Coat of Arms & Family Crest Details
Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, London: Harrison & Sons, 1884
Blazon (the actual original written record)“Ar. a stag's head erased gu. betw. the horns a pheon az”
A record of documented arms, meaning and origin, researched for the Coult family of Scotland.
Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, London: Harrison & Sons, 1884
Blazon (the actual original written record)“Ar. a stag's head erased gu. betw. the horns a pheon az”
The Coult arms were recorded in Edinburgh, c. 1748.
Edinburgh was the seat of Scotland's government, its courts and its heralds. Families with business there settled nearby, and being close to where arms were recorded is exactly why so many of them appear.
This is where the arms were entered in the register. Families often moved to other parts of the country, so the same name can turn up in more than one region.
Scottish heraldry is unique because it treats a coat of arms as a piece of personal property protected by law. Only one person can own a specific design at any given time. When a family grows, the head keeps the original shield while other relatives must apply for their own distinct version with slight changes to prove their specific identity.
The surname Coult is deeply rooted in the history of the Scottish Lowlands, with records confirming the family’s presence in Edinburgh as early as 1748. The name is generally considered a variant of the older name Colt, which likely began as a descriptive nickname for a person who was energetic or youthful, much like a young horse. During the eighteenth century, members of the Coult family in Edinburgh were often integrated into the professional and academic life of the city, contributing to the vibrant intellectual culture of the Scottish Enlightenment. As the family grew, they established themselves within the urban landscape of Scotland’s capital, moving away from rural roots to become part of the growing middle class. By tracing their movements through local parish registers and legal documents, historians can see how the family name evolved alongside the changing social structures of eighteenth-century Scotland.
A piece of land or a small farmstead.
