This interesting surname, with variant spellings Dumbleton, Dumblton, Dunbleton, Duinbleton, Dumpleton etc., is of English locational origin from a place in Gloucestershire called Dumbleton. Recorded variously as Dumbeltuna in Anglo-Saxon Charters, dated 930, as Dubentone in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Dumbentone in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Dumbelton in the Curia Regis Rolls of Gloucestershire, dated 1206, the place is believed to be so called from the Welsh "du" or "dwn", black or dark, plus "moel", bare hill, and the Old English "tun", a settlement. However, the last element may also be the Old English "ta", toe. Dumbleton Hill juts out from Alderton Hill and on the map looks rather like a big toe. The surname dates back to the late 14th Century, (See below). One, Thomas de Dumbilton was noted in the "Hundred Rolls of Buckinghamshire", dated 1274, and in 1332 John de Dumbleton was schoolman of Dumbleton, Gloucestershire, and fellor of Queen's College, Oxford, 1341. On January 2nd 1566 Susan Dumbleton, an infant, was christened in Batsford, and on October 16th 1690 the christening of John Dumbelton took place in Bourton on the Hill, Gloucestershire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Odo de Dumbleton, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Gloucestershire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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