This is an English locational surname of Anglo-Saxon origin, from the place called "Patmore" in Hertfordshire. The placename is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Patemere", and means "Patta's or Peatta's lake", from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "P(e)atta" and "mere", meaning a lake or pool. Locational names were given to the Lord of the manor and especially to those former inhabitants who had left their original homes and gone to live or work in another village or town, as in Richard de Patmere (1332, Surrey). There are three versions of the modern surname, Patmore, Pattemore and Padmore. Church Records include, William Patmore, who married Joane Powell on February 10th 1582 in St. Thomas's, London, and Rowland Patmore, who married Margarett Conn on May 16th 1603 in St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. Among the notable namebearers in the "Dictionary of National Biography" is one Peter George Patmore (1786 - 1855), who was an author. He edited the "New Monthly Magazine" (1841 - 1853). He is best known by his "Imitations of Celebrated Authors" (1826) and his "My Friends and Acquaintances" (1854). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Patemere which was dated 1208, in the "Hertfordshire Curia Rolls", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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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