A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. 187
"
"
plus petite que le quartier,
aussi noinmc's canton"
les espaces que laissant les croix &. les sautoirs sont
The canton is a square figure, an adclitament of honour, worthy to be used all degrees of nobility, as our English and others tell us.
by
Gerard Leigh, as 1 observed before, says, that the franc quartier should be given
to the high nobility, and the canton to the lesser nobility, knights, esquires, and
gentlemen, but upon what account he says so 1 know not ; neither does his own
countrymen follow his opinion. In the year 1287, John Duke of BRETAGNE, in
France, carried cheque, or and azure, abordure gules, (being the arms of the Counts
of DREUX, of which family he was descended) a canton ermine, (the arms of the
Earls and Dukes of Bretagne) fig. 18. Which arms were upon his seal appended
to a deed of his, in the reign of Henry III. of England, whose daughter he married,
with whom he had several children. Their tourth son, "Jobn
de Dreux and
his descendant were Earls of Richmond, and carried the same arms with the canton
; but, for difference, carried the bordure gules, with the Lions of England to
show their descent for which see Sanderson's :
; Genealogical History And Sir
John Feme, who stands up for the honour and antiquity of the canton, gives us
an older instance of its bearing in the arms of Lord ZOUCH, Baron of Ashby, in
the reign of King John of England, gules, ten besants or; who, for his merit, got
from that king, as an additament of honour, a canton ermine. Which figure, I ob-
serve to this day, has been given, especially in England, to well-deserving persons;
and as an additament of honour. It absconds the figure in the dexter chief point,
as fig.
NOEL Earl of GAINSBOROUGH, an ancient family in the county of Leicester, of
the house of NOEL of Dalby, was honoured with the dignity of a Baron, by King
James I. with the title of Lord NOEL of Ridlington ; and his grandson Edward,
who, by the favour of King Charles II. was created Earl of GAINSBOROUGH, carried
or, fretty gules, a canton ermine.
SHIRLEY Earl of FERRERS, descended of a knightly family, of which was Sir
HENRY SHIRLEY of Stanton, who married Dorothy, sister and co-heir to Robert
Earl of ESSEX; from which marriage these of the family, descended of her, have,
and do still quarter the royal arms of England, as being descended from Anne
Plantagenet, eldest daughter to THOMAS of WOODSTOCK, Duke of GLOUCESTER,
sister, and one of the co-heirs to HUMPHRY PLANTAGENET, Earl of BUCKINGHAM ;
Sir ROBERT SHIRLEY, one of the descendants of this family, was honoured by King-
Charles II. with the title of Lord FERRERS of Chartley, anno 1677, and was ad-
vanced afterwards to the dignity of Earl of FERRERS, and Viscount TAMWORTH,
or and
in the year 1711. The paternal coat of which family is paly of six,
azure, a canton ermine.
Sir STEPHEN Fox, a loyal gentleman, and follower of King
Charles II. in his ex-
ile, carried ermine, a cheveron azure, charged with three fox-heads erased or ; and
got for an additament of honour, a* canton of the second, charged with a flowerde-luce
of the last. And such another canton, by way of special concession, was
granted by King James I. of Great Britain to Sir THOMAS ASHTON, viz. argent,
a rose and thistle conjoined gale-ways, all proper ; whose eldest daughter Margaret,
and co-heiress, was married to Sir GILBERT HOUGHTON, great-grandfather to
Sir HENRY HOUGHTON of Houghtontower in Lancashire, the present Baronet, now
third of England ; who carries sable, three bars argent, and the canton abovementioned,
and by way of surtout, the badge of an English baronet ; crest, a
white bull passant : motto, Malgre le tort, and supported with two white bulls, as
in Plate of Achievements.
In Scotland, MURRAY Earl of ANNANDALE, azure , carried three stars with a crescent
in the centre ; all within a double tressure flowered and counter-flowered or ;
and, for a farther additament of honour, had a canton of the second charged with
a thistle, ensigned with an imperial crown, proper. Plate VIII. fig. 19.
DRUMMOND of Maderty, as before, carried a canton or, charged
with a 1
head erased gules.
Lieutenant-General THOMAS DALYELL of Binns, a loyal gentleman,
whose paternal
arms were sable, a naked man, proper, was suitably honoured by a canton
argent, charged with a sword and pistol saltier-ways gules, to show his honourable
employment. And CAMPBELL of Cessnock, to show his maternal descent from.