William Henry Duignan

William Henry Duignan (16 August 1824 – 27 March 1914)^[1] was a solicitor who lived in and around the town of Walsall for his entire life. He was better known as an antiquarian, writer, historian and local politician and wrote a number of books and pamphlets about local history and especially on the etymology of place naming, many of which are still available today.^[2]

Duignan was born of Irish descent in Walsall in 1824; his grandfather, latterly a master at Walsall Grammar School, had emigrated to England from County Longford.^[3] He had three children, Florency-Mary, Ernest-Henry, and George-Stubbs, by Mary Minors, of Fisherwick, whom he married in 1850; and a further three children, Bernard, Carl, and Oscar, by Jenny Petersen, of Stockholm, whom he married in 1868.^[4] An antiquarian and etymologist,^[5] he wrote three histories of place names and a monograph on Rushall Hall,^[6] where he had lived for 29 years.^[1] He travelled widely around Britain and Ireland,^[5] earning the nickname "the man on a tricycle" after his preferred mode of travel.^[7] He was often accompanied in his travels by the Staffordshire businessman and writer Willam Henry Robinson.^[8]

Duignan's most widely known works are his three etymologies of place names in the West Midlands, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names (1902), Worcestershire Place Names (1905), and Warwickshire Place Names (1912); all are still available in reproduction form today.^[2]

• Notes on Staffordshire Place Names (1902) ISBN 978-1110699377
• Worcestershire Place Names (1905) ISBN 978-0548228364
• A Forgotten Worcestershire Monastery (1910)
• Warwickshire Place Names (1912) ISBN 978-1152844902

• Howard, Christopher (March 1965). "'The Man on a Tricycle': W. H. Duignan and Ireland, 1881–5". Irish Historical Studies. 14 (55): 246–260. doi:10.1017/S002112140002037X. JSTOR 30005525.