Family / house

Balfour of Balbirnie; Balfour of Dovan; Balfour of Lalathan; Balfour-Ramsay; Whitehill

Family / cadet branch

Balbirnie, Fife

Armiger / bearer

Robert Balfour of Balbirnie and the Balbirnie family

Entity type

family

Social rank / class

landed_gentry

Heraldic authority

Lord Lyon King of Arms; Scottish heraldic tradition

Record basis

matriculation

Issued / first recorded

1672

Historical period

Seventeenth-century Scottish landed gentry

Grant / record reference

Robert Balfour matriculated his arms at the office of the Lord Lyon in the period 1672–1677.

Blazon

Argent, on a chevron engrailed Sable between three mullets Sable an otter's head erased Argent.

Plain-English description

On a silver shield is a black engrailed chevron between three black stars, with a silver otter's head placed on the chevron.

Tinctures

Argent; Sable

Charges / ordinaries

Chevron engrailed; Three mullets; Otter's head erased

Crest

Not securely established in the sources used for this record.

Motto

Not securely established for the Balbirnie record; Virtus ad aethera tendit is associated with the later Whittingehame and Balfour peerage branch.

Difference / variant

This is the documented Balbirnie form from which the nineteenth-century Whittingehame and Balgonie/Newton Don branches descended. The Whittingehame form is materially the same shield but is represented in later sources with three otters' heads of the field and the associated palm-tree crest.

Source reference

Landed Families of Britain and Ireland, Balfour of Balbirnie

Source

Open source

Genealogical context

Father

George Balfour of Balbirnie

Mother

Anne, daughter of Sir Michael Arnot, 1st Baronet

Spouse(s)

Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Preston of Airdrie, 2nd Baronet

Children / next generation

George Balfour of Balbirnie; James Balfour; Anna Balfour

Notes / sources