robert Filius Mathei witnessed an 1177 charter and Kermac MacMaghan in Inverness 1264 for services rendered got 20 cows off the earl. His saga name was Kjarmak, son of Makamel [Cormac Manmathan]. Matheson settled into being the regular English version. This clan was once as powerful as MacKenzie relations. Mathesons were able 1427 to field 2,000 fighting men. Unlike St. Matthew meaning gift of Jehovah, Mac Mhathghamhiun meant son of the bear. Mac-Math and MacMa are other forms of the surname though collectively these northwest folk were called Mathanach. Lowland Matthewsons were not sons of bears; rather they were sons of Matthew. They turn up in Galloway, Ayrshire, Kintyre and Fife, among them a family of memorable clockmakers in Kilconquhar around turn of 18/19th centuries.
Clansmen dipped in fame and fortune until two of them made a mint in Oriental trade during the 19th century and bought back clan seat Lochalsh and island of Lewis. Mathew is a reputable family in Ireland of English origin. The famous temperance priest, Father Theobald Mathew, was of Thomastown, County Tipperary. Matthews was also English, much used in Ulster and Louth, and sometimes can be synonym there for Mac-Mahon. Mathers was long ago mather, a mower from Yorkshire, yet to some degree in Co. Down has changed to Mathews. Matthew has been among top 10 given names for boys in the USA for several years.
Successful men of the New World – an Ontario lieutenant governor and a couple of Prince Edward Island premiers were Mathesons. I remember best a Cape Breton school marm ca. 1950 at summer school in Halifax and her throaty Gaelic as she nibbled my ear lobe. Matthew, 50 tons, 18 sailors, was John Cabot’s sailing vessel that landed on either Labrador, Newfoundland or Cape Breton 500 years before 25 June 1997. A lively new replica, discreetly engine-powered when required, visited Canada’s inland seas ‘98 after gracing sundry Cabot celebrations around the Rock the year prior. She sailed back to England, which is rather a pity.
Edward Mathew (1729-1805) was a British general during the American Revolu-tion. He fought two battles 1776 New York City and raided into Virginia ‘79 and New Jersey ‘80. Peter Mathews was a Loyalist’s son who did enough during William Lyon Mackenzie’s Upper Canada Rebellion 1837 to get hung in Toronto. He was captured after the Montgomery’s Tavern skirmish, tried for treason and convicted. George Fre-derick Matthew (1837-1923) was surveyor of customs at Saint John, N. B., more remem-bered as a pioneer in geology and natural history of the Maritimes. Papers he wrote made him charter member of the Royal Society of Canada.
Matthew Henry Halton (1904-56) was broadcaster and war correspondent in the Spanish Civil, Russo-Finnish and Second World wars. Appointed to Order of the British Empire 1945, Matthew resumed his role as CBC broadcaster from peacetime Europe until death. His son David is senior reporter for CBC TV from the USA. Matt Cohen, Kings-ton, Ont., admired novelist d. late 1999 only 56, a fortnight after winning the governor general award for fiction with his best seller Elizabeth and After.
It’s high time we introduced our # 5 son, and my publisher, Matthew Wallace b. 1963 Ottawa, a businessman who went back to university to study a computer science. Kin Tale XXXI gives us an earlier glimpse of him. And Mathew Daniel Dawe b. 1995 Ottawa on Texada Island or in Sooke, B. C. My niece Felicity’s son earlier wouldn’t eat his spaghetti unless she called it goblin guts.
MAURA Among early Christian martyrs are two Mauras. The patron of Torcello, Italy, and of good children nursed St. Fosca and was martyred with her c. 202 in Ravenna. An-other Maura, wed to a Timothy, was tempted in Upper Egypt by Arrian to save her hus-band’s life. The latter had hidden their church’s sacred books and she knew where they were. Both lasted several days on crosses, praying and encouraging each other. You’ll see a slightly different demise under Catalogue entry Timothy: their deaths happened during persecutions of Roman emperor Diocletian (245-313), a pagan Dalmatian.
There’s a little-known, 5th century Saint Maura who is a Celtic martyr. Since Ireland was Christianized without martyrs just where does she fit in? Missionary a-broad? Or Pictish? Scottish? Strathclydian? Manx? Welsh? Cornish? Breton? A clue is her companion Britta from Celtic root or Baya from Latin. Maura in Ireland now is generally regarded as a form of Mary out of Moira, which is the anglicised form of Irish Gaelic Maire. For most parents, this more than likely will suffice.
The name in Italian and French means dark-complexioned, somehow linked to Maurice from Late Latin Maricius, derived in turn from Maurus, a byname meaning Moor, swarthy. Many earlier Irish nicknames acknowledged either olive or ruddy com-plexions, brunettes or redheads. Norse, Germanic, French and Spanish influences were at work in the Emerald Isle on and off since very early days. Even Roman retirees. In 9th century Troyes, France, lived another saintly Maura brought up wealthy but withdrawing and austere. She had a beneficial effect on her father’s high living and when he died stayed on with her mother, absorbed in prayer and charitable activities.
There is talk these days of Irish Jansenism, harsh and moral rigour imported from certain French religious to whom Irish Catholics with means went for education to skirt English Penal Law repressions. Some convents of the reforming Congregation of St. Maur were affected by this heresy and that once-powerful body was suppressed 1792.
Maura Frances Wallace (1920-25) was my Uncle Joe’s #3 daughter who remained blithely oblivious to these conjectures and died several years before I was born. God bless little Maura. I trust that your dad prayed for you later in his life, atheist no more.
MAUREEN Irish Mairin, a diminutive of Irish Gaelic Maire, is mother to Maureen. This coinage first appeared at the end of the 19th century. Its most popular British period was 1925-55 and in the USA, ‘45-65.
Maureen O’Sullivan whose 40-year career in films began 1930 must earn some credit for the North American vogue. She was Mia Farrow’s mom. Maureen O’Sullivan, b. a Fitsimmons in Boyle, Co. Roscommon in Ireland, d. Phoenix, Arizona, 22 June 1998 age 87. Maureen was another compelling screen artist reminding us of the great Irish presence in America. She was Tarzan’s Jane in half a dozen popcorn hits but had sense to quit that series for more serious fare [sometimes], and for the stage. She earned a “distinguished Catholic” award.
How many knew she lived a while in Aylmer, Que.? Her Australian-born hus-band, Hollywood director/screenwriter John V. Farrow, was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire, awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration and made honorary commander in the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve. These honoured his RCN Volunteer Reserve service on the Atlantic early in the Second World War; Ottawa movie-making for Canada’s defence department after typhus forced him ashore and later, when back in Tin-seltown, for his hospitality efforts on behalf of postwar Canadian warships calling at Port of Los Angeles. He died 1963.
Money was tight at the Forresters in Montreal so their Maureen b. 1930 had to drop out of high school at 13 to work as receptionist in offices and as Bell switchboard operator. She did singing for extra dough. Baritone Bernard Diamont accepted her as his pupil provided she give up gigs so he could settle her voice. Then he heard her on CBC Radio’s Opportunity Knocks competing for $40. It took Maureen’s mother on bended knee to persuade him to take her back. She debuted a contralto in 1951.
If you’re wanting saints, look under Maura. The wife of my Cousin Steve Carew in Halifax is Maureen Anne Heapy, b. 1940s likely in Situate, Massachusetts.
MAURICE comes from the Late Latin Mauritius meaning Moorish i.e. dark, swarthy. A St. Maurice was said martyred in Switzerland AD 286 or ‘87. He and other Christian legionnaires refused to sacrifice to pagan gods although ordered by an emperor thus hop-ing to assure victory over Bagaudae rebels. To the east, Flavius Tiberius Mauricius (539-602) warred against Persian and Avar. Dying Tiberius named him caesar 582. Long cam-paigns depleted his war chest turning this Byzantine into a leader both strict and parsi-monious. His Danubian armies revolted and executed him despite his offer to surrender the throne.
Breton Maurice of Carnoet (c. 1114-91) was a Cistercian of Langonnet Abbey who was elected abbot there after only three years. A strong supporter of Cistercian reform, he suggested Duke Conan IV built Carnoet of which he was abbot 1176 until death. Maurice of Hungary (1281-1336) was son of that country’s count. He married at 20 but he and his wife agreed to separate, she to a convent, he to the Dominicans. He is known a peacemaker.
Normans took the name to England where it was also used as a nickname. Mau-rice was popular in the Middle English period although not as much among nobles. Spel-lings varied and names followed by filius e.g. Mauricii evolved into the last name Fitz-maurice. The written form was Maurice but morice was the common way of saying it, which became the surname Morris. That has been taken up again in modern times as a first name.
Maurice became quite scarce in 17th century England. On the Continent, Prince Maurice of Nassau (1567-1625) fought as a Dutch general in the Thirty Years War. He introduced the 500-man battalion, and devised the first formal military academy. Palatine prince Maurice of the Rhine (1621-52) was an Anglo-German general in that war and fought for the English king in civil war[s].
Today some think Maurice is French and Morris English, influenced no doubt by Maurice Chevalier (1888-1972) singer, actor and above all, Gallic charmer. A short form in English is Moe but French-Canadians often write Mau for Maurice is a popular name among them. Mauricie is a Quebec designation for the St- Maurice River valley, particu-larly a 170-km stretch of highway between Trois Rivieres and La Tuque. Shawinigan Falls and Grand’Mere industrial towns are included in Mauricie. Morris “Moe” Koffman b. 1928 Toronto doubled on sax & flute in dance bands there and the Big Apple. His internationally famous The Swinging Shepherd’s Blues 1957 has been recorded by more than 300 other musicians since.
John Maurice “Jackie” Wallace (1920-94) was a wartime bomber pilot, Disting-uished Flying Cross, U. S. Air Force Medal who, after his RCAF career, was realtor in Southern Ontario cities. He was Uncle Tom’s #5 son and left five children. His wife, Kay “Kitty” Kelly of Halifax, died a few years before Jack.
MELISSA comes from the Greek word for the [honey]bee: Melitta is a survivor from an ancient Greek dialect. In Ariosto’s narrative poem Orlando Furioso (1532) Melissa is the good witch who frees Rogero from bad witch Alcina. On the modern stage has been Melissa Gilbert, her first name widely popular of late. A few variations are Melisse, Melita, Millicent and nicknames include Melly, Milly and Lissa. For a few years now Melissa Tabatha Thelma [see both] Davey ( b. 1988 Kamloops, B.C.) is our third son Christopher’s slim blonde companion in Calgary then Toronto.
MICHAEL Theologian Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74) and Divine Comedy poet Alighieri Dante (1265-1321) rank Michael senior of seven archangels. He is captain of the Heaven-ly Host, will carry out God’s orders on Judgement Day, only after presenting saintly in-tercessions on our behalf before the throne of God, according to Enoch the Ethiopian.
Michael is prominent in Christian, Jewish and Islamic observances. In the war in Heaven, “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon.” [Revelation xii, 7-9] He also rebuked the Devil concerning disposal of the remains of Moses. [Jude 9] This “great prince” is guardian angel and protector of Israel, and of the Roman Catholic Church. He is portrayed with a sword usually, a patron of soldiers. His name is Greek from Hebrew Mikhael, who is like God? In the Koran Michael is precursor of Muhammad.
Michael became patron of high places early in the medieval west; in centuries 8 to 12 isolated rocks were dedicated to the archangel such as Skellig Michael off Kerry [see my Erin O’Neills] and St. Michael’s Mount off Cornwall. The cult had originated in a Michael-inspired displacement of the pagan Mithraic centre off Monte Gargano in south-ern Italy 492. In France particularly churches in high places are devoted to Michael to allow him a tactical edge in warring against evil powers of the air, and to drive off plague, cattle disease and drought.
Micah is a doublet of Michael because it also means who is like Yahweh. He was a minor prophet, author of a bible book bearing his name dating from late 8th century BC. Some preference in Great Britain for the Old French pronunciation of Michael made that name rhyme with trial; thus remnant surnames surviving from the Middle Ages vary from Miall to Mitchell, pet forms from Mick to Michie.
Michaelmas was begun by Pope Felix III 480; failing to catch on in the Greek Church until the 12th century. In the final year of the reign of England’s Edward IV, 1461-70, a custom began of having roast goose for Michaelmas dinner. Should the out-of-whack calendar be reformed, stubble geese would not be at their plumpest. This, it is al-leged, was responsible for much English delay in taking on the Gregorian calendar. [Noth-ing to do with adopting a Papist innovation?] In England the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels Sept. 29 was the day of the year found most appropriate for electing civil magis-trates, and Michaelmas marked one of four quarters in an English business year.
Once common in Ireland, English Michael has been known to become Mitchell and in Connacht is a synonym of Mulvihil. MacMichael out of Scotland is from Clan Stew-art. Mick is a Palatine name in Ireland, not an abbreviation of Michael which properly should have taken the wind out of Mick being mentioned [see third last paragraph] as a generic label; but didn’t. Palatinates were vast lordships established for border defence.
A Persian Prince Michael, ally of Belshazzar, is mentioned in the Old Testament Book of David. Nine Byzantine emperors were Michaels, a Romanoff csar, a Serbian prince and a Romanian king. Michael duke of Chernigov abandoned Kiev to warring Ta-tars. He pleaded with their leader Bati for his people but refused to renounce his faith to worship idols. He was tortured and beheaded 1246 along with one of his nobles, Theo-dore. Bearing the name was Tuscan sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michaelangelo Buanarro (1475-1564). Here’s a turnaround: Michael Servetus (1511-53) Spanish theo-logian and physician was burned at the stake in Geneva by order of John Calvin.
Spanish sailor Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) survived the vital Battle of Le-panto off Greece but lost use of his left hand. Turks were defeated by a Holy Alliance in this last great galley battle 1571. He was captured by Barbary pirates and sold into sla-very at Algiers ’75. His family bought his freedom in ‘80 and he devoted himself to the pen for the rest of his life. One noble result was his novel Don Quixote. Cervantes ob-served, “The truth lies in a man’s dreams.”
French-born St-Michel Garicoitts (1797-1863) was ordained 1823 Bayonne, per-formed pastoral duties, became a professor of philosophy and a rector before drawing up 1838 a constitution for missionary Priests of the Sacred Heart of Betharram. He was can-onized 1947. Michael Crichton b.1942 has given us Jurassic Park among other novels. Michael Mayer and Didier Quelog in 1995 found that Star 51 Pegasus, 40 light years dis-tant, has a planet identified unofficially as Bellerophon for an ancient Greek hero who rode the winged horse Pegasus. A star of 80 films or so and winner of two Oscars is English Michael Caine, age 67, knighted at Buck House late 2000. Sir Michael’s dad was a Billingsgate fish porter and his mum a char lady.
