Above left, the All Saints Church in Market Weighton was founded in Saxon times, but no part of the present building is older than the Norman era. Above right, the All Saints Church in Wighton, Norfolk was built in 1450 to replace an older church that was held by the crown. That church was given to the Prior and Convent of Norwich by Henry II (1154-1189).
Well, you've had a lot of reading to do. If I had to boil all of these pages down to the key points that Wighton family members should know about their heritage, they would be as follows:
- Over 1,500 Wighton birth and marriage records appeared between 1500 and 1850 in the Lowlands of Scotland. The incomplete nature of the genealogical data suggest that 1,500 is a low estimate of the number of Wighton individuals in Scotland at the time.
- Our surname was written with many different spelling. There were 53 variants in Scotland alone. When you add the variants that appeared in England as well, there were over 70 different ways of spelling Wighton. Here's a list of all the variants that I found along with their locations and frequencies.
- The first Wighton to appear in Scotland's records was James Wigtoun who was resident of Dundee in 1492. Most of the very early Scottish Wightons (i.e., born before 1600) were found in Perth's records.
- From 1600 to 1725, the Wighton family's main population centers in Scotland were (in order): Dundee area, Alyth, Kinnaird, and Coupar Angus.
- From 1725 to 1850, the Wighton family's main population centers in Scotland were (in order): Dundee area, Cargill, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Errol, Kirkmichael, Kinnaird, and Kirriemuir.
- The Industrial Revolution had the effect of driving Wighton families away from the agricultural towns of Perthshire and Angus where most of them (we assume) made their living. Some moved to the major cities such as Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh; some tried to find farm land that they could afford to rent, but this was a temporary solution only; and, some emigrated to North America and Australia. However, the overwhelming majority of Wightons continued to live in a relatively small area bounded by Perth in the south-west, Kirkmichael in the north-west, Kirriemuir in the north-east, and Dundee in the south-east.
- Prior to this study, the B.C. members of the Meigle line of Wightons had only one theory on the origin of our family name, namely: We had come from the village of Norfolk in England after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and settled in Meigle as part of England's process of pacifying the Scots. Since this study has revealed that Wightons lived in Scotland for over a hundred year before that date, that theory has been discounted.
- The ton ending to our name strongly suggests that our surname originated as a place name. The Anglo-Saxon word tun is a common component in English place names and it has come to represent the word for town. (Originally it meant settlement or enclosure.) The word Wighton is not a name that one would normally find in Pictish or Gaelic Scotland. The conclusion therefore is that our surname is Anglo-Saxon in origin.
- The Anglo-Saxon origination of our name, plus the fact that there were few places in Scotland where Anglo-Saxon place names could be attributed, suggests very strongly that the Wighton surname originated in England.
- The most likely period during which English families might emigrate to Scotland was during the Anglo-Norman period when a large influx of Norman nobles, their retinue, and commoners (e.g., craftsmen, merchants) moved to Scotland to take advantage of that country's economic growth. That period of emigration was from 1094 to 1296. There is documented evidence that common people in Northumbria and Yorkshire were part of that movement. Families from as far south as Norfolk were also involved.
- Market Weighton in Yorkshire and Wighton in Norfolk were identified as likely candidates for the Congratulations! You're the winner of the Origin of the Wighton Surname contest. The names of both of these towns are reported to have originated from the Old English word wictun meaning farmstead, farm with a village, farm near a village or any of the other variations that are associated with a farm and an enclosure. That Anglo-Saxon name was also reported to be the origin of the Wighton surname. The names of both villages appeared as early as 1086 when they were listed in the Domesday Book. The earliest recorded person bearing a Wighton variant as a surname was Alan de Wihton, in 1195 who Reaney (1991) attributed to either the village of Wighton in Norfolk or to Market Weighton in Yorkshire.
- There is a high level of congruency between the variant names found for the Wighton surname in Scotland, in Wighton (Norfolk), and in Market Weighton (Yorkshire). Virtually all of the 70+ variants found for these three names can be placed on a phonetic continuum between the Anglo-Saxon source name Wictun and the current pronunciation of our surname.
- Market Weighton was once known as Wighton during an interval spanning some 400 years. Both Wighton (Norfolk) and Market Weighton (Yorkshire) are close to the sea, thus affording sea travel to distant Scotland, as opposed to a lengthy overland trip.
- There is one reason to believe that Market Weighton is more likely to have been our origin than Wighton in Norfolk. Emigration to Scotland would have been easier from Yorkshire than it was from Norfolk - the distance being much less. Moreover, historical records document a large outflow of commoners from Yorkshire. Emigration from Norfolk may have been limited to the retinue of noble families.
One final note: While I have managed to point to two towns that could have been the origin of Wightons emigrating to Scotland and then producing the families that would become the Scottish Wightons, a caveat must be made. With our surname originating as a place name, we cannot meet and great other Wighton men and women with a great hug and a hearty handshake - Helloooo Cousin! It's very likely that you'll have no genetic connection whatsoever to the person standing across from you. That's because, the Wightons who travelled from England to Scotland in the 12th and 13th centuries were probably neighbours, not kin. At the time of the emigration, the adoption of surnames among commoners was inconsistent. They might be known as John of Wighton, for example, but that meant only John from the Village of Wighton. Hereditary surnames would become adopted in time. But, if there were 20 different village families from Wighton who emigrated (for example), that would mean that there were probably twenty different genetic strains to the Wighton surname in Scotland. Thus, while we have found reference to our home town as far back as 1086, and although we have found a person with an earlier version of our surname as far back as 1195, in terms of genetic ancestry, the Meigle line of Wightons can trace its origins back only to John Wighton and Helen Mill who married in 1734.
The End
Contact Information: I'm reluctant to provide a mail-to button because those can be used by spammers. However, if you'd wish to comment on this site (e.g., comments, feedback, questions, corrections....), here's how to create my email address: david.wighton followed by @ and then followed by shaw.ca
© David Wighton, 2006
Sources
Reaney, P. H. (1991). A Dictionary of English Surnames. Victoria Public Library, 929.42 REA
You have just completed reading Essay #18, Summary of findings. Click a button below to read another essay about The Early Wightons. Or you can return to the website's home page, from where you'll be able to read information about The Meigle Wightons, the line of Wightons descending from John Wighton and Helen Mill who married in Meigle in 1734.