Featherstonhaugh

Featherstonhaugh (generally pronounced as written, but occasionally simply "Featherston")^[1] also spelt Fetherstonhaugh and Featherstonehaugh) is an English surname. The name comes from Featherstonhaugh in Northumberland, from the Old English feðere, 'feather', stān, 'stone', and healh, 'corner'.^[2]

According to Plum Lines, the journal of the P. G. Wodehouse Society, The BBC Pronunciation Dictionary of the British Isles (1983) gives the primary pronunciation of 'Featherston-haw', but also lists alternative pronunciations 'Fanshaw', 'Feston-haw', 'Feeson-hay', and 'Feerston-haw', although no evidence is given of individuals using these variants.^[3] Supporting Debrett's Correct Form in pronouncing the name as written is the experience of the barrister Guy Fetherstonhaugh, of the established family of that name:^[4] '"It’s not "Fanshaw" for me and I don’t know that any other Featherstonhaughs say that ... Everybody repeats it because they like to sound knowledgeable. If I'm in front of a judge who doesn’t know me, he’ll call me "Fanshaw" because he thinks it shows that he's in the know"'; due to his name in fact being 'pronounced as it's spelt', '"People always look slightly crestfallen."'^[5]

Notable people

• Francis Fetherston (c. 1575 – after 1624), an English statesman
• George William Featherstonhaugh (1780–1866), an English-American geologist
• George W. Featherstonhaugh Jr. (1814–1900), an American legislator and businessman
• Godfrey Fetherstonhaugh (1859–1928), an Irish politician
• F. B. Fetherstonhaugh (1863–1945), a Canadian patent lawyer
• Constance Featherstonhaugh (later Benson; 1864–1946), an English actress
• Francis Featherstonhaugh Johnston (1891–1963), an Anglican bishop of Egypt
• Harold Lea Fetherstonhaugh (1887–1971), a Canadian architect
• Buddy Featherstonhaugh (1909–1976), an English jazz saxophonist
• Mary Featherstonhaugh Frampton (1928–2014), an English civil servant
• Robert Fetherstonhaugh (born 1932), an English cricketer
• Alexander Featherstonhaugh Wylie (born 1951), a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland

Fetherstonhaugh baronets

Main article: Fetherstonhaugh baronets

• Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh (1714–1774), 1st Baronet
  • Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh, known as Harry (1754–1846), 2nd Baronet

Artistic and fictional works

• The Featherstonehaughs, a British dance company
• "Cholmondeley Featherstonehaugh", an episode of the TV series Nanny and the Professor.
• Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge (the middle name pronounced "Fanshaw", apparently the origin of this idiosyncratic pronunciation which is not encountered in reality)^[6][7] a fictional character in the short stories of P. G. Wodehouse
• Marcus Featherstone's terrier "Foon" ("written 'Featherstonehaugh'") in the detective novel Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham (1931).
• Harry Featherstonhaugh in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery Books by T.E. Kinsey.
• Piers Featherstonehaugh is the protagonist in the game The Gene Machine.
• In E. M. Forster's Maurice, Clive Durham refers to a Featherstonhaugh who has a pianola. In the film, he pronounces it "Feestonhay".

See also

• Featherstone Castle
• Dover House
• Featherstone (disambiguation)