In the 1950s Michael was one of the most-chosen names of the English-speaking world. In America Michael led all boys names for a stretch of three dozen years ending with 1998. The Irish were so fond of it, even when the name was temporarily quiet else-where, that its supposed pet form Mick became a generic for all sons of the Auld Sod. In Scots Gaelic it’s spelled Micheil and, in Scots tongue Michel for guys, Michell for gals.
Left handed golfer Mike Weir, slim, intense product 29 years ago of Brights Grove, Ont., in 1999 at British Columbia became first Canadian to win a U. S. PGA event since Richard Zokol ’92 and first to win on home soil since Pat Fletcher took the Cana-dian Open in ‘54. On 12 Nov. 2000 he won $1 million [U. S.] for winning a world cham-pionship at Valderrama, Spain, by 11 under par 277, two strokes ahead of the field. He first won on U. S. soil in ’01 and then was first Canadian to gain a major, the Augusta Masters. Mike almost won the 2004 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ont.; instead Vijay Singh from Fiji had the steadier putter. Michael Ondaatje, 57, was recog-nized 2000 with the governor general’s literary award for his novel Anil’s Ghost, France’s Prix Médicis for foreign literature, the fifth annual Kiriyama Pacific Rim book prize, and co-won the Giller, Canada’s top literary award.
Early in the 19th century Michael French was Immigrant Father of my wife’s Newfoundland family. This redheaded sailor swallowed the anchor to take up cobbling in Harbour Grace, then second largest community on the Rock. Michael Grantfield b. 1792 Kerry, Ireland, was Founder Immigrant in Halifax of my Granville cousins. Michael Fran-cis Wallace b. 1953 Halifax is my cousin Frank’s hulking #1 son and a redhead managerial consultant in Ottawa. Michael’s the middle name for others in our families. In the case of Abdalla Michael Fayad, Lebanese father of Lily who is wife of our #5 son Matthew, two dots should go over the –e- to make Michael sound something like a guttural McHale.
MICHELL This can be a variant of Mitchell with three sure sources. One is Mitchell being the popular surname derived from Michael [which see]. Another is from the Old English nickname big. Just think of the word much and its dialect word mickle. Here’s a proverb from 1599: “Many a pickle makes a mickle.” The third origin is Scots proper names for Michael, Michel for males, Michell for females. To make it more mixed up; Michal is a Bible name from Hebrew meaning brook. A daughter of Saul who wed King David had this name. Hanks & Hodges figure confusion with her resulted occasionally in Michael winding up a girl’s name.
Sir John Michel (1804-86) was commander in chief British forces North America 1865-67 and administered Canada during absences of Lord Monck. Michel in British Columbia is a coal mining settlement on Michel Creek 36 kilometres northeast of Fernie or possibly a ghost town by now. One of the trail cutters through the Crow’s Nest Pass, Michael Phillips, named them after himself. Spelling was not a strong suit of centuries prior to the 20th.
Michell is the surname of our #1daughter Marita’s former husband Joseph b. 1943 Burns Lake, B. C. He’s a Dakelh [until recently called Carrier] Indian and has held the elected post of chief of the Carrier/ Sekani tribal council, headquartered in Prince George, in central B. C. It is also the surname of son Jonathan Levi Wallace Michell b. 1985 Pr. Geo. Jon lives at home with Marita and sister Alannah in Burnaby, but holidays with Jos. his adoptive father.
Joseph pronounces his last name m’shell but my money is on a Scots origin since they dominated English Canada’s fur trade. Prince George was a centre funneling that trade from the north. Reaney & Wilson think otherwise, that Michell comes from Mitchel[l]. Perhaps the Athapaskan tongue has a surprise awaiting anyone persistent enough. Carrier, by the way, is what observers called this tribe because widows carried their husbands’ charred bones in a netted bag on their backs as part of a long mourning process. Historically they hunted and fished, relying especially on salmon runs in various major rivers within their territory. Tribal members used to identify themselves as Katulli, a name whose meaning may be lost. Of late they use Dakelh, a name in their language meaning “people who travel on the water”.
MICHELLE English-speakers spell French Michele this way. Each began flourishing in 1940s Britain and the USA. There was a shot in the arm from the Beatles mid-1960s with release of their song Michele, which flew into the top ten and by 1980 was still in the top 20. Francophones of this area say Mich for short, sounding it more like mitch than meesh. The name goes back to Old Testament Hebrew for senior archangel Mikhael, god-like. See Michael.
Tina Michelle (Reevie) Wallace b. 1967 Chambly, Que., registered nurse, is wee wife of Duncan, our #1 son. They work in North Carolina and play superior golf. He is one of nine siblings – she, 10.
MILES Latin, Old German, Old Slavonic, Old French contribute to our Miles. It was also pressed into service as an English label for some Irish names. Sometimes Miles comes from Latin Miles for knight/soldier although by the time of Medieval Latin, Miles had become Milo. Please read on.
Here’s a very rare ingredient indeed in the make-up of English names: the Old Slavonic milu, meaning merciful, led to the common Slav element mil meaning grace, favour. That via Old German Milo meaning generous was rounded up by Normans and brought to England as nominative case Miles and oblique case Milon. Mi[c]hel, popular form of Michael in the Middle Ages, was used in the sense [son] of Michael.
Reaney & Wilson found the London fishmonger Ralph Miles had taken his mas-ter’s first name for his surname. He was grateful enough 1292 to set up a chantry house, a chapel so that Masses could be said for his late Lord Milo. “No doubt” this had been Miles de Oystergate, fish monger. R&W also came up with soldierly Radulpho Milite 1319, identical with Ralph Miles 1324, both of London.
Miles and Myles were pressed into service to be English names for such Irish names as Maeleachlain [Malachy], Maolmhuire and Maolmordha. The 17th century names enthusiast William Camden, later supported by Professor Weekley, suggests that French Mihiel, later telescoped to Miel were both forms of Michael, and Miles was their outcome. It also can be a short form of Emile. Had enough?
For whatever reason, Miles has had a modest following ever since 1066 in Eng-land. Miles Standish (c.1584-1656) was military leader of the first New England settle-ment at Plymouth but his first name was found wanting by stricter Puritans. Miles Davis (1926-91) was the innovative American jazz trumpeter, real cool with the mutes.
Stephen Miles (1789-1870) was a pioneer newspaper owner, printer of others in eastern parts of Upper Canada. In 1835 he became a Wesleyan itinerant preacher to 1851. John C. Miles (c.1845-1911) was a painter with a studio in Boston but returned to his native Saint John, N.B., where he did portraits and interpreted the Maritime scene. We should remember my Great Uncle Joseph Miles Wallace b. 1857 Oshawa, Ont.; d. aged 20 or 23. May God bless yet another leaf that fell early from our tree.
MINNIE In a couple of our families that came from Ireland, Minnie is meant a pet form of Mary. Two acknowledged name experts in England are only prepared to say: “There is a tradition that Minnie was also a pet form of Mary, but no evidence supports that idea.” Once again, colonies don’t count.
Minnie was a short form of Wilhelmina a decade before Minna and Minerva emerged for the same purpose. Minnie was in fashion 1850-1910. It was stretched into Minniehaha in the 1880s but what Longfellow actually wrote was: “From the waterfall, he named her/ Minnehaha, Laughing Water.”
Old German Minne, love, has been proposed. Medieval German ballad singers of noble birth were minnesingers. Greek Menos, force, purpose, or Latin Minerva, thinking
one, are other notions. Professor Cottle, a surname authority, says Minnie is diminutive of Minna. Reaney & Wilson propose otherwise, writing that Minna is a pet form of some woman’s name, perhaps Ameline, Emeline or Imyne out of Ismenia.
Mary Eva (Ryan) Granville (1872-1959) may have been Mum to her children and those of allied families, but was Minnie to her peers in Halifax. Mary Agatha “Minnie” (Hart) Gifford (1881-1984) brought Dad up to date on Upper Canada relatives on a visit to Ottawa in Centennial Year. Harts were refugees in the Sligo area of Ireland from reli-gious persecution in England. They came out to the greater Toronto area. Great Grand-father John Wallace likely knew them back in Sligo before his Dad came over here from the Peninsular Campaign of Wellington to soldier one more time, in the War of 1812. Harts became John’s in-laws over here.
MONA Anglesey Island off northern Wales was ancient Mon and then called Mona by Romans according to Tacitus. As one of the most holy places of the Celtic people and the source of much unrest, Romans decided they had no choice but to destroy its inhabi-tants. Historians wrote of Britons lined up in their colourful multitudes along Mon’s shore ready to resist any landings, their druid priests shrieking awful curses at invaders arrayed before them on the mainland. In the Celtic Christian church that emerged cen-turies later, its priests retained that talent for uttering powerful curses in the name of God. The Romans also referred sometimes to the Isle of Man as Mona and there it is in my Latin-English dictionary. Manx parents have responded by bestowing this name on their children.
The girl’s name Mona comes from Irish Muadhnait, a diminutive of muadh, noble. It is the name of some Irish saint although Mona has existed independent of any Hibern-ian connection. From the 18th century it has meant female monkey in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. Further, a West African monkey Cercopithecus mon is attractive to zoos because of its brilliant coloration and is referred to as a mona. Sometimes this name is claimed from Greek monos for single, only. That lonely, far away feeling is also Teuton-ic. Mona on the other hand for some North American Indians is, “gathered of the seed of the jimson weed”. It is also short for Monica, a name perhaps Phoenician in origin via Carthage. Mona is also a West Indies islet of the USA.
Mona Lisa, otherwise known as La Gioconda in Italian was painted by the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci and hangs in the Louvre. In January 2008 a scholar found that the artist portrayed her likely between 1503 and ’06 while serving the Borgias in Florence. Her husband was businessman Francesco del Diocondo. Her smile? She was covering teeth discoloured by syphilis rampant there at the time said another source earlier; or she had bruxism, grinding of teeth at night or unconsciously by day, perhaps under stress of posing. To be fair, toothy grins only became fashionable two centuries later in France thanks to better mouth care and false teeth of porcelain. One prominent art historian had said the portrait really shows Caterina Sforza b. 1462, beautiful Italian courtesan nicknamed The Tigress who had countless lovers. Speculation has been endless and obviously less inhibited lately.
Tasteful Mona Frances (Wallace) Bennett b. 1913 Halifax, is #3 daughter of my late Uncle Tom and Aunt Ada. One of seven sisters, widow Mona in the fall of 2002 was among five of them still going.
MONICA Here’s another name of multiple roots; but Saint Monica was African-born which may well eliminate the usual suspects, such as Greek monos, alone, or Latin non-nica from nonna for nun.
Monica is more likely Phoenician because of St. Augustine’s mother, a Cartha-ginian. Medieval thinking attributed the name to Latin monere, to warn, to counsel, ad-vise; because she guided her son into Christianity. He then, unfortunately, took much of the fun out of sex for us. He also made darned sure the celebrated British monk and the-ologian Pelagius (c.360-c.420) was excommunicated. What I know of his mildly druidic-flavoured “heresy” would seem quite reasonable to many moderns.
That being said, St. Augustine of Hippo’s mom is admired first for converting her pagan spouse Patricius and her mother-in-law and then for wearing her wayward young son down with patience & prayer. She’s thought a model for Christian mothers and is patron of married women.
Tradition recalls another Monica c. 1626 Nagasaki, Japan. She, spouse and son were tortured and killed for harbouring Christian missionaries in their home. The tale goes that when persecutors threatened to strip her she retorted: “I am ready to be stripped, not only of my clothes, but of my skin.”
Monica b. 1929 a daughter of the duke of Solms-Laubach was second wife of Ernest Augustus George William Christian Louis Francis Joseph Nicholas b. 1914 to Victoria Louise (1892-1980) daughter of Emperor William II of Germany. The name Monica was a favorite with Roman Catholics becoming more general 1920s. It reached its height in Britain of the ‘50s. Andrea Newman observed vitriolically: “Now Monica … what image does that conjure up? The hockey field. The swimming bath. The gymnas-ium. Tennis courts and netball and lacrosse.” German Monika is an alternative which may fail to escape her unkind image but French Monique does. Moncha is an Irish form equally a diminutive of Ramona. Monica peaked later in the USA than in England.
Mary Monica Janet (Feron) Wallace b. 1925 Montreal, widow of Cousin Neil and convent chum of my older sisters, wasn’t really that Andrea Newman type.
MOORE Its origins are fivefold. Latin Maurus became Old French Maur, and then English Moore with its various spellings. The original meaning was a person who was a Moor, which is what Europeans called North African Moslem invaders of Spain and cer-tain Mediterranean islands. The next meaning was vernacular More, a nickname to des-cribe one who was as swarthy as a Moor. However, Old English mor for a moor, marsh or fen also told of someone living in or near such places. After some place names became well established, being a Moore also meant one hailing from a locality so named. Low-land Scotland has plenty of Muirs, Moor[e]s and Mores for like reasons and several landowning families in its west. Alexander Muir (1830-1906) left Lesmahagow for Ontario, Canada, and penned words and music of The Maple Leaf Forever.
Anyway it was found in 1853 that Moore was the 39th commonest surname in England and Wales. In Ireland Moore is often an anglicised O’More, especially so in County Antrim and in Dublin. Actually O’More comes from mordha for majestic, fore-most of the Seven Septs of Leix. After subjugation, remnants of the sept there were transplanted to Kerry, which may be the reason why many Moores are found there today. In 1890 it was the 20th commonest surname in Ireland and family name of the earls of Drogheda. If you have been following, we now have those five origins firmly in hand.
In the USA Moore ranked 12th in 1939. Archie Moore (1913/’16-1998) fought professionally 27 years as light-heavy or heavyweight, knocking out a record 141 oppo-nents in 228 bouts. The Old Mongoose’s scythe-like left hook to the stomach usually set ’em up. Jesuit Father James S. McGivern mentioned a Michigan college study that in-cluded Moore among several “short, pleasant-sounding, common, easy to spell and pro-nounce surnames most favoured, and envied, by Americans [also] smoothly handled in …Canada”. In contrast, Smith, Brown and Jones were thought rather too common.
Winnipeg Strike
Tom Moore (1878-1946) was a Yorkshireman and thus likely named for its great moors. He learned all his carpentry from his dad and came to Canada with his wife when 27 and settled in Niagara Falls, Ont. He joined the union and learned every post before branching out to regional organizing and then onto the national scene. He had two terms as president of the old Trades and Labour Congress of Canada 1918-35 and ’38-42.
