[Illustration] The pedigree is not regularly traced beyond Robert de
Hagreston, Lord of Hagreston in 1399, although a Robert de
Hagardeston occurs in 1312. It has been supposed that this family is
of Scotch extraction; but a fire which took place at Haggerston
Castle, the ancestral seat of this house, in the year 1618, and
another which happened in 1687, having destroyed the ancient
evidences, the early history is somewhat imperfect.
See Mackenzie's Northumberland, i. p. 328, note; Raine's North
Durham, p. 224; and Wotton's Baronetage, ii. 388.
ARMS.--_Azure, on a bend cotised argent three billets sable_. The
ancient arms of this venerable family, of which Raine writes, "few
families can boast of such a pedigree or of such a shield of arms,"
was a scaling ladder between two leaves, alluding to the coat of
Hazlerigg, an heiress of that house having married into the
Haggerston family. The arms were so borne in 1577, as appears by a
seal of that date: the scaling ladder was afterwards corrupted into
the bendlets and billets.
Present Representative, Sir John Haggerston, 9th Baronet.