Some similar names

Did 'Durose' start out as Devereaux, Dewhurst, du Roz, or something else even? You can see it spelled as Dewrose, Durowse, duRose Duross, Duron and several other ways in the records.

Folks in North Staffs have a particular way with the English language. Its quite possible that 'Durose' started out as something similar, or even something quite different. After all, Bramshall is near 'Utcheter'. Its quite possible that Vowels have been murdered and that we shall find the body...

Terry Haslam Jones has researched this theory for many years. Most of what is here is his evidence and thinking.

Research from Terry Haslam Jones 2010 - 2011

1. This is a summary of the research into the Durose family of Bramshall carried out during 2010 and 2011 which raises some interesting questions about the early history of the family. A more detailed description is available by email from tchj@btinternet.com. As usual, new evidence raises a range of unexpected possibilities and questions and it is not intended that this should be a definitive statement about the origin of the family in Bramshall. Rather, it is hoped that it will encourage debate, questioning and further investigation.

Grateful thanks are due to Carole Jeffries and Margaret Whitehurst for their diligent work in obtaining copies of the Lichfield wills and transcribing the difficult handwriting - and to Edna Durose for cheerful encouragement and advice.

Background
The earliest instance of the Durose name is that of the baptism of John, son of Richard Durose on 24 February 1588/9 recorded in the Bramshall Parish Register. (See Appendix A for list of early Durose PR entries.) Evidence from available transcripts and online indexes of parish registers indicates that the name was highly localized in the Bramshall/Uttoxeter area before 1630, then spread slowly to adjoining parishes during the early 1700’s with an acceleration in the late 18th century/early 19th century into industrializing towns and cities... Care needs to be taken here, since the national coverage of early parish registers is not uniform and some older registers in the Bramshall/Uttoxeter area have not survived. It is also worth noting that there are some scattered cases of names which may be phonetic or near spelling variants of Durose whose connection with the Bramshall family has yet to be made with certainty. The most important are :

• A family known as ‘Dewsse alias Dewrose’ who lived in Thorpe Mandeville, Northamptonshire 1576-1618.
• A group of families living in Doveridge, Derbyshire from 1616 whose origin is unclear. They may be an offshoot of the Bramshall families but there is some evidence to connect them with the Thorpe Mandeville group.
• Families recorded in Ellastone and Rocester in the early-mid 1600’s
• A number of medieval/Tudor references from a wide range of locations and sources which seem to originate from phonetic renderings of the surname Devereux. Several Norman/French surnames with the –reux ending have anglicised phonetic variants ending in – rose. For example, A Wylliam Dewrose, mentioned in the Lay Subsidy of 1524 for the village of Pakenham, Suffolk and a John Dewrose who made a will at Bury St. Edmunds in 1560 are likely to be members of the Devereux family who were in the same area at this time.

2. Richard Durose of Bramshall
Very little contextual information can be gleaned from the few Bramshall PR Durose entries but it is evident that two men named Richard Durose were in the parish during the period 1588-1659. One of them is named in a record of the Court Baron of Bramshall of 1611 which lists a Richard Duros as a juror. The earliest PR entries are as follows :

1588/9 25 Feb bap John s/o Richard Durose
1592 10 May bap Anthony s/o Richard Durose
1612/13 7 Mar Anthony Durose m. Margaret Adcocke
1618 1 Jul bap Richard s/o Anthony Durose
1618 14 Nov sep Richard Durose Husbandman
1623 28 Nov bap Mary d/o Anthony Durust
(1636-1646 missing)
1659 5 Dec sep Richard Durose of Little Bramshall

Of the two Richards buried, it is not clear which one might be the father of the two boys baptised in 1588/9 and 1592. Anthony, born 1612/13 could well be the man who married Margaret Adcock and father of Richard born 1618 and Mary born 1623. The burial of 1618 gives the occupation of Richard as husbandman.

