Craufurd

This is an interesting name of English, Irish and Scottish origin and in this instance is a dialectal variant of the name Crewford, which itself is a locational name from any of the various places so called in Dorset, Lancashire and Strathclyde in Scotland. The derivation is from the old English pre 7th Century "crawa", with "ford", a ford. It is also possible that "Craw" was a personal name, which would suggest that the ford was owned by someone called Craw. Crawford is also found in Scotland with variants including Crewford, Crawfurd and Craufurd. One, Sir Reginald de Craufurd, sheriff of Ayrshire in 1296 seems to have been the common ancestor of many branches of the family. The English variants include Crowfoot, Crafford, Croffit and Crawforth and Crofford. In London, one Susannah Crawforth the infant daughter of William and Elizabeth Crawforth was christened on August 16th 1749 at St. Botolph-without-Aldgate. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Crauford, which was dated circa 1147, The Land Charter of Douglas Water, Scotland, during the reign of King David I of Scotland, 1124 - 1153. 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.