Re: Hexhamshire

In a message dated 05/12/2005 17:08:56 GMT Standard Time,
Well that's what it said on the beer labels IIRC :-) Don't have a bottle to
hand so I can't check. The label has a representation of such an official.
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There seems to be a misunderstanding, I have looked at the site
"so the Archbishop of York established the Peculier Court of Masham to avoid
having to make regular visits.
The chairman of this court is known as the Official and he has a special
seal to mark his approval or decision."
The seal is that of the 'Official' of the Peculier Court, he was not called
a Peculier.

Don Aitken...

The judge of every court set up under the authority of a bishop or
archdeacon is an Official, or an Official Principal (here, official is
a noun and principal an adjective), although some also bear other
titles by which they are better known. The Archbishop of Canterbury's
Official Principal is Dean of the Arches, and a Bishop's is usually

As it happens there this no such word as Peculier in any dictionary.

The site also says that peculier is a Norman word meaning particular.
Particular is actually from OFr. particuler, from L. particularis, from particula ‘
small part.’
Peculiar is from the Lat. peculiaris meant primarily belonging to private
property, and is formed from peculium, private property.

myths...

from The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1982 ed.

particular a. & n. 1.a. relating to one as distinguished from others,
special; .......

peculiar a. & n. 1. a belonging exclusively to: belonging to the
individual, esp. one's own peculiar (Character etc.); particular,
special, (a point of peculiar interest). ........

I have always assumed that ale names like "Captain's Peculiar" or "Old
Particular" merely mean that the drink is recommended as somone's
favourite.

Regards Stan Mapstone