Sorry, I missed this one and dont think anyone else answered. I will have to be a bit vague as I dont know enough to make a precise definition. Heritors are the influential members of the parish. They made certain decisions but also paid out for some community expenditures. I am not sure how you qualified to be a heritor but I imagine it was on the value of your heritable property - after all who would volunteer to pay a share of eg the dominies salary unless you had to? In the case of a burgh, there would be an overlap between the heritors and the burgh council members ie they would be the great and the good, dine in each others houses, marry each others daughters and subscribe to the same charitable causes. The same group of men would be elders of the clerk and members of any committee going. In the mid to late 19thc there were quite a few of these. I dont know whether women could be heritors or whether executors of an estate could hold the position. I suspect the answer is a) no and b) yes, but I am willing to be corrected. I believe though that women property owners were allowed to vote in the election of school boards when they came in following the education act. In order to see if there are records your first stop is the local archives office and your second is the Scottish National Archive in Edinburgh. Hope this helps Judy ---------- >From: "Jeffery K. Davidson" <jdavidson@rathandcompany.com> >To: DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [D-G LIST] School master records? Hightae, Lochmaben >Date: 03, Thu Jun, 2004, 8:45 pm > > What are "heritors"?