Personal ('Family') Heraldry

PERSONAL heraldry has flourished in South Africa since 1652. Countless South Africans bear coats of arms, some of them handed down over many generations. Several dozen family associations, too, have assumed arms.

As in many other countries, personal coats of arms are often referred to as 'family arms' or 'family crests' (sic), as if they were owned collectively by a family. This is a misnomer and, as the Heraldry Act states, a 'family coat of arms' is one that is owned by a natural person (note the singular).

Personal arms

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Under South Africa's Roman-Dutch law, everyone enjoys the right to bear a personal coat of arms. This is in contrast to English and Scottish laws, which restrict arms to 'eminent' or 'virtuous and well-deserving' 'ladies' and 'gentlemen', and require arms to be officially granted or recognised. A new coat of arms may be established by assumption or by grant. The right to bear existing arms may be acquired by inheritance or, less often, by royal licence or by official confirmation - but not by usurpation or by buying them from a 'bucket shop'.

Assuming arms — Most South African personal arms are self-assumed. South Africans are also free to obtain grants of arms from heraldry authorities in other countries. In 1767, for instance, Johann Kirsten obtained a grant of arms from the Holy Roman Emperor's count palatine. Between 1837 and 1961 (when the country became a republic), at least 52 South Africans (including some Afrikaners) obtained grants from the English, Scottish, and Irish heraldry authorities, and since 1961, at least a dozen more have done so. You'll find a list of grantees here.

Auret; Hofmeyr; Van Echten; Van Ryneveld

Inheriting arms — Personal arms are hereditary. By centuries-old custom, a man's coat of arms is automatically transmitted to his children (including adopted children). The position regarding a woman's arms is more complex: if she is armigerous in her own right (i.e. she has assumed or been granted her own arms), she can transmit them to her children, but if she has inherited her father's arms, she passes them on to her children only if she is an heraldic heiress (i.e. her father has died and she has no living brothers or nephews to continue the arms in her family).

Arms can rightfully be inherited only by proven descendants and heirs (including adopted children) of their original owners - they are not available to other people who simply happen to have the same surname. Genealogical research is therefore needed, to establish (a) the identity of the original lawful owner of the coat of arms, and (b) lawful descent from him/her. According to the Bureau of Heraldry, in South Africa 'few people have sufficient proof to lay a claim of inheritance on an existing / historical coat of arms'.

In England, it's possible to bequeath arms to someone who is not a descendant, provided that a royal licence is obtained to authorise it, and the arms are recorded at the College of Arms. There are a few late-19th / early-20th-century South African examples of this, and presumably South Africans could still acquire arms from English armigers in this way. The earliest example that I've found is Frederick Philipson-Stow (1891).

Barnato; Cranstoun-Day; Jardine; Viney

Confirmation of arms — In Ireland, one can establish a permanent right to a coat of arms by proving that the arms have borne by at least three successive generations in the family over a period of at least a hundred years, and obtaining formal confirmation from the Irish heraldry authorities. There have been a few examples of this among South Africans of Irish origin.

Components of personal arms — Most personal arms consist of a shield, crest and motto, and they are usually depicted with a helmet and mantling. Supporters are rare; so are personal badges and standards. According to Bureau of Heraldry policy, a family association's arms should consist only of a shield and (optional) motto.

Traditionally, men display their arms on escutcheons, and women theirs on lozenges or ovals, but this is not a hard and fast practice in South Africa. There are 18th-century examples of men's arms on ovals and of women's arms on shields. The Bureau of Heraldry uses the oval for married women and the lozenge for unmarried women, but has also registered women's arms on shields. Some Black armigers display their arms on traditional African shields.

Most men's arms have crests, but they are less frequent among women's arms. A number of 18th-century seals show that some men placed coronets above their coats of arms in place of helmets and crests - these were not usually coronets of rank but simply additaments to their arms.

Berg; Cronje; Murfin; Van Wyk

Various patterns of helmet are used with personal arms. During the Dutch colonial period, the norm was a barred helmet facing front. British-style helmets were introduced in the 19th century: a barred helmet for peers, an open-visored steel helmet for baronets and knights, and a closed helmet for 'commoners'. Today, the closed tournament helmet is probably the most popular, but barred helmets and, occasionally barrel helms, are also found. A Jewish armiger who registered his arms at the Bureau had them depicted with an ancient Israelite helmet. No status is attached to any particular pattern of helmet in South Africa.

