At first, armorial bearings were probably like surnames, assumed by each warrior at his freewill and pleasure, his purpose being to distinguish himself and his followers from others. It is not known exactly when the bearing of Coats of Arms first became hereditary, but heraldry did not come into general use until the crusades.

The earliest heraldic document, still in existence today, is The Roll of Arms of the Barons and Knights of the Reign of Henry III. At a later date, the granting of arms became the prerogative of the King, but this was subject to wide-scale abuse.

In the early part of the sixteenth century, important reforms were instituted. Royal commissions were instructed to investigate and record the use of Coats of Arms and to require people to produce authority for bearing and using Coats of Arms. Their decisions are recorded in documents called Heralds’ Visitations, which set forth the principal hereditary Coats of Arms.

All persons who can prove descent from an ancestor whose armorial ensigns have been acknowledged in any one of the Visitations are entitled to carry those arms by right of inheritance. However when no such descent can be shown, the person must, if possible, prove himself to be descended from someone whose right has been admitted from a grantee, or he must become a grantee himself. The customers on the whole do not have this right and what we actually supply are reproduction Coats of Arms awarded to a family name.