Lt. Samuel Loomis Notes

Descendants of Joseph Loomis in America
Author: Elias Loomis
Call Number: CS71.L863

This book contains the history and genealogy of the Joseph Loomis,
who landed in Boston in 1638.
Bibliographic Information: Loomis, Elias. Descendants of Joseph Loomis
in America. Published by the author. 1909.

DESCENDANTS
of
JOSEPH LOOMIS
In America
And his Antecedents
In the Old World

The Original Published By
Elias Loomis LL.D.
1875

Revised By
Elisha S. Loomis Ph.D.
1908
Copyright, 1909,
By
ELISHA SCOTT LOOMIS,
Published November, 1909.
This edition is limited to 700 numbered copies, of which this book is No. 633

IN the spring of 1870 I published the first edition of the Loomis Genealogy. That volume contained the names of 4,340 persons whose descent was traced from Joseph Loomis of Windsor, Connecticut In the preparation of that volume I expended a large amount of time and money, and yet it fell very much short of my idea of a complete genealogy, such as I was desirous of making it. Notwithstanding its imperfect condition, there were many reasons which inclined me to publish it. The most urgent reason was, that my manuscript had become so large as to be unwieldy, and in order to prosecute my researches further, it was important to have a fair copy of all the names which I had collected, that they should be arranged in systematic order, and provided with copious indices for convenient reference. Another consideration which influenced me was that I hoped the publication of the book would excite greater interest in the history of the family, and that a large number of contributors would volunteer to furnish me information for correcting errors and supplying omissions in the first edition.

The book excited a less general interest than I had expected. Although only 250 copies were printed, and the book was offered at a price barely sufficient to pay the expense of printing and binding, if all the copies could have been sold, the demand for the book nearly ceased when only about half the edition had been disposed of. Upon reducing the price, some additional copies were sold, and the remainder were distributed gratuitously, as I hoped by this means to secure more abundant materials for a second and improved edition.

Since the publication of the first edition of the Genealogy, I have spent nearly all of my college vacations in collecting additional names and information. I soon discovered that the objects which I desired could not be secured by correspondence except to a very limited extent. I therefore undertook to canvass the whole country in a systematic manner by personal visits. My first object was to obtain the places of residence of all persons of the Loomis name, that is, to take a census of all persons of that name. In prosecuting this object I encountered very great difficulties. I examined every Directory of City, County or State I could find, and of these there is a very large collection in the State Library at Albany. I also examined Business Directories, Catalogues of the Clergymen of the various religious denominations, Catalogues of Lawyers and Physicians, and Catalogues of names of every description for any part of the United States. I also spent considerable time in examining County Maps. For most of the older States, large County Maps have been published, giving the names of the occupants of every farm in the county. I studied many of these maps with great care and copied all the Loomis names which they contained. By these different means I obtained very extensive lists of names of persons to be visited.

But after the most diligent use of all the means of information which I have indicated, I found there were still extensive districts almost entirely unexplored. This deficiency for all the States except New England, I supplied in the following manner: in New York, Pennsylvania, and generally throughout the Western States, there is kept at the county seat of each county the tax list for each of the towns of that county. These lists show the name of every person in the county who pays any State or County tax, however small. They therefore show (with but few exceptions) the names of all the male residents of the county who are over 21 years of age. This then has been my ultimate reliance for information in all the States except New England, and the other means of information which I have indicated have generally been simply auxiliary. Having obtained a list of all the Loomis names in a county I commence the canvass. As the majority of the persons to be visited reside at a distance from any railroad, (often 10, 15 or 20 miles,) I take a private conveyance, and after an early breakfast, start upon my explorations. I mark out a circuit as extensive as I think I can complete during the day and return to my hotel at evening. In these tramps, generally over hills, sometimes through sand-beds, and at other times through mud-holes, I occasionally visit half a dozen families in a day; more frequently, however, only two or three, and sometimes only one; and it has repeatedly happened to me to spend a long summer day, riding in an open buggy under a broiling July sun, and find but one family of the Loomis name, and even that sometimes proves not to be descended from Joseph Loomis of Windsor. Sometimes, after encountering almost insurmountable difficulties in searching out some obscure family, I have found only an empty house and no one to be seen who could give me any such information respecting the owner as I desired. Notwithstanding every kind of discouragement I have steadily persevered, until I have made a pretty thorough canvass of every part of New England, of every part of the State of New York, of nearly every part of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and of the northern part of Ohio. I have also explored a number of cities further west, such as Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis. For the other Western States I have accomplished what I could by correspondence. This is, however, generally a very slow and uncertain process, for a correspondence can only be commenced after a certain amount of preliminary information, and many persons will not answer a letter addressed to them, while many others, even with the best intentions, have but a poor faculty of communicating information in writing.

The result of all my labors is a Catalogue of 8,686 persons bearing the Loomis name, and believed to be descended from Joseph Loomis of Windsor, besides the names of 4,682 persons who have intermarried with them. This is double the number of names contained in the first edition, and respecting many of the names in the first edition I have obtained much fuller information. I have made, therefore, considerable advance towards a complete list of the descendants of Joseph Loomis. There are not many additional names to be looked for except in the new States at the West.

Many persons wonder at my devoting so much time and labor to this research, and think I have some profound plan of making money. Some imagine there is a great fortune to be gained in England,--others think I am going to make a fortune by selling a vast number of copies of a book at an exorbitant price. I cannot think it strange that others should be surprised at my devoting so much time to this subject, for I am surprised myself. Nevertheless, I can see many important objects to be gained by this publication, for the benefit of the public if not of myself. In the first place, it enables many thousand persons to trace their genealogy back for about three centuries, and to many persons this is a source of rational satisfaction. In the second place, it enables many persons from the older States to recover information respecting relatives who long since wandered off to the far West, and had been often sought for in vain. In the third place, it is probable that cases may hereafter arise in which this book may prove to be worth a thousand times more than its cost, from the assistance it will render in tracing relationships which may secure the inheritance of estates. But beyond all such personal considerations, a complete family genealogy, such as it is hoped the Loomis Genealogy may one day become, has a value with reference to questions of General History and Political Philosophy. This Genealogy shows how from a single man, established in Connecticut in 1639, has descended an army of sturdy men who contributed no mean share towards making good our Declaration of Independence in 1776, and in saving our country from disruption in 1861; who have been respectably represented in the ranks of educated men and in each of the three learned professions; who have been creditably represented in Congress as well as in numerous State Legislatures and on the bench of Justice. These men have contributed an important share in levelling the forests of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in subduing the prairies of the more Western States. Wherever they have gone they have organized churches and schools, and with few exceptions their characters have been blameless. Although most of the names recorded in this book are obscure, very few have done discredit to their ancestry by an immoral life.

Those persons who wish to compare the present with a former age will find ample materials in this volume. They will see that for six generations the average number of children to a family was in no generation less than six; and that the average age of all the persons of the first five generations was considerably over fifty years. They will find a list of thirty-five of the descendants who attained to an age of 90 years, and one exceeding a hundred years. In these particulars, the comparison with the present generation is not encouraging.

With regard to the history of the Loomis family in Europe, I have not obtained much new information since the publication of the first edition. I have sought information from every source within my reach, but without much success. Mature reflection has, however, led me to adopt a more decided opinion respecting the origin of the Loomis name, the reasons for which will be found in the following pages. Among the new facts stated in this edition will be noticed the burning of John Lomas for heresy in 1556. Similar cases in England were not very numerous, but at the time of the planting of the New England colonies, dissenters from the Established Church of England were made very uncomfortable, and we can easily understand why Joseph Loomis, (although a man of respectable pecuniary means,) should be willing to abandon the comforts of his native country, and seek a new home among the savages of America.

Before commencing the printing of this volume I issued a very large number of circulars announcing my plan of publication, and soliciting additional information for the new edition. Many of the answers to these circulars did not arrive until the printing was far advanced. Whenever it was practicable, the information thus obtained has been incorporated in this volume in its appropriate place, but many of the letters arrived too late. The result is that in some cases the latter part of the book contains statements which differ from what had been given on a preceding page. In one or two cases it is stated that a man had no children, while under the next generation the names of his children are recorded.(*)

When two persons of the Loomis name have been married to each other, I have generally indicated in brackets each person's number in this catalogue. It thus sometimes became necessary to refer to a subsequent page not yet in type, and in consequence of the additions to my manuscript during the progress of printing, these numbers were necessarily changed. It has thus happened in a few cases that in referring to a person on a subsequent page, the number is quoted erroneously. In all cases, however, it will be easy, by means of one of the Indices, to find the name intended.

I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not regard this book as containing a complete Genealogy of the Loomis family, and I have no doubt that (*)These and many other errors have been corrected in the 1908 edition. it contains serious errors. It is my sincere desire that these imperfections may be removed. I therefore request that if any person who examines this book detects any error, however trivial, or notices any omission which he can supply, he would communicate the information to me without delay. I say, without delay, because that which is deferred is apt to be neglected until it is forgotten. If my life is spared a few years longer, any information thus communicated to me will not be lost. The public shall have the benefit of all new materials obtained, and I contemplate publishing a Supplement to this volume before many months.

NOTE--Dr. Elias Loomis died before the Supplement was published. But this third (1908) edition contains all new materials which he had collected, along with all new data collected and obtainable since his death.

Believing that many of the Loomis Family desired the preservation of the preceding preface, we have retained it as also we have retained the historical account of Joseph Loomis and his name found hereinafter. In the foregoing preface Dr. Elias Loomis has said so well so many things which every genealogist has to contend with that we are relieved of enumerating them.

On page 17 he says: "I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not regard this book as containing a complete Genealogy of the Loomis family." Neither do we regard this edition a complete Genealogy of the family. While his edition of 1875 contained a catalogue of 8,686 persons bearing the name of Loomis, this edition catalogues over 13,000 names, and yet it is no more complete than his, and probably its percentage of errors and omissions is just as great as found in his edition. And because of this we crave the indulgences of the Loomis family for such errors and omissions, and request that all such, even if trivial, may be sent to us for correction hereafter.

While we have retained unbroken Dr. Elias Loomis's historical account of Joseph Loomis, his origin and his name, as set forth under the heading, Historical Data, p. 21, yet we deem it best to add such supplementary facts as have come to light since 1875, especially as touching the name Loomis.

Indeed it is very doubtful if our ancestral name originated in the way Dr. Loomis surmised, as the investigations of Prof. C. A. Hoppin, Jr., hereinafter given, seem to show. That Joseph's great-grandfather died at Thaxted, Eng., in the year 1551, is now proved as evidenced by Thaxted church records. But whence came his ancestors, what was the origin of the name, and what is our right to a coat-of-arms? These queries are raised and discussed in Prof. Hoppin's scholarly report to which the reader is referred. Evidently our antecedents are not Royal, but something far better, viz., clean, God-fearing, industrious men of respect and influence--men of character and back-bone.

This volume is enriched by a map of Connecticut, showing the location of Windsor, and the Loomis Institute so generously provided for, and which is fully explained in the body of this work, and of which the Loomis Family may indeed be proud.

Some have insisted that we should also record herein all obtainable descendants of Loomis daughters, saying "The work of Pater-lineist is too narrow in its scope to merit the name of a family history." To prove that it is utterly impossible to do this, I have, under the caption, "Who Are We?" made some calculations and prepared tables by which it is seen that the possible descendants of the daughters, in 10 generations, become millions. All blanks received containing data for family records of descendants of Loomis daughters have been carefully preserved and so numbered that the same may be finally reduced to printed volumes, the names now in hand numbering about 30,000. And now will not some one establish a fund for putting this data into print? It would be worth while. Who will do it?

While we have adhered to the system of numbering used in the 1875 edition, yet in one particular this edition differs radically from that, as those fortunate enough to have a copy of that edition will observe. It is in this: We have regarded the family as a unit, and hence have given at the head of each family all the data relative to the father and mother of that family and in the list of children born to them only the name and date of birth of such sons as themselves become the head of a new family, following all such with a + which means that his history will be found in the next generation under his respective number. By so doing the reader will find unified such data as he is seeking without referring to a preceding page.

This edition contains data sufficient to show that the descendants of pioneer Joseph Loomis fill many important and prominent positions in the various vocations of life. They are found not only among the tillers of the soil and the mechanics at the bench, but also among the teachers of our public schools and the ministers of the gospel; among those who are enrolled in the medical and legal professions; among editors and publishers of religious and secular papers and magazines; among authors and professors of our advanced institutions of learning; among college, bank and railroad presidents; among our statesmen and diplomats; and among our original thinkers and inventors.

