Heraldry and Belchaamp Walter

The Family Crests of Belchamp Walter

As part of my research here are a few of the Heraldic motifs that I have found in relevance to the history of Belchamp Walter.

The motivation for this page was the various crests that can be found in the Church of St. Mary Belchamp Walter. Most noteably are those to be found on the remains of the Chantry arch of the tomb of Sir John Botetourte on the North Wall of the Nave.

Visitations by Heralds

Some of the information that I use here is from observation and cross-referencing with Heralds' Visitations - which also have been used to gather other geneolical information such as family trees.

What medievalgenealogy.org.uk say:

" At first sight, the heralds' visitations are an ideal source of information for the medieval genealogist. The visitations produced a collection of pedigrees of families with the right to bear arms, recorded between the early 16th and the late 17th century, but in many cases extending much further back. Though they are indeed a valuable source, they must be used with great care, and confirmed from contemporary records wherever possible. "

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" From the early 16th century to the late 17th century the heralds carried out visitations, county by county, in order to regulate the use of arms. Most counties were visited several times during this period. Those who were allowed arms had them recorded, including the quarterings to which they were entitled. Most importantly to the genealogist, supporting pedigrees were recorded. These could include, in addition to the main line of descent, offshoots giving the ancestry of wives who were heraldic heirs, in order to illustrate the route by which the quartered arms had been acquired. In these pedigrees, dates are given only occasionally, and presumably reflect the dates of documents which mention the people concerned. Often the ages of those in the final generation are given, which can allow the chronology of the later part of the pedigree to be estimated. "

" Sometimes the heralds also recorded some of the evidence on which the pedigree was based, such as transcripts of medieval charters, drawings of seals, coats of arms copied from churches or private houses and so on. Other information may also have been recorded at visitations, such as lists of those using arms to which they could not prove any right. "

On further developments with my History Project I would like to add images of family crests (coats of arms) to the pages on particular families such as de Vere, de Mandeville etc. Taking the Wikipedia pages as an example, the display of the family crest is not totally ideal but the overall look is better than mine at the moment. What I would like to do is to have text wrapping round the image placed on the right of the page as in the Wikipedia page. More attention needs to be made to the mobile rendering and I may have some things that I can adapt from my responsive image grid page.

I don't want to mess with this page too much as it forms part of my historical record. Eventually I may have a layout scheme that I can incorperate into the history template.

From Peter B Rushbrook

Below are a number of crests that were created by Peter B Rushbrook after visiting the Church and recording what he found.

Of particular note are the crests that are located on the stained glass window on the South wall of the chancel. I had some guesses at their provinance and Peter has given me a few more clues.

The Tyrrell (Tyrell), two black chevrons, was deduced previously from my research into the Wentworth/Coggeshall families (Codham Hall and Gosford). The crest for Villers checks out using Peters references but I was confused by the possible Coggeshall connection.

There are two remaining coats of arms (not actual crests - possibly badges) at the top of the window (see my page on the stained glass).

The de Beauchamp crest is shown in all its glory.

The Family Crests of Belchamp Walter

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