BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?

Subject: BS: BLENNERHASSET-what kind of name is that?
From: belfast
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:40 PM

Perhaps "Idle Curiosity" would be a better prefix, but BS is accurate enough.

I first noticed the name Blennerhasset as that of the bass player, James Blennerhasset, who has played with, among others, Mary Black. For no good reason I assumed the name to be Scandinavian or Dutch. Around the same time I was reading Gore Vidal's novel "Burr" in which an Irishman named Harmon Blennerhasset makes an appearance. Later I came across another Blennerhasset in a book about Parnell. This one was an MP and one of Parnell's party. It dawned on me that the name is Irish and a friend has told me that the name is not uncommon in Sligo.

A quick look at Google gave me more information about Harmon Blennerhasset. Among other things he had been a member of the United Irishmen. And I learned that there is a small town in Cumbria called Blennerhasset.

Does anybody know any more about this name?

As I say, this is merely the idlest of idle curiosity, the kind of thing that before days of Mudcat (BM, you might say) I would have pushed well into the recesses of my mind

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 03:51 PM

Like Blencogo, it is a village in Cumberland, England. There are people called that here and there, but I imagine the Cumbrian place-name is the source of all the surnames. There is also a fell called Blencathra,same county.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: belfast
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:09 PM

That sounds pretty reasonable. It's nice to know that a small town in the north of England has contributed in a pretty beneficial way to Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:12 PM

It's around those parts that we reckon St Patrick was captured by the Irish slavers. You might rate him as a beneficial influence too??

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:20 PM

thre's an interesting account of Harmon Blennerhasset HERE

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:24 PM

If you want to get into Cumberland place-names, try Ulpha, Aspatria, Helvellyn and Great Cockup. We've got some rare ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: belfast
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:25 PM

As a boring and curmudgeonly old atheist I'll reserve judgement on that one. Perhaps Patrick was only getting his own back - "Make me a slave, would they? I'm gonna inflict them with fifty versions of Christianity!"

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:29 PM

Ireland was welcome to him as far as I was concerned, he was always wandering around trying convert the simple Blennerhassettians...in fact I wouldnt be surprised if one of the locals didnt sell him to the Irish.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: jimmyt
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:31 PM

Blennerhasset Island south of Marietta, Ohio in the Ohio River was once the future Utopian community of Aaron Burr, of the Alexander Hamilton duel fame. I am recalling this from memory and haven't done a search, but that would be the tie in to Burr the novel and the name Blennerhasset.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: belfast
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:34 PM

As regards Cumberland, am I incorrect in the use of the word "Cumbria"? Is this like calling Scotland Caledonia or referring to Ireland as Hibernia?

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 04:43 PM

Cumbria is an old word for that chunk of the north-west of England, that consisted of Cumberland, Westmoreland and the detached part of lancashire(called Furness) north of Morecambe Bay. Those three bits were amalgamated into a single county, which was named (following the old usage) Cumbria in 1970ish. It has an extensive tourist industry(it contains the Lake District), particularly popular with Americans ever since John Paul Jones unannounced visit to Whitehaven.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: Noreen
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 05:46 AM

Over Cumberland's Great Cockup, greg, I slightly prefer North Yorkshire's
Great Fryup Dale and Little Fryup Dale.
Never sen anything about the derivation of the name?

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: hacksawbob
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:31 AM

Racked my brains to remember where I'd heard the name before, I'd met a fella called Andy at the Bromyard festival selling small candle powered boats to raise funds for a great organic farm + reusable energy project at Blennerhasset Mill, well worth a visit if your up that way. Sadly he didnt take up my offer of creating a website for him so there doesn't appear to be one but it is listed here
http://www.c4c.oxfree.com/nwest.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: GUEST,Seamus Kennedy in Alaska
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:48 AM

Don't the Blennerhassett family have extensive business holdings in Co. Kerry, round Tralee?
Perhaps Death By whiskey can come to our assistance in this matter.
BTW, anybody remember the old BBC weather forecasts for "Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland and Durham?"

Seamus
PS. Been in Alaska for 2 weeks, and haven't met any 'Catters yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: GUEST,Mikey joe
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:52 AM

Blennerhasset is not unusual around tralee. The name hasset is common in Kerry too a corruption perhaps. Also the name of the restauraunt owner in withnail and I when they go to Penrith near Cumbria (???) is Mrs Blennerhasset!!1



Mj

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:57 AM

Penrith in rather than near Cumbria. Strange the way a sense of humour works isnt it? It is difficult to see any rational reason why Blennerhasset or Blackadder, for example, are any funnier than Greg Stephens or Mikey Joe. It's not as if there's any amusing double-entendre involved, just an unusual combination of sounds.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: GUEST,Jokey Mike
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 06:59 AM

I thought my name was the funniest in the world!!!


jM

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: greg stephens
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 07:17 AM

Blennerhasset has a possible etymology which reflects Cumbria's ethnic background rather nicely. Blen is the same as Welsh Blaen, meaning (I think) hill-farm, or something of that sort. Hasset is possibly from Old Norse, Hay(dont know how they spelt it) and Setr, meaning shieling(a hut up in the hills where you take your cows in the summer).
Penny Hasset, of course, is in Borsetshire near Ambridge, and for some unaccountable reason doesnt appear in the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names.

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: belfast
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 07:27 AM

When I was a little child it seemed to me that some Irish place names were a little peculiar. Then I discovered England and found a wealth of weirdness and prodigious quaintness. A gazetteer of English place names will provide entertainment. As I grew older I realized many of the other sterling qualities of the English people, especially in the north. A great sense of humour, generosity of spirit, a tendency towards common decency. And yet their willful and incorrigible eccentricity made me wonder. Are these people really ready for Home Rule?

Subject: RE: BS: Blennerhasset-what kind of name is that?
From: cetmst
Date: 05 Feb 03 - 07:56 AM

While doing genealogical research on my wife's colonial Throckmorton ancestry I came across this article: Moriarty, G. Andrews, The East Anglian Blennerhassets, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 98:271, 1944. He reports a large family in Frense, Norfolk and believes there is a connection to the Blennerhasset family and village in Cumberland, where an Alan de Blennerhasset was a testatee of several wills, an Alan Blennerhasset was mayor of Carlisle in 1382 and a John Blennerhasset M.P for Carlisle in 1381 and 1384.