Perton
Perton, John, of Barndsley (sic).
Arms: Argent, on a chevron Gules three pears Or.
Crest: On a mount Vert, a pear tree fructed all Proper.
The surname Perton sounds very similar to the word "pear tree" or "pears." In Old French and Anglo-Norman contexts (which deeply influenced English heraldry), punning on Pear-tree or simply focusing on the pear motif was a clever way to visually announce the family's name to illiterate onlookers on the medieval battlefield. The chevron and the pears are often associated as visual shorthand for pears, tying directly into the phonetic pun. The crest reinforces this pun by featuring a literal pear tree on a mound.
The primary pun rests directly on the surname Perton: The surname Perton originates as an Anglo-Saxon locational name derived from the Old English words pere (pear) and tūn (an enclosure, farmstead, or orchard). It literally translates to "Pear Town" or "Pear Orchard". By filling the coat of arms with three golden pears and crowning it with a pear tree crest, the heralds created a direct, literal visual representation of the name's meaning (Pear-ton).In medieval and early modern England, heralds frequently designed arms based on a purely auditory pun rather than a strict historical meaning. The first syllable of Perton ("Per-") sounds identical or nearly identical to the word "pear" or the French word for pear, "poire". In old West Midlands dialects (where the village of Perton in Staffordshire is located), the distinction between spelling variations like Perton, Parton, and Pearton blurred together, making the auditory connection to the fruit immediate to anyone hearing the name. Perton in Staffordshire is just over the border with Shropshire.