The Heraldry Society of Scotland held its annual outing today to Aberdeen. Part of the itinerary included St Andrew’s Cathedral (Scottish Episcopal Church).
The Seabury Memorial Aisle in that cathedral commemorates the consecration of Samuel Seabury as the 1st Episcopal Bishop in the United States by Robert Kilgour, Bishop of Aberdeen, Arthur Petrie, Bishop of Moray, Ross & Caithness and John Skinner, Bishop Coadjutor of Aberdeen on 14th November 1784. Initially the plan had been to build a whole new "Seabury Memorial Cathedral" in Aberdeen to co-incide with the 150th Anniversary of his consecration, but the Wall St Crash and Great Depression put paid to that. Instead what funds survived were used to renovate St Andrews to designs by Sir Ninian Comper (who was the planned architect of the new cathedral).
The north aisle includes these emblems (not all coats of arms) of the 48 states of the time. I must apologise to the citizens of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania for the poor quality of the photos for those states.
It also has laid up in it the colours of various US units (I assume with Scottish connections).
The cathedral is currently raising funds for restoration works with approximately £1 million needed. In case anyone feels really generous.
I’ve uploaded the photos to my FB page and linked to there. If anyone can’t see them, please shout.
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What a wonderful find! I’m curious who devised the arms that aren’t actually the arms of the states concerned; many of them are designs the states would be well advised to adopt.
Joseph McMillan;98686 wrote:
What a wonderful find! I’m curious who devised the arms that aren’t actually the arms of the states concerned; many of them are designs the states would be well advised to adopt.
Agreed.
The Nebraska arms I really enjoyed as a former Nebraska citizen, but I have no idea where they got them.
Texas is not quite accurate, but close enough.
What a great find!
EDIT: The Nebraska arms seem to be a heraldic interpretation of the seal. Assuming that to be the source for a lot of them.
Wondering the same thing. I can’t make out Utah, but Colorado and Wyoming are considerably nicer than those states actually use.
Utah I would blazon (badly) as
Argent a bee-hive Or between four flax plants (two and two) Proper poudrée over all 12 bees also Proper
The flax (I haven’t found any Sego Lilies with blue flowers) is probably an error but the rest seems to be based on the seal minus the words and date. The arrows are "obviously" assumed to be part of the "crest" probably held in the talons of the eagle. Well that’s how I’d tidy it up anyway :D
James
On doing some further research as to who was behind the heraldry, I note that the "foundation stone" for the work (I didn’t notice it yesterday) was laid by Ambassador Joseph P. Jennedy Sr., so that makes everything after 1938. That means Sir Francis Grant was Lyon and for the later work probably Sir Thomas Innes of Learney. I have no idea just how much was done in wartime, though that wouldn’t have really affected design and planning.
I don’t know whether there was any such heraldic proposal for the Memorial Cathedral. It was supposed to start in 1930 but the Wall St crash occurred whilst the various representatives from Aberdeen were in mid-Atlantic on their way to the first fund raiser in the USA. Rather unfortunate timing. If it is a version of an earlier scheme then it could possibly date from the short reign of Lord Lyon Swinton, or even the end of Balfour Paul’s time (1890-1926).
The Seabury Aisle is the north aisle of St Andrew’s and it is matched in the south by an incomplete (funds again) scheme of the arms of the Episcopalian/Jacobite lairds of the north east. As currently set out this exactly matches the American scheme in number (48 lairds) but the extension of the scheme into the Suther Chapel (arms of the Episcopalian/Jacobite greater nobles) never took place.
Though the choice of lairds is reasonably unexceptional in terms of them being Episcopalians, some strike me as rather minor in terms of their Jacobite involvement at least. The mid-20th century descendants of these tend to have Innes of Learney connections, so I rather detect his hand in the south. However, that might be seeing something that is not there. For example the Duffs of Hatton were exceedingly minor Jacobites and I was surprised to see their arms on the ceiling. Sir Gardie (Sir Garden Beauchamp Duff of Hatton Bt, 1879-1952) would have known Learney which might have influenced the selection, but so to would his cousin Garden Lanoe Duff (1858-1938 ), Rector of St Congan’s, Turriff (1888-1923) and Canon of the Cathedral.
Additional 10 hours on: Done some more digging. Whilst Kennedy may have been at a ceremony that was called "laying the foundation stone" it actually marked the end of the work. The ceiling was decorated between 1935 and 1938 so all the speculation about a later date above is wrong.
James
Justin Swanstrom;98689 wrote:
Wondering the same thing. I can’t make out Utah, but Colorado and Wyoming are considerably nicer than those states actually use.
How so for Colorado?
