Family History - What is Heraldry?
What importance is a coat of arms to me?

Introduction

You might also ask “What is this language called Blazonry and how is this relevant to my family history or pedigree?”

Look around you: heraldry abounds in this country, beautifying cathedrals and churches, monuments of the famous and of country squires. Coats of arms are found on county boundary signs, on ambulances, dustcarts and policemen’s helmets.

You may be visiting great houses of noble families and find yourself surrounded by colourful displays of shields with genealogical pictures of coats of arms, badges associated with the family history, carved or painted coats of arms set over house entrances, on gilded gates, and displayed in windows, on ironwork, on family trees and in stone.  Heraldic symbols will be there, not only on the gates and over doorways but on iron backs in fireplaces, on china and furniture, and woven into curtains and carpets. Find the family chapel and heraldry appears in carved and illuminated ceilings and on tombs; everywhere there will be symbolic icons of the ancestry, of pride in the family tree. In a library there will be heraldic book stamps in gold leaf on favourite family books.

Heraldry is found abundantly throughout Europe. When you go abroad on holiday you will find displays of coats of arms on shields and banners everywhere. Heraldry appears in the streets and even on motorcycles and motorcyclists’ gear in Switzerland, on flags and banners in Italy, Portugal and Spain. Internationally the glorious display of heraldry identifies individuals of fame and fortune, or even of someone who has played some insignificant part in history but some part in their own family tree.  Most may be unknown except in their own ambience and family history, but they have been proud to be recognised by their personal heraldic emblems.

That is what heraldry is all about: identifying individuals for who they are and from what family tree they have stemmed. Not unnaturally, having begun to trace your family history you will be eager to discover your own coat of arms relating to you and your family tree. 

Cecil Humphery-Smith tells us about heraldry here and explains its value to family historians and genealogy in general. He is Principal of The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies (IHGS) and has been a member of the Council of The Heraldry Society for fifty years, becoming one of its Vice-presidents. He is also a long-standing member of Council of l’Académie International d’Héraldique.  Over the past sixty years Cecil, known to us as Humph, has designed hundreds of new coats of arms, crests and badges that have been officially granted to corporations and individuals, as well as discovering that many who have believed they have no coat of arms by ancestral descent have a perfectly valid claim to bear and use heraldic insignia that is often of quite ancient family origins.

In several cases, we have proved the family trees of individuals who are living today that entitled them to coats of arms recorded in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their pedigrees and family trees have then been registered at The College of Arms. On behalf of our organisation Humph maintains a personal relationship with each of the officers of arms responsible for the control of the use of heraldry in the kingdoms. 

YOUR COAT OF ARMS
To assist you with discovering to what coat of arms you might be entitled by ancestral descent and your family tree, we would look carefully at your family history and family tree, carrying out some preliminary genealogical enquiries.  You may say “but we are from working class roots; no way could we have a coat of arms. Anyway, what would we do with it?”   Well, you will be surprised what are the fortunes of the second and third sons of a duke, a generation or so later. In the vicissitudes of British family history it is as easy to fall from duke to farm labourer as it is to climb the social ladder.  It is all a question of ancestry, of knowing your family tree and genealogy back to its roots.  Having helped you on the genealogical road to knowing something about your family tree, we are now keen to see you display pride in your family history with your legitimate heraldic insignia.

The Language of Heraldry.
To assist you, our team of researchers are all versed in the language of blazonry in which coats of arms are described.  It is not just a secret language devised by heralds to confuse us ordinary folk – honestly! -  these are special terms understood by our artists. First the heraldic metals, Or, the heraldic term for Gold is said to signify supremacy and generosity; Argent implies peace and sincerity; and the furs like Ermine, and also the tincture Purpure signifying royalty, majesty, sovereignty and justice or grandiose aspirations, while Pean issupposed to indicate the pride of the peacock. Vert, the term for green, denotes hope, joy, and loyalty in love; Azure for blue is for loyalty and truth, Sable, for black is for constancy and, of course, also grief. Gules the tincture for red and the Pale relate to magnanimity and military fortitude. The Pale is called an Ordinary; others include the Cross which like the Chevron, denotes protection and the Chief dominion and authority.

