The History of the Worthies of England, Part 1 · Chapter 16 – Chapter 18

The History of the Worthies of England · Part 1 · Chapter 16 – Chapter 18

p. 47CHAP. XVI. Of the Coats of ARMS, affixed to such, who have been Sheriffs of Counties.

SOmething must be premised of Arms in general. They may seem in some sort to be Jure Divino to the Jews, having a Precept for the practise thereof. Every **Numb. 2. 2.Num 2:2man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own Standard, with the Ensign of their Fathers house.

The use thereof is great both in War and Peace. I begin with War, because Arms had their first rise from Arms, and had a military Origination. VVithout these an Army cannot be methodized, and is but an heap of men. Like an Army (saith the**Cant. 6. 4.Song 6:4 Scripture) terrible with banners. VVithout which an Army is not terrible, but ridiculous, routing it self with its own confusion. Now, as no Army without banners; so no banner without Arms therein. If the Trumpet give **1 Cor. 14. 8.1 Cor 14:8an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battail. Now, as the Trumpet tells the time, so the banner proclaims the place of meeting, and if it have not distinguishable Emblems therein, who shall know whither to repair to his Captain or Company?

Arms are also useful in peace, to distinguish one man from another. They be termed Nomina visibilia, visible names. For, as a name notifieth a man to the Ear, so his Arms do signifie him to the Eye, though dead many years since; so signal the service of Arms on Tombs, to preserve the memory of the deceased.

Arms anciently were either assumed or assigned. For at first men took what Arms they pleased, directed by their own fancy. A Custome still continuing in the LowCountryes, where the Burgers chuse their own Arms with as great confidence as Tradesmen make their mark, or Innkeepers set up their Signs in England. Assigned Arms were such as Princes, or their Officers under them appointed to particular persons, in reward of their Service. And, whereas Assumed Arms were but personal, these generally were Hereditary and descended to their Families.

It is the rule general in Arms, that the plainer the ancienter, and so consequently more honourable. Arma primò nuda sine ornatu. And when a memorable Gentleman (understand me such an one, the beginning of whose Gentry might easily be remembred) was mocking at the plain Coat of an ancient Esquire, the Esquire returned, I must be fain to wear the Coat, which my great-great-grana-father left me, but had I had the happiness to have bought one, as you did, it should have been guarded after the newest fashion. Two colours are necessary and most highly honourable; though both may be Blazoned with One Word [as VARREY] (formerly born by the Beauchamps of Hatch in p. 48Wilt-shire, and still quartered by the Duke of Somerset) three are very honourable; four commendable; five excusable; more, disgraceful. Yet have I seen a Coat of Arms (I mean within the Escocheon) so piebald, that if both the Metalls, and all the Colours (seven in all) were lost elsewhere, they might have been found therein.

Such Coats were frequently given by the Heralds (not out of want of wit, but will to bestowe better) to the new Gentry in the End of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth. One said of a Coat that it was so well victualled, that it might endure a Siege, such the plenty and variety of Fowl, Flesh and Fish therein; though some done so small, one needed a magnifying glass to discover them; but such surfeited Coats have since met with a good **Mr. Camd…n.Physician, who hath cured many of them.

I can not but smile at his fansie, who (counting himself, no doubt, wonderfully wittie) would be a reformer of our Heraldry, and thought it fine, if it were thus ordered, that all,

Indeed, as these Metals and Colours are reckoned up in order, so are they reputed in honour, save that the contest betwixt Azure and Gules is not so clearly decided.

Or and Azure in composition are conceived the richest; Argent and Sable the fairest coat, because setting off each other discernable at the greatest distance. The Lion and Eagle are reputed the most honorable, the Cross the most religious bearing; A Bend is esteemed the best Ordinarie, being a Belt born in its true posture athwart, as a Fess is the same worne about the middle. Things natural in the charge presented in their proper colour are best; and herbes Vert far better than Or, as flourishing better than fadeing; even stained are no stained colours when natural. But seeing the whole mistery of Heraldry, dwells more in the region of fansie, than judgment, few rules of assurance can be laid down therein.

