Dulake

Recorded in English church registers from the late 17th Century under the variant spellings Dulac, Dulake and Dulock, this unusual surname is of French topographical origin from residence by a lake. The derivation is from the Old French "lac", lake (with fused preposition and definite article). The majority of French surnames appearing in English registers from the late 16th to the end of the 17th Century were introduced by Huguenot refugees fleeing religious persecutions in their own country. On February 18th 1695, Magdelaine Christine, daughter of Baltazar Dulac and Magdalene, Bermondsey, London, and on January 6th 1706, Ester, daughter of Pierre and Susan Dulac, was christened in Glasshouse Street and Leicester Fields French Huguenot Church. Josias Dulake and Mary Mitchel were married in Westerham, Kent, on April 13th 1777, and on August 4th 1818, William Dulake married a Martha Bowring in Spitalfields Christ Church, Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Bathazer Dulac (as spelled), (marriage to Magdalene le Roy), which was dated February 5th 1692, London French Huguenot, during the reign of King William 111, "William of Orange and England", 1689 - 1702. 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.