Broughton

The name Broughton is derived from the Saxon “Broc”, which means brook or broken land; and “Tun”, the dwelling or town.

In King Ethelred’s charter to the monastery of Shaftesbury, England, 1001 A.D., Elfwig’s boundaries at Broctun are mentioned. The Domesday Book of William the Conqueror, 1086 A.D., describes thirty-four manors of Broctun, variously latinized by the clerks of the records to: Brochthon, Brocton, Brotton, Broton, Brogton, and Broughton, perhaps according to the pronunciation peculiar to the localities where the manors where situated.

Later the spelling of Broughton (Braw’ton) seems to have generally been adopted. There are about twenty distinct parishes besides hamlets and different localities in England that bear the name. It is locally applied to a small parish in Canada, to an island in the Alatamaha River in Georgia, and also occurs in the states of South Carolina, Texas, and some of the New England States. The Broughton’s are now widespread throughout the United States, and the world.

With few exceptions, all the families that have borne the name in England are traced to the counties of Chester and Buckingham. (This is not exactly true since there are many locations called Broughton and so there are many origins. Those lucky enough to link themselves to the Broughton landed gentry of Chester and Buckingham can trace their family back to the year dot.)

In the County of Chester, the Broughton’s descend in the male line from Hugh de Vernon, baron of Shipbroke at the time of the Conquest, whose son, Richard de Vernon was father of Adam de Napton, county Warwick, whose issue assumed their local name from Broughton in Staffordshire.

In the county of Buckingham, at time of the Domesday survey, the principal manor of Broughton was held by Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, and cousin of the Conqueror. His sub-feudatory was his brother, Hugh de Bolebec, whose descendants – the Veres Earls of Oxford – continued to hold the manor of Broughton, admitting under them another sub-feudatory – supposedly to have been a junior branch of the same family – who took his name from the place before the year 1200.

The name Broughton continued prominent among the knights and sherrifs of England for three or four centuries.

The Broughton family motto reads as follows: SPES VITAE MELIERIS… “The hope for a better life”.

Broughton is a common name in England with several origins. The Lincolnshire, England, name comes from Old English beorg + tun, meaning "farmstead by a hill or mound". The mound in this case is near the west end of the village of Lincolnshire and may have been the site of the Roman station Pretorium from about 400 AD. Many Roman coins, bricks, tiles and other artifacts have been found in the area. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the name appears as Bertone.["A Dictionary of English Place-Names," A. D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1991]

Broughton's name may come from an Old English word meaning 'stronghold'. It is also likely to be derived from “berg” (a hill), and “ton” (a town), both Saxon words. It was referred to in 1196 as Brocton, which means 'settlement by the brook'.

The first recorded use this name was in the Domesday Book when the village of Broughton, England, was known as 'Brocton' and later in 1303 was recorded as 'Broghton' . The name is believed to be Old English in origin from the words 'bröc' and 'tûn' meaning 'Town by a stream'. Some historians believe that Broughton obtained its name from from a small Roman fort, sitting as it does on the line of the old Roman Road from Manchester to Lancaster, England. Traces of the first settlement can be found by the Blundel Brook in England.

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Broughton could refer to many settlements in the United Kingdom, including

• Broughton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
• Broughton, Scottish Borders
• Broughton, Cambridgeshire
• Broughton, Edinburgh
• Broughton, Flintshire
• Broughton, Greater Manchester
• Broughton, Hampshire
• Broughton, Kent
• Broughton, Lancashire
• Broughton, Lincolnshire
• Broughton, Malton, North Yorkshire
• Broughton, Milton Keynes
• Broughton, Northamptonshire
• Broughton, Orkney
• Broughton, Oxfordshire
• Broughton, Shropshire
• Broughton, Skipton, North Yorkshire
• Broughton, Vale of Glamorgan
• Broughton Astley, Leicestershire
• Broughton Bank, Cumbria
• Broughton Beck, Lancashire
• Broughton Burrows, Swansea
• Broughton Crossing, Buckinghamshire
• Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire
• Broughton Hackett, Worcestershire
• Broughton in Furness, Cumbria
• Broughton Mills, Cumbria
• Broughton Moor, Cumbria
• Broughton Poggs, Oxfordshire
• Great Broughton, Cumbria