The Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is a hereditary society that recognizes and honors the descendants of individuals who bore a coat of arms and who settled in what is now the United States prior to 1783. The Order was organized on September 15, 1903, and incorporated in New York State later that year. Founded by Mrs. William Gerry Slade and a group of genealogists and heraldry enthusiasts, the society was established to preserve the memory of early American settlers who were armigerous under the heraldic laws of European sovereigns.
Membership is open to individuals who can demonstrate lineal descent from an ancestor who bore arms granted, recorded, or recognized by an authorized heraldic body, such as the College of Arms in London, the Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh, or other similar institutions, and who immigrated to colonial America before the close of the Revolutionary War. The Order promotes historical research and education in heraldry and genealogy, helping to illuminate the symbolic legacy of armorial bearings within American family history.
This focus on armigerous ancestry is not symbolic; it helps illuminate the social fabric of the colonial period. Armorial bearings were often associated with land ownership, legal standing, professional rank, or civic responsibility, attributes that many early immigrants brought with them or sought to establish anew in the American colonies. Recognizing these individuals through their coats of arms underscores the complex identities they carried across the Atlantic: as subjects of European crowns, as participants in emerging colonial societies, and as progenitors of American families whose stories are often told through both documentary and visual heritage.
Heraldry, in this sense, is more than ornamental. It is a structured language that offers insight into values, alliances, professions, and aspirations. By documenting and preserving the heraldic claims of early settlers, the Order contributes to a more nuanced understanding of colonial American identity, one that includes not just when and where a person arrived, but what traditions and institutions they represented, and how they expressed continuity with the cultural and legal frameworks of the Old World while adapting to the challenges of the New.
John Hoar, Esquire, of Massachusetts
My membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through John Hoar, Esquire, of Massachusetts, a 17th-century lawyer, negotiator, and colonial figure of note. The arms attributed to John Hoar are:
Sable, a double-headed eagle displayed within a bordure engrailed Argent. Crest–An eagle’s head erased Sable, gorged with a bar gemelle Or. Motto–In ardua.
These arms, confirmed in multiple American heraldic sources and consistent with colonial-era usage, are striking not only in their symbolism but in their alignment with other prominent Hoare families in the British Isles. The same basic arms, black field, silver double-headed eagle, engrailed silver border, were borne by several noble and armigerous lines of the Hoare name across England and Ireland.
Most notably, these arms were used by the Hoare baronets of Barn Elms, a title created in 1786 for Richard Hoare, a descendant of Sir Richard Hoare (1648-1719), Lord Mayor of London and founder of the private bank C. Hoare & Co. According to Burke’s Peerage, their arms were:
Sable, an eagle displayed with two heads Argent, charged on the breast with an ermine spot, within a bordure engrailed of the second.
The only difference from John Hoar’s version is the ermine spot on the eagle’s breast, which was almost certainly a mark of differencing, rather than a formal augmentation. In English heraldry, it was, and remains, common for junior or collateral branches of a family to use the same core arms with slight modifications to distinguish lineages. The structure and symbolism of the arms remain otherwise identical, signaling a strong connection across branches of the Hoare family.
The same arms as John Hoar also appear in the Hoare baronetcy of Annabella, in the County of Cork. That title, in the Baronetage of Ireland, was created in 1784 for Joseph Hoare, an Irish MP who notably opposed the Act of Union in 1800 at over 90 years old. His descendants likewise bore the same coat, further affirming its use across multiple branches of the Hoare name, spanning both England and Ireland. While direct lineage among these branches has not been conclusively documented, the continuity of arms is unmistakable.
A more elaborated variation appears with the Hoare baronets of Sidestrand Hall, later elevated to the peerage as Viscount Templewood in 1944. Their arms differ, but maintain the same core motif:
Sable, an eagle displayed with two heads between three crosses couped within a bordure indented all Argent.
This version, used by Sir Samuel Hoare, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary in the 20th century, reflects a later heraldic development incorporating cadency and personal distinction. Nonetheless, the double-headed eagle remains central to identity across centuries of political, financial, and colonial activity by families of the same name. While no documentary evidence yet links John Hoar directly to a specific English branch, the heraldic connection is strong. It suggests either a cadet line of the same stock or a collateral relation with enduring rights to the family arms prior to later differencing.
