just an enquiry

[garydevine]

Hi,

I was just wondering if there is any approved coat of arms for these families

DEVINE
ALLISON
SINCLAIR
SUTHERLAND

i have looked up another family and about 4 pictures of coat of arms come up so i was just wondering if you an find any that are the proper ones?

Gary.

[KGarrad]

Coats of Arms are granted to individuals, NOT to families!

The only "proper"one is the one to which you can prove descent from someone who was granted arms.

The arms I use as an avatar, were granted to a John Garrad in London, in the 1600's, whose line became extinct.
So I feel reasonably safe in using them here!

[davidbappleton]

I was just wondering if there is any approved coat of arms for these families

DEVINE
ALLISON
SINCLAIR
SUTHERLAND

i have looked up another family and about 4 pictures of coat of arms come up so i was just wondering if you an find any that are the proper ones?

Hi, Gary!

As KGarrad noted already, coats of arms in the UK are granted to an individual, and descend down through family lines, often with differences.

That said, there are a lot of different coats of arms for three of the four names you asked about.  All of the following information comes from Burke's General Armory, the "go to" place to look when you are first searching for a coat of arms.  (It is not, however, the place to stop.  Like any large general reference work, it has a lot of errors in it.)

There are no listings for Devine (or Divine).

There are four coats of arms listed for Allison, one from Cambridge and the other three without an associated placename.  Two of them have as the base coat Sable a fess engrailed between three talbots passant argent; the second has a bend sinister (no tincture given) overall.  The other two coats for Allison look nothing like these two.

There are some 23 different entries for Sinclair, beginning with the Duke, down the Earl, and so on.  Many of these coats are entirely different from each other, suggesting that no relationship exists between them.

Finally, there are five different entries for Sutherland: one for the Duke of Sutherland, one for the Earl of Sutherland, one for Lord Duffus, one for a cadet of Lord Duffus, and one from Forse, Caithness.  All of them are based, with variations, on the theme Gules, three mullets or.

So the short answer to your question about whether there are any "proper" arms for these surnames, the answer is mostly "Yes", but whether any of them would be considered to be "proper" for your specific family, no one can say without doing the genealogical research to determine which, if any.

I hope that this information is helpful to you.

David

[garydevine]

Thanks very much David.

I was wondering would you be able to post a picture of the Sutherland, Caithness one just to see what it looks like.

Gary.

[KGarrad]

Have a look at the Clan Sutherland website.
www.clansutherland.org/FrSymbols.htm

But beware of upsetting the clan by improper use!!

[davidbappleton]

I was wondering would you be able to post a picture of the Sutherland, Caithness one just to see what it looks like.

You bet!  The picture here is a very rough sketch of what the arms in Burke for Sutherland of Forse, Caithness would look like, based on the blazon of Gules three mullets within a bordure wavy or.  (Well, the blazon in Burke is more complex than necessary, being "Gu. three mullets or, within a bordure wavy of the last.")  Burke also gives the crest as A cat salient proper, and the motto as Sans peur.

David

[garydevine]

Thanks very much KGarrad for the site and thanks for the image David, much appreciated.

Gary