The Gunton One-Name study commenced in 1985. Like many one-name studies, it grew out of an attempt to trace my own ancestry. I was seeking the birth of my 3 x great-grandfather Malachi Gunton, without success and began to collect an increasing collection of Gunton entries. To date I have been unable to locate the baptism of Malachi.

I only study the Gunton name, without variants, unless there is a spelling variation in a particular census or parish record.

The Gunton surname is a locative one, i.e. it is derived from one or more place names. In the case of the Gunton name, there are two potential sources, one in Norfolk and one in Suffolk.

There are few Gunton’s who have espoused greatness. Some of the most well-known include:

• Simon Gunton (c. 1609 - 1676), Vicar of Peterborough Cathedral and author, History of Peterborough Cathedral
• Richard Thompson Gunton (1846 – 1921) Private Secretary to the Marquis of Salisbury
• Robert Patrick (Bob) Gunton, (1954 - ) is an American actor. He is known for playing strict, authoritarian characters, with his best known roles as Warden Samuel Norton in the 1994 prison film The Shawshank Redemption, Chief George Earle in 1993's Demolition Man, Dr. Walcott, the domineering dean of Virginia Medical School in Patch Adams, and President Juan Peron in the original Broadway production of Evita, for which he received a Tony Award nomination..
• William Mendham Gunton (1791-1880) President of the Bank of Washington
• George Gunton (1845–1919)influential figure in the labour movement of the United States around the turn of the 20th century and the editor of Gunton's Magazine

From the index of the 1881 census produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints, there were 693 Guntons recorded in that census. This gives a frequency of 0.0195% of the population.

According to an ONS database there are some 284 Guntons as of September 2002. This suggests that the Gunton name is growing less slowly than the population as a whole.

1881 Census

All of the Gunton Birth, Marriage and Death entries from the General Register Offices for England & Wales (since 1837) have been recorded together with all Gunton references from the England and Wales census from 1841 to 1911 (1901 for Scotland) and those from Ireland for 1901 and 1911.

The one-name study also included numerous entries from Parish Registers, from overseas (United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand)

My website can be found here

www.guntonfamily.com