A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE FESSE. 47
For example, 1 'hail give the arms of CONGALTON of that Ilk, as they stand recorded
in our Lyon Register, quarterly, fig. 10. Plate IV. first and fourth argent,
a beiui ^v/A'.f, and in chief a label of three points sable; second and third, argent,
a fes.se sable betwixt two cottises compune azure, and of the second ; crest, a bee,
proper: motto, Magnum in parvo. And, in the same Register, David Congalton,
portioner of Dirleton, descended of Congalton of that Ilk, carries the same arm-,
(without the cottises), and all within a bordure ingrailed g:.
The arms of Congalton of that Ilk, which family is in East-Lothian, are otherwise
illuminated in our old books of painting, as thus ; quarterly, first and fourth
or, a bend, gules ; second and third gules, a fesse or, betwixt two cottises compose
nt and azure. And Sir James Balfour, in his Blazons, makes the cottises vair,
urgent, and azure. Sylvanus Morgan gives such another coat of arms, but \\ith
some variety, in his Treatise of Heraldry, borne by Sir JOHN HUUDY of Stcwel, in
Dorsetshire ; argent, a fesse, parted per fesse, vert and sable, betwixt two cot'
counter-changed.
Besides those accidental forms of the fesse, I shall add only two, couped and
led, which the other ordinaries are also subject to.
Couped is said of the fesse and other ordinaries, when their extremities do not
touch the sides of the shield ; or, a fesse couped gules, carried by Masham of
Essex. The English call such a fesse sometimes a hiwiet, as Morgan in his Blazon
of the Arms of Brabant, argent on a fesse humet gules, three leopards' heads or;
the French, for couped, say alaise ; and so of the other ordinaries, whose extremities
do not touch the sides of the shield ; for which, when the Latins blazon such
figures, they say, a latere scuti disjunct!.
Voided is said of the fesse and other ordinaries when their middle is as it were
cut out, and the field appears, for which the Latins say, fascia secta introrsum :
Camden says for voided, evacuata, and the French, wide, as Menestrier, " Vuide
" se dit des croix & autres pie'ces ouvertes au travers desquelles on voit le champ,
" ou sol de 1'ecu." As for example, argent, a fesse gules voided of the field, as
Plate IV. fig. u. But if the voiding be of a different tincture from the field, as
supposing the voided part of this figure was or, it would be blazoned by the
English, argent, a fesse gules charged with another.
The fesse, according to the is English, not to be diminished in its breadth, nor
to be multiplied ; but with the French it is frequently both diminished and multi-
plied : Of
which in the following chapter.
BLAZONS OF ARMS BELONGING TO THIS CHAPTER. WHICH HAVE FIGURES AFTER THE FORM
OF THE FESSE.
I have given before the armorial bearings of the princely family of STEWARTS,
in carrying the fesse cheque, which continued in the right line of the family, till
Robert the High Steward succeeded his uncle King David Bruce in the throne ;
he then laid aside the fesse cheque, and carried only the imperial ensign of the
Kingdom of Scotland. His eldest son, John,
before his father's accession to the
throne, carried or, a fesse cheque, argent and azure, with a label of three points
within a double tressure, flowered and counter-flowered gules, as by old paintings,
and his seal appended to charters having the shield couche ; and for crest, issuing
out of a wreath, a lion's head.
When his father came to the crown, he had another seal of arms, whereon was
a shield couche, charged with a fesse cheque, out of which issued a demi-lion ram-
pant, all within a double tressure, to intimate his right of succession to the crown :
Which shield of arms was supported by two wild men with long hair hanging
down from their head and ; for crest, a demi-lion, and the legend round the seal,
Sigillum yohannes sensscalli Domini dc Kayle, appended to a charter of his father's,
wherein he is witness with others to John Kennedy oi" Donnour, of certain lands,
which for brevity's sake I omit. The charter ends thus, " Testibus venerabili in
" Christo Patre Willielmo episcopo sancti Andreas .
Johanne primogenito nostro
" comite de Carrick, &. senescallo Scotiae, Roberto comite de Monteith," &c.
dated at Dundonald the 4th of September, the first year of his father's reign.