CHAPTER 2
WHAT’S IN YOUR NAME OR MINE?
THE NAME Osborn, Osborne, Osburn, Osbern, Osbeorn, et cetera, has an interesting genesis, true of the origin of most family names, with source variations dependent upon what name system, Teutonic or other, is consulted. Leo’s “Essay on Anglo-Saxon Names,” published in 1841, appears to be as thorough as any and has become an authority. “Bearo” or “bern,” betokens, as gathered from Kemble’s “Charters,” a fruitful, productive wood, yielding beechnuts, acorns and other mast, wild pears, crabapples, paw-paws, persimmons, and other wild fruits of the forest. The word “beran,” meaning to yield, to produce fruit, evolves into bear, barron, boren, bere, barley. Bearn, a child, the fruit of the body, and bearo, bero, byro, the fruit wood, are similar derivatives.
These things I am setting down, not because of any especial name vanity, but for the reason that these references suggest the manner of the making and the giving of all family names, the reader’s as well as mine and all others. Also the growth system of our language is indicated by the way family names have started and by their methods of change in obedience to the influence of thought and time.
Ferguson, in his “Surnames as a Science” builds my name of the Old North “As” or the Anglo-Saxon “Os,” implicative of the deity and “beorn,” meaning bear. He says the name is Norse and means “The Divine Bear” or “Godbear.” Lower’s “Patronymica Britannica,” published 1860, says that Osborn, Osborne, Osbern, Osbernus and so forth are variations of a very common baptismal name. Several persons bearing these names are referred to in Domesday as tenants in chief in different counties of England.
William Arthur, father of Chester A. Arthur, brought out a name hunt book in 1857, in which he says Osborn is Saxon, from hus, house, and bearn, a child, hence a family child or perhaps an adopted child.
Bowditch’s “Suffolk Surnames,” Boston, 1861, makes very free with Arthur’s offerings, as Arthur had done with other name sleuths, and says Osborn means “housechild.”
Bardsley’s “English Surnames,” says that “Os” as a root word carrying the significance of deity has made for itself a firm place among English names, as proven by Osborn, Oswald, Oswin, Osmond, Osmer, Osgot, Osgood, Oslac (Asluck, Hasluck, etc.).
Edmunds, in “Traces of History in Names of Places,” says Osborn means “brave bear.”
Sophy Moody, in “What is Your Name?” has it that Osborn means “a chief appointed by the gods.”
“Gentry, Family Names,” Philadelphia, 1892, gives “Os” as hero and “beorn” as chief, general, prince, king, hence hero king, or something akin to it.
In “Homes of Family Names in Great Britain,” Guppy, 1890, I find the claim that my name was borne by farmers or yeoman attached to the soil in England before the Norman Conquest. According to Guppy, it was confined south of a line joining the Humber and the Mersey, and its principal area of distribution is in the form of a belt crossing Central England from East Anglia to the borders of Wales. Though well represented also in the southwest of England, especially in Somerset and Cornwall, it is rare or absent in the other south coast counties excepting Sussex. Osborne is common in England and Osborn is uncommon in comparison, although the latter is sprinkled through Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Somersetshire, Suffolk, Sussex, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
A book with author’s name not given, “The Norman People and their existing descendents in the British Dominions and the United States,” London, 1874, contains a dictionary of 3000 Norman names. I gather here that our family descends from a Kentish branch of the family of Fitz-Osberne, seated in that county early in the reign of Henry VI, where Thomas Osberne appeared to a writ of quo warranto for the Abbey of Dartford. The family had come from Essex and Suffolk, where the name is traced to Thomas Fitz-Osberne, 1227–1240, who granted lands to Holy Trinity. His grandfather, Richard Fitz-Osberne or Fitz-Osbert, held a fief from Earl Bigot in 1165 and was ancestor of the Lords Fitz-Osberne summoned by writ in 1312. Fitz-Letard Osbern came to England in 1066 and held lands from Odo, of Bayeux in 1086.
“The Battle of Abbey Roll with some account of the Norman Lineages,” by the Duchess of Cleveland, has many references to the Osborns.
“Dugdale Baronage of England, or an Historical Account of the Lives and Most Memorable Actions of our English Nobility in the Saxon Times to the Norman Conquest, and from thence of Those who had Their Rise before the end of Henry III’s Reign,” genealogical tables, etc., 3 volumes, by the author of “Monasticon Angelicanum,” published 1675, is a notable work and a chief authority for that time in what it purports to cover. Planché, in “The Conqueror and His Companions,” visits it liberally, as do other writers dealing with that era.
