Historically it has been identified that the Heaton surname is geographical in origin, originate from the townships of Heaton in Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. The word Heaton is a derivation of the Olde English pre 7th century word 'heah', meaning high and 'tun', a settlement or farm, to give the translation of the dweller at the High Farm. 

Our Heaton line originates around the Lancashire / Yorkshire borders. Current research identifies the our line as descended from John de Heaton - a younger son - who was granted the Manor of Heton-under-Horwich in south Lancashire by the Baron of Manchester in 1309. This manor, which had been carved out of the former forest of Horwich, was a township in the parish of Deane near Bolton, Lancs. and together with the remnants of the Heton lands in Lonsdale formed the estate which the family were to hold for the next 260 years, and became the area in which their various descendants settled and multiplied up to the present time. 

It is 14 generations later that his 11 x great-granddaughter Mary Heaton who was the grandmother of Mary Hayes the wife of David Yates who emigrates to Australia in 1883.