This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Norton,' i.e. the north town as distinct from the west town (v. Weston) or the south town (v. Sutton) The places so called are too many to mention. They may be found in almost every county in England. The Hundred Rolls (1273) teem with them.

R. de Northton, Norfolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Ralph de Norton, Yorkshire, ibid.

Baldwin de Norton, Norfolk, ibid.

Johannes de Norton, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Magota de Norton, 1379: ibid.

Hawisia de Norton, 1379: ibid.

The last three entries concern Norton in the parish of Campsall, near Doncaster. Another hamlet in the same parish is Sutton.

1578. Adam Norton, Staffordshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

(English) belonging to Norton = the North Farm, Estate, or Village [Anglo-Saxon Norþtún—norþ + tún]

An English name unfortunately substituted for O’Naghten, q.v

“North Town”. Common place name in England. See also Sinton.

(English) One who came from Norton (the homestead or village north of another), the name of several villages in England.

This family, now represented by Lord Grantley, claims a direct male descent from the great house of Conyers. Collins derives them from Adam de Conyers, who, being the son of the heiress of Norton, first assumed the name. This Adam was the great-grandfather of Sir John Norton, Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1507, and must consequently have lived in the earlier part of the fifteenth century. Now we find in Dugdale that 8 Richard I. - more than two hundred years before that - Roger, the son of Robert Conyers, had a trial “against Roger his Uncle for the Lands of his Father’s Inheritance in Haiton” (Hutton) “Norton, Grisebi, and Dakineshall in Com. Ebor.” This was the line of Hutton-Conyers, and, according to family tradition, the elder branch, as one of the heirs of the house of Sockburn, passed or sold his lands in Durham to his younger brother, and settled in Yorkshire (v. Surtees). Leland tells us that it had ended before his time in two co-heiresses, of whom one carried Norton-Conyers to the Northetons (Nortons), and the other Hutton-Conyers to the Mallorys (see Mallory). The name is a purely English one, and an evident interpolation.

The Gazetteer mentions between forty and fifty parishes, townships, &c., so called, and there are hundreds of farms and minor localities. The word means simply-the northern homestead or enclosure, and corresponds to Sutton, Easton, and Weston. The original name of Lord Grantley's family was Coigniers, until temp. Edw. II., when Roger C. married the heiress of Norton, of Norton, co. York, and their son took the maternal name.

Local. From Norton, a town in Yorkshire, England. The north—town.

Or Conyers. The elder branch of the family of Conyers, from Coignieres, Normandy, named from the barony of Norton, York, the chief English seat of the family. Robert de C. came to England 1066, and held from the see of Durham, 1086, Norton, Yorkshire (Domesd. 304 b). Roger, his son, had grants in Yorkshire from the see of Durham before 1126 (Surtees, iii. 244). He had also lands in Durham. Sir Robert Conyers of Norton was summoned by writ as a baron 1312. The representative of the younger line in Durham was created Lord Conyers 1509. From the Yorkshire line descended Sir Fletcher N., Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Grandey.

A frequent location name.