514 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



from the neighbourhood of Belfast. In his own description of 

 Strawberry Hill, printed there in 1784, he describes the relic as 

 a silver seal, extremely ancient, of Hugh O'Neill, King of 

 Ulster, brought out of Ulster by Mr. William Bristowe. It was 

 sold at the. Strawberry Hill sale, passed into the hands of Mr. 

 Otway Cave, and is now among the treasures which have 

 descended to his nephew, Lord Braye. 



At the institution of the Order of Baronetcy by James I., it 

 was declared that they " should, for their distinction, bear in 

 their coat of arms, either in a canton or in an escutcheon, in a 

 field argent, a hand gules, being the arms of the ancient kings 

 of Ulster." "It is a curious circumstance, however," says Sir 

 Bernard Burke, " that at the present day the baronets do not 

 adhere to the O'Neill arms, but bear the badge of the red hand 

 sinister, which is clearly shown by the O'Neill seals to be 

 incorrect. This inaccuracy dates only from modern times. In 

 the funeral entries in Ulster's office of the Irish baronets who 

 died in the XVII. century the hand is properly dexter, as one may 

 see on the funeral banners of Sir Thomas Alen, Bart, of St. 

 Wolstan's, who died 7th March, 1626 ; Sir Valentine Brown, 

 Bart., Nolahiffe, 7th September, 1633 ; Sir George Rawdon, 

 Bart., and Sir Richard Bulkely, Bart., who both died in 1684. 

 Still more recently, so late as 1740, Sir John Denny Vesey, 

 Bart, when created Baron Knapton, had his arms and supporters 

 registered with the baronet's hand dexter as it should be." 



So we may with confidence accept the dictum of Sir 

 Bernard Burke, that " the red hand of Ulster now used as the 

 badge of the baronets of England and Ireland is 'sinister'; 

 but a dexter hand was used by the O'Neills, and is registered in 

 this office as the cognizance of the Province of Ulster. In 

 neither case should there be drops of blood," and in his '' General 

 Armory " he gives the arms as I have already described, i.e., a 

 red cross on a gold field with a dexter hand on a small white 

 shield placed upon the centre of the cross. 



The legend of the cutting off of the left hand and throwing 

 it ashore from a boat is a pure myth of very uncertain origin. 



