This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the chaloner,' a manufacturer or seller of chalons, woollen stuffs, especially coverlets or blankets. 'In his owen chambre he made a bedde with shetes, and with chalons fair yspredde.': Chaucer, Reve's Tale. The term still remains in Yorkshire in the word shalloon (with which compare Willelmus Shalunhare, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire). In the York Pageant, 1415, the Chaloners and Fullers were allowed four torches each (History Ant. York). The will of William Askam, dated 1390, says, 'Item, Margaretae prenticiss Willielmi Askams do et lego a fedir bedd, audi matras, ii shetes, and a coverlet... . Item, Johannse Dagh, crisp volet and a chalon' (Test Ebor. i. 130, Surt. Soc). 'And that no chalon of ray, or other chalon, shall be made, if it be not of the ancient lawful assize, ordained by the good folks of the trade' (Ordinance of the Tapicers, Riley's London, 179). The chaloner is described as 'chalounmakyere' in a Winchester Ordinance (English Gilds). The origin of the word is simple. Like many another cloth stuff, it took its name from the town that had won celebrity by its manufacture. This was Chalons-sur-Marne, at the period in question one of the most prosperous centres of industry on the continent. How time obscures history may be seen in the fact that Mr. Lower (Patronymica Britannica) gives the origin as 'boatman' or 'fisherman' from the old French chalun, a boat, or chalon, a net. Mr. Toulmin Smith (Old Birmingham) records a John Phelyps, chalounere, in a charter of 1426, and styles him 'master of a ship,' and then sets to work to explain how a skipper could be found at work in the Midlands.

Jordan le Chaluner. Excerpta e Rotulis Finium in Turri Londinensi.

John le Chaloner. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Geoffrey le Chaloner, Essex, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Thomas le Chalunner, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Nicholas le Chalouner, Derbyshire, ibid.

Elilabetha Chaloner, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Ricardus Schaloner, coverht-wever, 1379: ibid.

Adam Chalonar, coverlid-uvfer, 1379: ibid.

The last two entries are very interesting, connecting as they do the name with the trade.Stolen from Fore bears

Thomas Spaldyng, chaloner, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1616-17. Thomas Jones and Ann Challener: Marriage Lic. (London).

1626. Robert Barnfield and Elizabeth Challiner: ibid.

1635. William Spranger and Catherine Chaloner: ibid.

A maker of chalons, i.e. coverlets for beds, so named from Chalons-sur-Mame in France, the town where they were first made or where the materials were procured. Robert Chalonar held a tenement in Linlithqw in 1472 and John Chalonare was a witness there in the same year (Sc. Ant., XVII, p. 117,118). The name of Janet Schalender in Edinburgh, 1647 (Edinb. Marr.), may be the same with intrusive d.

= Chal(l)oner, q.v.

Cole admits this name into his Dictionary as that of an ancient family. It means in old French either a boatman, from chalun, a boat; or a fisherman, from chalon, a kind of net. N. & Q., v. 592. It occurs in the H.R. in the forms of Le Chalouner, Le Chaluner, Le Chalunner.

Local. Derived from a town in France of the same name. This family derive their origin from Macloy Crum, of the line of chiefs in Wales, who resided several years in Challoner.

The name of Chaloner or Challiner in different forms has long characterised this part of England. It is now best represented in Cheshire and Staffordshire. Last century it was a common Derbyshire name, as, for instance, in Brimington (Glover's "Derbyshire.") In the 13th century, as Le Chalouner, Le Chaluner, and Le Chalunner, it occurred in Derbyshire, Shropshire, and Cambridgeshire (H. R.).