Hi, John, and welcome to X Marks from the bottom end of Africa.
I have read that your surname comes in (at least) four different spellings [Eliot, Elliot, Eliott and Elliott].
One of the officers in my kilted regiment was an Elliott (his first name is Dale) whose family had lived in the Border region of the Eastern Cape for well over a century. He was a partner in a family business (a law firm that also did auctioneering) named Elliott Brothers (the original Elliott Brothers were, I think, his great-grandfather and great-granduncle).
He had two uncles who were partners in a town called Cathcart, while he was at the original branch, in Queenstown. When his younger brother joined him, it was the first time in the history of the family that there were two pairs of Elliott brothers in the firm.
Dale later left the family firm to become a full-time artist (painter). This had been a hobby when he was practising as a lawyer and auctioneeer, but such a successful one that his wife was able to run an art shop in Queenstown (quite a feat for a town that size).
For about two decades he had a studio in Knysna, where he hosted painting courses (his lawyer daughter discovered a hidden talent there), but he has now retired to Cape Town.
Regards,
Mike