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Ancestral Scotland Ltd. is a Company Limited by
Guarantee (SC244818) first registered in 2003
The Directors are: David John Bruce Durie
David Donald
Alexander James Durie
Ancestral Scotland Ltd. is based in Edinburgh, Scotland
Contact:
ancestralscotland@hotmail.com
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The
Science of Blazoning - a guide for beginners
The
components of an Achievement
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Armiger is a Peer (in fact, a Baron),
and a Chief of name and Arms |
Most Armigers have simpler Arms |
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Metals and Colours
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There are only four main
colours and two metals |
The terms we use derive
from mediaeval French |
Basic rule -
no metal on a metal, no colours on a colour |
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Or = gold
Argent = silver
(usually depicted as white)
Sable = black
Azure = blue
Gules = red
Vert = green
In order to avoid
confusion colours and metals are usually given capital letters
(e.g., Sable, Or)
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Furs can also be used as colours, in which case the "no colour on a
colours" rule does not apply
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| Ermine |
Vair
(rabbit skins) |
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Gules, a cross Ermine
(Leithem) |
Ermine. a chevron Gules (Taillefer of Haircleugh) |
Gules, three cinquefoils within a bordure all Ermine
(Hamilton of Silvertonhill) |
Points on the escutcheon
(shield)
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Blazon:
Argent, a stag's head cabossed proper, on a chief
engrailed Gules, a mullet between two crescents of the First.
(James
Thomson, merchant, Kirkcaldy)
Read the blazon in this order...
1. The
field of the escutcheon (shield) which here is Argent
2. The
main charge or partition on the field (a
stag's head)
3.
Charges not central (in this case
in chief)
4.
Charges on the last mentioned (crescents
and
a mullet)
5. We try not to repeat ourselves,
so
of the First
refers to the first colour given,
Argent
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"Dexter" means right and "sinister"
means left -
but from the point of view of the person holding the shield, not the
viewer. |
Argent is silver/white. "Cabossed" means a
stag's head cut off and shown as above. "Engrailed" is the scalloped
shape of the Chief. Gules is red. A "mullet" is a
five-pointed star (in fact, a spur). |
The
Ordinaries
The simplest - and
commonest - shapes on a shield are simple geometric designs. They have
particular names.
Because they are the simplest, they also feature in the oldest Coats of
Arms.
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Diminutives
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| Divisions of the field - follow the same
logic... |
...as do positions on the field |
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Patterns and Lines
| Patterns are often made from Diminutives |
Lines of Division - may be applied to any line or
charge |
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| fusil = a flint; semy = patterned; gouttes = drops (blood or
water) |
Notice, by the way, the shield shape is not important, unless
specified in the Blazon |
Common
charges
A "charge" is anything on
the shield - which could be a geometric shape, as above,
an animal, an inanimate object, etc. Here are some of the most
commonly found. |
There are many forms of cross, including... |
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Attitudes of beasts
If there is an animal in
the Arms, it is necessary to say what it is doing -
and different classes of "beasts" have their own vocabularies.
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| "armed" = claws, "langued" = tongue, "gardant" =
facing forward, "regardant" = facing backward, "dormant" = sleeping,
"passant" = walking, "Proper" = the colour in nature. |
"attired" = stag's antlers, "displayed" = wings
out, "urvant" = head elevated, "erased" = as if torn off, "couped" =
as if cut off, "vulning" is particular to pelicans and means drawing
blood to feed her chicks, "naiant" = swimming, "volant" = flying,
"gorged" = collar around the neck. |
Let’s
blazon!
There are no "family Coats
of Arms" - all Arms are individual to a person.
However, everyone of the same surname will usually have Arms based on
similar
"undifferenced" Arms (usually those of the Chief).
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Follow the blazoning logic here...
Quarterly: 1st and 4th Or, a fess chequy Azure and Argent
(for Stewart); 2nd and 3rd Azure, three garbs Or (for the
Earldom of Buchan)
Arms of Stewart, Earl of Buchan
"garbs" = sheaves of wheat or corn
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Marshalling
- putting Arms together
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Mr. Barr (Gules, a fess Or)
meets Ms. Cross (Argent, a cross Azure) |
They marry, become the Cross-Barrs, and
their Arms are impaled
(put side by side... |
...unless Ms. Barr is an Armigerous
Heiress (inherits her father's Arms), in which case Mr. Barr adds
hers as an escutcheon of pretense to show he is carrying the
arms for the benefit of the grandchildren of his wife’s father... |
...and their children bear quartered
Arms:
Quarterly: 1st and 4th Gules, a fess Or; 2nd and 3rd
Argent, a cross AzureNote that the male name (Barr) comes
last, and the
paternal Arms go in the 1st and 4th quarters.
