| {{ad}} |
|
|
|
Crutchfield is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived near a crossroads. The name is derived from the Old English word crouch, and/or cruc.
The surname Crutchfield was first found in Somerset where John atte Crouche was the first listing of the family 1, Edward III (during the first year of the reign of King Edward III.) 1
The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 listed: John atte Cruche (no county); Millesenta Cruche, Norfolk; and Robert Cruche, Norfolk. 2
"This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the cross,' i.e. the roadside or market-cross, once so familiar a sight at the intersection of the great country thoroughfares, or in the chartered market-steads. Crouch still lingers in our 'crutched' or 'crouched friars.' Langland describes a pilgrim as having 'many a crouch' embroidered 'on his cloke.' Blomefield says of an old Norwich church, 'St. Crowche's was dedicated in honour of the Invention of the Holy Cross, but is now totally demolished; the churchyard is still surrounded with common lanes or passages'." 3
The word crouch "was applied in general to such crosses as stood at the intersection of two roads and although they have long disappeared, they have left the name of 'cross' and 'crouch' upon many localities, especially in the South of England. In Sussex, where the name is one of the oldest indigenous designations (especially in the Cinque Ports) it is found in the forms of Crouch and De Cruce, 20 Edw. I." 4
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Crutchfield research. Another 114 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1200, 1607, 1628, 1635, 1660, 1671, 1679, 1681, 1710, 1775, 1780 and 1786 are included under the topic Early Crutchfield History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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 Crutchfield family name include Crouch, Crooch, Croucher, Croutch, Crowch, Crowcher, Crouche and many more.
Notables of this surname at this time include: Thomas Crouch (1607-1679), an English academic and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1679.
Humphrey Crouch or Crowch (fl. 1635-1671), was an English ballad-writer and pamphleteer, probably belonged to the family of publishers named Crouch, who traded largely in popular literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. "Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has suggested that Humphrey was brother of John Crouch, the Royalist verse-writer. It is equally likely that he stood in the same relation to Edward Crouch or Crowch, John Crouch's publisher, and that he was father or uncle of Nathaniel...
Another 310 words (22 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Crutchfield Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the United States, the name Crutchfield is the 3,298th most popular surname with an estimated 9,948 people with that name. 6
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, 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 Crutchfield surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Richard, Nicholas, Richard, and Thomas Crouch who settled in Virginia in 1623; followed by Eliza in 1653; William Crouch settled in Charlestown in 1654.