The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Quest for a Lost Race, by Thomas E. Pickett.

Marshall. There are 62 coats of arms of this name, generally Normans, the principal of these being the Earls of Pembroke. Colonel Thomas Marshall of Virginia, the father of the great Chief Justice, lived near Washington, Mason County, Ky. He died in 1802. His grave in the family burying-ground near the old home ("The Hill") has attracted many visitors of late years, and the family homestead near Washington was once visited by the Chief Justice himself. John Marshall was probably the greatest American lawyer of Anglo-Norman descent; and certainly, as Mr. Barrett Wendell says, "the most eminent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States."

Judge Thomas A. Marshall, who recently passed away at Salt Lake City, a grandson of old Colonel Thomas Marshall, was also a "pioneer." He became the greatest mining lawyer in the West, and President of the Central Pacific Railroad. Lytleton, Coke, Chitty, Denman, and other great English lawyers were derived from that same learned, astute, and litigious Norman race.

Mason. William Le Mazon, Normandy, 1198; Hugh Le Maun, England, 1198. Mason County, named after the famous Virginian, George Mason, by the Legislature of Virginia in 1788, and not (as recently proclaimed) after a Governor of Michigan, who in all likelihood was not born when the county was named.

Massy. A well-known Norman family, Macy, whence the name is derived, was seated near Coutances and Avranches, Normandy.

May. From De Mai, Normandy, 1180; De May, England, 1272. Maysville, Ky., named after John May.

Miall, Miel, Mihell, Mighell (the last a mediæval form of Michael). Lower also derives Mitchell from Michael through the French form Michel.

Milton, or Middleton. Armorially identified with the Norman family De Camville, in the Cotentin. The poet Milton was of this stock.

Minors, or Minor. A distinguished family long settled in Virginia. De Mineriis, Normandy, 1198; in England also, 1198.

Mitchell. Rudulphus Michael, Normandy, 1180-'95. William de St. Michael, England, 1198. Michael, Michel, Michell.

Mountjoy. Pagonus de Montegaii, Normandy, 1097; the family was seated in Notts and Derby. Early settlers in Virginia and Kentucky.

Nelson, Nilson. Of Norman descent, who settled in Norfolk, was the direct ancestor of Admiral Lord Nelson. Original form Neilson or Neilsen.

Neville, De Nova Villa, Normandy, 1180. The families of Neville, Beaugenay, and Baskeville are descended from a common ancestor. The Nevilles are most numerous in Lincoln.

Newton. The most famous of this large family, Sir Isaac Newton, was of Norman descent.

Nicholas. Richard Nicholas, Normandy, 1198; Nicholas, Nicolaus, England, 1198. A distinguished name in Kentucky.

Norman. Ralph Normannus, Normandy, 1180; Henry Norman, England, 1272. This name has a social and official conspicuity in the State of Kentucky; and in whatever position found it shows the characteristic marks of the old blood.

Norton, or Conyers. Elder branch of the family of Conyers, or Cognieres, Normandy; named from the Barony of Norton, York, the chief English seat of the family.

O'Hara, Hare, O'Hare, O'Hara (fleet-footed). Scions of the House of Hare-court, or Harcourt, Counts of Normandy.

Theodore O'Hara was a Kentuckian by birth and training. He was a gallant soldier in the Mexican War; second officer in the first Lopez Expedition; a colonel in the Confederate service. He is best known by those fine elegiac lines which seem to be following the military cemeteries of the English-speaking race:

[See Ranck's Biography of O'Hara, and "Lopez's Expeditions," published by The Filson Club, No. 21, this series.]

Peel, Pele, Norman, 1180. Peels of Yorkshire and Lancashire, ancestors of Sir Robert Peel.

