Muir

This interesting surname, with variant spellings Mure, Moor, Moore and More may be a Scottish and North English topographical name for someone who lived on a moor or in a fen, from the Old English "mor", a moor or in a fen, from the Old English "mor", a moor (medieval English "more"), or it may also be locational from any of the various places named with this word, for example "Moore" in Cheshire. The surname itself, was first recorded in the 13th Century, in Scotland (see below). Dovenal le Fitz Michel More de Levenaghes, whose seal bears a demon with a man's head and cock's feet and spurs, rendered homage in 1296, as did Adam de la More and Renaud del More both of the County of Are. Adam More or Moire, knight, witnessed charters by Robert Bruce in 1328, while Elizabeth Mure, daughter of Sir Adam Mure of Rowallan, became queen of King Robert 11 in 1347. Distinguished bearers of the name include Thomas Muir (1765-1798), who founded a society for parliamentary reform (1792); John Muir (1810-1882), an orientalist, who was judge at Fatehpur, India (1845), and an Indian scholar. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de la More, which was dated 1291, who was executor of the will of Dervorguilla de Balliol, during the reign of during the Interregnum in Scotland, 1290 - 1292. 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.