VILLAGE FARMERS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12252, 25 September 1925, Page 3

VILLAGE FARMERS

CENTURY OLD NAMES

It is difficult to realise that in spite of the growth of the great towns half the population of England still lives in villages; and in the villages are families whose names can be traced back to the days of the Normans. Mr Harold Peake was lately telling of some investigations he made in a Berkshire village. In a document of the reign of Henry 111. was found the name of “one John de Wileby, a knight.” Then in 1600 is recorded the existence of a small farmer named Willoughby. And finally, in the same village to-day is John Willoughby, a skilled workman. Another family known in the time of Henry VIII. jib “super shepherds” is still flourishing in the village. Mr Peake says that not only, names but family characteristics persist through the generations. Ho has found good and bad stocks in each village, never intermarrying but remaining distinct through the centuries; though there are “intermediate groups” which marry, and of whose children some join the good stock and some the bndl It is an interesting study, and should be carried farther. Mr Peake says wo know less at present of the pedigrees of our own people than we do of those df some far-off primitive races.