| The origin of the Hiester (Heister) Family was the Silesian knight, Premis-Loros Hásterniz, who flourished about 1329, and held the office of Mayor, or Town Captain of the city of Swineford |
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Copied from records of the Hiester family by Mr. H. H. H. Richards of Reading Pennsylvania, submitted by Norman Hiester of West Milton Ohio. The origin of the Hiester Family was the Silesian knight, Premis-Loros Hásterniz,
who flourished about 1329, and held the office of Mayor, or Town Captain of the city of
Swineford. "A. D. 1480, the Patrician and Counsellor of Swineford, Adolphus Louis,
called 'der Hiester,' obtained from the Emperor Frederick, letters patent whereby he and
his posterity were authorized to use the coat-of-arms he had inherited from his ancestors,
to whom it was formely granted. with the faculty of transmitting the same as an hereditory
right and a privilege to all his descendants. The first part of this sketch is a translation.by German Von Wagner, July. 1843. When we bear in mind the fact that in the early days of heraldry it was customary for an attendant esquire to "blazen" or blow a horn, to attract the attention of the audience whilst the armorial bearings of the contestants in tournaments were proclaimed, and that hence, in Germany especially, it became the rule amongst the nobles to place their crest between two horns surmounting the helmet, we can readily see that the Arms of the American Hiester family are practically the same as those in Europe, which possibly are correct. The slight discrepancies in the American Arms are doubtless owing to the emigration of the family, and their subsequent separation from the fountain head. The two horns in the field of their escutcheon are unnecessary, not being a part of the armorial bearings. It is sufficient to have them as part of the crest. It may be probable that the eight-pointed "star" of the American Arms is a corruption of the original 'sun' in the European Arms. which it so closely resembles |