Genealogy.
"I must not give up my attachment to Genealogy, and everything
relating to it, because it is the greatest spur to noble and gallant
actions."
_Rev. Mark Noble._
"It is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in
decay; or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more
to behold an ancient noble Family which hath stood against the waves
and weathers of time?"
_Bacon. Of Nobility._
A passion for deducing a descent from the most remote progenitor of a
family appears to be inherent in mankind; for we trace its existence in
all ages, and in almost every state of society. The Hebrews, the oldest
historical people in the world, entertained this feeling in a degree
perhaps unparalleled in any nation. The Egyptians, Greeks, Scythians,
Phrygians, and Romans claimed a very high, though probably a very much
exaggerated, antiquity. Alexander claimed descent from Jupiter Ammon;
Caesar's pedigree was traced without an hiatus to Venus; Arthur's to
Brutus; Hengist's to Woden! The English peer views with complacency the
muster-roll of departed generations, which connects him with Charlemagne
or the Plantagenets. The democratic American is proud if perchance he
bears the name of a stock renowned in the annals of Fatherland; and even
the plebeian Berkeley or Neville of busy London walks a little more erect
as he tells you that his great-grandfather came from the same county where
dwells the coronetted aristocrat who bears his patronymic! The love of a
distinguished ancestry is universal.
The credibility of genealogy depends, like that of every thing else, upon
the nature of the evidence by which it is supported. I have met with
persons who could not trace their lineage beyond their grandfather; but
such instances are rare; for the oral traditions of a family, even in
middle life, generally ascend to about the fifth generation, or a century
and a half: beyond that all is obscurity. If we go to documents, such as
parish registers, monumental inscriptions, and court-rolls, numerous
families may be traced 300 years with absolute certainty. An hereditary
title or an entailed patrimony carries families of higher pretensions
still further; and antient wills, genealogical tables, and the public
records lead an exclusive few back to the glorious days of Cressy, to the
Norman Conquest, or even to the times of the Edreds and the Edwys. That
this antiquity is of the utmost rarity will appear from the data given
below.
"At present," observes Mr. Grimaldi,[306] "there are few English families
who pretend to a higher antiquity than the Norman Invasion; and it is
probable that not many of these can authenticate their pretensions." The
claim to such an honour, as has just been intimated, is well founded in
some families. The Ashburnham pedigree, for instance, is carried two
generations higher than 1066; and the family still reside on the spot
from whence, at the commencement of the eleventh century, their great
ancestor derived his surname. The Shirleys have dwelt upon their estate of
Lower Eatington, co. Warwick, uninterruptedly for eight centuries from the
time of Edward the Confessor. In Collins's Peerage (edit. Brydges[307])
there is an abstract of the antiquity of the nobility, from which it
appears that out of the 249 peers, 35 could trace their descent beyond the
Conquest:
49 beyond the year 1100
29 " " 1200
32 " " 1300
26 " " 1400
17 " " 1500
26 " " 1600
30 " " 1700
Mr. Grimaldi has ably illustrated the sources from which, and from which
only, the genealogies of English families can be derived, in his 'Origines
Genealogicae,' and any one who will take the pains to consult that curious
work may easily convince himself of the futility of attempting to trace
pedigrees beyond the periods adverted to. Yet there was a time when the
most ridiculous notions prevailed respecting the antiquity of some of our
great houses. The royal family were traced in a direct line to the
fabulous Brutus, a thousand years before the Christian era; the Cecils
pretended to be of Roman origin, and the house of Vaux deduced themselves
from the kings of the Visigoths. Many Welsh families went farther, and
carried up their pedigree as far as it could well be carried, namely, to
Adam! The Scottish and Irish families pretended to an equal antiquity.
This taste in the nations descending from a common Celtic stock was
probably derived from the bards of antient times, whose office consisted
in the recital of the heroic deeds of mighty ancestors. The splendid
history of the family of Grace, drawn from a great variety of antient
sources, by Sheffield Grace, Esq., F.S.A., contains some of the finest
possible specimens of fictitious genealogy. The family is traced, in the
male line, to the time of Alfred, and through some female lines to the
founder of the human race himself. The pedigree of O'More begins with "God
the Father, &c., who was from all eternity [and who] did, in the beginning
of time, of nothing create red earth, and of red earth framed Adam, and of
a rib out of the side of Adam fashioned Eve; after which creation,
plasmatation and formation succeeded generation." The pedigree is
regularly deduced through Adam, Noah, Nilus, and the kings of Scythia to
Milesius, who conquered Spain and settled in Ireland. Thence through Cu
Chogry O'More, king of Seix, and M{c}Murrough, king of Leinster, in the
time of our Henry II, to Anthony O'More, dynast or sovereign of Seix,
whose daughter married Sir Oliver Grace about the year 1450!
Considering the vast number of individuals who in the course of a few ages
proceed from a common parent, and taking into account the mutations to
which families are subject, it is not surprising that the "high" are often
found to be "descended from the low, and, contrariwise, the low from the
high." I know a comparatively obscure country gentleman who can (by the
most undeniable evidences) prove his descent through three different lines
from William the Conqueror, and consequently from the Northman Rollo, the
founder of the duchy of Normandy in the tenth century. Two hundred years
ago we find some descendants of the line of the Paleologi, emperors of the
East, residing in privacy in the little village of Landulph, in Cornwall.
In the church of that place there is a small monument to the memory of
"Theodoro Paleologus, of Pesaro in Italye, descended from y{e} imperial
line of y{e} late Christian emperors of Greece, being the sonne of
Camilio, the son of Prosper, the sonne of Theodoro, the sonne of John,
y{e} sonne of Thomas, second brother of Constantine Paleologus, the 8th of
that name, and last of y{t} line y{t} rayned in Constantinople until
subdved by the Turks; who married w{t}. Mary, y{e} daughter of William
Balls, of Hadlye in Souffolke, Gent., and had issue 5 children, Theodoro,
John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy, and departed this life at Clyfton,
y{e} 21st. of Janu. 1636." Some female descendants of this individual
married persons of humble condition in the immediate vicinity of Landulph,
and hence, as Mr. Gilbert observes, the imperial blood may still flow in
the veins of the bargemen of Cargreen![308] On the other hand, many of our
peers descend from tradesmen, and other persons of plebeian condition. Not
to meddle with the pedigrees of some of our _Novi Domini_, the earl of
Dartmouth descends from a worthy London skinner of the fourteenth century;
the earl of Coventry from a mercer of the fifteenth; and Lord Dudley from
a goldsmith of the seventeenth.
"Genealogy," says Sir Egerton Brydges, "is of little value, unless it
discloses matter which teaches the causes of the decay or prosperity of
families, and furnishes a lesson of moral wisdom for the direction of
those who succeed. When we reflect how soon the fortunes of a house are
ruined, not only by vice or folly, but by the least deficience in that
cold prudence with which highly endowed minds are so seldom gifted, the
long continuance of any race of nobility or gentry seems to take place
almost in defiance of probabilities."[309]
Persons not conversant with antiquarian researches often express surprise
at the possibility of tracing the annals of a family through the long
period of five, six, or seven centuries. It may therefore be interesting
to mention the principal sources from which genealogical materials are
derived.
1. The several records which go under the general name of _Doomsday Books_
constitute, collectively, one of the most valuable monuments possessed by
any nation. They contain the name of every landowner, with the value of
his estate, and frequently refer to earlier proprietors antecedently to
the Conquest. The 'Great Doomsday Book' in the Chapter House, the 'Exon
Doomsday,' and the 'Inquisitio Eliensis,' were compiled between 1066 and
1086; the 'Winton Doomsday,' temp. Hen. I; and the 'Boldon Book' in 1183.
2. The next documents in point of antiquity are _Monastic Records_, such
as Chartularies, Leiger-Books, Chronicles, Obituaries, Registers of
Marriages and Burials, and Abbey Rolls. These usually contain much
information for the genealogist, particularly in relation to the founders
and benefactors of the respective establishments. Of Abbey Rolls the 'Roll
of Battel Abbey' is an eminent example. Its authenticity, however, is
extremely doubtful, and we have the authority of Camden for declaring
that, "Whosoever considereth it well shall find it always to be
forged."[310]
It has been asserted that many records of great value were destroyed at
the dissolution of the religious houses, and there is probably truth in
the allegation; for John Bale, a contemporary observer, writes, that the
library books of [some of] the monasteries were reserved by the purchasers
of those houses to scour their candlesticks, to rub their boots, and even
for still viler uses. Some again, he says, were sold to grocers and
soap-sellers, or sent over sea to the book-binders. A merchant bought two
noble libraries for forty shillings. Peacham, in his 'Compleat
Gentleman,'[311] and several other authors declare that Polydore Vergil,
the historian, _burnt_ many of the best and most antient records he could
find in the conventual and cathedral libraries;[312] but the learned
Italian has been most ably defended against this heavy charge.[313] 3.
_Antient Charters_ and Deeds transferring lands, &c. are most excellent
authorities for genealogical particulars. Such documents are immensely
numerous. By series of these in the muniment-rooms of our nobility and
gentry, and other places, both family lines and territorial descent may be
clearly established for a great length of time. 4. _Monumental
Inscriptions_ are documents of great interest. Many of them are of very
high antiquity. That of King Arthur, described by Camden, is, if genuine,
more than thirteen centuries old. The legend is, "HIC JACET SEPVLTVS
INCLYTVS REX ARTVRIVS IN INSVLA AVALONIA." There are several remains of
this description belonging to the Norman period whose genuineness is not
questioned. There are two in my own locality; namely, the epitaph on
Gundred, wife of William de Warren, and daughter of William the Conqueror
(ob. 1085), in the church of Southover, Lewes, and that on Mangnus, a
Danish prince of the eleventh or twelfth century, in the wall of St. John
sub Castro.[314] Unfortunately _most_ of the monuments of those early
times have no inscriptions; so that, without the evidence of concurrent
tradition, they can scarcely be regarded as monuments at all. Monumental
_brasses_, a most interesting class of memorials, occur from the
thirteenth century to the era of the mural tablets now in use. Regular
genealogical series of them are sometimes to be found in our country
churches. 5. The _Public Records_, many of which have been printed at the
national expense, contain an inexhaustible mine for the genealogist and
historian. Particulars relating to knights' fees and other feudal matters
are found in the 'Black and Red Books of the Exchequer,' the 'Testa de
Neville,' the 'Nomina Villarum,' and the 'Hundred Rolls.' These are all of
very early date. The fine, charter, close, patent, nona, and numerous
other rolls, and particularly the Inquisitiones post mortem[315] and
Escheat rolls are rich in materials for pedigrees. Lists of English gentry
for certain counties occur temp. Edw. II; and the celebrated list of temp.
Hen. VI purports to contain the names of all the gentry in thirty
counties. 6. The _Wills_ proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at
Doctors' Commons commence so early as 1383, and those in several of the
local registries are of considerable, though not of equal, antiquity.
These are of all documents the most confidently to be relied on,
containing as they do much information respecting the family-connexions of
the testators. From a single will a descent of four generations can
frequently be traced. 7. The _Heraldic Records_, gathered from documents
no longer extant, are most valuable. The Visitation-books, extending from
1528 to 1687, are in the College of Arms; and there are numerous other
collections of pedigrees in public and private MS. libraries. The funeral
certificates of the nobility and gentry preserved at the College are most
authentic and useful documents, though apparently little known even
amongst antiquaries. The following is a specimen:
"1578. Sire John Gefferay, knyght, Lord Chief Baron of the quenes
majesties exchequer Died at his house in London on Twesday the xiij
daye of Maye, and from thense was conveyed to his Maner house at
Chettingligh in the County of Sussex & was buryed at the p[ar]ishe
churche of Chettingligh the xxij{th} daye of the same monthe A{o}.
1578, he maryed to his fierst wiff Alis doughte{r} & heire aperante to
John Apesley of London, gent. & by her had yssue Elizabethe his only
doughte{r} and heire; secondly he maryed Mary doughter to George
Goringe of Lewis in the county of Sussex, esquier, & by her had no
yssue. The offycers of armes that se{r}vid their was Ric. Turpyn alias
Windsor and Edmond Knyght alias Chester, herauldes. In Witnes of the
truthe of this certyfycatt these [pt=]ies hereunder writen have
subscribed their names the xxiij{th} daye of Maye a{o} 1578.
(Sign'd) GEORGE GORINGE.
