908 
were expelled, and eighty after the destruc- 
tion of Troy. 
HERALD, is an officer at arms, whose 
hiisiness is to denounce war, proclaim peace, 
or be otherwise employed by the king in 
martial messages or other business. 
Heralds are the judges and examiners of 
gentlemen’s coats of arms, and preservers of 
genealogies; and they marshal all solemnities 
at the coronation ot princes, and funerals of 
great persons. 
HERALDRY, the science which teaches 
how to blazon, or explain in proper terms, all 
that belongs to coats of arms ; and how to 
marshal, or dispose regularly, divers arms on 
a field. 
Arms, or coats of arms, are hereditary 
marks of honour, made up of iixed and de- 
termined colours and tigures, granted by so- 
vereign princes, as a reward for military va- 
lour, or some signal public service perform- 
ed. These arc intended to denote the de- 
scent and alliance of the bearer, or to distin- 
guish states, cities, societies, &c. civil, eccle- 
siastical, and military. 
Men in all ages have made use of figures 
of living creatures, or symbolical signs, to 
denote the bravery and courage either of 
their chief or nation, to render themselves 
the more terrible to their enemies, and even 
to distinguish themselves or families, as 
names do individuals. Thus the Egyptians 
bore an ox, the Athenians an owl, the' Goths 
a bear, the Romans an eagle, the Franks a 
lion, and the Saxons a horse : the last is still 
borne In the arms of his present Britannic ma- 
jesty. As to hereditary arms of families, 
William Camden, sir Henry Spelman, and 
other judicious heralds, agree, that they be- 
gan no sooner than towards the latter end of 
the 1 1th century. 
With tournaments first came up coats of 
arms ; which were a sort of livery, made up 
of several lists, fillets, or narrow pieces of 
stuff of many colours, from whence came the 
fess, the bend, the pale, &c. which were the 
original charges of family-arms: for they who 
never had been at tournaments had not such 
marks of distinction. They who enlisted 
themselves in the croisades took up also se- 
veral new figures hitherto unknown in armo- 
rial ensigns; such as alerions, bezants, esca- 
lop-shells, martlets, &c. but more particularly 
crosses, of different colours for distinction’s 
sake. From this it may be concluded, that 
heraldry, like most human inventions, was in- 
sensibly introduced and established ; and that, 
after having been rude and unsettled for 
many ages, it was at last methodized, per- 
fected, and fixed, by the croisades and tour- 
naments. 
These marks of honour are called arms, 
from their being principally and first worn 
by military men at war and tournaments, 
who had them engraved, embossed, or de- 
picted on shields, targets, banners, or other 
martial instruments. They are also called 
coat of arms, from the custom of the antients 
embroidering them on the coats they wore 
over their arms, as heralds do to this day. 
Arms are distinguished by different names, 
to denote the causes of their bearing ; sucli 
as arms of dominion ; of pretension ; of con- 
cession; of community; of patronage; of 
family; of alliance; of succession. 
Arms of dominion, or sovereignty, are 
HERALDRY. 
those which emperors, kings, and sovereign 
1 states do constantly bear ; being annexed to 
the territories, kingdoms, and provinces, they 
possess. Thus the three lions are the arms 
of England, the harp those of Ireland, &c. 
Arms of pretension are those of such king- 
doms, provinces, or territories, to which a 
prince or lord has some claim, and which lie 
adds to his own, although the said kingdoms 
or territories may be possessed by a foreign 
prince or lord. Thus the kings of England 
have quartered the arms of France with their 
own ever since Edward III. laid claim to the 
kingdom of France, which happened in the 
year 1330, on account of his being son to 
Isabella, sister to Charles the Handsome, who 
died without issue. 
Arms of concession, or augmentation of 
honour, are either entire arms, or else one 
or more figures, given by princes as a reward 
for some extraordinary service. We read in 
history that Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, 
allowed the earl of Wintoun’s ancestor to 
bear, in his coat-armour, a crown supported 
bv a sword, to shew that he, and the clan 
Seaton, of which he was the head, supported 
his tottering crown. 
Anns of community are those of bishop- 
rics, cities, universities, academies, societies, 
companies, and oilier bodies corporate. 
Arms of patronage are such as governors 
of provinces, lords of manors, patrons of be- 
nefices, &c. add to their family-arms, as a 
token of their superiority, rights, and juris- 
diction. These arms have introduced into 
heraldry, castles, gates, wheels, ploughs, 
rakes, harrows, & c. 
