Thayer Families Association - A Quest For Your Heritage

I have been asked many times about the authenticity of the Thayer Coat of Arms presently used by many descendents¹.

Obviously, there are a few of us whose original interest in heraldry does not emanate from a desire to possess a coat of arms for our own families. Additionally, I doubt there are many out there who do not have a profound sense of pride and love for our wonderful Thayer surname. However, I caution that our readers spend money to decorate their homes and belongings with heraldic devices that they never had a legitimate right to. Those who do so may be advertising to all the world a false pretense of noble heritage an kinship to a family from whom we cannot prove descent. Furthermore, in some countries (such as Scotland) a civil suit can be brought against a person who uses an unauthorized coat of arms.

Concerning the present commonly used Thayer coat of arms: Our Thayer surname was derived from "Tayer, Tawier or Tawyer" with the letter "h" not being added until the after the family came to New England. It was originally a trade name for one who dresses skins, and it will be remembered that each of the Colonial immigrant ancestors, Thomas, Richard, and Nathaniel, were shoemakers or cordwainers by trade.

From The New England Historic Genealogical Register (July 1906) we learn the following:  "No coat-of-arms appear on any tablet or monument of the family at the parish church, St. Mary's of Thornbury, and the fact that Edward Tayer² of Oldbury-on-Severn, in the parish of Thornbury, was disclaimed by the Heralds at their Visitation of Gloucestershire in 1625, for using arms without proof of authority, tends to show that the family was not armorial. The name is now extinct in Thornbury. A family spelling the name Theyer and Thayern and having the same root "taw" had long been at Brockworth in Gloucestershire, a parish twenty-five miles northeast of Thornbury, and there was an armorial family of Tawyer at Raounds in Northamptonshire, about eighty miles northeast of Brockworth and one hundred and five miles from Thornbury; also an armorial family of Thayer at Great Baddow and later at Thayden Garnen [sic] in county Essex, afterwards of London; but no connection between these families has been established, so far as is known"

The only extant Coat of Arms in use in America today, to my knowledge, is the one described as "Arms - Per pale ermine and gules, three talbots' heads erased counterchanged. Crest - A talbot's head ermine erased gules." This Coat of Arms was granted during the visitation of the Heralds to the county of Essex, England between the years of 1664 and 1668 to "Humfrey Thayer of Much Badow in com. Essex." This means that only Humfrey; his son Anthony Thayer of the city of London; Anthony's son Humfrey Thayer of Thoydon Garnon, Essex, England ("Gent. Petitioner extradinary to King Charles 2nd"); and possibly the latter's children (Samuel, Eliz., Mary, Sarah, John and Anne) were entitled to its use! I have considerable doubts that any Thayer in the United States today descends from this line. Perhaps there was a connection between the ancestor of the first Humfrey and the ancestors of our earliest known ancestor, "John Thayer" of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England, but the chances of finding such a relationship are very minuscule.

In order that we may better comprehend the inappropriate use of the "Thayer" coat of arms being promoted by some of the present day heraldic firms, it is helpful if we first have an understanding of the slightly snobbish subject of Heraldry.

Through the centuries, the origin of Heraldry has been a matter of much speculation. Most certainly, there was no such thing as a Coat of Arms in existence at the time of the Norman Conquest, and remained so until about the beginning of the 12th century. By the 13th century, Coats of Arms were used universally throughout Europe and a science of Heraldry was developed in which known and accepted rules were established, some of which are still in use today.

The practice of Armory use was once created as a practical war-like device during the Medieval times to enable soldiers to distinguish one another. The upper classes, who asserted nobility of birth, were the land holders from whose land the military units were recruited, and upon whom the leadership in battle obviously fell.

During the time of warfare, however, the armor which the brave soldiers wore, so completely concealed the face and otherwise hid the identity of the individual that the Feudal Lords were confronted with a necessity of imposing an emblem, represented in colors, on the shield and other armorial bearings, by which the illiterate followers could be distinguished. Consequently, these somewhat prestigious devices, which were intended to be hereditary in nature, became recognized as signs of nobility of blood and as emblems of the upper, privileged classes.

Therefore, with the possession of arms being such a matter of privilege, there inevitably followed a certain prestige associated to that effect, and it became necessary that a standard of definition be instituted by which the arms for which official authority could not be shown would be excluded.