What are Heraldry and Armory?
Fox-Davies (1909) states that Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory) together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Today, this includes related disciplines such as vexillology (the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags).
Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of heraldic achievement. The heraldic achievement or armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners and mottoes.
Heraldry and Scotland
The heraldic authority for Scottish grants of arms is Lord Lyon King of Arms, who is a member of the Royal household.
In Scotland, a coat of arms may only be used if recorded in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings. The Register contains all recordings of coats of arms in Scotland from 1672 to the present day and it is added to daily. Coats of arms cannot be used legally in Scotland unless they are recorded in that Register. The Register is maintained by the Court of the Lord Lyon, the office responsible for heraldic matters in Scotland.
Who is an Armiger?
In heraldry, an Armiger is a person entitled to use a heraldic achievement either by hereditary right (ie. passed to the next member of the family after the death of the arms owner), grant (ie. a recognised heraldic authority has approved a grant of arms), or matriculation of arms (ie. a person has proved a right to a previous grant of arms). Such a person is said to be armigerous. From the earliest times of European heraldry, arms have passed by inheritance from father to sons and daughters and are strictly speaking the heritable property of the holder.
A Scottish Clan can be considered armigerous when it has or has had armigerous members of the clan.
Who can use a coat of arms?
Coats of Arms in Scotland can only belong to one person at a time. There is no single coat of arms that all people of the same name can use – often miscalled a 'family coat of arms'. As coats of arms originated in order to identify a person it is clear that it would not be practical if more than one person could use exactly the same design. Arms descend to the heir in each generation of the person to whom they were originally granted and other descendants who bear the same surname may apply for a slightly different version of the arms to be recorded in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland. In Scotland, the shields of unrelated people with the same surname may bear similarities as the design will be based on the shield of the clan chief, the head of the family.
Who can apply for a coat of arms?
The Lord Lyon King of Arms is responsible for granting all coats of arms in Scotland and will consider Petitions, as applications for arms are called, from people who are legally domiciled in Scotland and those who were born in Scotland. The Lord Lyon can also consider petitions from people living in Commonwealth countries that do not have their own heraldic authorities. Normally the Lord Lyon would expect there to be some Scottish connection. A grant of arms is not automatic and there is no statutory right to a coat of arms.
Descendants bearing the same surname of someone who already has a coat of arms recorded in Scotland can apply for a matriculation or re-recording of the ancestor’s arms, either with a small difference or without if they are the heir. The Lord Lyon will allow a matriculation if the applicant can prove their descent by the production of statutory records, such as birth, marriage and death certificates, entries in the Old Parish Registers, wills and testaments.
Elizabeth Roads LVO OStJ, Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records (1986-2018), currently Snawdoun Herald, has written a very good article on heraldry in Scotland. The full article is here":
References:
Court of the Lord Lyon website
A Complete Guide to Heraldry, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1909
You can browse Fox-Davies book online at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Complete_Guide_to_Heraldry
or, download the book from https://archive.org/details/completeguidetoh00foxdrich
Much confusion exists about the meaning, use and entitlement to wear Scottish Crest Badges, and it is constantly increased by well—meaning but ill—informed explanations. This leaflet is authoritative in setting out the main facts. Even the popular name "Clan Crest" is a misnomer, as there is no such thing as a "Clan" Crest. The Crest is the exclusive personal property of the Clan Chief, and it is fully protected to him by the law in Scotland. The circumstances in which it may be worn by his clansmen are set out here:
Chief of Clan
Chiefs have the right to wear their Crests as badges
EITHER simpliciter, ie. without the accompaniment of circlet, motto or feathers behind the badge.
OR as is more usual, surrounded with a plain circlet inscribed with his Motto or Slogan, NOT a strap—and—buckle which is for clansmen; and, if they choose, with THREE eagle’s feathers in silver behind the circlet.
If the Chief is also a Peer of the Realm, he may correctly add his appropriate coronet of rank on top of the circlet, but this is a matter of his personal choice.
Chieftains
i.e. Heads of large branches of a Clan and Officially Recognised as such by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Chieftains may wear either their own personal Crest within a plain circlet inscribed with the Motto, as for a Chief, but with TWO small eagle’s feathers instead of the Chief’s three. If the Chieftain is also a Peer, he may add the appropriate coronet of rank on top of the circlet,
OR they may wear their Chief’s Crest badge like any other clansman, as described for Clansfolk, right…
Armigers
i.e. Persons who have registered their own coat of Arms and Crest, or have inherited these according to the Laws of Arms in Scotland from ancestors who had recorded them in the Lyon Register.
An armiger may wear his own Crest as a badge:
EITHER simpliciter, on its Wreath, Crest Coronet or Chapeau,
OR, as is more usual, within a plain circlet inscribed with his Motto.
An armiger is entitled to ONE silver eagle’s feather behind the circlet, and if he is also a Peer he may add his appropriate coronet of rank on top of the circlet. An armiger may also choose to wear instead the Crest badge of his Chief if the armiger is a clansman, as described for Clansfolk, right…
Clansfolk
i.e. The Chief’s relatives, including his own immediate family and even his eldest son, and ALL members of the extended family called the "Clan", whether bearing the Clan surname or that of one of its septs.
In sum, all those who profess allegiance to that Chief and wish to demonstrate their association with the Clan.
It is correct for these to wear their Chief’s Crest encircled with a STRAP AND BUCKLE bearing their Chief’s Motto or Slogan. The strap and buckle is the sign of the clansman, and he demonstrates his membership of his Chief’s Clan by wearing his Chief’s Crest within it.
Although the Crest Badge itself is purchased by and is therefore owned by the clansperson, the heraldic Crest and Motto on it belong to the Chief and NOT to the clansman. They are the Chief’s exclusive heraldic property, which the clansman is thus only permitted to wear.
It is illegal for the clansman to misappropriate the Chief’s Crest and Motto for any other use of his own, such as decorating his own silver, writing paper or signet ring, which anyway would mean that these articles belonged to the Chief who is the owner of the Crest and Motto on them.
Clan Societies, Officials and clansmen who have reason to use the Crest Badge on stationery should add beneath it the words "Crest Badge of a member of the Clan” to make it clear that the Crest Badge is not being misappropriated by the Clan Society or official involved. It is the Crest Badge of ALL clansmen, whether members of Clan Societies or not, and non—members may not be excluded if they are clansmen.
Heraldry as Identity
Iaan Buchanan example; laan Buchanan illustrates the use of Arms during the lifetime of his father, Claude Askel Buchanan. The Azure 3-point Label in centre chief dlfferences the arms and is removed when laan is able to use the arms in his own right. ie. upon the death of his father. The arms shown around the edge of the bookplate shows an heraldic link to earlier generations of the family.
Ragman Roll
On 28 August 1296, Edward I of England (AKA Edward Longshanks) held a "Parliament" at Berwick to resolve a King of Scotland. As a consequence, Edward requested that the attending prominent Scottish landowners, churchmen and burgesses swear allegiance to him and sign parchments and affix their seals, many of which had ribbons attached. In total, 2,000 signatures were inscribed, making it a most valuable document for future researchers.
Declaration of Arbroath
Dated 6 April 1320, written by Scottish barons to Pope John XXII to assert the antiquity of the independence of Scotland, denouncing English attempts to subjugate it. Written in Arbroath Abbey is was sealed by fifty-one magnates and nobles.
The Declaration was intended to assert Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defend Scotland's right to use military action when unjustly attacked.
Andrew Stewart Jamieson is a Master heraldic artist and designer living and working in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. Considered to be the leading heraldic artist of his generation he is a recognised Master of his art.