And the reader will also discover, by consulting the indices of names and addresses, that these descendants are now found in every state and territory of the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, Japan and the Philippines.

By consulting our military annals, see tables I to IX, in which are recorded nearly 1,000 names of Loomis soldiers, the reader will note that from King Philip's War down to the Spanish-American War soldiers bearing the name of Loomis were ever ready to fight and die for home and country.

As I have sent out nearly 6,000 memoranda soliciting information for this book, the reader can judge somewhat as to the amount of time and labor this has entailed. Also our able corps of assistant annalists have helped in the search for Loomis descendants and their deeds; and among us we have searched hundreds of volumes of genealogical and vital records; census reports; local histories and catalogues; military records; and probate court records, all of which cost time and money.

Berea, O., September, 1908. Former and Present Residences of Mr. Burdett Loomis.

ORTHOGRAPHY of the name Loomis.--Nearly all of those persons in the United States who

are known by the name of Loomis are descended from Joseph Loomis, who settled in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1639. This name, in the lapse of time has undergone various changes of orthography. For somewhat more than a century it has, with few exceptions, been spelled Loomis. Previous to that time, the more common spelling was Lomis. On the oldest gravestones at Colchester the name is spelled Lomis. On the early town records at Windsor the name is generally Lomys, but on the oldest grave-stone of any member of this family now known to exist anywhere in America, the name is spelled Lomas. This is the grave-stone of Deac. John Lomas, who died at Windsor, Sept. 1, 1688.

In England, for more than a century past, the name has uniformly been spelled Lomas, but two or three centuries ago the name was sometimes spelled Lummas, Lommas, or Lomes. All these names are considered to be variations in the spelling of one original name, and the spelling now well established in England is Lomas, while the spelling adopted in the United States is Loomis.

Proof that Joseph Loomis came from Braintree, England.--Joseph Loomis, one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut, came from Braintree, Essex County, England, in the year 1638. This fact is established by the following document, being a deposition made July 30, 1639, by one of the passengers in the same ship with Joseph Loomis. The original, of which this is a copy, is in the possession of Mr. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford, Connecticut, President of the Connecticut Historical Society.

The following is a copy of the original draft (unsigned) of the deposition of Joseph

"Joseph Hills of Charlestowne, in New England, Woollen Draper,** aged about 36 yeares, sworne, saith upon his oath that he came to New England undertaker in the ship called the Susan & Ellen of London whereof was master Mr. Edward Payne, in the yeare of our Lord one thousand six hundred thirty and eight, the 14th yeare of the raigne of our Souraigne Lord the King that now is and this knowes that divers goods and chattells, victualls & commodities of Joseph Loomis late of Brayntree in the County of Essex, Woolen-draper, wch were put in three butts, two hogsheds, one halfe hogshed, one barrel, one tubb & three firkins, transported from Malden in the County of Essex to London in an Ipswch Hye, were shipped in the said ship upon the eleventh day of Aprill in the yeare abovesayd, and this deponent cleared the said goods wth divers other goods of the said Joseph Loomis and other mens, in the Custome-house at London, as may appeare by the Customers bookes, and this dept saith that the said goods were transported into New England in the said ship where she arrived on the seaventeenth day of July in the yeare aforesayd."

(*)The N. E. Hst. and Gen. Reg., Vol. VIII, p. 309, contains the Will of Joseph Hills, lawyer, late of Maldon, Massachusetts He d. Feb. 5, 1687-8.

**So designated by Savage, Vol. II, p. 417. Several of the facts stated in the preceding deposition are confirmed by other documents.

The following is a document contained in a volume of Land Records preserved in the office of the Secretary of State at Hartford, Connecticut It is a copy of a letter from an attorney of Braintree, Eng., dated 1651, and addressed to an acquaintance in Hartford, Connecticut, in which letter allusion is twice made to Loomis. The writer of this letter (W. Lyngwood) is mentioned in the history and antiquities of the county of Essex, by Phillip Morant, London, 1768, vol. 2, p. 391.

Since I have received your letter in March, 1650, with your letter to your brother Richard and the testimonial of your being alive, under the Governor's seal, I have proceeded against your brother and taken out a commission in chancery, to examine witnesses which I intended to have had executed about Michaelmas, etc.

And now I desire only to have a good warrant and order from you testified by such of my friends there with you whose hands I know, as my cousin Loomis, cousin Cullick, John Talcott, John Steele, or some of those to whom you would have me pay the money, that I may have a good discharge and you may be sure to have the money, for I should be very sorry, after so much time, pains and money spent that either you should fail of your money, or myself of a good discharge for the p29, and so desiring to hear from you as speedily as you can, with my love to you, my cousin Loomis, cousin Cullick, and the rest of my cousins and friends there with you, I rest,

In a manuscript by John Talcott the second (shown to me by Mr. Charles J. Hoadley of Hartford), he says: "My uncle Mr. Mott sold my bond father Talcott his house that he lived in in Braintree in Old England per order in the year 1644, my father Talcott then living in this house in Hartford."(*)

In the will of John Talcott (made between 1655 and 1660) he mentions his kinsman John Skinner. This John Skinner was the son of John Skinner and Mary, daughter of Joseph Loomis (4).

In Hotten's Lists of Emigrants from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, the ship Susan and Ellen, Edward Payne, Master, is said to have sailed with a load of emigrants from London to New England in May, 1635. This is the same ship, with the same master, that brought over Joseph Loomis in 1638.

Again in vol. 2, Records of Particular Court for the colony of Connecticut (preserved in the office of the Secretary of State, Hartford, Coun.), p. 116, is given an inventory of the estate of Mr. Joseph Loomis, deceased, Nov. 25, 1658, in which it is stated that there is a debt in England against Mr. Loomis's estate amounting to p12. 14s. 8d.

The preceding documents are regarded as sufficient authority for the statement that Joseph Loomis, who is mentioned in the records of Windsor as having bought a piece of land in that town, Feb. 2, 1640, came from Braintree, England, and landed in Boston in 1638.

Children of Joseph Loomis.--Joseph Loomis had five sons and three daughters, whose marriages are recorded in the town records at Windsor, as also the (*)John Talcott of Hartford had an uncle who was born in Braintree, Eng., and went to Spain and was a merchant in Madrid. He had a cousin who died in Seville, Spain. See Talcott's Gen., p. 8. births of their children, but as the date of the birth of Joseph's children is not recorded, it is difficult to determine the order of seniority.

In the Records of Particular Court for the colony of Connecticut, vol. 2, p. 115, is recorded the agreement of the children of Mr. Joseph Loomis respecting the division of the estate of said deceased, as approved by the court Dec. 2, 1658. This agreement is signed by the children in the following order:
Joseph Loomis.
Nicholas Olmsted.
Josias Hull.
John Loomis.
Thomas Loomis.
Nathaniel Loomis.
Mary Tudor.(*)
Samuel Loomis.

It is believed that the above order indicates the relative ages of the sons. This conclusion is founded upon the sentiments generally prevalent at that period with regard to the rights of seniority, and is confirmed by several circumstances.

1. Since the laws of England secured to the oldest son very important privileges over his younger brothers, the position of Joseph Loomis's name in the agreement above-mentioned is regarded as proving that he was the oldest son.

2. Joseph Loomis, the younger, and John Loomis had land granted to them from the Windsor Plantation in 1643. The other sons acquired no land until several years afterwards. The names of the five sons are repeatedly mentioned on the records at Windsor and Hartford, as jurors, freemen, troopers, etc., and these dates lead to the conclusion that Joseph and John were older than the other three sons.

3. The marriages of the sons, as recorded at Windsor, took place in the order of the names mentioned above.

Materials from which this genealogy has been derived.--The genealogy given in the following pages is for many years derived principally from the town records at Windsor, Connecticut About 1672, Samuel Loomis removed to Westfield, Massachusetts, and from him there descended a numerous family in that town. Soon after the year 1700, other descendants of Joseph Loomis settled in Colchester, Lebanon, Coventry and Bolton, from whom has sprung a numerous family; and soon afterwards they established themselves in Torrington, New Hartford, Suffield, and many other towns in Connecticut, as well as Springfield, Southwick, Sheffield, and other towns in Southwestern Massachusetts. I have consulted the records of all these towns with considerable care, and have visited nearly every Loomis family at present living in Connecticut or Massachusetts. Soon after the peace of 1783, several of the Loomis family emigrated to the States of Vermont and New York, and their descendants at the present time are found in nearly every county of the latter State. Early in the present century, and particularly after the war of 1812, several of the Loomis family removed to New Connecticut, and their descendants are now found in considerable numbers in all parts of Ohio, but particularly in the northern portion. Within the past forty years, the Loomis family has followed the grand tide of emigration westward, and representatives of Joseph Loomis are now to be found in all of the States formerly known as the "Free States," and a few are to be found in the States formerly known as the "Slave States."

In the following genealogy I have aimed to include all the descendants of Joseph Loomis of Braintree, England, who have retained the family name. No attempt has been made to enumerate the descendants of the daughters, who are known by other names than Loomis. It is not claimed that this list of descendants is complete. I have collected some additional names of persons who are (*)The ages assigned to the children of Mrs. Skinner indicate that she was older than John Loomis. See Fem. Branch, Loomis Gen., Vol. I, p. 108. presumed to be descendants of Joseph Loomis, but whose connection with him I have not yet been able satisfactorily to establish. It is hoped that future researches may enable us to recover most of the names which are now deficient in this record.

Unfounded traditions.--In my numerous visits with members of the Loomis family, I have met with a considerable number of traditions respecting the first settlement in this country which are either very inaccurate or entirely erroneous. One statement(*) which I have repeatedly seen is the following: "Joseph Loomis (then spelled Lomas), wife and children, left Plymouth, Eng., in the ship Mary and John, March 20, 1634, and landed at or near Boston, Massachusetts, May 30."

This statement is entirely untrue, and contains a jumble of facts and dates derived in part from the history of other settlers in Windsor. On the 20th of March, 1630, a company of 160 persons, including Rev. John Warham, afterwards the first minister of Windsor, embarked at Plymouth, Eng., in the ship Mary and John, a vessel of 400 tons burden, and landed at Nantasket, near Boston, May 30th. But it is established that Joseph Loomis and his family did not come over until 1638, and the first record which can be found of his name in Connecticut is dated Feb. 2, 1640, when he bought a piece of land at Windsor.

Another statement, furnished me by a gentleman who has given considerable attention to the genealogy of the Loomis family, is the following: "Some sixty years since, Dr. Wheelock, then president of Dartmouth College, N. H., received a letter from a gentleman in Leyden, Holland, stating that a Mr. Lomas had deceased at that place, leaving some property to the oldest Lomas in Windsor, Connecticut, and from concomitants it is believed that our family once resided in Leyden."

In July, 1857, I visited Leyden, mainly for the purpose of testing the truth of this rumor. I examined the Address-Buch of Leyden for the name of Lomas, but found no such name. I consulted the clerks at the post office and many other persons in the town, but no one knew any such person.

The deaths in Leyden are all recorded in large volumes preserved at the Stadthaus. From 1775 to 1795, and also since 1805, there has been prepared an alphabetical list of all the deaths; but the name of Lomas could not be found there. There was no alphabetical list of the deaths for other years, and it was a hopeless task to look for a particular name without some indication of the year in which it was to be found.

There is also an alphabetical list of all who have left unclaimed property since 1776. The name Lomas is not there to be found, nor any name which it is thought could be confounded with it. I also examined an alphabetical list of all whose property had been sold from 1770 to 1812, but did not find any name resembling Lomas. Hence it is inferred that no such person had property sold in Leyden during that period.

This evidence satisfies me that the rumor above referred to is erroneous, either in respect of the place (Leyden) or the person (Lomas). I have found no evidence which indicated that Joseph Loomis of Windsor ever resided upon the continent of Europe.

The name Lomas in Great Britain.--In some parts of Great Britain the names Lomas and Lomax are of very common occurrence, while in other portions these names are entirely unknown. Slater's Directory of Manchester for 1865 gives 102 persons of the name Lomas, 47 of the name Lomax, 2 of the name Lummis, and 2 of the name Lomnitz. The following table shows the result of a similar analysis of the directories of eight towns of England:

In order to determine in what part of Great Britain the Lomas family first appeared, or has been longest established, I have consulted with great care the Directories of Great Britain and Ireland.

