More heraldry from Virginia. These arms, Sable a horse forcene Argent, are carved on the tomb of the writer James Branch Cabell (1879-1958), once again at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va. J. B. Cabell was a descendant of Dr William Cabell, who came to Virginia from Warminster, Wilts, in about 1725. He brought with him an engraved plate bearing the other arms shown, a K and a bell (Cabell) connected by a cable. But when J. B. Cabells cousin, Nathaniel Francis Cabell, was researching the family history in the late 19th century, he found a church window in Frome, Somt, showing several examples of the arms with the horse impaled with other arms, one of them the same as on Dr Cabells engraving. Refusing to believe that the K-bell rebus could be a real coat of arms, Nathaniel concluded that the one with the horse was the real arms--which Dr. Williams forefathers had ceased to use when they descended from the gentry into the wool trade--and reasoned that now that the Cabells were gentry again, they should resume the use of the real arms, which they did. It doesnt seem to have occurred to him that the window represented a marriage between a husband named Cabell whose family used the horse, and a wife whose family used the K-bell. Note that the horse (Late Latin caballus) is also a cant on the name Cabell.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 12:50:08 +0000
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