Thanks for this Joan, I have a Henry Septimus Bennett b 1866 Ayers Quay who is a seventh child which I hadn't thought about before [and a Charles Septimus Westgate b 1854 in Norfolk (8th child) so maybe the name was also popular at the time] ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:14:27 -0400 From: "Joan Rooney" <mc.rooney@sympatico.ca> Subject: Re: [NMB] Inexplicable forenames? Septimus To: <northumbria@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP61724C694A0E4EEC9DBA7691260@phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original BTW Septimus was usually a name given to the seventh child in a family. I've seen it before. Joan ----- Original Message ----- From: "karen" <karen.milkhillcottage@gmail.com> To: <northumbria@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 07:41 Subject: Re: [NMB] Inexplicable forenames? > Hi Chris, > > On 22 March 2010 11:04, Christopher Morgan > <chrismorgan4@btinternet.com>wrote: > >> I cannot help with your query, but sometimes once you find out more about > their lives the reasons for unusual names can emerge. My GG Grandfather > John > Ray Cook named two of his children Alfred Septimus and Zenobia. At the > time > I found this I looked for all sorts of possible reasons for these names > but > found nothing obvious. > > A long while later I found out that Alfred Septimus Palmer was the pit > manager at Wardley Colliery where my GG Grandfather worked and in the 1881 > census a cousin of mine found that a few doors down from John Ray Cooks > family in Wardley was a Zenobia Robinson, daughter of Morgan Robinson a > Colliery Viewer and probably my GG Grandfathers boss. > > > > Karen > > >