"I 'Shot' the Sheriff"

Well, to be honest, it was four Sheriffs (two of which we are reviewing today), and I only "shot" them in the sense of "took a photograph" of their coats of arms.

But you can see why the old Bob Marley song came to mind in preparing to write this post.

But be that as it may, today we're going to look at the arms of two Sheriffs of Middlesex, England, whose arms can be found in one of the windows in the Supreme Court of the UK building, formerly the Middlesex Guildhall.

The first is Arthur Nockolds Gilbey, Sheriff in 1912. He was born on 6 April 1861, the son of Sir Walter Gilbey. His home was Bloomsbury St George in Middlesex, but his active life took him to a number of places of the home counties and beyond. Gilbey was most famous not for his public service but for his keenness for fishing. His obituary in The Times in 1939 was devoted entirely to Gilbey’s prominence amongst the angling fraternity and his pioneering techniques in developing the craft of the angler, in particular in pursuit of trout.

His arms, seen on the left side of the window below, and which appear to have no relationship at all to fishing or angling, are blazoned: Gules a fess nebuly between in chief a horse rampant between two estoiles and the same in base all or, on the fess a crescent argent for difference. The crest is: On a tower proper issuant from the battlements thereof a dragon’s head gules a fleur de lys or all between two ostrich feathers argent. And the motto: Honore et Virtute (“Honour and virtue”).

As always, you can click on the image above to see the full-size, and therefore much more detailed, picture.

The other Sheriff, in the right-hand window, is Joseph Edward Lilley, a stockbroker and later a barrister. He was born in 1850 in Northamptonshire, and married a Northamptonshire woman, Emma Harris of Peterborough.

As a stockbroker he traded in the City, at Throgmorton Avenue. He later passed his law examination and became a Barrister; he was called to the bar in May 1900. He became sheriff of Middlesex in 1904.

His arms are blazoned: Azure on a pile between two fleurs de lys in base argent a lily of the valley eradicated proper. His crest is: On a cubit arm holding in the hand two lilies of the valley leaved and slipped in saltire all proper, a fleur-de-lys argent. And the motto: In Arduis Fortior (“Stronger in difficulty”).

Next time, shots of two more Sheriffs' arms.

A Pair of Royal Arms in the Supreme Court of the UK Building

In our post of November 3, 2025, http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2025/11/some-other-arms-in-supreme-court-of-uk.html, in the portion discussing the arms of the 11th Duke of Bedford, it was noted that as Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, in December 1913 he was at the opening of the Guildhall, accompanying Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.

Today, we are going to look at the arms of Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, which are also displayed in the building.

HRH Prince Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert was the son of the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, a younger son of Queen Victoria. The Duke served as Governor-General of Canada, but returned to London in 1913 for his son’s wedding, and while in town, he opened the Middlesex Guildhall, hence this kind tribute that greeted his arrival. Prince Arthur was a soldier, and saw active service in South Africa in the Boer War. After the accession of King George V in 1911, and after his father went to Canada, Prince Arthur found himself one of the most senior male members of the Royal Family over the age of 18 still in the United Kingdom and undertook a wide variety of royal duties on behalf of the King.

A year after his wedding to the Princess, the First World War broke out and Prince Arthur served as Aide-de-Camp to the commander, Generals French and Haig in turn. By 1919 he was a Lieutenant Colonel. He returned to South Africa in 1920, this time in peace, as Governor-General until 21 January 1924. He died in 1943. His father survived him by four years.

HH Princess Alexandra was the daughter of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, and Louise, Princess Royal, and was a cousin once removed of her husband.* She inherited her father’s title on his death.

The arms of Prince Arthur of Connaught: The arms of the United Kingdom with overall a Label of five points Argent charged on the center and outer points with a cross of St George gules and on the two inner points a fleur-de-lis azure, an inescutcheon of Saxony.

The arms of Princess Arthur of Connaught (HH Princess Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise), Duchess of Fife: Impaled with the arms of Prince Arthur of Connaught, the Royal Arms, differenced by the same label as her husband and upon an inescutcheon the quarterly coat of Duff, the inescutcheon being surmounted by the coronet of a Duchess of the United Kingdom. The dexter supporter is the Royal Lion of England crowned with the last mentioned coronet and charged with the label as in the arms. The sinister supporter is a savage taken from the supporters of the late Duke of Fife.



* This family thing of being a “first cousin, once removed”, or a “third cousin, twice removed”, etc. can be very confusing. The short explanation is that first cousins share the same grandparents; in the case of “first cousins, once removed”, one cousin’s grandparents are the other cousin’s great-grandparents, thus adding one generation,

one “remove”, in descent from the shared ancestor(s). For the Prince and Princess here, their specific situation is that: 1, He is a grandson of Queen Victoria (Victoria > Arthur William Patrick Albert > Arthur Frederick Patrick Albert); 2, She is a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria (Victoria > Edward VII > Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar > Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise).

