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The Arms and Crest
of the Carey Family
The Arms and Crest were first registered
by the English branch, namely the Cary family of Devon / Somerset with
the Heralds College in 1531. Within fifty years, the arms were
noted in use in Guernsey, in documents borne by Nicolas Careye (A26)
as Lieutenant of Thomas Wygmore, Bailiff of Guernsey, dated 1582.
The Arms and Crest of the Guernsey
Carey branch were registered with the College of Arms, London on 11
November 1915 by William Wilfred Carey, in common with the English
Carey / Cary's.
The registration approved and confirmed
the use of the Arms by all descendants of the Guernsey branch as well
as the English branch with the Guernsey branch naming a Crescent Sable
in the shield to differentiate between the two branches.
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Carey Motto
'Sine Macula'
meaning
'without
blemish / stain'.
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Registered as follows:
'Argent on a bend Sable three roses of the first barbed and
seeded proper in the sinister chief point a Crescent Sable'.
And for the crest on a wreath of the colours, ' A swan Argent wings
endorsed charged on the body with a crescent as in the Arms.'
To be borne and used (in lieu and in substitution of those heretofore granted
and confirmed) by him the said William Wilfred
Carey and his descendants and by the other descendants of his
Ancestor Jean Careye who was living A.D. 1393 with due and proper
differences according to the Laws of Arms.
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Noted in Remarkable Antiquities of the City
of Exeter, originally collected by Richard Tyzacke Esq., heretofore
Chamberlain thereof; and now improved and continued to the Year 1724,
by Samuel Tyzacke Esq., the present Chamberlain, 3rd edition, 1731,
pp.71 and 72 - we find the legendary account of how the Cary Family
came to acquire the Arms:
'This justicier (Sir John Cary) had a numerous issue, amongst whom
Sir Robert Cary, knight, the true image of his father, not only as
Virgil said of Ascanius, resembling his Father, Aeneas, in countenance
- sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora ferebat - but rather in virtues
of Wisdom and Fortitude, for in skill of Arms, ( which was not his
fathers profession ), he excelled, procuring thereby such favour of
King Henry the Fifth, when in the beginning of which King's Reign
(A.D.1413) , a Knight named Argonise, who in divers Countries for
his Honour had performed many noble Achievements, at length visited
England, and challenged many persons of his Rank and Quality, to make
trial of his skill in Arms, which the said Sir Robert Cary accepted,
between whom was waged a cruel encounter and a long and doubtful combat
in Smith-field, London; where this Mars vanquished this Argonise,
for which he was by the King Knighted, and restored to part of his
Father's inheritance; and by the Law of Heraldry, whosoever fairly
in the Field conquered his Adversary, may fortify the wearing and
bearing of his Arms whom he overcame, and accordingly he takes on
him, the Coat Armoury of the said Argonise, being Argent on a bend
Sable, Three Roses of the First, and ever since born by the name of
Cary, whose ancient Coat of Armoury I find to be, Gules, a chevron
between three swans proper, one thereof they still retain in their
crest.'
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