QUALTROUGH SURNAME

The following piece was found on the MANX NOTE BOOK website as www.manxnotebook.com  It is included in Volume III

It is allied to the chapters in A QUOTA OF QUALTROUGHS on the origin of the Qualtrough name and is worth adding here.

QUALTROUGH, contracted from Mac Walter, ‘Walter’s son’ (see Watterson)

Thomas MACWALTER. Constable of Bunfinn, A.D.1308

The FITZWALTERS were the ancestors of the Princely line of Hamilton, in Scotland.

MACQUALTROUGH (1429), QUALTROUGH (1430), MACWATER, MAC WHALTRAGH, WHALTRAGH, WATER (1511) , MCQUALTROUGH (1521), QUALTRAGH (1654), QUALTERAGH(1698)

The name is found mainly in the Manx Parishes of Rushen, Arbory and Malew, which are all down in the south of the Island. The name is found elsewhere on the Island but not in such profuse numbers as in these Parishes.

WATTERSON, or WATERSON, a corruption of WALTERSON, is a translation of MacWalter. It seems probable that the English speaking MACWALTERS would adopt this name, whilst the Celtic would consent to have their name contracted into QUALTROUGH. We find WATER is a corruption of Walter in England.

Some think that WATTERSON is a contraction of Mac-yn-ushtey, ‘Water-son,’ but this is very doubtful. The only entry in the Parish Registers of such a name is at Malew in 1669, when it states distinctly that ‘William MACYNUSTEY’ was an Irishman’.

CHODERE was formerly used as a synonym for WATTERSON, members of the same family being called indifferently by one name or the other. CHODERE, however, was evidently used merely as a nickname, as it is not found in the Parish Registers. It is possible that CHODERE is a Manx corruption of GAULTIER or GAUTIER, the French original of the English WALTER.

WATTERSON is a common in Rushen, Arbory and Malew parishes as Qualtrough.

WATERSONET (1423), WATTERSON (1504), WATER, WATERSON (1511), WALTERSON (1547).

© Copyright by Malcolm Qualtrough, Elizabeth Feisst and the late John Karran Qualtrough.