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Crest Meaning: Carnegie

Carnegie Clan Crest

Carnegie. Here’s a more unusual crest, a winged thunderbolt.

In Ancient Greece the eagle and thunderbolt were symbols of Zeus, and this continued with the Romans for Jupiter. Because of their associations, the combined emblem of winged lightening was adopted by the Roman legions, and it was a common sight on the shields of soldiers.

In the Renaissance period the symbol was reived and could be found in a number of places, including coins. It is not clear when the Carnegies adopted this symbol. It was certainly in use by the 1690s, when Sir George MacKenzie noted it in his Families of Scotland manuscript. It is shown on the 1700 the seal of James Carnegie, 5th Earl of Southesk, published in Mémoires du comte de Gramont.

This crest may have originated when Sir David Carnegie was made a lord in 1616, or an earl in 1633. William Fraser seems to trace the origins of the crest to this man, although there was some variation between him and his successor. The first earl had a right hand grasping a winged thunderbolt, or just a thunderbolt, while the second earl just had the thunderbolt.

On the one hand the seal evokes the Roman world, while on the other, combined with the motto ‘Dred God’, it is meant to evoke the awesome power of Jupiter, meaning the Christian God. It was sometimes latinised to ‘Deum timete’.

MKP 28 October 2020

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