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  Lawton Coat of Arms / Lawton Family CrestThe surname of LAWTON has the associated arms recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered at Lawton, County Chester. The name was locational 'of Lawton' a spot in Cheshire. The name was derived from the Old English word LAVTONE, literally meaning the dweller on a hill. The earliest of the name on record appears to be LAUTON (without surname) who was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, and LAUTONA (without surname) was recorded in 1119. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. Before the 1066 Conquest names were rare in England, the few examples found were mainly adopted by those of the clergy or one who had taken holy orders. In 1086 the conquering Duke William of Normandy commanded the Domesday Book. He wanted to know what he had and who held it, and the Book describes Old English society under its new management in minute detail. It was then that surnames began to be taken for the purposes of tax-assessment. The nobles and the upper classes were first to realise the prestige of a second name, but it was not until the 15th century that most people had acquired a second name. Later records of the name mention Thomas Lawton of Cheshire, who registered at Oxford University in the year 1575. Christopher Walker and Ann Lawson were married in London in the year 1587. Many factors contributed to the establishment of a surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 a very few dynasts and magnates passed on hereditary surnames, but the main of the population, with a wide choice of first-names out of Celtic, Old English, Norman and Latin, avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name. As society became more stabilized, there was property to leave in wills, the towns and villages grew and the labels that had served to distinguish a handful of folk in a friendly village were not adequate for a teeming slum where perhaps most of the householders were engaged in the same monotonous trade, so not even their occupations could distinguish them, and some first names were gaining a tiresome popularity, especially Thomas after 1170. The hereditary principle in surnames gained currency first in the South, and the poorer folk were slower to apply it. By the 14th century however, most of the population had acquired a second name. |
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