Hollister Coat of Arms
The Hollisters of England, ancient, talented and wealthy as the family appears to have been, although they sometimes owned landed estates, never seem to have been a "family" in the English sense of the word. They are not mentioned in Burke's "Landed Gentry," or in Walford's "County Families"; and it is evident that they never took as prominent a position in England as they have in America. This may be attributed to the fact that the Emigrant himself was a man of unusual ability, and he and his immediate descendants intermarried with some of the best blood of New England.
The anonymous compiler of one of Hon. Gideon H. Hollister's manuscript accounts of the Stinchcombe Hollisters says that no mention of the Hollister arms is to be found in any book or manuscript in the British Museum. Later, however, he pictures (without stating where he found them) the arms of Trotman (argent, a cross gules between four roses of the second) impalinghe says "quartering"the Hollister arms. These arms, which have long been claimed by the Hollisters of America, are:
Sable, between a greyhound courant bendways and a dolphin, hauriant in base, argent, three roses gules; on a chief of the second, two slips of strawberry fructed proper.
Crest: and arm in armor, embowed between two sprigs of strawberry, as in the arms, and holding a branch of holly, proper. Motto: Fuimus, et sub Dco Erimus.
In a coat shown the writer by Hon. Gideon H. Hollister the armor is sable, but striped or; the greyhound is argent, as the dolphin, except the back, tail and fins, which are or. The crest rest on a wreath of gules and argent. See also the Cothren's "History of Ancient Woodbury."
Notes on Hollister:
About the name. The name refers to a man or family that has or lives by a holly tree.
Ethnicity: English
Other typical spellings: Holister, Holester, Hollester, Hollesster, Hollisster
Family traits and historical notes. Suspected ancestor, John Hollister found born in Wehtersfield ("watertown"), CT in 1699 with his father John the immigrant. John was 1st immigrant and believed Puritan arriving with the large Puritan immigration starting in the late 1620's. John the immigrant established farms outside the protected village areas and was one of the 1st if not the 1st to cross the CT river into known Indian country and establish a farm in the vicinity of where Glastonbury, CT was established. He had legendary skills of working with the Nayaugs in mutual cooperation of agriculture and later built a fort with them on Red Hill for defense against hostile tribes. Son John Hollister's house built around 1649 and later moved into Glastonbury is the oldest residence still standing in the burg. In 1907 a Harriman Motors facotry designed and built a bi-plane and a descendant, Carl Hollister is pictured piloting this early aviation project. Large Hollister concentration for over 300 yrs in Glastonbury, obviously an influential family there because of officials, businessmen, and the sheer number of names found recorded.
Suspected movement of our lineage from Glastonbury to Cattarangus Co., NY - Cuyahoga Co., OH (Jacksonville, FL), Twining, MI
