One morning I came across a list of seventeeth century jurors with very peculiar names:
The person who posted the list on the web said that it was on the authority of Arthur Bryant in his England of Charles II.
It turns out that this rather dubious looking sequence of names is indeed not a real jury. It is however a very early satire of the puritans, so it's almost as good really. Before I get to the explanation, here's some context of why the satire should have come about, which refers to the names in question, from a 20th century book on forenames by Ernest Weekly (1940), ISBN 1417992840, pp.116–8:
A further result of Puritanism was the wholesale introduction of abstract nouns as names, sometimes given to boys as well as girls. This was no new thing. From Greek we already had Alethea, truth, Sophia, wisdom, and Irene, peace. The Middle Ages had Constance, popularly pronounced Custance, Lætitia or Lettice, and all the virtues and vices were personified in the later medieval drama. But an immense number of new names of this type were introduced after the Reformation. I have already given from Littleton (p. 20) those in common use. It was the custom to baptize female triplets as Faith, Hope and Charity, and one remembers that Mr. Pecksniff's two daughters were Charity and Mercy, Cherry and Merry. Spenser had already put Fidelia, Speranza and Charissa in the House of Holiness. Sir Thomas Carew, Speaker of the House of Commons in the 17th century, had a wife Temperance and four daughters, Patience, Temperance, Silence and Prudence. Patience is already the name of a gentlewoman in Shakespeare's Henry III, and Prudence is rather exceptional in having developed a pet form Prue (p. 143), Steele's nickname for his second wife, for whom Patience would have been more suitable. Other recorded names of this type, some still in use, were Abstinence, Comfort, Confidence, Diligence, Felicity, Honor, Humiliation and Humility, Joy, Obedience, Perseverance, Remembrance, Repentance, Truth or Troth, Victory, along with such adjectives as Faithful, Godly, Gracious, Humble, etc. The gloom which seems inseparable from Calvinism appears in the choice of such names as Wrath and Anger. Sometimes resort was had to the dead languages: Fiducia Lee's name is on a tablet in Ockley Church, Surrey, and the Gr. Philadelphia, brotherly love, was in great favour.
Camden gives specimens of all the above types, as also of another type, hardly to be called a name, which reinforced them—'The naw names Free-Gift, Reformation, Earth, Dust, Ashes, Delivery, More fruit, Tribulation, The Lord is near, More trial, Discipline, Joy again, From above, Acceptance, Thankful, Praise-God, Love-God and Live-well, which have lately been given by some to their children with no evil meaning, but upon some singular and precise conceit'.
A few of such names have been attached to people of some importance. Accepted Frewen (+ 1664) was Archbishop of York, Increase Mather (+ 1723) was an eminent American divine and father of Cotton Mather, the witch-father. best known of all is Praise-God Barbon, the fanatic whose name is associated with the Barebones Parliament of 1653. His brother is said to have been baptized If-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned. This is probably an invention, but it appears to be certain that he was known to the ungodly as Damned Barbon.
The subject of these 'Pilgrim's Progress' names coined by the Puritans from Scriptural and moral phrases lies outside the scope of this book, so I will be satisfied with the following panel of 17th-century Sussex jurymen, given as authentic by Mr. Arthur Bryant in his England of Charles II—'Accepted Trevor, Redeemed Compton, Faint-not Hewit, Standfast-on-high Stringer, Kill-sin Pimple, Be-faithful Joiner, Fly-debate Roberts, Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith White, More-fruit Fowler, Hope-for Bending, Weep-not Billing, Meek Beaver.' Such names and those taken from Scripture by the Puritans excited the derision of ungodly dramatists, who are fond of given them to rascally and hypocritical characters. As early as Ben Jonson we find Zeal-of-the-Land Busy in Bartholomew Fair and Tribulation Wholesome in The Alchemist. Nor does the possession o edifying names seem to have given their bearers the hoped for immunity from sin. Gamaliel Ratsey was a famous highwayman, hanged in 1605, and Salvation Yeo, according to his mother, 'swore terribly in his speech.'
Now, the earliest mention of these names that I've been able to verify is from Zachary Grey (1737), An Impartial Examination of the Second Volume of Mr. Daniel Neal's History, who writes in a footnote on p.285 onwards:
Remarkable are the Christian Names of a Jury return'd in the County of Sussex, during the grand Rebellion, mention'd by the Reverend Mr. Brome, in his Travels over England, 2d. Edition. p. 279. The Names as follow.
Accepted, Trever of Norsham. Faint not, Hewet of Heathfield. Redeem'd, Compton of Battle. Make-peace, Heaton of Hare. God-Reward, Smart of Fiveburgh. Fly Debate, Roberts of the same. Stand fast on High, Stringer of Crowhurst. Fight the Good Fight of Faith, White of Emer. Earth, Adams of Warbleton. More Fruit, Fowley, of East Hadley. Called, Lower of the same. Hope for, Bending of the same. Kill Sin, Pimple of Witham. Graceful Harding of Lewes. Return, Spelman of Watling. Weep not, Billing of the same. Be faithful, Joyner of Britling. Meek, Brewer of Okeham.