Moore led moderates during the Winnipeg General Strike of six weeks in 1919, the only general strike up to that time in Canadian history. War workers had been underpaid while part of the war effort and many others were in similar straits and therefore in sym-pathy. Thirty-four thousand strikers tied up the Gateway to the West and even attempt-ed to govern via a Winnipeg Soviet. Overturning of Russia to communism was felt a real threat to Canada. A serious riot on Bloody Saturday, June 21, was quelled by North West Mounted policemen and a vigilante force armed by the city while callout militia threatened the mob with machine guns. Two strikers were killed and 30 injured. Many were jailed to enormous public indignation after the strike fizzled. Three leaders including a reverend were elected to the Manitoba Legislature while still in prison and, on release, “walked from one public institution to another,” as one writer waggishly put it. Tom Moore served on important federal government commissions and moved on to the international labour forum, usually to represent organized labour of Canada. He was universally respected.
The excuse to write about this facet of Canadiana is Neil Moore b. 1940 Western Ontario only by virtue of the fact that he was first husband of my wife’s niece in London, Ont., diminutive Joan Margaret Small.
MUNRO These were originally County Derry folk in Ireland, it was long offered; bun Ro-tha, mouth of the [river] Roe, being their settlement in Derry. In Gaelic, bun becomes mun after a preposition. Mon/Munroes in Ireland these days also do for some of the O’Mellans and Milroys. Munros were found in Cromarty Firth well up north in Scot-land. The name Munro up there meant either a man from a headland or a man from the Ross locality. Clan historians agree Munros were Celtic but no longer buy the Derry origin. Instead they deem them Northern Picts.
Lowland family names have been observed in Highland places beyond normal ex-planation. A King of Scots took note of the ease with which Norse invaders penetrated deeply the northeastern seaboard of Scotland. The situation cried of too much Nordic blood among subjects up there, or worse. So he had suspect inhabitants uprooted and planted their lands with reliable families from the south. To say now that this is why descendants of Irish Monroes turn up there seems too much a stretch. Donald Whyte sees their origins a great problem among clan historians. Potted histories go only so far for those of the Scottish Diaspora Up north in Scotland Munros matured as a clan under Alexander III 1249-86. Their first chief there had been Hugh d. 1126. Clansmen were vassals of powerful Celtic earls of Ross and briefly Lords of the Isles. Robert Mun-ro was granted 1364 “the haill clavoch of lands of easter Foules and the fortar of Strath-skea, with the milne, fishings and other pertinents”. The 8th chief d. for a Ross; the 12th was knighted by James IV. Munros were Protestant Whigs so heaps of them fought for Sweden during the Thirty Years War [1618-48].
Sir John Munro, 4th Baronet, fought Jacobites. Munros were leaders in independ-ent companies policing Highlands and were prominent on formation of 43rd then 42nd Regiment, The Black Watch. Sir Harry, 6th Bart, commanded that regiment at Fontenoy on the Continent where its Highlanders alternately fired and lay prone, a new infantry tactic. The Forty Twa was spared the dilemma of Culloden 1746. The Sassenach wasn’t certain yet of the loyalty of these newly acquired fighting men. From sword to pen – Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916) had Saki, a cupbearer in Omar Khayyam’s The Rubaiyat, for his pen name. Munro poked holes in Edwardian society with flippant wit but was killed by a sniper nearby Beaumont-Hamel in the Great War.
Clan septs were blood relations or individuals and groups seeking protection of a clan. They could include broken men i. e. survivors of a clan that had broken up through battle or hardship. Many septs today show names of Angle and Norse roots. Here are families connected some way with clan Munro: Dingwall, Foulis, MacLulich, Vass and Wass. Scotland has 277 mountain peaks 915 metres/3,000 feet or more in height. Such classification came from Hugh Thomas Munro (1856-1919) who put out a list 1891. Lower categories are Corbetts or Donalds for like reason. A Munro-bagger is one trying to climb all 277 Munros. Munro bagging isn’t well regarded always by hill climbers and mountaineers but size isn’t everything.
Our Founder Father in Nova Scotia was John Munro (1769-1840). Or do we hark instead a Founder Mother? John’s mother Mary may have brought him over to Nova Scotia when a lad. Either she pressed on in search of her subaltern husband or is Mary Munro whose death was recorded 1777 at St. Paul’s Church in Halifax. “Possibly our missing link” my mother wrote in The Munros booklet she co-authored with my oldest sister Margot Hanington. The West Indies were usually a hellhole of fever. The English sent disproportionate numbers of Scottish soldiery into battle or to garrison pestilent places in a growing Empire on the basis “better theirs than ours”. Mary Munro’s hus-band may already have expired in some Caribbean fever haunt. Tracking him further could well be futile, yea fatal in those harsh days. Or costs could ruin a woman alone and defenceless on raw frontiers of the New World.
Irish Monroes, uncle and nephew, made names for themselves in Newfoundland. Moses Munroe (1842-95) came out from Moira, started a business in St. John’s and in-volved himself in municipal politics and legislative council. A monument to him was dedicated in Victoria Park ‘97. Nephew Walter Stanley Monroe from Dublin flourished in St. John’s commercial endeavours, served 1924-28 as prime minister and held the edu-cation portfolio. He joined the legislative council in ‘29.
Two Mainland Munros were educators, the third a surgeon. Henry Fraser Munro (1878-1949) taught at Columbia University in New York and Dalhousie University in Halifax before he became responsible for all educational matters in Nova Scotia 1926-47. William Bennett Munro (1875-1957) was a U. S. Army major in World War I and spent 25 years on the faculty of Harvard University before joining the California Institute of Technology 1929-45. Then he served as its treasurer. Hugh Edwin Munro (1878-1947) ran a military hospital in the Great War, made lieutenant colonel and officer of the Order of the British Empire. For 30 years he was surgeon in Saskatchewan and for a time led its Conservative association. He served as lieutenant governor 1930-36.
Munro in its sundry spellings ranked 89th in 1858 Scotland but improved 21 spots in 100 years. Munro is occasionally a first name. Its popularity as such in the USA may be thanks to James Munroe (1758-1831) 5th president whose Munroe Doctrine warns off European powers meddling in the New World. He had fought in the American Revolution and subsequently governed Virginia. During the War of 1812 Munroe directed foreign af-fairs for the young nation. Sir Charles Carmichael Monro (1860-1929) was British veter-an of Boer and Great wars. He achieved a withdrawal from disastrous Gallipoli with minimum losses by “brilliant deception”. He was commander-in-chief India 1916-20.
MURRAY The Murrays are a clan by Moray Firth of Scotland and originally their name was spelled Moray although pronounced mur-ree. It means seaboard settlement and was a Brythonic name absorbed by Scots Gaelic as Moireabh and later anglicized. Moray had been a Pictish province often documented as de Moravia. So much for territory: in com-mon with Sutherlands, Murrays descend from Freskin, Flemish adventurer who d. before 1226. Sir William de Moravia, dominus de Bothwell after marrying into that wealthy family, d. 1293 and was succeeded by his brother Sir Andrew. This was the celebrated patriot and staunch supporter of Sir William Wallace against proud Edward I of England. He d. at Battle of Stirling Bridge 1297, a victory of Scots over a bigger English army. The namesake son, also with Wallace, sent the celebrated letter dated that 11 October to may-ors of Lubeck and Hamburg, assuring them Scottish ports were again open for trade. Wal-lace took the role of Guardian of Scotland leaving the throne clear for a “proper” King o’ Scots. Through shrewd marriages Murrays acquired the lands of Tullibardine 1282 which by 1606 was an earldom, plus Atholl titles culminating in dukedom 1703.
Lord George Murray (1694-1760) was a Jacobite soldier out in 1715, ‘19 and ‘45 and certainly ablest of Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s generals. He had night marched his 5,000 Highlanders to Culloden Moor where 9,000 English and Lowland allies were wait-ing. His men were unfed, outgunned, outnumbered, out in the open; but they charged! Eleven tartans commemorate this dark moment, several of them said based on check left on the battlefield.
Sir Archibald James Murray (1860-1945) started his officer career in the 27th Regiment of Foot (Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers). [My Dad wrote that’s the outfit from which our Founder Immigrant Thomas Wallace took his discharge in the Canadas after the War of 1812. It’s now the Royal Irish Regiment.] Murray fought in the Boer War and in 1914 was chief of staff British Expeditionary Force on the Continent in the Great War. He trained the New Army in skills for the trench warfare bogging down both belligerents; became chief of general staff briefly; then went off to the Middle East to fight Turks, Ger-many’s allies.
Murray is the family name of the dukes of Atholl. Each has the right to mint his own coinage and Atholl Highlanders are the last authorized private army in Europe. George Iain Murray, 10th duke and one of Scotland’s richest landowners, d. February 1996 aged 64. Six-foot, five-inch “Wee Iain” had placed his 120-room castle and much of the 140,000 acreage about it in a charitable trust. The 11th duke, a land surveyor in South Africa, said he didn’t mind not inheriting $126 millions. He headed for Scotland and pick-ed up the reins. New duke and duchess accompanied by his regiment’s pipe band soon came by Ottawa while on tour.
Murray is in steady use as a first name among Scottish stock and in Canada from the 1870s. As a surname it was 12th commonest in Scotland 1958, a modest increase from 100 years prior. In Ireland, especially in the north, it ranked 18th in 1890. Apart from Scots Murrays in Ireland there are O’Murrys, MacMurrays and O’Murrihys in a few counties, Macs particularly plentiful in Donegal.
At least a baker’s dozen of Murrays have contributed to Canada in war, explo-ration, fur trading, politics, higher education, broadcasting, an’ a’. James Murray was brigadier commanding the capture of Louisburg 1758 and led the left wing of Wolfe’s army on Plains of Abraham, taking command on death of Wolfe. He was military and civil governor of Quebec 1760-68, then military governor Quebec City to ‘74. He earned a reputation for conciliation, not shared by authorities over ‘ome. He was shifted back overseas to govern Minorca. Champlain’s Malle-Baye was renamed in his honour but has reverted to La Malbaie. In Prince Edward Island, Murray river, harbour and community honour him still.
Sir George Murray (1772-1846) became provisional lieutenant governor of Upper Canada 1815 but was summoned back for duty in occupied France on conclusion of Na-poleonic Wars. Charles Murray (1783-1859) 2nd Earl Cathcart was appointed adminis-trator of Canada ‘45 and in command of British forces in North America, winding up as governor general BNA in a marriage of civil and military powers for the Oregon Crisis. Sir Herbert Harley Murray was governor of Newfoundland ‘95-98. James Alexander Mur-ray was premier of New Brunswick 1917. Margaret (Polson) Murray (1844-1927) in 1900 founded the International Order of the Daughters of the Empire, soon one of the Commonwealth’s largest federations of women. Today we’d just as likely find her in the phone book under Polson.
Vice-Admiral Larry Murray, at whom a loose-cannon Somalia Inquiry opened fire while he was acting chief of the defence staff, won the annual Vimy Award 1998 for his contribution to Canada’s defence and preservation of its democratic values. Tiny 51-year-old Murray was made an associate deputy minister in the federal department of fisheries and oceans after retiring from the Navy ’97 after more than 30 years.
Finally we remember George Carson Murray (1906-62) editor and publisher of Pictou Advocate, respected weekly in Nova Scotia. I recollect he drove us home from an extended family function, nice chatter along the way. His widow, my cousin Nonie née Wallace, sold the paper to George Cadogan’s chain, semi-retiring to historic Prince’s Lodge, Bedford, N. S. Nonie died 1986, still beautiful at 74. I met two of her numerous offspring mid-1960s. They were with Nonie at a convention of Canadian weeklies at Halifax. The son Sean was still editing the Advocate in 2004. He was darkly handsome back then, his younger sister a breathtaking honey blonde.
NAJLA[H] is a shorter rendition of Arabic Najila for wide-eyed, brilliant eyed. This often is the striking effect from women habitually wearing a veil in countries largely Muslim. Eyes become more compelling. Najla Hanna was the maiden name of our daughter-in-law Lily’s late mother who came from the fertile Beqa’a Valley of Lebanon. She is honoured now by Kayla Najla Wallace, born 18 May 2002 to Lily and our #5 son Matthew in Ottawa, and baptized that autumn at St. Elias Antiochan Orthodox Church.
NAPIER Contrary to many potted histories, Napier has nothing to do with English sur-name Naper. [Anthropologist Micheil MacDonald is quite firm about this in The Clans of Scotland, reprinted 1995, best of a dozen or so clan books I consult. He makes the Scottish clan system his special study.]
Earls of Lennox descended from Pictish mormaers [high stewards] of Levenax. A younger son of one earl single handedly tilted a battle to victory where defeat had been staring the King of Scots in the face. Afterwards the monarch told his nobles that one of them had “nae peer”. He rewarded Donald of Lennox with land in Gosfield, Fife, and by royal command the surname Na Per amended later to Napier. English Naper on the other hand refers to a naperer, an official responsible for napery i. e. linen of a royal or noble household. Apron also belongs to that word family but its leading -n- long ago fell away.
The Napiers proved a clever family as well as brave, and rather well connected. The 15thcentury Napier castle in Edinburgh is the core of Napier College today. Back in 1401, William de Napier was governor of Edinburgh Castle. The greatest mathematician of his age, John Napier of Merchiston (1550-1617) invented natural logarithms and spher-ical trigonometry. His calculating aids were known as Napier’s Bones. His eldest son, Sir Archibald was created 1st Lord Napier 1627. The 9th lord became Baron Ettrick 1872.
General Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853) fought the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812. With the Little Corporal subdued for the mo-ment British regiments were shifted to North America 1814 in an attempt to resolve that conflict with a youthful United States. [Our Founder Father Thomas Wallace took his discharge in the Canadas after war service as cook’s corporal in the commissariat of a regiment of foot – perhaps the 27th – from Enniskillen in northern Ireland. My Dad said he’d soldiered in the Portuguese/Spanish Peninsula Campaign before serving in Canada.] Napier went off to India where he sent the military telegram peccavi, Latin for I have sinned, to indicate Sind had fallen to his troops. The story is apocryphal but has proven irrepressible. Sir Charles was made commander-in-chief India but collected too many enemies.
Robert Cornelis (1810-90) 1st Baron Napier of Magdala was born in Colombo, Ceylon now Sri Lanka. He soldiered in Italy and commanded the renowned Abyssinian Expedition of 1867. That’s what Ethiopia used to be called. After a spell as C.-in-C, India he governed Gibraltar becoming field marshal 1883. Other Napiers were inventors, engineers, and a Napier shipbuilder constructed the first four Cunarders. Oh yes, there were a couple of admirals.
