This expiation finished, Fulke, in remembrance of it, adopted the title of Plantagenist, and lived many years in honour and happiness. His descendants accordingly inherited the name, and many successive nobles of the line of Anjou not only did the same, but even distinguished themselves by wearing a sprig of broom in their bonnets. STUART. The name of this truly unfortunate family was originally Steward, which was derived from the following circumstance. After the murder of Banquo, Fleance his son fled into Wales, where he thrived, and fell in love with the Welsh Prince's daughter, by whom he had a son, named Walter. This Walter flying Wales for murder, was entertained in Scotland, and his descent once known, he was preferred to be Steward to king Edgar; from which office the name of Steward, but altered to Stuart, became the sirname of all his posterity. From this Walter descended Robert Steward, who was after, in right of his wife, king of Scotland. PERCY. It was the custom in the reign of William I., when a town or castle surrendered, for the principal person to bring and present to the conqueror the keys on the point of a spear; and Holinshed says, that when Malcolm, king of Scotland, besieged the castle of Alnwick in 1092, and had reduced the garrison to the last necessity, a young knight, willing to take some hardy enterprise in its defence, took a swift horse, and without armour or weapon, except a spear in his hand, on the point of which he bore the keys of the castle, rode into the camp of the enemy, who, supposing he came to surrender them, received him with joy, and unsuspected led him to the king. The knight then couched his spear, as if he intended with reverence to present him the keys; but, watching his opportunity, he urged on his horse, and ran the point into the eye of the king, killing him on the spot. That done, he clapped spurs to his horse, and by his swift flight saved his own life. From this circumstance originated the name of Pierce-eye, then Piercy, but now Percy. ALGERNON. During more than a hundred years, the Normans in England shaved their faces. W. de Percy (who accompanied Duke Robert in 1096 to Palestine) was styled on account of singularity as to this point, William Alsgernons, or William with the Whiskers. From this old French name springs Algernon, a favourite appellation in the noble family of Percy. CECIL. The true name, observes Aubrey, is Sitstilt, an ancient Monmouthshire family. 'Tis strange they should leave off an ancient British name for a Roman one, which I believe Mr. Verstegan did put into their heads, telling them they were derived from the Roman Cecilli. CHARLES MARTEL. Charles Martel, famed as the founder of the abbey of St. Denis, and as grandfather of Charlemagne, derived his sirname from the use of that death-dealing instrument, the Martel, which in the days of knighthood, says Dr. Meyrick in his Ancient Armour, was among the offensive arms of chivalry. JOHN OF GAUNT. John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, famed for his stature, strength, and prowess, son of Edward III. and brother to the Black Prince, was so called because he was born at Ghent in Flanders; Ghent is pronounced Gand, from whence came the corruption of Gaunt. FAMILY OF BOURBON. Henry Prince of Bearn, afterwards Henry IV., was born 13th Dec. 1553, and was the immediate heir to the crown of France, on the possible extinction of the house of Valois, in the person of the reigning monarch and his younger brothers, the dukes of Anjou and Alençon. The latter died in 1584, and the former, Henry III., being assassinated in 1589, the Prince of Bearn then ascended the throne as Henry IV. This young prince was the son of Anthony de Bourbon, duke of Vendome, and Jane D'Albert, queen of Navarre, who by this marriage gave the title of king to her husband. Anthony was descended from Robert, sixth son of St. Louis, the ninth of that name, and the ninth king of France from Hugh Capet, the first of the third race of the French monarchs. Robert, who was born in 1256, married Beatrice of Burgundy, the daughter of Agnes, heiress of the house of Bourbon; in consequence, his son Louis took the name of Bourbon, and with that title was created duke and peer of France. As the sovereignties of France, Spain, and the two Sicilies, &c., are now in different branches of the house of Bourbon, and the former further secured by the coronation of Charles X., this account of the origin of that house may not, at this particular period, be thought superfluous. BUONAPARTE, AND NAPOLEON. Among the many fabulous tales that have been published respecting the origin of the name of Bonaparte, there is one which, from its ingeniousness and romantic character, seems deserving of notice. It is said that the "Man in the Iron Mask" was no other than the twin (and elder) brother of Louis XIV.; that his keeper's name was Bonpart; that that keeper had a daughter, with whom the Man in the Mask fell in love, and to whom he was privately married; that their children received their mother's name, and were secretly conveyed to Corsica, where the name was converted into Bonaparte or Buonaparte; and that one of those children was the ancestor of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was thus entitled to be recognised not only as of French origin, but as the direct descendant of the rightful heir to the throne of France. The Bonapartes are said to have adopted the name of Napoleon from Napoleon des Ursins, a distinguished character in Ítalian story, with one of whose descendants they became connected by marriage; and the first of the family to whom it was given was a brother of Joseph Bonaparte, the grandfather of Napoleon I. Many are the jeux de mots that have been made on this name; but the following, which occurs in Littérature Française Contemporaine, vol. ii. p. 266, is perhaps the most remarkable. The word Napoleon, being written in Greek characters, will form seven different words, by dropping the first letter of each in succession, namely, Ναπολέων, Απολέων, Ρολέων, Ολέων, Λέων, Εων, Ων. These words make a complete sentence, and are thus translated into French: "Napoléon, étant le lion des peuples, allait détruisant les cités."