I have searched through Slater's Directory of Ireland for 1856 without finding Lomas or Lomax in a single instance. I have also searched through Slater's Directory of Scotland for 1860 without finding either Lomas or Lomax in a single instance.

In Slater's Directory of Wales for 1850 the names Lomas and Lomax occur only once each, viz., Thomas Lomas, tinman, in Crickhowell, and John Lomax, bootmaker, in Bangor.

In order to discover, if possible, the home of this family in England at a remote antiquity, I have selected as the basis of comparison that class of persons which is presumed to be the least migratory. Merchants and bankers, from the very nature of their business, form a migratory class, and we find an occasional merchant of the name Lomas in nearly every one of the large cities of England. Mechanics are less migratory; but with the exception of the nobility, the persons who are thought to be most closely attached to the soil are the farmers.

With only one exception these places are all near Manchester, and are included within a circle of 30 miles radius, whose centre is 25 miles S. S. E. of Manchester. This point is near the boundary of the three counties of Chester, Derby, and Stafford, and this circle has without doubt been the home of the Lomas family for several centuries.(*)

23 The resemblance between the Christian names occurring in England and those found at Windsor, Connecticut, is quite remarkable. Thus in the small town of Stockport, Cheshire, the Post Office Directory gives eight persons (only) of the name Lomas, and their Christian names are John, Joseph, James, Isaac, Matthew, Jacob, Charles, and William. Each of these names is found in the first three generations of the Lomas family at Windsor, and the first four names occur in the aggregate 26 times.

From the preceding examination it is inferred that for a long period the principal home of the Lomas family in Great Britain has been in the vicinity of Derbyshire.

Early history of the name Lomas in England.--In order to trace the history of the name Lomas, I have consulted early English records as far as I have been able. In the "Calendar to Pleadings in the reigns of Henry VII. to Elizabeth," a work in two vols., folio, published in 1827, the names Lomas, Lomax, and Lommas occur in all seven times. In the "Proceedings in Chancery in the reign of Elizabeth," a work in three vols., folio, published by the British Government in 1827-32, the names Lomas and Lomax each occur once. In an English periodical entitled "Notes and Queries," 2d series, vol. 8th, is a communication containing some hints respecting the early history of the Lomas family. In "William Berry's Pedigrees of Hertfordshire families," is given the pedigree of Joshua Lomax, who died in 1685. In a few other ancient documents I have found occasional mention of the name Lomas. The following table embodies the substance of the information derived from the preceding sources, to which I have added the Lomas and Lomax graduates of the two oldest English Universities, down to 1850.

1435 Oliverus del Lumhalghes, Thomas del Lumhalghe, Radus del Lumhalghes, and Galfridus del Lumhalghes, held lands within the Manor of Bury, Lancaster Co., near Manchester.

1497 Lawrens Lomatz of Bolton, near Manchester, aged 70. Notes and Queries, 2d series, vol. 8, p. 478.

1556 Jan. 27, John Lomas, burned at Canterbury for heresy, that is, for being a Protestant. Zurich Letters on the English Reformation, vol. iii, p. 175.**

1561 Lawrent Lomax of Eye, Suffolk Co., born Lancaster Co., had a coat of arms recorded in the Visitation Book. British Museum Manuscripts.

1566 Lawrence Lomax, of Eye, Suffold Co., Proceedings in Chancery, vol. 2, p. 141.

1633 Lawrence Lomax, Bailiff of Eye, Suffolk Co., Calendar of State Papers, 1633 4. p. 577.

1649 Edward Lomas, of Pevensy, Sussex Co., Sussex Archeological Collections, vol. 24. p. 257. (*)See Chambers' Astronomy, p. 69. Monthly Notices, R. A. S. vol. 22, p. 232. W. Lummis of Manchester, Eng.
**In "the acts and monuments" of John Foxe, Vol. 7, p. 750, John Lomas is called a `young man' of the parish of Tenterden, Kent Co., and the nature of his heresy is described. In "select poetry" edited by Edward Fare, p. 165, the name is spelled Lo??. 1653 Anne Lomax, West Felton, Shropshire, Notes and Queries. 2d ser., vol. 8, p. 478.

1674 Joshua Lomax, Esq., of St. Albans, Sheriff of Hertfordshire, purchased the Manor of Childwickbury, Hertfordshire, about 1666. Died in 1675

1700 Joshua Lomax, Graduate Oxford Univ., Brasen Nose College. Mem. Parliament for St. Albans, 1708.

1727 Caleb Lomax of Childwickbury, Mem. Parl. for St. Albans 1727; died in 1729.

1784 Rev. Thomas Lomas, Graduate Oxford Univ., Brasen Nose College; died in 1843.

1848 James Lomax, Lieut.-General of British Army, 1841-48; died Nov. 14, 1848, ', 75.

The correspondent of "Notes and Queries," 2d ser., vol. 8, p. 478, says: "The ancient orthography of the name Lomax or Lomas appears in a MS. Rent-Roll of Sir John Pilkington of Bury, Knight, dated 13 Henry VI. (1435) wherein occur Radus del Lumhalghes, Oliverus del Lumhalghes, Thomas del Lumhalghe de Whetyll, and Galfridus del Lumhalghes, all holding lands within the manor of Bury, in the county of Lancaster."

At first view we might think that the name Lomax could not be derived from Lumhalghes, but a little reflection will render it less improbable. It is presumed that the name Lumhalghes was pronounced in two syllables. There are several English words ending in es in which the e is not sounded; such as besides, domes, fires, notes, etc., and in the early English the number of such cases was much greater than at present. Thus:
clerks was written clerkes.
fowls " fowles.
herbs " herbes.
hills " hilles.
months" monthes.
mountains was written mounteynes.
sins" synnes.
songs " songes.
towards " towardes.
wills " willes, etc.

The letter h simply denotes a strong breathing which is common in all parts of England, but more particularly in the northern counties. Canceling the letters h and e, the word is reduced to Lumalgs, and this would be pronounced very much like the word Lomax.

The same correspondent of "Notes and Queries," p. 478, states: "In a curious article contributed to the Chetham Society (Miscell., vol. 1855) being Examynatyons towcheynge Cokeye More, tpe. H. vii (1485-1509), one of the witnesses examined was Lawrens Lomatz of ye p'ish of Bolton, of the age of lxx years."

From the table on page 16 it appears that the name Lomas in England can be traced back a little more than four centuries, but I have been unable to trace it further. Surnames were first introduced into England about the time of the Conquest (A. D. 1066), but the custom came slowly into use during the eleventh and three following centuries. Hereditary surnames were not premanently settled among the lower and middle classes in England before the era of the Reformation (A. D. 1517). But Laurent Lomax, born about 1427, was a person of some distinction, and either he or his son (as will be shown hereafter) was authorized to have a coat of arms. The absence of any earlier mention in English annals of the name Lomax or Lomas is therefore thought to be somewhat remarkable, and may be explained if we suppose the family to have been natives of some other country, and that they had recently settled in England. The reasons for this last supposition will be stated hereafter.

The pronunciation of the name Lomas four centuries ago was probably well represented by the spelling Lomatz. Subsequently one branch of the family adopted the spelling Lomax and another the spelling Lomas, and these two modes of spelling have been pretty consistently adhered to in England down to the present time.

It is the common impression in England that the names Lomax and Lomas have the same origin. A surgeon of some eminence residing in Manchester, Eng., married a Miss Lomas. I visited the family in 1857, and was told that the lady's grandfather was named Lomax, but that her father (believing that the name was originally Lomas) adopted the spelling Lomas.

The change of the name Lomatz to Lomax and Lomas is no greater than the changes which have taken place in many other English names whose history can be traced back several centuries. We have an example of the facility with which the letter x is exchanged for the letter s or soft c, in the word index, whose plural is either indexes or indices.(*)

The Lomax coat of arms.--Lawrent Lomax of Lancaster Co. was authorized to bear a coat of arms sometime prior to the year 1561. In the reign of Philip and Mary (A. D. 1554), a commission of visitation was appointed to regulate the use and assumption of arms, and several similar commissions were subsequently issued under the reign of Elizabeth and her successors. At the Visitation of 1561, Lawrent Lomax of Eye, in Suffolk County, was recorded as having a coat of arms. This record is found in a manuscript volume contained in the British Museum, entitled "Pedigrees and Arms of Suffolk Families," Harleian Collection of Manuscripts, No. 1449. On page 110b of this manuscript is found a record of Laurent Lomax (born in Lancaster), with the names of his descendants (including children, grandchildren and great grandchildren), and his coat of arms is represented by a figure in the margin.

Lawrent Lomax, born in Lancaster.
Coat of Lawrent Lomax Mary dau. of Sir Edward
Arms of Eye in Suffolk Sulyard of Hawley in Suffolk. in the margin Lawrent Lomax=Ann dau. and heir of Ounger of Eye of Suffolk of Debenham in Suffolk.
Lawrent Lomax; John Lomax.
(*)Also note that Brussels was formerly Bruxelles; Mexico was Messico. The representation of the Lomax coat of arms on the frontispiece is taken from Berry's Pedigrees of Hertfordshire families, page 103, where is given the genealogy of Joshua Lomax of Childwickbury, Hertfordshire. This coat of arms is thus described: "Ermine a Greyhound, courant between three escallops, sable. Crest a demi greyhound Argent, collard Gules."

The last visitation of the heralds was made in 1683. Soon after this date the ordinances which had been made deciding who were entitled to bear arms were generally disregarded, and arms were assumed by any person who coveted this distinction.

Within a comparatively recent period, the Lomas family has assumed an independent coat of arms. In a book entitled "A complete body of Heraldry, by Joseph Edmondson, London, 1780," the name Lomax appears, but not the name Lomas. In the "British Herald, by Thomas Robson, Sunderland, 1830," and in numerous more recent works on heraldry, the Lomas coat of arms is described thus: "Argent between two palets, gules three fleurs de lis in pale sable, a chief azure. Crest, on a chapeau a pelican vulning herself proper."

The figure on the frontispiece representing the Lomas coat of arms, is copied from a drawing which I obtained in 1856 at an office of Heraldry in London. (See supplementary data on The Lomas Coat of Arms).

Can the Lomas family be traced to the continent of Europe?--In the hope of obtaining some further information as to the early history of the Lomas family, I have consulted the most extensive biographical dictionaries within my reach for the names Lomas and Lomax; also all the directories of cities and countries of Europe which I could find in the United States, or in those parts of Europe which I have visited; and I have also consulted all the large gazeteers that I could find in quest of places bearing either of the above names, or any name having a decided resemblance to either of them.

(A.) The following is a brief summary of the results obtained respecting the names of persons: 1. Cantoral (Hieron de) Lomas, a Spanish poet from Valladolid, lived in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and wrote various poems, which were published at Madrid in 1577. See Grosses Vollstandiges Universal Lexicon, 1738, v. 18, p. 330. Also Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, v. 3, p 513.

2. Giovanni Paul Lomazzo, an Italian painter and savant, born at Milan,(*) April 26, 1538, of a distinguished family from the village of Lomazzo, near Como. He was called to Florence by Cosmo de Medicis, who made him guardian of a gallery of 4,000 paintings. He died in 1598.-Biographie Universelle, Paris, 1819, t. 24, p. 637.

3. In the Directory of Spain (El Indicador de Espa¤a, Barcelona, 1864, 1865) appears the name of Nicolas Lomas at Santander. The name Loma occurs five times in the Provinces of Madrid, Toledo, Cordova and Burgos.

In 1864, Fidel Carcia Lomas was sub-director del Registro de la propiedad. --El Indicador, p. 23.

In 1874, General Loma commanded a division of the Spanish army operating against the Carlists.

4. In the Directory of Milan (Guida di Milano per l'anno, 1867) appear the names of Antoinetta Lomazzi and Ippolito Lomazzi.

5. In the Directory of France (Almanach des 500,000 adresses, 1867, de Paris et des Departments) no name is found resembling Lomas. The same is true of the Directories of Brussels, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. In the Directories (*)From 1535 to 1713 the duchy of Milan was a dependency of the Spanish crown. of Berlin, Dresden and Leipsic, the name Lommatsch frequently occurs. Also the Directory of Berlin for 1866 contains the name Lomax, but upon inquiry this was found to be an Englishman recently established in Germany.

