This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the crocker,' a potter, a maker of crocks, a once familiar name for the occupation, used by Wyclif in place of our 'potter's vessel' (Ps. ii. 9). From Middle English crokke, an earthen pitcher: 'There is also white clay, and red for to make of crokkes, and steenes (stone-jars), and other vessels' (John de Trevisa, 1387). A well known Devonshire surname.

Adam le Crockar, Close Rolls, 31 Edward I.

John le Crochere, Devon. Henry III- Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Simon le Crockere, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Crockare, Oxfordshire, ibid.

John le Crokere, 1301. Writs of Parliament.

1580. William Croker and Margaret Horsey: Marriage Lic. (London).

1746. Married — Pasco Croker and Sarah Russell: St. Mary Aldermary.

1779. — John Crocker and Ann Clare: St. George, Hanover Square.

This surname has ramified in a truly marvellous manner in the United States. But it went out with the early settlers.

'Richard Crocker, a child, living in Virginia, 1623': Hotten's Lists of Emigrants.

'Henry Crocker came to Virginia in the Abigail, 1620': ibid.

About the same time came another Henry Croker, in the Marigold. Jone, his wife, joined him later on, sailing in the Swan; v. Hotten. If these were fruitful and multiplied in the first generation, the present large number is readily accounted for.

From the occupation, a maker or seller of crocks, a potter. A commission for the trial of John Crokar in Lanarkshire, 1557 (ER., XIX, p. 417).

= Crocker, q.v.

This family is in Co. Limerick since the early seventeenth century. Bibl; IF 289; MIF 281*

1. A maker of earthen jars, provincially called crocks. Le Crockere. H.R. 2. A corruption of Croker.

The Crokers of Lineham are said to be of Saxon origin and to have been settled in Devon before the Conquest, on the authority of an ancient alliterative rhyme: —

A maker of coarse pottery. The word crock signified a large barrel—shaped jar. Chaucer says: "Spurn not as doth a crocke against a waL"

By tradition, Crocker is one of the most ancient of Devonshire names. An old Devonshire saw runs thus:

"Crocker, Cruwys. and Coplestone,

When the Conqueror came, were at home.".

During the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, the Crockers of Lynham in Yealmpton were a knightly family, and filled the office of high sheriff of the county (W. and Pr.). The name was established in Tavistock and Ashburton in the 15th and 16th centuries (W. T. and A.). Sir Hugh Crocker was mayor of Exeter in 1641 (I.). The name is also established in Dorset and Somerset.