Coat of Arms

In 1985 Mrs P. Prisk of Cornwall wrote to the College of Arms to enquire about the existence of a coat of arms for the surname Prisk. Below is an edited copy of the letter she received in reply:

26th November 1985 Dear Mrs Prisk, Thank you for your letter of the 14th of November and cheque for £35. A search has been made in the College's official records & I write to report the result. I must say at once that this is very disappointing as no arms are registered here for any family named Prisk or a variant spelling thereof. Families sometimes used arms to which they were not entitled and these are mentioned in unofficial printed sources such as Burke's General Armory, an alphabet of arms which was first used in 1842. This contains an entry of Prisk and the earliest printed source which I have found mentioning arms for a family of the name is Thomas Robson's British Herald, published at Sunderland in 1830. This has an entry which read "Prisk (Helston, Cornwall), Or on a bend Sable three horseshoes Argent." Only the coat of arms and no crest is metioned. This means that the shield was gold with a black diagonal line or bend running from the top left to the bottom right of the shield and on this black diagonal there are three white or silver horse-shoes (white and silver are interchangeable in English heraldry). The search was therefore extended to check whether this coat of arms was registered for any other family and the first instance I have found of it is on a medieval roll of arms known as the Powell Roll of about 1350 where it appears as shield number 324 attributed to Sir William de Feres of Cornwall. The original roll is in the Bodleian Library where the reference is Ashmole 804.IV. This is presumably Sir William de Ferrers noted in the Reverend C. Moor's Knights of Edward I, volume 2, published by the Harleian Society in 1929. He was Knight of the Shire for Cornwall in 1315 and Lord of Bere Ferris and Sampford Spiney, Devon. He was summoned as a Knight of Devon and Cornwall for the Great Council at Westminister in 1324. He was a native of the part of the country from which the Prisk family originates and though I think it improbable that the family adopted the arms of their feudal overlords, as occasionally occurred though usually by variation of arms in medieval times, it is possible that the family adopted the arms as a medieval coat associated with the area. Until 1416 when Henry V issued a proclomation a right to bear arms can only be acquired by proving descent in an unbroken male line from someone using arms before 1416 or by a grant from the Kings of Arms who were the senior Officers of Arms. Rights to use arms in existence since 1416 were confirmed by the Heralds at the Visitations of the counties which were made approximately every thirty years between 1538 and 1689. Under this system, known as the Heralds' Visitations, the Heralds recorded the arms and pedigrees of families of gentry resident in each county. The official copies of the books are preserved in the College and form part of the official records. In the case of Cornwall there were Visitations in 1531, 1573, and 1620. In none of these was a right to arms recorded for any family named Prisk. Since the end of the Herald's Visitation system in 1689 it has been for families to come to the College of Arms to either record pedigrees or bring a right to arms up to date. Approximately 20,000 pedigrees have been recorded though none have been for families named Prisk. Since 1673 the complete text now numbering grant of arms has been kept in a consecutive series of volumes now numbering 148 and each containing between 100 and 200 grants. None have been made to anyone named Prisk. Before 1673 grants are recorded in the notebooks of the Kings of Arms and Heralds and these record approximately a further 9,000 grants. Again, none are to anyone named Prisk. Between approximately 1550 and 1690 the Heralds organised funerals and the records of the heraldic funerals are preserved there. Again no funeral was conducted for anyone named Prisk. You referred in your letter to a Knight being named Prisk. I have found no mention of any Knight of the surname or an obvious variant in either William A. Shaw's The Knight's of England, published in two volumes in 1906 which is the standard printed reference book, nor in Moor's Knights of Edward I referred to above. The Genealogists Guide of Marshall, Whitmore and Barrow Gentleman's Magazine which published births, marriages and deaths on a monthly basis from 1731 there is only one entry up to 1850 which is the notice of the death of Thomas Prisk Esquire of Bristol on the 9th of February 1839 in his 69th year. Yours sincerely, Thomas Woodcock. Somerset Herald

Dear Royce Prisk In 1976, we visited Cornwall twice and I spent some money and time personally trying to research the family history. At the time, I hired two firms to find out the origins of the family crest and the family name; the two firms, independently provided the shield pictured to the left. There was one difference in that one of the firms elaborated the helmet with some device that a third and independent firm confirmed there was no record of ever having been awarded. In one of the books I was shown, the Prisk crest was part of a multiple family crest showing eleven or twelve different crests. I have lamented not securing a copy of the picture and have not returned to Truro since to try to recover it. At any rate, in the formation of the multiple shields, the above crest without adornments is shown on the lower left of the final row. I'm not a student of heraldry, nor did I use the most sophisticated research methods, so what I am about to say may have zero importance. In 1976, after I had been shown the Priske Crest as part of a composite shield (in Camborne) I asked for drawings of the Prisk crest, but I didn't particularly like the quality of the drawing for aesthetic reasons (cheap paper, etc.). I purchased another from a second company and there was a difference. The difference being that the second one had three feathers above the top knot. I decided to dig deeper and had three other different companies to find and make crests of the Prisk/Priske Crests. The results were that the additional three made independently of each other, did not have the feathers. When I asked for an explanation, I was told that there was no evidence whatsoever that the Prisk (or any variation of the name) was awarded any symbol above the topnot for service to the king. All three assumed service to the prince, and thus the top knot. (Gold/Black Bar/Three Horseshoes/faithful service.) With regard to the letter from the College of Arms to Mrs P. Prisk [above] I find it very interesting and compelling research that indicates the name was not in any of the registeries cited. I wonder, since the Cornish spelling of the name was Pryske (n), if that name search might turn up anything different? Court Prisk

 

The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales by John B. Burke printed in 1884 has a listing for Priske. This book is often touted as authorative by sellers (such as Amazon) but is often considered to be dubious by many genealogists. However, it is interesting to note that Burke identifies which Priske family laid claim to the arms.

Priske (Helston, co. Cornwall; the co-heirs m. Trewren, Penrose, and Penneck). Or, on a bend sa.three horse-shoes ar.

"Ferrer" is Norman French and means "to bind with iron" or " to shoe a horse". Ferrières in Normandy, the hometown of the de Ferrers family, was an important centre for ironwork. The Ferrers coat of arms shows six black horseshoes on a silver background. They were descended from Henry de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Ferrières, Lord of Longueville, Normandy, and a Domesday Commissioner; he built Tutbury Castle and Duffield Castle and had large holdings in Derbyshire as well as 17 other counties. (Source) The Ferrers who came to England from Ferrières south of Mortain in Normandy first appear in Devon and Cornwall at the time of Henry II. [...] The Arms used by some Farrars over the years may point to relationships between the families. Descendants from St Hilaire originally used a shield of either gold or silver on which horseshoes were placed. Later, a variety of different symbols were used, either to distinguish a separate branch, or perhaps to signify an office they held. It was not unusual for a person to have two Coats of Arms, one to signify family, the other position. Initially those who settled in Devon used a gold shield with a black bend decorated with three horseshoes. Various versions of these Arms were used by Farrars in London, Little Gidding, Yorkshire and Westmorland. However, we should bear in mind that Heraldry was often abused and is not reliable when attempting to connect family branches. (Source) The arms of Sir John Ferrers. (Source)

Last updated 3 January 2005