Walcher

This name derives from the Medieval English "Walkere" itself coming from the Old English pre 7th Century "wealcere", a derivative of the verb "wealcan" to walk or tread. The work of the Walker was to scour and thicken raw cloth by trampling on it in a large vessel containing a water mixture. The surname is first recorded towards the middle of the 13th Century, (see below). The following examples illustrate the name development after the earliest recording of 1248, Fryedswyde Walcker (1600), Elizabeth Walchars (1614), John Walchers (1620). One Joane Walcher married Thomas Reynolde on February 2nd 1612 at St. Mary Mounthaw, London. It is also possible that the name is locational from Walker in Northumberland, so called from the Medieval English "kerr" meaning a marsh. Hence "Marsh by the Roman wall". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert le Walkere, which was dated 1248, Select Documents of a the Abbey of Bec, Warwickshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, The Frenchman, 1216 - 1272. 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.