Bastard Names June 15, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
One of the least attractive aspects of organized morality is the scapegoating of children for the sins of their parents. Those who grew up with the Bible will remember the dread words: ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation’. Beach has always been particularly struck by the way that illegitimate children have been treated by the Church (established or otherwise) and the way that the sins of the parents were merrily visited upon little scraps of humanity in prams and cradles. We know of the murder of babies by terrified mothers: we known of the Magdalene Laundry in modern Ireland. But what about this ghastly Puritan version of tarring and feathering at the font? Below we see the Puritan approach to naming, the subject of recent posts, as concerns those whose mother and father were not married: and at a date when it was just too late for the mother to credibly blame the fairies: more’s the shame. Christian names in bold.
1589, Aug 3: Baptized Helpless Henley, a bastard (Berwick, Sussex)
1598, Jan 27: ‘Baptized Forsaken, filius meretricis [son of the whore] Agnetis Walton.’ (Sedgefield, County Durham?)
1599, May 13: ‘Baptized Repentance, daughter of Martha Henley, a bastard’ (Warbleton, Sussex).
1600, Apr 13: ‘Baptized Repentance Gilbert, a bastard’ (Cranbrook, Kent).
1600, May 26: ‘Baptized Lament, daughter of Anne Willard, a bastard’ (Warbleton, Sussex) .
1608, Aug 14: ‘Baptized Repent Champney, a bastard’ (Warbleton, Sussex).
1609, Nov. 25: ‘Baptized Fortune, daughter of Dennis Judie, and in sin begoten’ (Middleton-Cheney, Northants).
1609, Dec. 17: ‘Baptized Flie-fornication, the bace son of Catren Andrewes’ (Waldron, Sussex).
The only ‘nice’ name on this list (published by that fine historian of names Bardsey in 1897) is Fortune: let’s pray that the daughter of Dennis got it. The others were practically branded by the presiding priest and the weeping mother. Again such hortatory names did exist in Puritan society, but hortatory names tended to be a little happier or, at least, more resolute: What-God-will, Hope, Hate-Evil…. ‘Fly-fornication’ turned up in some places where we have reason to believe that there was no fornication. But Repentance and the dreadful Helpless speak for themselves. Talk about calling your baby boy Sue.
Other examples of name branding for bastard children: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com. The only example that occurred to Beach was the occasional medieval and Stuart use of Fitz in aristocratic circles.
Now God stand up for bastards!
29 June 2015: LTM writes in, The current TV series Game of Thrones (which is really great TV) features bastard names to identify family:
The stigma of illegitimacy is so great, that all acknowledged bastards born to a noble in Westeros have to identify themselves through a specific surname marking them as a bastard, which varies by region:
◾ Flowers: The Reach
◾ Hill: The Westerlands
◾ Pyke: Iron Islands
◾ Rivers: The Riverlands
◾ Sand: Dorne
◾ Snow: The North
◾ Stone: The Vale of Arryn
◾ Storm: The Stormlands
◾ Waters: The Crownlands
However, this system does not apply to the bastards of smallfolk: at least one parent (usually, but not always, the father) has to be a member of a noble House. If both the father and mother are commoners, the child cannot use the special surname.
The low-born commoners of Westeros do not actually use surnames at all. Therefore, possessing a bastard surname is simultaneously a mark of distinction and badge of shame. Anyone who encounters someone with a bastard surname will immediately know that they are not simply a bastard, but the bastard child of a noble.
Bastards only use the special surnames if they have been openly acknowledged by their noble-born parent. In such cases, their noble parent will usually try to make sure that they are well cared for, or send money for their support, but it is extremely unusual for a noble to raise their bastard child in their own household.
There is no official distinction between bastards who have one noble-born parent, and those whose parents are both noble-born. In practice, however, a nobleman would be much more likely to acknowledge a bastard child born to a noble lady, than he would a child born to a commoner.
Bastard surnames are dependent on the region a child was born in, i.e. where the mother is from, not where the father is from. For example, a noble lord from the Stormlands could father one bastard child in the Vale, and another in the Riverlands, but neither would use the surname “Storm”: the first bastard would use the surname “Stone”, and the second would use the surname “Rivers.” It is extremely unusual for a bastard to know who his nobleman father is, but not his mother. Therefore Jon Snow’s situation is additionally unusual, not just because he actually lives with his nobleman father, but because he probably wasn’t even born in the North. Eddard Stark brought him back to Winterfell as an infant after fighting in the south during Robert’s Rebellion, but refused to say who his mother was or where she came from. As a result of the mystery surrounding his mother’s identity, Jon ended up using the surname “Snow” by default.
Bastard children of a noble lord may be referred to politely as “natural children”, though the less polite term “baseborn” is more commonly used, and they are often bluntly and rudely referred to as simply “bastard.” In contrast, a noble lord’s children with his lawfully married wife are termed “trueborn”. Thus when Lord Eddard Stark discovers that none of Cersei Lannister’s children were fathered by her husband King Robert Baratheon, he says that King Robert “has no trueborn sons,” even though he knows that Robert has several “baseborn,” bastard children.[4]
http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Bastardy
Mike L writes in: The Benchers at Lincoln’s Inn had the practice of naming foundlings “Lincoln“. On a related note, the late Bob Poland, erstwhile gardener at Chartwell, the home of the Churchills, is said to have been left as a baby outside the Police Station in Poland Street in Soho, hence his surname.
Thanks Mike!
