Whiteway - Name

This is a locatioal name from Whiteway Barton in Devon. Whiteway is a compound of the Olde English pre 7th Century "huit" meaning "white and weg" - a track. ("Barton" translates as the big farm"). The name was originally given to one resident in this place or to a "dweller by the chalk road". The surname is first recorded towards the end of the 13th Century. Alternate spellings have included Whitewe (1327) - Sussex, and Whythaweye (1335) - Devon. In the modern idiom, the name has two spelling variations:- Whiteway and Whiteaway. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Wytleway. which was dated 1296, The Subsidy Rolls of Sussex. during the reign of King Edward I, The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.