Historical Arms--Augmentations.
[Illustration: (Badge of Pelham.)]
"In perpetuum per gloriam vivere intelliguntur."
_Justinian._
By Historical Arms I mean those coats which, upon the testimony either of
record or tradition, have been acquired by an act of the original bearer,
and which exhibit some trophy or circumstance connected therewith to the
eye of the spectator. AUGMENTATIONS are marks of honour, granted by the
sovereign, and _superadded_ to the paternal arms; and borne, for the most
part, upon a canton or inescocheon, sometimes upon a chief, fesse, or
quarter. This class of arms, the most interesting in the whole range of
heraldry, has been subdivided into eight kinds; viz. 1, Those derived from
acts of valour; 2, From acts of loyalty; 3, From royal and other
advantageous alliances; 4, From favour and services; 5, From situation; 6,
From profession, &c.; 7, From tenure and office; and 8, From memorable
circumstances and events.[198]
It may be almost unnecessary to observe, that many of the anecdotes about
to be related are of a very apocryphal description, referring to periods
antecedent to the introduction of armorial bearings. Some of these,
however, may be correct in the incidents though incorrect in point of
time; and doubtless, in many cases, the arms have been assumed in rather
modern times, to commemorate the exploits of ancestors of a much earlier
period; the highly-prized family tradition having been confided to the
safer custody of the emblazoned shield. At all events, I deliver them to
the reader as I find them set down in 'myne authoures,' and leave the
_onus probandi_ to the families whose honour is concerned in their
perpetuation.
First among these pictorial mementoes should be noticed the well-known
cognizance of the Prince of Wales, the Ostrich Feathers, the popular
origin of which is known to every schoolboy. Whether the King of Bohemia
fell by the trenchant blade of the Black Prince himself, or by that of
some knight or 'squier of lowe degree,' it would now be useless to
inquire; and whether the feathers and the mottoes, =Ich Dien= and
=Houmout=, signifying respectively in old German, 'I serve,' and 'A
haughty spirit,' had any relation to that event is altogether a matter of
dubiety. It has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols[199] that the King of
Bohemia used (not ostrich feathers, but) a pair of vulture's wings as a
crest. It further appears that the _badge_ of the Black Prince was _a
single feather_, while, on his tomb at Canterbury, the _three_ feathers
are represented singly upon a shield, the quill of each being attached to
a scroll, with the motto ICH . DIENE. The popular version of the story,
however, is somewhat supported by the fact that an ostrich, collared and
chained, with a nail in his beak, was a badge of the Bohemian monarchs;
and Mr. Nichols suggests that the feathers may probably have been adopted
by Edward as a trophy of his victory. Randle Holme deduces the three
ostrich feathers from a totally different source, and asserts that they
were the ensign of the princes of Wales during the independence of that
country, prior to the invasion of the English. After this event, (he adds)
the eldest sons of the kings of England, as princes of Wales, continued
the badge ensigned with a coronet, with the motto, 'Ich Dien,' I serve; to
express the sentiment that, although of paramount dignity in that country,
they still owed allegiance to the crown of England.[200] It is asserted by
other authorities that a single ostrich feather was borne as a badge by
Edward III, by all the brothers and descendants of the Black Prince, and
by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who was descended by the female line
from Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. In the Harl. MS. 304, we
are told that,
"=The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gold, is the King's.
The ostrich fether, pen and all sylver, is the Prince's.
The ostrich fether, gold, y{e} pen ermyne, is the Duk of Lancaster's.
The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gobone, is the Duk of Somersett's.="
Who has not heard of the '=Bear and ragged staff=' of the earls of
Warwick? This is a combination of two badges of that antient line, which
sprang, according to the family tradition, from Arthgal, one of the
knights of King Arthur's 'Round Table.' _Arth_ or _Narth_, in the British
language, is said to signify a bear; hence this ensign was adopted as a
rebus or play upon his name. Morvidus, another earl of the same family, a
man of wonderful valour, slew a giant with a young tree torn up by the
roots and hastily trimmed of its boughs. In memory of this exploit his
successors bore as their cognizance a silver staff in a shield of
sable.[201]
The supporters of the Scottish family of Hay, earls of Errol, are two
husbandmen, each carrying an ox-yoke. In the year 980, when the Danes
invaded this island, an engagement took place at Longcarty, near Perth, in
which Kenneth III was routed. An honest yeoman, yclept John de Luz, and
his two sons, were ploughing in a field hard by the scene of action.
Seeing their countrymen fly before the victorious enemy, these stalwart
ploughmen stopped them in a narrow pass with the gear of their ploughs,
and upbraiding them with cowardice induced them to stand the brunt of a
new attack. The Danes, astonished at this unexpected turn of affairs,
which they attributed to the arrival of fresh succours, wheeled about and
made a hasty retreat, and the Scots obtained a signal victory. Kenneth, to
reward the valour of his faithful subject, gave him as much land in the
district of Gowrie, as a falcon, flying from his fist, should measure out
before he perched. Hence the supporters and the crest (a falcon rising) of
this family. The earls of Kinnoul, a younger branch of the family, further
allude to the circumstance first mentioned in their motto, RENOVATE
ANIMOS, 'Rouse your courage,' or 'Rally.'
There are still existing indubitable evidences of a great conflict on the
spot referred to in this legend; and it may be admitted that the ancestors
of the family were concerned in it; but the above heraldric ensigns must
be considered to have been adopted as remembrances of long past events,
albeit their assumption may have taken place at a very early period.
