The surname of ARCH was perhaps originally from a place Arques, in France, near Dieppe. The name was in Scotland at an early date, and Herbert de Arches witnessed a charter of the lands of Leslie, circa. 1171. Gilbert de Arches was witness to a confirmation of the sale of the land of Scrogges to the church of Glasgow in the year 1208. Alba, the country which became Scotland, was once shared by four races; the Picts who controlled most of the land north of the Central Belt; the Britons, who had their capital at Dumbarton and held sway over the south west, including modern Cumbria; the Angles, who were Germanic in origin and annexed much of the Eastern Borders in the seventh century, and the Scots. The latter came to Alba from the north of Ireland late in the 5th century to establish a colony in present day Argyll, which they named Dalriada, after their homeland. The Latin name SCOTTI simply means a Gaelic speaker. A notable member of the name was Joseph ARCH (l826-l9l9) the English preacher and reformer born in Barford, Warwickshire, England. Whilst still a farm labourer he became a Primitive Methodist preacher. In l872 he founded the National Agricultural Labourers Union, and later was M.P. for Northwest Norfolk, England. Many factors contributed to the establishment of a surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 a very few dynasts and magnates passed on hereditary surnames, but most of the population, with a wide choice of first-names out of Celtic, Old English, Norman and Latin, avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name. As society became more stabilized, there was property to leave in wills, the towns and villages grew and the labels that had served to distinguish a handful of folk in a friendly village were not adequate for a teeming slum where perhaps most of the householders were engaged in the same monotonous trade, so not even their occupations could distinguish them, and some first names were gaining a tiresome popularity, especially Thomas after 1170. The hereditary principle in surnames gained currency first in the South, and the poorer folk were slower to apply it. By the 14th century however, most of the population had acquired a second name. |
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