[1] He was educated at Honiton Grammar School before joining the Royal Navy as a volunteer at age 15, on HMS Lynn ,commanded by Captain Robert Man.

[1] Heard was doubtful of his future in the Navy during peacetime, so in 1751, he began working as a merchant in Bilbao on the Bay of Biscay.

His stay in Bilbao was cut short after the start of the Seven Years' War in 1756, when tensions between Spain and Britain forced him to return to London in 1757.

Effingham helped Heard began his heraldic career as Bluemantle Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary in December 1759.

[2] Heard married Katherine Tyler, born in Boston to a family of English settlers, who was the widow of Captain David Ochterlony of Scotland.

She had four children; her oldest was Sir David Ochterlony, 1st Baronet, who rose to the rank of Major General in the East India Company.

Crest: A demi-goat proper, horns, hooves and tufts or with a crown or about its neck with the motto:Toujours fidèle ("Always faithful").

His arms portray his near-death experience at sea,[7] as does his motto, Naufragus in portum ("Shipwreck brought me into port").

Beside him place the God of Wit, Before him Beauty's rosiest girls, Apollo for a _star_ he'd quit, And Love's own sister for an Earl's.