Family / house

Cecil; Gascoyne-Cecil; Salisbury; Rockley of Lytchett Heath

Family / cadet branch

Rockley of Lytchett Heath, descended from Lord Eustace Brownlow Henry Gascoyne-Cecil

Armiger / bearer

Evelyn Cecil, 1st Baron Rockley, and the hereditary Barons Rockley

Entity type

cadet_branch

Social rank / class

peer

Heraldic authority

College of Arms; Letters Patent creating the barony dated 11 January 1934, as recorded by Cracroft's Peerage

Record basis

grant

Issued / first recorded

1934-01-11

Historical period

Twentieth century; hereditary barony created in 1934

Grant / record reference

Letters Patent, 11 January 1934; Baron Rockley of Lytchett Heath in the County of Dorset

Blazon

Barry of ten Argent and Azure over all six Escutcheons three, two and one Sable, each charged with a Lion rampant of the first, 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 Gold, 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 shield is the Cecil coat: ten alternating silver and blue horizontal bars with six black escutcheons, each bearing a silver rampant lion. The Rockley cadet difference is a red crescent over the shield, itself charged with a smaller gold crescent. The crest combines six gold arrows with a red belt and morion cap. The supporters are ermine lions bearing small shields, one with the Cecil lion and the other with the Amherst tilting-spears. The motto means 'Late, but in earnest.'

Tinctures

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

Charges / ordinaries

Six escutcheons Sable; Six lions rampant Argent; Crescent Gules charged with Crescent Or; Six arrows in saltire; Belt Gules; Morion cap; Lions Ermine; Cecil lion escutcheon; Three tilting-spears

Crest

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

Motto

SERO SED SERIO

Exterior ornaments

Hereditary baronial achievement with crest, supporters and motto. The supporters are not evidence of a separate personal grant to every cadet descendant.

Difference / variant

A Salisbury-derived Cecil cadet coat. The ordinary Cecil/Salisbury field is retained, but the Rockley branch uses the red crescent charged with a gold crescent as its principal difference. The achievement also incorporates the Rockley-specific crest, supporters and motto granted or recorded with the barony.

Source reference

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

Source

Open source

Genealogical context

Father

Lord Eustace Brownlow Henry Gascoyne-Cecil

Mother

Lady Gertrude Louisa Scott

Spouse(s)

Hon. Alicia Margaret Tyssen-Amherst, later Baroness Rockley

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