Identify button please

[PrueM]

Also, it might be worth looking through trade directories to see if you can find "Green & Co" on Savile Row (assuming this is the Savile Row in London that we're talking about).

[Rabbit B]

Hi Prue,
 
I will have a hunt tomorrow, I love old buttons

Rabbit B 

[MKG]

I'm taking a guess. This is a man holding the cross in his left hand and a scourge in his right. We have, I think, someone who was prepared (or, at least, declared to the world that he was prepared) to take on all the forces of evil so long as he was girded by his faith. It purports to be the symbol of an old family - and that may well be the case. On the other hand, it could well be a button of someone who wished to give the impression that the family was, of old, a defender of the faith.

I look forward to a good identification.

Mike

EDIT: Would you believe it? I was staring at the figure so hard, I completely missed what was above his head. Add King to the above guess.

[mike175]

Maybe a bit more information about the context would throw more light: eg. was it found among someone's possessions? if so, where did they and their ancestors live?

Of course there is always the possibility that someone dug it up in the garden and thought it interesting enough to keep, as I have done from time to time 

[Roger in Sussex]

I don't know if this is a clue or a red herring, but the Business Directory of London 1884 on Historical Directories has:

Green, Edward & Son, tailor, 35 Savile Row

If this is associated with the button, and later became a company, it might help to date it. I am assuming they would get such items for their customers from a specialist maker, not manufacture them themselves??

Roger

[lustremounter]

About 20 years ago a work colleague found the button in a garden in Seaton Ross, East Yorkshire, and asked if I could find out what it was. It recently surfaced at the back of a drawer, so I am giving it another go.

The Manor of Seaton Ross was at one time held by the catholic Constable family of Everingham. Is that a scourge in the button?

Bob.

[lustremounter]

Thanks for the Edward Green & Son.
 There is now a Edward Green & Co Ltd in Burlington Arcade. No e-mail address, so I will try them by snail mail.
Bob.

[Roger in Sussex]

Bingo!

Yes, Bob, it is a scourge.

STOURTON, Baron, (Stourton a demigray-friar, ppr., habited in russet, girt or, in his dexter hand a scourge of three lashes, with knots, in his sinister a cross, both of the last. p1.47, n. 18. Loyal je serai durant ma vie.

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:wM7GT1LPJ24J:www.family-crests.info/pages4410.php+crest+scourge&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

Don't ask me why a demigray friar should be habited in russet

Roger

Just looked at the preview, they even provided a smiley!

[Rabbit B]

Hi Roger,

Could habited in Russet be the monks that wear that colour, I cannot think of the name at the moment but they are the male version of poor Clares I think!

Well done by the way, I haven't had a minute to spare today.  Sorry folks, I hate letting people down.

Rabbit B