ARKWRIGHT. An " ark," in the north, signifies a meal or flour-chest, which is usually made of oak, and sometimes elaborately carved. Halliw. The maker of such chests was an Arkwright. The strong boxes in which the Jews kept their valuables, were anciently called their arks (archas). Hunter's Hallamshire Glossary. Area is used in this latter sense by the classical writers : Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arccl, Tantum habet et fidei.

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