This name is a variant of "Pinniger" which has itself an historic ancestry. It is an example of a medieval "occupational" surname, and refers to the office of "pennager", an ensign - bearer, who walked between the representatives of the various craft guilds and bore their individual "pennants" or "ensigns". These processions took place on local and national festival days, and especially at the performances of medieval mystery plays, in which the Guilds played a large part. In the modern idiom the name can be found spelt in six different ways, Penniger, Pinniger, Pennigar, Pinnegar, Pinnijer. Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary Pinaker was christened at St. Andrew Undershaft, London on November 24th 1633. One Edmund Pinniger was christened on the 7th April 1689 at St. Anne's, Soho, London. Mary, daughter of John and Elizabeth Pinnigar was christened at St. Mary, Lambert, London on March 4th 1810. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas le Penniger, which was dated circa 1272, the City of York Histories, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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