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Author: lowellcarhart
Surnames: CARHART
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carhart/165.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
Kinfolks,
Here's some info that was recently sent to me:
Cornish place-names consist of two elements, the essential root and the descriptive
epithet. The roots are the familiar ros, car, lan, tre, pol and pen. These have the
following meanings; heath, fort, valley, home, pool and headland.
To these are added the epithets such as cavel = horse, dew = black, mear = big and press =
meadow, etc. Thus one arrives at typical Cornish names such as Pencavel, Rosdew and
Polmear as well as Carhart, 'Fort of the Ram'.
Anglo-saxon place-names are the reverse having the descriptive epithet first followed by
the essential root. Typical Anglo-Saxon names are Batley, Mirfield, Bradley, Preston as
well as Barton.
The village Carhart appears in the Norman Doomsday Book with both Celtic and Saxon forms
as Karharta Barton. The Saxon influence appears to have been short-lived and the village,
like so many in Cornwall, retained its Celtic name.
Aerial photography conducted by archaeologists over the area of Carhart confirms that the
settlement there dates to the time of the Celts prior to the Romans, possibly as far back
as the Iron age, 1000 BC.
Our family history is a very long one and represents the persistence of a Celtic tribe
from the Iron age right up to modern times.
The last known resident of Carhart, who bore the surname Carhart, was Hicks Carhart in
1764.
Here is a satellite view:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&...,
cornwall,
england&sll=50.521776,-4.884195&sspn=0.049659,0.107803&ie=UTF8&cd=1&hq=&hnear=Carhart
Cottage, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7HZ, United
Kingdom&ll=50.521691,-4.884737&spn=0.003104,0.009254&t=h&z=18&iwloc=A
My link is through Thomas Carhart "of Cornwall" who arrived in New York on
August 25, 1683 holding the appointment of private Secretary to Col. Thomas Dongan, then
Governor of the British Colonies. Mary to Mary Lord on November 22, 1691. His father is
said to be "Anthony". The "of Cornwall" is my only tenuous link to
the village of Carhart.
Cheers!
Lowell
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