Alerton History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Alerton family

The surname Alerton 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 Alerton family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Alerton 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 Alerton History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Alerton 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 Allerton, Alerton, Allertown, Alltone, Allton, Alliton, Alleton and many more.

Early Notables of the Alerton 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 Franklin D. Roosevelt; and his son...
Another 45 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Alerton Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Alerton family

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 Alerton or a variant listed above were: Isaac Allerton, his wife Mary (Norris) Allerton and their children Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary all arrived in Plymouth aboard the Mayflower in 1620..

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)