ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 804
http://www.s-gabriel.org/804
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* NOTE: Some of the Academy's early reports     *
*       contain errors that we haven't yet      *
*       corrected.  Please use it with caution. *
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* NOTE: Later research turned up additional     *
*       information relevant to this report.    *
*       See the end of the letter for details.  *
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From: 
8 Apr 1998

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on "Phyllida Longacre," which you wanted
to use as a 16th-century English name, and your arms, which you wanted to
include a tree with an arrow through the trunk.

We didn't find the exact spelling you were looking for, but we did
find "Fillida" dated to 1620. (1) It was more common in literature,
and we found a reference to it in a play from 1592. (2) The spelling
"Phyllida" is a reasonable variant of "Fillida" since i/y and ph/f
could be interchanged in 16th-century English spelling--in fact,
"Phyllida" is a more accurate rendering of the original Greek form.

People named "Longacre" emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1643. (3) Thus,
it is almost certain that Longacre was used in the 16th century.  It
is worth noting that we didn't find "Longacre" in our standard sources
for names; this suggests that it may be an unusual or particularly late
name, but we can't be sure.

The idea you have for your arms is not impossible for late-period
English heraldry, but it isn't particularly likely.  

Heraldry developed in the 12th and 13th centuries.  Early heraldry
generally did not show objects which were pierced or broken, and so
we would normally say that a tree with an arrow through the trunk
was not appropriate for historical heraldry.

However, starting around 1500 English heraldry became much more varied
and started to use many new elements and designs.  There are so many
unusual things in late-period English heraldry that we wouldn't rule
out a design like yours.  If you kept the design simple (with just the
pierced tree on a plain background), it would be a plausible design
for 16th-century English heraldry.  However, we haven't actually
found anything that looks like it.

Arval Benicoeur, Walraven van Nijmege, Talan Gwynek, Zenobia Naphtali, 
and Daniel de Lincoln contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful.  If we can be of further assistance, please
let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian
Names_, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

(2) Dunkling, Leslie and William Gosling, _The New American Dictionary of 
First Names_ (New York: Signet Books, 1983). 

(3) The Longacre Family Home Page.
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/m/c/c/Barbara-J-Mccormick/i

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Addendum 9 May 2000: Mistress Alisoun MacCoul of Elphane, in comments to
the SCA College of Arms, reported:

    There is a problem with the given name. It is in fact the accusative
    singular form of the classical feminine name _Phyllis_, borne by a
    daughter of the King of Thrace who was changed into an almond tree.
    (Women get changed into trees a lot in Greek myth!) The earliest
    citation I could find in English was _Phillida and Corydon_ by
    Nicholas Breton (1542 - 1626) who appears to have been trying to
    translate or at least emulate a poem by Propertius. In the original
    the name of _Phyllis_ appears in the Latin accusative (_Phyllida_)
    and I suspect this is merely a misreading of the correct form of the
    name. As so often, a popular poem or song gave rise to a brief vogue
    for the name.