Author Topic: wch spylt himselfe  (Read 1999 times)

Offline ThrelfallYorky

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 3,673
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: wch spylt himselfe
« Reply #18 on: Sunday 16 February 20 15:11 GMT (UK) »
When I was young, there was a young man in the area, never went to school when he was a child, so not able to read or write, I believe he was damaged at birth, someone told me many years later. He was good with the farm animals, but rarely communicated with people of any age, and left to himself  often tended to wander round, not always fully dressed, and it made some children frightened. There was actually no harm in him, he was generally known as "Silly-----".and I remember hearing an old person say of him: "He's not naughty or nasty, he's simple, and innocent"
-And that was largely what I was basing my interpretation of the entry on. It sounds so much nicer than "idiot", doesn't it?
TY
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)

Offline Sloe Gin

  • RootsChat Aristocrat
  • ******
  • Posts: 2,443
    • View Profile
Re: wch spylt himselfe
« Reply #19 on: Sunday 16 February 20 17:40 GMT (UK) »
It sounds so much nicer than "idiot", doesn't it?
Only because of shifts in the usage of all three words.
Personally I can't see anything wrong with the term 'simple', or the expression my mum used (" a bit backward") but they'd be deemed offensive now.  A pity as they're all such gentle words.
UK census content is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk  Transcriptions are my own.