(B.) The following is a summary of the places bearing the name Lomas, or a name somewhat resembling it. Lomas, a village in the Province of Palencia, Spain, with a population of 519.--Bescherelle Dictionaire de Geographie Universelle.

Lomiswyl (i. e., Lomis-ville), a village of Switzerland, four miles west of Soleure.

Lomas, a town in the Argentine Republic, South America. Lat. 31 deg. 30 min. S. Long. 62 deg. 18 min. W.

Lomas Bay, Straits of Magalhaens, S. A. Lat. 52 deg. 30 min. S. Long. 69 deg. 10 min. W.

Point Loma, San Diego, California. Lat. 32 deg. 42 min. N. Long. 117 deg. 15 min. W.

Loma Hill, a mountain in Western Africa. Lat. 9 deg. 25 min. N. Long. 9 deg. 51 min. W.

Do the preceding facts afford a basis for any conjecture respecting the early history of the Lomas family? It is generally contended by writers on onomatology that all proper names had originally a peculiar and appropriate meaning. (See Salverte's Essai historique sur les noms d'homme, t. 1, p. 7.) Is the name Lomas derived from any word or combination of words in the English language? No one has ever suggested any such derivation which could be considered as in any degree plausible. The conclusion seems to follow of necessity that the name Lomas is not of English origin.** The same considerations lead to the conclusion that it is not of French, or German, or Italian origin. The case is, however, different with Spain. Loma in Spanish signifies a little hill, and lomas is the plural of loma, signifying hills. It is probable, therefore, that the names Loma and Lomas were early introduced as surnames in Spain, and we can understand why these names were applied to places which were inhabited by Spaniards, or of which the Spaniards were the first explorers. The conclusion naturally follows that the Lomas family in England came from Spain about the year 1400, or perhaps earlier. The names Lomis and Lomisville, applied to villages in Switzerland, render it probable that persons of the same name from Spain, or perhaps from the Lomas family established in England, migrated to Switzerland.

The names Lomazzi and Lomazzo in Northern Italy are also thought to have originated from the same stock. These names differ from Lomax or Lomatz only in substituting an Italian termination.

This will appear from the following examples:
The English name Lawrence becomes Lorenzo in Italian.
" Morris " Maurizio "
" Boniface " Bonifazio "
" Florence " Fiorenze "
" Nice " Nizza "
" Venice " Venezia "
(*)See maps accompanying Murray's North Italy, Part I.

**See hereinafter, what Prof. C. A. Hoppin, Jr., says on this very interesting point. It is possible that the name Lommatsch in Saxony is simply the name Lomatz modified by a change of termination, so as better to express the peculiar German pronunciation.

It seems, therefore, probable that the Lomas family originated in Spain; that four or five centuries ago, and perhaps earlier, one or more members of this family became established in England, while others of the family found their way into Northern Italy.

It may appear strange that when the facilities for travel were so restricted, as they were in Europe during the middle ages, the Lomas family should have become so widely scattered. But we know that during the Crusades (from A. D. 1096 to 1270), adventurers from England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, were united in a common cause; and those crusaders who returned from Palestine instead of returning to their native homes, were frequently dispersed into foreign countries. The result must have been a considerable mingling together of the people of the different nations of Europe.

It may be objected that the fact that Laurent Lomax had a coat of arms proves that he was not of foreign origin. Such an objection is not well founded. Many English families that have a coat of arms are of French origin, while others are of German, Italian, or Spanish origin. Among families of this description having a German origin occur the names Deycheler, Kramer, Lauginger, Mazzinghi, and Weber; among those families having an Italian origin occur the names Castillon, Corsellis, De Moline, and Sileto; while among the families admitted to be of Spanish origin occur the names Ayala, Florio, Gambow, and Ilbery.

Other families of the Loomis name.--Besides the descendants of Joseph Loomis of Windsor, there are in the United States other families known by the name of Loomis, Lummis, or Lomas. Edward Lomas, born about 1606, came from London in 1635, and settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts, as early as 1648. He had six children: John resided in Salem, Massachusetts; Samuel settled in Hamilton, Massachusetts; Nathaniel settled in Dover, N. H.; Jonathan settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts; Edward settled in Cohanzy, N. J.; and there was a daughter, who married John Sherring. The descendants of Edward Lomas generally spell their name Lummis, and this circumstance is usually sufficient to distinguish them from the Windsor family; but some of them have adopted the spelling Loomis, and a few have adopted the anomalous spelling Lamos. I have undertaken to make out the genealogy of this family, and have made considerable progress, but my manuscript is not yet ready for publication.(*)

There was also a Joseph Lomas born in England about 1761, who was a soldier in Burgoyne's army, who remained in this country after the war, settled in Andover, Massachusetts, and died in Erie Co., N. Y., about 1830. He had ten children, among whom were six sons, who married and had children. They generally claim that the proper spelling of their name is Lomas, but it is sometimes spelled Loomis. I have also undertaken to make out a complete genealogy of this family.(*)

Besides the three families above referred to, in most of the larger cities we find persons of the name Lomas who were born in England, or whose parents came from England since the peace of 1783. Such persons uniformly claim that the proper spelling of their name is Lomas, but in the city directories it is frequently spelled Loomis. I have not yet found a person in the United States bearing the name Lomas, Loomis, or Lummis who does not probably belong to one of the preceding classes; in other words, there are believed to be in the United States but two Lomas families whose ancestors came to this country before the Revolution of 1776; the members of one (being descended from Joseph of (*)A copy of this and much additional data is now in the possession of Elisha S. Loomis, of Berca, O. Windsor) almost without exception spelling their name Loomis, and those of the other family (descended from Edward of Ipswich) generally spelling their name Lummis. If the work which I have commenced should be ever completed, it will show the genealogy of every person in the United States bearing the name Loomis, Lummis, or Lomas, and whose ancestors came to this country before the commencement of the present century.(*)

"Early history of the name Lomas in England," these additional facts are pertinent.

The name "del Lumhalghes" appears as "del Lumhalghe" in records of the time of Henry VI.

"Laurens Lomatz" appears in one author as "Laurent Lomax, b. 1427, of Bolton Parish, Eng. A witness at ae. 70."

Jossu Von Lom, b. 1500, in Buren, Holland, a physician, wrote a work and signed his name (Lottu) Lommius.

"1668. Rev. John Lomax" was the father of John Lomax, who was the ancestor of the Lomaxes of Va., and N. C., U. S. A.

In Notes and Queries, Dec. 10, 1859, the same name is written the following three ways,--Lummas, Lummis, and Lomax.

Also it appears that Anne and Sarah Lomax, of Shropshire, were daughters of Jervase Lummas, of Shropshire.

Also Bardsley's (Ed'n of 1901) Dictionary of British and Welsh Surnames, p. 492 and 500, for name Loomis has:

"Lomas, Lomax, Local, `of Lomax,' a small spot in the parish of Bury Co., Lanc. I do not know whether it can still be identified, but it has given birth to a family name that has ramified itself in a wonderful manner."

The double instances given in 5, 6, 7 and 8 prove, if proof were needed, that Lomax and Lomas are one and the same name. In Manchester Directory Lomas occurs 31 and Lomax 18 times; London, 7, 10; New York, 3, 4."

Page 500--"Lummis--Local, a variation of Lomas, q. v. 1702, Bapt. Eliz. d. Edw. Lumis; St. Jas. Clerkenwell, ii, 18.

1796, married,--Wm. Lummis and Margery Kneebone; St. Geo. Hun. Sq. ii, 148. Manchester, 1; East Rid. Court Div. 1; New York, 2."

(*)It is now (1885) established that one William Lomas, a forgeman (i. e. trained to forge iron) came from Wales and settled in East Nantmel, Chester Co., Pa. He bought land there in 1797 and died in 1803, leaving sons Wm., Thomas and John; from John are now known many descendants. It is said that Wm. Lomas came in the British army, but deserted to the Am. army while at Valley Forge. He helped to make the first gun ever made in Pa. The Name Lomas on the Continent of Europe

In British Family Names, 2nd edition, 1903, is found the following:-- "Lomax, Lomas. Fr. Lammas,Lamusse; Fl. Lammers; D'ch. Lommesse, p. n. (time of birth (?) famous). Lammasse in Rot. Hund.Lamisso, a Lomb. King 5th century."

The following historical note relative to the Scottish border revolution, 1095, makes reference to a name which seems closely related to the name Loomis.

In "The Border-History of England and Scotland" by the Rev. Geo. Ridpath of Stitchill, revised by his bro., the Rev. Philip Ridpath, of Hutton (edition of 1810, London), on p. 72, we find this:
"Soon after, (the last revolution in Scotland, 1095), the young king, (Edgar, King of Scotland, in 1098), in testimony of his gratitude, made a present of the above-mentioned convent (the convent of Durham), of the place and lands of Coldingham, together with several villages in its neighborhood. . .(*)

Is not Lumis (omitting the "den") nearer Loomis than Spanish Loma, Lancastrian Lumhalghes, or even Lomax? Was there a Lumis family sufficiently established in 1095 to stamp its name on this "border" place, or did the place (through the meaning of the term) give rise to a Lumis family? And was this family in any way connected with the early Lancastrian family? Who can tell?

In Savage's Gen. Dic'y, Vol. III, p. 111-115, the name is spelled eight ways. In England and the U. S., the name has been written or recorded each of the following 42 ways since the year 1600: Lamas, Lames, Lamus, Lammas, Lamos. Lamys, Lewmas, Lomack, Lomacks, Lomas, Lomatz, Lomax, Lomes, Lomies, Lomis, Lommas, Lommatz, Lommes, Lomnitz, Lomys, Loomas, Loomax, Loomes, Loomis, Loomiss, Lomes, Looms, Loomys, Lowmas, Lumas, Lumass, Lumax, Lumes, Lumis, Lummas, Lummis, Lummix, Lummox, Lummus, Lumus, Lumux, Lumys.

1. The descendants of Joseph Lomas, the soldier in Burgoyne's army, who settled at Andover, Massachusetts, and of Wm. Lomas, of Ashtabula Co., O., who settled there about 1870, coming from England, generally spell their name Lomas; a few spell it Loomis or Lumis.

2. The descendants of Wm. Lomas, said to have come to America during the Rev. War, and who settled in Chester Co., Pa., generally spell their name Loomis.

3. The descendants of Edward Lumas or Lumax, also written Lomas and Lummis, of Ispwich, Massachusetts, 1648, generally spell their name Lummis or Lummus; but many are now found who spell it Loomis.

4. The descendants of Joseph Loomis (Lomas) of Windsor, Conn, 1639, now nearly always spell their name Loomis.

(*)The Charter together with the mansion of Coldingham, mentions the following mansions, viz.: Aldcambus, Lumisden, Regintun (Renton), Riston, Swinewde (Swinewood), Farndun (Farnyside), the two Eituns (Aitons), Prenagest (Prendergest), and Cramesmuthe. All these, with small variations in spelling, are the names of villages to this day situated in the neighbourhood, except Cranesmutbe. At present, in England, the spelling Lomas is well established.(*) In the U. S. of America and Canada, the spelling Loomis is generally found.

The Lomas Coat of Arms
"He who
inherits arms is A gentleman, well bred and of good name."
--King Henry V.

The motto "Ne cede malis" is found in Verg. Ae., 6, 95, and the translation is, "Do not give way to misfortunes." The coat of arms by the rules of heraldry may be interpreted thus:

The pallet, signifying military strength and fortification, was given to those who impaled or otherwise defended cities, or supported the government of their sovereign, "by standing up uprightly for prince and country." The Fleur-delis was often granted to those who had taken part in the French wars. The Pelican is the device of the inner temple, London. And vulning itself signifies, that it will give its own blood for its young, hence a symbol of devoted and selfsacrificing charity. On p. 98, of Wescott's Hst. of the Eng. Bible (the Bishop's Bible which appeared in 1568), Wescott says: "At the end is an elegant couplet in the device of the pelican feeding her young." The couplet is:
"Matris ut haec proprio stirps est satiata cruore,
Pacis item proprio, Christe, cruore tuos."
Translated, it reads:
"As this young is fed by the actual blood of the mother
So, O Christ, you feed yours with your own blood."
The signification of the colors are,-- Argent, peace and sincerity; Gules, magnanimity and military fortitude; Sable,
constancy; and Azure, loyalty and truth.

