The Heraldry of the Macleays and Their Kin: Scottish Heraldry and its Australian Context

Abstract

This present paper gives some general background of the origins of heraldry and its development in Scotland, and briefly examines early use of Scottish heraldry in colonial Australia. The lecure on which this paper is based went on to show examples of heraldic use by Alexander Macleay and his kinfolk, and it is the author’s hope that, once further research is undertaken, these can also be discussed. While not all of the arms that can be connected to Alexander Macleay via ancestry or marriage are Scottish in origin (in particular those of his Harrington, Dumaresq and Onslow sons-in-law), they are worthy of as much analysis as those that are (including Barclay, Innes and Campbell) in what they might tell us about identity, aspiration and kinship in the Scottish diaspora in colonial New South Wales.