A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE CHEVERON.
rose of the first, fig. 7. PI. VII. because the Scots being in a buttle with the
English, and like to be worsted, two brothers of the name of Hepburn opp
ly came in with fresh supplies, and recovered the battle ; and therefore he will
have the cheveron to signify the relief they gave, and the two lions to rc-pre
themselves as Scots, pulling at a rose, the badge of England. But of these arm
afterwards.
Sir George observes also, that ROBERTSON of Struan got a cheveron added t
his arms, for apprehending Graham, the murderer of King Jamc-, 1. and that the
family has disused it of late, because of its being frequently used as a mark
cadency : and Struan being chief of the name of Robertson, it were improper to
him upon that account.
The cheveron takes up the third part of the field by the French, but by the
English only the fifth part, whether charged or not ; sometimes our painters and
engravers follow the one or the other, as they think it fit, to make the cheveron
less or more proportionable to the figures which accompany or charge it.
1 shall proceed to treat of the cheveron, in the same method I have done of the
former ordinaries, by giving examples of them plain, under accidental forms,
charged, accompanied, of their diminution, and multiplication, with the blazons
of other figures situate after the position of the cheveron ; and first of a
plain
cheveron.
The old Earls of Carrick had for arms, argent, a cheveron gtiles ; as Sir James
Balfour's Blazons, Plate VII. fig. 2.
King William the Lion had given Carrick to Duncan the son of Gilbert, the son of
Fergus of Galloway, and erected it into an earldom 1185, which also became asurname
to his descendants, who carried the same arms.
Earl DUNCAN was succeeded by his son Niel Earl of Carrick, who was very liberal
to the monks of the abbacy of Crosragwell, which his father founded. He
departed this life 23d of June 1250, leaving one daughter, Margaret, his sole heir,
who married first Adam de Kilcojicath, who thereupon was Earl of Carrick. He
dying in the Holy Land, without issue, she married again Robert de Bruce Lord
of Annandale, who in her right was Earl of Carrick ; she bare to him Robert
King of Scotland, and Edward Earl of Carrick, at last King of Ireland, who was
slain at the battle of Dundalk, anno 1318.
He left a natural son, Robert Bruce of Liddisdale, on whom his uncle King
Robert the Bruce bestowed the earldom of Carrick. He was killed at the battle
of Duplin, 1332, and was succeeded in that dignity by Alexander his brother, who
lost his life at the battle of Hallidon-hill, 1333, leaving a daughter,
Helen Countess
of Carrick ; she died without issue, whereupon the earldom returned to the crown,
and was by King David Bruce, in the 39th year of his reign, given to John Stewart,
Lord Kyle, his nephew John, eldest son of Robert Stewart of Strathern, who
afterwards was created Earl of Carrick. He came to the crown 1390, by the name
of Robert III.
The surname of TELZEFER, ermine, a cheveroi> gules ; the principal family of
which name is TELZEFER of Harecleugh. I have seen a charter granted by James
de Lindsay Lord Crawford, the I2th of October 1390, of the lands of Harecleugh,
to John Telzefer, which formerly belonged to his uncle William Telzefer ; which
charter is confirmed by King Robert III. in a charter of Robert Duke of Albany,
to John Stewart Earl of Buchan, of the lands of Dunlop, 1418, Andrew Tel/efer
is a witness, and there designed Clerk of the Chancellory.
The surname of FLEMING, gules, a cheveron within a double tressure, flowered
and counter-flowered with flower-de-luces argent, Plate VII. fig. 2.
Some say the cheveron was accompanied with lions' heads, and' others say with
wolves' heads, but these have been long since disused by the family ; and the
double tressure, says Sir James Balfour, was carried by FLEMIXG Earl of Wigton,
in the year 1357. As for the signification and antiquity of the name; in the
chartularies of Paisley and Kelso, it is written Flandrensis, Flaming,
and Flamma-
ticus. Which surname they had, says Sir James Dalrymple, in his Collections,
page 425, from one residing in Scotland, who came from Flanders ; from whence
the name Fleming, of which there are severals to be found witnesses in evident^
in the reigns of Malcolm IV. William the Lion, and the Alexanders.