Genealogy Chat

Vicky You may be onto something there. My 'Landed Holdens' of Holden Manor, originally, always have their name spelled correctly as Holden on all the documents I have seen, and some of these are very early indeed.It is the peasant and mobile Holdens who get consistently mis-spelled. Ditto the Greens who were big fish in a little pond for 500 years - the only variation in spelling was the very early Grene (mind you, you would have to go some, to mangle a name like Green) My rarest ancestor, name-wise, was one Quarton Levitt, who moved around the country quite a lot - his name is never spelled the same way twice! OC

another late reply... I tried writing this last night but was so tired it wouldn't come out right! I suppose the more people who write your name, the more chance of an alternate spelling. This is certainly true of the variations found in the early census returns (up to 1871/1881 or so, when the spelling stabilised) and appears irrespective of whether the occupier was illiterate. When my family was in Swaledale, the Hakin spelling was used over several years in the late 17th century, and all the entries were done by the same incumbent. His successors during the 18th century seem to have favoured ''Hawkin''. It varies between Hakin & Hawkin during the 1820's - 1840's, but spread over several different parishes. Do you suppose, if its an important family like your Holdens, the incumbent would look at previous entries in the registers to make sure the spelling was consistent?

Yes Vicky, I think you are right, there was a lot of clerical sucking-up to the Holdens, and undoubtedly any other 'importsnt fasmily'. I also think that the consistency of the spelling in other documents, such as Land Transfers, Marriage Settlements etc, pointed to the Holdens employing a scribe, who would probably have made it his business to get the name right. However, the Holdens frequently intermarried with the Shuttleworth family, another 'great' family in Mediaeval times. The name Shuttleworth is spelled any way you like, including Schotilewerthe - perhaps they didnt have their own scribe! I find this name business fascinating. The very first (earliest) document I found relating to the Holdens, refers to Roger the Cook at Schotilewerthe Manner. I thought it a bit odd that a humble cook would be involved in a hefty land transaction and eventually emailed Lancs RO, to ask them to confirm this translation. They replied saying that the original document spoke of Roger the COCK at Schotilewerthe. Now, the Holden Coat of Arms is 6 moorcocks and knowing that these Arms were often a play on words, I am pretty confident that this is Roger Holden, Cock of the Moor in 1219 - they owned about half of Lancashire then, including vast tracts of moorland. He was also a bit of a lad.....LOL OC