This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places so called. Allerton in Lancashire, Chapel Allerton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and most of the others in West Yorkshire, are recorded as "Alretune" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and are so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "alra", genitive plural of "alor", alder, and "tun", enclosure, settlement. Allerton Maulever in West Yorkshire, entered as "Alureton" and "Alvertone" in the Domesday Book, and Chapel Allerton in Somerset ("Alwarditona" in Domesday) have as their component elements the Olde English personal name "Aelfweard", a compound of "aelf", elf, and "weard", guardian", and "tun" (as before). Locational surnames were chiefly given to the lord of the manor, and also as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Isaac Allerton (1586 - 1658) was one of the most influential of the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed on the "Mayflower" to the New World in 1620. His descendants included Samuel Allertun (1828 - 1914), one of the founders of modern Chicago. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Johannes de Allerton, which was dated 1379, in the "Poll Tax Returns Records of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Richard 11, known as "Richard of Bordeaux", 1377 - 1399. 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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