Arms of Stanier Families

Stanier of Peplow Hall

Or, on a pile azure, ten escallops, four three two and one, of the field
CREST: In front of a griffin's head erased proper, three escallops or
MOTTO: Pietate fortior (Stronger by Piety)

Stanier (Lord Mayor of London, 1714)

Azure, a chevron or between three horsebits argent.

Stonehewer

Vert, ten escallops argent, four three two and one.
CREST: out of a ducal coronet or, an eagle's head erased proper, charged at the neck with an escallop argent.

Sir William Arthur Stanier

Iconography

Escallops rank as one of the most widely used heraldic charges in all countries. They figured in early days outside the limits of heraldry as the badge of pilgrims going to the Holy Land, and may be seen of the shields of many families at the period of the Crusades. Many other families have adopted them, in the hope of a similar interpretation being applied to the appearance of them in their own arms.

The shell is associated with St Augustine, and with pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Spain (pilgrims at one time used such shells to scoop up water from streams along the way).

The ordinary crest coronet, or, as it is usually termed in British heraldry, the ducal coronet, (Ulster, however, describes it officially as “a ducal crest coronet”), is quite a separate matter from a duke's coronet of rank. Whilst the coronet of a duke has upon the rim five strawberry leaves visible when depicted, a ducal coronet has only three. The “ducal coronet” is the conventional “regularised” development of the crest coronets employed in early times.

Last modified by Alan Stanier on 25 April 2005