This most interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical name for a dweller by the mount, hill, from the Olde English pre 7th Century element "munt", a mount, hill, and the suffix "-er", which when attached to a topographical feature means "dweller at". Topographical names were among the earliest created since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. The surname itself is first recorded in the early 14th Century (see below), while other early examples of the surname include: John le Mountere, Hampshire (1305), noted in Fransson's "Middle English Surnames of Occupation", and Richard le Monter, in the Subsidy Rolls of Somerset (1327). Katherine, daughter of Henrye Mounter, was christened on September 15th 1594, at St. Botolph without Aldgate, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard del Mount, which was dated 1301, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire", 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.