Notes on local etymologies : abstract of paper / by R.N. Worth.

  • Worth, R. N. (Richard Nicholls), 1837-1896.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on local etymologies : abstract of paper / by R.N. Worth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    13/14 (page 11)
    11 The two Plymptons are commonly distinguished by the dedications of their churches—Mary and Maurice; but Plympton Erie goes back to the days of the Pedverses and its secular ownership as distinct from that of the monks. Ecclesiastical ownership is found indicated in many ways. Here we have Shaugh Prior ; Buckland Monachorum, “the Monks’ Buckland,” a necessary distinction even if there had been no other buck or hoc land—that is, “ land held by deed or charter,” about—than that of Egg Buckland, originally ack or “oak Buckland. And the three Suttons which eventually merged into Plymouth, were respectively Sutton Prior, Sutton Valletort or Yautier, and Sutton Ealf. It is indeed remarkable to what an extent the old ownerships have left their mark. The Yalletorts held Mount Edgcumbe long ere the Saxon Edgcumbes grafted the succession of that Norman race on to their own native stock; and Mount Edgcumbe is even yet the tithing of Yaulters Home, or “ Yalletort’s liam.” Mount Wise recalls the time when the Wises, who then owned Stoke Damerel, in rivalry of their neighbours built their barton house where the fort now crowns its rugged crest. Morice Town (New Passage when the first ferry was established between it and Torpoint) preserves the memory of the Morices, from whom the manor came to the St. Aubyns. Mount Batten takes its name from the old Parliamentary Admiral Batten, and before the Siege was known as Hoe Stert, or “tail,” the same word we have in Start Point now, and in the name of the redstart. Mount Gold in likewise manner hands down the name of Colonel Gold, Boundhead governor of Ply- mouth, who died in harness. Fort Stamford recalls the luckless Parliamentary General, the Earl of Stamford, who was defeated at Stratton. I was once inclined to connect Prince Eock with Prince Maurice, but the name is centuries older than his time, and may record in its way the visits of the Black Prince. Totliill is un- doubtedly from the Saxon tot, “ an enclosure,” and hill. Mutley is Magdalen. The old leper or Maudlyn house occupied very much the site of the Blind Institution, and the fields hard by were thence named the Maudlyn—Maudley—Mudley—Mutley—fields. This is not more singular than the derivation of Turnchapel from “ St. Ann Chapel,” then Tannchapel. The remains of the chapel may still be seen near Hooe. Oreston I take to be purely Saxon— “ the tun on the shore”—ora—or perhaps “the shore-stone.”