Dacres - Name

Recorded as Dacre, Dacres, Daker, Acre and Acres, this is an English surname although it may in some cases have a French origin. Normally it was locational from a village called Acre in Norfolk, or Dacre, of which there are two examples, the first in Cumbria, the second in Yorkshire. Alternatively it can be topographical for a "person who lived by arable land". The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "dacr" meaning a trickling stream, or an area of land (acer) with the later fusion of the Norman preposition "de". Topographical surnames were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. The surname is first recorded in the early 13th Century (see below). Adam de Acres appears in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London (1346). Whilst on January 29th 1541, Elizabeth Dakers married George Abraham at St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, London. William, son of William Dakers, was christened on February 25th 1571 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, London. The surname is also widespread in Scotland. Margaret Dakers was recorded in Barrellwall, Scotland in 1637 and William Dakers was a famous writer in Edinburgh in the 17th Century. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Acr' which was dated 1214, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Sussex", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199-1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.