Luckraft and variants
Luckraft is the most common version of the name during the 17th and 18th centuries, and still is today. In the early years, especially in the 16th century, the name was spelled a wide variety of ways, before it settled down into most commonly Luckraft and Lucraft. Some of these trees show the early spellings.
A few of these links are not yet established. If the one you want is not here, I will have it on paper. Please contact me.
As well as these major trees, I have dozens of smaller family groups, as yet unconnected, for many of the villages of Devon. These are on paper only; please contact me.
Each link takes you to a Word 97 file. It will open Word 97, and load up an A3 size file. (29cmx42cm)
Aveton Gifford. The family may come from Churchstow in the 17th century originally, but it has farmed in the Aveton Gifford area from the 18th Century until the latter end of the 20th century.
Blackawton. This village, with Luckrafts from 1675, is the source of several present day Luckraft families. They were connected with earlier families in Dartmouth, Dittisham, and the villages of the Dart, where I suspect the name originated.
Buckfastleigh. One of the Aveton Gifford Luckrafts set up family here in about 1790, though there were others in the village in 1610.
Dartmouth. Luckraft events in Dartmouth range from 1611 through to the Victorian time, and are potentially linked with several other family groups.
Dean Prior. Edmund Luckraft left Dean Prior to find work in the north about 1805, and his son Richard founded the large Preston family. Edmund's parents were probably Richard Luckraft and Mary Edmund of Dittisham.
Diptford. This is a collection of family groups starting in about 1596, until 1912, with no known living descendants, apart from one name variant.
John Martin Luckraft, born about 1792, was a carpenter of Plymouth, who owned lodging houses. His brother Joseph was an artist. Joseph's large family with a taxidermist, and pawnbrokers, continues its line today.
Kingswear is the little town opposite Dartmouth, where descendants of Edmund Luckraft, born about 1833 lived. We believe this is another line originating in Blackawton.
Kingsbridge became the home of these descendants of William Henry Tucker Luckraft, another agricultural labourer from Balckawton, and whose line continues today.
Leecraft. The Leecraft family settled in Bermuda about 1590. We know a lot about their life on Bermuda and the families they created, but cannot yet fix them back into England, to prove that this is a true variant, rather than another name.
Leacraft. Benjamin Leacraft from Bermuda settled in North Carolina about 1790, and this is his family's tree. It also may lead on in future to a black-american family descended from the slaves owned by Benjamin's family.
Leaycraft. This family lived in the New York area, and still does. There are descended from Benjamin Leacraft's brother, when they both moved out of Bermuda about 1790.
Lincoln. William Henry Luckraft left Loddiswell about 1850 to serve in the British Army in India. After his service there he settled in Lincoln, and raised a large family there, with many living descendants.
Loddiswell. This is another collection of small family groups, as yet unconnected, but indicating a continuous presence in the village from 1524 until 1852. William Henry Luckraft above claimed his birth was in Loddiswell.
London. This tree shows the early London families, including Thomas and Ellen Luckcrofte, both of whose wills exist and suggest they died together in the great plague of London in 1665.
London. This tree shows a family called Luccraft, which we believe originated in Cheriton Fitzpaine, and settled in Queen's Head Court in London's West End about 1838, where they were boot and shoe makers.
Lovecraft. There are no connections with the Lovecrafts as far as we know, but this shows one family group in Woodland. There is a Lovecraft family study by another researcher.
Luckerift. William Lucraft of Diptford, born 1789, seems to re-appear later in life as William Luckerift. His son William moved to Jersey, where his son John was one of the first growers of Jersey Royals, and ran the first Jersey buses.
Naval. John Luckraft was Master of the King's Brewhouse in Devonport Dockyard. Of his 's eight sons born from 1775 to about 1799, seven served in the Royal Navy and the eighth followed his father. One was wounded at Trafalgar.
Phyllis Luckraft could trace her family back to Frederick William Lucraft, a boat-builder on the Barbican in Plymouth in the 1850's whoe family also probably came from Blackawton.
Preston was the place Richard Luckraft settled after travelling from Dean Prior. He founded a large family there, with many living Luckrafts, and some Lucrafts, as one man changed his name in anger at his family.
Preston-Massachusetts. William Luckraft left Preston about 1896 to faound a large and still thriving family in New Bedford Massachusetts. William's gradnchildren still live in the wooden clapboard house William built for his bride Julia Ann.
Stocklinch. John Sullivan Luckraft was a descendant of the Naval family who became a surveyor in the western expansion of America. He married the daughter of Stocklinch Manor, Somerset, in Colorado Springs in 1888.
Topsham. Thomas Luccraft was apprenticed to the baker in Topsham in 1804, though family papers suggest he came from Heavitree, which would make him part of the Lucraft family of Heavitree.