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Dacre Origins

It is a noble delight, indeed, to be descended from a family of Barons; knights descended from the Vikings and who, thus, fought nobly and gloriously at the Battle of Acre/Acra. Most prideful was their loyalty to Richard III, and in choosing to fight alongside him at the Battle of Bosworth when others once loyal, turned.

The Barons Dacre were pious Roman Catholics up until the reign of Henry VIII and the rise of the Anglican church when a selection of family members chose to abide by Tudor rule. Sir Leonard Dacre, banished later for committing treason against Queen Elizabeth I, and a fervant supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, was known to have not acknowledged the Elizabethan religion.

The name "Dacre" did not originate as such, but, rather, as de Acre; the brave men who having fought at Acre had taken this surname from the place of their victory. During that particular time period, French was preferred as it related to the new method of using surnames according to one's profession or place of dwelling, thus "de Acre/d'acre became the French-inflection of the name associated with both a dwelling place and a place of victory in battle.

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said to be Sir Thomas Dacre,1387 to 1458

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The name "Acre" has undergone many suitable changes over the centuries, however, the original form of "de Acre," later revised to "D' Acre, Dacre, and many other derivations, saw the rise of Baronial family in England, the Dacre Baronies, which would, after many centuries, die out, however, not before acquiring lands and castles such as Naworth Castle, shown above, and Dacre (Pele) Castle, shown here.

The Acre/Acree family (two derivitives of de Acre), through DNA testing, has confirmed that our ancestors did dwell during medieval times in Northumberland, Cumbria, the border area of England and Scotland, the Dacre stronghold. "In his book, The Origins of the British, Stephen Oppenheimer, a population geneticist, has contended that many Anglos and Saxons came to eastern Britain long before the Romans arrived two thousand years ago and made their major contributions to the British gene pool in that early era, rather than later, when hordes of them invaded Britain after the Romans left. However, calling the R1b1c9 six-marker set within his investigations "R1b-8a," he characterized it as a "uniquely British" cluster with origins in both the Shetland Islands in the north and Norfolk in the south, which apparently flourished in the form of raiders who, acting much like contemporary Vikings..., spread their seed from Shetland down the west coast of Britain during the Dark Ages of the ninth-tenth centuries. This scenario suggests that the forefather of the Virginia Acrees, whatever he called himself, strode into the English-Scottish border area of Cumbria in the early years of the genealogical timeframe, about a thousand years ago." Furthermore, mesne sources have verified and confirmed that which many family members have already known; that the Acree/Acre family of England is descended from the Dacre nobles of that district.

More than this, de Dacre and it's many variations, are Normans descended more accurately from the Vikings and not the French, as originally thought. "The Vikings landed in the Orkneys and Northern Scotland about the year 870 A.D., under their King, Stirgud the Stout. Thorfinn Rollo, his descendant, led his people into northern France early in the 10th century. In 911, King Charles III was forced to cede territory to Rollo, who became the first Duke of Normandy, the territory of the north men. Rollo married Charles' daughter and became a convert to Christianity. Duke William who invaded and defeated England in 1066, was descended from the first Duke Rollo of Normandy. Duke William took a census of most of England in 1086, and recorded it in the Domesday Book. A family name capable of being traced back to this manuscript, or to Hastings, was a signal honour for most families during the Middle Ages, and even to this day."

"In-depth research by skilled analysts into ancient manuscripts such as the Domesday Book (compiled in 1086 by William the Conqueror), the Ragman Rolls, the Wace poem, the Honour Roll of the Battel Abbey, the Curia Regis, Pipe Rolls, the Falaise Roll, tax records, baptismals, family genealogies, local parish and church records, shows that the Acree name was first found in the county of Cumberland, where they were descended from one of two noble houses, the Lords D'Acre, called D'Acres of the North, and Lord D'Acre of Herstmonceux, called D'Acres of the South. Both of these noble branches originally settled at Dacre in Cumberland. The surname Acree is a ancient Norman name that arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Acree family lived in the county of Cumberland. This surname was a local name meaning the dweller at the acre, or the dweller at the plot of arable land. Ancient History. The history of the name is closely interwoven within the majestic tapestry as an intrinsic part of the history of Britain. " 1

Surname Variations

Many alternate spellings were found in the archives researched, typically linked to a common root, one of the Norman nobles at the Battle of Hastings. In 1576, Captain George Acres of Liverpool (then in southwest Lancashire) was granted arms that included, in first quarter, the distinctive Dacre arms shown above - confirming a relationship between the Dacre surname and its variously-spelled derivatives. "Although the name Acree appeared in many references, from time to time the surname included Acre, Acres, Aker, Eaker, Eakers, Aiker, Aikers, Aikerson, Aker, Akers, Acker, Ackers, Ackhurst and Ackerson, and these changes in spelling frequently occurred, even between father and son. Scribes recorded and spelled the name as it sounded. Typically a person would be born with one spelling, married with another, and buried with a headstone which showed another. All three spellings related to the same person. Sometimes preferences for different spelling variations either resulted from a branch preference, religious affiliation, or sometimes nationalistic statements." 2

Acre descendants of Dacre

That inevitable "brick wall" has been encountered by the Acree/Acre genealogists, but the process is ongoing and making headway. The Lord Dacres of the South have had intermarriages with names associated with family members here in the states including Willis, Lee, Howard and Culpepper, and through these connections we can note a broad possibility of descent from Sir Thomas Dacre, the Sixth Baron Dacre.

WORK IN PROGRESS: a listing of family marriages to Dacres.

Footnotes 1 & 2:

Sources