Sacher

This very uncommon and interesting name is of Old French origin, introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and is an occupational surname for a maker of sacks or bags. The name derives from the Old French "sachier", sack-maker, and has an equivalent medieval English form, Sacker, derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sacc", sack. The surname may also have been used to denote a maker of coarse cloth, "sackcloth". Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and gradually became hereditary. The modern surname forms from the Old French "sach(ier)" range from the metonymics Sach and Satch to those with the agent suffix "-(i)er", Sacher and Satcher. The latter form is found chiefly in the south eastern counties of England, and examples from Church Registers include: the christening of Robert, son of Thomas Satcher, in Dartford, Kent, on November 17th 1583, and the marriage of Edward Satcher and Jaine Wood, also on November 17th 1591, in Amberley, Sussex. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name depicts a gold bend engrailed between two gold bulls' heads erased on a red shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John le Sachere, which was dated 1294, in the "Court Rolls of the Abbey of Ramsey", Huntingdonshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "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.