[Illustration]
The family of Keith, earls Marischal, bear _Argent, on a chief or, three
pallets gules_, OR _gules, three pallets or_. These ensigns likewise
originated in an engagement between the Scots and the Danes. An ancestor
of the Keiths having greatly distinguished himself in a battle near
Dundee, in which Camus, the Danish general, was killed, the Scottish
monarch, Kenneth III, charmed with his valour, dipped his royal fingers in
the blood of the Dane and drew three stripes or pallets on the top of his
chieftain's shield. Hence the arms of Keith. As in the former instance,
this anecdote assumes the existence of armorial bearings, at too remote a
date, though, as in that case, there are evident vestigia of a great
battle at the place referred to. A stone called 'Camus's Cross' was
standing a few years since; and in the last century a large tomb, inclosed
with four huge stones, containing bones, conjectured to have been those of
the Northman, was discovered near the spot.[202]
_Bulstrode_, of Bulstrode, co. Bucks, bore, as a crest, _A bull's head,
erased gules, attired argent, between two wings of the same_. When William
the Conqueror subdued this kingdom he gave the estate of this family to
one of his own followers, and lent him a thousand men for the purpose of
taking possession, _vi et armis_. The rightful owner calling in the aid of
some neighbouring gentlemen, (among others, the ancestors of the Penns and
the Hampdens,) gallantly resisted the invader, intrenching himself with an
earthwork, which is still pointed out as evidence of the truth of the
story. It seems that the besieged party, wanting horses, mounted
themselves upon _bulls_, and, sallying out of their camp, so affrighted
the Normans that many of the latter were slain and the rest put to flight.
The king hearing of this strange affair, and not wishing to push matters
to an imprudent extent, sent for the valiant Saxon, with a promise of safe
conduct to and from his court. The Saxon paid the Conqueror a visit,
riding upon a _bull_, accompanied by his seven sons similarly mounted. The
result of the interview was that he was allowed to retain his estate. In
commemoration of these events, he assumed the crest above described,
together with the name of _Bullstrode_!! The whole narration exhibits
strong characteristics of that peculiar genus of history, known as 'Cock
and _Bull_ stories,' although it is probably quite as true as a distich
preserved in the family, that
"=When William conquered English ground,
Bulstrode had per annum, Three Hundred Pound.="[203]
Among those Welsh chieftains who gallantly defended their country from the
aggressions of the English, in the reign of Henry II, was Kadivor ap
Dynawal, who recaptured the castle of Cardigan, by scalade, from the Earl
of Clare. For this action he was enriched by Rhys, prince of South Wales,
with several estates, and permitted to bear, as coat armour, a castle,
three scaling-ladders, and a bloody spear. These arms were borne by
Kadivor's descendants, the Lloyds of Milfield, co. Cardigan, baronets,
till the extinction of the family in the last century.
Williams, of Penrhyn, co. Caernarvon, Bart., bore, among other charges,
_three human heads_, in commemoration of the exploit of Edwyfed Vychan,
the great ancestor of his house, who in an engagement with the followers
of Ranulph, earl of Chester, came off victorious, having killed three of
their chief commanders. This happened in the thirteenth century.[204]
The Vescis, Chetwodes, Knowleses, Tyntes, Villierses, and various other
families, bear crosses in their arms, traditionally derived from the
period of the Crusades.
Sir Ancel Gornay attended Richard I on his crusade, and was present at the
capture of Ascalon, where he took a Moorish king prisoner. From this
circumstance he adopted as his crest, 'A king of the Moors habited in a
robe, and crowned, kneeling, and surrendering with his dexter hand, his
sword, all proper.' This crest was continued by the Newtons, of Barr's
Court, co. Gloucester, one of whom married the heiress of the Gornays.
Among several other armorial ensigns dated from this same battle of
Ascalon is the crest of Darrell, which may be briefly described as, 'Out
of a ducal coronet a Saracen's head appropriately vested,' and which was
assumed by Sir Marmaduke Darrell, in commemoration of his having killed
the infidel King of Cyprus; also the arms and crest of Minshull, of
Cheshire, 'Azure, an estoile issuant out of a crescent, in base argent.'
_Crest_, 'An Eastern warrior, kneeling on one knee, habited gules, legs
and arms in mail proper; at his side a scymitar sable, hilted or; on his
head a turban with a crescent and feather argent, presenting, with his
sinister hand, a crescent of the last.' These bearings were assigned to
Michael de Minshull for his valour on that occasion, but the particular
nature of his exploits is not recorded.
The Bouchiers, earls of Essex, bore 'Argent, a cross engrailed gules,
between four water-bowgets sable. _Crest._ The bust of a Saracen king,
with a long cap and coronet, all proper.' All these bearings are
emblematical of the crusades; and the water-bowgets are a play upon the
name. "In the hall of the manor-house of Newton, in the parish of Little
Dunmowe, in Essex," says Weever,[205] "remaineth, in old painting, two
postures (figures;) the one for an ancestor of the Bouchiers, combatant
with another, being a Pagan king, for the truth of Christ, whom the said
Englishman overcame; and in memory thereof his descendants have ever since
borne the head of the said infidel, as also used the _surname of
Bouchier_," in conformity with an antient practice, by which, as
Saintfoix informs us, great heroes were honoured with the "_glorious
surname_" of BUTCHER![206]
The arms of Willoughby, Lords Willoughby of Eresby, were 'Sable, a cross
engrailed or,' and their _Crest_, 'A Saracen's head crowned fronte, all
proper.' The only account I have seen of the origin of these ensigns is
contained in the following lines, occurring in Dugdale's Baronage. A
Willoughby _loquitur_.
"Of myne old ancestors, by help of Goddes might,
(By reason of marriage and lineal descent,)
A Sarasyn king discomfit was in fighte,
Whose head my creste, shall ever be presente."
Sir Christopher Seton, ancestor of the Earls of Wintoun, at the battle of
Methven, in 1306, rescued King Robert Bruce from the English. For this
service Robert gave him his sister, the lady Christian, in marriage, and
the following augmentation to his paternal arms: 'Surtout, an inescocheon
per pale gules and azure; the first charged with a sword in pale proper,
hilted and pommelled, and _supporting a falling crown_ within a double
tressure all or; the second azure a star of twelve points argent, for
Wintoun.'
