Notices of the Ellises of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the conquest to the present time

11
would be formed as a further distinction on Quarterly, which
itself would be a distinction from a plain shield ; 9 the sons of
chiefs bearing any of these would vary the colours. When
the most obvious divisions of the shield were exhausted, after
the tenants of a barony were relatives of
their chief, or bore similar coat armour.
In every instance where the alliances
and their arms can be ascertained, investi-
gation proves that family relationship
alone (with few exceptions) was the source
of each new coat of arms. And this fact
is of immense importance in affording
clues, and in leading to discoveries in
topography, genealogy, and heraldry. It
proves, by the strongest presumptive
evidence, that arms were borne at the
Conquest, and it is a clue, almost invariably
to he relied upon, in tracing the original
connection of families, though of different
names and countries. Thus, assuming
. that all families bearing a bend and its
derivatives had a common origin, research
establishes (except where evidence is want-
ing and probability alone is warranted)
the following interesting relationships.
Osborn de Crespon had William Fitz-
Osborn, who bore a fess and a bend ; he
was Earl of Hereford and died 1070, and
was succeeded by his son, who dying s. p.,
the next earl, a relation, took the name
of Sudeley and bore two bends. Miles
Crispin, created Earl of Hereford, who
ob. 1143, bore ttoo bends ; Margaret, his
sister and co-heir, married Humphrey de
Bohun, whose descendant, Earl of Here-
ford, bore a bend cottised between six lions.
The D'Oyleys, barons temp. William I,
bore a bend, and their descendants two
bends ; they were allied by marriage with
the Crispins, and were probably pre-
viously near relations, and both families
were Constables of England. (See Hist, of
the D'Oyley Family, and the Topographer
and Genealogist) .
A sister of Osborn de Crespon married
Walter de St. Martin, who bore a bend,
(taking the arms of his wife, as being
probably of a higher family). His de-
scendant, the Warrens, relinquished this
bearing on marriage with the house of
Vermandois ; but previously Drew de
Monceux married Edith de Warren, from
whom probably the Monceuxs took the
bend which they bore. Another daughter
married Ernisius de Colunchiis, who may
have been Ernisius de Burun of Dooms-
day. The Byrons, his descendants, bore
three bends.
The chequy of Vermandois and Warren
was thus adopted by their descendants,
the Earls of Worcester, the Newburghs,
(Earls of Warwick) the Clintons, the
Cliffords, and many others.
The chevrons of the Clares were thus
adopted, with variations of colour and
form, by then- descendants, the Watvilles,
Wyvilles, Fitz -Walters, Mertons, Fitz-
Hughs, Walpoles, &c.
This clue being followed of tracing
families of different names, but bearing
the same arms, has established the com-
mon origin of the families of Weston,
Deane, Morley, and Wantley, all originat-
ing in Sussex, and the fact that the estates
giving their names, all belonged to one
great proprietor, and not to many dis-
tinct owners, as otherwise would appear.
It has also explained that heraldic puzzle,
the leopard's head jessant a fleur-de-lis,
it being no other than a corruption of a
leopard's head erased ducally crowned,
and makes it probable that this common
ancestor was a cadet of Cantalupe, who
bore three leopards' heads jessant fleurs-
de-lis. (See the paper in Suss. Arch.
Collections, vol. VI, p. 81, whence the
substance of this essav is detached.)
9 Amanjeu II, Sire D' Albert, 1099, bore
a plain shield, Gules, as did the Viscounts
of Narbonne. A plain shield Or, is said
to have been the ancient arms of Arragon.
The ancient Welch princes and chief-
tarns are said to have borne coloured
shields without any devices. See a paper
on the ' Antiquity of Welch Heraldry ' in
the first volume of the Cambrian Archae-
ological Journal.
But it is not improbable that a part,
and that the most ancient, of Welsh
heraldry is an inheritance from the
British Romans. Certainly some of the
shields of the oldest families have very
different representations from those of
the Saxons or Normans. Many of them
are what may be termed legendary pic-
tures, as a wolf issuing from a cave, a
cradle under a tree, with a child guarded
by a goat, &c. These, it will be seen,
have a close resemblance, in their charac-
ter, to the bearings of the Greeks and
Romans.