A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF ARTIFICIAL FIGURES IN ARMORIES.
The name of BURN, or, two spur-rowels, and a lumting-horn in base sable.
Others of that name, argent, on a bend sable, three buckles or. P. MS.
Mr ANDREW BRYSON of Craigton, gules, a saltier betwixt two spur-rowels in
fesse, a spear-head in chief argent, and a crescent in base or. N. R.
The EPISCOPAL SEE of BANGOR, in England, gules, a bend argent, gutte sable,
between two mullets pierced of the second, as by Dale Pursuivant's Heraldry ;
and other English heralds blazon spur-rowels, mollets pierced.
There are many noble families in England who carry such figures, whom I
cannot here mention for want of room.
Buckles, or clasps, in arms, called by the English sometimes fermailes, from the
French, fermeaux, buckles. Sylvester Petra Sancta says, " Fibulae tesserariae
perti-
"
nent ad militare cingulum," i. e. buckles belong to the military belt. As for
the military belt, the fesse or bend, I have treated of them before. Buckles, clasps,
and rings, are said by heralds, especially by Menestrier, to represent power and
authority in the bearers, as also an acknowledgment of a dependence of sovereign
powers ; for such things were of old ordinary gifts of superiors, as badges of fidelity
and firmness. And Mr Morgan, in his Heraldry, says, that these arming buckles
were added as a sign of power and authority to the bordures of the Stewarts Earls
of Darnly and Lennox, upon account these earls were Viceroys of Naples and
Calabria.
The name of STIRLING has always been in use to carry buckles variously
situate, sometimes 3, 2 and i ; at other times in chief, or on a chief, in ancient
bearings; but more frequently on a bend, as now used.
As for the antiquity of the name, IValterus de Strivilin is witness in a charter of
Prince Henry, son of King David I. of the grant of the church of Sprouston, by
John, Bishop of Glasgow. (Register of Kelso, p. 143.) And in the Earl of Haddington's
Collection of Charters, especially these of King William, Robert de Strivilin
is frequently to be found a witness ; and in the charters of Alexander II.
Robert and Walter Strivilins are witnesses there. In a transumpt of a charter of
Alexander III. the i^th year of his reign, (which I did see in the hands of the late
Lord Kinnaird) to Richard de Moravia, brother to Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness,
of the lands of Cowbine, the witnesses are Thomas de Strivilin, Cancellarius, Ingelramus
de Baliol, Vice-comes de Berwick, Henricus de Baliol, Alexander Fife, Willielmus
Bizzet; which charter was transumed before William, Bishop of Murray, under
the hands of Sir Thomas Moodie, and Sir Martin Tulloch, clerks, in the year
1481. There are several families of the name of Stirling to be found in Prynne's
Ragman-Roll, submitters to King Edward 1. in the year 1297, as Johannes de Strivilin,
miles, Alexander de Strivilin in Lanarkshire, Johannes de Striviling de Moravia,
Johannes de Striviling de Carss in Stirlingshire. This last family is known to
have ended in an heiress, married to Monteith, who got the lands of Carse with
her, which was enjoyed by their posterity, of the name of MONTEITH, who quartered
the arms of Stirling, viz. azure, three buckles or, with the arms of the nrme of
Monteith, of which before.
Sir James Balfour, in his Blazons, says, in the year 1292, Sir William Stirling
carried, parted per fesse, sable and or, three buckles of the last on the first ; which
arms I think be the same which Sir George Mackenzie ascribes to Stirling of
Glenesk, in his MS. viz. or, on a chief sable, three buckles of the first ; Sir George
taking the partition for the honourable ordinary the Chief.
The family of Stirling of Glenesk failed in an heir-female, who was married to
Sir Alexander Lindsay; he got with her the lands of Glenesk, in the reign of King
David II. who confirmed these lands to him, with the lands of Byres; as in Had.
Coll. page 574.
STIRLING of Keir has always been reckoned the principal family of the name,
and thought to be descended from the first Walter de Strivilin, witness in Prince
Henry's charter before-mentioned :
Of old, he carried argent, on a bend sable, three
buckles or. Some books have made the bend vert, and others azure; but the bend
sable is most frequently to be met with, as on the House of Falahall, where the
arms of many of the barons of Scotland were illuminated in the year 1604.
Amongst them are these of Stirling of Keir, argent, on a bend ingrailed sable, three
buckles or. In our New Register, the arms of Sir John Stirling of Keir, Baronet,
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