According to the Surname data base this is what they say: This interesting name, with variant spellings Crowder, Crother and Crewther, derives from the Middle English "crouth" or "croude", related to the Welsh "crwth", meaning "crowd" i.e., a popular medieval bowed stringed instrument. A quotation from Luke XV. 25. reads, "But his eldre sone was in the feeld, and whanne he cam and neighede to the hous he herde a synfonye and a crowde". A further reference to the instrument appears in Spencer's "Fairy Queen" - "the pipe, the tabor, and the trembling crowd". Crowder, and it's variant forms, was originally given as an occupational name to a player on the crowd. Early recordings of the surname include Hugo le Crouder, (Leicestershire, 1278); Kenwick le Cruther, (Cheshire, 1289) and Katerina Crowder - "The Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire", (1379). Richard, son of Thomas Crouther, was christened on June 3rd 1739 at St. Nicholas, Liverpool, Yorkshire. The marriage was recorded in Surrey of Mary Ann Maria Croutear and George Scriven on December 1st 1868 at Weybridge. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard le Cruder, which was dated 1273, "The Hundred Rolls of Kent", during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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. Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Croutear#ixzz2ZXJxPiGt -----Original Message----- From: genbrit-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:genbrit-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Richard Smith Sent: Friday, 19 July, 2013 10:15 AM To: genbrit@rootsweb.com Subject: CROUTEAR family At the risk of making a rather rash statement, I believe that I have a family tree of everyone in the world, born between about 1850 and 1950, with the surname CROUTEAR. It seems that everyone with that surname descends from a single couple, Charles Samuel CROUTEAR (1809-1893) and Frances HARDING (1811-1873), who lived in the parish of Boldre, Hampshire. I suspect the surname originated in the 18th century as a corruption of CROUCHER, a common enough name in the New Forest. If anyone has any CROUTEARs in their tree, I'd love to hear from them, even if it's only just a single individual who has married into the family. I'm happy to share what I have with anyone interested. I haven't yet got around to putting the data online, but I'll try to do so in the future. Richard ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GENBRIT-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6504 - Release Date: 07/19/13