ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2222
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2222
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From: "Brian M. Scott" 
23 Feb 2001

Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!

You asked about <Elena Wedue> as a name for a widow living in
Yorkshire East Riding in the fourteenth century.  In particular, you
asked whether it would be appropriate to add a geographical reference
and if so, how this should be done, and whether it would be necessary
to use the dead husband's byname.  I'll discuss our evidence in some 
detail and then give our conclusions.


As you noted in your inquiry, <Elena> is found in the 14th century.
Indeed, it is the fifth most common woman's name in a large,
late-14th century Yorkshire tax record. [1]  However, the given
names in this record are Latinized, so we cannot safely conclude that
<Elena> accurately represents the everyday spoken form of the name.

Fortunately, as is common in documents of this period, the vast
majority of the bynames have been left in English.  Among these
bynames are the metronymics <Elenson~> and <Elyndoghter>, and other
late-14th century Yorkshire tax records contain the metronymics
<Elyne>, <Helyn>, and <Elynson>. [2, 3, 4]  (A metronymic is a
byname that names the bearer's mother.  As you can see from these
examples, it may be simply the mother's name, or it may explicitly
identify the bearer as her son or daughter.)

These metronymics show that the usual spoken form of the name was 
\EL-@n\, where \@\ stands for the vowel spelled <a> in <sofa> and 
<about>; in other words, it sounded very much like modern <Ellen>.  
They also show that <Elyn> and <Elen> were typical spellings of the 
spoken form and hence that <Elena> really is a Latinization.  (It's 
not clear whether the <H> in <Helyn> was actually pronounced; in 1379 
it may well not have been.)


Bynames meaning '(the) widow' are found in many parts of England in
the 13th and 14th centuries, but the specific form <Wedue> is not 
appropriate for 14th century Yorkshire.  From 14th and late 13th 
century Yorkshire we have the following data:

     le Wydu 1297 [5]
     le Wydoue 1297 [5]
     Wydow 1379 [6]
     Wydowson 1379 [2]
     Wydowson 1379 [7] (a different person)
     Widowson 1379 [7]
     Wydouson 1379 [7]

On this evidence it appears that by the later 14th century the normal
Yorkshire forms were <Wydow> and <Widow>.  The 1297 <le Wydoue> is
undoubtedly compatible with the early 14th century as well and,
given the example of <Wydouson>, probably could have been found even
later.

As you can see, among these Yorkshire citations the form closest to
<Wedue> is <le Wydu> 1297, and it, like the other Yorkshire forms,
has <y> or <i> in the first syllable, not <e>.  All of the examples 
that we've found with <e> in the first syllable are from other parts 
of the country.  Thus, the spellings probably reflect real 
differences in dialect, and <Wedue> is therefore probably not a 
plausible Yorkshire spelling in the 14th century.  We recommend that 
you substitute one of the attested forms given above, e.g., <Wydow>.


Double bynames are rare in our Yorkshire data: only 20 of the 3620
people named in [2] are recorded with two bynames, and in 13 of these
cases the second byname is <senior(e)> or <junior(e)>.  Three more
are three-generation names, like <Johanna filia Alani filii Elye>
'Joan daughter of Alan son of Elis', and a fourth name probably also
belongs in this group: <Petr[us] Broun Adamson~> is most likely
'Peter Broun, son of Adam'.  In only two of the 20 cases --
<Henric[us] Graunger of Dyk> and <Walter[us] Souter' de Brayton~> --
is one of the bynames locative, i.e., one that names a place of
origin or residence.  A slightly earlier Yorkshire source provides
one more example: <John Dyson de Langeside>, son of <Dionysia de
Langside> 1369. [8]

Approaching the question from the other end, we can ask what kinds
of names were recorded for the 47 women listed as widows in [2]. It's
fair to say that their bynames are indistinguishable from those of
married women in general.  Nine of them, for instance, are
identified as someone's wife (e.g., <Alicia Tomlynwyff> 'Alice,
Tomlyn's wife' and the completely Latinized <Alicia vx~ Roberti>
'Alice, Robert's wife').  Another 20 women not identified as widows
have this type of byname.  Usually it is constructed from the
husband's given name or a pet form thereof, but sometimes, as in the
case of <Johanna Prestuyf> 'priest's wife', it is based on his byname
or occupation.  Elsewhere in Yorkshire at that date we find <Elena
Wrightwyf>, wife of <Roger Wright>, and <Beatrice Clerkwyf>. [8]

Other women identified as widows bear occupational bynames that were
probably originally their husbands', e.g., <Johanna Clerk>, and the
rest have the usual sorts of bynames that any adult might have
borne.  In particular, at least a dozen have locative bynames (e.g.,
<Emma Bylburgh> and <Margareta de Surflete>); some of these may
originally have been their husbands', but they certainly need not
have been.

Only one widow, <Johanna South Couper>, has two bynames, and it's not
clear how they should be interpreted; perhaps <South> was her
father's byname and <Couper> 'cooper' her late husband's. 

Finally, none of the identifiable widows actually has the byname
<Wydow> in any form; all are simply labelled <vidua> (Latin for
'widow').  


Conclusions.

<Elena Wydow> (<Widow>, <Wydoue>) is a plausible 14th century
Yorkshire documentary form, and in the early part of the century
<Elena le Wydoue> is also plausible, but we found no support for the
spelling <Wedue> in that time and place.  <Elena> itself is a Latin 
form; the corresponding English forms, representing the spoken name, 
are <Elyn>, <Elen>, and the like.

Most widows in 14th century Yorkshire had bynames indistinguishable
from those of married women; most likely they continued to use the
same bynames after their husbands died.  An <Elyn of Langside> or
<Elyn Bylburgh> (in documentary form <Elena de Langside> and <Elena
de Bylburgh>, respectively) could be single, married, or a widow, and
an <Elyn Tomlynwyff> (in documentary form <Elena Tomlynwyff> or, with
more thorough Latinization, <Elena vxor Thome>) could be married or a
widow.  A widow might very well have used her dead husband's byname,
but it is clear that many widows did not do so.


Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn also contributed to this letter. 
We hope that it has been helpful; if you have any further questions,
please don't hesitate to write again.

For the Academy,

Talan Gwynek
23 February 2001

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References and Notes

[1] Talan Gwynek, 'Yorkshire Given Names from 1379' (WWW: J.
Mittleman, 1997). 
http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/talan/yorkshire/

[2] Assessment Roll of the Poll-Tax for Howdenshire, Etc., in the 
Second Year of the Reign of King Richard II. (1379). -- (Exchequer 
Lay Subsidy Rolls, No. 202/69).  Reprinted from the Yorkshire 
Archaeological Journal, Vol. IX, pp. 129-160.

[3] Bardsley, Charles W.  A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames
(Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1980); s.n. <Ellen>.

[4] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson.  A Dictionary of English Surnames
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995); s.n.
<Elinson>.

[5] Ibid. s.n. <Widdowes>.

[6] Bardsley, op. cit., s.n. <Widow>.  (Bardsley takes this byname to 
be a patronymic from the Latinized masculine name <Wydo>; this is 
possible but not the likeliest hypothesis.)

[7] Ibid. s.n. <Widowson>.

[8] Reaney & Wilson, op. cit., pp. xli-xlii.