This interesting name is of English locational origin from a place in Dorset thus called. Recorded variously as Gaveltone and Galtone in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Gawelton in the 1269, Charter Rolls of that county, the place was so named from the Old English pre 7th Century "gagol", bog myrtle or sweet gale, plus "tun", a settlement, or from the Old English "gafol-tun" i.e. settlement subjected to "gafol" or tax. The estate would therefore have been held by the payment of rent rather than by feudal gift. On October 6th 1566, Jane Galton, an infant, was christened in St. Margaret's, Lothbury, London, and on July 15th 1588, Alice Galton and Henrie Cobb were married in Almer, Dorset. Sir Douglas Strutt Galton (1822-1899), man of science and captain, royal engineers, became F.R.S., (1859) and K.C.B., (1887). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alice Galleton, (marriage to John Allen), which was dated August 7th 1559, in North Petherton, Somerset, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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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