Robert Bruce desired that his heart might be carried to Jerusalem, and
there interred in holy ground. The office of conveying it thither devolved
upon his faithful and now sorrowing knight, Sir James Douglas, who was
unfortunately slain on his return by the infidels, in the year 1331. To
commemorate this service his descendants have ever since borne 'Argent, a
human heart royally crowned proper; on a chief azure, three mullets of the
first.' This stalwart soldier is said to have been engaged in fifty-seven
battles and rencontres with the English, and thirteen with the Saracens,
all in the space of twenty-four years. Certes, he must have been one of
the noblest 'butchers' of his time!
The family of Pelham (now represented by the Earl of Chichester) bear, as
a quartering, 'Gules, two demi-belts, paleways, the _buckles_ in chief
argent.' This augmentation was allowed to the family in the early part of
the seventeenth century; but they had previously, for many generations,
borne the Buckle as a badge. They also occasionally gave it as a crest,
together with a cage--both in commemoration of the capture of John, king
of France, at Poictiers, by Sir John de Pelham. The story is thus briefly
told by Collins:[207]
"Froysart gives an account, that with the king were taken beside his son
Philip, the Earl of Tankerville, Sir Jaques of Bourbon, the Earls of
Ponthieu and Eue, with divers other noblemen, who being chased to
Poictiers, the town shut their gates against them, not suffering any to
enter; so that divers were slain, and every Englishman had four, five, or
six prisoners; and the press being great to take the King, such as knew
him, cry'd, _Sir, yield, or you are dead_: Whereupon, as the chronicle
relates, he yielded himself to Sir Dennis Morbeck, a Knight of Artois, in
the English service, and being afterwards forc'd from him, more than ten
Knights and Esquires challeng'd the taking of the King. Among these Sir
Roger la Warr, and the before-mentioned John de Pelham, were most
concerned; and in memory of so signal an action, and the King surrendering
his sword to them, Sir Roger la Warr, Lord la Warr, had the crampet, or
chape of his sword, for a badge of that honour; and John de Pelham
(afterwards knighted) had the buckle of a belt as a mark of the same
honour, which was sometimes used by his descendants as a seal-manual, and
at others, the said buckles on each side a cage; being an emblem of the
captivity of the said King of France, and was therefore borne for a crest,
as in those times was customary. The buckles, &c. were likewise used by
his descendants, in their great seals, as is evident from several of them
appendant to old deeds."
It is somewhat remarkable that Froissart, Walsingham, Knyghton, and the
other early chroniclers, are silent as to the names of the King's captors;
and were the story unsupported by strong indirect evidence, their silence
would be almost fatal to its authenticity; but the occurrence of the
Buckle upon the stonework of many ecclesiastical buildings founded by Sir
John de Pelham himself and his immediate successors,[208] sufficiently
corroborates the undisputed family tradition.[209]
The chape or crampet of a sword (the ornament at the end of the scabbard
which prevents the point from protruding) is still borne as a badge by the
Earl de la Warr, a lineal descendant of the Sir Roger la Warr referred to
in the above extract.
The crest of the ancient family of De la Bere is 'a ducal coronet or,
therefrom issuant a plume of five ostrich feathers per pale argent and
azure.' This was conferred upon Sir Richard de la Bere, knight-banneret,
by Edward the Black Prince, in reward for his having rescued him from
imminent danger on the memorable field of Cressy. The ducal coronet is
emblematical of military command, and the feathers are an evident
derivation from the Prince's own badge. There is (or was at the beginning
of the present century) in an old house at Cheltenham, the property of his
lineal descendants, a painting supposed to be nearly contemporary with the
occurrence, which represents the Prince in the act of conferring this mark
of honour upon his faithful follower.[210]
[Illustration]
The crest of Dudley of Northamptonshire, Bart. was 'Out of a ducal coronet
or, a woman's bust: her hair dishevelled, bosom bare, a helmet on her head
with the stay or throat-latch down proper.' From a MS. in the possession
of this family, written by a monk about the close of the fourteenth
century, it appeared that the father of Agnes Hotot (who, in the year
1395, married an ancestor of the Dudleys,) having a quarrel with one
Ringsdale concerning the proprietorship of some land, they agreed to meet
on the 'debateable ground,' and decide their right by combat.
Unfortunately for Hotot, on the day appointed he was seriously ill; "but
his daughter Agnes, unwilling that he should lose his claim, or suffer in
his honour, armed herself cap-a-pie, and, mounting her father's steed,
repaired to the place of decision, where, after a stubborn encounter, she
dismounted Ringsdale, and when he was on the ground, she loosened the stay
of her helmet, let down her hair about her shoulders, and, disclosing her
bosom, discovered to him that he had been conquered by a woman." This
valiant lady became the heiress of her family, and married a Dudley,
whence the latter family derived their right to this crest.
Sir Richard Waller was at the battle of Agincourt, where he took prisoner
Charles, duke of Orleans, father of Charles XII (afterwards King of
France). This personage was brought to England by his captor, who held him
in 'honourable restraint' at his own mansion, at Groombridge, co. Kent,
during the long period of twenty-four years, at the termination of which
he paid 400,000 crowns for his ransom. In accordance with the chivalrous
spirit of that age, the captor and captive lived together on terms of the
strictest friendship. This appears from the fact that the Duke, at his own
expense, rebuilt for Sir Richard the family house at Groombridge. He was
also a benefactor "to his parish church of Speldhurst, where his arms
remain in stonework over the porch."[211] Previously to this event the
family arms had been the punning device of 'Sable, on a bend voided
argent, three _walnut_ leaves or,' and the crest, 'A _walnut_ tree fructed
proper.' To one of the lower boughs of this tree was now appended a
shield, charged with the arms of France--'Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or,
differenced with a label of three points;' an augmentation which continues
to be borne by the descendants of Sir Richard Waller to this day.
