142 



Heraldry in England and America. 



The Arms and Seal of Albany. 



There is no history extant of the arms and seal of Albany. The 

 charter of the city given by Gov. Dongan, in 1080, empowers it to have 

 a seal, and as Beverwyck had been its earlier name, the beaver was 

 probably the charge upon the seal. The earliest mention of a city 

 seal I have been able to find is an order of the common council Xov. 

 1, 1740, that it should not be "affixed to any deed or other instru- 

 ment except in common council." Mr. Munsell gives an engraving 

 of the city seal of 1768. It is a rough picture of a beaver with "Al- 

 bany" above, and the date 1702 '* below it. The arms, as displayed 

 on the west front of the new city hall, are patterned after the seal now 

 in use in the mayor's office. In the upper half of the shield is a tree 

 prostrate, but where it still clings to the stump, an industrious beaver 

 is finishing his work of gnawing off the last fibres of wood and bark. 

 In the lower half on a red ground are two sheaves of wheat in their 

 natural colors. The crest is a sloop under full sail, and under the 

 shield on a scroll is the motto Assiduity. We see here plainly enough 

 symbols of industry and its rewards to man and beast on land and sea. 

 [Heraldically, party per fess argent and gules. Above, a beaver gnaw- 

 ing at a stump of a tree prostrate, both proper: below two garbs as 

 the last. Crest; a sloop under sail proper.] Motto, Assiduity. Note. 

 The sloop has the main i set, and the bows are 



turned to the sinister corner of the shield. 



There is in the city surveyor's office a map of the city, made by 

 Simeon De Witt in 1790, which in one corner contains the same coat 

 of arms, with variations, first of having the bows of the sloop turned 

 in the opposite direction; and secondly of showing supporters. There 

 are for the dexter, a farmer whose left hand supports the shield, and 

 whose right rests on his hip with a sickle hung on his waist. The sin- 

 ister is an Indian, his right hand supporting the shield and his left 

 sustaining a bow. one end of which rests on the ground. There is also 

 a large pretentious picture in the mayor's office substantially the same 

 as these just given; but the artist has embellished the upper half of 

 his shield with a landscape, having hills in the background, then three 

 beaver dams, and two beavers, one gnawing as before described and 

 the other pulling down the top. The supporters are unheraldically 

 represented as seated. Taken as ;i whole, this painting is of little 

 worth with its exuberant inaccuracies.* 



* The bronze plate of the city arms placed on the city hall in August, 1886, by 



