This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. —the son of Folker' or 'Fulker.' This name is in Camden's small list 'Fulcher (Sax.), "lord of people"' (Rem.). For history of Folker, one of the champions of Burgundy, 'the mighty fiddler of Alsace,' v. Yonge, ii. 329- 30. The English form was more generally Fulke, which see. Miss Yonge is wrong in saying Fulk 'never took root in England,' as the article 'Fulke' will show. Folkard was both a German and Danish form.

Fulchard, provost of Thetford, Norfolk, 1140: History of Norfolk.

Fulcher de Carlton, 1150: Whitaker's Craven.

Whitaker quotes also an old charter, 'Ego, Fuleerus filius Herberti de Carlton dedi, &c.'

Walter Fulcher, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

William Fucher, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

John Folkard, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Fuker de Dovre, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Warin Fucher, ibid.

Johannes Fowcher, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Margaret Fowcher. Calendarium Rotulorum Chartarum.

1611. Married — Edward Fowcher and Ann Harris: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1654-5. — Giles Fulcher and Jane Lacey: St. Dionis Backchurrh.

1789. — John Fitch and Elizabeth Foulger: St. George, Hanover Square.

1801. — John Futcher and Ann Weston: ibid.

1806. — William Folkard and Mary Ann Duncombe: ibid.

An Old English personal name from Follcheard (Folkweard), later Folcard, 'people brave.' Some time before 1218 Henry, abbot of Kelso, granted to Richard, son of Solph, the lands of Folcariston in Lesmahago, as held by his father and ancestors (Kelso, p. 78). Adam de Folcartun (see Folkardton), mentioned in 1240, was probably his son. His descendants appear to have dropped the-ton and figure in record as Folkerts or Fokkarts of Fokkartoun till the beginning of the sixteenth century. William Folkard in 1294 witnessed resignation by Adam de Dowane of his land of Dowane in the barony of Lesmahagow (Kelso, 192). In 1301 dominus Alexander ffolkard, miles, witnessed resignation by Adam de Dowane, junior, of all his lands in the vill of Dowane (ibid., 193), and c. 1311 he also witnessed a charter of resignation by Adam de Dowane, senior, of his land of Grenryg (ibid., 195). In 1315 there is entry of a claim by Alexander Folkard to ten chalders of meal (ibid., 188), Quintin Folkard had a permit to come to London on his private affairs in 1405 (Bain, IV, 696), and John Falkard was master of the ship 'le Katherine' of St. John's town in 1441 (ibid., 1149). The family ended in the direct line in an heiress, Elizabeth Folkart, who became spouse of James Carmichell of Balmady in 1495 (Kelso, 553). Patrick Fokert was ambassador to the king of Castile in 1458. Thomas Fowcard, a Scotsman, who petitioned for a safe conduct into England, 1464 (Bain, IV, 1343), may have been Thomas Folcart, dean of guild of Edinburgh (Neubotle, p. 268), and the Thomas Fokert who sat in parliament for Edinburgh, 1467 (Foster, p. 139). John Fokert or Fokart was tenant on the lands of the Abbey of Kelso, 1567 (Kelso, p. 524), and in 1574 there is recorded an act in favor of Janet Fokart (RPC., II, p. 719). The name appears as Fokartte in Workman MS. Fockert 1623, Fokhart 1503.

(French-Teut.) People-Brave [v. under Foulkes]

Fulcher or Fulcherus, a Domesd. name, is doubtless the same as Folchard or Folcard, borne by an eminent Flemish scholar, who settled in England about the time of the Conquest and became abbot of Thorney.

Radulfus Fochart of Normandy 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); William Fouquart. do. t. Henry V.; John Folkard of England, c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

From the French, Volckaert; from the German, Folkert; a personal name.

The Folkards are now established in the Colchester district. Folcard, an eminent Flemish scholar, was abbot of Thorney, Cambridgeshire, in the 11th century (L.). There was a John Folkard in Bucks in the 13th century (H. R.).

Fulcher, a Norman, owned much property in the county at the time of the Conquest (P.). The name of Fulcher occurred in Lincolnshire in the 13th century (H. R.).