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William Henry Duignan

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William Henry Duignan
Born(1824-08-16)August 16, 1824
Walsall, England
DiedMarch 27, 1914(1914-03-27) (aged 89)
Walsall
NationalityBritish
OccupationSolicitor
Known forAntiquarian, writer, local politician

William Henry Duignan (16 August 1824 – 27 March 1914)[1] was a solicitor who lived in and around the town of Walsall for his entire life. He was better known as an antiquarian, writer, historian and local politician and wrote a number of books and pamphlets about local history and especially on the etymology of place naming, many of which are still available today.[2]

Life

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Duignan was born of Irish descent in Walsall in 1824; his grandfather, latterly a master at Walsall Grammar School, had emigrated to England from County Longford.[3] He had three children, Florency-Mary, Ernest-Henry, and George-Stubbs, by Mary Minors, of Fisherwick, whom he married in 1850; and a further three children, Bernard, Carl, and Oscar, by Jenny Petersen, of Stockholm, whom he married in 1868.[4] An antiquarian and etymologist,[5] he wrote three histories of place names and a monograph on Rushall Hall,[6] where he had lived for 29 years.[1] He travelled widely around Britain and Ireland,[5] earning the nickname "the man on a tricycle" after his preferred mode of travel.[7] He was often accompanied in his travels by the Staffordshire businessman and writer Willam Henry Robinson.[8]

Works

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Duignan's most widely known works are his three etymologies of place names in the West Midlands, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names (1902), Worcestershire Place Names (1905), and Warwickshire Place Names (1912); all are still available in reproduction form today.[2]

Arms

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Coat of arms of William Henry Duignan
Notes
Confirmed 6 November 1891 by Sir John Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms.[9]
Crest
An owl at gaze Proper.
Escutcheon
Argent on a mount in base Vert an oak tree the stem entwined with two serpents interwoven and erect respecting each other all Proper.
Motto
Historia Magistra Vitae

References

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  1. ^ a b "W. H. Duignan - a Walsall Irishman at the Heart of the Town". Walsall Local History Centre. Walsall Borough Council. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  2. ^ a b "List of books by William Henry Duignan available at Amazon". Amazon. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  3. ^ "Duignan family pedigree". Library Ireland. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  4. ^ O'Hart 1989, pp. 424–425.
  5. ^ a b Ball 2008, p. 88.
  6. ^ Hall & Burgis 1983, p. 537.
  7. ^ Browne 1974, p. 44.
  8. ^ "William Henry Robinson". Literary Heritage. Shropshire County Council. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  9. ^ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms, Vol. H". National Library of Ireland. 1880. p. 256. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  • O'Hart, John (1989). Irish Pedigrees: Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation (5th ed.). Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 9780806307374.
  • Ball, Stephen, ed. (2008). Dublin Castle and the First Home Rule Crisis: Volume 33: The Political Journal of Sir George Fottrell, 1884–1887. Camden Fifth Series. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521519212.
  • Hall, N. John; Burgis, Nina, eds. (1983). The letters "of Anthony Trollope". Vol. 1 (1835–1870). Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804710763.
  • Browne, Harry (1974). Joseph Chamberlain, radical and imperialist. Seminar studies in history (5th ed.). Longman. ISBN 9780582352148.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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