Milverton

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name either from Milverton near Taunton in Somerset, or from Milverton near Warwick in Warwickshire. The former place, recorded variously as "Milferton" in Saxon Documents, dated 917, as "Milvertone" in the 1253 Fine Court Rolls of Somerset, is so called from the Old English pre 7th Century "mylenford", mill ford, with "tun", enclosure, settlement, hence; "settlement by the mill ford". Milverton in Warwickshire, appearing respectively as "Malvertone" in the Domesday Book, and as "Milverton" in the 1236 Fine Court Rolls of that county, shares the same meaning and derivation. Locational surnames were developed when former inhabitants of a place moved to another area, usually to seek work, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. On October 1st 1608, Joane, daughter of William Milverton, was christened in Bridgewater, Somerset, and on February 10th 1771, John Milverton and Eleanor Branstone were married at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name depicts three silver millstones on a blue shield; another depicts five golden garbs (sheaves of wheat), on a saltire engrailed azure, all on a silver shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Milverton, prior, which was dated 1456, in "Ecclesiastical Registers of Oxford", during the reign of Henry V1, known as "The Founder of Eton, 1422 - 1461. 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.