What’s in a name?
post office was set up, they shortened the name to Plantagenet. There was a brief consideration of Potts- ville, in honour of Pat Potts, a local mer-
chant who had the local post office in his general store, but that idea was soon discarded. A more fanciful legend is still linked to the
Plantagenet kings of England but dates fur- ther back to the French origin of the royal line with Geoffrey le Bel, who was called Plantagenet because he always wore a sprig of flowering broom on his helmet to iden- tify himself in battle to his men. In French, flowering broom is known as “genêt fleuris”, so Geoffrey le Bel became known as Geof- frey Plantagenêt. He married into the Nor- man family ruling England and thus won his son the right of succession to the throne as Henry II, the first of the Plantagenet kings. Some local heritage enthusiasts believe Plantagenet owes its name to the early fran- cophone pioneer families who found what they thought were large tracts of flowering broom in the forests and fields and so want- ed to name the area after the yellow flower in honour of Geoffrey le Bel. But botany experts report that flower- ing broom is not native to the area nor has it ever grown here because of the climate. There are other flowering plants with yel- low blossoms, like St. John’s wort and bird’s foot trefoil, that might be mistaken, at a dis- tance for genêt fleuris. Fanciful flower or royal connection, Plan- tagenet’s name has a colourful heritage.
T
he story behind how Plantagenet got its name are shrouded in both history and legend. Both show why there was no other name possible for Plantagenet but Plantagenet. Folks like Royden James, descendents of the village’s original pioneer stock, know the historical origin behind the name. “Plantagenet came from the king of Eng- land, King Edward II,” James explained. “Al- ways, when he went into battle or was seen out in public, he had this little plant in his lapel or in his hat. He became known as Ed- ward the Second of Plantagenet.” Abner Hager, one of the co-founders of the village, pushed to have it named after the Plantagenet royal line. “Abner Hager, being a born Englishman, a real ‘bloke’, he named it Plantagenet. It was Plantagenet Mills first, and then it became Plantagenet.” The original name, Plantagenet Mills, was because of the sawmill that the Hager and Chesser families built in the area, along with a woolen mill and a grist mill later. When the
This unique handwrought-iron grave marker was almost lost years ago to the waters of the South Nation River thanks to van- dals. It was salvaged through the efforts of Royden James of the Chesser Cemetery Committee.
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