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/