I inadvertently came across the following interesting passage in The Papers of Henry Laurens, Vol. 9, p. 292:
"[My coat of arms] will appear on the outside of this Address, but differs from the original by having the Crest of two Arms holding a Garland, which I adopted, instead of a Lyon passant."
It sounds like Laurens had no compunctions about simply changing an aspect of his inherited arms he didn’t care for. I wonder how typical that was for colonial Americans. In any case, Laurens expands on the history—such as it is—of his coat of arms in documents elsewhere in this volume.
Thanks for this. Coincidentally, just yesterday I ran across actual evidence for what I had taken to be a heraldic legend, that one of the early New York Livingstons had changed his crest to a ship to commemorate his having survived a shipwreck on the Portuguese coast en route to the Netherlands.
Glad to be of service!
I had seen reference to Livingstone changing crests—nice to know it was true! (Wasn’t one of this family Governor of NY?)
Michael F. McCartney;86840 wrote:
I had seen reference to Livingstone changing crests—nice to know it was true! (Wasn’t one of this family Governor of NY?)
Lords of Livingston Manor, members of the Provincial Council, two members of the Continental Congress, one signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Chancellor of New York who swore in Washington as President, one of the negotiators of the Louisiana Purchase, several Congressmen, a governor of New Jersey, and lots of other things, but, alas, no Governor of New York.
With that track record, I doubt they’ll miss the odd governorship! (Hmmm ... Governor Ship? Nah…)
Joseph McMillan;86847 wrote:
Lords of Livingston Manor, members of the Provincial Council, two members of the Continental Congress, one signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Chancellor of New York who swore in Washington as President, one of the negotiators of the Louisiana Purchase, several Congressmen, a governor of New Jersey, and lots of other things, but, alas, no Governor of New York.
So your basic group of underachievers….