W{M}. APSLEY. RICHARD JEFFERAY."[316]
8. Last, though not least, among the aids in tracing pedigrees, are
_Parish Registers_. The dispersion of the monks, who had previously been
the great register-keepers, gave rise to the necessity of these local
records. A mandate was issued in 1538, by Thomas Cromwell, the king's
vicar-general, for the keeping, in every parish, of registers of baptisms,
marriages, and burials. Many of the existing registers begin with that
year, but more generally they commence in 1558, the first year of
Elizabeth.[317]
Parish registers, when carefully kept, are amongst the most useful of
public records. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the
earlier part of the eighteenth, they are in many instances a sort of
chronicles not only of the rites of baptism, marriage, and burial, but
also of interesting parochial events; such as fires, unusual mortalities,
storms, alterations in the churches, and short remarks on the baptisms or
burials of distinguished persons. The following extracts from various
registers may not be unamusing to the reader:
"_Mr._ Henry Hastings, son & heir of Mr. Francis Hastings, was born on
St. Nicholas' even, April 24, between the hours of 10 & 11 of the
clock at night. Sign. Sagit. secund. die plenilunii Marte in Taurum
intrato die precedente, & was christened May 17." _Eaton, co.
Rutland._
"1597. M{m}. forgotten until now, that Edmond Denmark & Alice Smyth
were married the 24th. of May, 1584." _Thorington, Essex._
"1618. License to Lady Barbara Hastings to eat flesh in Lent, on
account of her great age." _St. Mary, Leicester._
"1643. Richard Snatchall, a stout yong man, a curious blacksmith, died
of y{e} small-pox." _Chiddingly, co. Sussex._
"1656. A time of mortality upon the Dicker. Richard Luccas, w{th}out
any buriall was buried!" _Ibid._
It would be difficult to say how this was managed.
Some of the entries are occasionally very loose.
"1658. Buried. Wickens, a lame boy. 1659. A maide of N. M. A maide of
R. B." _Ibid._
"An infant crisaned!"--Burials. "A mayde from the mill." "Black John."
"A prentice of M{r}. Kirford." "A Tinker of Berye in Suffolk." Vide
_Grimaldi's Orig. Geneal._
"Richard Cole and _his wife_ were marryed the xixth. of May 1612.
Symon Fuller was marryed the 3rd. of October, 1612." _Alfriston, co.
Sussex._
"The son of a mason, buried x Feb. 1593."
"Mother Fowler buried 18th. Nov. 1603."
"Goody Hilton bur. April 7. 1699." _Ibid._
During the protectorate of Cromwell marriages were solemnized by justices
of the peace. The following entry of such a marriage, cited by Mr.
Grimaldi, is a curious specimen of magisterial literature:
"_Marriadges._
_Begone_ the 30. September, 1653.
John Ridgway, _Bricklar_ and Mary Chart _widdow_ according to _a_ Act
of Parliament _baringe_ date the 24. August 1653, _was_ three several
times _publissed_ in the market-place, and afterwards _maried_ by
_mee_ upon Tuesday, the _six_ of December, 1653.
"THOMAS ATKIN."
"1707. Married William Thunder and Eliz. Horscraft as is reputed but
not certainly known _Anab.: Chiddingly._
"1718. M{r}. Thomas Shirley, a young Gentleman of great hopes, who in
all probability had he lived longer would have been very useful to his
country and neighbours." _Ibid._
"1722. This day were married by M{r}. Holloway, _I think_, a couple
_whose names I could never learn_, for he allowed them to carry away
the license." _Lincoln's Inn Chapel._
"1705. Buried M{r}. Matt. Hutchinson, vicar of Gilling, worth L50 a
year. 1706. M{rs}. Ursula Allen worth L600." _Richmond, co. York._
Many of the entries respecting local events are very curious; but as they
belong still less than the foregoing to my subject, I must resist the
temptation to transcribe any of them.
To these several principal sources of genealogical materials may be added
the private memoranda preserved in many families, correspondence, entries
in family bibles, and others which it is unnecessary to mention.
* * * * *
There are some persons who cannot discriminate between the taste for
pedigree and the pride of ancestry. Now these two feelings, though they
often combine in one individual, have no necessary connexion with each
other. Man is said to be a hunting animal. Some hunt for foxes; others for
fame or fortune. Others hunt in the intellectual field; some for the
arcana of nature and of mind; some for the roots of words or the origin of
things. I am fond of hunting out a pedigree. _Parva decent parvum._
Family pride, abstractedly considered, is one of the coarsest feelings of
which our nature is susceptible.
"Those who on glorious ancestors enlarge,
Produce their debt instead of their discharge."
A great and wise man among the antients said
"----Genus, et proavos, et quae non fecimus ipsi,
Vix ea nostra voco."
"The glory of ancestors," says Caius Marius, "casts a light indeed upon
their posterity, but it only serves to show what the descendants are. It
alike exhibits to full view their degeneracy and their worth."
"Boast not the titles of your ancestours,
Brave youths! They're _their_ possessions, none of _yours_;
When your own virtues equall'd have their names,
'Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames,
For they are strong supporters; but, till then,
The greatest are but growing gentlemen."
_Ben Jonson._
I do not know that I can more appropriately close this last chapter of my
essay than by citing a passage from Lord Lindsay's introduction to his
'Lives of the Lindsays,' a passage which entitles its author to as high a
place among "virtue's own noblemen" as he deservedly occupies among the
great ones of man's creation.
"Be grateful, then, for your descent from religious as well as noble
ancestors: it is your duty to be so, and this is the only worthy tribute
you can now pay to their ashes. Yet, at the same time be most jealously on
your guard lest this lawful satisfaction degenerate into arrogance, or a
fancied superiority over those nobles of God's creation, who, endowed in
other respects with every exalted quality, cannot point to a long line of
ancestry. Pride is of all sins the most hateful in the sight of God; and
of the proud, who is so mean, who so despicable as he who values himself
on the merits of others? And were they all so meritorious, these boasted
ancestors? were they all Christians? Remember, remember, if some of them
have deserved praise, others have equally merited censure; if there have
been "stainless knights," never yet was there a stainless family since
Adam's fall. Where, then, is boasting? for we would not I hope glory in
iniquity.
'=Only the actions of the Just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.='
"One word more. Times are changed, and in many respects we are blessed
with knowledge beyond our fathers, yet we must not on that account deem
our hearts purer, or our lives holier, than theirs were. Nor, on the other
hand, should we for a moment assent to the proposition, so often hazarded,
that the virtues of chivalry are necessarily extinct with the system they
adorned. Chivalry, in her purity, was a holy and lovely maiden, and many
were the hearts refined and ennobled by her influence; yet she proclaims
to us not one virtue that is not derived from and summed up in
Christianity. The age of chivalry may be past--the knight may no more be
seen issuing from the embattled portal-arch on his barbed charger, his
lance glittering in the sun, his banner streaming to the breeze,--but the
spirit of chivalry can never die; through every change of external
circumstances, through faction and tumult, through trial and suffering,
through good report and evil report, still that spirit burns like love,
the brighter and purer;--still, even in the nineteenth century, lights up
its holiest shrine, the heart of that champion of the widow, that father
of the fatherless, that liegeman of his God, his king, and his country,
the noble-hearted but lowly-minded Christian gentleman of England."
[Illustration]
APPENDIX.
Differences, Abatements, Grant of Arms, etc. etc.
Appendix A.
DIFFERENCES.
A few remarks upon this interesting branch of Heraldry have been made at
p. 43 et seq. This subject is ably discussed by Wyrley, Camden, Dallaway,
and others, in their published works, but the following treatise, I have
good reason to believe, has never before appeared in print. It is the
production of Sir Edward Dering, a representative of the great family of
that name in Kent: the author, who enjoyed the friendship of Sir William
Dugdale, was knighted 22 Jan. 1618, and created a Baronet 1st Feb. 1626.
The only copy of this essay I have seen occurs in a copy of the Visitation
of Kent, 1619, transcribed from a MS. of Peter Le Neve, by Hasted, the
Kentish Historian, and now in the possession of Mr. J. R. Smith.
"VARIATIONS OF THE ARMS IN THE FAMILY OF DERING, BY SIR EDWARD DERING,
KNT. AND BART.
The differences of Arms by adding small and minute figures as of
Crescents, Mullets, Martlets, etc. is neither antient nor could be so: For
300 years since every man of note and family carried in the wars his
shield carved and coloured, and his armour painted suitable, and his coat
of arms to cover his armour embroidered of the same; besides the
caparison of his horse, if so be he served on horseback; you shall have it
by example as follows:--
[A rude sketch of a brass of a man in armour with his surcoat of arms
is here given, and beneath it--
"This was copied from Pluckley Church, from the gravestone of John
Dering, Esq., who dyed August 1550."]
The use of all this art was to distinguish and notify the party, and soe
his valorous atchievements might be seen and known, when his face was not.
The further off and the easier this view could be made, the better; for
that concurred to the end for which these signs were taken. Now these
petty variations were not to be seen, but when near at hand, requiring a
clear light and near approach to make them, and so consequently, the
bearers of them, discoverable.
In the last battle fought by the famous Earl of Warwicke for K. Henry 6th
against K. Edward the 4th, the day grew hopefull for Warwick by the valor
of the Earl of Oxford: Oxford's soldiery had his star, or rather mullet,
embroidered on their coats--K. Edward's men, saith Speed, the sun; but it
was indeed a little white rose, with the rayes of the sun-beams pointing
round about it. The day was overcast and foggy; Oxford had made such
impression upon the Yorkists, that many fled from the field at Barnet to
London, giving out the news that the day was Warwick's. Warwick, intending
to perfect the victory over that part of K. Edward's army, came up to
Oxford, when, the light being dull with mists, rendered Oxford's badge as
big as the king's, the difference in form and colours being but little; so
that Warwick's men by mistake let fly at those of Oxford. They seeing
Warwick's ragged staff and bear making havock at their backs, whilst they
were pressing forward on K. Edward's sun-beams, not knowing or guessing
the cause and Error, cryed out, "Treason! Treason! we are all betrayed."
Hereupon the Earl of Oxford, with 800 men fled the field, and the Yorkists
prevailed, with the death of the great Warwick and his brother the Marquis
of Montacute.
Other examples have been two; in Wyrley one, of the two Baliols--the
other of the French Lord of Chine, who laying up the Lord Courcy's banner,
the English of Sir Hugh Calvely's company, reputing them friends, were
thereby unfortunately slain, and the Lord Courcy had thereupon dishonour
spoken of him, though absent as far as Austrich.
"This Chine did raise Lord Courcy's fair Devise,
Which was 6 Bars of vairy and of red;
This way the same or difference small so nice
And slender that 'mongst them they error bred,
Which now were either taken slain or fled.
All men of younger house which banners bear
Should have their difference glist'ning large and fair."
_Capital de Bur_, p. 151.
These minute differences, as they were antiently dangerous and
insufficient, so in manner as they are now used they were then unknown;
neither is there art enough by any of our heralds' rules, though much
refined of late, to guide one so as to know which of the Crescent-bearers
was the uncle or which the nephew, and for Crescent upon Crescent, Mullet
upon Mullet, etc. in a pedigree of no great largeness, perspective-glasses
and spectacles cannot help you; but you must have Lyncean eyes, or his
that could write Homer's Iliads, and fold them into a nutshell.
There was an elder way of differencing in former ages, and very good,
though at no time regularly prescribed, yet it was much practised, as by
bordures, bars, bends, chiefs, etc. and something upon special motives of
relinquishing the whole devise and assuming another; all which are
eminently known in the families of Nevil, Howard, Berkeley, Beauchamp,
Stafford, Chaworth, Latymer, Grey and Bassett, Willoughby, etc. You shall
have an example of two in Kent leaving the chevron-bearers in imitation of
the great Lords of Clare and Criol, the ten variations and imitations of
Leyborne's Lions; and of Sandwich's indentings in like number, I will here
instance in Say and Cobham.
[Illustration: Sir Wm. de Say.]
[Illustration: Sir R. de Huntingfield.]
[Illustration: Sir Ibron de Huntingfield.]
[Illustration: Sir Alex. de Cheney.]
[Illustration: ... Huntingfield.]
[Illustration: Sir Ralph de Perington.]
[Illustration: St. Nicholas.]
[Illustration: Parrocke[318]]
There are more examples, but these are in Kent.
Now for an instance in the family of Cobham.
[Illustration: Wm. de Pluckley, Brother of John de Cobham.
John de Cobham Brother of Wm. de Pluckley.]
[Sidenote: _Vide Book of Differences_, p. 177.]
Henry Cobham, great grandchild of this John, and Joane, da. and heir of de
Bokeland.
