FLAXMAN. A dresser of flax, or a spinner. In old authors "flax-wife" signifies a female spinner who is married, probalily to distinguish her from the sjjinstcr, or maiden of the distaff. The records of Castle Combe shew the existence in that district of a family who in the reign of Edw. III. were called Spondel, mostprobabl)' a provincialism for "spindle," in allusion to the siiuning trade carried on by them. One of the family is described as "JohanueniSpoundel dictum Flexmangere," or flax-monger, and twenty years later this jjerson, or a descendant, is simjly described as " Johannes Flexmau." See Scrope's Hist, of Castle Combe, reviewed in Quarterly Piev., vol. xcii., p. 291.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.