21st Century Cadency

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Since the "Bogus Heraldry" thread has wandered off into the realm of cadency, I thought it best to post a new thread on the subject. These remarks are intended to reflect the general practice, and not deal with specific, or individual, instances of the use of cadency.

1) The English practice: this is the system that uses stars, crescents, etc. to mark each generation. Generally this is regarded as rather unsatisfactory as it implies the piling of one cadency mark on top of another, ad infinitum.

2) The Scottish practice (Stodard's system of cadency): this places a bordure around the shield. This bordure varies in colour for each child in a specific family, as well as changing the partition line with each generation.

3) The Irish system: The first generation uses the standard cadency marks, while subsequent generations follow Stodart's system.

Broadly speaking the English take the least note of cadency and seem, upon casual observation, to make the greatest use of quartering to denote major familial differences.

The Scots have rigidly adhered to Stodart's system since Mr. Stodart, Lyon Clerk Depute, devised it in the late 19th century.

In Ireland, following the re-vivification of the Office of Arms in the late 1990s, the now Chief Herald of Ireland took the decision to introduce the system currently employed.

It should be remembered that specific cadency marks (including bordures) can only be imposed upon a coat of arms by a competent heraldic authority who, when devising such marks or differences, takes into consideration not only the desire of the client, but also the overall effect the cadency marks will have on the arms.

For a more detailed discussion of cadency read Gayre's Heraldic Cadency.

[sirdaniel1975]

Thank you & very nicely explained! Perhaps with all our efforts, some interesting and much needed education can be accomplished.

[Sketraw]

There are three types of cadency marks in Scotland. One, the label is always a temporary cadency mark to show the heir to the arms. Then there are the temporary cadency marks that show the 2nd, 3rd, 4th sons etc. These are only used when the younger sons remain within their fathers household (the crescent, mullet and martlet etc). These are lost when these sons leave the family home. This then brings us to the third and final type of cadency mark. When these younger sons leave home and form houses of their own they have the right to matriculate arms with a bordure. Perhaps the chart below will help more:



From Simply Heraldry, Moncrieffe & Pottenger