Dockum

: This page is about the surname, for the town in the Netherlands see Dokkum.

Dockum (variants include Dokkum, von Dockum, Dock, van Dockum, and Doack) is the name of an old European noble family originating from the Lords of the ancient town Dokkum in Friesland. The oldest known member of the Dokkum family is believed to be Lord Offe van Dokkum (Riemersma), born. ± 1450, who held the Lordship over the town in the late 15th century. He played an important, but conflicting role in the negotiations with the Duke of Burgundy.

The town of Dokkum today uses the same coat of arms (adopted in 1815) as the oldest one known to be used by the Dockum family. On the website of the town of Dokkum it says that this coat of arms is originally from the town of Dokkum and that Offe van Dokkum adopted it. However, a small coin found in Heiligerlee (Groningen) states that it was minted in Dokkum ("moneta nova Dockum") around 1430 and shows the coat of arms of the town Dokkum on one side, being a half moon with a radiating sun. This contradicts the notion that the present coat of arms of the town of Dokkum is the original one, suggesting that the town adopted the coat of arms used by the v. Dokkum family, and not the other way around.

The members of the Dockum family initially were officers in both the Friesland navy and in armies under different kings. In 1597, the Admiralty of Friesland was established in Dokkum which led to the family’s spread to England, USA and Denmark. Of the family members that stayed behind, General Martin Arend von Dockum had the most tragic destiny. As an adviser to and officer under King Friedrich Wilhelm I, he had the command over the “ in Tilsit”. In 1732, after a dispute with one of his lieutenants, the lieutenant challenged von Dockum to a duel. Army regulations forbid officers to duel, due to the high number of duel-related deaths among the nobility, so the lieutenant first applied for discharge, which was granted by von Dockum. In the duel von Dockum was injured badly and died from his wounds. Von Dockum’s successor was Oberst Eugen Prince von Anhalt-Dessau.

General von Dockum’s two brothers left Dokkum for Denmark, where their descendants became well known. Jost van Dockum (1753-1834) became the Danish vice admiral and his son Carl Edvard von Dockum (1804-1893) became Danish governor in the Caribbean, royal emissary in the British court, and later appointed high admiral and minister and chief of the Danish Royal navy. He was a part of the Frijs government between 1865 and 1870.

The Dockum family has several coats of arms and at least one branch of the family uses the title Baron/"Freiherr". Members of the family now live in the Netherlands; USA; Germany, Denmark and Sweden. In the USA the family has given its name to a town in Dickens County, Texas and to the Dockum Group, a geologic group of the Late Triassic (approximately late Carnian through Rhaetian, or 223-200 Ma) found primarily on the Llano Estacado of western Texas and eastern New Mexico with minor exposures in southwestern Kansas, eastern Colorado, and Oklahoma panhandle.

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