The 12th Century Charnock Family
During the 12 th century the Chernoc’s were one of the important Lancashire families, living in the village of Chernoc to which Richard added his own baptismal name to distinguish it from the nearby Heath Chernoc. Over the centuries both names changed in spelling to Charnock as until the introduction of Dr Johnson’s dictionary in 1755 spelling was not fixed. Scribes recording deeds would write them as they heard them, often changes occurred because of local accents. The Chernoc family later moved to Astley Hall. The name Richard or Ricardus, as it was written in the Medieval Latin of these documents, derived via Old French from an early Germanic language and is composed of ‘Ric’ meaning ruler, or king and ‘Hardu’ signifying ’strong or brave’ thus ‘strong ruler’. Several of these documents have been preserved in the Lancashire Archive in Preston and in Oxford’s Bodlieian Library. One of the most fascinating deeds records the gift of the Chernoc estate ‘in ...