HISTORY
In 1464 Edward IV of England, founded the College of Heralds, and in 1483 Richard III chartered it with the authority to grant arms to properly qualified applicants. The elgibility requirement was that the applicant be of gentle birth which meant only the nobility and aristocracy would be accepted. Other rules covered color, subject matter and design. If the applicant met all of the requirements and his design had not been previously registered he was then granted the exclusive right to use such design for himself and his heirs. The register was known as the "Roll of Arms".

U.S. HERALDRY
There have been no laws enacted in the U.S. regarding the granting of arms or the general display of registered foreign arms. There are known cases where American colonists have applied to the College of Heralds and been granted arms. In recent times, however, the English have generally taken a dim view of the casual American claim to the use of a surname coat-of-arms.

CASE HERALDRY
As far as my CASE line is concerned I can only trace it back to John CASE of Aylesham, County Kent, England. Aylesham is a small town eight miles south of Canterbury.

I, like many others, would like to display a coat-of-arms with crossed swords or whatever above the fireplace as a conversation piece. But chances are that John CASE was not heir to any of the CASE coats-of-arms described in Burke's General Armory. Being determined, I decided to choose from the available displays anyway and it would have been an easy choice if one of the displays were issued in the same county or even a neighboring county to Kent. But, geographically, Kent was too far removed from the counties noted. The only decision left (other than whimsical) was the most artistically descriptive shield. Since one of the origins of the name "CASE" has been from the word "clasp" (as opposed to "box" or "container"), I latched onto the shield with the buckles registered to Thomas CASE of county Landcaster. To make it "generic" I removed the OGLE and CLAYTON quartering (no disrespect meant to the fine names of OGLE or CLAYTON). It also happens to be the most complete display with shield, crest, and motto. You might decide to choose one of the other CASE coats-of-arms for informal display purposes. If so, I have seen indications where it is an accepted practice to "barrow" a motto from a like surname coats-of-arms if available. Since there is only one motto (CASE of county Landcaster) known at this time, it might be used with any of the CASE displays.

Remember, in England, heraldry is taken more seriously than in the U.S. There are strict rules as to who can display a surname coat-of-arms (usually the first born or eldest son, among others). With apologies to our English cousins for our casual display of arms, we in America believe the arms are beautiful and that they are an interesting part of history in which our ancestors may have played a roll. Normally genealogists don't research coats-of-arms in the U.S. but, because of it's popularity at various time in our history and my own curiosity, I present the following. It is the most complete collection of CASE displays on the web for your free use and entertainment. I used Adobe Illustrator to create the drawings. One of the best lion representation I could find was from the label on a bottle of Coors beer (the tail was made single, rather than double, as required). The griffin heads were redrawn from Tempus Peregrinator's Little Heraldry Book  which has the best artistic charges I can find anywhere.

Please do not link any of these graphics directly to your web page. Use the right mouse button to download the graphic to your computer and then copy it to your web page. If you would like to give me credit, just note that the illustrations were created by Dennis CASE Brown.