A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

H2 OF THE CROSS,
French, in saying, a cross cantoned with such figures. Cantoned is said of the
cross and saltier, when they are placed between figures, which appear between the
branches of the cross and saltier, in the cantons.
BANNATYNE of Corhouse, argent, a cross between four stars azure, as fig. 32.
Plate V. The French, d'argent a la croix cantone de qi.atre etoiles d\a-zur. The
Latins, In scuto argenteo crucem planam, ad quatuor scuti angulos singulis stellulis
ifidem ccemleis- percinttam ; crest, a demi-griffin, holding in his right paw a swprd
upright, proper : motto, Nee cito nee tarde. L. R.
BANNATYNE of Newhall, as descended of Corhouse, argent, on a cross azure, between
four mullets gules, a crescent or ; crest, a demi-griffin holding in its dexter
paw a sword, with the motto, Dum spiro spero. So matriculated in the Lyon
Register. Other ancient families of the surname of Bannatyne carry a cheveron
in place of the cross ; of whom afterwards.
When a cross is charged with any figure, we say of it, as of the other ordinaries,
on a cross : as Sir George Mackenzie in the blazon of the arms of the name of
SPALDING, or, on a cross azure, five cross croslets of the first. The first of the name
of Spalding with us was an Englishman, who assisted Sir Thomas Randolph, Earl
of Murray, in recovering the town of Berwick from the English, in the year 1318;
for which good services he got several lands in Scotland. I have seen a charter of
confirmation of Prince David's, eldest son of King Robert III. to Richard Spalding,
of the lands of Lumlethen and Craigaw, in the shire of Fife.
Crosses are sometimes pierced in the middle, so that the field is seen through
the same. When the is piercing round, it suffices to say, pierced or perforated,
as fig. 33. sable, a cross couped or, pierced of the field. If pierced after the form
of a lozenge, then they say, pierced Lozenge-ways ; when pierced after the form of
a square, it is mentioned in the blazon.
If the piercings be in any other part of the crosses but in the middle, then they
are not to be taken for piercings, but for charges.
Couped or aliece is said of a cross or saltier, when their extremities do not
touch the sides of the shield, but when there are more than one cross in the field,
they cannot but be couped, and then that term is not added in the blazon, more
than to other common charges, when they accompany the ordinaries.
Crosses, for the most part, are couped, because they have their proper forms in
their extremities : of which proper forms of crosses I shall now proceed to show
some examples.
Fig. 34. argent, a cross potent azure ; here the traverse is placed on the top of
the stem or paler part. Guillim says it may be called a cross crutchy,
for the
resemblance it has to a crouch, which in old English was called
potent. The
French call it
potence, which signifies a crouch or a gibbet ; for which the Latins say,
crux patibulata.
THE name of BUTTER of old with us carried argent, a cross potent azure, between
four men's hearts gules. Mr Pont, in his blazons of these arms, calls it a
cross batune, following Gerard Leigh ; the reason for its being so called,
is from
its composition of two battons. But BUTTER, of Gormach has it a plain cross, as
in his blazon in the Lyon Register, viz. argent, a cross sable, between four men's
hearts proper ; crest, two hands issuing out of a cloud, drawing an arrow in a bow :
motto, Dirigct Deus.
Menestrier gives an example of cross
patents
in the arms of Chabeel Originaires dc
.Danphine, which he blazons " d'azur, a la Bande d'argent, charge de trois rocs
de sable, a Porle potences tournees d'argent brise d'un mullet d'argent a Tangle
senestre de 1'ecu," i. e. azure on a bend argent, betwixt two orles of cross potents
tournte, three chess rooks sable , and, for a mark of cadency, a mullet in the sinister
chief point of the last. These cross potents here are like T's, contrary to one another,
as the pieces of the furr, called potent counter -potent, the one opposite to the
other : of which before in the chapter of Furrs.
Fig. 35. Plate V. Potent counter-potent, is said of a cross, when its extremities
are terminate with short traverses; as Monsieur Baron says, Potence contre potence
si ces extremites en dedans en facon de I" contre T; as that cross in the arms of Godfrey
of Boulogne King of Jerusalem, argent ; a cross potent counter-potent, cantoned
with four cross croslets or, Chiffletius blazons these arms thus, Crux pedata-