Although it is mostly just for fun and personal enjoyment, these are my newly designed arms for the Manor of Skighaugh. They contain elements from the municipal arms of the county of Essex and the district of Tendring since Skighaugh was part of the Tendring Hundred. They also contain some elements from the arms of Sir Thomas Darcy who was the last person to receive Skighaugh by royal letters patent.
I have a good friend who has been active in the SCA in recent years and I often laugh at/with him for being a peasant even in his imaginary life. Now I’m planning on using these arms along with my own on some nice letters patent granting him the exaulted feudal rank of “Ditch Reeve” for the Manor of Skighaugh. No doubt his fellow SCA peasants will be impressed by an authentic feudal rank 
Chris, you must promise to post an image of the letters patent when they are finished. :D
This is just a digital draft of the proposed letters patent. I plan to print them on high quality paper and use real wax seals. I’ve already sent my new Ditch Reeve this preview of his grant and am awaiting his response. No doubt he will be most grateful
I borrowed the basic format from some documents I’ve seen online done by the Lord of the Manor of Bowland.
Dear Chris,
Ordinarily (and historically) manors would not be granted arms in England and Wales. But what you could do would be to devise a badge that would reflect the manor that you are now hold. As an example, whilst working at the College of Arms many years ago, there was a grantee whose case I was given who held two manors, one in Yorkshire and the other in Lancashire. In order to design these two badges, I took elements from the arms of notable families that had once held these manors. Both badges had a chaplet of roses, one of white roses (for Yorkshire) and one of red roses (for Lancashire) and placed the chosen elements within each of the chaplets. You, therefore, have plenty of scope to devise a badge for your manor of Skighaugh using the cinquefoil of the d’Arcys and the seaxes of the county of Essex. Such a badge would be more in keeping with medieval usage and practice when reflecting ownership of manorial lordships and estates.
With every good wish
John
Thanks for the clarification. I did like how the arms turned out, but based on your expertise in this area you are no doubt correct that a badge would be more appropriate. I’ll have to do some research on badge design, but can already begin to see how seaxes and a cinquefoil could look quite nice.
It seems that my friend is either quite happy with his humble persona, or simply decided to ignore some of my initial sarcasm. In any event he asked for a new version that also showed his own arms. Thus I have attached the final version of my feudal letters patent. I’m actually quite happy with how they turned out.
Draft of a possible heraldic badge for the manor of Skighaugh.
It has the mostly azure and argent color scheme of both Darcy and Tendring arms. It has the Darcy cinquefoil, the Tendring chevron, and the seaxes from both Tendring and Essex. Lastly an acanthus leaf coronet which according to the MSOGB is supposed to be traditional for manorial lordships.
cachambers007;94281 wrote:
Draft of a possible heraldic badge for the manor of Skighaugh.
I’m not much of a badge expert, but this looks quite nice.
cachambers007;94281 wrote:
Lastly an acanthus leaf coronet which according to the MSOGB is supposed to be traditional for manorial lordships.
Where on earth did they get that idea from?
I think I’d just put two crossed scimitars below a cinqefoil ala Jolly Roger and call it a day.
Personally, I would go for the charged cinquefoil, only.
Everything else just makes the badge more indecipherable at a distance.
Regards,
Iain Boyd