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Following the 2001
Matriculation of the armiger’s Irish Arms at Lyon Court by Lord Lyon
Blair they were re-granted as Scots Arms along with recognition of the
Territorial Designation “of Toberchurn.” The arms are differenced from
the Boswell Arms recorded in volume one of the Register which are
those used in Scotland since at least the 15th century.
The armiger’s paternal ancestor, John Boswell, a younger son of the
Boswells of Balmuto in Fife, left the country about 1650 (some say
post-haste) following the English Civil War. First travelling to the
Netherlands, where his cousin was King Charles’ (I then II)
ambassador, he met and married his wife, Marie, and they took ship for
the Colonies. The family settled in Charles County, Maryland. True or
apocryphal, family tradition has it that in 1660, upon the Restoration
of Charles II, John announced to Marie that they were returning to
Fife, to which she is said to have replied, “Sir, if you think I am
putting myself and our children on a ship for weeks at a time so that
you may return to being a younger son, you may think again, Sir!”
Wisely, he thought again.
The armiger’s parents came to the United States from County Tipperary
in 1900 and settled in New Haven, Connecticut. Her maiden name was
Hyland, which in Gaelic means 'wolf', so the design of the shield
reflects the matronymic by the substitution of the wolf's head for the
middle cinquefoil which otherwise would appear. A further difference
is the cottising Gules of the fess, which is reflective of the
armiger’s American heritage. The "double belting" of the cottise is
indicative both of his military office as a colonel in the Air Force,
and of his public office as Mayor of Glen Osborne, Pennsylvania.
The crest and motto used by most armigerous Boswells have been
retained, a peregrine falcon being appropriate as the mascot of the
United States Air Force Academy, which the armiger attended, and
evocative of flight generally.
This rendition of Arms is by Romilly Squire. |
