Munden

This name is of English locational origin from Great or Little Munden in Hertfordshire, recorded as Mundene in the Domesday Book of 1086, the name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name Munda (from "mund", protection), plus "denu", a valley, hence "Munda's Valley". The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). One, Henry de Munden appears in "The Testa de Neville", dated 1273. In 1565 a John Munden was recorded in "The Oxford University Register" and in 1669 John Munden and Elizabeth Usher were married in Canterbury. Joseph Shepherd Munden (1758 - 1832), the most celebrated comic actor of his day, made frequent appearances at Covent Gardens and the Haymarket, and was admired by Lamb, Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry de (of) Mundene, which was dated 1273, The Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire, during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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.