Napierville County and seat about 48 kilometres southeast of Montreal recall Napier Christie. He was son of General Gabriel Christie who bought Seigniory of Leri 1776. Lush farmlands. The Napier Junction Railway is a mere 43-km of line built 1907 from the American border near Lake Champlain, which gave a U. S. railway a link to Montreal over CP Rail track. John Napier Turner b. 1929 replaced Pierre Trudeau as prime minister 16 June 1984 on the 2nd ballot in convention but governed only briefly.
Clan chief 1990s was The Rt. Hon. Major The Lord Napier and Ettrick, private secretary to Princess Margaret, countess of Snowdon. The clan badge is a cubit arm, the hand grasping a crescent argent. Mottoes are Sans tache meaning without stain, and Ready Aye Ready. Napier tartan is typically pre-1800, blue and black on white back-ground.
Corinne Theresa (Wallace) Napier b. 1931 Halifax is my Cousin Frank’s sister, long a single mom. Heather (Napier) Rothery b. 1971 Knoxville, Tennessee, is Big Bill’s daughter-in-law of Scots-Irish descent. She and Paul Rothery have children Spencer, Re-bekah, and Parker Nicholas born 21 Feb. 2002. Paul is Bill’s son from a previous mar-riage and Bill is our #3 daughter Caroline’s husband.
NATALIE Late Latin Natalia, derived from Latin natalis [dies], birthday, or from natale [domini], birthday of the Lord. Thus Natalia is applied to a girl born on Christmas Day.
St. Natalia of Nicomedia was a Christian said to have aided husband Adrian during pagan Roman emperor Diocletian’s persecutions of 303. She snuck into Adrian’s prison disguised as a man to help him and other converts. Afterwards she was deemed saintly for a pious widowhood. Another Natalia suffered martyrdom with husband Aurelius. St. Eulogius took over care of their two small daughters. The younger orphan aged 5 asked him to write the history of her parents, promising: “in return I will give you Paradise, which I will ask God for you.”
The surname Natley survives in England. Reaney & Wilson found Vincent de Nateley in Hampshire 1275 where localities are known still as Nately Scures and Upper Nately. Richard de Natale was recorded 1296 in Sussex.
Natalya was the Russian version, which became an exotic import to Paris when impresario Sergei Diaghilev brought Ballet Russe there 1909. His company dominated the dance world for two decades and is still talked about. Natalie Portman, age 19 in 2000 is Queen Amidale in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and has a throne on the Internet. Nat[h]alie flourished in French circles, as did both these renditions in England. By early 1980s Natalie was 15th there, although much less attractive to the USA.
Our #2 daughter Catherine Anne selected this pleasant-sounding name for her daughter because it is valued in both English and French environs, Natalie Robin Smith was born 1993 not at Christmastime. There are many pet forms for Natalie who is bi-lingual, but her daddy coined Naddy, which fits.
NATHAN ETC. Moderns use Nathan as short for either Jonathan [see] or Nathaniel. All three stem from the Hebrew name Y-honathan meaning Jehovah’s gift. New Testa-ment scholars say Bartholomew the Apostle’s first name was Nathaniel. The latter is English rendering of a Greek form of the original Hebrew name. Nathan recalls the Old Testament prophet who reproached King David for arranging death in battle of Uriah the Hittite so he could have Uriah’s newly widowed Bathsheba. A Nathan also was one of David’s sons. It remained an immigrant surname in the Old Country until after the Pro-testant Reformation. It’s the first name of the second son of Pat and Nancy Small in Lon-don, Ont., and thus my wife’s grand nephew. Nathaniel is the second name of Spencer Rothery, Tennessee grandson of Big Bill, our #3 daughter Caroline’s husband. Are you still with me?
NEIL See Niall etc.
NELL[IE] In medieval times Nell was short for names like Eleanor, Ellen, Helen, all of which appear in this Catalogue. Nonetheless it has been a proper name itself for cen-turies. Nellie is a pet form of Nell. As a surname Nell descends from Old Irish Nel and Niall as one of several current forms of Neal[e]. A prominent Canadian Neilson family has Huguenot origins [as has Ganong, also a candy-making family that came up to Saint Stephen, N. B., as Loyalists].
The mistress of Charles II, Eleanor Gwyn (1650-87) was Nell to her acting and dancing peers. That was when Nell became an independent name. Charles Dickens’ Old Curiosity Shop 1841 came to the USA by instalment. Readers crowded a wharf in New York Harbour to hail a ship due alongside with the next episode. Before it even tied up they were calling: “Did Little Nell die?”
That certainly was the fate of little Nellie French, next older sister to my wife Caroline. She was named for their aunt, Nellie Brownrigg, younger sister of their mother Mary Ellen. That Nellie devoted her life to Sisters of Charity in Saint John, N. B., as Sister Mary John. Born in 1926 little Nellie grew enough to toddle to the door to greet dad coming home from work. She died a blue baby in 1928 only 20 months old. Eleanor “Nell” (Comerford) McCormack was my wife’s godmother when Caroline was born just six months later. Her birth mother Mary Ellen was deeply affected by the loss of Nellie. A much earlier Nellie was the Irish-French grandmother of #2 son Stephen’s wife Lucie. Nellie’s husband had fits when their kids hollered: “Whoa, Nellie!” It was becoming a favourite name for mares pulling delivery wagons throughout Lowertown Ottawa.
The name was especially popular 1860s to 1930s. American Nellie Bly was a then rare globetrotting news hen who d. 1922. Nellie Letitia (Mooney) McClung (1873-1951) of Scots-Irish blood, was rural teacher in Alberta, member of the Women’s Chris-tian Temperance Union and champion of women’s rights from suffrage movement on. She sat as Liberal member for Edmonton in the legislature 1921-26, and was first ever woman on CBC’s board of governors 1936-46. Somehow she found time to raise five children, write successful novels.
In 1915 she wrote in part: “Among the people of the world in years to come, we will ask no greater heritage for our country than to be known as the Land of the Fair Deal, where every race, colour and creed will be given exactly the same chance; where no person can ‘exert influence’ to bring about his personal ends; where no man or woman’s past can ever rise up to defeat them; where no crime goes unpunished; where every debt is paid; where no prejudice is allowed to masquerade as reason; where honest toil will insure an honest living; where the man who works receives the reward of his labour.” This was quoted 1998 in Who Speaks for Canada?
There’s a plaque outside the Senate extolling Nellie and other outstanding Alberta women. Media of the 1920s made them known as the Famous Five. Along with Nellie were Emily Murphy, Henrietta (Muir) Edwards, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby. Their case to have women declared persons under the British North America Act went clear to Britain’s privy council. On 18 Oct. 1929 its judicial committee ruled that persons in the BNA Act meant both males and females. Statues of the Famous Five have been raised in Ottawa and Calgary through efforts of today’s women. Not one of this fab five was ap-pointed senator when it became clear through their efforts that they could be.
Nellie is now rare. Scottish soldiers swinging along on route marches or around a piano in the mess raised voices in male camaraderie about a Nellie of extraordinary phy-sical attributes. As Commonwealth & Empire mobilized for war, more young men came to know of this particular Nellie and her name was forthwith banished from the font.
NIALL, NEIL, MacNEIL, O’NEILL, etc. Niall [pronounced Neal in Irish and Nile in English as in river] is a name both important “and enduringly popular” in Gaelic circles and well beyond. The derivation is in dispute but may come from niadh [pronounced nee-uv], champion. That is the most widely accepted notion. Or perhaps it comes from Gaelic words meaning cloud or passionate. These all suit our conjectured Historical Ancestor anyway.
My maternal grandmother Lavinia (O’Neill) Carew was of Greater Halifax Har-bour settlers [in Portuguese Cove] from 18th century Ireland where O’Neill is frequent and a respected surname. My Aunt Ada Wallace was a Cape Breton MacNeil [with relations now in the thousands] whose ancestors hailed from the western island of Barra off Scot-land. One of her many sons [15 children in all] was called Neil, my late cousin. Neil was popular as a first name in 19th century Scotland. Halfway through the 20th it took off in the rest of the English-speaking world. In our family tree are first name Neil and sur-names MacNeil and O’Neill, all flowing from that tentative Historical Ancestor.
We don’t have Nigel: Niall early had been Latinized Nigellus and later was as-sumed quite wrongly to have derived from niger, black.]
Of many spellings of the surname, Neale is most common in UK & Eire. Mac- Neales in Ireland are a branch of the Scottish clan. Without the Mac, Neale is an English name formerly used much in place of Neill. A former galloglass family Mac Néill has been in Counties Antrim and Derry since the early 14th century with a branch settled into Co. Mayo.
William Merton Neal (1886-1961) is recorded over here. He began his career with CanadCanadian Pacific Railway 1902 as clerk. President 1947-48, ill health forced him to leave. “It’s better to burn out/ Than to fade away,” were lines quoted by Kurt Cobain, frontman of the U. S. music group Nirvana in his suicide note. They came from the 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps by Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Neil Percival Young b. 1945 Toronto. Son of Globe & Mail columnist Scott Young, Neil is a classic rock singer/ song writer/ guitarist. He received a governor general’s performing arts award ‘94 and was inducted into Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in ‘95.
We suppose our Historical Ancestor to be Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland, who moonlighted as a pirate and may have perished at sea 405 AD. Stories of his demise vary; one sounds happy about it. Certainly he was to be reckoned with in the power vacuum of that remote time as Romans wound down their occupation of Britain. Irish raided its western islands and coastlines, Picts did their pecking from the north, while Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians were eyeing their North Sea neighbour with a calculating gleam.
How did Niall get his interesting name? A prudent over-king of that time kept and reared at his court sons of allied Irish kings. The habit was common at regional, provincial and national levels. It observed the useful and enduring custom of fosterage throughout Ireland; but more importantly it also might at times guarantee security in treaty under-takings to have sons of obligated kings at hand and vulnerable. It was still the heroic age with much warring so there were kings prepared to sacrifice the life of such a son if ultimately to the father’s advantage. As resourceful high king always balancing differing interests, Niall had nine such young men about him. Small wonder he was a plunderer to feed that lot of growing boys. The title Niall of the Nine Hostages represents a small confederacy he had managed to cudgel together, even while disrupting the five ancient provinces and occupying Tara.
The O’Neill name is somewhat novel because it spells the same way in Irish Gae-lic as in English provided you ignore Irish ogham writing. More importantly, it is a valued name in Irish history. See my Erin O’Neills. Most powerful of several O’Neill septs was founded by Domhnall whose grandfather Niall was a much later king of Ireland, killed in action against Danes 919. The family of Domhnall O’Neill was leading sept of Cinel Eoghan, descendants of Eoghan, whose territory was Tir Eoghan, Owen’s country. It included all of County Tyrone of today, most of Co. Derry and a good piece of Co. Doneghal. The ancient Eoghan of course was Owen, #5 son of Niall of the Nine Hos-tages. Ulster ceased to be the most important Celtic province of Ireland in the 17th cen-tury because of English conquests, suppression of Irish revolts, and forceful implanta-tion of Elizabethan adventurers and James I’s Lowland Scots. O’Neills went down in history as great men of old Ireland.
Now MacNeils, who were also pirates of the Outer Hebrides at one hungry period or another, descend also from Niall of the Nine Hostages, 5th century titular monarch of all Ireland and hard-hitting mariner. Legend has it he scooped up youthful Saint Patrick on a raid into Britain and sold him into slavery. Patrick grew to love Ireland regardless and returned one day to convert its people.
Some argue that the actual MacNeil ancestor was a later Niall, chief of Barra in the mid-11th century almost 600 years later. But the early Champion had his 20th century champion in late Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, Bart. He was many-lettered and a published authority on ruling houses and of descendants of ancient Picts of Alba. [My oldest sister chatted with him in Virginia years ago.] Ilky flatly stated in writing that O’Neills are of “the oldest traceable family in Europe”. Before he died 1985 he wrote on several occasions about “my foreign friend The O’Neill of Clanaboy who is of course a Portuguese nobleman”. [The Flight of the Earls 1603 to the Continent and Flight of Wild Geese later on figured in my Erin O’Neills. I intend to write something of how well they made out in Europe.] The next Moncreiffe finding was that Clan MacNeil “like Lamonts, MacLachlans and MacSweens” goes all the way back to the Hostage Holder. “King Aodh O’Neill (1030-33) possessed a son Anrothan who married a Princess of Dalriada….” Thus began his Irish-Scots link-up that from our New World perspective is far too involved to quote further: take my word for it, and go on.
Niall the name did a full circle. Norse invaders of Ireland adopted it for them-selves as Njal, took it to Iceland, and back to Norway, thence to France. The Normans brought it to England. Northwest England and Yorkshire got it, however, from Irish-Scandinavian settlers. Of all the authorities consulted, only Professor Basil Cottle, a Welshman, wonders “what he did with his Nine Hostages?”
I’ll just mention one O’Neill worthy who rose against the English because a Mun-ro name enters the picture. Col. Owen Roe O’Neill (c.1590-1649) fought for Spain in the Thirty Years War 1618-48 and led the Irish revolt of 1642-49. As Irish general he defeat-ed Gen. Hector Munro’s Scottish army at Battle of Benburb 1647, inflicting 2,000 casual-ties. Munro’s army was deployed in Ireland to protect Scots planters. Owen Roe was not to face Oliver Cromwell in the field for when that lord lieutenant landed as comman-der in chief to inflict his calculated cruelties on Ireland, O’Neill was fatally ill.
NICHOLAS Take nike meaning victory and tack on laos meaning people and you’ve the post-classical Greek personal name Nikolaos. The looser meaning is victorious army, vic-torious people. Demos is also Greek for people yielding the name Nicodemus with iden-tical meaning. A leading Jew of that name was secretly in touch with Jesus and spoke on His behalf to the chief priests and Pharisees saying the Law demanded a hearing be held. [John 7:50-52} He brought myrrh and aloes to the tomb of Jesus and helped Joseph of Arimathea wrap the body “with spices in linen cloths”.
The first bearer of Nikolaos is mentioned in Acts 6:5: unfortunately that’s all we know. Saint Nicholas was bishop of Myra, Lycia [Turkey] in the 4th century. There is precious little fact about him but much legend. He has become patron of Greece, Russia, New York, bakers, brides, children, sailors, prostitutes, merchants, pawnbrokers and wolves and thus is very big both in Eastern and Western churches.