Burton of Salop, and Rivers of Kent, bear[212] white roses, commemorative
of the services rendered by their ancestors to the faction distinguished
by this badge, while the Lutterells of Somerset, bear, as a crest, the
white boar of Richard III, ensigned on the shoulder with the Lancastrian
red rose! The white and red roses in the arms of families, as partisans of
the two rival houses, would furnish matter for a whole chapter; but I must
pass on.
Augmentations have sometimes been made to the arms of English families by
foreign monarchs. Thus Sir Henry Guldeforde, knight, having rendered
assistance to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the reduction of
Granada, received from them the honour of knighthood, with permission to
add to his ancestral arms, 'On a canton Argent, the arms of Granada, viz.
a pomegranate, the shell open, grained gules, stalked and leaved proper.'
John Callard, esq. a retainer of the said Sir Henry, for his valour on the
same occasion, acquired the following coat: 'Gyronny of six pieces, or and
sable; on each division or, a Moor's head couped sable.' William Browne,
esq. called by Holinshed "a young and lusty gentleman," another follower
of Guldeforde, was honoured with an augmentation, viz. 'On a chief argent,
an eagle displayed sable,'--the arms of Sicily, which was then an adjunct
to the Spanish crown.
The Duke of Norfolk bears on his 'bend argent' 'an escocheon or, charged
with a demi-lion rampant within a double tressure, flory and
counter-flory; an arrow pierced through the lion's mouth all gules.' This
is an augmentation nearly resembling the arms of Scotland, and was granted
to the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, for his services
against the Scots at Flodden Field, in 1513. It will be recollected that
when the body of James IV was found after the battle, it was pierced with
several arrows, the cause of his death.
As a further memorial of this victory the Earl gave, as the badge of his
retainers, a white lion, one of the supporters of his house, trampling
upon the red lion of Scotland, and tearing it with his claws.
Several English families bear their arms upon the breast of an eagle with
two heads. This is the standard of the German empire, and it has been
granted to such families for military and other services. The Lord Arundel
of Wardour, in the reign of Elizabeth, received this distinguished mark of
honour by patent from the Emperor Rodolph II, for valorous conduct against
the Turks, whom, as the avowed enemies of Christianity, he opposed with
all the enthusiasm of a crusader of more antient times. He was at the same
time created a Count of the Empire, and, on returning to England, was
desirous of taking precedence according to his German title. But this step
was violently opposed by the peers, and the Queen, being asked her opinion
of his claim, answered, "that faithful subjects should keep their eyes at
home, and not gaze upon foreign crowns, and that she, for her part, did
not care her sheep should wear a stranger's mark, nor dance after the
whistle of every foreigner!"[213]
The Bowleses of Wiltshire, and the Smiths of Lincolnshire, received
appropriate arms about the same time for their services against the Turks,
under the same Emperor.[214]
The assumption of the arms of an enemy slain or captured in war, though
permitted by the heraldric canon of early times, seems not to have been
very usual in this country; yet instances are not wanting of arms so
acquired. In 1628, Sir David Kirke, knight, reduced Canada, then in the
power of the French, and took the admiral De la Roche prisoner. For this
service he received as an augmentation, 'A canton azure charged with a
talbot sejant, collared and leash reflexed argent, sustaining a faulchion
proper,' this being the coat of his captive.
Charles I rewarded many of his adherents with augmentations of arms--the
only recompense some of them ever received. The favourite marks of honour
were the crown, rose, and lion of England.
Sir Palmes Fairborne, knighted by Charles II for his defence of Tangier
against the Moors, had permission to bear as his crest, 'An arm in armour
couped at the elbow, lying on a wreath sustaining a sword; on the point
thereof a Turk's head, turbaned all proper.' The epitaph on this
commander, on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, was written by Dryden; and
had nothing more sublime proceeded from his pen, his name would be as
little known to posterity as that of the hero he celebrates.
"Alive and dead _these_ walls he will defend,
Great actions great examples must attend;
The Candian siege his early valour knew,
Where Turkish blood did his young hands imbrew;
From thence returning with deserved applause,
Against the Moors his _well-fleshed_ sword he draws," &c. &c.
Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the celebrated admiral, received, by the express
command of William III, a grant of arms blazoned thus: 'Gules a cheveron
ermine between two crescents in chief argent, and a fleur-de-lis in base
or,' to commemorate two great victories over the Turks and one over the
French. This is one of the most appropriate coats I remember to have seen.
It would be impossible (even were it desirable) within the limits I have
assigned myself, to notice all the arms and augmentations which have been
granted to heroes, naval and military, for services performed during the
last, and at the commencement of the present, century. A superabundance of
them will be found in the plates attached to the ordinary peerages, &c.
Suffice it to say, that in general they exhibit a most wretched taste in
the heralds who designed them, or rather, perhaps I should say, in the
personages who dictated to the heralds what ensigns would be most
agreeable to themselves. Figures never dreamed of in classical armory have
found their way into these bearings: landscapes and _words_ in great
staring letters across the shield, bombshells and bayonets, East Indians
and American Indians, sailors and soldiers, medals and outlandish banners,
_figures of Peace, and grenadiers of the 79th regiment_![215] Could
absurdity go farther?
[Illustration]
But, lest I should be thought unnecessarily severe upon the armorists of
the past age, I annex the arms of Sir Sidney Smith, a veteran who
certainly deserved _better things_ of his country. I shall not attempt to
blazon them, as I am sure my reader would not thank me for occupying a
page and a half of a chapter--already perhaps too long--with what would in
this case be _jargon_ indeed. Shades of Brooke, and Camden, and Guillim,
and Dugdale! what think ye of this?
