Dear Rowland, >> The arms of the Scottish Bruces and the Yorkshire Bruces are the same except for the colours. The Scottish ones are red on gold and the Yorkshire ones blue on silver.<< I am descended from Thomas 1/Bruce of Sudbury, Marlborough, and Southborough, Massachusetts, U.S.A., and your message caught my eye, as no-one has been able to determine Thomas' origins, and many have tried. There is great speculation that he was of English, rather than Scottish origin. I have a sample of the Bruce tartan material, and would love to claim it for my family! However, as things are, I cannot. If the arms of the two Bruce lines are nearly the same, I wonder if the tartan is exclusively the property of the Scottish line. Without confirmation of "my" Thomas' ancestry, of course, I still could not make a claim on the tartan or the arms for Thomas. Is there any way I could obtain a picture of these arms, perhaps on line? I have been given to understand that British coats-of-arms are given to an individual, and cannot be claimed by the descendants. Is this so? Or are they passed on down through the male line of descendants? Thank you for your posting. When I am able, I'll make another search of the LDS IGI to see if there were any "Thomas Bruces" from the Yorkshire area. There is a Cleveland, in the state of Ohio here, by the way! Claudia Cridland

I realise I am working backwards through a lot of mail: I have been out of town for the week. The tartans are Scottish, and related English houses/families do not have them, but some English people wear them, especially the dress tartans. (Not the Prince of Wales, with the Royal Stewart tartan on many occasions, especially when he is in Scotland.) Rowland ----- Original Message ----- From: William Cridland <104260.2766@compuserve.com> To: <BRUCE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 8:23 AM Subject: Re: The BRUCE'S of England > Dear Rowland, > > >> The arms of the > Scottish Bruces and the Yorkshire Bruces are the same except for the > colours. The Scottish ones are red on gold and the Yorkshire ones blue on > silver.<< > > I am descended from Thomas 1/Bruce of Sudbury, Marlborough, > and Southborough, Massachusetts, U.S.A., and your message > caught my eye, as no-one has been able to determine > Thomas' origins, and many have tried. There is > great speculation that he was of English, rather than > Scottish origin. I have a sample of the Bruce tartan > material, and would love to claim it for my family! However, > as things are, I cannot. If the arms of the two Bruce lines > are nearly the same, I wonder if the tartan is exclusively > the property of the Scottish line. Without confirmation > of "my" Thomas' ancestry, of course, I still could not > make a claim on the tartan or the arms for Thomas. > Is there any way I could obtain a picture of these arms, perhaps > on line? I have been given to understand that British > coats-of-arms are given to an individual, and cannot > be claimed by the descendants. Is this so? Or are they > passed on down through the male line of descendants? > > Thank you for your posting. When I am able, I'll make > another search of the LDS IGI to see if there were any > "Thomas Bruces" from the Yorkshire area. There is > a Cleveland, in the state of Ohio here, by the way! > > Claudia Cridland > > > ==== BRUCE Mailing List ==== > The Internet Mailing List for BRUCE researchers > > To unsubscribe send an e-mail to bruce-l-request@rootsweb.com > with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' as the only text in the message > > If you get the digest version send an e-mail to bruce-d-request@rootsweb.com > with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' as the only text in the message. > > > >