Origins of the Campton Surname

The origins of the Campton surname are in the place name of a village in Bedfordshire, England. People on this website, though, herald from Warwickshire and Leicestershire, often with biblical first names. The earliest known ancestor Gabriel Campton (1680-1710) of Corley is an example of this. The members of the Campton family on this website span ten generations and over 300 years.

The Campton Surname

Campton is a habitational or local surname. It derives from the village of the same name in Bedfordshire, England which can be found in the Domesday Book. Many websites quote the following from the Dictionary of American Family Names:

Campton (221) English: habitational name from Campton in Bedfordshire, named in Old English as “settlement (Old English tun) by the Camel river” (a lost river-name of Celitc origin).

Hanks, 2003, p277

The Camel, or Chamble, river gives rise to the settlement name of Chambleton. Throughout history the name has had many different spellings and the Domesday book lists the village as Chambltone. Throughout history, there have been many village names recorded, but none which bear resemblance to the different spellings of the surnames so far discovered. These include Campden and Camptin for Gabriel (1680-1710), and Campter for Thomas (1707-1789). Of course, these variations may be the result of different interpretations of the handwriting found on various documents.

According to a comment left on the Seven Reflections website, the American Dictionary of Family Names states that the Campton surname means “one who came from Campton, crooked stream homestead, Bedfordshire, England”. This links closely with a definition, once given by an English teacher, who said that Campton meant “place by the crooked stream”. In Gaelic cam means ‘bent’ or ‘crooked’, and in Old English “ton” means settlement or enclosure.

Members of the Campton Family

Currently, a connection between the Campton people of this website and the Bedfordshire village has not been established. The earliest ancestor came from Corley in Warwickshire, with later generations moving to Leicestershire, to a village called Stoney Stanton, and then to Derbyshire. According to the Ancestry website, by 1891 Campton families were spread throughout England and Wales with high proportions living in Leicestershire and Warwickshire. Large numbers of Campton families were also living in London and Lancashire.

People with the Campton surname have emigrated to the United States of America and Australia, but none of these appear to be related to the people on this website.

References

Hanks, P., ed., (2003) Dictionary of American Family Names, Volume 1. New York: Oxford University Press.