The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 12

METCALFE. Three calves.

KAY. (Crest.) A griffin's head holding a key.

LETHBRIDGE. A bridge.

HARTWELL. A hart.

Sh.e.l.lEY. Three whelk sh.e.l.ls, as before.

LOCKHART. A heart within a fetter-lock.

FRASER. Three cinquefoils, or rather strawberry-leaves (Fr.

_fraises_).

CORBET. A corby or raven.

WOOD of Gatton. A tree.

BAIRD. A boar.

c.o.c.kERELL. Two c.o.c.ks.

FLETCHER of Carrow. Four arrow-heads.

SHEAFFE. Three garbs (sheaves).

ANDERSON. A saltier or St. Andrew's cross.

BROKE. (Crest.) A brock or badger.

WYLIE. A [_wily_] fox.

GRIFFIES-WILLIAMS. Four griffins.

WALLER. Three walnut leaves. (Crest.) A walnut tree.

OAKES. Three oak branches.

TROTTER. (Crest.) A horse!

BROOKE of Colebrook. A brock again.

DALRYMPLE-HORN (Elphinstone). Three bugle-horns.

KEY. Three keys.

FOSTER (Antiently written Forester). Three bugle-horns.

HOLYOAKE-GOODRICKE. (Crest.) An oak tree with a scroll containing the words "Sacra Quercus."

PAULETT. Three swords. The sword was the distinctive mark of St. Paul.

ROE. (Crest.) A roebuck.

A more thorough acquaintance with English archaisms and provincialisms would probably enable one to detect numerous other bearings corresponding with the surnames of the bearers; but these seventy examples, cited from one branch of our lesser n.o.bility only, are fully sufficient to prove that there is nothing mean or disgraceful in canting or allusive arms.

It would be a matter of little difficulty to fill fifty pages with arms of this description, but a few more, and those of the most remarkable, may be given. The family of _Still_ bear guttee d'eau, drops of water; STILLA, Lat. a drop; _Drope_, Lord Mayor of London, also bore guttee; and _Harbottle_ bore three drops or. _Vere_, Earl of Oxford, gave a boar, in Latin VERRES.

_Clear_, _Bright_, _Day_, and _St. Clere_ bear a 'sun in splendour;' the same luminary is also given by Dy_son_ and Pear_son_; while Dela_luna_ bears a crescent, and _Ster_ling stars.

The crest of _Holden-Rose_, as given in Baker's Northamptons.h.i.+re, may be briefly described as a hand HOLDING A ROSE!

Harrison bears a hedgehog, in French _herisson_; Pascall, a paschal-lamb; and Keats three cats!

_And_ bears gules a Roman =&= argent!

Brand, Lord Dacre, bears two _brands_, or antient swords, in saltire; Hose, three _legs_ couped at the thigh; and Pickering, a _pike_ between three _annulets_.

"Le meme usage (says Salverte) a ete alternativement cause et effet." We have already seen that mult.i.tudes of armorial ensigns have been borrowed from the bearers' names--it is a.s.serted by several authors that, in many cases, _surnames were borrowed from arms_. Salverte[162] thinks that many of the chiefs who were engaged in the Crusades a.s.sumed and handed down to their posterity names allusive to the charges of their banners. He also notices, from the history of Poland, the fact that there were in that country, in the twelfth century, two families called respectively _Rose_ and _Griffon_, and he thinks "we may with probability suppose, that both took from their arms those names, which no longer subsist, because hereditary surnames were not yet established in Poland." In Sweden, again, according to this learned writer, there is _proof_ that the n.o.bles followed such a practice. "One who bore in his arms the head of an ox a.s.sumed the name of OXENSTIERN (front de boeuf;) and another took the name of SPARR, on account of the cheveron which formed the princ.i.p.al feature of his coat."

"A particular instance of the armorial ensign being metonymically put for the bearer of it, occurs in the history of the Troubadours, the first of whom was called the Dauphin, or knight of the Dolphin, because he bore this figure on his s.h.i.+eld. In the person of one of his successors, the name Dauphin became a t.i.tle of sovereign dignity. Many other surnames were in this manner taken from arms, as may be inferred from the ordinary phraseology of romance, where many of the warriors are styled knights of the lion, of the eagle, of the rose, &c., according to the armorial figures they bore on their s.h.i.+elds."[163] At tournaments the combatants usually bore the t.i.tle of Knights of the Swan, Dragon, Star, or whatever charge was most conspicuous in their arms.[164]

The arms of Trusbut are three water-bowgets, 'Tres boutz.' Mr. Montagu thinks the name was taken from the bearings.[165]

The royal line of Plantagenet derived their appellation from the _Planta genesta_, their very antient badge.

There is certainly some probability that a few of our English surnames, particularly those derived from the animal kingdom, come immediately from an heraldrical source; though it would be a matter of great difficulty positively to ascertain whether the names or the arms were adopted first.

Without attempting to decide, therefore, which had the earliest existence, I shall annex certain surnames of an heraldrical character, which have found their way into our family nomenclature, and give the more prominent features of the blazon borne with those names, leaving it to the reader to form his own conclusions:

1. CROSS. Many families of this name bear crosses and crosslets.

2. SALTIRE bears billets and a bordure, but not the ordinary so called.

3. CHEVERON bears two cheverons.

4. CANTON. Several families are so designated, but not one of them bears the canton of heraldry.

5. BILLET. The same remark applies.

6. GORE. In various coats, crosslets, lions and bars, but not one _gore_, the only hint at the name being _bulls' heads_ in two or three coats.

7. PILE. A cross and four nails.

8. MASCLE. Some families of _Mascall_ bear barry of eight, others fleur-de-lis and a bordure, and the family of _Mascule_, a fesse.