Or like this, if it helps you to visualize it better:

                                        Victoria
                _______________|_______________
               |                                                    |
    Arthur William                                    Edward VII         Siblings
               |                                                    |
    Arthur Frederick                              Louise Victoria     1st Cousins
                                                                    |
                                                       Alexandria Victoria  1st Cousin
                                                                                         Once removed

Full disclosure: I’ve had to learn all this from working on my own family tree. My second great-grandparents on my mother’s side were second cousins, and my own parents were second cousins, once removed (which makes me a second cousin, twice removed, to myself!). As my late very southern wife was often pleased to remind me regularly (given the stereotype of southern cousins marrying cousins), “Your family tree circles back on itself more than mine does.”

More Heraldry In The News!

Sometimes, an heraldic artifact can be found just hanging in someone's house, the owner having no clue as to its historical significance.

Such is the case of a depiction of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's coat of arms, for nearly 200 years hanging in Gwysaney Hall, the North Wales home of the Davies-Cooke family. It had been presumed that the 23" by 23" artifact was a replica produced early in Queen Victoria's reign.

Wrong!

The carved and painted wooden achievement of arms was part of a collection of relics which sold at auction in Berkshire for a combined £17,000 last year. But the vendor suspected it might be older than previously thought. So they commissioned scientific analysis, which included analysing tree ring sequences, and now believe it was made in 1525.

Wolsey died in 1530.

The coat of arms has been authenticated by Tudor historian Dr Elizabeth Goldring, who has labelled it an "exceptional survival".

It will go on display at West End art gallery Simon Dickinson, Ltd. before being sold for a fixed price of £250,000 - 15 times what it went for at auction a year ago. (So well out of my price range!)

A Simon Dickinson spokesperson said: "For at least 200 years the coat-of-arms have been Gwynsaney Hall in the North Wales home of the Davies-Cooke family. Until recent research at Dickinson, they were thought to have been made in Queen Victoria's reign as a historical anachronism."

According to the National Archives, a Wolsey coat of arms hung in Thomas Cromwell's London mansion at Austin Friars in 1527. Could it have been this one? Well, maybe.

Speculation like that aside, you can read a lot more in the Daily Mail article on-line at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15241817/Coat-arms-Henry-VIIIs-condemned-adviser-500-years-Victorian-replica-hanging-Welsh-home-Cardinal-Thomas-Wolseys-original.html

All I can say is: "Wow! What a find!"

Heraldry In The News!

A 200-year-old hatchment from a church in Norfolk, England, missing for 30 years, has been returned to St. Margaret's Church on the Felbrigg Hall Estate.

The return was made by a combination of efforts of PC Dane Wyatt from Essex Police's Rural Engagement Team, Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet, the Heraldry Society of England, and Historic England.

Thanks to the fine work by everyone involved, the funeral hatchment of Cecilia Windham, née Forrest, who died in 1824, the wiidow of William Windham, MP, has been returned to the church on the estate of Felbrigg Hall, where the Windhams lived.

Cecilia Windham's hatchment (above) has now been reunited with the family’s three remaining hatchments in the church, where, as PC Wyatt notes, "they can once again be appreciated as part of the area's rich heritage."

The two news stories (well, there is a third, but it's behind a paywall) covering this event in greater detail and better outlining the efforts made by the various individuals and organizations that aided in its identification and return can be found on-line at:

https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/news/25584486.essex-police-officer-finds-stolen-funeral-hatchment/

and

https://www.essex.police.uk/news/essex/news/news/2025/october/auction-checks-recover-coat-of-arms/

A hearty congratulations is in order to all of the people involved in returning this 200-year-old hatchment to where it belongs. I, for one, am so very pleased that this piece of heraldic heritage has been returned to the church and can once again be seen by historians and heraldry enthusiasts like myself.

Two More Arms of Middlesex Lords Lieutanant

So here we are, still making our way around the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom building, formerly the Middlesex Guild Hall, looking at some of the heraldry which is seen there.

Today, we find the coats of arms of two more Lords Lieutenant of Middlesex.

The first is the arms of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, here, in the right-hand panel:

And also, as with some of the others we have seen, in their own window:

He was born Hugh Smithson, in Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire, and gained his fortunes through a series of inheritances from a cousin, and by marrying into the Percy name and the Duke’s title through his union with Elizabeth Seymour. Elizabeth was the great-granddaughter of Hugh Percy, eleventh Earl of Northumberland, who in 1744 became the sole heir to the vast Percy estates.

Smithson was also the Member of Parliament for Middlesex from 1740. The 1745 Jacobite rebellion pushed Smithson from the Tories to the Whigs and thus into Royal favor. The King agreed to pass the ancient Percy title, Earl of Northumberland, to Elizabeth’s father, who in turn arranged for it to fall to Smithson and his heirs by Elizabeth. In February 1750, Smithson became 1st Duke of Northumberland and assumed the name Percy by a private Act of Parliament.

His arms are blazoned: Quarterly: 1 and 4, grand quarterly; i and iv, Or a lion rampant azure, ii and iii, Gules three lucies or pikes hauriant argent; 2 and 3, Azure five fusils conjoined in fess or. The crest is: On a chapeau gules turned up ermine a lion statant tail extended azure. The supporters: Dexter, A lion rampant azure; Sinister, A lion rampant guardant ducally crowned or gorged with a collar compony argent and azure. The motto: Espérance en Dieu (“Hope in God”).

