Scotland The origin of the Scottish surname is obscure, due to much of the genealogy of the
Eliott clan being burnt in the destruction of the castle at Stobs in 1712. The clan society usually accepts that the name originated from the town and river
Elliot in
Angus, Scotland. More likely sources claim that the Scottish surnames (Eliott, Elliot) originate from the Ellot Scottish border-clan, from a transformation of the name
Elwold. It is known that Ellot of Redheugh was living in the early 1400s. In 1426 John Elwalde of Teviotdale is recorded. In 1476, Robert Ellot of Redheugh appears as the tenth chief of the clan. Whatever their true origin, the Scottish Elliotts became notorious
border reivers – cattle thieves – in the Scottish-English border area and a thorn in the side of both governments. The Scottish name origin is discussed by Keith Elliot Hunter on the Elliot Clan website where he argues for a Breton origin to the name and the first chief being William d'Alyth. Under that name, the d'Alyths played a key role in the Scottish Wars of Independence. However, Mark Elliot presents a well-argued case that there is no connection between the
Elliot river and town with the clan and believes the origins are in the first name of Elwald, which appears in Northumberland in the eighth-century king, Elwald I. The name has
Anglo-Saxon origins and appears alongside Armstrong in Northumbrian records dating from 1165. The first chief is claimed to be Robert Elwold (1305–67), who came from York, but migrated to the area around
Hermitage Castle Robert Elwold of Redheuch is granted lands around Redheuch and Larriston in the 1484 Sasine deed Robert, 13th clan chief, who was killed at the
Battle of Flodden is recorded with the surname 'Elwold'. The original Anglo-Saxon surnames from Northumbria like Aelwold, Ellwald, Elaund, Elwaird, Elwods, Alwods, Elyards, Halwads seem to have mixed together eventually as Ellot. Sir Arthur and the Dowager Lady Eliott maintained that the family were originally known as Ellots. Lady Elliot in
The Elliots: The Story of a Border Clan says: "Around 1650 someone added an 'I' to our name to make it Elliot, which was without a doubt unfortunate as it confuses the clan with a well-known English Norman family called Eliot who settled in West England". That would exclude the idea that the Cornish Eliots set the clan up a few centuries earlier, but it is said that this was some means of expressing solidarity with
John Eliot, who was regularly imprisoned by Charles I until his death in 1632. A Thomas Elyot is recorded in West Lothian, dying in 1505.
France It has been argued by Keith Elliott Hunter that the origins of the St. Germans Eliot family were among the Bretons accompanying William the Conqueror. The Breton origin of Eliot and Elliot is indicated by these names being in significant clusters in Morbihan, southern Brittany. One variant in Scotland was Dalliot (or, more likely, d'Alliot) and a variation from the Breton original name Ellegouet, from which the Scots variant Elligott is derived, is to be found in clusters in
Finistère. Elot is also a Breton name variant. The name Eliot appears in Normandy in 1195 and a son of Anschar Elyot in 1198. Large surviving clusters of Eliots in
Seine Maritime (Normandy). today could be due to later grants of land. The Alliots, found in southern
Brittany and the
Loire-Atlantique, also had lands in
Aisne, north-east of Paris.
England Soon after victory at the
Battle of Hastings Elliots spread out all across England.
Southwest England and South Wales In 1069, the Breton Count Brien (
Brian of Brittany) of Penthievre (on the Quiberon peninsula in the Departement of
Morbihan), a member of the
Counts and dukes of Penthièvre, who was despatched to the West Country to deal with Anglo-Saxon rebels and included Elliots among his troops. It is unknown exactly when the Eliots settled in Devon, but it is estimated they prospered there for 8 to 10 generations before moving to Cornwall, where they are thought to be the origin of the
Eliot family of Cornwall at Port Eliot/St. Germans. The family claims descent from a Norman knight, Sir William de Aliot. The earliest record is of a William Elyot, who appears in the Somerset Assizes rolls in 1257 and Walter Elyot in Devon in 1433. Other Eliots were sent later to
Monmouthshire in South Wales
Northern England It is possible that Elliots were among the Bretons, who settled in Yorkshire as vassals of the 12th century Earl of Richmond, Alan of Penthièvre, also a member of the family of the
Counts and dukes of Penthièvre East England It appears that another part of the family went to
Cambridgeshire. The first record of the name relates to Henry Elyot at the Priory of St Mary and St. Radegund in Cambridge in about 1180. An Elyat (or Elyot) is in Bury St. Edmunds in 1188. By 1220, Elyot is well-established in Cambridge in Great St Andrew's Parish where a William Elyot is listed. Another William Eliot appears in about 1270 in the same parish. Elyot ad Cap' Ville is listed in Cambridgeshire in 1273.) The surname spreads into East Anglia by the early 14th century. Thomas Elyott is recorded as the rector of Dickleburgh, Norfolk, in 1393. The first reference to the surname in Essex is RICHARDI Elyotte in 1433, who may be the RYC Elyett, who signed an indenture in about 1400. The first record of the surname reaching London is early in the 14th century. Johanne Eliot appears in the 1319 Portsoken (near Aldgate) Subsidy Roll of 1319 with a reference to him being found in 1311 under John Elyot. In the Museum of London is "a bronze jug with three feet and three bands of lettering around the neck and body. The neck is straight with a pointed spout. The body is fat and bulbous. Dated c.1400, this fine bronze jug is inscribed: "+THOMAS:E[L]YOT/ +HI RECOMAND ME TO EU/ +WYLLEAM:ELYOT" ". William Elyot of
Cheshunt (north of London) received land at
Kingston upon Thames (south-west London) in 1343: Grant by John, son of John Donnyng of Kyngeston, to William Elyot, of Chestehunte, of a grange and land in Kyngeston. Thursday, the feast of St. Edmund the King. 17 Edward III."
