Arms for the cousins

The depictions of coats of arms
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MenkAndemicael
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Arms for the cousins

Postby MenkAndemicael » 31 Jul 2017, 04:13

This year, the Andemicael family celebrates 50 consecutive years of thanksgiving feasts held with The Saffords, to whom we are connected by marriage on my mother's side. I'm creating arms for them and some of the other families who've become regulars for a book, decorations, table flags, and soccer jerseys.

Per fess embattled Azure and Or, in chief a chalice Or between two mullets proper, in base a mount barry wavy Argent and Azure


Rationale:
The bridge over water is a cant on “sea ford,” the origin of the name (via Salford). The chalice suggest life-giving (a subtle nod to medicine) and is a cant on Challis Safford (1733–1771), the first of a line of 6 consecutive generations of doctors in family. The stars represent Safford involvement in early American military endeavors, including the Revolution.
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Michael F. McCartney
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby Michael F. McCartney » 31 Jul 2017, 17:49

Very nice design, well thought out and rendered.
My only nitpick.is in the blazon - the mullets (stars) are Argent, not Proper, since AFAIK there is no widely recognized and accepted default color for stars. Other than that, and perhaps a refrigerator test for the cousins if they haven't been involved, IMO this is a winner!

You (or they) might want to consider how broad an audience of Safford cousins these arms might cover. Given the visual reference to umpty-great grandfather Challis Safford, it might be all of his Safford descendants who might choose to use these arms, since the design would be equally relevant and meaningful to all of them - with of course the knowledge that no one is barred from adopting a different design if they wish.

Good work!!!
Michael F. McCartney
Fremont, California

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MenkAndemicael
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby MenkAndemicael » 31 Jul 2017, 23:48

Thank you! All good concerns, and thanks for the correction of the blazon. I think they'd be fine with any of his descendants using it, even if creating arms for someone that far back might be questionable?


Now here's a conundrum:

1. I know for a fact this family descends from an immigrant to Ipswich, MA in the 1640s.
2. They named the town after the English town of ipswich, suffolk, where the the residents "took shipping from," due to "kind treatment," but no proven link today to the Saffords who lived in both places.
3. All mentions of Safford connected to hereditary grants using ancestry.com's "nobility and armorial" search seem to be from Suffolk, where ipswich is.
4. Of these, one blazon is listed, for "Safford of bungay ipswich weybread and mettingham": Gules on a bend between three water bougets Or, three tigers heads gules. (The metal of the bend isn't specified.)

Would that be enough of a link to instead create a coat of arms that heavily relates to that blazon, thus implying some familial connection?
Perhaps like the attached, maybe with an extra differencing (i.e. a bend wavy)?

As a compromise, i can also change the Azure to gules in the arms i created, and have a gules tyger (perhaps with some Or stain) holding a chalice as the crest...
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Last edited by MenkAndemicael on 01 Aug 2017, 01:44, edited 1 time in total.

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MenkAndemicael
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby MenkAndemicael » 01 Aug 2017, 00:28

interestingly enough, the associated crest seems oddly medical.
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MenkAndemicael
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby MenkAndemicael » 01 Aug 2017, 01:27

Hmm. I'm thinking this grant was actually in the early 1800s, basically someone with the same last name who bought a castle and got a grant. That pretty much rules out adapting the arms!

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Chris Green
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby Chris Green » 01 Aug 2017, 05:56

The bridge over water is a cant on “sea ford,” the origin of the name (via Salford).


It is extremely far-fetched to claim that a crenellated bridge is canting for "sea ford". Bridges have only been built to connect two land masses separated by sea in our life-time and are never found with crenellation. Fords have never practicable to cross seas except to reach coastal islands such as St Michael's Mount, and very rarely to cross fully-developed rivers. The only example I can think of that might properly be described as a sea-ford was Blanchetaque, scene of a sharp engagement between King Edward III's army and a French force on 24 August 1346. Blanchetaque was near the mouth of the River Somme where it is tidal and might thus be described as a sea-ford.

There are towns in England called both Seaford and Salford. Neither has arms that could by any stretch of the imagination be described as canting.
Chris Green
IAAH President

Bertilak de Hautdesert

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MenkAndemicael
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby MenkAndemicael » 01 Aug 2017, 08:48

I tried a few things to suggest a top down view of ocean and shallows, but ended up using a bridge as a simple way to represent crossing water by foot, which reads a lot quicker.
Do you have a better suggestion?

Perhaps a roman prefect drowning in the ocean :D

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Arthur Radburn
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby Arthur Radburn » 01 Aug 2017, 12:20

I like the design very much. It's simple and attractive.

As to the bridge representing a "sea ford", there is the point that a ford is not a bridge. A ford is a shallow place in a watercourse which can be crossed without a bridge.

However, this is heraldry, not engineering. The bridge could be interpreted as symbolising the family connection between the USA and England (rather like the ribbon and bow in Douglas Fairbanks' arms). The crenellations have a military significance which would tie in with the mullets representing military service.
Regards
Arthur Radburn

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JMcMillan
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby JMcMillan » 01 Aug 2017, 14:50

MenkAndemicael wrote:3. All mentions of Safford connected to hereditary grants using ancestry.com's "nobility and armorial" search seem to be from Suffolk, where ipswich is.
4. Of these, one blazon is listed, for "Safford of bungay ipswich weybread and mettingham": Gules on a bend between three water bougets Or, three tigers heads gules. (The metal of the bend isn't specified.)

Would that be enough of a link to instead create a coat of arms that heavily relates to that blazon, thus implying some familial connection?
.


I wouldn't recommend that, personally. Why would one imply a family connection that one doesn't know to exist? Or at least have good reason to suppose exists?

There's nothing wrong with the design as it stands, in my opinion, merely with the stated symbolism. On that front, I would speculate that "sea ford" in the name of Seaford could simply refer to a ford located near the mouth of a river, where it flows into the sea, just as other names ending in -ford refer to some characteristic distinguishing one ford from another. Seaford was once at the mouth of the Ouse, before it changed course.

Alternatively, -ford might refer to an inlet of the sea, cognate with Norwegian fjord or Scottish firth. There would obviously have been some sort of inlet at the mouth of the river.
Joseph McMillan
Alexandra, Virginia, USA

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JMcMillan
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Re: Arms for the cousins

Postby JMcMillan » 01 Aug 2017, 14:53

MenkAndemicael wrote:4. Of these, one blazon is listed, for "Safford of bungay ipswich weybread and mettingham": Gules on a bend between three water bougets Or, three tigers heads gules. (The metal of the bend isn't specified.)


"Or" refers to all charges mentioned after the last previously mentioned tincture, so the bend is gold, same as the bougets.
Joseph McMillan
Alexandra, Virginia, USA


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