There used to be advertisements in the press for little wooden shields painted with coats of arms to hang on your wall, asking the question: “Is there a coat of arms associated with your name?”. Richard Morgan makes a cool appraisal of the historic record of heraldry and the enduring popularity of bogus coats of arms
In English heraldry there is no such thing as arms associated with a name. There are only arms granted to an individual and his descendants. The original purpose of a coat of arms was to enable knights to recognise one another, even when their faces were completely hidden by armour. It follows from this that each coat of arms must be unique (not associated with a name), and – as knights were an elite class – coats of arms acquired a status.
Many people must have inherited something with a coat of arms on it. But is it genuine? Have those arms at any point been associated with one of your ancestors?
I inherited a few bookplates with my great-great-grandfather’s name on them. However, I knew that coats of arms in England and Wales are only granted by the College of Arms under an official called Garter King of Arms. In Scotland such grants are by Lord Lyon King of Arms, and in Ireland by Norroy and Ulster King of Arms.
Key organisations & websites
For England and Wales and also for Ireland, the College of Arms at 130 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4V 4BT (www.college-of-arms.gov.uk) is the access point and they can confirm whether a particular coat of arms is genuine or not.
For those with access to a good library, English and Welsh coats of arms granted from the earliest times to 1898 are to be found listed in three volumes by Joseph Foster and W. Harry Rylands, Grantees of Arms and Grantees of Arms 1687-1898 (Harleian Society, 1915-1917) – see for example https://archive.org/details/granteesofarmsna68fost.
For arms granted after 1898, apply to the College of Arms.
For Scottish arms Lord Lyon has his own website www. courtoflordlyon.scot and he has an index to arms which can be consulted free, but to obtain a copy of a recorded Scottish coat of arms a fee is charged.
Researching my ancestor’s coat of arms
My great-great-grandfather Alexander Morgan lived from 1787 to 1841. I looked in Foster and Rylands and found nothing – a result that was later confirmed by one of the Heralds at the College of Arms. Alexander Morgan was a Scot, so I a