In the long-established European and British tradition, supporters are largely confined to royalty, the aristocracy, baronets, and high-ranking knights. There are a few examples from the Dutch colonial period (17th-18th centuries), including some arms with only a single supporter each. The Bureau of Heraldry registered several personal supporters in the 1960s and '70s, but since the 1980s they have registered them only for African traditional leaders, bailiffs grand cross of the Orders of St John and of St Lazarus, and the holders of European noble titles, Scottish and Irish chiefships, or feudal baronies.

By tradition, holders of certain offices may display their personal arms with the insignia of those offices. Clergymen display clerical hats, crosses, and croziers with their arms, according to the customs within the individual churches, and Anglican and Roman Catholic clergymen impale their personal arms with those of their dioceses or parishes as if they were 'married' to them. Members of the Heraldry Council display crossed herald's batons behind their arms and, reportedly, at least one State Herald impaled his arms with the Bureau of Heraldry's. South African holders of British or European titles or feudal baronies may display coronets, chapeaux and other appropriate additaments with their arms.

By long-standing custom, recipients of orders and decorations may depict their insignia with their personal arms. British and some European orders, and the Orders of St John and of St Lazarus, have regulations as to how their insignia should be displayed with arms. There don't seem to be any official regulations concerning the display of South African honours and awards, but it would be in line with international practice for recipients to display orders and decorations which entitle recipients to use post-nominal letters. A neck decoration would be depicted with the ribbon around the lower part of the shield, and a chest decoration would be placed below the shield, with the ribbon vertical.

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Marital arms of Christiaan Kemper and Aletta Haupt on a seal (1785)

Marital arms

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If a husband and wife are both armigerous, it is customary for them to display their arms jointly. They can place the two shields accollé (side by side), or else marshal their arms on a single shield. The traditional arrangement is to place the husband's arms to dexter and the wife's to sinister. Under English (but not Scottish) practice, if the wife is an heraldic heiress, then her paternal arms are placed on an 'inescutcheon of pretence' in the centre of her husband's arms.

There are at least two examples of a husband and wife quartering, rather than impaling, their arms: Baron Pieter and Baroness Sophia van Reede van Oudtshoorn in the late 18th century, and Sir Pieter and Lady Stewart-Bam, whose quartered marital arms were authorised by a royal licence in 1910.

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Cadency

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'Cadency' is the technical term for differencing, i.e. personalising, a coat of arms to identify individual members of a family. It hasn't always been enforced in South Africa, but current Bureau of Heraldry policy is that when arms are matriculated for younger sons, they must be differenced. Several methods are used in South Africa.

Cadency in the Brownell family

Cadency in the Rains family

English system — For the past 500 years or so, England has used a system which assigns specific marks of cadency (small charges) to specific male members of the family, e.g. a label for the eldest son, a crescent for the second, a mullet for the third, and so on. It's not a very practical system, its use in England has long since become a matter of courtesy, and even the English heraldry authorities now largely ignore it. No doubt, many English South African families have used this system, and there are a few examples of it among the arms matriculated at the Bureau, e.g. those in the Brownell family.

Scottish system — Scotland uses a system of cadency, known as the Stodart System, based on adding bordures to the paternal arms. It's quite complicated, and the Lord Lyon determines the appropriate differencing for each 'cadet', i.e. member of the family. Among the arms matriculated at the Bureau are those of the Rains family which has used this system.

Change of tincture — A coat of arms can be differenced by changing one or more of the tinctures. This method was used to personalise the historical Schlebusch arms (in silver, black and gold) for Alwyn Schlebusch (gold, black and red) (BoH 1971). Examples are also to be found in the Gast family (see below), where the third and fourth sons' arms have different tinctures to those of their elder brothers and father.

Substitution of charges — Another method of differencing is to replace a charge in the existing coat of arms with some other charge. For example, two men named Schwartz registered similar arms, one with a lion in chief and the other an eagle. Two De Klerk brothers have identical arms, except that one has a coronet in the centre and the other has a lymphad.

Cadency in the Linde family

Perhaps the most extensive use of this method is to be found in a branch of the Linde family, where the arms have been matriculated through two generations by varying the charges on the chief.

In the Gast family (see below), the children of the third son replace the black botonny cross with other charges (a gryphon, a baobab tree, and an owl respectively), with the result that their arms bear no obvious family resemblance to each other or to their father's, uncles', cousins', grandfather's arms.

Changing lines — A coat of arms can be differenced by altering lines of partition. This forms part of the Stodart System in Scotland, and also stands alone. The arms of the Hiemstra brothers (BoH 1974), for instance, include an embattled chief, the one brother's chief having six crenellations and the other's five. In the arms of three members of the Bütow family, the lower edge of the chief is respectively indented, wavy, and engrailed (BoH 2000).