Henry Adams of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through Henry Adams of Massachusetts, the immigrant progenitor of the Adams family of Braintree and the forebear of two American presidents. Born in Somersetshire, England, around 1583, Henry Adams immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638, settling first at Mount Wollaston, later known as Braintree (now Quincy). His arrival came amid the Great Migration, when thousands of English Puritans sought religious freedom and opportunity in New England.
The arms attributed to Henry Adams are those borne by his English ancestors of Devonshire, as recorded in Burke’s General Armory and several colonial-era sources:
Or, on a cross Gules, five mullets Argent. Crest–Out of a ducal coronet Or, a lion affrontee Gules.
These arms were used by multiple Adams families in Somerset and Devon and are found in heraldic records dating to the Tudor period. Their later use in Massachusetts reflects both the persistence of English heraldic identity and the continuing social recognition of arms among early New England settlers. The symbolism of the cross and mullets aligns with traditional Christian and martial themes, often associated with steadfastness, honor, and service.
Henry Adams received a grant of land at Mount Wollaston from the town of Braintree in 1639, where he established himself as a farmer and patriarch of a large family. His death in 1646 is commemorated by a memorial in Quincy, erected in 1823 by his descendants, which records his emigration and influence on the early colony. Among his eight sons were Joseph Adams, ancestor of President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams, and Samuel Adams, ancestor of the patriot and signer of the Articles of Confederation bearing the same name.
No contemporary motto is known to have been borne by Henry Adams or his English forebears of Somerset and Devon. Neither Burke’s General Armory nor Fairbairn’s Crests associates one with the arms “Or, on a cross Gules, five mullets Argent.” The 1823 Quincy monument erected by his descendants likewise records no heraldic motto. Later generations of the Adams family adopted personal mottoes reflecting Enlightenment and republican ideals, most notably “Libertatem amicitiam retinebis et fidem” (“You will preserve liberty, friendship, and faith”) used by President John Adams, and “Alteri seculo” (“For another age”) employed by John Quincy Adams. These later mottoes, however, were individual adoptions and not inherited from the immigrant ancestor.
While no formal record survives of Henry Adams’s arms being regranted or confirmed in the colonies, their attribution is consistent across several authoritative heraldic references and adopted by his descendants in later American usage. The enduring association of these arms with the Adams family underscores the family’s continuing recognition of its English roots and its place within the broader narrative of armigerous colonial ancestry.
John Bigelow of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through John Bigelow of Watertown, Massachusetts, who arrived in New England about 1637 and became one of the early settlers of that town. He was a skilled blacksmith and civic figure who helped establish the social and economic foundations of Watertown during the first generation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His descendants became numerous throughout New England, producing several notable public servants and intellectuals in later centuries.
The arms attributed to John Bigelow are recorded in several American armorial compilations of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:
Or, three lozenges Azure. Crest–A ram’s head erased Azure, charged with three lozenges, attired Or.
These arms, simple and striking, follow a classic English pattern of geometric ordinaries on a plain field. The arrangement of three lozenges is a recurrent medieval motif. Victorian handbooks commonly gloss the lozenge as signifying honesty and constancy, though more modern authorities caution that such fixed meanings are late and not intrinsic to medieval practice. The tinctures, Or and Azure, are a conventional pairing representing generosity and loyalty. While the blazon does not specify disposition, heraldic precedent supports either a 2-and-1 or in-fess arrangement, both of which are acceptable in American usage.
The crest, a ram’s head erased Azure charged with three lozenges Or and attired Or, provides a heraldic echo of the shield through the repetition of the lozenge motif. The ram, a traditional emblem of strength and perseverance, reinforces themes of fortitude and creative energy, qualities that harmonize with both the artisan background of the immigrant ancestor and the broader moral associations of the name. The erased form, showing the rough line of separation, is characteristic of seventeenth-century armorial style, and the limited palette of gold and blue preserves both simplicity and elegance.