II. The second class of Historical Arms is composed of those derived from
ACTS OF LOYALTY. The earliest coat of this kind mentioned by the author of
the volume before quoted, is that of Sir John Philpot, viz. 'Sable a bend
ermine,'--his paternal arms--impaling, 'Gules a cross between four swords
argent, hilts or'--an augmentation granted to Philpot for killing Wat
Tyler with his sword after Walworth, the mayor, had knocked him down with
his mace, in the presence of Richard II, in 1378.
Ramsay, earl of Holderness, temp. James VI, bore as an augmentation
impaling his paternal arms, 'Azure, a dexter hand holding a sword in pale,
argent, hilted or, piercing a human heart proper, and supporting on the
point an imperial crown of the last.' This was granted to Sir John Ramsay,
who was also rewarded with the title just mentioned, for having saved the
young monarch's life from assassination by Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, by
piercing the assassin to the heart. The story of this attempt upon the
'British Solomon' is too well known to the reader of Scottish history to
need copying in these pages. The whole narration, enshrouded in mystery,
is now almost universally discredited, and the affair regarded as a
pretended plot, to answer a political purpose. It is sufficient to say
that Gowrie and his father, Alexander Ruthven, fell victims to it, while
Ramsay was rewarded for his share in the transaction as above
stated.[216] Erskine, earl of Kelly, and Sir Hugh Harris, two other
individuals concerned in this plot, also received augmentations.[217]
The notorious Colonel Titus, temp. Charles II, was rewarded for his
services in the restoration of the king, with an augmentation, viz.
'quarterly with his paternal arms, Or, on a chief gules, a lion of
England.' 'Lions of England' were likewise assigned to the following
families for their loyalty to the Stuarts: Robinson of Cranford, Moore,
Lord Mayor of London, Lane of Staffordshire, &c. The crest of the
last-mentioned family is 'A demi-horse salient argent, spotted dark grey,
bridled proper, sustaining with his fore feet a regal crown or;' in
allusion to the circumstance of Charles's having been assisted in his
escape, after his defeat at Worcester, by a lady of this family, whose
servant the king personated by riding before her on horseback. In this
guise Charles arrived safely at Bristol, and at length, after many
hair-breadth escapes and a circuitous tour of the southern counties,
reached Brighthelmstone, whence he set sail for the continent.
The arms granted to the family of Penderell for concealing Charles II in
the oak at Boscobel, and otherwise assisting his escape, and those
assigned on the same occasion to Colonel Careless (or CARLOS, as it was
the king's humour afterwards to name him) were exactly _alike_ in charges,
though different in tincture.
CARLOS. 'Or, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse gules,
charged with three regal crowns proper.'
PENDERELL. 'Argent, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse sable,
charged with three regal crowns proper.'[218]
III. The third class of Historical Arms are those of ALLIANCE. I shall
content myself with an example or two. The arms[219] and dexter
supporter[220] of the Lyons, earls of Strathmore, evidently allude to a
connexion with the royal line of Scotland, and the crest of the family is,
'On a wreath vert and or, a _lady_ couped below the girdle, inclosed
within an arch of laurel, and holding in her right hand the royal thistle,
all proper.' Sir John Lyon, an ancestor of this house, having gained the
favour of King Robert II, that monarch gave him in marriage his daughter,
the lady Jane. To perpetuate so splendid and beneficial an alliance, his
descendants have ever since continued to represent this princess as their
crest.
The Seymours, dukes of Somerset, bore quarterly with their paternal arms,
the following: 'Or, on a pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure,
three lions of England,' an augmentation originally granted by Henry VIII
to Jane Seymour, his third wife. These ensigns, it will be seen, are a
composition from the royal arms.
IV. The fourth are derived from FAVOUR and SERVICES. The antient arms of
Compton, subsequently created earls of Northampton, were 'Sable, three
helmets argent.' For services rendered to Henry VIII, William Compton,
esq. received permission to place 'a lion of England' between the helmets.
Thomas Villiers, first Earl of Clarendon, bore, 'Argent, on a cross
gules, five escallops or [originally derived from the Crusade under Edward
I] a crescent for difference; and on an inescocheon argent, the eagle of
Prussia, viz. displayed sable, &c. &c., charged on the breast with F. B.
R. for Fredericus, Borussorum Rex.' This was an augmentation granted to
that nobleman by Frederick, king of Prussia, as a mark of the high value
he set upon certain diplomatic services in which he had been engaged. The
augmentation was ratified at the Heralds' office by the command of George
III.
The Earl of Liverpool, in addition to his paternal arms, bears 'on a chief
wavy argent, a cormorant sable, holding in his beak a branch of laver or
sea-weed vert.' This augmentation (being the arms of the town of
Liverpool) was made to the arms of Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of
Liverpool, at the unanimous request of the mayor and municipality of that
town, signified by their recorder.
V. A very interesting class of Allusive Arms is composed of those derived
from the SITUATION of the original residences of the respective families.
The following are instances:
Wallop, earl of Portsmouth, 'Argent, a bend wavy sable.' The name of
Wallop is local, and it was antiently written Welhop. Wallop, or Welhope,
is the name of two parishes in Hampshire, so denominated from a fountain
or _well_, springing from a _hope_ or hill in the vicinity, and giving
birth to a small river, which becomes tributary to the Tese. Here, in very
antient times, this family resided, and from the little river referred to
the surname was adopted, while the bend wavy in the arms alludes both to
the river and the name.
Stourton, Lord Stourton, 'Sable, a bend or, between six fountains proper.'
The river Stour rises at Stourton, co. Wilts, from six fountains or
springs. The family name is derived from the place, and the arms from this
circumstance. The bend may be regarded as the pale of Stourton park, as
three of the sources of the river are within that inclosure and three
beyond it.
