Page 252 - Family History

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The Gorton Name

By Kathryn Mae Gorton Thompson

The Saxon Chronicle is a manuscript which was painstakingly researched by
monks of the 10th century and now dwells in the British Museum. Emerging
through the chronicles of history is one of the oldest family names. GORTON and
the distinguished history of this surname is interwoven into the tapestry of the
history of England. Historical analysts have used many sources in the preparation

of this history, such as: The Domesday Book, The Ragman Rolls (1291-1296) The
Curig Regis Rolls, The Pipe Rolls, The Haerth Rolls, Praish Registers, Baptismals,
Tax Records and other ancient documents and found the first record of the name
GORTON was in Lancashire, England where they were seated from very ancient
times some will say, well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke
William of Hastings in 1066 A.D.

The Surname Gorton was found in the archives, the name was sometimes
revealed as Gorton, Gorten, Gortin, Gordon and these changes in spelling
occurred even between father and son. It was not uncommon for a person to be
born with one spelling variation, married with another and for yet another, to

appear on his gravestone. Scribes spelt the name the way it sounded as it was
told to them. From century to century spellings changed. The family
name GORTON was found to be descended from the SAXON race. The SAXONS
were a fair-skinned people led by the Brothers General, commanders Hengist and
Hosa, who settled in England town about the year 400 AD. They settled first on
the south British Coast, coming from the Rhine Valley. They spread north and
westward from Kent and during the next four hundred years forced the ancient

Britons back into Wales and Cornwall to the West. Cumbria and Scotland to the
north. The Anglos held the eastern coastline. The south folk in Suffolk, the north
folk, in Northfolk. Under the Anglo Saxon five century rule, the nation divided into
five separate kingdoms, a high king being elected as Supreme Ruler.

Alfred the Great emerged in the 9th Century as the Saxon leader to dispel the
Danish Invasion. England by 1066 was led by Harold "The King of the Saxons" and
was enjoying reasonable peace and prosperity. The Norman invasion from France
under Duke William of Normandy and their victory at the Battle of Hastings found

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