Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature

upon their spiritual ancestry; unaware that while this curious phase was at its climax, Puritanism was yet within the pale of the Church of England. Others, having searched through the lists o

dheads and Cavaliers" is well worth study, say

ce of the Commonwealth time, or that of Charles II., that would lead us to believe that strange christian names were

riptural phrases, pious ejaculations, or godly admonitions. It was a practice instituted of deliberate purpose, as conducive to vital religion, and as intending to separate the truly godly and renewed portion of the community from the world at large. The Reformation epoch had seen the English middle and lower classes generally adopting the proper names of Scripture. Thus, the sterner Puritan had found a list of Bible names that he would gladly have monopolized, shared in by half the English population. That

impression got abroad in after days that the Commonwealth period was the heyday of these eccentricities, and that these

esome and Zeal-of-the-land Busy almost as frequently as to that fourth-form boy for whose average (!) abilities to the very end of his literary life h

lank hair, no starch in his linen, no gay furniture in his house; whether he talked through his nose, and sh

roker's "Boswell's Life

mon's singers, and talked in the House of Commons about seeking the Lord, might

, both soldiers of Oliver Cromwell; while the zealot ranter is one Nehemiah Holdenough. M