One of the greatest reliquary heists of the Middle Ages was a raid by Italian sai-lors 1087 to bring his remains away from the Saracen sphere to Bari [Apulia, Italy], a daring deed done before sea-going Venetians could. This even though a Christian monkish community continued to serve his shrine in Turkey. Pilgrimage to the shrine erected to San Nicola in Bari did further popularize his name.
The Turkish town of Demre, or Kale, was once ancient Myra. Its Church of St. Nicholas is a block west of centretown. Nicholas, blend of faith and legend, d. 6 Dec. 345 or was it 352? Under cover of night he used to leave gifts for poor children and tossed a bag of gold through a window so three sisters would have dowries for marriage. When windows were shut elsewhere, chimneys sufficed. That first church was destroyed by earthquake soon after his death although some present walls date to the 5th century.
In The Netherlands of the 15th century he was expected to bring gifts to children for which the Dutch named him in dialect Sinteklaas which ultimately we in the English-speaking world corrupted to Santa Claus. Celebrations in German and Scandinavian coun-tries also involve him.
Nikolaos became Nicholas in English, the -ch- spelling dating from the 12th cen-tury. By the Protestant Reformation of the 16th, its -h- was firmly imbedded even if Nicolas does surface occasionally. Reaney & Wilson list 35 surname variants in Britain, which prove how popular his name was through the ages. Scottish versions of his name include Nea-cail and Colin from a diminutive. In Scotland’s Western Isles MacNicols and Nicolsons descend from a Norse chief who lived on the island of Lewis 13th century. Others argue the name is a combination of Gaelic nic for daughter and Olsen, common Scandinavian forename. Clan chief these days is a sheep raiser in New South Wales, Down Under. English Nicolsons of divers spellings likely stand for son of Nicolas. Families of Ireland named Mac- or Fitz- Nicholas identify Anglo-Normans gone Gael.
The feast of St. Nicholas, who is celebrated also for wondrous works in threes, is Dec. 6 for maximum prayer effect. May 9 is the feast of that adventurous translation of relics to Italy. Blare of a commercialized Santa can obscure a Dec. 25 celebration of the Birth so some people including friends have trended back to quieter gifting on St. Nick’s Day itself. In the old days this occurred on his eve.
To bear a name meaning victorious yet lose because of interference from on high is certainly part of the pattern of humanity. To lose while interfering with subordinates al-though your name means victorious should be no less galling. Nikolai Nikoaevich Roman-ov (1856-1929) Grand Duke Nicholas was a Russian general of demonstrated ability. Through no fault of his, Russia was tragically unprepared for the Great War. Csar Nicho-las II had deliberately chosen another for that responsibility yet on war’s outbreak made Grand Duke Nicholas commander in chief. A resourceful soldier, he made the best of defeats inflicted by Germans and Austrians, meanwhile introducing urgent reforms. Csar Nicholas took personal command 1915, which deepened disaster. The grand duke vin-dicated himself in the Caucasus against Turks; then was yanked at the 11th hour only to be discarded again the day following his csar’s abdication. He d. in France.
Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), or Mikotaj Kopernik to his fellow Poles, situ-ated the sun at the centre of our solar system whereas before earth had been thought the centre of the whole universe. Nicholas Hanington b. 1986 England is one of a constel-lation of sons of David Hanington, younger half-brother of my late brother-in-law Dan. It’s also the middle name of Parker Rothery, third child b. 21 Feb. 2002 in Tennessee to Paul and Heather Rothery. Paul’s the stalwart son of Big Bill Rothery, spouse of our #3 daughter Caroline.
NOAH “In the year of the World 1056; Noe born. Noe the preacher of justice, fore-warned all men, that except they repented, God would destroy them with a flood.
“Noe by God’s commandment built an ark (or ship) wherein himself, and his fa-mily, with other living creatures, were preserved from drowning, 1656. The same year of the World, 1656, the 17th day of the second month, Noe with his three sons, his wife and their wives, in all eight persons, and seven pair of every kind of clean-living creatures, and two pair of unclean, entered into the ark. And presently it rained 40 days and 40 nights together.
“ All living creatures on the earth and out of the ark were drowned. Gen 7.
“All Cain’s race, with other wicked infidels, were utterly destroyed by the flood.” Gen. 7
This stilted account is from Historical Index to the Old Testament, as contained in the Douay-Rheims New Testament 1899 edition. First published 1582 at Rheims, France, was this version, authorized for Roman Catholics. Scholars then followed 1610 at Dou-ay, France with a rendering for R. C.‘s of the Old.
The name Noah from Hebrew means, by implication, rest; but tradition derives it from the root to comfort, with final consonant dropped. Noe now is French and Span-ish; Noach, Dutch; Noak, Swedish, and so on. Genesis 5:29 in King James Authorized Version says: “and he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concern-ing our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” Sons were Ham, Shem and Japheth who with their wives re-peopled the planet.
Deluge/Redemption
The deluge story is a widespread folk memory of humankind. It appears on a Su-merian clay tablet from almost four millennia ago; in the Old Testament of the Jews that gathered oral and written stories into one narrative three millennia ago; in Greek mytho-logical writing roughly as old; and in a 3rd century BC record of an ancient Babylonian account. Righteous Noah is proposed a counterpart as well of Hindu Prithu. Flood and regeneration themes also appear in legends of many peoples as widespread as native Americans, Fiji Islanders, and Australian aborigines.
In the Gilgamesh epic of 2000 BC his ancestor was Utnapishtim who with his wife were only survivors of a great flood. This story is found on one cunieform tablet of a set. It took another form in a Greek recapitulation of an ancient Chaldean creation myth of Atrahasis described by priest-historian Berossus 3rd century BC. We have only frag-ments quoted by Roman-Jewish Josephus, by another historian Eusebius of Caesaria and others. A layer of clay found at his Ur dig 1922-34 late archaeologist Sir Leonard Wool-ley believed was deposited by a flood occurring about 4000 BC. A Greek myth has Pro-metheus’ son Deucalian and wife Pyrra taking to an ark to save themselves from a deluge sent by Zeus to destroy an irreverent mankind. They’d been tipped off, and after were told exactly what to do to repopulate the earth. Deucalian is the father of Hellen [sic], ancestor of the Greek people. Her conception involved merely dropping a stone over the stern, origin perhaps of the 1960s expression getting one’s rocks off.
The latest discovery is that the Mediterranean Sea responded to a general post-Ice Age melt. Its swollen waters eventually burst through rock barriers to fill the huge basin that became the Black Sea. The denser salt water sank into a smaller fresh water lake al-ready there. Therefore the top 135 metres are constantly renewing fresh water support-ing teeming life while beneath lies an oxygen-deprived deep. Seashells found are of two types. One represents an extinct freshwater shellfish while the other is from saltwater species. This indicates that millennia of history may lie deep, preserved in the form of artifacts of entire civilizations. Those ancient lakeshores have been found miles out from the current Black Sea coastline. In a former river valley 90 metres under the present sea and about 20 km off Turkey’s coast, remnants have been discovered of a structure charac-teristic of Stone Age building 7,000 years ago. Will scientists of this ongoing Black Sea project find Atlantis?
Noah Webster (1758-1843) is memorable as an early American author and lexi-cographer. He started Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, which set forth new spellings and approaches. Since Webster there have been a couple of lesser lights in America surnamed Noah.
Noah Vineberg b. 1974 Ottawa is son of Peter Vineberg, previous husband of our #2 daughter Catherine Anne. This Noah was first of our several honorary grandchildren. On 10 April 1996 Noah married in Ottawa with his father on hand from Costa Rica, Cen-tral America. I met Noah soon afterwards in our neighbourhood Canadian Tire store, pudgy kid matured to handsome youth. Son-in-law Bill Rothery included him and wife Amanda in our granddaughter Carrie’s 22nd birthday party 27 July ‘99. Since then the marriage broke up. Noah Frederick Small emerged butt first 10 July 2000 in London, Ont. to Pat and Nancy Small but unscathed. Another grand nephew for my wife.
NONIE Not so long ago Nona was the name given to a girl born ninth in a family and, a little further back, to the ninth girl of a family. Nona is the feminine form of the Latin ordinal nonus, ninth. It had a vogue of sorts in the Victorian age. Today when so few have nine children, let alone nine daughters, Nona emerges once in a while but not neces-sarily for a ninth child or ninth girl
An English pet form is Nonie blithely borne by Nora Kathleen (Wallace) Murray (1912-86) from childhood. Nor was Nonie ninth of anything in Uncle Tom’s and Aunt Ada’s brood of 15. Nonie was named for her beautiful aunt Nora who tragically died young. Nonie too was a beauty who reared a large family while earning national awards for writing in her husband’s weekly Pictou Advocate. She blew into town one summer and went for a quick dip at the Waegwoltic Club on the Northwest Arm in Halifax. A hush spread over the entire swimming area as this statuesque middle-aged woman came on scene.
Nonie is also pet form of Ione; fad name made up in the 19th century to evoke glories of 5th century Ionian Greece. Of course no such name existed in classical Greece. When our #4 daughter and #9 child, Cecily Pascale Wallace, was born 10 April 1965 Ottawa we knew nought of the name Nona. Her brothers call her Pasquale.
NORA An Albanian cultural tradition came to mind after 1990 collapse of the Commun-ist dictatorship in this impoverished Balkan country. Tradition has it that a conquering Ottoman Turk pasha of the 17th century wanted warrior virgin Nora of Kelmendi for wife. She stabbed him to death and led a resistance movement in the hills. When Turks finally caught her she was accorded the “privilege” of execution as a man.
In the raw mountains of the north, women even girls take control of a family affec-ted by poverty, warfare or vendettas. They are known as “vowed virgins” but dress and work like men. They must never marry nor have children; instead they rule their immedi-ate family. Men accord them all male rights and privileges and they in turn mustn’t poke their noses into womanly matters. Reuters agency in May 1996 carried an interview with Lula Ivanaj who at 15 took over her family of 10 daughters and one son at behest of her widowed mother. Their Bajza area is serious vendetta country. Traditional women’s garb is long dark dresses, black scarves or white head wraps. Lula was in sweatshirt and trousers; sat and gesticulated like a man.
Our Noras
Bringing milk in from the country to customers in the hub town of Truro, N. S., 1901, a dairy farmer fights off illness to get in another sales day. At their home on Ly-man Hill coming down with his typhoid fever are Nora Kathleen Wallace around 12 and Georgina Mary, her older sister by about two years. Nora had the longheaded, good looks of her father’s people. Georgina took after her mother’s “Norse and Celto-Iberian” stock said in later years by my Dad of his mother Polly. [I read since it was Celto-Iber-ians who were longheads and that roundheads didn’t come to the British Isles until mid-Neolithic times.] My Dad when aged 7 or 8 heard Nora and Georgina calling out to each other during the night they were dying of fever.
My Cousin Nonie was baptized Nora Kathleen in memory of her tragic aunt. Nonie (Wallace) Murray (1912-86) was #2 daughter of Dad’s older brother Tom. Nora Agnes (Wallace) Allin b. 1928 Halifax is another cousin perpetuating her aunt’s name, #2 daughter of Dad’s oldest brother Frank.
The name Nora seldom turns up nowadays. Its best showing was 1870s-1920s. Ibsen’s pivotal play A Doll’s House 1879 has Nora Hellmer as heroine. Norah is another spelling. Prior to all this, Nora was a pet form of Eleanora, Honora and the like. Honora is Anglo Norman for Latin Honoria, nowadays shortened to Hono[u]r instead of Nora. Earlier again the Puritans had treated Honour the pet form as an ekename – see Page 54.
Gaelic Nora, once thought so Irish, more likely originated from Honoria than from Gaelic Fionnuala [pronounced fyunnoo-a-la] meaning fair shouldered. Noreen, a pet ver-sion of Nora, is an anglicization of Gaelic Noirin, in turn a pet form of Gaelic Nora.
O’CONNOR This is the heir of a name that figured in Irish myth and history alike. It comes from Old Irish conchobhair, high will. Conchobar Mac Nessa was king of Ulster throughout the Red Branch Cycle of Irish legend. The cycle was transmitted orally for a thousand years before being written down. That king was a bit of a despot, by the way.
It was an O’Connor who had the unenviable fate of being Ireland’s last king of kings and another the last native king. Ruadri Ua Conchobar, who reigned 1166-86 and d. 1198, fell to a form of warfare new to the Irish. Hard-bitten Norman marcher lords of South Wales smashed the Irish army with heavy weapons and armoured cavalry. Soon leader Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke and known as Strongbow, declared himself king of Leinster. This was part of a deal that had brought him into Ireland. However Henry II (1133-89) came over from England with a large army, loath to have nigh him an independ-ent Norman kingdom. As the lesser evil, most Irish chiefs made haste to acknowledge Henry as overlord, High King Rory O’Connor doing the honours 1176, even though later deposed. Cathal O’Connor, king of Connacht, as last native king held out against the invaders for years.
Moving briskly on, in 1259 we have a glimpse of Connacht prince Audh, son of Feidhlin O Conor, accepting a body of 160 galloglasses [armoured foot soldiers] as dowry with the daughter of Dubhghall MacRory, monarch of the Hebrides. Three of these Nordic-Scots mercenaries occupy a panel of the late 15th century O’Connor tomb at Ros-common Abbey. Even towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII (1491-1547) Irish chieftains had private armies. O Conor Sligo, a “relatively modest” power, had 580 sol-diers. O Conor was among a number of chiefs in general revolt 1535 provoked in part by Good King Hal not paying his soldiers who took to pillaging.
Back then there were about 70 Irish chieftains, not counting Norman families who had gone Irish. Among the 70 were O Conor Faly meaning of Offaly, O Conor Roe [red] and O Conor Sligo. Two others were O’Connor of Kerry and O’Connor of Corcomroe in north Clare. The British government recognized only one chief of name: in 1900 O Con-nor Don [brown] was granted supporters and in the succeeding year carried the standard of Ireland at the coronation of Edward VII. By 1956 the list of authenticated chiefs of name had dwindled for various reasons to 16 but O Connor Don was among them.
MacLysaght takes pains to differentuate MacConnor, Mac Conchbhair, son of Connor, from O’ Connor on account of so many mistakes recorded by officialdom. Au-thentic MacConnors of Ulster today are called MacNaugher, No[c]her and the like. O’Connors stem from six important Irish septs. After being widely discarded, O’ has been resumed and the form Connors also has reverted to O’Connor, one of the more fre-quent Irish names, particularly in County Kerry.
