Secker - Name

This interesting name is of early medieval English origin, and has two possible meanings, the first being that it is a metonymic occupational name for a maker of sacks or bags, and deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sacc", the Latin "saccus". However, it may also be a topographical name for someone who lived in an area of wetland or fenland, deriving from the Middle Low German "seck". The following example illustrates the name development after 1225 (see below), Eva le Seckere (1277, Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire). A notable name bearer, listed in the "Dictionary of National Biography", is one Thomas Secker (1693 - 1768), Archbishop of Canterbury (1758), who studied medicine, early on in his career, in London and Paris and towards the end of his life, although he deprecated the progress of Methodism, did not persecute its adherents. He also published sermons and other works, albeit posthumously. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugh le Saker, which was dated 1225, in the "Assize Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "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.