Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/517

 io s. XIL NOV. 27, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The fact that the first quartering was identical with the arms of the Windsors, and that the second (which never had any name assigned to it in any Denny pedigree) was very similar to the arms borne by various persons whose names closely resembled Denny (the early form of which was apparently de Denne or Denne), led the present writer to conjecture that possibly the first quartering was in fact Windsor, and that the second was the ancient coat of Denny or de Denne. The following collec- tion, made for the purpose of throwing light on this problem, is not without interest.

I. I begin with evidence tending to show that the coat Or, a fesse dancettee gules, in chief three martlets sable, is the ancient coat of Denny.

Sir William de Dene, Essex (Ed. II. Roll), bore Or, a fesse dancettee gu.

Arms of Dean or de Dean (Northants), Or, a fesse dancettee, between three crescents gu. (Foster's ' Feudal Coats of Arms ').

Another coat of the same, Sa., a fesse dancettee ar., in chief three crescents or (Burke's ' General Armory ').

Deane of Chester, Or, a fesse dancettee, gu., in chief three crescents of the last (Burke).

Deane of Rutland has the same arms in Berry's ' Dictionary of Heraldry.'

Deden, Or, a fesse indented gu. (Burke).

Dene, Ar., a fesse indented between three crescents gu. (Burke).

Dyne of Kent, Gu., a fesse dancettee or between three crescents (or escallops) erm.

Thomas, son of William de Dene of Boughton Malherb, Kent, who died 23 Ed. Ill, bore Ar., a fesse dancettee gu. ( Hasted' s 'Kent').

It will be seen that the motif of all these coats is a fesse dancettee or indented, though the other charges and the tinctures vary. Such variations were at an early period a common method of differencing the arms of the various branches of a family ; see, for instance, the case of the Windsors, Fitz- geralds, and Fitz Maurices (below).

II. Walter FitzOther, temp. Conquest (ancestor of the Lords Windsor, of the Fitz- Geralds, Earls of Kildare and Desmond, and of the FitzMaurices, Earls of Kerry), bore arms, according to some, Gules, a saltire argent ; according to others, Argent a saltire gules. Both coats may have been used.

Walter FitzOther's grandson William de Windsore bore Gules, a saltire argent ; and the latter's grandson bore Crusily, a saltire.

Their descendants the Windsors have

borne ever since Gules, a saltire argent between twelve crosses crosslet or, which coat is, as stated already, identical with the Denny first quarter.

Other branches of the same great family bore arms as follows :

FitzMaurice (father of the first Lord Kerry, 1289), Erm., a saltire sable.

FitzMaurice (Lords of Kerry), Ar., a saltire gu., a chief erm.

FitzGerald (Earls of Kildare), Ar., ar saltire gu.

FitzGerald (Earls of Desmond), Erm., a saltire gu.

There is a coat of Deane which is Fitz- Gerald with tinctures inverted, viz., Gu. r a saltire erm. (Berry's ' Dictionary of Heraldry'). A family of Denny living at Combes, in Suffolk, since before 1450, use for arms the coat identical with Windsor, and as- crest a buck's head erased. The Windsor crest is a buck's head affrontee.

III. (a) Hugh Deny or de Dyne, one of the barons who fought against Henry III.,. held the Castle and Forest of Windsor, 1268.

Geoffry de Denne, Paneter to the Queen Dowager, held land in Windsor, 1273.

John de Dene, a juror or commissioner at Windsor, 1303.

William de Deen of Staines, near Windsor, 1303-4.

John Daneys held land, &c., in Windsor,. 1339.

John Dyne was employed by the Sheriff of Bedfordshire to summon the Warden of Windsor College, 1393.

William Dene, one of the original Fellows- of Eton College (near Windsor) at its- foundation, 1441.

Sir John Don, one of Edward IV.'s courtiers at Windsor, 1472.

Sir John Donne of Windsor, died 1502.

(b) Walter Fitz Other, Castellan of Wind- sor, ancestor of the Windsors, FitzGeralds, &c., held at the time of the Domesday Survey Kingstone in Kent.

William de Denne held the manor of Denne, Kingstone, temp. King John, and his descendants held it for generations.

Hugh Deny or de Dyne (who held Windsor in 1268) was in 1278 Baron of Sandwich, near Kingstone.

John Denys of Ikham, near Kingstone, endows church of Ikham for a chaplain to pray for the souls of his ancestors, &c., 1392.

John Denne was of Kingstone in 1459.

(c) The manor of Donne in Compton, Surrey, was owned by the Barons Windsor circa temp. Ed. III.