Bower Heraldry

Is your Bower line armigerous?. . . Many people wonder if they have a baron, an earl, or even a knight in their past. Little do most researchers realize just how many armorial bearings were issued in those early days. Below are the crests as shown in two well-established sources. Keep in mind though, that not all references are perfect - everything needs to be checked.

Extractions from James Fairbairn's Fairbairn's Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, published in Rutland, Vermont by Charles E. Tuttle Company, page 66:

• Bower, or Booer, London, a wolf's head, erased, ermine.
• Bower, Dorset, a talbot's head, erased, or.
• Bower, Oxenfield, Durham, a human leg, couped at thigh, proper, (charged above knee with a plate, dropping blood, proper.)
• Bower, Thomas-Bowyer, Esquire, of Iwerne House, Dorset, a talbot's head, argent. Hope well and have well.
• Bower, Robert, Esquire, of Welham, Yorks., a human leg, couped at thigh, (transpierced by a broken spear, in bend, proper.) Esse quam videri.
• Bower, England, a demi-moor, proper., holding a drawn bow and arrow, or.
• Bower, a talbot's head, sable.
• Bower, Scotland, a dexter and sinister arm shooting an arrow from a bow, all proper. Ad metam.
• Bower, Cloughton and Bridlington, Yorks., an escallop, argent.
• Bower, a bow, in bend, and a sheaf of arrows, in saltier, all proper. Ad metam.
• Bower, Kellerby, Yorks., a human leg, couped at thigh, (transpierced above knee by a broken spear, in bend, proper.)
• Bower, London, a wolf's head, erased, ermine.
• Bowers, Chichester, Sussex, a lion, passant, argent, collared and chained, or, (in dexter a bow, bent, of the second, stringed, gold.)

From Sir Bernard Burke's The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, 1884 (reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969), pages 107 & 108:

Bower, or Booer (London). Barry of six or and sable as many escutcheons ermine three, two, and one. Crest -- a wolf's head erased ermine.

Bower (Dorsetshire and Wiltshire). Azure on a saltire or, five trefoils slipped vert.

Bower (Kinnettles, Scotland). Vert two bows in full bend paleways proper stringent argent between three sheaves of arrows, two in chief and one in base of the second. Crest -- A dexter and sinister arm shooting an arrow from a bow proper. Motto -- Ad metam.

Bower. Or, a bend vair between two cottises sable. Crest -- a demi Moor proper holding a drawn bow and arrow or.

Bower. Sable a cinquefoil ermine in chief three talbots' heads erased or.

Bower (Welham and Scorton, County York, resident at an early period at Bridlington, in the East Riding of that shire). Sable a human leg couped at the thigh, transpierced above the knee by a broken spear, in bend proper on a canton argent a tower gules. Crest -- A human leg transpierced as in the arms. Motto -- Esse quam videri.

Bower (Iwern House, County Dorset). Sable three talbots' heads couped in chief argent langued gules in the middle point a cinquefoil ermine. Crest -- A talbot's head argent. Motto -- Hope well and have well.

Bower (Broxholme, County York). Quarterly, 1^st and 4^th, azure a human leg couped at the thigh, and pierced bendwise by a broken tilting spear or, a chief argent thereon between two castles sable a pale of the first, charged with a rose of the second, for Bower; 2^nd and 3^rd, argent a chevron engrailed gules, for Chivers. Crest -- On a mount vert a quiver azure garnished or, and filled with arrows proper in saltire with a bow unstrung, also proper.

Bower (Oxenfield, County Durham, Visitation 1615). Gules a human leg couped at the thigh or, vulned and transfixed by a spear broken chevronwise the point downwards to the sinister proper on a canton azure surmounted by the dexter half of the spear the arch of a bridge embattled of the third thereon a castle triple-towered of the second. Crest -- A human leg couped at the thigh proper, charged above the knee with a plate.

Bower. Vert a garb banded and bowed in the head proper.

Bower, or Boure. Sable a cross pattee argent.

Bowers (Chichester). Per pale azure and gules a dove argent beaked and membered or, on a chief of the third two lions passant sable. Crest -- a lion passant argent collared and chained or, holding in the dexter paw a bow, bent gold, stringed of the first.

Bowers (Essex). Ermine on a chief indented sable three (another, two) lions rampant or.

Bowers. Ermine a bend gules.