Kilmister - Meno

This unusual name is Anglo - Saxon in origin, and is a variant of the locational surname 'Kilminster', which derives from the places called 'kidderminster' in Worcestershire. The placename is recorded as 'Kedeleninister' in 1155, and is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name 'Cydela', and 'mynster', meaning 'monastery church', from the Latin 'monasterium'. The original placename has gernerated a number of variant surnames, some of them showing the typical medieval English corruption of the suffix '-minster' to '-mister' and '-master', as in 'Kilmister', 'Killmaster' and 'Killimister'. One Francis Kilmister was christened on the 26th May 1695 at St. Sepukhre's, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Barchester Kilmaster, married Alice Tauthery, which was dated 5th April 1668, St. James's, Dukes Place, London, during the reign of King Charles II, The Merry Monarch, 1660 - 1685. 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.