[Illustration]
John de Cobham, son of Henry and Joane Bokeland, put his father's fleurs
de lizs upon his mother's cheveron, and had issue three sons, who did each
constitute a several family, and varied their arms.
[Illustration: Henry Cobham, the eldest son, married Joane, sister and
heir of Step{n} de Pencester.]
[Illustration: John, the 2d son, to whom his father gave the manor of
Cobham, and from whom the Lords Cobham descended.]
[Illustration: Reginald, the 3d, de Orkesden, from whom the Cobhams of
Sterborough are descended.]
This Henry by the great heir, his wife, was father of three sons, who all
of them followed the copy of their Mother's Arms, whereof
[Illustration: 1. Stephen de Cobham, Lord of Shorne, who leaving the
paternal coat, took his Mother's Arms.]
[Illustration: 2. John de Toneford, where he dwelt, a place in Chartham.]
[Illustration: 3. Stephen de Cobham, father of Henry, Lord of Dunstall.]
This elder Stephen was father of Sir John de Cobham of Rundale, and of
Robert de Cobham, which Sir John was father of Sir Thomas Cobham de
Rundale, and of John de Hever, who had the manor of Hever, and thence his
name.
[Illustration: Robert de Cobham.]
[Illustration: John de Hever of Hever.]
John de Cobham, aforesaid, who bore the three lions on his cheveron, was
father of Henry Lord Cobham, and of John Cobham de Blackburg, in co.
Devon. Henry Lord Cobham was father of Henry Lord Cobham and of Thomas
Cobham, of Chafford in Kent. This Henry Lord Cobham was father of John
Lord Cobham and of Thomas Cobham, owner of Belunele and Pipards-clive, who
had issue two sons, Thomas and Henry; now all these younger Cobhams varied
their Arms as under.
[Illustration: John Cobham de Blackburg.]
[Illustration: Thos. Cobham de Chafford.]
[Illustration: Thos. Cobham de Belunele.]
[Illustration: Henry Cobham de Pypard's Clive.[319]]
In like manner the family of Dering, though not so eminent, (yet as
antient, and more numerous, for aught yet appears,) did, as the use and
necessity of those former ages required, vary their arms upon several
occasions, which need not here be repeated, being more visible in the
descent,[320] it shall therefore be enough in this place to set down the
several shields borne anciently and at present by this name and the
several branches thereof, by seals, monuments, old rolls, windows, &c. The
antient paternal coat of this family was (if tradition may persuade us)
only the blue fesse in a white field, until, say they, one of our
ancestors being slain in the king's wars, his shield was found to have
three great bloody spots in place where now the roundels are. I cannot
justify such far-fetcht storys; yet two things have a proportionate
correspondence with this tradition.
First, it is certain that Norman Fitz-Dering was sheriff of Kent, as shall
be evident in the part of the genealogical history which concerns him.
2dly. The Arms of William de Wrotham, Constable of Dover castle, and one
of this family, were by old rolls the fesse without the roundells, which
may confirm the report, because he was descended from Godred, brother to
Norman, who was slain as aforesaid, and not of the body of the said
Norman.
The concurrence whereof has induced me to assign that coat unto all before
the said Norman Fitz-Dering.
So then the several shields borne by the several persons of this family
have been as follows, setting them down as they have first been in
antiquity used, and so in order successively.
[Illustration: Sired Fitz-Dering, t. W. Conqr./De la Hell, T. R. Steph.
ao. 1./Deerman ao. 1, Hen. 2d./W. de Wrotham, 1 R. Johis./Hamo de
Pirefeld, T. R. 1.]
[Illustration: Norman Fitz-Dering, 1 Hen. I and T. R. Steph.]
[Illustration: Arnaldus de Cuckeston, t, H. 2./Wm. de Cheriton, T. H. 3.]
[Illustration: Normannus de Ashde Fraxino--and de Fresne, Miles, T. R. 1
et H. 2.[321]]
[Illustration: Wm. de Perington Miles, T. Hen. 3.[322]]
[Illustration: Wimond Fitz-Wimond, T. Hen. 3./Hamo Wimond, filius ejus, T.
Ed. I.[323]]
[Illustration: Ricus Fitz-Dering, qui obiit II Ed. I.[324]]
[Illustration: Henry Dering, frater junior Ricardi.[325]]
[Illustration: John Dering, Dns. de Evering-acre in Pluckley, ao 1 Hen. 5
et Ricus filius ejus, occis apd. Bosworth.[326]]
[Illustration: Wm. Dering de Petworth in co. Sussex, et de Lisse in co.
Hants, Arm. T Hen. 7.[327]]
To these ten may be added two very antient, whose order gave them a
diversification, being Knights-Templers, and three other moderne, assigned
by Sir Wm. Segar, Garter.
[Illustration: Dns. Robtus. Dering, Miles ordinis militiae sci. Templi ad
dissolut. ejus ap{d}. Ewell.[328]]
The three modern ones assigned by Sir Wm. Segar are as follows:
[Illustration: Anthony Dering, of Charing, Esq.]
[Illustration: John Dering, of Egerton, Esq.]
[Illustration: Xtopher Dering, of Wickins.[329]]
[Sidenote: _So in old chartularies of abbeys I have often observed that
one and the same man varied his own name of addition by the change of
places where he made his abode._]
Besides the variations of arms, here is much change of sirname to be
observed, which among antiquaries is nothing new. Here are Dering, Wimond,
Dereman, De la Hell, Wrotham, Cuckeston, Pevington, Pirefield, Cheriton,
Ash, and de Fraxino, whereof the first three are assumed from forenames or
Xtian names, as have done the families of Herding, Herbert, Aucher, Bagot,
Bardolph, Hasting, Durand, Hubert, Oughtred, Leonard, and very many more;
all the others here were assumed by reason of lands possessed of that
name. Norman Fitz-Dering being Lord of Ash was called Norman de Fraxino,
de Fresne, and de Ash. Arnold, a son of another Norman Fitz-Dering, being
Lord of Cuckeston, was called Arnold de Cuckeston, whose grandchildren
were Wm. de Pevington and Wm. de Cheriton, and so the rest had their
surnames appropriated from their habitation and possession. In the family
of Cobham you have Toneford and Hever of the same blood. Mortimer and
Warren were brothers, and the sons of Walter de St. Martin. De Frydon, de
Pantley, and de Albdy, were three brothers, the sons of Hugh de
Saddington. Wm. Belward, lord of the moiety of Malpas, in Chester, had
issue David and Richard; from David came three sons, Wm. de Malpas, Philip
Gogh, David Golborne; and from them Egerton and Goodman--Richard, son of
Wm. Belward, had issue Thomas de Cotgreve, Wm. de Weston, and Richard
Little, father of N. Keneclerk and of John Richardson, (who would conceive
without good proof that Malpas, Gough, Golborne, Egerton, Goodman,
Cotgrave, Weston, Little, Kenclerk, and Richardson were all in short time
the issue of Wm. Belward.) Nay, to make the instance of better impression,
the antient earls of Norfolk having also Suffolk within their earldom did
write themselves of Norfolk, of Suffolk, and sometimes of Norwich,
indifferently, according to the place where they signed or subscribed, or
were in any instrument named. The like did the old earls of Dorset and
Somerset, using either title indifferently. Four earls of Chester had
several sirnames successively one after another--Randolph Meschines had
issue Randolph Gemers, father of Hugh Kivilicke, whose son was Randolph
Blundeville. If yet you wish a more full president, you have it in Lucas
de Hardres, who....
[N. B. The rest is wanting, or rather seems never to have been attempted
by the author.]
* * * * *
The distinctions of arms to be borne by the several branches of the family
of Dering, according to Sir Edward Dering, knight and baronet. The younger
sons of the eldest house to give these differences instead of the
crescent, mullet, martlet, etc.:
The 2d son a bordure sable.
The 3d son a bordure gules.
The 4th son a bordure purflewe, argent and azure.
The 5th son a bordure azure.
Likewise the collar of the buck, their crest, was of the same colour as
their bordure.
Younger houses:
The 2d house a chief sable.
The 3d house a chief gules.
The 4th house....
The 5th house a chief azure.
Likewise the collar of the buck's head, the crest, the same colour as the
chief.
Younger sons of younger houses give the minute difference in the crest
besides the great one in the arms: as Nichs. Dering, of Charing, gives a
mullet on the buck's neck.
_Note._ Nich{s}. Dering quarters both Lambert's arms and Home's, tho'
descended but from one of them; whereas Finch Dering and his son, Brent
Dering, leave out the Home's.
Anthony Dering, son of Anthony by a second venter,[330] gives the fleur de
liz upon the buck's neck. The wreath on which the crest stands is in all
houses Or and sable....
[Illustration]
Appendix B.
A very curious illustration of some antient heraldric usages is furnished
by an examination of the armorial bearings of families connected with the
county of Cornwall.
1. The arms of the county of Cornwall are SABLE, FIFTEEN BEZANTS--5. 4. 3.
2 AND 1., with two lions as supporters, and the motto 'One and all.'[331]
This coat is pretended to be derived from Cadoc, or Cradock, earl or duke
of Cornwall in the fifth century.
2. The families of Moreton and De Dunstanville, successively earls of
Cornwall after the Norman Conquest, bore personal arms totally different
from these; yet on the marriage of Roger Valetorte with Joan, daughter of
Reginald de Dunstanville, he surrounded his paternal arms (argent, three
bendlets gules,) with a =bordure sable bezantee=.
3. Whalesborough of Cornwall, temp. Henry III, bore the same arms, with
the =bordure sable bezantee=, whence he is presumed to have been a cadet
of Valetorte.
4. Henry II took the earldom into his own hands, and gave it to his
youngest son John, and John, on coming to the throne, gave it to his
second son, Richard, afterwards king of the Romans and earl of Poictou.
"Richard, 2nd son of king John, in the 9th year of king Henry III, his
brother, being crowned king of the Romans, writ himself _Semper Augustus_,
and had his arms carved on the breast of the Roman =eagle=. He bare
=argent, a lyon rampant gules=, crowned or, within a =bordure sable
bezantee=."[332] "He had," says Nisbet, "nothing of his father's royal
ensigns [his arms being] composed of his two noble Feus, viz. Argent, a
lion rampant gules, crowned or (the arms of Poictiers), surrounded with a
border sable bezantee, or, (the arms of Cornwall,) and which were on his
seal of arms appended to instruments, anno 1226."[333]
5. Edmund, his son and successor, bore the same arms, only omitting the
imperial supporter.
6. The same arms are borne as the ensigns of the borough of Grampound.
Boroughs usually took the arms of their over-lords.
7. Walter de Cornwall, knight of the shire in 1311, an illegitimate
descendant of one of the earls of Cornwall, bore the same arms.[334]
8. Sir Geoffrey Cornwall having taken prisoner the duke of Brittany,
received in reward that nobleman's arms, viz. Ermine, which he made the
field of his own, retaining the lion gules, &c.[335]
The descendants of the bastard offshoot of the earls of Cornwall became
widely scattered, and, according to the practice of antient times, varied
their arms in every house. For example:
9. De Cornewall, and Cornwall of Oxfordshire, bore the =red lion= of
Poictou, debruised by a bend =sable=, charged with three =bezants=.
10. Cornwall of Devon omitted all traces of Poictou, but retained the
characteristics of Cornwall, viz., On a cross patee =sable= five
=bezants=.
11. Cornwall of Essex bore the =red lion= of Poictou, the ermine of
Burgundy, and the =sable bordure bezantee= of Cornwall.
12. Cornwall of Salop bore the same, except that he made his lion
reguardant. His descent from the princely stock of Cornwall is hinted at
in his crest, which is a _Cornish Chough_.
In Glover's 'Ordinary' are these two:
13. Cornwayle, Argent, on a fesse =sable=, three =bezants=.
14. Cornwall, Argent, on a cross-patonce =sable=, five =bezants=.
Many other coats borne by this name are given in various works of
reference. Nearly the whole of them retain one or other of the charges and
tinctures of the coat from which they were primarily borrowed. Similar
arms are also borne by other names connected with the county.
15. Chamberlayne, M.P. for Liskeard, temp. Edw. III, bore, Argent on a
bend =sable=, five =bezants=. It seems exceedingly probable that this
gentleman, or one of his ancestors, held the office (unde nomen) of
Chamberlain to the earls of Cornwall, who paid him for his services with a
few of their bezants.
16. Killegrew of Cornwall bore, Argent, an =eagle= displayed with two
heads =sable=, within a =bordure sable bezantee=. _Crest._ A demi-=lyon=
rampant, =gules=, charged on the flank with two =bezants=. I cannot trace
any connexion between this family (which was of great antiquity) and the
earls of Cornwall; but the similarity between these bearings and those of
the king of the Romans is too striking to admit a doubt of some connexion.
