A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

44
OF THE FESSE.
Amisfield, who carried the foresaid blazon alone, and Charteris of Kinfauns, who
carried the same, but within the double tressure flowered and counter-flowered
gules.
The surname of CRAWFORD anciently gave for arms, gules, a fesse ermine, fig. 29.
Plate III. Others of that name have argent, three stags' heads erased gules; of
whom afterwards.
Captain THOMAS BASICIN of Ord, in the Lyon Register, gules, a fcsse vair ; crest,
a sword and stalk of wheat crossing each other saltier-ways, the last being depres-
sed of the first : motto, Armis fc? diligentia.
The fesse is sometimes carried as if it were cut oft' from the sides of the shield,
as fig. 30. it is then blazoned, couped, or aliect or, a fesse couped azure.
A fesse wreathed of divers tinctures, is called by the French tortille, or cable ;
it is as it were formed like a rope or cable of different colours, borne by the surname
of CARMICHAEL, argent, a fesse tortille, azure and gules, fig. 31.
The fesse is sometimes also variegated of different tinctures, being counter-
The arms of the name "of
changed by the partition of the shield, as fig. 32.
STANHOPE, given us by Workman in his Book of Blazons, parted per pale, gules
and or, a fesse indents between three stars, two in chief and one in base, all coun-
ter-changed.
Mr Thomas Crawfurd gives us the arms of MACKRERY of Dumpender ; argent, a
fesse quartered sable and or, fig. 33.
Plate III.
The fesse, as other ordinaries, is often charged and surmounted with proper or
natural figures. When charged, the figures are contained within the breadth of
the fesse ; and for the word charged, we say also on a fesse : But when the figures _
are oblong, and lie over the fesse, then the fesse is said to be surmounted of such a
figure ; and these super-charges are not to be mentioned in the blazon, but after
the figures which lie immediately on the shield, and accompany the fesse ; as by
the following examples.
Fig. 34. Argent, on a fesse azure, three stars or, (some call them mullets) the
of the surname of MURE. The chief of that name is Muir of
principal bearing
Rowallan, a considerable family in the reign of Alexander III. and more eminent
after, in the reigns of the Braces; who quartered the arms of Cummin, upon
marrying one of the heiresses of a principal family of that name. King Robert
II. married Elizabeth Mure, daughter of Rowallan, mother of King Robert III.
Fig. 35. Argent on a fesse sable, three cinquefoils of the first, by the name of
BOSWELL. The first of this name is said to have been a Norman, and to have
':ome to Scotland in the reign of Malcolm III. and possessed lands in the Merse,
ailed after them Boswell-Lands. The last possession they had in that shire was
Oxmuire, of which I have seen a charter in the reign of King Alexander II. Of
them is descended BOSWELL of Balmuto, in the shire of Fife, now the principal
t'umily of that name, who got these lands of Balmuto by marrying the heiress of
GLEN of Balmuto ; upon which they quarter the arms of AEERNETHY, or, a lion
rampant gules, bruised with a ribbon sable ; which the Glens of Balmuto quartered
with their own, viz. argent, three martlets sable ; which were more proper to have
been quartered with Boswell, than the lion of Abemethy.
Having so far treated of a fesse charged, it follows now, tp give examples
fesse
interposed betwixt figures. The English and we use only the word bet-ween ;
mcl some the Latin word inter, as Sandford ; the French say accompagne.
Plate III.
fig. 28. Gules, a fesse cheque, argent and azure, between three crescents
or; by the name of Row. Others of the name change the tinctures, and
give or, a fesse cheque, azure and argent, between three crescents gules ; as ARCHI-
D Row, Colonel of the Regiment of the Scots Fusiliers with the addition of ;
a
anton dexter azure, charged with an -orange, stalked and slipped, proper ; ensigned
with an imperial crown and for ; crest, an arm, issuing out of a wreath, armed,
ling a sword, proper ; with this motto, Nun desistam. He is descended by the
father's side, from Mr John Row, an eminent reformer, and, by the mother's side,
from that eminent lawyer, Sir John Skene, Clerk-Register in the reign of King
James VI.
Plate IV. fig.
i. Argent, a fesse waved gules, betwixt three boars' heads erased
sable, carried by ALLARDICE of that Ilk. This family got a charter from King
of a