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The Marland Family

 

Heraldry of the Marlands

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Although at least three families of our name have been of manorial rank, it has been surprisingly difficult to establish what coats of arms they used.

 

Neither the Marlands of Marland in Lancashire nor the Marlands/Merlands of Banstead in Surrey were recorded in the official Heralds' Visitations. These were expeditions undertaken by members of the College of Arms in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to all the counties of England and Wales in an attempt to compile a definitive register of the arms and pedigrees that were claimed by families who were - or aspired to be - noble. Few families of any status were missed - but the Marlands were. The Merlands of Somerset had by then died out, but as a knightly family they ought to have appeared on a roll of arms somewhere; if so, it has yet to be found.

 

M However, Marland does appear in a manuscript roll of arms now in the British Library. This is Sir Marmaduke Constable's "Visitation of the North" (Lansdowne MS 205 f.235), dated 1558, but apparently a copy of an earlier roll, now lost. The contents have been published by the Surtees Society (vol.41 Appx 1). "Marlande of Marlands Meere" is the last painted shield in the roll.

 

The arms are described, in heraldry's arcane Anglo-Norman-French, as "Azure a bend raguly or, in sinister chief a ducal coronet of the second; a crescent gules for difference". The crescent is curious, because it suggests a younger (usually second) son, not the head of the house, or else a junior line.

 

Almost identical arms (without the crescent) are recorded for a junior member of the College of Arms at the same period, Edward Merlin, Portcullis Pursuivant in 1559. The drawing of these arms in Stanford London's "Herald's Arms" (1938) is used to decorate the head of our pages.
     

A

 

B

   An entirely different coat of arms is recorded in Burke's "General Armory", in two versions:

  1. Gules three bars wavy argent, on each as many martlets sable, for Marland of Kent

  2. Barry nebuly of six gules and argent seven martlets sable three, three and one, on a chief or three pellets

(Martlets are little birds with no feet, probably meant to represent swifts, which are almost never seen on the ground.)

 

Examination of documents in the hands of the College of Arms suggest that Burke's sources were:

  • Joseph Edmondson's "Complete Body of Heraldry" of 1780
  • A manuscript book of the early eighteenth century known as "Edward Duke of Norfolk's Alphabet" (EDNA)

These reveal four further "Marland" arms:

  1. Gules three bars wavy argent, on each as many saltires sable, for Marland of Kent

  2. Gules three bars wavy argent, on each as many pellets, also for Marland of Kent

  3. Barry wavy of six argent and gules (This reading of the manuscript is uncertain)

  4. Azure six fleurs-de-lys or, for Marland of Devon. Presumably these were the arms of the Merlands of Orchardleigh.

C

D

F
G  

The source EDNA led us to a grant of arms by Thomas Benolt, Clarenceux King of Arms, at some time between 1511 and 1534, to "Marland of Sutherey" (College of Arms MSS 2G4.5, C B H8 fol.287 and L.1). This is clearly the coat of arms intended by Burke's second entry for Marland, and must have been granted to William Merlande, mercer of Milk Street London, and of Banstead in Surrey, before his death in 1525 or 1526. A contemporary drawing of these arms is shown as figure (G):

Arms: Gules 3 bars wavy argent on each three martlets sable on chief or three pellets

Crest: A camel's head argent erased or langued and eared or charged with three bars wavy gules

We thank Somerset Herald for his help in locating and interpreting these records
     
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Is there any connection between the Marlands of Marland and the Marlands of London and Banstead? Quite possibly. In Corry's  "History of Lancashire" (1825) the arms of the interrelated de Eland, de Rachdale and de Chadwyke families, all prominent in the Roch Dale, are given as follows:

 

de Eland de Rachdale de Chadwyke

 

Can the resemblance between de Eland and Marland of London be a coincidence?

 

 The only other Grant of Arms to a Marland is the recent one to Jonathan Marland, on his elevation to the House of Lords in 2006. These echo the "Kent" arms (A) and those of the Marlands of Banstead (G). For a fuller account, see the Heraldry Gazette, NS 105, September 2007.

 
Finally, there is this coloured drawing in the Rochdale Library, apparently by John Knight. It may have been made for a display, but no-one can remember. Its design is quite unlike any other Marland arms, and there is no known source for it.  

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Edited: 18 December 2015