American writer, "Arms are worthy of preservation, since they are valuable evidence for the genealogist."

On the other hand it is maintained with equal vigor that the indulgence in heraldic devices evidences a monarchial tendency, altogether out of place among republican institutions; and that, while heraldry may have been an aid to the genealogist in semi-feudal ages, in these days of comprehensive journalism and a super

abundant literature practically there is no need to resort to armory in the making of genealogical investigations; and, farther, that while some American families are undeniably entitled to bear arms, the great majority of those who do bear them are mere usurpers, who audaciously assume the arms of certain English families of the same name, in whose veins flows not a drop of kindred blood; unless, perchance, the two families happen to be, in common, lineal descendants of Noah.

This last objection is unquestionably a tangible and a truthful one. It has been asserted with much positiveness that, of the many Massachusetts families now bearing arms, only eleven have a technical, i. e.. an hereditary right to them. To a more or less extent the same thing can be said of Pennsylvania. There are scores of families in Philadelphia to-day whose station

FOR PATRIS (12) JANNEY

mansion, his family, and his person with all the approved accoutrements of wealth, wends his way to the Professional Pedigree Preserver and Armorial Artist, and informs that individual that he desires a coat-ofarms, "as foine as inny in the market." The astute and urbane P. P. P. A. A. A. inquires the customer's name, which is given. He then opens, at the letter M, a massive tome, very nearly as large as the "Philadelphia Directory," known as Burk's "General Armory." He turns the leaves backward and forward, hesitates with some little concern for a moment, and then suddenly exclaims: "Ah, yes! Do you think you are descended from the Mallories, of Mallorie Manor. County Surrey?” "I think so, sorr," replies Mr. Michael Patrick McLarry, with a look and in a tone which give conclusive evidence that he doesn't think anything of the kind; and the ratio of probabilities to possibilities is as a thousand to one that he would have made precisely the same reply if the Molarries, of Molarrie Castle, County Sussex, had been cited, instead of the Mallories, of Mallorie Manor, County Surrey.

This method, however, is by some fastidious individuals deemed to be entirely too vulgar. Their mode of procedure is somewhat more genteel-at least it is

MEDIOCRIA

FIRMA

describe myself) should have brought disgrace upon what I have no doubt was an unstained escutcheon."

There are, however, in the United States many old families who bear arms, not ostentatiously, but modestly, which have been borne by their ancestors before

(14) LARDNER.

more expensive. A trip to Europe, and a visit to the Herald's College, in London, are essential to the carrying out of this more select plan of action. To obtain an assignment of arms it is customary to present a petition to the Earl Marshal, and the applicant is required, nominally, to produce evidence that he can sustain the rank of gentry. The fee for a general search is £2 2s.; for an ordinary search 5s. ; and for copying and registering 6s. 6d. for the first, and 5s. for every other generation. The officials are very affable, and the search clerks not critically captious; and the customer carries away with him the arms of his newly-acquired forefathers, which are thereafter cherished with much

solicitude-i. e., with emotions somewhat akin to those entertained by the eccentric Major-General in the "Pirates of Penzance," who sits in pensive melancholy in an old chapel, upon his recently-purchased estate, and indulges in that plaintive colloquy which, though familiar, is worth quoting:

"General. Why do I sit here? To escape from the pirates' clutches I described myself as an orphan, and I am no orphan. I came here to humble myself before the tombs of my ancestors, and to implore their pardon for the disgrace I have brought upon them.

Frederick. But you forget, sir. You only bought the property a year ago, and the stucco on your baronial castle is scarcely dry.

(17) HOLLINGSWORTH.

them for a century and more. As to how these heraldic emblems, individually or as a whole, came to be originally borne the writer declines to express an opinion. That a very large percentage of those whose coatsof-arms are referred to in this sketch are lineal descendants of fine old families belonging to the English, Welsh, Scotch or Irish gentry, and that they, therefore, bear their armorial insignia by right of heredity, the writer is firmly convinced. That, however, some few of them bear their arms without such right cannot be questioned; for no less a personage than the eminent and cultured James Logan, Chief Magistrate of the Province from 1736 to 1738, has left a manuscript -recently published in Keith's "Provincial Council

General. Frederick, in this chapel are ancestors; you cannot deny that. I don't know whose ancestors they were, but I know whose ancestors they are, and I shudder to think that their descendant by purchase (if I may so

larly shaped white spots. These explanations, which are, of course, technical and encyclopedic, are given in order that the reader of this sketch may be made familiar not only with the charges upon the accompanying coats-of-arms, but also with the hereditary tinctures with which these heraldic coats are colored-in a word, that the artists' work may be intelligently examined.

The arms of William Penn, whose father, Vice-Admiral William Penn, was knighted by Charles II, were long borne by members of his family, and are borne to-day by Major Peter Penn-Gaskell Hall, U. S. A., of this city, quartered with those of the Gaskell family (7).

Judge Bushrod Washington, who for many years honored the United States Circuit Court bench at Philadelphia, bore the same arms as did General George Washington, both the general and the judge being descendants, as is supposed, of the Washingtons in the north of England. The same arms are borne to-day by William Herbert Washington, Esq., of the Philadelphia bar (6).

Among other distinguished Philadelphians of early times was Thomas Lloyd, born in 1640, who was the first Chief Magistrate of the Province under Penn. His ancestry can be traced back through "the fair Maid of Kent" to the latter's grandfather, Edward I. Many of Lloyd's descendants, through the female branches, are now living in Philadelphia, who bear the Lloyd arms, impaled with those of Thomas

Lloyd's mother, née Elizabeth Stanley. The accompanying illustration is that of a coat-of-arms on an oak panel formerly at Dolobran Hall-the Lloyd estateDolobran, County Montgomery, Wales (2).