Nossiter Heraldry
Heraldry lends itself to artistic creativity, from the traditional crafts of hand painting on vellum with gold embellishments to digital vector graphics, and is used across diverse mediums - engraved signet rings, silver crest badges, ornate woodcarving, in stone, plaster, ceramics, glass and fabrics. It is, at its core, a celebration of art and culture; of visual design, authentic heritage, symbolism and craftsmanship. One of the great joys of being an armiger is in engaging with a community of remarkable and talented heraldic artists, embracing their creativity and enjoying their interpretations of this living art form.
Heraldry is a noble science and a fascinating hobby – but essentially it is FUN!J. P. Brooke-Little, Richmond Herald, 1970
Designing a coat of arms, within the constraints of heraldic practice and reflecting personal and family identity with simplicity and elegance, is an art in itself. Acquiring arms, whether by petition to a heraldic authority or through free assumption, is a deeply personal experience - insightful, imaginative and ultimately affirming. Heraldic authorities and artists translate individual stories, values, ancestry and other connections into a visual language rooted in a thousand-year tradition.
A grant of arms is both a personal identifier of the armiger and, through letters patent, an inheritable deed. Surnames hold particular significance for their hereditary role, extending to shared clan or family symbolism and conveying a thread of continuity and lineage. This article provides a glimpse into the Nossiter name and history that inspired a key celestial part of the design of my arms.
Mine are the first arms granted to anyone of this name and I am honoured to have received a grant of arms from Dr Joseph Morrow, Lord Lyon King of Arms. Yet I am not the first Nossiter armiger - her story is one worth telling and her name deserving of justice.
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The adjacent hamlets of Wynford Eagle and Toller Fratrum, to the west of Dorchester in an area between the River Frome and chalk uplands, were associated with the Nossiter name for hundreds of years but the surname probably originated to the north of Dartmouth, at Noss.
In the 16th century, the Nossiter name was found in connection with Sir Edward Denny (1547-1600) and his cousin Sir Walter Raleigh (c.1553-1618), explorers and privateers who were sailing across the Atlantic in the age when Drake’s heraldic device was first granted. The Nossiter name crops up on Portland Isle during Raleigh’s tenancy of Portland Castle and Edward Nossiter, whose eldest children were christened in Cheshunt, was connected with Sir Edward Denny. Edward Nossiter married Anne Pacient in London in 1584, but also named Malden and the Cinque Port of Rye as home during the 1580s and 1590s. On the record of his marriage, his profession is given as Lanionem, suggesting he was a barber-surgeon, vital for treating wounds, injuries, and disease on privateering voyages.
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The first Nossiter armiger was Mrs Jane Nossiter (1707-1755), widow of Lieutenant Samuel Nossiter (1701-1741). Samuel Nossiter was a gentleman of independent means and was First Lieutenant and Quarter Master in the Sixth Regiment of Marines under the command of The Honourable Lewis Ducie Moreton (d.1741, the brother of Baron Ducie). Samuel died following the attack on Cartegena in the War of Jenkins’ Ear. The assault on Fort St. Lazar took the lives of Captain Adair and Lieutenants Prideaux and Medlicott of the Sixth Marines. Samuel died shortly afterwards, either wounded or from the outbreak of yellow fever. Tobias Smollett described the assault in his novel Roderick Random: with musketry only, “They behaved like their own country mastiffs, which shut their eyes, run into the jaws of a bear, and have their heads crushed for their valour…”
Samuel’s brother John Nossiter (1703-1766) was a Private Gentleman in the Fourth Troop of Horse Guards 1741-1746 and fought at the Battle of Dettingen, the last time a reigning British monarch (King George II) led troops in combat. John was admitted as a Chelsea Pensioner in 1747 after he had “both his wrists put out and his jawbone broke at a review.” He was then working as a brewer.
Samuel and John’s father, John Nossiter, was a Cornet in a Regiment of Dragoons 1717-1718 under the command of Brigadier William Newton. Newton was Deputy Governor of Chester Castle before his death in 1730, when the post was appointed to James Cholmondeley, brother of the 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley. Perhaps it was through the Brigadier that the Nossiter family came to know Earl Cholmondeley.
Widow Jane Nossiter of Mount Street, Westminster was a sophisticated, well educated and singularly independent gentlewoman of London society in the mid-eighteenth century. Gossips hinted at a relationship between her and the Earl of Cholmondeley. Cholmondeley had married Lady Mary Walpole, daughter of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, in 1723. Lady Mary died at Aix-en-Provence in 1731 and Lord Cholmondeley never remarried. One notorious gossip referred to Jane as Lord Cholmondeley’s “favourite” housekeeper, implying that Jane’s daughter, the actress Maria Isabella Nossiter (c.1735-1758), was actually the Earl’s own offspring. Jane was never his housekeeper. Undoubtedly he was instrumental in securing Jane’s appointment as Keeper of the Exchequer Bill Office in 1740, which brought her a significant and independent annual income of £100. Samuel and Jane had known the Earl for years and named their son George Robert Nossiter (b.1739) after Cholmondeley’s two sons. Lord Cholmondeley was George’s guardian after Jane’s untimely death in Bath and secured George’s appointment as Constable of Chester Castle in 1759. Jane died on the 5th of December 1755, aged 48, “within affortnight” of making her will. On the 6th of December Maria was to perform in Otway’s ‘The Orphan’ at Covent Garden but understandably did not appear; due to a “sudden Indisposition”.
The seal Jane applied to her will defies English convention, with a crest above the arms. The shield is difficult to make out but the crest is clearly a stag sejant (like the crest in Jane Austen’s family). As a widow she was entitled to use her late husband’s arms, if he was an armiger, or alternatively the arms of her father, explicitly without the use of either crest. Born Jane Green, the stag suggests that the seal shows her father’s arms. Stags feature in heraldry of the Greene family of London brewers and a Stag trippant was the logo of their ‘Stag Brewery’ in Pimlico.
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In 1932, Australian yachtsman Harold Nossiter (1875-1956) won the Lipton Cup, one of Australia’s most coveted yachting trophies. Harold Nossiter was planning retirement from his Sydney-based business, importing whisky, in order to circumnavigate the world. In preparation for the voyage, his son Dick Nossiter became the second Australian to qualify for the Yachtmasters Certificate and would be responsible for navigation with a sextant, chronometer, nautical almanac and tables to accurately guide their voyage. A yacht, custom built for the circumnavigation, was launched in 1935, named Sirius after the brightest of all navigation stars.
Harold wrote two books giving detailed accounts of the voyage, from Sydney to London in Northward Ho! and their return voyage in Southward Ho! Returning to Sydney Harbour, having sailed 28,145 miles, Harold Nossiter and his sons Dick and Harold jnr. became the first Australians to circumnavigate the world in a yacht.
In 1953, unknown to the Nossiter family, Mr T. J. Palmer, Commodore of the Royal Prince Albert Yacht Club wrote to Prime Minister Robert Menzies recommending a knighthood for Harold Nossiter “the most outstanding yachtsman in Australia”. He observed that Harold Nossiter’s achievements included pioneering use of the Bermudian rig and the only books written on the subject of round the world cruising. Federal M.P. Harry Turner proposed that an honour be awarded at the conclusion of the Royal Visit in 1954 or upon Her Majesty’s Birthday, pointing out the Duke of Edinburgh’s own interest in the sport and sailing’s significance for recruitment and training in the Royal Australian Navy. However, no honour was forthcoming. “Sir Harold Nossiter” was not to be.
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