Leverton

This is an English surname, which dates back to at least the time of King Edward 1st (1272 -1307), and possibly earlier. It is locational from any or all of the several places called Leverton, in the counties of Berkshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire. The place name and hence the surname probably derives from the pre 7th century words "laefer-tun" or the place (tun) where rushes were grown. Rushes formed a major industry well into the 18th century, as they provided not only renewable floor coverings, as early carpets on the mainly dirt, and usually dirty, floors, but were also used for thatching, bedding and torches. Locational surnames were usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else, and were most easily identified as being from that place. The exception, which would seem to apply here, is when the local lord of the manor took as his surname the name of the village. In confirmation of this status we have the recording of William de Leverton (as spelt) in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Lincolnshire in the year 1273, and three centuries later and far away in the city of London, that of Jane Leverton, who was christened at the church of St Mary Aldermary, in 1572.