Bumbledom
I have headed this chapter “Hodge and his Friends,” but as, a matter of strict truth he had none, except the “poure Persons,” the most radiant figure in Chaucer’s pageant. But his enemies were innumerable. Béranger’s lines impress one less than the uncouth “Song of the Husbandman” (temp. Edward I.), in which we find the woes of poor Hodge incorporated in the persons of the hayward, the bailif, the wodeward, the budel and his cachereles (catchpoles)—
“For ever the furthe peni mot (must) to the kynge.”
The bailiff has already been mentioned (Chapter IV). The budel, or beadle, has given us several surnames. We have the word in two forms, from Anglo-Sax. bytel, belonging to the verb to bid, whence the names Biddle and Buddle, and from Old Fr. bedel (bedeau), whence Beadle and its variants. The animal is probably extinct under his original name, but modern democracy is doing its best to provide him with an army of successors. The “beadle” group of names has been confused with Bithell, Welsh Ap Ithel.
Names in -ward are rather numerous, and, as they mostly come from the titles of rural officials and are often confused with compounds of -herd, they are all put together here. The simple Ward, cognate with Fr. garde, is one of our commonest surnames. Like its derivative Warden it had a very wide range of meanings. The antiquity of the office of church-warden is shown by the existence of the surname Churchward. Sometimes the surname comes from the abstract or local sense, de la warde. As the suffix -weard occurs very frequently in Anglo-Saxon personal names, it is not always possible to say whether a surname is essentially occupative or not, e.g. whether Durward is rather “door-ward” or for Anglo-Sax. Deorweard. Howard, which is phonetically Old Fr. Huard, is sometimes also for Hayward or Haward (Hereward), or for Hayward. It has no doubt interchanged with the local Howarth, Haworth.
Owing to the loss of w- in the second part of a word (Chapter III), -ward and -herd often fall together, e.g. Millard for Milward, and Woodard found in Mid. English as both wode-ward and wode-hird. Hayward belongs to hay, hedge, enclosure (Chapter XIII), from which we also get Hayman. The same functionary has given the name Haybittle, a compound of beadle. Burward and Burrard may represent the once familiar office of bear-ward; cf. Berman. I had a schoolfellow called Lateward, apparently the man in charge of the lade or leet (Chapter XIII). Medward is for mead-ward.
The name Stewart or Stuart became royal with Walter the Steward of Scotland, who married Marjorie Bruce in 1315. It stands for sty-ward, where sty means pen, not necessarily limited to pigs. Like most official titles, it has had its ups and downs, with the result that its present meaning ranges from a high officer of the crown to the sympathetic concomitant of a rough crossing.
The Reeve, Anglo-Sax. ge-refa, was in Chaucer a kind of land agent, but the name was also applied to local officials, as in port-reeve, shire-reeve. It is the same as Grieve, also originally official, but used in Scotland of a land steward—
“He has got a ploughman from Scotland who acts as grieve.”
(Scott, Diary, 1814.)
This may be one source of the names Graves and Greaves. The name Woodruff, Woodroffe is too common to be referred to the plant woodruff, and the fact that the male and female of a species of sand-piper are called the ruff and reeve suggests that Woodruff may have some relation to wood-reeve. It is at any rate a curious coincidence that the German name for the plant is Waldmeister, wood-master. Another official surname especially connected with country life is Pinder, also found as Pinner, Pender, Penner, Ponder and Poynder, the man in charge of the pound or pinfold; cf. Parker, the custodian of a park, of which the Palliser or Pallister made the palings.