Armigerous Clans

[Twa_Corbies]

I am sorry to have to correct you, but "clans" can not be armigerous due to the simple fact that generally arms are only be awarded to an individual. A clan or family society may apply for arms in the same way a corporation, a town, or a school may apply for arms. These are corporate arms, and different from the undifferenced arms of a clan chief which descend to each successive clan chief, the crest of which is worn within a strap and buckle as the mark of a clansman.

When the chiefly line dies out, and the lawful successor can not be found, the office of chief is held to be in abeyance, and clansmen continue to wear the crest of the last known chief as a badge within the buckle and strap.

The clan can not appropriate the chiefly arms to itself, as these are the property of someone else, ie: the rightful claimant to the chiefship of the clan. In this instance a clan society, if such exists, may petition for a grant of arms. Should arms be granted they are the property of the society, and may not be used by any single individual who is a member of that society, except perhaps, as "arms of office".

A chief must be armigerous. Individual clansmen may be armigerous. But the "clan" can never be armigerous.

Yes, I should have stated that more precisely. You are correct, of course, that a clan does not hold arms, but these are borne by the chief - the undifferenced hereditary arms first held by the clan's patriarch. The clansmen themselves may and often do bear their own personal arms - a differenced version from those borne by the chief; but the arms themselves are personal heritable property and are not publically held by the clan as a whole. Those clasmen not having their own personal arms wear the crest of the clan chief in the form of a crest badge (with strap and motto encircling the crest) to show their affiliation to the clan and their allegiance to the chief, but the crest itself remains the personal property of the chief as a part of his heritary arms.

My point was that for a family or name to be considered a "clan" it must have had a patriarch or founder who bore the original undifferenced arms of the name in question; thus establishing it's recognition by the Crown and hence its status as a noble incorporation.