The following
article was copied from the Eighth Reunion of the Olmsted Family Association,
in Chicago, September 24-26, 1926. Park Lincoln Olmsted, the President-Elect of
the Association, presented the paper.
The article is
titled incorrectly, and misses the conclusion. See my (COH) comments at the
end.
While the writer of this was gathering the material
for his paper on OLMSTED HALL, he was struck by the number of small towns and
villages that have names ending in "-sted" and "stead", and
also by the fact that almost all these places were in eastern England, chiefly
in Essex, some thirty to forty miles inland from the North Sea and that they
extended in a broad line or band from northern Essex in a southern direction
nearly to the Channel.
Then, as the conviction began to grow on him that
the name and Family were probably of Norse or of closely-related Angle (from
Schleswlg) origin, he turned the pages of the Century Atlas to Denmark, and was
surprised to find that in the western-part of Denmark there were easily found
at least fifteen names of villages and districts that were strikingly similar
in form and manner of spelling to our own name; while in southern Sweden there
is the considerable town of Halmstad, nearly opposite Copenhagen.
Here are the names of the towns and villages in
England, grouped by counties and according to the spelling of the last
syllable. Please remember when looking at some of them, that the English letter
"x" is a double consonant, and is equivalent to "cs" or
"gs". For example, Broxted is equivalent to Broc-sted, wherein you
recover what seems at first a missing "s"
In Essex are: Broxted, Braxted, Thaxed, Fairsted,
Felsted, Halsted, Standsted, Hempstead, Burstead, Greenstead, Harkstead, Bumstead
In Suffolk are: Boxted, Linsted, Belstead, Saxstead,
Stanstead, Hawstead, Whepstead
In Hertfordshire are: Wheathamstead, Berhamstead
In Kent are: Nettlested, Elmstead, Halstead,
Brastead, Stanstead, Bustead.
In Herts are: Tisted, Medsted.
In Sussex are: Elsterd
In Surrey are: Chipsted, Ashstead, Oxtead
The Century Atlas is followed for these names and
the following, except for Essex, for which the writer has a copy of the
Ordinance Survey, the official map of Great Britain.
It will be noted that Stansted is spelt both ways,
and that within ten miles of each other. It will also be noted that the first
syllable of many of the names that end in "-stead" has a familiar
English meaning: Hemp, Bel, Ash, Elm, Haw, Wheat, etc. On the other hand, those
that have "sted" for an ending have first syllables that convey no
familiar item whatsoever. This fact points to the probability that these names
are of foreign origin, which, in this case, means Norse or Scandinavian. Also,
that the "sted" are the older names, and have retained their early
spelling: while the longer form "stead " is part of a name that has
been formed later in England, with the usual indifference of the English to the
use of the silent and superfluous letters.
Such familiar words as holmsted, farmsted, and
bedstead are frankly given as coming directly from the Danish, in which the
spelling of the last syllable is never anything but "sted". This
spelling "sted" is used to give the correct pronunciation of these
words; and is the one placed in the dictionaries next to the erratic"
stead", and is urged as the preferable form, The spelling "sted"
has won the support of every effort to retain the spelling of English and place
it on a more reasonable basis.
Strong support for this argument in favor of the
Danish origin and spelling of our name is to be found in the following list of
places found mostly in the western part of Denmark:
Holsted, Ulsted, Oldsted, Hadsted, Orsted, Ovsted, Vedsted, Nysted,
Grindsted, Briersted, Graisted, Gjedsted, Fjelsted, Tisted, and Thisted.
There is a remarkable
similarity to the Olmsted name in both the formulation of these Danish names
and in their rhythm.
The Angles, coming from
Schleswig-Holsteln, gave their name to England. In their homeland were two
places with the names Ohrstedt and Barmstedt. Neither of these seems suggestive
or convincing. But in Sweden, the writer stumbled on the city of Halmsted,
which may be the starting point of another story. At any rate, it is a name
worth noting.
There is no "in conclusion"
to this story. The writer has set forth as much of it as he has yet found; and
he hopes to add to it from time to time such material as he can discover, or
get others to contribute.
COMMENTS ON THE ABOVE
ARTICLE BY COH
There are three things to
fault with it. First, the title does not correctly indicate the subject of the
article. Second, in spite of Mr. Olmsted's remark that there is no conclusion,
there is one. Third, he does not give it.
The conclusion is that the
Olmste(a)ds were descended from the Vikings that ravaged England from the
eighth to the eleventh century. The Vikings were driven off by the stronger
Anglo Saxon Kings, such as Alfred the Great and his grandson, Egbert, and
"bought" off by the weaker ones, such as Aethelred the Unready. In 878, the Vikings under Gurhrum, subdued
by Alfred, submitted to baptism, and retired to the north of England, in what
became known as the "Danelagh".
In 994 Sweyn Forkbeard, king
of Denmark, and Olaf I of Norway raided London. Aethylred paid the Vikings
tribute or blackmail to stop fighting, accept Christianity, settle, raise crops
and sheep, and bring over their families, or find local mates. That they did so
is evident by our Name. Note that Olmsted Hall
(in what is now known as East Anglia) is less than thirty miles as the
crow (raven) flies from the Tower of London (which did not exist yet, except as
the ruins of a Roman fort.)
He raised the blackmail by
levying a tax known as "Danegeld" or Danish payment, which was used
by later Kings as a means of raising revenue. When Canute of Denmark ruled
England (1016-1035), the tax was levied for war purposes. The purpose of the
Domesday Book was in fact to aid in this tax collection. It was repealed in the
reign of Henry II (1154-1189).
In 1002, the English,
infuriated by the tax, rose and massacred many Danes, including Sweyn's sister,
Gunhilda. Sweyn retaliated by conquering the country, which he did by 1013,
driving Aethylred into Normandy, and installing himself as king.
The Vikings settled exactly
in the areas in England suggested by Mr. Olmsted. If he had looked further
north, he would have found further similarities in names along Wattling Street
to Chester, and then to York, and to the River Dee.
If one compares a map of New
England with one of England, one see similarities in the names of many towns:
Boston, Hartford, Windsor, Framingham (Framlingham), Sudbury, Worchester,
Haverell, Arundel, Portsmith, and many more. Likewise the names of the first
settlers are English: Olmste(a)d, Barnes, Haynes, Hooker, Hopkins, Hill. One
concludes that the settlers of New England were from England. Likewise, the
settlers in the towns mentioned by Mr. Olmsted came from Denmark. Considering
when they come, they must have been Vikings.
So a better choice of title
would have been:
WERE THE OLMSTE(A)DS VIKINGS?