Hita Family Crest
Good afternoon, today I am posting the family crest of the last name Hita. Next Monday, if God allows it to me, I will post Molina family crest and on Tuesday the Sotelo family crest, as per Mr. Alfonso Orozco Molina’s request.
Castillian last name, of the village of Hita, in Guadalajara, this primitive house estate moved to La Rioja, Madrid, Extremadura, Cueca, Murcia and Andalusia. “Hito” or “hita” was the name of a stone (also known as mojón) often used to mark limits or directions on roads.
It seems that this lineage begins with don Juan de Benavides e Hita, natural of Mule, who participated in the conquest of Hita in the XI century. King Don Alfonso XI granted the castle and land inheriting the name. Its Arms: In gules field a castle of gold, silver bordure, with eight hitas of azure.
Translated by EJ Jr.
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I believe your information is a tad mistaken. I am a member of the family in question, and we have spent the last three generations resurrecting our history. I have personally examined many primary sources on the subject in multiple languages. The Hita family began with Fernando Garces de Hita in the 11th century. Fernando was a noble, and possibly the illegitimate son of Garcia Sanchez III, although this is historically unclear. You are correct that the land of Hita in Castille was granted for service to the king. The Hita’s also maintained a private militia that was apparently quite formidable. Fernando was killed in battle. His son Martin Fernandez de Hita took up the role of head of the family militia and was mentioned as a particularly fierce fighter in La Poema de Almeria, an epic poem recounting the Siege and Battle of Almeria during the Reconquista. Fernando’s other son, Pedro Fernandez de Hita (sometimes “de Castro”) was the founder of the religious military Order of Santiago.
The crest is correct, except the doors of the castle should be red, not black.
Hita:
The information I publish in this book is taken from Heraldry books. In regardse of your family name, I, recently found in book information that says that the founder of this lineage was Martín de Hita. The name Hita is a toponym, which means that was taken from the name of the place (location), and in these cases, is common to find lineages of the same name that have not relationship between the families, because more than one person could have taken the name of this place as a last name.
When I published the crest (about a year ago), I was not aware of a rule that states that in the Spanish crests, the golden castles must have their doors in blue, unless the description of the crest indicates any other color. For that reason, this crest should have the doors in blue.
If you have more precise information, and you wish me to add it to the crest published in this blog I would gladly do it.
Best regards,
Eduardo J. Farías
Thank you Senor Farias for your work in this matter.
The crest with the doors of blue is the crest of the region of Castille, and also used in the official crest of the spanish monarchy alongside the crest of Leon, as the two kingdoms merged to create the unifed Spanish crown. The Hita family predates this. To be honest though, I am not fully aware of the modern Spanish heraldric rules, and it is entirely possible (and indeed probable) that things have changed in the last 900 years since our family was founded.
As for the founder, here are some sources you might enjoy if you have some spare time or the access to them. Martin was indeed the first male son born under the Hita name, so if that makes him the official founder, then I am simply bending words here and I apologize. However, Fernando Garces de Hita was the first to take the name Hita. He was a Navarrese knight, and some claim the illegitmate son of the Navarrese king Garcia Sanchez III of Navarre, although this is just a rumor.
I’m sorry if I am posting information you already are aware of, but I post also for the sake of others who read this who do not know.
Here are some sources if you have time:
-Margarita Torres Sevilla-Quiñones de León (1999). Linajes nobiliarios en León y Castilla siglos IX-XIII ,
Consejería de Educación y Cultura de Castilla y León.
-La Poema de Almeria (1150), Lines 240-250
-Barton, Simon (1997). The Aristocracy in 12th Century Leon and Castile. Cambridge UP.
Dr. Barton has several books on the subject, but for the sake of brevity I’ll only post that one. Others can be found doing a bibliographic search.
In addition to those sources on the family, the town of Hita, Spain, which now uses a different crest from the one I described, has a description, and if I’m not mistaken, a picture of the original crest of the Hita family on their website here:
http://www.hita.info/
The original crest is also registered in the official heraldic register of Spain. To gain access to that, you have to file a request with the heraldic registar of the monarchy of Spain. We have records of a prior request some years ago by either my father or grandfather, however my father has those and he lives thousands of miles away and the records are not digitized.
As you said, when researching, it is difficult to precisely trace a family because multiple children and multiple unrelated families may have taken the name. In the case of Hita, there are three main instances of non-relatives having the Hita name. The first is the Hita family of Oita Prefecture Japan, where there is also a town by the name of Hita. The second and third examples are of Jewish families who took the name Hita in 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Hita had a very large Jewish merchant population, and it was common for Sephardic Diaspora to take the name of the place they were removed from as a sign of mourning, solidarity, and rememberance.
Jews who converted to Christianity and were allowed to stay in Spain (conversos or New Christians) were also known to take “non-Jewish” names as a sign of seperation from their past. Also, it was required by law.
However, in the case of my family, we have kept records showing our lineage the whole way back to Fernando. Of course, I have limited my information in this response only to academic sources that are either peer reviewed secondary sources or source language primary sources and therefore independantly verifiable to anyone with the proper time or motivation. Anything beyond that, is, of course, speculative, so as an academic myself I do not expect my “word” to be as sound as peer reviewed academic works and I will spare you my family records as sources since they are not at this time verifiable. A sad product of modernity, I’m afraid.
i want to know more info about my last name Hita
I want to no more a bout my last name Hita