This surname is derived from an official title, 'the alefounder,' an inspector appointed by the Court Leet to assize and supervise the brewing of malt liquor. Another term for this office was aleconner. A poem of James I's reign says:

'A nose he had that gan show.

What liquor he loved I trow;

For he had before long seven years

Been of the towne the ale-conner.'

A confirmation by John, Abbot of Cockerham, Lancashire, 1 Ric. III, says, in regulating the price of beer: 'Yai sail gyf Ale-fwnders a fwnding galon or else a taste of ylke vessell,' &c.; Baines' Lancashire.

This word is neither in Halliwell nor in the History English Dictionary; compare 'fondyn, or asayyn—attempto' Promptorium Parvulorum Way adds in a note: 'Anglo-Saxon, fandian, tentari.' Lower quotes as follows from the Norfolk Chronicle, Aug. 19, 1854: 'At a Court Leet, or Law Day ... of the Borough of New Buckenham, the sub-bailiff, affiers, searchers, and sealers of leather, examiners of fish and flesh, alefounders, inspectors of weights and measures, and a pinder were appointed': Patronymic Britannia Again Lower quotes from Three Early Metr. Rom. (Camden Soc), p. xxxviii, as follows: 'In the records of the manor of Hale in the xvth cent, one Thomas Layet is mentioned as being fined ... for having concealed the founding pot (quia concelavit le fowundynge pot), 3d' Evidently the official term as well as the surname were in existence in Norfolk till a very recent period.

Mary Alfounder. Nichol's History of Leicestershire.

Richard Alefounder. Calendar of Proceedings in Chancery, temp. Elizabeth I.

William Alefounder was rector of Birchamwell in 1374: History of Norfolk.

'There is a brass in East Bergholt Church to Robert Alefounder in the middle of the last century': N. and Q., June 11, 1887.Stolen from Fore bears

1671. Buried — Sarah Elfounder: St. Michael, Cernhill.

1746. — John, son of John Alefounder: ibid.

'John Alefounder, portrait and miniature painter, studied at the Royal Academy, and gained a silver medal in 1782,' Sic.: Dictionary of National Biography.

In most places the official whose duty it is to inspect the malt liquor of a hundred or franchise is called the ale-taster or ale-conner. The origin of "founder" is uncertain.

The ale-founders were ale-tasters or aleconners. In O. Court Rolls they are called "gestatores cerviei," the term commonly used in the records of Court Leet. Lower classes this term with "ale-draper," and justly calls it a ridiculous designation. There is a beer retailer in London of the name of Alefounder. The last part of the name may be from fundo, to pour out.