The First Known Use of Whitney as a Surname: Its Probable Signification, and Other Data (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from The First Known Use of Whitney as a Surname: Its Probable Signification, and Other Data

The Rev. 'dr. Giles, in his history of Witney and the neighboring parishes, in Oxfordshire, published in London, in 1852, thus refers to the signification of the name: But, if Witney received any fresh peculiarity of character from the Saxons, it certainly takes its name from the occupation of that busy and plodding race of men. The Witan-eye, or, as it is also written in the anglo-saxon or old English dialect, Witan-ige, evidently signifies the island of Me wise men or of fée Parliament; it is well known that the Saxons - far more respectful, in that particular, toward their senate than we their descendants - always attributed wisdom as the chief, and, in fact, necessary virtue of their representatives. Thus the word Witney means, etymologically, Parliament Isle, though no record has been handed down to us to tell for what reason such a name was given. There is a large house still named Parliament House, at the corner of the Crofts Lane, which, to the minds of some, conveys a tradition concerning the etymology of the name Witney; but other per sons, perhaps too much given to matter of fact, and insensible to the delusions of fancy, reject the notion altogether.

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