Sackler

This long-established surname may be either of Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse origin, and is an occupational name for a maker of sacks, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sacc" or the Old Norse "sekkr", sack, with the addition of the agent suffix "-er". In its original sense "a man who has to do with", the "-er" designates persons according to their profession or occupation. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. Early forms of the name include: Ralph Sakeman (Huntingdonshire, 1209); Symon Sac (Cambridgeshire, 1250); and Henry le Sacwebbe (Somerset, 1279). The last mentioned example refers specifically to the occupation of sack weaver. Geoffrey Sakker was noted in "Early London Personal Names", by E. Edwall, circa 1250, and in 1277, Eva le Seckere appears in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire. Adam the Sakker of le Sakkere was entered in the London Fines Roll of 1321. On May 19th 1622, Edward, son of John and Marie Sackler, was christened at St. Andrew Undershaft, London, and in 1624, John Sacker, aged 20 yrs., and an early settler in the New World, appears on a Muster of the Inhabitants in Virginia in 1624. He travelled from London on the ship "Marget and John" in 1623. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugh le Saker, which was dated 1225, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.