Crowder

The Crowder Family of Hayes in North Carolina. The Crowder surname means "a professional player, or entertainer of a crowd," a crowd being the name of a six string violin popular in the British Isles for many centuries. The instrument is still called a 'crwth' in Wales today, and in Ireland a "cruit." In the west of England a fiddle is still called a 'crowdy-kit'. "It appears to have been a favourite instrument in Britain so early as the VI century."