Copley - what type of cross

[johnxyz]

The arms of the Copley family are generally described as a cross Moline. However Somerset Herald in 1630 refers to it as a cross Sarceley.  The image below is taken fromthis document. And I have seen it described as a cross Patonce.

Can anyone explain the differences (if any) between these types of cross or point to a good reference source?



 

[KGarrad]

Try wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross

Your picture shows a cross cercélee - a curly cross moline(!)

Similar crosses are cross moline, cross ancré, cross patonce.

A Cross moline is so called because it is shaped like a millrind, the iron clamp on an upper millstone (fer de moline in French).

A Cross ancré is pretty much the same thing.

A cross patonce has its arms trifurcated (split into 3) into leaf shapes.


By the way, the arms are NOT those of the Copley family!
Arms are awarded to an individual person, and may be passed down to his descendants.
Having the same surname grants you no rights to arms whatsoever. 

[behindthefrogs]

The cross that you have illustrated is a "cross recercely" not a "cross patonce"
The latter would have three pointed spikes at the end of each arm with an angle of about 30 degrees between each.

Unfortunately there are between three and five hundred different heraldic crosses depending on which source you consult.  Any good book or internet site on heraldry will illustrate a couple of dozen of these and in doing so provide sufficient information for you to be able to interpret about a hundred.  This should be sufficient to cover most heraldic devices.

David

[behindthefrogs]

The difference between a cross cercely and a cross recercely is that in the latter the "petals" curl back while in the former they don't.  The cercely is mid way between moline and the recercely

David

[behindthefrogs]

Sir Joseph Copley the third baronet of Spotborough in Yorkshire seems to have used a red cross moline on a gold field as his shield.  As he inherited the title from his brother, this could well be different from his brother's shield.
I can't find any other Copleys using a cross but most reference books seem to only describe their crests.

[johnxyz]

Thanks for the information so far. I hadn't made the step from Sarceley to cercelee

Most of the Victorian publications of the Heraldic visitations of Yorkshire refer to it as argent a cross moline sable. So does Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis (1715). However I've not checked whether anything is drawn or described in the manuscript sources, so the naming may be later. These visitations cover the family from Sir Richard died 1434 down to the Batley, Doncaster and Sprotborough families in the 1665/5 visitation.

The elder Joseph Copley of Sprotborough was originally Joseph Moyle and assumed the name on inheriting Sprotbough. He was created a Baronet in 1778, according to Burke's Extinct Peerage. There the arms are "arg. a cross moline gu."

The earliest drawing I know of is the 1630 mentioned above. The next steps are to go back to the Harleian manuscripts, and  probably to look in Sprotborough and Batley churches, though how accurate the wood carvers were is probably open to doubt.

[behindthefrogs]

You are correct about the field being argent (silver), I had a senior moment and translated it as gold.  The minor difference of a change of colour like that of the cross can usually be associated with a coat of arms being granted to a younger son or another close relative who is not the direct heir.