The Bigelow blazon above is the form printed in Crozier’s General Armory (1904) and repeated in Matthews’s American Armoury and Blue Book (1907). These two compilers remain the principal authorities for colonial American attributions and make no mention of a motto. Later family-society versions, especially those published by the Bigelow Family Association, introduce a variant field Argent and the Latin motto Finis coronat opus (“The end crowns the work”), neither of which is attested in the early American armorials. While no specific English visitation record has been located under the name Bigelow, the lozenge-based pattern is consistent with medieval English heraldic usage and fits comfortably within established stylistic traditions.
Isaac Stearns of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through Isaac Stearns of Watertown, Massachusetts, who arrived in New England in 1630 with the Winthrop fleet and settled at Watertown soon after. A freeman by the early 1630s, he worked his land and participated in the civic life of the new town, and his line became one of the early New England kin networks.
Or, a chevron between three crosses flory pierced Sable. Crest–A falcon rising proper.
This is a compact, high-contrast design in the classic metal-and-color pairing of Or and Sable. The chevron anchors the composition against the gold field, while the three crosses flory pierced add a late-medieval flavor. A cross flory terminates in trefoiled tips; pierced indicates a round void at the center of each cross. Emphasizing the piercings in the artwork prevents the black charges from reading too heavy and preserves the intended lightness of the design. American sources give the blazon in this concise form; in practice, renderers usually match the chevron to the crosses in Sable to keep the palette economical and coherent.
The crest, a falcon rising proper, invites a naturalistic treatment: the bird rising with wings partially elevated and addorsed, head to dexter, legs braced as if about to take flight. Proper allows natural falcon coloration, so the crest’s restrained browns and grays contrast with the stark geometry of the shield while remaining within period norms.
The Stearns blazon above is the form printed by the early American compilers commonly cited for colonial attributions. English visitation entries under Stearns/Stearn/Stearne/Sterne do not readily show this exact cross flory pierced configuration, which explains why American references are the standard citations for OAAA purposes. No contemporary motto is recorded for Isaac Stearns in the early American armorials.
William Learned of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through William Learned of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who arrived in New England by 1632 and was among the earliest settlers of that town. Born in England around the end of the sixteenth century, he joined the Puritan migration and became an active participant in the civic and religious life of early Charlestown and later Woburn. His descendants were numerous and distinguished, producing clergy, scholars, and public officials throughout New England’s colonial and early republican periods.
The arms attributed to William Learned are recorded in several American heraldic compilations:
Azure, a saltire engrailed Or, between four lozenges Argent. Crest–A griffin rampant.
This is a well-constructed composition in the classic late-medieval style, dominated by the saltire engrailed, a form that combines strength of line with ornamental grace. The Azure field paired with an Or saltire produces one of heraldry’s most enduring color pairings, blue and gold for loyalty and generosity, while the four lozenges Argent provide balance and lightness against the darker field. Together, the charges create a clean, geometric harmony typical of the early Stuart period.
The griffin rampant crest introduces a dynamic and martial element. As a hybrid of lion and eagle, the griffin has represented vigilance, courage, and wisdom since classical antiquity. Its use here, rendered Azure, beaked and armed Or to harmonize with the shield, reinforces those ideals while visually uniting the blue-and-gold palette across both field and crest. In period practice, the absence of a recorded tincture would have permitted this kind of harmonious coloring, and it reflects good heraldic economy. The overall effect is disciplined yet spirited.
The Learned blazon and crest appear in Crozier and Matthews without tinctures for the crest or any accompanying motto. No corresponding entry has been identified in the English visitations or in Burke’s General Armory, suggesting that the arms were either assumed in the colonies or derived from an unrecorded English source. The composition fits comfortably within the broader English “saltire-plus-quarter-charges” pattern found in contemporary arms such as those of Christie of Riddry or other families employing engrailed saltires. The arrangement of the four lozenges, one in each quarter, is both heraldically orthodox and visually balanced.
Jonathan Fairbanks of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through Jonathan Fairbanks of Dedham, Massachusetts, who immigrated to New England in 1633 and became one of the founding settlers of Dedham. Born in England in 1594, he established himself as a substantial yeoman and civic participant in the early Massachusetts Bay Colony. His family remained prominent in New England for generations, and the Fairbanks House in Dedham, built by his son in 1637, is widely recognized as the oldest surviving timber-frame house in North America.
