THE HUISH ARMS III

"Thanks for your e-mail about the Huish Arms. The Web pages prompted me to go and do a little research in the Local History Library, and I found the following (which I'll quote for completeness):

• Burke's Armory, 3rd Ed

  HUYSHE, HIWIS, HUISH, HEWISH (Lod Hiwis, Lynch, Doniford, Aller and Taunton, co. Somerset; Sand and Clisthydon, co. Devon; Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire; descended from RICHARD DE HYWIS, of Lod Hywis, living temp. King John). Ar. on a bend sa. three roaches ppr.: taken on the marriage of Oliver Hywish, temp. Edward III with the heiress of De la Roche. (Ancient Arms, "a chev. betw. three roundles," also "a chev.; on a chief three leaves.") Crest--An elephant's head couped ar. crowned and tusked or.

• Papworth's Ordinary of Arms, 1874

  [Under ON A BEND] Pikes
  Arg. on a bend sa. Three pikes haurient of the first. HEWISH, co. Devon.
  Roaches
  Arg. on a bend az. Three roaches (arg. alias arg. finned and tailed or, i.e.) ppr. Taken by Oliver HYWISH temp. EDWARD III on marriage with De la Roche. HEWISH HIWIS HUISH HUYSHE or HYWIS, Lod Hiwis, Lynch, Doniford, Aller, and Taunton, co. Somerset; ; Sand and Clisthydon, co. Devon; co. Derby, co. Nottingham. HEWES or HEWISH, Doniford, co. Somerset, 1623; quartering barry of eight or and az. on a bend engr. gu. three heads of spears or, with arg. a fess of five lozenges conj. gu. plain cotised sa. [See illustr.]

  

• Some Feudal Coats of Arms (Foster, 1901 repr. 1984)

  Huyshe, John de (13th cent.), bore, argent, on a bend sable three lucies naiant of the first ...

"So it would appear that the first part of the Huish Arms are canting arms: the roaches (pike) are a play on the name of Oliver Hywish's wife, De La Roche. Also, the crest was originally of a different tincture: in fact it was the proverbial white elephant!

"I think it can safely be said that lucies, roaches and pikes are all the same thing, although roaches seems most appropriate considering the De la Roche link.

"I double checked and one entry does seem to suggest that the bend should be azure and not sable. However, we must assume the majority are correct.

"Of the two blazons of the other quartering ('argent between two barrulets gules five lozenges sable' and 'argent a fess of five lozenges conjoined gules cotised sable') they would, as far as I can tell, produce the same effect if it where not for the reversed tinctures. It does seem to bear a similarity to the arms of RICHARDS of East Bagborough: 'Arg. five lozenges conjoined in fess gu. betw. two bars sa.' (Papworth). Your guess is as good as mine whether there's a link.

In a further note, dated 11/97, David amends this speculation with further details:

I've found that the other part of the Huish arms (the ones which I speculated could have something to do with Richards of East Bagborough) are in fact the arms of the Avenell family, into which Oliver Huish of Lod Hywis married (see the Huish pedigree), but I was roughly correct, as they are connected to the Richards.

"As far as your American correspondent's researches producing different arms are concerned, I wonder whether he knows that there are no such thing as 'arms of the name' and that the coat of arms belongs to the individual, and so changes (through the cadency marks and quarterings) over the generations."

In a further note, David adds the following:

"A few more thoughts:

"I don't know (didn't have time to look up) where the arms with the spearheads comes from. I thought of a possible explanation for the difference between the two lozenge arms: It may be that arms for different members of the family were altered slightly to distinguish them (before the cadency marks were established?). So a second son (or whoever) of the man who bore 'arg. a fess of five lozenges conj. gu. plain cotised sa.' may have reversed the tinctures to distinguish them from his father's, while maintaining a similarity and thus a link. (That's a guess!)

"I think (if you're going to quote the extracts directly) I'd better provide definitions for a few terms:

• Some of the Tinctures:

  argent - silver/white
  or - gold/yellow
  sable - black
  azure - blue
  gules - red

• proper - natural colours

• some other terms

  haurient - swimming upwards
  naiant - swimming horizontally
  barry of eight - divided into eight horizontal bars
  engrailed - with semi-circular segments taken out along the edge
  cotised - with thin bars either side

"I'd better add a caveat: I'm not 100% sure about most of this - it's merely the result of an hour or so in the library and a little knowledge gained out of more library books: more extensive researches may prove me to be on completely the wrong track [that was the lawyer in me!].

"There is a good heraldry web site at: http://www.heraldica.org " [end of David's notes]

• David Ward: my Contacts Page
• David Ward's Home Page
• 'The Huish Pedigree I' - Joy L. Hughes Jacoby
• 'The Huish Pedigree II' - Frank Huish