Experts.
Our senior artist Tom Meek can understand the language of heraldry and interprets the designs that Humph conceives for new coats of arms or special renderings of more ancient ones. Dominique Hawkins is another expert artist in the team who produces sketches and paintings for approval by the heralds. Her calligraphy can be used to delineate a family tree that can be illuminated heraldically, and even historically.

What can you do with your coat of arms?
Once established, you can show your ancestral or new coat of arms on letterheads, in stained glass, on an heraldic flag or banner that can be flown from your house, even on a small flag from your car aerial! You can display your lineage and genealogy through the medieval symbolism of ancestry, the coat of arms. Your heraldic insignia or badge can adorn your pedigree, luggage, car, personal possessions and gifts within the family. “You have just taken my walking stick, young man!” Humph was told by an angry lady when he was 77. “I beg your pardon madam, but I know this is mine. There is my coat of arms on the front and my badge on the back!”

We have designed and arranged the installation of heraldic stained glass windows in houses and churches, carved stone shields to be set in the fabric of buildings, coats of arms on notice boards of hospitals, schools and colleges.  We are proud of our achievements in associating our studies of family trees and genealogies with heraldry, compiling family histories illustrated with the coats of arms we have designed for famous institutions, companies and individuals.

Most ancient churches and many modern churches in the country have their heraldic memorials and stained glass windows adorned with coats of arms and the beasts and symbols of heraldry. Places like Westminster Abbey, St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and St Paul’s Cathedral have the banners of orders of chivalry like the Knights of the Garter.  Locally to us, Canterbury Cathedral has its Great Cloister Vault abounding in nearly a thousand heraldic shields dating from pilgrimages to the shrine of St Thomas Becket during the 14th and 15th centuries.  The British Library and other museums as well as private libraries have collections of manuscripts gloriously painted in bright colours and gold leaf with coats of arms, historic pedigrees and family trees. The heralds at The College of Arms hold an enormous collection whilst Oxford and Cambridge colleges and The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies have many original heraldic manuscripts and armorial artefacts of great interest.

Popular magazines illustrate coats of arms associated with particular names from family trees painted by artists trained at The Institute.  Each picture identifies a particular person, as it did when the original bearer bore it in battle, on the tournament field, on his house flag, or his seal or signet ring.  Others have begun to make use of heraldry since the days of tournaments. Bookplates and shield plaques continue with the purpose of heraldic insignia of the knights and ladies of old, identifying individuals in the context of the family tree or genealogy in which he or she can be found. 

Who is responsible for issuing new coats of arms?
In England, Wales and most of the Commonwealth The College of Arms in London (headed by the Earl Marshal and the Corporation of the Kings of Arms, Heralds and Pursuivants) is responsible for issuing new coats of arms and recording entitlement to older heraldic insignia by registration of genealogical descent.  In Scotland, the Office of the Lord Lyon is the responsible authority for registration of pedigrees and matriculation of coats of arms. It has considerable summary powers. Ireland has an Office of Chief Herald who is responsible for the registration of Arms.  Canada has its own authority, and throughout Europe and America there are official and recognised private registries of heraldic emblems. Spain retains a college of chroniclers who are responsible for state registration of coats of arms.  Trying to discover whether a coat of arms may belong to a particular person and what may be the entitlement of the family to its use on stationery or signet rings is a highly complex matter. This is why Achievements has established its team of experts with access to records of all the sources internationally. It is a team that is ready to help you with your genealogy, family history and heraldry and with drawing up and illustrating your own family tree.

Where could my Coat of Arms lead to?
Finding a coat of arms associated with your family tree may lead to significant genealogical data held in the primary sources to which we have access.  For foreign coats of arms, the best source in Britain is the library of The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies where we have the most comprehensive collection of continental European armorials and other heraldic works from abroad as far a-field as Brazil and Japan.           

