Crowte History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland
Scotland

The ancient name of Crowte finds its origins with the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It comes from a name for a person who played a crowd, a stringed instrument similar to a fiddle or six-string violin. This instrument was known as a crouth or croude in Old English, and is still known as a crwth in Wales and as a cruit in Ireland. People in the West of England still refer to a fiddle as a crowdy-kit. 1 Professional musicians of this sort made their livings primarily by playing at medieval fairs and wedding feasts. In Scotland "crowdie" means porridge.

Early Origins of the Crowte family

The surname Crowte was first found in Kent where it is generally understood that the first record of the name was found in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1275 as Richard le Cruder. 2 3 A few years later, Hugo le Crouder was listed in Leicestershire in 1278 and Kenwrick le Cruther was listed in the Assize Rolls of Cheshire in 1289. 3 In Yorkshire, Adam le Crouther was listed in 1296 and Katerina Crowder and Thomas Crouder were listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379. 2

Early History of the Crowte family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Crowte research. Another 104 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1642, 1646, 1830 and 1874 are included under the topic Early Crowte History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Crowte Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Crowte family name include Crowder, Crowther, Crouder, Crowdder, Crodare, Crowdair, Crowdere, Crowthers, Crouder, Croader, Croather, Crother, Crawther, Craudder, Crauther, Crauder, Craudair, Crothair, Crowthair, Crowthare, Croder, Crouter, Crowter and many more.

Early Notables of the Crowte family

More information is included under the topic Early Crowte Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Crowte family to Ireland

Some of the Crowte family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 33 words (2 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Crowte family

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Crowte surname or a spelling variation of the name include : John Crowther who settled in New Hampshire in 1631; Elizabeth James and Mary Crowthers settled in Richmond, Virginia in 1820; Thomas Crowder who settled in Barbados in 1634 and later transferred to the mainland.

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)