Crich

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a locational surname deriving from either of the places called "Crick", in Northamptonshire, new Rugby and in Monmouthshire near Chepstow. The place in Northants is recorded as "Crec" in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Kreic" in 1201 and as "Creck" in 1254, and derives it's name from the Old British (pre-Roman) word "cruc", a hill. The place in Monmouthshire derives its name from the Old Welsh word "creic", rock, in modern Welsh "craig". Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor and to those former inhabitants of a place who left the area to live or work in another town. The marriage of Dorrithy Crick and Stephen Birtbeck was recorded on May 29th 1620 at St. Giles', Cripplegate, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Barthholomew de Crekke, which was dated 1273, in the Suffolk Hundred Rolls, during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.