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Hodgson
Arms & Crests
The
heraldic law is that to establish a right to any existing Arms it is
necessary to prove a male-line descent from either an original Grantee
or from one of his descendants already entered on a Registered Pedigree
in the College of Arms records whose right to them is recognised. There
are plenty of Hodgsons with no right to Arms because they do not descend
from any Grantee. There are many Hodgson families today who want to
believe Arms as part of their family tree heritage but these were wrongly
taken from some book or "found for a fee" by a contemporary "arms and
crest" dealer.
Variants for Hodgson
Coats of Arms and Crests fall mainly into two basic patterns, one with
three martlets and the other on three cutlasses. Taking the image described
below, it comes from a Grant in 1575 to "Rychard Hodgson, Alderman of
Newcastle upon Tyne": (Heirs for the martlets crest ceased when Richard's
son Sir Richard Hodgson, the last of this line, died
in 1806.)
ARMS: Per chevron
embattled or and azure three martlets counterchanged.
CREST: A martlet
'azure wings' or holding in the beak a spray of some unidentifiable
plant vert. (It could be an olive branch.)
In the Heralds'
Visitation of Co. Durham made in 1615, the Coat and Crest as in the
Grant above are shown, together with a Pedigree of five generations,
starting as "Hodshon" and ending as "Hodgshon", which includes Richard
the Alderman of Newcastle. This line perished on Richard's death in
1799 thus the familiar Hodgson crest with the three martlets cannot
have any legal takers since or ever.
In the Visitation
of Co. York in 1612, there are three generations, showing "George Hodsohe"
of Stillington, who had Christopher, of Newhall in Beeston, living 1612
with two sons. They were allowed the same Coat as above, but the Crest
is shown as: On a rock proper a martlet or. (The rock is labelled as
such, to show it is not a mount vert.) We have no note eztant as to
how some of these changes in Crest were authorised.
In the 1634 Visitation
of London is a Pedigree of four generations, showing John Hodson of
Newsham, Co. York (Temple Newsham, close to Leeds), who had three grandsons,
(1) Eliezer, of London, Dr. of Physick, living 1634 with sons Edward,
Toby, Timothy, William, and Arthur; (2) Phiniez, Dr. of Divinity, and
"Chancellor of the Church at York"; and (3) Daniell, a Merchant of London,
living 1634 with sons Edward, Daniell, William, Eliezer John, and Lawrence.
(It looks likely there would be descendants of this family.)
They were allowed
the Arms and Crest as in the 1612 Visitation of Co. York, with the cadency
mark of a second son or a second son's line (two small crescents superimposed
on one another).
In the 1634 Visitation
of Co. Lincoln there are four generations, showing Thomas Hodgson of
Dent, Co. York, who had Thomas, Citizen of London, who had two sons,
Rev. Richard, B. B. (and his two sons), and James, of Gray's Inn, London.
They were allowed the old Coat, but no Crest at all is shown.
Coming to the post-Visitation
period, there is a grant of Arms on 5th June 1730, to "William Hodgson
of the Six Clerks Office, Co. Middlesex". (This is part of the Chancery
Office in London.) He was second son of Peter Hodgson late of Bascodyke,
Co. Cumberland, gent., and there is a along preamble in which William
stated that he remembered seeing in his father's house, hanging on the
wall a painting of Arms and Crests, which was there at least forty years
ago, and for many years after, which he described exactly, as the old
Arms, with the Crest of a dove azure winged and beaked or holding in
the beak an olive branch proper. William continued that his father had
always told him that this Coat and Crest "was delivered to him by a
Herald of Arms at the Visitation of Co. Cumberland in the reign of King
Charles II upon his paying the fees for the same", but as no entry could
be found of this in the Records, William asked for some authorization
or confirmation. Anyhow William was granted the original Arms with the
sole difference of "per chevron engrailed" instead of embattled. The
Crest was granted as definitely a dove azure, winged or, holding an
olive branch, but not on a mount or rock. (This "azure winged or" looks
as though it originated from the martlet of Newcastle in 1575.)
William entered
a registered Pedigree back to his great-grandfather, Bascodyke being
the hereditary home (in the parish of Ainstable), his own children,
and some collateral details. There is also a very extensive modern Pedigree
of the Bascodyke family, but through a different member of it than William,
down to 1903; and some minor entries of other Hodgsons.
The other Coat
(Gules three scimiters barwise, two pointing to the left and the middle
one to the right) is as old, if not older, then the Coat in the description
at the beginning. It appears in the 1530 Visitation of Co. York simply
for Hodgson (no Pedigree), and occurs in later Visitations.
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