Welsh Journals

Surnames as an historical sonrce The above observations and tentative conclusions have all rested upon the assumption that identifiable and reasonably distinctive Welsh surnames exist. The notion demands closer examination and needs to be developed with greater precision. It seems fairly clear that hereditary surnames in Wales were adopted much more slowly than in England. Reaney (1958) takes the view that they are a post-16th. Century feature; becoming common among the gentry in the reign of Henry VIII and then spreading only slowly among the ordinary people. The work of D.E.Williams (1962), C.M.Matthews (1966) and P.T.J.Morgan (1968) suggests a more complicated story. A limited number of the inhabitants of Wales adopted fixed surnames at a much earlier date, and Welshmen mov- ing into England, as they did throughout the Middle Ages and in increasing numbers after Henry Tudor ascended the throne in 1485, complied with local practice there and acquired fixed surnames perhaps as much as 300 years before their fellow countrymen. But generally within Wales, a given name was added to that of the father or even grandfather in the form Owain ap (son of) Hywel ap Rhys. It was not until the 17th. Century that most Welsh families seem to have adopted fixed surnames, and then they usually took the single patronymic. This was sometimes transformed from, for example, ap Owain to Bowen, ap Hywel to Powell, ap Rhys to Preece or Price. Alternatively the name was adopted unmodified, hence Llewellyn, Morgan, Meredith, or a genitive final's' added as in Owens, Griffiths or Howells. Had the Welsh confined themselves to their native names, tracing them subsequently might have been easier. Unfortunately in the later Middle Ages or after the Reformation new Christian names equally popular in England and Wales came into fashion, for example William, Thomas, David, Watkin. These usually became surnames only in Wales, but when they did emerge in England, they are, of course, indistinguishable from the Welsh. Though Williams, Thom- as, Davies, Watkins and màny like them are names than can normally be assumed to be of Welsh derivation, not because of the origin or root of the name but because of the form they take, there can never be absolute certainty. The problem over the use and interpretation of Welsh-style sur- names is therefore clear. Such names were appearing in London and in the,border counties at a fairly early date. If Welsh-American sur- names are examined, it is certainly not possible to say that any indiv- idual is of Welsh origin, or not, or even at roughly what date or where his surname was no conclusion can be drawn from the fact that the captain of the Mayflower was Jones, or that the founder of Rhode Island was Roger Williams (in fact, it is known that he was born in London in 1603). But undoubtedly, when aggregated, a high frequency of Welsh surnames during the period of colonial settle-