Archive of the Month: "Identifying features: coats of arms"
08 April 2010
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Posted by: King's College
Today our identities are verified by PIN numbers, passwords, access codes
andphoto IDs. In pre-electronic days individuals who needed to prove their
social credentials would use their crest or coat of arms.
In English heraldic tradition an individual, rather than a family, held a
coat of arms.The coat of arms was considered legal property and it was passed
from father to first-born son. Othermembers of the family could apply
forarmsmodified to indicate their relationship to the current holder, for
example by a change of colour or the addition of a distinguishing charge.
A woman who was entitled to have a coatof arms might design new arms
combining her inherited arms with those of her husband.The design and use of
coats of arms were strictly regulated because of their significance in
identification.
This month we showcase 'A Catalogue of all Provosts, Fellows and Scholars of
King's College' first collated by Thomas Hatcher in 1555. This list covers the
mid-sixteenth to late eighteenth century and includespotted biographies of
Kingsmen -some of them quite entertaining - alongside drawings of their coats
of arms.The drawings are vibrant and cheerful,almost cartoon-like in quality.
Two of the more expressive and colourfulentries are givenbelow (spelling and
punctuation have been modernised):
Richard Hatton: Doctor of Canon and Civil Law to Henry VIII,
he was elected the Provost  of King's College 22 March 1507 and remained so for
two years. This man was very high coloured in the face, which happened unto him
not by any extraordinary drinking, but by a wound which he received, when he was
Bursar of the College, as he was going toward London. For as he was travelling
on a very extraordinary hot summer day, being faint and weary he rested himself
under a tree and then fell into a sleep. His man, 'a welchman' (sic), being by
him knew very well that his Master had a good store of money about him. This
'Welchman' set upon him & would have cut his throat but missing his intent
he struck him over the face with his dagger; whereupon his Master awaking, being
amazed at the blow, fell to struggling with the knave, and overcame him &
constrained him. By ... force [he made the man go] before him to the next town
and from there he [the Welshman] was committed to the jail where the law had its
course against him. And this was the true cause of the redness of his [Hatton's]
face, which no physician or surgeon could afterward help. After his being made
Provost, he would seldom wear his scarlet gown & being demanded why he did
not, he mad this answer "That a scarlet gown did not become to a bloody colour,"
pointing to his face.
[Parliamentarians eject a Royalist Provost in 1649 during the English Civil
War. James Fleetwood, another Royalist Provost, is reinstated by Charles II
after the Restoration:]
Benjamin Whichcot: borne at Whichcot Hall in Shropshire,
19th Provost. By Order of Pa rliament March 19, 1649, Samuel Collins of the year
1592 was ejected from the Provostship of this College after he had been Provost
30 years, and Benjamin Whichcot of Emannuel College, Fellow was placed in his
room. Doctor of Divinity 1649, Vice Chancellor 1650, rector of Milton in
Cambridgehsire 1651 of the gift of this college. He was put from his place of
Provostship by the King's [Charles II's ] official order and was succeeded by
James Fleetwood. [He] lived afterwards at Milton and was minister of Blackfriars
in London 1663. Further costs of arms at www.kings.cam.ac.uk
Useful links
Enquiries
If you have any queries about the information in this page please contact
Tracy Wilkinson, Assistant Archivist (tracy.wilkinson@kings.cam.ac.uk).
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