Warrington

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from either of the places called "Warrington" in Buckinghamshire and in Lancashire. The place in Buckinghamshire is recorded as "Wardintone" in 1175 and as "Wardington" in 1294, and means "the settlement of Waerheard's people", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Waerheard", composed of the elements "waer", pledge, and "heard", hardy, brave, strong, with "tun", homestead, settlement. The place in Lancashire is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Walintune", and as "Werington" in the 1246 Assize Rolls of the county, and means either "the settlement of Waer's people", or "the settlement at the weir". The derivation is from the Olde English personal name "Waer", pledge, and "tun" as before, or from "wering", weir, dam, with "tun". One Robert Warrington was an early emigrant to the New World, leaving London on the "Mathew" in May 1635 for the colony in St. Christopher's, the Barbadoes. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Warynton, which was dated 1316 - 1317, in the "Feet of Fines Rolls of Warwickshire", during the reign of King Edward 11, known as "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327. 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.