Last modified: March 11, 2007


Outlands College of Heralds

March 11, 2007
From the Office of the Castle Herald
Baronessa Francesca di Pavia, OP, OL
castle@outlandsheralds.org

UNTO the Outlands College of Heralds, our respected friends and colleagues who give freely of their time to provide commentary, and all others who come by these letters, on this 11th day of March, A.S. xxxxi (2007 CE), does Maestra Francesca di Pavia send greetings on behalf of The Honourable Lady Marie de Blois, White Stag Principal Herald.

Here follows the Kingdom of the Outlands Letter of Presentation for March 2007. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Errors found herein are undoubtedly mine.

Anyone may comment upon the items found herein, and e-mail commentary to the Rampart address is encouraged. Please have comments on items contained herein to Rampart, Furukusu Masahide-dono, by April 21, 2007, for the Rampart decision meeting tentatively scheduled for April 22, 2007.

Line Emblazon Sheet
Color Emblazon Sheet
March 2007 Letter of Presentation
April 2007 Letter of Response
April 2007 Letter of Intent
August 2007 LoAR Results
Return to the Rampart home page.

I present the following items for your consideration:

1.  Chemakwa of the Beothuk. New name and device. Per chevron sable and purpure, in fess two grizzly bear's claws and in base a dagger and an arrow inverted chevronwise argent.
(Hawks Hollow) Gender: Female. The client cares most about the meaning of the name - "big bear". No major changes accepted.
of the Beothuk: The Beothuk were a tribe situated on the island of Newfoundland, whom the Norse explorers of "Vinland" called "Skraelings". The culture became extinct in the 16th Century. They spoke a unique language that was distantly related to an Algonquin dialect. Several Beothuk captives were brought to Europe in the early 16th Century. The submitter includes complete printouts (waaaay too much information - print out only what is pertinent to your documentation, not entire websites - save many trees!- Castle) from several sources on Beothuk history, culture, and language: http://www.dickshovel.com/beo.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beothuk; http://www.native-languages.org/beothuk.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_language
Chemakwa: "Shemaqua" was found as a name meaning "Big Bear" on the website of a 19th-century Native American re-enactor (http://bigbearsden.org/). The submitter recognized that this did not make the name period. "Makwa" means "bear" in several languages of the geographic area in question: http://www.glifwc.org/pub/fall99/clansystem.htm documents Ojibwe clans, the largest of which was the Bear (Makwa) clan (undated). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anishinaabe_clan_system similarly lists several Bear sub-clans, such as "Waabishki-makwa" (Black Bear) and "Mishimakwa" (Grizzly Bear) in this culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_language defines "Makwa" as Algonquin for Bear. The same site was used to learn that "Chi" or "Che" is an adjective used to describe something as large or big. Thus, "Che-makwa" - "Big Bear".  (Nothing in the documentation indicates that this is how personal names were formed - there is no information on personal names.)
(Castle's note: The submitter provided 72 pages of documentation, which I have attempted to summarize here. Most of the information, while interesting, was not directly relevant. You can read it all by going to all of the above websites, which articles were printed out in their entirety. Not necessary!!)

Documentation (8 pages thereof) was also provided for the device, noting the importance of the bear in Native American cultures (though how the habitat and feeding habits of various species of North American bears is useful in heraldic documentation  is not clear to me - Castle).  A drawing of the paw of a bear is included (http://www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/bears/teachersguide/background.html), which the submitter cites as the source for the stylistic, tribal depiction of a bear paw, not print, used in her proposed device.

2. Cilléne mac Conghalaigh. Change of name from Cilléne Ó Conghalaigh and new device. Per chevron vert and sable, a wolf statant reguardant and in base a dagger and and arrow inverted chevronwise argent.  (Castle's note: this submitter and #1 have the same legal surname, so I assume they are husband and wife, hence the similarity in devices.)
(Hawks Hollow) Gender: Male. The submitter cares most about the language/culture of the name, stated as Irish Gaelic. No major changes accepted.
The original name was registered in March 1998.
Annals of the Four Masters
, vol II  (http://www.ucc.ie/research/celt/publishd.html), M974.5, p. 702 (untranslated:):  "Domhnall, mac Conghalaigh, tigherna Bregh, d'écc. As dó bo h-ainm Triubhus Fliuch." (Domhnall, son of Conghalach, lord of Breagha, died; he was named Triubhus Fliuch.). Annals of the Four Masters, vol II  (http://www.ucc.ie/research/celt/publishd.html), M1016.10, p. 791 (untranslated): "Dondchadh, mac Donncadha Uí Conghalaigh, ríoghdhamhna Ereand, do mharbhadh lá Feraibh Bregh buddhéin." (Donnchadh, son of Donnchadh Ua Conghalaigh, lord of Breagha, and royal heir of Ireland, was slain by the men of Breagha themselves.)

