Coats of arms? - WOOD

[Roger in Sussex]

Stan - - - Am I correct in thinking that if a bearer of arms married the daughter of a bearer of arms, then their mutual coat of arms would be split, with the left hand half being the husband's and the right hand half her father's?  Also after the death of one of them, the deceased's half would have a black background?

Maggie

This is correct if you are describing them as seen by someone standing in front. However, one of the confusing things about heraldry is that when correctly described, what such an observer would call the left is known as the dexter (Latin for right) and the other side as sinister (Latin for left). This is because arms should always be described from the point of view of their owners holding the shield in front of them as if going into battle.

So the husband's are on the dexter and the wife's family's  on the sinister.

Roger 

[Maggie.]

Maggie,

To keep it simple.  Yes the arms would be split (marshalled) in the way you described.  However the black background is found on a hatchment, which was originally funeral heraldry found in churches.  The shapes and placement of the black backgrounds show the order in which the people died.

David

Hi David, also Roger,

Thanks for answering my question with apols for my delay in acknowledgement - for some reason I wasn't notified of the replies.  It's a very complex subject isn't it? - but a fascinating one.

maggie