A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF CELESTIAL FIGURES, fcfr. 247
as was on the seal of Sir JOHN BAILLIE of Hoperig, in East-Lothian, appended to
that agreement made at Berwick in the year 1292, with Edward I. of England, to
hear the claims of the competitors for the crown of Scotland. But afterwards, one
of the heads of that family, being in France, killed a wild boar ; and, to perpetuate
this action to posterity, he added other three stars, which, in all, make up nine,
to represent the constellation of ursa major, and, to make his achievement more
adequate, took, for crest, a boar's head couped, and, for supporters,
proper ; with the motto, >uid clarius astris.
two boar-.,
This family of Hoperig, after they got the lands of Lamington, has
signed
been de-
BAILLIE of Lamington, who uses the foresaid achievement.
I shall give several instances of the branches of this family, with their arms.
An ancient cadet of Hoperig or Lamington, was BAILLIE of Carphin, who car-
ried as Lamington, with a crescent for difference.
BAILLIE of Balmudyside, afterwards designed of Parbroth in Fife, a cadet of
Carphin, carries as Lamington, within a bordure argent, charged with eight crescents
of the first, as Plate X. fig. 13. crest, the morning-star, proper: motto,
Vertitur in lucem. New Register.
BAiLLiEof Polkemmet, descended of Gereston, a cadet of Carphin, azure, nine
stars, three, three, two and one, all within a bordure counter-nebule, argent and sable;
crest, a star of eight points or, issuing out of a cloud : motto, In caligine lucet.
New Register.
BAILLIE of Inshaugy in Ireland, descended of Lamington, bears as Lamington,
within a bordure waved or ; crest, a star of eight points issuing from a cloud :
motto, Nil clarius astris. Lyon Register.
These figures in the arms of the name of BailHe are known to be stars by the
motto ; yet some with us, and especially the English, call such figures, mullets or
mollets, even when accompanied with the moon, or surrounded with clouds, whom
I have followed before in several blazons, of which I thought fit here to advertise
my reader, and to show the difference between stars and mollets or mullets.
Mollet is the rowel of a spur, and has ordinarily six points, and is always pierced
in the middle, and so differs from stars, which have but five points ordinarily, as
Monsieur Baron, in his Art Herahliquc, " Molletes d'Esperon, que Ton appelle sim-
" plement mollettes, ont pour 1'ordinaire six pointes, et sont percees au milieu en
" quoiqu'elles sont differentes des e'toiles."
Yet the English call such figures of five points, unpierced mullets or mollets ;
Leig'h, Guillim, and Morgan say, they represent fallen stars or meteors ; and tell
us, that such an one fell down from heaven upon the shield of one of the progenitors
of Vere Earl of Oxford, when he was at the siege of Jerusalem, who carried
at that time, quarterly, gules and or ; and, ever since, the family has charged the
first quarter with a mullet argent. Whence all other stars, like it, in other arms,
upon other occasions, though representing fixed stars, more honourable than fallen
ones, are by them called mollets or mullets.
Mullets, having five points, and unpierced, are taken for stars and etoiles, especially
when alone, and when they accompany other celestial figures ; but mullets,
when of six points, and pierced in the middle, and accompanying military figures,
are to be taken for spur-rowels, of which afterwards.
Mullets, then, of five points unpierced, are stars, as Plate X. fig. 12. and are
very frequent in old armorial bearings with us. Whether the frequency proceeded
from the ancient custom of the Scots and Picts, who went naked to the war--
having their bodies adorned with figures of divers colours, to distinguish themselves
by kindreds and clans, I shall not be positive ; though some, as the learned Cam-
den, in his Remains, at the. title of Armories, tell us, that some ascribe the fim
use of armones, in this part of the world, to the Picts and Britons ; who, going
naked to the wars, adorned their bodies with figures and blazons of divers colours.
And Monypenny, in his Manuscript Histoire of the Scots and Picts, in the Law-
yers' Library, tell us, that they artificially pounced or cut small holes in their skin,
and poured in coloured liquors, over which the skin grew, and the colour of the
liquor appeared through in the form of stars and other figures, by which they were
distinguished in kindreds and clans ;
very ancient historian of Scots affairs.
for which our author vouches Verimond, a