148 



The Society's MSB: Chiseldon, Sfc. 



Calley, Ealph, of Highway, Wilts, gent. Patent 23 Nov. 1579. Quarterly 

 Argent and Sable on a bend Gules three mullets of the first. Crest. A demi 

 lion Or, thereon a bend Gules, charged with three mullets Argent, in its paws 

 a battleaxe Gules. 



There are two good working theories, either of which will serve 

 to regulate the granting of arms, one, that a stranger in "blood 

 should never he allowed arms similar to those home by any family 

 of his name, the other that persons of the same and similar names 

 should all he granted similar coats. The former theory is the one 

 at present in vogue, the latter has heen freely acted on in the past. 

 Most persons of the name of " Lawrence/' for instance, hear, with 

 variations, a cross raguly, an extreme instance considering the origin 

 of this patronymic. Now, having regard to this ancient, and con- 

 venient, practice, it does not necessarily follow that, "because in 

 1579 the officers of arms conferred on Ealph Calley the coat, without 

 any sort of variation or distinction, home hy the ancient Norfolk 

 family of Cayley, they were satisfied of his lineal descent out of 

 that county. Close upon one hundred and fifty years must, in 

 1579, have already elapsed since the hirth of his great-grandfather, 

 who lived and died, as we have seen, at Winchester — a long period 

 of time over which to preserve a correct tradition ; while to huild a 

 theory of a descent out of Norfolk upon a bequest in his grand- 

 father's will to Cromer Pier — ahsolutely the only mention of the 

 county in any of our documents — is a somewhat light-hearted 

 attempt. Even then, and however authoritatively confirmed to 

 the family, these arms seem scarcely to have heen credited to them 

 with ease, for at the subsequent Visitation of the county in 1623, 

 in the original Note Book of the Heralds, the pedigree, indeed, is 

 entered, hut with the note " Defertur, sed non prohavit arma." 



Ealph Calley was twice married. His first wife is described in 

 the Visitation of 1565 as "Ellynor, daughter of Eichard AVoodcock, 

 of Dyddenham 1 in com. Wilts, esq." Further particulars as to her. 

 parentage are supplied by a pedigree from Harley MS. 1043, 

 printed for the Harleian Society as belonging to the Visitation of 

 Worcester in A.D. 1569. It is of course conceivable that Ealph 



1 Diddenham in the parish of Shinfield, co. Berks, but anciently accounted 

 as part of Wiltshire. 



