Bugler

Recorded as Buglar and Bugler, this is a rare and unusual surname. It does not seem to be recorded in any of the dictionaries of surnames or English medieval published records. This is not perhaps surprising as the earliest surname recordings are from Austria, where the coat of arms has the blazon of three black hand irons on a silver field. This is because originally a "bugel" was not a musical instrument carried by the armed forces, but an instrument for pressing cloth during the manufacturing process, and a bugeler one who used it. In fact the "Buglehorn" is a post medieval French word, and whilst it may in England have French Huguenot and protestant associations, this is not proven. The surname is said to be most often found in the West Country of England where many Huguenots settled in the 17th century. The surname recorded in connection with the protestant Duke of Monmouth's failed attempt to seize the crown of England from his Roman Catholic uncle King James 11nd (1685 - 1689). One of Monmouths followers was a Thomas Bugler probably of Taunton in Somerset, who in 1685 with a hundred others was convicted of treason by the infamous Judge Jefferies and sentenced to transportation for ten years as a slave to the Barbados Islands. It is not clear what ultimately happened to him. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.