Why hire a professional?

By the beginning of the Stuart period, heralds in England were becoming slack in exercising their powers. Many formerly had received their education in law schools particularly in London, or in monasteries. King Henry VIII’s commissioners dissolved the religious houses whilst Thomas Cromwell sold off monastic property to the new gentry. Throughout the country in major towns, the new rich merchants of the Tudor age were vying with each other for social acceptance. There were engravers, painters, genealogists and eventually stationers anxious to satisfy them with coats of arms for their fudged pedigrees and genealogies for the family silverware. 

Several heralds and historians had made up alphabetical listings of coats of arms, usually in blazonry - the standard language of heraldry, the symbolism of which we have already outlined. These books came up for sale when individual compilers died or left the Heralds’ College. Some had been taken to the Netherlands with them during the seventeenth century interregnum. Few were printed until the 19th century. Engravers and stationers eagerly bought them from the growing numbers of booksellers and gained a monopoly outside the official body for producing paintings and engravings of heraldic designs in every media.  Their clients were ignorant of the authorities unless they were caught by the heralds who came around on their Visitations roughly every thirty years. Then those who had authentic arms and could provide their proofs for their family trees were registered with their pedigrees. These may have since been held among the records of the College of Arms. Those who had no evidence for the right to bear arms disclaimed that they were gentlemen or applied for new grants of armorial bearings by Letters Patent under the seals of the Kings of Arms.  This, of course, released the misappropriated or invented coats of arms to the stationers.

These heraldry merchants issued many coats of arms. Often their artwork was of poor quality but it might be recognisable. Frequently the same coat of arms as one authentically used by someone with a vaguely similar name was produced.  No entitlement was given by the painting or engraving at all.  Alternatively, someone without any blood relationship, genealogical link or entitlement but of the same or a similar name as a genuine armiger (bearer of arms) was given a certificate of arms. 

The painting or the certificate would become treasured as a valued piece of family history by successive generations of the family. We know of many dating from the 17th to 20th centuries.  Invented coats of arms were produced that resembled the arms of something similar to the name of a stationer’s customer.

This is where the expertise of the family historian comes in to examine the family tree and methodology of the genealogy.

Investigating the family trees, it has often been fairly easy to prove that there was no entitlement to the coat of arms shown but there have been several occasions when the true genealogical descent from a previous armiger with an authentic right to bear arms has been discovered.  Producing the proof and registering the pedigree has not only provided pride in the ancestry but some of its previously unknown family history.  There have also been a number of times when research has resulted in discovering a connection with a pedigree or family tree registered at the College of Arms, or a thoroughly researched family tree or genealogy in a private collection. 

Collecting the evidence has required finding seals attached to original wills, photographing church monuments of verifiable dates, discovering descents that previous generations had excluded from the family tree because of political or religious loyalties. Such editing of pedigrees was not uncommon during the Tudor and later Commonwealth periods of English history. Sometimes it has been necessary to trace the family history of those who went abroad during the 17th century as refugees from the Civil War or those who were soldiers during the wars of the 18th and 19th centuries and settled abroad. Their descendants have continued to make use of English or Scottish coats of arms, now found among records of Holland, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia.   However, to be able to identify a coat of arms, it is necessary to learn that special language that is used in the books and manuscripts that are available.

The heralds were originally household officers, later state officers responsible for organising and marshalling tournaments, jousts, state occasions and even battles. They kept detailed accounts of the devices that the knights and other military leaders and tournament contestants bore on their shields to identify them when armour obscured their features. The heralds would jot down what they had seen without having to make coloured drawings though sometimes they made lists using painted shields and occasionally both.  From these records, the language called blazon developed. It is derived from Norman-French and Arabic words picked up in crusading times. While there are some modifications from one country and era to another the use of blazon is basically universal.  As a result, we can send a postcard to a colleague in Finland, France, Spain, South America, or anywhere else in the world with a written description of a shield that we may have found.  If the identity can be discovered we will invariably have a speedy response telling us what it is, along with some description of the family history and genealogy of the individuals who bore the coat of arms.

