magnum bonum, sans pareil, nec plus ultra

[bykerlads]

I am fascinated by the fact that quarries founded in the mid-1830's at the top side of Hade Edge, Holmfirth should have Latin and French names: Magnum Bonum, Sans Pareil, Nec Plus Ultra ( = great good, without anything like it, none better). Can anyone suggest why?
My ancestors were the men who moved from Elland ( quarrying the Elland flags) to Hade Edge- Mitchells, Sykes, Briggs in the mid-1830's. They were largely illiterate and certainly would have had no French or Latin.
Unfortunateley, we have no indication as to who owned the quarries or the land - it would be useful to know this, maybe quarry owners from Elland?
Magnum remains as the name of the, now disappeared, hamlet which the delvers themselves must have built for their families  next to the workings.

[Holmemoss]

My 3G Grandfather was John Mitchell, born ca 1799 in Rastrick. He was still in the area in 1824 when he married but was at Magnum Bonum in 1841.

At least some of the quarries were owned by a Mitchell family, no relation as far as I am aware, who then owned the quarry at the Sovereign, Shepley after the Magnum quarries closed.

I was in contact with one of the Mitchell descendants a few years ago.

I do not know why the quarries had Latin names.

[bykerlads]

Thanks, Holmemoss- I didn't know that the quarries were owned by the Mitchells, though not your and my Mitchells.
Will keep on looking for how and why all these quarries were opened.

[pb3]

            I think all of these names  may refer to garden plants.

            It's just possible that the owner of the quarries - or a member of his family - was a keen gardener and that he named them after his favourite fruit, vegetables or flowers in the hope that the ground he was digging up would be as fruitful as his garden.

            Where there's muck there's money.

            Just a thought.

               PatB.

[Holmemoss]

For want of anything better to do  I have found an online Latin translator.

Bonum means 'good, better, best'

I know it was 40 years ago since I went to school but 'Sans Pareil' seems more French to me than Latin. In French it means 'Surpassing'

Nec Plus Ultra means 'And not Much Beyond'

I suppose this sums it up. 'Sans Pareil' was better than 'Bonum' and 'Nec Plus Ultra' was presumably the last quarry.

[bykerlads]

Not so sure if the words refer to plants but they certainly translate logically as references to the quality of the products of the quarries. Both the Latin and the French phrases/mottos are not obscure or difficult and do appear in other circumstances.
Am just interested to know why "foreign" names were used and who devised them. Do we know the names of other local quarries? I don't recall seeing any others named in such a way.

[Holmemoss]

It was my mistake earlier; it was the Lindley family who owned the quarries, not Mitchell.

In 1901 it was Mitchell Lindley, hence my daft mistake.

[Redroger]

Based on 2 things, one and principally the date (1830s) and one name Sans Pareil, I suspect these quarries were opened to provide the stone to make up railway embankments. Sans Pareil was the name given to a locomotive around this time. If the lines were built by Stephenson he used stone from cuttings to fill hollows, but always had a need for more stone.

[meles]

I don't think that Latin and French names were so uncommon in those days. Latin was commonly taught (at least in Grammar Schools) as was French. And the upper classes who owned the mines would have had a grammar school education for the most part. And those who did not, would have aspired to such an education, and used well known, simple phrases. We still do - see below!

As Redroger noted, "Sans Pareil" was the name of a locomotive - one built by Timothy Hackworth for the famous Rainhill trials.

Foreign names have - if you'll forgive the pun - a certain cachet about them. 

meles