This is February 2006 Middle Kingdom Letter of Acceptances and Returns for Escutcheon’s December 2005 Letter of Intent.
Unless otherwise noted, all clients will accept changes. Comments in braces {} were removed from the Letter of Intent sent to Laurel and the College of Arms, devices, or badges in braces have been returned or pended. Commentary, rulings, etc. by Rouge Scarpe are placed in CAP PRINT. Thanks to Ary, Ryan, Cleftlands Commenting Group, Knut, Bronwen, Mikhail and AElfreda (A&M), Talan, and John ap Wynne for this month’s commentary.
1) Ana ingen Chonchobhair -- Device
Resubmission -- Per chevron argent and vert, a greyhound sable
courant and an owl argent affronty
(Rock Falls, IL)
(Name reg'd May '02)
The device was returned by RS. Nov '05 for redrawing.
REBLAZON: Per chevron argent and vert, a greyhound courant countourny sable and an owl affronty argent.
Device Commentary
A&M - The greyhound is now courant,
as it was in the original November 2001 submission.
Concerning possible conflicts with the logo of the Greyhound bus
company: the drawing of the greyhound in the bus logo is shown in
either metallic silver or white. Since this greyhound is
sable, and there are no allusions to travel, etc., we do not see
conflict with the bus logo, even though the outline is very
similar. http://www.greyhound.com/home.asp http://store.yahoo.com/greyhoundlogoshop
Ary - This fixes the previous problems,
and looks acceptable. The greyhound is 'courant sable', not
'sable courant'. I found no conflicts.
Talan - The emblazon is fine, but the blazon is slightly out of order -- tinctures come after all other modifiers -- and is missing a crucial modifier: the greyhound is *contourny*. It's 'Per chevron argent and vert, a greyhound courant contourny sable and an owl affronty argent'.
DEVICE FORWARDED TO LAUREL
2) Eduard Halidai -- Device Change -- Argent,
a spoon bendwise a bordure sable
(Loveland, OH)
(Name reg'd Jun '88)
Client would like his old device (Per chevron purpure and argent, two butter churns and a cow salient counterchanged) released.
REBLAZON: Argent, a spoon bendwise within a bordure sable.
Device Commentary
Knut - Argent, a spoon bendwise
within a bordure sable
The spoon's handle could be wider.
The bordure is too narrow.
> the spoon looks like an oar-maybe if the lip was drawn
around
> it it would help it not look like an oar so much, or make
the
> end of it straight instead of with a pommel.
A round bowl would also help. This identifiability problem
is an issue for Wreath.
Clear
Ary - It should be noted when his
previous arms were registered. It was 06/1988 via the
Middle. The bordure should be about three times as
wide. I found no conflicts.
Talan - While not technically incorrect, the blazon is ugly;'Argent, a spoon bendwise within a bordure sable' flows much better. The border is distinctly on the narrow side; a border almost as narrow can be seen in the Matthew Paris shields (ca.1244) on p. 17 of Bedingfeld & Gwynn-Jones, _Heraldry_ (4th row, 2nd coat), and engrailed borders were often very narrow, but in my experience plain borders were usually wider. I'd advise him to double the width, but I would not return it for redrawing: the design is clear, and his apparent desire to give pride of place to the primary charge is laudable.
CLIENT WILL BE ADVISED TO DRAW THE BORDURE WIDER. DEVICE FORWARDED TO LARUEL
3) Kemma Quatremaine (F) -- New Name
(Sternfeld)
Client will *not* accept major changes and is interested in 15th century English.
? ? [Kemma] -- "Feminine Given Names in 'A
Dic. of Eng. Surnames'," by Talan Gwynek
(http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/reaney.cgi?Kemma)
[Kemma 1311]
[Quatremaine] -- "Monumental Brass
Rubbings for England, Oxfordshire"
(http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/departments/antiquities/brass/counties/Oxfordshire.html)
[Richard Quatremaine 1460]
Name Commentary
Talan - > Client will *not* accept major changes and is interested in 15th century English.
Then why on earth did she pick a forename whose *latest* known example is from 1311, one that probably derives from an Old English pet form?! With few exceptions, names of Old English origin either survived down to modern times or died out by around 1300 or a little later; on the available evidence, <Kemma> is of the latter type, and I can't make any kind of a case to justify it in a 15th century name. If she really wants a 15th century name, she needs to choose a different forename.
> [Kemma] -- "Feminine Given Names in 'A Dic. of Eng.
