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 lion ramp. gu. over all a chev. or”
A record of documented arms, meaning and origin, researched for the Harries family of Wales.
Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, London: Harrison & Sons, 1884
Blazon (the actual original written record)“Ar. a lion ramp. gu. over all a chev. or”
The Harries arms were recorded in Wales, c. 1647.
Arms such as these were typically recorded in Denbigh.
Denbighshire was north Welsh country of hills and small estates. Land was held by a great many families rather than a few, and each holding brought its own claim to a coat of arms.
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.
English heraldry allowed arms to be shared by all legitimate descendants of the original owner. These symbols were treated as personal property that moved through the generations to all children. While the eldest son kept the original design, other family members could use the same shield without needing to change it or register their own unique versions.
The surname Harries is a patronymic name, which means it originated as a way to identify a person as the son of Harry. Harry was a common medieval form of the name Henry, a name that became very popular in Britain after the Norman Conquest. By the time the Harries family was established in Denbigh in 1647, the name had evolved from a simple description into a permanent family identifier passed down through generations. During the seventeenth century, families in North Wales often lived in tight-knit communities where local records, such as parish registers and property deeds, began to solidify these surnames. Living in a historic market town like Denbigh suggests that early members of the family were likely involved in the local trade or agricultural life that defined the region during the mid-1600s. As the family grew, they helped anchor the name within the social fabric of Denbighshire, contributing to the long history of Welsh naming traditions.
Derived from the Germanic name Heimirich meaning home ruler.