3. The Bramshall Parish Register
The existing earliest Bramshall register is a parchment bound book of combined Christenings, Burials and Marriages in chronological order, grouped in years by the old-style calendar i.e. the year beginning on 25 March. Each year begins with the heading Anno Dom[ine] plus the number of the year in large letters on a separate line.
Sometimes the o in Dom is omitted.

The format of these year headings and the handwriting in the body of the register is remarkably even, error free and consistent for the period in question. The first entry on the first page is dated 1 November 1587. It is written close to the top of the page and there is no year heading, which suggests that the original first page has been lost.

The pages immediately following[1589-94] have about four years of entries per page which indicates that the first[missing] page may have started in about 1583 or 1584. A law of 1597 directed that the contents of old paper books from 1558 onwards should be copied into new parchment. Thomas Key was appointed Curate of Bramshall in 1584 under the Rector, Thomas Bakewell, and became Rector himself in 1585 so it may well have been that, under the provisions of the 1597 Act, Thomas Key had the older paper registers copied onto parchment from the start of his own ministry.

Christening entries give only the fathers name. Entries for inhabitants of nearby locations are often given(Stramshall, Loxley, Dagdale, Leigh, Nobot) which might indicate that entries lacking location information were for individuals living within Bramshall Parish.

There are some gaps in the registers.

a) There are no entries for the years 1597 or 1598 but Staffordshire RO inform me that there is no evidence of a removed or torn out page. This might indicate the absence of the paper original but, this would be surprising if the copy were made in response to the 1597 Act and made soon afterwards, say in 1589/99 and implies a later date for the copy.

c) In 1612 there is a year heading and the comment that "This yeare there were neither weddings burials or christenings in this psh." The next complete year (immediately following on the same page) is headed 1618, although this is preceded by the record of Anthony Durose to Margaret Adcocke on 7 March. Whether this marriage took place in 1612, after the note about no entries, or in 1617, just before the start of the entries headed 1618 is not clear. It seems unlikely that no events took place in the parish for a period of over five years but the reason for this gap is unexplained

c) a note in the register states that the book relating to 1636-46 was removed by the executors of a Mr Blakeborough and not returned.

It is clear that there are some omissions from the register which could be due to a number of reasons, including the loss of the original paper records and unpopularity or illness of the incumbent. However it is worth bearing in mind that it is almost certainly a copy of earlier, less formal records made sometime after 1598 and possibly later.

4. The population of Bramshall
In 1841, Bramshall parish had 170 inhabitants of all ages according to the census. The population of England grew from around 4 million in 1600 to about 14 million in 1841 so, if Bramshall followed this trend, a population of around 50 would be expected in 1600. However, other factors may have applied such as the plagues of the mid 1600's, the effects of C18 enclosures and the loss of rural population to the towns during the early C19. The Bramshall registers seem to show around 25 established child-bearing families in the parish 1587-1620 so an indication of around 70-100 inhabitants of Bramshall Parish in the late 1500's might be a reasonable estimate. The small size of the parish population should be kept in mind when interpreting other evidence.

5. Wills at Lichfield
In order to obtain more information about the Durose family in the 1500’s and early 1600’s, copies were made of 53 wills listed in the Lichfield Calendar where the location of the testator was given as Bramshall. Where the surname of Durose or possible variant occurred as testator, beneficiary, witness or appraiser, the will was transcribed and the significant information abstracted. (See Appendix B) In all, twelve wills provided information which suggested further investigation would be worthwhile. The spelling ‘Durose’ did not occur in any of the wills, although a Richard Dewrous (1576) and a Richard Durous (1590/1) appear as appraisers.

6. The Will of Richard Durust(e)
A significant find was the will of a Richard Durust made on the 25th February 1617/18 and the accompanying inventory made on 26 November 1618. Inventories were usually made a few days after the death but there may have been a delay in this case owing to the temporary misplacement of the will.. The will describes Richard Durust as a husbandman of Bramshall and he requests burial in the churchyard of Bramshall. He mentions a daughter Margret and her daughter Elizabeth [Meyre], sons Thomas, Anthony and John and a ‘supposed’ son Richard from whom he is evidently estranged. Anthony is to be executor of the will and it is witnessed by Thomas Key (Rector of Bramshall) and John Hayly, a local farmer who appears in several other records. Probate of the will is not granted until April 1619 and Anthony Durust named as legal executor.