The arms attributed to Jonathan Fairbanks are consistently recorded in early American heraldic compilations and family armorial traditions:
Argent, on a fess Azure, between three hurts, a bezant. Crest–Three arrows tied together, one in pale and two in saltire, points downward.
This is a restrained and distinctly English design, relying on simple geometric charges rather than overtly martial figures. The fess, one of heraldry’s principal ordinaries, provides structural clarity and visual balance across the shield. The hurts, blue roundels, supply contrast against the silver field, while the bezant placed upon the fess introduces a single metallic accent. The limited palette of Argent, Azure, and Or produces a disciplined and harmonious composition typical of early modern English armory.
The crest, three arrows bound together with their points downward, is particularly expressive. In heraldic tradition, a bundle of arrows signifies unity, concord, and collective strength, conveying the idea that what is fragile alone becomes strong when bound together. The arrangement, one in pale and two in saltire, is formally precise and visually stable, while the downward orientation of the points tempers any overtly aggressive interpretation. The crest reads less as a symbol of warfare than of cohesion, resolve, and mutual obligation, values well suited to a founding family in a covenant-based Puritan community. Contemporary sources do not specify tinctures for the crest; in modern renderings, I have therefore chosen to depict the arrows proper, bound with a ribbon Or, as a harmonizing and visually restrained solution consistent with period practice.
Unlike many colonial attributions that show wide variation, the Fairbanks arms appear with notable consistency across American sources, including Crozier and Matthews. The combination of a fess with subsidiary roundels is well attested in English heraldry, and the distinctive arrow-bundle crest further differentiates the Fairbanks arms from more common lion or bird crests. While a definitive English visitation entry has not been conclusively identified, the stability of both shield and crest across early American references supports their recognition as the established arms of the Fairbanks line in New England.
The Fairbanks arms are traditionally associated with the Latin motto Finem respice, meaning “Consider the end.” The phrase reflects a moral emphasis on foresight, consequence, and prudence, themes that align closely with both Puritan thought and the symbolic unity expressed by the crest. While the precise moment of the motto’s adoption cannot be documented with certainty, its long-standing association with the Fairbanks arms in American usage is well established.
Samuel Morse of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through Samuel Morse of Medfield, Massachusetts, who emigrated from England to New England in the mid-seventeenth century. Born in 1576 at Boxted, Essex, he settled first in Dedham and later in Medfield, where he became a substantial landholder and an early participant in the civic life of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Through his daughter Elizabeth Morse, the line descends into several prominent New England families, firmly situating him among the armigerous founders of the region, including others on this page.
The arms attributed to Samuel Morse are recorded in American armorial sources and form the basis of my claim of eligibility:
Argent, a battle-axe in pale Proper between three pellets. Crest–Two battle-axes in saltire Proper, banded with a chaplet of roses. Motto–In Deo non armis fido.
This is a forceful and visually distinctive composition. The battle-axe, placed prominently in pale, is an unusually explicit martial charge, balanced by the three pellets arranged two and one. The stark contrast between the Argent field and the dark roundels gives the shield a severe clarity, while the central axe establishes a strong vertical axis. Pellets, traditionally rendered as black roundels, often function as marks of difference or visual counterweights rather than symbolic statements, and here they frame the principal charge without competing for emphasis.
The crest reinforces the shield’s theme through repetition and elaboration. The two battle-axes in saltire echo the single axe of the shield, transforming it from an individual emblem into a crossed, almost heraldic standard. The axes are banded with a chaplet of roses, a detail that softens the otherwise martial imagery and introduces a note of balance between force and restraint. The use of floral binding in a crest of weapons is uncommon and suggests a deliberate effort to temper martial readiness with moral or spiritual symbolism.
The motto In Deo non armis fido (“I trust in God, not in arms”) provides the interpretive key to the whole achievement. Read together, shield, crest, and motto form a coherent statement: martial capability acknowledged, but ultimate reliance placed elsewhere. This explicit theological framing aligns closely with Puritan sensibilities and distinguishes the Morse arms from purely chivalric or aristocratic martial bearings. The motto is well attested in American armorial sources and is recorded alongside the arms in Crozier’s General Armory.