Arms of family, or paternal arms, are those 
that belong to one particular family, that dis- 
tinguish it from others, and which no person 
is suffered to assume without committing a 
crime, which sovereigns have a right to re- 
strain and punish. 
Arms of alliance are those which families 
or private persons take up and join to their 
own, to denote the alliances they have con- 
tracted by marriage. This sort of arms is 
either imp aled, or borne in an escutcheon of 
pretence, by those who have, married heir- 
esses. 
Arms of succession are such as are taken 
up by them who inherit certain estates, ma- 
nors, &c. either by will, entail, or donation, 
and which they either impale, or quarter 
with their own arms; which multiplies the 
titles of some families out of necesfity, and 
not through ostentation, as many imagine. 
These are the eight classes under which 
the different sorts of arms are generally ran- 
ged; but there is a sort which blazoners call 
assumptive arms, being such as are taken by 
the caprice or fancy of upstarts, though of 
ever so mean extraction, who, being ad- 
vanced to a degree of fortune, assume them 
without a legal title. 
The essential and integral parts of arms 
are these : 1. The escutcheon. 2. The tinc- 
tures. 3. The charges. 4. The ornaments. 
Of the shield or escutcheon . — The shield 
or escutcheon is the field or ground whereon 
are represented the figures that make up a 
coat of arms: for these -marks of distinction 
were put on bucklers or shields before they 
were placed on banners, standards, flags, and 
coat-armour; and wherever they may be 
iixed, they are still on a plane or superficies 
whose form resembles a shield. 
Shields, in heraldry called escutcheons or 
scutcheons, from the Latin word scutum, 
have been, and still are, of different forms, 
according to different times and nations.. 
Amongst antieilt shields, some were almost 
like a horseshoe, sucli as is represented by a 
few of the tigures of escutcheons ; others tri- 
angular, somewhat fiat or rounded at the 
bottom. '1 he English, French, Germans, 
and other nations, have their escutcheons 
formed different ways, according to the car- 
ver’s or painter’s fancy : of these various ex- 
amples are contained in the plates of heral- 
dry. But the shield of maids, widows, and 
of such as are born ladies, and are married to 
private gentlemen, is of the form of a lo- 
zenge (Bee Plate 11). 
Armorists distinguish several parts or points 
in escutcheons, in order to determine exactly 
the position of the bearings they are charged 
with ; they are here denoted by the first nine 
letters of the alphabet, ranged in the follow- 
ing manner (See Gate 1). 
The knowledge of these points is of great 
importance, and ought to be well observed, 
for they are frequently occupied with several 
tilings of different kinds, it is necessary to 
observe, that the dexter side of the escut- 
cheon i-j opposite to the left hand, and the 
sinister side to the right hand of the person 
that looks on it. 
Distinctions of houses. These distinctions 
inform us how the bearer of each is descend- 
ed from the same family ; they also denote 
the subordinate degrees in each house from 
the original ancestors, viz. 
First house. For the heir or first son the 
label ; second son the crescent ; third son the 
mullet ; fourth son the martlet ; fifth sun the 
annulet ; sixth sou the fleur-de-lis. 
Second house. The crescent, with the la- 
bel on it, for the first son of the second son. 
The crescent on the crescent for the second 
son of the second sou of the first house, &c. 
See the Plate. 
By the tinctures or colours is meant that 
variety of hue of arms common both to shields 
and their charges : the colours generally used 
are red, blue, sable, vert, purpure. Note, 
yellow and white, termed or and argent, are 
metals ; these colours are represented in en- 
gravings by dots and lines, as in the Plate. 
Or is expressed by dots. 
Argent is plain. 
Gules, by perpendicular lines. 
Azure, by horizontal lines. 
Sable, by perpendicular and horizontal lines 
crossing each other. 
Vert, by diagonal lines from the dexter 
chief to the sinister base point. 
Purpure, by diagonal lines from the sinister 
chief to the dexter base point. 
Furs . — There are different kinds, and re- 
present the hairy skins of certain animals, 
prepared for the linings of robes of state ; 
and antiently shields were covered with furred 
skins : they are used in coats of arms, viz. 
Ermine, is black spots on a white field. 
Ermines, is a field black with v.'hite spots. 
Erminois, is a field gold with black spots. 
Vair, is white and blue, represented by 
figures of small escutcheons arranged in a 
