A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE CROSS,
for the lands af Easter-Wemyss in Fife, in the year 1530; and was afterwards
designed, in writs, Sir James Colvil of Easter-Wemyss, Comptroller and Director
of the Chancery. His grandchild, Sir James Colvil, a famous soldier in the wars
of Henry, King of Navarre, against the Leaguers in France, upon his return home,
was advanced to the dignity of a Lord of Parliament by King James VI. the 25111
April 1604, and was styled Lord Colvil of Culross : The honour ended in his grand-
son Robert.
ROBERT COLVIL, son of Sir James Colvil of Easter-Wemyss, got from his father
the lands of Cleish, in Kinrosshire, whence he and his descendants were designed
of Robert
of Cleish, till they were raised to the honour of peerage in the person
Colvil of Cleish, by King Charles II. with the title of Lord Colvil of Ochiltree, as
by letters patent, 4th of January 1651 ; but he dying without issue, his estate and
honours devolved on Robert Colvil his nephew, father of the present Lord Colvil,
who carries, quarterly, I and 4 argent, a cross moline sable, for Colvil ; 2 and 3
gules, a fesse cheque, argent and azure, for Lindsay, supported on the dexter by a
rhinoceros, proper, and on the sinister by a Hercules, clothed with a lion's skin,
with a club in his hand ; crest, a hind's head couped argent : motto, Oublier ne
puis.
Sir ALEXANDER COLVIL of Blair, son to Mr Alexander Colvil of Blair, sometime
Justice-Depute, son to Alexander Colvil, Commendator of Culross, second son to Sir
James Colvil of Hilton and Tullicoultry, uncle to the Lord Colvil of Culross, the
great soldier, as in the Lyon Register, carries the above quartered arms wr ithin a
bordure, quarterly, gules and Argent ; and for crest, a hind's head couped, proper ;
with the motto, Non obliviscar : And there also are the arms of one Matthew
Colvil, writer in Edinburgh, third son to William Colvil of Leffnissick, lineally
descended of Colvil of Ochiltree, argent, a cross moline sable, with a mulkt for
difference ; crest, a Hercules from the middle, clothed with' a lion's skin, holding
in his hand a batton : motto, Oublier ne puis.
As for other families carrying cross molines, I shall speak to them and their
arms in the end of this chapter.
The English not only give us a cross moline perforated in the centre, which then
they call cross fer de moline, but also a cross, moline, altogether voided, Plate VI.
fig. 12. which some of them call a cross cercelee, and Morgan a cross resarcelee ;
and Guillim, a cross moline voided throughout, as in the arms of KNO-LLES Earl of
BANBURY, azure, seme of cross croslets, a cross moline or, voided throughout of
the field ; and VERNY Lord WILLOUGHBY de BROKE, gules, three crosses resarcelee
voided or, a chief vair, ermine and ermines.
some the
Fig. 13. Plate VI. This is commonly called the cross of passion, by
long cross ; it has a long stem or paler part, and a short traverse near the top, such
an one was that which our Saviour suffered on, and for which it is
jailed
the cross
ofpassion.
The surname of MANSON, with us, carries such a cross between two stars ; the
same was on a piece of household-work, belonging to Joseph Manson, carpenter to-
Queen Mary and King James VI.
Fig. 14. The cross of is Calvary the same with the cross ofpassion, set on three
steps or degrees, which are said to represent, Faith, Hope, and Charity. The
family of BOFFINES, in Dauphine, carries this cross, because one of the progenitorsof
that family built the Calvary at Rome, after the form of that at Jerusalem ; as
Menestrier says.
Fig. 15. Plate VI. The cross patriarchal has its paler part
crossed with two
traverses, the uppermost not so long as that which is below it ; which two traverses
denote the work of redemption to the Jews and Gentiles. The Patriarch of
Jerusalem had for his ensign, argent, a cross patriarchal, cantoned with four stars
gules ; and the Patriarch of Constantinople had such another of gold, in a blue
field, t>etwixt two stars in chief, and a crescent in base argent ; as Favin in his.
Theatre of Honour. This cross is also called by some, the cross of Lorame, as
Monsieur Baron in his Blazon of the Arms of MENTES in France, d 'argent, a la,
croix de Loraine de sable.
The Pope's cross staff differs from that of the patriarch's, in having three tra-
verses.