For all my CHASE cousins, here is a disertation on the Display of Arms for family lines. I hope it will clear up some misconceptions. Everyone is not entitled to display the Coat of Arms. The Marjoribanks/Marchbanks family has been granted permission to wear a badge. These were made up in pewter and are quite handsome. Bob Marjoribanks is the Secretary of the Marjoribanks Family. This also includes the names Marchbanks, Marchbank, Banks, Marshbank. Hope it helps. Subj: Display of arms Date: 98-07-04 15:50:26 EDT From: mjbnks@sympatico.ca (Robert Marjoribanks) To: MARJORIBANKS-L@rootsweb.com Purrs: In reply to your message about the discussion among the Chases about the right to display a coat of arms: Alastair Campbell of Airds, Unicorn Pursuivant of Arms, wrote in an article published in The Highlander, January/February, 1992: "The Scottish system of heraldry is well controlled and is reckoned to be the purest in the world. It is founded on the principle that arms belong to one person at a time only: it cannot be repeated too often that in Scottish heraldry there is no such thing as a clan or family coat of arms." Many people display over their fireplace a coat of arms that belongs, or at one time did belong, to somone of their same name. They are not going to be sent to jail for this offence but it is generally considered by knowledgeable people to be in bad taste. As Mr. Campbell points out. a coat of arms is personal property. In the same periodical, in 1988, Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, the Rothesay Herald of Arms, explained the origin of the clan or family badge. In the olden days a chief would identify his followers by giving them a replica of his crest which they attached to their arms with a belt. (The crest is not the coat of arms but the topmost part of a coat of arms and is often a bird or animal or plant. In the case of Marjoribanks of that Ilk, it is the upper half of a griffin, emerging from a coronet.) Since the 19th century the badge has been shown as the crest, surrounded by a belt on which the motto is displayed. Sir Crispin writes: "All clansmen have the implied authority of their chief to wear the badge, but the chief may withdraw permission for it to be worn. . . . Men may wear the badge in their bonnet or by convention on their sporran . . . Ladies may wear the badge as a brooch to indicate their allegiance to the clan." Sir Crispin says it is improper to use the badge in any other way, for instance as a signet ring, on writing paper, cutlery or glasses etc., but this rule is so widely ignored that it now has little effect. In short, a coat of arms is the personal property of an individual, chief or otherwise, who is recoignized by the College of Heralds. The clan or family badge may be worn by any member of the clan or family as a sign of loyalty to the chief. Priscilla Chase Marchbanks (Purr)