Ducroe

Recorded in England in various spellings including Du Cro, Ducro, Ducrow, Duckrow, Ducroq and no doubt others, this is a surname of French medieval and later Huguenot origins. Introduced into the British Isles before the year 1615, it originates from either the surname Ducrocq meaning 'Little fang' probably a nickname reference to someone with only one tooth, or from Ducreux or Ducros meaning 'the house in the hollow (or valley)'and hence a person who lived at such a place. Huguenots were protestants who for many years enjoyed peace and prosperity in France, but who from about 1580 came under continual harrassment by the Roman Catholics, as religious fervour in favour of one Christian sect or another, ground through the Western World for three centuries. During that time an estimated one hundred and fifty thousand protestants left France. Many came to England, some of them being amongst the most skilled artisans in Europe, particularly in textile, iron and steel manufacture, and the early chemical industries. We are uncertain when this surname was first recorded as most early French records were destroyed during the infamous Revolution of 1792. However early English church registers include examples such as Michael Ducroe whose son James was christened at St Mildred Poultrey, in the city of London on October 5th 1613, and John Ducrow who married Susanna Wild at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on April 9th 1730.