*************************************************************
As copied from a manuscript generated by Hall of Names West, PO Box 1363, Cambridge, Ontario N1R 7G6 about 1980.
"The History of the Name RAYNER
The ancient surname of RAYNER makes an impressive claim to being one of the oldest Anglo/Saxon surnames on record. The history of the name is closely woven into the intricate tapestry of the ancient chronicles of England.
Professional researchers have carefully scrutinized such ancient manuscripts as the Domesday Book (1086), the Ragman Rolls (1291-1296), the Curia Regis Rolls, The Pipe Rolls, the Hearth Rolls, parish registers, baptismals, tax records and other ancient documents and found the first record of the name RAYNER in Herefordshire where they were seated from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.
Many different spellings were encountered in the research of this surname. Although RAYNER occurred in many manuscripts and documents, from time to time, the surname was also officially spelled RAYNERS, RAINOR, RAYNER, RAYNOR, RAINER, RAYNAR, RAINYER, REYNAR, RAUNER, RAENER, RAINAR, RAYNERE, RAYNARS, RAYNORS, RAYNORE, RAYNARE, RAYNAIR, RAYNAIRE and these variations frequently occurred, even between father and son. Scribes and church officials, often traveling great distances, even from other countries, frequently spelled the names they were recording as they heard it. As a result, the same person could find different spellings of the name recorded on birth, baptismal, marriage and death certificates as well as the other numerous records such as tax and census records.
The Saxon race gave birth to many English surnames not the least of which was the surname RAYNER. The Saxons were invited into England by the ancient Britons in the 5th century. They were a race of fair skinned people living along the Rhine Valley as far north as Denmark. They were led by General/Commanders Hengist and Horsa. The Saxons settled in the county of Kent, on the south east coast of England. Gradually, they probed north and westward, and during the next four hundred years, forced the ancient Britons back into Wales and Cornwall in the west, Cumberland to the north. The Angles, on the other hand, occupied the eastern coast, the south folk in Suffolk, and the north folk in Norfolk. Under Saxon rule, England prospered under a series of high kings, the last of which was Harold. In 1066, the Norman invaded from France and had their victory at the Battle of Hastings. Subsequently, many of the vanquished Saxon landowners forfeited their land to Duke William and his invading Norman nobles. Generally, the Saxons who remained in the south were not treated well under Norman rule, and many moved northward to the midlands, Lancashire and Yorkshire away from the Norman oppression.
This notable English family name, RAYNER, emerged as an influential name in the county of Hereford where they recorded as a family of great antiquity seated as Lords of the manor and estates in that census in 1086, taken by King William for taxation purposes. For the next two or three centuries, the RAYNERs flourished in Hereford and by 1400 had branched to eastern Drayton in Nottingham and also held estates in Yorkshire. The flourished on their estates for several centuries, intermarrying with other distinguished families of the area. Notable amongst the family at this time was RAYNER of Hereford.
During the middle ages the surname RAYNER flourished and played an important role in local affairs and in the political development of England. During the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, England was ravaged by plagues and religious conflict. Puritanism, the newly found political fervor of Cromwellianism, and the remnants the Roman Church rejected all non-believers, each promoting their own cause. The conflicts between church groups, the Crown and political groups all claimed their followers and their impositions; tithes and demands on rich and poor alike broke the spirit of men and many turned away from religion. Many families were freely ‘encouraged’ to migrate to Ireland, or to the ‘colonies.’ Some were rewarded with grants of lands, others banished.
Some families were forced to migrate to Ireland where they became known as the “Adventurers for Land in Ireland.” Protestant settlers ‘undertook’ to keep their faith, being granted lands previously owned by the Catholic Irish. They were known as the ‘Undertakers.’ There is no evidence that the family migrated to Ireland, but this idea does not preclude the possibility of their scattered migration to that country.
The New World offered better opportunities and some migrated voluntarily, some were banished mostly for religious reasons. Some left Ireland disillusioned, but many left directly from England, their home territories. Some also moved to the European continent.
Members of the family name RAYNER sailed aboard the huge armada of three masted sailing ships known as the “White Sails” which plied the stormy Atlantic. These overcrowded ships such as the Hector, the Dove and the Rambler were pestilence ridden, sometimes 30% to 40% of the passenger list never reaching their destination, their numbers reduced by dysentery, cholera, small pox and typhoid.
In North America, included amongst the first migrants which could be considered a kinsman of the surname RAYNER, or a variable spelling of that family name was Mary Rainer and her husband James settled in Charles Town S.C in 1767; John, Peter and Philip Rainer arrived in Pennsylvania between 1772 and 1851; John Rainor arrived in Philadelphia in 1843; Elizabeth Raynor settled in New England in 1634, with her children Edward, Lydia, Joseph, Sarah and her husband Thurston; Joan Rayner settled in Virginia in 1623 with her husband.
From the port of entry many settlers made their way west, joining wagon trains to the prairies or the west coast. During the War of Independence, many loyalists made their way north to Canada about 1790 and became known as the United Empire Loyalists.
