This name is of English locational origin from a place in Staffordshire called Swynnerton situated three miles from Stone. Recorded as Sulvertone in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Swynforton in the 1272 Assize Court Rolls of that county, the name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century 'Swinford-Tun' meaning 'settlement ('tun') by the pig ford'. The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). One John de Swynnerton appears in the Derbyshire County Rolls in 1292. In 1534 Thomas Swinnerton, under the assumed name, John Roberts, published 'A mustre of scismatyke Bysshappes of Rome'. On August 5th 1567 Rogerus Swynnerton, an infant, was christened in Newcastle upon Tyme, and on September 2nd 1583 Jocasta Swinnerton and Thomas Burslem were married in Burslem, Staffordshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Swinnerton, which was dated 1272, 'The Hundred Rolls of Staffordshire', during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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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