-240x240w.jpg "Handbags and Sporranbags")
A unique crest for the Hamiltons, featuring a ducal crown
and an oak tree being cut down by a long saw. The crown simply refers to the chiefs
status in the peerage.
Through here means something like ‘timber’ does for modern
woodcutters.
G. Harvey Johnston’s The Heraldry of the Hamiltons of 1909 gives this account:
“The story runs that "Sir Gilbert de Hamilton,"
flying from the Court of King Edward II. of England in 1323, was closely
pursued, and to escape capture, he and his servant changed clothes with two
woodcutters, and set to work. When the pursuers passed without noticing them,
Hamilton cried to his servant " Through "; hence the origin of Crest
and Motto. The weak spots in the story are that Sir Gilbert's son was in
Scotland twenty-seven years earlier, and also that the Crest of Sir John
Hamilton, which appears on his Seal in 1388, was a boar's head. The tree with
the horn of the antelope supporter doing duty as a saw was first used by the
first Lord Hamilton, and is shown on his Seal in 1477. The Motto appears first
on the Seal of the Duke of Chatelherault in 1560.”
The story Johnston dismisses is clearly something made up
after the fact to explain the unusual symbols.
We can only guess what the original intention was, but we presumably have a symbol meant to evoke ideas of cutting through difficult problems. The tree appearing in 1477 goes back to the time of James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton. When he was made Lord Hamilton in 1445 he changed the name of his seat from ‘Orchard’ to ‘Hamilton’. This might have something to do with the crest.
Johnston gives 1525 as the first appearance of tree and saw in the Hamilton iconography. That was the time of James Hamilton, the 1st Earl of Arran, an astute politician and naval commander. This symbol feels quite fitting for such a man to adopt.
