Scrope

Scrope is the name of an old English family of Norman origin.

Origin of name

The name (pronounced "Scroop") may be derived from the old Anglo-Norman word for "crab" and that it began as a nickname for a club-footed illegitimate son of an English princess by a Norman knight. A crab moves sideways and so the name could fit a child with club feet. Whether far-fetched or not, it is fact that at one stage the family crest was a crab (subsequently five feathers) and that the family motto is still "Devant si je puis" -("forward if I can"), which could have a double meaning as of course a crab can only go sideways.

Early Scropes

One Richard FitzScrob (or FitzScrope), apparently a Norman knight, was granted lands by Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire as recorded in the Domesday Book. He built Richard's Castle, near Ludlow in Shropshire, and is recorded in chronicles of the Conqueror's early years in England as asking for assistance against the Welsh. Legend has it that an earlier Scrope (perhaps Richard's father) was the Anglo Saxon who gave his name to the settlement "Scrobbesbyrig" (Scrobbs Fort), which name was later corrupted into Shrewsbury. Certainly, prior to the Conquest, Scrobbesbyrig was an established Anglo Saxon settlement.