Hi all,
I'm a descendant of Dr Samuel Bave/Bauf who came to England from Cologne, Germany in the first half of the 17th century. One source from 1676 written by Thomas Guiddott, who knew Samuel personally, says that Samuel was "of a good family, as appears by a good Coat of Arms". Whilst I have the exact description of the shield that one of his sons (also Samuel) used - and I also know the family shield from the continent, on account of the description matching the latter Samuel's shield, minus the personal additions - I have no sources that describe the arms in its entirety. I take this to mean that either they only possessed the shield, or that I've just been unfortunate with my sources.
This is obviously proving particularly tricky owing to the Bave family coming originally from Lille (then Rijsel, and part of Flanders), with certain members migrating to Amsterdam and then, in some cases, on to Cologne. I imagine purely English arms would be easier to trace!
If anybody might know anything about the family's arms (and whether they did indeed only possess the shield), or even some advice on where to look for information on continental arms, I would be very grateful! I'm going to get in touch with the College of Arms to see if they can shed any light on anything, but I thought it could be useful to ask here too.
Apologies for the long-windedness!
Rachel