What does this mean?

thalauafu

R.I.P.
Every time a certain gentleman and his wife have a child baptised, the vicar records the father as Samuel Francis Ate Lord. Can anyone tell me what this means? Is it part of his surname? I have consulted Mr. Google, but the closest I can find is a reference to it being Biblical for beloved of the Lord. If this is it, why is this one person always noted as such?
Diana
 
Doing lookups via the interweb, I get the idea that this is someone who took a new name during adult baptism. Pure shot in the dark. If I can find a link to something official, I'll post it.
 
Have you seen the original registers, Diana? I was wondering if 'ate' might be a misreading of 'als', which is a common contraction of the word alias.

Yes, I am transcribing from the original registers and that is where I am getting it from. I have now transcribed over 10,000 entries and this particular man and his wife have had about 4 or 5 children (off the top of my head) baptised and every time, that is what the Vicar entered. I have tried to download a page and cut out the actual entry to upload here, but cannot get it to work. The actual entry reads

Grace the daughter of Samuel Francis (written Ffrancis) Ate Lord & Elizabeth his wife. It is most definitely a t and not an l!

Interestingly though, there IS another family in the village that go by the name of Lord!

My problem is that I do not know what to enter them as...Francis or Lord!
 
The actual entry reads

Grace the daughter of Samuel Francis (written Ffrancis) Ate Lord & Elizabeth his wife. It is most definitely a t and not an l!
Oh rats, I thought I was on to something there, especially after finding some references to people with the surname Francis alias Lord when googling. :(

That's a shame that you can't upload an image. Have you got Windows 'snipping tool' or something similar, which ought to let you capture an image?
 
Last edited:
Thalaufu
Does he have an occupation?
Hi Amle, No, but I don't think it could have been anything special as the Vicar does note the occupation if it is something like a joiner (joyner), inn keeper, carpenter or journeyman bricklayer. There is one man who is always entered as Mr Reyner, but no one else gets called Mr! Incidentally, the date range is 1690 to 1710.
 
I will have to get back to you all in the morning with some screen shots of the actual record. Was going to do it now but visitors have just arrived! Sorry....
 
I can only find one example of a handwritten 'als' at the moment:
als as contraction of alias.JPG
Andrews al[ia]s Mootham [from a 1732/3 grant of administration in Hilary Marshall's wonderful palaeography book].

There's a line over the als to indicate that it is a contraction. In an unclearer hand this could look like a crossbar on a 't'. But it wouldn't explain why you've got an 'e' on the end of your mystery word, not an 's'. I am stumped :(
 
I can only find one example of a handwritten 'als' at the moment:
View attachment 2459
Andrews al[ia]s Mootham [from a 1732/3 grant of administration in Hilary Marshall's wonderful palaeography book].

There's a line over the als to indicate that it is a contraction. In an unclearer hand this could look like a crossbar on a 't'. But it wouldn't explain why you've got an 'e' on the end of your mystery word, not an 's'. I am stumped :(

Huncamunca.......stumped you shall be no more! I believe you have hit the nail on the head! :)

And the problem is that I have been reading the 's' as an 'e' (which, in my defence, both of which the writer seems to write very similarly, as you can see by the 'e' in the word daughter!)! :oops: I have run through and found a couple of the clearer entries, one of which I am attaching in the hope that you can read it.Screen shot sm.jpg It is the 3rd entry up from the bottom, and reads: Jane, the daughter of Samuell Ffrancis ate/als Lord......March 17

Sorry I couldn't send it any larger.....TD wouldn't accept it in the larger format.

Obviously now that you have pointed it out Huncamunca, it is obvious that it is als short for alias! I have learned something today that I have never either seen or heard of before.:D:D

I cannot thank you enough and now I think I will go back and make them all dual entries....one under the surname Francis and the other under Lord, both with a note attached explaining how they were entered, which may help future researchers looking for Lords but only finding Francis's or vice versa.

A million thanks oh wise one Huncamunca! You are a real fountain of knowledge! What would we do without you? Cheers, Diana
{-(^^)-}
 
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