ARMORIAL BEARINGS

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. A r m o r u m appellatione, non solum scuta et gladil et galeae, sed et fustes ei lapides continentur. Under the name of arms are included, not only shields and swords and helmets, but also clubs and stones. Co. Litt. 162.