Creeping into Barbados society is the interesting social
custom of hyphenation. There has recently appeared in the press the name of an athlete whose first name and family name were both hyphenated. Among English natives hyphenation seems to be practised mostly among the
upper and upper-middle classes, and carries a distinct implication of snobbery. A rather naughty song of not long ago described all the failings of an upper-class gentleman, ending with the refrain: "Whatever other things he lacks,
at least he's hyphenated!"
But one of our distinguished Barbados families is perhaps the most hyphenated of any. What a pity the founder of this family cannot be one of our Heroes, but since he was whitish this is obviously
absolutely impossible. William Drax came to Barbados in the middle seventeenth century with the useful sum of three hundred pounds in his pocket, and in his head the declared ambition of achieving an income
of ten thousand a year!
He began by buying a plantation, constructing the splendid residence, Drax Hall, and marrying a daughter of the Earl of Carlisle, that famous non-tourist who never came to the island which his friend, King
Charles I, had granted him. However, the E. of C. did later manage to reduce his massive debts by selling 10 000 acres of Barbados (mostly in St, George) to the merchants of London.
Wm. Drax had heard about sugar-cane, about the
very high price of sugar, and that in Pernambuco (now in Brazil but then a Dutch colony) they knew how to grow the cane and how to extract the sugar. So he imported some cane and some Dutchmen from Pernambuco. Our sugar industry
was born. A little later some of our Bajan ancestors arrived here, rather uncomfortably, from Africa, with the cooperation of some travel agents known as African Chieftains.
It seems possible that the brilliant Mr. Drax achieved
his ambition. At any rate, when those little revolutionary troubles started in England in 1642, with the help of Mr. Oliver Cromwell ("The Protector") Mr. Drax was soon made a knight. And when the monarchy was restored, with
Charles II, Sir William was promoted, with little delay, to baronet "for services to the King." English readers may wonder if there is any family connection with the Vicar of Bray, but none has been discovered.
Drax Hall still
belongs to the family, though our Telephone Book lists not a single Drax. However, the family brilliance has been inherited, for they live in England inside a wall several miles in length, rejoicing in the uniquely hyphenated
name of Plunket-Ernle-Erle-Drax. The additional surnames may well be derived from subsequent, similarly useful marriages.
Might our current Bajan fashion of hyphenation be similarly related to financially advantageous marriages?
The suggestion has been made that the name of Courcy de Vere Smith-Robinson may, on the contrary, be connected with the circumstance that Courcy's Mum, Miss Smith of Twopenny Hole, may never have actually entered the bonds of
matrimony with Courcy's Dad, Mr. Robinson of Splendid Hope.
However, if these common situations are, indeed, the reason for hyphenation of the surname (surely the snobbish reasons would not apply in Barbados), they would not
apply to the hyphenation of the first names. In Massachusetts the Founding Puritans often used Christian names of a length surpassing even the Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Draxes, such as Through-God-Avoiding-All-Temptation, or
In-The-Hope-And-Certainty-Of-Eternal-Life. But such names never caught on in very religious Barbados, where we use secular names which appear not so far to have been the monikers of Catholic Saints, names like Cheryl-Assonance or
Beresford-Rommel.
Other students of the Telephone Book.
