Hi Bill,

It's a matter of knowing what you are actually discussing. A Crest is one thing and a Coat of Arms is another.

I stated a fact when I said "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE STAPLETON FAMILY CREST". Crests (the bit that sits on top of the helmet) do not belong to a family (or anyone, for that matter), and can be adopted for use by anyone.

My next statement, in reference to <<The coat of arms for the Stapleton'sis ...>> was "No such thing! A misleading, if not false, statement!
There IS no such thing as A Stapleton coat of arms. You are talking about THE Stapletons as if all persons with that surname are blood relations, when they aren't! Arms DO NOT belong to a name - they belong (as personal property) to A PERSON bearing that name. If they happened to belong to a particular name, there wouldn't be any requirement for over 350 entries under the name of Smith - and that's just in British armory alone - think how many Schmidts there might be in Germanic heraldry.

Arms are granted to a person with a particular surname - they are personal property that is handed down to the direct male heir on the death of the original recipient. His eldest son will inherit those arms undifferenced, whilst any other sons will also inherit those arms but, as they are considered to be the head of a 'cadet' branch of the family, the arms must be suitably differenced by some sort of cadency marking.

If I'm not making myself clear, perhaps the info to be found at << http://www.sog.org.uk/leaflets/arms.html >> might be more enlightening.

As I said in my reply, I have a record of 21 Stapleton entries in the British armory which is valid up to 1900. What has transpired in the 20th/21st century has not yet been released for public viewing.

To be able to lay claim to even ONE of those 21 Stapleton arms, you would have to produce a fully documented paternal ancestry to the original armiger. Without that proof, you are like the millions of Smiths in this world that have no link to any of the Smith arms granted in that particular name.

This may be a hard concept to grasp, but you will have to accept that arms are personal property, not to be usurped by any old person with the same surname.

Regards,