Heraldry
English authorities on heraldry assign five coats of arms to different branches of the Close family.
The first and most notable of these is that conferred upon Nicholas Close, native of Westmorland, by Henry VI in 1448-9, for his services as architect and overseer of the construction of King’s College, Cambridge. Nicholas Close was a doctor of divinity, one of the six original fellows of King’s College and chancellor of the university.
He was educated at King’s College, Cambridge, being elected a fellow in 1443, and served as a commissioner to Scotland in 1449. He was Archdeacon of Colchester before being promoted to the bishopric of Carlisle in 1450 ; transferred by papal provision in 1452 to the bishopric of Litchfield and Coventry, where he died in October 1452.
Arms: argent, on a chevron sable three passion nails of the first, on a chief sable three roses argent.
Family Crests
The term ‘Family Crest’ is often used interchangeably with ‘Coat of Arms’. Technically that is not correct, as a Coat of Arms was issued to an individual, not a family. A Family ‘Crest’ is a symbol that sits upon the Helm within a Coat of Arms, and was used to distinguish between Arms of members of the same family.
As far as we know, we only have one genuine owner of a crest, namely Barry Close, who was created a baronet in 1812 after years serving in India for the East India Company. His crest is typical of the 3-star variety below. Unfortunately, he died childless, and so the title disappeared.
We come across these from time to time. We’re definitely NOT vouching for the authenticity or accuracy of these, however, if anybody has any others we’d love to see them.
To grab a copy of any image: right mouse and Save Image As …
And now for a bit of housekeeping
See the wood and the trees
We publish everything we have in our fabulous trees, so basically if you can’t find it, we don’t have it. With over 20,000 people, 5,000 families, 12,000 sources, and 69,000 image references currently sat in our database, you’ll appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this over the years.
You can see more in the Close Ancestry Trees.
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