Lemonnier

Recorded in several forms including Le Monnier, Lemonnier, Le Mounier, Le Munyer, Monier, Monniere, Monerie, and others, this is a surname which has been recorded in England since at least the 17th century, but is of French origins. It is also for many nameholders Huguenot Protestant, the earliest recordings in England being those of refugees who fled France after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and the consequent attrocities perpetuated by the supporters of the catholic zealot King Louis X1V of France (1643 - 1715) against his own people. In consquence at least fifty thousand people are known to have settled in England. Most of these, unlike later immigrants, were highly skilled, particularly in banking, textile, steel making and precious metals, as well as having provided many of the senior officers in the army of France, which joined the British army. Their loss to France was incalculable, and was a major factor in the development of the British Empire, and the later fall of the French Monarchy. In this case the name means a 'money changer or banker', and as such was a medieval occupational surname. Examples of the name recording in England, most early records in France were destroyed during ther Revolution of 1792, include: Frances Le Mounier, who married Charles Delanny at the church of St Mary Magdalene, in the city of London, on May 31st 1699, and Marthe, the daughter of Jacque and Judit Lemonnier, at the French Huguenot church, known as St Jean Spitalfields, on October 19th 1715.