This is perhaps a bit of an odd topic, but does anyone have examples of coats of arms as used on headstones or grave markers?

If so:

Are these hatchments by default, or are full armorial bearings included?

Are they somehow rendered in full-color or hatched?

fyi: I’ve learned that there is a proper word for someone who studies headstones, grave markers, and other funerary monuments – a steleologist

Modern or old?

I’ve seen modern tombstones with what appear to be automated photo-engraving of full achievements—they look as cheesy as that sounds.

There are a number of 17th-18th century colonial American examples, most of which show full achievements.  I have some photos at home that I can upload and share.

I ask because my father (who assumed arms via the ACH in 1999) is in the process of designing his headstone, and asked me about the correctness of including of his arms thereupon.

Dear Steven,

Regarding armorial headstones - it is all a matter of choice.  One may choose to have the whole achievement or just the arms, crest and motto omitting the helm and mantling.  Generally such armorials are carved directly into the headstone and are left as ‘raw’ stone without the need to introduce hatching to denote tinctures/metals.  If on the other hand a monument is to be erected within the confines of a church or chapel the arms may be coloured.  Choice of stone is paramount as some stones are easily eroded by weather/frost damage over the years - sandstone is particularly prone to degradation in this way.

Not knowing how to download an image, if you send me a pm I will attempt to seek out a photograph of the headstone of the 1st Viscount Caldecote as an example which is situated in the village of that name a couple of miles from where I am sitting here in Hertfordshire.  This headstone is of fairly recent date and depicts from memory Lord Caldecote’s arms and coronet only.

With every good wish

John

steven harris;93241 wrote:

This is perhaps a bit of an odd topic, but does anyone have examples of coats of arms as used on headstones or grave markers?

If so:

Are these hatchments by default, or are full armorial bearings included?

Are they somehow rendered in full-color or hatched?

Based just on my research into the family genealogy in New England (though we only had one armiger that I’ve found so far), I’ve seen a number of headstones that used coats of arms.  They run the gamut from simply using the crest (issuing from a torse) to the shield of the coat of arms to the coat of arms with helm, torse, mantling and crest.

As noted earlier in this thread, the ones on outdoor headstones are uncolored; those inside churches tend to be painted in colors.

On the outdoor monuments that I’ve seen, some may be partially hatched, but most are not.

There are a couple of photographs of armorial memorials in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston on-line at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granary_Burying_Ground  The obelisk for John Hancock is obviously a comparatively recent addition.

Other heraldic headstones may be seen at:

http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2009/11/more-heraldry.html

http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2009/05/seashell-coat-of-arms.html

http://www.vastpublicindifference.com/2009/11/heraldry-in-concord.html

http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=18934

And from further south, and more modern times, from Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA:

http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/hollywood-cemetery-part-5.html

http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/hollywood-cemetery-part-4.html

http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/hollywood-cemetery-part-3.html

http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/hollywood-cemetery-part-2.html

http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2010/09/hollywood-cemetery-part-1.html

Steven,

Why don’t you drive down to Boston with him and see the real things in person at Copps Hill, Granary, or King’s Chapel burying grounds?  This is the tomb of Peter Faneuil at Granary:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeohzt4/heraldry/Faneuil-gravestone-sml.JPG

A few more:

Samuel Appleton, Ipswich, Mass.

http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1085&stc=1&d=1336007651

Edward Hill, Shirley Plantation, Va.

http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1086&stc=1&d=1336007651

Dorothy Blake Carroll, Kent Co, Md.

http://www.americanheraldry.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1087&stc=1&d=1336007651