This interesting and long-established surname is of early medieval Anglo-French origin, and is an occupational name for a poet, minstrel or balladeer, deriving from the Anglo-French "rimour, rymour", rimer, poet, or from the Middle English "rime(n)", to compose or recite verses, with the addition of the agent suffix "-er". In its original sense "a man who has to do with", the "er" designates persons according to their profession or occupation. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. One Richard le Rimour was noted in the 1277 Chartulary of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire. Rymer, with variant spellings Rymor and Rim(m)er is particularly prevalent in Lancastrian Church Registers from the mid 16th Century. Recordings include the christening of Henry Rymor, an infant, at Aughton by Ormskirk, on December 27th 1543, and the marriage of Richard Rimmer to Elizabeth Rilley at Kirkham on September 11th 1569. One Roger Rymer, of Walton, was entered in the Wills Records held at Chester in 1579. Thomas Rymer (1641 - 1713), author and archaeologist, was appointed by the government in 1693 to edit a collection of public conventions of Great Britain. A Coat of Arms granted to the Rymer family is a red shield with a gold tree eradicated, surmounted of a silver greyhound passant, collared gold. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Warin Rymer, which was dated 1229, in the "Calendar of the Patent Rolls", Yorkshire, during the reign of Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.