Family / house

Cecil; Gascoyne-Cecil; Salisbury; Rockley

Family / cadet branch

Rockley of Lytchett Heath

Armiger / bearer

Evelyn Cecil, 1st Baron Rockley, GBE, PC

Entity type

cadet_branch

Social rank / class

peer

Heraldic authority

College of Arms; letters patent creating the barony

Record basis

grant

Issued / first recorded

11 January 1934

Until / superseded

1 April 1941

Historical period

Late interwar Britain

Grant / record reference

Letters patent creating Baron Rockley, 11 January 1934; London Gazette, issue 34015, 16 January 1934, p. 386

Blazon

Barry of ten Argent and Azure, over all six escutcheons Sable, three, two and one, each charged with a lion rampant Argent, and for difference a crescent Gules charged with another crescent Or. Crest: Six arrows in saltire Or, barbed and flighted Argent, girt together with a belt Gules buckled and garnished Or, over the arrows a morion cap Proper. Supporters: On either side a lion Ermine gorged with a collar Or, pendent therefrom an escutcheon, the dexter Sable a lion rampant Argent and the sinister Gules three tilting-spears erect Or headed Argent. Motto: SERO SED SERIO.

Plain-English description

The Salisbury Cecil coat is marked by a red crescent carrying a smaller gold crescent. The crest retains the Cecil arrows and morion cap. The ermine lion supporters each wear a gold collar and suspend a shield: one black with a silver lion and one red with three gold spears.

Tinctures

Argent; Azure; Sable; Gules; Or; Ermine; Proper

Charges / ordinaries

six escutcheons charged with lions rampant; double crescent; six arrows; morion cap; ermine lions; black lion shield; three tilting-spears

Crest

Six arrows in saltire Or, barbed and flighted Argent, girt together with a Belt Gules buckled and garnished Or, over the arrows a Morion Cap Proper.

Motto

SERO SED SERIO

Exterior ornaments

Two ermine lion supporters, each collared Or and bearing a pendant shield. The achievement is appropriate to a British baron and was later inherited by the succeeding Barons Rockley.

Difference / variant

A distinct Rockley cadet achievement derived from the Salisbury Cecil arms. Its principal heraldic difference is the Gules crescent charged with another crescent Or; its supporters also display the Rockley-specific black-lion and three-spears shields.

Source reference

Cracroft's Peerage, Rockley, Baron (UK, 1934)

Source

Open source

Genealogical context

Father

Eustace Brownlow Henry Gascoyne-Cecil

Mother

Lady Gertrude Louisa Scott

Spouse(s)

Hon. Alicia Margaret Tyssen-Amherst

Children / next generation

Robert William Evelyn Cecil, 2nd Baron Rockley; Hon. Margaret Gertrude Cecil; Hon. Maud Katharine Alicia Cecil

Documented depiction

Open depiction source

Notes / sources