Frogley, Cockhead and Crutch E-Book

Paul Sullivan

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 121

Beschreibung

Willy Cockhead had to live with his name. So too did countless others lumbered with ridiculous monikers, safely hidden away in Oxford's records and censuses – until now. And what names! Some rhyme (Dick Thick), a few are odd (Silly Waters), others you have to say out loud (Rhoda Turtle) and some are just groan-worthy (Blenda Belcher). Uncovered by local author Paul Sullivan and accompanied with strange-but-true anecdotes, this entertaining volume of baffling, ill-thought-out and just plain rude examples champions the people and places of Oxfordshire that got saddled with the daftest of names.

Leseprobe

In memory of my very best friend,

Ian Randal Howgego

1961–1997

CONTENTS

Title

Dedication

Introduction: Name Calling

1 Crazy Names

2 Doctor, Doctor … !

3 Too Late for the Doctor …

4 It’s All a State of Mind

5 Show Us What You’re Made Of!

6 All Work (and Some Play)

7 Money, Money, Money

8 The Great Outdoors

9 Auditioning for the Punk Rock Band

10 Body of Evidence

11 Colourful Past

12 House Proud

13 Goody Goodies

14 Seasons Greetings

15 Delusions of Grandeur

16 Food for Thought

17 Hungry Girls

18 Marriage Made in Heaven

19 Animal Farm

20 Birds of a Feather

21 Something Fishy

22 Herbaceous Borders

23 Ave!

24 Weathering

25 To Name or Not to Name, That is the Question

26 Behind Closed Doors

27 Oo-Er, Sounds a Bit Rude

28 Fanny Power!

29 The Guest List from Hell

30 There’s No Place Like Home

Sources

About the Author

Copyright

INTRODUCTION: NAME CALLING

FLORENCE FROGLEY

1857–1923, Headington

WILLY COCKHEAD

1790–1871, Witney

CORNELIUS CRUTCH

1832–1864, Wootton-by-Woodstock

The journey from birth to birth certificate is a surprisingly hazardous one. If you have a funny surname, for example, it is important to choose accompanying names carefully. The fact that this hazard isn’t always heeded – or perhaps it is being gleefully embraced – can be witnessed by the presence of Rhoda Turtle, Annie May Kill, Tommy Rumble and a hundred others in the following pages.

If there’s nothing funny about your surname per se, you can still raise a giggle or two by prefixing it with amusing or wilfully obscure forenames. Step forward Christ-Gift New, Ivor Brain and Urina Hedges – all featured in this naming and shaming volume.

Occasionally the humour in the name is a cruel whim of time. The family of Adolph Perish was perfectly happy with his name until a more famous Adolf appeared on the political stage. All those pre-’70s Wallies, such as Wally Tulip of Banbury and Willy Wally Wheeler of Woodstock, had no idea that they would one day be synonymous with foolishness. And what a cruel fate befell the huge army of Fannys – they have a dedicated entry in this book – when their name was hijacked twice in quick succession! (The use of the word ‘fanny’ to denote a certain part of the female anatomy is first recorded in print in England in 1879 after several years in oral usage. Over the pond, the word’s alternative meaning as the human derriere cropped up on the printed page in 1928 and has been at the bottom of the class ever since.)

A person’s life can be mapped as a journey through the oddities of personal nomenclature. Back in my childhood, when a classroom was far less likely to be filled with such twenty-first-century names as Ferrari Porsche, Unique Keanu, Huckleberry Banjo and Dylan Oxford United (all real), there were still some glorious oddities. My best friend through school and university was the sorely missed Ian Randal Howgego, who left the story far too early at the tender age of 35. I have also shared classrooms with members of the Blood, Death and Onions families – the latter two trying to hide the truth behind an apostrophe, in the form of De’ath and O’Nions. There were Eastcrabs, Lillycraps, Boggis’ and Scattergoods. The contrasting landscapes of Heather Moor and Heather Marsh shared a desk, university-era pals Lisa Simpson, Tom Cobbley and Steven Fry all discovered unwelcome links with famous namesakes, and the unfortunate parental blindspots of Dick Blow and Pat Mycock just had to grin and bear it.

Some of the imaginatively monickered people in this book lived out their lives in Berkshire – Abingdon, Didcot, Drayton, Faringdon, Radley, Wallingford, Wantage and Wytham only made the leap into Oxfordshire in 1974. It works the other way too – Caversham was part of Oxfordshire until 1911, when it succumbed to the gravitational pull of Reading in Berkshire.

Ploughley and Bullingdon, meanwhile, have disappeared. Ploughley was an administrative unit known as a ‘hundred’, a large rural district centring on (but not including) Bicester. It gained a new lease of life as one of Oxfordshire’s seven Rural Districts, but was abolished in 1974. The region defined by Ploughley is now part of the Cherwell district. Bullingdon hundred was swallowed by Ploughley in the mid-nineteenth century. It encompassed an area including Nuneham Courtenay in the south, Beckley in the north, Waterperry in the east and Marston in the west. All of which adds nicely to the general name-calling and confusion.

