"Such as are taken up by the caprice or fancy of _upstarts_, who, being
advanced to a degree of fortune, assume them without having deserved
them by any glorious action. This, indeed (he adds), is _great abuse of
heraldry_; but yet so common, and so much tolerated, almost everywhere,
that little or no notice is taken of it."
This was written in 1765. Archdeacon Nares, in his very amusing _Heraldic
Anomalies_, printed in 1823, says:
"At present, _similarity of name_ is quite enough to lead any man to
conclude himself to be a branch of some very ancient or noble stock,
and, if occasion arise, to assume the arms appropriate to such
families, without any appeal to the Heralds' office; nor would any
_Alderman Gathergrease_, living in affluence, be without such marks and
symbols on his plate, seals, carriages, &c., with no higher authority,
perhaps, than his own fancy and conceit."
It must be confessed that the middle of the nineteenth century offers the
most ample facilities for the would-be aristocrats of the age, and _that_
without troubling Sir Charles Young or the College of Arms; witness the
following advertisement cut from a newspaper of the day:--
"THE FAMILY LIVERY.--Arms and Crests correctly ascertained, and in any
case a steel die expressly cut for the buttons, free of cost," &c.
There can, indeed, be no doubt that this foolish practice of assuming arms
without right has of late years grown to an absurd height; and I fear the
assumption is by no means confined to persons who have risen by trade, or
by some lucky speculation in railways &c.; even those who have been
"_advanced into an office or dignity of publique administration_" have but
seldom made their "_instant request_" to the heralds "_to devise a coate of
armes to be borne by them without reproch_."
The episcopal bench, in particular, are very generally faulty in this
respect, and, for the greater part, content themselves (if not by birth
entitled to bear arms) by assuming the coat of some old-established family
of the same, or _nearly the same_, name. In the case of temporal peerages,
which are not seldom, thanks to the ancient constitution of England,
renovated from the middle and lower classes, the practice is more in
accordance with the precepts of _The Blazon of Gentrie_; but I believe
there is at least _one instance_, that of a lawyer of the greatest
eminence, who was last year advanced to a peerage, and to the highest rank
in his profession, who has assumed both arms and supporters without the
fiat of the College of Arms. The "novi homines" of a former age set a
better example to those of the present day, and were not ashamed to go
honestly to the proper office and take out their patent of arms, thus
"founding a family" who have a _right_ to the ensigns of honour which they
assume.