SPAUGHTON is a rarely encountered version of a name spelt in many ways but mostly as SPALTON, SPORTON or SPAWTON.
All variations are believed to be a corruption of SPALDING in Lincolnshire where in the 7th century there was the earliest fenland settlement of the Anglo Saxon SPALDAS tribe. This tribe moved west into East Mercia and also up into Yorkshire.
The counties where the more common variations of the name are mostly found are Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.
London was always a magnet for people from throughout the country and references to all the variations occur there from early dates also. Nearly all references of the SPAUGHTON spelling of the name occur in London or South East England .
I have extracted every SPAUGHTON entry at St Catherine’s House in the Registrar General’s index of births, marriages and deaths from its start in 1837 up to recent times. I have in fact been able to trace each entry into my family tree. This illustrates the rarity of the name.
All references in the IGI have been noted and extensive searches made in London parish registers and census records, in probate and administration records, and in telephone directories world-wide. Every opportunity is taken of looking for the name in any index I come across.
The name is on the register of the Guild of One Name Studies and has been listed many times in Genealogical Research Directories and is on the Roots Surname List. Feed back is however very rare.
I have a data base of all found SPAUGHTON references. I also have many references to the other spelling variations.
(This in fact is the only SPAUGHTON line found).
Earliest trace is of WILLIAM AND MARY who were living in St Mary Newington parish in what is now the London Borough of Southwark. Little is known of them but their children were all baptised in that parish from 1739 onwards.
The line continued through their son WILLIAM (1750/95) who was a painter and Freeman of the City of London.
The main next two generations JAMES (1786/--) and WILLIAM (1806/47) were predominantly tailors in Lambeth.
Next in my direct line was my great grandfather CHARLES HENRY GEORGE (1839/1889) who was a walking stick maker in Walworth.
All generations of my line up until more recent times have mostly lived in London or South Eastern England. One exception, not yet fully researched, was a WILLIAM who emigrated to Canada, apparently married there, and was recorded as working for the Canadian Pacific Railway at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, Manitoba in the 1890s.
Continuity has not been traced for some members of the family line and they also might have emigrated . A copy of my SPAUGHTON family history prepared in 1982 was given to the Society of Genealogists. So far, further findings since that date have not been sufficient to justify a rewrite.
Click to return to the MAIN PAGE