17. Cole of Cornwall bears, inter alia, a =bordure sable=, charged
alternately with =bezants= and annulets.
18. Carlyon of Cornwall bore =sable=, between three towers ... a =bezant=.
Query. Did the founder of this family hold the office of castellan to the
earls of Cornwall?
Many Cornish families bear double-headed =eagles=, and the number bearing
=bezants= is really astonishing. In the foregoing enumeration I have
confined myself to such of the latter as are borne upon sable.
It is probable that if the arms of other districts were examined they
would produce a similar result; and I doubt not that, carrying out a large
series of such investigations, the majority of our armorial bearings might
be traced to a comparatively small number of antient baronial coats.
[Illustration]
Appendix C.
ABATEMENTS.
An Abatement of Honour is defined as a mark introduced into the paternal
coat to indicate some base or ungentlemanlike behaviour on the part of the
bearer. The number of these figures is, as usual, _nine_, and they are all
tinctured of the _stainant_ or disgraceful colours, tenne and sanguine.
The first is the delf tenne, assigned to him who revokes his challenge. 2.
The escocheon reversed sanguine, occupying the middle point of the arms,
is the sign of disgrace proper to him who offends the chastity of virgin,
wife, or widow, or flies from his sovereign's banner. 3. The point-dexter
parted tenne is for him who boasts of valiant actions he never performed.
4. The point-in-point sanguine is the badge of a coward. 5. The point
champaine tenne attaches to him who breaks the laws of chivalry by slaying
a prisoner after he has demanded quarter. 6. The liar should bear the
plain-point sanguine. 7. The gore sinister tenne is the punishment of the
soldier who acts in a cowardly manner towards his enemy. 8. The gusset
sanguine, if on the right side, denotes adultery, and if on the left,
drunkenness. 9. The last and greatest 'abatement of honour' is the
reversing or turning upside down of the whole shield: this belongs to the
traitor. From these abatements originates the expression--"He has a _blot_
in his scutcheon."
It is scarcely necessary to state that 'abatements of honour' exist only
in theory. Who ever did or would voluntarily bear a badge of disgrace?
Every one deserving either of them would sooner relinquish all claim to
the bearing of arms than continue it with such a stigma.
Leigh, Guillim, and other old writers are sufficiently prolix on this
subject, which would seem to belong exclusively to English heraldry; for
Menestrier calls them _English fooleries_ ('Sottises Anglaises,') and
Montagu thinks "we shall seek in vain for a more appropriate designation."
A singular mistake prevails among the vulgar respecting the "bloody hand,"
borne in the arms of Baronets. I have been very seriously and
_confidentially_ told, that murders had been committed by the ancestors of
such and such families, and that the descendants were compelled to bear
this dreadful emblem in consequence. According to the same sapient
authorities, it can only be got rid of by the bearer's submitting, either
in his own person or by proxy, _to pass seven years in a cave, without
either speaking or cutting his nails and beard for that length of time_!
The intelligent reader needs not be informed that this supposed badge of
infamy is really a mark of honour, derived from the arms of the province
of Ulster in Ireland, the defence and colonization of which was the
specious plea upon which the order of Baronets was created by James I.
[Illustration]
Appendix D.
GRANT OF ARMS.
(_Referred to at p. 35, note._)
A touts pnts et advenir qui ces pnts lettres verront ou orront Thomais
Trowte autrement dit Norrey roy d'armes du norst de cestuy royalme
d'Angleterre salut et dilection avec humble recomendacion: Equitie veult
et raison ordonne que les homes vertueulx et de noble courage soient
per leurs merites par renommee remunerez et non par seulment leurs
personnes en ceste vie mortelle tant breife & transitoire mes apres euls
ceulx qui de leurs corpes ystront et serront procreez soient en touts
placs degraund honneur perpetuellem{t} devant autres luisans par
certaines ensignes et de monstrances d'honneur et gentillesse. C'est
ascavoir de blason heaillme & tymbre a fine que a leur example autres plus
sefforcent de pseverement user leurs joures en faitz d'armes et ouvres
verteuces pour acquirer la renowme d'auncienne gentillesse en leurs lignes
& posterite: Et pource Je Norrey roy d'armes desusdit que non pas seulm{t}
par commune renoume mais aussi par le report et testemoigne d'autres
nobles homes dignes de fois suy pour vray adverty et enforme que Alan
Trowte natef de la counte de Norff. a longem{t}. poursuey les faicts de
vertues et tant en ce quen autres ces affayres s'est porte vertuesment et
honnor ablement gouverne tellement q'ill a bien deservy et est bien digne
que doresnavannt perpetuellement lui et sa posterite soyent en touts
placs honurables admits, renomeez, countez, nombrez, et receivez en nombre
et en la campaigne dez autreiz auncients gentils et nobleis hommes: et
pour la remembrance du celle sagentilesse par sa vertue del authorite et
povoir annexes et attribues a men dit office de roy d'armes Jay devise,
ordonne et assignee au dit Alan Trowte par luy et sa dite posterite le
blason, heaulme et tymbre, en la maniere qui sensuit c'est ascavoir ung
escu d'or ung cheveron de purpure troys testes moriens de sable crounes de
troyes trovels d'argent: le timbre sur le heaulme ung teste morien assis
dedans ung torse entre deux eliez pale du Champ et du cheveron & emant
elle de sables sommees de cinq foyles doublee d'or si come le picture en
le merge cy devant le demonstre: A voyir et tenir par luy et sa dit
posterite et eux on revestir a tous jourmais. En testemoiging de ce Je
Norrey roy d'armes desus nomee ay signe de ma main et selle de mon seale
ces p'senteis fait et donne a Londrez le viij jour de novebre l'an de
nre seig{n} Jesus Christ mccclxxvj et l'an de nre seig{n} roy Edwarde le
Tierce apres le conquest xvj.
This Patent was examined with the Record in the College of Arms by
Charles Townley, York Herald, 29. Apr. 1745.
N. B. There is a mistake in the date, either in the year of Our Lord, or
of the King.
[Illustration]
Appendix E.
[Illustration]
That the curious relic of brass found at Lewes (alluded to at p. 39[336]),
was the sword-pommel of Prince Richard, King of the Romans, was an easy
and natural inference from its rounded form, so similar to that observed
on ancient swords, and from its being found where that Prince is known to
have been engaged in the great battle of 1264. Further examination,
however, proves this supposition to be erroneous, and by reference to page
589, in vol. xxv of 'Archaeologia,' it will be seen so closely to
resemble, in form, material, workmanship, and heraldic bearings, the two
ancient steelyard weights found in Norfolk, and there represented, that
its identity with their former use must be at once recognized. The Lewes
relic is smaller than the two other weights, and is deficient in the upper
part, through which the suspending hook was passed, but, as it now weighs
18-1/2 oz., it was probably, when perfect, a 2 lbs. weight. It is
remarkable that all these weights, thus found at distant localities, and
all evidently of the same era, the thirteenth century, should bear the
arms of the King of the Romans,[337] though in each instance intentionally
varied, in order, probably, to signify more readily to the eye the
intended amount of each weight when in use. Sandford (Geneal. Hist., p.
95) says that the King of the Romans did not bear the arms of his father,
King John, but on the larger Norfolk specimen the three royal lions are
exhibited passant, sinisterwise, a remarkable difference, of which only
one other similar example is known, on the ancient stamped tiles of
Horsted-Keynes Church, co. Sussex, where the Prince's arms, as earl of
Cornwall, are also extant. This Prince had a grant of the stanneries and
mines of Cornwall, held by service of five knights' fees, (vide Dugdale's
Baronage,) and Sandford says that "he got much money by farming the mint,"
but he would not appear to derive from these sources any peculiar right to
stamp with his own arms all the weights of the kingdom. He is also
mentioned (Madox, Hist. Exch.) as sitting with others of the king's
council in the Court of Exchequer in 14{o} and 54{o} of Henry III: there
was an ancient officer of that court, called a Pesour, Ponderator, or
Weigher, but the family of Windesore held this office for four generations
by hereditary serjeantry, during the reigns of kings John and Henry III.
It would seem more probable, therefore, that these weights were stamped
with his arms,[338] by the king of the Romans, in the ordinary exercise of
his baronial rights, for the common use of his own officers in his widely
extended domains, and especially for those of his own personal household,
in order efficiently to check the entries and deliveries of the stores of
food and forage necessary for the supply of his numerous retinue. The
contemporary accounts of his sister, the Princess Eleanor, wife of the
great Simon, earl of Leicester, in 1265 (recently published by the
Roxburghe Club), show with what minute detail and accuracy such expenses
in a large household were regulated, and superintended by the steward of a
great personage. The steward of the king of the Romans may have been thus
busily employed at Lewes in measuring out with this identical weight their
scanty rations to his Cornish troops, until surprised by the hurry of the
fatal battle, in which--for human bones were found with the weight near
the Castle gateway--he may have continued to clutch it faithfully, even in
death. Prince Richard embarked at Yarmouth in 1253, on his way to his
coronation as king, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and he went to Cologne in 1267, to
marry his German bride, Beatrice. On one of these occasions, when he would
have been accompanied by a large suite, or on some other passage through
Norfolk, which was a customary route to Germany, the two interesting
weights found there may have been accidentally dropped.
[Illustration]
C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Yorke's 'Union of Honour.'
[2] The general ignorance of Heraldry even among the well-educated may be
illustrated by the fact that not many months since the Commissioners of
Assessed Taxes decided that a person who sealed his letters with a Thistle
surrounded by the words '=Dinna Forget=,' was liable to the charge for
armorial bearings, albeit the device contained neither shield, helmet,
wreath, nor any other _necessary_ element of heraldric insignia!
[3] Woodham's 'Application of Heraldry to the Illustration of various
University and Collegiate Antiquities;' Nos. 4 and 5 of the publications
of the Cambridge Antiq. Soc.--an interesting essay, which would be none
the worse if divested of a few remarks on "church principles,"
"conventicles," "Cobbett," and the "Morning Chronicle,"--subjects as
irrelevant as the whims of old Morgan, or any other heraldric writer of
the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
[4] Woodham.
[5] Grimaldi. Orig. Gen. p. 82.
[6] Vide p. 254.
[7] Some curious specimens (for example) of this kind of history occur in
the writings of John Rous of Warwick, temp. Edw. IV. His _History of
England_ is compiled indiscriminately _from the Bible_ and from monastic
writers. Moses, he tells us, does not mention all the cities founded
before the deluge, but Barnard de Breydenback, dean of Mayence, does! With
the same taste he acquaints us, that, though the book of Genesis says
nothing of the matter, Giraldus Cambrensis writes, that Caphera or Cesera,
Noah's niece, being apprehensive of the deluge, set out for Ireland,
where, with three men and fifty women, she arrived safe with one ship, the
rest perishing in the general destruction! Vide Walpole's Historic Doubts.
[8] Morgan. Adam's Shield, p. 99.
[9] Morgan. Adam's Shield, p. 100.
[10] "God himselfe set a marke upon Cain. But you perhaps will say, that
was Stigma, and not Digma, a brand, not an ornament." Bolton's Armories.
[11] 'Three _rests_ gules.' A difference of opinion exists as to what this
charge represents. Some blazon it a _horseman's rest_, and assert that it
was the _rest_ in which the tilting-spear was fixed. Others contend that
it was a wind instrument called the Clarion or Claricorde; while "Leigh
and Boswell will have them to be _sufflues_, instruments which transmit
the wind from the bellows to the organ." Lastly, Minsheu advises those who
blazon them _rests_, to call them brackets or _organ-rests_; and this is
evidently the sense implied by Morgan.
[Illustration]
[12] The correctness of these extracts, historically and etymologically
considered, needs no comment.
[13] Numb. ii. 2. "Every man shall pitch by his own standard, with the
ensign of his father's house."
[14] Gen. xlix.
[15] He couched as a lion....
[16] Zebulon shall be for an haven of ships....
[17] Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens....
[18] Dan shall be a serpent by the way....
[19] He shall yield royal dainties....
[20] Naphtali is a hind let loose ... &c. &c. &c.
[21] Sprinkled with drops of water.
[22] Morgan gives the preamble of the Letters Patent of King David _for
the warrant of a pedigree_. It commences with "Omnibus, &c. David, Dei
gratia Rex Juda et Israel, universis et singulis," &c.!!
[23] Leigh's Accedens of Armory.
