A seat or family seat is the principal residence

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 of a (usually aristocratic

Aristocracy (class)

The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

) family. The residence usually denotes the social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families took their dynasty

Dynasty

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...

 name from their family seat (Habsburg

Habsburg

The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

, Hohenzollern, and Windsor

House of Windsor

The House of Windsor is the royal house of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V by royal proclamation on the 17 July 1917, when he changed the name of his family from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor, due to the anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom...

), or named their family seat after their own dynasty name. The term family seat was first recorded in the 11th century Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 where it was listed as the word caput. The term continues to be used in the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 today. A clan seat refers to the seat of the chief

Scottish clan chief

The Scottish Gaelic word clann means children. In early times, and possibly even today, clan members believed themselves to descend from a common ancestor, the founder of the Scottish clan. From its perceived founder a clan takes its name. The clan chief is the representative of this founder, and...

 of a Scottish clan

Scottish clan

Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...

.

Examples

• English Nobility Family Seats
  English Nobility Family Seats
  This is an index of leading English titled Family Seats- Family Seats of English Peers :...
  
  

• Scottish Nobility Family Seats
  Scottish Nobility Family Seats
  This is an incomplete index of leading Scottish gentry family seats.- The Monarchy and Dukes :- The Marquesses :- The Earls :- The Viscounts :- The Lords of Parliament and Barons :- Baronets and non titled landowners :-External links:...
  
  

• Welsh Nobility Family Seats
  Welsh nobility family seats
  This is an incomplete list of Welsh titled gentry family seats....