A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

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OF THE BEND.
been more heraldriack, if the bend had been betwixt two cottises, the field apr
ing betuixt them and the bend, than to join the cotttises close to the benu
the same blazon is given to the arms of Colonel WALTER WIUTEFORD, in the Lyon
Register. But it may be imputed to a mistake in the engraver, or in the bla;/.
in not distinguishing a bend betwixt cottises, from a bend cottised.
As for the antiquity of the surname of Whiteford, we find one Walter Whiteford,
for his good services at the battle of Largs, against the Norwegians, in the
year 1263, to have got some lands in Renfrew, from Walter Lord High Steward
of Scotland, which he called after his own name ; from him rose the family of
WHITEFORD of that Ilk, and from it Whiteford of Milton, and Whiteford of Balquhan,
who has but one garb accompanying the bend.
When the cottises touch not the sides of the bend, the field appearing between
them and the bend, as the endorses stand with the pale, of which before, then the
bend is blazoned, between two cottises ; for examples, I shall mention these.
HUMPHRY DE BOHUN Earl of HEREFORD, who married Elizabeth, daughter to
Edward I. of England, carried, as Sandford gives us, azure, a bend argent, between
two cottises, and six lions rampant or. This family ended in two heirs-female, the
eldest, Eleanor, was married to Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester ; and,
the other, Mary de Bohun, was wife to Henry of Bolingbroke Earl of Derby ; and
in her right, was created Duke of Hereford, and afterwards became King of England,
by the name of Henry IV.
These cottises we are speaking of are subject to accidental forms, as well as the
bend, of which I shall give one instance, as fig. 16. the arms of the surname of
HONYMAN, with us, argent, three bendlets, each of them between two cottises in-
grailed, on the outer side gules.
When the field contains more than one bend, then they are not called bends,
but bendlets; though all partitions of fields that way, are termed bendy,
if there be
never so many pieces of them.
Fig. 17. Plate V. Argent, three bendlets sable, by the name of SANDERSON, as
in Font's Manuscript, though others make them gules.
In England the name of TRACY, or, two bendlets gules ; and there also the name
BRANTWART, or, two bendlets ingrailed sable ; the bendlets are subject to all the
abovementioned accidental forms, as well as the bend.
As for example, the bearing of BYRON Lord BYRON of Rochdale, by letters
patent, the 4th of October 1643, given us by the English heralds, and blazoned thus ;
argent, three bendlets enhanced gules; the term enhanced, I never met with before
in any blazon, neither do I apprehend the import of it. The three bendlets are
on the sinister side of the shield, which may be more distinctly blazoned parted
per bend dexter: First, bendy of six pieces, gules and argent; second, of the last,
as Jacob Imhoff, in his Blazonia Regum Pariumque Magnte Britannia, " Insignia
" Byronorum scuto constant oblique dextrorsum secto, cujus superior ( regio fasciis
" transversis rubeis argenteisque distincta est, inferior tota candet :" Here this
author, for bends, or bendlets, has fasciis transversis.
When the field is filled with such pieces, and of an even number, alternately of
metal and colour, heralds say then bendy
of so many pieces, as in the Blazon of
the arms of BURGUNDY ANCIENT, fig. 18. Plate V. bendy of six, or and azure: The
French, bande d'or et d'azur, and the Latins, as Chiffletius, blazon these arms
thus, scutum sexies, auro y cyano oblique dextrorsus fatiscatum; so that we say
bendy, as before we said paly, barry of eight, ten, or twelve pieces. If they be of
the number twelve or more, they say then twelve pieces, bend-ways ; and the
French would say, instead of bande, cottise ; as in the Blazon of the Arms of
1
ANOIS in France, cottise d argent, y d'azur de dix i. e. pieces, bendy of ten pieces,
argent and azure.
As I said before of the pales and fesses, when opposite to one another in metal
and colour, the same is said of bendy and cottise, according to their number, as
fig. 19. Plate V. The arms of GONTIN in France, given us by Monsieur Baron,
contre-bande de sable & d 'argent, de quatorze pieces, i. e. fourteen pieces bend-
ways, counter-changed per bend sinister, sable and argent. Sylvester Petra Sancta,
speaking of such another bearing, says, " Si exiliores baltei reciprocant jubar
" coloris ac metalli, ut baltei sex semi-argentei ac semi-punicei in uno atque