A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

3 2o OF FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS.
VERNOR of Auchintinnie, argent, a fesse between three boars' heads sable. Font's MS.
couped^
Boars' heads, with their necks, are now represented fesse-ways, as by their figures
in the Plates,; but, by our old paintings and carvings, they were given with
necks hanging down, couped or erased, as these in the old bearing of Gordon of
Earlston, in Plate of Achievements. Sometimes they are placed pale-ways, that is,
erect, as inthe bearing of the Right Hon. BOOTH Earl of WARRINGTON in England,
three boars' heads erased and erected sable.
who carries argent ;
COCHRAN of Balbachly, an old family of the name. I have mentioned him
Balbarchan as above and ; I here repeat his new arms and the old ones used by
the family. Their achievement, as it now stands in the Lyon Register, is argent,
a boar's head erased, and in chief, three mullets disposed cheveron-ways, azure ;
and, for crest, a spear-head and garb crossing other saltier-ways : motto, Armis IS
industria. But 1 have seen the armorial seal of the family appended to a writ in
the year 1614, whereupon was a formal shield charged with a boar's head erased,
and, in chief, three mullets fesse-ways.
The first of this family had the lands of Balbachly given him by King Robert
Bruce, for services done to that Prince ; and upon record is John Cochran of
Barbachlaw, grandson to John of Cochran, who was infeft in these lands, as heir
to John his grandfather, by virtue of a precept dated the 2Oth of October 1472.
The grandfather, John of Cochran, must have lived either in the reign of King
David the II. or of Robert the II. and has been either son or grandson to the person
who first got the lands from King Robert Bruce.
The above John Cochran, designed of Balbachly, was succeeded by his son
George, who was infeft in the lands of Balbachly, as heir to his father, in the
charters and re-
year 1506 ; and the succession of the family was continued, as by
tours to be seen in the charter-chest of the family, too long here to be
and I shall here only mention James Cochran, who was infeft in the
narrated ;
barony of
Balbachly, as heir to his father, 1614, a man of bright parts,
who was constitut-
ed Sheriff-Principal of the sherifFdom of Linlithgow, by commission under the
Great Seal in the year 1622, and was, for his loyalty, continued in the same office
by King Charles I. He was succeeded by his grandson, Alexander, in the barony
of Balbachly ; and he was succeeded by his son Alexander, father of the present
Alexander Cochran of Balbachly.
OF THE BEAR.
THE Bear, a cruel and fierce beast, by the Latins called Ur.ats, ab urgeo, ob ferociam
impetumque ita appellatum, (Hopingius de Jure Insignium^ is frequent in
arms, upon the account, as some say, that the first assumers of that creature for
an armorial figure represented a military man, or one that had overcome a cruel
and vicious enemy, and sometimes upon account that its name is relative to that
of the bearer's. Its posture in arms is ordinarily erect on his hinder feet ; and as
the above-named author speaks of
"
it, Pedes ursi fortissimi sum, quibus & rectu-.
"
incedit more hominum, & victa animalia conculcat." For which the French
say, en pied, and is always muzzled, as in the arms of BLANCHART in France, d'or
a Fours en pied de sable, a la tetiere d i. 'argent ; e, or ; a bear erect, sable ; muzzled
argent. Plate XI. fig. n.
Several counties in Switzerland carry bears, as equivocally relative to their name :
1 he CANTON of BERNE, gules, on a bend or, a bear sable . The CANTON of AP-
PENZEL, or, a bear erect sable. The abbey of St Gall in Switzerland, argent, a
bear erect, and contourne sable. This abbey, says Favin in his Theatre of Honour,
was founded in memory of St Gall, a Scotsman, who taught there the Christian
religion to the inhabitants, and who is still the Patron Saint of that country.
The URSINI in Venice carry azure, two bears erect affronts or ; the BERINEI
in Westphalia, argent, a bear passant sable contourne and collared argent ; as relative
to the name.
The head of this beast is more frequent with us than the whole body, which,
as I have said of the heads of other beasts, so of this, that the head supposes the
whole body in armories, and is either erased or couped, and always muzzled*