A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE BEND-SINISTER.
title of Lord Petrc of W'rittle in Com. Essex, by King James I. the list of July
1603.
ALLINGTON Lord ALLIKGTON of Wymondly in England, and Baron Killaird in
Ireland, sable, a bend betwixt six billets ardent.
I have; spoke to a bend surmounted with figures ; as aKowhcn it surmounts other
figures ; and having given some few examples, I shall here add only two.
SIKV.ART of Fothergale, or, a lion rampant gules, surmounted of a bend sable ;
as in Mr Thomas Crawfurd's .Manuscript of Heraldry.
Mr JOHN AIK.MAN of Cairnie, Advocate, argent, a sinister hand in base fesse-
\vays, holding an oaken button in pale, with a branch at the top, proper, surmounted
of a bend ingrailed gules ; crest, an oak tree, proper, as relative to the name ;
with the motto, Sub robore virtus. Lyon Register.
I have spoke before in this chapter of the diminutives of the bend, and of the
situation and disposition of natural and artificial figures in bend or
bend-ways, and
given some few examples ; so that having treated sufficiently of the bend, I shall
put an end to this long chapter, and proceed to the bend-sinister.
CHAP. XIV.
OF THE BEND-SINISTEX. ; THE BAR WITH THE FRENCH.
THIS ordinary possesses a third middle part of the field diagonally from the
upper left to the lower right angle. With the English it possesses the
third part of the field, when charged, and when not, only the fifth part of the
field.
The French call this ordinary the bar, but do not take the diminutive of the
e tor the bar, us the English, and describe it, La barre occupe Vautre milieu de
'. droite.
It is said to represent a military belt, whereat hang the quiver, now the cara
bine belt.
The bend-sinister, or bar with the French, is not frequent in the arms of the
Britons, French, Spaniards, and Italians, because it lias some resemblance with the
common note of illegitimation : It is frequent with the Germans, and is as honour-
able, in the opinion of heralds, as the bend-dexter. What Sylvester Petra Sancta
! of it, I shall here add :
"
Balteus hie sinister, intra gloriam est ingenuorum natalium ; neque enim cum
" spuria clavula, seu cum notha ilia lineola confundi debet, quas vitiosae prosapiae
" index habetur. Rarus est quidem hie balteus sinister in tesseris gentilitiis no-
" bilium Italia?, Galliae, Hispaniae, atque Britanniae : Sed suum decus retinet ta-
" men in tesseris non adeo paucis nobilium Germanize. Fuerit vero militare
" cingulum fortasse pharetris ferendis aptum. Quemadmodum hodieque simili
" cingulo utuntur militcs, gestandis ab humero pendulis aheneis fistulis longiori-
" bus quas vulgo appellant charabinas."
Of old the bend-sinister was more frequent in arms with us, than of late, when
almost all of them are turned to the right ; fancying that it carries some mark of
illegitimation with it. Sir James Balfour, in his Blazons, says, of old, BISSET of
that Ilk carried argent, a bend-sinister gules ^ and these of the name of Sowles,
in anno 1292, carried barry of six, or and gules, a bend-sinister sable. The name
of BARBKR, or, a bend sinister azure, charged with a mullet of the first, plate V.
fig. 22. But now some of that name, as ROBERT BARBER of Mulderg, argent, a
St Andrew's Cross betwixt a garb in chief, two, escalops in the rlanques, and
another in base azure : motto, Nibilo nisi cruce, L. R. In the borough rolls of
Exchequer, in the year 1328, I find one John Barber, who, by order of King
Robert the Bruce, got a sum of money from Sir Alexander Seaton of that Ilk, as
governor and feuer of the town of Berwick upon Tweed, one of the progenitors of
the Lords of Seaton, and Earls of Winton. It was this Sir Alexander Seaton's
two sons, whom Edward III. caused most perfidiously to be hanged, because their
father would not surrender the town of Berwick..
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