THE NEW YOUR
PUBLIC MART

The

Genealogical Magazine.

MAY, 1899.

ASTOR, LEX TILDEN FOLL

NOTES ON THE WALPOLES, WITH SOME
ACCOUNT OF A JUNIOR BRANCH (concluded).

By H. S. VADE-WALPOLE.

HE arms of Walpole are derived from the chevrons
of Clare (which can be traced no higher), dif-
ferenced from Fitz Walter.

The Walpoles were connected with the Fitz
Walters by domestic as well as feudal ties, Sir
Gilbert Peche having married Alice Fitz Walter,
and Sir John Walpole Elizabeth Peche.

I have seen it stated that the Walpoles took their arms from the
Bainards; but, as the Bainards were disestablished and disendowed

in A.D. IIII, and they ever after held of the Fitz Walters, it is the other way about: the Bainards probably derived their arms from the Fitz Walters.

The earlier seals show the fess plain, but, later on, charged with three cross crosslets of the field.

I have seen in print that these additional charges were adopted in the time of the Crusades; but I have never come across any Walpoles who went crusading, and even if they had done so, the cross crosslets would not prove it, any more than crossing the legs of the figures on the tombs and brasses.

My own theory is that they were adopted as a difference from the De Lisles, who bore the same charges and tinctures on their shield.

I have an old painting of the arms of De Lisle, under which is written that the De Lisles were really Walpoles; but I think this statement has as little foundation as the assertion of Lord Strangford in his "Norman People and their Descendants" that the Walpoles were a branch of the Bainards.

The Walpoles were, however, certainly mixed up with the De Lisles in the baronial war against Henry III., in which rebellion the latter were deeply involved, and a special commission was issued to inquire whether Sir Henry de Walpole (who, by-the-by, had a town house in Ely), could be found to have taken part with the barons and De Lisles. Among the deeds at Hunstanton there is one which mentions the Walpoles in connection with the De Lisles.

However, I can carry it no further.

The fact remains that the seal attached to the earliest deed extant, one of Henry, the son of Richard de Walpole, in the reign of Henry II., and signed, "H de Walpoull, Miles, de Houghton," bears only a fess between two chevrons.

The earliest appearance of the cross crosslets is on the seals of Sir Henry de Walpole and his brother Ralph, the Bishop, towards the end of the thirteenth century.

I now come to the quarterings upon the Walpole shield. These are as follows:

1. Walpole. Or, on a fess between two chevrons sable, three cross crosslets of the field.

2. FitzOsbert.-Gules 3 bars gemelles or, a canton argent.

3. Robsart.-Vert a lion rampant or vulned in the shoulder gules.

[Who brings in]

4. Kerdeston.-Gules a saltire engrailed argent.

5. Gant.-Barry of 8 or and azure a bend gules; a surtout of Flanders, viz., Or, a lion rampant sable.

6. Hainault of Flanders.-Or, 3 chevrons sable.

7. Montfort.-Bendy of 12 or and azure.

8. Bellofogo.-Argent a lion rampant billetée gules.
9. Yvery. Or 3 chevrons gules.

10. Calibut.-Azure a chevron between 3 crosses couped or.

[Who brings in]

II. Le Hunte.-Vert a saltire or.

12. Bacon.- Azure, on a fesse between three fleurs de lys or, as many griffins' heads erased azure.

[Who brings in]

13. D'Avillers.-Argent 3 inescutcheons gules.

14. Bacon of Hesset.-Argent on a fess engrailed between 3 inescutcheons gules 3 mullets pierced argent.

15. Crane.-Argent a fess between 3 cross crosslets fitchées gules.

[Who brings in]

16. Berry.-Per pale argent and gules 2 lions passant guardant or.

17. Jernegan.-Argent 3 buckles lozengy gules.

18. Herling.-Argent a unicorn salient sable.

19. Ingaldesthorpe.-Gules a cross engrailed argent.

20. FitzOsbert.-Gules 3 bars gemelles or a canton argent.

21. Kelvedon.-Gules a pall reversed ermine.

22. Clifton.-Sable a lion rampant semée of cinquefoils argent.

23. Burwell.-Or a chevron ermine between 3 bur leaves vert. [Who brings in]

24. Alured.-Argent on a saltire azure between 4 griffins' heads erased gules, a leopard's head between 4 lozenges in saltire or.

25. Pitman.-Gules 2 poleaxes in saltire or headed argent between 4 mullets argent.

26. Derehaugh.-Sable 3 martlets in bend between 2 bendlets argent. 27. Wright.-Sable a chevron engrailed or between 3 fleurs-de-lys argent on a chief of the second 3 spear-heads of the field.

28. Lombard.

This last quartering I give for what it is worth. I am not sure whether Lombard had really any

right to coat armour, nor is it certain what the charges exactly were. On his son's tomb at Burnham Thorpe they are: Argent a chevron between three lions' heads erased azure. But on a memorial tablet at Gunsthorp to Isaac Leheup, who married the younger daughter and coheiress, Elizabeth, on an inescutcheon of pretence,

Me

appear: Argent a fess and in chief Hon to Thomas Walpole

three lions' heads erased azure.

The crest of Walpole, as it is now borne by the family on the

book-plate of the Hon. Thomas Walpole, and recorded to them in the College of Arms, is as depicted.

Collins described it as: "A Saracen's head ducally crowned Or,

with a long cap on gules, thereon a Catherine-wheel Or; which crest belonged to the family of Robsart, and was in memory of the services of Sir John Robsart, Knight of the Garter, against the Saracens."

As a matter of fact, it is not a Saracen's head, and is not the crest of the Robsarts.

The crest of the Robsarts was simply a Catherine-wheel. In a book in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 6162) the arms of the Knights of the Garter, up to about A.D. 1500, are painted on vellum. A Catherine-wheel only is given to both Sir John Robsart and Sir Lewis Robsart.

On Lord Robsart's tomb in Westminster Abbey-of which there is a photograph in Mr. Eve's book, "Decorative Heraldry," p. 154 (reproduced in the first volume of this magazine)—is the crest of Bourchier, which he assumed on his marriage with Elizabeth Baroness Bourchier: "An old man's head ducally crowned Or, wearing a round cap gules surmounted by a golden knob."

The crest of Bourchier in this shape is on all the old seals of the family.

Over this crest, and quite separate from it, is the Robsart crest -a Catherine-wheel leaning against the wall.

Horace Walpole had his crest painted in this form on the ceiling of the library at Strawberry Hill. No doubt he took the idea from having seen this very tomb, as it is only a few feet from the statue he placed in Westminster Abbey to the memory of his mother.

On the garter-plate of Sir Lewis Robsart at Windsor the crest is in the same order, as may be seen from the outline of a rubbing from the original brass as given below.

Unluckily the garter-plate of Sir John Robsart has disappeared.

It can be seen from these garter-plates how the shape of the face and cap was gradually altered. The medieval heraldic artists drew the crests out of all proportion to the size of the shield. They elongated the nose and neck, and consequently the ROBSART, K.G., length of the cap, till at last it was bent forward and ended in becoming an excellent likeness of our friend Punch, as

SIR LEWIS

LORD ROBSART

(BOURCHIER),

elected 1423.

depicted by Doyle on the front page of that popular periodical. The crests given above are turned towards the sinister: but as these garter-plates chanced to be put up on the cantoris side of