When Joseph B. Whitton was born in 1839, in Montgomery, Virginia, United States, his father, Robert Ward Whitlow, was 30 and his mother, Esther Barnett, was 20. He lived in Montgomery, Montgomery, Virginia, United States in 1850 and Floyd, Virginia, United States in 1860.
Scottish: habitational name from Whitton in Morebattle (Roxburghshire). The placename is from Old English hwīt ‘white’ + tūn ‘farm, village’, as with many of the places in 2 below.
English: habitational name from any of the places called Whitton (Durham, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Northumberland, Shropshire, Suffolk) or Witton (Cheshire, Durham, Lancashire, Herefordshire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, North Yorkshire); or possibly from Wyton (Huntingdonshire, East Yorkshire); or possibly from Weeton, Market Weighton, or Little Weighton (East Yorkshire). The placenames do not all share the same etymology but most of their post-medieval spellings are interchangeable. Most of the placenames derive from the Old English personal name Hwīta or Old English hwīt ‘white’ + tūn ‘farmstead, estate’, though some, for example Witton in Warwickshire, derive from Old English wīc ‘dwelling, specialized farmstead’ + tūn, and some others, for example Witton in Norfolk, derive from Old English widu ‘wood’ + tūn. Whitton in Lincolnshire derives from the Old English personal name Hwīta (genitive Hwītan) or Old English hwīt (dative hwītan) + ēg ‘island’. Witton in Lancashire derives from the Old English personal Witta + Old English tūn.
English: in Devon, this surname is a variant of Whiddon .
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