This unusual and interesting name is of early medieval origin and is generally an occupational surname for a picker of fruit or vegetables or a reaper of corn. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "cropp" meaning "swelling", "head of a plant", which in Middle English became "crop" and generated the very "cropen", to pick or pluck. In some cases the modern surname may derive from the same word but used of the polling of cattle and therefore an occupational surname for someone employed to do this. There are two forms of the modern name, Cropper and Crapper, the development of the name surname has included John Crapere (1275, Norfolk), William Croper (1276, Yorkshire) and Alice le Crappere (1315, ibid). Edward Cropper and Joan Pearce were married in Clerkenwell, London in 1655. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger le Croppere, (witness), which was dated 1221, in the Assize Court Rolls of Worcestershire, 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.

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