some armigerous ancestors

some armigerous ancestors

This includes three categories—early colonial armigers (with English arms), more recent armigerous ancestors or connections, and finally medieval armigers, generally ancestral via the 'gateways' discussed in the 'royal descents' section. I have not systematically compiled a large list of persons or families in the last group.

I. Colonial American Armigers

The list of my children's armigerous ancestors consists of those North American colonists who were entitled to (English) arms by grant or by recognition (Visitation). The tabulation of such armigers (under English, Scottish or other jurisdictions) has been the project of the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Committee on Heraldry, from whose Roll of Arms these drawings are taken.

Governor Thomas Dudley (d. 1668) of Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, used this as his arms (Roll, no. 87). The long-standing tradition that he belonged to the baronial Sutton-Dudley family has never been proved, though I am persuaded by the work of the late Marshall Kirk which concludes that he probably was, and suggests a path from John, Baron Dudley (see this discussed in several places in the newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval).

Ann Derehaugh, widow of John Sratton of Shotley, Suffolk (see below), daughter of Edward Derehaugh of Badingham, Suffolk. Arms: sable, three martlets in bend between two bendlets argent. Not in the published NEHGS Roll of Arms; added (by me) to the Roll in 2007 following the publication of Robert Battle's thorough study of the family.

Daniel Gookin (d. 1688), of Ken, Ireland, Virginia, and Boston / Cambridge, Massachusetts (Roll, no 39). For many years he held high military and civil office in the Massachusetts Bay colony. His family was a gentry family of Kent, found (though without arms) in the published edition of the Visitation of 1621. A man of wide experience, who moved both in the Puritan circles and outside them.

The Marbury arms were included in the NEHGS Roll of Arms (no. 81) as lozenges to represent the Marbury sisters, Katherine and Anne; my descent is from their aunt Katherine (Marbury) Wentworth, not an immigrant herself, but grandmother of immigrant William Wentworth of New Hampshire.

Thomas Mayhew, 1593-1682 (Roll, no. 126). After ten years in the Boston area he acquired rights to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands in 1641. His career combines a certain political ambition (realized in his long maintenance of the islands as essentially an independent colony with himself as governor) and a paternalistic (and relatively civil) evangelism and governance of the indigenous people. His father was a yeoman, of Tisbury, Wiltshire, but appeared to belong to the gentry 'Mayow' family of nearby Dinton, Wilts. Banks did not have conclusive proof of this, but Gov. Mayhew did use an armorial seal of the Dinton family, differenced by a mullet (as at left), fitting a plausible placement of his father as son of a known cadet of the Dinton family.

David Phippen, of Melcombe Regis, Dorset (Roll, no. 12), came to Hingham in 1634 and settled in Boston soon thereafter, dying in 1650. His brother, Rev. George Phippen, had entered a short pedigree and these arms in the 1620 Visitation of Cornwall. These arms were transmitted to New England, apparently to David Phippen's sons, and appear in an 1808 chart now held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

John Putnam of Salem, Massachusetts (Roll, no. 35). A yeoman, of Aston Abbots, Buckinghamshire, belonging to a cadet branch of the old family of Puttenham of Puttenham, Hertfordshire. Several articles by G. A. Moriarity in TAG and A.V. Woodman in NEHGR establish the ancestry of the Salem colonist.

Elizabeth Stratton, of Shotley, Suffolk, and Salem, Massachusetts (Roll, no. 425), wife of John Thorndike of Salem (below). The arms given in the published Roll were (by oversight) those of a distinct Stratton family; the Stratton of Shotley arms are rightly argent on a cross sable five bezants, as found in Joan Corder's Dictionary of Suffolk Arms. The ancestry of the family has recently been well studied (by Hal Bradley in NEHGR).

John Thorndike (d. 1668) of Salem, Mass. (Roll, no. 11), husband of Elizabeth Stratton (above). Scott C. Steward (of NEHGS) and John Bradley Arthaud have recently put the Thorndike ancestry on a firm footing.

William Wentworth of Exeter, New Hampshire (Roll, no. 44). An interesting, old Yorkshire gentry family. Copious research by Paul Reed in the 1990s awaits publication; Wentworth has connections to many lesser gentry families of Yorkshire.

II. More Recent Armigers

This category includes two Irish families for which arms have been used more recently than the colonial period.

John Scott (1791 - 14 June 1862) of Ardstraw, County Tyrone, [Northern] Ireland. This is an unusual case. The flat slab grave (shown here) is eighteenth-century, obviously predating John Scott's burial. At its head is an early 19th-century obelisk giving John Scott's monumental inscription, though this flat slab also has 'JOHN SCOTT' deeply cut at the foot (not visible here). The arms and an older inscription are now illegible, though an earlier transcription noted that the tomb was for two Scott women (Elizabeth and Rebecca Scott, died May 1726). Given the re-use of the tomb slab (or its additional service for John Scott), it is hard to know whether the arms really do belong to this Scott family, whether they were assumed at the time of the original burial, or whether John Scott was buried in a tomb which was not originally a Scott tomb at all. No effort to identify the arms has been successful. The arms are apparently: a chevron between three regular unidentifiable charges, on a chief two other unidentifiable charges (the chief is not distinct in this photograph).