We meet with some few coats which have reasons rendered of their bearing. Thus, whereas the Earls of Oxford anciently gave their Coat plain, quarterly Gules and Or, they took afterward in the first a Mullet or Star Argent, because the cheife of the house had a Falling-star (as my **Camdens re…ains in the …itle of Armory.Authour saith) alighting on his shield, as he was fighting in the Holy-land. But it were a labour in vain for one to offer at an account, for all things borne in Armorie.

This mindeth me of a passage in the North, where the ancient and worthy Family of the Gascoignes gave for their Arms the Head of a Lucie or Pike, cooped in Pale; Whereon one merrily,

The Lucy is the Finest Fish,

That ever graced any Dish;

But, why you give the HEAD alone,

I leave to you to pick this Bone.

A Question which on the like occasion may be extended to Beasts and Fowle, whose single heads are so generally born in several Coats.

After the names and places of Sheriffs exemplifyed in their respective Counties, we have added their Arms ever since the first of King Richard the second. And, though some may think we begin too late (the fixing of Hereditary Arms in England, being an Hundred years ancienter) we find it sometimes too soon to attain at any certainty therein.

In peruseing these Arms, the Reader will meet with much observeable variety, viz. 1. That the same Family sometimes gives two paternal Coats, as,

p. 49Spencer in Northampton-shire. Quarterly Arg. and Gules, the second and third, charged with a Fret Or, over all on a Bend Sable 3. Escallops of the First. Azure a Fess Ermin betwixt 6. Sea Meaws heads erased Arg.

Sometimes two distinct Families and Names, give the self same Coat, as in Barkshire,

The same name; but being distinct Families in several Counties, give different Arms.

Grey.

In Leicester-shire, Barry of 6. Argent and Azure, in Chief 3. Torteauxes.

In Northumberland, Gules a Lyon Rampant with a Border engrailed Argent.

The same Name in the same Shire, being distinct Families, gives different Coats, as in Northampton shire.

Green.

Of Greens-Norton, Azure three Bucks trippant Or.

Of Drayton, Argent a Cross engrailed Gules.

The same name and Family in the same Shire, gives the same Coat for Essentials, but disguised in Colours as in Northampton-shire.

Tresham.

Of Lifden.

Of Newton.

The same Family giveth a Coat this day, bearing some general allusion to, but much altered and bettered from what they gave some sixty years since, and forbearing to give an instance hereof, for some reason, I refer it to the Readers Discovery.

Contented with the Coat it self, I have not inserted the differences of younger Houses, Crescents, Mullets, Martlets, &c. Chiefly because they are generally complained of, and confessed as defective, subject to coincidence, and not adequate to the effectual distinguishing of the branches from the same root.

As the affixing of Differences if done, were imperfect, so the doing thereof, is not only Difficult, but also Dangerous. Dangerous, for it would bring many Old houses (and new ones too) on his Head, who undertakes it, so undistinguishable are the Seniorities of some Families, parted so long since, that now it is hard to decide, which the Root, and which the Branch. I remember a Contest in the Court of Honour, betwixt the two Houses of Constable, the one of Flamborongh head, the other of Constable-Burton, both in York-shire, which should be the Eldest. The Decision was, it was never decided, both sides producing such ancient Evidences, that in mounting up in antiquity like Hawks, they did not only Lessen but fly out of Sight, even beyond the Kenn and Cognizance of any Record. The Case I conceive occurs often betwixt many Families in England.

Some names we have left without Arms. Physicians prescribe it as a Rule of health, to rise with an appetite; and I am loth the Reader should fill himself with all which he might desire. But (not to dissemble) I could not with all mine own, and friends skill and industry, attain their Coats, as of Families either extinct in those Counties before the first, or only extant therein since the last Visitation of Heralds. Yet let not my ignorance be any mans injury, who humbly desireth, that such Vacuities may hereafter be filled up by the particular Chorographers of those respective Counties.

This I am sure, A needle may be sooner found in a Bottle of Hay, (a task though difficult, yet possible to be done) than the Arms of some Sheriffs of Counties be found in the Heraulds Visitations of the said Counties. For many were no Natives of that Shire, but came in thither occasionally from far distant places. Thus the Arms of Sir Jervis Clifton (thrice High-Sheriff of Kent in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth) are invisible in any Kentish Heralds Office, as not landed therein himself though living at Braburn, on the Jointure of Isabel his Wife, the **Villare Cant, pag. 26.Widdow of William Scot Esq and I doubt not but instances of the same Nature frequently are found in other Counties.

