This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Beatrice,' from nick. Bete and diminutive Bet-on. It is found till recent days in Cornwall, that last home of decayed forms of English fontnames. But its origin does not appear to have been known Beton the Brewestere.

Bade him good morrow.'

Piers Plowman, Pass. V. 'Bete, or Betune, propyr name, Beatrix': Promptorium Parvulorum.

Johannes Beton, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Beton de Wath: ibid.

Beton, servant of Robert, fil. Ade, 1379: ibid.

Betin de Friscobald. Issues of the Exchequer.

John Betyn. Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire.

John Betun, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Beaten, d. of John Hoswell, 1637: Reg. St. Columb Major.

Beaten, d. of Ricliard Comishe, 1630: ibid.

Beaten, d. of Thomas Bayley, 1629: ibid.

Two learned families named Macbeth and Beaton or Bethune practised medicine in the Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their names in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became merged in English in the one surname of Beaton. The Macbeths practised in Islay and Mull, and the Beatons in Skye. The first of the Islay family on record is Fercos Macbetha, who witnessed and probably wrote the Gaelic charter of 1408. The family for the next two centuries were official physicians to the Chiefs of Macdonald, from whom they held lands. Gilchristus M'Veig, surrigicus or surgeon in Islay is in record. Fergus M'Baithe in 1609 received from James VI certain lands in Islay in his official capacity as "principalis medici intra bordas Insularum," chief physician within the bounds of the Isles. His son, John Macbeath, succeeds in 1628 to the lands, but gave them over to the Thane of Cawdor in following year. The words "Leabar Giolla Colaim Meigbethadh" (book of Malcolm Macbeth) axe written on one of the Gaelic manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland, glossed in the same hand "Liber Malcolml Betune" (Mackinnon, Catalogue of Caelic manuscripts, 1912, p. 6, 7). The Mull Beatons or Betons were hereditary physicians to the Macleans of Dowart. In 1572 Hector MacLaine of Dowart granted a charter to Andrew MacDonil Vikinollif (i.e. son of the doctor) and his heirs of the peuyland of Piencross and Brolas for his skill in the medical art. Martin (p. 254) says that Dr. Beaton was sitting on the upper deck of the "Florida" of the Spanish Armada when it blew up in Tobermory Bay in 1588 and he was thrown a good way off, but lived several years after. Another of the Mull family was Fergus M'Veagh in Pennycross whose medical MS. is now in the library of Edinburgh University. A branch of the family early settled in the Fraser country, and in 1589 it is recorded that they had possessed a davach in Glenconvinth "time out of mind." In 1558, one of them, James Betoun, attended Lord Lovat. He was known "as Tolly-Mullach-An t-Ollamh Muileach, the Mull doctor showing that he was of the noted physicians of that island. The race declined in the Aird, and before the end of the sixteenth century one of them, John M'Klich-John son of the Doctor who kept Lord Lovat's flocks, got into trouble by helping himself to his master's muttons, and was saved from punishment by his wit and skill in archery. By 1622 they probably ceased to practise the healing art (Wardlow, intro., p. XXXVII-XXXVIII). The Beatons of Skye "were real Beatons or Bethunes from Fife descended from the Lairds of Balfour. A grandson of the fifth laird, Dr. Peter Bethune, settled in Skye about the middle of the sixteenth century. His descendants were numerous, and intermarried with the best families in Skye and the Isles. They are still strong in Skye. The Gaelic of the name is Peutan or Beutan" (Macbain, Celt. Mon., XVII, p. 208). The last of these hereditary physicians came to an end in 1763 in the person of Niel Beaton (Clan Donald, III, p. 128). Bittoune 1675.

(Anglo-French-Latin) = Beat(e (q.v.) + the French diminutive suff. -on.

Cp. Beton. (English) Dweller at the Bee-Yard or Apiary. [Old English beó + tún]

Corruption of Bethune in Northern France.

(Scottish, English) Descendant of little Bate, a pet form of Bartholomew (son of Talmai, furrow), or of Bete or Beat, pet forms of Beatrice and Beatrix (she who blesses).

This great Scottish name is a corruption of Bethune. On the occasion of the marriage between James II of Scotland and Mary of Gueldres in 1448, a member of the distinguished family of Bethune, coming into Scotland in the train of the princess, was solicited by James to remain at the Scottish court, where he married the heiress of the great house of Balfour. His name was corrupted by the Scots to Bethun, Beton, and Beaton. See L'Histoire Genealogique de la Maison de Bethune, par Andre du Chesne. Paris, 1639.

Or Bethune, from the house of B., Barons of Bethune in Artois, Advocates or Protectors of Arras. This family was descended from the Carlovingian Counts of Artois, and ranked amongst the most potent and illustrious houses in Europe. The great Duke of Sully was one of its descendants. The Advocates of Arras possessed a barony in England from the Conquest, and left numerous descendants here. From the line of St. Omer, a branch of the same house, descended the Bagots, and Staffords, Duke of Buckingham in England, and many branches bearing the names of St. Omer and Arras.

From the French, Bethune; a personal name.

Batten: derive from Bethune in Pas-de-Calais.