Crossdale

This is a north country locatiuonal surname which derives from the village of Crossdale in Cumberland. As the name moved in a southerly direction the spelling underwent a transposition as the local dialects changed the sound. There are a wide variety of spelling styles including Crossdale, Croasdale, Crosdill, Croysdale and Croisdall etc. It is probable that the original village being on the "front line" between the warring Scots and English of the 12th to 15th century was vacated somewhere around 1370, the name being first recorded (see below) in Yorkshire. It is in this county where the name is most popular, all early recordings being found there. These recordings include Alice Croisdale at St. Peters Church, Leeds, on August 25th 1595, and Robert Croysdale, who may have been the son of Mark Croisdale, recorded at the same church on January 17th 1636. The name is well recorded in pre independant America, particularly in the Philadelphia region, Willian Crossdill (also recorded as Croasdale) marrying Elizabeth Hayhurst, at Middleton, Pennsylvania in 1690. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Johannes de Crosdale, which was dated 1379, in the Poll Tax Rolls of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward 11, known as Edward of Caernafon, 1377 - 1399. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.