The inventory is appraised by Richard Bakewell, Thomas Ibson, John Healey, Thomas Woodward and Thomas Barton, all local yeomen farmers, and is valued at around £95, a respectable amount for the estate of a husbandman of the time.

The spelling Durust(e) appears in other sources

• A Richard Durust verifies the Bramshall parish Register entries for 1600 along with John Heyly -probably the man who witnessed the will of 1618. This would indicate that Richard Durust had status as a respected member of the community.

• Anthony Durust (see above) baptises a daughter Mary in 1625 at Bramshall

• An Anthony Durust is listed as a tenant in Bramshall in 1668

• Several individuals named Durust/Durist/Duryst appear in Bramshall wills 1553-1606

Additionally, Richard Durust is mentioned in the will of his father Richard Durust, husbandman of Bramshall, made in 1586(see below). Evidence from the will of this older Richard suggests that the Richard who died in 1618 had a married son (probably the estranged Richard) by 1586, which implies that he would have been about 35-40 at that time and in his 60s at the time of his death in 1618.

7. Two Richards?
It is not unreasonable to suggest that the Richard Durose, husbandman whose burial is recorded in the Bramshall PR on 14 November 1618 was the same person as the Richard Durust, husbandman of Bramshall whose will was made in February 1617/18. The information about them can be summarised as follows:

Richard Durust Richard Durose

Died shortly before 26 November 1618 Buried 14 November 1618 (Bramshall PR)
Requests burial at Bramshall Buried at Bramshall1618 (Bramshall PR)
Husbandman Husbandman 1618 (Bramshall PR)
Churchwarden 1600 Member of Court Baron jury 1611
Children Richard, Anthony, John, Thomas, Margaret Children or grandchildren John and Anthony
(Relative)
Anthony Durust baptises daughter Mary in 1625 (Relative?) Anthony Durose marries 1612 or 1617 and baptises son, Richard 1618

It is possible that there were two men with slightly different surnames, who died at around the same time but only one of them was buried at Bramshall despite a specific request in the will of the other and his position as a churchwarden some years earlier. Both were husbandmen (i.e. keepers of livestock) who held local office and had descendants with the same Christian names.

However, if the records refer to the same man, a number of fundamental questions now appear about the phonetic relationship between the two names and the process by which this came about. The DUROSE variant does not appear in this exact form until 1589 and although there are Dewrous/Durous instances in earlier wills and in the Uttoxeter Parish Register 1598-1614. The DURUST form occurs first in the 1550’s as Durist/Duryst and there is a case in Bramshall as late as 1668.

The phonological problems here are difficult to resolve, but this was a time when the pronunciation of English was still changing, particularly that of the long vowels. Did Durust become Durose or did earlier unrecorded Duroses become Durust?

8. Richard Durust the Elder
On 6 September 1586, a Richard Durust of Bramshall made a will which names his wife, Mary and Thomas Warner as executors. Richard mentions siblings Rauffe, Agnes[Key] and Johanne Wetton and his children, Richard, Agnes[wife of Robert Wakeline] and Johane[wife of Thomas Carter]. He has several godchildren, Richard Key, Ann Hayly, Margaret Wate[or Wall] and Margery Carter. Two grandchildren are mentioned but not named. He specially leaves a heifer to a married grandson, son of Richard, who is possibly the estranged young man mentioned in the 1618 will.

The inventory of his estate is appraised on an unknown date later in September 1586 by Thomas Patricke, Richard Dyche, Thomas Carter, Thomas Ibson and Thomas Shaw. His estate totals £30 10s 6d.

This Richard is evidently well-connected with a number of solid Bramshall families and he is probably the same person mentioned in other wills of the period as witness and appraiser. Careful examination of these other wills reveals a number of mutual links between the Durust family and other Bramshall mainstays. To have a married grandson in 1586 would imply a birthdate no later than the mid 1530’s and probably a decade or so earlier at least.

