Armorial Bearings
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
In English law
A device depicted on the (now imaginary) shield of one of the nobility, of which gentry is the lowest degree. The criterion of nobility is the bearing of arms, or armorial bearings, received from ancestry. Armorum appellatione, non solum scuta et gladii et galeae, sed et fustes et lapides continentur. Under the name of arms are included, not only shields and swords and helmets, but also clubs and stones.
Co. Litt. 162.