> Surnames'," by Talan Gwynek
> (http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/talan/reaney/reaney.cgi?Kemma)
> [Kemma 1311]
> [Quatremaine] -- "Monumental Brass Rubbings for England,
> Oxfordshire"
> (http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/departments/antiquities/brass/counties/Oxfordshire.html)
> [Richard Quatremaine 1460]
Reaney & Wilson s.n. <Quartermain> have <Quatremains> 1187 and <Quatermayns> 1230. Bardsley s.n. <Quartermain> adds
<Quatremayns> 1273, <Quatremeyns> 1273, and <Quatermains> 1313. The byname is originally French, <quatre mains> 'four hands', and it appears generally to have kept the original final <s> for quite a while. <Kemma Quatermains> would obviously be fine, and <Kemma Quatremains> is also pretty clearly okay. I am considerably less sanguine about losing the final <s> at any time when the forename is likely to have been in use.
Cleftlands - The website cited for the
byname also gives a 1420 citation, which places it temporally
closer to the given name. Spellings on this website do not
appear to have been modernized.
NAME FORWARDED TO LARUEL
4) Sara Macqueen (F) -- New Name
(Unicorn)
Client will *not* accept major changes and is interested in a Scottish name.
? ? [Sara] -- Legal given name. No documentation was given.
[Macqueen] -- "Clans and Tartans," by
Lorna Blackie. According to the paperwork: "There is another
mention of mainland members, this time the Macqueens, in the
early 15th century. . ."
(Esct. Note: Photocopies are provided. The documentation
is mostly out of period. This quote was the best I could dig out
of it.)
Name Commentary
Talan - I have not found an instance of <Sara> (in any spelling) in Scotland in the SCA period. The closest I can come are
<Saraye Whittingham> 1581 in the parish of St Mary-le-Bow in the city of Durham and <Saray Bridges> 1595 in Witton le
Wear in the county of Durham, in the northeast of England.
<http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/Transcriptions/DUR/DSB.html>.
<http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/Transcriptions/DUR/WLW.html>.
> [Macqueen] -- "Clans and Tartans," by Lorna Blackie. According to the paperwork: "There is another mention of
> mainland members, this time the Macqueens, in the early 15th century. . ."
Black s.n. <Macqueen> offers two sources of the surname; mostly it's <Mac Suibhne> 'son of Suibhne', but the now identical Skye surname is 'son of Sveinn'. (In both cases the <S> underwent lenition after <mac> and so was pronounced \h\. This \h\ was eventually lost, and the \k\ sound of <mac> was carried over to the start of the patronym.)
Possibly relevant citations include <Mylmore Makquean> 1502,<Finlay M'Quene> 1541, <Gillereoch M'Queane> 1541, <William
M'Quene> Makquene> 1577-80 = <William M'Queyne> 1581, <Rory Macquein> 1587, <Elyzabeth M'Quen> 1597 (note that this one is feminine), <M'Queyn> 1519, and <M'queyne> 1570. The first three of these appear to be Scots transcriptions of Gaelic names (e.g., <Maol Muire mac Shuibhne> or the like for the first one) and hence are probably not relevant: a woman named <Sara> will not have been a Gael.
<Saray M'Quene> would be a mildly speculative late 16th century Scots name.
Ary - If no documentation was provided
that <Sara> is her legal given name, then the legal name
allowance cannot be cited. Withycombe s.n. Sara notes this
spelling in 1379. Generally, changing the language of a
name is considered a major change, but since no documentation was
provided for <Sara> it's not clear what language the client
considered it to be. Probably Scottish, in which case the
suggestions provided by Talan should probably be acceptable to
her.
The byname <Macqueen> is not presumptuous:
"Dorothea M'Queyn. Name. The question was raised
whether the use of the surname MacQueen or its variants in an SCA
name is presumptous. This precedent is directly relevent to this
question:
"[Registering Mark FitzRoy.] RfS VI.1. states that
"Names documented to have been used in period may be used,
even if they were derived from titles, provided there is no
suggestion of territorial claim or explicit assertion of
rank." FitzRoy meets that criteria. RfS VI.3. states that
"Names that unmistakably imply identity with or close
relationship to a protected person or literary character will
generally not be registered." There is no implication of
"identity with or close relationship to" any protected
individual or character as used here. Consequently, the surname
here is not considered pretentious. [6/94, p.8]
"In this case, the surname may be interpreted by English
speakers as "son of the Queen", but that is because it
is a phonetic rendering. The name in Gaelic is Mac Shuibhne,
whose written form carries no hint of presumption." [LoAR
06/2004]
NAME PENDED TO GIVE THE CLIENT TIME TO PROVIDE LEGAL NAME DOCUMENTATION.
5) Templemead, Canton of -- New Name and
Device -- Argent, a cross gules surmounted by a laurel wreath
vert, on a chief embattled sable, three chalices argent
(Kentwood, MI)
Client will *not* accept major changes and is interested in 13-14th century English.
Petition is included in the paperwork.
