Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/113

 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. 85 the addition of a bordure erm., is borne by a branch of the old baronial family which acquired the lands of Wortham by marriage with the heiress, temp. Ric. II. No. 4. De Gidlegh : Sa. seven rows of three bezants each.'^ Brought in by the marriage of William or Robert, son of Walter Prouz, to the dau. and heir of Giles de Gidlegh. f No. 5. Ferrers : Or, on a bend sa., three horse-shoes arg. Brought in by the marriage, in 1240, of Sir William Prouz, J High Sheriff of Devon, 1269, of Gidleigh, Holbeton, Gat- combe, Widecomb, and Whitlegh, to Alice, dau. and heir of Sir Fulk Ferrers, of Throwleigh, Knt. No. 6. Pont, or De Ponte : Sa., an unripe Jordan almond, bisected longitudinally, and laid open, each section shewing half of the kernel, shell and drupe {or outer case), all argent, a bordure of the last. Brought in by the marriage of William, of Eastervale, in Chagford, and Westervale, in Throwleigh, son of Sir William Prouz, the High Sheriff, to Elena, the dau. of Jeffrey, or Geoffrey Pont, or De Ponte, of Eastervale. These arms, which are unique, I take to be of the type termed parlantes, or canting, wherein the designation of the charge same feature that certainly exists on the bezants of the cartouches flanking the tablet, namely, a rim of gules occupying at the top about a fifth of the charge not one half, or we should recognize at once what is termed in French heraldry a besant-tortcau — always placed on a field of colour, unlike the torfeaux-besant, which is on a field of metal. fWestcote and the Western Counties Armory state that this Giles was nephew of Martina, Duke and Earl of Cornwall, who bore sa. bezantee ; Burke gives for Gidleigh of Honiton, or, a castle sa., a bordure of the second, bezantee ; either Giles or his father was steward to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans. J With regard to the incorrectness of the traditional part of Westcote's Prowz pedigree before this Sir William, Dr. Prowse calls attention to the statement that Sir William, who died in 1269, was the great-great-grandson of Peter Prouze who, by his marriage in 1200 with Mary Redvers, had an only child, Alice, who is not known to have married and who is mentioned by her aunt, the Countess of Eu (for other mis-statements vide ante). But of a large number of old deeds that came into the possession of the late Rev. T, W. Whale, on his purchasing a certain Devonshire property, the earliest ones, dating from c. 1280-1, confirm the pedigree cf the Chagford branch of the Prouze family given by Westcote, as well as of the last members of the Gidleigh stock from c. 1300 downwards to 1550, at about which time the Heralds' Visitations were instituted.
 * I am told that there seems to be discernible on these bezants the