Another griffon! Unlike Forsyth with its blue griffon, this one is ‘proper’ in the heraldic blazon, meaning it should be coloured in its natural colours. I’ve not seen one in the wild, but tradition is griffons should be shown gold.  

The motto is ‘be it fast’, (in other words, let it be fast). There’s suspicious parallel with the Leslie crest with its griffon and the motto ‘grip fast’.

As with all the griffons (eagle/lion hybrids) we’ve seen before, James Coat’s 1725 Dictionary of Heraldry says that griffons were used ‘to express strength and swiftness join'd together, and extraordinary Vigilancy to preserve things they are entrusted with’. Swiftness being a quality that chimes well with the motto here.

The arms of Fotheringham were matriculated in the Lyon Register in 1677. The griffon is recorded in Nisbett’s System of Heraldry, although no motto is mentioned for the chiefly line of Powrie. The cadet branch of Lawhill had the motto ‘be it fast’. By the time of Alexander Deuchar’s 1817 British Crests the Powrie line had adopted this motto.

The family legend, albeit a-historical, is for a Hungarian origin. Several Scottish families with the same claim, such as Crichton, deployed a dragon as their crest, although the Fotheringham seem to have stuck to the griffon.

MKP 14 October 2024