Frogley, Cockhead & Crutch is a celebration of ordinary people (and places) with extraordinary names. It acts as a dire warning from history – or an unfortunate nudge of encouragement – for future generations in the county of Oxfordshire.

Paul Sullivan, 2015

1

CRAZY NAMES

Some people think it’s crazy to have children. Some parents agree, and express their feelings in the names of their beloved offspring.

ARAMINTA BATTY

1845–1927, Henley

MADGITTA BATTY

Born 1879, Henley

EDWIN BERK

Born 1826, Oxford

ED CASE

Born 1858, Witney

CECIL T. DAFT

Born 1917, Headington

FRANK DUNCE

Born 1879, Witney

MARY FOOL

1898–1911, Caversham

ARTHUR MORRIS FREAKY

Married 1884, Oxford

MAD HAYNES

Born 1902, Banbury

PSYCHE HOUGHTON

Born Oxford, 1879

WALLY WILLY HOWLING

1905–1994, Abingdon

LIZZIE LOONEY

Born 1884, Headington

BATTY LORGE

Born 1801, Burford

FRED FANNIS C. NUTT

Born 1891, Oxford

CHARLIE NUTTER

Born 1804, Neithrop, Banbury

MARY ANN NUTTY

Died Oxford, 1850

ALF PRATT PRATT

Born 1908, Chipping Norton

MARMADUKE ROLAND PRATT

Born 1828, Oxford

Marmaduke Roland Pratt was father of Marmaduke Roland Pratt (1851–1915) and grandfather of … yes, you guessed it … Marmaduke Roland Pratt (1881–1935). The second of these Marmaduke Pratts, a grocer, was chief witness in the trial of Marian Louise Grainger at the Oxford Assizes in 1877. Grainger was accused of murdering her husband James by drunkenly wounding him by stabbing him in the left buttock with a stiletto, or a knife, or by throwing a tumbler at him. No one seemed quite sure which. Marian claimed her drunken husband had accidentally stabbed himself with a knife during a quarrel. Whatever happened, the wound festered and the man died. Marmaduke Pratt, the couple’s son-in-law, explained how Marian had asked him to visit during James’ decline, asking him if he thought her husband would die. ‘I have no doubt about it,’ said Pratt, to which Marian responded, ‘Good God, whatever shall I do? God only knows how I shall ever get over it. How could I have done such a thing? But I never did it!’ In summing up, the judge commented that Pratt clearly ‘had no very kindly feelings towards his mother-in-law’. Squinting through the drunken haze, the jury delivered a verdict of not guilty. (Jackson’s Oxford Journal, Saturday, 7 July 1877)

MARY JOHN PRATT

1842–1907, Headington

WILLIAM RAVE

Born 1856, Chipping Norton

FANNY RAVES

Born 1883, Henley

SARAH ANN SANE

Born 1851, Enstone

CHARLIE SILLY

Born 1875, Headington

MARY MANIA STEPHENS

Married 1860, Witney

DICK THICK

Married in Headington in 1888, and died a year later

SILLY WATERS

Born 1898, Bloxham

2

DOCTOR, DOCTOR … !

All manner of ailments and medical symptoms await us in the pages of Oxfordshire’s surgery of surnames.

HUGH AGSCOUGH

1818–1879, Witney

REHAB ALLWRIGHT

Born 1843, Cholsey

LIZZIE BLISTER

Born 1842, Oxford

HENRY BOILS

Died 1846, Thame

GEORGE COFF

Born 1828, Oxford

DICKY HART

1813–1885, Wantage

ELIZABETH HEADACHE

Died 1854, Bicester

DANIEL P. HEALTH

Born 1891, Kingham

MASSEY LEPER LAPER

At Oriel College, Oxford, in the 1841 census, age 20

ETHEL M. PAIN

Born 1892, Wantage

MOSES PATIENT

Born 1649, Cote

CONSTANCE PAYNE

Born 1885, Headington

GEORGE SEPTIMUS PAYNE

1851–1933, Banbury, Abingdon and Oxford

John Payne opened Payne & Son silversmiths and jewellers in Wallingford in 1790, with other branches later opening in Abingdon and Banbury. George Septimus Payne inherited the Abingdon shop in 1874, moving it to No. 131 High Street, Oxford in 1889. Formerly occupied by James Sheard, a watchmaker, the Oxford premises are surmounted by a lifesize, white Great Dane, holding a giant fob watch in its mouth, as a pun on ‘watch dog’. The watch used to have painted hands; but these were painted over in the 1960s to put an end to the constant stream of people calling into the shop to report that the clock was telling the wrong time.