This can be read like a visual Family Tree. |
Here is a good example of
this in practice -
the Arms (here in the form of a banner) of Richard Walter John
Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of
Queensberry KBE, DL
 They
show the senior patrilineal descendant of Sir James Scott, 1st Duke
of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and Lucy Walter,
who married Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch. he took her
surname, and the Scott Arms (shown here) appear an an escutcheon of
pretence. |
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The Helm,
Crest, Torse and Mantling
| The Helm indicates rank |
The rank of a Peer is
shown by the Coronet |
Wreath or Torse |
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Sovereign - burnished gold, affronty,
i.e. face-on, with six bars, or grilles, and lined with crimson
Noble (Peer) - silver or polished steel, with gold bars or grilles,
and lined with crimson
Baronets and Knights - affronty (facing forward) with an open
visor
Esquires and private gentlemen - a barrel helmet of steel, in
profile, with the visor or beaver closed |
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Normally the Crest rests on a Wreath or Torse
"of the liveries" (main colours of the shield)
Here, the Torse is Azure and Or
Likewise the Mantling, which hangs
from the Torse, is Azure doubled Or
("doubled" meaning the inside colour) |
The crest
The Crest sits atop the
Helm, and started as a way of identifying knights and nobles in battle
or at a jousting tournament. Typically, it repeats an element of the
Arms, or refers to a family story, or is a pun.
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Armstrong
(a strong arm) |
Beveridge
(a beaver) |
Cockburn
(a cockerel) |
Crest and motto badges
This is peculiar to Scotland - although no-one may display anyone
else's Coat of Arms, it is permissible (encouraged, even) to wear
the Chief's or Armiger's Crest within a strap-and-buckle badge also
bearing the motto. This can be worn as a cap-badge, plaid brooch,
kilt-pin, etc.
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| A kinsman or kinswoman wears the Chief's crest
inside a strap-and-buckle, with the Chief's motto |
An Armiger wears his or her crest inside a
circlet with his or her motto, and may wear one feather |
A Chief wears his or her crest inside a circlet
with his or her motto, plus three feathers - this Chief also
happens to be an Earl, hence the Coronet of Rank |
Frankly, the Crest Badge is not a very old or original Scottish
device. Typically, a Clansman would wear a sprig of the Chief's
plant or another symbol (famously, a White Cockade) strapped to the
arm - hence the strap-and-buckle.
The idea of a Crest in a cap-badge comes from British Army
regimental cap-badges bearing the symbol and motto of the Regiment.
Because so many Scottish Chiefs were Colonels of Regiments, their
soldiers - many of them their kinsmen - wore it too. The idea of
surrounding the crest with a strap-and-buckle bearing the motto was
borrowed for the (Enlish) Order of the Garter.
The Crest Badge idea
spread to non-military uses in the period of Victorian romanticising
of everything Scottish - authentic or otherwise. |
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Durie
(a crescent, taken from the Arms) |
Beaton/Bethune (an otter's head, taken from the Arms) |
MacPherson
(a mountain cat, as Chiefs of Clan Chattan) |
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Crawford
(from a mythical association with King David and Holyrood) |
Wood
(a wooden club) |
Wallace
(a reference to William Wallace defending the Crown of
Scotland) |
Final
example - William Forbes-Sempill of Craigievar, Baronet,
Baron Sempill (granted 1885)
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These Arms were granted
when Sir William Forbes assumed the title and surname of Sempill.
The shield is blazoned:
Quarterly: 1st and 4th Argent, a chevron chequy Gules and of the
First between three hunting-horns Sable, garnished and stringed of
the Second (for Sempill); 2nd and 3rd Azure, a cross patée
fitchée Or between three bears' heads
couped Argent, muzzled Gules (for Forbes).
The Helm is that of a
Noble, atop the Coronet of a Peerage Baron.
Unusually, there are
two Crests and Mottos, Keep Tryst taken from Sempill (on the
dexter) and Watch from Forbes (sinister).
The orange tawny Ribbon
and Badge of a Baronet of Nova Scotia surround the shield.
As a Peer (and also as
a Chief), the Armiger has Supporters - two greyhounds Argent
collared Gules
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It may be (no-one is really
sure) that assume that hunting was one of the attractions of
the lands around Lochwinnoch, hence the hurting horns, stag's
head atd dogs.
The current Lord Sempill says: "I have always thought that
James IV had a sense of guilt in regards to those who died
supporting his father at Sauchiburn, which is why John Sempill
was made a Lord of Parliament".
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Forbes |
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