[24] Boke of St. Alb. It will be seen in this extract that the origin of
arms is referred to other times than those mentioned in the former
quotations. Several similar discrepancies occur in the work, proving it to
have been a compilation from different and conflicting authorities.
[25] Miscellaneous Collection.
[26] See vignette at the head of this chapter.
[27] Those who wish for other examples of this fictitious heraldry may
find in Ferne's 'Blazon of Gentrie,' the arms of Osyris king of Egypt,
Hercules king of Lybia, Macedonus, Anubis, Minerva, Semiramis, Tomyris,
Delborah (Judge of Israell), Jahel the Kenite, and Judith. These six last
mentioned, together with the Empress Maud, Elizabeth of Arragon, and Joan
of Naples, constitute the "nine worthies amongst women." Ferne, 220 et
seq., where their arms are engraved.
Upon the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of England, a
controversy arose between the heralds of the two nations respecting the
priority of right to the first quarter in the British achievement. The
Scottish officers maintained that as Scotland was the older sovereignty,
its tressured lion should take precedence of the three lions-passant, or,
as they called them, the _leopards_, of England. This was an indignity
which the English heralds could not brook, and they employed Sir William
Segar to investigate the antiquity of our national ensigns. Segar's
treatise on this subject, dedicated to his majesty, contains some fine
examples of fictitious heraldry. He begins with the imaginary story of
Brutus, king of Britain, a thousand years before the Christian era, and
his division of the island between his three sons. To Locheren, the
eldest, he gave that portion afterwards called England, with arms 'Or, a
Lion passant-guardant, gules.' To his second son, Toalknack, he assigned
Albania, or Scotland, with 'Or, a Lion rampant, gules,' which, says he,
with the addition of the double tressure, continue the arms of Scotland.
And to his youngest son he gave Cambria, with 'Argent, three Lions
passant-guardant, gules,' which the princes of Wales used for a long time.
Vide Nisbet's Essay on Arm. p. 162.
Bolton (Elements of Armories, 1610, p. 14,) gives the arms of Caspar and
Balthasar, two of the three kings who, guided by the 'Star in the East,'
came to worship our Saviour at Bethlehem. He admits, indeed, that there is
no 'canonicall proofe' of them, yet appears to think that a painting "in
the mother church of Canterburie, upon a wal, on the left hand, as you
enter the north ile of the first quire," is pretty respectable authority!
It was a favourite crotchet with this writer, that heraldry did not owe
its origin to any particular period or nation, but that it sprang from the
light of nature.
[28] Story of Thebes, p. 2.
[29] Romulus.
[30] Vide Donaldson on the Connexion between Heraldry and Gothic
Architecture, &c. &c. &c.
The far-renowned shield of Achilles was covered with so great a number of
figures _pictorially disposed_, that it resembled modern heraldry still
less than those above alluded to.
[31] Essay on Armories, p. 4.
[32] From a contemporary picture at Castle-Ashby, engraved in Pennant's
Journey from Chester to London.
[33] It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that all early nations
had their national emblems, for the ox of the Egyptians, the owl of the
Athenians, the eagle of the Romans, and the white horse of the Saxons
(retained in the arms of Saxony and of Kent), must occur to the
recollection of every one.
[34] Vide the next chapter, where a _rationale_ of these figures is
attempted.
[35] Dallaway, p. 9.
[36] _Blazon_ is closely allied to the Anglo-Saxon BLAWAN, to blow. There
are some however who deduce it from the German, _blasse_, a mark.--_Vide
Montagu's Guide_, p. 14.
[37] Planche Hist. Brit. Costume.
[38] Those who contend for the earlier origin of heraldry adduce a certain
shield occurring in the Bayeux tapestry, and resembling a modern coat
charged with a cross coupee between five roundles; but whatever may be
said of the cross, the roundles are probably only the studs or rivets of
the shield. Again, as there are several shields in which the ornaments are
exactly alike, the arms of a family cannot be intended. They also bring
forward the encaustic tiles taken up from the floor of a monastery at Caen
by Mr. Henniker, and now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries,
which they presume to have been laid down at the time of the foundation of
the abbey in 1064. The arms upon these, supposed to have been those of
benefactors, have been proved to belong to a date considerably posterior.
Among them are the arms of England, three lions passant, an ensign which
had no existence till the reign of Richard I, upwards of a century later
than the foundation of the monastery of Caen.
[Illustration: (Caen Tile.)]
[39] Dallaway.
[40] _Lybbardes_--leopards. It has long been a matter of controversy
between French and English armorists, whether the charges of our royal
arms were originally leopards or lions. Napoleon always derisively called
them leopards. The author of the 'Roll of Karlaverok,' described in a
future page, speaking of the banner of Edward I, says it contained "three
leopards courant of fine gold, set on red, fierce, haughty, and
cruel."--_Nicolas' Karlav._ p. 23.
Nisbet, who, as a Scotchman, viewed English heraldry with a somewhat
supercilious eye, decides in favour of leopards, and cites the 'Survey of
London,' by John Stowe, who quotes a record of the city of London, stating
that Frederick, Emperor of Germany, in 1225, sent to Henry III three
living leopards, "in token of the regal shield of arms." The same author
likewise mentions an order of Edward II to the Sheriff of London, to pay
the keeper of the King's leopards in the Tower of London sixpence a day
for the sustenance of the leopards.--_Nisbet's Essay on Armories_, p. 163.
[41] Dallaway; but Nisbet (Armories, p. 61,) alludes to earlier examples
abroad.
[42] Salverte. Essai sur les Noms d'Hommes, (Paris, 1824.) vol. I, p. 240.
[43] Dall. pp. 31-32. The offering of trophies to the Deity is of a much
earlier origin, and it was derived from the nations of antiquity. The Old
Testament furnishes us with several instances, the classics with many
more: "It was very common," says Robinson, "to dedicate the armour of the
enemy, and to suspend it in temples."--Vide Homer, Iliad, vii. 81, "I will
bear his armour to Troy, and hang it up in the temple of Apollo;" and
Virgil, AEn. vii, describes a temple hung round with
----"helmets, darts and spears,
And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars,
And broken beaks of ships, _the trophies of their wars_."
_Dryden_, vii. 252.
But, what is more to our purpose, "It was also customary to dedicate to
the gods their own weapons, when they retired from the noise of war to a
private life." (Rob. Archaeolog. Graec.) From I Sam. xxi, 9, it appears that
David, after his victory over Goliath, had dedicated the Philistine's
sword to God as a trophy. "Behold it is here," says the priest, on a
subsequent occasion, "wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod." In I Chron. x,
10, we read that the Philistines put the armour of Saul "in the house of
their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon;" and, in xxvi,
27, we are told that "out of the spoils won in battles did they (the
Israelites) dedicate to maintain the House of the Lord."
[44] Hist. Poet. i, 302.
[45] The second book of Upton's treatise, written in the fifteenth
century, is entitled 'Of _Veterans_, now called Heralds.'
[46] Nicolas' Karlaverok, p. 4.
[47] Nicolas' Karlaverok, p. 44. The charge here blazoned, a cross patee,
is, in fact, a cross patonce.
[48] Ibid., Notes, p. 368.
[49] Waterhouse's Discourse, p. 77.
[50] Let it not be understood from this remark that I mean in the
slightest degree to advocate war as a means of acquiring national
greatness. The war which Edward waged against France was totally
unjustifiable; and the desolating civil wars which followed the
misgovernment of his pusillanimous grandson Richard, were (as many of our
subsequent wars have been) a disgrace to the very name of England.
[51] Strutt's Roy. and Eccl. Antiq.
[52] Holinshed.
[53] The engraving above is from Royal MS., 14 E. iii. Brit. Mus.
[54] Decline and Fall, v. 6, p. 59.
[55] Apparently the village of Retiers, near Rennes, in Brittany.
[56] De Controversia in Curia Militari inter R. de Scrope and R.
Grosvenor, Milites, Rege Ricardo Secundo, 1385-1390. E Recordis in Turre,
Lond. Asservatis, vol. i, p. 178.
[57] Vide Historical and Allusive Arms; Loud. 1803, p. 43, et seq.
Anecdotes of Heraldry and Chivalry; Worcester, 1795.
[58] Hutchinson's Cumberland, vol. i, p. 314. The arms borne by a junior
branch of the Blencowes are 'Gules, a quarter argent,' the original coat
of the family. The baron of Graystock's grant is sometimes borne as a
quartering. The arms of his lordship, from which it is borrowed, were
'Barry of six, _argent_ and _azure_, over all three _chaplets_ gules.'
According to a family tradition, Adam de Blencowe was standard-bearer to
the Baron. Vide West's Antiquities of Furness, quoted by Hutchinson.
[59] Montagu's Study of Heraldry, Appendix A.
[60] One of the earliest grants of Arms preserved in the Heralds' Coll. is
printed in the Appendix. It is of the time of Edward III.
[61] "Nihil sibi insignii accidisse quia nec ipse nec majores sui in bello
unquam descendissent." Waterhouse, quoted by Dallaway.
[62] Dallaway.
[63] This was called _dimidiation_.
[64] The dimidiated coat represented on p. 36, is not the arms of a
family, but those of the corporation of Hastings. Here three demi-lions
are conjoined with three sterns of antient ships--a composition compared
with which the griffin, cockatrice, and every other _hybrid_ of a herald's
imagination sinks into insignificance. That this singular shield is a
dimidiation of two antient coats cannot be doubted. Three ships, in all
probability, formed the original arms of the town--the dexter-half of the
royal arms of England having been superimposed in commemoration of some
great immunity granted to this antiently important corporation.
[65] Query--Might not some of our English maidens, who are verging
somewhat on the _antique_, resort to this mode of advertising for a
husband with advantage? The odious appellation of "old maids" would then
give place to the more courteous one of "Ladies of the half-blank shield."
[66] Nisbet's Essay on Armories, p. 70.
[67] A lineal ancestor of Sir John Shelley, Bart. The date of the lady's
death is 1513.
[68] In the great hall at Fawsley, co. Northampton, the seat of Sir
Charles Knightly, Bart., is a shield containing the unprecedented number
of 334 quarterings. Vide Baker's Northampton, vol. i, p. 386.
[69] Vide Appendix.
[70] In the Temple Church, London. Tomb of Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville.
Vide woodcut at the head of the Preface.
[71] Boke of St. A. and Dall.
[72] The arms of the See of Hereford at this day are identical with those
of Thomas Cantilupe, who held the episcopate in the thirteenth century,
and was canonized as St. Thomas of Hereford, 34{o} Edward I.
[73] It is almost unnecessary to observe that the expression 'a merchant's
mark' is by no means appropriate; for such devices were employed in a
great variety of ways. They appear, primarily, to have been used as
signatures by illiterate though wealthy merchants, who could not write
their names. At a later date they were employed for _marking_ bales of
goods. Within the last century, many flockmasters in the South of England
used them for marking sheep. Although the illiterate of our own times
substitute a + for their proper names, it was far otherwise two centuries
ago, when they generally made a rude monogram, or _peculiar_ mark,
analogous to the merchant's mark of earlier date.
[74] Dallaway.
[75] C. S. Gilbert's Hist. Cornw. vol. i, Introd. to Herald.
[76] Historical and Allusive Arms, p. 347.
[77] Montagu, Study of Heraldry. But this is, perhaps, an isolated
instance of such early date, for Dame Julyan Berners, more than a century
later, says, "There be vi differences in armys; ij for the excellent and
iiij for the nobles; Labelle and Enborduryng for lordis; Jemews,
Mollettys, Flowre delyce and Quintfoyles for the nobles," (i. e. gentry).
[78] Cited by Dall. p. 127.
[79] Memoirs, p. 287. Cott. MS., Calig. A. xviii.
[80] Vide my English Surnames, 2d edition, p. 194 et seq.
[81] Montagu, p. 42.
[82] If Heraldry had to be established _de novo_, something of the sort
might be done, by giving each family a patent right to a particular
ordinary, provided the ordinaries were much more numerous than they are.
But as nearly every ordinary and charge is common to many families,
Dugdale's system cannot possibly be carried out.
[83] Hugh Clark's 'Introduction to Heraldry,' which may be purchased for a
few shillings, contains everything necessary to a thorough knowledge of
the art of blazon.
[84] Spenser uses this word:
"How the red roses flush up in her cheeks,
And the pure snow with goodly _vermeil_ stain."
[85] Roll of Karlaverok, p. 26.
[86] In the 'Secretes of Master Alexis of Piedmont' are many recipes for
making this article.
