ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1766 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1766 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 1 Jul 1999 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You said that you were working on a female Tudor (1485-1600) persona and asked about the name and arms that you described as 'a yellow shield with a black pile the pile starting in the top left corner and crossing the shield to end in the bottom right corner' with a lion's face on the pile. You mentioned that you had a particular depiction of the lion in mind, one in which the beast has its mouth closed and doesn't look ferocious. The name is a good choice. In our data is most common in the 12th - 14th centuries, but we found a child baptized in London in 1587. [1] In or near your period we found the surname in 1435 and in a Lancashire parish register from 1601. [2, 3] Your proposed arms can be blazoned 'Or, on a pile bendwise issuant from dexter chief sable a lion's face or(?)'. You didn't mention the intended tincture of the lion's face, so we considered both of the reasonable possibilities, gold and white (argent). The precise stylization of the lion's face is an artistic detail that needn't be mentioned in the blazon. Although piles are not uncommon in Tudor heraldry, piles bendwise are rare. We found just two definitely period examples. One is similar to your design with the addition of a chief: Richmond, 'Vert, on a pile bendwise issuant from dexter chief argent a rose gules and a chief or'. [4] The other, apart from its use of piles bendwise, is quite unlike your design: Robard Norton, 'Sable, three piles bendwise issuant from sinister base flory at the points argent'. [5] If you are interested in re-creating more typical Tudor heraldry, you should consider orienting the pile vertically: 'Or, on a pile sable a lion's face or'. (The lion's face could also be argent.) However, the design that you propose is also within the known limits of Tudor heraldry. So far as we can tell, all four versions (i.e., with the pile palewise or bendwise, and with the lion's face gold or white) are registerable in the SCA. Rouland Carre, Zenobia Naphtali, and Arval Benicoeur also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful; please write us again if you have any further questions. For the Academy, Talan Gwynek 1 July 1999 ===== References: [1] The Parish Registers of St. Michael, Cornhill, London, Containing the Marriages, Baptisms, and Burials from 1546 to 1754. Partly edited by Joseph Lemuel Chester. The Publications of the Harleian Society: Registers, Vol. VII (London: 1882). [2] Woodcock, Thomas, Janet Grant, & Ian Graham. Dictionary of British Arms, vol II (The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1996); p. 292. [3] Hitching, F.K. & S. Hitching. References to English Surnames in 1601 (Walton-on-Thames: Chas. A. Bernau, 1910); p. xlix. [4] Papworth, J.W. Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials (Bath: Five Barrows, 1977), p. 1024. [5] Barron, Oswald. 'Randall Holme's Book', _The Ancestor_ vols. iii (1902), pp. 185-213; iv. 225-50; v. 175-90; vii. 184-215; ix. 159-80. [A mid-15th century collection of arms.]