Peters and Peter (Pierre). Doctor Thomas Lounsbury, who combines erudition most agreeably with common sense, says in a recent paper that at particular periods there is manifested a feeling of "hostility" to certain words. We have an illustration of this in the history of the proper name Peter, which, as one of the philologists tells us, "at one time was odious to English ears." For example, we find in the statistical nomenclature of Wiltshire only sixteen Peters to ninety-two Johns, and the ratio elsewhere in other shires or districts is about the same. Yet we find many traces of Peter or Pierre (the original French form) in other names, as Pears, Peers, Pars, etc. Peter has been a prolific propagator of patronymics in spite of its temporary eclipse; Peterson, Pearson, Peterman, Pierson, etc. It does not seem to have recovered its early popularity, or to be able to stand alone; but with desinences attached it takes and retains its old position, as in Perkins, Peterkin, Perrins, Perrutts, etc. It is a buoyant, resilient Norman vocable with the characteristic Norman facility of assimilation. This one surname covers many others.

Pirtle. Norman French. A diminutive of "Pert"; is common in the arrondissement of Bayeux.

Pitt. Taine's ideal type of an Englishman was William Pitt, who is thus described by that admirable observer: "Sometimes," in his rounds of observation, he "detects the physiognomy of Pitt; the slight face, impressive and imperious; the pale and ardent eyes; the look which shines like the gleam of a sword. The man is of a finer mould, but his will is only the more incisive and firmer; it is iron transformed into steel." Contrast this portraiture of Pitt with his pictures of the taurine type of Englishman.

That munificent English savant, General Pitt-Rivers, is of the same Norman stock. He was a gallant soldier in the Crimean War.

Poyntz, or Ponz, a branch of Fitz-Poyntz, Ponz, tenant D. B. Nicholas Printz held land in Gloucestershire, temp. K. John. Under Poyntz, Lower says, Walter Julius Ponz, a tenant in chief at the time of the Norman survey, was son of Walter Ponz, a noble Norman. The surname Poyntz may be traced from Normandy through England and Virginia to Kentucky.

Many years before the establishment in Kentucky of a club or society with a roving commission for historic research, there dwelt in the northern highlands of the Bluegrass region a sagacious and successful cattle-breeder, who was a practical student of pedigrees and had put the knowledge thus acquired to a profitable use. All of his theories would not have been accepted by Weismann; nor, on the other hand, would all of Weismann's theories been accepted by him. The conclusions which lay nearest his special vocation had been carefully "applied" after his own fashion, and he was satisfied with the results. Francis Galton, himself, had no better grounds for belief in the laws of heredity.

He was a Kentuckian of the early type—not unlike the Kentuckians and Virginians that the English traveler, Mr. Pym Fordham, describes in a series of letters from the South and West. His mental gifts and pleasing manners, to say nothing of his commanding stature, not only made him conspicuous, but wherever he went assured him welcome and the right of way. There was a look of quiet resourcefulness in the man. His facial contour was striking. The features, seen in profile, were large, strong, and regular, and their impressiveness was notably enhanced by a broad, flowing beard with the same reddish tinge that brightened his locks of long brown hair. His eye was steady, soft, and penetrating—noting everything, overlooking nothing. His complexion was peculiar—not "ruddy" or glowing from daily exposure, at all seasons, in the open air, but of an almost bloodless hue; as colorless, at least, and as clear as if untouched by sun, or wind, or rain, in his active routine of life upon a Bluegrass ranch. It was the life of a man whose time was largely given to observation and thought; and as one might suppose, he had an ample field for the indulgence of his studious tastes. His special line of work was the propagation of "high-grade" cattle by crossing our native stock with fine imported strains.

