Caunter

Caunter is a surname originating principally in the West Country in England. Bearers have historically been established in the South Devon towns of Ashburton and Tavistock[1] and villages of Widecombe in the Moor (from at least the 15th century)[2] and Staverton. The surname is also established in Cornwall.

In Caunter Family History (1930), the Liskeard solicitor Frederick Lyde Caunter (1892-1964) gives a history of the Ashburton and Staverton Caunters. He discusses the family legends (and considers them just that) that the Devonshire Caunters are descended from Condor, Earl of Cornwall and that there is a connection with John the Chanter, a 12th-century Bishop of Exeter. He also refers to family notes that state that the alleged descendants from Condor "in the direct line settled in that part of the County called 'the South Hams,' & a younger branch retired to a more remote part of the County of Cornwall. The Devonshire branch have added a letter to their name, they spell it Caunter, whilst the Cornish branch spell it Canter."[3]

The Cornwall Online Parish Clerks database holds more pre-1900 baptism, marriage and burial records for Caunter than for Canter, and shows a concentration of both names in the southeast of Cornwall.[4]

In 1991 The Devon Historian, the journal of the Devon History Society, devoted an article to the Caunters of the hamlet of Ponsworthy (near Widecombe in the Moor), Dartmoor.[5]

Notable people with the surname include:

• C. F. Caunter, English aviation historian and author
• George Caunter, British administrator
• George Henry Caunter, English judge and writer
• John Caunter, British Army officer
• John Hobart Caunter, English clergyman and writer
• Marion Caunter
• Richard McDonald Caunter, English clergyman and writer
• Tony Caunter, English actor