English
The surname Moreton can be of English, Scottish, Swedish. In England and Scotland it was a habitational name from any of the many places called 'Mor(e)ton', from Old English 'mor', marsh, fen, moor and 'tun', enclosure, settlement. A family could acquire a place name as a surname under three different circumstances: 1. the gentleman lived or worked in or near some topographical formation or landscape feature, either natural or artificial. 2. he formerly lived in a village and thus acquired the reputation of being from that place. 3. he owned or was lord of the village or manor designated. However, it is safe to say that in most cases a placename merely identifies the place where the original bearer of the name formerly resided; as is the case with the surname Moreton To the Swedes the name is a cognative of Martin; the personal name derived from the Latin 'Mars', the Roman god of fertility and war. The name dates back to the eleventh century were a Robert de Mortone isrecorded in historical archives. The surname Morton was established early in North America, George Morton ( 1585-1624 ), one of the Pilgrim Fathers, was born in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. An early settler of a different character was Thomas Morton, who settled near Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1625. He was an adventurer, probably trained as a lawyer, who came into conflict with the Puritan settlers over his trade in guns with the Indians and his raising of the maypole. John Morton ( 1724-77 ), one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independance, was born in Pennsylvannia, of Swedish descent. His grandfather, Morten Mortenson, had emigrated from Gothenburg in 1654. This name is the four-hundredth and seventeenth most common surname in America.