Local 'of Finmere,' a parish in Oxfordshire, eight miles from Bicester.

Gilbert de Fenamore, Wiltshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

(a) Bapt. 'the son of Finamour,' i.e. pure love, perfect love; compare Douceamour, Paramor, &c.

'Tho spak Clarice to Blancheflour Wordes ful of fin amour.' Floriz and Blancheflour, E. E. Text Soc.

As in many other surnames 'n' has become 'l', and thus Finnemore has turned itself into Phillimore, which see.

John Finamur, Close Rolls, 56 Henry III. Hugh Finamur, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Dulcia Fynamour, Wardrobe Accounts, Edward I.

John Fynamour, Close Rolls, 3 Henry IV.

John Fynamore, sup. for B.A., 1539: Register of the University of Oxford.

1507. Married — John Fynnemor and Anne Flynter: St. Michael, Cornhill.

1673-4. Buried — John, son of William Finmore: St. Paul s, Covent Garden.

1737. — Frances Elizabeth, d. Henry Fynmore: ibid.

(Celtic) Big Fionn [v. Finn (Celtic], and + Irish and Gaelic mór, big, great] (Anglo-French-Latin) Fine (Perfect) Love (a nickname) [French fin amour: v. under Finn (Anglo-French-Latin); Latin amor, love] Hugh Finamur.—Hundred Rolls

“Dear Love” in Old French (Fin Amour).

The Fenemores have characterised Oxfordshire and Bucks for at least six centuries. Thomas Fynnamore was a burgess of Henley - on - Thames in the reign of Henry VIII. (Bu.). There were several Fennimores or Vennimores in Wendebury in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. (D.). In the time of William III. there was a Ffennimore in the parish of Enstone (J.). Fynnemore or Fynmore or Finnemore was a Reading name in the 16th and 17th centuries; two mayors of Reading bore this name, namely in 1577 and 1586 (Coates' "Reading" and Ashmole's "Berkshire"). In the 13th century we find it as De Finemor in Wilts, as De Finemere in Bucks, as De Fineme in Oxfordshire, as Fynamur in Norfolk, and as Vinemer and Winemer in Cambridgeshire (H. R.). Fennemere is a Shropshire hamlet, and De Fennemere or De Fennemare was a Shropshire surname in the 13th century (Eyton's "Shropshire"). Finnimore was the name of an ancient township in or near Wetwang parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Simon Fynimer was vicar of Hooton Paynel, Yorkshire, in 1349 (Hunter's "South Yorkshire"). This name well illustrates the variation of surnames; I have mentioned it eighteen times and it has been spelt in seventeen different ways.