[87] There is an extraordinary difference of opinion respecting the
Mediaeval Latin, _Sinopis_. Ducange, with the authorities quoted above,
make its colour green; but the _sinoper_, or ruddle of commerce, is of a
dark red or purplish hue. In one of the Cottonian MSS. Nero, c. vi, fol.
156, is the following account of it: "Sinopim, colorem videlicet illum
cujus tres sunt species, videlicet _rubea_, _subrubea_, et inter has
media, invenerunt primitus, ut scribit Ysidorus viri regionis Ponticae in
urbe eorum quam solent ipsi Sinopem vocitare."
[88] Page 205.
[89] It is a prevailing error that the bend sinister is a mark of
dishonour, as betokening illegitimacy; this seems to have arisen from its
having been confounded with the baton, which bearing differs from it both
in being much narrower, and in being cut off from the borders of the
escocheon.
[90] Among the sovereign states whose armorial ensigns are formed of such
stripes are Cyprus, Hungary, Saxony, Austrasia, Burgundy, Arragon, and
Germany under the descendants of Louis the Debonaire. The private families
who bear armories so formed are innumerable.--_Brydson_, p. 66.
[91] These, as Mr. Planche (Hist. Brit. Costume, p. 151,) observes, are
mostly heraldric terms. Ounding, or _undeing_, signifies a waved pattern
or edge.
[92] Blaauw's Barons' War.
[93] Mylneris, miller's; yrne, iron; mylnys, mills; mylne-ston,
mill-stone.
[94] Furetiere, quoted by Dall.
[95] Accid. fol. 121.
[96] By a statute of temp. Edw. II. (apud Winton) every person not having
a greater annual revenue in land than 100 pence, was compelled to have in
his possession a bow and arrows, with other arms both offensive and
defensive; but all such as had no possessions (in land), but could afford
to purchase arms, were commanded to have a bow with sharp arrows if they
resided without the royal forests, and a bow with round-headed arrows if
their habitation was within the forests. The words of the statute are,
"Ark et setes hors de foreste, et en foreste ark et _piles_." The word
pile is supposed to be derived from the Latin 'pila,' a ball; and Strutt
supposes this kind of missile to have been used to _prevent_ the owners
from killing the king's deer. In the following reign archery, as a pastime
of the common people, began to be neglected, which occasioned the king to
send a letter of complaint to the sheriffs of London, desiring them to see
that the leisure time upon holidays was spent in the use of the bow. In
the thirty-ninth year of this reign, 1365, the penalty incurred by
offenders was imprisonment at the king's pleasure. The words of the letter
are, "arcubus et sagittis, vel _pilettis_ aut boltis," with bow and
arrows, or piles or bolts. _Vide Strutt's Sports and Pastimes. Edit.
Hone_, pp. 54, 55.
[97] Nisbet.
[98] Vide p. 47, Arms of Echingham, &c.
[99] '_Gules_, a tri-corporated lyon issuant out of the three corners of
the field, and meeting under one head in fesse, _or_,' was the coat-armour
of Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III. This is the earliest
specimen of _differencing_ I have met with.
[100] This is the usual notion of the old armorists, but Bossewell gives a
different statement: "The pellicane feruently loueth her [young] byrdes.
Yet when thei ben haughtie, and beginne to waxe hote, they smite her in
the face and wounde her, and she smiteth them againe and sleaeth (kills)
them. And after three daies she mourneth for them, and then striking
herself in the side till the bloude runne out, she sparpleth it upon
theire bodyes, and by vertue thereof they quicken againe."--Armorie of
Honour, fol. 69. On the brass of Wm. Prestwick, dean of Hastings, in
Warbleton church, co. Sussex, there is a representation of a pelican
feeding her young with her blood, and the motto on a scroll above,
'=Sic Epus dilerit nos=,'--'Thus hath Christ loved us.'
[101] The Heraldry of Fish, by Thomas Moule, Esq. London, 1842.
[102] Vide cut at the head of this chapter.
[103] Loadstone.
[104] Op. Maj. edit. Jebb. 232.
[105] Halliwell's Sir John Maundevile, p. 319.
[106] Succinct Account of Religions and Sects, sect. 4, No. 42.
[107] Some of the Greek coins of Sicily bear an impress of three legs
conjoined, exactly similar to this fanciful charge, except that they are
naked, and have at the point of conjunction a Mercury's head.
[108] Dallaway.
[109] The flower of the 'sword-grass, a kind of sedge.' _Dict._
[110] A work on the Fleur-de-Lis, in 2 vols. 8vo (!), was published in
France in 1837.
[111] The following jest on the _fleur-de-lis_ may amuse some readers. Sir
William Wise "having lente to the King (Henry VIII) his signet to seale a
letter, who having powdred eremites engrayl'd in the seale, [qy.
ermine?--Several families of Wise bear this fur:] 'Why, how now, Wise,'
quoth the King, 'What? hast thou _lice_ here?' 'And if it like your
Majestie,' quoth Sir William, 'a _louse_ is a rich coate, for, by giving
the louse, I part armes with the French King, in that he giveth the
_floure de lice_.' Whereat the king heartily laugh'd, to heare how pretily
so byting a taunt (namely, proceeding from a Prince,) was so sodaynely
turned to so pleasaunte a conceyte." (Stanihurst's Hist. of Ireland in
Holinshed's Chron.) Nares thinks that Shakspeare, who is known to have
been a reader of Holinshed, took his conceit of the '_white lowses_,'
which 'do become an old coat well,' in the Merry Wives of Windsor, from
this anecdote. (Heraldic Anom. vol. i, p. 204.)
[112] Essay on Armories, p. 10.
[113] Chevaux-de-frise (in fortification), large joists of wood stuck full
of wooden spikes, armed with iron, to stop breaches, or to secure the
passes of a camp.--_Bailey's Dict._
[114] Heywood's Epigrams and Prov. 1566. No. 13.
[115] _Wende_, thought; _mulne_, mill.
[116] Modern naturalists place it in the class cryptogamia, and give it
the name of _Tremella nostoc_.
[117] In reading this list it will be seen that it contains several
monsters not of the 'Gothick' but of the Classical era, as the chimera,
harpy, and sagittary; but it is a curious and characteristic fact that the
purely classical monsters were never great favourites in heraldry.
[118] Nisbet on Armories, edit. 1718; pp. 12-13.
[119] Workes of Armorie, folio 66.
[120] Cocatryse, basilicus, _cocodrillus_! Prompt. Parv. Camd. Soc.
[121] Hence sometimes called the basilisk, from the Greek [Greek:
basiliskos].
[122] Mallet (Northern Antiquities, ch. ix) says, "The thick misshapen
walls winding round a rude fortress, on the summit of a rock, were often
called by a name signifying SERPENT or DRAGON. Women of distinction were
commonly placed in such castles for security. Thence the romancers
invented so many fables, concerning princesses of great beauty guarded by
dragons and afterwards delivered by young heroes, who could not achieve
their rescue till they had overcome those terrible guards."
[123] Anon, Parag.
[124] Brydson's Summary View.
[125] Probably, also, by frightening their horses, to throw their ranks
into confusion.
[126] By an oversight in the drawing some small vestiges of wings have
been omitted.
[127] Barons' War, p. 168.
[128] 'Sir Degore.' Warton's Hist. Poet., p. 180, ibid.
[129] Barons' War, p. 169.
[130] "Regius locus fuit inter _draconem_ et standardum."
[131] Barnes's Hist. Edw. III.
[132] Vide Promptorium Parvulorum, Camd. Soc. voc. _griffown_. Leigh's
Accedens, &c.
[133] AEn. iii, 212, &c.
[134] Vide Vignette at the head of this Chapter for Maundevile's
representation of an Ipotayne.
[135] Kitto's Pictorial Bible, Job xxxix.
[136] Vide Congregational Mag. 1842 or 43.
[137] Kitto, ut sup.
[138] "What reason," asks Morgan, "can be given why the three brothers,
Warren, Gourney, and Mortimer, should every one bear a severall coat, and
derive (hand down) their sirnames to posterity, all of them yet retaining
the metal and colour of or and azure, the one _checky_, the other _pally_,
and the other _barry_?" Armilogia, p. 41.
[139] Huge.
[140] Accedens, fol. 194 et seq.
[141] Heralds.
[142] Accedens, fol. 7.
[143] Sphere, Nobility Native, p. 101.
[144] Ibid.
[145] Bibl. Herald, p. 168.
[146] Accedens, fol. 90.
[147] Ib. fol. 92.
[148] Accedens, fol. 98.
[149] Display, p. 230.
[150] Ibid. p. 203.
[151] Ibid. p. 215.
[152] These seem originally to have been arms of office. Their "character
was strictly emblematical, and their import obvious, consisting, as they
generally did, of a representation of the various official implements or
ensigns." "Little doubt can be entertained but that much of our personal
heraldry is derived from such a source." (Woodham's Application of
Heraldry to the Illustration of Collegiate Antiquities, p. 79.)
[153] Between 1240 and 1245. (LXIV in Coll. Arm.)
[154] Chaffinch.
[155] Sphere of Gentry.
[156] Vide cut at the head of the present chapter.
[157] Vide English Surnames, p. 72, second edit.
[158] Gibbon, Bluemantle pursuivant, who flourished subsequently to
Camden, made a collection of "Allusive Arms" containing some thousands of
such coats. His MS. is in the College of Arms.
[159] Vide the Chapter of Rebuses, appended to my 'English Surnames,'
second edit. p. 261.
[160] It is a fact not unworthy of notice that Nicholas Breakspeare (Pope
Adrian IV) and William Shakspeare both bore canting-arms; the former, 'Gu,
a broken spear, or;' and the dramatist, 'Argent, on a bend sable, a spear
of the first.'
[161] Debrett, edited by Wm. Courthope, Esq. [now Rouge-Croix.]
[162] Essai sur les Noms, &c., I, 240.
[163] Brydson's Summary View of Heraldry, pp. 98-9.
[164] Menestrier.
[165] Study of Heraldry, p. 70.
[166] Berry, Encycl. Herald.
[167] The ducal coronet antiently denoted command, and the chapeau,
dignity; but in their modern application they have no such meaning.
[168] Edward III is the first monarch who introduced a crest (the lion
statant-guardant) into his great seal. But this cannot be regarded as the
first instance of the use of crests, for they appear nearly half a century
earlier upon the seals of Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster. That they
were in common use in Chaucer's time is obvious from the poet's
description of the one borne by Sire Thopas, the tower and lily. Vide page
81.
[169] The crest of Exmew is generally blazoned as 'a dove supporting a
text =r= by a branch of laurel.' As to the letter, it is certainly an X,
not an R; and the bird is quite as much like a sea-gull, or MEW, as a
dove. Hence a rebus upon the name was doubtless intended =x=-MEW! The
crest of Bourchier shows the manner in which the crest was affixed to the
helmet.
[170] Herald-painters of the present day neglect this rule, and generally
paint the mantlings red, doubled or lined with white or ermine.
[171] In the seal of Ela, Countess of Salisbury, who was born in 1196, two
lions rampant, or rather _crawling_, are introduced to fill up the spaces
_on each side of the lady's effigies_. It is engraved in Sandford's
Geneal. Hist.
[172] The following are the royal supporters, as given in Sandford's
Genealogical History: Richard II, two angels; Henry IV, swan and antelope;
Henry V, lion and antelope; Henry VI, two antelopes; Edward IV, lion and
bull; Edward V, lion and hind; Richard III, two boars; Henry VII, dragon
and greyhound; Henry VIII, lion and dragon; Edward VI, lion-guardant
crowned and dragon; Mary, eagle and lion; Elizabeth, as Edward VI; James
I, &c. lion and unicorn, as at present.
[173] According to Nisbet, the earliest royal supporters of England were
two angels. The transition from one angel to two, and from two angels to
two quadrupeds is very natural.
[174] C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, pl. 3.
[175] Ormerod's Cheshire.
[176] Archaeologia, vol. xxx.
[177] Hone's Table Book.
[178] In the above sketch I have ventured to supply the head which in the
original is wanting.
[179] Montagu, Guide, p. 48.
[180] The coat-armour of a great family was of too sacred a character to
be used as the personal ornament or distinction of their retainers, the
private herald only excepted; and it was long ere this functionary was
allowed to invest himself in his master's armorials.
[181] Vide Chapter IX.
[182] Viz. Warbleton Priory, Robertsbridge Abbey, and the churches of
Thundridge, (co. Herts.), Crowhurst, Burwash, Laughton, Chiddingly, Ripe,
East Hothly, Wartling, and Dallington. As a proof of the value of
heraldric insignia in ascertaining the founders of antient buildings, it
may be remarked that, so far as I am aware, the Buckles which adorn the
whole of the _churches_ here enumerated, furnish the only evidence (and
most irrefragable evidence it must certainly be admitted to be) that the
family of Pelham were concerned in their erection or enlargement. There
are _histories_ as well as 'sermons' 'in stones!'
