Some Unusually Marshaled Arms on Bishop Redman's Memorial

A sign by the tomb of Bishop Richard Redman notes that he was originally Abbott of Shap Abbey, and later Bishop of both St. Asaph and Exeter, before coming to Ely. He worked for both King Richard III and King Henry VII, and it was probably as a result of this service that he was awarded the See of Ely. He was Bishop here from 1501-1505.

His tomb is one of the very few in Ely Cathedral that has never been moved or deliberately damaged, possibly, at least in part, because of Bishop Redman's well-known hospitality.

The three shields on the side of his tomb are, from left to right:

See of Exeter: Gules a sword in bend proper between two keys in bend sinister addorsed and conjoined in the bows interlaced the upper or and the lower argent.

Quarterly: 1 and 4, Gules a lion rampant argent charged on the shoulder with a fleur-de-lis sable (Daldeburgh); 2 and 3, Gules three cushions ermine (Redman).

See of Ely: Gules three crowns or.

These same three shields appear in the same order above his effigy's head:

But it is the two shields at the foot of his tomb that are somewhat anomalous:

On the left we see a shield of Daldeburgh quartering Redman impaling the See of Exeter, Gules a sword in bend proper between two keys in bend sinister addorsed and conjoined in the bows interlaced the upper or and the lower argent.

And on the right, we have Daldeburgh quartering Redman impaling the See of Ely, Gules three crowns or.

It is unusual, to say the least, to have the personal arms of the Bishop to dexter and the arms of the diocese, or as here, his two dioceses, to sinister. The usual manner of display places the arms of the see to dexter, the reverse of what we see here. I have not found any explanation which might explain this unusual form of marshaling.

Two Coats of Arms Today, of a Bishop and of a Dean

Today we're going to look at the heraldic memorials of two of Ely Cathedral's churchmen.

The first is that of James Russell Woodford, Bishop of Ely 1873-1885.

Bishop Woodford was born in 1820, the only son of James Russell Woodford, a hop-merchant of Southwark, Surrey, and Frances, the daughter of Robert Appleton (no relation, alas) of Henley-on-Thames. John Woodford was educated at the Merchant Taylors School and Pembroke College, Cambridge.

He has his own entry on Wikipedia, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Woodford_(bishop)

On the side of his memorial there are three shields. From left to right in the image above, they are:

On a shield supported by an angel, is the arms of the See of Ely: Gules three crowns or.

The second is the arms of the See of Ely impaling the arms of Woodford:

And the third is the arms of Woodford, Sable three leopard’s faces inverted jessant-de-lys argent.

Our next, far less ornate, memorial is that of Robert Moss, Dean of Ely 1713-1739.

The memorial notes, in Latin, that he was Dean of Ely, and that he died 26 March 1729, aged 63.

What the memorial does not note, is that he died that date "after suffering much from gout." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moss_(priest)). More of his biography can also be found at that Wikipedia link.

Dean Moss' remarkably simple arms arms are blazoned: Ermine on a cross paty sable a bezant.

And there we have photographs of two armorial memorials taken in Ely Cathedral by my own "heraldry helper" Jo Appleton, who was always on the lookout for coats of arms that I might have missed seeing, my attention being drawn elsewhere.

Heraldry on the Façade of Bishop's Old Ely Palace

Continuing to look at some of the pictures of heraldry that my late wife Jo took for me, today we look at the façade of Bishop's Old Ely Palace, next door to Ely Cathedral in, naturally enough, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

The palace was built in the 15th century by Bishop John Alcock and was one of the official residences of the Bishop of Ely until 1941. During the Second World War the palace was used as a base for the British Red Cross, and then as a home for disabled children until its closure in the 1980s. Following this the palace was purchased on a 99-year lease by the Sue Ryder Care organization, although the palace went up for sale again in 2010. Later that year King's Ely (renamed from "The King's School" in March 2012), a cathedral school, took over the lease and had the palace refurbished to be used as the school's Sixth Form Centre.

With that historical information, you should be able to guess what two coats of arms are found on the exterior of the Palace.

Can you?

The first is, unsurprisingly, the arms of the Diocese of Ely, Gules three crowns or, which we have seen many times over in the pictures taken of heraldry in both the exterior and interior of Ely Cathedral.

