This is an English occupational name for a moneyer, deriving from the old English pre 7th Century "myntere", coming from "mynet" a "coin". The name was originally given to a workman who stamped the coins and later to the supervisors of the mint, i.e.,important members of society who had their names placed on the coins they were responsible for producing. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 13th Century (see below). One, John Muneter, is noted in the 1296 Subsidy Rolls of Sussex, and Hamo le Meneter, appears in the 1296 Feet of Fines, of Essex. In the modern idiom, the surname has many variant spellings including Mintor, Mynter, Mintar, Minto, Mento etc.. On February 22nd 1584, the marriage of John Minter and Margery Mulcaster took place at St. Lawrence Pountney, London and Guilielm Minter and Bridgetta Nightingale were married on December 13th 1592 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Myntere, which was dated 1221, The Assize Court Rolls of Warwickshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.

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