[183] From a Paper on the 'Pelham Buckle' read before the first meeting of
the Archaeological Association at Canterbury, 11th September, 1844.
[184] Montagu.
[185] The dogs here alluded to were greyhounds, a Yorkist badge.
[186] Guide, p. 59.
[187] Still retained in the collar of SS.
[188] Vide Chapter XI.
[189] The 'Hawthorn' is probably the 'crown in a bush,' used in
conjunction with the letters =H. R.= as the badge of Henry VII. This badge
originated in the finding of the crown of Richard III in a bush after the
battle of Bosworth-Field. (Vide Fosbroke's Encycl. of Antiq. p. 757.)
[190] Montagu, p. 75, from a MS. in the Pepys. Lib. Cambridge.
[191] Vide Exodus, iii, 14.
[192] Vide Judges, vii, 18.
[193] By _Montjoye_ is supposed to be intended the national banner, on
which the figure of some saint was embroidered.
[194] The motto of the royal arms, 'Dieu et mon droit,' is older, and is
ascribed to Richard I.
[195] Guide, p. 56.
[196] The modern motto of the family is 'Crede Biron.'
[197] 'Per linguam bos inambulat.' Ant. proverb.
[198] Vide 'The Principal Historical and Allusive Arms borne by Families
of the United Kingdom; collected by an Antiquary,' quarto, Lond. 1803.
Moule says, "But few copies of the work were sold, and the remaining
impressions were destroyed in the fire at the printing-office, which has
rendered it _a particularly scarce book_." (Bibl. Herald., p. 497.) On
this account I am induced to make extensive use of the volume, and to
carry this chapter much beyond my original intention.
[199] Archaeologia, xxix.
[200] Harl. MS. 2035.
[201] "Arthgal, the first Earl of Warwick, in the days of King Arture, and
was one of the Round Table; this Arthgal took a _bere_ in his arms, for
that, in Britisch, soundeth a bere in English." (Leland's Collect.)
[202] A very similar coat of arms, borne by the Lloyds of Denbighshire,
Barts., is said to have originated under similar circumstances in 1256.
[203] Hist. and Allusive Arms.
[204] Ibid.
[205] Fun. Mon., p. 629.
[206] Vide 'English Surnames,' 2d edit. p. 100.
[207] Vol. ii, p. 87, edit. 1768.
[208] Enumerated at p. 146.
[209] The vignette at the head of the present chapter was copied from a
brick at Laughton Place. The inscription, which is in relievo, is W. P.
(William Pelham) LAN DE GRACE 1534 FVT CEST MAYSON FAICTE.
[210] The painting is upon panel. An engraving of it is given in Bigland's
Gloucester, vol. i, p. 312. Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 52.
[211] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 60.
[212] I use the present tense _bear_, although in many cases the families
may have become extinct.
[213] Gough's Camden, vol. i, p. 89.
[214] _Bowles_--'Azure, a crescent argent, in chief the sun or.'
_Smith_--'Vert a cheveron gules between three Turks' heads couped in
profile proper, their turbans or.' This was an augmentation borne
quarterly with the antient arms of Smith.
[215] Supporters of Sir William Draper, K. B. (Hist. and Allus. Arms, p.
227.)
[216] Vide Robertson, Smollet, Stewart, &c. _in loco_; Grose's Antiq. of
Scotland, &c.
[217] Hist. and Allus. Arms, pp. 316-18.
[218] The name of Carlos is presumed to have become extinct; that of
Penderell is by no means so. The representative of the family still
continues to receive the pension of 100 marks originally granted to
Richard Penderell. Several members of the family, in various conditions in
life, have been connected for some generations with the county of Sussex.
One of them, a few years since, kept an inn at Lewes, bearing the sign of
the _Royal Oak_.
[219] A lion rampant within a double tressure, &c.
[220] A unicorn.
[221] Sable, a cheveron between three astroits, or mullets, argent.
(Historical and Allusive Arms.)
[222] Ibid.
[223] Hist. and Allus. Arms, p. 400.
[224] Hist. and Allus. Arms. (1803.)
[225] "Over against the parish church [of St. Olave, Southwark] on the
south side of the streete was sometime one great house builded of stone,
with arched gates, which pertained to the Prior of Lewes in Sussex, and
was his lodging when he came to London: it is now a common hostelry for
travellers, and hath to sign the Walnut-Tree." (_Stowe_, p. 340.) The last
remains of this inn were destroyed in making the approach to the new
London Bridge. For an account of them, see 'Archaeologia,' vol. xxv, p.
601.
[226] The supporters of this family are 'two leopards argent, spotted
sable.'
[227] Page 437.
[228] Peerage, II, 486.
[229] In the History of Birds, by the Rev. Edward Stanley (now Bishop of
Norwich), vol. i, 119, are some interesting anecdotes of the asportation
of infants by eagles, illustrative of the family crest, and the
corresponding story of King Alfred's peer, "Nestingum," who received that
name from his having been found, in infancy, in the nest of an eagle. For
further remarks, vide Mr. Ormerod's interesting paper on the "Stanley
Legend," in the Collect. Topog. et Geneal. vol. vii, which has been
reprinted in the form of a private tract.
[230] Penes Rev. Henry Latham, M. A., Rector of Selmeston, &c. &c., to
whose kindness I am much indebted.
[231] Vide notice of _Rebuses_, at p. 125.
[232] C. S. Gilbert's Cornwall, vol. i.
[233] The earldom of Oxford continued in this family during the
unprecedented period of five centuries and a half.
[234] Itin. vol. vi, p. 37.
[235] Leland, Collect. vol. ii, p. 504.
[236] Or, a fesse chequy argent and azure.
[237] Anonymous Paragraph.
[238] It is not unworthy of remark that among the North American Indians,
symbols are employed for the purpose of distinguishing their tribes. The
Shawanese nation, for example, was originally divided into twelve tribes,
which were subdivided into septs or clans, recognized by the appellations
of the Bear, the Turtle, the Eagle, &c. In some cases individuals,
particularly the more eminent warriors, formerly assumed similar devices,
commemorative of their prowess. "And this," says Mr. R. C. Taylor, an
American antiquary, "is _Indian Heraldry_, as useful, as commemorative, as
inspiriting to the red warrior and his race, as that when, in the days of
the Crusades, the banner and the pennon, the device and the motto, the
crest and the war-cry exercised their potent influence on European
chivalry."
[239] Reflections on the Revolution in France.
[240] Blackstone, Rights of Persons, ch. xii.
[241] Cited in Nares's Herald. Anom.
[242] History of Knighthood, quoted by Nares.
[243] Vide pp. 34, 35.
[244] A military expedition.
[245] The Tanner.
[246] There are two other expressions applied to this respectable class
which are extremely incorrect, namely, _gentlemen-farmers_ and
_tenant-farmers_. A person who by birth, education, and wealth, is
entitled to the distinction of gentleman, and who chooses to devote his
capital to agriculture may be properly designated a _farming-gentleman_,
though the occupation of a large estate without those qualifications can
never constitute a _gentleman_-farmer. _Tenant-farmer_, a phrase which has
lately been in the mouth of every politician, is as fine a piece of
tautology as 'coat-making tailor' or 'shoe-mending cobbler' would be.
"It maketh me laugh to see," says Sir John Ferne's _Columel_, "a jolly
peece of worke it were, to see plow-men made Gentle-men!"
[247] Quoted by Blackstone.
[248] Page 89 et seq.
[249] He was living in 1638, and was son, brother, and uncle to three
successive earls of Huntingdon. An account of him coinciding in many
particulars with the one here given is painted in gold letters beneath an
original portrait in the possession of his descendants: it is said to have
been written by the celebrated earl of Shaftesbury. (Vide Bell's
Huntingdon Peerage.)
[250] "The hall of the Squire," says Aubrey, "was usually hung round with
the insignia of the squire's amusements, such as hunting, shooting,
fishing, &c.; but in case he were Justice of Peace it was _dreadful to
behold_. The skreen was garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with
open mouths, with coats of mail, launces, pikes, halberts, brown bills,
bucklers, &c."
[251] Glory of Generositie, p. 15.
[252] The vignette is copied from the common seal of the College, which
has the following legend in Roman characters:
+ SIGILLVM . COMMVNE . CORPORACIONIS . OFFICII . ARMORVM.
[253] Dallaway.
[254] The former appellation was given to this mansion because it was
originally the inn or town residence of Sir John Poulteney, who flourished
under Edward III, and was four times lord mayor. Stowe calls it
Cole-Herbert, but by other authors it is generally spelt as in the text.
The name Cold-Harbour is common to many _farms_ in the southern counties
of England. There are several in Sussex which are by no means remarkable
for the bleakness of their situation, and a house in Surrey bearing this
singular designation is placed in a remarkably sheltered spot, at the foot
of a range of hills. Harbour means not only a sea-port or haven, but any
place of shelter or retreat: the epithet 'cold' is doubtless a corruption
of some other word.
[255] The title of Surroy was changed to Clarenceux by Henry V, in
compliment to his brother Thomas, duke of Clarence; the first king of this
name having been the private herald attached to the duke's establishment.
[256] Quoted by Dall. p. 141.
[257] At modern funerals it is no part of the heralds' duty to render
their 'coats' _guttee des larmes_!
[258] Equal, probably, to L1200 or L1500, at the present value of money.
[259] After the death of Richard upon the field of Bosworth, a pursuivant
(perhaps one of his own creation) was employed to carry his remains to
Leicester. "His body naked to the skinne, not so much as one clout about
him," says Stowe, "was trussed behinde a _Pursuivant of Armes_, like a
hogge or calfe."
[260] Among the Dugdale MSS. are the following memoranda of Tong, Norroy,
made during a visitation of Lancashire, temp. Henry VIII: "John Talbot of
Salebury, a verry gentyll Esqwyr, and well worthye to be takyne payne
for." "Sir John Townley of Townley. I sought hym all day rydynge in the
wyld contrey, and his reward was ij{s}, whyche the gwyde had the most
part, and I had as evill a jorney as ever I had." "Sir R. H. Knyght. The
said Sir R. H. has put awaye the lady his wyffe, and kepys a concobyne in
his howse, by whom he has dyvers children. And by the lady aforsayd he has
Leyhall, whych armes he berys quarterde with hys in the furste quarter. He
sayd that Master Garter lycensed hym so to do, and he gave Mr. Garter an
angell noble, but he gave me nothing, nor made me no good cher, but gave
me prowde words." Certes _he_ was a very naughty and '_un_gentyll Esqwyr.'
[261] It frequently happened in those days, as well as at the present
time, that parties used arms for which they had no authority either from
grant or antient usage. These were publicly disclaimed by the heralds who
made visitation. In a copy of the Visitation of Wiltshire, in 1623, are
the names of no less than fifty-four persons so disclaimed at Salisbury.
(Montagu's Guide, p. 21.)
[262] Noble, p. 105. In these heraldric displays the arms of the sovereign
generally found a conspicuous place. "The royal arms placed over doors or
upon buildings was an antient mode of denoting that they were under the
protection of the sovereign. When some troops of a tyrant were ravaging
the estates of the Chartreuse de Montrieu, the monks had recourse to the
antient remedy. They put up the arms of the king over the gate of the
house; but the depredators laughed at it, saying that it might have been
efficacious in times past (que cela etoit bon autrefois) and persecuted
them with more severity." (Mem. de Petrarque, quoted by Fosbroke.)
[263] Hist. Coll. Arms, 102.
[264] Ib. 102.
[265] Ib. 107.
[266] Mr. Woodham, in his tract (No. 4 of the publications of the
Cambridge Antiq. Soc.) says, "The styles of blazonry admit of
classification like those of Gothic Architecture. The bare deviceless
ordinaries agree with the sturdy pier and flat buttress of the _Norman_
age; the progress of ornament uniting still with chasteness of design may
be called _Early English_; the fourteenth century exhibits the perfection
of both sciences, as displayed in the highest degree of _Decoration_
consistent with purity; and the mannerism of Henry VIII's time, with its
crowded field and accumulated charges, is as essentially _Florid_ and
flamboyant as any panelling or tracery in the kingdom." (p. 11.)
[267] See Chapter XII.
[268] A 'Society for the Suppression of Duelling,' lately established,
enrols among its members many of the greatest and best men of our times.
All success to it!
