The Terms

Some of these definitions are abbreviations taken from Wikipedia, for a more detailed explanation the Wikipedia page is linked.

• Advowson - is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation (jus praesentandi, Latin: "the right of presenting").
• Manor - the land belonging to the Lord of the manor under manorialism in parts of medieval Europe, notably England. Not just the manor house.
• Demesne - or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support.
• Mesne Lord - or Demesne lord - roughly "The lord of the manor" - Tenent in Chief.
• Messuage - a dwelling house together with its outbuildings, curtilage, and the adjacent land appropriated to its use
• saltire - a diagonal cross as a heraldic ordinary.
• Slave
• Cob - a horse
• Villein - a peasant who worked his lord's land and paid him certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not the ownership) of which was heritable. The dues were usually in the form of labor on the lord's land.
• Knight's Fee - Also with respect to Mesne Lord and the "allotment of land".
• Seisin - the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with conveyancing in the feudal era. In the feudal age, the king alone "owned" all the land of England by his allodial right; all his subjects merely held tenures in fiefs, that is to say estates-in-land.
• Letters Patent - a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president, or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status
• Frankpledge - In medieval England, frankpledge was a system of law enforcement and policing in which members of society were mutually responsible for the behavior of their peers. The system included everyone in the community except the highest nobility and their households

Heraldry Colours

Colour used on Coats of Arms

• Red = Gules
• Blue = Azure
• Green = Vert
• Black = Sable
• Purple = Purpure

Plus the two 'metals'

• Gold or yellow = Or
• Silver or white = Argent

There are also 'furs', the most common being:

• Ermine: representing the white winter fur of stoats, with their black tail tips.
• Vair: representing squirrel skins, in blue and white.

From the Visitations of Essex - 1634:

The R crest - A dragon's head erased Or, ducally gorged gules.
Gold dragon's head with a coronet around its neck