Transcription from methylated CpG islands is strongly and heritably repressed.

It is often found in African males and their descendants and is heritably passed in lineage from father to son.

There were various grants of the office of Keeper of Holyroodhouse until 1646 when King Charles I conferred it heritably on the 1st Duke of Hamilton, whose descendants have retained it ever since.

Brink noticed that specific weakly expressed alleles of the red1 (r1) locus in maize, which encodes a transcription factor that confers red pigment to corn kernels, can heritably change specific strongly expressed alleles to a weaker expression state.

Thereafter the office was held by successive Dukes of Lennox (heritably from 1603) until resigned to the Crown ad perpetuam remanentiam by the Duke of Richmond and Lennox in 1703, since which time no Great Chamberlain has been appointed.

The town was created a Burgh of Barony in 1490 by James IV heritably for John and George Hume of Ayton, and the townsfolk were given the right to hold a market every Wednesday, and to hold a week-long annual fair between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.