Hi Jenna and All,
Jenna may I be the first to welcome you as a new Lister, to Catley -
Rootsweb. You and self have communicated privately on a number of occasions
but it is good to have you on board with us all now.
For those who do not know, and I am sure Jenna will not mind me indicating
as such, she represents what is a "new Catley Tree" to us all ie The
Birmingham Catleys which presently start with the brothers Joseph, James,
Thomas and John Catley from the Aston area who all married in the late
1700's..
This sudden arrival on the scene of what is an eight generation tree
comprising over 100 names is due to Liz's excellent research work which was
backed up by Kay.H. Neither of these two grafters are going to blow their
trumpets on the amount of work that has gone into researching and
formulating this tree so I am doing it for them!
Thanks for the website address concerning the Cattley Crest Jenna, there was
some discussion about the crest and its origins + usage on this list a
couple or three years ago now so perhaps your bringing the subject up again
is timely.
I would like to offer the following comments:-
You are quite right in assessing the crest as "unofficial" as I can confirm
from written communication with Thomas Woodcock, Somerset Herald at the
College of Arms, Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4BT.
An official grant of an heraldic crest can only be awarded by the senior
Heralds or Kings of Arms within the College of Arms which was formed by King
Richard 111 in 1484.
Since 1673 the College has the complete text of every Grant of Arms and
before that, it relies on the notebooks of the Kings of Arms and Heralds
which record over 10,000 Grants of Arms and sad to say that the Cattley one
is not listed.
There is however, one official grant which may have a remote relevance to
the subsequent assumption of cats on a chevron:- this is an undated
pre-reformation note of Arms of a Prior of Catley (presumably the Gilbertine
monastery of Catley in Lincolnshire) by the name of Gybbs who's Arms were:
ARGENT ON A CHEVRON SABLE BETWEEN THREE SPRIGS OF FOLIAGE VERT FRUCTED GULES
TWO CATS GUARDANT ARGENT ON A CHIEF AZURE GUTTY D'OR A CROSS FORMY OR.
(College of Arms: EDN 56/65)
In the opinion of Woodcock, the Cattley Crest (two demi cats guardant
supporting an anchor) appears to be a typical late 18th or early 19th
century invention by the Cattley family itself which is clearly unofficial.
However this crest does appear in unofficial printed sources such as
Fairbairn's Book of Crests (1905)
My tree has used the crest since at least the mid 1800's in a modified form,
dispensing with the chevron and incorporating a coronet with the anchor +
cats.
There are three different motto's:-
1. J'Espere
2.Caute non Astute
3.Petimus Altiora
I have seen all three of these used by bygone member branches of my tree,
although in the case of my own sub branch it was 3. which was used.
A couple of years ago I had communication with an Alexis Cattley in
Australia who is a member of the Joseph Catley of Walkeringham 1803 Tree and
he told me that his ancestors had used (again unofficially) a Cattley Crest
of a different design which comprised three scallop shells on a chevron with
a mailed fist holding a scroll.This clearly has no connection with cats and
anchors, puns or otherwise, however, interestingly the motto in his case
being the familiar J'Espere.
Regards
Tim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jenna Catley" <j.g.catley(a)ilpj.keele.ac.uk
To: <catley(a)rootsweb.com
Sent:
Sunday, October 14, 2007 6:10 PM
Subject: [CATLEY] Cattley family coat of arms
Came across an interesting website today
www.fleurdelis.com which
offers
an
alternative explanation of the unofficial coat of arms.
It is probable that cats are used as a pun on Cattley, however the cat is
used on shields to symbolise liberty, vigilance, forecast and courage.
The anchor as well as possibly symbolising a link to the sea or shipping,
can mean hope or religious steadfastness
As to the motto, if it is T'Espere, then this is Spanish, and would mean
something along the lines of 'Waiting for you'
The phrase may be linked more narrowly to Valencian which would be an
interesting thought to follow up.
If the T is actually a J then the motto would read J'Espere which is
French
for 'I hope'
Hope could therefore be a key theme to the coat of arms.
--
Jenna Catley
Research Student
Institute for Law, Politics and Justice
Keele University
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG
01782 638881
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