Southern England Possibly from a later family arriving from northern France, the surname first appears in
Sussex in the 14th century as Godefro Elyot at Thakham and William Elyot in Grinstead are listed in the Subsidy Rolls of 1327 & 1332. A Stephen Elyot is recorded in September 1364 as a "vintner of Rye" in east Sussex and later became its MP in 1377. William Elyot was Constable of Horsham in 1401 and his grandson, Thomas Elyot (1420–1467), a filacer (issuer of the Royal Writs), is buried at Wonersh church in
Surrey, not far north of Horsham. It is from him that the Elliots of Godalming descend, with their arms being Azure with a fess or (blue with a gold strip across the centre). The Surrey Elyots changed to Eliott in about 1500 and then changed to Elliott during the 1700s (see Elliott v Davenport 1705, a legal case concerning wills, brought by the main family) and settled on it by the end of the 18th century. It is not made easier by a member of the
clan Eliott Stobs branch of the family,
George Augustus Eliott, (1717–1790), the defender of Gibraltar, being made 1st Baron Heathfield, which is in Sussex, although he died childless.
Northern Ireland Robert Bell in
The Book of Scots-Irish Family Names adds: "For double L and double T, / the Scots should look across the sea!" He pointed out that 71 of 76 births of children by that name in Ireland in 1890 spelt it "Elliott". Elliot(t)s emigrated or were sent to north Ireland in the early 17th century after the Border area was
pacified, following the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1603. Many settled in
county Fermanagh.
Portugal An English Eliot family came to
Portugal led by Gilbert Eliot, who accompanied the then 1st
Earl of Cambridge to aid King
Ferdinand I of Portugal during the
Fernandine Wars, during the
Third Fernandine War of 1381 and 1382. He married Guterres Fernandes, daughter of the nobleman Fernão Guterres Telo,
castillian, one of the twenty-eight, who were expelled from Portugal in compliance with the Peace of Santarém of 24 March 1373, between Portuguese King Ferdinand I and
Henry II. Gilbert Eliot established himself at Pernes in
Santarém, Portugal, and aged 28 years old, joined the army of King
John I of Portugal, whom he accompanied in the
Portuguese conquest of Ceuta on 21 August 1415, where he remained and served with a good reputation. He married Teresa de Vasconcelos, daughter of Joane Mendes de Vasconcelos, Lord of Alvarenga and of the Land of Parada< Their son, Octávio Eliot, was the father of Fernão Liote. Gilbert Eliot's great-great-great-great-grandson, Francisco Liote,
Knight of the
Order of Christ, was appointed Nobleman of the Royal Household,
General of the Province of the
Alentejo and Great
Captain by King
Philip III of Portugal. This not only gave Francisco Liote the rank of a nobleman, but for his service at
Tangier, he was granted new arms by a Letter of 22 July 1638. These arms refer to is killing a lion that had attacked him at the city. Francisco Liote married Isabel Álvares Banha, of whom he left children continuing this variation of the Elliot surname, usually written as Leote, although it changed over time to the
English form of Liote. The Liote name went from Pernes to Tangier and later returned to the
Iberian Peninsula, settling at the province of
Algarve,
Kingdom of the Algarve. The arms granted to Francisco Liote are: vert, an armed arm argent, moving from the left flank and with the hand carnation, holding by the ear a lion's head or, torn off and bloody. Crest: the arm and the head of the shield. The family also used the forms Liotte and Leotte.
DNA The Elliot Clan Society has an extensive list of DNA results which point to native Celtic origins for the clan. However, the three contributions from Sussex suggest both a native origin in the area and the unusual J
haplotype from southern Europe. There are also suggestions of French and Breton DNA from the Surrey Elliotts. ==Surname myths==