CHAPTER XIII.

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; Cæsar'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 Genealogicæ,' 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 £50 a year. 1706. M{rs}. Ursula Allen worth £600." _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 quæ 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 bezantée, 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 patée =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, tenné and sanguine. The first is the delf tenné, 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 tenné 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 tenné 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 tenné 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 pñts et advenir qui ces pñts 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 & posterité: 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 nomée 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 ñre seig{n} Jesus Christ mccclxxvj et l'an de ñre 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 'Archæologia,' 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 gratiâ 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] Planché 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 coupée 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, Æn. 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. Archæolog. Græc.) 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 patée, 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 Mediæval 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 Ponticæ 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. Planché (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 ha