Contemporary notables of this surname RAYNER include many distinguished contributors: Luise Rainer – actress, Sir Derek Rayner, Admiral Herbert Rayner, Neville Rayner of Lloyds; Brigadier Sir Ralph Rayner, Professor Geoffrey Raynor – metallurgist.
During the course of our research, we also determined the many coat of arms granted to different branches of the family. The most ancient grant of a Coat of Arms found was: ermine with a blue stripe at the top on which there are two gold starfish."
and from www.anestry.com:
rayner
1. English: from the Norman personal name Rainer, composed of the Germanic elements ragin ‘counsel’ + hari, heri ‘army’
2. Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from an inflected form of German rein or central Yiddish rayn ‘pure’.
3. Probably also an altered spelling of German Reiner.
*****************************************************************
Information from "Rayner Family Records", Edited by F. H. Carpenter:
"The modern name Rayner can be traced back to the personal name, usually spelt Reyner in English Mediaeval documents, in Old French appearing as Rainer, Reiner, Renier etc., and in Old German as Raginhari - meaning, according to some sources, counsel or mighty army..."
****************************************************************
"Origin of the Name" by Dr. Stuart P. Howell
"Raynor (Rayner) is a distinguished name of Teutonic origin. The Anglo-Saxon Regenhere d. 617 A.D. He was son of Raedwalk, King of East Anglia, an ancient division of England which comprises the modern day Norfolk and Suffolk Counties.
Rainer (Rayner, Raynor) is derived from the old Germanic name, "Raginhari," meaning "counsel or mighty Army" and was undoubtedly introduced into England from France in the eleventh century.
Indeed, the earliest written records of the personal name in England appear in the Doomsday Book of 1086 and testify to the French influence in the formation of many English surnames.
In the Middle Ages, before the development of the hereditary surname system, it became convenient to identify people with the same first name by referring to their father's personal name. Thus patronymic surnames form one of the largest of the surname groups in England and indeed in all of Europe.
Early instances of the surname in England include Ricardus Filius Rainer who is on the written record in Hampshire in the year 1148 (Liber Wintoniensis) and William Rayner who lived in Lancashire in 1229 (Transcripts of Charters relating to the Gilbertine houses). The prefix "Filius" in the first example means "son of" and emphasizes the patronymic origins of the surname.
Among the first instances of the surname in England were those of Rayner Le Blake in County Norfolk during the year 1273, Reyner, son of Reyner Fleming, a Yorkshire man in the 13th year of Edward II's reign, and Thomas Rayner, also of Yorkshire (1379).
Variants of this surname include Raynor, Rainer, Ranner, Reiner, Reyner, and Renner and all are to be found in the East Anglican and Nottinghamshire areas with the "or" ending peculiar to the latter.
The name tended to be concentrated in those counties on the East coast of England, from Yorkshire south through Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and East Kent; and was also fairly common in the Isle of Wight which had close racial links with Kent; both were settled by the same people during the post-Roman period.
Early residents of the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, York, Nottingham, Huntingdon, and London, as well as various parts of Wales, bearing this name were, for the most part, of the landed and educated classes.
The Raynor family was well established in England by the 15th and 16th centuries. One of the principal branches of the family was at East Drayton in Nottingham County. Many of the present-day Raynor families in America originated in Suffolk County, England.
**************************************************************
Coat of Arms and Crest
Several Rayner & Raynor heraldic shields are described in standard books on the subject. The Coat of Arms of the branch of the Raynor family at East Drayton, in Nottingham County, England was "ermine on a chief indented azure, two etoiles d'or".
Another Crest, on a mount vert, a leopard passant d'or. "Azure is blue, d'or is gold, vert is green, "etoiles" are six-pointed stars. This Coat of Arms was granted to the family in 1588. The Arms are the same as those of the Nottingham branch.
**************************************************************
"The surname of RAYNOR was of Norse or German origin, a baptismal name 'the son of Reyner'. The name meant 'mighty army or God-like' and dates in England to Regenhere, AD 617, son of King Raedwald, in East Anglia. This long-established surname is of early medieval English origin, and derives from the Old Norman French male given name "Rainer" or "Re(i)ner", itself coming from the Old German "Raginhari", a compound of the elements "ragin", counsel, and "hari", army. This name was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066. The name was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Rainerus (without surname) a tenant in County Norfolk. One, Reynerus cancellarius was noted in the Register of St. Benet of Holme, Norfolk, dated 1101, and a Ricardus filius (son of) Rainer in the 1148 Winton Rolls of Hampshire.
Pre 7th Century Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse baptismal names were usually distinctive compounds whose elements were often associated with the Gods of Fire, Water, and War, or composed of disparate elements. Early examples of the surname include: Alexander Reygner (London, 1229); William Reyner (Staffordshire, 1286); and Anabilla Rayner (Yorkshire, 1379). Wassell Rayner, an early emigrant to the New World, appears on a list of those resident in Virginia on February 16th 1623. A Coat of Arms granted to the Rayner family is a silver shield with three fleurs-de-lis between eight crosses crosslet gules. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Rayner, which was dated 1216, in "Transcripts of Charters relating to the Gilbertine Houses", Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 – 1272. Reyner le Blake, was documented in the County of Norfolk in the year 1273. Edward Rayner of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379."
