Thomas, Sarah, & Tom HIGTON
William Thomas Richards HIGTON (1878-1939), his wife Sarah Ann (nee CHAPMAN, 1880-1952), and their son, Tom (1913-2001), photographed in their garden in Underwood, Nottinghamshire, circa 1916
Welcome!
HIGTON HERITAGE is a genealogical study of the surname HIGTON and its variants. It includes information on people who married in, notably from the CASTLEDINE, BROADLEY and TOOTHILL families, and also many other related families (to view their details, hover or click on the Surnames at the foot of this page).At its heart, it is the history of the HIGTON family who originated in Cromford and the area surrounding the nearby ancient town of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England, and has since spread across the world.
The earliest currently known evidence of the HIGTONs in Derbyshire is in a 1491 document, involving William HIGDEN of Cromford in a contract for smelting lead ore. It is unlikely that there would have been HIGDENs and HIGTONs at about the same time in such a tiny village so William is probably a HIGTON ancestor, and also an early example of a variant spelling of the name from a time when most people could not read or write.
The HIGTONs were practical people from labouring and mining stock, and were often illiterate until the 19th century, hence the name was written down (most often by clerics and lawyers) as it sounded, sometimes appearing as HICKTON, HICTON, HIGDEN, HIGDON, ICKTON, and even (inexplicably) HIGHTON.
The study has been in progress for nearly 40 years, commenced by John Stuart HIGTON and later joined by Nicholas Noel HIGTON (8th cousins, once removed) and has progressed from paper and microfilm, through floppy discs and CD-ROMs, to today's connected digital world. Other genealogical researchers following our families have added their insights, and their support is gratefully acknowledged.
This website has been created from data stored in a Brothers Keeper desktop genealogy program, and including information gathered by John from postal contacts 30+ years ago. It remains work in progress, and further details will be added to the study as they become available, and are verified against source documents. All information on living people, or those whose death has not been confirmed but would be under 100 years old if still alive, has been redacted on this website.
We hope you enjoy exploring this website, using the Search Boxes or Drop-down Menus in the top right corner of this home page.
You might also be interested in my Higton Heritage Facebook Group.
Note: Where a location contains a three-letter code such as DBY, this is a Chapman Code that refers to a county within the British Isles. Also, where a birth, marriage or death year is preceded by Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 this refers to the calendar quarter in which the event was Registered with the British General Register Office (e.g. Q1 is January - March).
Whilst a lot of care has gone into verifying the information, you will inevitably find some errors, omissions, or just differences of interpretation. If you would like to contribute to this study, please Contact Us. We would love to hear from you.
Edwin & Nora BROADLEY
Edwin BROADLEY Jnr. (1901-1949) and his wife Nora (nee LUPTON, 1902-1970) on their wedding day in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1922



 & LUPTON Nora (01801)-001.jpg)