BIGGIN
This is a copy of an article published in
The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper,
on 4th October 2004,
reproduced by kind permission of the author, the late Desmond Holden.
The “What's in a Name” series was a regular
feature in the Advertiser over the period 1993‑2004,
taking a refreshing look at the derivation of some typically
Derbyshire surnames.
Articles are confined to the origins and meanings of surnames,
and do not indicate any particular interest on Desmond's part in
the genealogy, descent, or family history of individuals bearing
the surnames featured.
Editor's Note: Articles are provided for general interest and
background only. They are not intended to provide an exhaustive treatise
for any individual family history - investigations of which may yield
quite different results. Or, in Desmond's own words:
“In the end it must remain with individual bearers of the names to
draw upon family traditions and to seek out such documentary
evidence as is available to decide the matter for themselves.”
WHAT'S IN A NAME …
Are you called BIGGIN?
Variations: Bigging, Biggins.
This name is listed as being special to Derbyshire which is
rather surprising since there are only 17 entries in the
Local Directory. And why it should be deemed special to our
County is curious since it is based on a location name of
which there are numerous examples found elsewhere. Most of
them are minor settlements and not mentioned in the Standard
Gazeteer: but those which are (presumably) major settlements
add up to 9. Numbers are confusing in that while the Gazetteer
includes 2 sites in Derbyshire, the Guide for our County adds
a further 11.
This apparent inconsistency would seem to arise from the fact
that the word "biggin" (Old English for a building or a
cluster of them) is one of those general terms such as
"church, chapel, castle, kirk etc" which have been adopted as
surnames: in settled early Medieval Communities to identify a
person and, later a family, according to their association or
proximity to such prominent establishments was a custom
widely followed. As time went by and people moved away from
their native places such surnames lost their specific
association with their place of origin and their surnames
became a convenient form of identification.
"Biggin" is a Northern dialect word and is related to "big"
(or "bigg") which in this context means "dwelling-place" and,
by extension, "to build" or "to construct". It is suggested
that it is strongly identified with the verb "to be" in the
sense that where a person dwelt, there also he had his
"Being". (Note how Mrs. Gummidge describes a home as a
"Beein" - David Copperfield, Ch. 32) The word can be traced
to the Old Norse as "Byggia" and made its way into Old
English as "byggen" and "bygge".
Its earliest appearance dates around 1197 and reads: "Where
dwellest thou?" (Whaere biggest tu?). In 1300 a contemporary
translation of Psalm 69 V.5 which says "God... will build the
cities of Judah" appears as: God... sal bigge ye cites of
Jude". Remarkably the expression was still in use in the 19th
Century. A Guide to the Dialects of Lancashire (1869) gives:
They bigged yon new barn. Later in 1884 an Agricultural
Journal refers to "bigging a dyke".
A Builder, especially in the North, was described as a
"biggand" (or "Bigger"). Hence the well-known quotation from
Psalm 118 V. 22 - "The stone which the builders rejected"
appears as "Ye stone whilk biggand forsake" (1297).
Literature dating from as early as 1290 confirms. that
"Biggin" not only meant "dwelling", but - and this is very
significant when we come to relate it to surnames - it also
described a cluster of out-buildings. It is interesting to
realise that the term was still understood in the Northern
Counties when Charlotte Bronte was writing. She refers to a
person being overcome by "the heat of the biggin" (Shirley:
C.30 -1849).
From the foregoing extracts, it can fairly be deduced that
"biggin" would have described a cluster of out-buildings and
(an) acceptable modern term might be "Complex"(?). It may be
significant to note that in the Middle Ages the Church was
among the great land-owners and would very likely have been
able to provide accommodation for its lay-employees. In the
case of "Biggin" near Selby (West Riding) neighbourhood names
such as Bishop Wood and Bishop Dike would suggest this
connection. It is also significant that the name occurs
frequently in association with the presence of Landed
Estates, as, perhaps, at Hartington in our own County.
Students of County Histories are better equipped to amplify
this notion. So other sites include "Biggin" near Belper;
Kirkby Lonsdale; Northamptonshire (near Oundle); Warwick
(near Thurlaston) and in Kent (near Lenham).
Occupiers of such named sites would probably have been
identified as "them from the Biggin" and this eventually
provided a surname. A similar evolution occurs in the case of
"Harbottle" (see "Advertiser" 25:4:'94). The name is very
well-known in connection with the Air Field at Biggin Hill,
south of Bromley in Kent, which played so significant a part
during the Second World War. It is a curious coincidence that
a certain Mr. Biggin was associated with early Balloon
Navigation (1786).
Site Index
|
© Desmond Holden
From "The Peak Advertiser", 4th October 2004.
|