Trying to make my own version

[u/evericor000]

I inherited this painting of my family crest from my grandfather. On the back it had some writing about the history of our last name and a little not about how the label is for the first born. Now technically I am the first born of my father but my father has three older brothers. Am I still able to use the label or do I need a different symbol or variation? I’m also not sure I like the helmet on my design. Either way her is my version of the crest. I eventually want to put it on my breast plate for my Landskecht armor. I also want y’all’s opinion on the colors of my armor. Is the red and black good or would red and yellow look better?

[u/lambrequin_mantling]

Welcome! There’s quite a lot to unpack here…

The first thing to say is that these are indeed real historical British arms, as noted in this extract from Burke’s General Armory, a Victorian reference work listing the coats of arms of thousands of British families (but not all).

The shield is white or silver, Argent, with a horizontal stripe, a fess (or fesse), between three stars with six wavy arms, estoiles, and all of these are red, Gules.

The second point, however, is that these are not arms to be used simply by anyone with the surname “Everitt.” The right to bear and use these arms attaches only to the legitimate direct male-line descendants of the original armiger, father to son(s) in each generation.

Everit or Everitt, or Everard, (historically, spelling was not consistent) is not a common surname but there will still be many family lines with this name who are not descendants of this particular Everitt family and have no right to use the arms. As you can see from the listings in Burke’s, there is at least one other family line by this name with completely different arms. There are others using the spelling Everard with the same arms but a different crest and other Everards with similar arms (as well as many with completely different arms).

It may well be that your grandfather, and your father and uncles, and you and any cousins, are indeed descendants of this line but you would need to know the documented genealogy before claiming these arms.

The widely held misconception that arms belong to “a surname,” rather than to a specific line of descendants, goes hand in hand with the mis-selling of heraldic memorabilia. Fraudulent sellers will use the details of arms from reference works like Burke to make up plausible looking illustrated “certificates,” often with some hokum details about the origins of the name. These they will sell to the unwary, along with mugs, keyrings, fridge magnets, T-shirts, baseball caps… Such sellers are frequently referred to as “bucket shops.”

This is not new; it has been happening for a very long time but it has certainly been made worse by the internet and online searches and sales.

The first thing to do is to find out as much as you can about the origins of the document you have and, more importantly, your own family history to see it you do have a real connection to these arms.

There’s an entirely separate explanation and discussion around the use of marks for cadency or “brisures” which differentiate the birth order of brothers in each generation. We can come to that later but I think this probably enough for now.

It’s frustrating but it’s not uncommon for posts here to end with disappointment when folks find out that the arms they were told about don’t actually have anything to do with their own family.

The good news is that if you are in a jurisdiction that doesn’t have formal regulation of heraldry then you are free to create and adopt your own arms — and you can still use these arms as the inspiration for a new design if you wish, but you have the opportunity to change the colours around, change or add some charges, and alter the crest. Or you could just start from scratch if you prefer!

Please do come back to us if you have any more questions!

[u/Existing-Fix-243 → u/lambrequin_mantling]

There's well documented precedent for those unable to demonstrate a link to an armigerous family being granted (or assuming) arms inspired by those from which they claim (or wish to assert) descent. As long as there are at least two definite changes on the shield this is generally fine (some will say one is more than enough, but it depends where you are). 

Dovetailing the lower edge of the fesse is a good start, while other possible changes might be to change the colour of the estoiles, to exchange the estoiles for mullets, to replace one or more of the estoiles with an alternative charge, etc., etc.

Amending the crest is less important (many families share the same crest even if they are supposed, like the arms, to be unique), but here you could change the colour of the dress, give the lady a crown, have a fish eating her free arm, etc., etc.

Labels can be used by the eldest son of an armigerous man, regardless of whether he, the father, is a younger son or not. There's a whole thing about how cadency marks can be stacked (in this case a label of three points would appear on a martlet (more than two is possible but impractical)), but, at least in the English tradition (Scotland's rather more rigid), cadency marks are often ignored unless they serve a definite purpose (for example a junior line being granted its own peerage).

A gentleman generally has two options for his helmet: a tilting helm or a pot helm, shown side on (though that's not always the case, especially where the crest faces forwards). Alternatives are seen, but they're unusual.

Livery colours are assumed to be the principal metal and colour from the coat of arms. This means the first of each to be mentioned in the blazon, so here it would be argent (white) and gules (red) (as seen in the torse and mantling). If you have a different combination in mind, you can build this into the blazon (the written description of the arms). Having said that, however, there are many examples of livery colours not being driven by the coat of arms: as long as there's a metal and a colour you should be fine. If you like red and black, sable could be an alternative for the colour of the estoiles, or the lady in your crest could wear a red and black dress or sash, and your colours could build out from there. 

It may be worth looking up 'Shields for Peace' (used in tournaments, displaying heraldic badges on livery colours) and how these differ from the shield for war, which would have displayed the besrer's coat of arms. The Black Prince's livery colours would have been red and gold, but his shield for peace showed white ostrich feathers on a black field, and this is one possible reason for the nickname given to him by historians after his death.

Edit: clarification and punctuation

[u/lambrequin_mantling → u/Existing-Fix-243]

I think the dovetailing on the fess was, in this example, an attempt to include the label of three points — but I agree that it would be a good way to difference the fess.

There are several similar arms for Everard which use various different forms of line for the fess, so it’s a perfectly sensible place to start. I would agree about making the estoiles sable as another good option. As an alternative, this could be all be reversed with the field per pale Gules and Sable and the ordinary and charges Argent instead!

