England: Essex and Lancashire
Gascoyne of Bifrons, Barking and Childwall Hall
- Family / house
- Gascoyne; Gascoyne of Bifrons; Gascoyne of Childwall Hall; Barking; Essex; Childwall; Lancashire
- Family / cadet branch
- Gascoyne of Bifrons House, Barking, Essex, subsequently of Childwall Hall, Lancashire
- Armiger / bearer
- Gascoyne of Bifrons and Childwall Hall
- Entity type
- family
- Social rank / class
- armigerous_gentry
- Heraldic authority
- College of Arms tradition as reproduced in Debrett's; supported by county history, Childwall memorial evidence and historical armorial compilations
- Record basis
- recording
- Issued / first recorded
- 18th century
- Until / superseded
- 1821
- Historical period
- Georgian England
- Blazon
- Argent, on a pale Sable a conger's head erased and erect Or, charged with an ermine spot.
- Plain-English description
- A silver shield bearing a broad black vertical stripe, charged with an upright gold conger-eel's head cut off at the neck and marked with a black ermine spot.
- Tinctures
- Argent; Sable; Or
- Charges / ordinaries
- Pale Sable; Conger's head erased and erect Or; Ermine spot
- Crest
- A conger's head erased and erect Or, charged with an ermine spot; earlier Childwall evidence also records a demi-lucy Or issuing from a ducal coronet.
- Motto
- RAISON POUR GUIDE
- Exterior ornaments
- No independent hereditary supporters are securely evidenced for the Gascoyne family before its quartering by the Marquesses of Salisbury. An esquire's helm and red-and-silver mantling are recorded on the Childwall Church memorial for Bamber Gascoyne the younger.
- Difference / variant
- The Bifrons and Childwall line uses the conger-head-on-pale design also found in older Gascoigne/Gascoyne heraldic traditions, but the specific Bifrons form is distinguished by the erased and erect head charged with an ermine spot. It should not be collapsed with the separate Gascoigne families of Gawthorpe, Parlington or other Yorkshire branches.
- Source reference
- Wikimedia Commons file description
- Source
- Open source
Genealogical context
- Father
- The documented immediate paternal founder is Sir Crisp Gascoyne; earlier ancestry is not treated as established here.
- Mother
- Margaret Bamber, daughter and co-heiress of Dr John Bamber of Bifrons House
- Spouse(s)
- Mary Green, wife of Bamber Gascoyne the elder; Sarah Bridget Frances Price, wife of Bamber Gascoyne the younger
- Children / next generation
- Bamber Gascoyne the elder; Joseph Gascoyne; Ann Gascoyne; Margaret Gascoyne; Isaac Gascoyne
Documented depiction
Notes / sources
The conger-head design has older Gascoigne analogues, including Yorkshire and northern visitation forms, but the Bifrons-specific addition of the ermine spot should be retained as the distinguishing feature of this branch.