Family Crests
Useless artwork?
Where did they originate?
Well, in the old days before there were no governments
as we know it, landowners lived in castles and had their own armies. Soldiers
had shields as hand to hand combat was the only way of fighting. Even in those
days it was a convention that soldiers should be identifiable. So, each army
had their own coloured shield, at first plain with just one colour. When they
ran out of colours they started to paint shield in two or more colours. These
then became the family crests of the landowners. No longer are they used as a
shield while fighting, but as an impressive painting to decorate a wall.
Nowadays there are people making a living designing and painting familie crests
for anybody. As a rule they are fancy and interesting art, certainly not
authentic or important. Accordingly, having a family crest is
certainly not restricted to nobility.
How authentic is the Brasser crest? The above image was taken from the picture
of Joost Brasser. We can only claim and prove that our
ancestors had this coat of arms at least since 1504. Despite this long and
well documented use of our coat of arms and the role played by several of our
ancestors in national and municipal government, (Delft, Schiedam, Alkmaar) it
is nowhere recorded how or when we obtained this coat of arms. Accordingly we
cannot claim to aristocracy and tell the Dutch queen to move over.
It was not until about 1500 that family crests became fashionable.
Prior to family crests some people had ‘house-marks’. These ‘marks’ look primitive
compared with family shields. The design always consists of just streight
lines. They are always of a narrow design, probably so they could be carved on
a doorpost. House-marks were already used in the year 500.
They belonged to a family, and when the father died, the oldest son would
inherit the original. A second son could perhaps draw another bar across for
identification. Even though they looked simple, they were far more
important than the fancy family crests. Legally they carried as much weight as
today’s signature. So even though they were carved into the front door, mainly
of farm buildings, the word ‘house’ meant really ‘family’. Land used by farmers
normally belonged to some count who owned the land. A house-mark indicated that
the land of that particular farm was privately owned. It referred to the fact
that the family was independent and was not subject to a feudal lord. The
Brasser family also had a house-mark. This mark, as well as the Brasser crest,
is well documented in the National Archives in The Hague, as well as in the
Centrel Bureau for Genealogy in The Hague.
Anything YOU can tell US will be appreciated, and could be emailed
to Harry Brasser at
brasser@ihug.co.nz. Thank you.