The fact that he and his descendants have been minor nobility (lairds) beneath the unique Celtic Earls of Lennox and later Stewart Earls of Lennox provides us with early data of the household. The time that we first encounter Walter Spreull is on the daybreak of fashionable surname utilization in Scotland. We find Walter Spreull listed as a witness to a land grant made by the 3rd Earl of Lennox round 1245 CE. We additionally discover him talked about as Walterum Sprewl in a latinized form in one other similarly early doc.


The cloud, the symbol of the ethereal heights of heaven, represents the quality of higher reality. They are very seldom used as bearings on arms but fairly incessantly arms are represented as issuing from them, notably in French arms. Because the herald of the daybreak, the cock is symbolic of the solar. The celestial crown closely resembles and eastern crown, having eight sharp, triangular rays, only 5 of that are seen m, with the addition of a five-pointed star on every ray. It was an ornament that incessantly represented the achievements of deceased ladies and it was additionally often given to people or institutions related with the church. The reversed crescent is a crescent with the horns turned down. The time period increscent indicates a crescent with the horns dealing with the observer’s left, and decrescent is a crescent dealing with the observer’s proper. The crocodile was a mysterious and legendary beast to most individuals in historic occasions and it was a robust emblem of fury and power. The uncertainty of the drawings signifies that in reference to the image in heraldry, the crocodile is often interchanged with alligator. It happens as a crest and Holy Roman Emperor a supporter but is, nevertheless, an unusual heraldic cost. The crown is an emblem of victory, sovereignty, and empire in heraldry.


Chains are a symbolic illustration of reward for acceptable and weighty service. They're incessantly met with in continental heraldry, significantly in southern France and Spain, and they're also accessories to more widespread prices, for example the portcullis. They are often accompanied by crowns and collars, which means that the proprietor of that image is chained by a sense of obligation to the folks that he serves or guidelines. Because of this, chains and collars are also marks of honour for sheriffs and mayors, and formerly, for knights. A chaplet is a wreath without stems or ribbon, product of oak, laurel or other leaves, and carrying flowers, normally roses.


We must always at this level define more carefully what we mean by Heraldry. For our purposes it's using a defined association of a (largely) restricted set of graphical symbols to represent familial or company identity. This use and association of symbols is uniquely and fully described by a special objective language known as ‘blazon’, i.e. the graphical image and its description in the language of blazon are wholly equal. I do not have space right here to discuss the long and colourful of heraldry, especially since this is greater than adequately lined in many different works (see bibliography). We should always nevertheless bear in mind that heraldry originated within the late eleventh and twelfth centuries and continues in use to the current time; and that the language of blazon seems to have been largely settled by the mid 12th century.