Caunter

Last updated

Caunter is a surname originating principally in the West Country in England. [1] The name derives from Anglo-Norman caunter/cauntour, "singer, one who leads the singing", or from Latin cantor, referring to precentors in cathedrals or monasteries. [2]

Contents

Places historically associated with the name

Bearers of the name have historically been established in the South Devon towns of Ashburton and Tavistock [3] and villages of Widecombe in the Moor (from at least the 15th century) [4] and Staverton. In 1991 The Devon Historian, the journal of the Devon History Society, devoted an article to the Caunters of the hamlet of Ponsworthy (near Widecombe in the Moor), Dartmoor. [5] A Caunter family of Widecombe emigrated to Ontario, Canada in the mid-19th century, where the name soon came to be spelled Counter. Reportedly, this was either because "Counter" was the usual pronunciation of the name in Ontario or because the form Caunter, presumed to be Scottish, was anglicised to Counter. [6]

The Caunter surname is also established in Cornwall. [7] In addition, there have been Caunters in Penang, Malaysia since George Caunter (1758–1811) of Staverton, Devon was the island's superintendent in the final years of the eighteenth century. [8]

Origin legends

In Caunter Family History (1930), the Liskeard solicitor Frederick Lyde Caunter (1892–1964) gives a history of the Ashburton and Staverton Caunters starting in the early 16th century. [9] He discusses the family legends – and considers them just that – that the Devonshire Caunters are descended from Condor, Earl of Cornwall and that there is a connection with John the Chanter, a 12th-century Bishop of Exeter.

F. L. Caunter also refers to family notes that state that the alleged descendants from Condor "in the direct line settled in that part of the County called 'the South Hams,' & a younger branch retired to a more remote part of the County of Cornwall. The Devonshire branch have added a letter to their name, they spell it Caunter, whilst the Cornish branch spell it Canter." [10]

The Cornwall Online Parish Clerks database holds more pre-1900 baptism, marriage and burial records for Caunter than for Canter, and shows a concentration of both names in the southeast of Cornwall. [11]

Notable bearers

Notable people with the surname include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton</span> English lawyer and politician (1731-1783)

John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton, of Spitchwick the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon, was an English lawyer and politician, born in Ashburton in Devon, who served as Solicitor-General from 1768. He was first noticed in English politics when he wrote a notice in 1762 defending the British East India Company merchants against their Dutch rivals. He was a member of parliament from 1768 onward. His career in the House of Commons is best known for his motion in 1780 that "the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished". He was created Baron Ashburton in 1782.

Ashburton was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament at Westminster, for the Parliaments of 1295 and 1407, and regularly from 1640 until it was abolished for the 1868 general election. It was one of three Devon borough constituencies newly enfranchised in the Long Parliament. It returned two Members of Parliament until the 1832 general election when the number was reduced to one MP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Mallaby Firth</span> British Egyptologist

Cecil Mallaby Firth was a British Egyptologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Condor of Cornwall</span>

Condor was a legendary Cornish nobleman. The first known mentions of Condor are from heralds and antiquarians in the late sixteenth century, who recorded claims that he had been earl of Cornwall at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and paid homage to William the Conqueror to keep his position. William Hals speculated that he may have supported the rebels at the Siege of Exeter (1068) and lost his earldom; much of Cornwall was given to William's Norman supporters soon afterwards. Condor's son Cadoc may have regained the title under Henry I, and later passed it through his daughter to Reginald de Dunstanville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staverton, Devon</span> Village in Devon, England

Staverton is a village and civil parish in the South Hams of Devon, England consisting of 297 households and a population of 717.

John the Chanter was a medieval Bishop of Exeter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Caunter</span> British colonial administrator

George Caunter was a British administrator who governed Prince of Wales Island as Acting Superintendent from 1797 to 1798 and again from 1798 to 1800. As First Assistant under Lieutenant-Governor Leith he negotiated the treaty that brought Province Wellesley under British sovereignty in 1800 and that provided, in British eyes, an unequivocal basis for British sovereignty over Penang Island. At various times Caunter further held the offices of marine storekeeper, master attendant, Chief Magistrate, Treasurer and Chaplain in Penang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dittisham</span> Village in Devon, England

Dittisham is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of the English county of Devon. It is situated on the west bank of the tidal River Dart, some 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of Dartmouth.

The hundred of Haytor was the name of one of thirty two ancient administrative units of Devon, England. The hundred covered the coastal area between the River Teign and River Dart. It was likely named after a lost village located somewhere between Totnes and Newton Abbot.

