Calcraft is one of the oldest family names in the Bottesford and Muston area, with parish records showing the family in at least the sixteenth century and probably before then. The name first appears in the Bottesford parish records in a marriage in May 1563 and the family were recorded in Muston by 1677. The name was also one of the earliest on the tenant rolls at Belvoir.
Over time the family have farmed at multiple locations and have given military service in many conflicts. They have also migrated the name across England and to other countries. Consequently the links below will develop to show the Calcraft diaspora in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cornwall and Sussex; as well as in Rosetown and Indian Head in Saskatchewan, Canada, and in Uganda, New Zealand, the West Indies and South Africa.
The name Calcraft is thought to have originated in the Isle of Wight as Chalcroft, a place listed in the Domesday Book and supposedly named after the Old English phrases of either cealf croft or ceald croft (calves croft or cold croft). Variations include Chalvecroft (seen on Assize Rolls in Hampshire in 1272), Calvecrofth (Subsidy Rolls in Suffolk in 1327), Chalcraft (Canadian census records) or Caldcroft (Freemen Register in Yorkshire 1440s).
