IDENTICAL COATS-OF-ARMS.

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happens that two families, bearing different surnames, carry coats-armorial which are precisely similar, as in the case of the Setons and the Edmonstones of Duntreath, whose common descent has been conjectured from the identity of their arms, viz., or, three crescents within a double tressure, flowered and counterflowered, gules. In blazoning the bearings of the different families of Edmonstone, in the first volume of his System of Heraldry, Nisbet does not, in any instance, surround the three crescents with the Royal tressure, and, in the case of Duntreath, he places an annulet in the centre of the shield. This circumstance is referred to by the writer of the account of the Duntreath family in the Appendix to the second volume of Nisbet (p. 158), where mention is made of the seal of Sir William Edmonstone of Culloden and Duntreath (who died in 1473), as exhibiting the tressure, to indicate his Royal descent, through his mother and grandmother, who were both "daughters of the Crown." In addition to the tressure, however, Sir William's seal exhibits an annulet in the fess point,1 but that figure is no longer carried in the Duntreath escutcheon. The use, by two different families, of a coatarmorial in which both the tinctures and the charges are identical, defeats one of the principal objects of the noble science. In the case in question, different crests and mottoes are, no doubt, carried, but the distinctive and essential portion of a heraldic achievement is the shield, and not the exterior ornaments. The well-known arms of the English Veres, Earls of Oxford, are quarterly,

1 See Laing's Catalogue, No. 305.

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HERALDIC CONTROVERSIES.

gules and or, with a silver mullet in the first quarter. The author of the Introduction to the sixth edition of

Guillim's Heraldry, after noticing the legendary origin of the star, as detailed by more imaginative writers, says that "it was only a distinction in the arms of that family from the arms of the Lord Say's family (a flourishing House at that time in the same service), which, excepting the star, did bear quarterly, gules and or,' the same with Vere, who was obliged to difference from the Lord Say; for two different families in one nation could not bear one coat without some addition.”

In olden times, the right to a particular coat-of-arms was sometimes very keenly and formally contested by rival claimants. Thus, in the year 1346, Nicholas Lord Burnell and Sir Robert de Morley appeared in the same arms at the siege of Calais, which led to a suit in the Court of Chivalry, held upon the spot. About forty years later, during the reign of Richard II., a famous heraldic controversy took place, before the High Con

1 The bearings of Lord Say appear to have been quarterly, or and gules, not gules and or; in other words,

2

the converse of those of the Veres.

1 See Archæological Journal, ii. 330, 396.

SCROPE V. GROSVENOR.

121

stable and Earl Marshal of England, between Richard, Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Sir Robert Grosvenor, a knight of the county of Chester; the question at issue being the right to bear, as a coat-armorial, "azure, a

bend or." The Constable pronounced sentence in favour of Scrope, but inasmuch as his opponent had adduced good presumptive evidence in support of his claim, he was allowed to carry the same coat "within a bordure, argent." Not being satisfied with this judgment, Grosvenor appealed to the King, who decided that the arms in question belonged exclusively to Scrope, and annulled the ordinance of the Constable with respect to Grosvenor, considering that "a bordure is not a sufficient difference between two strangers in the same kingdom, but only between cousin and cousin related by blood."1

1 The original record of this celebrated contest, with the rival pleadings and depositions, is still preserved in the Tower of London. In the year 1832, a literal copy, accompanied by illustrative documents, was published by Sir Harris Nicolas. The

evidence is possessed of peculiar interest from the circumstance of its embracing the depositions of most of the illustrious men of the age, including John of Gaunt, Sir Walter Blunt, Owen Glendower, and the poet Chaucer.

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ADOPTION OF DIFFERENT CRESTS.

Of other modes of distinguishing cadets, we may mention the adoption of different Crests, without any alteration being made on the charges in the escutcheon. Speaking of the Germans, among whom this practice largely prevails, Christyn says,-" interdum arma solo cimerio discrepant;" and he illustrates his statement by a notice of the various families descended from the House of Burgundy. As a single example, we may refer to the Electoral Dukes of Saxony, whose shield was timbred with no fewer than eight helmets, surmounted by as many crests. This mode of differencing has been rarely followed in Scotland. Doubtless, the heraldic practice of that country has always allowed a considerable amount of freedom in the changing of crests, which, however, Nisbet considers to be "but an ornament of coats of arms, and so more of the nature of a device than a fixed piece of hereditary armorial bearings." For that very reason, a systematic modification of the charges in the escutcheon, forms a much more satisfactory mode of distinguishing cadets than a change of the crest, which even the head of the family does not necessarily retain unaltered.

SECTION III.-GRANTS AND MATRICULATIONS.

The Lyon King-of-Arms enjoys the high and peculiar privilege of granting heraldic ensigns to certain persons who do not happen to inherit these distinctions from their ancestors. As already stated, this power appears to have been indirectly conferred upon him by the Act

1 System of Heraldry, vol. ii. part iv. p. 19.

ARMORIAL GRANTS.

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of 1592, which authorizes him "to put inhibition to all the common sort of people not worthy, by the law of arms, to bear any signs-armorial;" while the later Statute of Charles II. expressly declares that he may bestow such bearings on "virtuous and well-deserving persons." In the absence of any explanation of these rather indefinite words, their interpretation is left, as a matter of course, to the discretion of the Lord Lyon or of his Depute. On "being interrogated, if there is any restriction observed with respect to the class or description of persons to whom a grant of arms should be allowed," Mr. Tait depones, "That such grants are not refused in any case where the persons applying are respectable, which the deponent understands to be conformable to the practice now observed in all other Colleges of Arms." For some time past, it must be admitted that, besides character and reputation, there has existed another important qualification for the bearing of armorial ensigns in the "Regina Pecunia" of the Roman bard, which has been humorously described as possessing marvellous power in procuring a copious allowance of heraldic "or" and "argent." Indeed, the complicated charges of modern times appear to be intended to bear some proportion to the charges of another kind, for the exaction of which our heraldic authorities have sometimes been pretty severely censured. "In our days," says Bailey (who wrote at the end of last century), "all are accounted gentlemen that have money; and if a man has no coat-of-arms, the King-of-Arms can sell him one." An amusing writer of our own day thus expresses him