Hambelton

This interesting name of medieval English origin is a dialectal variant of the locational name Hambleton from a place in Lancashire. There are many places with 'Hamble' as the first element, the second element being either 'den', a valley, 'dun', hill, and 'tun', an enclosure, and this surname could originate with any of these places for example in, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Yorkshire. All these places derive either from the Old English pre 7th Century 'hamel', which literally means maimed or crooked, but in the sense of a hill name, may be taken as bare, or treeless, or from a personal name 'Hamela', thus the place of Hamela's people. In the Middle Ages, when people left their birth place to seek work elsewhere, they would often adopt the village name as a means of identification thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. One, Anne Elizabeth Hambelton was christened on the December 15th 1805 at St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Hambleton (christening), which was dated March 5th 1587, St. Boltolph's, Bishopgate, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, 'Good Queen Bess', 1558 - 1603. 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.