Arms | washbourn

Coats of Arms

In the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son; wives and daughters could also bear arms modified to indicate their relation to the current holder of the arms. Undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time. Other descendants of the original bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference: usually a colour change or the addition of a distinguishing charge.

Undifferenced arms (or plain arms) are coats of arms which have no marks distinguishing the bearer by birth order or family position. In the Scottish and English heraldic traditions, these plain coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to eldest male heir, and are used only by one person at any given time. The other descendants of the original bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference.

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales the use of arms is a matter of civil law and regulated by the College of Arms and the Court of Chivalry. In Scotland, coats of arms are administered by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.

It is important to note that Coats of Arms can only belong to one person at a time. There is no single coat of arms which all people of the same name can use - often miscalled a 'family coat of arms'. As coats of arms originated in order to identify a person, it is clear that it would be impractical if more than one person could use exactly the same design. Arms descend to the heir in each generation of the person to whom they were originally granted, and other descendants who bear the same surname may apply for a slightly different version of the arms, to be recorded in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings.

The Washbourne Coat of Arms

The main male line of the Washbournes of Little Washbourne and Wichenford are entitled to bear arms. Some members of the Gloucestershire Branch of the old family have maintained their right to hold arms by proving their lineage back to the original progenitors to the satisfaction of the College of Arms - this includes the current descendants in Christchurch.

However ... the Wiltshire Branch of the family does not have this ability to prove its ancestry, and so its current members have no right to copy or use the Coat of Arms or parts thereof as displayed in the Wichenford Church in Worcestershire and Davenport's book.