![]() |
![]() |
From Roland Vachon |
The first coat of arms was sent to me by Roland Vachon. It was in French so I had François Velde at Heraldica give me the English blazon for the arms. Roland claims that these arms belong to Paul Vachon, so they would be the correct ones for this family. I am waiting for him to send me the supporting documentation.
The blazon for these arms is: Tierced per fess, gules two mullets argent, sable a cow passant or, and azure three fleurs-de-lis or.
The second coat of arms comes from Heraldic Arts Heraldry Page and the Armorial General. This coat is probably older than the other since it is simpler and is included as part of the other one.
The balzon for the arms is: Sable a cow passant or.
Armorial General gives the blazon in French as: De sable a une vache passant d'or.
According to François Velde these arms belong to family named Vachon from the Dauphine region, which is in the east of France. This is quite a ways from Poitou, where Paul Vachon was born. This implies that the two families were not related. The same charge of a gold cow on a black field on both coats though, suggests that there was a connection. There are several possible explanations for this.
First the coat for Paul Vachon might not be his at all. Until I find some documentation for these arms, this is entirely possible. Though you would think that someone as important as the Notary Royal would have been granted arms.
Secondly, Paul's ancestors might have moved from Dauphine to Poitou. In this case they could be from the same family as the second coat. The differences in the coats stemming from different siblings or from special honors. Moving such a distance in those times is extremely unlikely, though not outside the realm of possibility.
A last possibility is that the two families were not related and that the herald just used the older coat as inspiration when he drew up Paul's. This is entirely possible since vache means cow in French, so any coat for a family named Vachon is likely to use a cow.
Until I find more documentation on the different coats, I will not know which one of these possibilities is most likely. I have also been told that there is a third version of the arms with a gold boar instead of a cow. However, I have found absolutely no verification of this coat.
Pages created by Andrew Littlefield
Last Updated 5 May 98