Grainger

This most interesting surname, found in England and France, is an occupational name for a farm bailiff, responsible for overseeing the collection of the rent in kind into the barns and storehouses of the lord of the manor, one in charge of a grange. This official had the Anglo-Norman French title "grainger", from the Old French "grangier", from the Late Latin "granicarius", a derivative of "granica", granary. The name is also found in England as Grainger, and in France as Grangier and Grancher. The surname was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066, and first appears in records in the early 12th Century (see below), while other early examples of the surname include: Reginald le Granger, mentioned in the Feet of Fines of Suffolk in 1219; Walter le Graunger, recorded in the Assize Court Rolls of Bedfordshire in 1247; and John Grainger, listed circa 1422 in Worcestershire Records. Robert Granger, aged 21 yrs., was an early settler in the Barbadoes in 1634. A Coat of Arms granted to a Granger family at Tettenhall Regis in Staffordshire during the reign of Charles 1, depicts an ermine chevron between three silver griffins on a black field, with the Motto "Honestas optima politia", translating as "Honesty is the best policy". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Grangier, which was dated circa 1100, in the "Social Structure of Medieval East Anglia", Norfolk, during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.