The other is, of course, the arms of the man who had the Palace built: John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, Argent on a fess between three cock’s heads erased sable crested and jelloped gules a mitre or. Jesus College, Cambridge, whose arms we have also seen before, uses a modified version of Bishop Alcock’s arms, adding a charged bordure, as he was a founder of the College.

The Palace has had a long and involved history, which you can read more about at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop%27s_Palace,_Ely, but the heraldry which was placed there at its beginning remains identifiable to this day, some 600 years later.

How cool is that?

A Great Display of Heraldry at Ely Cathedral

While we were visiting Ely Cathedral in 2022, while I was rushing around like made taking pictures of all the heraldry I could see because the tour bus was only giving us a limited amount of time there, my wife Jo was taking a more leisurely pace and ran across a really nice display that I hadn't seen (and therefore, hadn't photographed).

The book that we found in the Cathedral gift shop, The Heraldry of Ely Cathedral by Tim and Chloë Cockerill, describes the display as: "Five coloured shields, commemorating substantial benefactors to the 19th century restoration of the Cathedral."

The authors then go on to identify each of the five shields. From left to right, they are:

John Charles Sharpe: Quarterly: 1 and 4, Azure a pheon argent within on a bordure or eight hurts (Sharpe); 2 and 3, Argent a chevron between three coneys feeding sable (Lever). The crest is: An eagle's head erased argent gorged with a ducal coronet or and holding in its beak a pheon inverted bendwise argent. John C. Sharpe, of Goslings and Sharpe, bankers in Fleet Street, London, paid for the restoration of Prior Crauden's Chapel in 1846.

John Dunn-Gardner (1811-1903), M.P., and his first wife, Mary Lawson. Mr. Dunn-Gardner has his own entry on Wikipedia at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dunn-Gardner

Quarterly: 1 and 4, Argent a saltire or between three griffin's heads sable and a cushion azure (Gardener); 2 and 3, Azure on a chevron or between two boar's heads couped and a padlock argent a lozenge gules between two keys wards to base and turned upwards sable (Dunn); impaling, Paly of four gules and vert on a chevron argent a greyhound's head erased sable between two cinquefoils azure and on a chief or a pellet charged with a demi-lion argent between two crescents sable each charged with three plates (Lawson). The crests: (Dexter) A griffin's head erased argent between two branches of laurel in saltire proper (Gardner); (Sinister) Two swords in saltire proper tied with a riband vert and pendent therefrom a key sable.

Francis Russell, 7th Duke of Bedford, K.G. (1788-1861). The Duke has his own entry on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Russell,_7th_Duke_of_Bedford

Argent a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops argent, the shield surmounted by the coronet of a duke. Crest: A goat passant argent.

Alexander James Beresford-Hope (1820-1887). You can find more about Mr. Beresford-Hope on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Beresford_Hope

Azure a chevron or between three bezants. Crest: A broken globe surmounted by a rainbow with clouds at each end proper.

And finally, the Rev. Thomas Halford (d. ca. 1858). Argent a greyhound passant sable on a chief azure three fleurs-de-lys argent (Halford), on an inescutcheon, Per fess embattled or and gules three gates counterchanged (Yeats). Crest: A greyhound's head couped argent. Motto: Naseby.

The motto comes from an historical event in which the family played a part. The Halfords once owned Wistow Hall, Kilby, Leicestershire, where King Charles I called after retreating from the Battle of Naseby in 1645.

What an amazing display of heraldry! And to think that I would have missed it entirely if it hadn't been for my very own "Heraldry Helper" taking the time to photograph it because she knew that I would have been sorry to have missed it in my hurried circumnavigation of Ely Cathedral.

My Very Own "Heraldry Helper"

Some of you reading this will have already heard that last October, I lost my wife of 31 years, Jo Ann Appleton, née Armistead.

Indeed, it was her cancer diagnosis in August 2023 that called a sudden halt to our travel plans, and thus we did not go to Lund, Sweden for 2023's heraldic Colloquium, nor did we go to Boston, Massachusetts for last year's International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences.

This sudden change of travel plans (we had already made, confirmed, and paid for our travel plans to Lund and thence to Karlshamn, Blekinge, Sweden, where my great-grandmother and her ancestors were born and lived) has meant that I was not gallivanting off to distant places and taking photographs of the heraldry to be found there. And this cessation of new photographs of heraldry from hither and yon meant that, since I was continuing to write blog posts at a minimum to two per week, I was in danger of running out of pictures of heraldry to share with you. (I mean, you don't really want me recycling pictures from old posts, do you? I certainly don't!)

