Rowland Bretton, Donald and Richard Hallowes

 

I have mentioned briefly the work done by Dom Hugh Bowler and Rowland Bretton of Lightcliffe, Halifax. This should really be explained more fully because much of the early research work Christine and I did, rapidly started to revolve round the discussions between Dom Hugh Bowler and Rowland Bretton in the 1950’s. Dom Hugh was a Roman Catholic Historian who, as we say elsewhere, wrote a brilliant life history on Blessed John Bretton and who around the 1950’s contacted my family as we originated from Flockton. Sadly we did not have a family bible that he was hoping for, and at that time, shortly before I went to America, family history to me was a closed book.
When I returned, married, and became interested in family history I made contact with Dom Hugh who was working as a Catholic Chaplain in the RAF. We corresponded for some time until he died, and he told us about the correspondence he had had with Rowland Bretton of Lightcliffe, Halifax . Sadly, after Dom Hugh’s death his notes and correspondence with Rowland were missing so we tried to get in touch with Rowland at his home address in Lightcliffe.
Again, Rowland had died as well, but then came our first stroke of luck. Rowland had left all his notes etc in the possession of his sister and he had appointed as his executor, Donald M. Hallowes, a great friend, with the same interests as Rowland, e.g. Heraldry and family history. Donald Hallowes was the deputy Headmaster of Halifax Grammar School and our letter duly came to Mr Hallowes’ attention. He told us at the time, (1977), that everything of Rowlands had been left in the keeping of his sister, who did not have the same interest in genealogy as Rowland had. The result was that a “good” copy of a medieval family tree of the Brettons, from the period 1500 to the mid sixteen hundreds, had been thrown away by his sister “as she did not want it”. However, Donald Hallowes had retained, on her death, copies of correspondence between Rowland and Dom Hugh and loaned them to us to copy.
Without that kindness and thoughtfulness I honestly don’t know how much of the Bretton family history from the 1500’s/1600’s would have been discovered by us. Compared with these two people we were rank amateurs at the time but amongst the papers sent to us to copy were two rough copies of the family tree in question. Donald Hallowes also sent us a Methodist Hymn Book which had belonged to Rowland and contained various family names and dates and which we still treasure.
For many years that was it, until in January, 2011, right out of the blue, I received an e.mail from Donald Hallowes grandson, Richard Hallowes. He told me that his grandfather had been left, in Rowland Bretton’s will, his charter for his Coat of Arms. On his grandfather’s death it had passed to his son, Richard’s father, and on HIS death, quite recently, to Richard himself. Richard also enclosed, with his e.mail, three photographs of the charter, in an ornate box, and a mounted proclamation describing the award. As we say elsewhere on this website the Coat of Arms was specific to Rowland and, as he died wihout children, it ceased with his death and cannot be used by anyone else.
Richard said that he thought it should belong with the Bretton family and asked if we would like it. When I had recovered, I immediately e.mailed him back and said we would be absolutely delighted to have it. I also said that I was completely lost for words at his kindness.
We went over to Northowram and he gave us the Grant and the mounted proclamation and said that he thought it belonged back in the Bretton family. I replied that we had collected, in our fifty years of research a few things that our children are under strict instructions to retain in the family at all costs. Rowland’s Grant of Arms will be the pride and joy of those items.
Looking back we are very much in the debt of the Hallowes family, who have helped enormously in providing links to our early family history. I gather that we also should thank the Halifax Antiquarian Society and the Yorkshire Heraldry Society who were with the rest of the design, which includes a crest wreath and mantling also of red and gold, make a suitable crest for a shield containing a lion and fleur-de-lys. The number of fleur-de-lys serves as a reminder of the tradition in the family of the grantee’s mother that three brothers of her name (Goyne) arrived in Cornwall from France towards the close of the 17th century. They were doubtless Protestant refugees. It has not been found possible to substantiate the tradition, but it is remarkable that the name Goyne (at first spelt Gowen or Gowin in the St. Agnes, Cornwall, Parish Registers – see Phillimore’s Cornwall Parish Registers, Vol XVIII – appears almost immediately after the year of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) but does not appear earlier in the Register, at any rate not in the Register of Marriages. It has been found that it does occur earlier in the Christenings Register.
The motto “with thy might” is intended to convey the first phrase of Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might”.
The Armorial Bearings in question…..were granted to Rowland Bretton of HillCrest, Lightcliffe, in the County of York, Gentleman, on 30th day of August, 1937. They are his personal bearings and as he died childless cannot be used by anyone else.both involved in the work of Rowland Bretton and Donald Hallowes

Explanation of the Armorial Bearings of Bretton of Lightcliffe (by Rowland Bretton)

viz.,

Quarterly or and gules, in the first quarter a lion rampant and in the fourth a fleur-de-lys sable ; and for the crest, On a wreath of the colours, Between two fleur-de-lys or, a demi-lion erased guardant gules, holding in the paws a fleur-de-lys gold.

A shield divided per cross, or quarterly, seems to be quite usual for the similar names of Breton and Britton.

According to Burke’s “General Armory”, a family named Breton bore : Quarterly,     argent and sable, in the first quarter a lion rampant of the second.

In this new coat, the black lion on gold is for the purpose of further helping to indicate the name “Bretton” . “Or, a lion rampant sable” is the coat ascribed to Adam fitz Swein, an early lord of Bretton (West Bretton or Bretton West), near Wakefield who founded Monk Bretton Priory and died about the year 1158. He was the founder of the West Riding family of Bretton for his grandsons were known as Alan and Adam “de Bretton” and yeomen of the name Bretton who married armigerous families resided at Bretton from the beginning of the 13th century down to the middle of the 17th century.

The fleur-de-lys is included for the purpose of making the shield sufficiently different from previous grants and to indicate that the grantee’s family originated in the Wakefield District. This single fleur-de-lys on the shield will also serve to indicate the supposed Huguenot ancestry of the grantee’s mother. The crest indicates a combination of English and French ancestry. The British lion and the French fleur-de-lys, tinctured respectively red and gold to harmonize with the rest of the design, which includes a crest wreath and mantling also of red and gold, make a suitable crest for a shield containing a lion and fleur-de-lys. The number of fleur-de-lys serves as a reminder of the tradition in the family of the grantee’s mother that three brothers of her name (Goyne) arrived in Cornwall from France towards the close of the 17th century. They were doubtless Protestant refugees. It has not been found possible to substantiate the tradition, but it is remarkable that the name Goyne (at first spelt Gowen or Gowin in the St. Agnes, Cornwall, Parish Registers – see Phillimore’s Cornwall Parish Registers, Vol XVIII – appears almost immediately after the year of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) but does not appear earlier in the Register, at any rate not in the Register of Marriages. It has been found that it does occur earlier in the Christenings Register.

The motto “with thy might” is intended to convey the first phrase of Ecclesiastes 9:10 – “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might”.

The Armorial Bearings in question…..were granted to Rowland Bretton of HillCrest, Lightcliffe, in the County of York, Gentleman, on 30th day of August, 1937. They are his personal bearings and as he died childless cannot be used by anyone else.

The Crest

The Case

The Coat of Arms Scroll and Seals

The Mounted Proclamation