Lupton

This is a English locational name from a place so called in the former county of Westmoreland, now known as Cumbria. There is also a Lupoton House in Devon, which was probably so named from the Lupton family who lived there. The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book as "Lupetun" and probably derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Hluppa" (of uncertain origin) and "tun", settlement. The name was brought to America by one John Lupton who at 25 yrs of age sailed from Gravesend on the Primrose under Captain Douglass to Virginia on 27th July 1635. The first known bearer of the surname (recorded below) was "the son of Grey de Luppton, who in 1166 was killed in a pole fight, leaving goods to the value of sixpence". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Lupton, which was dated 1166, Hanks and Hodges Dictionary of Surnames, during the reign of King Henry II, The Builder of Churches, 1154 - 1189. 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.