SECTION IV
The Probable French Spelling of Our Philip’s Inherited Surname
Of our Philip’s ancestry we have as yet no knowledge. Nor, as above
noted, have we any record concerning him before his arrival at Beverly.
Doubtless, before long someone of his descendants may turn to the French
records of his time, with the hope of finding there a record of his birth, and
marriage, or something concerning him during the earlier years of his
life. As a help for such research we present here what in the light of our
records seems likely to have been the French spelling of his name.
By the evidence above given we know that in any French record
concerning Philip, his name would be written with the definitive
“le” qualifying
its distinctive part. And in the light of the fact, above noted, that in five of
the six deeds to which Philip was party during the years of his Beverly
residence, the distinctive part of his name was spelled with
“g” as its initial
letter, we may reasonably conclude that since this was the spelling he gave
for deed recordings of his name, it must have been that of his customary
usage, and accordingly that of his inherited name. That is, it seems reasonab!e
to assume that, in any French record concerning this ancestor, the distinctive
part of his name would have
“g” and not
“c”(l) for its initial letter. That it
would scarcely have
“y” as its final syllable is suggested by the fact that in
no list of French surnames available to us did we find
Cody or
Gody(2)
either with or without the
“le”. But quite frequently, in the various lists
consulted, we found the surname
Godet(3), the French pronunciation of which, as
the French-speaking tell us, has the sound of
Gody. Possibly then the
inherited surname of our first American ancestor. Philip of Beverly and of
Hopkinton (1698-1743) may have had not
“y” but
“et”(4) as its final syllable;
Accordingly in looking through French records of this ancestor’s time, with the
hope of finding any mention of him, we should keep in mind that the inherited
spelling of his surname may have been
Le Godet(5) or possibly written Legodet.
But whether or not the French spelling of Philip’s surname had
“y” for its
final syllable we know by the evidence of the Beverly records above quoted
that Philip’s inherited pronunciation of his name led him to be commonly
known at Beverly as Philip
Legody(6).
TEXTUAL NOTES TO SECTION IV
- That the “c” spelling of Philip’s name was in the light of our records
arbitrarily introduced by the minister-recorder of the first two Beverly
church records concerning him, we have above stated.
- Though occasionally we found in American records the surname Gody or
Godey, the bearer of which by textual evidence was of French ancestry;
but we have found no evidence that it was so spelled in French records.
- In Baird’s History of Huguenot Immigration to America there is mention
of a Huguenot family having the surname Godet.
- That it was not so written in any Beverly record may reasonably be
explained by the fact above mentioned that to the English-speaking
recorder of it the final syllable would have had the sound of “y”. And
if at first it was spelled by Philip as “et”, he would have been told that
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