It seems likely that this Richard is the father of the Richard Durust(e) who died in 1618.

9. Origins of the Durust Name.
It is interesting to speculate on the connection between the Durust family and a family named Dewhurst/Duhurst who had connections with Bramshall from around 1533, since the phonetic connection between the two names is much more straightforward. From 1533 to 1539 a John Duhurste of Bramshall was locked in a legal battle in Chancery with the powerful Wolsey family to regain ownership of some land in Bramshall which was rightfully his by inheritance from his great-uncle John Rok who held a copyhold tenancy in the manor. The Wolseys were well-known for acquiring land by force and deceit and used their legal knowledge and court connections to successfully expand their Staffordshire landholdings.

In January 1637, a Peter Dewhurst and William Starten made an affidavit concerning seditious words spoken in Bramshall Church by one Thomas Woodward. This affidavit was conveyed to Thomas Cromwell by Walter Devereux of Chartley and Woodward was subsequently imprisoned. It may have been this Peter Dewhurst who appraised the Inventory of John Healey of Bramshall in 1553

The surname Dewhurst originates from a small locality between Blackburn and Whalley Lancashire and is very localized in the northwest, even well into the 19th Century. Instances in Staffordshire are extremely rare. Some surnames ending with the –hurst element have mutated into recorded endings of the –rust type.(e.g. Fairust, Hayerust, Parkrust, Ashrust, Pankrust) since the pronunciation of unstressed syllables is particularly subject to change in informal speech. Phonologists suggest that this can take place in at least three ways

• By vowel substitution – a schwa is inserted after the letter /r/ in final consonant clusters. This is similar to the pronunciation of Kirk->Kiruk in Scots, film-filum in Irish and melk->meluk in Dutch. The pronunciation of Dewhurst in a Lancashire accent probably involved dropping the ‘h’ to form something like Duerst which in turn could have become Duerust with a schwa insertion.

• By confusion between the uvular /h/ and /r/ . It is not uncommon in some European languages and some British dialects for both /h/ and /r/ to be formed at the back of the throat. The early members of the Dewhurst family, possibly retaining a northern accent which may still have had features of Middle English, may have pronounced the /h/ in their name in such way as a listener, unfamiliar with the accent, may have heard what they believed to be an /r/ sound.

• By metathesis. In some words, the letter /r/ can move from after the vowel to a position before it. Older examples such as girn->grin, bird->brid, thorp->throp are often quoted and there are modern examples such as ‘blackberry’ which is often pronounced in everyday speech as ‘blackbrey’. In this way, it is argued that Hurst could become ‘Hrust’

Although written records of this time were created by educated people, spelling was still fairly fluid, especially when the writer encountered an unfamiliar surname spoken in an unfamiliar accent by someone who had, in all probability, never seen their name written down. Where a written form existed, clerks often referred back to an earlier entry in a register or account book and the spelling became ‘legitimised’.

It is possible, though by no means certain, that the Duhurst surname developed by some similar set of circumstances into Durust and it is interesting that the two forms exist side by side for several decades in the village.

10. Did Durust become Durose?

Phonetically this is more difficult to explain, although the documentary evidence is somewhat stronger. The following considerations ate tentatively put forward for discussion.

• The Durust variant precedes the Durose/Durous by several decades which would imply that the progression was from Durust to Durose.

• No record of the Durose spelling is found before 1589 and the Bramshall Parish register as a reliable source must be used with care. It is possible that the copyist of the extant Bramshall register confused the ending –st with –se which are very similar in the handwriting of the time. Once this had entered the written record it may have become the ‘accepted’ spelling of the name

• The Durust family had close links with almost all the prominent farming families of Bramshall of the yeoman class over several decades which is an indication of their social/economic status.

• The development of the long vowels through the 15th and 16th centuries was complex and variations were not chronologically or geographically uniform. How someone from rural Staffordshire might pronounce ‘Durose’ is open to speculation – it could have been similar to any of the modern words - rose, ruse, rouse or rhymed with house. Unless we are sure how both Durust and Durose were pronounced at the time, it is difficult to propose any solid theory based on pronunciation.

