Recorded as Franckton and Frankton, this is an English medieval locational surname. It originates from the village of Frankton, now apparently known as Welsh Frankton, near to the town of Ellesmere in Salop (Shropshire). The place name and hence the surname probably translates as 'The settlement (or village) of the Franks (French)' although we have not been able to obtain absolute proof of the origin. If this is correct it would suggest that the village was established by Frenchmen after the Norman Conquest of 1066. As to why it is now known as Welsh Frankton is again unproven, but probably referred to a village of Welsh speakers, the area being very close to the Welsh border. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names granted to people after they left their original village to move somewhere else, and to provide an easy identification of a stranger. Certainly the surname is well recorded in the surviving records of the city of London from the late Elizabethan period. A good example is that of Edward Frankton, whose daughter Catherine was christened at the church of St Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, on February 22nd 1600.

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