Loxton

This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is an English locational surname from a place in Somersetshire called Loxton. Recorded variously as "Locheston" in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Lokestone" in the Red Book of the Exchequer (1212) and as "Loxton" in the 1259 Fine Court Rolls of that county, the name means "settlement (Olde English pre 7th Century "tun", a settlement) on the Lox Yeo River". The component elements of the river name are the West Saxon "leax", (Old High German "la(c)hs"), a salmon, plus "yeo", a South Western form of the Olde English "ea", a river or stream. The surname is well recorded in Southern English Church Registers from the mid 16th Century (see below). On August 20th 1598, William, son of John Loxston, was christened in Emborrow, Somersetshire, and on November 9th 1607, Robert Loxton and Mary George were married in West Bradley, Somerset. The christening of Jone, daughter of Ralfe Loxton, took place in St. Mary Steps, Exeter, Devonshire, on May 6th 1666. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Loxton, which was dated January 15th 1564, christened at St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "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.