But then, while going through my computer files to see what new items I might have to share with you, I ran across a few dozen photographs of heraldry that Jo, whom I sometimes think of as my personal "Heraldry Helper," took, because she knew that if I hadn't seen and photographed them myself, I would have if I had seen them. Or if we were together, but I was driving (and thus couldn't get out my camera), or we were on a tour bus and she was seeing different things out her window than I could out of mine, then she'd snap pictures for me.

Her interests were in flowers and unique architecture, and I often took pictures of things that I knew she would be interested in, if for whatever reason we were not at the same place at the same time. Or, again, if what I saw out of my side of the tour bus was different from what she saw out of hers. So it wasn't just a one-way relationship. We looked out for each other.

Of course, if we were together (as in the photo above, from our time in London in 2014, above, then we each let the other take pictures of what they were interested in.*

* This sometimes led to some interesting observations when the photographs from our trip, hers and mine, were shuffled in together by date and time. During our trip to Florence, Italy, Jo noticed that though we were together, our photos were of such wildly different things (me, heraldry; her, flowers and architecture) that you'd be hard-pressed to believe that we were actually on the same street at the same time!

So for now, and for the next few posts, I'll be sharing some of the heraldry that Jo photographed for me. Today, it's the arms of the Municipal Borough of Acton, Middlesex, England, that she caught from one of those ubiquitous double-decker tourist buses there.

Please feel free to click on the image above to be able to zoom in and really see the depth and detail of this carved coat of arms.

I could go ahead and blazon the arms for you, but it's probably just as effective, if not more so, to pull a color version off of Wikipedia and share it with you here.

Acton mean "oak farm," hence the oak tree proper as the primary charge on the shield. The charges on the chief are the arms of Middlesex County Council (in the center) between an open book and a cogwheel for education and industry in the borough, respectively. The crest is an oak sprig (again, playing on the name of the Borough) issuant from a mural crown. And the motto, Floreat actona translates as "Acton flourishes."

Is it a truly great coat of arms? Well, no. I could, if I chose, find several aspects of it to quibble about. For example, the use of the proper oak tree to get around the fact that the green and brown tree on a red field breaks the Rule of Tincture ("Metal should not be placed on metal, nor color on color"). And chief adds significantly, perhaps too much, complexity to the whole. but I wasn't consulted during the development of this coat of arms, and it is hardly my place to tell anyone at the College of Arms how to do their job. So I will simply relax in the ability to have a photograph of this very identifiable coat of arms, taken by my Heraldry Helper because she knew I would want it.

Heraldry in the News!

Well, to be frank (or, really, David), some of the news about this item isn't all that new.

The news article, in the Hampshire Chronicle, notes that a carved coat of arms was discovered in the back garden of the home of Peter Gillespie way back in 1986. (Mr. Gillespie has since moved, and taken the coat of arms with him to his new home in Farnham.

Even though the back of the carving, found about two feet below the surface in Mr. Gillespie's garden, has a name and date carved into it that says simply, John Newington Hughes, 1835 ...

... and the front has a well-carved coat of arms on it ...

... Mr. Gillespie has spent nearly 40 years, off and on, trying to learn more information about the carving.

Burke gives only a partial blazon of these arms: Gules on a bend argent three fleurs-de-lis, in chief a demi-lion rampant, leaving us without the tinctures of the fleurs and the demi-lion. An image of Mr. Hughes' bookplate, included in the article, does not appear to be heraldically hatched. It is certainly possible that the arms here are a variant of the arms of Hughes of Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, also found in Burke's General Armory with the blazon: Gules on a bend between two demi-lions rampant argent three fleurs-de-lis sable.

Through his own researches and those of a friend, Mr. Gillespie has learned that John Newington Hughes was born near Maidstone in 1781. He became a banker and was a JP for Kent. He was also twice Mayor of Maidstone in 1824 and 1830. He married a wealthy widower in 1810 and spent his spare time building a substantial collection of artworks, archaeological artefacts, books, manuscripts, coins and all manner of architectural items, mostly parts of redundant churches, which he rebuilt in his back garden. He was well known for his antiquarian interests as well as his collections. He moved to Winchester in 1833 and was sole proprietor of the Winchester Gas Company in Staple Gardens. He, his wife, daughter and two servants lived in a modest house in Kingsgate Street.

