24
FAMILY CHRISTIAN NAMES.
the use of the Christian name, Robert, borne by their common ancestor, who
came from England in 1635. Bromfield, a surname used as a Christian name in
this family, is still handed down by members in the legal profession.
The name Magnus is peculiar to the Redlon and Ridlon families in New Eng-
land, descended from Magnus Readlan, or Ridland, who came from the Shetland
Islands in 1718. The name signifies strength, or attraction, and is from the same
root as the ancient names Magi and Magician, applied to those who were sup-
posed to possess some remarkable and mysterious power. From the same
Latin root we have magnes, magnet, and magnate. The loadstone, having a
hidden power of attraction, has been called in literature, "The mighty mag-
nes stone." Magnus was assumed by many of the ancients as a surname,
among them by Pompey, from the greatness of his exploits. The name
is common in Norway and Shetland, being directly derived from the kings of
the former country and Sweden, of which there were six who bore that name.
King Magnus II reigned twenty-eight years previous to 1070 A. D., and his son
and successor, Magnus III, fifty-two years, to 1180. In Kirkwall, the principal
town of the Orkney Islands, is St. Magnus' Cathedral, founded in 1136 A. D.
St. Magnus' Bay, on the west coast of the mainland of Shetland, affords an ex-
cellent anchorage for large vessels. Magnus was also the name of a king of the
Isle of Man, 1264 A. D.
The name has been handed down from generation to generation, in the Red-
lon and Ridlon families, but when the author commenced this book, there were
but two persons in the connection bearing it, and one of them only as a middle
name. Since this family history was undertaken, the author has had the honor
of bestowing this grand old kingly and ancestral family name upon several little
fellows who bear the Ridlon surname, and it is hoped the Christian name Magnus
will never be allowed to. drop out of the old sept.
Matthias is a name much used in the early generations of the Redlon and Rid-
lon family, and came from the family of Young, in Kittery, Me., of whom the
first wife of Magnus Redlon, our common progenitor, was a member. This old
scriptural name represents our ancestors on the maternal side, and should be per-
petuated by the Ridlons as long as there is one of the name.
The name Abraham, in the Ridlon family, was derived from the Townsends,
of Saco. Massie, daughter of Abraham Townsend, sometime of Lynn, Mass.,
was the second wife of Magnus Redlon, and named her eldest son for her
father; that son died unmarried, and although the name has been perpetuated
in other branches of the Ridlon family, there are now no male descendants of
Massie Townsend who bear our surname.
Robert is a name introduced into the Redlon family by the marriage of John
Redlon, of Buxton, Me., with a daughter of Robert Brooks. The eldest son
was named Robert for his maternal grandfather, and became the head of the
Damariscotta Redlons. Another daughter of Robert Brooks was the wife of
David Martin, and named a son Robert for her father, from whom by inter-
marriage subsequently, between the Ridlons and Martins, the name Robert came
into the family again, but from the same original source. I incline to the belief
that Robert Ridlon, of Hollis, Me. (deceased), was named for a Robert Cousens
of his mother's family.
The name Ebenezer, of the Buxton family of Ridlons, came from the Youngs
of Kittery, by the marriage of Magnus Redlon with Susanna, daughter of Matthew
Young, a Scotchman.
Nathaniel came to the Ridlons from the Townsend family; Thomas, from the
Edgcombs.
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