American Ancestors | An Introduction to Heraldry for Genealogists

Early today — Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. — I watched the virtual presentation An Introduction to Heraldry for Genealogists. While I have expertise in many areas of history, I knew almost nothing about heraldry until this quick and enlightening overview hosted by American Ancestors. Dr. Nathaniel Lane Taylor, a former Harvard University professor of Medieval Studies, lead the informative talk. Ginevra Morse, Vice President for Education & Programming at New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), moderated the Q&A. In addition to giving lectures, Dr. Taylor is an editor and publisher of The American Genealogist journal, a fellow of similarly named The American Society of Genealogists, and part of the Committee on Heraldry at NEHGS.

Dr. Taylor explained that over twenty European countries have a heraldic tradition, but he focused on the traditions of Great Britain, especially England. Heraldry is a “representational unit of identity” overlapping with the coat of arms. The graphic design is frequently placed on a shield but can occur on different shapes. Coats of arms were inherited, passing from father to son. Daughters inherited the heraldry if they have no brothers and were given the title heraldic heiress. A herald was traditionally a professional with expertise around coats of arms and pedigree or family lineage. Some heralds were government officials, the earliest professional genealogists. Dr. Taylor emphasized that for most of history, the disciplines of genealogy and heraldry were considered sisters. Heraldry was left behind in the 1970s as the practice was considered not research-based and elitist, but interest has recently renewed.

Dr. Taylor described the complex visual language of heraldry known as blazon. Words in blazon came from Old French and described the components of a coat of arms such as colors, design elements, and variants, Marshaling arms meant combining two or more coats of arms to create a new design. To illustrate the concept, Dr. Taylor used the coat of arms for Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony, a man known for banishing rival religious leaders Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Winthrop’s coat of arms was a shield with a silver background decorated with red chevrons and a rearing black lion. Sometimes, his heraldry included a crest above the shield with a metal helmet and rabbit. The blazon for this coat of arms described “Argent three chevrons Gules overall a lion rampant Sable”.

The marshaling of arms caused the descriptions to become even more confusing. Some coats of arms were the products of quartering, when a heraldic heiress married a man with his own coat of arms. The husband’s design appears on the top left and bottom right, while the wife’s design appears on the top right and bottom left. Another technique was impaling, where a woman who was not a heraldic heiress combined her family’s coat of arms with her husband’s coat of arms., each taking up one vertical half of a shield. Due to all the quartering and impaling, coats of arms became increasingly complex.

As heraldry become somewhat regulated in England, groups besides families received their own coats of arms, including churches, companies, schools, guilds, and entire cities. However, the industry deregulated after 1688. People who wanted a coat of arms after this point either created their own or stole the design from same-name families. The American Colonies were filled with this behavior, and Dr. Taylor described this time as the “heraldic Wild West”. Professional artists, like members of the Gore family, became known for creating reference books with coats of arms for clients to steal. This makes tracing coats of arms difficult even for expert genealogists. An ancestor could have used a family coat of arms for centuries, stolen a same-name version in the early 18^th century, or created their own based on historic designs during the Victorian Era.

Throughout the presentation, Dr. Taylor provided a generous list of resources for historians and genealogists who want to learn more about heraldry. Below is a short list of his suggestions:

• The American Heraldry Society
• The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales by Sir Bernard Burke
• Papworth’s Ordinary of British Armorials by John Wood Papworth
• Gore Roll of Arms by John Gore
• A Roll of Arms Registered by NEHGS
• Dictionary of British Arms (Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4)
• Armigerous Ancestors
• Visitation of the County of Cornwall in the Year 1620 (The Epplett family was apparently too poor to receive a page.)

Overall, I greatly enjoyed learning about an area of history that I had never considered. Dr. Taylor skillfully provided information to an audience of expert historians and genealogists without overwhelming them with new knowledge from a slightly different field. While none of my ancestors had a coat of arms, I appreciated the opportunity to understand the heraldry appearing in Renaissance art and historical dramas.