3. Cilléne mac Conghalaigh. Household name and badge for The House of the Dirk and Arrow. Per pale vert and purpure, a dagger and an arrow inverted chevronwise argent.
(Hawks Hollow) No major changes accepted.
The household name fits the Inn name/sign pattern for household names.

4. Eoin Gallda mac Néill. New device. Per saltire sable and purpure, a dragon and tiger combatant argent.
(Caer Galen).
The name appears on the October 2006 Letter of Intent from the Outlands.

5. Kimberly Blackwood.  Name and device resubmission. Erminois. a chevron gules between two demi-suns issuant fron the corners and a tree sable.
(al-Barran) Gender: Female.  No major changes accepted.
The  name and device were returned on the August 2006 Letter of Response - the name for lack of documentation; the device for lack of a name with which to submit it.
Kimberly: the submitter provides a copy of her driver's license as evidence that this is her legal given name, and thus qualifies under Rfs. II.4, the "legal name allowance".
Blackwood:  Three URLs are cited as evidence for this surname: (1) http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/stoz/weir2.html, under the heading "Weir", lists several lairds of Blackwood, dating to 1398. However, all bore the surname "Weir", not "Blackwood" - Rothald Weir of Blackwood, James Weir of Blackwood, etc.  (2) http://www.searchforancestors.com/surnames/origin/b/blackwood.php: "This family derived their name from the lands of Baron Dufferin and Claneboye, in Scotland, called Blackwood." No dates given. (3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Dufferin_and_Claneboye dates Sir John Blackwood to 1763. The submitter quotes the following from this site, which I (Castle) can't find there: "The Blackwoods are of Scottish extraction and can be traced in the public records of Scotland to a very early period. One branch of the family migrated to France, where the celebrated Adam Blackwood served as a Privy Councillor to Mary, Queen of Scots, arranged her marriage to the Dauphin and served as a senator of the Presidial Court of Poitiers." I (Castle) found the following in the Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02591a.htm): "ADAM BLACKWOOD: Author, b. at Dunfermline, Scotland, 1539; d. 1613. He was a great-nephew of Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney (1541-58), who provided for his education, both his parents being dead, at the University of Paris. On the bishop's death, Queen Mary's generosity enabled Adam to complete his studies at Paris and Toulouse. He taught philosophy at Paris and published there a funeral poem on King Charles IX (1574) and a work on the relation between religion and government (1575)..." Several undated references to the name, citing it as a locality name ("black wood") in books are also included (as are cites about the history of York and various localities in Scotland not called Blackwood which I found confusing and irrelevant - Castle).
Permission to conflict from the submitter's husband, Christopher Blackwood (Erminois, a chevron gules between two trees and a demi-sun issuant from base sable) (name and device registered March 1993) is included.

6. Mari the Far-Travelled. Device resubmission. Per bend azure and vert, a pegasus couped at the shoulder contourny between three compass stars Or.
The name was registered in May 2005. The previous device submission, Per bend azure and vert, a winged horse's head couped at the shoulder contourny between three compass stars Or, was returned on the December 2005 LoAR: "This device is returned for violating RfS VII.7.b, which requires that "Elements must be reconstructible in a recognizable form from a competent blazon." We were unable to create a blazon that adequately describes the primary charge. The primary charge isn't really a demi-pegasus as the wings issue from the neck, not the shoulder, and the forelegs are not shown. And it is not a a winged horse's head couped at the shoulder because too much of the back is showing and the wings are attached to the head." 

7. Matilda de Seton. Change of name resubmission for Aindrea MacCullaich.
(Caerthe) Gender: Female. No changes accepted. The existing name was registered in March 1998. If the new name is registered, the submitter wishes to retain the former name as an alternate.
The previous submission, Matilda Seton, was returned on the October 2006 LoR for inability to document Seton to period - it dates to 1899; the earlier form is "de Seton".
Matilda:  "Feminine Given Names in A Dictionary of English Surnames" by Brian M. Scott (SCA Talan Gwynek, Fause Lozenge Herald Extraordinary) (http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/reaneyintro.html) gives numerous instances of this name dated 1140-1489. Famous historical example: Matilda, Queen of England (1102-1167), daughter of Henry I.
de Seton: Black, The Surnames of Scotland, pg 719.  "Alexander de Seton witnessed a confirmation charter by Alexander II to the Abbey of Kinloss, 1225" (REM., p. 459).

