Crocket, in architecture, a small, independent, sharply projecting mediaeval ornament, usually occurring in rows, and decorated with foliage.
When I was a child, the Disney TV show, Davy Crockett was on the air. It was quite popular. I asked my dad if we were related to that guy on the show? He said yes, but he didn’t know the exact connection. He had been told he was a great, great, uncle, or something like that. There was no family historian to tell Daddy, or me, what the connection was, aside from the shared name, and family hearsay.
Naturally, whenever anyone heard my last name, they would ask the inevitable question. Are you related to Davy Crockett? I would tell them, “Yes,” but alas, I couldn’t name the names of the lineage. Until a distant relative contacted us, to tell us she was researching the family tree. She sent us a partially completed tree, and we were to fill in the missing pieces of our direct line
Our relative was Nancy Carter. Years later, after completing my own research, I learned that the Carters had married into the Crockett family about three generations back.
Nancy, bless her, did the tough work. Back then, before any Internet and ancestry sites, she had to trace the family members the old fashioned way: Libraries and genealogy societies. That was time consuming work. Nancy was keen on finding our connection to the Famous One. Finally, it was revealed to us. David Crockett was the younger brother of Nathan Crockett. Nathan is my direct ancestor, 4 generations back. Nathan was born in Sullivan Country, Tennessee, in 1778. Nathan’s son, Sampson, had a son named James, who had a son named Obie. Obie was my grandfather.
My father was named James, after his grandfather, and after his maternal uncle. James was a popular name back in the 19th and early 20th century.
After we have that information nailed, my Aunt Gerry became curious about the origin of the Crockett surname. Some information she came across claimed the Crocketts were French in origin. I picked up the thread. The French version of the name was Crocketagne. That has a Brittany sound to it. Another version is Croctielle. Or, Croquetielle.
This French connection story has to do with Huguenots escaping France in the 17th century, after Louis XIV rescinded the Edict of Nantes, (1685). This legend has them arriving in Northern Ireland, to set up their trade there. Thus, the Irish connection. Their trade was the lace business. It is why, supposedly, the Irish became excellent lace makers, because many of the Huguenots were in the business. Therefore, bringing their skills with them, Ireland prospered. And France lost over 400,000 industrial businesses and workers, because the protestants were heavily into conducting business.
It seems stupid, doesn’t it, to send your best lacemakers to another nation? Well, governments are known for their stupid moves. However, in the days of the absolute monarchs, they doubled down on stupid stuff. To this day, France is not known for its business class.
As fascinating as this legend is for the Crocketts, attempting to establish a verifiable connection to France, proved futile. The Crockett name, and the Crocketts themselves, were truly a mystery. The one hard evidence I had come across was when I looked into a London telephone book, back when I was a student. Pow! There were at least two pages of Crocketts. Sounds awfully English to me. That was way before Nancy Carter and Aunt Gerry began their searches. Finding those Crocketts in London gave me the BIG HINT, that would be verified some decades later, when I did the DNA thing.
The DNA, the science, changed everything. All of a sudden, I knew where I, paternally, was from. And it was not France that could claim me, but that London phonebook could. Before my dad died, in 2013, he knew how we were related to David Crockett, and that we were English/Danish with a sprinkling of Welsh thrown in. And any French that found its way into our DNA came from the Normans, who were originally Danes. Thus the heavy Danish, (Vikings!) DNA.
My latest research indicates we were island people, from the Channel Islands.
Europe, some 1500 years ago, when the Romans moved out, and the Germans and Danes moved in, changed its DNA. That’s a part of our human story; mix and match, and then mix and match again. We see that happening now.
Back to the name, Crockett. If it isn’t French or Irish, and it doesn’t sound very Anglo-Saxon or Danish, where did it come from?
Here’s where we pick up a thread that gives us a big, fat clue that it may have been a French name after all. But not a name that could be attached to a family location. It may have come from an artist who made a decorative, architectural feature found on Gothic cathedrals. And houses. Just as the definition above tells us. Crocket may have originally been spelled, Crochet, from the old Norman French. Croc means hook. The word, crochet, is that skill which uses tool with a hook, to create items made from yarns by hooking the threads.
I became aware of the name when I heard it used by a character in an English drama. This character, as she looks out the window, says to her companion that there are crockets on the roof of a building across the way. My ear did a double take.
Like many profession names, Miller and Smith being the two popular examples, Crockett can very well be a profession name itself. For my father, and his ancestors, to have this name, makes sense, because they were builders and carpenters. All through the Crockett line you will find men who built their own houses, barns and pieces of furniture. And now I know, they also built cathedrals. These men were artists who were also were engineers.
Speaking of artists, my father, when he was a soldier, took the pieces of a downed plane in the Pacific theatre of war and made a small sculpture of the plane from pieces he picked up from the wreck. He was a true crocket, creating decorative art. When I was a child, he made me a two story playhouse, making me a homeowner at the age of 5.
Daddy and the wreck, WW2, Pacific Islands
Crocketts were not great soldiers or warriors in the many wars fought on Europe’s and England’s real estate. They were not destroyers, but builders. Funny, that, because David Crockett is known for his war like ways. It looks to me he was the exception, not the rule. I suppose every family has a warrior in their lineage somewhere.
The history of my Crockett family, is the history of the United States. The history of that crocket architectural feature is a part of the history of the great cathedrals of Europe. Those builders invented so many things, in both engineering, and art.
On the Evans side of the family, my paternal grandmother, Anna, there are a couple of political types. The Wentworth brothers, Peter and Paul, were politicians, and trouble makers. They were MPs during the reign of Elizabeth I. Their troubles began when Peter asked the question he was not supposed to ask of his monarch: who is your heir. ERI didn’t want people to know who she would leave the throne to because it was complicated. Since she had no issue from her own body, there were a few candidates that could be named. But the queen, who was the consummate politician, kept things to herself.
During the Elizabethan age, people were restless because there was much change. Religion and discovery, and a mano a mano with Spain, kept people on the edge. The most likely candidate for the throne, was a Catholic queen, who was rather aggressive about her own throne prospects. You can bet Mary, Queen of Scots, a Tudor cousin, had her eye on the English throne. Queen Mary had an infant son, James. But this queen was not a consummate politician. She had a messy kingdom. She ended up in England, imprisoned. And then Elizabeth did the unsavory thing, and had Mary executed. Therefore, Peter wants to know if she will name the infant James as her successor. Her answer to him is to lock him up in the Tower.
The Tower, not being a luxury hotel, was the death of dear old Peter. At least he was not beheaded. Oh the infamy to the family that would have brought! The irony of the name Wentworth, now a surname, may have had its beginnings with the given name, Wintra. Wintra is an Anglo-Saxon name, made up of elements of the words, “wind” and “tower.” Let’s just say that the death of Peter had to do with living in a windy tower. How prescient can a name be?
There are many of my ancestors in England who did not cause trouble. However, the Evans line is the first to come to the Colonies in North America, sometime in the late 17th century. Which means there must have been something in their lives that drove them to make the dangerous journey, and endure the hardship of starting their lives again in a rough and tumble new location.
The Crocketts arrived in the early 18th century. Yes, I am a daughter of the American Revolution. The lefties may call me a racist, nonetheless, my intersectionality would rear its ugly head to defeat them. My monarchist friends will think my ancestors were traitors. I pay no heed to either side. Indeed, I think like Diogenes. I consider myself a citizen of the world.
Next up is my mother’s side of the family. That DNA is an entirely different story, along with a profession name on that side as well. Though my father and mother came from two different cultures, the irony is both sets are island people.