We will conclude this Discourse of Arms with this memorable Record, being as ancient as the Reign of King Henry the Fift.

p. 50Claus. 5. Henrici Quinti Membrana 15. in Dorso in Turre Londinensi.

Rex Vic▪ Salutem. &c. Quia prout informamur diversi …omines qui in viagiis nostris ante haec tempora factis, Arma & Tunicas Armorum vocat. Coat Armours in se susceperunt, ubi nec ipsi, nec eorum Antecessores hujusmodi Armis ac Tunicis Armorum temporibus retroactis usi fuerint & ea in presenti viagio nostro in proximo Deo dante faciend. exercere proponant; Et quanquam Omnipotens suam gratiam disponat prout vult in naturalibus, equaliter Diviti & Pauperi; volentes tamen quemlibet Ligeorum nostrorum predictorum juxta status sui exigentiam modo debito pertractari & haberi. Tibi praecipimus quod in singulis locis intra Ballivam tuam, ubi per breve nostrum nuper promonst. faciendis proclamari facias, quod nullus cujuscunq, status, Gradus, seu conditionis fuerit, hujusmodi Arma sive Tunicas …rmorum in se sumat, nisi ipse jure Antecessorto vel ex donatione alicujus ad hoc su…ficientem potestatem habentis ea possideat aut possidere debeat. Et quod ipse Arma sive Tunicas illas ex cujus dono obtinet, die Monstrationis suae personis ad hoc per nos assignatis seu assignandis manifeste demonstret Exceptis illis qui nobiscum apud Bellum de Agincourt Armu portabant sub poenis non admissionis ad proficiendum in viagio praedicto sub numero ipsius cum quo retentus existit, ac perditionis Vadiorum suorum ex causa praedicta praeceptorum, nec non rasura, & ruptura dictorum armorum & Tunicarum vocat. Coat-armours, tempore monstrationis suae praedicto, si ea super illum monstrata fuerint seu inventa, & hoc nulla tenus omittas, T. R. apud Civitatem,

Nov. Sarum Secundo die Junii. Per ipsum Regem.

The King to the Sheriff health, &c.

Because there are divers men as we are informed, which before these times in the Voyages made by us, have assumed to themselves Arms and Coat-Armors where neither they nor their Ancestors in times past used such Arms or Coat Armours, and propound with themselves to use and exercise the same in this present Voyage which (God willing) we shortly in…end to make. And although the Omnipotent disposeth his favours in things Natural, as he pleaseth, equally to the Rich and Poor, yet We willing that every one of our Leige Subjects, should be had and Handled in due manner, according to the Exigence of his State and Condition. We command thee, that in every place within thy Bailiwick, where by Our Writ we have lately shewn, you cause to be proclaimed, that no man of what State Degree or Condition soever he be, shall take upon him such Arms or Coats of Arms, save he alone who doth possesse or ought to possesse the same, by the right of his Ancestors, or by Donation and Grant of some, who had sufficient power to assign him the same. And that he, that useth such Arms or Coats of Arms, shall on the day of his Muster, manifestly shew to such persons assigned, or to be assigned by us for that purpose, by virtue of whose gift he enjoyeth the same. Those only excepted who carried Arms with us, at the Battle of Agincourt; uuder the penalties not to be admitted to go with us in Our foresaid Voyage under His Command by whom he is for the present retained, and of the loss of his wages, as also of the rasing out, and breaking off the said Arms called Coat-Armours at the time of his Muster aforesaid, if they shall be shewed upon him, or found about him. And this you shall in no case omit.

Witnesse the King at the City of New Sarum, June the second.

Consimilia Brevia diriguntur Vicecom. Wilts, Sussex, Dors. sub eadem data.

I could wish a reviving of this Instrument in our Age, many Up-starts in our late Civil wars, having injuriously invaded the Arms of ancient Families.

p. 51CHAP. XVII. Of the often Altering of Sirnames, and the Various Writing thereof.