8. Canton of Raven Hyrst. New branch name and device. Or, two gussets sable, overall a laurel wreath counterchanged, in chief a raven displayed sable.
(incipient Canton of the Barony of Caerthe) The group cares most about the sound of the name. No major changes accepted.
"Hyrst", meaning "a wooded hill" or "ornament, decoration, jewel" is found in Clark Hall's A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Second Edition (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_clarkhall_about.html, tiff 173), and the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary by Bosworth and Toller (1898) (http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/html/oe_bosworthtoller/b0584.html), pg. 584: "hyrst, es; m. A hurst, copse, wood. The word occurs most frequently in compounds, e.g. hnut-hyrst, æsc-hyrst, etc. , and is still found as hurst in names of places." Common period usage of the word can be found, for example in Beowulfhttp://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/library/oe/texts/a4.1.html. - see lines 672, 2255, 2762, 2988, and 3164. An example of Hyrst occurring as part of a placename in period is the Priory of Hyrst, which dates to the 12th Century (see "Dugdale's Monasticon v.6 pt. 1", in Monasticon Anglicanum: a Histo0y of the Abbies and other Monasteries, Hospitals, Frieries, and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, with their Dependencies, in England and Wales by Sir William Dugdale (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1817-1830, pg 100: http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/bibliographia/index.php?function=detail&id=8006). A History of the County of Lincoln (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=201), chapter 33, also discusses this Priory. Evidence that "hyrst" was used in period as a place name in combination with the name of a bird is found in the village known today as Crowhurst, which dates to the 8th century as Croghyrst (http://www.villagenet.co.uk/pevenseylevels/villages/crowhurst.php): "The village is first mentioned in 771 as Croghyrst, when King Offa of Mercia, gave the Bishop of Selsey 8 hides (a measurement of area) within the village. In return, the Bishop built a church for the population."

Petitions signed by all six officers of the Canton  in favor of the name and device are included.

9. Robert Magnus. New name.
(Hawks Hollow). Gender: Male. No major changes accepted.
Robert: Withycombe, 3rd ed.(1976), hardcover, pg 254, header Robert  - "Old English Hreodbeorht was reinforced at the time of the Norman Conquest from the cognate Old German Hrodebert, a compound of hrothi 'fame' and bertha 'bright'. It occurs frequently in the Domesday Book, and has been a favourite name ever since."
Magnus: Reaney & Wilson, 3rd ed. 1995, paperback pg 294, header Magnus - "Hugh Magnus c1114 Burton (St)"

10. Rosalind of Wellmark. Augmentation of Device resubmission. Argent, a bend sinister gules, in bend three roses counterchanged barbed and seeded proper, as an augmentation a canton sinister argent charged with a cross botonny gules within a bordure sable.
The device was registered in September 1992. A previously submitted augmentation, Argent, a bend sinister gules in bend three roses counterchanged barbed and seeded proper, as an augmentation a canton gules charged with a cross flory argent, was returned on the October 2001 LoR for a complete lack of contrast between the bend sinister and the canton sitting on it.

11. Sorcha inghean Eion. New name and device. Ermine, a water bouget azure within a bordure raguly vert.
(Citadel of the Southern Pass) Gender: Female. Submitter cares most about the language/culture of the name. Changes accepted.
Sorcha:  Academy of St. Gabriel report 1203 (http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi/1203.txt) states that this name was fairly common in medieval Ireland.
inghean:  "Quick and Easy Gaelic Bynames (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/quickgaelicbynames/) - "daughter of <father's name>"
Eion: Kross, Sharon L. "Scottish Gaelic Given Names - Men" (http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/gaelicgiven/men/eoin.shtml): "
The Islay Charter, a Scottish charter from the Lord of the Isles written in Gaelic and dated 6 May 1408, is witnessed by: Eoin <x> MacDomhnaill". The name cited is spelled "Eoin", rather then "Eion" as requested on the name form.

Thus ends the March 2007 Letter of Presentation. 

Your servant,

Francesca, Castle Herald


Line Emblazon Sheet
Color Emblazon Sheet
March 2007 Letter of Presentation
April 2007 Letter of Response
April 2007 Letter of Intent
August 2007 LoAR Results
Return to the Rampart home page.