England: Northamptonshire, Rutland and Stamford; English gentry and knightage
Cecil of Wakerley — Sir Richard Cecil and the Wakerley cadet branch
- Family / house
- Cecil of Burghley; Cecil of Exeter; Cecil of Wakerley; Wakerley; Collyweston; Northamptonshire
- Family / cadet branch
- Wakerley branch, issued from Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
- Armiger / bearer
- Sir Richard Cecil of Wakerley, Knt.
- Entity type
- cadet_branch
- Social rank / class
- knight
- Heraldic authority
- College of Arms tradition; supported by Historic England, Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record, parliamentary biography and contemporary genealogical sources
- Record basis
- ancient_usage
- Issued / first recorded
- 1616
- Until / superseded
- 1633
- Historical period
- Late Tudor and early Stuart England
- Grant / record reference
- Knighted at Woodstock in 1616. The Wakerley coat is the inherited Cecil coat; no separate cadency grant or differenced shield has been securely located.
- Blazon
- Barry of ten Argent and Azure, over all six escutcheons Sable, three, two and one, each charged with a lion rampant Argent.
- Plain-English description
- Ten horizontal bands alternating silver and blue, with six black escutcheons arranged three, two and one over the centre, each bearing a silver rampant lion.
- Tinctures
- Argent; Azure; Sable
- Charges / ordinaries
- Six escutcheons; Six lions rampant
- Crest
- No separate personal crest securely established for Sir Richard in the sources consulted. The garb supported by two lions belongs to the Exeter achievement and should not automatically be assigned to every younger Cecil branch.
- Motto
- No separate Wakerley motto securely located.
- Exterior ornaments
- No independent personal achievement for Sir Richard has been securely reconstructed. His status as a knight did not necessarily produce a distinct differenced shield from the Exeter paternal coat.
- Difference / variant
- Younger-son branch of the Exeter Cecils, geographically associated with Wakerley after Sir Richard acquired the manor in 1618. The surviving evidence supports use of the undifferenced Cecil coat rather than a securely documented special cadency mark.
- Source reference
- Historic England, Church of St John the Baptist, Wakerley
- Source
- Open source
Genealogical context
- Father
- Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter and 2nd Baron Burghley
- Mother
- Dorothy Nevill, daughter of John Nevill, 4th Baron Latimer, and Lady Lucy Somerset
- Spouse(s)
- Elizabeth Cope, daughter of Sir Anthony Cope, 1st Baronet of Hanwell; married 23 March 1602/3
- Children / next generation
- David Cecil, later 3rd Earl of Exeter and 4th Baron Burghley; Elizabeth Cecil, married John Havers of Stockerston, Leicestershire
Documented depiction
Notes / sources
The registry should treat Wakerley primarily as a territorial cadet-branch designation, not as proof of a newly granted coat. The arms are the Exeter Cecil paternal coat in a form consistent with younger-son use, but no direct patent or heraldic visitation entry establishing a unique Wakerley difference has been located.