Canter is a surname. It is or has been borne in different countries by various unrelated families or families with no known connection to each other. These include English(?)-American Canters whose earliest known possible ancestor is an 18th-century Thomas Canter of Maryland; Jewish-American Canters such as the Kentucky author Mark Canter and the Canter family that opened Canter's Deli in Los Angeles; a learned medieval and early modern Canter family of Groningen and Friesland, prominent in various branches of learning and in politics; Canters who are related to the Caunter family of Devon, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devon heraldry</span>

The landed gentry and nobility of Devonshire, like the rest of the English and European gentry, bore heraldic arms from the start of the age of heraldry circa 1200–1215. The fashion for the display of heraldry ceased about the end of the Victorian era (1901) by which time most of the ancient arms-bearing families of Devonshire had died out, moved away or parted with their landed estates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spitchwick</span> Historic estate in Devon, England

Spitchwick is an historic estate situated within the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon. The present 19th century mansion house known as Spitchwick Manor is situated four miles north-west of Ashburton, the gardens of which are open to the paying public.

Sandridge is an historic estate in the parish of Stoke Gabriel in Devon, situated on high ground at the head of the River Dart estuary. The estate was originally encompassed on three sides by the river, which meanders along its border, leaving it on the east side. The present grade II* listed Italianate style Regency mansion house known as Sandridge House was built in 1805 by Lady Ashburton, to the design of John Nash.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston, Staverton</span> Historic estate in Devon, England

Kingston is an historic estate in the parish of Staverton in Devon, England. The surviving large mansion house, known as Kingston House is a grade II* listed building, rebuilt in 1743 by John Rowe, after a fire had destroyed the previous structure. The Kingston Aisle or Kingston Chapel survives in the parish church of Staverton, built by and for the use of, the successive owners of the Kingston estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Palk</span> English politician

Walter Palk (1742-1819), of Marley House in the parish of Rattery, Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for his family's Pocket Borough of Ashburton in Devon from 1796 to 1811. He served as Sheriff of Devon (1791-2) and in 1798 was a Captain in the Ashburton Volunteer Militia, one of many such units formed across Devon to counter a possible invasion by Napoleon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radford, Plymstock</span> Historic manor in Devon, England

Radford in the parish of Plymstock in Devon is a historic manor and the oldest recorded seat of the prominent Harris family. It is today a low-cost housing suburb of the City of Plymouth. The 16th century manor house of the Harris family was remodelled in the 18th century and was demolished in 1937. However, various traces of the estate remain, including most notably the deerpark, now a public amenity known as Radford Park, with its large lake, an early 19th century gate-lodge at the entrance drive to the former mansion house, with gatepiers, on Radford Park Road, a bridge and boathouse with follies of a sham castle and another sham-ruin.

Brigadier John Alan Lyde Caunter was a senior British Army officer and a pioneer shark angler off the British coast. He published an account of his escape from Germany as a prisoner of war in World War I.

John Hobart Caunter was an English cleric and writer. Serving briefly in India as a cadet, he entered the Church and was for 19 years the Incumbent Minister of Portland Chapel in Marylebone, London. He wrote chiefly on Biblical subjects and on India, his best-known work being a collection of tales, The Romance of History. India (1836).

George Henry Caunter was an English judge and miscellaneous writer. Having been President of the Vice Admiralty Court in Mauritius, he was convicted in France of bigamy and, returning to England, wrote about music and other topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard McDonald Caunter</span> English Church of England clergyman and writer

Richard McDonald Caunter was an English clergyman and the presumed author of a play and poetry collection, Attila, a Tragedy; and Other Poems (1832). Following a brief career as an ensign in the army, Caunter took holy orders and was a parish priest of various parishes in southern England.

References

  1. "Current frequencies: GB 375, Ireland 0 • GB frequency 1881: 305 • Main GB location 1881: Devon; also Cornwall" – Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter (2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press.
  2. P.H. Reaney (2006). A Dictionary of English Surnames. Routledge. p. 564. ISBN   9780415057370.
  3. Henry Brougham Guppy. Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. Harrison and Sons.
  4. Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art (1961). Report and Transactions - The Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Volumes 93–95. p. 478.
  5. Wilkinson, Freda (1991). "The Caunters of Ponsworthy". The Devon Historian (42): 28–29.
  6. William Charles Counter (1957). Genealogy of the Counter family. Primarily of Charles Counter, son of George and Alice Caunter, from 1819, the date of his birth, to 1955. [Mountain View, Calif., E.F. Counter, 1957?]. pp. 5, 6, 13.
  7. "Cornwall OPC Database". Cornwall OPC.
  8. "Mainly About Malayans – The Caunters of Penang". The Straits Times. Singapore. 19 March 1933. p. 12.
  9. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. pp. 22, 62.
  10. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. pp. 15–20.
  11. "Cornwall OPC Database". Cornwall OPC.
  12. W.H. Kearley Wright (1896). West-Country Poets: Their Lives and Works. Elliot Stock. pp. 175–177.
  13. "Could the artist be Henry Caunter?". Art UK.
  14. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. pp. 48–54.
  15. F. Lyde Caunter (1930). Caunter Family History. Solicitors' Law Stationery Society. pp. 58–60.