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Men of all ages have used figures of living creatures, trees, flowers and animated objects, as symbolical signs to distinguish themselves in war and tournaments. To day arms are usually used to embellish signet rings

Before discussing the Giblot Ducray’s coat of arms, it is as well to comment briefly on heraldry in general.

Heraldry was derived from the word “Herald”- the officer who proclaimed war or peace and carried messages between sovereigns, this dates back to the twelfth century.

When soldiers wore their coats of armour, consisting of chain-mail and helmets they were unrecognisable and no one knew who was friend or foe. To overcome this the Lords and Nobles who led the armies devised “logos” or colour picture coding for their mostly illiterate armies. Heralds had to make it their business to know the designs, ultimately becoming the recorders, to avoid duplication, thus formalising use.

Various Heralds Colleges were eventually formed. The Heralds College in Britain was formed on 1483.

The Giblot coat of arms is registered in the Archives in Paris. It is described in a dossier from the Archives de la Noblesse et du Collège Héraldique, 46 Rue Laffitte, Paris France, as :-

De gueules, à une tour d’argent maçonnée de sable, au chef cousu d’azur, chargé de trois étoiles d’or.

(Source Page 58 of a book entitled “Armorial de la France” by L. De Magny. Published by Lemercier and Cie Parister) - s

Translation

“A gule (red) shield with a charge (object) of a bricked, argent (silver) tower masoned in stable (black), the chief (top) stitched in azure(blue), charged with three or (gold) stars.

The family coat of arms shown below, for this branch of the family, is thought to have been designed by Jean Baptiste Félix Giblot du Cray or perhaps his father before him, in the early or mid seventeen hundreds and has been adopted by this (the author’s) family as their Coat of Arms

The shape of the coat of arms has been changed to an oval shield with an ornate border supported by, on either side of the shield., a demi (half) lion statant (standing with two legs on the ground) guardant (facing forward).

Further embellishments are a coronet, with branches on each side between the coronet and the shield and an inverted silver crescent below the tower. The inverted crescent, in heraldry, is the symbol of a second son. The coronet, which is described as a “celestial” crown, in heraldry, depicts not only royalty but also nobility. Originally items falling outside the coat of arms were meaningless, the reason for this being that in heraldry, these “supporters” were not recognised, especially in France. In English heraldry however nobles and important knights have supporters on either side of their shields, resulting in their appearances on most crests, wether correct or not.

Other branches of the family have adopted the existing coat of arms and embellished it in a variety of ways. One branch of the family, Marie Joseph Louis Charles Giblot Ducray’s (Ref 198) coat of arms depicts a shield, the crest being a knight’s helmet covered with wreaths, looking like flowing plumes. See illustration.