This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called 'Bruton' in Somerset. The place is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Briwetone', and means 'the settlement on the River Brue', derived from an ancient British (pre-Roman) river name which is related to the Celtic (Welsh) river name 'bryw', meaning brisk, rigorous, with the Old English pre 7th Century 'tun', settlement, enclosure. Locational surnames were mostly acquired by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The Register of the University of Oxford for 1616 records one William Bruton, of Devonshire, and the marriage of John Bruton and mary Buckinghame was recorded at St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. on June 18th 1648. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Briweton (witness), which was dated 1271, The Somerset Assize Court Records, during the reign of King Henry 111, 'The Frenchman', 1216-1272. 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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