HAving dealt so largely in Sirnames, it is necessary to observe, that Sirnames of Families have been frequently altered, some Families deposing their Old, and assuming new names on several occasions: But cheifly for,

1. Concealment in time of Civil Wars. A Name is a kind of Face, whereby one is known; Wherefore taking a false name is a Vizard whereby men disguise themselves, and that lawfully enough, when not fradulently done to deceive others, but discreetly in danger, to secure themselves: Thus during the Contest 'twixt York and Lancaster, Carington in Warwick-shire took the name of Smith. La Blunt the Name of Croke in Buckingham-shire, with many others.

2. For Advancement when adopted into an estate, as Newport the Name of Hatton, in Northampton-shire; Throckmorton the Name of Carew at Beddington in Surrey, as long before Westcoat the Name of Littleton in Stafford-shire.

Besides the same Sirname continued, hath been variously altered in Writing. First, because Time teacheth New Orthography, altering, spelling, as well as speaking. Secondly the best Gentlemen anciently were not the best Scholars, and (minding matters of more moment) were some what too incurious in their Names. Besides, Writers ingrossing Deeds, were not over critical in spelling of Names, knowing well where the person appeared the same, the Simplicity of that age, would not fall out about Misnomer.

Lastly, Ancient Families have been often removed into several Counties, where several Writings follow the several pronunciations. What Scholar knoweth not, that foreign their Greek Name for Jupiter, is by their seven Dialects, written ten several wayes and (though not so many Dialects in England) there is a real difference betwixt our Southern, Western, and Northern Pronunciations.

Hence it is that the same Name hath been so often disguised unto the Staggering of many, who have mistook them for different.

Idem non Idem, quaeruntque in Nomine Nomen.

The same they thought was not the same,

And in their Name they sought their Name.

Thus I am informed, that the Honourable Name of Villiers is written fourteen several ways, in their own Evidences, and the like (though not so many) Variations, may be observed in others.

And the Name of Roper in Darby-shire, changed from Musard to Rubra-Spatha, Rospear, Rouspee, Rooper, Roper. I insist the longer on this point, because in our Catalogue of Sheriffs, the same Sirname is variously written, which some (without cause) may impute to my carelesnesse, being the effect of my care, conforming the Orthography exactly to the Original, where such variation doth plainly appear, and however such Diversity appeareth in the Eye of others, I dare profess that I am delighted with the Prospect thereof.

p. 52CHAP. XVIII. Of Modern Battels.

IMmediately before our Farewell to the Respective Counties, we have inserted a Breviate of Modern Battels since our Civil Distempers. I need here premise nothing of the difference betwixt a Skirmish (being only the Ingagement of Parties) and a Battle being an incounter betwixt Generals with their Armies. Nor yet of the difference betwixt Praelium a Fight or Battel, and Bellum a War, the former being a Fight in Field, the later the continuance of Hostility (which may be for many years) whilst the difference dependeth undecided. Peracto Pr…lio manet Bellum. And though a Truce may give a Comma or Colon to the War, nothing under a Peace can put a perfect Period thereunto.

In describing these Battels, I am for distinction sake necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the Abusive acception thereof for these latter years. Let us think and judge with the Wise, but if we do not speak with the Vulgar, we shall be Dumb to the Vulgar. Otherwise I know a Parliament properly, is a compleat Syllogisme, the Lords and Commons being the two Propositions, the King the Conclusion thereof, and our English Tongue wanteth one word to express the dissenting part of a Parliament, and I trust in God, as our Language doth not afford the Name, so our Land shall not hereafter behold the Nature thereof.

These Battels are here inserted, not with any intent (God knows my heart) to perpetuate the odious Remembrance of our mutual Animosities; that Heart burnings may remain, when House burnings are removed; but cheifly to raise our Gratitude to God, that so many Battels should be fought in the bosome of so little a Land, and so few Scars and Signs thereof extant in their visible Impressions. Such, who consider how many men we have lost, would wonder we have any left, and such, who see how many we have left, that we had any lost. In a word, as it is said of the best Oyl, that it hath no Tast, that is, no Tang, but the pure Natural Gust of Oyl therein, so I have indevoured to present these Battels according to plain Historical truth, without any partial Reflections.