Heriot Name Study

Location: Scotland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France
Surnames/tags: Heriot Herriott Harriot

Contents 1 How to Join 2 Goals 3 What You Can Do 4 Herriott Surname DNA Project 5 What Is Their Country of Origin 6 Task List 7 Successes 8 Resources

How to Join

Please contact the project leader Ray Harriot or post a comment at the foot of the page. If you have any questions, just ask. Thanks!

Goals

This is a One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about the surname Heriot and the variants of that name (Herriot, Herriott, Harriot, Harriott). The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect.

What You Can Do

1. Work cooperatively together with other Heriot profile managers to create the best Heriot tree possible.
2. Add the category for Heriot Name Study to profiles.
3. Search out original rather than derivative documentation and add sources to Heriot profiles.
4. Write comprehensive, well-sourced biographies.
5. Check for duplicates and request merges.
6. If you are a male with the Heriot surname or a variant and haven't already, please consider testing your yDNA through Family Tree DNA's Herriott Surname Project so that we can all have a better understanding of our heritage and possibly make new discoveries.

Herriott Surname DNA Project

The Herriott Heritage Association has managed the Herriott Surname Project in Family Tree DNA for several years in an attempt to find the family of their immigrant ancestor.

They have identified five distinct Heriot lines in Scotland and have been able to connect various people from around the world to a particular group. In some cases this enabled us to point them to the exact family.

If you are a male with the Heriot surname or a variant and haven't already, please consider testing your yDNA through Family Tree DNA's Herriott Surname Project. The Herriott Heritage Association will fund the effort if they believe the information will benefit their research (i.e. your research leads back to an area of interest). They will also help analyzing your results in respect to our previous testing. Please contact the project leader Ray Harriot for more information.

What Is Their Country of Origin

Most Heriot families with their variant spellings can trace their ancestry back to Scotland where they were observed as early as the 14th-15th century. The families were low-landers primarily inhabiting the Lothians in and around Edinburgh.

The primary land owners were the Heriots of Trabroun in East Lothian and the Heriots of Ramornie in Fife, both of which are supposedly connected. Other early Heriots were ecclesiastics or plied the trades such as goldsmith, merchant, baker, or maltman.

At various points the Heriots migrated and today there are large family contingents in the United States, England, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who can trace their ancestry back to Scotland.

Task List

1. Finding the parents of David Herriott who came to the colony of East Jersey from Scotland as a servant to Lord Neil Campbell in 1685 following the rebellion led by Archibald Campbell, Lord Neil's brother. See David Harriot/Herriott
2. Probably the most famous Heriot Scotsman was George Heriot, goldsmith and jeweler to King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England) who founded the Heriot School in Edinburgh after his death in 1624. He claimed to be descended from the Heriots of Trabroun, but the exact intersection has never been proved. Can we do it? See George Heriot.
3. Most all documented biographies of the above George Heriot indicate that he was born in Gladsmuir, Scotland and was on of 10 children of his father George Heriot, also a goldsmith. There is evidence that neither of these two conclusions (Gladsmuir and 10 children) are correct. Most likely his father had many more children. Can we identify them? See George Heriot.
4. George Buchanan, the famous Scotsman, states in his autobiography that his mother was Agnes Heriot, a descendant of the Heriots of Trabroun, but did not say how. Many online genealogies have made some unsourced guesses, that appear wrong. Can we find the connection? See Agnes Heriot.
5. Most all of the Heriot/Herriot/Herriott families in Scotland seem to have family lore tying them to the family of George Heriot. What can we do to prove or disprove the connections? How far back can we take these lines?

Successes

1. Identifying the Heriot Lairds of Trabroun from whom many prominent Scots claim to be descendants. Most people cite Ballingall's two works titled "Heriots of Trabroun" as the source for these Lairds, but these works are riddled with errors. Can we do a better job of identifying them? See John Heriot.
2. Identifying the great-grandfather of George Heriot, jeweler and goldsmith, as John Heriot.

Resources

1. The Herriott Heritage Association.[1]
2. Harriot, Ray; Beyond Trabroun: Heriot's of Scotland (1400-1700), 2012, Campfire Publishing Company.
3. Ballingall, George W.; Selections from Old Records with Notes Regarding the Heriots of Trabroun; Haddington, Scotland, 1894. (Caution: Though containing lots of good information, this book has numerous genealogical errors and inaccuracies.)
4. Reid, R. C.; The Heriots of Ramornie (from the XVth to the XVIIIth Century) with Notes and Reminiscences by Sir William Maitland-Heriot, Dumfries, 1931.
5. Woodruff, Caldwell; Heriots of Scotland and South Carolina, 1939, Linthicum, Maryland.