Families who’ve been kingly, princely, chiefly, are bound to have warrior leaders in later generations. Arthur O’Connor (1763-1852) served the king of France in his Irish Brigade and after that made general in Napoleon’s army. Victoria Cross winner General Luke O’Connor descends from Red Conor, not Sligo Conor. Gen. Sir Richard Nugent O’Connor (1889-1981) was a tough little professional in North Africa’s desert fighting of the Second World War. There are others. The name in its various spellings ranked ninth in Ireland of 1890.
A prominent and successful Ontario family has an early link with Wallaces and Harts. Alice (Hart) O’Connor (1838-1927) had an older sister Mary Hart who married my Great Grandfather John Wallace in Oshawa Village before Ontario itself came into being. Great-Great Aunt Allie had 10 sons and five daughters. Information on this other-wise lost relationship was provided 1991 by my third cousin, Father Pat Byrne. He’s a family researcher when parish duties permit in charming Ontario communities like Lind-say, Ont. [The O Byrne was out with The O Conor et al in 1535 when The O Neill joined them from the north.]
O’Connors have been distinguished lawyers in Canada [although examples I’m offering may not necessarily be related to our O’Connors who also have had members in the legal profession]. John O’Connor (1824-87) became a lawyer in Upper Canada 1854 and was made Queen’s Counsel 1872. He sat in the legislature of United Canada and also in the federal House. He held federal cabinet posts although from 1884 to his death was a judge of the Ontario court of Queen’s bench. George Bligh O’Connor (1863-1957) was called 1905 to the bars of Ontario and the Northwest Territories and later practised in Edmonton. He made King’s Councillor in ‘13. He served on various boards, conciliated disputes and became Alberta chief justice mid-century.
On the other hand English occupational surnames Conner, Connah, Connor des-cend from Old English cunnere, meaning examiner, inspector, and pointing particularly to the ale-connor. Somebody had to do it!
ODILON Lucie (Bazinet) Wallace is wife of #2 son Stephen. Odilon Bazinet (1890-1934) was her grandfather. Son of the first Bazinet of that line to become franco ontar-ien, Odilon was in turn first of line to live in Ottawa’s Lowertown. He was proprietor of a grocery store in this once-vital francophone community. Those were days of big French-Canadian families, many of whom operated corner groceries first and foremost to assure cheaper food prices for themselves by direct access to wholesalers. Whatever they could make selling to their neighbours provided income. When Odilon died, widow Nellie of Lowertown Irish stock had to go clean offices, and the older boys left school to find work. For background on Ottawa’s Lowertown, see Bazinet.
Odile is a French given name from medieval German Odila, element od meaning prosperity, fortune, or riches. The name meant rich in its Old German form. Odilon is a pet form. An 8thcentury saint of the name founded a Benedictine convent at what is now Odilienburg in Alsace. Odile is the patron saint of this old province of France.
O’NEILL The oldest traceable family left in Europe is O’Neill, rooted in a royal family of Tara documented as far back as 360 AD. These were high kings of all Ireland, 5th through 13th centuries, and kings of northern Ireland 425-1603. In spite of what O’Briens have to say O’Neill was Ireland’s first surname, from Gaelic Ui Niall meaning descendant of a champion. As well as being kings of kings, O’Neills ruled or dominated good chunks of kingdoms/ provinces of Meath and Munster. Further details are available under MacNeil and Niall but especially in my typed manuscript Erin O’Neills.
Read The Great O’Neill by Sean O Faolain London 1942 [then lend it to me]. “The great earl” was Hugh O’Neill (1540-1616) 2nd Earl of Tyrone under Henry VIII’s scheme: take more but regrant less. Hugh’s widespread insurrection against Elizabethan English encroachments faltered; therefore he and most of the old Gaelic aristocracy took refuge on the Continent. The Flight of the Earls. That is why The O’Neill of Clanaboy, listed among 16 remaining chiefs of names 1956, is of late a Portuguese nobleman. The Clanaboy branch Clann Aoidh Bhuidhe had settled in County Antrim in the 14th century. The O’Neill name flourishes throughout Ireland and the form Nihill O Neighill in County Clare is of Thomond rather than Ulster O’Neills.
The name in its two-score and more variations spread through Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia as far as Iceland, France, and by different agencies into the north and south of England. This began nigh two millennia ago.
O’Neills were among our earlier Founder Immigrants, Richard O’Neill (1784-1862) establishing himself in the fishing hamlet of, get this, Portuguese Cove in Outer Halifax Harbour. Grandmother Lavinia Carew (c.1864-1939) was a daughter of Cove boot maker Duncan O’Neill who had headed for Halifax City lights. Aunt Ada Wallace in Halifax (1883-1978) was a MacNeil from Cape Breton, peopled by Barra MacNeils just as Barra in the Hebrides had been by early O’Neills. Her sixth son, Neil Paul Gregory Wallace (1923-83), was a decorated wartime flier. Another Neil or so we haven’t met yet and thus unrecorded in this Catalogue are found elsewhere in our extended family tree.
OWEN An anglicization of Irish Gaelic Eoghan, Owen recalls two sons of Niall of the Nine Hostages who went north in force from Tara and took over. The other son involved was Conall. This pressured Scoti tribes there to remove themselves by going over to make a deepening beachhead in Pictland at Argyle. So we had Dalriada Major and Dalriada Minor and eventually Ireland and Scotland. Tir Eoghan in north Ireland meant Owen’s Country and a much-shrunken survivor today of that northward thrust a millennium and a half ago is County Tyrone. Owen’s Gaelic root means born of yew.
The name looms in Welsh legend and history; kings, princes and a knight at King Arthur’s court so called. In the 14th century Owen Glendower kept Wales a-tremble for decades fighting off English aggressors and sometimes winning. He never gave up. As well as its regular use in Wales, anglicized version Owen has taken on new forms back in Ireland. MacOwen there can stand for MacKeown as occasionally do Owens and Owen-son. Owens may be equated to Hinds or Hynes in Ulster but not in Connacht for O hEidhin may actually stem from eidhean, ivy. Some Owens form part of Clan Campbell in Scotland, and Owen achieved regular use in 18th century England. Owen has spread to all English-speaking countries, surname Owens by 1939 ranking 51st in the USA.
Other Owens are traced via Latin Eugenius to Greek Eugenios from the word eu-genes meaning well born, noble. Arthurian knight Ywain is a much better match with modern Ewan than with Owen. However, Owen and Ewan were already mixed up. Three churches in England show this by their saint names – Owen in Bromham, Beds and Here-ford but Ewan in Bristol.
Another possible Owen root comes from an ancient Celtic name meaning born of Aesos or Esos. This was a Gaulish god whom Lucan called “uncouth Esus of the barbar-ous altars”. The Spanish-born Roman poet was alluding to sacrifice of ritually wounded humans suspended from trees. That Celtic god appears in guise of woodcutter on a relief dedicated to Jupiter from the time period 14-37 AD. This was rediscovered 1711 under the choir of Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
There were Owen brothers of New Brunswick, sons of 18th century Royal Navy Captain William Owen, and a 19th century premier in Prince Edward Island who rode out a period of rough political weather. Sir Edward William Campbell Rich Owen (1771-1849) embarked on a naval career as well, serving eventually as commander-in-chief of the West Indies, then the East Indies, and finally C.-in-C. Mediterranean. He was promoted full admiral in ‘46. His kid brother, William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774-1857) joined the Royal Navy 1788 to become a noted surveyor. Owen Sound in Georgian Bay is named for him. He made captain 1811 and vice-admiral in ’54. Retired the following year he colonized Campobello anew. That’s where late U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt summered later. Lemuel Cambridge Owen (1822-1912) was a Spud Island shipbuilder who served as legislature member 1860-66 and on its council ’73-76, premier during one of the stormier periods of P. E. I. politics.
We have a couple of Owens. Joseph Owen Granville b. 1925 Halifax #2 son of Aunt Greta and Dr. Ed., is a ceaseless compiler and publisher of flocks of family histories tied in with Granvilles while in busy retirement in Florida. Owen Campbell Belton b. ’68 Burnaby, B. C., is wed to Fiona, my nephew Mark Hanington’s pretty #1 daughter late of Hawaii. They’re in the Vancouver area, delighted new parents.
PARKER is a reminder of a keeper or ranger of a park in days long gone. Here in a thinly wooded area guarded jealously against poachers were reserved for the privileged various beasts of the chase. The name emerged out of Ancient French from a Germanic tongue. Anschetil Parcher was recorded 1086 in the Doomsday Book after the Norman Conquest of England. Geoffrey parchier c.1145-65 of note and Claricia le Parkares on record 1327 showed this word broadened to include inhabitants of a park as well as one in charge. Parker in Ireland as derived from Old French parquier park keeper has been on record from the Middle Ages; readily encountered in the “census” of 1659 appearing as “tit-ulados” i. e. office holders in all provinces. Parkers of present day Ulster are more recent immigrants. In 1853 Parker was a surname of England and Wales ranked 40th in frequency and is family name of the earls of Macclesfield and of Morley.
Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker b. 1862 Canada West introduced novels of our northwest and validated French Canadians to English readers. He moved to England and served in the Mother Parliament 1900-18 a staunch British imperialist. Jon Kimura Par-ker b. 1959 Burnaby, B. C. is the brilliant young international pianist of serious music who’s no slouch either at jazz. Charlie “Bird” Parker (1920-55) was a Kansas City boy deep into bebop with the Dizzy Gillespie quintet. Drugs hurried his death. A member of Canada’s sports hall of fame since 1987 is Jackie Parker b. John Dickerson Flanagan 1932 Knoxville, Tennessee. Old Spaghetti Legs helped Edmonton win the Grey Cup twice and later was head coach. On retirement he was Canadian Football League all time scorer with 750 points.
Comic book and movie cartoon hero Spiderman’s cover name was Peter Parker, like Superman’s Clark Kent. This may have been a factor, apart from all of the above, in choosing the first name of Parker Nicholas b. 21 Feb. 2002 Townsend, Tennessee, seven pounds, 15 ounces, third child of Paul and Heather (Napier) Rothery. Big Bill Rothery in Ottawa, husband of our #3 daughter Caroline, is his gramps.
PASCALE The Council of Nicaea in 325 decided that Easter should harmonize with the full moon on or following the vernal equinox. This can mean any Sunday between March 22 and April 5. The Orthodox Church on the Julian calendar usually celebrates major Christian feasts later than our Gregorian system. East and West finally are getting to-gether 15 April 2001. Celtic and Roman churches achieved this in about half the time.
Two popes and two anti-popes were named Paschal, the first one a Roman, Pas-chal I who d. 824 and was sainted. There’s a flower called pasque in Europe and a dif-ferent one of that name in America
The date of Easter was a bigger bone of contention between Roman and Celtic Christians, it being apparent that the early Church in Great Britain tied Easter closely to Passover. That Hebrew word journeyed to us via Greek and Church Latin to Middle English Pasch, pask. The priesthood of England used paske for Easter. Pasch, Pask, Pash, Paschal and Pascal are English surnames. Pascoe or Pascow come from Cornish pask. Patch belongs to the almost 700 surnames under the Clandonald umbrella.
The first English translation of the Latin Vulgate put it thus: “Whaune Jhesus hadde endid all these words he seide to his disciples, ye weten that after tweyn days, Paske schal be made.” This, from Matthew 26:1 is in reformer Wycliffe’s 14th century Testament. A softer sound survives in County Lancaster’s Pace eggs. Following were orders published for the sheriff’s annual riding in City of York. “Also we command that no manner of men walk in the city, nor in the suburbs by night, without Torch before him i.e. from Pasche to Michaelmas after ten of the clock, and from Michaelmas to Pasche after nine of the clock….” The orders show how important was Easter of yore to England in dividing up the year.
Canada’s first Acadian senator was Pascal Poirier (1852-1933) writer and lawyer belonging to Quebec and New Brunswick bar associations. He was postmaster of the federal Commons before being made senator 1885. For his efforts for survival of the French language in Acadia he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada 1899 and France made him chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur 1902. Albert Pascal (1848-1920) was ordained 1873 Montreal and performed missionary work in Ottawa Valley lumber camps and the far Northwest. In 1907 he became first R. C. bishop of Prince Albert, Sask. Pas-calis is a ghost town in Abitibi Co., Quebec, 24 km northwest of Val d’Or. The Perrin Co. formerly mined it for gold.
The French feminine of Pascal and the male name have been used to mean Easter child since the 1960s. Easter was a name used throughout the 19th century but was often meant for Esther. Cecily Pascale (Wallace) Harder b. 1965 Ottawa near Eastertime is our #4 daughter and #9 child. To her five brothers she’s Pasquale.
PATRICK The name comes from Latin Patricius, noble man, and our saint deserves this accolade if only for indirectly giving Europe a century of teachers when nearly all lamps of knowledge had been snuffed out by overwhelming numbers of barbarians forced to wander for new homelands.
Saint Patrick did not Christianize Ireland in entirety before dying 461 but he did set a remarkable tone. His and succeeding monks committed to writing and thus preserv-ed much of a fabulous Irish oral culture. His clerics studied and recorded ancient hero tales while tacitly ignoring details of the druidic religion they were supplanting. In spite of this notable evasion, Ireland boasts a treasury of early folklore vying that of ancient Greece and Rome. No other region of Europe comes near these three. Because only a fraction of that precious Irish record has been translated so far into English, it will take little short of a resurrected Patrick, inspiration and enthusiasm undiminished, to rescue us all from literary deprivation. Why? Irish is yet another language threatened with extinction.
Saint Patrick roamed much of Ireland on foot and monks that came after had his itchy feet as well [except for those of the other extreme who went hermit]. The rovers wound up missionaries in Pictland and what became Scotland, Wales, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Irish monks likely reached our New World. They’re documented in Iceland and surmised in far northern Canada from Inuit folk memory. (See St. Brendan in Section 5: Holy Celts!). This was before Vikings first burst out of Scandinavia in the 9th century initially as raiders, then invaders and traders that erected fortified towns on the Emerald Isle.
Patrick was 5th century Welsh/North Briton originally named Sucat, which meant good at war. He was kidnapped at 16 [tradition says by High King Niall of the Nine Hostages, earliest ancestor of O’Neills]. He slaved as herdsman in the Antrim area of northeast Ireland although another source says the Foclut that he mentioned might have been westwards somewhere in what now is County Mayo. He escaped Ireland after six years, decided to be a missionary and after long study returned. He succeeded St. Palla-dius AD 432, a bishop who got three churches going, had much opposition so left in the same year he’d arrived. Palladius died. St. Patrick headed north. The island was not 100 per cent pagan; some Roman Christians had retired long before in Munster even though that southern province wasn’t totally Christianized for another generation. Further details on St. Patrick are in Section 5: Holy Celts!
