ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2746 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2746 ************************************ 23 Apr 2003 From: Josh Mittleman Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether <Sybyll Blackthorn> or <Sybyll Blackthorne> is an appropriate name for late 15th or 16th century Englishwoman; and whether such a woman would have borne arms containing roses azure slipped and leaved sable. Here is what we've found. <Sybyll> is a fine name for your period. It appears in several spellings in 16th century English documents; we've found this one several times between 1540 and 1600 [1, 2]. It was pronounced \SIH-b@l\. where \@\ stands for the sound of the <a> in <about>. You wrote that you invented the surname <Blackthorn>; in fact, it is a real English surname, based on the name of a type of tree, and it is a fine choice for your period. Early examples include <de Blackthorn> 1276, <Blakethorn> 1379, <Blakthorn> 1442 [3]. The word appears as <blacke-thorn> in 1496, <blacke thorne> in 1578, and <blacke-thorne> in 1634. Either <Blackthorn> or <Blackthorne> seems appropriate for your period [4]. (When written as a single word, the name is unlikely to have retained the <-e> at the end of <blacke>.) During your period, there was a great deal of experimentation and innovation in English heraldry. If you want your arms to be as authentic as possible, you'll need to narrow down your period considerably -- to a particular decade, for example -- because individual heralds in Tudor England introduced very distinct styles to the arms they designed. One of the common styles was canting arms, i.e. arms in which one or more of the charges made a kind of pun on the surname of the person who bore them. An extreme example is the arms granted to Thomas Cathorne in 1553, "Gules on a fess engrailed between three horned cat's heads erased argent horned or three hawthorn branches proper" [5]. The horned cats cant on the name <Cathorne>, as do the hawthorne branches. So, in your case, blackthorn branches would be an excellent charge to use for canting. Your idea of using the thorns of a black-stemmed rose as a cant is probably not as good a choice. In itself, a blue rose with a black stem and leaves is a perfectly reasonable idea; but we don't know of period arms in which the color of the charge was used with the charge's name to form a rebus [6] of the owner's surname. If you'd like further help designing your arms, please write again. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari neyn Brian, Talan Gwynek, Iago ab Adam, Maridonna Benvenuti, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, and Ursula Georges. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 23 Apr 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Talan Gwynek, "Feminine Given Names in _A Dictionary of English Surnames_" (SCA: KWHS Proceedings, 1994; WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1997). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/ [2] Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, "Names and Naming Practices in the Registers of the Church of St. Mary's, Dymock" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mari/dymock/ [3] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_ (London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Blackthorn, Blackmore. [4] _The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), s.vv. blackthorn, hawthorn. The latter word was <hawthorne> c.1450, and <hawthorn> c.1632. [5] Transcription of the grant by Iago ap Adam, as published by the An Tir College of Heralds at http://www.antirheralds.org/IL/0902/sep02hp.html. An image of the original grant is available at http://www.liripipe.com/sca/scribal/patent2.jpg. [6] A rebus is a sequence of pictures of objects such that the name of each object suggests one word or syllable of a phrase.