Document generated on 09/26/2021 5:37 p.m. Ontario History “Some Heraldic Propriety of Composition” Solving the Mystery of the Origin and History of the Armorial Achievement of the County of Wellington, Ontario Jonathan S. Lofft Volume 111, Number 2, Fall 2019 Article abstract This article documents the origins of the armorial achievement, the arms and URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065082ar crest, adopted by Wellington County in 1860. It compares amateur and DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065082ar authoritative revisions of the blazon of this achievement, and considers the connection between imperial toponym and heraldic emblem, that is, between See table of contents name and arms, for the first time positively identifying the designer as fledgling celebrated Canadian heraldist Edward Marion Chadwick (1840-1921). Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Lofft, J. S. (2019). “Some Heraldic Propriety of Composition”: Solving the Mystery of the Origin and History of the Armorial Achievement of the County of Wellington, Ontario. Ontario History, 111(2), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065082ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2019 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 181 “Some Heraldic Propriety of Composition” Solving the Mystery of the Origin and History of the Armorial Achievement of the County of Wellington, Ontario by Jonathan S. Lofft Introduction ranking of a dazzling multitude of peer- ostly owing to the diligence age titles successively showered upon M of herald and historian Dar- Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke rel Kennedy, few uncertainties persist as of Wellington, by the British Crown, to the origins of the coats of arms per- Wellington County poses an enduring taining to municipalities in the County heraldic mystery in connection with an of Wellington.1 Located in South-west- example par excellence of what are termed ern Ontario, Wellington County, origi- here imperial toponyms.2 Like the grant- nally founded as a District, was re-organ- ing of armorial bearings, the bestowal of ized as a corporation sole in 1853 with such toponyms is an imperial gesture; its seat at Guelph. Named for the highest one of social denotation, and a means 1 Darrel E. Kennedy, Wellington County Municipalities (Guelph: The Corporation of the County of Wellington, 1984), and by the same author, “1984, A Bonus Year for Wellington County,” Heraldry in Canada XIX:1 (March 1985), 19-26, and “An Armorial Mystery: The Origin and History of the Armo- rial Achievement of the City of Guelph Ontario, used by the City Corporation before 1978,” Alta Studia Heraldica 2 (2009), 117-36. 2 Having been absent from Britain for some years whilst on campaign, when Wellesley was finally introduced to the House of Lords in May 1814, his letters patents of creation as a Baron, Earl, Marquess, and Duke, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom were all proclaimed consecutively in a unique and lengthy ceremony lasting the entire day, for which see Andrew Redman Bonar, Life of Field Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington; Down to the Present Time with an Appendix (Halifax, West Yorkshire: Wil- liam Milner, 1844), 330. Ontario History / Volume CXI, No. 2 / Autumn 2019 OH inside pages autumn 2019.indd 181 2019-08-29 11:12:20 PM 182 ONTARIO HISTORY ditional nodes along the same local semantic network, part Abstract a globe-spanning imperial na- This article documents the origins of the armorial mescape, and an affirmation of achievement, the arms and crest, adopted by Wel- lington County in 1860. It compares amateur and the idea expressed by Christian authoritative revisions of the blazon of this achieve- Jacob that “toponyms can lend ment, and considers the connection between impe- themselves to discursive forms rial toponym and heraldic emblem, that is, between of organization, to serial articu- name and arms, for the first time positively identi- lations that cannot be reduced fying the designer as fledgling celebrated Canadian heraldist Edward Marion Chadwick (1840-1921). to the sum of their component parts.” 4 In this short article I Résumé: Dans cet article, nous allons documenter document the origins of the les origines des armoiries, de l’écu et cimier, adopté par le comté de Wellington en 1860. Nous pourrons armorial achievement, com- comparer les révisions amateures et officielles du bla- prised of a coat of arms and son de ces armoiries, et considérer la connexion entre crest, adopted by Wellington toponyme impérial et emblème héraldique, c’est-à- County in 1860. I compare dire, entre nom et écusson, qui permettra pour la amateur and authoritative re- première fois d’identifier le créateur comme le célè- bre héraldiste canadien Edward Marion Chadwick visions of the technical blazon (1840-1921). of this achievement, and con- sider the connection between imperial toponym and heraldic of creating cultural landscapes by gazet- emblem. Breaking down two scholarly ting new settlements named for luminar- solitudes, bridging the gulf between on- ies and landmarks, sacred and secular, omastics and that area of heraldic stud- derived from metropolitan canon.3 The ies concerned with the armorial system constituent communities of Arthur and of signs in the abstract, between name Maryborough, and neighbouring Water- and arms as aspects of intangible cul- loo and Wellesley, Ontario are each ad- tural heritage, is a priority. 