Brownell of Stackallan, County Meath, Ireland. My great-grandfather, Richard James Brownell, is not entitled to these arms by descent: rather, they are the arms granted in 1980 by the Republic of South Africa to his agnatic cousin, Mr. Frederick Gordon Brownell, formerly Chief of the Heraldry Bureau of the Republic of South Africa (retired 2002). The design includes a uniquely South-African element, the chief 'gably'.

III. Medieval Armigerous Families

My children's several early-modern gentry gateways provide paths to many medieval armigerous families (English and other), some of whom appear in the paths for royal descent found in the 'royal descents' section, or in other medieval descents on this site (e.g. descents from Crusaders or from participants at Agincourt). Here are a couple of such families with their arms.

Señores de Ayala (Spain). . . .

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rev 09/10/2007

	Governor Thomas Dudley (d. 1668) of Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, used this as his arms (Roll, no. 87). The long-standing tradition that he belonged to the baronial Sutton-Dudley family has never been proved, though I am persuaded by the work of the late Marshall Kirk which concludes that he probably was, and suggests a path from John, Baron Dudley (see this discussed in several places in the newsgroup soc.genealogy.medieval).
	Ann Derehaugh, widow of John Sratton of Shotley, Suffolk (see below), daughter of Edward Derehaugh of Badingham, Suffolk. Arms: sable, three martlets in bend between two bendlets argent. Not in the published NEHGS Roll of Arms; added (by me) to the Roll in 2007 following the publication of Robert Battle's thorough study of the family.
	Daniel Gookin (d. 1688), of Ken, Ireland, Virginia, and Boston / Cambridge, Massachusetts (Roll, no 39). For many years he held high military and civil office in the Massachusetts Bay colony. His family was a gentry family of Kent, found (though without arms) in the published edition of the Visitation of 1621. A man of wide experience, who moved both in the Puritan circles and outside them.
	The Marbury arms were included in the NEHGS Roll of Arms (no. 81) as lozenges to represent the Marbury sisters, Katherine and Anne; my descent is from their aunt Katherine (Marbury) Wentworth, not an immigrant herself, but grandmother of immigrant William Wentworth of New Hampshire.
	Thomas Mayhew, 1593-1682 (Roll, no. 126). After ten years in the Boston area he acquired rights to Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands in 1641. His career combines a certain political ambition (realized in his long maintenance of the islands as essentially an independent colony with himself as governor) and a paternalistic (and relatively civil) evangelism and governance of the indigenous people. His father was a yeoman, of Tisbury, Wiltshire, but appeared to belong to the gentry 'Mayow' family of nearby Dinton, Wilts. Banks did not have conclusive proof of this, but Gov. Mayhew did use an armorial seal of the Dinton family, differenced by a mullet (as at left), fitting a plausible placement of his father as son of a known cadet of the Dinton family.
	David Phippen, of Melcombe Regis, Dorset (Roll, no. 12), came to Hingham in 1634 and settled in Boston soon thereafter, dying in 1650. His brother, Rev. George Phippen, had entered a short pedigree and these arms in the 1620 Visitation of Cornwall. These arms were transmitted to New England, apparently to David Phippen's sons, and appear in an 1808 chart now held by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
	John Putnam of Salem, Massachusetts (Roll, no. 35). A yeoman, of Aston Abbots, Buckinghamshire, belonging to a cadet branch of the old family of Puttenham of Puttenham, Hertfordshire. Several articles by G. A. Moriarity in TAG and A.V. Woodman in NEHGR establish the ancestry of the Salem colonist.
	Elizabeth Stratton, of Shotley, Suffolk, and Salem, Massachusetts (Roll, no. 425), wife of John Thorndike of Salem (below). The arms given in the published Roll were (by oversight) those of a distinct Stratton family; the Stratton of Shotley arms are rightly argent on a cross sable five bezants, as found in Joan Corder's Dictionary of Suffolk Arms. The ancestry of the family has recently been well studied (by Hal Bradley in NEHGR).
	John Thorndike (d. 1668) of Salem, Mass. (Roll, no. 11), husband of Elizabeth Stratton (above). Scott C. Steward (of NEHGS) and John Bradley Arthaud have recently put the Thorndike ancestry on a firm footing.
	William Wentworth of Exeter, New Hampshire (Roll, no. 44). An interesting, old Yorkshire gentry family. Copious research by Paul Reed in the 1990s awaits publication; Wentworth has connections to many lesser gentry families of Yorkshire.