THE COAT OF ARMS The journal of the Heraldry Society Fourth Series Volume II 2019 Number 236 in the original series started in 1952 The Heraldry Society is an educational charity. Its purpose is to promote greater understanding and appreciation of heraldry and its related subjects. The society organises lectures, study days, congresses, dinners and other social activities. It offers a course in heraldry leading to examination for a diploma. It publishes a range of source material at modest cost. Members receive the Coat of Arms and the quarterly Heraldry Gazette. Help to support our work and participate in our social activities by joining today via our website www.theheraldrysociety.com Registered office 53 Hitchin Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire SG7 6AQ The Society was registered in England in 1956 as registered charity no. 241456. The Coat of Arms is a non commercial, non profit making academic journal. Advertising space is sold in order to subsidise the cost of printing. The contents of this journal will be made freely available to all online via the Heraldry Society website one year following distribution of paper copy to members. Images may be subject to copyright, and should not be reproduced without permission of the originator. President His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal Honorary Secretary John Tunesi of Liongam e-mai1 : honsecheraldrysociety @googlemail.com Membership Secretary Jane Tunes i of Lionga m e-mail: mem [email protected] Material appearing in The Coat of Arms does not necessarily represent the views of the Honorary Editor, of the Editorial Panel, or of the Society. Printed in Bristol by 4Word Ltd. ©The Heraldry Society ISSN 0010-003X Founding Editor † John Brooke-Little, C.V.O, M.A., F.H.S. Honorary Editor Dr Paul A Fox, M.A., F.S.A, F.H.S.,F.R.C.P., A.I.H. Editorial Panel Dr Adrian Ailes, M.A., D.PHIL., F.S.A., F.H.S., A.I.H. Dr Jackson W Armstrong, B.A., M.PHIL., PH.D. Steven Ashley, F.S.A, a.i.h. Dr Claire Boudreau, PH.D., F.R.H.S.C., A.I.H Chief Herald of Canada Prof D’Arcy J.D.Boulton, M.A., PH.D., D.PHIL., F.S.A., A.I.H. Dr Clive.E.A.Cheesman, M.A., PH.D., F.S.A. Richmond Herald Steen Clemmensen A.I.H. M.Peter D.O’Donoghue, M.A., F.S.A. York Herald Dr Andrew Gray, PH.D., F.H.S. Prof Dr Torsten Hiltmann, PH.D., a.i.h. Prof Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard, PH.D., F.S.A., F,R,Hist.S., A.I.H. Elizabeth Roads, L.V.O., LL.B., F.S.A., A.I.H. Snawdoun Herald Advertising Manager John J. Tunesi of Liongam,M.Sc., FSA Scot., Hon.F.H.S., Q.G. Guidance for authors will be found online at www.theheraldrysociety.com THE ARMS OF THE CISTERCIAN ABBEYS AS ILLUSTRATED BY DOM ANSELM BAKER Part 2: The South West of England PAUL A.FOX AIH, FHS Abstract Of the eight foundations considered here, five are from the county of Devon under its original borders, and one each from Dorset, Hampshire and Gloucestershire. Three of the arms which were illustrated have a reasonably strong evidential basis, having been specifically designed for their abbeys, these being the buck’s head and crozier of Buckfast Abbey, the crown and crozier of Beaulieu, and the founder’s arms with the addition of a crozier of Hailes. Buckland Abbey probably adopted the hart’s head and crozier late in its history, but Brother Anselm was not aware of this. For the remaining four the evidence of the arms comes from seals. The seal of Dunkeswell Abbey carried only a single shield, that of its founder, making the ascription straightforward, but the remainder had seals with twin shields. These were for joint founders in the case of Newenham, for the founder and a later patron in the case of Bindon, and for the patron and a benefactor in the case of Forde. In the 1460s William Ballard, ascribed arms to the abbeys of Forde and Buckland that would have well suited a Yorkist political agenda. If these arms were imposed on the abbeys concerned, then they would presumably have been abandoned when the Tudor dynasty was established. Buckfast Abbey, Devon: sable (another source says azure) a crozier in pale or and over all a buck’s head caboshed argent. These pleasant canting arms were recorded by the herald William Ballard in the second half of the fifteenth century, and a little later by Garter Wrythe.1 They were sketched by Leland on his travels in the sixteenth century.2 This was an Anglo-Saxon foundation in the parish of Buckfastleigh, known to have been in existence in 1018. It was given by King Stephen in 1136 to the abbey of Savigny in Normandy, which joined the Cistercian order in 1148.3 None of the abbey’s seals was heraldic.4 Nothing remained of the buildings above ground following the dissolution of the monasteries, but the site 1 DBA vol 4 pp. 136,424. 