The Origins of the Causton Name

Causton or Cawston is a location name, given to some one who came from Cawston. Early examples of the use of the name usually included de before the surname and this is consistent with it being a location name. Some early examples that I have found are:

• - Heroldus de Caustuna, who is listed in the Suffolk Doomsday book as a landowner. Note the Latin form of the name, often used in early documents for location names.
• - Peter de Causton, listed in the lay subsidy of 1327 as having taxable assets at Great and Little Leighs and Chateleigh in Essex.
• - John de Caustone, a burgess of Colchester, Essex in 1350

The de is not always used in early references and its use gradually died out. By 1350 its use was not common but I have seen a late example (William de Cawston or Caston, County Norfolk 1673).

The place name Cawston may have arisen from a combination of the old Scandinavian (Norse) personal name Kalfr meaning a calf and the old English tun, meaning an enclosure or settlement (1,2). Thus Cawston was a farmstead or village belonging to Kalfr. The name could thus have arisen from about the eighth or ninth century AD, the time of the Viking invasions. Another surname dictionary (3) gives the source as C(E)awe's estate but gives no further explanation.

I have found three locations in England with the name Cawston:

• A parish and village in North Norfolk. The village is four miles south west of Aylsham. This is the largest and most populous of the three Cawstons.
• A hamlet in the parish of Dunchurch. This is two miles south west of Rugby in North Warwickshire. It is listed in the Doomsday Book as Calveston.
• A township parish, part of Clunebury in South West Salop. This is six and a half miles south east of Bishops Castle.

It is therefore possible that families with the Cawston surname could have come from three quite widely separated locations in England. To see if I could find out the relative importance of three centres as a source of Caustons I studied the data in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) (4). Early occurrences of the Cau(w)ston surname in the IGI were separated into four time bands (5). The total number of Cau(w)ston events, which are mostly pre 1850, found in the IGI listing was 1,112. The numbers of early events were as follows:

• Pre 1560 - 23 events
• Pre 1575 - 68 events
• Pre 1600 - 122 events

The number of events in each county were counted and are shown in the next table:

* The counties in Scotland were not separated ** One event each in Cumberland, Derbyshire, Devon, Cheshire, Hampshire, Isle of Man, Warwickshire, Westmoreland.

I have attempted to eliminate duplications but do not attach too much significance to the numbers. The exact numbers are not the point of this study. There are at least two problems with this analysis. The coverage of the IGI is patchy (probably at its worst in Essex with only about 20% coverage at present) and there are many gaps in the early parish records. Individual researchers can undoubtedly add early occurrences of the name from their own data and such feedback would be useful.

In spite of these problems the data in the table shows quite clearly the concentration of the Cau(w)ston surname in the eastern counties and supports the Cawston in Norfolk as being the main source for the surname. The distribution across the eastern counties also supports the possibility of early migration of Cawstons down to London, and thence into surrounding counties. The low numbers of Cawstons in Norfolk and the early presence of Cawstons in Yorkshire are interesting aspects for which I have at present no explanation.

John Causton October 1, 1997

References

(1). Dictionary of Surnames by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges

(2). Dictionary of English Place Names by A D Mills

(3). Surnames of the UK by Harrison.

(4). International Genealogical Index (1994 with 1995 addendum on CD rom)

(5). Article by Geoffrey M Hodgson in Family Tree Magazine Vol. 13 No 4 page 55 (February 1997)

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