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The same family of Trotter bears arms that are recognised both by the Scots
and the English heralds. But the rules of inheritance and the arms themselves
are slightly different bewtween the two countries, so the inheritance has
devolved down different routes.
The Trotter family concerned are those who were first recorded as being of
Kettleshiel, Berwickshire. Quite how they got this smallholding is unknown.
However they seemed to increase in prosperity as the years went by and in
1803 the first matriculation of arms occurred in the Lyon Court for James
Trotter (1754-1833) of both Kettleshiel in Berwickshire and Horton in
Surrey. Just to confuse matters his younger brother John also matriculated
the same arms in the Lyon Court in the same year, though certainly he had a
different crest in the College of Arms' record; I wonder which brother was
first?
The list of heraldic events includes:
- Scots Lyon Court:
- 1803: Initial matriculation to James Trotter of Kettleshiel
- 1803: Same arms (yes!) to John Trotter of Shuddy Camps, Cambs
- 1825: Grant of quartered arms to Sir Coutts Trotter bt
- 1869: Grant of arms to William Brown (who changed his name to Trotter, below)
- 1906: Matriculation for Louisa Kathleen Trotter of Haldane.
- 1924: Matriculation for Archibald Abercrombie Trotter of Colinton
- 1958: Matriculation for Richard Durant Trotter of Brin
- English College of Arms
- 1803: Grant of unique crest to John Trotter of Shuddy Camps, Cambs
- 1868: Royal licence to William Brown to take the name and arms of
Trotter quartered with his arms of Brown
The relationship between these various Trotters is shown in
this outline pedigree.
The heirs male of the Trotters of Kettleshiel are in the branch of Archibald
Trotter who married Jean Mowbray.
What I have uncovered is that:
- The heir general of James Trotter of Kettleshiel is through the line
of his grand-daughter Elizabeth Mary Welbank who married William Brown
and both of whom changed their names by Royal Licence to Trotter in 1868
on inheriting the Horton estate in Surrey.
- The heir male of William Trotter, formerly Brown, is his great-
great-grandson William Trotter of Oregon, USA; he has a son James.
- William Trotter's, formerly Brown, heir general is myself, another
great-great-grandson, so that I am also heir general to James Trotter of
Kettleshiel.
To establish the last proposition and to register the descent and the
right to quarter William Trotter's, formerly Brown, arms, I have filed
a pedigree of William Trotter's descendants with the College of Arms.
Currently, July 2008, this is being reviewed within the College. For
all this, see:
Note that the PDF files contain some pages on their side so that the whole lot
can be sent to a printer and printed in portrait mode.
When the lacunae of this are uncovered and corrected, I shall see if I can
register the same pedigree with the Lyon Court. The significant feature is that,
probably with a change of name, I or a sibling can almost certainly claim to use
the undifferenced arms of both Trotter of Kettleshiel and Brown of Horton Manor.
See the accompanying Scottish account that I wrote
in 2006; it needs rewriting but I'm leaving it until the situation becomes
clearer.
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