5 I also make a 3 I have borrowed this term from Stephen J. Hornsby, Imperial Surveyors: Samuel Holland, J. F. W. Des Barres and the making of the Atlantic Neptune (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011), 141. For the ubiquity of Victorian ‘geographical deification and earthly apotheosis,’ see David Cannadine, Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (London: Penguin Books, 2001), 102-103. For the ‘closely related practices of name-giving and heraldic transmission in the context of pri- vate inheritances,’ see Steven Thiry,Matter(s) of State: Heraldic Display and Discourse in the Early Modern Monarchy (c. 1480-1650) Heraldic Studies 2 (Ostfildern: Thorbecke, 2018), 71. See also Michel Pastou- reau, Du Nom à L’Armoirie Héraldique et Anthroponymie Médiévales in Patrice Beck, ed., Genèse Médiévale de L’Anthroponymie Moderne Tome IV (Tours: l’Université de Tours, 1997), 83-106. 4 Christian Jacob, The Sovereign Map: Theoretical Approaches to Cartography Throughout History ed. Edward H. Dahl, trans. Tom Conley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 236. 5 Jennifer S. H. Brown, “Intangible Culture on Inland Seas, from Hudson Bay to Canadian Heritage,” Ethnologies 36:1-2 (2014), 141-59. OH inside pages autumn 2019.indd 182 2019-08-29 11:12:20 PM Wellington County’s armorial achievement 183 positive identification the achievement’s ented engraver as Joseph Thomas Rolph designer as fledgling celebrated Cana- (1831-1916) of Toronto. While the ma- dian armorist Edward Marion Chadwick trix of this seal is lost, several examples (1840–1921). of impressions Chadwick made from it are included within his archival remains. The Origin of the Arms Also, in 1860, in anticipation of the cel- and Crest ebrated visit to Guelph on 12 September n 1860, being arrived to the age of of the Prince of Wales, and of the forty- Itwenty, Chadwick left his home on his fifth anniversary of the Battle of Water- father’s plush estate outside of Guelph, loo (1815), he designed the coat of arms in Puslinch Township in Wellington and crest of Wellington County.7 County, for a new independence at While no documentation survives nearby Waterloo.6 Already registered as explaining precisely why County offi- a student at law, enrolled in Toronto’s cials entrusted these specialised tasks to Osgoode Hall, Chadwick undertook the the young Chadwick, his family’s mem- relocation at the behest of the partners bership of the tight-knit Tory Anglican of the firm to which he was apprenticed, clique surely figured into the decision. Lemon and Peterson. At Waterloo, Chadwick’s older brother, Frederick Jas- Chadwick served as the agent of the so- per Chadwick (1838-1891), would in licitors to the newly opened branch of the fullness of time become mayor of the Bank of Montreal there. Despite his the place. Most likely, there was no other tender years, Chadwick was already well person with a comparable interest in her- established as the premier local heraldic aldry, or competence as an amateur art- authority, having lectured the members ist, available to call upon for such work. of the Guelph Debating Society on the Colonel James Webster (1808-1869), subject, and redesigned the municipal the first mayor of Guelph, ardent Tory arms of Guelph in the previous year. To Churchman, unsuccessful candidate mark his commission as provincial no- for the provincial Legislative Assembly, tary public in 1861, he devised for him- and Registrar of Wellington County, is self the first in a succession of handsome the prime candidate. Webster, also a co- heraldic seals, an indispensable requisite founder of Fergus, Ontario, reportedly of office. Chadwick identified the -tal “took an active interest in the organisa- 6 Biographical details are drawn from Chadwick’s diaries, ten volumes in the possession of the Trinity College Archives, Edward Marion Chadwick fonds, F2351, for which see Jonathan S. LofftA Brief but Accurate Record, 1858-1921: The Diaries of Edward Marion Chadwick (Toronto: The Champlain Society, in preparation) and by the same author In Gorgeous Array: The Life of Edward Marion Chadwick (1840- 1921) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, in preparation).