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Your Family Coat of Arms

Heraldry is all around us - on inn signs, in stained-glass church windows and as hatchments (armorial bearings of the dead) - and perhaps on the spoons in your cutlery drawer.

Imagine a football match with all the players wearing the same coloured strip. Not only would the referee get in a complete mess but the teams themselves wouldn't know which players were theirs and which weren't. It was the same in medieval times when it was necessary in battle to be able to distinguish between friend and foe: before the introduction of distinctive colours and badges for the opposing sides, there was frequently great confusion and many a disaster.

Initially, brightly coloured banners were used for identification, often with some form of emblem. This idea extended itself to shields and then to surcoats worn over chain mail (hence the term coat-of-arms). With the advent of tournaments as popular forms of entertainment, armour became much more elaborate and the emblem or 'device' was extended to the liveries worn by servants and members of the household. As heraldry flourished and became regulated by the College of Arms in London - as it still is - it became necessary to introduce a language whereby a herald could accurately describe arms. The language used was Norman-French - as it is to this day. The simplest arms are usually the oldest, and those with no crest or motto probably date from before the fifteenth century. More recent grants of arms tend to feature elements that associate the bearer with his or her career. For instance, Lord Zuckerman's arms pay tribute to his work for London Zoo and so feature a gorilla; Elton John's arms incorporate a keyboard.

'Reading' a coat-of-arms may look totally impossible, but you can easily break it down into a number of parts, each with its own purpose and meaning. There are plenty of books around that go into the fine detail. A 'complete achievement' consists of a shield of arms, usually with the addition of a crest born on a helmet, and frequently with a motto below. The crest was originally there to ward off blows to the head and often took the form of a device fashioned out of boiled leather. Fabulous birds, beasts and inanimate objects, such as ships and castles, were all popular.

Attached to the helmet is the mantling, which resembles and derives from the material used to protect the helmet and the head from the extreme heat of the sun encountered in the Crusades. Supporters, usually found in pairs on either side of the shield, are restricted to the more illustrious achievements and to civic arms.

The shield itself is where the 'shorthand for history' is to be found. As armigerous families intermarried, so the shields became divided and quartered (any number of even parts, not just four) according to strict rules. And so the simplest of arms could evolve, becoming more and more complicated over time, but encompassing the history of the family.

The motto has far more obscure origins. In some cases it may have derived from an ancient battle cry but it may relate to a more important happening in the history of the family, a religious bias, or even simply a pun on the name. The Barnard family, whose arms depict a black bear with a gold muzzle ('argent a bear rampant sable muzzled or'), uses the motto 'Bear and Forbear'.

Civic heraldry, which is connected with towns and cities, usually tells something of their history or connection with a particular family. For example, in the arms of Birmingham, two of the most prominent families are represented: the de Bermingham family by gold lozenges; and the Calthorpe family by an ermine fess (bar).

The heraldry all around us is far more than just decoration. Once interpreted, the origin and meaning of any particular coat-of-arms can expand the knowledge and understanding of both family and local history.


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