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Aegidiana - Armorial Bearings
Armorial Bearings
I.—British
HERALDRY is the organization for the ancient use of emblems and devices for the purposes of identification. It dates in England from the Crusades, but the hereditary use of armorial bearings did not begin until the reign of Henry III (1216-1272), and crests were not in vogue until the reign of Edward I (1272-1307). Mottoes were strictly personal, but in practice they have become hereditary, and are transmitted with the shield or crest. At first, armorial bearings were taken up at pleasure or granted by the Sovereign. Henry V (1413-1422) prohibited the use of them except by those who had them by descent or grant. This royal ordinance not being always observed, a Commission was appointed under the Great Seal to make visitations and correct abuses. These visitations began about 1500 and continued till the end of the 17th century. Anyone able to deduce descent from an ancestor whose armorial bearings have been acknowledged in any of the visitations is entitled to carry those arms by right of inheritance. When descent, either from an original grantee or from one whose right to bear arms was acknowledged at a visitation, cannot be established, the right to bear arms may be obtained by memorializing the Earl Marshall for an original grant. (BT). There is, however, at present nothing to prevent a person from assuming arms at his own pleasure. (BL). It is the practice in Ireland to recognize armorial bearings in use for three generations, provided they do not clash with duly authorized arms of other fmailies, and it has been suggested that this practice should be adopted in England. (BT). In Scotland, if you are the male heir of a grantee, or of anyone to whom arms have been matriculated, you are entitled to bear these arms; if you can only establish a junior descent you must have the arms matriculated to yourself, even if it be your father who was the grantee; if you cannot show any such descent, you must petition for a grant. (FC).
[Transcribers note: The two references to (BT) and one to (BL) have been hand amended to (BR) and (BO) respectively.]When Adam delv'd and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
The titles esquire, gentleman, and yeoman came into use in the fifteenth century. Joh. Gowfre, alias Golafre (2 Henry V), was the first person styled armigero or esquire. (FE). Robert Shallow, Esquire, was called by Slender "a gentleman born" "who writes himself armigero—in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero." The title armiger was, however, usually restricted to the eldest sons of knights—their younger sons, and all sons of other gentlemen, being described as generosus. Persons to whom armorial bearings had been granted were called "gentlemen," and took rank between "esquires" and "yeomen." The yeomen were freeholders who employed labourers to cultivate their lands—a superior kind of farmer in short. Next below them came the husbandmen who leased the land they cultivated, and were neither freeholders nor mere labourers. The above titles usually followed the name as suffices. The prefixes "Sir" (Senior), "Master" (Magister), "Mistress" (Magistra) were also used. "Sir" was applicable to knights— and also generally to curates, being the equivalent of dominus, the title next below Magister Artium (M.A.). "Master" was the early form of "Mister" (Mr.); "Mistress" (Mrs.) was applicable to both married and unmarried ladies.
[Transcribers note: The reference to (FE) has been hand amended to (FW).]Armoury
If heraldry were guided by reason a plough in a field arable would be the most noble arms.—COWPER
a
. The lord of this manor presented, as cupbearer, the first cup the King drank at his Coronation feast. The colour of the cups seems to have relation to the name as the the cups themselves do to the office, and the arms date from the acquisition of the manor temp. Henry II.b
three covered cups argent.c
arg. Crest—a hand couped, holding a sword. These, with other coats and crests, are beautifully carved in oak on the south door of Gileston Church. The door has been declared by experts to be about 450 years old, and the family is known to have been seated at or near Gileston since 1262, so the armorial bearings are probably older than the College of Arms. The Julian cross appears also on the monument erected in Gileston Church by Mary Carne, cir. 1724, to the memory of her grandfather, Major William Giles, &c., and among the Carne quarterings on monuments in Cowbridge Church and Ewenny Priory. On the first-mentioned monument the arms of Giles are quartered with those of Allen—viz., sa. a cross formée or. Over the dexter quarterings is modelled the head of a horse, and over the sinister a hand holding a sword—the crests of Allen and Giles respectively.a A later Argenton (I. of Ely) added as a crest a demi lion gu. holding a covered cup argent. (BQ)
b Crosses appeared on the field after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by Richard de Argenton, steward of the household of Henry II, who died 1246.
a The arms of St. Julian the Hospitaler are arg., a cross crosslet in saltire sable, the tinctures of the Gileston arms being reversed, as in the case of St. Giles and the Counts of Toulouse. (Cont. 1088 PL. I.) Possibly the similarity in the names Julian and Jule led to the adoption of his cross as arms by the Gileston family. There were several saints of the name. The Hospitaler was crucified A.D.313.
"An householder, and that a gret was he,
Saynt Julian he was in his countrie."—Chaucer.
His emblem was a stag, and he is often represented in a boat as ferryman.