ood and plaster, built according to the
fashion of those days. An ancestor of Adam Okeden having married
"_Hawise, heir of Thomas de Heley_," in the reign of Edward III.,
became possessed of this inheritance.

The origin of surnames would be an interesting inquiry. In the present
instance it seems clear that the name and hamlet of Chadwick are
derived from Cedde's vyc, or Chad's vyc. This mansion, situated on the
southern extremity of Spotland, or Spoddenland, bounded on the east by
that stream, and southward by the Roche, was built on a bold eminence
above the river, where Cedde and his descendants dwelt, like the
Jewish patriarchs, occupied in the breeding of sheep and other cattle.

"But though this hamlet had been named _Ceddevic_, from its
subordinate Saxon chief, he himself could not have adopted it for his
own surname; because surnames were then scarcely, if at all, known
here. He must have continued, therefore, to use his simple Saxon name
of _Cedde_ only, and his successors likewise, with the addition of
Saxon _patronymics_ even down to the Norman conquest, when the Norman
fashion of local names or surnames was first introduced into England."

But though the Norman addition of surnames "became general amongst the
barons, knights, and gentry, soon after the Conquest, yet Saxon
patronymics long continued in use amongst the common people, and are
still not unusual here. Thus, instead of John Ashworth and Robert
Butterworth, we hear of Robin o' Ben's and John o'Johnny's,"--meaning
Robert the son of Benjamin, and John the son of John, "similar to the
Norman Fitz, the Welsh Ap', the Scotch Mac, and the Irish O'; and this
ancient mode of describing an individual sometimes includes several
generations, as Thomas O'Dick's, O'Ned's, O'Sam's," &c.

But besides patronymics, nicknames (the Norman soubriquets) have been
used in all ages and by all nations, and are still common here; some
of them coarse and ludicrous enough: the real surname being seldom
noticed, but the nickname sometimes introduced, with an alias, even in
a law instrument. And why are not Poden, Muz, Listing, &c., as good as
"the Bald," "the Fat," "the Simple," &c., of the French kings; or "the
Unready," "the Bastard," "Lackland," "Longshanks," &c., of our own? A
lad named Edmund, some generations back, attended his master's sons to
Rochdale school, who latinised his name into "Edmundus;" then it was
contracted into "Mundus," by which name his descendant