CHARLOTTE PILES

Born 1791, Swinbrook

FANNY PILL

Born 1858, Witney

ANN POX

Born 1839, Church Hanborough

DINOSIC PROSSER

Born 1796, Yarnton

EMILY KING RICKETTS

Born 1856, Abingdon

HUGH HAMILTON SICK

Born 1877, Radley

CAROLINE SNEEZUM

Born 1833, Rotherfield Greys

ANN STROKE

Born 1818, Henley

WILLY TUMER [SIC]

Born 1876, Pyrton, Henley

V. TYPHUS

Born 1832, Abingdon

WILLY WART

Born 1846, Culham

3

TOO LATEFORTHE DOCTOR …

Sometimes the symptoms take their natural course, and there is no hope for the following victims.

ALFRED VICTOR CARCASS

Died 1887, Banbury

BENJAMIN COFFIN

Born 1826, Oxford

DAISY DEATH

Born 1887, Oxford

PHYLLIS GRAVE

1858–1938, Rotherfield Greys

PHIL GRAVES

Born 1854, languishing in Oxford Gaol in 1885

Poor George Graves, aged 14, inmate of Abingdon Union Workhouse, died on 3 February 1842. The cause of death was recorded as ‘inflammation of the brain, and not from external injuries’.

HARRY HEARSE

Born 1897, Curbridge

WILLIAM HUNG

Born 1795, Wallingford

TRISTRAM PINE-COFFIN

Married 1915, Thame

GUY STIFF

Born 1880, Oxford

JOHN JAMES TOMBS TOMBS

Born 1846, Witney

4

IT’S ALLA STATEOF MIND

Many names paint a picture of the human condition – how we’re feeling, how we look upon the world around us, how we’re looked upon by others. Listed together, they present an intriguing scene worthy of a Hogarth print or, bringing the canvas forward a couple of centuries, a comic strip in The Beano or Viz.

PARFITT FORD ALLRIGHT

Born 1845, Eye and Dunsden

PARFET ALLWRIGHT

Born 1839, Cholsey

STRANGE ANDREWS

1869–1941, Ploughley

TEMPER ARISS

Born 1817, Banbury

EDWARD ARTHUR ATTACK

Born in Romford, Essex, 1860; married 1888, Headington

LOVELESS BARTHOLOMEW

Born 1846, Caversham

CAROLINA BLISS

1820–1889, Chipping Norton

CRISS BOILING

Born 1868, Thame

JANE BOILING

Born 1860, Thame

On 12 November 1884, Jane Boiling took Thomas Oliver to court, claiming that he had both insulted and assaulted her. Oliver had found her in one of his houses, speaking with the tenant who lived there. There was bad blood between Boiling and Oliver, and he manhandled her off the premises. The assault charge could not be proved, however, and the case went off the boil.

GEORGIANA BORE

Born 1833, Bletchingdon

JOSHUA JONES COOL

Born 1837, Hook Norton

JACK CRACKS

Born 1887, Bicester

LIZZIE HAPPY DAWS

Born 1888, Oxford

FRED DUDE

Born 1858, Henley

MABEL SWEET EAGLES

Born 1883, Oxford

HOPE EAST

Born 1845, Goring-on-Thames

URINA M. GOODE

Born 1912, Banbury

MERCY ING

Died 1857, Thame

JESSIE GEORGE LOVELOCK WALLACE JOLLY

Born 1880, Oxford

FREE LACEY

1872–1952, Ploughley

EDDIE LAUGHTER

Married 1845, Woodstock

GRACE LIFE

1892–1988, Oxford

HENRY CHEATER LINES

Born 1852, Banbury

FANNY JOLLY LINGHAM

1829–1875, Headington

FAIL MACEY

Born 1833, Caversfield

HENRY TRIPP MEAN

Born 1819, Henley

LEAH BATTS MERRY

Born 1860, Witney

HOPE MORE

Born 1830, Oxford

HARMER C. OGLE

Born 1843, Oxford

Ogling in St Giles: The four statues that surmount the Taylorian Institute in Oxford (the section of the Ashmolean Museum facing on to St Giles) symbolise the literary heritage of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Unofficially, they were said to have been modelled on four beautiful local girls called Ogle who lived on St Giles. The girls in question were sisters Janet (b.1821), Mary (b.1824), and twins Amelia and Caroline (b.1826). The Institute opened in 1845.

EVIS CROSS PARGETER

Born 1867, Banbury

SALOME PEACHEY

Born 1870, Sarsden

COSMO POUNCEY

Born 1911, Headington

BOB PRIGG

Born 1874, Headington

HILDA LOVE QUELCH

1893–1975, Bullingdon

HATE ROLY

Born 1899, Oxford

MERCY SAVAGE

1788–1866, Woodstock

MAY STRIKE

Born 1811, Oxford

WINIFRED MAY WANT

1914–2004, Witney

MERCY WEAVER

Married 1870, Banbury

LANCELOT WILD

Will dated 1752, Oxfordshire

OGLE WINTLE

Born 1834, Headington

ANGER MARRIE WOODWARD

Born 1900, Chadlington

ED WRONG

1890–1928, Headington,

5

SHOW US WHAT YOU’RE MADE OF!