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The surname Walker is an occupational name that derives from the term used to describe a fuller of cloth. Wool was cleaned and thickened by being soaked in water and then trampled under foot, the "walking" on the wool. 

Select Walker Resources on The Internet

• Walker Family History Project.  Walker surname information.
• Walker Family Website.  Walker genealogy and information.
• The Walkers of Yorkshire and Durham.  A Walker family history.
• The Walker Era.  Rev. Robert Walker of the Lake District and descendants.
• Walker Around the World. Walker family groups.
• Walker Family History and Genealogy. Walkers to Pennsylvania and Virginia.
• Walkers of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Walker families.
• Walker DNA Project. Walker DNA.

England.  In the traditional textile heartland of northern England, the workers - from the Old English wealcan - were walkers.  A Robert le Walker was recorded in the Yorkshire assize rolls of 1260. 

Walkers have been particularly numerous as a surname on Teesside and in the Yorkshire towns of Leeds and Wakefield.  Thomas Walker was vicar of Wakefield in 1655.  One family history begins with Richard and Ann Walker who were married around 1740 and lived in Yarm, a small village near Stockton-on-Tees.  Son James was a flax merchant and mayor of Stockton in 1809.

Elsewhere in England, different occupational names for a walker developed, Fuller in southern and eastern England, Tucker in the southwest.

Scotland.  The surname in Scotland originated from Waulker, "son of the Fuller or cloth maker."  There are waulking songs (from the Gaelic orain luiadh) that were sung in the Outer Hebrides during the "walking" process for tweed-making which are still performed today.

A Highland clan, initially called McNaucator and based in the forested area of Knapdale in Argyllshire, changed their name to Walker in the 18th century. There were also Lowland Walkers.  Glasgow and Lanarkshire were where most Walkers were to be found by the time of the 1891 census.

Ireland.  Walkers migrated to Ulster in the 17th century, the most famous of them being the Rev. George Walker who is commemorated by a statue in Derry for his defense of the town in 1689.  Walkers from the family left for Pennsylvania in the 1720's.

John Walker, a professor of Natural History at Edinburgh University, was one of the leading lights of the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment.
John Walker of Stockton on Tees invented the friction match in 1827.
John Walker started producing a whisky in 1852 in Scotland which became the famous Johnnie Walker whisky brand.