Changing the number of charges — Sometimes, the design of a coat of arms lends itself to differencing by increasing or decreasing the number of repeated charges. The only South African example I've come across is the arms of Carl van der Merwe (BoH 1972), derived from those of the Dutch noble family Van der Merwede (which are reportedly borne by many Van der Merwes even though no blood relationship has been proved). The number of bezants in the arms was reduced from fifteen to six.

Cadency in the Gast family

Multiple methods — Some families do not confine themselves to a single method. The arms in the Gast family, referred to above, are perhaps the most varied example. The eldest son has a label, his son has a 5-pointed label, and each of his daughters has a small cross as a mark of cadency. The second son adds an eagle as a mark of cadency, and his son has a label as well. The third son changes tinctures and his children replace the cross with other charges. The fourth son also changes tinctures.

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Funeral heraldry

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During the Dutch colonial period (17th-18th centuries), heraldry played a part in the funerals of high-ranking civil and military officials. The deceased's coat of arms, painted on a board, were carried in the procession. In many cases, a memorial board ('rouwbord') displaying the arms was hung in the Dutch Reformed church in Cape Town afterwards.

Memorial board for Frederik Mandt (1772)

Twenty-five surviving memorial boards, dating between 1711 and 1795, now hang in the Groote Kerk in Cape Town. They are diamond-shaped, displaying the arms against black backgrounds, and those of military officers, and a few of the civilians, have the deceased's name, dates, and titles. A few of the boards commemorate visiting Dutch and British dignitaries who died while staying in Cape Town.

There are also 17th-century examples of armorial medallions that were struck to commemorate deaths.

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Family associations

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Many families have formed associations to preserve their heritage, and some associations have assumed coats of arms. They belong to the association as a corporate body, but members are entitled to display them, just like the arms of other organisations of which they are members. However, a member wants to bear the arms personally needs to difference them.

Linde Family Association arms (left), personalised for Johannes Linde (middle) and Marthinus Linde (right)

In 1966, the Bureau of Heraldry introduced a standard pattern for family association arms: a shield of the arms (historical or a new design) with a blank chief across the top. The chief identifies the arms as those of a family association, and provides a space for individual members to add charges to personalise the arms for themselves. They can also add a crest (and change the motto if they wish), and register the arms in their own names. The Fourie Family Association arms (BoH 2008) allow for an additional brisure to identify the branch of the family (descended from one of the founding father's eight sons).

Only about forty family association arms have been registered, nearly half of them in the 1990s. Very few people have registered personalised versions of any of them.

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Some registered arms:
Rex Reynolds; Carl vd Merwe; Dirk de Hart; John Hartdegen; Blanche Taylor; William Combrinck

Legal protection

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Under South African common law (according to W.A. Joubert's Die Grondslae van die Persoonlikheidsreg (1953)), a person's coat of arms and seal form part of his legal 'dignitas'. If someone misuses his arms, he can take 'actio injuriarum' and sue for an interdict and / or damages.

Since 1963, it has been possible to register personal arms voluntarily at the Bureau of Heraldry. If someone misuses registered arms, the lawful owner can take action under the Heraldry Act, to obtain an interdict and / or damages and legal costs.

From 1963 to 1969, arms could be registered in the name of a family. While they were the 'inalienable property' of the person who had registered them, anyone else with the same family name, who could prove that he was a member of the family by lawful blood relationship, descent, marriage, or adoption, could also use them. This soon proved problematic, and in 1966 the Heraldry Council ruled that anyone registering 'historical' family arms would have to difference them.

Since 1969, arms have been registered only in the names of individuals. Provision was made in 1969 to enable a proven descendant or lawfully adopted child of an armiger, who has the same family name as that armiger, to register the armiger's arms in his own name. In addition, since 1980, the owner of a registered coat of arms can apply for the arms to be re-registered, on his death, in the name of any descendant or of anyone else bearing the same family name. In both cases, differencing is optional.

The first such re-registration ('matriculation') was recorded in 1978, and since then more than three dozen coats of arms have been matriculated. In some families matriculation has already reached great-grandchildren. Only a few matriculated arms have been differenced. The family with the most comprehensive set of matriculations, involving five different coats of arms, is undoubtedly the De Bowen extended family. One of their matriculations is in the name of a sibling rather than a descendant.

Family association arms are registered as corporate arms.

You'll find further information about registrations here. Details of coats of arms registered and matriculated up to early 2001 are available on the Bureau of Heraldry Database on the National Archives website.

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Sources/References