In our pastoral mid-century days the casual traveler passing along a mountain road in the Red River region of Eastern Kentucky could not have failed to observe, in the great forests that cast their dense shadows as far as the headwaters of Buckhorn, large herds of native cattle that browsed and "drowsed" in the shade of those deep Druidic woods. If the traveler were a man of the English race, and as well informed and observant as a traveler should be, he would say at once, "These cattle are in no degree akin to the English blood-stock which I have seen in the Bluegrass lowlands of the State. They are wholly unlike; their 'lines' are wholly different,—size, shape, coloring, deer-like delicacy of structure and peculiar curve of horn; nothing in their construction is heavy or cumbrous except the deep, rich golden udders of the kine. They remind one of no familiar English stock. They are not Durhams nor Herefords, nor Devons. Are they not Alderneys?" At all events, this was the native stock from which our practical Bluegrass theorist obtained his "high-grade" cattle, by crossing it judiciously with fine imported strains from the Channel Isles. The results were all that could be desired. The half-grade cattle were scarcely distinguishable from the imported stock, and if the milk was not so "rich," the quantity was much larger. The same was true of the uncrossed mountain stock which was brought to Kentucky by the "comelings" of the Eighteenth Century, and was never a "degenerate" stock in any practical sense. The "deer-like" structure of the mountain cow came partly from environment and partly from race. It was one of the rough-hewn maxims of mountain husbandry—"The best milker is a cow with a little foot,"—a foot that can thread the brushiest "cove" or climb the airiest height to crop the nutrient herbage that makes the nutritious milk. The succulent "pea-vine" made the milk; the tissue-forming "mast" or acorn made the meat. The little-footed heifer had the freedom of the range; and, by some subtle morphologic law, the locomotive organ that was small, firm, and well-shaped seemed to imply or determine the full symmetric development of thorax and brain and an easy, unobstructed operation of the functions associated with both. The loyal mountaineer of the old stamp was chauvinistic to the core. Though fifty years have passed, he still grows eloquent when he recalls the "fighting bulls" and the flowing pails of his boyhood days. A handsome, vivacious Highlander of this class—a gentleman of marked Gallic aspect and scion of an early pioneer stock—recently boasted to the writer, and almost in the language of the Vergilian swain (bis venit ud mulctram), that old "White-face" came regularly to the pail twice a day—yielding six gallons in two milkings. These mountain kine were not large; but they were gentle, spirited, clean-limbed, fine-haired, and carried in their generous udders an abundance of wholesome milk. They bore indelible marks of race. Had they been larger, they might have remained to this day an untraveled stock. Their size favored easy transportation, and the canny emigrant made note of the fact. As a consequence of this demand from emigrants, no doubt, great numbers of cattle were shipped from the Channel Islands to England in the early decades of the Nineteenth Century—a circumstance which completely answers the assumption that our mountain cattle were derived originally from an English stock. For many years the name "Alderney" was applied without discrimination to all cattle imported from the Anglo-Norman islands of the English Channel—islands which England has held with an iron grip since the Conqueror brought them under English rule. The thrifty islanders—descendants of the old Norman stock and for years clinging tenaciously to the old Norman dialect—are now true Anglo-Normans, making daily proclamation of their loyalty to the English crown, and, until a very recent period, always in Anglo-Norman French.

Only this then remains to be said. A thoughtful Bluegrass cattle-breeder, bearing a distinctively Anglo-Norman name that had come down from Normandy—through England and Virginia to Kentucky [14]—and bearing in his own person characteristics and distinctive marks of his Anglo-Norman descent—utterly indifferent to "ethnological" theories and absolutely unconscious of his own descent from the Anglo-Norman race, is convinced—not by "herd-books" or historic pedigrees—but simply and solely by the evidence of his own eyes, that a certain native stock of cattle in the mountains of Kentucky were merely an earlier importation than his own from the Anglo-Norman islands of the English Channel. He had the courage to put his theory to the touch of practical experimentation, and the astonished "experts" at the great cattle-fairs of the country bore generous testimony to the quality of his work.

If such conclusions are fairly deducible from an imperfect or incomplete study of a race of CATTLE in the mountain region of Kentucky, why should a logical mind discredit like conclusions resting upon testimony that is singularly cumulative and convergent in regard to a contemporaneous race of MEN that is historically traceable from Normandy—through England and Virginia—to the same or a similar physical environment in that same State of Kentucky? Could there be a better example of cumulative verification?

One of the seconds of Casto in the famous Metcalfe-Casto duel was Colonel Thomas A. Respess, of Mason, a member of the Kentucky bar, and associated for many years with the distinguished jurist and author Judge Richard H. Stanton (Stanton and Respess). Colonel Respess is an able and scholarly man, and retains, at a very advanced age, the conversational brilliancy of his prime.