-Notes and Queries, vol. vii. THE ST. ALBAN'S FAMILY. The first ancestor of the St. Alban's family was the eldest son of king Charles II. by Mrs. Eleanor Gwyn, better recollected under the familiar appellation of Nell Gwyn. He was first created Earl of Burford by his royal sire, and afterwards Duke of St. Alban's, and Grand Falconer of England. DUKE OF LEEDS. The ancestor, who laid the foundation of this noble family, was a young man named Osborne, who served his apprenticeship to Sir William Hewit, lord mayor of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Sir William lived on London Bridge, was a pinmaker, and his daughter, during Edward Osborne's apprenticeship, accidentally fell from her father's window into the Thames, and Osborne plunged after the young lady, and saved her life at the risk of his own. This act much added to the favourable opinion which the master had for the apprentice, and as soon as the latter had served his time, Sir William Hewit said to him, “Osborne, you are a deserving youth, and have faithfully served me for seven years. I am under considerable obligations to you; you have saved the life of my only daughter at the peril of your own. You have therefore the best claim to her; she is at your service if you choose to accept her in marriage, and the most considerable part of what I am possessed of shall hereafter be yours." Osborne gladly accepted the generous offer, and the eldest son of that marriage was Hewit Osborne, who was knighted by the Earl of Essex, under whom he served in Ireland, for his services in the field. The family soon after became ennobled. Thomas Osborne, the first duke of Leeds, was prouder of the circumstance of his ancestor having acquired wealth and station by his honesty and intrepid spirit, than he was of any of the subsequent services of the family, and once related the circumstance with conscious pride to Charles II. WELLINGTON, OR WELLESLEY FAMILY. The family of Wellesley, formerly Wesley, assumed their name from Wells-Leigh, a hamlet near Wells. The Duke of Wellington of Wellington, in the county of Somerset, is Baron Douro of Wells-Leigh; and the Marquess Wellesley sits as an English peer, as Baron Wellesley of "Wells-Leigh, in the county of Somerset." The late Duke selected the title of Wellington because that town is near the little village of Wensley, which bears a close resemblance in its name to that of Wesley, the old family name, since altered to Wellesley. ORIGIN OF VARIOUS NOBLE FAMILIES. The Marquis Cornwallis is lineally descended from Thomas Cornwallis, merchant, who was sheriff of London, 1378. The house of Wentworth was founded by S. W. Fitzwilliam, who was an alderman of London, and sheriff in 1506; he was a retainer of Cardinal Wolsey, and knighted by Henry VIII. for his attachment to that prelate in misfortune. He built the greater part of the present church of Undershaft. The Earl of Coventry is descended from John Coventry, mercer and lord mayor in the year 1425; he was one of the executors of the celebrated Whittington. Laurence de Bouveries married the daughter of a silk-mercer at Frankfort on the Maine, and, settling in England, laid the foundation of the house of Radnor. The ancestor of the Earl of Essex was Sir William Capel, lord mayor of London in 1503. The ancestor of the Earl of Dartmouth, Thomas Legge, or Legget, a skinner, was twice lord mayor, in 1347 and 1354, and lent King Edward III. no less a sum than £300 for his French war. Sir William Craven, merchant tailor and lord mayor of London, was ancestor to the present Earl Craven, The Earl of Warwick is lineally descended from William Greville, a citizen of London, and "flower of the woolstaplers." Thomas Bennet, mercer, sheriff in 1594, and lord mayor of London 1603, laid the foundation of the fortunes of the Earls of Tankerville, who are lineally descended from him. The ancestor of the Earls of Pomfret was Richard Fermour, who, having amassed a splendid fortune as a citizen in Calais, came to England, and suffered attaint under Henry VIII., and did not recover his property till the 4th of Edward VI. The Earl of Darnley owes the first elevation of his family to John Bligh, a London citizen, who was employed as agent to the speculations in the Irish estates forfeited in the rebellion in 1641. John Cowper, an alderman of Bridge Ward, and sheriff in 1551, was ancestor of Earl Cowper. The Earl of Romney is descended from Thomas Marsham, alderman, who died 1624. Lord Dacres' ancestor, Sir Robert Dacres, was banker to Charles I., and although he lost £80,000 by, that monarch, left a princely fortune to his descendants. Lord Dormer is descended from Sir Michael Dormer, lord mayor in 1541. Viscount Dudley and Ward's ancestor was William Ward, a goldsmith in London, and jeweller to the consort of Charles I. Sir Rowland Hill, who was lord mayor in the reign of Edward VI., was ancestor of Lord Berwick, Lord Hill, and "all the Hills in Shropshire!" LITERAL SIGNIFICATION OF THE PRINCIPAL MALE AND FEMALE CHRISTIAN NAMES; WITH THE LANGUAGES FROM WHICH THEY ARE DERIVED. Aaron, Hebrew, a mountain Abel, Heb. vanity Abraham, Heb. father of many Achilles, Greek, a freer from pain Adolphus, Saxon, happiness and Adrian, Latin, helper Alan, British, swift like a greyhound Alexander, Gr. a helper of men Alfred, Sax. all peace Alfric, German, all rich Alphonso, Gothic, our help Alwin, Sax. winning all Amos, Heb. a burden Andrew, Gr. courageous Andronicus, Gr. a conqueror of men Anthony, Lat. flourishing M |