doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - 1856 SxS Reilly Rifle - Help with Heraldry

JB sent notice of this Reilly percussion .58 cal SxS rifle which has just sold:
https://www.icollector.com/6-10-REILLY-LONDON-MODEL-DOUBLE-RIFLE-CALIBER-60-CAL-APPROX_i48393107


SN 10118 dates to 1856 by my chart: It is a classic Reilly percussion rifle from that time period - name, address, engraving, scroll guard hand grip, barrel length, etc., everything is time appropriate.

But there is an escutcheon plate on it with it with a crest:
"Vigilandum" = Imperative masculine singular of Vigilantus - Watch! or Be Watchful! or Vigilant! or Be Vigilant!
"Battle Axe" = common heraldic symbol for Military Service
"Hand" = "Faith"
"Hercules" = on coat of arms of the Royal Family of Greece, Prince Phillip (Greek), Lord Mountbatten and King Charles III (from Prince Phillip), but I can't find a family in UK in 1856 that might have included Hercules in its heraldry,

Anybody into heraldry? Can this crest be identified?

Hi Gene. I've not posted in a while, so I'll have a go.

The gun appears to have belonged to the Hon. Montague William Tyrwhitt-Drake. He was born in King's Walden, Herefordshire, in 1830. He went into law, and became a solicitor in 1851. He moved to Canada in 1859, and joined the bar in British Columbia in 1873. He eventually became a judge of the BC Supreme Court, in 1889. This explains why the gun turned up in a Canadian auction.

The Drake family is from Shardeloes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire. A full account of the family can be found at:

The Drake Family

Montague William Tyrwhitt-Drake's crest is recorded as being two crests, with the motto "Vigilandum". The two crests of the Tyrwhitt-Drake family are: "a naked dexter arm erect holding in the hand a battle-axe argent (for Drake); a savage proper, wreathed vert, holding in both hands over his dexter shoulder a club (for Tyrwhitt)".

References:
A List of Canadian Bookplates (1919); Winward Prescott, Ed. Society of Bookplate Bibliophiles, Boston and Toronto.
Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland (1905), 4th Edition.

Next time, Gene, make it tougher. I like these challenges.

Stephen, you never fail to amaze me.

Reading this article recalled this line. It claims the Cerne Abbas Giant of Dorset mentioned by Dr. Haus is indeed Hercules: Just another myriad of disconnected half-remembered facts that infest the brain at this age - I hitch-hiked past it in 1971 - Hitch hiking Cornwall to London, the fellow I was riding with, a Beatles fan, a housepainter, insisted on driving up to see it. And a friend from Pakistan drove us past it in late 1978:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/cerne-abbas-giant-mystery-chalk-094649161.html

I crossed that border once - I bought a CJ7 in New Delhi from a departing Military Attache; It had to leave the country in his name and come back in mine so I drove it from New Delhi to Lahore and back; but never saw the Attari retreat ceremony at the border.

I did see "Beating the Retreat" at the end of Republic Day in January in New Delhi three times, twice sitting in the special guests grandstand. This is from the twilight ceremony of Republic Day in India. "Abide with Me" was Gandhi's favorite hymn and it is still mine; interesting a Christian hymn and redcoats still are celebrated in India. . or at least were; Modi decided to decolonize India and banned the hymn last year for the first time ever.

(Note the Camel Corps in the background on Lutyen's Mall).