LANOPC have transcribed the surname as Gorse - which was a fairly common local name and I think more likely than GAWSE etc. Lower Darwen/Blackburn was fairly isolated at that time and I would be surprised if there was a German family (especially with the forname James) in the area.
Of course - then you're back to a German name - or, at least, one with its roots in Germany, since that's a Teutonic link: Ganze/Goose. I think a Hanser (G/H can be close) is an East Anglian name for a kind of goose. I think someone suggested that Hamlet's "I can tell a hawk from a handsaw" might really have been "a hawk from a hanser".
Christine
Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...
No, I think in this case it's down to the recorder not understanding the local accent, when GORSE would be pronounced "GOWSE" or GAUSE. It is spelled in a variety of ways down the centuries but the family goes back to the 1500s in the local church records
Of course, it might have had German roots originally but by the 1600s certainly, it was a local Lancashire name.
No, I think in this case it's down to the recorder not understanding the local accent, when GORSE would be pronounced "GOWSE" or GAUSE. It is spelled in a variety of ways down the centuries but the family goes back to the 1500s in the local church records
Of course, it might have had German roots originally but by the 1600s certainly, it was a local Lancashire name.
OC
Ah - I see what you mean. I was forgetting that this record was unlikely to have been written down by the person/people who supplied the info, so there was an immediate opportunity for mistranscription (or equivalent).
Christine
Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...
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