Beggary
Early-attested site in the Parish of Eaton Socon
Historical Forms
- la Beggerie 1227 Ass 1276 Ass
- (la) Beger(y) 1241 FF 1247,1276 Ass 1372 Cl
- (la) Begerie 1247,1287 Ass 1351 BM
- le Beggerye 1374 IpmR
- Begwary 1656 NQiii
Etymology
The word beggar (ME beggere , beggare ) is not unknown in English place-names for it is found in Beggearn Huish (So) and it has a parallel in the frequent use of OE loddere ,'beggar,' in p.n. Cf. loddere beorg (BCS 1047), loddra well (ib. 1282), loddera wyllon (ib. 887), lodder þorn (KCD 796), loddere lake (BCS 34), lodderes sæccing (ib. 491), lodres wei (KCD 1367), loddera -stræt (BCS 895). The first element in this name may therefore be taken to be ME beggere , 'beggar.' The situation of Beggary forbids our taking the second element as OE eg,'island,' even in the extended sense in which it was used in earlier times, and the uniform final -ie, -ye to the exclusion of the more common -eye , -eie is also against this view. Rather we must take the suffix to be that in ME baronie , 'the domain of a baron,' for which the NED gives a quotation from Robert of Gloucester (1297). Presumably a beggerie is the domain of a beggar,' descriptive of land so poor that its tenants must always be beggars. This seems more probable than to assume that the 17th cent. beggary , used of a place which beggars haunt and derived from beggary in its earlier sense of 'action of begging,' was already in use in the 13th cent. For such terms of abuse, cf. Weekley's note in MLR xvii. 412. A good early example of this type of name may be derived from the story told by Henry, Bishop of Winchester, that when he was Abbot of Glastonbury (c. 1125) a certain knight deceived him as to the value of a piece of land he held of the abbey by giving it the name of Nullius proficui , i.e. 'of no value.'