Another Gaelic form of Padraig is Patair, confused particularly in Scotland with Peter. Padraig is pronounced pour-egg. Ireland’s world class golf pro of today, Padraig Harrington, sometimes is called “pour-egg” despite his mother’s preference for pahdreg. From 1600 until recently Patrick was so popular in Ireland that Pat and Paddy entered everyday language as generic labels as did Mick late 19th /early 20th centuries. Names authority MacLysaght declared on the other hand that most persons of this surname in Ireland are of Scottish origin. [Even the Saint himself may have originated there.] Patrick or MacPatrick is a sept of the Lamont clan. Anglo Irish records of the Middle Ages do show this plus a later abbreviation for Mulpatrick O Maolphadraig in the sense of a devotee of St. Patrick. Patrick can be the name of an almost extinct Longford sept or an abbreviation of Fitzpatrick. There are also the prolific Pat[t]ersons, Patonson and Pat[r]isons or Patrysons. A bunch of Patersons on the north shore of Loch Fyne were known as Clann Pheadirean. William Paterson (1658-1719) a farm lad from Dumfries-shire became financier and author of the Darien disaster 1698-1700 on the Isthmus of Panama, failed Scottish attempt at New World colonization.
By the 1980s Irish parents were reverting to Padraig. Patrice today is recommen-ded for femmes since a patsy in English North America is someone easily duped or in Australian slang a homosexual.
Patrick Slater was pen name of John Mitchell (1832-1951) an Ontario lawyer, au-thor of verse, a moving autobiographical novel, and some non-fiction. Patrick Roy b. 1965 Quebec City has been a goalie 15 years, member of two Montréal Canadien Stanley Cup teams and with Colorado Avalanche ‘96 for his third.
We recall Patrick French who with his wife and one child fell to an 1898 influenza outbreak [or endemic TB?] in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Seaports brought much disease into a country then and now, although air travel a speedier threat. Those Frenches left four orphans, my wife’s late dad the youngest. Her oldest brother in St. John’s, now deceased, was christened Patrick in memory of that grandfather. I regret never knowing clever and brave Grandfather Thomas Patrick Wallace; my Dad wrote of him affection-ately as TomPat. He died 1919 on a Nova Scotia railway crossing – few or none had safety devices then – a decade before I was born. R. Patrick Riddell b. 1978 Halifax and twin of Jessica is a grandnephew perhaps I’ll meet some day.
PATRICIA/PATSY Patricia is feminine of Latin Patricius, noble man. Two Patricias were early martyrs; one of them thrown into a ditch which then was filled with rocks and sand. Saint Patricia, 7th century nun originally from Constantinople, is patron of Naples. Among Irish parents Patricia recalls St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland. Numerous short forms exist including Patsy but a trend is to Patrice. In the USA a patsy is someone gullible and in Australia a homosexual. Patsy has long been a boy’s name too though restricted to Irish communities. As Famine Ireland poured forth its people mid 19th century, no doubt there were more than enough naive immigrant Patsys to justify such American slang.
Patsy Cline (1932-1980) was a country singer b. Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia. Beverly D’Angelo acted her in the movie Coal Miner’s Daughter 1980. Americans Patti Berg and Patti Page were respectively pioneering woman pro-fessional golfer and popular female singer mid-20th century.
Patricia Bay on the east coast of Vancouver Island once was Union Bay, renamed likely in honour of Princess Patricia, daughter of Governor General Duke of Connaught. Pat Bay was a transfer point for car ferries, an RCAF station during the Second World War and continues an airfield for City of Victoria, for maritime defence, and search & rescue. Patricia District also named for the princess was made part of Kenora District in the North and tacked onto Ontario 1912.
Regular force Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry formed for the Great War is still going strong; garrisoned out west when not restoring or keeping peace abroad. This renowned regiment dislikes being called Princess Pats preferring The Patricias. It also has been called Peanuts Popcorn Candy Liquorice and Ice Cream to twit tough light infanteers all of whom I was told by my director-general, a former Queen’s Own Rifles brigadier- general, “sleep under the stars”.
Patricia “Patsy” McCullough b. 1925 Montreal and then convent student in Hali-fax, was a friend of my sisters. She married dashing Cousin Ron Wallace. Another good-looker is Patricia Ann “Pat” Reevie b. 1963 Scarborough, Ont., #1 son Duncan’s sister-in-law, maid of honour 1996 when he married her sister Tina in Toronto. Infant Allegra Pat-ricia Carew Wallace-Harder b. Ottawa 2002 honours her paternal grandmother Pat Harder who died 2001 Edmonton after a botched operation.
PAUL Were it not for Saul of Tarsus goyim might have been excluded from a minor Jew-ish sect whose Messiah had come. A Jewish tent-maker from Asia Minor, Paul had wangled office through which for Jewish High Priests he persecuted these new Christians. Being a Roman citizen this likely did his curriculum vitae no harm. He’d been witness to St. Stephen’s stoning.
On the road to Damascus to arrest more Christians roughly between AD 34 and 36 he underwent an overwhelming spiritual experience [literally knocked off his ass and onto his ass]. After three years of prayer and solitude in Arabia he took the name Paul and plunged into Christian missionary work throughout eastern Mediterranean countries. He composed numerous epistles obviously dictated at breathless speed and with com-pelling intensity; has been called a co-founder with Peter of the Christian Church plus Apostle to Gentiles. He had a feel for such converts. When he wrote a Celtic community in Turkey he reassured them – ritual circumcision wasn’t really required that far away from Jerusalem.
Many churches since have been called Saints Peter & Paul. He was beheaded in Rome about AD 65 during persecution brought on by Nero. His untimely demise no doubt interested his old sponsor St. Barnabas in Cyprus alive or in his grave. The latter had allayed doubts of a hesitant Christian community in Jerusalem when Paul first came on scene. Later, on mission together Paul and Barnabas had fallen out over young Mark. Only the latter in Rome later on appears to have gotten back in Paul’s good books.
Paula is feminine and early on there were two sainted Paulas, one of them helping author St. Jerome (c. 347-?420) translate the bible into Latin. She didn’t type it up for him on some primitive word processor, establishing instead a monastery for him in Jeru-salem some time before her death. That meant a scriptorium. She is patroness of wid-ows. Ms. Elderbroom wrote of a Santa Paula Barbata, possibly of medieval date. She repelled advances of a man in Spain by showing him poing! her instant, full, facial beard.
The name Pauline, a French diminutive, is long popular with English-speaking parents. E[mily] Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) daughter of a cultured English mother and a father descended from Mohawk chiefs, wrote and staged her poetry and prose across Canada and abroad. She’s back in vogue!
Italian Paul Danei (1694-1775) was urged in a vision of the Mother of Jesus to found a congregation devoted to preaching the Passion of Christ. For 50 years this St. Paul of the Cross prayed especially for conversion of sinners.
Latin Paulus was the surname of Rome’s Aemilian family and a nickname for small. It grew into one of the more usual names among early Christians. In Middle Age England it led to Pole and Pool [then spelt Poul] and is partly responsible for Powell. [My snob Mummy without even batting an eye associated us with powerful Pole-Carews of England when first hearing of them.] Paul was certainly prevalent among early Christians and revived in 18th century England. In Ireland Paul as English surname remains distinct but [Mac]Paul is for MacPhail and MacFall. Oom Paul Kruger (1825-1904) flat-earther Boer president of Transvaal 1883-1902 was pillar of the emerging Afrikaaner nation. Oom means uncle. Brits reconciled themselves to Paul 1920s; at mid-century it just trailed Matthew among their top 55. Meanwhile Americans chose it readily for the first seven decades of the 20th century.
Paul Bunyan if not his blue ox Babe may come from aboriginal myths originating in woods of New Brunswick and Maine and then processed through French-Canadian lumberman tales. Paul Bunyan’s first appearance in print was in Detroit News Tribune of 24 June 1910. That began a flood of stories to magazines and the pamphlet trade by hacks. Semi-legendary oil & gas monarch Paul Getty (1892-1996) from Minneapolis, Minnesota, was long thought the world’s richest man.
Major Paul Triquet (1910-80) Royal 22e Régiment, won his Victoria Cross in cap-turing Casa Berardi juncture north of Moro 14 Dec. 1943 in hard slogging of the Italian campaign. All his officers and half his soldiers were casualties but he reorganized the rest with something like: “Never mind them, they can’t shoot” and his soldiers believed him! This was first of three Canadian VCs won in Italy, the British Commonwealth’s premier award for valour.
Paul Martin Sr. (1903-92) representing Windsor, Ont., served in four Liberal cabinets and was minister of health 1947-57 when much of Canada’s social legislation came to pass. His son Paul was a power in Chretien’s cabinet – and still prime minister in waiting from the back benches.
Paul Simon b. 1941, of appealing adolescent folk duo Simon & Garfunkel, went solo ‘72, brought us Ladysmith Black Mambazo from South Africa, Bulgarian women choristers, and Brazilian music.
Singer/ songwriter/entertainer Paul Anka b. 1941 Ottawa had his name in lights below the border last century although his first concert back home in‘56 brought boos from high school peers. His promotion of Ottawa Senators hockey Stateside was messy. Paul married former international model Anne de Zogheb and they proceeded to name five daughters beginning with A- namely Anthea, Amelia, Amanda, Alicia and Alexandria. Sometimes Anka tells nightclub audiences that P. M. S. “stands for Paul Must Suffer.” They separated 28 September 2000 after 37 years of marriage.
Paula for girls was largely German until the 1920s. Paula made the American scene during ‘50s and ‘60s and caught hold of English parents by the ‘70s. French form Pauline had its peak in the USA 1870-1900, Britain, in the 1950s. Now Latin Paulina seems poised for recycling. Early Christians bore that name along with a Roman martyr AD 237. Shakespeare cast Paulina in Winter’s Tale 1604. It was a 19th century regular.
Paul Edward Glen Carew (1907-11) b. in that family’s vacation village of Glen Margaret, St. Margaret’s Bay, N. S., was Grandma’s #4 son, destroyed by measles com-plications. Another Paul is brawny son by previous marriage of Big Bill Rothery, hus-band of our #3 daughter Caroline. Rev. Paul Francis Granville S. J., my Aunt Greta’s #4 son b. 1928 Halifax, when in high school encouraged my early amateur boxing by advising: “Spar with as many as you can, and don’t tell your mom!”
PEARL Widower John Kevin French, when aged 74, my wife’s #3 brother, wed former nurse Pearl Annie Marie Hook, Edmonton, 7 May 1999. His first, Dorothy Billers of Toronto, d. 1997. His second is from English forbears out from Weymouth. Pearl is once again a widow: John died the night of 20-21 October 2004 Edmonton.
In Old French and Middle English, Perle was someone who sold pearls e.g. Simon le Perler in 1291 London. It came also to English from Yiddish Perle. [On my first reserve training cruise, in frigate Swansea out of Halifax 1948, an accordion-playing shipmate was Petty Officer Perlemutter, mother of pearl although nicknamed Pullmotor.] Used early as a nickname Perle evolved to surname Pearl. CBC Radio in Depression years gave us a daily boost by the Happy Gang with Bert Pearl. The King of Happiness went on to Hollywood.
Pearl continued popular too as a Jewish first name although Modern Hebrew Penninah, which long ago meant coral and now means pearl, is more to the fore. In a 19th century English fad for finding given names from jewels, Pearl became widespread. Soon many women were reading Pearl S[ydenstricker] Buck (1892-1973), daughter of U. S. Presbyterian missionaries to China. She won the 1938 Nobel literature prize for novels of Oriental background.
PETER/PIERRE Jesus gave Simon, son of James, the Aramaic name Cephas. That trans-lated into Greek petros, stone [John 1:42, Matthew 4:18]. It was latinized Petrus, from which Peter emerged late in the Middle Ages. In Ireland, Peter’s derivative Perrot came not from Sir John Perrot, early English lord deputy, but surfaced in Munster province 16th century and now is found mainly in County Cork. Pierre also has been used in the English-speaking world since the 1920s and of late in black American families.
Devotion given Saint Peter in early days also sowed such surnames as Peterson and Anglo-Flemish Peterkin. It was the Normans who introduced Old French Piers and Pierce to begat English last names beginning with Pear- / Peir- / Pier- / Peer- /, diminutives in Par- / Per- / Pir-. Both Piers and Pierson mean son of Peter. Petrie and Petry are Scots Gaelic. Irish Gaelic version Piaras, also from Old French Piers, adorned Piaras Feitear (1600-53) Kerry chieftain and poet. Pierce and Pearse, rendered in Irish Piaras, Mac Pia-rais, come from an Anglo-Irish name mainly of East Leinster. County Kerry [Mac]- Pierces figured in Desmond wars for the Irish, a branch of Fitzmaurices. Welsh were later on the scene, lots of them last-named Peters.
If he’ll forgive over-simplification, initially St. Peter took responsibility for Jews attaining Christianity while St. Paul looked after the matter of Gentiles. Peter is thought martyred under Nero and buried in Rome as first pope. Tradition says he demanded he be crucified upside down so as not to diminish Christ’s crucifixion.
Peter Damian of Italy a millennium ago was a Benedictine hermit studying scrip-ture and writing on purgatory, the Eucharist, and clerical considerations. Never formally canonized, Pope Leo XII declared him Doctor of the Church 1828.
Peter [Pedro] III the Great (1239-85) was king of Aragon. After Sicilians at Ves-pers on Easter Monday revolted ultimately killing 2,000 French, they asked Pedro to be their king. This took 20 years because of all the warring alliances to sift through. Pedro was called great only because he was big and strong. History knows that uprising as the Night of the Sicilian Vespers. Pedro IV El Ceremonioso (1319-1387) fought Moors and his neighbours, in the process acquiring for Aragon the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, and formal recognition as duke of Athens and Naxos. He was cruel and vindictive to those crossing him.
Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a Spaniard, established what is touted to be the first permanent European settlement in North America 8 Sept. 1565 at what is now St. Augustine, Florida. St. John’s, Newfoundland, by popular folklore dates to 24 June 1497, feast of St. John the Baptist, when the Italian discoverer Giovanni Caboto claimed Newfoundland for England. St. John’s harbour was frequented by European fishermen early 1500s at least, appears on a Portuguese map as Rio de San Johem and later in a 1527 letter from an English seaman as Haven of St. John’s.
Spaniard St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Jesuit missionary in New Granada, South America, who devoted himself to welfare of black slaves. He usually lived in their quarters to make sure the meagre laws protecting them were in fact enforced. He minis-tered also to lepers of St. Lazarus Hospital and to death row prisoners. He d. of plague at Cartagena and in 40 years had reportedly made 300,000 converts.
