Thank you Glyn for that very interesting background. And to think our
own Welsh Tudor King of England, Henry VIII, set out so eagerly to do
in the Welsh culture and tame the Celtic wild men who were driven into
the western non-tillable and otherwise uninhabitable uplands.. King
Henry no doubt actually believed he was raising his cousins to a
superior culture, and I'd never admit for an instant that he might have
been the tiniest bit right. Henry after all got gout, which he might
not have enjoyed in the Welsh hills.
And even 'Evan' became 'John' and 'Jones', the so-called
"English equivalent" . My probable ancestor Rhydderch ab Evan (b. ca
1700) is also called Rodrick John in one parish listing, probably
because 'Evan' was still simply "too Welsh" for that learned vicar.
There may be rare situations where 'Roderick' was taken as a patronymic
into a surname directly, but we feel for the most part they were
originally derived from 'Rhydderch' in a patronymic usage. Sometimes
one sees it written 'Rodericus' in the registers, thus suggesting in
part Latinization. Otherwise writing 'Roderic' , 'Rodric' ,
'Roderick', 'Prydderch' or 'Prothero(e)' etc. [NOT BRODERICK!
although
perhaps allowing a couple occasions of 'Proderick']for 'Rhydderch' is
often called Anglicization (or Anglicisation). I don't believe
'Anglicization' is the appropriate term, because 'Roderick' etc. is
certainly not an English name. The process was actually "Welsh
de-culturalization". Can someone come up with a better term for those
of us with de-culturalized Welsh names?
Regards,
Thomas Roderick
Bar Harbor, Maine USA
From: "Glyn Hale" <me(a)halefamily.net>
Date: October 26, 2004 12:02:46 PM EDT
To: MONMOUTHSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [Mon] British government changing surname spellings???
On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 18:39:28 -0700 (PDT), Melanie Tucker
<melanieptucker(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> One of my relatives gave me the following explanation for the
> variation in spelling of our Rees/Rhys surname. He spoke of the
> British government requiring people to change the spelling of their
> surnames and "the government's desire to analyze all Welsh, Scottish,
> and Irish surnames." I'm not sure what this refers to either. I had
> never heard this before, so I was wondering if anyone could offer
> some insight? If this was true, does anyone have information about
> specific dates when this came about?
Hi Melanie,
The process started much earlier than your uncle imagines with the
approach of the Act of Union of 1536, when Henry VIII decided to
introduce English law into Wales.
Bishop Rowland Lee was given the task of restoring order in the
Marches and taming the Welsh, something he proceeded to do with great
energy and enthusiasm in a judicial reign of terror. English became
the official language of Wales and no Welshman was allowed to hold
office unless he spoke English.
Lee disliked, and completely mis-understood, the Welsh patrynomic
system, and began to impose surnames. The process was quite arbitrary.
Morgan ap Meredudd (Morgan the son of Meredudd) might become Morgan
Meredith, or Meredith Morgan. Sion ap Hywel might become John Howell
or John Powell. ap Rhys became Rees, Preece or Price. Names that
couldn't be pronounced or spelled were simply dropped and all the
'Johns' became Jones!
The patrynomic system, however, survived in some measure right up to
the nineteenth century, when it gave the American compilers of the IGI
similar difficulties.
Cheers,
Glyn Hale
--
www.halefamily.net
www.oakdalevillage.net
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