A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

afi OF THE BEND-SINISTER.
LIDDEL of Halkerton, of old, (says Sir James Balfour), carried 'gules on a bencJ-
sinister argent, a mullet sable ; but now it is a bend-dexter, charged with tl
mullet? tabfe. Sir James Liddel of Halkerton is witness in a charter of 'Alexander
Duke of Albany, to Alexander Bonneston of that Ilk, of the lands of Upsat-"
lington in the Merse, (penes Ctmitem de Home').
Robert Liddel, merchant in Edin-
burgh, descended of the family of Halkerton, gules, on a bend, betwixt a cross
croslet fitched in chief, and a flower-de-luce in base argent, three spur-rowels of
the first ; crest, a rose slipped proper : motto, Hinc odor y sanitas, L. R.
The name of KAY or CAY, in Sir George Mackenzie's Heraldry, argent, a bendsinister
sable, between an annulet in chief gules, and a griffin's head erased in base
of the second, in its beak, a key azure ; fig. 23. plate V. He gives us also there
the arms of the name of WESTON, fig. 24. gules, on a bend sinister argent, three
crescents sable. Font's Manuscript. In the borough rolls of Exchequer, Thomas
Weston got sixty-six pounds eight pennies from Sir Alexander Scaton, governor
and steward of Berwick, as by his accounts given in the 2ist of January 1327.
The bend-sinister is subject to all the accidental forms that the bend-dexter i?,
and the Qther ordinaries : As, to have its diminutives, and to be multiplied also,
which I shall only here name, since their practice in armories is very rarely to be
met with in Britain.
The first diminutive of the bend-sinister, with the English, is called a
scarp,
which contains in breadth the half of the bend-sinister, .and comes from the
French word echarpe, a scarf, an ornament made use of by commanders and field-
officer?, over their left shoulder, thwart the body, and so under the arm, on the
right side, as Guillim says, who tells us, that in blazons, it should be named scarp,
without mentioning the word sinister, and that it is an honourable armorial figure ;
yet neither he nor others in England give us any instance by whom it is carried ;
the French call it a barre, and if there be six of them in the field, they say ban e i
and if more, cottise,
The half of the scarp, with the English, is called a batton-sinister; by the French,
baton -sinister ; it is never carried in arms, but as a mark of illegitimat'on, com-
monly called the bastard bar.
Guillim, in his Display of Heraldry, says, that the batton-sinister represents a
cudgel, being latined by some, bacillus, to show that bastards are not free men, but as
servants Kable to be cudgelled; but this is both unmannerly and unreasonably said,
for the batton-dexter and sinister, are both latined bacilli ; the first used by the
most polite nations, to difference the lawful younger sons of sovereigns and nobility,
as the batton-dexter in the arms of the younger sons of France, and which
was used by the family of Bourbon, over the arms of France, before its accession
to the throne. The button-sinister differs only from the former, by position, to
distinguish the illegitimate from the legitimate, carried by natural children, not
only of the nobility, but sovereigns ; and does not expose them as villain, as
Guillim will have it, but shows that they are cut oft" from the succession to their
tather's honour and inheritance, by the lawful children, from which it is sometimes
called afasure, as Upton, " Fissura pro eo quod findit anna paterna in duas par-
" tcs, quia ipse bastardus finditur a patrimonio patris sui."
I shall take occasion here, for my reader's satisfaction, to speak a little to its an-
cient and modern form, the antiquity of its use, its continuance in a coat of arms,
and give some examples by whom it is carried as a mark of illegitimation.
As to its form and length, (having shown its breadth before), it pa: sed anciently
from the left chief corner of the shield, to the right flank over the arms, of which
I have seen several instances with us ; and shall here only mention, that of JOHN
HOMJS of Hilton in the Merse, natural son of Alexander Lord Home, Great
Chamberlain of Scotland, in the reign of King James IV. who had on his seal of
arms, appended to a right of reversion of the lands of the Fleurs in Roxburghshire,
granted by him to Elizabeth Home, Lady Hamilton; fig. 25. plate V. Quarterly,
first and fourth vert, a lion rampant argent, for Home ; second and third argent,
three papingoes vert, for Pepdie of Dallas, (the arms of his father), and over all a
batt.oTj-sinister sable, as a mark of illegitimation, passing from the left chief corner
to the right flank.