Riaud (pronounced Ree-o). An old Virginian name, of French derivation. In Norman records the name is Riau, not Riaud, the terminal "d" in the latter form representing the "territorial" particle in the original name; thus Riau de Alençon; Riau d'Alençon; Riaud. By syllabic transposition (as Mackall, Almack) Riaud is now Orear—a well-known Kentucky name.

Rich. Riche was near Nancy, in Lorraine. John de Riches, Thirteenth Century. Riche, Riches; Richeson.

Rowan. John Rowan, a jurist and scholar; lived at "Federal Hill,"—the Old Kentucky Home.

Ryder. There was a Ryder in Mason County, who never rode, but was a great walker.

Scudder. Lower's orthography is "Skudder." On the very face it is Scandinavian, from the Danish Skyde, implying swiftness of motion. Scudder is a name that may with equal propriety be applied to a Scandinavian rover scudding over a sea of ice, or a Calvinistical divine scudding over a sea of thought. In either case he is a scudder.

Smith, originally Faber. A worker in iron and a maker of arms— the leading industry of that day. The name Smith is a translation of Faber, and first appeared in the Thirteenth Century.

Speed. Ivo de Spade, Normandy, 1180. John and Roger Sped, England, 1272. Attorney-General Speed; Captain Thomas Speed, soldier and writer; representing a Kentucky family of distinction and ability.

Talbot, or Talebote and Taulbee, and Tallboy, are supposed to have the same derivation. From Talebois, or Taillebois, a name which goes back to the forests of Normandy, Taillis and Bois, apparently an equivalent for the English Underwood, from Taillebois, a cutter of taillis (underbrush). William Preston Taulbee is a typically Norman name.

Major William Taulbee was a soldier in the Mexican War and in the War between the States. Nine of his descendants are now in the military service of the United States, two of them graduates of West Point.

Taylor. Hugo Taillor, Normandy 1180. A distinguished name in Kentucky. Soldiers, lawyers, physicians and bankers represent the various families of the State. General Zachary Taylor was a successful soldier who became President of the United States; he was a wealthy planter.

Todd. A distinguished name in Kentucky—Mrs. Abraham Lincoln was of this stock. Colonel Charles Todd was minister to Russia. A gallant soldier in "1812."

Tudor. The Welsh form of Theodore—the "people's" warrior—a name which does not seem to have lost its original significance. Tudor is an old name in Kentucky.

Valingford (Norman French). The Conqueror passed through the town of Wallingford "in his winter march to the North." In its English form, an old name in Virginia and Kentucky and connected with the Ashbys, Mooreheads, Andersons, and Cabells.

Valler, or Waller. From Valeres, Normandy. De Valier, Valers, Waler, Walur, Waller. Sir William Waler, the Parliamentary General, was of this family. Henry le Wallere is found in the old records. Henry Waller, of Mason, was a lawyer of ability and distinction.

Wadsworth. Records show that the name was spelled Wordisworth, Wardysworth, and Wadysworth; Wadsworth being the original form. Hugh de Wadsworth, Abbot of Roche, 1179, had a brother Henry. The family of De Wadsworth bore the arms of De Tilly, a family that was Norman and baronial.

Wall (de Valle). A prominent family in Kentucky. Judge G. S. Wall, of Mason, was one of the State Commissioners to the World's Fair (St. Louis).

Warin, or Waring. "Waring's Run," in Mason County, was named after Thomas Waring.

Waring, or Warin. Thomas Waring, a pioneer of Virginia, was the founder of "Waring's Station." His grandson, Edward Waring, was the "honor" man of his class at Centre College in 1860. One of his classmates (another young Norman) bore the same name in French—Guerrant. The traditional pronunciation of Waring is War-ing.

Ward. From Gar or Garde, near Corbell, Isle of France; John de Warde, Norfolk, 1194. John Ward, Kirby Beadou, Fourteenth Century. Captain James Ward, a con temporary of Boone, was High Sheriff of Mason County for thirty years, and was practically "warden" of the marches from Bracken to the Virginian line. He was a man of high character and of unquestioned courage and capacity. His granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Ward Holton, is now a resident of Indianapolis. The late Judge Quincy Ward, of Harrison, and Quincy Ward, the famous sculptor, were scions of the same distinguished stock.

