Calling all Peytons

March 6, 2006 11:23 AM

All I have to do is change my name to Peyton,motivate my girlfriend to marry me and have a baby, and hey presto! young Peyton will receive a six-figure scholarship to Brighton College in England, explains the BBC because the college can't fulfil the bequest by former pupil Derek Wakehurst Peyton. Brighton looks a nice place so roll up all Peytons, the college principal is spreading "the net wider to the United States, Australia and beyond." Second thoughts ... maybe simpler for me simply to motivate her to change her name ...
posted by Schroder (11 comments total)

Maybe they're having a tough time finding someone because of this.
posted by contessa at 11:47 AM on March 6, 2006

"He said he had contacted the office of American Football player Peyton Manning in his search for leads." Wha??
posted by inigo2 at 11:51 AM on March 6, 2006

It's a little known fact that Peyton Manning is in fact the wizard Merlin and ages backwards throughout time. Eli Manning is actually a younger/older version temporarily crossed in the ultradimensional timestreams. When he separates from reality he will take the New York Giants with him, leaving the league open for the expansion-team New Jersey Algae.
posted by selfnoise at 12:03 PM on March 6, 2006

I'd totally change my name, learn chinese and attend, though unfortunately I'm not within the age range of 13-18. Damn ageism rears its head again!
posted by shoepal at 12:11 PM on March 6, 2006

There were some important Peytons in Cambridgeshire, but that was circa 1500. They held the manor of Isleham for over 100 years. Then they sold up, but not before the last tried to sell off the land his mother or grandmother had endowed to a local charity.

That said, the donor could have just donated this money to give a scholarship to a bright student who otherwise couldn't attend. Or to a student especially interested in some area. Or something sensible, which didn't depend on finding someone of a specific last name. But some people have more money than brains.
posted by jb at 12:12 PM on March 6, 2006

How about Walter "Sweetness" Payton, close enough?
posted by Pollomacho at 1:51 PM on March 6, 2006

Perhaps John Peyton, the Mayor of Jacksonville has kids?
posted by A189Nut at 2:11 PM on March 6, 2006

jb - that first paragraph of yours reminds me strongly of either Doyle or Lovecraft...

<shudder>

Lovecraft.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 2:26 PM on March 6, 2006

the Payton Manning line implies that either christian or family name can be Payton, It was the 370 and 286th most popular name for boys and girls in US in the 90s more popular than Harold and Maureen and thousands of other names
posted by Megafly at 3:24 PM on March 6, 2006

Now that's a stellar system of admissions.

Any colleges looking for a Paxon?
posted by rob paxon at 5:54 PM on March 6, 2006

Excitingly, I just found out that the manor of Doddington, including the villages of March, Doddington, Wimblington and Benwick in Cambridgeshire, was held by one Sir Algernon Peyton in 1669. He had inherited the estate from his brother, who went insane. Interestingly, both of their parents were Peytons - they were first cousins.

And in 1669, Algernon Peyton went to the Chancery Court and got decrees to enforced agreements between him and the commoners of the villages of March and Wimblington to stint their common rights to deal with overgrazing in the area. I'm not sure how much of an agreement it actually was - he did sue in Chancery, after all, but this may have been somewhat negotiated. Interestingly, it does seem to be quite honestly trying to cut down on the bigger commoners abusing the resources (and some were very big landowners). The agreement stressed the equality of commoners, regardless of how much land in the fields they might hold. Their stint (number of animals allowed) was by commonable house. However, it is true that some people owned more than one commonable house, and may have added up the common rights from these houses, instead of allowing the occupiers to exercise them.

This is all completely off-topic, of course. But I just want to share the fascinating (if somewhat inbred) Peyton history.
posted by jb at 12:30 PM on March 10, 2006