Purton

Recorded in several forms including Parton, Perton, Purton, Pearton, Piertin, and Pyrton, this is an Anglo-Scottish surname. It is locational from any of the various places in England named from the Olde English pre 7th century word "pere" meaning pear, and "tun", an enclosure or orchard, or for a few nameholders from the parish of Parton on the river Dee, north west of Castle Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. This gets its name from the Gaelic word "portan", a diminutive of "port", meaning landing-place. The English places include: Parton, a parish north of Whitehaven in Cumberland; the hamlet of Parton near Wigton in Cumberland; Parton (Cross) near Kington in Herefordshire; and Parton in Gloucestershire. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given either to the lord of the manor, or more especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Recordings of the surname from early surviving church registers include: the christening of Margery Parton, at St. Stephan's, Coleman Street, city of London, on October 16th 1541, Godfrey Perton, who married Elisabeth Oram at St Margarets, Westminster, on July 20th 1561, and Charlotte Pearton, who married John Patterson at Hayes, Middlesex, on August 3rd 1794. The first recording of the family name in any spelling may be that of Patrick fiz Matheu de Partone, of Dumfries, Scotland. This was dated 1296, in the "Records of those who rendered homage to Edward 1st of England", during the reign of the Interregnum Government of Scotland, 1296 - 1306. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.