Surnames of non-landholders in England and Ireland did not come into general use until the 1300's. At that time many families took the name of the land where they worked or the nearby town for their surname; for example, John of Alton became John Alton. The origin of the Alton-sound surname appears to be locational in nature and associated with the English, meaning "one who came from or lived near the Alton village". Different spellings of the Alton-sound surname are a common occurrence with the most prominent variations being Alten, Altin, Altone, Allton, Aulton and Alton. The name appears to have originated from the Norman "D1 Alton" (of Alton) which was introduced to England and Ireland after the Anglo-Norman Invasion in 1066. According to tradition, the first D'Alton to come to Ireland was one Walter, who had fled to England and thence Ireland from France, having incurred the wrath of the French King by secretly marrying his daughter.

The Alton surname undoubtedly derives from one or more of the places named Alton in England according to a report by The Surname Archive in England dated November 13,1975. These places are:

Alton, near Wirksworth in Derbyshire, which may be from the Anglo-Saxon Aldatun 'old town1

Alton in Staffordshire, which was Elvetone in Domesday Book (1086) from 'Aelfa's town1 [Note: Domesday Book is a survey of English lands and landholdings made by order of William the Conqueror about 1086]

Alton near Amesbury in Wiltshire (Eltone in Domesday Book) from 'Aella's town'

Alton in Worcestershire (Alvintune in Domesday Book) from The town of Eanwulf s people'

Alton in Hampshire (also Alton Pancras in Dorset, Alton Barnes and Priors in Wiltshire,

As the chief home of the surname in Derbyshire, however, it would seem that the three northern and adjoining counties of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire account mostly for the placename becoming a surname. An interesting test of the survival of the name in the south is to check the Sussex Marriage Index, as Alton lies not far over the border into Hampshire. There are just two instances - one in Hove in 1554 and the other in Brighton in 1816. It does not appear at all in the Lay Subsidy Tax rolls for Sussex of 1296,1327, 1332 and 1524, so it is evident that the name never rooted itself in Sussex.

The earliest instance in the Great Card Index of the Society of Genealogists, London, is at Rotherhithe in Surrey - the county to the east of Hampshire and north of Sussex. This is for the burial of Andrew Alton in 1606. However, Rotherhithe was a major port on the south bank of the Thames and very much a melting-pot of people seeking their fortunes from all parts of the country. Of the 16 instances of the surname, however, in the Great Card Index, the majority are from Nottinghamshire (5) and no other county has more than a couple. Nottinghamshire, of course, adjoins Derbyshire to its east.

A warning of possible pitfalls in tracing this surname, with its initial 'A' and the likelihood therefore of its sometimes being aspirated as Halton or even Holton, is exemplified in the will of Thomas Hollton proved in 1544 in the London Consistory Court wherein he describes himself as Thomas Hollton but refers to his mother Annes Alton and sister Mary Alton. The latter was evidently a witness and her signature is first written with an initial 'H' which has been partially erased! The outside of the will, moreover, is endorsed Thomas Alton' (London Record Society. Vol. Ill, p. 129).

The earliest noted instance of all of the Alton surname appears in another London probate court in 1375, where the will of Henry Alton, chaplain of St. Sepulchre was proved in the Commissary Court (Register 1, Folio 29v). An occasional variant spelling of the surname AULTON is found from at least the 17th century, one William Aulton being given as the tenant of a house in Goudhurst, Kent, in the will of Edward Bathurst Esq. of that place made in 1651. One family of standing at least used it, too, as the Gentlemen's Magazine of 1817 announced the death, in his 46th year, of the Rev. Dr. Aulton, Rector of Gaywood, Vicar of Stradsett and Rector of Mundesley, Norfolk (p. 282). And yet, this variant, no more than Alton or Allton, fails to appear in bibliographies and references works.

One variant, Alten, appears in Burke's Armory, where three different coats of arms are assigned to it without specification as to family or county. These may, however, relate to the German surname, an example being Sir Charles Von Alten (1764-1840), Major-Genera I in the British Army and Lieutenant-General in the Hanoverian Army. He was me youngest son of Aug. Eberhardt, Baron Alten, of an ancient Protestant family in Hanover.

Turning at last to Derbyshire, the acknowledged home of the Alton surname, the record evidence is still scanty, the earliest being the will of Sarah Alton of Hedge in the parish of Duffield, widow, made in 1747 and proved in Prerogative Court of (the Archbishop of) Canterbury in 1750/51. I have examined the abstract of this which is the sole representation of the surname in the Documents Collection of the Society of Genealogists, London, and note that it refers, among others, to her son George Alton of Hedge, yeoman. This seems to have been one of the more affluent of the branches of the Alton family as the Return of Owners of One Acre or More of Land officially compiled in 1873 (and known as The Modem Domesday Book or 'MDB') shows the Trustees of Josh. Alton of Heage (the correct spelling of Hedge) owning 70 acres.

Other owners of land in Derbyshire in this Return are Francis Alton of Crich (2 acres), Mrs. Alton of Ripley (10 acres) and William Alton of Castle Donington (which is at the junction of Derbyshire and Leicestershire) with no less than 64 acres. This same William also owned 81 acres in Leicestershire itself, while a Miss Alton of Melton Mowbray owned 21 acres in the same county.

In other nearby counties, Isaac Alton of Dudley, Worcestershire, owned seven acres in Staffordshire (which at that time completely enclosed the enclave of Worcestershire containing Dudley), while north of Derbyshire, Thomas Alton of Bedale in the West Riding of Yorkshire owned 21 acres.

The only published authority on surname distribution, H. B. Guppy, in his Homes of Family Names gives the nucleus of the Alton surname inside Derbyshire. His survey was based on the incidence of farmers in the county directories of the 1880's, and the same pattern is evident from our Derbyshire directory of 1925 which lists seven Alton farmers, three of them in the Belper area, and a private resident, James A. Alton, at Fern Lea, Derby Road, Belper.

As already hinted, nothing appears in print on families of the Alton-sound surname, while the limited material in the collections of the Society of Genealogists, London, has already been described. Neither do the directories of members' interests of the Society, or the local midland family history groups, give the names of members bearing or interested in the surname. There is, however, an Alton pedigree (No. 1109) in the Jackson Collection of Sheffield (South Yorkshire) Reference Library. [The Surname Archive, England, 13 Nov 1975]