Terry Haslam-Jones
Rossendale
Lancashire
July 2011

Appendix A Early Durose Parish Register Entries

Bramshall PR (Starts 1588)

________________________________________
Uttoxeter PR (Starts 1596)

B Agnes Dewrous was buryed the xxvii of the same November anno suprapredicto (1598)
B John Dewrous was buryed the xi of the same January anno suprapredicto (1608/9)
B Agnis Dewrous widow was buryed the vii[?] day of the same April anno suprapredicto (1609)
C Willyam Durose sone to Richard Durose and Isabell his wife was crissoned the xxvth of the same May (1614)

________________________________________
Thorpe Mandeville PR, Northanmptonshire
22 Sep 1573 George, son of Peter Defourse bapt
27 Apr 1576 Christian Bull d/o Richard Bull bapt
27 Oct 1585 George Dewse & Clemente Rewe mar
21 Oct 1595 Clement wife of George Dewse buried
25 Jan 1595/6 George Dewse & Christian Bull mar
28 Nov 1596 George Dewse s/o George Dewse bap.
4 May 1599 Dewse widdowe of Dewse of Culworth buried
6 Sep 1599 Richard Dewse s/o George Dewse bap.
26 Oct 1600 Steven Dewrose alias Dewsse s/o George Dewrose alias Dewsse bapt
19 Dec 1602 Thomas Dewsse alias Dewrose s/o George Dewrose alias Dewsse bapt
19 Aug 1604 Raffe Dewrose alias Dewsse s/o George Dewrose alias Dewsse bapt
________________________________________
Doveridge, Derbyshire PR

15 Dec 1616 c Susan DURUS c d/o George
17 Feb 1618/19 c Robert DURUS s/o George
21 Mar 1621/2 George DUROSSE m True DUDLEY
27 Apr 1624 c George DUROSSE s/o George
27 Dec 1625 c Christian DUROSSSE d/o George
ND 1629 c William DUROSSE s/o George
20 Nov 1628 Stephen DUROSSE m Issabell Bolton
20 Sep 1629 c Richard DUROSSE s/o Steven
22 Jan 1631/2 c Marie DUROSSE d/o Steven
2 Jun 1635 cThomas DUROS s/o Steven
12 Jul 1635 Thomas DUROS bur s/o Steven

2 Jun 1642 c Thomas DUROS s/o Thomas
17 Aug 1662 c George DUROS s/o Richard
15 Jun 1666 c Mary DUROS d/o Thomas
20 Feb 1667/8 c Richard DUROSS s/o Richard
9 Jun 1669 Ann c DUROSS d/o Thomas
7 Sep 1671 c Thomas DUROSS s/o Thomas
23 Nov 1676 c Richard DUROSS s/o Thomas

________________________________________

Rocester PR
2 Feb 1645 Elizabeth Durose d/o Thomae/Hellenae
17 Sep 1646 Thomas Dewerst s/o Thomas/Ellen
7 Feb 1649 Ann Duerst d/o Thomas/Ellen

Ellastone PR
07 May 1607 Robert Duerst( yeoman) m Emmott Penkes
13 Apr 1608 Ann Duerst d/o Robert/Emme
01 Nov 1609 John Duerst s/o Robert/Emme
25 Sep 1611 Robert Dewerst s/o Robert
23 Oct 1613 Barton Dewerst s/o Robert
24 Apr 1616 Mary Dewerst d/o Robert
12 May 1619 Thomas Dewerst s/o Robert
20 Nov 1621 NN Dewerst c/o Robert
20 Mar 1625 Elizabeth Dewerst - d/o Robt/Em
02 Mar 1679 Sarah Duhurst s/o Robert
27 Feb 1681 Joseph Duhurst s/o Robt Susannah
22 Jul 1683 Hannah Dewhurst d/o Robert
10 May 1685 Roger Duhurst s/o Robert Susannah