CROWDER. A player on the croivd, an ancient species of violin with six strings. (Irish cniii, Welsh crivth). In the West of England a small fiddle is still called a "crowdy-kit." It appears to have been a favourite instrument in Britain so early as the VI. cent. In Wickliffe's translation of the Bible, in Judges xi. 34, Jephthah's daughter is described as coming to meet her father " with tj-mpaus and croudix," i. e. vith drums and fiddles. Way's Prompt. Parv.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.