The Haldane crest is an eagle’s head with the motto ‘suffer’, and it has a good pedigree.


In the Workman’s Manuscript of 1565-6 the arms of Haldane of Gleneagles are shown with two eagle or falcon supporters and the motto ‘suffer, suffer’, although there was no crest yet at this time ((R.R. Stoddart, Scottish Arms being a Collection of Armorial Bearings 1370-1678). But we at least see here these elements associated with the chiefly name. Mungo Haldane of Glenegales registered his arms in 1672 with the Eagle head crest and motto simply ‘suffer’, as it remains to this day.


The eagle imaginary is perhaps unsurprising given the family’s holding of the barony of Gleneagles. The ‘eagles’ in the placename actually refers to a church, coming from the Gaelic ‘eaglais’, which in turn comes from the Latin ‘ecclesia’. Regardless of the actual origin, that never stopped some good visual punning (‘canting’) in heraldry, hence we see the eagle adopted.


The motto may seem a bit grim to our ears, but at the time it meant something more akin to ‘endure’ or be patient. The essential meaning is to encourage you to endure bad times while you await better. 


MKP 21 October 2015