2 Thomas Hearn (Ed), Joannis Lelandi Antiquarii de rebus Britannici collectanea 6 vols (London, 1774) vol 1 p.80. 3 J. Brooking Rowe, Contributions towards a history of the Cistercian Houses of Devon (Plymouth, 1878), p.114. 4 BM Seals 2746–7. The Coat of Arms 4th ser. 2 (2019), no. 236 pp. 123–143. 123 THE COAT OF ARMS Figure 1: Buckfast Abbey, Devon. 124 CISTERCIAN ABBEYS Figure 2: Forde Abbey, formerly in Devon, now in Dorset. 125 THE COAT OF ARMS was purchased in 1882 by emigré french Benedictine monks, who built a new church which was consecrated in 1932. This second foundation has adopted the buck’s head and crozier as a logo. In Brother Anselm’s drawing he has coloured the buck’s attires red, in confusion with the Augustinian abbey of Hartland in Devon, another Anglo-Saxon foundation. The arms of Hartland were argent a crozier in pale or, and over all a hart’s head caboshed sable (or azure), attires gules.5 Forde Abbey, Dorset: two arms: Or three torteaux and a label of three points azure (for Courtenay) and vair (for Beauchamp of Hatch). The source of the second arms is the fifteenth-century Ballard’s Book.6 Both arms occur together as two shields on one of the abbey seals (Figure 3), but a second seal with a different combination of arms was described by Rowe.7 This has shields for Courtenay plus a lion rampant, presumed to be Or a lion rampant azure for Redvers. Unfortunately neither seal is precisely datable, and neither is present in the published British Museum catalogue. Oliver wrongly blazoned the vair arms as barry of six vairy and gules, a strange error repeated by subsequent historians, which explains why Brother Anselm painted vairy argent and gules.8 To further complicate matters, the last abbot, Thomas Chard, is known to have used the device of a hart’s head and crozier, doubtless inspired by the very similar arms of Buckfast and Hartland Abbeys. The ford on the rive Axe where the abbey was built was originally known as Hart Bath.9 Forde was situated in Devon until a boundary change in 1842. The abbey was founded with monks who came from the first Cistercian house in England at Waverley in Surrey. They were first settled in Devon in 1136 by Richard (d.1137), son of the most powerful man in Devon during his day, Baldwin the sheriff (d.1095) baron of Okehampton, son of Gilbert, count of Brionne, and brother of Richard de Clare.10 The first location proved unsatisfactory and Richard’s sister Adelicia ‘the sheriff’ (d.1142) moved the monks to Forde. The heiress of the great Devon barony of Okehampton, Hawise de Courcy (d.1219) was the next significant supporter of the abbey, and was married to Reginald de Courtenay (d.1190), ancestor of the earls of Devon.11 Forde became an important burial place of the Courtenays. The absence of any device for the original founders is not too surprising given the embryonic state of heraldry in that period. Checky arms were later attributed to the Brionne dynasty.12 The Courtenays were the patrons of the abbey, hence the presence of their arms on both seals. On the surviving abbey tower is the lion rampant of Redvers (or a lion rampant azure, later adopted by the family of Percy, following the extinction of Redvers), Robert son of Reginald de Courtenay having married Mary de Redvers, daughter of William 5 As recorded by Ballard, see DBA vol 4 p.424. 6 DBA vol 4 p.449. 7 Rowe p.191. 8 George Oliver, Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis (Exeter,1846) p.341. 9 Sidney Heath, The story of Ford Abbey (London,1911) p.27. 10 Katherine Keats-Rohan, Domesday people, a prosopography of persons occurring in English documents 1066–1166, vol 1: Domesday Book (Woodbridge, 2002) p.162. 11 Ivor J Sanders, English baronies: a study of their origin and descent 1086–1327 (Oxford, 1960) pp.69–70. 12 Heath pp.61–2 126 CISTERCIAN ABBEYS Figure 3: Seal of Forde Abbey by kind permission of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Museum drawer B7. 127 THE COAT OF ARMS Figure 4: Abbot Chard’s personal emblems at Forde drawn by Sidney Heath. de Redvers (d.1217), earl of Devon. Heath gives a perplexing account of the other arms on the tower, and what he recorded as barry checky and plain was perhaps originally intended to represent the barry vairy and plain which Oliver wrongly ascribed to the abbey.