Name Commentary
Talan - The *place* is known from 1306, but the following note is repeated at the beginning of each alphabetical section of the collection: 'spellings are modern, the date is the first recorded instance of the Burough [sic] being mentioned in a period text. Check Ekwall and Room for period spellings.' Unfortunately, neither Ekwall, Room, Mills, nor Watts has this particular name, and I've not been able to find out anything about it as the name of a borough. (It's also a street name in several places, and <Temple Meads> is the main railway station in Bristol.)
The first element can hardly be anything but <temple>, Old English <tempel>, implying that the place once belonged to the Templars (Knights of the Temple). Watts s.n. <Templecombe> notes the spelling <Templecombe> in 1387 and in an undated later copy of a document of 1295. S.n. <Templeton> he shows the modern spelling as early as 1335. Ekwall s.n. <Newsham> has <Temple Neusom> 1334 for modern <Temple Newsham>. Clearly, then, the modern spelling of the <temple> element was readily available in the 14th century (and later).
The second element is most probably just what it appears to be, from Old English <męd> (Anglian dialects <méd>) 'a meadow'. [1] This isn't especially common as a second element of major place-names, but between Ekwall and Watts we can find some 13th and 14th centuryexamples. From Ekwall:
<Brihtmede> 1257 (s.n. <Breightmet>); <Bissop(es)med> 1227, 1231 (s.n. <Bushmead>);
<Runimede> 1215 (in a 1318 copy) (s.n. <Runnymede>).
From Watts:
<Harewemede> 1194-1235, <Haremede> 1233-1366, <Hardmede> 1284-1385, (s.n. <Hardmead>);
<Horemede> 1086-1297, <Horemade> 1197-1277 (s.n. <(Great)Hormead>)
Finally, Bardsley s.n. <Mead> notes <Alan atte Mede> 14 Edward III (i.e., 1340) and <Willelmus del Mede> 1379 for the same element by itself. While there is some variation, it's clear that the most usual later medieval spelling is <mede> (which is even preserved in <Runnymede>).
Putting the pieces together, we see that <Temple Mede> and <Templemede> are certainly possible (and even likely) spellings from the submitters' preferred period.
[1] At least one other derivation is easily possible, though distinctly less likely. Ekwall s.n. <Meads> (<Medese> 1296) notes that the place-name is from OE <męd> 'a meadow' and <efes> 'edge, border (of a wood, etc.)'. It's not extraordinarily unlikely for a place-name to gain or lose a final <s>. Thus, an original <Mędefes> 'meadow-edge' could in fact have become a modern <Mead> or, with the addition of the affix <Temple>, <Templemead>. However, this is substantially less likely than the straightforward derivation given above.
Bronwen - The cited article dates
<Templemead> as an actual place-name in England to 1306,
and I do not believe this place-name is important enough to
protect, so the name looks acceptable to me.
Device Commentary
A&M - The chalices are not drawn
fully on the chief, which means the device will have to be
returned for redrawing.
Our major concern with this submission is the possible
presumptious use of a device which is close to, although clear
of, one of the pieces of armory that Laurel has registered for
the Templars along with a name that means, as we understand it,
"meadow belonging to the Templars". The use of
chalices as a point of difference only serves to add to the
problem, since the Knights Templar are associated with legends of
the Holy Grail, which is sometimes thought to be a chalice.
Templars, Order of the Knights. The following device
associated with this name was registered in December of 1994 (via
Laurel): Argent, a chief sable and overall a cross
gules. Important non-SCA arms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templar_Knights#Legends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalice
Knute - The chief should be wider.
Overall charges may not surmount peripheral charges such as
chiefs. "The orle overlying the point violates the rule
prohibiting overall charges over peripheral charges." (LoAR
October 1999, p. 22). [Miles de Colwell, 12/01, R-Lochac]
Precedents - Franēois 1, under CHARGE -- Overall
The overall goblets lack contrast with the field, violating RfS
VIII.2.b.i.
Return for multiple style problems.
Ryan - The Chief is far too narrow,
especially since it contains other charges. This is further
demonstrated by the way the chalices fill the entire vertical
space. Also, the embattled edge of the chief is ruined in
order to get the chalices on the chief. When a cross and a chief
are both present, the cross should be scaled down to fit entirely
beneath the chief, rather than having the chief surmount an
otherwise unmodified cross. This would cause the horizontal
bar of the cross to be lower than it is shown in the emblazon.
Bronwen - The embattled line of the
chief needs to have fewer and bolder embattlements, the chief
itself needs to be wider, and the chalices cannot over-hang the
chief onto the field as these do. The design itself, Argent,
a cross gules and overall a laurel wreath vert and on a chief
embattled sable three chalices argent, appears to me
to be clear of conflict, but this definitely needs to be returned
for a re-draw.
NAME FOWARDED TO LAUREL. DEVICE RETURNED FOR REDRAW.
At your service,
Phebe Bonadeci
Rouge Scarpe