The Study of Coats of Arms.
The study of the structure of coats of arms is essential. This aspect of the work of the herald is armory and it is necessary to learn the language of blazonry.  This will enable you to describe a coat of arms and a crest accurately. Using a number of fundamental sources you may be able to discover to which family tree or individual it belonged. These are called ordinaries and armories. Armed with these there is generally a good chance that the coat of arms can be found.  However, it may be necessary sometimes to look through page after page of illustrated armorials to find what may match.

Many examples could be given of the use of some knowledge of heraldry in historical research; often this is where the identity of a coat of arms becomes the lynch pin in proving as a fact what others may have surmised or have not been able to explain at all. In tracing the life of the medieval Master of the Hospitaller Order of St John, the description of a coat of arms provided final proof of Humph’s thesis, as another did in verifying the identity of a 15th century monument to Archbishop Arundel in Canterbury Cathedral.       

Be prepared in your quest for your genealogy to rub the medieval brass of an ancestor or to photograph a carving on a monument. You will find that once heraldry has begun to take over a part of your interest in family history, many unexplored avenues for further research into family tree will emerge.

While heraldry has been called “the study of fools with long memories”, it is certainly true to call it “the handmaid of history”.  It is certainly a welcome friend of the genealogist or family historian.

What if I don’t have one based on my family tree?
Your own family history can be portrayed in the symbolism that appears on your personal coat of arms.  If you do not have one by descent, you may be eligible to apply for the granting of a new one by the appropriate authority. Designing new armorial bearings based upon personal genealogy and family history is our speciality. Over the past sixty years Humph has designed several hundred new coats of arms that have been granted by the Kings of Arms under the authority of the Sovereign in England and Wales, in Scotland and elsewhere in the Commonwealth, with appropriate authorities also in Europe and North America.   The design must be unique and personal. There is no such thing as a family coat of arms, though because of associations a coat of arms may be identified with members of a particular family whose relationship appears on a family tree. There are certain rules to be followed according to the Law of Arms. Once the appropriate king of arms or heraldic authority has agreed the design and eligibility of the applicant, the necessary artwork can be prepared. First there is an approval sketch that the heralds determine passes the ordinaries, those books recording previous grants, so that uniqueness and originality are maintained without causing offence. Then our artists prepare a library painting that can be framed and captioned with the achievements of the recipient of the new arms. A black and white line illustration is made for printing purposes, for letterheads, cards, engravings, and a banner can be designed to fly from the house.  Flying the banner of a personal coat of arms is a particularly popular method of display of heraldry in Canada and elsewhere in North America as well as in Europe. Porcelain, glass, pewter, and silver can be decorated with personal coats of arms, thereby relating the individual to their family history and pedigree.

Thus heraldry is an exact science, a precise language, making an individual uniquely identifiable. It is also a thing of great beauty and dignity.

Recommendations.

Here are some books to help your understanding of the subject:

Papworth’s Ordinary of British Armorials (1874); C.R.J.Humphery-Smith, Anglo-Norman Armory Two (1984); Joseph Foster, Feudal Coats of Arms and Pedigrees (1902, the edition of 1989 by John Brooke-Little is illustrated in colour); J.B.Burke, The General Armory (1884) A.C.Fox-Davies, Fairbairn’s Book of Crests (2 vols, 1910) and R.Pinches, Elvin’s Mottoes Revised (1971). Those are important sources for English arms.   For Scottish ones there are two volumes, An Ordinary of Arms in the Lyon Register, Vol.1. (1672-1901) and Vol. 2 (1902-1973); and for the continent of Europe,  Comte Théodore de Renesse, Dictionnaire des figures héraldiques (6 vols. 1894-1903).

Of course, when dealing with so complex and arcane a subject supplementary to your genealogical research you would do well to come straight to us, the professionals, Achievements of Canterbury.

Please note all artwork in this particular section on heraldry is hand painted by our own artists.

Click here for further examples of the artwork we create to illustrate your family tree.