The Earl's political influence grew; he was Lord of the Bedchamber and Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland, and in 1756 a Knight of the Garter. He developed the family estates gained control of a number of “rotten boroughs”, giving him control over their members of Parliament.

In 1762, he became Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, a position he held for the rest of his life.

The second is the arms of James Brownlow William Cecil-Gascoyne, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, here in the left-hand panel of this window:

And again, in its own window:

And again, though of only the first quarter, carved in wood and held by a carved wooden angel:

The full arms are blazoned: Quarterly, 1 and 4, Barry of ten argent and azure six escutcheons sable three two and one each charged with a lion rampant argent langued gules (Cecil), a crescent for difference; 2 and 3, Argent on a pale sable a conger eel’s head erased and erect or charged with an ermine spot sable (Gascoyne). The two crests are: 1, Six arrows in saltire or barbed and flighted argent girt together with a belt gules buckled and garnished or above the arrows a morion helmet proper; 2, A conger eel’s head erased and erect or charged with an ermine spot sable. His supporters are: Two lions ermine. And the motto: Sero sed serio (“Late, but in earnest”)

Born in 1791, James Brownlow William Cecil proved an active, vigorous man, earning himself the nickname “Matador”. He entered the House of Commons in 1813 at the age of 22 (moving to the Lords on his father’s death in 1823). Before the age of thirty-five he had been appointed to the Privy Council.

In 1821 he married Frances, daughter and sole heiress of Bamber Gascoyne, and since Gascoyne had no son to continue his name, he required that Cecil adopt the additional surname “Gascoyne”. He succeeded to the Salisbury title and estates in 1823.

In 1842 Lord Salisbury was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex on the resignation of the long-serving Duke of Portland, whose arms we saw in the post immediatelly before this one. In the same year Salisbury became a Knight of the Garter.

I can't speak for you, but I just love finding well-depicted coats of arms like these in buildings of historical significance like this one. Just sayin'.

Some Other Arms in the Supreme Court of the UK Building, London

Today we're going to look at the arms of two Lords Lieutenant of Middlesex, who also happened to be Dukes. Their coats of arms can be found in several places on and in the Supreme Court Building, formerly the Middlesex Guildhall.

First we have the arms of Herbrand Arthur Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford:

On the exterior of the building:

Here in stained glass in the left-hand panel. For the arms in the right-hand panel, see below:

And again in stained glass, in its own window:

And like some of the others we have seen before, carved in wood and held by an angel:

The Duke of Bedford's arms are blazoned: Argent a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops argent. His crest is: A goat statant argent armed or. His supporters: Dexter, A lion gules; Sinister, An antelope gules ducally gorged and chained, armed and unguled or. His motto: Che sara sara (“What will be will be”). (Like the well-known Doris Day song, Que sera sera, written in 1955 and sung by Day in the 1956 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much.)

In 1912, the Duke of Bedford, as Lord Lieutenant, laid the foundation stone for this building, the new Middlesex Guildhall. In December 1913 he was at the opening of the Guildhall, accompanying Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Connaught (whose arms we will see in another post).

The other coat of arms we will see today are those of Sir William Henry Cavendish Scott Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland, here in stained glass (in the right-hand panel):

And again in its own window:

The Duke of Portland's arms are blazoned: Quarterly 1st and 4th a cross moliné argent (Bentinck); 2nd and 3rd sable three stags’ heads caboshed argent attired or, a crescent for difference (Cavendish). He has two crests, one fior Bentinck and one for Cavendish: 1st, Issuant from a ducal coronet or two arms counter-embowed vested gules gloved or each holding an ostrich feather argent; 2nd, A serpent nowed proper (that is to say, vert). His supporters are: Two lions double-queued, the dexter or, the sinister sable. And his motto: Craignez la honte (“Fear disgrace”).

Born 1768, he was the second son of the 3rd Duke of Portland. In 1794 he became Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex. He was to hold that office for a remarkable 47 years.

Apart from the Lieutenancy, the 4th Duke of Portland did not attempt to follow in his father’s high ambitions. He became a junior Lord of the Treasury in 1807. When his brother in law, George Canning, became Prime Minister for four months in 1827, Portland served as Lord Privy Seal, then became Lord President of the Council until January 1828. Otherwise he was content to manage the family’s extensive estates in the growing West End of London and to enjoy the life of a country gentleman.

During Portland’s time as Lord-Lieutenant, the Middlesex militia he headed saw great changes.

Portland resigned as Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex in 1841 at the age of 73, after nearly half a century. He was appointed early in the French Revolutionary War, and this and the Napoleonic Wars were to last another 21 years. He continued in service through the peace when the army and militia were scaled down and then rebuilt to serve the growing British Empire. Portland lived to be 85 – having lived through one of the most turbulent times for the country.

And there you have today's post: two ducal coats of arms in various media, in an historical building, and with a touch of musical and movie history.