Alias's in Devon

[vivinfrance]

I recently visited the Devon Records Office to look up my family 'Bailey'. Using the names I already had I found that several of the people had the surname Bayly/Bayley/Baily alias Salter or Salter alias Bayley/Baily etc. Has anyone any idea why they used the alias's?
This goes back from 1774 (Joseph Salter alias Bayley to 1639 Amias Bayley alias Salter.
Any info would be most welcome.
The village was Awliscombe.

[cemetery friends]

There are many instances of alias names in Devon. One possible reason was the high number of Huguenots that settled in the county. One theory that a family that befriended or became mentors had their name used as a token of respect, another was that guilds prevented craftsmen who had not served an apprenticeship from practicing a trade. In those cases sympathetic tradesmen "sponsored" the new arrival and allowed them to associate the name of an established tradesman to get around the rules. Another thought was they were never quite sure at the beginning whether they would later return to France and sometimes used a family name so that they could establish ownership of land. In many cases they Anglicised their name or local people found the French pronunciation difficult or used a phonetic interpretation. Examples were Touzeau/Tozer, DuStein/Dustan, De La Haye/Hays, Voard/Ford, Colligne/Collings. I believe Salter was possibly a Huguenot name but without greater knowledge of names in your family this is purely a guess. Another possible clue is that the boys were often given strong Biblical names such as Argulus[Hercules], Sampson, Nathaniel [Bartholomew], Francis, Ebeneezer, Denys etc.

[Rumpteton]

Hi
I was fascinated to read your post of some years back regarding a Salter alias for your family. I recently traced my family (Prince) back to 18th century parish records for the Isle of Wight, Freshwater area. Bizarrely, a Salter alias shows up at around the same time as yours, as follows:

27 Oct 1728   Baptism of Timothy Prince alias Salter to Thomas
07 Mar 1730   Baptism of William Prince alias Salter to Thomas
Jul 17 1733   Baptism of Mary Prince alias Salter to Thomas
Nov 1754   Baptism of  Hannah Salter (commonly called Prince) to Thomas & Susan
Nov 1762    Burial of Thomas Salter (commonly called Prince)

There is also a note of legal proceedings relating to smuggling, dating from 1754, from the Collector to Board Letters Book 1753 - 1764:

"Whereas some time past Thomas Prince, alias Salter the Elder, William Elsbury and Thomas Warr were arrested & committed to the County Goal at Winchester for being concerned in running Goods, but by your Honours order of the 9th July last, you were pleased to signify that you had ordered the prosecution against them to be stopped in Consideration of the Informations they had given."

I initially believed the Salter alias related to some sort of familial relationship between a Salter family also resident in Freshwater at that time, and the Princes. But detailed research by myself and others has failed to reveal any link between either family (through marriage, for example).

Now, seeing that your family history also has a 'Salter alias', I'm wondering whether it might have some sort of broader significance whose meaning has been lost over time. It surely cannot be a coincidence that a 'Salter' alias shows up for two different families in different parts of southwest England at more or less the same time.

All thoughts and suggestions welcome!

[cemetery friends]

There was only one Salter marriage to a very distant relative so I cannot confirm whether this was a Huguenot connection. The names given were examples of known alias names [not necessarily from within my own family].

[KGarrad]

There are a couple of articles on the Devon GenUKI site:

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/NamesPersonal/AliasesDiscriminant
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/NamesPersonal/Aliases

Well worth a read!