Arms of individuals past and present
(? – 1345?)
From the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Paly of six argent and gules on a fess azure three bezants
I can’t find much out about Robert Fitz Neel besides the fact that he was a lord and landholder in Buckinghamshire. The Fitz Neels held various abbeys and manors in the region going back to at least the 1100s. After Robert’s death, his holdings passed to his daughter Grace, who died in 1350. Her minor son John de Nowers returned the properties back to Edward III.
(? – 1295) from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Sable three buckles argent
It is very tempting for me to connect this Robert Malet with Robert Malet, Lord of Eye and advisor to Henry I, but it seems very unlikely. The lord of Eye’s son, William Malet, was banished from England and moved back to Normandy. I suppose it’s possible some of those Malets made their way back to England over the next two centuries, but I can’t prove it. The Robert Malet featured here held a couple of small lordships in Quainton and Langley, as well as the position of Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1285.
(1230? – 1285?)
From the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Vairy argent and gules a label sable bezanté
There’s not much information on Robert d’Amory except that he was a knight, and master of Bucknell and Woodperry in Oxfordshire. He had at least one son, Roger, who played a significant role in the Despenser War (after Hugh Despenser replaced him as a favorite of Edward II). Roger would be the last d’Amory; his only child by Elizabeth de Clare was another Elizabeth, who married into the Bardolfs.
From the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Argent three chevronels sable
The surname is also spelled Archdeacon, because of course it is. It seems as though Otto’s descendents may have ended up in Devonshire and/or Hertfordshire, although their family seat seems to have been at Lanihorne in Cornwall. Some part of their property followed a coheiress into her marriage into the Lucys, and then into Corbett and Vaux. It looks like the other parts were granted and purchased between various knights and esquires, none of whom seem to have had heirs.
(c. 1255 – 1301) from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Gules crusilly or a bend vair
Sir Henry lived and died in Devonshire, and has a surprisingly well-preserved grave effigy of himself in knightly garb. Unfortunately, it’s not quite well-preserved enough to give a good idea of his arms. There are records from the 16th and 17th centuries stating the shield was chequy or and gules, a chief vair, but I’m not sure whether to place more credence on those or on the roll. I suppose if it’s badly drawn or faded enough, there might not be much of a discernable difference between chequy and crusilly, but I’d think that a bend and a chief would be pretty distinct. Another possibility is that the Raleigh arms evolved over the centuries, and the later writers were extrapolating the version of the arms that existed in their day (which would’ve belonged to the Chichesters at that point) backwards to Sir Henry.
From Encyclopedia of Heraldry by John Burke and John Bernard Burke (1844)
“Lord of Llys-Bradwen, in Merioneth, Founder of the XV. Noble Tribe. Gu. three snakes, nowed, in a triangular knot, ar.”
The ostensible founder of the fifteenth and final noble tribe does actually seem to have been a real person! He was active around the mid-1100s, and may have been married twice (although the constant duplication of names in Welsh genealogy makes this… complicated). Darrell Wolcott at Ancient Wales Studies notes that “[w]e know of no singular achievement by Ednowain ap Bradwen which merited his inclusion among the 15 Founders of Noble Tribes.”
Granted 1960
Blazon: Per fess argent a plowshare gules and of the last
It’s possible the general layout of charge in chief, tincture in base is connected to the von Ow arms (per fess or a lion passant gules and azure), while the argent-and-gules may be related to the Hohenbergs (barry of four argent and gules). The von Ows were the first recorded owners of the town in 1275, while the Austrian Hohenbergs took over in 1381. The plowshare was apparently derived from older coats of arms (pre-1930) and may have originally been a Fleckenzeichen – an informal symbol used on boundary markers to delineate the borders of a town.
From the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Argent on a fess sable three bezants
I’m about 90% sure that this doesn’t refer to Richard of Cornwall, son of King John, partly because the timeline doesn’t quite line up (he died in 1272, so that would put the Dering Roll on the very earliest edge of the estimated composition), but mostly because we have contemporary evidence that he bore argent a lion rampant gules crowned or within a bordure sable bezanté. I find it hard to imagine that the author of the Dering Roll would’ve fumbled the arms of a member of the royal family that badly. (They’re not the Burkes, after all.)
However, Richard did have an illegitimate son (also named Richard). He definitely wouldn’t have inherited his father’s arms, due to the illegitimacy, but… if he just so happened to be granted arms that had some visual overlap with his father’s, then what could anybody do about it? It’s also worth noting that Sir Richard’s daughter married into the Howard family, and her descendents became the Dukes of Norfolk.
From Encyclopedia of Heraldry by John Burke and John Bernard Burke (1844)
“Founder of the XIV. Noble Tribe. Quarterly, first and fourth, gu. a lion ramp. or; second and third, az. betw. three nags’ heads erased ar. a fesse or.”
Obviously, the illustration only shows the first quarter of the arms, for some unfathomable reason. (Pity; I kind of wanted to see the artist’s interpretation of three nags’ heads.) Assuming that he existed – which is always an assumption with the “Noble Tribes” – poor Eunydd’s genealogy is hopelessly mangled. One eighteenth-century source has him as the son of “Gwenllian,” although both of the most famous Gwenllians in Welsh history had, respectively, no children, and no sons named Eunydd. The nags’ heads allegedly come from his mother via her father, Rhys ap Marchen, which is completely unverifiable. It’s possible this Eunydd is intended to be one Eunydd ap Gwerngwy ap Gwrgeneu, who would have lived around 1165 or 1170, or potentially a conflation of multiple people with the same first name.
From the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)
Blazon: Gules a fess indented ermine
I’m assuming, due to the lack of escallops (which could have been an early marker of cadency) and the name, that the Oliver cited here is descended from the Oliver II who lived around 1120. Sadly, though, I don’t have much additional information.
European Heraldry 