Dokwray History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

• Origins Available:
• England

Early Origins of the Dokwray family

Early History of the Dokwray family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Dokwray research. Another 111 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1527, 1560, 1568, 1584, 1620, 1623, 1631, 1635, 1680 and 1716 are included under the topic Early Dokwray History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Dokwray 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 Dokwray family name include Dockwra, Dockwray, Dockray, Dockeray, Dockery, Dockree, Docwra, Dockreay and many more.

Early Notables of the Dokwray family

Notable amongst the family name during their early history was Sir Thomas Docwra, (d. 1527) Grand Prior of Clerkenwell Priory, where he is buried. "He was descended from an old Westmoreland family, the Docwras of Docwra Hall in Kendal; but he came of a younger branch which had been for some generations settled in Hertfordshire." 2 William Dockwra or Dockwray (c. 1635-1716), was an English merchant who co-founded the first Penny Post in...
Another 72 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Dokwray Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Dokwray 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. Investigation of the origins of family names on the North American continent has revealed that early immigrants bearing the name Dokwray or a variant listed above: settlers, who arrived along the eastern seaboard, from Newfoundland, to Maine, to Virginia, the Carolinas, and to the islands.