Some Historical Facts Belatine to Arms Arms, so called because originally displayed upon defensive armor. Coat of arms, because embroidered upon the coat worn over the armor.

William the Conqueror did not use arms. Uncertain when introduced into England, but in the 13th century they came rapidly into use.

In the infancy of heraldry every knight assumed whatever arms he chose, but the Crusades, by bringing together soldiers of different nations, tended to produce a certain assimilation in their heraldry, all of which are now under the direction of the Heralds' College of London.

In America any one is free to adopt any device, or coat of arms, he may choose. For our pioneer forefathers left all such trappings in the mother country, and for now ten generations their descendants have been more than "gentlemen," they have been useful members of society and defenders of equality. Yet, is not the advice given in the report of the Committee on Heraldry, of the N. E. Hist. and Gen. Society, made in 1898 and adopted in 1899, the better rule to follow? See same at end of Prof. Hoppin, Jr.'s report, on Origin of the Name and Ancestry in England.

(*)In "Homes of Family Names in Great Britain," by Heary ?? Gappy, M. B., edition of 1890, p. 135, the author says: "Lomas is a name very numerous on the Cheshire border and in the viciaity of Stockport in that county," viz, Derbyshire. On p. 57 he says: "Lomas. Cheshire, 40 (meaning 40 per 10,000 of population); Derbyshire, 61; Lancashire, 11; Staffordahire, 14. In Lancashire it is occasionally spelt Lomax." (The reader will note that the spelling Loomis does not occur at all in Guppy's work).

"Our pioneer ancestors were `very respectable, well-to-do, religious, practical, temperale, industrions and honest' people." To whom are we kin? Who was my father's mother's great-grand-father? But few can tell. Shakespeare makes one say: "O call back yesterday, bid time return."

But we must call back a hundred years to find an answer. And every generation beyond increases the difficulty of finding our ancestors. How rapidly the number of our ancestors increase is easily seen through the following: Every human being has had two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. One's ancestors for 10 generations are 512; fifteen generations, over 16,000; twenty-five generations, over 16,000,000; at the beginning of the Christian era, more than all the people on the earth then. But what a paradox! How can it be? What does it teach? This--that some remote ancestor is common to several lines. The writer has traced his lineage through three sons and one daughter of pioneer Joseph Loomis. You, possibly, may trace your lines through more than four of his children. Because of this our actually different ancestors are reduced in number, and the paradox vanishes, even though we are kin to the preceding countless millions--to kings enthroned and the vilest beggar in the wake of a crusade, to some historic genius and some unnamed serf.

But from this long look into the past let us consider the future and enumerate, if possible, the untold descendants of Joseph and Mary (White) Loomis. And to be definite let us suppose that they had but two sons and two daughters, each marrying and each again having two sons and two daughters, and so on for ten generations. Granting this, how would the count stand, as to those who bear the name Loomis, and those whose names through the daughters are no longer Loomis, no marriage occurring in which both parties are descendants of Joseph Loomis. Joseph Loomis's sons and grandsons married into the leading families of Windsor and Hartford. This fact fixes his social position. If other evidence is desired that the Loomises of early Windsor belonged to the best and most prosperous classes, the following is submitted:

In 1675 the assessor or lister divided the families of Windsor for taxation for rivulet ferry purposes into five classes. (See Stiles's Anc. Windsor, Vol. I, p. 88). The first class included such men as have a family, a horse and 4 oxen; there were 29 in this class, two of whom were Joseph and Nathaniel Loomis, Nos. 1 and 7 of this catalogue. The second class included such men as have a family, a horse and 2 oxen; there were 42 in this class, two of whom were John and Thomas Loomis, Nos, 5 and 6 of this catalogue. Samuel Loomis, No. 8, had already removed to Westfield, Massachusetts, hence his name is not found in this tax list.

The Loomis Family in the Old World An Original and Exhaustive Inquiry into the Origin of the Name and Ancestry in England of Joseph Loomis the Emigrant to New England in 1638
BY CHARLES A. HOPPIN, JR.
FOR "The Loomis Family of America"
[This narration has naught to do with lords, dukes, earls, or gentlemen of leisure, nor with courts and castles; it is an account of a "plain practical people," such as of whom Lincoln said: "God must love them, for he made so many of them." Appropriate thereunto we shall not indulge in fancies, or appeal unduly to the imagination; this hereinafter is, therefore, a recital of facts, as to actual persons, places and events, interpreted reasonably, without prior bias.]

"WEARY with wandering in the desert world Gladly I turn to thee, old Lancaster." The name of Loomis (Lomas) and the blood it represented, when this surname originated, were both Saxon, neither being Norman, Celtic, Pictic or other. The blood was of Lancashire, and in that region the surname was first assumed. For eight hundred years, from Saxon times until the present hour, the Lomas family appears to have resided in the very parish in which it first became a family having a surname.

The surname of Lomas, or, as written in America, Loomis, is territorial; it was taken from a locality. The locality was what has been modernly known as the village of Haulgh, now a part of Tonge-with-Haulgh, which is a township in the civil and municipal parish of Bolton. Bolton is a parish of 150,000 population, --a market-town in the Wapentake of Salford, which is the southwestern division of the county Palatine of Lancaster, and within the Duchy of Lancaster, in the northwest of England.

e must first picture, somewhat briefly as best we may, the conditions of buman life and customs in this part of England where the blood of Lomas inhabited before it became finally designated by a surname.

What is now Lancashire seems to have been but little peopled by the Britons prior to the Roman conquest of Britain in the year A. D. 43; and the Romans did not, apparently, greatly develop the region, though various remains of their occupation have been found. The Roman influence, however, was progressive for four hundred years. Then, in 401, when the Roman Empire gave up its dominion over Britain, withdrawing its "legions," this wild and remote region of England once more, before 547, became reduced (when the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon kingdom was set up) almost to a state of nature. History affirms that though not absolutely depopulated, the settlements must have been few and small, and feebly defended by the poor remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants, who were thus left subject to the raids of the savage Picts. The Saxons (Anglo-Saxons) or the English, as they are called, who came from the north of Europe, (the southern shores of the Baltic sea), beginning with the year 400 and forming the Kingdom of Northumbria in 547 (the whole north of England) and other kingdoms, are therefore to be looked upon as the prime creators of Lancashire. It is said that there, as elsewhere, they gave birth to a new era of manners, language and religion. They re-peopled this part of England, named the settlements and developed it in every way. Consequently, about all the place-names are pure Saxon, often chosen to convey some distinctive and natural circumstance in the situation of a village. They founded Haulgh and Bolton and Salfordshire and named them. The Saxon dominion was complete; everything about Lancashire was substantially Saxon, though the Saxon remains are not as numerous as in other parts. With the development of population, peace and prosperity continued without great hindrance, until the Norman conquest of England. The organization of society up to that time, or rather the home life, is interesting to note, especially as among the Saxons were the men who, known among each other only by Christian names, such as Egfrith, Cuthbert, Egbert, Siward, Osbert, Wiun, Utred, Ulf, Ranulph, Swaine, Hasebert, Penda, Ralph, Edwin, Hugh, were the ancestors of the man who first assumed the surname that we now know as Lomas and Loomis; it is well here to note that Mason, the historian of Norfolk, explains how these Saxons first found the greater part of England overgrown with woods, or marshy through the frequent floods of unembanked rivers. "Boars, deer and game in general abounded, and hunting, which was conducted uniformly on foot, was not only a pastime, but an important occupation of the settler. The unit of society was the head of the family. Every family lived by itself and safeguarded its own members. The quarrel of one of the family was as a rule the quarrel of all. Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren dwelt together, and these family guilds formed the first villages. When the English settled here their clearings or winnings of agricultural land were each of a family character. The population was sparse, and natural boundaries divided the ham of one family from the tun of another--woodland in many cases; in others, the moor; sometimes a fen constituted the frontier of the mark. Any one crossing this frontier had to blow a born as announcing his approach, otherwise he was to be regarded as an invader, and attacked accordingly. Within the mark each member of the family guild had his own home and byre, but the woods and wastes were in common, and there each man could pasture his cattle or feed his pigs. Horses were not used in agriculture, neither were they ridden to battle, except in later years but little before the Norman conquest. Each household had its slaves, whose lot, however, was not entirely hopeless, as in more than one way might the position of a freeman be obtained. These slaves were recruited from the conquered Britons, from members of rival families defeated in war, and from the children of freemen by slave mothers. As time went on the villages became manors. Natural superiority in some particular member of the family group asserted itself in war with neighboring families or with foreigners, and the ascendancy thus obtained tended to become hereditary. The lesser freemen found in war time that their chief safety lay in following some powerful local leader, and gradually an aristocracy was formed from men whose land was tilled for them, whose occupation was rule and the administration of rough justice in peace, and leadership and personal prowess in the field of war. The Damsh wars tended to foster aristocracy, and something not very dissimilar to the Norman feudal system prevailed in many places sometime before the landing of William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066. Each manor had, not only its own agriculture, but its own trade. The clothes, the shoes, the weapons of the village were all made at home by artisan members of the family guild or local group. The houses were all of wood, and were built by carpenters of the village. Each manor was in all essentials self-supporting. The monasteries were generally also self-supporting manors. They, too, had their farmers and their artisans, and both their husbandry and their handicraft set an example to the neighboring civil manors, and tended to raise the agricultural and industrial character of the whole district.

Lancashire was less turbulent than some states, but quite as aggressive as any of its neighbors. The early English were great eaters, and Lancashire men were not behind the rest of their countrymen. Many contrasts between the Saxons and their Norman oppressors are not usually drawn in favor of the former, who are claimed to have been great drinkers as well as eaters; but while they lacked the culture and refinement of the more polished Normans, they had, nevertheless, erected in England several substantial kingdoms, established some of the foundations of the great fundamental laws of modern England, produced Alfred the Great, "the purest, grandest, most heroic soul that ever sprang from our race," and done the broad, rough work of making the isle of Britain ready for the advancement and elevation to which the Norman influence subsequently lifted its people. An ancient chronicler complained that the Normans "combed their hair once a day, bathed themselves once a week, changed their clothes frequently, and by all these arts of effeminacy, as well as by their military character, rendered themselves so agreeable to the women that the wives and daughters of the English were by no means safe in the company of such desperadoes."

Of the Saxons it is claimed that they were of the German race, and before that, came from the Aryan peoples, who were largely agricultural, in the eastern part of Europe.

A modern writer, Jean Finot of France, claims that this Aryan race does not exist; that there is no "Caucasian" race, nor any such thing as race, any way; that the contrasts in the various groups of the human species are caused by differing environments, conditions of climate and life and of nutrition. "There is no French race, no German race, no Anglo-Saxon race. Every one of these supposed stocks is an intricate blend, a cross-breed, to the making of which have gone much the same elements in every case. We are all alike, and there is not a `pure blood' on the earth." We need not be concerned as to this, even if there is no racially pure blood, for the distinctions that nationality have made are quite sufficient to mark out our so-called Saxons as forming a great clan, (if not absolutely a pure and separate race), the mental and physical features of which are still plain to see and which still continue to stamp their characteristics and domination upon the world.

The Saxons had a love of liberty and a disposition to wander, and were great navigators, especially those who lived on the northern shores of the Baltic Sea and became known as the Northmen. They ventured upon the soil of every kingdom within their reach and generally conquered. "They were broad-shouldered, deep-chested, long-limbed, with slender waists and small hands and feet; their build told of strength, which was so prized by them that their puny infants were exposed and left to die. Their complexion was almost always fair, and the fair alone were considered beautiful or well-born." An early writer said of one of these northern Saxons: "His face was large; his forehead broad, with mickle eyebrows; his nose not long, but thick; his upper lip wide and long, while his chin and jaw bones were enormously broad. He was thicknecked and his shoulders of superhuman breadth. In shape well-built and taller than the most of men."

