Show ContentsTutor History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The history of the Tutor family name begins after the Norman Conquest of 1066. They lived in Dutton, Lancashire. Today Dutton is a civil parish and village within the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester, but this parish dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was listed as Duntune and literally meant "farmstead at a hill" from the Old English words dun + tun. [1] Dutton is also a civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire.

Early Origins of the Tutor family

The surname Tutor was first found in Lancashire where Odard Dutton, nephew of Hugh Lupus was granted the lands of the Barony of Dutton in 1066. He was directly descended from William, Earl of Eu, who married a niece of William the Conqueror. Dutton in Cheshire was an ancient family seat.

"This place, called in Domesday Book Duntune, was the seat of the family of Dutton, who exercised peculiar authority over the musicians and minstrels of the county, under a grant from the Lacys, barons of Walton, requiring them to pay suit and service at a court held before the lord of Dutton, or his deputy, at Chester, every year on Midsummer-day, and to take out a licence for the exercise of their calling." [2]

The township of Ness in Chester was at one time of significance to the family. "This place is mentioned in Domesday Survey as being part of the possessions of Walter de Vernon; in the time of Richard II., it was held by the Duttons under the king as Earl of Chester, in capite, by military service." [2] However the family did not hold the lands for long as "on the marriage of the heiress of that family, 7th James I., to the heir of Thomas, Lord Gerard, Ness became the property of the Gerards, of Gerard's Bromley." [2]

Again in Cheshire, one branch of the family was found at Appleton with Hull. "The manor, with its hamlets of Hull and Stockton, belonged in the reign of Henry III. to Geffrey Dutton, and subsequently passed, with Budworth, to Sir Peter Warburton, Bart. Bradley, another manor, was given by Geffrey, son of Adam de Dutton, to the ancestor of Thomas Daniers or Daniel, whose daughter and heiress, in the reign of Edward III., brought it by marriage to the Savage family." [2]

Early History of the Tutor family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Tutor research. Another 196 words (14 lines of text) covering the years 1191, 1248, 1275, 1332, 1415, 1421, 1459, 1545, 1594, 1624, 1640, 1647 and 1657 are included under the topic Early Tutor History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Tutor Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Dutton, Duton, Duttone and others.

Early Notables of the Tutor family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was Sir Geoffrey Dutton; Sir Thomas Dutton (1421-1459), a medieval English knight who died at the Battle of Blore Heath, Blore Heath, England defending the throne of King Henry VI...
Another 36 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Tutor Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Tutor Ranking

In the United States, the name Tutor is the 10,280th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. [3]

Ireland Migration of the Tutor family to Ireland

Some of the Tutor family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. More information about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Tutor migration to the United States +

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Tutor or a variant listed above were:

Tutor Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Ciriaco Tutor, aged 21, who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1869 [4]


  1. Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
  2. Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
  3. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  4. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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