A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

216 OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES.
filched or, in the first and fourth quarters, with their paternal arms, and which
have been continued by their successors.
ROBERT DE-LYLE was raised to the honour of a Peer, by the title of Lord LYLE,
our old books of bla-
by King James II. About the year 1446, he carried, as by
zons, quarterly, first and fourth Marr, second and third Lyle, as above blazoned ;
for crest, a cock or, crested and barbed gules: motto, An I 'may ; supported by
two cats, proper.
The Lord LYLE'S family continued in a lineal male descent to the reign of
Queen Mary, when John Lord Lyle left a son James, who died without issue, and
a daughter, Jean Lyle, his heir, who was married to Sir NIEL MONTGOMERY of
Lainshaw, from whom is descended the present JAMES MONTGOMERY of Lainshaw,
Clerk to the Justiciary ; and as representative of the Lord LYLE, marshalls the
arms of that family with these of his own, as in the Plate of Achievements, of
which in another place. See Plate of Achievements for the nobility.
Many of the sons of this noble family went to England, France, and other
foreign places, where some of them came to be great men.
LYLE of Stonypeth, gules, fretty of six pieces or, with a mullet in chief for
difference. Font's Manuscript.
There are some of the name of LYLE or LYELL, in the north, who carry different
arms from those of Lyle above, as in our New Register; whose blazons I shall
here insert, lest I have not occasion afterwards ; and though their names seem to
be one, yet they
are distinct and different families.
DAVID LYLE of Woodhead, descended of the family of Murthil, or, a cross azure,
between four cross patees fitched gules, within a border ingrailed of the second ;
crest, a swallow volant, proper : motto, Sedulo y Honeste.
JOHN LYLE of Murthil, or, a plain cross azure, between four crosses patee, fitched
gules ; crest, a dexter hand holding a sword erect, proper : motto, Fort non
ignavo.
THOMAS LYLE of Dysart, or, a plain cross azure, between four cross croslets
fitcbe gules ; crest, a dexter hand holding a sword erect, proper : motto, Tutela.
CHARLES CHEYNE of Chelsea, in the county of Middlesex, was created Lord
Cheyne, Viscount of Newhaven in Scotland, by King Charles II. and carried for
his paternal arms, cheque, or and azure, a fesse gules, fretted argent.
The surname of ABEL in England, vert, fretty argent, and a fesse gules, Kent's
Dictionary of Arms ; and there ALFORD of Northampton, gules, fretty ermine.
Arms latticed differ from fretted ones, as before shown ; and are called by the
French,, treille or treillisse, from which our word tirlace for a lattice ; these pieces
which make it are not interlaced with one another, as in the fretty, but lie straight
upon the undermost pieces, fixed with nails ; which, if of a different tincture, are
mentioned also in the blazon, as in the arms of BARDONENCHE en Dauphine, by
d1
Menestrier, argent treillisse de gueules clone d'or, i. e. argent, a lattice or tirlace
gules, nailed or, fig. 25. Sir John Feme says, such arms were given to a French
Knight, and continued by his posterity, for taking Gundemarus, King of Burgundy,
prisoner in a battle, in the reign of Childebert, King of France. Which arms
he thus blazons, sable, a musion (a cat) or, opprest with a treillisse gules, clone
argent.
Before I end this chapter I cannot but give account what some say of the fretty,
who will have it to represent a flower garden ; especially when below the fretty,
and in the interstices of the field, there appear flowers, as in the arms of
GARDINER with us ; argent, on a fret of four pieces gules, as many hearts or, and
in every interstice, a rose of the second, as in Font's Manuscript.
Others again will have fretty to represent a net, as Guillim, who derives fretty
from rete, which signifies a net ; and especially when fishes appear under it, as
in the armorial bearings of some of the name of STURGEON in England; azure,
three sturgeons naissant or, surmounted of fretty of six pieces gules ; some say a
net gules, which Mr Gibbon thus latins, " Scutum coeruleum, tribus sturgionibus
" (altero alteri impositis) impressum aureis & deinde filis sex rubeis reticulatum-."
When there are three or four, or more figures, proper or natural, placed one
over the other, and under the other alternately, then they are said to be fretted, as
in the bearing of the surname of TARBET,. argent, three turbot fishes fretted, pro-