bairn

1) Alternative spellings of the word for a child; a son or a daughter.

It is used occasionally in early by-names or surnames instead of the suffixes ‘son’ and ‘daughter’: 1301 De Johanne Huebarne, Great Broughton

1334 Peter Peresbarn, Pickering

1353 William Rogerbarn, Stainton

1379 Alice Hudbarne, Wistow. In wills the child’s portion was often referred to as the ‘barn part’: 1505 Also I gyf to my dought’ for her porcon and barn parte viijli, Leeds

1536 Margat sall have hyr barn part of my gods hole thrught all that I have, Burton

1545 to John Cowp’ my sone twentie pounde in full recompence and satisfaction of his filiall portion or barne parte, Leeds. Unusually, in 1552, Edmund Shercrofte bequeathed to his daughter a bayrne pane that hir grandmother gaue hir, Barkston. I suspect that clerks increasingly sought to avoid using what was evidently a regional word but it continued to appear in legal documents when a person’s actual words were quoted: 1736 I would have you let my barn alone, Baildon. Note that ‘grandchild’ was a rare word until the seventeenth century: 1542 and to evere one of my childer barnes one yewe and a lambe, Osgodby

1563 to every of my childer barnes, Westerdale.

spellings barn
dates 1301 1334 1353 1379 1505 1536 1542 1545 1552 1563 1736

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