The Bardwells’ leaping goat

One of the heraldic devices recorded on the now-lost brass memorial to William Derehaugh at St George’s church in Great Bromley has come as a surprise.

Whereas the Derehaugh grave in the church at Orford shows the Derehaugh’s arms with martlets on it,^[1]The resting place of William Derehaugh, son of Edward Derehaugh of Markshall, Essex. William was the son of Edward Derehaugh and Julian Cardinall. and while the same arms are recorded in the pedigree for Derehaugh in The Visitations of Suffolk, this was not, apparently on the brass. Richard Symonds, an antiquarian who visited churches in Essex, writing down the inscriptions from memorials and sketching the heraldic devices, recorded two shields on William Derehaugh’s brass.^[2]I would need to ask the College of Arms permission to show Symonds’ sketch. One is a goat salient, back legs both on the ground and front legs in the air, with what looks like a plant of some kind beside it. The second blank on the dexter side (for the man – so presumably would’ve been the goat), and with the Cardinall arms on the sinister (for the wife – showing that William Derehaugh was married to a Cardinall).

Why did William have a goat salient on his memorial?

While goats salient crop up on crests – that is the device that goes above a shield on a coat of arms – they aren’t very common on shields. I’ve only been able to find two references to it. One is on the arms of the Bardwells of Bardwell, Tostock, Fakenham, and Norton, the Capravilles/Chevrevilles of Wix, Haverhill, and Reydon,^[3]Joan Corder’s A Dictionary of Suffolk Arms records these families under the heading for “1 goat”, on columns 29 and 30. and the Bucktons of Bellingholm, Northumberland. Bearing in mind the Derehaughs were a Suffolk family, the Buckton connection seems a little unlikely (though of course, not impossible). The Boyntons have the same silver leaping goat with a red background on their arms as the Bardwells, quartered with Boynton, but no one seems to know where the goat part of their arms comes from – perhaps they had Bardwell ancestors? The Capraville/Chevreville use of the goat salient seems to only have been on Mediaeval seals relating to land the family was selling, so again, seems unlikely for a brass dating from 1560. This leaves us with the Bardwells.

Surviving examples of the leaping goat

You can still see the Bardwells’ arms in a stained glass window at the church of Bardwell in Suffolk, commemorating Sir William de Bardwell/Berdewell, 1367-1434, a benefactor to the church. Gules, a goat salient argent, armed or – in other words, a red background, showing a silver goat with gold horns.

Another appears on the brass memorial of Sir Richard Fitz Lewes at Ingrave in Essex. His first wife was Alice, daughter of John Harleston of Shimpling, Suffolk, and her heraldic mantle shows four different coats of arms. At the top left, there is a goat salient.^[4]The other three show Heath (three roundels), Pagenham (quarterings), and Clopton (a bend between two dancetty cotices with an ermine tail on the bend). Alice was a descendant of the Bardwells.

There is a brass at West Harling church in Norfolk dating back to 1508, showing William Bardwell and his wife, but there is no heraldic device on it, despite the inscription saying that he was an armiger.

Bardwell links

While we know that William’s father was Robert Derehaugh, who died in 1558 or 1559,^[5]April 2021: I’ll know more when I see the inquisition post mortem, we don’t know who his mother was. She could have been a Bardwell, and William’s arms therefore featured the goat salient with a twist – the tree or plant from Symonds’ sketch.

The Bardwells crops up in a couple of other families who are connected with the Cardinalls and the Derehaughs, thanks to the marriages of two sisters, Alice and Margaret Harleston. Margaret Berdewell, from the family who owned Bardwell Manor in Bardwell, north Suffolk, was the wife of John Harleston. She died in 1459, and her son John inherited. He died very soon afterwards, and the manor passed to his sister Margaret. Margaret was the wife of Thomas Darcy of Danbury, Essex. The Darcys are linked to the Cardinalls via professional relationships, and sideways through the marriage of Lettice Knightley/Cardinall’s brother George to Katherine Pyrton. Katherine’s brother Edmund married Constance Darcy, the daughter of Thomas Darcy (1506-1558) and Elizabeth de Vere (d1565).

Margaret’s sister, Alice, married Sir Richard Fitz Lewes^[6]This information is from vol 1 of Copinger’s The Manors of Suffolk, on Bardwell Manor. – she and her husband (along with his subsequent three wives) are depicted on the brass at Ingrave, as mentioned above. Another Bardwell bride had a daughter called Emme, who married William Brond of Boxford.^[7]The Norfolk Visitation has the Brond coat of arms, which incorporates the Bardwells’ leaping goat. The Bronds are related to the Cutlers.

The (currently unknown) wife of Robert Derehaugh – and therefore the mother of William, who was buried at Great Bromley, as well as Edward of Markshall, and Robert of Grey’s Inn – had been first of all married to a man called Robert Cutler.^[8]Various wills in the family show that Joane Cutler, Robert Cutler’s daughter, was the half-sister of the Derehaughs, so therefore they must have shared the same mother. Robert Cutler, and this mystery wife, had three children. Their son, also called Robert, had several children too. His son – yet another Robert Cutler, just to confuse things – married a wife called Amy or Ann Brond, daughter of John Brond of Boxford, and his daughter Elizabeth married Benjamin Brond of Swardeston, Norfolk, from the same family.^[9]See the Cutler pedigree in The Suffolk Visitations – fittingly, the Derhaugh’s pedigree is on the facing page. Robert’s wife is named Amy in the visitation, but the transcription of … Continue reading

Family connections are seen over and over again in marriages of the gentry. Considering that the Bronds had a link with the Bardwells, I would not be at all surprised if the unknown woman who married both Robert Derehaugh and Robert Cutler was a Bardwell, or descended from them. I cannot find a Bardwell pedigree in any visitations, however, so it’s rather difficult to untangle.

First published: 5 April 2021