Our readers will find a deeper study of the Saxons an interesting pastime, since it is plain that the blood of the earliest Lomases was Saxon, as distinguished from the Celtic, and Pictic, and the Norman which entered largely into the people of the isle of Britain. We may properly look upon the Saxons residing in the Wapentake or Hundred of Salford (a section of Lancashire consisting of a hundred townships) prior to the year 1100, as divided into four classes--men of birth, men of property, freemen, and serviles; and also we may believe, from the evidences of the earliest recorded Lomases, that they were men of property, and freemen, neither men of title, nor serviles. The chief landholders were the thanes, (thengs), who held of the king, which term was the Saxon equivalent for northern baron. Some men of yeomen birth or station were called thanes, as also were some freeholders or franklins, because their holdings were hereditary and their tenure free. Some of the ancestors in Salfordshire of the American Loomises were doubtless of this rank. In 1066 there were 175 manors held by as many thanes in the southern part of Lancashire between the rivers Ribble and Mersey; and in 1086, after the Normans had claimed title thereto, there were no large estates, or fiefs. In 1086 the annual value of all the vast property in Lancashire south of the Ribble was p120, (equivalent to the present p13,200), while in 1814 the income of the same lands had increased to p2,569,761. In 1066 the Hundred of Salford yielded p37:4:0; in 1866 it yielded in revenues p4,082,799.

Salford Hundred (embracing the city of Manchester) is thus, to-day, the world's greatest textile-producing area of its size, and Lomas descendants are found to have been concerned in this development during the past century. The title to the land of Salford was held, nominally, in 1066, by Edward the Confessor, King of England, yielding the aforesaid p37:4:0, but with the death of his successor, Harold II at the battle of Hastings, in the same year, that right passed to William, Duke of Normandy, the "Conqueror" of England. While we are told in the introduction to the printed Pipe Rolls of Lancashire that it was not for "a long period of years after 1066" that the Norman power was effectively demonstrated in Lancashire, owing to this county's remoteness and to its not being considered as an inviting region, and liable to give armed resistance to the Normans at any time, the general effect of the conquest upon this particular part of England was ill. It is plainly shown in the Domesday Book that in 1066 Salford's revenue of p37:4:0 had, in 1086, fallen to 12 pence per annum, and only 63 families are therein accounted for in the whole Hundred of Salford. Many may have escaped observation, possibly by temporarily sequestering themselves in the mountains standing nearby to the eastward. And though the Domesday Book shows that William the Conqueror gave the Hundred of Salford to his follower, Roger of Poitou, as a share of the spoils of victory, who in turn parcelled it out to Nigel, Warin and Goifford (all Normans), these Normans seem to have had little to do with the property other than to claim a yearly revenue from those minor lords, the actual residents, long hitherto in possession --the thanes and drengs (free tenants, holding of the thanes by a tenure partly military, partly servile). We obtain the impression here that our Saxon ancestors with their neighbors presented a formidable front to the Normans, and like the people of the other northern parts of England, effectually prevented, for many years, the actual encroachment of the Norman power; thus the apparent barrenness and worthlessness of Salfordshire, as presented to view in the Domesday survey, wherein only 63 families are accounted for, probably does not portray the actual conditions throughout. From the same source we are informed that Count Roger de Poitou was "little pleased with his rugged northern fief and its inhabitants." A generation after the Conquest, a great portion of the landholding population, the thanes and drengs, or other various serjeants of the castles and wapentakes would appear from their names to have been of Anglo-Saxon blood, or descendants of the Danes who had overspread the country in the tenth century. The parsons of the thirty or more churches which existed in Lancashire, at the Conquest, probably differed little from their neighbors except in name. Bolton (Saxon Boltune or Bothel-tun, a town adjoining to a principal mansion or mansion-house) manor and town was acquired from Roger de Poitou by Randle, Earl of Chester. Later, with other surrounding towns it became a holding of the earls and dukes of Lancaster, and to-day remains within what is called the Duchy of Lancaster, which is crown property; but Bolton has been held of the crown by the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, for several hundred years, who acquired their rights after the treason of their predecessors, the Pilkingtons, whose rent-roll contains references to Lomases, as hereinafter.

With the foregoing brief statement of the conditions existing in the region where the blood abounded from which later came the man who then first took the earliest form of the present surname of Loomis, we enter upon a little study of the actual origin and meaning of what is now in America, the name of Loomis, prefacing this with some remarks which will tend to illustrate the general origin of family names.

Surnames are only about a thousand years old in Christendom. Christian names are evidently even pre-historic; and some sort of a name for each man or woman may well have been among the first formal vocal utterances of a human being. Christian names, therefore, are as old as any language or form of speech. (A certain writer upon surnames has begun his discourse with the declaration that "names commenced in Eden--the name of Adam denoting his origin from the earth." If this presumer refers to the Biblical Eden, there is evidence that would have modified his opinion, while if the declaration is recited as historical fact, he has been still further misled by some one's imagination. It is sufficiently established, by scientific scholars, that the name of Adam was taken from the earlier Babylonian "Adama" which meant "the race;" the name of Eve was also obtained from an earlier Babylonian word, viz., "Eva," meaning "woman.")

The Greeks had only one name; the Romans frequently used two Christian names. Celtic and Teutonic names were very significant personally, and continued down from father to son.

Surnames began to come into use in England with the eleventh century, through the Norman influence. "There is no village in Normandy that gave not its denomination to some family in England." "Every town, village, and hamlet in England and Scotland hath afforded names to families." Such surnames are "territorial," and generally accompanied by the prepositions "de," or "del," as in Piers de Gaveston, Henry del Halle. Other surnames sprang from every conceivable source, serious or trivial, "from the highest things celestial to the lowest things terrestrial," from "Qualities of the Minde" and "Habitudes of the Body,"--from ages and times, from costume, color of the complexion and clothing,--from animals, nicknames, old Christian names, nationality, etc., etc. "All names were significant," says a high authority, "in their first application to individuals." This is the great and important fact that has especial bearing upon the name of Loomis. The actual situation, with respect to personal nomenclature in Bolton, as elsewhere in the Hundred of Salford and in Lancashire, when the Loomis Saxon ancestors there dwelt, and when the Norman introduction of surnames was about to happen, (in the twelfth century and to become fairly adopted in the thirteenth century and quite generally established in the fourteenth) was simply this:--The Saxon place-names were thoroughly fixed long before the Norman conquest of 1066; the later Norman influence could scarcely affect them at all. But with personal names there was great need of a change; the Saxons used only one Christian name, and sometimes two, such as Edwin, son of Leofwine, which custom was clung to by the Welsh until quite modernly, with their "John ap Thomas," "Evan ap Williams," etc. This led to confusion because the Saxon language was not copious enough to designate individuals sufficiently specific and distinctive, with their increasing numbers. Hence, the owners or holders of lands relinquished the inconvenient habit of the single name, added to it the name of their place of residence with the "de" or "del" placed between the Christian name and the place-name. The latter was either the name of a house, farm, lot, corner, road, hamlet, or descriptive of a site or location, or of some natural characteristic with which such land-holder was associated. Yet these names were not unchangeable at first, and might be varied with a man's place of abode. If a son, for instance, left the place of his father's home, he would assume a new denomination from the estate to which he had removed. His brother could do the like; and thus all evidence of their relationship was wanting as far as their names would show. Their descendants became confirmed each to the different surname of his father, and so many families became lost for ever to later identity with each other of their kin.

The records of the thirteenth century contain thousands of instances of this truth, and our family was no exception to this early rule. In these same early times men who had no land did not attain to the dignity of a territorial surname. These men appear in the Pipe, Hundred and Subsidy Rolls and in charters, etc., as "Radulphus fil Richard," etc., or under surnames taken from their trade or other personal significancies. Men of landed property in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries generally distinguished themselves by territorial surnames as denoting their better station. It is, therefore, pleasing, in the fullest sense, to find that the name of Loomis is beyond the possibility of question, of exactly such origin.

There is no mention in the Domesday Book of 1086 of the surname of Loomis in any form whatever, in any county of England; this date is between one and two hundred years before the name became applied to any person. It was a place-name, however, before 1086, in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire; but its omission from the Domesday Book as a designation of locality is explained by the fact that it then had reference merely to a part or small section of Bolton within which it was early comprised. Neither is there any mention of the surname in the Pipe Rolls (Great Rolls of the Exchequer) of 1130-1216; this period was still too early for the surname to have become firmly formed and fixed in Lancashire. The Hundred Rolls of King Edward I would afford the earliest opportunity of finding the surname were they extant; these records were taken in 1224, upon the king's return from the Seventh and Last Crusade to the Holy Land, and they constitute the results of an official investigation of all the rights and revenues of the Crown, touching property, persons and privileges, etc., which rights had become abused and encroached upon by the people during the years of the king's absence. Lancaster is one of the six counties for which no Hundred Rolls have been yet discovered in the archives. All other records of Lancashire for the thirteenth century have been examined without the surname being found.

The surname of Loomis is, barring the exception hereinafter mentioned, an American modernization of Lomas, the original form of which was "Lumhalgh," or "Lumhaulgh," "del Lumhalgh," "Lumhales"--pronounced without sounding the letters "h" and "g."

The earliest record, now existing in England, of this surname (and it may be said, in this connection, that several months have been devoted to the accurate searching of every record of any possible bearing upon the subject) is found in a Lay Subsidy Roll, number 130-6, at the Record Office in Chancery Lane, London. This parchment is the original record (as made) of the assessment and collection of a tax upon the inhabitants of Lancashire granted to Edward III by the parliament, in the sixth year of his reign--1333--such subsidies generally having been assessed at a tenth or a fifteenth of the value of the lands or Map of County Lancaster, England.

Here, at Bolton, near Salford, long before the Norman Conquest, the Loomis Family originated.

Under the Hundred of Salford, for the then hamlet of what is now Pendleton, in the parish of Eccles, about two miles west from the city of Manchester and twelve miles southeast of Bolton, this roll gives, in ink still quite as clear as on the day it was written five hundred and seventy-five years ago:--"Penhilton Rico de Lmhales." "Lum" in the names Lumhales or Lumhalgh is abbreviated in this roll to "Lm" or "Lu" as is proven by the use of a short curved dash|(this|is not reproduced over the "m" or "u" in this volume as in the original rolls) over the first syllable, as is also found with other names and words, e. g., "Item" to "Itm" in the rolls of that period; and the spelling here employed is not necessarily after a fixed form used by Richard de Lumhales himself, but, while it does occur in an official document, it was merely so written by the scribe whose duty it was to make out the rolls for his superior officers, the official collectors of the subsidy. This roll affords the only instance of the Lumhales spelling until 1394.

The further significance of this item of the assessment of a subsidy of two shillings upon the land-holding of "Rico de Lmhales" of Pendleton is that, first, that either he, or his ancestor of a generation or two or three before him, had removed to Pendleton after the surname had become established elsewhere, so as to be passed from father to son, and so on; and second, that the tax of two shillings was a good average amount, which at present reckoning, would amount to over forty dollars, which, at a fifteenth, would make the value of his land about $600.

While we are in Pendleton, there best be noted some facts about the place, so that it will remain clearer in the mind before the etymology of the family name is entered upon minutely. Pendleton was anciently called Penhulton (i. e., the head hill town), and as late as 1780 was but a little hamlet with its Maypole Green, whereas to-day it is as large as a city (66,000 population), a suburb of Manchester, (the second city of England), abounding in mansions and devoted to calico-printing, dyeing, cotton-spinning and coal works. In the old days St. Mary's Church in Eccles was the parish church to which the inhabitants of Pendleton were attached. There can be no reasonable doubt but that Rico de Lumhales worshipped in this church; in fact, he would scarcely have been allowed not to; he had no choice in the matter. The religious beliefs that were instilled into him by the clergy of that day form too long and interesting a subject for this paper. In brief, he had but to obey, leaving all thinking and direction to the churchmen; and the substance of his belief and practice was that he must pay more or less, as able, to the church, for happiness while he lived and to provide further for masses to be said after his death, in order that he might go to Heaven.

(The duty of a parish priest before the Reformation was not to preach, but to attend to the offices of the church and to see that the inhabitants of his parish fulfilled what was required of them by the church, and to hear confessions, to absolve the penitent, to visit the sick and to bury the dead. Most of the duties were often left to curates.)

In his day he saw Edward III annex France to England, and must have heard with pride of the exploits of John o' Gaunt, the great noble of his own Lancashire. His life was principally covered by the years of the reigns of Edward II and Edward III--1307-1377, though he may have been as old as forty years in 1333, and so born before 1300. In all human probability we shall never hear of another Lomas antedating this Richard; and so he is now a man more marked than ever he was to his own knowledge. So, too, this church of St. Mary's is the oldest structure in the world with which we can ever identify the name of Lomas thus early.

