Eaton Socon
Major Settlement in the Parish of Eaton Socon
Historical Forms
- Etone 1086 DB 1199 Ch 1253 LS 1220
- Etone juxta St Neots c.1360 Linc
- Etton 1202,1227 Ass
- Eaton 1208 BM 1247 Ass
- Soka de Eton 1247 Ass
- Etton Beauchamp 1276 Ass
- Eytone 1428 FA
- Eaton cum Soca 1645 NQiii
Etymology
'River-farm' (v. ea , tun ). 'Eaton Socon, as its name implies, was a soke or liberty in the 13th cent., which was free of suit at the Hundred Court of Bedford' (VCH iii. 199). The distinctive epithet does not seem to have been applied until the 17th cent. when the form Socon (rather than soke ), from OE sōcn , ultimately came to be adopted. The Beauchamp family held a manor in Eaton.