This very unusual name has long been recorded in England but perhaps surprisingly as a Norman personal name. The first recording in England was as "Galterii" which appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 for London as a French form of the Olde German "Walter" translating as "Mighty Army". Galterus le Lingedraper is recorded in the Oxford Rolls of 1210 but the surname as in the modern spelling of Goulter or Gaulter is apparently 17th Century. Margaret Galter was baptised at St. Duncan's Stepney, London in 1690, whilst earlier Sarah Goulter (Baptised) at St. Botloph without Aldgate, London in 1681. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Abraham Gaulter which was dated 1604, of Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex. during the reign of King James I of England and VI of Scotland 1603 - 1625. 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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