Washington. The President of the last Constitutional Convention in Kentucky was George Washington (a native of the State), who was connected by blood with George Washington of Mt. Vernon, General of the Continental armies, President of the United States, and sole proprietor of the famous Mt. Vernon Mills, which produced a brand of flour known as far south as the West Indies, and popular wherever known. The proprietor had an Anglo-Norman eye for trade, and nothing, it is said, interested him more than "the prices of flour and the operations of his mill." He naturally became the leader of a "commercial aristocracy" in Virginia. Miss Mary Johnson, in her charming description of early colonial life in the Old Dominion, notes the same commercial predilections in the Elizabethan pioneers. They were merchants as well as planters.

Watterson. (Norman.) Walter, Walters, Waterson, Henry Watterson, a journalist distinguished for Norman cleverness, buoyancy, spontaneity, enthusiasm, versatility, and absorptiveness.

Wycliffe. Seated at Wycliffe, Yorkshire, soon after the Conquest. The Kentucky Wickliffes are of this race. "Cripps" is a well known Norman name, and Beckham is a Scandinavian name, as Burnham, Dalham, Gresham, etc.

SOME VIRGINIA NAMES SPELLED ONE WAY AND CALLED ANOTHER

A very able and scholarly Virginian, Mr. B. B. Green, of Warwick, Virginia, has compiled a list from which we make the following selections:

Armistead	Um´sted.
Baird	Beard.
Berkely	Barkly.
Blount	Blunt.
Boswell	Bos´ell.
Burwell	Bur´rel.
Carter	Cear´ter.
Chamberlaine	Chamberlin.
Chisman	Cheese´man.
Deneufville	Donevel.
Didwiddie	Dinwooddy
Drewry	Druit.
Enroughty	Darby!
Fauquier	Faw´keer.
Fontaine	{Fountain.
	{Fontin.
Garvin	Goin.
Gibson	Gipson.
Gilliam	Gillum.
Gloucester	Glaw´ster.
Gower	Gore.
Haaughton	}Hor´ton.
Hawthorne	}
Hobson	Hop´son.
James	Jeames.
Jenkins	Jin´kins.
Jordan	Jur´dn.
Kean	Kane.
Ker, Kerr, Carr	Keaar.
Kirby	Kearby.
Langhorne	Langon.
Lawrence	Lar´ance.
Maury	Mur´ry.
Michaux	Mish´er.
Montford, Munford	Mumford.
Morton	Mo´ton.
Napier	Napper.
Perrott	Parrot.
Piggot (from Picot)	Picket.
Randolph	Randal.
Roper	Rooper.
Sandys	Sands.
Sayer	Saw´yer.
Sclater	{Slaughter.
	{Slater.
Semple	Sarm´ple.
Sewell, Seawell	Sow´el.
Sinclair	Sinkler.
Sweeny	Swin´ny.
Taliaferro	Toliver.
Timberlake	Timberley.
Warwick	Warrick.
Woodward	Wood´ard.
Woolfolk	Wool´fork.
Wyatt	Wait.

"In living form,"—says Mr. Green, "are now to be heard in the Southwest, words and pronunciations which have remained unaltered at least since the time of Simon de Montfort." "The Virginian"—says the same writer—"has a good opinion of himself; is calm, well-balanced; is self-reliant, and has the English quality of not being afraid to take responsibility." In other words, his blood is Scandinavian or Norman, cooled by the icy currents of Wessex. A correspondent of the Spectator (London) writes: "It is often asked what has become of old English families. I have just gathered white water-lilies from the fields of 'De Vere,' now known as Diver; one of my neighbors is 'Bohun' abbreviated into Bone; 'Roy,' a grand sample of the English laborer, was recently carried into the old church-yard; for many years I employed the tall and stately 'Plantagenet,' known on my labor books as Plant; a shop in the neighboring town is kept by 'Thurcytel,' the modern spelling being Thirkettle; 'Godwin,' the last of his race, died at a grand old age a year ago; 'Mortimer' buys my barley; and around me we have such names as Balding, Harrold, Rolf, Hacon, and Mallett."