The next stratum of American history brings us to the administration of James Mon roe, of the ancient Monroe or Munroe family, noted for their studiousness and mildness of character. The family escutcheon of gold was of English origin and contained a spread eagle. In beak a sprig of laurel proper; crest same as arms; motto, God? Crest eagle's head erased gules.
The ancestors of Andrew Jackson were Scotch by blood, though they came from the geography of Ireland and in 1765 we find the Jackson family. Generations ago these people were prominent in the wars of Great Britain and the mark of distinction which came to them consisted of a silver shield with a fess or bar, with three birds blazoned; the helmet had perched upon it a bird and a shell sup ported the shield. The motto, "I move care fully? Then comes John Quincy Adams with an armorial device. He inherited a love for the heraldic and early in his life used the Adams crest as a book mark, but later in life he em ployed in connection with the crest a shield, upon which were blazoned the arms of his ancestors, both paternal and maternal. He was a deep student of things heraldic and while he was Secretary of State he devised and used—contrary to any authority— a private device as the seal of the Department of State. It was his heraldic idea of the constellation Lyra, infrequently referred to in the act creat ing our national flag, the lines reading "Thir teen stars, representing a new constellation? See FLAG OF UNITED STATES.
The name Harrison throughout national life is redolent of patriotic intellectual greatness. The family insignia was "a golden shield upon which were two ermine bars and, spangled on shield, five silver stars, with a lion as a crest? President Tyler's wife was a Miss Julia Gardiner, of a distinguished family who owned by kingly grant the island of Gardiner of New York. Their coat-of-arms, which can at this day be seen on the walls of this colonial manor house, was °Arms of silver with three hunters' horns and chevron (roof shaped), red crest, an armor with visor surmounted by an arm holding a baton.° Millard Fillmore family arms were Sable, three bars in chief, three cinquefoils.
President James Buchanan was a descendant of James Buchanan, who came from Ireland just as the American Revolution closed, settling in Pennsylvania. From a book-plate and also from a tombstone at Christ Church Cemetery, Philadelphia, the coat-of-arms of his family is obtained a golden shield blazoned with lion, the helmet is surmounted by a rose, the mot toes °Supported by Courage° and °Honorable Reflection.° In our backward journey we find Ruther ford Birchard Hayes as one of an heraldic family. Little, indeed, is known of the ancestry of Mr. Hayes, though the family has cherished a purple shield, upon which are blazoned three lesser shields of silver. He was of Scottish ancestry, the first member of the family in America being George Hayes, wha settled in Windsor colony of Connecticut in 1682. The Scottish ancestry were granted the arms early in the 15th century as a distinction for pro found ability at the bar, a heritage which made the branch of progress easy for the scholarly Hayes.
Garfield's shield of gold, with its three bars of red and its right canton with cross and left canton with heart, is symbolic of the armorial ancestral device. As a crest the arm clasping a sword and for a motto those significant words °In the cross I conquer.° The name and the arms are possibly of Saxon origin, for the name occurs in the Teutonic heraldic insignias as meaning °Garfeld° or °watch of the field° and the crest is of crusade origin, the remote Gar fields having been a part of the noble army of religious patriots.
Benjamin H. Harrison was the 23d Presi dent and his armorial device the same as Wil liam Henry Harrison.
The name Cleveland is, in truth, not the name of this great American family, but rather the designation of the immense estate they once possessed in England, where these folks were known as °De Cleveland' of Durham, Eng land. This French nobiliary predicate 'de° formed a part of this family name up to the 13th century, some genealogists claiming their ancestry French and hence the French word °of° prefacing the name. The Clevelands have an armorial bearing which dates back to the remote period of the 12th century and the crest, which represents a spearman, is in token of Sir Guy de Cleveland, who commanded the spearman at the famous battle of Poiclien Poitiers of 19 Sept. 1356. The Cleveland shield, with its black chief and silvery base spangled with stars and its argent chevron (roof) with stars, once formed the book-plate of Stephen Cleveland, father of the Hon. Grover Cleve land. The motto in this coat-of-arms is especi ally appropriate, meaning °For God and Father land.° The Roosevelts were in old New York when the Pilgrims of Massachusetts were banishing men and women for freedom in religious wor ship and executing so-called witches and tyran nizing the wilderness with self-destruction. At this same time the Dutch of New York were welcoming the world and laying the founda tion of our present public-school system. In this atmosphere the Roosevelts flourished as early as 1649. The Roosevelt coat-of-arms in its heraldic colors was painted on the dining loom wall of old Jacobus Roosevelt and op posite in oils in a heavy frame was the like ness of Klaas Roosevelt, the first emigrant Roosevelt, who came as early as 1649 when New York was still New Amsterdam. The Arms are a silver shield charged with red roses and Latin motto, meaning °God who has trans planted it will protect it.° The ancient Dutch grant of arms is inter esting, though too lengthy to reproduce. Suffice the statement that this shield of honor was conferred upon his kin early in the 1500's, dur ing the campaign leading up to the founding of the Dutch Republic. Needless to say, these Roosevelts or Van Roosevelts, as they were entered in record, were of the Republican party and of the Protestant army.