_ aa HERALDRY. 
Heraldry. grasping a dagger ;' motto, “ I’ll make sicker,” alluding 
Sy i dhe nth feat of his ancestor, who slew the Red 
Cummin in the days of Bruce and Baliol. Often they 
have no such relation, and merely express some predo- 
minant passion of piety, love, or war, of the first who 
assumed them.. 
Camden tells us that the earliest instances of mottos 
painted on shields, which he had met with in this 
island, were those of William de Ferrariis, Earl of Der- 
by, who carried round his escutcheon, vair witha bor- 
dire of horse shoes, Luce, Leer ;” and Sir Thomas 
Cavill, who bore for arms a horse, under which was 
written “ THoma CREDITE CUM CERNITIS EQUUM EJUS:” 
these are both of the age of Henry III. The more 
abundant use of mottos was, without question, owing 
to King Edward III, who having founded the order of 
the garter, and given it the motto “ Honi soit qui mal 
y pense ;” each of the original knights of that order 
took to himself a motto of his own choice, and put it 
under his arms. From that period the fashion grew 
more and more in vogue, as may be seen from the ac- 
eounts which we have of the standards and pennons of 
the noblemen and gentlemen, both of England and 
Scotland, particularly during their French wars. 
N. B. Women wear neither crests nor mottos. 
The cry of war was the battle-shout of the house ; 
and was also worn in a scroll, as the “ Mountjoye St 
Denys” still is over the pavilion of the en king. 
Many families have, in consequence of the change of 
manners, retained these cries of war as mottos. . Of 
old they consisted very often of the name of the noble, 
as * A Home! A Home!” “ A Dovcias! A Dovatas!’ 
&e. 
Of Devices. 
Personal 41. The Device Proper is a badge or emblem inde- 
devices’ pendent of any part of the family ing ; the legiti- 
mate descendant of the emblems of the ancients. The 
device is always assumed ¥ the bearer personally, and 
either may or may not be the same, or that of his ances- 
tor, as he pleases. The roses, red and white, were the 
~ devices of York and Lancaster. The portcullis was a 
device belonging to the Beauforts (descended from John 
of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward ae and carried as 
such by the Jameses of Scotland. The said John of 
Gaunt, when he pretended a right to the crown in the 
reign of Richard II. adopted for his device “ an eagle 
standing on a padlock assaying to force open the same:” 
This was a strictly personal device. From these devices 
of the kings, some of the English pursuivants derived 
their names, as Portcullis, Falcon, &c. 
Of Supporters. 
Opinions 42. These likewise are exterior ornaments, being 
concerning placed on the sides of the atchievement as matters of 
the origin of embellishment, and formally to timbre or support it. 
supporters. Menestrier assures us that they had their origin from 
tilts, tournaments, and justings. “ On these occa- 
sions,” says he, “ it was usual for the knights to have 
those shields of their arms, (which we have already 
seen they were obliged publicly to display some days 
before the opening of the lists), guarded by their pages, 
armour-bearers, or other attendants, clothed in fancy 
dresses, sometimes making them appear as savages, 
Moors, Saracens, lions, &c. The business of these sup- 
porters of the shield was to take notice who, by cent: 
ing the shield, accepted the challenge of their master.” 
This custom was revived with perhaps greater magni- 
ficence than was ever before known, at a tournament 
in Paris before Louis XIV. in which the esquires who 
attended the nobles entering the lists, were drest in the the j 
most superb manner that art could invent representing sup 
Moors, Persians, Armenians, Turks, &c.. From 
these attendants thus disguised many heraldic writers 
bring the use of supporters, which, say they, every one 
who (being noble or gentle ac bre and mother’s side) 
was ‘admitted to tourney, ever after a right to 
carry. 
This doctrine is, however, strongly combated by 
many able writers, and pavtichlagly Ef the celebrated 
John Anstis, in his curious manuscript treatise entitled 
Aspilogia, (now in the Astle collection, ) who has these 
observations. ant 
« Tn these later ages, the nobility have been distin= 
guished from persons of inferior rank, by having sup 
porters and coronets cut on their seals; but, as far as £ 
am able to observe, there was not anciently any parti« 
cular mark in the seals of the nobility that differenced 
them from the knights. As to supporters, they were, 
I take it, the invention of the graver, who, in cutting 
on seals shields of arms which were in a triangular form, 
and placed on a circle, finding a vacant space at each 
side, and also at the top, thought it an ornament to fill. 
up these spaces with vine-branches, garbs, trees, flowers, 
plants, ears of corn, feathers, fret-work, lions, wiverns, 
or some other animal, according to his fancy. 
If supporters had been esteemed formerly, as at this 
time, the marks and ensigns of ne there could be 
no doubt but there would have been then, as now, par- 
ticular supporters appropriated to each nobleman, ex- 
elusive of all others ; whereas, in the seals of noble« 
men affixed to a paper addressed to the Pope, A. D. 
1300, the shields of arms of twenty-seven of them are 
in the same manner supported (if that term may be 
used) on each side by a wivern, and seven of the tial 
by lions. John de Hastings hath the same wivern on 
each side of his shield of arms, and also on the space 
over it, in the same manner as is the lion in the seals 
of Hache, Beauchamp, and De Malolacu. The seals of 
Despencer, Basset, and Badlesmere, pendent to the 
same instrument, have each two wiverns or-dragons for 
‘supporters; and that of Gilbert de Clare three lions 
placed in the manner above mentioned. The promis- 
cuous use of wiverns to fill up the blanks in seals, is 
obvious to all who are concerned in these matters. 
But what is a stronger argument is, that the same 
sort of supporters are placed in the seals of divers per« 
sons never advanced to the peerage. Instances of this 
kind are often met with; nay, the engraver hath fre- 
quently indulged his fancy so far, as to insert such fi- 
gures as do not seem proper, according to our present 
notions of supporters of arms; as two swords on each 
sidethe arms of Sir John de Harcla; and St George 
Sighting with the-dragon on one side, the Virgin with our 
Saviour in her arms on the other side of a seal affixed 
to a deed of the Lord Ferrers, whose arms on the im- 
press of a seal pendent to a deed of the 17th May, 
9 Henry VI. have not any supporters. 
When supporters were assumed, if there were two 
on one seal, they were generally the same; but some- 
times there was only one, and at other times three, as 
may be seen on various seals.” 
« After having considered the observations of Mr 
Anstis,” says Edmonstone, “ I am persuaded that not 
a doubt can remain of ‘supporters having originated 
from the fancy of seal engravers. However this may’ 
3 
