First found in Herefordshire where they were seated from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that shrouded England made the far away New World an attractive prospect. On cramped disease-ridden ships, thousands migrated to those British colonies that would eventually become Canada and the United States. Those hardy settlers that survived the journey often went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Raymer or a variant listed above: Mary Rainer and her husband James settled in Charles Town [Charleston], South Carolina in 1767; John, Peter and Phillip Rainer arrived in Pennsylvania between 1772 and 1851.

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