Ditcher History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Ditcher finds its origins with the ancient Anglo-Saxons of England. It was given to one who worked as a worker who was a dike or ditch maker.

Early Origins of the Ditcher family

The surname Ditcher was first found in East Sussex and either Upper Dicker or Lower Dicker, villages that date back to 1229 where they were listed as Diker.

The place name is derived from the Middle English word "dyker" which means "ten" as in a plot of land for which ten iron rods were paid in rent. 1

Early History of the Ditcher family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Ditcher research. Another 258 words (18 lines of text) covering the years 1066, 1210, 1296, 1327, 1379, 1572, 1577, 1600, 1625, 1628, 1631, 1632 and 1637 are included under the topic Early Ditcher History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Ditcher Spelling Variations

The English language only became standardized in the last few centuries; therefore, spelling variations are common among early Anglo-Saxon names. As the form of the English language changed, even the spelling of literate people's names evolved. Ditcher has been recorded under many different variations, including Dicker, Decker, Deeker, Dyker, Dikkers, Ditcher and many more.

Early Notables of the Ditcher family

Notables of the family at this time include Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632), an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer. "His birthplace was London, as he intimates in ‘The Seuen Deadly Sinnes,’ 1600, and in ‘A Rod for Run-awayes,’ 1625. In ‘Warres, Warres, Warres,’ a tract published in 1628, he describes himself as an old man; and in the dedication to ‘Match...
Another 59 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Ditcher Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Ditcher migration to the United States +

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that shrouded England made the far away New World an attractive prospect. On cramped disease-ridden ships, thousands migrated to those British colonies that would eventually become Canada and the United States. Those hardy settlers that survived the journey often went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Ditcher or a variant listed above:

Ditcher Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Robert Ditcher, who arrived in Maryland in 1661 2

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)