This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Yarnton, north west of Oxford in Oxfordshire, or from some minor or unrecorded place, perhaps a lost village, believed to have been situated in Warwickshire. Yarnton, variously recorded as "aet Erdintune" in Saxon documents, dated 1005, as "Hardington" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Erdington" in 1236, is believed to be so called either from the Olde English pre 7th Century "earding", dwelling place, manor (from "eardian", to dwell), with "tun", enclosure, settlement, or from the Olde English male given name "Eanred", plus "tun" (as above). Locational surnames were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants who left their place of origin to live and work in another area, and were best identified by their former village name. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently produced several variations on the original spelling of the name, which, in the modern idiom, is found as Yarnton, Yarrington, Yarranton, Yer(r)ington and Yern(e)ton. On November 9th 1584, Elionor Yerneton and William Potter were married in Banbury, Oxfordshire, and on June 13th 1597, Sara, daughter of John Yerrington, was christened at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is a black shield with two silver chevrons, and a tun between two azure skeins of yarn on a gold chief. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Yernton, which was dated August 15th 1563, marriage to Joan Bane, at Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire, 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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