Mar 2004 - Kidney Coat of Arms

I was 11 when I wandered into the recesses of the library's reference section and pulled down a copy of Burke's Peerage for the first time. Living with a name like Kidney was always a challenge — from the persistent "Kidney Bean" nickname to the "now we've got kidney trouble" comment whenever I entered a room. Seeing that the Kidney family actually had a coat of arms helped make me feel like a somebody. That being a Kidney might be something of which to be proud.

"Kidney (London and Market Harborough, co. Leicester, granted 1765). Az. on a chev. or, betw. two lambs in chief and a ram in base ar. three lamb's kidneys gu. Crest - On a mount vert an eagle reguard. rising ppr. in the beak a kidney, as in the arms."

I returned to that copy of the Peerage so many times that I probably wore page 563 out. I learned about heraldry, learning that "gu" was short for gules and that meant red, that "ar" was argent - silver or white - and "az" was azure or blue. I started drawing the Kidney coat of arms on my notebooks enough that I got pretty good at a mount vert eagle.

Later in life, once I started researching genealogy, I discovered that the Peerage had really given a false consolation — John Kidney, my ancestor, had settled in America a century before the coat of arms was issued. I had the chance to discuss the coat of arms with a distinguished English gentleman who was an expert on heraldry. He read the description in the Peergae and chuckled. "This is probably a commercial coat of arms," he said. "Lots of shopkeepers got them to put on signs over their door. This one probably heralded a butcher shop!"

So, I have outgrown my affinity to the Kidney coat of arms. But it was an important part of my survival of Junior High School.

by Gary Kidney

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