A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE CHIEF OR CHEF. 7 r
of a duke 1707; whose achievement is, quarterly, first and fourth, or, on a chief
sable, three escalops of the first, for the name of Graham second and ; third,
argent, three roses gules, for the title of Montrose ; crest, a falcon, proper, armed
and beaked or, standing on an heron argent, membred gules : motto, Ne oublie ; sup-
porters, two storks, proper. As for the arms of the honourable branches and
cadets of this noble family, they are to be found at the end of this chapter.
Having treated of a chief, and on a chief, or a chief charged, as we sometimes
speak, and having illustrated them by suitable examples, before I proceed to
blazons in chief,
I shall speak to those arms we sometimes meet with, which have
two chiefs, or the diminutive of a chief.
The English tell us, that the chief is subject to all the partition lines in heral-
dry, but cannot be parted per fesse, that is, couped horizontally through the
middle : Yet, say they, such a partition may be, when three parts of the chief are
above, and but one below ; and this they call a combel or fillet, viz. the diminutive
of a chief, representing that ligament which ties up the hair, like what our
common people in Scotland call a woman's snood : And heralds call it a fillet,
because of the length and narrowness of it, as also because of the place where it
is placed ; for did it occupy any other place than the chief, it should go under
another name.
We frequently meet with two chiefs in one coat, especially of foreign arms ; as
those of Pope Innocent III. who was of the family of EDISCALKIE, thus, vair, on a
chief gules, a leopard argent, surmounted of another chief or, charged with an
eagle displayed sable, crowned gules. Here the chiefs are not the diminutives one
of another, but both of an equal breadth, and proportioned as a chief should be to
the body of the escutcheon ; and when it so happens, then the two chiefs take up
the half of the escutcheon.
That which occasions two chiefs, in one coat, is the concessions made by sovereign
princes, of their royal figures to their deserving friends or subjects ; who
having before, a chief in their paternal arms, place those of their sovereign's on
another chief, as those of the emperor's, in the last example, and several others
I could here add, so carried by subjects of the empire.
The Knights Templars of St John of Jerusalem, have ordinarily two chiefs,
especially those knights who have a chief in their paternal bearings ; who, in that
case surmount it, with another of the arms of that order, which they are by custom
obliged to do, being gules, charged with a cross argent : For example, fig. 31.
the arms of Le BAILLI de VALENCE, of the House of ESTAMPES in France, being a
principal Knight of that Order, carried azure, two girons placed cheveron-ways or,
on a chief of the last, three ducal crowns gules, being the paternal coat, surmounted
with another chief, (of the order of St John of Jerusalem) gules, a cross argent.
W T
hich arms Menestrier blazons thus, fazure a deux girons d'or, mises en cheveron
mi cbef d'or, charges de trois couronnes dueales de gueules, ce chef est abaisse sur celui
de la religion : The term abaisse, as I have observed already, is said of all the proper
figures in armories, that are lower situate than they should be ; and the chief of
this Order, he calls a chief of religion : So also, Mr Thomas Crawfurd calls it ;
who tells us, that one of the name of DUNDAS, Lord St JOHN, principal Knight of
the Order of St John of Jerusalem with us, carried argent, a lion rampant gules,
for Dundas, and a chief of the last, charged with a cross argent, the cross of re-
ligion.
When the uppermost of the two chiefs is broader than that below, then it is
said to be soutenu, that is, supported by the undermost ; which being a diminutive
of a chief, is called a trangle by the French, and a fillet by the English ; as in the
arms of the family of URCINS in France, fig. 32. thus blazoned by Menestrier,
Bande d'guettles et d'argent, au chef de meine, charge d'une rose de gueules, et sou-
tenu d'un trangle d'or, charge d'une aiguille ondoyante d'azi/re, i. e. bendy of six gules,
and argent, on a chief of the last, a rose of the first, supported by a trangle, (the diminutive
of a bar, a fillet, with the English, for the diminutive of a chief, of
which before), or, charged with a serpent gliding azure. Sylvester Petra Sancta
describes these arms, beginning first at the chief, thus, Gerunt Urcini, rosam puniceam,
in coronide scutaria argento illusa, cum subjecta insita (the diminutive of a