545 Prust v Saltren

545 PRUST V SALTREN

Hugh Prust of Monkleigh, co. Devon, gent v John Saltren of Bideford, co. Devon, scrivener

July 1637

Abstract

Prust, a Devon attorney, complained that Saltren had assumed a coat of arms 'of 3 Castles, cutt in a scutcheon on a ringe which he weares; and boasts of his gentility, and hath made divers offensive and disgracefull comparisons with the ancient gent of the country there about, in termes of great provocation'. Prust had been advised by the Heralds' Office to bring the matter to the attention of Lord Maltravers who granted process on 8 July 1637; but no further proceedings survive.

Initial proceedings

3/141, Petition to Arundel

'Jo. Saltren of Bediford in the county of Devon, scrivener, there borne, and his father and grandfather have there lived by the space of 80 yeares, and in all that tyme taken and knowne to be no gent.; neither is there any Coate of Armes found in the Heralds' office to be borne by that name.Yet doth Saltren assume to himselfe a coate of Armes of 3 Castles cutt in a scutcheon on a ringe which he weares; and boasts of his gentility, and hath made divers offensive and disgracefull comparisons with the ancient gent of the country there about in termes of great provocation.

Of this the heraulds advise your petitioner to informe your honor, and to desire your honor's direction that process may be awarded against Saltren'.

Maltravers granted process, 8 July 1637.

Signed by Maltravers.

Notes

G. D. Squibb, Reports of Heraldic Cases in the Court of Chivalry, 1623-1732 (London, 1956), p. 25.

Hugh Prust may have been the Lieutenant-Colonel Prust in the royalist regiment of Sir Thomas Stukeley.

P.R. Newman, Royalist officers in England and Wales, 1642-1660: A biographical dictionary (London, 1981), p. 308.

The Prusts appeared in the Visitation of 1620, but no Hugh Prust was mentioned.

F. T. Colby (ed.), The Visitation of the County of Devon in the year 1620 (Publications of the Harleian Society, 6, 1872), pp. 226-7.

Documents

• Initial proceedings
  • Petition to Arundel: 3/141 (8 Jul 1637)

People mentioned in the case

• Howard, Henry, baron Maltravers
• Howard, Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey
• Prust, Hugh, gent
• Saltren, John, scrivener
• Stukeley, Thomas, knight

Places mentioned in the case

• Devon
  • Bideford
  • Monkleigh

Topics of the case

• civil war
• coat of arms
• comparison
• escutcheon
• false claim to gentility
• Herald
• royalist