There is no other record extant of this Richard or of his father or sons; the parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial do not commence in England until 1538; but there is no occasion to doubt but that more than one early Lomas was laid away in long last rest beneath a spot within reach of the shade of St. Mary's tower. Surely this church is a great mark to our family. Ever enduring, ever inviting, ever rewarding it continues. Age after age passes,--its peaceful bells are heard above the "crash of empires;" while fears of change alarm the world, "perplexing monarchs"-it discharges its mighty yet simple task, to--
"Invite to heaven and point the way."
A poet's lines suggest the ancient interior:--
"Not formed to nice proportions was the pile
But large and massy, for duration built;
With pillars crowded and the roof upheld
By naked rafters intricately crossed,
Like leafless under-boughs in some thick grove,
All withered by the depth of shade above.
* * * * * * * The floor
Of nave and aisle in unpretending guise
Was occupied by oaken benches ranged
seemly rows; the chancel showed
Some inoffensive marks of earthly state
And vain distinction. A capacious pew
Of sculptured oak stood here, with drapery lined;
And knightly monuments were here displayed
Within the walls; and on the floor beneath
Sepulchral stones appeared with emblems graven,
And foot-worn epitaphs, and some with small
And shining effigies of brass inlaid."

Let us look at it a little closer. The building is a venerable Gothic structure, forming a favorable specimen of rude architecture, with a massive tower, grey with age. It consists of a nave, chancel and side-aisles, the latter of which were in early times chapels attached to the old families of the parish. The building is of an irregular shape, supported by buttresses and adorned by arched windows. The roof is partially embattled and on the north and south sides rise two small circular columns terminating in crocketed ornaments. The original church was probably of a date as early as 1065, hence Saxon. The curfew-bell, a relic of that age, continues to be rung nightly. Traditions fix the date of the present church as IIII, though it has been several times restored and probably enlarged. There are now no tombstones dating before 1575.

An annual festival is held at Eccles, of great rustic celebrity and of high antiquity, as old probably as the first erection of the church, called Eccles Wakes, celebrated on the 1st Sunday in September. History recounts that, at times, these wakes have been exceedingly wakeful, if not altogether hilarious. The church was valued at p20 per annum in the valuation of Pope Nicholas in 1291. In 1864, 6,000 silver pennies of King Henry and Kings John and William I of Scotland were found in Eccles parish in an earthen pot, just below the surface. Their bullion value was $354.

Another remarkable feature in Eccles parish still remains quite as Richard de Lumhales knew it, and that is Chat Moss; it is a morass five miles long and three broad, containing 6,000 acres; originally an immense forest, but became reduced to a bog. It is peat soil, trees being found imbedded in the peat, principally birch, oak and fir, as black as jet and as hard as ebony. Most of the trees have been found to be charred on the exterior, showing that they fell by fire. In this peat were found not long ago, the horns of a breed of cattle now extinct, and a leather shoe, singular in shape--five inches broad at the toe and only 1 1/4 inches at the heel. It is supposed that this ancient forest-swamp was one in which the ancient Britons took refuge when the Romans conquered Britain, A. D. 43, and it is recorded that Agricola, in order to free himself from the hostile invasion of the native Brigantes, ordered their woods to be burnt down or felled by the Roman soldiers. It is clear that some of the forests of Salfordshire had disappeared before the Norman Conquest.

All of the Subsidy Rolls of Lancashire from the earliest preserved (1300 to 1500) have been examined; they are many in number; many are only fragmentary, being worn or rotted away in parts, hence illegible. The most of these records consist of only the names of the places with the sums collected therein; but from roll number 130-29, which is an assessment on the inhabitants in the Hundred of Salford by virtue of a subsidy granted by parliament to Richard II in his second year as king--1381--these items were deciphered on a much injured membrane (parchment):--
"Wig."
"Henr. lu(*) halghus iis."
"Ric. lu(*) halghus ii2."
"Thom. del luhalgh(*) xiid."

"Wig" is the town of Wigan abbreviated; the "lu" in luhalghus is also an abbreviation for the first syllable "lum," as is proven by the line drawn over the "lu" in the original, which in ancient manuscripts is usually so placed when a letter or two is omitted. This omission was simply the habit of the clerk who made out these rolls, and not an established or habitual abbreviation of this surname. These items form the second earliest data extant.

Now for the etymology of "Lumhalgh," and the proof that it is the earliest form of Lumhales, Lumhals, Lumals, Lomas, Lomax, Lummys, Loomis,--for this is the true order of the changes in spelling as they occurred.

The word "lum" anciently had various meanings in different parts; but the word "halgh" had only one general signification, however spelt; both are Saxon words mainly. Lumma, in Swedish, meant to resound. Lum in the Shetland Islands meant a rift, an opening in the sky; of the sky; to clear of fog; to disperse. In the county of Norfolk, England, a lum was the handle of an oar. Lum also meant to rain heavily. In Scotland, Ireland and the northern English counties of Durham and Yorkshire a lum meant a chimney, the vent by which the smoke issued, as in Grant's Chronicles of Keckleton--

Hence, very commonly used in those regions of Britain. From this came the term "lumhat," a chimney-pot hat. Further south and west in Yorkshire and in Derbyshire and in the West Riding of Yorkshire, close to the border of Salford Hundred in Lancaster County, lum meant (1) a small wood or grove, (2) a wood bottom grouing shrubs and trees, not fit for mowing. In Lancashire, also in counties Derby and Oxford, lum meant "a deep pool in the bed of a river." Halliwell sums the word up as "a woody valley, a deep pit." Thus these latter ancient usages were descriptive of locality, "territorial," and, be it now remembered, had direct reference to a certain definite place, or places, in the natural topography of Lancashire and adjoining parts. Now for halgh, (haulgh, haugh):

"Haugh" is a Scottish and northern England word and particularly written "halgh" and "haulgh" in Lancashire; other forms having been "halche," "hawch," "hawgh." It means low-lying, level ground by the side of a river; forming part of the floor of a river valley, and in the original sense particularly specified; perhaps a corner or nook of land at or within the bend or angle of the river. Streams in hilly regions of the north of England may properly be (*)See explanation of abbreviation of "Lum" on p. 59.said to cross and recross the floors of their valleys, striking the base of the slope on each side alternatively, forming a more or less triangular haulgh within the bend, on each side in turn.

In Northumberland and Durham haulgh or haugh denoted low-lying spreads of loam, sand, or gravel, forming the lowest ground of the river valleys which are still flooded from time to time, or which, although they may have for years kept above water, may yet conceivably still be flooded in unusual seasons.

"Haugh-ground" was this low-lying ground. That a "haugh" was by no means waste or useless land, but instead highly fertile is evidenced by the expression (1) In Richardson's Borderer's Tablebook (1846. vii-78)--"O'er the gay daisied haughs will I roam," and (2) In Row's History of Kirk (1842) which mentions that in 1633-50 "330 inundations of waters took away to the sea whole large haughs full of shorn corne."

The name as so applied and meaning is very old, occurring in a charter of Coenwulf in 814, as "healh" and the same in 967 in a Charter of Oswald. We may note also that in the old Anglo-Saxon 'lfric's Homilies "hall" meant a house in the valley.

Coming now to the matter of pronunciation, it is generally known that words and speech have always varied very much in the manner of their verbal use, even in so small a country as England, and that the letter "h" is often not sounded in words in which it appears and often sounded in words in which it does not appear. The dialects of the north, the southwest and the east are contrasting indeed. The broad, full mouthed speech of the Yorkshire man is distinct from the more precise, thinner and keener pronunciation of an East-Anglian, while a Cornishman's talk might prove a puzzle to a Lancastrian. In one city alone the "cockney dialect" of the "East End" of London only adds to the many other contrasts between life there with the different phases in the "West End." Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial words gives us vital evidence as to halgh; it states that in Lancashire pronunciation "al" is changed into "au." Therefore Lumhalgh was rendered as if written Lumau and sometimes Lumaul in the singular form, and Lumhalghes or Lumhalghus the plural or Latin form, as if written Lumaus and Lumauls or Lummals (Haulghton was the early form of the surname of Houghton). Hence, the softening into the later forms, of which we shall quote ample actual evidence from old records, viz:-- "Lumhales," "Lumhalx," "Lomas," "Lummas," "Lommance," "Lummys," "Loomys," "Loomis," "Lomax." "Lomax." has only been used since a little before 1600, but to-day it is the almost universal spelling in England. Lomas, however, often occurs, at present, in Lancashire and elsewhere in England; but Loomis has not been found anywhere in England at any time, except at Braintree, Co. Essex, as hereinafter related.

There is no question as to the exact locality in Lancashire that was called Lumhaulgh, or the Lumhalges, or that it was a place of habitation in the thirteenth century. This is certain because there has been only one locality that has had the singular distinction of being known, from sufficiently remote times, by such a form of this name. The locality is that before referred to as Haulgh (only of recent years united with Tonge and called Tonge-with-Haulgh) in the parish of Bolton, Lancashire. The small place of Haughton, in Manchester parish, should not be construed into connection with Lumhalgh, even though we have noted it in an inquisition post mortem as early as Edw. I (1272-1307). A study of this very ground in Bolton, even in this day of its modern development, reveals the ancient features essential to the haulgh in the river vale. Tonge is on one side of the river, with Haulgh opposite; the two are set in two angles between the three rivers, Croal, Touge and Bradshaw. As to Lum, it is still Eccles Cross--The Old Shrine.

Church of All Saints, Wigan. Eccles Parish Church, called St. Mary's Pendleton, was a hamlet in Eccles, and here the earliest known "Loomis" lived in 1333, and attended this church.

The name of a section in Bolton now to be identified in connection with "Lum Street." The removal of the woods, the alterations of grades and the many changes during six hundred and fifty years of material growth leave the investigator in doubt as to between just what bend of the rivers, the highway called Lum was identified with its etymological and topographical mate, the haulgh. The whole matter, nevertheless, is plain enough. There is no theory or assumption, consequently, in the conclusion that (1) only two, three, or at the utmost, four generations (1200 to 1270) before our "Rico de Lmhales" was of Pendleton, in 1333, his, and our first Lumhalgh ancestor was resident in the aforesaid part of the small town of Bolton; (2) that he took his surname appropriately therefrom and no more was known, or called, by the single Christian name of his father prefixed with his own Christian name, as, for (Latin) example Radulphus fil Galfridus or Edwin, son of John. Thus it was that the original adopter of the surname owned, leased, tilled, or was considerably identified, doubtless principally distinguished in connection with a certain piece, or pieces of land, which had the somewhat unique position of being fertile, flat ground in a small river valley, between rivers, and which was, perhaps, partly of wood and partly of meadow, suitable for cultivation, and large enough in area for at least a small farm; also near to a deep pool, or pools, or girt about with banks, or slopes, of rising ground, wooded and forming a vale or pit-like enclosure, or enclosures, with the flat bottom-land below and stretching out with the course of the stream; and also with an habitable structure set either on the slope or upon the haulgh beneath. This situation was distinctive enough in its natural characteristics to render the resident thereat distinguished as of the "lum" "halgh." The appearance of the man and of his immediate descendants in the official records of that time as de Lumhalge and del Lumhalge (in Latin, Lumhalghus--Latin was the "record" language of that time) and later as Lumhalgh and Lumhales is entirely in accord with the prime principles of both etymology and of ancient custom in connection with the origin of surnames. Thus, this conclusion is reached in a proper manner, and is supported by all authorities.(*)

