Williams-Bulkeley

I've just returned from a long weekend in Anglesey where the arms of Bulkeley seem to be everywhere. We had a very good meal on Monday evening in the Bulkeley Arms Hotel in Beaumaris where not only are the arms displayed outside on the facia but there is also a very pleasant version made of coloured glass mosaic on the wall inside the reception area. Unfortunately I had left my camera in the car and it was pouring down with rain so I had to content myself with taking a photograph using my mobile phone ... and I don't have the technology to send the picture to my computer!

Earlier in the day however, I did have my camera with me when we passed the entrance gates to Pen-y-Pac, the former home of the Williams-Bulkeley baronets. Long since sold and split up into constituent parts, the owners of the gate house became also the owners of the gates which are heraldically somewhat curious. The arms upon the gates are likely to be those of the 10th baronet, Sir Richard, who changed his name to Bulkeley Williams and later Williams-Bulkeley after inheriting the estates of the last Viscount Bulkeley of Cashels and had for his second wife (m. 1832) Maria Francis Stanley-Massey-Stanley ... no shortage of Cheshire connections here!

Why are the arms curious? They appear to have a surfeit of ermine. The blazon is recorded as being: Quarterly, 1st & 4th Sable a chevron between three bull's heads cabossed Argent, a canton Ermine [for Bulkeley]; 2nd & 3rd, Gules, a chevron Ermine between three Saracen's heads couped at the shoulders Proper [for Williams]. Take a look at the images below where the arms of Williams-Bulkeley are impaling those of Stanley. The Bulkeley chevron appears to have morphed from Argent to Ermine!

Kinderton Roll - image update now complete

All of the new images have now been added to the Vale Royal (Kinderton Roll) part of the site.

http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/vale_royal/

Are you a mug if you get it wrong?

Some time ago the Cheshire Heraldry Society Programme Secretary approached me to ask if I could shed any light on the armorial bearings illustrated on a Chinese porcelain mug. Identified thus in David Sanctuary Howard’s book Chinese Armorial Porcelain:
1st Qtr identified as Kinsey
2nd Qtr attributed to Chardelow (of Spratling Norfolk)
3rd Qtr unknown
4th Qtr attributed to Grosvenor

This attribution is not correct.



I believe that the 2nd and third quarters are Birchels and the 4th quarter is Grosvenor (really Eaton).
I have expanded on this belief and given evidence to back it up in my talk entitled Squirrels and Chevrons.

Cheshire Heraldry article in The Heraldry Gazette

It is only a matter of weeks since I received my copy of The Heraldry Society's Heraldry Gazette and I notice that there is already an electronic copy on line for all to see. The latest copy has my article on "Orle vs Escutcheon Voided".

Updates to The Kinderton Roll

I have finally got around to resizing the images prepared for the Vale Royal part of the site. This evening I have got as far as Sir Peers Dutton.

A new season of talks.

The Cheshire Heraldry Society

Courtesy of our Programme Secretary, John Titterton, here is the programme for the whole year 2011/12. 

24 September 2011

Daniel King's Kinderton Roll (c. 1656).  Martin Goldstraw 

15 October 2011

The Murray Arms; the search for a Grant. Hugh Murray 

19 November 2011

The Heraldry of Bath Abbey. Roland Symons 

21 January 2012

Cheshire Knights and their Ladies. Tony Bostock 

18 February 2012

East Indiamen and Other. Dr Andrew Gray 

17 March 2012

Arms of the Hon. Artillery Company. John Tunesi of Liongam 

21 April 2012

AGM 

Meetings are held at

Townley Street Schoolroom, Townley Street, Macclesfield, starting at 2.30 pm, followed by light refreshments.

(room opens at 2.00 pm).  (Pay & Display car park 100 yds.) 

Visit our web page hosted at www.cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/society

The Blackden Seal

This seal was found in Blackden. The Lombardic script reads, SIGILLVM HAWISE DE GOSTRE DO[MINAE]: The seal of Hawise lady of Goostrey. It has been tentatively dated to the 13th century.

Image and information courtesy of The Blackden Trust.