This interesting surname is of English locational origin from a number of places e.g. Merton, in Devonshire, Norfolk and Oxfordshire, Marton in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, Shropshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire, Martin in Lancashire and Lincolnshire, etc. The placenames are recorded variously in the Domesday Book of 1086, as Martun, Mer(e)tone, Martone and Merretun, and all derive from the Old English pre 7th Century "mere" meaning a lake or pool plus "tun" an enclosure or settlement. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century, (see below). One, Thomas de Marton, is noted in the 1212 Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire, and William de Mertton appears in the 1249, Assize Court Rolls of Wiltshire. In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings including Merton, Mertin, Murton, Morten, etc.. On September 19th 1609, Anne Merton married Georg Holt, at St. Mildred Poultry with St. Mary Colechurch, London. Richard Merton married Mary Simons on June 15th 1684, at St. James Dukes Place, London. On September 16th 1759, Ann Theodosia, daughter of Luke and Susannah Merton, was christened at St. Peter Cornhill, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Mertuna, which was dated 1189, Liber Henrici de Soliaco, during the reign of King Richard 1, "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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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