"Guess Things Happen That Way"

Well you ask me if I'll forget my baby.
I guess I will, someday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll get along.
I guess I will, someway.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

You ask me if I'll miss her kisses.
I guess I will, everyday.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.
You ask me if I'll find another.
I don't know. I can't say.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way.

God gave me that girl to lean on,
then he put me on my own.
Heaven help me be a man
and have the strength to stand alone.
I don't like it but I guess things happen that way

A difficult surname to live with, but an interesting one, at any rate for a bearer of the name. However, the interest of professional family historians in the name seems limited, to say the least. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames does not even mention it, although there were 465 individuals listed in the 1881 census for England alone and 194 of the alternative Viles. The Dictionary does list related names such as Vial, Vials, Viall, Vidal, Vidall, Vital and Vitall, although it does not mention other clearly related names such as Vyle, Vyles, Vill and Villis that occur in the censuses of 1881 and 1901. The Dictionary also refers to the Old French name of Viel, “which also survives as Veal.” Indeed in 1881 there were 44 individuals with the name Viel in the census return, most of them in the Channel Islands. There were also 9 named Vile living in Guernsey.

So far there seem to be two possible sources of the name, and it is likely that there are individual families that originate from one or other of these sources.

First, the name Vile existed independently in France at least from the 17th to the 19th century, mostly in the South. I have found an instance in Albas, Aude, France, in 1681, as well as many other instances in Aude, the Vendee, and Pyrenees-Orientales. Thus it could be that some of the English Viles are simply the descendants of French immigrants of the same name, whether Huguenot or not.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the names Vile and Viles seem be used almost interchangeably, with the same individual at one time reported as Vile, then later as Viles, and then may revert to Vile again. Whether this usage is due to the people concerned or to the enumerators or registrars is not clear.

Second, the derivation of Vile from Viel or Vial, is a distinct possibility. Like other related names such as Vyle, Vyles, Vyall, Viol, Vial and Vials, it is a straight transliteration, and indeed simply involves the transposition of the e in Viel, a change that one could expect when the name was being copied by Anglo-Saxons. Although the Viels came from France, it is not clear when or how individual families arrived. The Oxford Dictionary notes that it was the Norman invasion that originally brought the name to England, and gives Richard Viel (1194), Henry Vyel (1275), and Thomas Vyall (1524) as examples. There are also records of a Viel family in St. Giles, London, at the end of the 12th. and early 13th century: John Viel was born around 1185 in St. Giles. There are records of George Viel in Devon in the middle of the 15th century (IGI). The Huguenot immigrations seem to be a likely source of many of the more humble Viles. A number of Viels or Viells are recorded in Devon and Cornwall in the 16th and 17th centuries and there are a number records of christenings of Viels at French Huguenot churches in London in the 17th and 18th centuries (IGI). In the 18th century there are baptisms and marriages of Viels recorded in the French Huguenot Church in Threadneedle Street, and Le Temple Huguenot Church in London, as well as the Walloon Church in Southampton. In 1704 the christening took place in St. Mary Bredin Church in Canterbury of “James Vile or Viell”, son of “Henry Vile or Viell” (IGI). In the19th century the second largest concentration of the name Vile after Somerset is in Kent, and particularly in the area around Canterbury, an area that was very important for Huguenot immigration. The persistence of the names Viel and Vile in the Channel Islands, also an important destination of Huguenots, may be significant.

As far as the major source of the name in England is concerned a variation on the method of investigation proposed by David Hey gives interesting results. In the 1881 census there were 465 individuals in England with the name Vile, but of these no fewer than 265 were born in Somerset. If we then look at the distribution of male heads of households within Somerset i

Stairway To Heaven
(Page/Plant)

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven.

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,
It's just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,
The piper's calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she's buying a stairway to heaven.