So we have a source, James Brome (1707), Travels over England, Scotland and Wales 2nd edition, p.279, and we can note that the last name for example has been mutated by the 20th century from Meek Brewer to the even funnier Meek Beaver. Note that I may have transcribed some of the place names from Grey incorrectly; they were pretty difficult to read.
The matter being a satire is resolved by a later author, a footnote in William Godwin (1827), History of the Commonwealth of England, from p.524 onwards:
The members for the city of London were alderman Titchborne, alderman Ireton, Moyer, one of the members of the council of state, John Langley, Henry Barton, captain John Stone, and Praise-God BarboneP.
[Footnote:] P Several Proceedings of Parliament (a New Series), licensed by Scobel. Parliamentary History, Vol. XX, p. 176, et seqq.
The name of the last of these persons has served as a basis for a multitude of ridiculous fictions. In the contemporary printed lists of this parliament, of which there are four in the British Museum, it is always spelled as in the text. There is however, preserved in the State-Paper Office, a paper, purporting to be the writ of summons to this person, in which the name stands, as it is usually given by historians, Barebone.—How comes this to be the only summons to be found there? Might I hazard a conjecture, I should say it is not improbable that this might be a spoiled summons, and that perhaps from the circumstance of the name being misspelled in it.
Granger, in his Biographical History of England, talks of his having had two brothers, the Christian name of the first of whom was Christ came into the world to save, and of the second If Christ had not died, thou hadst been damned. He introduces his anecdote with the suspicious words, “I have been finromed that there were three brothers,” and adds, that “some people, tired of the long name of the younger brother, are said to have omitted the former part of the sentence, and to have called him familiarly Damned Barebone.”
Another writer, the reverend James Brome, in a book of Travels over England, Scotland and Wales, second edition 1707, has endeavoured to render the satire more complete, by giving the names of a “jury returned in the County of Sussex in the late rebellious troublesome times,” as follows: (p. 279.)
Accepted Trevor of Norsham. Return Spelman of Watling. Redeemed Compton of Battel. Be Faithful Joiner of Britling. Faint not Hewet of Heathfield Fly debate Roberts of the same. Make pace Heaton of Hare Fight the good fight of faith White of Emer. God reward Smart of Tisehurst. More fruit Fowler of East Hodley. Stand fast on high Stringer of Crowhurst. Hope for Bending of the same. Earth Adams of Warbleton. Graceful Harding of Lewes. Called Lower of the same. Weep not Billing of the same. Kill sin Pimple of Witham. Meek Brewer of Okeham This precious list has been copied by Dr. Zachary Grey, the celebrated, and no less blindly zealous, editor of Hudibras, in his Examination of the Third Volume of Neal's History of the Puritans, p.285, note: and has even, in his inexplicable hatred of fanaticism, found its way into Hume's History of England, who has eked it out with the above extract from Granger, and another from Cleveland, the satirist, a contemporary of Cromwel, respecting the frequence of Christian names (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, &c.) taken from the Gospel at that period.—Who sees not that this list of a jury is a mere piece of mauvaise plaisanterie, invented by the reverent traveller, or supplied to him by an unlucky acquaintance for the purpose of imposing on his credulity?
It however fortunately happens, that Mr. James Brome has furnished a clue to the whole, by premising to this list of the Sussex jury, that it was given him “by the same worthy hand,” that had supplied him with the names of the Huntingdon jury in a preceding page. The story of the Huntingdon jury is thus:
The following is the “copy of a jury taken before judge Dodridge at the assizes holden in this place July 1619, which is the more remarkable because the surnames of some of the inhabitants would seem to make them at first sight persons of very great renown and quality.” (p. 56.)
Maximillian King of Poseland. William Abbot of Stukeley. Henry Prince of Godmanchester. Robert Baron of St. Neots. George Duke of Somersham. William Dean of Old Weston. William Marquess of Stukeley. John Archdeacon of Paxton. Edmund Earl of Hartford. Peter Esquire of Easton. Richard Baron of Bythorn. Edward Friar of Ellington. Stephen Pope of Newton. Henry Monk of Stukeley. Stephen Cardinal of Kimbolton. George Gentleman of Spaldech. Humphrey Bishop of Bugden. George Priest of Graffan. Robert Lord of Waseley. Richard Deacon of Catworth. Robert Knight of Winwick. Thomas Yeoman of Barham. Of the name of Praise-God itself, as a baptismal appellation, it may not be improper to remark, that it is scarcely more fanatical than that of Deodatus, which is to be found in the records of most of the countries of Europe.
So that pretty much clears that up!