Shuckburgh, a parish in Warwickshire, is remarkable for that kind of
fossil termed _astroit_, which resembles the mullet of heraldry. The
family who, in very antient times, derived their surname from the
locality, bear three mullets in their arms.[221]
The Swales of Swale-hall, co. York, bear 'Azure, a bend unde argent.' Some
consider this a representation of the river Swale, though Peter Le Neve
thinks it a rebus for the name of _Nunda_, whose heiress married a
Swale.[222]
Highmore of High-moor, co. Cumberland: 'Argent, a crossbow erect between
_four_ moor-cocks sable; their legs, beaks, and combs, gules.' This family
originated in the moors of that county, _unde nomen et arma_. The author
of 'Historical and Allusive Arms' says that they branched out into three
lines, called from the situation of their respective places of abode,
HIGHMORE, MIDDLEMORE, and LOWMORE. It is curious that the Middlemore
branch gave as arms the crossbow and _three_ moor-cocks; while the
Lowmores bore the crossbow and _two_ moor-cocks only. Had the family
ramified still further into '_Lowermore_,' it is probable that branch must
have rested content with a _single_ moor-cock, while the '_Lowestmores_,'
carrying out the same principle of gradation, could not have claimed even
a solitary bird, but must have made shift with their untrophied crossbow.
On the other hand, '_Highermore_' would have been entitled to _five_, and
'_Highestmore_' to _six_, head of game, in addition to the family weapon!
Hume, of Nine Wells, the family of the great historian, bore 'Vert, a lion
rampant argent within a bordure or, charged with _nine wells_ or springs
barry-wavy azure and argent,' "The estate of Nine Wells is so named from a
cluster of springs of that number. Their situation is picturesque; they
burst forth from a gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has on
each side a semicircular rising bank, covered with fine timber, and fall,
after a short course, into the bed of the river Whitewater, which forms a
boundary in the front. These springs, as descriptive of their property,
were assigned to the Humes of this place as a difference in arms from the
chief of their house."[223]
VI. Of arms alluding to the PROFESSION or pursuits of the original bearer,
I shall adduce but few instances, as they generally exhibit bad taste, and
a departure from heraldric purity; _e. g._ Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester
and Worcester, the champion and martyr of the Protestant cause, bore '...
a lamb in a burning bush; the rays of the sun descending thereon proper.'
Michael Drayton bore 'Azure gutte d'eau [the drops of Helicon!] a Pegasus
current in bend argent.' _Crest_, 'Mercury's winged cap amidst sunbeams
proper.' These classical emblems appear foreign to the spirit of heraldry,
which originated in an unclassical age. Still it might have been difficult
to assign to this stately and majestic poet more appropriate armorials.
The supporters chosen by Sir George Gordon, first Lord Aberdeen, a
celebrated jurist, were _two lawyers_; while (every man to his taste) Sir
William Morgan, K.B., a keen sportsman, adopted _two huntsmen_ equipped
for the chase, and the motto 'Saltando cave,' _Look before you leap_.
Could anything be more pitiful?
VII. Arms derived from TENURE and OFFICE are a much more interesting,
though less numerous, class than the preceding.
"The tenure of the lands of Pennycuik, in Midlothian, obliges the
possessor to attend once a year in the forest of Drumsleich (near
Edinburgh) ... to give a blast of a horn at the king's hunting; and
therefore Clerk of Pennycuik, baronet, the proprietor of these lands, uses
the following crest:"[224] 'A demi-forester, habited vert, sounding a
hunting-horn proper;' and motto, 'FREE FOR A BLAST.' Most of the English
families of Forester, Forster, and Foster have bugle-horns in their arms,
supporting the idea that the founders of those families derived their
surnames from the office of Forester, held by them in times when the
country abounded in woody districts. This office was one of considerable
honour and emolument.
The crest of Grosvenor is 'a hound or talbot statant or;' and the
supporters 'two talbots reguardant or,' &c. Both these ensigns and the
name allude to the antient office of the chiefs of this family, which was
that of =Le Gros Veneur=, great huntsman, to the Dukes of Normandy.
Rawdon, earl of Moira, ancestor of the Marquis of Hastings; 'Argent, a
fesse between three pheons or arrow-heads sable.' _Crest_, in a mural
coronet argent, a pheon sable, with a sprig of laurel issuing therefrom
proper. _Supporters_, two huntsmen with bows, quivers, &c. &c. This
family were denominated from their estate, Rawdon, near Leeds, co. York,
which they originally held under William the Conqueror. A rhyming
title-deed, purporting to have been granted by him, but evidently of much
later date, was formerly in the possession of the family:
"=I William King=, the thurd yere of my reigne,
Give to thee, Paulyn Roydon, Hope and Hopetowne,
Wyth all the bounds, both up and downe,
From Heaven to yerthe, from yerthe to hel;
For the and thyn ther to dwell,
As truly as this Kyng-right is myn;
=For a cross-bowe and an arrow,
When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow;=
And in token that this thing is sooth,
I bit the whyt wax with my tooth."
The family of Pitt, earl of Chatham, bore 'Sable, a fesse _chequy_ argent
and azure, between three bezants or pieces of _money_,' in allusion to the
office the original grantee held in the EXCHEQUER. The Fanshawes also bore
chequy, &c., for the same reason.
The Woods of Largo, co. Fife, bear ships, in allusion to the office of
Admiral of Scotland, antiently hereditary in that family.
The antient Earls of Warren and Surrey bore 'chequy, or and azure.' There
is a tradition that the heads of this family were invested with the
exclusive prerogative of granting licenses for the sale of malt liquors,
and that it was enjoined on all alehouse-keepers to paint the Warren arms
on their door-posts. Hence the chequers, still seen at the entrances of
many taverns, were supposed to have originated, until the discovery of
that ornament on an inn-door among the ruins of Pompeii proved the fashion
to have existed in classical times. Its origin is involved in obscurity;
it may have been placed upon houses of entertainment to show that some
game analogous to the modern chess and backgammon might be played within.
