Lackey

Recorded in various spellings including Lackie, Lackey, Lackeye, Leckie, Leckey, and Lecky, this is an old Scottish surname, which is also well recorded both in Ireland and England. It is said to be particularly popular and widespread in the counties of Dumbartonshire and Stirling, and it is claimed was originally locational, deriving from the barony of Leckie in the parish of Gargunnock, in Stirlingshire. If so the development is from the pre 9th century Gaelic word leac meaning a flagstone, hence the place of the flagstones. However their is a strong possibility that some nameholders at least are of French origins, being from the name Leleque. It is uncertain as to when the surname was first recorded but it is said that a Murdoch Lechie recevied a grants of lands from King David 11 of Scotland in the year 1348. Early examples of the surname recordings include those of David Lecky, who in 1537 was denounced by the government of Scotland as 'a rebel', whilst in 1599 Janet Laiky appears in the parish of Glenylla, Dunbarton. In London the name is an early entrant in the lists, with Agnes Lackeye who married Gregorye Flykyn on October 6th 1566, at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and Elizabeth Lacky who married James Wattson on February 4th 1706, at St. Dunstan's in the East, Stepney. Henry Lackey, aged fifteen, was a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the ship "Montezuma" bound for New York on September 17th 1846. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.