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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
Maps by Family
Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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growth of the arms of
this family and it will add to his interest in the subject in determining,
if possible, the time when the insignia ceased to be the family name and
became the embellishment of the individuals of our family and the
indication of their rank. Recurring to the King's proclamation, it is
well to remember that our ancestor, Nicholas de Peshale,
fought at Agincourt.
To enforce the
observance of this law heralds, visitations, or processions through the
counties were instituted and continued from time to time till the reign
of William and Mary. These heralds were directed to visit the counties
and there find out who were bearing arms and by what right they claimed
such privilege. The earliest visitation to Staffordshire was in 1528, at
which time the Peshall arms were approved. In
1483 a Heralds College, or college of arms was founded by Richard III.,
the president of which is the Earl Marshall of England, an office
hereditary in the family of Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who nominates the
three kings of arms, six heralds, and four pursirvants
who are members of the collegiate chapter. It is now a crime for any one
within the United Kingdom of England to bear arms without a hereditary
claim by descent, or a grant by competent authority. This College or
Court has reduced the subject to the precision of a science. In addition
there have been libraries of books written upon the subject. There also
are quite a few men who devote themselves to the solution of the many
problems that are constantly arising, and who therefore may be said like
lawyers to practice in the Court of Heraldry.
It is stated
authoritatively that the Willsbridge pedigree
of Pearsall has been passed by the College of Heraldry.
This does not mean that every statement therein made is guaranteed to be
true, but that the arms are true as stated, and that the right by descent
is allowed.
In all the
visitations our ancestors were called upon to prove their right to have
armorial bearings, which has resulted in a number of manuscript
pedigrees, made and reported by the Master of Arms, which are on file either
in the British Museum or in the office of the College of Heraldry, and
these almost invariably contain drawings of the arms borne by the then
living members of the family. While there may be many differences in the
relationship of the intervening generations, as shown in these charts and
pedigrees when compared one with the other, these conflicting statements
have not resulted, and cannot result, to change but to greatly strengthen
the claim of descent from the original bearer of the arms.
Because a certain
physical object or a peculiar device is allowed as representing the arms
of a family, does not mean that any and every such object will answer the
purpose, as it must be represented as granted by the College of Arms.
In Burkes
General English Armory we find the arms of Pershall
or Peshall of Horsley, co. Stafford
to be:
Ar. a cross pattee, flory sa.;
on a canton gu. a
wolf's head erased of the field.
Crest. a wolf's head sa. holding in the mouth a marigold ppr.
Ar. means argeant
meaning silver,-which when it is not in color is expressed by the shield
being plain.
The arms of Peshall have been passed upon many times and
necessarily there is considerable variation, by way of modification,
growing out of claims by marriage, or of maternal descent of the
individual whose arms are then under con-
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