Here we may be allowed to digress, to say a few words on the origin of
_inn signs_, which are generally of an heraldric character. In early times
the town residences of the nobility and great ecclesiastics were called
Inns; and in front of them the family arms were displayed. In many cases
these Inns were afterwards appropriated to the purposes of the modern
hotel, affording temporary accommodation to all comers.[225] The armorial
decorations were retained, and under the name of signs directed the public
to these places of rest and refreshment. On calling to mind the signs by
which the inns of any particular town are designated, a very great
majority of them will be recognized as regular heraldric charges. In
addition to the full armorials of great families, as the Gordon Arms, the
Pelham Arms, the Dorset Arms, we find such signs as the Golden Lion, Red
Lion, White Lion, Black Lion, White Hart, Blue Boar, Golden Cross, Dragon,
Swan, Spread Eagle, Dolphin, Rose and Crown, Catherine-Wheel, Cross-Keys,
_cum multis aliis_, abundant everywhere. These were originally, in most
cases, the properly emblazoned armories of families possessing influence
in the locality; and frequently the inns themselves were established by
old domestics of such families. But owing to the negligence of mine host,
or the unskilfulness of the common painter, who from time to time
renovated his sign, the latter often lost much of its heraldric character;
the shield and its tinctures were dropped, and the charges only remained;
while by a still further departure from the original intention, three
black lions, or five spread eagles, were reduced to one. A house in the
town of Lewes was formerly known as the "Three Pelicans," the fact of
those charges constituting the arms of Pelham having been lost sight of.
Another is still called "The Cats," and few are aware that the arms of the
Dorset family are intended.[226] In villages, innumerable instances occur
of signs taken from the arms or crests of existing families, and very
commonly the sign is changed as some neighbouring domain passes into other
hands. There is a kind of patron and client feeling about this--feudality
some may be disposed to call it--which a lover of Old England is pleased
to contemplate.
VIII. The last species of Historical Arms are those which relate to
Memorable Circumstances and Events which have occurred to the Ancestors of
the families who bear them.
Stanley, earl of Derby. _Crest._ 'On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, an
Eagle with wings expanded or, feeding an Infant in a kind of cradle; at
its head a sprig of oak all proper.' This is the blazon given in
"Historical and Allusive Arms;"[227] but Collins[228] blazons the Eagle as
'_preying upon_' the Infant. This crest belonged originally to the family
of Lathom or Latham, whose heiress, Isabella, married Sir John Stanley,
afterwards Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord of the Isle of Man, and K. G. in
the fourteenth century. According to tradition it originated in the
following manner: One of the Lathams of Latham, co. Lancaster, having
abandoned and exposed an illegitimate son in the nest of an eagle in a
wood called Terlestowe Wood, near his castle, afterwards discovered, to
his great astonishment, that the 'king of birds,' instead of devouring the
helpless infant, had conceived a great liking for him, supplying him with
food, and thus preserving his life. Upon witnessing this miraculous
circumstance the cruel parent relented, and, taking home the infant, made
him his heir. A 'various reading' of the tale states that Sir Thomas
Latham, being destitute of legal issue, and wishing to adopt an
illegitimate son, a proceeding to which his wife would not be likely to
become a party, resorted to the _ruse_ of having the infant placed in the
eyrie of an eagle, and then, taking his lady into the park, coming, as if
by accident, to the place, at the moment when the eagle was hovering over
the nest. Help--of course _accidental_--being at hand, the little fellow
was rescued from his perilous couch, and presented to the lady, who
pressed him to her bosom, and, ignorant of his consanguinity to her lord,
joyfully acquiesced in his proposal to make the foundling heir to their
estate.
According to Bishop Stanley's 'Historicall Poem touching ye Family of
Stanley,' and Vincent's MS. Collection in the College of Arms, the Lord of
Latham was "fowerscore" at the time he adopted this infant,
"Swaddled and clad
In a mantle of redd:"
--a statement which discredits both versions of the story as given above.
These authorities further inform us that the foundling received the
baptismal name of Oskell, and became father of the Isabella Latham who
married Sir John Stanley.
In Seacome's 'History of the House of Stanley' there is an account,
derived from another branch of the family, which coincides with the
second-mentioned, with the important addition that the adopted child was
discarded before the death of Sir Thomas Latham. It is further said, that
on the adoption Sir Thomas had assumed for his crest "an Eagle upon wing,
turning her head back and looking in a sprightly manner as for something
she had lost," and that on the disowning, the Stanleys (one of whom had
married the legal heiress to the estate) "either to distinguish or
aggrandize themselves, or in contempt and derision, took upon them the
Eagle and Child," thus manifesting the variation and the reason of it.
It is scarcely necessary to state, that the Sir Oskell of the legend has
no existence in the veritable records of history; and Mr. Ormerod, the
learned historian of Cheshire, who is connected by marriage with the
family of Latham, thinks the whole story may be "more safely referred to
ancestral Northmen, with its scene in the pine-forests of
Scandinavia."[229]
The subjoined engraving relates to this legend. It is copied from a
cast[230] taken from an oak carving attached to the stall of James
Stanley, bishop of Ely, in the collegiate church (now cathedral) of
Manchester, of which he was warden. The figures below the trees are a
REBUS[231] of masons or stone-cutters, termed, in mediaeval Latin,
_Lathomi_; and the castellated gateway they are approaching is that of
Latham Hall, the scene of the tradition.
[Illustration]
Trevelyan of Somersetshire, Bart. 'Gules, a horse argent armed or, issuant
from the sea in base, party per fesse wavy, azure and of the second.'
This family primarily bore a very different coat: their present armorials
were assumed "on occasion of one of their ancestors swimming on horseback
from the rocks called Seven Stones to the Land's End in Cornwall, at the
time of an inundation, which is said to have overwhelmed a large tract of
land, and severed thereby those rocks from the continent of
Cornwall."[232] This story may appear rather improbable, but it should be
remembered that some similar disruptions of land from the coast, such as
the Goodwin Sands, Selsey Rocks, &c. are authentic matters of history.
