The Portland daily press., 1882-01-31
A Virginia Mystery.
Enraghty. Otherwise Darby.
worcester spy.l


William Enraghty died at his home near
Malvern Hill, Virginia, a few days ago. his
death calls renewed attention to a singular
mystery which pertained to him and the not
very numerous family Of which he was, In
later years, the head. This mystery related to
the family name, which was not Enraghty,
though it was invariably so written and had
been from the remotest times. What the
name was, nobody knows or ever did know.
1t was and is pronounced by the family and
their acquaintances as II it were written Dar-
by; but it is plain enough that E-n-r-ag-h-t-y
does not spell Darby, and that Darby is not
the correct or any other pronunciation of En-
raghty. The conclusion is inevitable that
neither OF them is the true name Of this fami-
ly, and therefore that it has had no known
name within the memory OF man, its true
name having doubtless been lost in the mist
of antiquity long before the dawn Of historic
times. Several sttempts have been made
with more or less success, to explain this mys-
terry. One theory is that the Enraghtys, being
like all Virginia families, of immemorial an
tiquity, have. preserved, In the combination,
of letters which now represents what they are
pleased to call their name, a "reminiscences Of
the graphic symbol which, long before the In
vention of alphabetie characters, stood for the
vocal sound, which has sur rvived, doubtless
much distorted and transformed, as Darby.
There is tradition in the family that, ut the
construction of the tower OF Babel, the En-
raghty of that time was one Of the master
builders, that he preserved on q receipt or bill
head the character denotiDg his name, whicn
was not, therefore, wholly lost in the confusion
of tongues which frustrated that impious enter
prise, and that after the invention OF the Rom
an alphabet the combination letters now used
was adopted as having some likeness 10 the
original character and being more convenient
for reproduction.
This theory is generally accepted by the
family but some members Of it frankly admit
that, though it is highly plausible and probably
true the evidence In its favor is not 80 ample
as TO enforce its universal acceptance. few
of the Enraghtys are inclined to favor another
theory, which does not involve q claim TO so
remote antiquity for their family. This theory
is that it was in very early times peculisrity
of the people who then Inhabited England TO
give to certain persons and places two names,
one of which was never written and the other
never spoken. A few instances OF this pecu-
liarity still survive; as in the names Of the
town which in writing or print is known h
Cirencester but in speech as Sissiter. Som
traces of the same popularity arc seen In 9TH
er words, such as those ending in oughf
which termination cannot be regarded
as having any phonetic value, but
which is not pronounced, the spoken y ord hsv-
ing no discoverable relation to it. Another tho
ory, which has many supporters, is that the
supposed mystery is really no mystery tnat
the spelling and pronunciation OF English De.
ing wholly arbitrary, any given combination OF
letters may represent one series OF SOUNDS as
well as another and that Enraghty Is nothing
more or less than Darby spelled in conven-
tional manner. Still another theory is main-
tained by some learned etrmolygists. Analyx-
ing the two words, they find first that the tniti-
al e in the written form OF the name has no Ct
theological significance, and may be thrown
away to start with; ID is only pronounced
with thickened utterance like that OF per-
son with a cold in his head, an infrmity TO
which the Enraghtys were always subject; the
and have been transposed as often happens.
Thus the first part OF the two names, unlike as
they at first seem to a superficial inquirer, are
really identical The final letter, y, is the same
in each, and the only remaining difficulty Is
the difference between ght in one and b IN the
other which is too trivial to be regarded as
difficulty when all other differences are eiimi-
mated, Each of these theories is ingenious
and plausible and deserves respect, Dut tners
are objections which prevent the absolute ac-
ceptance of any one of them or OF comblna-
ton of any two or more. The true explanation
of this mysterious nomenclature is, doubtless,
that supplied by a historical writer, who says
that il was adopted as protection against tho
superior proficiency of vagrant Yankees At
spelling bees The VirgInians have always
been fond of spelling bees, yet they have never
been strong in orthography, for reasons under-
stood by every one who remembers that tne
late John A. Wise, in a speech in Congress,
thanked God that there were no free schools
in his State Any casual Yankee, therefore.
who happened to be present at an exercise OF
that kind, could spell them all down, until 1t
occurred to remote ancestor Of the Enrsghtys
to sacrifice his name for the honor Of the State.
He introduced the custom of spelling his name
after the present fashion, while the former
pronunciation was preserved. Then when the
Yankee visitor made himself unpleasant py
his odious accuracy, the propounder OF words
would give ont Darby The visitor. spelling
by the light of nature, assisted by q common
school education, would, of course, fail igno-
miniously, and the Virginia youth, whose turn
came next, calmly confident in his superior
knowledge, would calculate: "E-n-r-a, Oar,
g-h-t-y BY, Darby" Thus was the invader
shamed and the erudition of Virginia vindi-
Gated