Post Your Granted, Assumed or Desired Arms

[Cygnus]

In WVHighlander's recent thread, "Getting a COA Registered", some people expressed a desire to see the tentative arms that the OP had designed.

Since a number of X-Markers are already armigerous, and others are planning (someday) to petition arms of their own, I thought it might be fun to create a thread asking people to post either their registered arms or a draft of what they would like their arms to be when they are able to petition them.

So, here are two ideas that I've had:



Because of a family story that my fourth-great-grandfather was the heir to the chiefship of the MacDonalds of Glencoe (through a grandmother, so nobody in my family would be the lineal heir) that was cheated out of his inheritance by a conniving younger brother, I wanted to incorporate some part of the chiefly arms into these designs. In this case, I went with the Lion Rampant Gules on an argent field while keeping the azure field and swans of the traditional Swan arms. The tower is there both as a symbol of vigilance as well as to help spread the red across the arms a bit more (they looked really strange with just the red lion).
The crest is a swan with a sego lily in its beak - the sego lily being the state flower of Utah, which was the place to which my Scottish ancestors eventually emigrated.
I'm no expert on Latin, but the motto, as far as I understand it, translates as "Wisdom from Truth" and really sums up my family's feelings on both education as well as religious conviction.



The bordure on these arms should probably be chequy, but I've seen instances of compony-counter-compony being used instead (and it was easier to draw this way!). The rationale behind these arms is the same as the others, except rather than the lion rampant from the MacDonald arms I've used the lymphad sable on a field Or.

I determined the appropriate way to difference these based on a variety of internet sources as well as a couple of books that I have recently acquired; though Lord Lyon may well decide another method is more appropriate when I send in my petition. Both of these arms have labels, because I am the first son and my father is (very thankfully) still living. Convincing him to petition for arms is proving difficult, but I'll get to him eventually!

For those of you who want a template to use to toy with designs, feel free to use this template that I made. It is a BMP and can be coloured in rather easily using paint or a similar program.

Anybody else have arms or "preliminary arms" that they'd like to share? For those that don't have or want to create an image, the blazon would do just fine as I think most of the people that hang around this part of the forum are familiar with how they're read.

EDIT: Now I wish I had included assumed arms in the title - since those who, for whatever reason, have assumed arms ought to be included in this as well!

[Father Bill]

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[Detroitpete]

Very interesting! Where does one find software/clip art etc in order to noodle around with designs like that?

[Father Bill]

Very interesting! Where does one find software/clip art etc in order to noodle around with designs like that?

What - mine or his?

[Detroitpete]

What - mine or his?

Father Bill, you'll surely have me converted soon

[Cygnus]

Father Bill, that is a very nice coat of arms. Sadly, due to the lack of necessary appendages, it would only fit the members of my family to whom I claim not to be related!

DetroitPete, I provided a link to a basic template - what I did with mine was do various image searches for the heraldic elements that I wanted (with the exception of the tower, galley, and lily, which I made myself). I think you'll find just about everything you need that way, then you can copy, paste, resize, and generally noodle-around with them from there.

[Fitzy]

Very nice job with both.

With ancesters having come over 'on the boat', if it were me, I'd be leaning toward the second one as having a deeper family meaning.

Paul

[Fitzy]

Father Bill,
Your pockets must get real crowded when the weather turns cold !!

Paul

[Cygnus]

Very nice job with both.

With ancesters having come over 'on the boat', if it were me, I'd be leaning toward the second one as having a deeper family meaning.

Paul

That is, I think, the preferred achievement at the moment.

However, the lion rampant is a carry-over from the arms of James Swan who had in base a lion passant guardant Argent. So it would keep the lion, at least.

[Fitzy]

That is, I think, the preferred achievement at the moment.

However, the lion rampant is a carry-over from the arms of James Swan who had in base a lion passant guardant Argent. So it would keep the lion, at least.

What if,...
One Swan, for the family name.
The rampant lion to carry over from James Swan.
The boat to represent your family line that came to these shores.

Since it's not uncommon to change arms after a major change in clan/family...

My family coat of arms (Irish) were supposedly changed after the surrender and regrant to King Henry the VIII and that ancestor was made an Earl.

Paul