Whether the most powerful of the equine race, which are, even under far
more favourable circumstances, "vain things for safety," would be able to
outbrave the violence of the sea necessary to produce such a phenomenon, I
leave to better horsemen than myself to decide.
The arms of Aubrey de Vere, the great ancestor of the earls of
Oxford,[233] in the 12th century, were 'Quarterly, gules and or; in the
first quarter a star or mullet of five points or.' "In the year of our
Lord 1098," saith Leland,[234] "Corborant, Admiral to Soudan of Perce [so
our antiquary was pleased to spell Persia,] was fought with at Antioche,
and discomfited by the Christians. The night cumming on yn the chace of
this bataile, and waxing dark, the Christianes being four miles from
Antioche, God, willing the saufte [safety] of the Christianes, shewed a
white star or molette of five pointes on the Christen host; which to every
mannes sighte did lighte and arrest upon the standard of Albry de Vere,
there shyning excessively!" The mullet was subsequently used as a badge
by his descendants. "The Erle of Oxford's men had a starre with streames
booth before and behind on their lyverys."[235]
Thomas Fitz-Gerald, father of John, first earl of Kildare, bore the
sobriquet of Nappagh, Simiacus, or the Ape, from the following ludicrous
circumstance. When he was an infant of nine months old, his grandfather
and father were both killed in the war waged by them against M'Carthy, an
opposing chief. He was then being nursed at Tralee, and his attendants, in
the first consternation caused by the news of the disaster, ran out of the
house, leaving the child alone in his cradle. A large ape or baboon, kept
on the premises, with the natural love of mischief inherent in that mimic
tribe, taking advantage of the circumstance, took him from his
resting-place and clambered with him to the roof of the neighbouring
abbey, and thence to the top of the steeple. After having carried his
noble charge round the battlements, exhibiting the while various monkey
tricks heretofore unknown to nursery-maids, to the no small consternation
and amazement of the spectators, he descended with careful foot, _ad
terram firmam_, and replaced the child in the cradle. In consequence of
this event the earls of Kildare and other noble branches of this antient
line assumed as a crest, 'An ape proper, girt about the middle and chained
or,' and for supporters, two apes. The addition of the _chain_ is
singular.
Stuart, of Hartley-Mauduit, co. Hants. 'Argent, a lion rampant gules,
debruised by a bend raguly [popularly termed a _ragged staff_] or.' Sir
Alexander Stuart, or Steward, knight, an ancestor of this family, in the
presence of Charles VI of France, encountered a lion with a sword, which
breaking he seized a part of a tree, and with it killed the animal. This
so much pleased the king, that he gave him the above as an augmentation to
his paternal arms.[236]
Maclellan Lord Kirkcudbright bore as a crest, 'A dexter arm erect, the
hand grasping a dagger, with a human head on the point thereof, couped
proper,' In the reign of James II, of Scotland, a predatory horde of
foreigners, who entered that kingdom from Ireland, committed great ravages
in the shire of Galloway; whereupon a royal proclamation was issued
ordering their dispersion, and offering, as a reward to the captor or
killer of their chieftain, the barony of Bombie. Now it happened that one
Maclellan, whose father had been laird of Bombie, (and had been
dispossessed of it for some aggressions on a neighbouring nobleman,) was
the fortunate person who killed the chieftain; thus singularly regaining
his ancestral property. The crest originated in the circumstance of his
having presented to the king the marauder's head fixed upon the point of a
sword.
The head is variously blazoned as that of a _Saracen_, _Moor_, or
_Gipsey_, and the question might here be started, 'Who were the lawless
band that made the inroad referred to?' The terms Moor and Saracen were in
early times applied indiscriminately to Mahometans of every nation, but it
cannot be supposed that these intruders were followers of the False
Prophet, for we have no record of any such having found their way into
regions so remote. Neither is it probable that they were the wild or
uncivilized Irish, whose manners and language would have been recognized
in the south-western angle of Scotland, which is only separated from
Ireland by a narrow channel that could be crossed in a few hours. The
most probable opinion is that they belonged to that singular race, the
_Gipseys_, who first made their appearance in Germany, Italy, Switzerland,
and France, between the years 1409 and 1427. Admitting that a tribe of
them found their way soon after from the continent into Ireland, it seems
exceedingly likely that a detachment of that tribe should have crossed
over to Scotland in the reign of James, between 1438 and 1460. As the
Gipseys on their first settlement were black, and could be traced to an
oriental source, and as they disavowed Christianity, they were very
naturally considered as Saracens, by a rule analogous to that which makes
all the inhabitants of Christendom Franks in the eyes of a Turk. I have
made this little digression because this instance of a Gipsey's head is
probably unique in British Heraldry, and because the tradition perfectly
coincides in point of time with the actual ingress of the Gipseys into
this part of Europe.
The crest of the Davenports of Cheshire, a family as numerous, according
to the proverb, as 'dogs' tails,' is 'a man's head couped below the
shoulders in profile, hair brown, a halter about his neck proper.'
According to the tradition of the family, it originated after a battle
between the Yorkists and Lancastrians, in which one of the Davenports,
being of the vanquished party, was spared execution by the commander on
the opposite side, on the humiliating condition that he and all his
posterity should bear this crest.
When Queen Elizabeth made Sir John Hawkins paymaster of the navy in 1590,
she gave him a coat of arms appropriate to his profession, and as a crest,
in allusion to his _laudable_ concern in the slave trade, 'A demi-negro
proper, manacled with a rope,' the very symbol which, more than two
hundred years afterwards, was used to stamp infamy on those concerned in
it, as well as abhorrence and detestation of the slave trade itself.[237]
It would be a matter of little difficulty to produce a great number of
additional instances of armorials allusive to the personal history or
office of the original grantee; but let it be mine rather than that of the
fatigued reader to cry
='Ohe, jam satis!'=
[Illustration]