I. THE LYMAN NAME.
The origin and significancy of modern English names, involved in inexplicable mystery, opens a boundless range tor theories and fanciful speculations quite foreign to our taste and purpose. Iu Anglo-Saxou, Leoman. (lion-man ■) appears as the name of an Anglo-Saxon laud holder prior to the Norman conquest. Leoman, rolling swiftly from the tongue in familiar conversation, might easily become Leman. Whether this is the true origin and meaning of the name—deus aliqm viderit — some theorist of keener insight may determime. In authentic history the original name was Leman.
Like most of the English surnames, this has passed through many changes iu settliug down 10 the present orthography. It has been writteu Lehman, Leyman,Lyeman, Lemman, Lemon, Leman and de Le Man. The French, supposing the name to be derived from Vaitnan, have written it L'aiman. In America the name has takeu the form, Liman, Limen, Limon, Limmon, Lemon, Leamond and Lemond. In the records both of the town and of the church in Northampton, for the first fifty years or more, the name is generally written Liman; early in the last century it took the fixed and settled form of the present appropriate orthography, Lymax.
The pedigree of the Lymans iu England, the orthography of the name and identity of the Lytnarn and the Lemans have been the subject of a protracted ami exhaustive investigation by II. A. Lyman, Esq., of London, to whom we are indebted for the following summary of the pedigree of the family in England. Every English record likely tothrow light upon the subject has been searched, particularly the De Banco, Coram liege, Subsidy and Quo Warranto Rolls, extending from the 5th Richard I Rolls. From all these the conclusion is irresistible that the names Leman and Lyman are one and the same. That they were recognized as the same appears from the tact that Sir John Leman, lord mayor of London, lGlb", had a correspondence with the widow of Henry Lyman, brother of Richard, respecting her return to England; and that the father of Sir John held part and parcel of the same estate which came into the possession of the Lymans by the marriage of Thomas Lyman, of Xavistoke, with Elizabeth Lambert. The name Lyman, in this orthography, appears in the parish records of High Ongar as far back as 1521.
The change of the vowels e and i to y is in entire accordance with the analogies of our language in its primitive forms; "iexchanges withy in writing and sometimes with ea, miht, myht, meaht, might, y ia i-umtautot' u and ea. It was a favorite letter with the penmen, and is often found for i and sometimes for e, ae: cyning, king, eald, yldtst, old, oldest, lydtn, leden, Latin."' Jlarch's Anylo-Suxon, Grammar p. 12, § 23.
Tue following illustrations are also given by the same author: "Latin, in the Anglo-Saxon, Leden,'u often written Lyden. In the preface to. the Heptateuch of ^Elfric, the fourth line, has of Ltdene, from Latin; line 20, Lydai cnderstandun, to understand Latin; the ending nes, Gothic is very often nys, § 228. Thus in Math., 5 : 6, righteousness is rightwisnesse in one manuscript; nysse in another, and so other words in ness; neten is often written nyten, neat cattle; Ps., 135: 8, ltd, hell, is written liyl, Cadmau, p. .j07, line 27 and elsewhere hlehhan, fdahian, laugh is found hlyhhan,\n ^Edelstan, 47, Judith, 23, and examples without number might be enumerated."
The substitution of y for i is too frequent and familiar to require illustration. Flyat, Lyiul, Lyndsay, Van Syckle, etc The German pronunciation of Lyman, is precisely the same as ours of Leman. The two forms of orthography are only different methods of representing by symbols the same sound, and the names Leman, Limatt and Lyman are doubtiess one and the same.
The careless and variable orthography of this family name in ancient record* is apparent in the fallow ing references: In the Subsidy Rolls for Kent, 1st i\d., iii, the name is written Lyetnan, and in the subsequent / rolls for the same place Lemman and Lcman. In a pedi
?ree of the family, John, the grandfather of Sir John, Lord layor, is called " John de Le Mans, " but Sir John's name is uniformly Lcman. In a pedigree from " The Visitation of Loudon, 1G03-4," the father and brothers of Sir John are written " Lemman," while Sir John is entered "Lemon." The eldest son of Sir John's brother is entered " Lemon," and his youngest son " Leman."
Savage, in his Genealogical Lictionary, has the names Lemon, Leamond, Lemond, Leman aud Lyniau. Through all these intermediate changes the conclusion is easy, natural aud irresistible, that the ancicut Leman has chauged to the modem Lyman— both oue and the same.