This name, with variant spelling Dairton, is of Northern English locational origin from Darton, a place on the River Dearne near Barnsley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Recorded as Dertun in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Dertona circa 1200, in "Early Yorkshire Charters", the place was so called from the Old English pre 7th Century "deor" meaning "deer", plus "tun", an enclosure; hence, "enclosure for deer". Such locational names were originally given to the Lord of the Manor, or as a means of identification to those who left their birth-place to settle elsewhere. On December 7th 1599, Elizabeth Darton and Nicholas Hale were married in St. Giles Cripplegate, London, and on February 18th 1656, Mathew, son of John Darton, was christened in St. Botolph's Bishopsgate, London. Nicholas Darton, (1603-1649), B.A. Exeter College, Oxford, 1622, and incumbent of Kilsby, Northamptonshire, wrote "The True and Absolute Bishop" in 1641. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Dairton, (witness at a christening), which was dated February 4th 1595, in Kendal, Westmorland, 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.

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