This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the paternostrer,' a maker of paternosters, rosaries, chaplets, beads strung together for pattering aves. Paternoster Row may have been the Paternosters' Row.

'And thanne was it a pece of the paternoster, Fiat voluntas tna.' - Piers Plowman's Vision, 9006.

1276. Robert Ornel, paternoster: Riley, Memorials of London.

William le Paternostrer, London. Riley's Memorials of London.

Robert Paternoster, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

John Paternoster, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Stephen Paternoster, Norfolk, ibid.

Roger Paternoster, Close Rolls, 17 Richard II.

1789. Married — George Paternoster and Sarah Collins: St. George, Hanover Square.

About the year 1250 Roger Paternoster, clericus, witnessed a charter by Alexander, earl of Buchan, granting one mark of silver yearly to the Abbey of Arbroath (RAA., I, p. 266). At the end of the charter erecting the Hospital of Turriff in Buchan in 1272 it is recorded that "Rogero dicto Pater noster scriptore dicte carte et multis aliis" (wrote this charter and many more) (REA., I, p. 34), and in the following year he appears as a charter witness (CAB., p. 470). About the year 1280 he appears again as the cleric or clerk of Alexander Cumyn, earl of Buchan (LAC., p. 157). The last reference to him is in 1296 when he rendered homage at Kildrummy in July (Bain, II, p. 196). This Roger is the only individual of the name I have found in Scottish record. In England, however, the name is not uncommon. It is more correctly Paternosterer, from ME. paternosterer, 'a maker or dealer in rosaries' (paternosters, from the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin). The final -er has been lost by dissimilation. That the name had also another meaning is shown by the following extract from Blount's Tenures (ed. Hazlitt, p. 249-250): "Alice Pater-noster held a land in Pusey in the county of Berks in capite of the king by the service of saying every day five paternosters for the soul of the king and the king's ancestors, and Richard Pater-Noster and John, his brother, performed like service for their relief." It is interesting to note in this connection that an Irish chieftain who commanded at the battle of Clontarf (A.D. 1014) is called in Irish "Maelruanaidh na Paidre," i.e. Mulrooney of the Pater-Noster (AFM.), from which, says Dr. O'Donovan, "we may infer that he had a character for piety." Heintze-Cascorbi (Die deuischen Familien-Namen) record a Cunzinus dictus Paternosterer in Basel in 1304, and a Heinrich Vaderunser in 1565; and Gottschald (Deutsche Namenkunde) records in Breslau Matthias paternoster paternosterer, and notes that the name is also current in Germany as Paternoss and Nusterer. Raymond Paternotre, a French cabinet under official (1935).

(Anglo-Latin) Paternostrer, i.e. . maker of, or dealer in, paternosters (rosaries) [Middle English paternostrer; Latin Pater Noster, Our Father + the English agent, suff.

-er]

Alice Paternoster, in the reign of Edward I., held lands in Pusey, co. Berks., by the service of saying the Lord's Prayer, Pater noster qui es in ccelis, &c., five times a day, for the souls of the King's ancestors; and it appears that Richard Paternoster, on succeeding to an estate in the same parish, instead of paying a sum of money as a relief, said the Lord's Prayer thrice, before the Barons of the Exchequer, as John, his brother, had previously done. In the same reign, another, or the same, John Paternoster held a virgate of land in East Hendred, by the service of saying one Paternoster per diem. The land is still called Paternoster Bank. See Blount's Tenures. Lysons' Berks.

Roger Paternostre, Normandy, 1180-95, 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Robert Paternoster, Engl. 1202 (Rotulus Cancellarii).

(E. and D.), Our Father; also the Lord's Prayer, and the beads used by Roman Catholics. A surname in England and Belgium; but the words are Latin.

From the Dutch-Flemish,; a personal name.