Peter I the Great (1672-1725) was Russia’s greatest ruler and powerful six-foot-sixer. He modernized an enormous, retrograde apparatus and conquered much territory in warring with Turk, Swede and Persian. He founded charming St. Petersburg which for most of this century we knew briefly as Petrograd then Leningrad. The csar left a capable fleet, Russia now a Baltic naval power, and a veteran army of more than 300,000.
Pierre Larousse (1817-75) is best known for the great dictionary published 1876 France by his Librairie Larousse but he also wrote grammars and encyclopedias. Nearly 50 years ago I was having a drink in Admiralty House mess, Halifax. I mentioned Pyotr Il’ych Tchaikovski (1840-93) whereupon a jaded officer snirtled: “I love his music be-cause he never managed to achieve a climax.” Oops, time to leave! It took decades before I learned this Russian composer was homosexual, only recently that he deliberately took fatally ill to stifle a scandal over some young man with royal connections. Actor Peter O’Toole, age 68 in 2000, grew up in a modest part of Leeds, Yorkshire. His first leading role was in the motion picture Lawrence of Arabia 1962, eventually reissued with addit-ional film footage resurrected from cutting room floor.
In North America, a place sacred to natives may have gone undiscovered when Samuel de Champlain in 1615 became perhaps the first white explorer ever to visit the area. The first English community was called Smith Township 1818, but seven years later 1,900 settlers came from southern Ireland. Hon. Peter Robinson had much to do with their assisted immigration scheme so the name Peterborough prevailed, expanding to city and county. A 1952 expedition from the Royal Ontario Museum concentrated on Indian mounds at Rice Lake and now-famous petroglyphs at Stony Lake. One of the latter looks like a Viking longship. Peter Pond Lake at 483 square kilometres is one of a series of lakes important to the flow of the 1,600-km Churchill River across northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba into Hudson Bay. The lake carries the name of the first white man to find and map it 1778. Peter’s Arm has been a lumber operation near Bot-wood at the head of Bay of Exploits in Newfoundland.
One who worked hard on Canadian federal-provincial relations was Arthur Peters (1854-1908) Prince Edward Island lawyer who was premier there 1901-08 and died in of-fice. His son Frederick also served as premier and attorney general.
A tragic Pierre was Quebec Labour Minister LaPorte (1921-70) kidnapped 10 Oct. 1970 at 6.18 p.m. while tossing football with his son outside their St-Lambert home. He was murdered by terrorists of Front for the Liberation of Quebec. LaPorte was murdered 7:30 p.m. Oct. 17 by F. L. Q. cell members Paul Rose and Francis Simard. They strangled him with a religious medal chain. This was Canada’s second political assassination: first was Thomas D’Arcy McGee 1878 Ottawa. Another F. L. Q. cell kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross from his Montreal home. He sur-vived. Over the six years leading up to this crisis, 200 bombings and hold-ups “either by the F. L. Q. or other criminal groups” occurred in Quebec according to federal cabinet minister Eric Kierans’ memoirs. They led to six fatalities and there had been attempted kidnappings.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000) was Liberal prime minister 1968-79, ’80-84. He invoked the War Measures Act 1970 to quell a Quebec separatist “apprehended in-surrection”, measures criticized as overkill. “Just watch me,” retorted he. In patriating our constitution, he unfettered premiers who act more like petty feudal barons to detri-ment of our country. His hand was anything but firm when it came to healing the rift in Quebec, or dealing with a faltering Canadian economy. It was obvious then that polls had convinced him Canadians were content to condone selling off non-renewable resources rather than tighten belts. Barbara Yaffe of Vancouver Sun wrote, “under Trudeau’s watch, the debt grew from $18.7 billion to $167 billion” [Ottawa Citizen 26 Oct. 1998]. Canadi-an media editors, 148 of them, chose him our top newsmaker of the 20th century. He headed Canada’s 12 sexiest men in The Great Canadian Book of Lists. He remained his own man and coped well in public during unstable marriage to Margaret Sinclair, and beyond. To a reporter who asked him about her behaviour he replied that no gentleman would reply to such a question nor would a gentleman have asked it. My #2 son Stephen in corridors of power said Pierre Elliott Trudeau loved Canada very much. Until this stylish little man with his brainy and refreshing candour, federal politicians and mandarins were deliberately and exasperatingly woolly in public after the manner of Mackenzie King. Trudeaumania never quite ended when he left office, stirring every time this octogenarian took ill, and dramatically on his death. During adulation of his remains by people, I recalled his indifference to plight of the Canadian Armed Forces, and his public disdain for Canada’s diplomatic service. The Vietnam War had contaminated campuses and schoolyards of Canada even as Canadians in uniform were staffing truce supervisory missions over there. Undeserved anti-militarism was exacerbated when this P. M. sent the Army into Quebec during the October Crisis to bolster police efforts. Then he turned his back on them. Trudeau in the public eye appears another icon like Princess Dianne. Said Rondi Adamson: “…he was the love of our lives, the best boyfriend we never had, and the one we will never get over.”
Phosphorescence, a lady biologist was explaining on CBC Morningside to Peter Gzoski was organic, not chemical activity. Billions of micro-organisms were trying to attract mates. Peter (1934-2002) then asked how they all knew that they should open their little raincoats at the same time.
Pierrefonds on the western part of Montreal Island is city and seat of Jacques Cartier County. It became a town 1958, city ‘63. Pierreville village in Yamaska Co., Que., lies in the former Pierreville seigniory. Pierre Philippe was son of Sieur Laurent Philippe who acquired the area 1683.
Here’s names expert Basil Cottle: “Whatever setbacks the first name Peter received from the unpopular Peter’s Pence and the Reformation, it was brought back to tiresome popularity by Peter Pan in 1904.” Droll way is second generation golf profes-sional and retired tour competitor Peter Alliss, golf colour man of BBC and ABC tele-vision networks. Speaking of TV, it was Budapest-born Peter Carl Goldmark (1906-77) electrical engineer who developed a commercial colour TV system for CBS and a long-playing phonograph disc for Columbia Records. Peter Bronfman d. 1 Dec. 1966 age 67. He and brother Edward controlled Canada’s largest corporate empire.
Doctor Pierre Savard (1936-98) insisted on teaching a first-year history class each year at Ottawa University because such kids gave him energy. He was named ‘97-98
professor of the year. He had won his history doctorate and taught at Laval University, world-renowned expert on Canadian and French-Canadian history. Dr. Savard became history prof Ottawa U. in ‘75, directing the department ‘85-88.
“Tell stories!” veteran TV broadcaster/ author Pierre Berton (1920-2004) and national icon implored Canada’s historians. Raised in The Yukon, this Vancouver newspaperman would arrive in his newsroom near deadline excited and stammering to editors and by this process parlaying a so-so piece into last minute front-page play. He became an outstanding national figure, wrote 50 books and put romance into Canadian history. Of his enormous readership he said, “they listened.” Author Will Ferguson’s epitaph on the mountains to this larger than life Canadian: “Pierre Berton lived here. Hus-band. Father. Storyteller. Shit disturber. Prisoner of the North.”
Marie-Pierre Wallace b. 1978 Katsina, Nigeria, of Lucie (Bazinet) Wallace and #2 son Steve, goes by Mary these days. I grieve Peter Hanington (1926-54) Rhodes Scho-lar, younger brother of my late brother-in-law Dan. Their half-brother David in England named a son Peter in his memory. Peter Vineberg b. 1947 Ottawa and later hotelier in Costa Rica is #2 daughter Catherine’s ex.
PHILIP It has come to us all the way from Classical Greece where Philippos meant lover of horses even though Greek exploitation of cavalry left something to be desired. Philip of Macedon, warring and wily, ruled 359-336 BC, father of Alexander the Great. There were Philips in the House of Herod. An Apostle we get several brief glimpses of in John’s Gospel preached in Greece according to tradition and was crucified upside down there during Emperor Domitian’s reign of terror AD 90s. Philip the deacon was ordained by the Twelve, and converted the chamberlain of Ethiopia’s queen. This Philip was so good at preaching that he was called the Evangelist, which sometimes gets him mixed up with Philip the Apostle. There have been sainted Philips since.
At least a half-dozen rulers named Philip are tireless warriors in pages of history from Alexander’s enabling dad to 17th century Philip a.k.a. Metacomet, a Wampanoag Indian chief who slaughtered 500 settlers and destroyed 20 New England settlements in a vain and bloody effort to stop white encroachment. A couple of French Philips in be-tween managed to chip away at Anglo Norman holdings on the Continent mainly in the 13th century.
In Jolly Olde England whenever that was the name’s popularity inspired a large group of surnames, among them Philps and Phipps, and a shoal of diminutives. Pet names included Pip and Flip. For girls Pippa was short for Philippa. It was spelled Philippa in older Latin documents but pronounced Philip. In the 19th century again it came to be sounded as written.
Philip of Spain was consort to Bloody Mary who as Queen Mary I martyred 300 Protestants. When she d. 1558, Queen Elizabeth mounted the throne and refused King Philip’s marriage proposal. That led to the loss of his great armada off her shores 1588. Elizabeth used prospect of marriage as strong suit in her shifty foreign policy game.
In the 17th and again in the 18th century France fought to take over Newfoundland only to lose in subsequent treaty making much territory gained by force of arms. Philip-pe Pasteur de Costebelle (1661-1717) first French governor of Placentia led an armed party of 170 to attack English St. John’s in a raid typical of those in 1696, 1705 and ’09.
Philips is family name of viscounts St. Davids, barons Milford, and barons Strange of Knockin. However, the most common spelling of late is double –l- Phillips ranked 44th in England and Wales of 1853, 28th in USA 1939. Mac Philbin is Irish Gaelic as a diminutive of Philip but the English name has to a degree replaced [Mac]Philbin. The family is a branch of Connaught Burkes gone to Irish style of sept. MacPhillips is in Counties Cavan and Monaghan where it’s usually a branch of Scots clan MacDonnell of Keppoch.
HRH The Prince Philip b. 1921 to Greek royalty, handsome and outspoken spouse of Queen Elizabeth II, bears a name permeating European aristocracy. His Royal Bluntness had to abandon a career as impecunious Royal Navy officer for princedom, palatial life, duchy of Edinburgh, earldom of Merioneth, barony of Greenwich and asso-ciated honours. My late brother-in-law Dan Hanington RCN and Lieutenant Mount-batten RN were classmates on the same naval course in the UK around Decision Time.
Sir Clive Oldnall Long Phillips-Wolley (1854-1918) lawyer, owned the Nelson Miner in B. C. What a byline to jam into a one-column story! Sir Clive wrote many books about many things. For years he was president Victoria Branch of the Navy League of Canada, wed as he was to a British admiral’s daughter. William Eric Phillips (1893-1965) went to Upper Canada College and University of Toronto, entering the British Army for the Great War to win Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross and two Mentions in Despatches. He left the army 1920, returned to Canada and glass manufacturing, occupying sundry chairs and directorships.
Daniel Philip Wallace (1910-93), Maritime heavyweight amateur boxing title holder, champion sculler and Rhodes Scholar who trod corridors of power in Ottawa, remained somewhat reclusive a cousin here and in Halifax. He made Christian efforts to be decent to me: if he sounded a tad too ponderous, too professorial, I needled him.
PHYLLIS She was a daughter of King Sithon of Thrace who killed herself, so strong was her grief over absence of beloved Demophon. Greek myth has her changing into a leafless almond tree. Demophon returns, flings his arms around the tree, which bursts into full leaf. Whatever turns you on, I suppose. The classical poets fastened on the name as typical for a country maiden, and 17thcentury versifiers picked up on it. Phyllis peaked in popularity 1925 perhaps inspired by one of Canadian-born Mack Sennett’s cinematic bathing beauties.
In Halifax auctioneer Will Tapp’s daughter Phyllis was certainly worth a line or so of poesy as personification of country maiden until she cartwheeled down a busy local beach during the Second World War in a sarong. Then it was cinematic bathing beauty. She was fresh home from a bad spell in the Far East, husband prisoner of war of the Japanese. Phyllis and her sister Wilma were Frasers through their mother who died early. My aunt Edie, also a Fraser then widow Grono, helped widower Tapp raise the girls.
POLLY Although a variant of Molly and nowadays a name on its own, Polly at least among Irish was a pet name for Mary. Polly was Mary (Redmond) Wallace (1856-98) my grandmother on my spear side. She bled to death aged 42 trying to give birth at home to twins in Truro, N. S. Her widower Tam was killed 1919 at a railway crossing. Further details on Polly and Tam are in Requiescat in Pace my MS tribute to Dad.
QUICKFALL This is a locality name like Wigfall later Wigfield in western Yorkshire, England. The latter can mean Wigg’s place where trees have been felled. This gives a sense of what a quickfall might have been before hardening into use as a surname. Mac-lean Quickfall “Mac” Hammond (1917-41) ran a magazine sales team in southern Ontario and just over the border. There were precious few national Canadian magazines back then: we were inundated by Liberty, Life, and The Saturday Evening Post from the USA. As a youngster I sold one of them briefly. A Jew, Mac converted to Roman Catholicism and wed teammate Dorothy Wallace, my deceased cousin. He d. just 24 years old, quick-ly felled by cancer.
QUIN[N] This can mean chiefly a descendant of Conn having come from the Irish sur-name O Cuinn. That in turn came from an Irish word for leader, chief or to do with coun-sel. Sometimes Quinn is short for Quincy, a Norman name, or Quintin/Quentin going back to a missionary in 3rd century Gaul. Mac Cuinn is a County Kerry name apart from O’Quinn. Quinn is the name most plentiful in Irish County Tyrone and numerous in all provinces although in Ulster often found as O Coinne, properly anglicised Quinney. Quin is a Protestant version of Roman Catholic Quinn and the English actor James Quin (1693-1766) debuted in London 1714, last of a declamatory school. He was thought one of the best interpreters of the Falstaff role and rival of young Garrick. William Van Or-man Quine [Manx rendition of the name] was a 20th century American philosopher and mathematical logician. In Canada no Quinn ever made our top 100 although mid-20th-century wrestling fans of the Montreal area were indebted to promoter Eddie Quinn for comic book characters like Killer Kowalski who forsook a Ford assembly line to become arch villain of the ring. Quinn deemed wise is the middle name of Theodore Belton, b. mid-2002 Vancouver to Fiona and Owen. She’s my great niece through the union of Dan Hanington and Margot Wallace early in the Second World War. Theodore therefore is another of my oldest sister’s great grandchildren.
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