Dictionary of Family Names

ALEFOUNDER.  An official name meaning "the alefounder," an inspector appointed by the Court Leet to assize and supervise the brewing of malt liquor.  Another term for this office was ale-conner.  A poem of James I's reign says—

"A nose he had that gan show,
What liquor he loved I trow;
For he had before long seven years
Been of the towne the ale-conner."

A confirmation by John, Abbot of Cockerham, Lancashire, I Ric. III, says, in regulating the price of beer, 'Yai sall gyf Ale-fwnders a fwnding galon or else a taste of ylke vessell,' &c.; Baines' Lanc. ii. 588.   This word is neither in Halliwell nor in the Hist. Eng. Dictionary; cf. 'fondyn, or asayyn—attempto, Prompt. Parv. p. 169.  Way adds in a note:  'A.S. fandian, tentare.'   Lower quotes as follows from the Norfolk Chronicle, Aug. 19, 1854:  'At a Court Leet, or Law Day... of the Borough of New Buckenham, the sub-bailiff, affiers, searchers, and sealers of leather, examiners of fish and flesh, alefounders, inspectors of weights and measures, and a pinder were appointed':  Patr. Brit. p. 5.   Again Lower quotes from Three Early Metr. Rom. (Camden Soc.), p. xxxviii, as follows:  'In the records of the manor of Hale in the xvth cent. one Thomas Layet is mentioned as being fined...for having concealed the founding pot (quia concelavit le fowundynge pot), 3d.'   Evidently the official term as well as the surname were in existence in Norfolk till a very recent period.