Although originating in Bolton parish the earliest recorded individuals of the Lomas family appear in the Subsidy Rolls for Pendleton and Wigan, places near to Bolton, some members of the family must have continued in Bolton almost uninterruptedly, as their later development therein indicates. We shall never know the Christian names of the Bolton Lomases of the fourteenth century, because the rolls for that manor are not preserved in the Government Record Office. The reason that no one of the name then in Bolton is mentioned in the subsidy roll of 1333 is that no man would have been so taxed who was not then a landholder, or a merchant having a stock of goods of fair value. Men in the employ of others were not assessed in this subsidy. In the imperfect roll for 1381 the list of men taxed in Bolton is missing. The "Ric luhalghus" of Wigan, taxed two shillings in the subsidy of 1381 must not be considered as the same man as "Rico de Lumhales" of Pendleton in the roll of 1333, though both men bore the same name and held property of exactly the same value (*)Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words. L. O. Halliwell.
The Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. J. R. C. Hall.
Dictionary of English Etymology. H. Wedgwood.
The Etymological Dictionary. W. W. Skeat.
The English Dialect Grammar. Joseph Wright.
The Universal Pronouncing Dictionary. Thomas Wright.
Anglo-Saxon & Old English Vocabularies. Thomas Wright.
New English Dictionary. J. A. H. Murray.
English Surnames. M. A. Lower.
Patronymica Britannica. M. A. Lower.
Baines' History of Lancashire, etc. amenable to the subsidy. They may have been father and son, but as to that, it will never now be known. The inferences to be drawn from the mention in this roll of 1381 of --
"Henr. luhalghus iis."
"Ric. luhalghus iis."
"Thom. del luhalgh xiid."

are these:--(1) the amount of the tax of two shillings is higher than that collected of many of their neighbors; (2) the two first names being written one below the other, spelt alike, and taxed alike, indicate that the two men were closely identified with each other in the affairs of life; (3) that both may have dropped the "del" in the manner of writing their family name, but we cannot be at all positive as to that, for this is only one little item in their lives, and one not written down by either one of them. The use of the other form of the name in the third item may only have been done by the scribe, or have been the habit of "Thom. del luhalgh" for the special purpose of distinguishing him more clearly from the other two. Some relationship between all three men is indisputable; and their value in our present contemplation of the early days of the family is so vital that, we may take some note, at this moment, of the place in which they lived. Wigan is just as near and should be just as dear to the Loomis descendant of to-day, as Haulgh in Bolton, Pendleton or Bury, for the evidence that might connect us the more particularly with some one of these places is now,

All the Lomases and Loomises of the English-speaking world sprang from the original "del Lumhalgh" of Bolton; some, or all of these later men were of Pendleton or through Wigan, or Bury; and the descendants of Joseph Loomis in America all trace Return to at least one of them. Further than this we now can never know. Wigan is from "Wig," signifying a fight in the Saxon, and "en" constituting the plural of that noun. It was the site of a Saxon castle and the scene of a battle between King Arthur and the Saxons. Nine miles southwest of Bolton, and nineteen northeast from Liverpool, it was an incorporated township in 1245, and to-day has a population of about 60,000, including one Lomax family. Coal mining is the great industry, the formations beneath the surface being of great immensity. We are not concerned with that fact, nor with the very large cotton mills here; only that which was familiar to Henry, Richard and Thomas Lumhalgh in 1381 needs attention. The church of All Saints is probably of Saxon origin, long antedating 1381. It is mentioned in the Valor of Pope Nicholas, in 1291. Ten centuries have passed since its cornerstone was laid; the pile was venerable to our Lomases in 1381. Herein they knelt to prayer and "told their beads," while the priest chanted in monotone a mass in a foreign tongue and read from a Latin Bible which they were not permitted to examine, and his words they did not understand. In these ten centuries this church has seen the age of simple hardihood, the glorious age of valor and chivalry, the age of bronze when brave men cast aside their armor to don silk attire, the age of iron, when it was customary to chop off the beads of kings, bishops and dissenters, and finally the age of a truer understanding of Christianity. All Saints has been somewhat rebuilt; though the lower part of the tower and the chapel of the Gerard's or Walmesley's remains intact. In the restoration all the principal features of the old building have been prescrved, and it is still--
"Like romance in stone;
Still to the present does it preach the past
With the more than languagel There the moral sigh
O'er the gay splendours of heroic times
May well be heaved, when chivalry prevailed.
And knightly bosoms with beroie pulse
Were beating nobly as became the brave."

There is a monument in the church to Sir William Bradshaighe (Bradshaw) and his Lady Mabel, who were living in 1315; he in an antique coat-of-mail cross-legged with his sword partially drawn; she in a long robe, veiled, her hands elevated in the attitude of prayer. Henry, Richard or Thomas del Lumhalgh of 1381 could have told us a story of this couple, whom they must have known personally. The tale still lives in Wigan traditions. This knight is said to have been away ten years in the wars, during which time, his wife, thinking him dead, married a Welsh knight. The first husband returned. Mabel favored him, but was whipped therefore by the Welshman, whereupon Bradshaw slew the latter, and was outlawed for a year, Mab's Cross in Wigan is so-called because it is the cross to which Dame Mabel (the Bradshaw pedigree states) "was enjoined by her confessor to do penances by going onest every week barefoot and barelegged to a crosse ner Wigan from the Haghe wilest she lived, and is called Mab X to this day." The interest to us is not in the query, Did Tennyson find his theme for "Enoch Arden" in this Wigan tradition? but rather in the certainly that our Lomases oft knelt at this roadside cross in both fair days and foul, to supplicate and to render thanks to a heaven, that was nearer to them than perhaps they had been told.

With this we leave Wigan; those three Lumhalges doubtless ended their days, as they had lived, within the sight and sound of the thin-toned bell of All Saints, and too, their kin after them likewise. None of them writ their names so large upon the page of local history as to bequeath. us further information. The records of the manor, shire and the nation, took due note of them, in exactions, in their time, but nothing further than we have quoted now appears in the important class of remaining records. Everything has been searched; much has perished.

The next glimpse of a Lumhalgh comes ten years later, 1391, in Bury, 5 3/4 miles northeast of Bolton, viz:--

Patent Roll of King Richard II, in the fifteenth year of his reign (1391); part one, dated at Westminster, (London) July 8. This entry is of a pardon granted by the crown "at the supplication of William Par. Knight, to John, son of Adam del Damme of Midelton in Shalfordshire, for stealing at Bury, on Thursday before St. Wilfrid, 14 Richard II, two bullocks, value 105. of Richard de Lumhalghs."

The manor rolls, subsidies, etc., for Bury are not sufficiently preserved at the Record Office to afford further information of the family in Bury until forty-four years later, though the continuous residence of a branch of the family there is certain. Some rolls of the court leet of this manor are believed to be at Knowsley Hall, the seat of the Earl of Derby, but are not open to public inspection, nor accessible to a private view in the absence of the owner. In 1435, Sir John Pilkington was lord of the manor of Bury. He held the lands in capite (of the crown), as of the Duchy of Lancaster, and leased them with the messuages to the actual residents thereon,--farmers, yeomen or tradesmen. In this knight's rent-roll dated Thursday before the feast of St. Valentine, the Martyr, 13 Henry VI (1435) occur the names (in Latin) of these landholders, or tenants:
"Radus del Lumhalges"
"Oliverus del Lumhalges"
"Thomas del Lumhalge de Whetyle"
"Galfridus del Lumhalges."
The final "ges" is not a syllable apart from the "hal"--the "e" is always superfluous, another "Englishism."

All were descendants out of Haulgh in Bolton, and each man, respectively, a householder; to-day, their descendants in the same Bury number fourteen households or families, all present members of which write their surname "Lomax." The Pilkingtons had been lords here since 1351, having originated in Pilkington, a parish near to Bury on the south. They held until 1485 when in the Wars of the Roses, casting their favor and fate with the House of York, as against their own House of the Dukes of Lancaster their estates were forfeited, and for this treason, the then chief Pilkington was beheaded. From then till now the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, have held this and other Lancastrian manors.

In the same year of this rent-roll, 1435, the same Sir John Pilkington was chosen a collector of the subsidy granted by parliament to be levied on the inhabitants of the Hundred of Salford. The report of the collection was made out under his direction and he headed it the "Particule accompti de Johannes Pilkington, mil," but failed to give the names of the inhabitants of whom he had collected the tax; only the sums and the names of the places appear in the roll of parchments now in the Record Office. No estimate of the individual wealth of the Lumhalghs then living in Bolton, Bury, Pendleton, Wigan or else-where in the Hundred of Salford can thus be had, nor data as to their increase in numbers since 1333 and 1381.

The "de Whytell" added to the name of Thomas del Lumhalghe, in the 1435 rent-roll, merely shows that he lived three miles south of Bury in what is now Whittle, a hamlet in Unsworth parish which was modernly formed (partly) out of Pilsworth. From this fact it is seen that the Lomaxes of Pilsworth were likely descendants of the said Thomas of Whittle, as Whitaker's History of Whalley (ijp. 225) mentions the family in Pilsworth, particularly "Richard Lomax, gentleman, of Pilsworth * *--the owner of a freehold estate at Burn-shaw (Beaconshaw) Tower, in the Vale of Todmorden, which by deeds is proved to have been possessed by the family from a very early period." Burnshaw Tower was a fortified house, thirteen miles northeast of Bury, now barely traceable, and Richard Lomax, gentleman, acquired Clayton Hall, by marriage, about 1740, with Rebecca Heywood, the heiress to the estate. This line of Lomax attained to affluence and high social position. Clayton Hall continued in the Lomax possession for several generations; on July 4, 1815, Richard Grimshaw Lomax, the resident thereat, was granted a coat-of-arms, viz:--

"Perpale or and sable, on a bend engrailed with plain cotises ermine, three escallops gules. Crest-issuant out of a crown vallory or, a demi-lion argent, charged on the body with three escallops between the bendlets and holding between the paws an escallop gules."

(This bearing has no reference to any Lomas, or Loomis, before 1815, and to none other since then, save the direct descendants of the said grantee).

No Lomas of Bury or in Lancashire rose to knighthood, to manorial lord-ship, or to armorial honors up to 1560, hence none figure in the records illustrating such important families. The registers of baptism, marriage and burial at Bury are not now extant prior to 1590, and the manor records not accessible, so the only personal items obtainable of the family at Bury that warrant mention are those of the wills of:--
Christopher Lomax of Bury 1590
James " " Pilsworth 1588
James " " Bercle 1592
Jeffery " " Heap 1590 (in Bury parish)
John" " Pilsworth 1587
Oliver " " Walmsley 1593 (in Bury parish)
Owen" " Preston 1593
Richard " " Pilsworth 1587
Margaret " " Prestbury 1588
John" " Gloributts in Bury 1606
Isabella " " Heap 1592|in Bury parish
John" " 1576 |

With 24 more Lomas and Lomax wills of later date; all are original wills filed in the probate registry of Chester, Cheshire; and there are ten other wills dated 1587 to 1677 filed in the Archdeaconry Court of Richmond, Lancashire, and now deposited in Somerset House, London. None of these testaments afford any evidence leading towards our particular branch of the family which, before the date of any of these wills, had stretched itself across England to the county of Essex; the wills are all too late for further notice, and interesting only as indicating the considerable development of the general family that remained at home in Lancashire, and, as also, the general prosperity of the various members therein. The probate records of Lancashire do not now embrace the wills of any Lomases before that of John Lomas of Heap, in 1576; doubtless there were earlier testaments filed, which are now missing. The MS. collections of the Chetham Society of Manchester have been carefully searched; many Loomis references occur after 1600, but none before, save as hereinafter quoted. Under the forms of Lomas and Lomax the family in Bury gradually increased in numbers, sharing the steady growth and prosperity there for some generations, until now. None of the living descendants possess reliable information as to their ancestry before 1700. Bury must have always been a pleasant town, and the Presbyterian church had one of its great strongholds there as early as 1666. The name is Saxon, signifying either a castle or a market-town. Bury was a Saxon station, the seat of one of the twelve ancient baronial castles of Lancashire; only the foundations of it now remain, though the early Lomases were familiar with the sight of the whole castle. There appears to have been at least two separate Lomas households in Bury as early as 1400, and probably from these residents descend those of the family who have resided in Bury from that time to the present day. For five hundred years some Lomas undoubtedly has knelt within the parish church of Bury in every one of those years, if not even in every month, or actually on every Sabbath day. This remarkable fact cannot be said of any other church now standing, for the Bolton church was destroyed in 1866, and there have been no Lomases at Pendleton these many years, while at Wigan the old directories fail to name a Lomas resident in various modern periods. Nonconformity also has long since claimed its share of the family in Lancashire. The old parish church is St. Mary's, dating back into the tenth century; in the valor of Pope Nicholas, 1291, its income was valued at p13:6:8 per annum. The building has been "restored" several times, first in 1290, and lastly in 1871-76. The bells were recast in 1722; nearly all the windows are stained. All the ancient memorial inscriptions, tablets and monuments in the church were destroyed in 1558, which fact again robs us of visible Lomas evidence; the regist