The word Croyser comes
out of the murk of the Indo-European languages, Gaelic,
Germanic, and Italic, at the time that feudalism was
coming to what is now the British Isles, after the
Norman Invasion. There remains debate as to if the
original root word referred to "crook" or "cross". The
earliest of any use of the term is found in the early 12th
century as the surname of one Simon Croyser.
Not until late in the 12th
century is the term Croyser found to apply to the
station of the religious prelates staff bearer. At this
time the staff it self is referred to as the croce,
crosse, bacculus, and several other terms. Over the next
several centuries the staff becomes referred to as the
“Croysers’ Staff, or Crosier Staff”. Early in the 15th
century the staff itself begins to be called the
“Crosier” or, by the early 1800's the “Crozier”
The crosier and crozier
usage are now both correct and equally used.
The Crosier Surname
The earliest incidence of the surname
Croyser some times spelt Croiser, is in early 1200's,
this remained the most common variant until ~1400 when
the Liddesdale branch was recorded as Croser until
~1620. On the English side Croyser gradually gave way to
Crosier as the predominant spelling till the 1700's when
it appears that Crozier was starting to be used in the
British Isles. Most of the Crosiers that arrived in the
13 colonies maintained the “S”. Croziers that
immigrated to British Commonwealth countries after the
independence of the United States are usually the “Z”
spelling. When transcriptionsists copy old records they
frequently “correct” the surname to the spelling in
current use at the time and location of the
transcription