A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF ARTIFICIAL THINGS. 417
temporal and ecclesiastical, I shall mention here, and exemplify by armorial bearings;
such a-, crrruun.f, ancient and modern, the imperial morid, or globe, sceptres,
bu;;'iiu\ the tinbiepiscopnl-pall, mitres, crosiers, crosses, and keys.
In this consideration, they have no more eminency than the former figures we have
been treating about. And first, crowns within the shield, are no more marks of
sovereignty and dignity, than lions, horses, mullets, or buckles,
or other armorial
figui
The old Lords and Earls of GARIOCH carried, for arms, or, a fe^se cheque, azure
and urgent, between three antique crowns, (z. e. open ones with points) gules.
DAVID Earl of HUNTINGDON, younger son of Prince Henry, eldest son of Kins
David 1. was, by his, brother King Malcom IV. honoured with the title of Earl oi
Ganoch, which afterwards he resigned in the hands of his brother King William,
for the earldom of Angus, which earldom he did not keep long.
Henry de Brecbin, so designed from the place of his birth, natural son of King
William, wa>, by King Alexander II. made Earl of Garioch, and was succeeded
in that dignity by his son Walden, who died at Dunfermline without issue ; as
the chartulary of that abbacy says, " Waldenus Comes de Garrioch, juvenis egre-
" gius obiit sine prole, & omnia sua bona devenerunt ad Alexandrum consangui-
" neum suum."
Alexander III. bestowed Garioch on William Cumin,
as also the earldom
ofMarr; and after the forfeiture of the Cumins, these earldoms returned to the
crown.
King Robert the Bruce reponed Gratney Mar, whose daughter, Isabel, he had
married,, unto the earldom of Marr, and gave him the lordship of Garioch, with its
regality; after this, Garioch is always called a lordship.
I have not met with the arms of Garioch carried by any of the abovementioned
carl-, and lords, till ALEXANDER STEWART, natural son of Alexander Stewart of
Badenoch, Larl of Buchan, fourth son of King Robert II. who married Lady Isabel
Douglas, Countess and heiress ofMarr; in her right he was Earl of Marr and
Lord Garioch, who carried, quarterly, first and fourth Garioch, or, a fesse cheque,
azure and argent, between three ducal crowns gules; second and third Marr,
azure, a bend 'betwixt six cross croslets fitched or. He died without issue,
anno 1436.
The earldom afterwards fell into the king's hands, and King James II. bestowed
the earldom of Marr, and lordship of Garrioch, upon his younger son John Earl of
Marr, who cunu-d the arms of these dignities, as I just now blazoned.
The armc-rial figures of the kingdom of SWEDEN are three antique crowns of
gold, in a field azure. It is generally told, that these three crowns were assumed
to show the ancient alliance and union of three kingdoms, Sweden, Denmark, and
Norway.
The city of COLOGNE carries argent, on a chief gules, three crowns or; upon account,
they say, that the bodies of the three kings, or wise men, that came from
the East, to adore our Saviour at his birth, are interred there.
The country of MURCIA, in Spain, azure, six ducal crowns or, 3, 2 and i. They
arc said to be carried to represent and perpetuate as many victories obtained in
that country by the Christians over the Moors.
Mencstrier tells us, that crowns, as armorial figures or charges in a shield, are not
then to be taken for marks of dignity, but as rewards of valour and good counsel,
with which great men were anciently honoured ; and with these their armorial
figures were adorned, as the Douglasses ensign the heart on their arms, and others
crown their lions, as the M'Dowalls, of whom before.
I shall here add the blazon of another gentleman of that name, viz.
M'DOWALL, in the Island of St Christophers, brother-german to Garthland, who
carries the same arms as his brother, with a suitable difference.
The name of GRANT carries gules, three antique crowns or.
One Vanbassan, a Dane, by his MS. in the Lawyers' Library, brings the first of
this name from Norway to Scotland; and Sir George Mackenzie, by his MS.
brings them from England, upon Hollinshed's mentioning one of the name of
GRANT of old, a repairer of the University of Cambridge. There are yet of that
name in England, but by their arms they appear not to be the same stock of
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