[269] That the College at this period comprised several officers of
unimpeachable integrity cannot be doubted, while it is equally certain (at
least, according to popular opinion) that others were less scrupulous. "An
herald," says Butler:
"An herald
Can make a gentleman scarce a year old
To be descended of a race
Of antient kings in a small space."
And,
"For a piece of coin,
Twist any name into the line."
The satire may have been deserved at the time--it was a corrupt age; but I
am not sure that the reputation of the College has not suffered, even to
our days, from this biting sarcasm, which is as far from the truth, as
applied to the learned and respectable body now composing it, as Hudibras
is from poetry.
[270] Rushworth.
[271] In the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow are the following
entries:
"1650, Sept. 29. For defacing of the King's Arms L0 ,, 1 ,, 0.
"1651. Paid to the painter for setting up the State's Arms L0 ,, 16 ,, 0."
Three years earlier there is an entry of 5s. 'payd the ringers when the
king came thorowe the towne!'
[272] Dallaway.
[273] Witness the French Revolution, a period at which these distinctions
of gentry were temporarily abolished, as if, forsooth, bends and fesses
and lions-rampant had conduced to the previous misgovernment of the
nation! From the blow which heraldry received in France during that bloody
struggle it has never recovered; although, from some recent movements, it
appears evident that heraldric honours will, ere long, receive that
attention which they deserve in every antient and well-constituted state
in Christendom.
[274] The expense of the N.W. corner was defrayed by Dugdale, then Norroy.
[275] Noble.
[276] The present heraldic establishment of Scotland consists of Lyon,
king of arms; six heralds, Albany, Rothsay, Snowdoun, Marchmont, Yla, and
Ross; and six pursuivants, Unicorn, Kintire, Bute, Dingwall, Ormond and
Carrick. The Scottish College, as Noble observes, has not been much
distinguished for literature; there is, however, one example, a name
familiar to the readers of Marmion:
"Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount,
Lord Lyon king at arms,"
who was author of 'The Dreme,' 'The Complaynt,' and other politico-moral
poems; also of 'The Three Estates,' a satirical piece of great humour; his
most popular work was 'The History of Squire Meldrum,' which "is
considered as the last poem that in any degree partakes of the character
of the metrical romance." The principal functionary for Ireland is styled
Ulster, king of arms: under him are two heralds, Cork and Dublin, and one
pursuivant, Athlone.
[277] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 352.
[278] Ibid. p. 372.
[279] Noble, p. 372.
[280] Noble.
[281] Dallaway.
[282] It was printed in 1654 by Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter.
[283] That portion of the original edition which relates to arms is
reprinted in the Appendix to Dallaway.
[284] Or, by corruption, Barnes.
[285] Bale, de Script. Brit. viij. 33.
[286] It is worthy of remark, as sustaining the claim of Dame Julyan to
the authorship of the heraldric portion of the Boke, that at the end of
the treatise on arms there is a passage in which evident recurrence is
made to her former and undisputed essays. Speaking of the necessity of
attending to precise rules in the study of heraldry she adds in
conclusion, "Nee ye may not overryn swyftly the forsayd rules, bot
dyligently have theym in yowr mind, and be not to full of consaitis. For
he that will hunt ij haris in oon howre, or oon while oon, another while
another, lightly he losys both."
[287] Here the good Dame contradicts her own assertion; vide p. 36.
[288] Vide pp. 108, 109, 116, 117, &c. &c.
[289] Armorie of Honour, fo. 56.
[290] The heraldric term for a _cat_; vide p. 252, ante.
[291] The nails are omitted.
[292] Bishop Gibson records a piece of malicious revenge practised by
Brooke which alone would be sufficient to stamp his character with
opprobrium. Having a private pique against one of the College he employed
a person to carry to him a ready-drawn coat of arms, purporting to be that
of one Gregory Brandon, a gentleman of London then sojourning in Spain,
desiring him to attest it with his hand and seal of office, and bidding
the messenger return with it immediately, as the vessel by which it was to
be transmitted was on the point of sailing. The officer, little suspecting
Brooke's design, did what was required of him, received the customary fee,
and dismissed the bearer. Brooke immediately posted to the Earl of
Arundel, one of the commissioners for the office of earl-marshal,
exhibited the arms, which were no other than _the royal bearings of
Spain_, and assured his lordship that Brandon, the supposed grantee, was a
man of plebeian condition, no way entitled to the honour. The Earl laid
the matter before the king, who ordered the herald to be cited into the
court of Star Chamber, to answer for the insult offered to the court of
Spain. He, having no alternative, submitted himself to the mercy of the
court, only pleading, in extenuation of his offence, that he had acted
without his usual circumspection in the business, in consequence of
Brooke's urgency, on the pretence that delay was impossible. Brooke was
compelled to admit his own knavery in the transaction, and the consequence
was that both himself and the other herald were committed to prison,
himself for treachery, and the other for negligence.
[293] Moule.
[294] Referring to the edition of the Boke of S. A., printed by Wynkyn de
Worde.
[295] For extracts from it see several of the preceding chapters.
[296] In this hasty glance at writers on the subject of armory it would be
unjust to omit the names of several heralds and others who are either
almost unknown to the general student of English literature, or are
recognized in some other character than that of illustrators of our
science. In the former class may be noticed Sir Edward Bysshe, Garter,
(who published the 'De Studio Militari,' and another treatise of Upton,
and the 'Aspilogia' of Sir H. Spelman;) John Philipot, Somerset, and his
son Thomas; Thomas Gore; John Gibbon, Bluemantle; and Matthew Carter,
author of 'Honor Redivivus;' and among the latter Speed, Weever, Heylyn,
and Stowe.
[297] Moule.
[298] He was a musician, a lawyer, an alchemist, a herald, a naturalist,
an historian, an antiquary, an astrologer, and to use the encomium of his
friend, the notorious Lilly, "the greatest virtuoso and curioso that was
ever known or read of in England."
[299] Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vi, 342.
[300] Hist. of Cheshire.
[301] Book III, Chap. iii.
[302] The Holmes of which our author was a member were a remarkable
family. They were of gentle origin, their ancestors having been seated at
the manor of Tranmere in the Hundred of Wirral, in Cheshire.
WILLIAM HOLME, of Tranmere.
=====
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Thomas Holme, third son.
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|
(1.) Randle Holme, 1st son, deputy to the Coll. of Arms for Cheshire,
Shropshire, and North Wales; paid a fine of L10 for contempt in
refusing to attend the Coronation of Chas. I. Mayor of Chester 1634;
married the widow of Thos. Chaloner, Ulster King of Arms. Died 1655.
=====
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(2.) Randle Holme, a warm royalist, Mayor of Chester in 1643, during
the siege. Died 12 Charles II.
=====
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(3.) Randle Holme, author of the 'Academy,' Sewer of the Chamber in
extraordinary to Chas. II. He followed the employment of his father and
grandfather as deputy to the Kings of Arms. Died 1700, and was
succeeded in office by his eldest son.
=====
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(4.) Randle Holme. Died in 1707, in reduced circumstances.
=====
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|
(5.) Randle Holme and his sisters died before their father.
The heraldric collections of the first four Randle Holmes, relating
chiefly to their native county, are in the British Museum. Ormerod's
Cheshire; Moule's Bibliotheca, p. 240 et seq.
[303] Hist. Coll. Arms, p. 377.
[304] Moule, 435.
[305] The following works appeared between the years 1760 and 1800.
Douglas's Scotch Peerage, 1764, (reprinted in 1813). Kimber's Peerage and
his Baronetage. Jacob's Peerage, 3 vols. fol. Almon's Peerages; these
afterwards went under the name of Debrett; Peerages by Barlow, Archdall,
Catton and Kearsley. Many of these compilations bear the names of the
publishers. Two popular elementary treatises also appeared, viz. 'The
Elements of Heraldry,' by Mark Antony Porny, French Master at Eton,
several editions; and Hugh Clark's 'Introduction to Heraldry,' the 13th
edition of which, lately published, is one of the prettiest little manuals
ever published on the subject. Clark also published 'A Concise History of
Knighthood,' 2 vols. 8vo.
[306] Orig. Gen. p. 4.
[307] 1812.
[308] A village on the western bank of the Tamar in the parish of
Landulph.
[309] Desultoria, p. 6.
[310] This roll professes to give the names of the distinguished
personages who accompanied William the Conqueror in his invasion; but it
is a fact strongly militating against its genuineness that many of the
names occurring in it are not to be found in the Doomsday books.
[311] 1622, p. 51.
[312] The reason assigned by Peacham for Polydore's thus playing '_old
gooseberry_' with the records is that "his owne historie might passe for
_currant_!"
[313] Vide Sir H. Ellis's Polydore Vergil, printed for the Camden Soc.
1844. Preface.
[314] Vide notices of each in Horsfield's Lewes, vol. i.
[315] "The proof of pedigrees has become so much more difficult since
Inquisitiones post mortem have been disused, that it is easier to
establish one for 500 years before the time of Charles II than for 100
years since." (Lord C. J. Mansfield.)
[316] I, 10, p. 91, in Coll. Arm.
[317] The register of Alfriston, co. Sussex, begins with marriages if I
mistake not, in the year 1512, but as all the entries up to 1538, or
later, were evidently written at one time, they were doubtless copied from
a _private_ register kept by the incumbent prior to the mandate of the
Government. I mention this fact because I never heard of another parish
register of equal antiquity.
[318] In the MS. the tinctures of these shields are shown in the usual
manner by lines, &c. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are quarterly, or and
gules. The bordure of No. 2 is sable; the label of No. 3 is sable; that of
No. 4 purpure; and that of No. 5 sable, charged with plates; the charge of
No. 6 is a plate; the chief of No. 7 is quarterly, or and gules; and that
of No. 8 gules and or. The coat No. 7 is identical with that of Peckham of
Kent and Sussex.
[319] These shields are all, as to the fields, gules; as to the cheverons,
or; and as to the charges, sable.
[320] Id est, in the family pedigree. _Ed._
[321] The shields are all argent, the fesses azure, and the roundels,
gules.
[322] Quarterly, or and gules, a plate.
[323] Argent, a fesse azure between six torteaux.
[324] Or, a saltire sable.
[325] Ditto, with a chief gules.
[326] Gules, three bucks' heads, or.
[327] Or, a saltire sable, a canton gules.
[328] The first of these two is or, a saltire sable, the second argent, a
fesse azure, in chief three torteaux; the chiefs are both gules, a cross
argent.
[329] These three are alike, or, a saltire sable, the differences being in
the chief; the first is sable, the second gules, and the third azure. As
the MS. bears evident marks of haste, the reader is desired not to depend
upon the blazon here given.
[330] _Venter_, [a law term] a mother. _Bailey._
[331] In general the arms assigned to a county are those of one of its
chief, or most antient, boroughs. Thus the arms of Sussex are identical
with those of East Grinstead, once the county town; (although within the
last 10 years, for some unexplained reason, the _fictitious_ bearings
ascribed to the South-Saxon kings have been employed as the official arms
of the county.) But the arms of Cornwall are those of its antient feu,
attached to the territory, and not to any particular family.
[332] Morgan's Armilogia, p. 158.
[333] Armories, p. 39.
[334] Sandford's Geneal. Hist. gives Richard, king of the Romans, two
natural sons, viz. Richard de Cornwall, ancestor of the knightly family
commonly called Barons of Burford, and Walter de Cornwall, to whom he gave
lands in Branel. Walter de Cornwall mentioned in the text was probably
descended from the latter.
[335] Nisbet, 37.
[336] It is now in the possession of Mr. Wm. Davey of Lewes. The engraving
(from a drawing by Mr. Wm. Figg,) is of the actual size of the object.
[337] The charges on the shields are conjectured to be, 1, The
lion-rampant of Poictou; 2, The double-headed eagle of the King of the
Romans; and 3, The lion of Poictou, surrounded by the bezantee bordure of
Cornwall, (vide p. 310.) The workmanship is so extremely rude that the
bezants are scarcely perceptible.
[338] A similar example of ancient measures thus guaranteed by Heraldry
exists in the market-place of Aisme, a small town in Piedmont, where a
large marble block is adapted by four excavations of different sizes for
corn measures from half a bushel to two bushels. On the front of this are
two heater shields, apparently of the thirteenth century, with the arms of
Savoy and Val Tarentaise. (Vide p. 32, vol. xviii, N. S. Gent. Mag.)
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Passages in Gothic font are indicated by =Gothic=.
Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.
The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these
letters have been replaced with transliterations.
The original text contains letters with diacritical marks that are not
represented in this text version.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Curiosities of Heraldry, by Mark Antony Lower