The ancient blazon of the Skeffington family is composed of three bull's heads, displayed here in two quarters of the arms of
Clotworthy Skeffington [1743-1805], 2nd Earl of Massereene.
The other quarters are occupied by the Clotworthy blazon. The dull motto
Per angusta ad augusta might be translated as "
Through hard times to prosperity". The supporter on each side is a Stag rampant. I've always been intrigued by the crest: a mermaid holding a mirror in one hand and a hair-comb in the other. This crest has appeared on the arms of Skeffington individuals ever since the Tudor lord
Sir William Skeffington [1460-1535]. Here's another example of the Skeffington mermaid, which dates from the 16th century:
This memorial for the linguist
Sir John Skeffington [1584-1651] of Fisherwick (Staffordshire) and his wife
Ursula [1593-1658] is located on the wall of the ancestral church in Skeffington (Leicestershire).
A few days ago, the
Gallica service (attached to the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France) offered us spontaneously a series of views of a fabulous little treatise on heraldic blazons that dates apparently from the period 1401 to 1450. Click
here to see this document.
Inside this French medieval document, I was surprised to find an illustration of the famous mermaid.
I immediately called upon Google and Wikipedia to discover the meaning of the mermaid in a heraldic context. The key concept symbolized by the narcissistic mermaid is
vanity, in the sense of the line from Ecclesiastes:
"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity." I evoked this theme in a blog post on 22 May 2012 entitled
Is the Bible good English literature? [
display]. If I understand correctly, placing the mermaid at the crest of a coat of arms is a way of stating that the owner of the arms is of a philosophical nature, inclined to look upon the human adventure in an existentialist spirit. Personally, as a descendant of the Skeffingtons, I like this symbol.
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