In Lower’s “English Surnames” I found a story of the Osborn name which, whether true or false, mirrors the times and depicts the light regard mediæval monarchs had for the lands and property of the people that were vested in the crown. Walter, a Norman knight and a great favorite of King William the First, playing at chess with his Sire on a summer evening on the banks of the River Ouse, won all he played for. The King said he had nothing more to play for and was about to quit the game.
“Sire,” said Walter, “here is land.”
“There is so,” replied King William, “and I will further play with thee. If thou beatest me this game also, thine is all this land on this side the bourne (river) which thou canst see as thou sittest.”
King William clapped him on the shoulder and declared:
“The lands are yours. Henceforth shall you be a lord, and have the name ‘Ousebourne.’” And thence sprang the family of Osborn.
The family name is treated in Burke’s “General Armory” and especially in Burke’s “Vicissitudes of Families.”
In the Church of Dives, Normandy, is a roll of the “Companions of William in the Conquest of England in 1066.” It gives Osbern d’Arquess, Osbern du Bernib, Osbern d’Eu, Osbern Giffard, Osbern Pastforiere, Osborn du Quesnai, Osborn du Soussai, and Osbern de Wauci. I have thought that the word Osborn in this roll was synonymous with Chieftain; at least to designate feudal retainers of the Conqueror from the parts of Normandy mentioned.
Undoubtedly William Fitz-Osbern was the nearest personal friend of William the Conqueror. J. R. Planché, in “The Conqueror and His Companions,” says he was and also that Osbern was the chief officer of the household. He fought in all the battles in Normandy during the twenty years which immediately preceded the invasion of England, from that of Val-ès-Dunes, in 1047, to that of Varaville, in 1060, and took part in the expedition against Conan, in Brittany, and in the invasion of Maine in 1063. Osbern is mentioned in the accounts of the siege of Domfront in 1054, when he was sent to demand an explanation from Geoffrey Martel of his conduct in marching into Normandy and seizing Alencon. I shall now quote a few pages from Planché’s story of this Osbern, mostly because of its rather odd sidelight upon a most important event in history:
Osbern seems to have resembled the Conqueror, his master, in character, combining great valor with readiness of wit and astuteness of policy. We have seen him entering the hall of the palace at Rouen humming a tune and rousing the moody Duke from his silent and sullen consideration of the news from England by bidding him bestir himself and take vengeance upon Harold, who had been disloyal to him; to call together all he could call, cross the Channel and wrest the crown from the perjured usurper. The Duke called his retainer ‘Osbern of the Bold Heart.’
At the large assembly of the whole baronage of Normandy at Lillebonne to consider the question of fighting Harold, the audacity and cunning of Osbern displayed itself in an amazing effrontery that saved the day for the Conqueror. The barons were irresolute and even rebellious. Puzzled and ill at ease the council finally turned to the wily Dapifer Osbern and asked him to be their spokesman; to say to their lord that they not only feared the sea but were not bound to serve him beyond it. No such decision did Osbern voice. Upon the exact contrary, to the amazement and confusion of the nobles, he told the Duke that they were loyal to a man and eager to serve him; that he who should bring twenty men would bring forty; that he who was bound to serve with one hundred would bring two hundred, and that the one assigned five hundred would bring a thousand and so on down the line he represented that all the barons would double their quota, thus insuring success. As for himself, Osbern promised to furnish sixty ships with full crews of fighting men. At first the barons were crazed with indignation, but stupefied and bewildered. Out of the wild disorder thus created, one of them was suddenly stricken with the idea that if all would do as Osbern had unwarrantedly promised the campaign could not fail. And one by one they consented.
Taylor’s list of William the Conqueror’s ships puts Osbern at the head and agrees with Wace that he furnished sixty ships and crews. The record reads; “Habuit a Willielmo Dapifero, filio Osberni LX naves.”
At another time Wace tells of Osbern’s chiding the Conqueror before a battle, demanding less delay and indecision. He commanded the men from Boulogne and Paix, rode a horse covered from head to tail with fine woven iron chain armor. Even though Osbern was the only companion of the Conqueror who ever dared to cross him or bluntly advise him, he was much loved and was granted lands, position and honor in England by William after the Conquest, and he and his family have never since been separated from the history of England.
The Norse Osborns were also an interesting people. Our family has always clung to the idea that it had a Scandinavian origin, easily tracing the name historically to participants in the Norse invasion of England.
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