A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE BAR. 59.
Mon more direct to the name of the family of Barr. With us, I find a bend and fesse
blazoned indifferently
a bar, in allusion to the bearer's designation or surname.
LOCKHART of Barr, an old family of that name, carried urgent, on a bar sable,
(which was a bend dexter),
three fetter locks or.
The name of BARR, or BARRY, gave azure, an eagle displayed argeiu", surmounted
of a bar, which is represented as a fesse sable , charged with two mullets of the
second.
Sir George Mackenzie, in his Science of Heraldry, chap. 13. observes, that a
fesse of old with us was taken for a bar, as in the blazons of the arms of the surname
of DEMPSTER, gules, a sword argent, hiked and pommelled or bead-ways,
surmounted of a bar of the last, now called a fesse, to show they were heritable
Dempsters ; who are criminal officers, an honourable office of old, and therefore
carry a sword as a sign of power in criminals, which is called Jus Gladii ; and because
the Dempsters used to stand at the bar, and pronounce the verdict, there-
fore they got the bar, which seems to represent the same. Which arms quartered
with those of Abernethy. viz. or, a lion rampant gules, bruised with a ribbon
sable, were carried by JOHN DEMPSTER of Pitliver, descended, and representative
of the family of Muiresk ;
and for crest, a demi-lion gules naissant out of the torce,
holding in his dexter paw a sword erected, proper ; with the motto on an escrol,
Fortiter tf strenue, as in the Plate of Achievements, whicli family ended in an
heiress who was married to Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, baronet ; of whom
before.
Mr JOHN DEMPSTER, minister of the Gospel, carried the same quartered arms
within a bordure, parted by pale, argent and sable; for crest, a leg bone of a man,
and a branch of palm, disposed saltier-ways, proper ; with the motto, Mors aut vita
decora. L. R.
The bar then, according to the English, possesses the fifth part of the field,
whereas the fesse occupies the third part. And it is not confined to any certain
of the
or prescribed place as the fesse is, but may be transferred to- any part
escutcheon ; yet if there be but one in the field, by the rules of heraldry, it is
over blazoned a fesse, and not a bar. For, says Holme's, it cannot be a bar, ex-
cept
there be two or more iruthe field :
I have not met with one bar, and so- called, carried by the English for arms,
save in one book called, The Art of Heraldry, printed at London 1693, which
gives for arms, to Captain John Burken of London, Esq. argent, a bar azure, as
fig. 12. Plate IV. to show the diminution of the bar from the fesse, which the
French blazon a fesse en divise, the Latin heralds, trabs, as John Feme ; but Mr
Gibbon calls it veftis : Sylvester Petra Sancta has for a bar, tenea traasversa, and
the German, Jacob ImhorT, uses the word fasciola. la carrying of one bar in a
field, I find but one instance in our books of blazon, which is the bearing of the
surname of MELDRUM, argent, a demi-otter issuing out of a bar waved sable, as fig.
13. Plate IV. but here the bar is made too large by the engraver.
By the practice then in Britain, there are to be two in a field before they can.
be properly called bars ; but by the French they are still called faces, for the bar
with them is the bend-sinister ; of which afterwards. The family of REFUGE in
France, argent, two bars gules, surmounted of as many serpents nowed, and affront
e in pale azure ; Menestrier blazons these arms thus, if argent a deux faces de
gueiiles tt deux serpens d'azur, tortillez, on ondoians en pal et affront ez brocbans sur Ic
tout; as fig. 14. Plate IV.
The surname of GIFFORD, gules, three bars ermine, fig. 15. The first of this surname
with us, is said to have come from England to Scotland, in the reign of
Malcolm Canmore ; and Hugo de is Giffbrd to be met with as a witness in chartersof
William King of Scotland. The principal family of the name was Gifford of
Giffordhall, in East-Lothian which ; family ending without issue-male, having only*
daughters : The eldest was married to Hay of Lochquharat, of whom is descended
the present Marquis of Tweeddaie, the family has been in use ever since the foresaid
match to quarter the arms of Gilford with their own.
GIFFORD of Sheriff-hall, in Mid-Lothian, a cadet of Gifford-hall, carried gules, three
bars ermine within a bordure argent. John Giftbrd of Sherift-hall was forfeited by
King James III. for keeping correspondence with the English, and entertaining