But Mr. Gillespie goes on to say that, “But what we cannot understand is how and why his shield would have ended up in the garden of a 1950s house which had previously been the fields of Weeke Manor Farm. Had it been stolen and hidden? Are there other remains buried in the vicinity? I didn't find anything else buried in my garden. This is an archaeological mystery.”

So it's an interesting bit of history. There's a fair bit of information about Mr. Hughes, the owner of the coat of arms. But we are left to speculate about where the carving of his coat of arms came from, and how it ended up two feet into the earth in Mr. Gillespie's garden.

If you'd like to see more, including an image of Mr. Hughes' bookplate, you can find the article by reporter Christopher Atkinson on the website of the Hampshire Chronicle at https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/24973928.research-reveals-information-heraldic-shield-found-winchester/

Heraldry in the Wild!

Well, "in the wild" for some version of a pretty tame, really, domesticated "wild."

Anyway, I was recently reminded that I had run across this particular piece of heraldry at an antique show in Fort Worth, Texas. Not exactly the location, or the venue, where you might expect to find a European coat of arms. Just sayin'.

But I thought it was a pretty neat item, that someone had obviously seen and "upscaled" by turning a simple, armorially-decorated tin into a slightly more complex, armorially-decorated table lamp.

See what you think. How cool is this find of the arms of Hungary, complete with angel supporters?

Scandal, Sensation, or Breaking News?

Well, given the date of the manuscript, I don't think it can be truly called "breaking news." Just sayin'.

We all are, or at least, ought to be, familiar with the coat of arms of the City of London:

Usually blazoned Argent a cross and in the first quarter a sword gules.

But someone recently posted in The Heraldry Society Facebook page some images of the Stowe MS 733, where these arms are given as the arms of London, but also showing the "Auncient Armes of London," as seen in "our Lady Church in Audmary", where in place of the sword there is "an ould Romayn L" in the first quarter:

That page goes on to state that John Stowe had seen it in an old seal, and affirmed that it was the sword of St. Paul and not, as some stories say, a reward for the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, defending with his sword King Richard II from Peasant's Revolt leader Wat Tyler.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting development. I haven't seen anything before that has suggested that the charge in the first quarter of the arms of the City of London was anything but a sword. But here we are, looking at an old manuscript that says that once upon a time it was an old Roman "L" (or was it an old Roman "fifty", which is also an "L"?).

As Artie Johnson used to say on the old TV show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, "Verrry interesting."

* I'm probably dating myself with this reference. Yeah, I'm old. Get over it.

Serendipity!

It can be fascinating when fields of study overlap, can't it? Take, for example, the three overlapping areas of heraldry, sigillography, and vexillology. Each of these fields have their own specialized adherents, but there are also a lot of ways in which these three overlap.

Which brings us to today's bit of serendipity.*

A good friend of mine recently sent me a .pdf of a pamphlet entitled "'Good' Flag, 'Bad' Flag", a set of guidelines to designing flags by Ted Kaye of the North American Vexillological Association, wherein are laid out five basic principles of flag design. (This is one place where the overlap between flags and heraldry can come into play; many of the principles of good flag design also apply to good heraldic design.)

But as I saw it, and thought to myself, "I've recently seen something else about this pamphlet. What was it?"

A quick search took me to a YouTube video entitled "Good Flag, Bad Flag: The Limits of Simple Design," by Linus Borman, a critique of the strengths (and some of the weaknesses) of the "'Good' Flag, 'Bad' Flag" pamphlet.

At least part of what Mr. Borman points out reminded me of that line from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, where Barbossa tells Miss Turner, who has invoked the "pirate's code", "the code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."

Anyway, I found it interesting that I came across these two items, from different sources of transmission to me, all in the same week.

You can find Mr. Kaye's pamphlet on-line in several languages at https://nava.org/good-flag-bad-flag, 

and Mr. Borman's video critique at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSzx0k_C6TI

Check 'em out, and see: (1) what you think of them; and (2) how they each can apply to heraldry as well as flags.

* Serendipity can be seen as "good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries."