The Brownhill Family Coat of Arms

There exists today a number of firms offering to provide, for a fee, families' coats of arms and histories. Can they be taken seriously? The simple answer is NO. Most of these firms have no more than twenty years research behind them and yet they claim to have researched hundreds of families. To my credit I have fifty years research into the Brownhill families and I freely admit that there is a lot that I do not know. Yet my knowledge of the Brownhill Family history is immense compared to theirs. So how can they provide a reliable history?

I have examined the Brownhill Coats of Arms that I have seen on offer by these firms and,  with two exceptions, I have not come across them in my searches, either in official records or otherwise. My requests to these firms to provide me with source references have been ignored. Without such references I do not take their claims seriously. As far as the potted histories are concerned they are not supported by the information that I have in my possession and belong in the world of make-believe. My advice to anyone seeking their family history is to ignore these people. They will give you a pretty picture and a fairy story, nothing more. People interested in their ancestry should first check the registers of organisations like the Guild of One-Name Studies, to which I belong. If your name is registered with the Guild you will be able to contact a person who has already done considerable research and will be in a position to give you sound information. Members of the Guild operate to high standards of scholarship. As far as arms are concerned a check should be made with the College of Arms, but a fee will be payable.

So the question arises: does there exist an ancient Brownhill Family Coat of Arms? The simple answer is that so far one has not been found. Whilst I cannot state categorically that one never will be it is, in my opinion, very unlikely. So what is the truth concerning The Brownhill Family Coats of Arms?

First let us understand what a coat of arms is. When the Norman Kings ruled Britain there existed a body of fighting men called knights. Above the knights were lords. When these men went into battle they wore protective armour. Unfortunately this armour concealed their features so it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe. To get round this problem the knights and lords wore a coat over their armour - hence coat of arms simply means coat over armour. To start with the coats were of different colours. Then symbols were added to the coats, a bird , a wolf, a dragon, a castle and so on. Finally the designs were painted on their shields and these shields became the symbols of the men and their families.

Not everyone was entitled to a coat of arms.The right to bear arms was regulated by the crown and strict rules applied. However, by the time of Henry VIII many families were using arms though not entitled to do so. In 1530 Henry established the Heralds Visitations and these visitations were carried out at intervals of a generation until the 1680's. Authorized arms with their owners' pedigrees were entered in the Visitation books, while usurpers of arms were forced to disclaim all pretence to them and to the title of gentleman.The Visitation books are preserved at the College of Arms. If a Coat of Arms does not appear in these books it does not legally exist as an English Coat of Arms. When I checked with the College many years ago they were unable to find a Brownhill or Brownell Coat of Arms prior to 1918. So, I am sorry to say, that there does not appear to be an ancient, that is pre-dating AD1400, English Brownhill family Coat of Arms.

As time passed some men of apparent low birth became wealthy and fancied themselves as gentlemen. Many of them sought social recognition among the upper gentry and applied to the College of Arms for a Grant of Arms. The heralds examined their backgrounds and if they met the required criterior they were given a grant and the details together with their pedigrees were entered in the registers of the College. However, if they fell short of the criterior they were refused. At least that is what was supposed to happen. From time to time there existed unscrupulous heralds who decided to make some extra money on the side by issuing Grants of Arms to applicants who could not justify a claim. The grants were invalid and were not entered into the records but the appplicants did not know this. They were given an official looking document and they went away happy in the belief that they were now gentlemen.

One such person was Brownhill of London, so described in his grant. No christian name is given and no record has been found in the registers of the College, so far. However, he clearly took pride in his grant because it survived and is now in the collections of the British Museum. It is authentic but not valid. I have a copy in my possession, obtained from the museum. It is a very good coat and I rather like it. Although unofficial and invalid it is, nevertheless, a Coat of Arms associated with the English Brownhills and, therefore, forms part of our history. When I have worked out how to do so I will copy it and upload it to this website.

But what of the real Brownhill Family Coats of Arms. Do any exist? On page 136 of Burke's 'The General Armory, 1884 edition, a copy of which I found in the Tonbridge, Kent, main library on the 18th August 2010, there appears the following:

Brownell (Derby, 1682). Erm.on a chev.cottised sa.three escallops ar. Crest-Out of a ducal coronet a triple plume of feather, five, four, and three.

Brownell (Cliffe Field, near Sheffield). Arms, same as Brownell of Derby. Crest-An escallop ar.

As these details appear in Burke's they were clearly recorded in the records of The College of Arms in 1884 and are, therefore valid, so one wonder why they were not found when I made my enquiry many years ago! Perhaps they were destroyed during the war. If they still exist they should have recorded with them the family trees as they were at that time.

The important thing about this is that the date of the Visitation was AD1682 and shows that the Coat of Arms was used by two Brownell (Brownhill) families with the second coat differenced by the crest. This means that the Brownells of Norton, Derbyshire (where Cliffe Field was situated) were a cadet branch of the Brownell Family of Derby and, therefore came from Derby; not Yorkshire, as suggested by S. O Addy. It is also clear that the Arms were granted to an earlier generation, one from which both families descended. This implies that the Arms existed before AD1559, where the records show that the family was in both Derby and Norton. But where did the family live before that date? For this we must examine the origin of th Brownhill Family of Derbyshire.

The second valid English Coat of Arms, so far established, was granted to a member of the Yorkshire Brownhills in 1918. Therefore it cannot be classed as an ancient coat and it applies only to him and his descendants, no one else. Its relevance to other Brownhills lies in the fact that it is, of course, a Brownhill Coat of Arms and consequently forms part of the general history of the family. 

Quite apart from coats there also exists family crests or badges. As far as I am aware there are no hard and fast rules governing these. One Brownhill crest has so far been found and it has been published in books. It relates to the Yorkshire Brownhills.

Scottish Coats of Arms come under the jurisdiction of The Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh. When I checked the Scottish records forty years ago I was unable to find any record of a Scottish Brownhill Coat of Arms. However, there does appear in the Scottish records a Brownhill crest depicting a sun in splendour rising from behind a mountain. It is believed to be centuries old, so goes back to the early Scottish Brownhills and possibly, I would like to think, to the original Cheshire Brownhills. Accompanying it is the mottoe Radii Omnia Lustrant - The Rays Illuminate All Things. It depicts the Brownhills as being sunny people. The mottoe was adopted by the Yorkshire Brownhill in 1918 and I have adopted both the crest and the mottoe as the symbol of the Brownhill Clan generally.

13th. September 2011