This name is of English locational origin from a place thus called in Northumberland. Recorded as Glentendon in the 1186 Pipe Rolls of that county and as Glantedon circa 1200, the name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "glente(n)", to look-out, plus "dun", a hill, hence "Look-out hill". The surname is first recorded in the mid 16th Century, (see below). It appears both as Glanton and Glenton in Northumbrian Church Registers from the late 16th Century. On May 16th 1580 Jane Glanton and James Jowsey were married in Berwick upon Tweed and on March 3rd 1697 John Glanton married a Margaret Glover in the above Parish. On April 13th 1865 Lizzie Lund Glenton, an infant was christened in St. Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Glenton married Alice Johnson, which was dated 1540 in St. Mary Woolnoth, London, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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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