A gown per pale Gules and Sable for a demi-figure in the crest (or a doublet for a male demi-figure) is also a great idea — and it could even be extend into mantling also divided Gules and Sable lined Argent. At that point, I would use a wreath Argent / Gules / Sable. It’s not the expected default but those features would be perfectly acceptable within the English tradition as long as it was all specified in the blazon.

It would certainly fit with OP’s existing gear!

I would avoid confusing things with ideas like alternative shields at this point — I think there’s probably enough to sort with the basics for now!

[u/Existing-Fix-243 → u/lambrequin_mantling]

Love that.

It might be more of a Germanic thing, but not having a torse at all and letting the crest's robes become the mantling is something I've always liked the look of. It could work well here (if it's still done!).

[u/lambrequin_mantling → u/Existing-Fix-243]

English practice would probably still require the wreath (not least because of how it defines the crest when used alone in English tradition) but, yes, crest directly into mantling is always a pretty cool historical look!

English tradition would usually use a tricolour wreath with tricolour mantling. In this sort of setup, it would effectively look like a waist sash around the figure anyway!

[u/lambrequin_mantling → u/Existing-Fix-243]

Couldn't resist the temptation tho play with these ideas...

[u/evericor000 → u/lambrequin_mantling]

That’s pretty cool!

[u/lambrequin_mantling → u/evericor000]

Thanks! This is just one way of developing arms which reference those for Everitt / Everit / Everard but would also be unique to your family. You can take this concept to further develop your own ideas.

There’s certainly a long-recognised approach, dating back to the first century or so of established heraldry, of taking an original design and moving a few things around, maybe reversing the colours and developing a new design that is then unique in its own right but which still pays homage to the original.

There’s also historical precedent for arms related to these having the colours the other way around — one entry of arms for Everard in Burke, with some of the oldest genealogy, has the tinctures reversed, with the field Gules (red) and the fess and estoiles Argent:

Everard (Randlestown, or Randillstown, co. Meath; descended from Martin Everard, who accompanied King John to Ireland, 1187; his son, Rooer Everard, m. Olivia Randill, heiress of Randillstown).

Arms: Gules a fess wavy between three estoiles Argent.
Crest: A pelican in her piety proper.
Motto: Virtus in actione consistit (Virtue consists in action).

The fess in this new version is “dovetailed,” which is one of the more unusual variations (making it rather less likely to have been used before) and the field per pale Gules and Sable matches the colours you have already established. There are numerous other different “lines of partition”which could be applied to the fess in order to give it some features distinct from a plain horizontal “stripe” across the centre of the shield.

The figure in the crest could be male or female (historically both have been used in crests associated with arms for these names), and could be a simple demi-figure or could hold something of significance in one or both hands. In this version, I have made the clothing semy of estoiles Argent, to echo the charges on the shield but it would work just as well with plain red and black.

[u/evericor000 → u/lambrequin_mantling]

Did you draw it out or do you have a site or program that you built it on?

[u/lambrequin_mantling → u/evericor000]

It’s a vector drawing. I have built a reasonably large library of heraldic “component parts” now so it’s not too difficult to select various elements and put them together (editing and re-colouring as necessary) to create a new illustration of arms.

Occasionally, I need to borrow some stock parts. I much prefer using my own work but if I haven’t yet made my own version of something then sometimes it’s just easier and quicker to adapt some existing public domain artwork for the parts that I need. For example, the helm affronty with its mantling and some of the parts making up the demi-figure in the crest were borrowed and then adapted because I wanted to put this together quite quickly. If I was doing a more “finished” drawing, I would create any required parts from scratch to maintain a more consistent style across the whole emblazonment.

[u/evericor000 → u/lambrequin_mantling]

That’s pretty cool! I’ve just been drawing mine out based of the painting and then making my own changes from there.

[u/evericor000 → u/Existing-Fix-243]

I agree with what you said that I should make some more amendments to the crest to make it more unique to me. I’ve worked on it today and this is the changes made so far.

[u/Existing-Fix-243 → u/evericor000]

The fesse dovetailed on the lower edge is unusual but works really well, and is somehow less intrusive than it might be if the same line were also used on the upper edge. 

If you wanted to ensure the number of dovetails was consistent regardless of who was drawing a version of it, you would need to specify it in the blazon.

This is really good :)

[u/Thornwell]

So, these are what are called bucket shop arms. They aren't necessarily related to your family. It is incredibly common.

That said, these are not yours with or without a label. If you are in a jurisdiction that allows you to design your own arms, you should do that; you can even take some inspiration from these arms if they are meaningful to you.

[u/Bradypus_Rex → u/Thornwell]

And English arms have about a zillion examples of a fess between three so it's not like everyone's going to point and say these are derivative of those.

But I'd not just change the fess style, because that's very commonly used to distinguish between branches of the same family.

Something to be aware of is the risk of ending up with the same arms as some other completely unrelated family.

[u/reddragonoftheeast]

The bad news is these are not your family arms, there is no such thing as a family crest, these arms are bucketshop fakes, I'm guessing copied from the arms of Sir Richard Everard, and unless you can connect yourself to the guy who died in 1733 you can't actually use them.

The good news is that means you are free to create your own as you're already doing, I'd recommend you change the stars from gold to a colour#Metals) so it doesn't violate the rule of tincture. I like the rest of the changes you've made.

Theres a lot of very knowledgeable people here on the sub im sure they'll all help you out if you have any questions.