This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Milton.' About thirty parishes of this name occur in Crockford, representing England alone. Smaller settlements bearing the same name must be common. The 'mill-town' would naturally be a frequent local sobriquet. compare Milford.

Alan de Miltone, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Hugh de Miltone, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Gregorius de Mutton, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Agnes de Multon, Norfolk ibid.

Thomas de Multon, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Isabella de Melton, 1379: ibid.

It is unnecessary to furnish modern instances.

(English) belonging to Milton = 1 the Mill Enclosure or Farmstead [Old English myl(e)n + tún] Milton, Kent, was Mylentn in A.D. 822.

2 the Middle Enclosure or Farmstead [Old English middel] Milton Abbas was formerly Middleton; and Great Milton, Oxon, occurs in Domesday Book as Midelton.

Common place name in England.

(English) One who came from Milton (middle homestead, or mill homestead), the name of many places in England.

See under Middleton. Twentyfour places called Milton are given in the English Gazetteer, and the Ordnance Survey shows many more in various counties.

Local. From the town of Milton, in Kent, England. The mill—town, from the Saxon miln, a mill, and ton; or the middle town.

From several English localities. Sometimes a contraction of Middleton, as in the case of the poet Milton. Professor Masson, in his Life of John Milton the poet, shows that John Milton his father, a scrivener in London 1603, was son of Richard M., of Stanton St. John, Oxfordshire, living 1577, son of Henry M., of the same place, who d. 1558. He also remarks that it has been found impossible to connect the name with any place called Milton in Oxford or Berks; and cites the statement of the poet, that he was born of ‘an honest and honourable stock,’ i.e. of a good family. The name of Milton was however only an abbreviation (of which we have many other examples, such as Milton Abbas, Dorset, formerly Middleton); and Middleton, Oxfordshire (the original of Milton), was the baronial estate of the Norman family of De Camville, whose arms, a double-headed spread eagle, were borne by the poet as his paternal coat, confirmed by Segar the herald, t. Charles I. He was therefore, on the evidence of name and arms, one of the De Camvilles. Camville or Campville was in the Cotentin, and t. William I. William de C. was a benefactor of the Church of Jumieges (Mon. Angl. ii. 978). Richard de C. his son, surnamed Puignant, had a grant of Middeltune and Godendune, Oxford, in barony. William de C., his brother, whose son occurs as Hugh Fitz-William, held Godintune from him 1086 (Domesd.). The Camvilles of Mil- ton appear continually in the subsequent records. Gerard de C., baron of Milton, had three sons: 1. Richard, whose d. and heir carried the barony to William Longespee, c. 1230. 2. Thomas, d. s. p. 3. Gerald, living 1205 (Hardy, Obl. et fin. 241). The latter was probably ancestor of the Miltons, of whom Roger de Milton was security for an M.P. for the adjacent county of Bedford 1318, while in 1322 Ralph de Milton occurs iu Oxfordshire (Parliamentary Writs). In 1340 John de Middleton or Milton was a juror in Oxfordshire (Nonar. Inq.). In 1428 John de Milton held Burnham, Bucks, and 1433 Roger de M. was returned as one of the gentry of Oxfordshire, and in 1437 was an assessor and collector of Parliamentary aids in that county. The family is said to have suffered during the Wars of the Roses. In 1526 Henry Middleton (Milton) was rector of Marden, Bucks, and 1534 John Middleton was sub-prior of Bicester, Oxfordshire. These ecclesiastics were probably uncles of Henry Milton of Stanton St. John, the poet’s great grandfather, and this connection accords with the fa­mily tradition that the poet’s ances­tors had been strong supporters of Popery, and that his father had been disinherited in consequence of his change of religious opinions.

(E), Mill town, sometimes; but at least three places now called Milton were styled by the Anglo-Saxons Middletun.

A location name in Devon, Dorset, Fife, Hampshire, Kent, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Westmorland., Yorkshire, etc.