Draycott - Name

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the numerous places in England called 'Draycott', in Berkshire, Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The places are variously recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Draicote' and 'Dregcota', or in 13th Century Charters as 'Draycote' or 'Dreykote', and all share the same derivation, from the Old English pre 7th Century word 'draeg', a derivative of the verb 'dragan', to draw, meaning a portage, shipway, or sledge, with 'cot', cottage, shelter. The meaning of the placename varied according to the topographical situation of the place; it could be a hut or shelter at a place where boats were dragged across land, or where loads had to be dragged uphill or on sledges across wet ground. Lastly, the name may have described a house of shelter at the head of a pass or of a long hill. The marriage of John Draycott and Mary Cooper was recorded at All Hallows, London Wall, on June 8th 1679. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Draycote, which was dated 1275, The Somerset Hundred Rolls, 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.