Show ContentsAllerton History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Early Origins of the Allerton family

The surname Allerton was first found in one of numerous places named Allerton throughout England. The strongest and perhaps the oldest grouping of place names is found in Yorkshire where: Allerton is a former village in Bradford; Allerton Bywater is a semi-rural village and civil parish in the south-east of City of Leeds; Allerton Mauleverer is a village in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire; Northallerton is an market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire; Chapel Allerton is an inner suburb of north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire; Moor Allerton is an area of Leeds, West Yorkshire; and finally Allertonshire or Allerton was an ancient wapentake and liberty in the North Riding.

Allerton is also a suburb of Liverpool and Chapel Allerton is a village and civil parish, south of Cheddar in Somerset. The place names literally mean "farmstead or village where alder-tress grow," from the old English words "alor" + "tun." [1]

Many of the locals were listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Alretune, except for the Somerset local which was listed as Alwarditone. [2] Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of the lands of Allerton, held by Earl Gospatrick from the King who was recorded in the Domesday Book.

Allerton Castle, also known as Allerton Park, is a restored Gothic or Victorian Gothic house in Allerton Mauleverer in North Yorkshire. It originally was held by the Mauleverer family from the time of the Norman Conquest until the 17th century when it was passed through the wife's name to Richard Arundell.

Early History of the Allerton family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Allerton research. Another 119 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1193, 1312, 1416, 1549, 1585, 1620, 1627, 1639, 1659, 1674 and 1702 are included under the topic Early Allerton History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Allerton Spelling Variations

It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Allerton are characterized by many spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Allerton include Allerton, Alerton, Allertown, Alltone, Allton, Alliton, Alleton and many more.

Early Notables of the Allerton family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was

  • Isaac Allerton (c.1585-1659), one of the original Pilgrim fathers who went on the Mayflower to settle the Plymouth Colony in 1620, ancestor to Presidents of the United States Zachary Taylor and Frankl...


United States Allerton migration to the United States +

Faced with the chaos present in England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as Australia and Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Allerton, or a variant listed above:

Allerton Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • Bartholomew Allerton, (1612/3 - 1658/9), who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 aboard the ship "Mayflower", he was born in Holland, he returned to Ireland then England where he died. [3]
  • Isaack Allerton, who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 aboard the ship "Mayflower" [3]
  • Mrs. Mary Allerton, (nee Norris), (1590-1620), who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 aboard the ship "Mayflower" [3]
  • Remember Allerton, (1615- c. 1652-1656). who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 aboard the ship "Mayflower" [3]
  • Sarah Allerton, who arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 [3]
  • ... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)
Allerton Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • J Allerton, who arrived in San Francisco, California in 1850 [3]
  • James Allerton, aged 7, who arrived in New York in 1864 [3]
  • Elizth Allerton, aged 15, who landed in New York in 1864 [3]
  • Ellen Allerton, aged 11, who arrived in New York in 1864 [3]
  • Seth Allerton, aged 13, who landed in New York in 1864 [3]
  • ... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Australia Allerton migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Allerton Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

New Zealand Allerton migration to New Zealand +

Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook (1769-70): first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include:

Allerton Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century
  • Mr. Allerton, Australian settler travelling from Sydney, Australia aboard the ship "Bristolian" arriving in Auckland, New Zealand in 1842 [4]

West Indies Allerton migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. [5]
Allerton Settlers in West Indies in the 17th Century
  • Mr. George Allerton, (b. 1612), aged 23, British settler traveling aboard the ship "Matthew" arriving in St Christopher (Saint Kitts) in 1635 [6]

Contemporary Notables of the name Allerton (post 1700) +

  • Mrs. Ellen Allerton (b. 1835), née Palmer, an American poet, born in Centerville, N. Y., one of the leading authors of Kansas
  • Samuel Waters Allerton (1828-1914), American founder of the First National Bank of Chicago
  • Robert Allerton (1873-1964), American philanthropist, son and heir of First National Bank of Chicago founder Samuel Allerton
  • Jeremy William Orde Allerton (b. 1944), English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University Cricket Club in 1967
  • Viscount North Allerton,
  • Allerton C. Hickmott (1895-1977), American book collector who amassed a substantial collection of Shakespearian material which was donated to Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, upon his death
  • Allerton C. Kibbe, American Democratic Party politician, Member of Connecticut State House of Representatives from Ellington; Elected 1902; Defeated, 1906 [7]


  1. Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
  2. Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
  3. 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)
  4. New Zealand Yesteryears Passenger Lists 1800 to 1900 (Retrieved 17th October 2018). Retrieved from http://www.yesteryears.co.nz/shipping/passlist.html
  5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies
  6. Pilgrim Ship's of 1600's (Retrieved October 4th 2021 from https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/shiplist.htm
  7. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 26) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html


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