Alban

This unusual and interesting surname derives from the male given name "Alban", itself from the Latin "Albanus", originally an ethnic name for a "man from Alba" (capital of the earliest Roman Kings). The given name was popular in France, Germany and Sweden, and in England where it was often bestowed in honour of St. Alban, the first British martyr (3rd or 4th Century). Various legends give the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire as the birthplace and the place of execution of this saint. Albanus filius (son of) Willelmi is noted in the Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire (1212). The surname is first recorded in the mid 13th Century (see below) . Adam Albon is listed in the 1275 Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire, and William Albone is registered in the Calendar of Letter Books of the City of London (1376). The surname has many variant spellings ranging from Alban, Albone and Alabone to Allibon and Aubon. One of the earliest of the name in the New World was Alice Albon, who departed from the Port of London, aboard the "Hopewell", bound for New England in September 1635. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is a green shield, on a silver bend three blue crosses formee fitchee, the Crest being a bull's head affrontee. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Alban, which was dated 1250, in the "Buckinghamshire Book of Fees", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216-1272. 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.