The Morse arms are recorded in Crozier and have been consistently transmitted in American genealogical and heraldic literature. While no definitive English visitation entry has been conclusively tied to Samuel Morse, the structure and restraint of the arms are fully consistent with late Elizabethan and early Stuart English practice. The explicit pairing of martial charges with a pious motto is characteristic of Protestant armory in the period immediately preceding and following the English Civil Wars. The stability of the blazon, crest, and motto across American sources supports their recognition as the established arms of the Morse family in colonial New England.
Lydia Eliot of Massachusetts
My supplemental membership in the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry is jure sanguinis through Lydia Eliot of Braintree, Massachusetts, baptized at Nazeing, Essex, England, on 1 July 1610, a daughter of Bennet Eliot of Widford and Nazeing and a sister of the Rev. John Eliot, the “Apostle to the Indians” and translator of the first Bible printed in British North America. She married James Penniman at High Laver, Essex, on 26 July 1631, and the couple sailed that year on the second voyage of the Lyon, settling first at Boston and removing to Braintree, where she died in 1676. Her daughter Lydia Penniman married Edward Adams of Medfield, a son of Henry Adams of Braintree, joining this line to the Adams descent documented above.
Lydia Eliot is an uncommon figure in the rolls of the Order. Armigerous women who immigrated to America in the seventeenth century and whose heraldic claims can be documented in their own right are rare. English heraldic records of the period overwhelmingly track arms through men, and the surviving colonial evidence compounds the imbalance: women appear in church admissions, wills, and land records, but seldom in the visitations and confirmations that establish armigerous status. Lydia’s eligibility rests not on a claim through her husband but on her birth into the Eliot family of Nazeing, one of seven siblings, four brothers and three sisters, who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1631 and 1637. Her admission accordingly introduces Lydia Eliot to the Order as a qualifying ancestor in her own name.
The heraldic record for this family comes from the Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which registered the arms in July 2023 as Roll of Arms no. 976 (provisionally numbered), an entry covering John Eliot and his six brothers and sisters collectively. The registration rests on the research of William Wyman Fiske, whose study of the family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 2007 and 2008 traced the Nazeing Eliots to a Hertfordshire and Essex family descending from William Eliot of Cottered, Hertfordshire, with confirmations of arms to members of the family in the sixteenth century and appearances in the visitations of Essex. Because the entry awaits print publication in a forthcoming part of the Roll of Arms, the Committee’s Registrar, Nathaniel L. Taylor, confirmed in writing in June 2026 that Lydia Eliot Penniman is encompassed within the registration, and that correspondence serves as the documentary authority for this application. The Committee registered the arms in its customary vernacular blazon:
Silver, on a fess gules between four barrulets wavy azure a martlet gold.
In conventional heraldic language, the arms are regularized as:
Argent, on a fess Gules between four barrulets wavy Azure, a martlet Or.
The wavy barrulets give the shield an unmistakable maritime rhythm, four narrow blue waves crossing the silver field, against which the red fess reads as a firm horizontal anchor. The single golden martlet on the fess carries particular weight in this composition. In the known English confirmations, one collateral branch of the family bore a single martlet and another bore three, and the Committee concluded that the martlet was understood as a common element of the family’s arms, distinguishing them from the arms confirmed in 1492 to two Eliot brothers of no known relation. The martlet, a stylized swallow depicted without feet, is among the most evocative charges in English heraldry, conventionally associated with younger sons and with those who must make their own way in the world, an apt emblem for a family that removed itself wholesale to New England. By an accident of history, substantially the same arms, undifferenced, were later adopted by the unrelated Massachusetts Eliot family of Andrew Eliot of East Coker, whose descendants included Harvard president Charles William Eliot and the poet T. S. Eliot, and the design now represents Eliot House at Harvard College.
No crest accompanies these arms. The visitation records show that different members of the Hertfordshire and Essex family bore different crests, from which the Committee concluded that there was no common crest to which the extended family subscribed, and its registration is of the shield alone. The absence of a crest here is therefore not a gap in the record but a faithful reflection of it, and my rendering of the arms follows the registration in displaying the shield without one. No motto is recorded for the family in this period.
Additional memberships will be added as they are approved.
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