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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
Maps by Family
Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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the shield with the
crest, motto and supporter, if any. All of which, while very learned, brings
us to exactly where we started. It may therefore possibly be more
understandable to say that the coat of arms is the object of heraldry, that is to say of the science of armorial
bearing. The coat of arms is the means by which an individual of noble
rank or his family is distinguished from all other families, his rank and
social standing determined and his ancestry and family connections
disclosed and displayed. The expression originated in the thirteenth
century in the fashion followed by the nobility of embroidering the
family insignia on the surcoats worn over the
hauberk or coat of mail. Arms were similarly embroidered on the jupon, cyclas and tabard which succeeded the surcoat, a practice which survived till the time of
Henry VIII, when the tabard came to be entirely dis¬used
except by the heralds, who still continue in England to wear on their
tabards the royal arms-which marks a period of only about a century and a
half during which this garment was an article of fashionable apparel. The
wearing of metal armour was introduced into England
by William the Conqueror; prior to that the English wore protective
garments made of heavy tanned leather. The Normans used a device or
cognizance in connection with their armed equipment so that no Norman
might perish in battle by the hand of another Norman, nor one French-man
kill another; and beyond a doubt each knight in the Conqueror's army had
on his shield a representation of his personal insignia, as is shown most
clearly in the celebrated Bayeux tapestry. From the very earliest times
the Eastern Nations had distinguished noble families by some fixed sign
or mark. Thus in the Bible in the Book of Numbers, chapter 2, it is
recorded:
And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying, Every man of
the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign
of his father's house; far off about the tabernacle of the congregation
shall they pitch. And in Psalm 74.-It is stated, They set up their
ensigns for signs. At first these figures of arms appear to have been
used on banners to mark the place of the chief or head of the family, and
it came to mean a rallying place, the place of safety, the place of
security, and hence represented tribal strength and unity of purpose. So
in Isaiah 11:10 we read, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse
which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the gentile
seek and his rest shall be glorious; and in the same book, 18:13, When he
lifteth up an ensign in the mountains and when
he bloweth a trumpet, hear you.
Thus the banner
or ensign ceased to be a personal designation but rather came to mean the
tribe or nation. The reason for this change in the meaning of the word
ensign was that the dominion of the King had become so large that the
subject could no longer see the banner. This therefore came to mean the
place where the ruler actually was to be found and in the stead thereof
was written orders from the sovereign bearing the impress of the device,
which in modern language we call the arms of the commander. Therefore the
ruler possessed him-self of a signet, usually in the form of a ring, with
which he stamped or sealed his approval on orders, charters, or other
important records, and this insignia represented to the subject the
imperative seal or signature of his sovereign. Schleimann
in his Mycenae,
page 359, describes such signet rings which he found in tombs that
antedate King Solomon by several centuries. In speaking of one of them he
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